Bob Boilen and I, along with the rest of the NPR Music team, have been prepping for our year-end coverage by listening to hundreds of songs and albums in one big shared playlist. Along the way, we’ve all discovered stuff we hadn’t heard before — and even fallen in love with some of it.

On this week’s show, Bob and I share some of the artists and albums we missed before now, from Caribbean roots music by Anthony Joseph to the Boston-based funk group Lettuce and the idiosyncratic pop of D.D Dumbo.

NPR Music’s Tom Huizenga stops by to talk about his favorite discovery from our year-end playlist: The Frightnrs, a band that lovingly recreates the retro sounds of reggae.—Robin Hilton