Secret Santa Song Exchange
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From NPR Music, this is All Songs Considered. I'm Ana Maria Sayre. Okay, so it's kind of a known fact I'm a bit of a schemer. And this year, I'm...

I am kicking us off with the greatest scheme of all. We're all going to come in in succession and gift each other the gift of music to another person on the team. But the catch is the other person on the team doesn't know who they're getting a gift from. They only know who they're giving a gift to.

Two, it's going to be a fun little surprise end of year activity. I like surprises, so I think it's going to be great. I hope everyone else likes surprises. I have decided to give my gift to Tom Huizinga. He's our amazing classical expert. No one saw it coming, but I think he's going to love the song that I brought for him. Did you hear the joke about the two reindeer that walked into a bar?

I think I missed that one, Tom. Bartender says, hey, why the long faces? Okay, see, it bombed, kind of bombed twice in a row. So that means it's a good joke. All right. I think that's actually the metric of an exiled, historic joke, Tom. I have a present for you. Very exciting. You know, when they asked me to pick someone on the team, I was immediately, I was like, Tom,

Oh, wow. Really? Oh, I'm so... It's like, Tom, Tom, Tom. I'm so humbled. Because, Tom, you and I, I think we have a special connection, and I love gifting you music. So I'm going to play you Todas las canciones by Amaya Miranda. Si no ves la luz, será que está en el centro de tú. Si no ves la luz, será que...

it's beautiful

It's beautiful. She talks about kind of like life is just the paso, like life is just passing by. And she's like, if you need to see the light, just look directly in front of you. Or if you need to see the light, look at the people around you who have stayed. And I just, I was actually thinking about you because we were having a conversation in the office the other day and things are a little bit unhelpful maybe at the moment. She,

She's really, like, this whole album is a very hopeful record. It's called Mientras Villas Brilla. So she's saying, while you live, shine. And I don't know. It's something peaceful and beautiful. I think that's right, though. I think that's the, when it comes right down to it, that's the most important thing for each one of us to do is to shine ourselves and show an example to others. And if we shine, then hopefully...

That will reflect well on others and they can shine too. So that's beautiful. It's a really lovely song. This is my gift to you, Tom. And it's really wonderful. How did you get turned on to it? Maya is this tiny singer out of Spain. She's really, really, really small following. And I'm trying to remember, you know, I want to say...

I think a friend of mine gifted her to me at some point. I was like, I'm really like, I need something to just calm my spirit. I think I actually said this. I was like, do you have, do you know of any albums? I just need something to calm my spirit. I was about to get on a plane. I was just feeling really, she was like, have you heard this? Amaya Miranda, Miranda record. And I was like, I don't think I have. Um, and I listened to it that whole flight just over and over and over. And I was like, Oh, this is, this is the stuff. And I go back to it all the time now, just when I really need something to like,

You know, soothe. Well, that's what music can do. And I know that this was on our list of best music of the year. Well, I gifted it to Felix unintentionally.

And that's what I love about our lists, our songs and albums lists, is that the breadth of the music is so incredibly wide, and there's always something to discover. And I knew about this album, but I hadn't dug into it very much, and I hadn't heard this song. So it's a really great gift, and I'm very thankful. Beautiful, yes. Hello, Nate Shinnen. How are you? All right. How are you? Happy holidays. Same to you, Tom.

Santa is here a little early with a gift of, can you believe it? Music. Oh, just what I always wanted. I'm going to lay something on you and you may know the music, but maybe you don't know it in this version. And you can tell me if you want me to tell you something about it or do you just want to like tear the gift wrapping paper off and be surprised? Let's hear it and then let's talk about it.

Just for you, Nate. All right. Yeah. Beautiful. This is the Maya Beiser. Am I saying her name right?

Maya Buyser, that's right. Yeah, yeah. And this album, I remember as soon as it came out, a lot of people were excited about it. And yeah, thank you for this. I love how minimalism is the gift that keeps on giving. Yes, it keeps repeating itself, right. But what I love about this is it's just, you know, a major, major groove. It can, you know, enhance your concentration. It can...

accompany you on a long night drive. And, you know, the piece is Terry Riley's "In Sea" and it's 60 years old this year.

