NPR Music - Perfect Sunday morning albums

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Whether you prefer solitude, get-togethers with family or friends, or steeling yourself for the week to come, we've got the perfect album to score your early Sunday hours.Featured artists and albums: 1. Miles Davis: 'Kind of Blue'2. Astrud Gilberto: 'The Astrud Gilberto Album'3. The Congos: 'Heart of the Congos'4. Madredeus: 'O Espírito da Paz'5. Laurie Spiegel: 'The Expanding Universe'6. BAD OPERATION: 'BAD OPERATION'7. Django Reinhardt: '1937'8. Tirzah: 'Devotion'9. Margo Guryan: 'Take a Picture'10. V/A: 'Worried Now, Won't Be Worried Long: Alan Lomax's "Southern Journey," 1959–1960'11. Electrelane: 'The Power Out'12. Woo: 'Into The Heart Of Love'13. St. Germain: 'Tourist'All Songs Considered 25th anniversary segment: Our No. 1 songs from 2011Weekly reset: Bells ringing at Duomo di Firenze, Florence, ItalyEnjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] Hear new songs from past episodes in the All Songs Considered playlists in Apple Music and Spotify.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

Hello. Oh, Hazel. Oh, Hazel, I watched, well, I tried to watch Long Legs last night, and I fell asleep. Don't watch it, Robin. It's not good. I'm going to do this entire episode in the voice of Long Legs. He'sle. That's the voice? That's awful.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it is like Tiny Tim. He's giving like Tiny Tim. No. Yeah, that's the five. Tipto, through the two lips. What album do you want to play next, Hazel? This is actually so scary. All right.

Is that the intro to the show? I know. When does the intro happen? Are we doing it? Right in three, two, one. It's all songs considered. Hazel Seals, Lars Guttrich here. And this is an episode that I have wanted to do for a very long time.

Why have you always wanted to do this show? Okay, well, I think Sunday mornings, right? There's no other time of the day that I think of music more than, than in the morning, and there's no morning I think of, and music more than Sunday mornings. Why on Sunday mornings? Why not Saturday mornings? Don't judge me, Lars. What's wrong with Saturdays, Robin? Are we doing the show about Sunday mornings, or are we not doing the show about...

It's a different, I understand it. It is a different vibe. Because I was thinking about this before the episode. Why do I think of certain music as being Sunday morning music versus like Saturday morning And I just think that, you know, for me, Sundays, there's sort of an element of unwinding to that day. I feel like maybe I'm getting over the chaos of my Saturday night or I'm sort of preparing myself for the Sunday Scaries that'll come later that day or I don't know. Basically, I feel like it is, I associate Sundays more so than Saturdays with reset or it's a day for me to prepare for the week ahead. and I think that thinking about it that way really influences the kind of music

that I'm listening to on a Sunday morning. Well, this is interesting because we're going to get into, I think we all brought stuff to play, and I think we've got some categories, some of our own categories. And what we're listening to right now is, this is Miles Davis' kind of Blue Album, which is I would call one of my safeties.

It's a Sunday standard. It's a Sunday standard. Yeah, it is. And, you know, I have a whole list of sort of no-brainers that I would play on Sunday. But Hazel, why don't you just pick something to start us off here and we'll take it from there? Yeah, well, I want to play what I kind of feel like

as a Sunday standard to me, and I feel like Lars might appreciate this pick, which is Astro Joberto's album, The Astrogeberto album. Yes. For me, it is an album that was constantly playing in my house growing up on Sunday morning,

so I have this kind of nostalgic association with it, but I've kind of carried it into my adult life as being just an album that I'm constantly reaching for when I wake up in the morning and I want to set the tone for my day. When I gave so much love to this love, it was the world to me. I cry at the thought I was foolish and proud and let you say goodbye. One day, it's sadness you came again, that no matter would ever be false, I'll never let you go. I will hold you close. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to go wrong with this.

Let me ask you, Hazel, since you brought up hearing this when you were growing up, did you grow up in a house where your parents were playing music in the morning, and that imprinted on you? A hundred percent, yeah. I grew up in a very musical. household. My family didn't play instruments, you know, but there was always music playing in my house, and I feel like I've carried that over into my life now, where when I wake up in the morning or I'm at home, I do not like my house to be silent. I always want music playing in my

house, and there was always a sense of, you know, we're waking up, my parents are making breakfast for us and we're all sort of not just hanging out but having this communal experience listening to music. And so yeah, I hear this album and I think of like my dad making pancakes for me. Oh, that's good. It's very, I know, it sounds very like rockwell-esque. But yeah, I just think, yeah. And then we went for a drive in the country. Literally not my upbringing. My parents just really like music, but yeah. Lars knows why I'm asking this, because he and I were talking, leading up to the show taping about how I, in my house, nobody wants me to play music at all.

