NPR Music - Our No. 1 songs: 2010

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

It was a year of both soaring euphoria and quiet calm, with lots of sonic adventures.Note: This is a recurring feature in celebration of the show's 25th anniversary. A shorter version of this episode ran earlier in the year.Tell us what you think: [e-mail] this show with a friend and leave us a review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

It's All Songs Considered, and we're celebrating our 25th anniversary. Stephen Thompson, back now. Hey, Stephen. It's good to be here, Robin. So we're up to 2010, and we're looking at the number one songs from across the past 25 years of All Songs Considered. And maybe it's worth reminding people that these are not the number one Billboard songs or the Hot 100 or whatever. These are songs that, you know, matter to us, matter to the show that take us back to that time when we were working on All Songs Considered. What do you think of when you think of 2010? I mean, 2010 is such a fascinating year just for me in my life.

It was a year of massive, massive title shifts in my life. And when I think of the music that stood out, it only makes sense that what has bubbled to the top is songs that reflect a state of pure euphoria. No. Oh, no, no. Yonzi. Yes. Yonzie. I was thinking

150 is it 1501? You were thinking of like Bright Whites by Kishi Bashi That's not in 2012 Yeah So I remember it's called Go-Doo but I can't remember the album The album is just called Go

Okay Go right Not okay go That's a whole thing Right Right Right If you want the sonic equivalent of Euphoria

It's hard to do better than this song That whole record is so glorious And I remember being so endlessly surprised by it because Yonzi had made, you know, by that point, a very long string of these languid, beautiful, kind of lugubrious records with Sigur Rose, you know, that had a sweep to them, had beauty and grandeur to them, but they moved much more slowly. And so it's like, oh, he's gone solo, he's going to move inward. Like, he's going to find some inner spot that he hasn't found working with.

with Sigorous. And instead, this record that just bloomed like a sunflower and was full of optimism and possibility, I cannot tell you how much this was the record I exactly needed in the exact moment that I found it, where, you know, I was, you know, coming out of hardship. I got divorced, okay? And I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it, but listen. The ears, every intimate detail of what I did wrong.

And I will say that this is not the direction I thought you were going when you set this up because I thought you were going to say, so of course the songs I picked for 2010 were, you know, very melancholy and sad. Yeah, I mean, I remember sending a mix because I, you know, used to make mix CDs of my favorite songs of a given year. And I sent it to my friend Margaret. And her response was, oh, thank you for sending me now that's what I call. call divorce volumes one and two. Why hasn't anybody made that mix tape professionally? Now that's what I call divorce.

Well, that's brilliant. It's full of songs by Don Henley. Well, this is a great pick, and this is going to be the second week in a row, which means the second year in a row, where I picked something completely opposite of that. Because last time when we talked about 2009, I picked Kettering, the Antler song, which was from the album Hospice. And this one isn't that sad, but it is... Not as sad

as the song from Hospice? But it is a decidedly different vibe than what you picked. Great. I know you like this band when they were putting out music, but maybe this is too... Well, are their vocals? There are here.

Let's scoot your head here. This isn't... Is this lower dens? Oh, Stephen Thompson, A-plus. Yes! This song is called I Get Nervous from their debut album, Twin Hand Movement. This is one of those bands sort of like the Antlers who, you know, they come up, they just devastate you in all the best ways.

They have this huge impact in your life. And their imprint on you is forever. But then they kind of go on and they don't continue to make music anymore. And Lower Dins, not together. It was a band fronted by Jaina Hunter. Yeah. And they put out their last album in 2019, the competition. And then that was it.

Well, I'd like to put a request out into the universe that they make more music, just for the two of us. Just for the two of us. Okay, so let's just take a quick break here. And when we come back, we can run through some of the other stuff that takes us back to 2010. So, Stephen, as we run through some of the other stuff that takes us back to 2010, I want to start with what was going to be my backup pick for the show. this week. If I didn't pick the lower Dins cut, this is what I was going to go with. Oh, sure. So the song, Real, Real, that's R-I-L-L, Real, from Sleigh Bells and their album

treats, probably the catchiest cut on the album. Oh, absolutely. And another debut record from a band that we ended up following and loving these past 15 years. They just had another really, I think, pretty adventurous record out this year called Bunky Becky Birthday Boy. And another another band that played our South by Southwest showcase in 2010. In fact, they were our headliner that year at our day party. I went back and I looked at the write-up for it and it said, this band is so new, they don't even have a record. But they wound up headlining NPR's day party. That was in March when we had them do the day party at South by Southwest. The album that Real Real is from treats, it didn't come out until May. But what else for you, Stephen?

