NPR Music - Secret Santa Song Exchange

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

When it comes to music, December is overflowing with gifts, but we aren't quite done with the presents. This time, the NPR Music team is giving ... to each other! On this episode of All Songs Considered, our hosts, writers and editors get into a sort of chain-letter, Secret Santa-type gift exchange. The rules were simple: Pick a song from 2024 specifically for one of your colleagues, who then has to pick a song for someone else, and so on, until the gift train comes full circle. What songs did we pick? How well do we really know each other's taste? You'll have to listen to hear the surprise, just like we did.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

From and peer music, this is all songs considered. I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Okay, so it's kind of a known fact. I'm a bit of a schemer. And this year, I am kicking us off with the greatest scheme of all. We're all going to come in in succession and gift each other, the gift of music, to another person on the team. But the catch is the other person on the team doesn't know who they're getting a gift from.

They only know who they're giving a gift to. It's going to be a fun little surprise end of year activity. I like surprises, so I think it's going to be great. I hope everyone else likes surprises. I have decided to give my gift to Tom Heisinga. He's our amazing classical expert. No one saw coming, but I think he's going to love the song that I brought for him. Hi, Tom.

Did you hear the joke about the two reindeer that walked into a bar? I think I missed that one, Tom. Bartender says, hey, why the long faces? Okay, see, it bombed, kind of bombed twice in a row. So that means it's a good joke. All right. I think that's actually the metric of an ex-elage, a historic joke, Tom. I have a present for you.

Very exciting. You know, when they asked me to pick someone in the team, I was immediately, I was like, Tom. Oh, wow. Really? Oh, I'm so... Tom. Da, Tom. I'm so humbled.

Because Tom, you and I, I think we have a special connection, and I love gifting you music. So I'm going to play you, All Las Canciones by Amaya Miranda. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. She talks about kind of like, life is just de passo. Like, life is just passing by. And she's like, if you need to see the light, just look to.

directly in front of you or if you need to see the light, look at the people around you who have stayed. And I just, I was actually thinking about you because we were having a conversation in the office the other day and things are a little bit unhelpful maybe at the moment. She's really, like this whole album is a very hopeful record. It's called Mientrasas Villas Briya. So she's saying, well, you live, shine. And I don't know. It's something peaceful and beautiful. I think that's right though. I think that's the, when it comes right down to it, that's the most important thing for each one of us to do is to shine ourselves and show an example to others. And if we shine, then hopefully that will reflect well on others and they can shine too.

So that's beautiful. It's a really lovely song. This is my gift to you, Tom. And it's really wonderful. How did you get turned down to it? Maya is this tiny singer. out of Spain. She's really, really, really small falling. And I'm trying to remember, you know, I want to say, I think a friend of mine gifted her to me at some point. I was like, I'm really, like, I need something to just calm my spirit. I think I actually said this. I was like, do you have, do you know of any albums? I just need something to calm my spirit. I was about to get on a plane. I was just feeling really, she was like, have you heard this in Maya Miranda record? And I was like, I don't think I have. And I listened to it, that whole flight, just over and over.

over and over and I was like, oh, this is, this is the, and I go back to it all the time now, just when I really need something to, like, you know, soothe. Well, that's what music can do. And I know that this was on our list of best music of the year. Well, I gifted it to Felix unintentionally. And that's what I love about our lists, our songs and albums list, is that the breadth of the music is so incredibly wide, and there's always something to discover. And I knew about this album, but I hadn't dug into it very much.

And I hadn't heard this song. So it's a really great gift. And I'm very thankful. Beautiful. Yes. Hello, Nate Shannon. How are you? All right.

How are you? Happy holidays. Same to you, Tom. Santa is here a little early with a gift of, can you believe it? Music. Oh, just what I always wanted. I'm going to lay something on you. and you may know the music, but maybe you don't know it in this version.

And you can tell me if you want me to tell you something about it, or do you just want to, like, tear the gift wrapping paper off and be surprised? Let's hear it, and then let's talk about it. Just for you, Nate. Beautiful. This is the Maya Biser. Am I saying her name right? Maya Biser, that's right.