And it's been performed by so many different groups, like from a Chinese orchestra to Japanese acid rock band to musicians from Mali. But I don't think there's a single version that I've ever heard that is as groove-laden as this Maya Beiser version, where she just loops her cello.

again and again and bounces that low C string of her cello off these two drummers and gets some amazing grooves. In that clip, the hint of tabla,

is, you know, reminding me of Zakir Hussain, of course. But that same spirit of everything is fair game, you know? Like, there is no category in this musical expression. And that's the spirit that I love in this recording. Let's just go for pure musical expression and not think about what category something sits in. Right. And I think how she created it is also special and kind of in the...

whole kind of Terry Riley laid back groove because she, I don't know if you know this, but she, she started this project just as a private gift for Terry Riley, just, uh, her and her engineer kind of, um,

twiddling around in the studio late at night and she thought, well, I'll just see if I can put this together for Terry Riley and she let him hear it and kind of got his blessing on it and then she thought, well, maybe I can do some more with it and that's when she added the drummers and there you go. She ends up releasing, at least for me, one of my favorite records of the year. I love it. Thank you.

All right. Well, it's good music to, it's hard to kind of, you know, needle drop like we just did on it. It's music that it's best just to let the whole hours long piece just kind of wash over you. Yeah. Yeah.

I wondered, you know, because this album has been so acclaimed, have there been performances? Like, has she done this in concert? And what has the response been? She did it. I know there was an album release performance of it, I believe, at National Sawdust, I believe. And live with the Loops and the drummers.

And I think she has taken it on the road, too. So I would love to hear this live at some point. So happy holidays. Keep listening. Thank you. You too. Thank you.

Hey Sheldon, happy holidays. Um, I hope that this season is bringing you, uh, some joy and maybe even some impending relaxation. Um, I haven't gotten there yet, but hopefully we'll, we'll all be there soon. Yeah. One would hope, uh, there, there's a lot on the mind, but we'll, we'll see if it eventually sets in. Yeah. Well, in that spirit, I come bearing gifts. Uh,

I have a song that, yeah, for some reason, this jumped out to me as a nice little gift for you. So why don't we have a listen and then we can talk about it. Sure. You don't like it, then all right. I want to give it to you nicely. You see it every night. So why you gotta fly?

So have you heard this track before? I have not. Oh cool. Well this is by Zacchaeus Paul who is a, I think you can call him a jazz vocalist, originally from Atlanta where he came up in the gospel church and then he went to Puerto Rico to study music and

I thought of you in part because he synthesizes so much. It's from his debut album, which is called Jazz Money. And I feel like he's, you know, it's like, what would you call this track? It's kind of like Stevie Wonder-ish R&B soul with a little bit of hip hop and like, you know, a jazz spirit, you know. That's just a little taste, but I wonder how it strikes you.

Yeah, I loved it right off the bat. It grabs you from the first minute you start listening to it. Definitely sort of like a fusionist energy there. Some of it almost feels a little bit gospel-ish to me as well.

Yeah, in terms of like this, this reverent undertone to the performance. But yeah, there's definitely some like more upbeat, like soulish energy. Stevie does feel like a good reference point, which I mean, if you can touch that nerve, you've already succeeded right off the bat.

Well, he calls in a couple of reinforcements. So the harmonica player there is Grégoire Marais, who's a really accomplished French harmonica player. So he's doing that Stevie thing. And then there's a trumpet player named Milena Casado, who originally hails from Spain, and she's actually about to drop her debut album in the new year.

so you know another reason i share this with you is because i think of you as like the ultimate um like prospector like you are always like like you know like truffle hunting and finding like really cool stuff um and zacchaeus is very much a discovery this year uh he was on my essential jazz discoveries list um and melena casado

She's kind of the next discovery in waiting. And also, the whole album has this spirit that keeps evolving in different forms. But this particular song I wanted to share because it's Better Days. It is an expression of like...

We are going to get through this and things are the sun is about to rise and shine on us. You know, I feel like, you know, if I'm going to give you a gift around this time at the end of this very fraught and crazy year, I just want to share a little light here.

And so that seemed like what this track might do. Yeah, I appreciate that. We're going to need all of that, all of that energy that we can grab. We're going to need it going forward. But it just feels...

I do love a new find. I'm a big liner notes digger. So the opportunity to discover not only one artist, but a few is always a gift. So I really appreciate it. Happy holidays. Lars. Hey, Sheldon.