And what else for 2010? Looking over the track list for, Now that's what I call divorce, volume one. It's such a mixture of euphoria and miserableness. Not only did you have Yonzi, but Cloud Cult, put out that song, You'll Be Bright, In vacation on that year, which I know I've talked about on this show before. The things you love, all the things that make,

things you shouldn't do, all the things. They're calling you. Travel safely. Travel safely. Every first kiss, every crisis, every heartbreak and every act of kindness. They're calling you. Travel safely. They're calling you.

Travel safely. Every empire. Every masterpiece, every invention. Travel safely, travel safely. All the things you love, all the things that may hurt you, all the things you should Yeah, this is a sweet little little lovely, travel safely. Travel safely. Yeah, this is a song that you could camp out.

It could stay just that sweet little lovely song in the beginning, and it'd be totally effective. But this song builds, and part of it is it's like just this emotional bloodletting. All my feelings are happening on top of one another when I listen to this song. And if you are a parent and you're having big feelings about your kids and what you want for your kids, this is the song for you. Yeah, this is a great song from Cloud Colt. You'll Be Bright from their album. What was that album?

Light Chasers that came out in 2010. What else you got? Bloodbuzz, Ohio by the National. Oh, yeah, yeah. Lift my shirt up. Stand up straight at the foot of your love. Lift my shirt up. I was carried to Ohio in a swanbird.

It's really one of their greatest songs, Sharon Vanettin put out Love More in 2010. Yeah. That song. Was that from Epic? Yeah. That's from Epic. Yeah.

Well, that was also the year that Sufion Stevens put out, The Age of Odds, which was a huge record. Not my favorite of his records. Oh, but it was so wild, though. Like, it closed with that song, Impossible Soul. I mean, this song is 25 minutes long. You can't play a short snippet of it and really get a complete picture of just how epic it is

and really just all in all the directions it goes in, and the whole album is like this. Like, he was so clearly stretching his music in the most wild ways. Yeah, that's true. It's totally brilliant. And then also the tallest man on Earth in the song The Wild Hunt. There is the crow moon coming in where you keep looking now.

It is the hollow month of March now sweeping in. Let's watch phenomena that rise out of the darkness now. Within the light, she is my storm and heroin. And all machines abandoned by the ancient races then. I hear them humming down below and hollow earth Oh hell I will go under two But just for now I let the spring and storm return

I left my heart to the wildhunt are coming I live until the call And I plan to be forgotten when I'm gone This is I be leaving in the fall This is the title cut to the album The Wild Hunt that came out in 2010 I was thinking, you know, we keep talking debut albums. And I thought this was his debut album because it's the record that really broke for him for the tallest man on Earth.

But he had another one before it called Shiloh Grave that came out in 2008. You know what else came out in 2010? Anaeus Mitchell put out her album, Hades Town. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which was the first iteration of what became the gigantic blockbuster Tony winning musical. Love a when I sing my song, all the river. And this was the opening cut, the song, Wedding Song. Justin Vernon, Bono Verre, appears on it, which we were just talking about him for that Bonnevere

album that came out in 2008. We have a CD alarm clock at home, and every morning, it goes off, the CD that is in this alarm clock from probably 2010 is Ineus Mitchell's Hadesown record. So that, to me, has kind of over time just through repetition, become probably one of the albums I've heard most in the world. Yeah, great pick. I would not have thought to include this one on the list. I'm so glad you brought it up. I've got one more, actually, that I want to do. And then we can wrap it up as incomplete as this list is and always is. But there's one that I want to sneak in because this is a band that I fell really hard for in 2010.

And very curious if you can get this one. Okay, I'm going to give you a couple hints. James Mercer. Oh, the shins. But this is broken bells. Broken bells. You got it. I don't know. Broken Bells, him in Danger Mouse. Brian Burton got together, did this record, self-titled Broken Bells, came out of nowhere for me and just absolutely knocked me out.

This is the song, The High Road, which kicks it off. Hearing it again, just even now, I'm like, I'm so addicted, instantly addicted to this. Yeah, so we talked about the Shins in an earlier installment of this conversation. They blew up in the early aughts. They were part of the Garden State soundtrack. They were very much part of kind of the indie pop. ecosystem of the early aughts. And then Danger Mouse, you know, who blew up with the gray

album, you know, grew up with mashups, but also just as an extremely inventive producer. By the time this came out, he'd already been with Narls Barkley, which was another kind of component of that ought sound. So you just kind of have these two familiar approaches that are melded together. Perfect. Yeah. And this whole record, it's just, it's so infectious. They did this, basically, the whole album at our South by Southwest Showcase, too, that year in 2010. Great show. But we'll go out on this. And until next time when we do 2011, thanks, Stephen.

Thank you, Robin. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered.