The Contenders, Vol. 3: The songs we can't stop playing this week
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Support for this podcast and the following message come from Lagunitas Brewing Company, challenging the status quo and crafting stories along the way. Featuring a wide range of innovative craft brews and non-alcoholic options, it's good to have friends. Learn more at lagunitas.com. You know, Hazel, I was thinking about how we've talked on past shows about how we're both bottlers. You're a bottler, yeah? Yes, I am. Unfortunately, I am. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's what gets me through.

The bottling and a tremendous amount of denial. Not feeling things, letting them fester inside of you until they become bigger problems, possibly. Yes, exactly. And what do you do when your bottle gets all filled up, you know, and it's about to blow? Do you have a way to reset? You know, when I think about resetting, like when I'm in a funk, I feel like I'm often—I have to leave my house—

And I have to take an extremely long walk. I'm a huge walker. Anything to get out of my head and get moving in a physical way and be distracted by my surroundings. Is it a silent walk or do you like to listen? No, I listen to music. I mean, walking and listening to music is the preferred way to listen to music.

If it was silent, I think I would go crazy. I agree. That is exactly when I like to listen to music, too. And I have a dog, and I take the dog on two-mile walks every day.

It's how I unplug Robin and plug Robin back in. Yeah. If it works every time. Well, I think this is something that everyone could use, honestly, about now. A regular recurring reset. So I'm going to try something new. A little segment. I'm going to put it at the end of every episode, and I'm calling it your weekly reset. Your weekly reset. And...

if you want to know more, you'll just have to listen for it at the end of the show. But I'll put it at the, you know, after the last song plays on each episode. So everyone should just stay tuned for that, your weekly reset. In the meantime, we have got another update to our running list of the year's best songs. We're not even done with January, but it has already, I think it's already been a pretty great few weeks for new music. What do you got to start us off? Well, I,

I have a song by an artist who I've loved for many years now, and this is her first song in six years. It's the artist Shura, and the song that I have is called Recognize. ♪ Me inside is not a ♪ ♪ Cause I'm bad ♪ ♪ So I lock myself inside ♪ ♪ With a coffee and a good ♪ ♪ Is it selfish? I'm not sure ♪ ♪ But I would do it all ♪ ♪ What if I recognize ♪ ♪ I'm not somebody I know ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

I just love the message of this song. I feel like this song is filled with such resilience coming out of a dark place. Shura described having a hard last few years, going through some stuff with her family, going through some stuff with her career, and sort of holing up and not really interacting with friends, like basically kind of isolating herself with these feelings of despair and anxiety.

you know, this song is really about coming out of that moment. And, you know, she never really quite finishes that sentence of, well, maybe I recognize. But I feel like what she's recognizing is the ability to just sit with those feelings in her life and not sort of cut herself off from the rest of the world when she feels down or she feels like she needs to kind of

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, we should say, too, that the forthcoming album is called I Got Too Sad for My Friends, which I think is a sentiment that's also reflected in this song. So I don't know. There's definitely a sense of self-awareness and mining her past and putting a magnifying glass up to her coping mechanisms that I love to hear about in her music. And that album is coming out on May 30th, the end of May, from Shura.

Do you know the singer Tamino? So I actually did not know the singer Tamino. Oh, OK. So he is a Belgian-Egyptian artist. He just has the most extraordinary voice. I think if you like Jeff Buckley, a lot of people have compared Tamino to Jeff Buckley. We featured him on the show off and on over the years. He's done A Tiny Desk, which people should definitely check out.

Anyway, Tamino's got a new album coming out. I almost featured it on the 2025 preview show. It's called Every Dawn's a Mountain. And he just released this glorious new single from it that he did with Mitski. Mitski. Mitski and Tamino together. The song is called Sanctuary. I stray from the sun. It shows nothing.

But a faint trace on your eyes of bleeding something thorough A story, a way in the sorrow of a new age born beats me A story to a long song on the road Isn't that what you want? Is my call a story?

And the peace of your heart comes the dark. Do you wait for the night to wake your dreams? Do you wait for the night to keep the past alive? Does it still let you down?