Hey man, happy holidays. Happy holidays. Nice to see you. Yes, I am your secret Santa, bringing you a beautiful musical gift that I hope you enjoy. We're gonna listen to a little bit of it and then we can talk about it. I'm so excited. ♪

I think I know the main player, the vibraphonist. Is it Joel Ross? Yes, it is indeed Joel Ross. This is What Am I Waiting For from his 2024 album, New Blues. I immediately thought that this is for you because I know that

You as a man of taste are a fan of Emmanuel Wilkins, the saxophonist. He has a great album out this year as well called "Blues Blood." There's a song from that record that made our top 24 or our top 124 songs of the year this year. I know you were a fan of that.

And this record is very much in conversation with that one. Blues Blood is a record that is about exploring blues as a symbol of radical optimism in the face of adversity, which is something that we need. We need a lot of radical optimism right now. I could use a little bit of that. Thank you, Sheldon. But also there's...

very clearly the same undertones in New Blues, which is thinking about history and community, thinking about jazz as a means of connecting the past and the future and getting to the next stage. And Emmanuel Wilkins is actually one of the players on this record as well. It is, I think,

very clearly about the conversation between jazz and blues and the music continuum and like gathering great young players to like connect with, you know, Coltrane and, and all that jazz means to, to them and to people like us.

Well, first of all, I love that you picked this for me. I do like Joe Ross. This is a record I didn't really spend any time with. I think I put it on... Kind of went under the radar a little bit. It was one of those records I meant to listen to out of the hundreds and hundreds that we listen to for our job. I love jazz vibes. I love jazz vibraphone. There's so much...

opportunity for space and spaciousness within that instrument. When you have such a stellar cast, when you have so many talented friends that are so skilled and to let them sort of move through your compositions at their own pace, I also think it speaks to this larger idea about community, about the way music connects people. And I hope it connects with you when you listen.

Oh, thanks so much, Sheldon. Hi, Lars. How are you? I'm good. I'm your secret Santa. Oh, my God. You've been Santa this whole time? Like Santa for everyone? Wow, that's crazy. Yes, don't tell my daughter. Then she will think she has special access. Big, big, big job to keep a secret. It is. So, Hazel.

We are constantly in each other's DMs sharing music. Usually you send me some beautiful, richly textured, ambient kind of music. And then I, in turn, will send you what I am choosing to call creepy cool kids from the underworld. That tracks? Yeah, that's accurate. Yeah.

So I figured maybe it's time to actually put it into the podcast format, all these secret DMs that we've been sharing for years. And I want to play you a song by the band called The Superheads. Okay, let's do it. Okay. What time am I? I can't do that. You ask for more. And in the sunshine, I'll push you aside.

It's really resonating with me. Wilting in the sunshine? Yeah.

It's very, it sounds like a very vampiric, like it's a song for vampires. I think, I think so. I think that's right. Yeah. The sewer heads, they have an album that came out at the very end of 2024. So not many people maybe have heard it yet. The album is called despair is a heaven, which great, great title. Incredible. Yeah.

Yeah, and the reason I picked this is the aforementioned Creepy Cool Kids from the Underworld. This is giving all of that. But there is like a nice mix of I love their band for Pittsburgh. I've never been to Pittsburgh, but my impression of Pittsburgh is that it's like this industrial blue-collar town with like

a rough and rowdy kind of like folklore tradition. I don't know if that makes sense. I feel like that's all of Pennsylvania. That's probably true. But there's like

but there's just like this dark and desperate underpinning to all of these songs that I personally really resonated with. I love just, it sounds like a mix of, it's got a little early Nick Cave. It's got a little bit of like maybe the cramps. It's got, it's like, it's giving a little bit of like, I don't know, just like,

when like a bunch of goth kids who are like really into like early rock and roll. So it's not quite rockabilly. Yeah. It's, but it's got the nice violin happening. So maybe it's giving a little bit of violent fems.

But then, yeah, the lyrics. Welting in the sun. It's definitely like a song I would play with my friends around the campfire in between sharing the scariest stories we can think of. It's giving that vibe for me.

Well, I knew that this was going to be the perfect album and song for you, Hazel, whom I absolutely adore sharing music with you all year long. So I hope that we keep doing it forever and forever. Thank you so much, Santa. That was beautiful. No, same to you, Lars. Same to you.

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Hey, Rodney. How are you doing? Hey, what's up, Hazel? What's going on? I have a surprise for you, which is that I am your secret Santa this year. Oh, wow. Okay, okay, okay. Shocking. What do I... I mean, it is, actually. I had no clue. And so I have a song that I want to gift to you that came out this year, and the song is...