And maybe they just, they, no, they hate it. They want silence in the morning. I'm not allowed to play anything in the morning. So all my listening I do before they're up or I listen, I'm on headphones. In order to wake up my child, she has a playlist of songs that she likes. So, for instance, this morning I had to wake her up with the, do you remember this mashup? Somebody did a peanut butter jelly time in turnstile a few years ago? No, I don't.

It's incredible. And Elisa, she was refusing to get out of bed, and I played that, and she was twitching her little feet. The second here, see if I can find this. Is this it? Well, so what are you playing in the house then in the morning for your family? They're cool with you playing music in the morning? Yeah, generally. Sunday morning.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I think for a long time, kind of like, I think we're starting with our standards. So here's one of my standards. The reggae group, The Congos. They released an album in 1977 called Heart of the Congos. It's generally considered a reggae masterpiece. It was produced by Lee Scratch Perry, has a lot of great musicians on it, and it sounds like waking up.

Oh. Yes. Wait a minute, that's not the song you wanted to play. But I did want to play that because it sounds like a yawn. That does sound like yon. So that's Ark of the Covenant. But let's see, the cut you want to play is Fisherman. Fisherman.

All right. I'm down with this vibe. This is a good Sunday morning vibe. I kind of realized as I was kind of putting together stuff for the show that I actually listened to a lot of reggae on Sunday mornings. Yeah. I think that's just kind of like where I go. It's helping me ease into the morning a bit.

It's a little bleary. but it's bright at the same time. And especially, like, Lee Scratch Perry, he just knows how to pull a texture out of nowhere and turn it into something cosmic but grounded at the same time. I think that's maybe where I want to be on a Sunday morning. Yeah. So if we're doing categories, this is your safety?

Yeah, this is my standard. This is the one I think this record was next to my turntable for a year. And it was just kind of like, this is the thing that I put on when I don't. know what I want to put on. Well, my son recently asked me why I get up so early. And he said, you know, nobody else is even up. Why would you get up so early when nobody's even up? And I said, you literally just answered your own question. That's the point.

Exactly why I'm getting up when I do, because I love that alone time, you know. And there are lots of things that I love about Sunday mornings. And I do love it. And I cook for the family. And I love all that time too, but there are few things that I prize as much as time alone just because I get so little of it. So this category, I'm going to call this category Alone at Last, and this is the sound of that for me. So I'm usually up by five most days, even on the weekends. It's just my favorite time of the day of the week. And this band, this is Modraduce. Do you all know Modreduce?

No. No. So Modreduce, this is a band from Portugal. This album is called O Esperito de Paz. And this song is Trace I Luzoi. This is a band that I discovered on NPR 30 years ago. Oh, wow. 30 years ago, just as a listener, listening to NPR,

All Things Considered, did a profile of the band. And it was just so enchanting to me. You know, sometimes their music can get a little moodyer, kind of drift into some minor keys, which is okay with me. In fact, I remember in the profile, I think it was in the introduction. They said, they have haunting melodies.

And I've never thought of them as haunting. It's mostly this. I have definitely found that when I was putting together stuff for the show, I was like, I guess I like voices on Sunday. I want somebody else to speak for me on a Sunday morning. Hand of God thought you were going to say, I guess I just don't like very good music. I guess I just, I'm just not.

there. I guess my taste is bad. I guess my taste is bad. No. That's what my kids and wife are thinking. I guess dad's despite his job. Robin, we need to, can we just like go back to the idea of your family meeting silence?

I'm deeply, I'm really deeply disturbed by this reality for you. So I didn't even have, I didn't even own a stereo until last year. I bought, I finally bought a turntable and a little console. to put it on and got a nice set of speakers. And I got out all my old vinyl. And I think maybe the kids will, you know, they'll discover this. No. Not having it.

In fact, I have put, like at dinner time, I've gone and put a record on. And I'm like, can we just have a quiet, please? Can we just? Wait, so even like instrumental music where it's not like there's someone singing or it's something like this. It's very beautiful. Yeah. No.

No. It's a hard pass. I can't think of anything that they ever will let me play. So I only listen to stuff on speakers when everyone leaves. But alone at last, that's why my category is alone at last. I can put on a little music. This singer is Teresa Salgaro. She was just 17 years old when she started singing for this band.

