The Best Songs of 2024
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Support for this podcast and the following message come from Energia, where everyone can invest in the world's top renewable energy markets and make an impact. With Energia, you can invest directly in solar projects that reduce carbon emissions. More at Energia.com slash NPR. So my son, who is he's officially a teenager now, and he has this thing that he does that's just absolutely driving us crazy, where he'll he'll ask a question.

And the moment you start to answer, he'll say, I know! It is so... Well... It's insane. Did you? Like, what was the movie Alien about? Oh, well, so there's this group of people and they're trapped on a spaceship. And I know! What's he looking for? Like, well, then why are you asking? Well, I just mean, like, what's it about? He's like, well, okay, like I was saying, I mean, they're on this spaceship and there's this alien. I know! I know!

So he's been listening to a lot of Nirvana lately.

which I fully approve. He's just discovered them. And another thing he's really obsessed with is whether or not someone is still alive. Even if it's someone from a band from this year. He'll say, are they alive? Are they still alive? So knowing that he always wants to know of somebody, because I think maybe he just assumes everyone that I must love. Yeah, they're old. They're from ancient times. They're old and gone. So I said, you know, I said,

You know, kind of preemptively here, I said, you know, the lead singer, Kurt Cobain, died a long time ago. And of course he says, I know. And then he says, and I also know how he died.

And I said, oh, oh, well, how did he die? And he said, he died from that, you know, that skin disease, the one, you know, like, really, you know, causes deformities. I said, do you mean leprosy? What? And he said, yeah, leprosy. You think Kurt Cobain died of leprosy? Where is he getting his information from? He said I told him that. What?

We are going to get our facts straight.

on this episode though because we are studied professionals. So professional. So professional. Hazel Sills and Sheldon Pierce were doing our best songs of 2024 episode. In addition to the list of the 50 best albums that NPR Music put up and out in the world, NPR Music also posted the 124 best songs of 2024. What?

Why did we do 124? A hundred's just not enough. It's not enough. Does it have anything to do with the year? I think it's a good sort of pointed number. It just feels right. 124. Is next year going to be 125? No, next year is going to be 700. Oh, yeah. I just decided right now. Yeah. 700. Well, we're going to count down all 124.

We're here all night. We're going to count down all of the songs. This is all songs considered. We are considering every single one of them. You know, we're just going to highlight some of our favorites from that list of 124. I don't really have what you might call a run of show here, but I did think that maybe, can I start with one that I really love from the list? Sure. Would that be cool? Yeah, of course. I thought that we would start with what I think is an appropriate anthology

at least my idea of an anthem for 2024, the song Working On It from Regine. ♪

I've been trying endlessly. I'm working on it. Yeah, I'm working on it. I'm so tired of this apathy. From the morning to dawn. I'm so tired of this apathy.

I just want to be the better me. I'm working on it. Yeah, I'm working on it. Craving depth and complexity. From morning to dawn. From morning to dawn.

I mean, it's no espresso. Or basically anything from Brat. But I just love how totally uncommitted this song is. You know, like the singer Brigine Murphy, I mean, she's barely even trying. You know, she's trying to try.

You know, and the bar for what success looks like in this song is just so low. Yeah. It just, I don't know, it really strikes a chord with, I guess, where I am. And I think a lot of people are. Yeah, that's what I love about it. It's like, you know, there are so many dance tracks that make use of the word work. Like work. Like we're going to work it. We're going to dance. And this is so weary. It's like, you know, I'll dance.

I'm going to get to it. Maybe I'll figure it out at some point. There's a big sort of like putting it off energy, which is really interesting to me because the pocket on this groove is so steady, so locked in. And then here she is just sort of like...

laid back reclining into the sofa like dissolving away like I can't even be bothered to get up and do this thing you ever been at a party and someone's trying to get it going like they put on music you can dance to it and like someone maybe kind of goes out half-heartedly and they're trying and then it's just awkward and then they go back like that's the song right you could dance to it yeah

So that came out on the album Macro. It came out in July, on July 12th from Brigine. Definitely one of my favorite songs of the year. What else do we got? Who wants to go next? Hazel, what do you got? Well, I'm going to follow up that lazy, noncommittal energy with something that's a little bit more energetic, a lot more energetic. I want to play a song called Hell of a Ride by the artist Nourished by Time.

I really want to hear what you love about this one, Hazel. Yeah, I played this on Contenders. You played this on the Contenders.