Anyone who listens to the show knows that I am not a crier. Well, I had this moment when her voice first comes in, when Mitski's voice first comes in, where I literally just went, oh, and just tears were streaming down my face just because

Because it's so beautiful. Them together on this song is really just incredible work. Like, I mean, you put Mitski on a song, I'm running. I'm running to press play. But the work that they do together and the way their voices intertwine on this track is just great. It has this great stride to it. You know, and you talk about a dawn or a sunrise, like the title of the album says.

Every dawn's a mountain. This feels like the sun rising. It's just this steady upward climb. There's not really a course. There's no bridge. There's no big drop, but just this slow, steady unfolding.

I wasn't really sure what it was about, honestly. I know. They're just like, we're taking you on this journey. Right. Yeah. It does feel like there's a little bit of a tug of war going on internally between maybe hope and disappointment. Like the most sort of tangible thing that I could hold on to comes near the end of the song when he says, is it late where you are? Does my call disturb you?

which implies so much tension and conflict and history, right, between two people who are living far apart from one another. Well, I am so glad to have the two of them together on this song. What a gift. It is just so gorgeous and transporting. Sanctuary, again, is the name of the song, and it's from the album Every Dawn's a Mountain, and that is out March 21st.

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So I know that we are updating our list of this year's best songs, but there are definitely songs that came out late last year that we haven't played on the show yet that I definitely think we need to spotlight, including this song that I'm going to play called Sugar in the Tank. Oh, yeah. Yeah, from Julian Baker and Torres. They played this song last year. They premiered it on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon with a live performance on

That was like mid-December or so? I think so, yeah. And it is just, you should just play it. I love you all the way to hell and back I love you tied up on your train tracks Love you sleeping on my dead blood All the time that I can get Love you now I want to take in your papers

♪ Swimming upstream in a flash flood ♪ ♪ Wondering I'm gonna drown ♪ ♪ Picking up steam on the off ramp ♪ ♪ Getting the hell out of downtown ♪ ♪ You'll be the chain that keeps me closer to ♪ ♪ But I know how many times to count ♪ ♪ Of you all down to the left ♪ ♪ Of you strung out on the dry end ♪ ♪ Watching through the wind ♪

So good. So good.

You know, Julian Baker and Mackenzie Scott, who performs as Torres, you know, they both grew up in the South and grew up listening to country music. But to hear them squarely in this country sound is just so satisfying. And so surprising. I mean, maybe not as much for Julian Baker. Yeah.

But I certainly was for Torres. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, for sure. I mean, but their songwriting actually suits this sound so well to me. But what I really love about this song is the lyrics. Yeah. The message of this song of just like, I am going to love you all the way. Yeah.

Like all the way can be you're tied up on the train tracks. Right. It gets kind of comical at a certain point. It's like there's a flash flood warning and I think I'm going to drown, but I'm still going to love you in this situation. And, you know, even the small details like sleeping on someone's dead left arm. Yeah. Like I still love you when you do that is just...

Yeah, the levels of how far these two will go in love is just, the imagery is wonderful. I say surprising for Torres because, you know, she, you know, at least started out making this really gritty, grungy guitar rock. And, you know, she's done some more experimental stuff along the way that, I mean, I don't even know how you would categorize her.

Some of it, but this full-on country sound, even given her roots, is not where I thought she was going to go next. Yeah, I mean, last year definitely we saw a wave of artists who were making country music or sort of returning to their country or Americana roots, I think,

You know, Waxahachie is another artist who grew up on country music, but then started her career making indie rock and sort of has come back around to that sound in the last year or so. And I think it's what makes a song like this feel lived in. To hear them in this genre is just, it's great.

It's great. Well, you know, when they released this song in December, they called it their debut single, which implies that this is only the beginning. And I would think that there's more to come from them. I hope so. Just one song. Yeah. Leave them wanting more. So that song again, Sugar in the Tink from Julian Baker and Torres, it came out in December.

You know, I don't know how much people ever see cover art for albums anymore, but if you still go to record stores, do you still go to record stores, flip through the records? I still go to record stores. I'm not a big vinyl head, but, you know, yeah. You ever buy anything just because of the way it looks? No. Really? You've never bought? Oh, my God. I used to do that all the time. And I've even done it digitally online.