You know, I think it works for me. This music is not sad or super happy. It's sort of just the sound of being at peace with everything to me. Okay, real quick, if you enjoy the show, as always, leave us a review on Apple or Spotify telling us how awesome it is or wherever you listen to podcasts. Share this episode, tell a friend, and keep listening a little bit later. We will continue our look back at our number one songs from across the years. All Songs Considered is 25 years old this year, and we are looking at a different year in each episode,

Stephen Thompson and I, and we are going to do the year 2011. We're up to 2011 later on this episode, and we will also have your weekly reset. And if you hate the show, keep it to yourself. We don't need to hear. We get enough of that already. Hazel, we've come back around to you. Yeah, well, I mean, it's interesting that Lars, you mentioned, you want vocals on Sunday mornings.

I feel like when I was picking music for this episode, I realized that I kind of like both, just instrumental music and vocalists. And the next album that I want to play is an album that I think, for me, really helps me wake up. Like it really kind of embodies for me the feeling of my brain turning on, which is Lori Spiegel's album, The Expanding Universe.

Yeah. Bleep, bleep, bleep. But don't you just like hear, I just feel like the way that this song builds and, I mean, literally the album is called The Expanding Universe. Like, you know, Lori Spiegel, this really incredible electronic composer. This album actually came out in 1980

and then it was reissued in 2012, which is when I found it. And I just think the way that her algorithmic music just builds into this big, beautiful composition. It just, every time I put this album on, I feel like I'm expanding. Like, I am, my brain is opening up, I am waking up, I'm ready to take on the day.

There's just something about her music that just really kind of gets me going. I love it. You said, didn't you say it was the sound of your brain turning on? Yes, like I am the computer. I am the computer turning on. This sounds like, specifically Hazel's brain turning on to me. That's what this sounds like, and it's kind of whirring to life. So are you not a morning person? Do you need a lot of runway?

Oh, it's so funny that you say that because I am very much a morning person, but I consider myself not a morning person by choice. I wake up, like, at six, at seven. It's not as early as five. But, like, my whole life, very early riser, but I don't want to. I want to get more sleep. I would like to sleep in more.

I had you pegged as a night out. I just thought, you go to shows and, you know. Well, okay, but I think part of the, me being a morning, me being an early riser not wanting to be, is that I am also up late. So I'm like, not getting, I'm like up late, doing things at night, and then I go to bed and I, like, still wake up early. Yeah.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not getting enough sleep. So Laurie Spiegel, the Expanding Universe, this song is called Patchwork. Yeah, this is a great pick. I have this record at home. I'm going to have to try it in a morning. I think this has always been a nighttime record for me. Really? Yeah.

It's so interesting. I think we're going to have a lot of those. Like, you've definitely got some pixels that I think, no, man, that's sad. Saturday. What are you doing? You're totally off. Well, maybe I know what you're, what you think my Saturday pick is. So I'll play that. All right. Let's see. Bad operation? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to go on the record and say that I don't like SCA. I've not liked SCA for my entire life. I had a SCA phase that it lasted from 1997 and 1998. And that was about it. You know, high school youth group, five iron frenzy. He's the only SCA band that I've ever loved. Never inhaled. It's okay, Lars. We believe you. But in recent years, I've kind of come around to the idea of Skah is great for people who love it.

I've reassessed my relationship with Sky. I still don't like to listen to it. But in 2020, there was this record by a New Orleans band called Bad Operation that just caught me off guard. Their sound kind of harkens back to more like the specials. So like late 70s, early 80s, instead of like the 90s pop punk version of ska that I have a hard time with. It's soulful. There's some great organ going on. This wakes me up.

And I love all the songs. I purely chose this one because it has a breakfast food in the title, Bagel Brooks. Yeah, I literally think my kids would throw their plate of food at you if you put this on in the morning. Uh-huh. They could not get you to turn this off fast. I mean, it's not bad. But yeah, to me, this is like, not only Saturday, but this is like early Saturday evening. Like, I'm just starting to go out.

I absolutely hear you. Like, I can understand why this is maybe like a going out music, and I have used it as going out music. The thing I like about this is that the vocalist, Dominic Minnick's sounds like he's sleepy. It's soulful, but it's sleepy. It sounds like he's trying to wake up. He's trying to, you know, he's trying to rouse his soul a little. bit, and he's got this great band behind him that's, it's very lean. There's only one horn in it, which I think maybe makes it more acceptable to me.

Too many horns. Too many horns. Too many horns. If you got, if it's one, I'm in. But also that organ sound on the keyboard, I think is crucial, because that's the key element that makes me think of, okay, I'm going to church. You know, it's like, I got the little where I got the Leslie speakers maybe in there. It's like pounding my horn. heart a little faster so I can get ready for whatever I need to do that Sunday. So this is why it is a Sunday morning album to me. So what's the category? This is called, I just call it pick it up, pick it up. Pick it up, pick it up. Yeah, it's rousing. Yeah, this would be too much for me on a Sunday morning, but like I get it. Well, this is maybe similar to a category I have, which is just,

it's going to be a great day. And life is beautiful. So many things I could pick for this category. I'm going to go with this, though. This is Django Reinhard's album, 1937, and the song is exactly like Ui did it with Stefan Grapelli. I feel like all I'm doing is ragging on my family, but my wife hates this so much. I feel like her in a therapy session right now. I really didn't expect that. Maybe you need the intervention.