Millionaria by Ana Tijoux. Million, million, million, millionaria. Million, million, million, million, millionaria. Million, million, million, million.

♪

Nice, nice. So, Anetijou is a French...

Chilean rapper who I got turned on to by the all Latino team and her music often interrogates like ideas of social justice and in this song she's basically rapping about how she's a millionaire but not in money in like love and friendship and community and she's basically like you know these bonds are worth more than diamonds like

And I chose it for you because I was thinking about, you know, hip hop that came out this year and another rap song that came out this year that I know that you loved.

which was cause bread, wine, body and blood, which is a totally different song than this, obviously. But that was kind of him serving hip hop's messaging and sort of reminding people in the community or sort of rapping about how they're in this life together and sort of reminding them that they're in this like collective struggle together and

I was just thinking about like this song and Ka's song, and I felt like they shared something and being at least to me a little bit meta. Like there's something kind of meta about Ana's song. It's like a rap song about like flexing one's riches, but they're not material goods. She's kind of like taking that.

hip-hop flex and turning it into something personal. That's dope and I love the beat too so that's the first thing that kind of got me going but I appreciate this is such a dope gift now I gotta check the whole album out. Was this part of an album she dropped this year? Yeah she put out an album this year called Vida but this song was on our best songs of the year list.

Nice. Yeah. Nice. You wrote it? You wrote it up? I didn't write it up. I think Isabella Gomez Sarmiento wrote it up, but I know that Alt Latino really rode hard for this album. And yeah, there's just something very pure and kind of simple and sweet about this song. Well, I'm gonna definitely bump some Ana Tijoux over the holidays and count my blessings.

since I won't be counting money. I definitely appreciate it. - All right, all right, all right. - All right. - My man. - I got a gift for you, man. - Oh, man. - I got something to offer you. And you know, it was kind of hard. It was challenging. I was like thinking to myself, what music can I give the man who knows everything and appreciates everything?

Which, I don't know, in some ways when I say it out loud like that, maybe it was supposed to be easy. But, you know, you're such a connoisseur, Felix. Such a connoisseur. But, you know, something that we happened to chat about fairly recently felt kind of appropriate. Mainly because I wanted to be able to talk to you about it even more than we got to in the chat. And so the song that I'm gifting you is Shabaka's End of Innocence. ♪

Thank you for that man, that's such an amazing gift because I think I may have discovered it from From one of your lists or something. I'm not sure I know I associated with you and that set me off on a deep dive because I didn't know the guy at all I didn't know the art. Okay, and that set me off on a deep dive because that is that kind of music

And that's such a big part of what I listen to. If you check out some of my Spotify playlists, because that also reminded me of that Andre 3000 album that came out. Yeah, exactly. And then it goes back for me, stuff like this. It goes back to these guys. I think it was from the 60s.

There's a guy named Paul Horn who was a flute player. He was a jazz guy. Okay, yeah. I know Andre 3000 is a big fan of him, actually. Right. And then he started doing... He made this solo record. He recorded...

something in the pyramid, somewhere in Giza, some pyramid in Egypt, and it was called Inside, I think it was called Inside or something. And that set off his whole, he would record in the Taj Mahal, and use that natural resonance, right? And it set off a whole thing of, I don't know if it set off world music or ambient music, but it's like the foundation of so much stuff. So when I hear this stuff,

It reminds me of that. So it's like a continuation of all that stuff, man. It's really cool. Thanks, man. Well, it's crazy you mentioned 3000 because that's kind of what brought me to this guy, you know, listening to that album and like kind of wanting more, you know, wanting to hear more of that kind of music from cats that have been doing it for a long time. And so, yeah, he's one of the cats that I...

Kind of stumbled upon and you know it's funny kind of stumbling upon him in this moment because he's kind of in this point of transition where he was really more known as a saxophone cat and for this album he decided to pick up the flute.

