We're in that phase of summer pop doldrums when the same songs seem to be on repeat week after week. Can Stella Lefty, Yung Miami or Malcolm Todd make a run to crack the top 10?

The singular singer's third album finds a message worthy of her instrument: Great romances are defined not by what you want, but by the act of wanting.

With the release of the Rolling Stones' latest studio effort, "Foreign Tongues," NPR Music's Ann Powers reviews that album and makes the case for Mick and Keith to keep going as long as they want.

Kaye's collaboration with Smith began in 1971 and continues to this day. He says she taught him to trust his musical sensibilities — and to always keep evolving. Now 79, he has his first solo album.

Korean zithers, plumbing pipes, water glasses and singing saws — these are just some of the rare and unusual instruments you'll hear on this episode. Look for Tiny Desk Radio on your local NPR station.

Tyler's biggest hit is a perfect encapsulation of what made her a star in the 1980s: An epic power ballad surging with emotion, delivered in a voice that sounded like it might tear the singer apart.

The Maryland-raised rapper performs a homecoming set at the Desk, turning his complex beats into jazzy, full-band arrangements.

Max Clarke talks about recording Transmitter, the production tool he refuses to use and, as a lifelong Beatles fan, his chance meeting with Paul McCartney.

When Asher was a teen in the '60s, Paul McCartney lived with his family and wrote Beatles songs. Asher was part of the British Invasion before launching the careers of James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.

The music of Motown Records was formative to a generation of Detroiters.

With a focus on music from Early Romantic Era composers, the show - Blossoming into Romanticism - now airs each Thursday at 4:00pm.

"Opera Shop" host Darren Hellwege talks with Matt Haney, who is directing two performances of Puccini's La Boheme with the Ozarks Lyric Opera in Springfield next weekend. https://ozarkslyricopera.com/la-boheme

"Opera Shop" host Darren Hellwege visits with some of the talented young people bringing a production of Gian Carlo Menoti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors" to Columbia. The production will be Dec. 5th and 6th at First Baptist Church of Columbia. Our guests are Molly Symmonds (Ahmal) Kennedy Kinnick (mother) and Carter Thiemann, who is the pianist.

Darren Hellwege, host of The Opera Shop, talks with Greg Campbell of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City about their run of "Madame Butterfly," this Friday through Sunday at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Lyric Opera of Kansas City

Darren Hellwege, host of The Opera Shop, talks with Anh Le of Opera Theatre of St. Louis about fall events with OTSL and how she discovered her love for opera through our public broadcasting colleagues.