Yeah, maybe I'm the one. She puts this under this catch-old category. She calls old-timey, which is basically, she says, But for her, that's like anything before 1970 or so. You know, like, what is it with you and your whimsy? I think part of it is that there is just this air of nostalgia and remembrance and wistfulness kind of inherent to a Sunday morning, especially if you like a, you know, a chill, quiet, solitary Sunday morning. And I think it just makes sense that a lot of the stuff I gravitate towards would be something from a different time.

Also, I think there's, particularly with this, there's a kind of innocence in this music that's very sweet to me, that it's very much the sound of a pre-social media streaming everything is awful era, you know, that we're kind of in. Yeah, end times. End times, yeah, in times. Pre-end times. They just didn't have the internet. Do you think of Django Reinhart, would he be so online? Yes, of course. We could ask Chet GPT here.

No. Would Django Reinhard be so online? No. No. Anyway. Should we talk some safeties? Do you all, do you have other ones if we did a little, just a quick rundown here since I mentioned some others? Like Billy Holiday, the complete deck of recordings, totally would reach for that.

Dave Brubex, take five. I mean, that's like, that's solid gold. Chet Baker, I think the best of Chet Baker sings, hard to beat that. Nina Simone, Santhal. Buena Vista Social Club? I got a couple that I think I could, so the self-titled album by Jack Rose, the Fingerstile guitarist, and then this is kind of a hot tip.

So Freddie Gibbs and Madlib put out a great record called Pignata that I would play on a Sunday morning, but if you need to be family-friendly, there is a deluxe version of that album that has the instrumentals, and Madlib instrumentals are just perfect. If you need like a little groove for your Sunday morning, that's a great way to go. Yeah, I definitely, I mean, I feel like mine are a little bit more recent. I mean, I feel like broadcast is always a big safety for me.

The noise made by people. Stereo Lab is always big for me. Dots and loops. I feel like it's definitely more rousing than a lot of the stuff I'm playing on this episode, but it's an album that I reach for a lot. The harpist Mary Latimore, who I feel like I've played many times on All Songs Considered, Basically her whole discography, I feel like, is often a relaxing Sunday morning pick for me. But yeah.

Well, what's something else we can play? Yeah. So I'll play something that I guess is kind of inspired by your alone time, Robin, your love for alone time, which is an album by an artist I really love named Terza. And it's her album, Devotion. when it's wrong what's keeping me from holding on I'd be thinking of you

even when you're gone but what's keeping me from holding on stupid I know myself I'm hoping to change for you So this isn't where I thought you were going

when you started talking about alone time because there's something very you know that opening synth stab It's kind of startling I feel like I kind of get it, but it's, to me, this is more like, um, you're heading to, you're at brunch or something with friends or it's more of a, more communal. Yeah, no, it's interesting because I, I was thinking

about, you know, albums that I put on Sunday morning and devotion is definitely one of them. And I feel like it's because it's such a beautiful, small, very intimate pop record. You know, Terza has this kind of light, airy, vocal and so much the album is, you know, it's a little, you know, it feels like I'm like in a closet with her and she's recording the album and I'm with her. And I don't know, this song in particular holding on, it's kind of a sad song. You know, it's about why am I still holding on to someone that might not be in love with me or be interested in me? But there's kind of like this hope to it. There's this optimism to the music of the song, like propulsive, you know, drumbees.

and like the synths in it. And I think there's something about the way that she sings the song and the way that she sings about, you know, love and introspection on this album where I feel like it has this reset energy that I'm looking for in a lot of Sunday morning music, this kind of like sense of, well, maybe I don't know what's going to happen today, but I will get through it. Do you get the Sunday blues or?

I get Sunday scaries. Because I hate my job. Wow. Breaking. I'm kidding. Well, I thought maybe that's just like, I always call it the Sunday blues back in the day, but it seems like people call it the Sunday Scaries now. I think it's changed.

I think what I feel on a Sunday, I feel like it's usually Sunday night where it's really not related to anything specific in the week. It's more just like, oh, my weekend is ending and like. You're thinking of the week to. The week, like, there's stuff that I have to do and, you know, and it's more like a sense of janees. So I don't know if it's blues, because I think blues, I'm like, I'm not sad. Well, I think the idea of the Sunday blues comes about because Sundays tend to be very still and quiet. Stores are closed. People are home. It's very solitary for a lot of people.

