The Low Anthem will be the guests on WNYC's Soundcheck today, performing songs from their forthcoming album, Smart Flesh. The band is in New York to play a sold-out concert for Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, then heads West to perform at the Sundance Film Festival and to Los Angeles for a show with Iron & Wine. Following an intimate set for a home-state crowd this past weekend, the Visible Voice blog says Ben Knox Miller "is leading the pack in a new generation of songwriters."

Youssou N'Dour has been named among the world's 50 Great Voices according to NPR, a diverse list that also includes Björk, Asha Bhosle, Billie Holiday, Maria Callas, Robert Plant, and dozens of others—"awe-inspiring vocalists from around the world and across time." On NPR's All Things Considered, contributor Banning Eyre says that throughout his long and varied career, "N'Dour has remained on top, without question Senegal's most beloved singer."

Sara Watkins and her brother Sean were featured on NPR's Folk Alley over the holiday week. Sara discussed the many projects with she has been involved since her earliest days in Nickel Creek, not least her 2009 self-titled Nonesuch debut album, from which the two perform a number of songs live. She will guest-host A Prairie Home Companion on January 15 and will tour with The Decemberists starting later this month.

AfroCubism was featured on NPR's All Things Considered on Sunday. "The group features musicians from Cuba and Mali," says host Guy Raz, "and it's a kind of hybrid of the best sounds from these two musical traditions." Guest Betto Arcos of Global Village says "every song is just fantastic." AfroCubism makes the year's best lists in the Boston Globe, as does David Byrne/Fatboy Slim's Here Lies Love and The Black Keys' Brothers, which tops a Minneapolis Star Tribune list. The Star Tribune 's classical music critic lists Steve Reich's Double Sextet / 2x5 and Gidon Kremer's De Profundis. The Los Angeles Times picks Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider among the best in jazz.

Stephen Sondheim was the subject of a feature article in the Guardian, in which he discusses is his first-ever book of collected lyrics, Finishing the Hat, which has topped many a year's-best list, not least the New York Times Sunday Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2010. Finishing the Hat is the Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4; Sondheim will read from it throughout the week. He was on The Colbert Report last week. His 80th birthday concert makes the Minneapolis Star Tribune's list of the Top 10 TV Moments of the Year, topping the year's "great musical moments."

AfroCubism has made the list of the Top 5 World Music Releases of 2010 according to WNYC's Soundcheck. Anastasia Tsioulcas, who assembled the list, spoke with the show's host John Schaefer, about her picks, on today's episode. Schaefer describes the album as an "amazing conglomeration of two traditions," to which Tsioulcas concurs: "Absolutely."

The Black Keys' Brothers lands at No. 2 on NPR's All Songs Considered listeners' picks of The Best Music of 2010. Also on the list are Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig and Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's Lonely Avenue. All Songs Considered producer Robin Hilton says of Brothers: "I think this is their fattest, richest, most sonically diverse album that they've done." Philip Selway's Familial has made the NPR All Songs Considered list for Best Album Covers of 2010. Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig is No. 4 on the Americana Music Association's Top 100 Albums of the Year.

Tune in to KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic today to hear the Black Keys perform tracks from their album, Brothers, which host Jason Bentley rated No. 1 on his Top Albums of 2010. The album comes in at No. 7 on TIME's Top 10 Albums of the Year; the magazine calls it "a classic, unmuddled rock-'n'-roll record." The New York Post places Brothers, an album "filled with ear-candy," at No. 6 in his Top Ten Albums of the Year. Watch a video for the album track "Everlasting Light" here.

Laurie Anderson's Homeland has made NPR's list of The Five Best Genre-Defying Albums of 2010. "Some of the most compelling music being made today comes from the increasingly blurry boundary between indie-rock and contemporary classical music," says WNYC's John Schaeffer. "And it's some of the most provocative and exciting work of the year." As dark as Homeland may be, "this is as accessible and rocking a record as Anderson has made in 25 years," Schaeffer insists. "Whether singing, speaking or doing that in-between thing she does, she is in great voice, and the production sounds awesome."

Steve Reich's 2x5 and the Nonesuch Records / Indaba Music contest to remix the piece were featured on the BBC World Service's The Strand. The composer and Dominique Leone, the creator of the winning remix, talk about the contest, the classical roots of remixing, and why 2x5 lent itself to the process. "Steve Reich's music is so based in rhythm," says Leone, "so when you can take little chunks of it and manipulate that and exploit the rhythm that's already there, it's not very difficult to make something that sounds good." Hear the remix here.

Louis Andriessen is the focus of a week-long Immersive Composer Spotlight from Q2, the online new-music station of New York's Classical WQXR, including broadcasts of De materie, De staat, De tijd, Rosa: The Death of a Composer, and Writing to Vermeer. "Descriptions of Andriessen's style abound with the same complex energy as his ecstatic, rhythmic experimentations," says Q2. "So sit back from the computer for a moment; his music rewards full attention and doesn't take background listening lightly."

Timothy Andres's debut album, Shy and Mighty, has made the New York Times Holiday Gift Guide for 2010. Traces of the composer's eclectic influences "show in this melodic, richly contrapuntal, often muscular 10-movement work," says the Times. "But what comes through most clearly is the inventiveness and originality of Mr. Andres’s own compositional voice." Andres will be featured on a special “Where Are They Now?” episode of NPR's From the Top this week; this “Alumni Musical Mavericks” program explores the different musical avenues five performers have taken since they first appeared on the show.