Yeah.

But back in the day, he was a music journalist and we used to do a lot of stuff with him. And we did this live video thing with him where we just randomly grabbed albums out of a bin, took one look at it and guessed what it was going to sound like and then put it on to see if we were right. We were usually right every time.

I'm really wandering off the trail here. Are you still with me? Yes. Sorry.

Not in physical spaces, but in digital spaces. I mean, I went to record stores growing up in high school and certainly bought CDs as a kid, but I guess I just, I don't know. I haven't been, and I love album art, but I don't think I've ever thought like...

of buying something because of the way that it looked. Oh, wow. I remember seeing in the iTunes store when it first opened up however many years ago, seeing the cover for the Iron and Wine album, Our Endless Number of Days. I hadn't heard of the band yet at that point. And I took one look at that cover and thought, I'm going to love that album. And I was totally, totally right. Well, I actually do this with band names as well. You know, like, I mean, honestly, Megadeth.

If you've never heard Megadeth, you've got a pretty good idea probably what you're going to get with Megadeth. And so I'll listen to stuff just because of the name. And all of this is a very long-winded way of saying that that's what happened with this totally new discovery artist for me. I was supremely rewarded because of it. The artist goes by the name Flora from Kansas.

Flora from Kansas. And I love the name so much. I put it on. She's got this debut EP coming out. It's called Homesick. We will hear more about it and Flora from Kansas after we hear this opening cut from it. It's called The Ghost Is Me. I'm dying to feel Touching a grave that isn't real Touching a ghost that I can't see But the ghost

is me

Walk through the floor, walk through walls, looking at pictures in the hall. Stare at a mirror so I can see that the ghost is me.

♪ Everybody wants a piece of glass ♪ ♪ A shiny box with an inside ♪ ♪ The glass broke open ♪ ♪ It's blue ♪ ♪ Showing the light at least it's bad ♪ ♪ A little girl ♪ ♪ And didn't find it ♪ ♪ This dance for me ♪ ♪ This dance for me ♪

I'm trying to feel, touching a grave that isn't real, touching a ghost that I can't see, but the ghost is me.

There is so much that I love in this song. I love that little repeating piano line under the guitars, just that dun, dun, dun. It's just this, it's kind of unnerving but addictive at the same time. The song overall is so gloomy, but her voice is kind of lovely and the melody has this twinge of hope in it. I was thinking, well, first of all, I was thinking,

that you would love this song. This sounds like something that Hazel would love. I also was thinking that if this came out in 1993, it would be a massive hit. Yeah, I think Flora from Kansas, which is an incredible band name, great name.

has really kind of hit on this very, not unfamiliar, but like special creepy sound in this song. And, you know, she's quite young. I was reading about her. She's in high school, right? Yeah. I mean, she's going to high school and still living at home. Yeah. And I had read something about, you know, this song being about the rage that she felt in middle school. It's like the perspective of...

a younger version of herself. And I think you can hear that rage and the way that it builds in this song really beautifully. And I don't know, I think I always want teen girls to express that.

Their rage, if you're a teen girl listening to this, please express your rage. And yeah, I just think that this song is just it's such a little snapshot of what she was clearly going through at a younger age. And the way that she has incorporated this ghostly dark imagery into that experience is really promising. Yeah, I'm very excited to see where she goes from here.

Just this EP that is coming out on March 14th. Again, it's called Homesick. That song was The Ghost Is Me. She's been making music with her dad and her brother, apparently. But they, I guess, for like several years now, she started when she was like, like you mentioned, in middle school making music and just recording these songs at home. So a very DIY EP and very excited for it.

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APY on deposits as of December 27, 2024 is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. Funds are swept to partner banks where they earn the variable APY. I have a song that I want to play from an artist who basically every time she puts something out, I am alert. Like, I am so excited. The red phone on your desk starts ringing. Yeah.