And so I think it just kind of bums some people out. My next category is actually, I hope it rains and everything's canceled. And it's a song by Margo Gureen called Sunday Morning, actually, from her album Take a Picture. And I think this song speaks a little bit to Sunday blues, but maybe kind of in a good way, because it's all about that stillness on a Sunday. Lots of time with night. Nothing to do. Lots of time to spend with you. You know, she sings about the quiet streets. I mean, is that a feature or a bug? To me, it's a feature. I feel like this song sounds so sunny to me. And your category is, I hope it rains and everything gets canceled.

Well, that's because it's a good time for me. Okay. You know, it does feel good to me. You know, I'm... So when it rains in real life and things get canceled, you're sunny. Woo-hoo! On the inside. Yay, I don't have to interact with the world. Got it, got, got, got, got, got.

It's kind of the same thing as, like, I mean, never getting time alone. I feel like every moment of my life is booked. You know, so when Sunday comes, I really just want to clear the boards. You know, if something's scheduled, I hope it's canceled, and if we need a downpour for that to happen, then that's fine. But, you know. The universe was smiling on you that day. Sunday morning, you think the best of it,

of all the mornings in a week, the best morning of the week. Yeah? I feel like it's the only day where a morning feels significant. I don't know. Oh, yeah. Saturday mornings,

I'm usually, that's like my recoup day. Like, basically, it's kind of like I'm kind of exhausted from the week. I usually need the whole morning, maybe even more of the afternoon, before I do anything of significance.

Yeah, I guess on Sundays, is maybe it's a little more, there's a little bit more room. I thought for sure you'd both argue for Saturday. Yeah, I'm a big Sunday morning. I just don't know if I'm thinking about my Saturday. I don't know. Yeah. How about worst morning?

I don't think it's Monday. I don't think it's Monday. It might be Wednesday. Why Wednesday? I don't know. That's just what came to mind. You just thought, I don't like Wednesdays. Wednesdays are out.

Well, I feel like it's Tuesday morning. It is Tuesday. I think that, yeah. I feel like Monday morning, Everyone is a little slow and, like, is also gearing up for the week. And then Tuesday morning, everyone is, like, fully in. We are in week. We are in the main week mode.

And then Wednesday morning, you can be like, well, we're, like, halfway down the, basically halfway down the week. Thursday morning, you're even closer to the weekend. Friday morning. Amazing. It's Friday. So I feel like Tuesday morning is, like, the real beginning morning of the week. It only Tuesdays. Yeah, right?

Exactly. It only Tuesday is the meme that explains what I'm talking about. So in that onion, that's that onion story. Yes. That headline. There's a great moment in the story where they say something like a slack-jawed nation realized in horror that they were actually closer to the previous weekend than they are to the next weekend. Yes. But I agree.

Yeah. It's Tuesday. Tuesday, because Monday you're also, if you're not old groggy and kind of easing into things, maybe you're trying. Like, all right, we're going to do this. going to be fine. We got this week. And then Tuesday it's like, oh, God, no, this is really happening. Yeah, you're in it. You're in it. There's no, no pretending anymore. Well, Lars, I know you're a foodie. We've talked about it on the show before. And I, and one of the reasons why I asked you to come on this show, I think I even said to you, I bet you're a Sunday morning music expert. And you said, yeah, I think I probably am. Yeah, yeah. Because I know that you're like cooking in the morning for your

family. You've all the different, yeah. Yeah. So my next, my next category is called minding my grits, which works both ways. So there's mining my grits, which is the saying where I'm not paying attention to the world. I'm just, I'm in my own. Right. And then there's actually minding a pot of grits, which is something that I enjoyed to do.

If you've never made grits, five parts water, one cup grits, let it sit overnight, cover it with a towel or something, and then in the morning put it all on a pot, bring it to a boil, and then let it simmer until it's nice and goopy the way that you like it,

add butter, cheese, salt and pepper here, and there I'm adding cheese later in the processed chunks. And I'm listening. Are we talking music at some point? No, we're not. No, on Sunday mornings, I love to make food for my family, and I love to listen to music. And so I'm going to bring y'all heathens to church, and I'm going to play a little bit of gospel music.

This is Ishmaun-Williams and the Williams singers. The song is The Old Ship of Zion. This comes from Alan Lomax's Southern Journey, 1915, 1960. The name of this particular compilation is called Worried Now, Won't Be Worried Long, which I love. I think I chose this album specifically for that title. Yeah. Because it's like, hey, I've been worried all week long. I won't be worried long.