Because I find his voice a bit challenging. There are things I like about this, but what is it that you love so much? So I love the song because I have a playlist, a running playlist, called My Crops Are Flourishing. What? My crops are flourishing? It means that my life is good. It's music for when...

my life is good. Like, I feel good about myself. I want to pump myself up. And this song went into it immediately because this song, there's just like this energy to the song. It makes me want to like stick half of my body off the top of a car and let the wind go through my hair, which is ironic because this song to me has such a big pump up energy. I mean, he starts it out by singing, I'm living that good life. But

It's not. It's a sad song. It's bittersweet. You know, it's about saying goodbye to someone and going through a breakup. But Marcus Brown, who's nourished by time, just brings this incredible energy to the song. I just I feel like I'm on a ride with him. Yeah, it's weirdly euphoric for a song that is about like stepping away from something like separation.

There's this like, it has the great dip of you know, and then sort of launches into that hell of a ride. And it feels like arms spread at the front of the Titanic, honestly.

It's way too woozy for me for that sort of image. I just can't imagine, yeah, spreading my arms wide to open wide to it. I mean, the wooziness is sort of what I like about the song. But it keeps it from being that kind of, I don't know, euphoric song like you're describing. For me, it feels like it's about to teeter off a cliff at any moment. But I think that's what I like about it because it just feels like...

In this song, he's kind of just like surrendering himself to the universe. Like there's something freeing about this song to me. And I think in listening to it, I'm like, you know what? Goodbye. There's definitely a release. There's definitely a release to it.

Hell of a ride. Hell of a ride from the EP Catching Chickens. And I'm not making the name of that title up. That is, in fact, the name of the EP Catching Chickens. That came out in March, March 22nd. Sheldon, what do you got? Yeah, from a song about sort of breaking up to a song about embracing your legacy and status, I want to play Chief Keef's 1, 2, 3. ♪

I got nine cars, but I brought it with me. Leave us another seat.

You ain't giving up, that's it, you won't get laid. Sleep for the week.

Sheldon I understand that you really put your thumb on the scale for this one. Yeah. I was responsible for making sure that this song was on NPR's best songs list. I had a playlist of all the songs before it went live and this is one not knowing who had picked what and you know I put a big star by this one too. Yeah Chief Keef is sort of a really interesting figure. He has been sort of

a mercurial figure, he was a major label star turned indie cast off who has just been doing his thing, making abstract songs at his whims really, with no care for who was paying attention to them. This record and this song in particular is a big turn for him

where he's sort of like embracing the idea of his role in rap history and sort of saying, "Not only have I done all this, but I can do other things." I mean, he self-produced this record. This song is from a record called "Almighty So Too." It's the sequel to a very sort of garbled, auto-tune-y record from 2013.

And it's like, if you've listened to Almighty So, you would not expect this song out of him. But if you've been paying attention to him, you know that this is what he's always been capable of. And it's really sort of interesting for him to make music that is so distinctly at odds with his perception, but also interesting.

embraces like everything that he's always been. There's something slightly askew about it still. Like you've got this soul sampler element of it, but then those drums are still very much drill like booming and staggered. And it feels like he's playing with the idea of who he is versus everything that he represents. Yeah. Playing is a good word for it because, you know, I'm not a Chief Keef scholar by any means.

But like listening to the song, something that I really loved about it is the way that he raps this song. I felt like it was getting more intense as the song goes on. And there's just such intense conviction in everything that he's saying that it felt like

a song obviously for other people, you know, he's sort of rattling off all these things about himself that he wants people to recognize, but it also felt like he was speaking to himself. Like it had this kind of like, I'm staring at myself in the mirror quality and I'm just like affirmation, affirmation, affirmation, like recognition, recognition, recognition. And it makes it such a powerful track.

I mean, a lot of those themes are really nothing new in the world of rap. It's a well-worn path that a lot of artists follow, but he does so much with so little in a lot of ways. You know, there aren't a lot of sort of polyrhythmic fireworks or anything here. The beat's pretty simple, but the sound is so captivating. It's really, it's kind of sludgy.

you know, and broody. I don't know. It's a sonic world that I'm always happy to step inside. Yeah. I mean, Sludgy has always been a prominent Chief Keef mode. I do think what really sort of sets this apart is this idea that he is trying to reaffirm his place in the rap hierarchy, that he for so long has been out of view, just like tinkering with his sound without any regard for what it meant.

per se. And then now he's seeing the world of rap change and not give him sort of his just do. And he's like projecting out the bat signal like, hey, don't leave me out of this conversation because I deserve my credit. One, two, three. All this energy just run through me.