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

And, you know, the piece is Terry Riley's N.C. And it's 60 years old this year. And it's been performed by so many different groups, like from a Chinese orchestra to Japanese acid rock band to musicians from Mali. But I don't think there's a single version that I've ever heard that is as groove-laden as this Maya Biser. version where she just loops her cello again and again and bounces that low C-string of her cello off these two drummers and gets some amazing grooves. In that clip, the hint of Tabla is, you know, reminding me of Zakir Hussein, of course. Yes.

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

laid back groove because she, I don't know if you know this, but she started this project just as a private gift for Terry Riley, just her and her engineer kind of twiddling around in the studio late at night

and she thought well I'll just see if I can put this together for Terry Riley and she let him hear it and kind of got his blessing on it and then she thought well maybe I can do some more with it

and that's when she added the drummers and there you go she ends up releasing at least for me one of my favorite records of the year I love it. Thank you. All right. Well, it's good music to, it's hard to kind of, you know, needle drop like we just did on it. It's music that it's best just to let the whole hours-long piece just kind of wash over you.

Yeah, yeah. I wonder, you know, because this album has been so acclaimed, have there been performances? Like, has she done this in concert and what has the response been? She did it. I know there was an album release performance of it, I believe, at National Sawdust, I believe. And live with the loops and the drummers. And I think she has taken it on the road, too. So I would love to hear this live at some point. So happy holidays. Keep listening.

Thank you. You too. Hey, Sheldon. Happy holidays. I hope that this season is. bringing you some joy and maybe even some impending relaxation. I haven't gotten there yet, but hopefully we'll all be there soon. Yeah, one would hope there's a lot on the mind, but we'll see if it eventually sets in. Yeah.

Well, in that spirit, I come bearing gifts. I have a song that, yeah, for some reason, this jumped out to me as a nice, little, nice little gift for you. So why don't we have a listen and then we can talk about it. Sure. So have you heard this track before? I have not. Oh, cool. Well, this is by Zekees Paul, who is a, I think you can call him a jazz vocalist, originally from Atlanta, where he came up in the gospel church. And then he went to Puerto Rico to study music and I thought of you in part because he synthesizes so much.

It's from his debut album, which is called Jazz Money. And I feel like he's, you know, it's like what would you call this track? It's kind of like Stevie Wonderish R&B soul with a little bit of hip hop and like, you know, a jazz spirit, you know. That's just a little taste, but I wonder how it strikes you. you. Yeah, I loved it right off the bat. It's, uh, it's, it's, uh, it's, uh, it grabs you from, from the first, you start listening to it. Uh, definitely sort of like a fusionist energy there. Yeah. Um, almost, some of it almost feels a little bit, uh, gospelish to me as well. Um,

in terms of like this, this reverent undertone, um, to the performance. But yeah, there's definitely some like more upbeat like soulish energy stevie does feel like a good reference point um which i mean if if you can touch that nerve uh you've always you've already succeeded right off the bat well he calls in uh he calls in you know a couple of reinforcements so that the harmonica player there is gregor marais uh who's uh really accomplished french harmonica player so he's doing that Stevie thing. And then there's a trumpet player named Melena Casado, who originally hails from Spain.

And she's actually about to drop her debut album in the new year. So another reason I share this with you is because I think of you as the ultimate prospector. Like you are always like truffle hunting and finding like really cool stuff. And Zacchaeus is very much a discovery this year. He was on my essential jazz discoveries list. And Melena Casado is another, she's kind of the next discovery in waiting, you know. And also, the whole album has, you know, this spirit that keeps evolving in different forms. But this particular song I wanted to share because it's better days.

It is an expression of like, we are going to get through this. things are, the sun is about to rise and shine on us, you know? Yeah, yeah. You know, if I'm going to give you a gift around this time, at the end of this very fraught and crazy year, I just want to share a little light. And so that seemed like what, what this track might do. Yeah, I appreciate that. We're going to need all of that, all of that energy that we can, we can grab.