I highly recommend any of these compilations that came out. Alan Lomax was a folklorist and an archivist. He went around the United States and Great Britain. and all over the world to record the folk songs of just the people hanging out in churches and in backyards and front stoops and everything else. And what I like especially about these recordings is that they take me to the past, but they feel incredibly present. And so when I'm in kind of like a reflective mode as I usually am, especially because

I'm minding my grits, I like to be in that space. I'm preparing my soul for the week. And I'm also preparing my soul because I'm trying to get my kid to get ready for church. You have fun Sunday mornings. I think so. Is what I'm getting from your music choices. I'm trying. You don't want to hang out at my house on Sunday morning?

In your silent Quaker home. No one to make any noise? Yeah, everybody, everybody just sits until somebody has something to say. That's the Quaker way. Who is this person and why is she in a lot of? our house. Hazel, I've mentioned Hazel. No, you haven't.

Well, this sounds really incredible, actually. This is, so this, I mean, he was making a lot of these recordings on a reel-to-reel machine that he was toting around with America. Yeah, literally. And this was made in, like, between 59 and 60? 59 and 60. Sounds incredible.

Yeah, like I said, all five compilations are incredible. There's a book about the Southern Journey recordings that he made, but I highly recommend. I can't speak enough praises about this series. All right, I think we all have one more that we want to play. And Hazel, we're back to you. So I feel like for the most part on Sunday mornings, I do not want intense music.

I don't want loud rock music. I don't want something that is like too energetic. I want to wake up. I want something that's going to rouse me slowly. but I do think that sometimes I want to reach for something that is a little bit more energetic, but it's not like I'm playing like house music really loud in the morning and my own. So an album that I often play on Sunday mornings is I feel like a really incredible contained rock album, which is The Power Out by the band Electrolene. Ah, great record. And I want to play the song Gone Undersea.

I couldn't help but notice with your picks that a lot of the songs that you chose, are side one, track ones. And so I was curious how crucial that first song is to your Sunday morning. I feel like... I just told the further she gets. It's the, her attention span just can't allow her to get past it. No. It's like one and done.

I feel like it is pretty crucial to me. I don't know. I think it is crucial because it's like I think I'm often reaching for albums that build in a certain way. Like this is a really good example of a song that those first notes, it's like, you know, I keep talking about these songs like they're waking up. But I honestly think that's the music that I'm reaching for on a Sunday is like music that mirrors what's happening to me in my brain and my body, which is like getting ready for the

day and sort of opening myself up to the day. But obviously it's like the whole album has to matter as well. Like I'm listening to the whole thing. But if you haven't put together a play list. You don't want to mess with having to switch an album around it. You put it on. You need to be able to live with the full album. Here's my hot take.

You know how we were saying jazz is good safety, right? You can always rely on that for Sunday morning. I think anything in French. Anything in French? Anything in French? Portuguese, Spanish, maybe some Italian. No, I mean, I feel like music in those languages, like, there's a very, very wide. I could be waking up playing bad bunny.

Okay, fine. Rosalia? Motomami in the morning? Okay. I can't do Mottomami and I'm not Motomay in the morning. Yeah, that's way too early for Rosalia. Yeah. I'm playing daft punk and well they're saying in French. You know, I think I've actually used that punk for a morning just to kind of like,

I need to wake up. Well, this one, I think, it straddles the worlds of pop and jazz nicely. Yeah. There's like a restlessness to it. There's like a jazzy sensibility to it for sure. Okay, Lars, I know you've got one more. We're going to go into the heart of love. There's a duo from the UK called Wu.

Wu or Lou? Woo! Woo! Okay. W-O-O-O. Oh, like Wu. Like I'm woo. To woo somebody.

To woo somebody. Yeah. Okay. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. They've been around since the 80s. They're still going. But they put out a record, put out a tape in 1988 called Into the Heart of Love.

And I am grouping this one under. Everything's still wobbly, but it's bright. Take me home, my friend. Take me home, my friend. Take me to a place you love. You're telling me this wouldn't be a thousand times better in French. You don't hear it? Or Portuguese.

Yeah, I can't hear it a little breathy French, especially from the female vocal. It was very sweet, though. I love those harmonies. I mean, they have these little cute little songs, but most of their music is instrumental, and it kind of crosses boundaries between New Age and jazz and ambient music. But every now and again, they'll have these little moments like Make Me Tea.

I am a tea drinker. I don't do caffeine very well, so coffee's way too much. And if I love you, if you are a friend of mine, I'm going to make you a cup of tea. Yeah, making tea for someone or having someone make tea for you is a very intimate act to me. I don't know if that's because I am a coffee drinker. And so I associate making tea or having tea with like an end of the night thing. Or it's kind of like there's like a medicinal property to it or it's, you know, someone's sick and I'm making them tea.