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Trying to decide what to do next year, and I think I'm going to go with an artist who I only just recently realized is kind of polarizing. Based on conversations, exchanges that the three of us had earlier this week before the taping, an artist I've loved for a long time, Claro. And I mentioned Claro to you two, and you were both sort of like, eh. Eh.

So what is even happening? How can you not love Claro? I think we outvote you here, Robin, so you have to explain to us why you do love Claro. You know what? I think it's best if I say it in a song. Specifically one called Sexy to Someone. Sexy to someone is all I really want. Sometimes sexy to someone is all I really want.

Nothing less of thought into the park Sexy to some I think about it all Jack and Toe or Moments at a Bar Ask if I'm in the park Sexy to somebody it would up me Oh, I need a reason to

I mean, listening to this now, I feel a little like my sister-in-law one time. She had us over for the holidays and she put on the smoothest of smooth jazz, like capital smooth jazz. And she's just kind of grooving around. She's like, how can no one like this? It's like, how is that even possible? But

But I just find Claro's music just so enchanting. It's just enchanting to me. She has such a great ear for melody. The production is always finessed so beautifully. Everything just lands in a perfect little pocket. Not too hard, not too soft, not too loud, not too quiet. You know what? It's basically the baby bear porridge of pop music. Yeah.

Everything just lands so right for me. That's interesting because I've always felt like her music exists on the outside of my perception. I don't have to be particularly dialed into it to listen to it, which is sort of at odds with the way that I like to experience music. But I sort of appreciate the soft soul, the light funk groove of this and of the music on Charm much more than sort of like

the hushed bedroom pop of the previous albums. I'm seeing the vision on this. I do like the melody. I don't know about her voice, though. I mean, I've never quite gotten into Claro because there's something to me quite sleepy about her music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're sleepy. Yeah.

No, Robin, I'm a wide awake. That's actually true. You are very wide eyed, wide awake. I just feel like, you know, ever since she came around a few years ago with her, as Sheldon mentioned, making this kind of bedroom pop, I feel like she's just kind of been like simmering like her music. I'm waiting for it to reach full boil. And I totally hear you on the like melody. And I do agree with Sheldon that I think

I think I see the vision here on this song and on this record charm more so than her past music. But I just feel like I'm waiting for her to, I don't know, give me more. Or give me something else. Do something. I mean, I think the problem is there's not...

a lot of dynamic movement in her song. It locks into place and it sort of stays there. I guess that's, I mean, this, I think this is a full boil for her, honestly. Yeah, I would agree. I will say that I think this is her strongest song. I think Sexy to Someone is her strongest song. I think the message of the song is so charming. Sorry for not to make a pun. It's so charming. Just this idea of kind of quietly yearning for something

a connection that is so unfortunately rare and fleeting sometimes. I think that this song is just very kind of like adorable. Yeah, if ever there was a case to be made, Robin, I think you're making it with this song. Well, I mean, and this isn't even my favorite song. This is the one that ended up on the list of 124 from NPR. I think my favorite one might be Add Up My Love. You know,

You know, she's not an artist that I maybe normally would have gone to the mat over. But Hazel, you pointed me to this article about this whole phenomenon known as Claro Shade. Oh, well, that's just like a meme. I know. But the more I started reading from people who, you know, like who can't stand Claro, then I just started digging in. You know, I think that's what happens, I think, with a lot of people is you just...

people react to the rabid fandom. You know, it's like movies you go to that you're kind of indifferent to until you find out a lot of people really love it or really hate it. And then that just lights you up. And then you're like, now I'm going all in on whatever, hating this thing or loving this thing. Yeah, I think I found myself on the opposite side of that. Like, I have always thought

Oh, the music perfectly pleasant, I guess. I think what really sort of riled me up was that people were pointing to her as the next big thing very early on and I didn't see it in that music. Well, that album, Charm, you mentioned it, that came out in July, on July 12th from Claro. One of my favorite albums of the year. It is just so lovely and just feels so good to listen to. Yeah, stay true to yourself, Robin. Thanks, man. Don't let us air pressure you. Yeah.