We're going to need it going forward. but it just feels I do love a new find. I'm a big liner notes digger. So the opportunity to discover not only one artist, but a few is always a gift. So I really appreciate it. So happy holidays.

Lars. Hey, Sheldon. Hey, man. Happy holidays. Happy holidays. Nice to see you. Yes. I am your Secret Santa, bringing you a beautiful musical gift that I hope you enjoy.

We're going to listen to a little bit of it, and then we can talk about it. I'm so excited. I think I know the main player, the vibraphonist, is in Joel Ross? It is indeed, Joel Ross. This is what am I waiting for from his 2020? album, New Blues. I immediately thought that this is for you because I know you as a man of taste are a fan of Emmanuel Wilkins, the saxophonist.

He has a great album out this year as well called Blues Blood. There's a song from that record that made our top 24, or our top 124 songs. of the year this year. I know you are a fan of that. And this record is very much in conversation with that one. Blues Blood is a record that is about like

exploring blues as a symbol of radical optimism in the face of adversity, which is something that we need a lot of radical optimism right now. I could use a little bit of that. Thank you, Sheldon. Yeah, but also.

Also, there's very clearly the same undertones in new blues, which is thinking about history and community, thinking about jazz as a means of connecting the past and the future and getting to the next stage. And Emmanuel Wilkins is actually one of the players on this record as well. It is, I think, very clearly about the conversation between jazz and blues and the music continuum and, like, gathering great young players to, like, connect with, you know, Coltrane and all that jazz means to them and to people, I guess. Well, first of all, I love that you picked this for me. I do like Joe Ross. This is a record I didn't really spend any time with. I think like I put it on... Kind of went under the radar a little bit. And went out of the radar. It was one of those records I meant to listen to out of, you know,

the hundreds and hundreds that we listen to for our job, you know. I love jazz vibes. I love jazz vibraphone. There's so much opportunity for space and spaciousness within that instrument. When you have such a stellar cast, when you have so many talented friends, that are so skilled and to let them sort of move through your compositions at their own pace, I also think it speaks to this larger idea about community, about the way music connects people.

And I hope it connects with you when you listen. Oh, thanks so much, Sheldon. Hi, Lars. How are you? I'm good. I'm your secret Santa. Oh, my God. You've been Santa this whole time. Like Santa for everyone? Wow, that's crazy. Yes, don't tell my daughter. Then she will think she has special access.

Big, big, big job to keep a secret. It is. So Hazel, we are constantly in each other's DMs sharing music. Usually you send me some beautiful, richly textured, ambient kind of music. And then I in turn will send you what I am choosing to call creepy, cool kids from the underworld. Bad tracks? Yeah, that's accurate. Yeah. So I figured maybe it's time to actually put it into the podcast format, all these secret DMs that we've been sharing for years. and I want to play a song by the band called The Sewerheads.

Okay, let's do it. Okay. It's really resonating with me. Wilting in the sunshine? Yeah. It's very, it sounds like a very vampiric, like it's a song for vampires. I think, I think so. I think that's right.

Yeah. The sewer heads, they have an album that came out at the very end of 2024, so not many people maybe have heard it yet. The album is called Despair is a Heaven, which, great, great title. Incredible title. Yeah, and the reason I picked this is, before I mentioned, creepy, cool kids from the underworld. This is giving all of that. But there's like a nice mix of, I love, they're a band for Pittsburgh. I've, never been to Pittsburgh, but my impression of Pittsburgh is that it's like this industrial blue-collar town with like a rough and rowdy kind of like folkloric tradition. I don't know if that

makes sense. I feel like that's all of Pennsylvania. That's probably true. But there's like, but there's just like this dark and desperate underpinning, uh, to all of these songs that I personally really resonated with. I love just, it sounds like a mix of, it's got a little early in a cave. It's got a little bit of like maybe the cramps. Yeah. It's got, it's like, it's giving a little bit of like, I don't know, just like when, like a bunch of goth kids who are like really into like early rock and roll.

