All Songs Considered on HD2

On this edition of All Songs Considered, a strange mishap turns Robin Hilton into a robot ... and he/it is programmed to talk about how great a time the All Songs Considered crew had at our fantastic fun. concert. Hiltonbot 2.0 is good and all, but it could never take the place of flesh-and-blood, music-loving nerdery, so the show includes picks from the apparently-human NPR Music editor Jacob Ganz and All Songs Considered intern Dan Raby.

I want an album filled with surprise, with major shifts in style and fun, kick-ass fun. So after only one listen I knew that Jack White's new album, Blunderbuss, would become one of my favorites of the year. When I found out just before SXSW that I'd be able to talk with Jack White about making this new record, I was thrilled.

Prom season is here. And there really isn't a more hyped event in high school social life. There's the fashion, the flowers, plans for the future and, of course, the after party. Photographer Mary Ellen Mark, now 72, recalls her 1958 prom with fondness.

"There I was, looking so perfect and happy facing my future," she tells NPR host Audie Cornish. "I was fascinated by my own prom pictures."

Hence her latest book: Prom, a collection of 127 portraits from 13 schools across the country, shot between 2006 and 2009.