And if I get a chance to use Claro's shade, that expression, at some point later in the show, I will. I think the more I read it... You can say it. Honestly, you can say it right now because Sheldon and I are shading Claro. You can just say it right now. Is it just... It's become a shorthand for any time someone insults anything? Is that what it is? Well, I think that Claro...

the Claro fan base online in general is very passionate and I think that it's become this joke that when any other pop star or artist has success the joke is to be like mmm Claro shade like mmm why aren't you talking about Claro yes

Or what does this have to do with Claro? Yeah, what about Claro? I mean, sure. I mean, you know, that Chief Keef is good and everything. But I couldn't help but notice you didn't mention Claro. Yeah. Well, yeah, well. Well, I mean, sagging out of Claro, I think I should admit that maybe one of the reasons that I don't connect as much as to her music is because softness and easy and pretty is not necessarily something that I'm looking for in a lot of music that I love.

I like hard. I like intense. I like annoying. So you're going to play the Kim Gordon. Bye-bye. No, no, no. I'm going to play a song that came out of the Brat phenomenon this year. Big album from Charli XCX. I'm going to play a remix that she did with Lorde. It's called Girl So Confusing featuring Lorde. Well, I'm speechless when I woke up to your voice. Now you told me.

Let's look it out on the remix You always say let's go out Cancel last minute I was so lost in my head And scared to be in your pictures Cause for the last couple years I've been had to starve myself thinner And then I gained all the way back I was trapped in hatred And your life seemed so awesome For a second my voice was in your hair You walk like Ben She believed my protection And now I totally get it Forgotten from ethics People say

♪ It's so confusing sometimes to be a girl, girl, girl, girl ♪

So this was a remix version of the song Girl So Confusing that Charli put out on her album Brat. And, you know, the song was so powerful on its own. It was basically like Charli, you know, the song is about, you know, being in competition with other women in the industry, sort of having beef with this anonymous artist that I think a lot of people immediately identified as probably being Lorde.

And then Lorde got on the track and they put out a remix version with her verse. And Lorde's verse is so vulnerable about being a woman in the industry and like the pressures of it and how there was such miscommunication between the two of them. And it's such a fascinating track because it was kind of a diss track.

to begin with. Like, Charlie is like, what's, like, do you like me? Do you hate me? What's going on? And then it turns into this really powerful meta-commentary on, like, how women are always pitted against each other in the music industry once Lorde gets on the track and how you can think you know one thing about a music beat

beef and then actually there's so much going behind the scenes and I don't know it's just a really this song is working for me on so many levels and I think it was really exciting to hear them collaborate in this way. Yeah I think this song to me epitomizes both

the auto fiction of the brat era and the I'm just a girl isms that have taken over the internet the last few years. But I think what's interesting is a lot of that stuff has often been viewed as like infantilizing. And this song is such a powerful display of agency.

There's so many things this song to me is about. Because on the surface, it's just also a fun listen, right? I mean, sure, it just sort of documents Charlie XCX and Lords deciding to work together because of the internet. Yeah. But laced through it are all these little asides about self-doubt and hating the way you look and feeling like you're being left behind by the cool crowd and, you

And then, as you said, Hazel, yeah, implicit in all that is all the pressures that society puts on women to look a certain way and be a certain way and act a certain way. I love Charlie's sense of humor. I think it's all over Brat and the remix album. But, you know, it's such a difficult task to make a song like this that

can also be kind of funny and tossed off, but also be very serious and deep. And I think that few artists could pull something like this off. So Charli XCX and Lorde together doing a remix of the song "Girls So Confusing" came out back in June.

Sheldon, you're up next. What do you got? Yeah, to transition to another woman pop star who has definitely dealt with these kinds of issues in the industry. I want to play Tinashe's Nasty. I really enjoy trying to guess what you're... Once you start talking about something, I'm like, where is he going? Is this a Rouge off top? No.

Oh, right. This one. Oh.

♪

I've been a nasty girl.

I've been a nasty, nasty, nasty bitch. I always think of Bob Edwards, the longtime Morning Edition host here. We were trying to get him an interview with Eminem back in like 2001. And he always, he had such an NPR. We always, we kept imagining him saying, are you or are you not the real Slim Shady? And I like to imagine him saying, is someone going to match my freak?

Sheldon, what do you say? Yeah, I mean, I've been rooting for Tinashe since pretty much the beginning. So it's really nice to see her not only have a moment, like matching your freak literally became sort of an identity over the summer, which was interesting. But beyond that... Because this was like a whole TikTok thing. Yeah, it really exploded online and created a viral moment that she has sort of been seeking since...