So it's not quite rockabilly. Yeah. But it's got the nice violin happening. So maybe it's giving a little bit of violent thumbs. But then, yeah, the lyrics, Welting in the Sun. It's definitely like a song I would play with my friends around the campfire in between sharing the scariest stories we can think of. It's giving that vibe for me. Well, I knew that this was going to be the perfect album and song for you, Hazel,

whom I absolutely adore sharing music with you all year long. So I hope that we keep doing it forever and forever. Thank you so much, Santa. That was beautiful. No, same to you, Lars. Same to you. Hey, Rodney. How are you doing?

Hey, what's up, Hazel? What's going on? I have a surprise for you, which is that I am your secret Santa this year. Oh, wow. Okay, okay, okay. Chocking. What do I? I mean, it is actually.

I had no clue. And so I have a song that I want a gift to you that came out this year. And the song is Millionaria by Anitiju. I'm a millionaire. I'm millionaria. My love of effect, a fortunate, I'm not a piece of a family.

I'm a brazo, I'm a millionaire. I have my pi no, my house, my cat, Trey, Tepyzada, one's a miro, that's a miyo, million, million, million, million, million, million, million,

million, million, million, million, million, million, million, million, meo, we know, we don't,

we have palaces, uh, no, we have many, so, of a lot of the of the brauses, Nice,

Nice, nice, Nice, nice. Nice. So Annetou is a French Chalayanrains Chalayan rapper who I got turned onto by the all-latino team. the all-latino team. And her music often interrogates, like, ideas of social justice.

And in this song, she's basically rapping about how she's a millionaire, but not in money, in, like, love and friendship and community. And she's basically, like, you know, these bonds are worth more than diamonds. And I chose it for you because I was thinking about, you know, hip-hop. that came out this year and another rap song that came out this year that I know that you loved, which was Cause, Bread, Wine, Body, and Blood. Which is a totally, you know, different song than this, obviously. But that was kind of him serving hip-hop's messaging and sort of reminding people in the community

or sort of rapping about how they're in this life together and sort of reminding them that they're in this like collective struggle together. And I was just thinking about like this song and Kaas song. And I felt like they shared something and being at least to me a little bit meta. Like there's something kind of meta about Anna's song. Yeah. It's like a rap song about like flexing one's riches. But they're not material goods.

She's kind of like taking that hip hop flex and turning it into something personal. That's dope. And I love the beat too. So that's. the first thing that kind of got me going. But I appreciate this is such a dope gift. Now, I got to check the whole album out. Was this part of an album she dropped this? Yeah, she put out an album this year called Vita. But this song was on our best songs of the year list. Nice. Yeah. Nice. You wrote it? You wrote it up? I didn't write it up. I think Isabella Gomez

Sarmiento wrote it up. But I know that All-Latino really rode hard for this album. Yeah, there's just something very pure and kind of simple and sweet about this song. Well, I'm going to, I'm going to definitely, I'm going to definitely bump some Anatois you over the holidays and count my blessings since I won't be counting money. And I definitely appreciate it. All right, all right, all right. All right. My man.

I got a gift for you, man. I got something to offer you. And, you know, it was kind of hard. It was challenging. I was, like, thinking to myself, what music can I gift the man who knows everything and appreciates everything, which, I don't know. In some ways, when I say it out loud like that, maybe it was supposed to be easy. But, you know, you're such a connoisseur, Felix, such a connoisseur. But, you know, something that we happened to chat about fairly recently felt kind of appropriate,

mainly because I wanted to be able to talk to you about it even more than we got to in the chat. And so the song that I'm gifting you is Shabaka's End of Innocence. Thank you for that, man. That's such an amazing gift because I think I may have discovered it from one of your lists or something. I'm not sure. I know I associated with you and that set me off on a deep dive because I didn't know the guy at all.

