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NPR listeners cast thousands of votes for the year's best music and regardless of how the votes fell, it was an exciting chance to pause and look back on what an incredible year it's been for music.

A guide to some of the most beautiful, thought-provoking and inspiring releases from the year gone by — from luminous choral singing to thunderous percussion to smart violin solos.

On this week's show, host Bob Boilen shares his latest, game-changing idea. It's called "The Sole Of A Band" and involves matching photos of footwear with a band's song.

Jeff Beck's new album — available here in its entirety until its release on April 13 — is a collection of songs that suit his adventurous style, with some cushioned by a symphony orchestra and another featuring the young soul singer Joss Stone.

On this edition of All Songs Considered, we've got special sneak previews of some of the most anticipated albums of the coming months.

A farm tractor pulling a wagon loaded with people overturned and fell into a pond in northern India, killing 26 people, most of them women and children, officials said Sunday.

Preview some of the artists playing the Montreal International Jazz Festival, a musical grand prix.

A list of albums showcasing the stormy elegance, big ideas and transporting melodies of 2011.

This week marks 155 years since Abraham Lincoln delivered the famously short Gettysburg Address in 1863.

Recording around a single microphone, the North Dakota singer sounds as if he's performing in your living room. For these wonderfully honest stories, the fit is perfect.

In "When I Write My Master's Thesis," Samson juggles a lively mind and a directionless heart.

We'll soon begin making a list of the year's best albums. Okkervil River and Of Montreal are back. Also, Steve Earle and Gillian Welch, Jeff Hanson, The Walkmen and The Broken West.

Viva Elvis' reinvention of a familiar hit is shockingly great, but also fundamentally true to the original.

Watch Norah Jones and Tony Bennett perform in the studio together for Bennett's latest record, Duets II. Jones is just one of an eclectic assortment of guests featured on the record. Others include Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, Carrie Underwood and Queen Latifah.

Sonic Youth's latest album, The Eternal, is among the band's finest, with a fuzzy, tightly orchestrated mix of psych-punk rock and noisy jams. The band showcased the album in a full concert, recorded live from Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club.

With the release of the 2005's The Acrobat, 2007's With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead and an album in which he covers the soundtrack to the '80s movie Footloose, Thomas Bartlett established Doveman as a true sleeper. His third album of original material with Doveman, The Conformist, is a testament to his soft-spoken style. This time around, though, he adds flourishes of upbeat synths, drums and catchy choruses.

Rae follows her hugely successful debut with The Sea, an intimate and emotional album that reflects on the 2008 death of her husband. In this session for WXPN, the soulful pop singer performs four songs from her new album.

The charming husband-and-wife led band made a lasting impact with its debut album, thanks in part to producer and arranger Van Dyke Parks. The clever and whimsical work still holds strong a year after its release. Hear both acts perform live and talk about their work and collaborations.

Since they first came together more than 40 years ago, The Holmes Brothers' members have released 10 albums and worked with artists ranging from Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to Odetta and Peter Gabriel. The band continues to fuse blues, gospel and soul on its newest album, Feed My Soul. Hear The Holmes Brothers perform live in concert from WXPN in Philadelphia.

This week we share the incredible stories listeners shared about the songs that remind them of their mothers, from Ella Fitzgerald to Shania Twain and The Mamas & The Papas.