And on this particular song, he's on his original instrument, which is the clarinet. Yeah. And so, yeah, this man, he had a couple of joints on this album that just really pulled me in in a way that were kind of like haunting, but also kind of comforting at the same time. It was something that I felt like a lot of the music that I really liked

vibe with this year kind of uh hit hit those notes so um yeah man i just you know i i i'm usually the hip-hop guy you know what i mean but i don't i don't know if it's if it's age or fatherhood or what that's got me kind of leaning into into the jazz you know here lately it's a it's a little bit of both bro let me tell you man it's probably a little bit of both um

It's so funny you did this too, because I made this, I give my playlist names. I try to give them names. Okay. And so this one, this one I called Soundtrack: Going Within. So it's like, it's very contemplative, right? And like I have the Andre album on here and I have this album by Ruchi Sakamoto that he released last year. And then there was this vocalist, Arooj Aftab, who had a really great record out, right?

They all go together, man. You put it on random and it all fits together, whether I'm just here or at the pad or I'm walking or at the Korean spa when I'm in between sweating and stuff. You know what I mean? That kind of stuff. It's already on my playlist, but I really appreciate you thinking about me this way, man. Hey, I appreciate it, man. And see, look at you turning. I'm supposed to be giving you a gift. You just named a couple of artists I got to go check out right now. So I appreciate you. Thank you.

Hello. Surprise. Who is my secret Santa? Oh my gosh, I couldn't have asked for a better one. I'm so excited. Hi, Felix. How are you, Annie? How are you, man? Yay. I know I'm getting something good now.

Our paths are finally colliding in the coverage that we do, right? With the Mexican music and the Mexican regional and then guys like Karim Leon doing this crazy, you know, his Tiny Desk Home concert. I don't know if you noticed, his drummer was playing brushes. I love that. You know what I mean? So it was like the old school, like Bob Wills kind of thing, almost like the nice little groove and...

So I think our worlds collide in this song by an artist. Her name is, she's brand new. Her name is Damaris Bojor. She's from way north of Mexico. And I saw her at this music conference I went to in Guadalajara in the spring. Mm-hmm.

And she's like the missing link between Mexican regional, Mexican folk music, and country music. Oh, my goodness. Straight ahead country music. Check this song out. ♪

Noté que poco a poco dejé fluir Estos pensamientos que se fueron dando lento Nunca volteó, no, no lo hizo, no Y cómo va a ser, nunca lo dije, no

Wait, I gotta go out into the yard in the barn and get my horse.

Because I think I'm in a Western now. I think I'm in an excellent Western. Instead of an EDM drop, it's like a country drop, right? I love it. I love it. You know what? This makes me think about Lydia Mendoza. Let's go back to the beginning of country music. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like we're connecting to the days when Maybel Carter was listening to Lydia Mendoza across the border radio, you know?

you know there's a steel guitar in there you know and that little guitar rhythm it's like mexican folk but there's like a hint of johnny cash you know there's like so much in that thing

I love it. And it's, and you know what's amazing to me is like she's so, maybe she's 23, maybe. Amazing. It's so natural to her. Was it this song that was on our list, on our songs list? Yeah. I also thought about, her voice is nothing like this person's voice, but the power, I thought about Joan Baez, you know? Yes. And that kind of, and early Linda, right? I mean, the beauty, the, the,

But mostly the forcefulness and the directness and the power in this voice. It impresses me so much. And it's so awesome that you brought it because I was already, I was anticipating and hoping for this gift. This was one in the stocking that you had seen in the store window and been like, oh, I hope that's one I get. Yeah.

Trying to figure out, you know, what to share with you because, you know, there are places where our tastes overlap. And you, you know, you have a wide palette, man. You just, you've been in the business so long and you just have this natural passion for music and you have big ears and you hear everything. So, you know, it's just being able to focus in on this thing, what you're doing now and just the whole country Americana thing and just listen to everything. I thought that this would fit in.

Very quick story behind the scenes story on this one. She was at this conference. She was doing a showcase at this conference in Guadalajara and I was presenting. So I didn't get a chance to go out and see a lot of showcases. This is one of the few that I went out to. And she had it was a traditional like new traditional Mexican regional instrumentation. She's playing acoustic six string. There was another six string. There was another guy playing a stand up.

bass and another guy playing the 12 string like Lydia Mendoza used to do. Oh, wow. The guy who played the 12 string was this little kid. He rode a bus for 18 hours to get to Mexico City and

He got off the bus. They whisked him right away to this venue, this little bar. They did their 15 minutes. He was going to sleep on somebody's couch and then go back. Oh, my gosh. That's how dedicated they are to their sound and what they're doing right now. That is amazing. That is an epic journey. And again, it's like a classic...