I didn't know the artist at all. And that sent me off on a deep dive because that is that kind of music that's such a big part of what I listen to if you check out some of my Spotify playlist because that also reminding me

of that Andre 3000 album that came out and then... Yeah, exactly. And then it goes back for me stuff like this. It goes back to these guys, I think it was from the 60s. It was a guy named Paul Horn, who was a flute player.

He was a jazz guy. Okay, yeah. I know Andre 3,000 is a big fan of him, actually. Right. And then he started doing, he made this solo record. He recorded something in the pyramid, one of the pyramids, somewhere in Giza, some pyramid in Egypt. And it was called Inside.

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

It's really cool. Thanks, man. Well, it's crazy. You mentioned 3,000, because that's kind of what brought me to this guy, you know. listening to that album and like kind of wanting more, you know, wanting to hear more that kind of music from cats that have been doing it for a long time. And so, yeah, he's one of the cats that I kind of stumbled upon.

And, you know, it's funny kind of stumbling upon him in this moment because he's kind of in this point of transition where he was really more known as a saxophone cat. and for this album he decided to pick up the flute you know and on this particular song he's on his original instrument which is the clarinet yeah um and so yeah this man he had a couple of joints on this album uh that just really pulled me in and and in a way that were kind of like haunting you know but also kind of comforting at the same time it was something that I felt like a lot of the music that I really vibed with this year kind of hit, hit those notes. So, yeah, man, I just, you know, I'm usually the hip-hop guy, you know what I mean?

But I don't know if it's age or fatherhood or what that's got me kind of leaning into the jazz, you know, here lately. It's a little bit of both, bro. Let me tell you, man. It's probably a little bit of both. It's so funny you did this too, because I made this, I give my playlist names. I try to give them names. Okay. And so this one, this one I called soundtrack, colon, going within.

So it's like, it's very contemplative, right? And like I have the Andre album on here, and I have this album by Rucci Sakamoto that he released last year. And then there was this vocalist, Arruch Avtab, who had a really great record out, right? They all go together, man. You put it on random, and it all fits together. whether I'm just here or at the pad or I'm walking or at the Korean spa when I'm in between sweating and stuff, you know what I mean? That kind of stuff.

It's already on my playlist, but I really appreciate you thinking about me this way, man. Hey, I appreciate it, man. And see, look at you turning. I'm supposed to be giving you a gift. You just named a couple of artists. I got to go check out right now. So I appreciate you. Hello.

Surprise. Who is my secret Santa? Oh, my gosh. I couldn't have asked for a better one. I'm so excited. Hi, Felix. How are you, Annie? How are you, man? Yay. I know I'm getting something good now. Our paths are finally colliding in the coverage that we do, right?

With the Mexican music and the Mexican regional and then guys like Carine Leone doing this crazy. You know, his tiny desk home concert, I don't know if you noticed, his drummer was playing brushes. I love that. I love that. You know what I mean? So it was like the old school, like Bob Will's kind of thing almost, like the nice little groove. And so I think our worlds collide in this song by an artist. Her name is, she's brand new. Her name is Damades, Bojure.

She's from way north in Mexico. And I saw her at this music conference. I went to in Guadalajara in the spring. And she's like the missing link between Mexican regional, Mexican folk music and country music. My goodness. Straight ahead country music. Like, check this song out.

Wait, I got to go out into the yard in the barn and get my horse. Because I think I'm in a Western now. I think I'm in a in an excellent message. drop. It's like a country drop, right? I love it. I love it. You know what? This makes me think about Lydia Mendoza. Let's go back to the beginning of country music. I feel like... Absolutely. I feel like we're connecting to the days when Maybilt Carter was listening to Lydia Mendoza across the border radio, you know? You know, there's a steel guitar in there. And that little guitar rhythm, it's like Mexican folk, but there's like a hint of Johnny Cash,

you know, there's like so much in that thing. I love it. And it's, and you know what's amazing to me is like she's so, maybe she's 23, maybe. Amazing. It's so natural to her. Was it this song that was on our list, on our song's list? Yeah. I also thought about her voice is nothing like this person's voice, but the power I thought about

Joan Baez, you know. Yes. And that kind of, and early Linda, right? I mean, the beauty, the, the, the, but mostly the forcefulness. and the directness and the power in this voice. It impresses me so much. And it's so awesome that you brought it because I was already, I was anticipating and hoping for this gift.