2ON became like the only big hit of her career really almost a decade ago. Yeah. And she's sort of been floating around as a one-time major label star who went back indie and like really rediscovered herself as an artist, I feel. But it's nice to have this overlap moment where a certified hit

is also somewhat representative of all the growing that she's done as an artist. I mean, the song sounds so self-assured, but it's also so fun, so infectious, so loose. This like perfect blend of pop and R&B that she's been seeking for a while. It was a TikTok hit. TikTok. It was a TikTok. What is this? TikTok hit.

But I don't think it did very well on the charts. I mean, I think it peaked at like 61 or something crazy like that on the hotline. I don't define hits by what happens on the chart. That's not where I live. But I'm just saying, in terms of the way it sounds, it's a hit. Yeah. I think a meme can kind of...

kill a song or make it really annoying to me. And, you know, obviously with this song, people were posting online, like, is somebody going to match my freak? And then they would like post their Netflix queue or something. I can't match that. Yeah. And, but there's something about that kind of collective interpretation of that line. Is somebody going to match my freak that turned this song into one of the most romantic songs of the year to me. I was like,

Yeah, on one level, is somebody going to match my freak? Like, yeah, you could read, you know, all sorts of dirty things into that. But I'm like, what does it mean to really match somebody's freak? Like, that's so romantic. Having somebody meet you where you are is like a really... Yeah, like an accept you for who you are and get on your level. I mean, the older you get, your ideas of nasty and freak change. Yeah.

Because whenever I hear the word nasty anymore, all I think of is something like, oh, that's gross.

What are you doing that's so gross? But this song is so bare bones. I think that's what I love about it. Minimalism is kind of Tinashe's deal. I think that's what's cool about it. It feels so reflective of the music that she's always made, but it's also a big step out of her comfort zone. I think she's admitted that.

pretty frequently when promoting this song. It feels different from some of her stuff. A lot of her stuff sort of hangs back. It's not as forward. But here, I mean, she is laying it all out. And I think in stepping into the limelight, she really sort of found the pop star ideal of herself that she's always been seeking without having to play the game.

So the song Nasty from Tina Shea that came out back in August on, what was that? August 16th from the album Quantum Bay. Quantum Baby. Oh, baby. I said baby. You said bay. I did say bay. Quantum Baby. Quantum Baby. Quantum Baby. This message comes from Sun and Ski Sports. Picture the scene. Fresh powder, sparkling slopes, and effortless gliding on perfectly fitted skis. Sun and Ski Sports.

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Well, I want to play something that is totally different and a complete shift in mood because it's just a devastating song. It's one from this band called Great Grandpa. The song is called Kid. And just for some context going into it, Great Grandpa, it's a band from Seattle and singer Kerry Goodwin and the singer and guitarist Pat Goodwin, they're married.

And this song is just gut-wrenching. Again, it's called Kid. It's a one-off single that they did. And Pat and Carrie Goodwin, they experienced pregnancy loss, and they wrote this song about that. There's a hardened feel to your chest That makes real words only news Just potential bound in mass Fully come to There's a water break in the main

trashed the interstate pulled off four stops prior to home took a route we never do you said you're not we went drove she'll swim across this end one someday drove you flip the boat there's no way

Oh, this song just absolutely wrecks me. It is so beautiful and so sad.

And the more you listen to it, the more you realize that it is written to the child that they did not have because of the pregnancy loss. You know, they talk about driving by a lake and, you know, and they say, I thought I'd take you here someday. You know, and later on they sing, I've thought through an entire life for you. I mean, something that I like about this song and I like in songs in general is the idea that someone is working through their feelings or trying to

you know, figure out their feelings in real time in the song. That's sort of how it felt to me because the song goes in so many different directions. It has so many different kind of sonic shifts. And I love that idea in this song of like, you know, sometimes it takes time to figure out the meanings of things. And like, you might not know that immediately and you're still processing it. And there's something about

this song and the directions that it takes and the different beats that it has that I just felt like I could hear that processing. Yeah, this is a song with acts. There are movements to this song. It's so shifty, but it's so gorgeous. I mean, you have that almost hide-and-seek opening, but then it bursts into this symphonic movement. Oh, what could belong

And then really, really moving in its portrayal of like navigating grief. I mean, it has this pair of lyrics where it sort of breaks out the duality of good things and dark things, like both in time defining their meaning. Yeah. And one of the things that's so inspiring to me about it is that they balance that grief

With a kind of wisdom and appreciation for the fact that they understand that everything really is just so fleeting and temporary. And, you know, the entire experience of being a human requires you to experience a certain amount of grief along with the joy. Yeah. Just really, really beautiful. And yeah, and to your point about all the shifts, Stephen Thompson at Empire Music turned me on to this song and we were talking about it. And I said, you know,

If this were a little faster and about anything else, we'd be marveling at all the hairpin turns and all that just because there are so many incredible sonnets. I'm still marveling at them. This is the first new music from Great-Great-Grandpa. Not Great-Great-Grandpa. This is the first new music from Great-Grandpa. In five years, they had an album called Four Arrows that was out in 2019. Haven't heard anything about a new album coming from them next year, but that would be just wonderful news.

Hazel, what horribly dark, twisted, hard-edged, angular thing are you going to reach for? I'm leaving. I'm quitting.

Well, okay. Yeah, I am going to take us down a dark, gripping road, but also a fun one. You know, it can be dark and also be fun. My two favorite combinations of things. Kim Gordon. I'm not actually playing Kim Gordon. I know you're not playing Kim Gordon. I know how much you love that song. I am going to play a song that...

kind of blew me away when I first heard it this year. It is from the debut album by this band Echo Astral. They are a DC-based punk band, and the song that I want to play opens that album. It's called Head Empty Blues. I can see you shifting in your seat. I can see you shifting in your seat. I can see you shifting in your seat. I can see you shifting in your seat.

It's so rare for me to hear a debut album from kind of a newish band, rising band, and think they're like fully formed. They have such a strong point of view and sound. And that is what I felt listening to this song. J.L. Holzman is the lead singer, and she is so unbelievably charismatic. And I just love listening to her. And this song is so dark. It's like basically about being stalked.

But then it kind of takes these kind of irreverent turns where it's like, I'm thinking of the emoji where it's like, the eyes are crossed and the tongue is out the side of the mouth. It's like, the world is ending, but I'm having so much fun and I'm scared, but like, whatever. Like, it has this...

really compelling mixture of LOL and oh my god, everything is so dark. Yeah, I mean, it's about being stalked by a very particular kind of guy too. I mean, there's a lyric where she's like, is it Bon Iver or Bon Iver? I don't care. I'm getting stalked. I've got stalkers outside not going out tonight. And it's like, yeah, like the...

Who cares about the pronunciation of this thing? You are invading my personal space. Go away. J.L. Holzman is so funny, too. I mean, yeah, rocks so hard. But like there's that. I think she says another point in the song is something about Molly Shannon. Like my brain's bust like Molly Shannon. And there's the song Beethoven. We played that on All Songs Considered earlier in the year.

And she paints this whole scene of completely losing it in an office, but it's an empty office on like a Friday afternoon and nobody's around. Yeah. You know, just that the image is so sort of comical, right?

But the rage at the heart of it is so real, too. I mean, the stuff is so striking that she's saying, I'll be buried alive before I ever find a friend. Like, oh, my goodness. I know, but it feels like a song for people who are at once, and maybe I'm speaking for myself. I'm like, it's a song for people. I can just say myself. Who are, like, oftentimes, you know, bruised.

boiling with rage at the state of the world and then also can hold at the same time in your head that we are just on a spinning rock and nothing matters. Yeah, yeah. Isn't that so fun? I mean, that's my, that's everything that I love in life. It does feel like that's like half the energy.

So Echo Astral, the song Head Empty Blues, from the album Pink Balloons, they name check on that song, came out all the way back on April 17th. Sheldon, how do you follow that up? Well, I'm going to take us in a completely different direction with Arooj Aftab's Raat Ki Rani. Raat Ki Rani

I knew it would shine in front of me. I should move so much.

A friend of the show, our colleague Lars Gottrich, called this album a Sade tribute in the best ways, which is funny because she has expressed displeasure with that kind of characterization over the years, saying that that's not good, like you shouldn't sound like anybody else. But then she makes this record. This record is very Sade. I mean, come on. It's got a very quiet storm energy. Her voice is very, very similar. Oh, yes. And I think it's even pushing into...

that same kind of like

I don't want to say smooth jazz, although Sade did have a saxophonist. Late night. It's late night music. And it's very clearly pivoting in that direction, which is interesting. But I love her in this mode. There's something so arresting about the way that her voice almost feels suspended in this song. Yeah. There's such a warmth to this song. And her voice is just so...

unbelievably light. Like, just so airy and gorgeous and honestly, the instrumentation could fall away and I would still be completely compelled to listen to this song. Yeah, I mean, I love a song that feels a little unknowable to me that is like unreachable in some way. Listening to music in another language like has always been one of the ways to get at that sensation but there's also something about this song that is like mysterious that I just can't

get enough of. Yeah, I mean, we got a lot of music this year that straddles enough

Sonic universes that it makes it very hard to categorize I would put this and particularly a lot of music that straddled ambient worlds and jazz and global sounds I would definitely put this one from a Rujov night rain near the top of the list yeah

So I wasn't sure how much music we'd get to, but we're moving at a pretty good clip here. So let's just all do one more pick. I have got one that I really did not see coming this year. It's from Laura Marling. The song is called Patterns. It's from her new album, Patterns and Repeat, that came out in October. And I say I didn't see it coming because, I mean, Laura Marling had largely fallen off my radar, I think. You know, I haven't been listening to a lot of straight-up singer-songwriters. And I think it's a great song to listen to.

And this song from her, I think is just breathtaking. But as the years go by Points comply With ever Then patterns in repeat

Oh, it's just so lovely. And I am a sucker for that drop D tuning that she's doing on the guitar, on the nylon string guitar, classical string guitar, very Nick Drake. It works so beautifully. But really, her lyrics and her observations are what really get me.

She has this great way, I think, of coming at topics and themes. She kind of comes at them a little sideways, you know, not too straight on, but in a way that also still feels very plain spoken. Motherhood is sort of one of the most powerful topics an artist can explore in general. But I think what is so singularly striking about this song is the way that it feels. It's just slightly...

offbeat a little bit in the way that she approaches the subject. It's all building towards this image of the cyclical nature of life, how it's all bigger than us, but how we are all like also a part of the intimate fabric of that. Just the duality of like the universal and the personal.

is so, so gorgeous. I covered this album for New Music Friday when it came out, and like you, Robin, I hadn't really thought about Laura Marling in a bit. Like, I hadn't kept up with her work, and I heard this song, and I was like, oh man, I love Laura Marling. Right? She's so good. And she wrote and recorded most of these songs right next to her daughter after she'd been born, and I think...

It really does feel like the kind of song that you come to when you've

You've brought life into the world and you're thinking about things like family and time and like the changing shape of your existence. And there are so many kind of powerful images and turns that the song takes. And I just think it's really beautiful. She could have gone so many different directions with this song, right? Yeah.

And I think one of the other things that works so well for me with this song is how she invokes the passing of time. She could just sort of sit back and marvel at the miracle of life, right? But she weaves this little thread of melancholy in there, this reminder that this is a cycle. She has this closing line in particular about how time seems to speed up as

As you get older, you know, it just disappears from you and slips away from you faster and faster, she says. And now the time leaps by and starts to fly. Leaps by and starts to fly. Can I see patterns in repeat ways?

That is a deep understanding to come to as a parent. And I think actually a lot of parents would say that they come to realize that pretty quickly after, you know, they've had kids. But still, just so beautiful. I mean, I...

I honestly, I could listen to Laura Marling sing the instructions to an airline vomit bag. It's just like, you know, and it would be gorgeous. And I'd say, play it again. Oh, Laura Marling. Yeah, I'm with you, Hazel. I love Laura Marling. So glad to have her back. And, you know, in our defense, her first music in a few years. It's been a minute since we'd heard from her. Patterns and Repeat, the album that came out October 25th.

All right, Hazel, you're up next. What's your last pick? Well, we just heard that beautiful, quiet Laura Marling song, and now it's back to me, and I'm like, get your coat on. We're going to go party again. What's wrong with you? Why are you sitting there? Get your coat on. Get up. I want to play what I think is...

the most important film score of the year. Yeah, I'm going to go on record. I'm going to say I've seen a lot of movies this year. I've listened to a lot of scores, and I think this is the most important music to come out of a movie this year. It is the score for the Luca Guadagnino movie Challengers by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and this is sort of the main kind of song of the score called Match Point. ♪

So for people who have not seen Challengers, it is a movie about a very sexy, sweaty love triangle that takes place in the upper echelons of professional tennis. And there are all of these matches in the movie that are set to this incredible score, this like very loud score.

chaotic, electronic score that makes every game on screen just feel like the most intense thing that you've ever seen in your life. And I mean, I think that this score works wonderfully in the movie. I think it's like 50% of why the movie is great. Maybe not 50%, but like it really enhances the drama of the movie in a way that's crucial to the movie. But I think what's so great about this score as well is that it

It's just great music on its own. And it had a life outside of the movie that I think is very, very, very rare for a score to do. I mean, I danced in clubs and at DJ sets to this song multiple times for the summer. And people were living it up and loving it. And I just think that it is...