American journey, and I say American deliberately, I mean the whole of our continent, North and South and Mexico, everywhere together, because in 2025 if I have, if the world can give me one gift, it's that we

see each other as all belonging to the same land and the same story of freedom and expression and ambition and love and love of music in this case. That's why what you all are doing on Alt Latino is so important right now. I truly believe it.

And, you know, I know we're both fans of Wyatt Flores from Oklahoma, who's repping for Red Dirt in a whole different way, a Red Dirt country. And I know Wyatt will definitely be playing at Americana Fest next year. And maybe, maybe...

Maybe, if not this coming year, we can bring this new artist, Damaris Beaujour, play Americana Fest. Yay. Yes, yes, yes. That would be amazing. I would love it. Yes. So I'm glad you liked it, man. Thank you so much. She's one of the voices that knocked me out this year so much. Thank you so much, Felix. I love my secret Santa gift. And I wish you, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas.

Going back to the roots. Thank you. Yeah, right. Thank you. Thank you, Annie. Thank you. Stephen Thompson. Hi. Hey, Anne. How you doing? I'm so happy that I got to give you a gift today. I think I have the perfect gift.

gift for you. And I don't know if you would have heard of this duo, but they're called Hey Nothing. Have you heard of them? Hey Nothing. I have not heard of them. Oh, yay. I get to give an actual surprise gift. I'm so excited. So Hey Nothing is two, I call them kids, because you know, Stephen, one thing you and I share is that we're parents. It's elderliness. That also, but also we're parents of

of kids who are also adults or on the verge of adulthood or becoming adults. And the other thing I like to think we share, maybe I'm flattering myself, is that I think we're both big hearted people. I think you, one thing I love about you, Stephen, is you just are so feeling full. You have such a way of enthusiasm and joy and tenderness and,

When I heard this band, Hey Nothing, this duo, these two young people, I think one is 20, one is 19, Tyler and Harlow from Athens, Georgia. They've been playing music together since middle school. I thought of you because of the huge emotions in this song. And the song is called Maine. So let's hear a little bit of the song. Dove right into the water. I think you'll be just fine.

Can we stay here forever? Wasting all of our time. Maybe it's far from perfect. Maybe I'm losing my mind. And if you feel it's not worth it, I pray to God that you'll love me. Left my lungs in Maine. I don't breathe the same. It's my way back someday.

And, first of all, you know my heart. I think you may be overly generous with the giving nature of my heart. Well, the emotion. We just heard a little bit of that song, but...

It builds to be huge. I was going to say, you can tell that song is going to build and build and build. Absolutely. A beautiful thing about this duo is their friendship and also the way their voices come together. It's just gorgeous. And they're really funny. And the song is so...

It's so intense, but there's also just a kind of shaggy dogness about it. When I first heard the song, I thought it was about summer camp because, I mean, the hook is I left my lungs in Maine, which I thought...

Well, that's like a kid swimming in a lake, you know, and he's thinking about the memories he's bringing back. It turns out it was really about a writing session. It was about they went, Tyler and Harlow, went to Maine to work together and refine their songwriting. And this EP follows their debut album, which came out last year, and has the adorable title of We're Starting to Look Like Each Other. I think that's so cute, too, about friendship. Yeah.

But the song just explodes with all of the emotions and all of the feeling about what it means to learn to lose something, to love something, to miss someone, but to know you have to continue and move on, you know?

And that's where we're at with our kids. That's where we're at with our kids. Exactly. No, it's absolutely true. And it's also, and it's the song. I mean, I've only heard what you played for me so far, but it really sounds like a composite sketch of so much of the music I've loved in the last 20 or so years. That's, you know, that, that like big hearted voices kind of rising up together, you know, conjures everything from kind of your childhood,

you know, like certain strains of emo to certain strains, to certain strains of kind of Mumford core, which, which is, which is kind of coming back a little bit. I can't wait to dig deeper into the song. And the band is called Hey, comma, nothing. Hey, comma, nothing. But I got to tell you, I almost brought you a song by a group. I know you like after clang. They,

They came back this year, the Danish group, when I was researching them. I didn't know about them, but you wrote about them, I don't know, like eight years ago or something? What is time? Anyway, that's another great record with big choruses and big...

big emotion. So their new one, which is called Things We Have in Common. Oh, wait, I see a theme here. I think there's a theme about connection and giving and feeling. And that's how I feel when I talk to you, Stephen. Oh, buddy. And I did not think I had any feelings left to feel in 2024. I was planning to just kind of sleepwalk through the rest of the year. And now I just felt a new feeling. So thank you.

