Ann Powers
Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.
One of the nation's most notable music critics, Powers has been writing for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about music, since April 2011.
Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times from 2006 until she joined NPR. Prior to the Los Angeles Times, she was senior critic at Blender and senior curator at Experience Music Project. From 1997 to 2001 Powers was a pop critic at The New York Times and before that worked as a senior editor at the Village Voice. Powers began her career working as an editor and columnist at San Francisco Weekly.
Her writing extends beyond blogs, magazines and newspapers. Powers co-wrote Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, with Amos, which was published in 2005. In 1999, Power's book Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America was published. She was the editor, with Evelyn McDonnell, of the 1995 book Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Rap, and Pop and the editor of Best Music Writing 2010.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, Powers went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of California.
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On her first studio album since 2008, the 74-year-old firebrand's voice remains relevant, full of spit and vinegar and fun. -
On her second album, Sprinter, Torres confronts the problem of confession head-on and proceeds to annihilate its boundaries. -
Stapleton presents himself as a true Southern character, a family man who clings to his vices and a searcher whose dreams of home don't prevent him from wanting to roam. -
The country singer-songwriter's 15th studio album feels as fresh as anything he's ever done. Better yet, these songs were built to be played live. -
On the dizzying title track from her career-making new album, Torres sings of flailing against confinement like a talented but rebellious teen while the track rises and falls like a pubescent mood. -
Though his music honors mid-century sounds with laser precision, the Tulsa rocker takes so many little chances in his songs that they never sound like mere replicas. -
The singer takes a loving look back at the '70s and '80s pop that helped shape her. Along the way, without grandstanding, Krall strips away the baggage of the original performers' iconic personas. -
The retro-rocking siblings worked with The Clash's Mick Jones on this brassy kiss-off. -
Dig below the strata of pop songs so ubiquitous you can't stand to hear them anymore, and you'll find plenty of riches in the Top 40, from country crossover to innovative R&B and classic pop.
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Brandi Carlile will put out her fifth album, The Firewatcher's Daughter, in March. She talks with Ann Powers about family, her new album and the necessary recklessness of first-take rock and roll.