It's great dance music on its own, I really do. I was listening to this score long before I saw the film, and I have since seen the film. But you know, I mean, any time Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross put out new music, I immediately listened to it.

This reminds me of what they did for the social network because they don't always do this sort of thumping synth heavy music. They, they can get very quiet and beautiful and they, they have a real range, but this is very specifically similar to social network and that there, it does have that pulse to it, but there is just this very deep thread of absolute dread. I,

I think that runs through all of this music because there's this tension in the story, just like there was this tension in the social network. I mean, you know, like social networks like, yeah, man, we're all getting rich and we're making this thing that's going to change the world. But the music said, you know, and the music was like, yeah, done, done, done. But Under It All was like, yeah, but...

And there's a big yeah, but to Challengers, too. I still have not seen this movie, but I do love this song, and I think it's exactly because of...

what you're talking about, Robin. There is this, I mean, it is true, a true dance track, right? There's almost a trance aspect to it, but there's also something like foreboding about it. This song just builds really incredibly in a way that is, I feel like more so than the score for Social Network, like really designed to get you tense.

All right. Match Point was the cut from Challengers, the Challengers score that came out in April, came out on April 26th. And as I always say, way more music than we could ever fit on a single show. The list of 124 songs that NPR Music put up is out in the world. You can see that on the NPR website, along with the 50 best albums.

And if you missed our two-part conversation about the best albums of 2024, that's already gone out into the podcast feed as well. But let's do one more before we go. And Sheldon, it goes to you.

Yeah, I think we're going to go off on the radio. Go off? We're going to go off on this? Yeah. We're going to go out. We're going to go out on... The show's ending after this song. The whole program is ending. We had a great run. Thank you, all songs. It's been 25 years. Sweet ride.

The Radiohead side project, The Smile had... Can you call it that now? It feels like this is the main gig now, but... I mean, I don't even know yet. Listen, I don't want the lawyers coming after me. And I don't want the Redditors coming after me either. So for now, it's still the Radiohead side project.

They had a really busy year, surprisingly. I mean, they released a record at the top of the year that I love, Wall of Eyes, in January, and came back. They weren't done and released another in October called Cutouts. And the standout from that second record is Don't Get Me Started. Don't get me not the choose someone

You don't get to. Nothing is triggered. Nothing is solid. Don't pull me back when you don't get to. And your force means nothing.

Robin, I know you love this song as much as I do. You wrote about it for the list of songs. What do you love about it? I do love this song. You know, I think that it's very easy to get lost in all the production on this. But they're making some, I think, pretty acute observations about the age of blame.

The age of whataboutism, you know, finger pointing, you know, nobody wanted to take responsibility for anything. The way that Tom York just keeps insisting over and over in this song, you know, that the real problem here is that you just don't understand him. You know, you don't get me.

You know, it is, this song is all about, it's not me, it is you. - Yeah. - You are the problem. But there's, at the same time, there's this thing, like did you guys see the Station Eleven, the TV adaptation of Station Eleven, did you see that?

I started it. Didn't see the show. Didn't finish it. And I mention it specifically instead of the book because there's a line in the TV show that I read the book and I don't think it's in the book, but there's this great recurring line in the show where someone says, to the monsters, we're the monsters. Yeah.

And that is what I kept thinking of while listening to this song is you see all these monsters in the world, but the monster is you are the monster. I totally agree. I mean, there's this sort of ghost in the machine aspect of this song sonically that makes me feel like it is representative of To Your Point.

The phenomenon of being an avatar online that can't be fully known by your entire audience or everybody who's coming. The constant feedification of our lives, for lack of a better term, and then context collapse. And this idea that, listen, you can't understand who I am at URL from a distance. It's about me.

deflecting viewership away from him. Like, don't perceive me. The choose someone else feels like the key aspect of this song. Get away. When you're thinking about the way that his voice sounds, like how it seems to go in and out of phase, it's almost translucent in some moments. It's like, I don't want to be perceived by you, much less be villainized by you. So, no.

Go somewhere else. Do it somewhere else. You don't get me. Maybe you never will. So spend your time somewhere else. It's been a great 2024, everybody. You should fade our vocals out like this. So we'll go out on this from The Smile from their album Cutouts, their second of 2024. This one came out in October. Thanks so much to both of you, Sheldon, Hazel. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you for having me. And for NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered.

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