Well, let's keep our feelings alive in 2025.

Oh my god. Hi. Yeah, hi Ana Maria, how you doing? I'm doing good, how are you? Where are you? I'm doing well, I am in a waiting room. Even better, the commitment is so there and I love it. Well Ana, you're a tricky person to shop for. You know, because first of all, you have your finger on the pulse.

Second of all, you're a young person. Some could say. You know, you have your own young person language and your own young person music. And I feel like I'm stepping in like gathering, like you're showing up at your dad's friend's Christmas party. He's like, let me show you the sick thing I got for you. Yeah, let me play you a song. Yeah.

But I ended up picking an artist that I know you to like and that did not make our year-end coverage. And I wanted to talk about how that could possibly have happened because I love this record so much. Ana, you are a fan, correct me if I'm wrong, of Omar Apollo. I am indeed. Okay. Yes. Omar Apollo is awesome. Omar Apollo is awesome.

Yeah. And put out this gorgeous record this year called God Said No. And I kept coming back to this record over and over again. You know, he, you know, his background is in this kind of bedroom R&B, you know, this very, very intimate music genre.

of coming of age and queerness and kind of stepping into your own identity. And this record is so gorgeous, but there's one song from it in particular that I've gone back to again and again and again that absolutely takes my soul and crushes it like a Dixie cup. I'm so intrigued because I have one from that record too that does the exact same thing. All right. I'm curious here. For me, that song is called Plain Trees. Yeah.

And it's a duet with Mustafa. And Mustafa made our year-end list. Mustafa's amazing. Mustafa sends me to heaven. Mustafa's voice makes me cry every time I hear it, no matter where I am. That voice just sends me soaring. Together, they made this really intense ballad that is so, so beautiful. Again, this is called Plain Trees. Plain Trees

Giving life to withered leaves. With our words, and how we breathe. We still breathe. Slow, so slow. Our presence, may the ground glow. Slow, so slow. Our presence, may the ground glow.

oh my god I can't hear that voice I- this is actually the most beautiful gift you could give me because I listened to this song obsessively and I sent it to everyone I knew

when it came out because I was like, oh my God, Omar Apollo and Mustafa and harmony and I can't. And then he comes in on that verse Mustafa does. And it's like, oh my God, I can't. And I forgot about it. I really kind of did. And you know how when you hear a song and you love it so much and you listen to it 20,000 times and it's so beautiful, but it's like,

You just wish you could hear it for the first time again so badly. And you kind of just gifted that to me. I was like, oh my God. It's kind of like, it's kind of like, it's like you lost your jacket and my Christmas gift for you is that I found it. You found my favorite jacket again.

Thank you. And I lost it. I was like, I lost it for so long. You kind of start to forget about it. And then, oh my God, that song is so beautiful. Exactly. And every note, every little note of instrumentation that kind of swirls around them is pinging some...

that you don't entirely know how to access. There's something about the instrumentation behind them that is enhancing the intensity and that swell of feeling. I cannot get enough of this song.

I always say I'm like the key to a really good vocal is I need to really hear that you're hurting. Like I need to be able to so hear so hard that there's so much hurt inside of you. Like you're really like screwed up in there. And the two of them together, oh my God, there's such a combined level of hurt. Magic. That's what everybody looks for from every song. Yeah.

So, yeah, this was great. Thank you. It's always so nerve-wracking when you're handing somebody a gift. I'm so honored that you were so nerve-wracked by me. I'm like, wow. So flattering.

I want you to come up to me at holiday parties and give me the music recs. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Anna. My dream in life is to be the uncle who isn't unnerving. Yeah. No, you're doing it. Let me validate. You're doing it successfully. So, Anna, who are you giving your Secret Santa gift to? Steven, I actually already gifted away my song. So I think that means we're done. It's a...

It's 1030 in the morning. I think this workday is done. I think we can all go home now. Exactly. We can all go home and listen to our gifts. I decree it. We can all go listen to our gifts. I'm actually going to go cry to that song. Can we play it? Crying is the greatest gift of all. I was like, this is amazing. A 1030 cry. Oh, oh.

Well, that has been it from NPR Music. This is all songs considered. Thank you all for listening and we hope you all have a restful, peaceful, delightful holiday season.

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