Hazel Sills. I'm like, yes. What do you have for me? And the artist is Cirque du Sieux, who I know that we've covered on All Songs Considered many times before. She's lots of fans on this team, the project of Haley 4. And she put out a new song called Megaloner. And it is one of the biggest...

darkest, most epic tracks that I feel like I've heard from her in a while. And that's saying a lot because I think she's an artist who, her music is often epic. So yeah, this is Mega Loner. This is the top faking in time into the faking muscle who seems dreamy I can see the face in anything

When the tide pulls to me This is the right to find all things I cannot see Interview me All the things inside of me Just wanting If you see me through

All things dream. I can see the face of me when the rights fall to me. The vision of the people. So you may

This song is the sound of bones being ground into bread.

It is just crushing. Haley's at the gates of hell. Yes. Welcome. Well, okay, it's interesting that you say that because when this song was announced and was put out, you know, I was reading the press materials for it and Haley said that this song is kind of this anthem for the place that exists after an action and inside its consequence. And basically she was talking about like,

I'm singing about endurance and faith and agency and, you know, hope being our currency. And I hear endurance in the song and I hear trust.

trying to carve a path to a better future. But for me, it's like it's so it's like someone trying to claw their way out of a well or like digging your nails through the dirt. Like, I don't know. This doesn't feel like a hopeful song. Well, think about how much hope it must require to claw out of a

Out of a well. Yeah, I guess what I'm saying is it's not... There is such a power to this song. And I feel Hailey, you know, she sings, you gotta get a second chance. You gotta give it up. And her bellowing voice, it's like... It really feels like this very intense wake-up call of a song. Like an alarm of a song. Yeah. That you can...

create your fate and like you have power over your life so get up and make moves to this insanely industrial yeah intense track i love that you call it an alarm because i that helps explain why this music um elevates my heart rate in a way that i i don't always want it to be elevated i'm

I mean, this isn't the kind of thing that I always reach for. But when I do, I mean, there is nothing better. It is just so weird and so strange and dark. Her voice, as you mentioned, is such a trip. It's like you could imagine her singing opera, right? It's ornate and it kind of has this formal vibe.

Yeah. It's very formal, but then she just drops it into this sludgy, twisted world. I mean, I think I've said this on the show before, but I don't know. I am always looking for artists who are making music that kind of shocks my senses and like speaks out in a sea of contemporary music that I feel like can often be quite sleepy or like laid back and...

I think Hailey is just one of those artists who really cuts through so much noise with her art. And I'm extremely excited for her next album, which the song is on, and it's called Halo on the Inside.

Well, I actually have something that I think is a good companion piece to that cut because when Haley Ford announced the album, she described it, Halo on the Inside, as the product of a metamorphosis. You know, kind of the, I think she called it the butterfly and the beast, which I think is a great way to describe the different sonic elements that are happening at the same time within her music. I want to close out with a track that's also about metamorphosis. In fact, it's called Cocoon.

And it's by the band Sunlux. And to know me is to know how hard I ride or die for Sunlux. Do we still say ride or die or is that like two years ago? I think you can say ride or die. I think it's timeless. Timeless. Well, I think they are one of the most gifted bands making some of the most...

original, intentional, and just arresting music out there. They're maybe best known for their score that they did for the film Everything Everywhere All at Once that was nominated for an Oscar that came out in 2022. They are back now with their first collection of all new music since doing that score. It's an EP called Risk of Make Believe. And the song, again, that I want to play from it is called Cocoon.

I could go very, very long on it and all the ideas behind it and what's happening sonically. I'll spare you and everyone else that. And I'll just say that the song itself feels very much like a cocoon. And I think that after you listen to it, you will emerge from

Transformed. That's what I want. I want to listen to this song and emerge transformed. Well, I hope that happens for you. And if not, stay tuned for your weekly reset, as I mentioned, that will happen right after the song is over. Thanks so much, Hazel, as always. Thank you for having me. And from NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered. It's all songs considered.

♪ To start without ♪ ♪ In slow ♪ ♪ Break from the cocoon ♪ ♪ To start without ♪ ♪ In slow ♪ ♪ In slow ♪ ♪ Break from the ♪ ♪ To start without ♪

Slow devotion

Break from the cocoon To start without it In slow devotion Break from the cocoon To start without it In slow devotion Break from the cocoon Away

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