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With the release of her sixth album Seya, Oumou Sangare has gone from an outsider who sang about taboo subjects like polygamy and forced marriage to a major national celebrity.

Verdi drew inspiration from his own tragic life as a father for a number of his operas, including Simon Boccanegra, where a father-daughter relationship fuels one of his most complex and moving of his tragedies.

Maya is the third full-length album by M.I.A., and it rattles with hard-edged and well-produced beats and electronica. Reviewer Oliver Wang says that even if it's not her best work, the record still offers reminders of why M.I.A. is one of the most compelling and unusual artists in pop today.

On Sept. 12, 1910, Gustav Mahler introduced his Symphony No. 8 -- a massive, hulking work featuring an enormous double chorus and the largest orchestra ever put on stage at the time. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas says he thought it was the most "grotesque assemblage of noises" he had ever heard. But many years later, he has recorded a Grammy-winning version of the symphony.

They run the increasingly influential Merge Records, but Superchunk band mates Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance have still managed to squeeze in some recording time. They've just released Majesty Shredding, their first new album of guitar-fueled rock in almost a decade.

George Frayne, better known as Commander Cody, has been making music with his band, The Lost Planet Airmen, for decades. But beyond the boogie-woogie, swing, country and rock, there's another side to Frayne: He's also a visual artist. His new book contains pop-art portraits of cultural icons, along with personal anecdotes.

Anointed the next bright hope of jazz, last year's breakout pianist took only two days to record his first solo album of originals and covers. Does it live up to high expectations? NPR's Tom Moon reviews the album here.

Bernard Cribbins, a beloved British entertainer whose seven-decade career ranged from the bawdy "Carry On" comedies to children's television and "Doctor Who," has died.

As voters head to the polls on Election Day, NPR hears what issues are most important across the country — from the economy to health care.

When some pediatricians found out how much a hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, was billing for circumcisions, they decided to perform the routine procedure in their offices instead.