There's a lot tied up for me. I feel like emotionally in someone making me tea or making tea for someone. I tried to be a tea drinker once. It didn't go well. It was just hot brown water. No, I mean, there was. teaism or what's that DC shop? Yeah, teism. Yeah, great, great

shop. Yeah, I would go and I'd pick out that. I loved all the stuff because I think that's one thing, what you're saying. It's a ritual. It is a little more of a ritual than making a cup of coffee unless maybe you're doing a French press or a pour over or something like that. I'll just have to make you a non-leaf tea. I'll make you a floral

tea instead of Robbins. Quite lovely, but that would require going to your house, right? Yes, yeah, it's not happening. Where there's music playing. Where there's music and I'm making pancakes or grids. Oh, so awful. Oh, so terrible. Do you guys remember this scene from the movie Old School? You're mistaken me. That's my friend Mitch. He owns a house. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yo, Matt, come hit this right here. You need to hit this. Oh, yeah. Yeah, hit that. No, I appreciate it, but I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight.

Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. But you guys have a great time. It's a big day. I'm doing what? well, actually pretty nice little Saturday. We're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring. Stuff like that. Maybe bed bath and beyond. I don't know.

I don't know if we'll have enough time. This movie, it's more than 20 years old now, and my wife and I still quote it literally every weekend, specifically the line, I don't know. I don't know if we're going to have enough time. I mean, you know, or the other one we use all the time is, You've got a pretty sweet weekend, actually. So I'm going to call this category.

Might hit the Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond. I don't know if we're going to have enough time. This is the song So Flute from the album Tourist. It came out in the year 2000, not long before the movie Old School. Are you too old enough that you would have been going to brunch parties or things like that in 2000, 2001? Hazel probably. No, I am anti-brunch as a New Yorker. What?

Yeah, I feel you. What? I'm all on. I make breakfast, not brunch. Lars and I are on exactly the same page. No, brunch in New York is like its own hellscape. It is a level of Dante's Inferno. Maybe it's a D.C. thing.

Maybe in D.C. it's more chill. No, it's not. No, come on. Oh, no, I live for brunch. For brunch? For brunch? 100%. Like going out for brunch or making it?

I would prefer to go out and I would prefer it to be an all-you-can-eat buffet. Wow. Oh, okay. Okay, all right. That's a move, Wilton. I am shocked. I'm all this speechless. I'm actually shocked that you love brunch.

Like everything about you, because I just think of it as like, brunch is like breakfast but nightclub to me. Like the energy is like. Okay, well, so here you go. Well, if you had gone to brunch or any restaurant that was serving brunch or gotten together with friends for a brunch

in the year 2000, 2001, you would have heard this album too. tourist from St. Germain. It was everywhere. And in fact, or dinner parties. It was very frequently, it would turn up a friend, like you'd go over to a friend's house, this would be on, because it was so safe to play. Yes. It's very safe for all of those environments. I almost didn't play it because I thought, you know, it was, it was so overplayed at the time that it became a cliche. I think this is going to be cool again. Yeah, I mean, no way. You're bringing it back. I'm going to bring it back. Twenty, twenty, five years. It's a long time.

So I thought maybe it's fair. We can hit reset. There are growing adults on the planet now who weren't alive when this came out. But, yeah, tourist, St. Germain. Have you heard of St. Yeah, yeah, no, St. Germain. It was a, I was just about to go to college when this record it came out. So it got played on my college radio station.

So might hit the Home Depot, Bed Bath, and Beyond. Don't, I don't know if there's going to be enough time. I don't know. This is so many, the world is our oyster, so many riches to discover on these errands. I don't know about you all, but I had a playlist a mile long with all the stuff that we could have played on the show. For Sunday mornings, I actually had an easier time with this than coming up with songs to calm the nerves or just about any other theme show that we've done. I imagine you all have a bunch of others too. So we'll put together an expanded

playlist, Sunday morning playlist, full versions of everything that we've featured here and then a bunch of other stuff. If people search for NPR music in Apple or Spotify, they will find it. But we'll go out on this. Hazel Seals, Lars Gottrich, thanks so much as always. Thank you. Bye. Bye, Hazel. All right, and keep listening here. Stephen Thompson and I will have our look at our number one songs from 2011. That's coming right up, along with your weekly reset. All right, as I mentioned, we're celebrating our 25th anniversary this year by looking back at the number one songs from each year of the show. Stephen, welcome back to the nostalgia train.

