World Cafe

This week, World Cafe invites listeners to discover the music of New Orleans with the series Sense of Place.

A band's sound is only as big as its members, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' music is huge. The 10 members are a whirl of roving horns, as well as whistles, claps, shouts, strummed string instruments and percussion involving drums, hands and anything else they can find. The group's communal folk sound blew up in 2009 with the heart-pounding, foot-stomping single "Home"; with its universal sentiment, the song includes a back-and-forth between frontman Alex Ebert and bandmate Jade Castrinos.

Sweet Heart Sweet Light, the new album by the English space-rock band Spiritualized, was recorded while frontman Jason Pierce was undergoing chemotherapy for liver disease. Pierce set out to craft the record as a clear-cut pop record in between hospital stays, and though he says he isn't convinced he succeeded, most of the album is composed of could-be Top 10 radio hits from the early '70s.

In this episode of World Café, Rufus Wainwright catches up with host Michaela Majoun, who first chatted with the singer-songwriter on World Cafe 14 years ago. Wainwright shares details about his seventh album, Out of the Game, as well as the emotional events that inspired the album's themes of mourning and celebration.

This episode originally aired on June 6, 2012.