Choo-choo! Oh, God. Chew-choo, Robin! We're up to 2011, and we're looking back at the songs that stand out most to us from those years, both personally and for all songs considered. And what do you think of when you think of 2011? I'm going to give you 10 seconds of one song. Okay.

And then I'm going to play a different song. Okay. Is my 10 seconds up? Yeah, I think it is. What's the damn song? I have no idea. That is, we found love by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris. The song, I think arguably the song, there certainly have been others along the way,

Kelly Clarks and had some songs, but a song that woke my ass up to pop music. You know, one advantage you have in that whole world over me is you listen to the radio, like FM radio in the car driving around, and I never ever have the radio on. And so I miss so much of it. And I'm only starting to tune into more of it now as my kids get older and they're trafficking it into the house, you know. But this was one that I had totally missed. Oh, my gosh, Robin. It is such a banger.

But it sounds to me like you were going to try to cheat and do two songs. I'm always trying to cheat and do two songs. Okay. Well, what's the second? Since I totally whiffed that one, what's the... This one you're likelyer to get because I think it more speaks the language of a lot of the music that we have played and celebrated on all songs considered over the years. Is this I've gone silver in my travels Growing silver in my sideburns

Is this Yen's Lechman? I give King Creeasote and John Hopkins Of course. They've put out this record. I know how much you love this album. Oh my gosh. This record, it's called

Most Appropriately named album Diamond Mine. Yeah. Because it is just a feast of shimmering beauty. Yeah. And John Hopkins, the electronic musician, he's been making gorgeous ambient music and kind of EDM. and he's been working in that space

for years and years and doing tons of beautiful stuff. King Creosote is a Scottish singer-songwriter, very prolific Scottish singer-songwriter, and they made this one perfect record together in 2011. It was my favorite album of the year. It was Bob Boylan's favorite album of the year. It was one of Tom Hisinga's favorite albums of the year.

It was one of his heart's favorite albums of the year. This record reached across the NPR music team where we couldn't agree on anything except for the sheer perfection of this perfect jewel of a record. It is so, so beautiful. And just sitting here, listening to it while you're going, blah, oh, God, what is it? Oh, no, I don't know what to do. I'm just sitting here, like, feeling my blood pressure, lowering and lowering and lowering, because this perfect voice is taking me back. I had an obstacle to falling in love with this

as much as everyone else did at the day. It was totally. It's like, it's a hard pass. But No, I totally remember how much you loved it, and everyone else loved it too. But I had really fallen for John Hopkins solo music, and it was his electronic stuff. And, like, he had this album called Insides that had come out. Oh, such a good record. Which is incredible, but it's so abrasive compared to this. When I saw John Hopkins' name and next to an album title, that's what I was hoping to hear, and then I heard this completely different thing.

But they're so perfect together. They really are. It is such a beautiful combination of sensibilities. But 2011, honestly, was just a great year for music. There was great pop music. There was great folk music. I mean, the Decemberists put out what I think is the best Decemberists song, June Him. Y. Oak put out civilian that year, which is just an absolute powerhouse of a record.

One of your favorite songs of all-time helplessness blues by the Fleet Foxes. I thought about picking that. Yeah, I almost picked that. You didn't, speaking of big pop songs, you didn't mention Adele. Oh, my gosh. And someone like you came out that year. But here's what I'm going to pick as my number one song for 2011. And unlike the things that you've played for me, you will 100% get this almost immediately.

All right. Oh, my gosh. Was this 20, I always think of this song as 2012. This is somebody that I used to know featuring Kimbra by Gautier. We've talked so happy you could die, that you were right, that would love her to make us still. We've talked about this with some of the other bands and artists who have left huge imprints on us over the years

and then haven't done much. Goethe, still one of the most insanely infectious songs of all time came out in 2011 on the album Making Mears. He's put out nothing since then. Yeah, he's really kind of disappeared back. into the woodwork and it's not like oh his records aren't connecting with people he's just kind of stepped back from music and there's there've been these hints that he might come back I was just writing about this song recently because this song is back on the on the pop charts

because dochi has the song anxiety that interpolates this song right and and like and that's turned out to be dochi's biggest hit so far and so all of a sudden people are hearing that and not only does it have the absolute ball of charisma that is Dochi attached to it, but it's triggering people's nostalgia for this song where people are hearing it and are like, man, you know what song I loved that one? Yeah. You know, because this song, if you were around in 2011 and especially 2012 when this song was all over radio playlists, you could not escape it.

It was one of the three songs that were on the radio. And when we talk about 2012, we'll talk about a couple of the other songs that were a part. of that mix, but it's a great song, man. It is absolute perfection. And we'll go out on this. Until next time, thank you, Stephen. Thank you, Robin. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton.

It's all songs considered.