This was one in the stocking that you had seen in the store window and been like, oh, I hope that's one I get. Trying to figure out, you know, what to share with you because, you know, there are places where our tastes overlap. And you, you know, you have a wide palette, man. You've been in the business so long, and you just have this natural passion for music, and you have big ears, and you hear everything. So, you know, it's just being able to focus in on this thing, what you're doing now,

and just the whole country, Americana thing, and just listen to everything. I thought that this would fit in. Very quick story behind the scene story on this one. She was at this conference, she was doing a showcase at this conference in Guadalajara, and I was presenting. So I didn't get a chance to go out and see a lot of showcases. This is one of the few that I went out to. And she had, it was a traditional, like new traditional Mexican regional instrumentation.

She's playing acoustic six-string. There was another six-string. There was another guy playing a stand-up bass and another guy playing the 12-string, like Lydia Mendoza used to do, right? Oh, wow. The guy who played the 12-string was this little kid. He rode a bus for 18 hours to get to Mexico City. city. He got off the bus. They whisked him right away to this venue, this little bar. They did their

15 minutes. He was going to sleep on somebody's couch and then go back. Oh, my gosh. And that's, that's how dedicated they are to this, to their sound and what they're doing right now. That is amazing. That is an epic journey. And again, it's a journey. It's like a classic American journey. And I say American deliberately. I mean the whole of our continent, north and South and Latin, Mexico everywhere together, because in 2025, if the world can give me one gift, it's that we see each other as all belonging to the same land and the same story of freedom and expression and ambition and love and love of music in this case, you know. That's why what you all are doing on Alt Latinos so important right now. I truly believe it. And you know, I know we're both fans of

of Wyatt Flores from Oklahoma, who's repping for red dirt in a whole different way, a red dirt country. And I know Wyatt will definitely be playing at Americana Fest next year. And maybe, if not, this coming year, we can bring this new artist, Damaris, Beauvoir, play Americana Fest. Yay. Yes, yes, yes. That would be amazing.

I would love it. Yes. So I'm glad you liked it, man. Thank you so much. She's one of the voices that knocked me out this year so much. Thank you so much, Felix. I love my secret Santa gift, and I wish you, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas. Going back to the roots.

Thank you. Yeah, right. Thank you. Thank you, Annie. Thank you. Stephen Thompson. Hi. Hey, Ann.

You got you. I'm so happy that I got to give you a gift today. I think I have the perfect gift for you. And I don't know if you would have heard of this. this duo, but they're called Hey Nothing. Have you heard of them? Hey Nothing. I have not heard of them. Oh, yay. I get to give an actual surprise gift. I'm so excited. So, Hey Nothing is two kids, I call them kids, because you know, Stephen, one thing you and I share is that we're parents. Elderliness. That also, but also we're parents of kids who are also adults or on the verge of adulthood or becoming adults.

And the other thing I like to think we share, maybe I'm flattered myself, is I think we're both big-hearted people. I think you, one thing I love about you, Stephen, is you just are so feelingful. You have such a way of enthusiasm and joy and tenderness. And when I heard this band, Hey Nothing, this duo, these two young people, I think one is 20, one is 19, Tyler and Harlow from Athens, Georgia. They've been playing music together since middle school. I thought of you because of the huge emotions in this song, and the song is called Maine. So let's hear a little bit of the song. Dove right into the water, I think you'll be just fine.

And we stay here forever, wasting all of our time. Maybe it's far from perfect. Maybe I'm losing my mind. And if you up, I pray to God, that you. I left my old shame. Anne, first of all, you know my heart. I think you may be overly generous with the giving nature of my heart.

Well, the emotion, the emotion. And we just heard a little bit of that song, but it builds to be huge. I was going to say, you can tell that song is going to build and build and build. Absolutely. A beautiful thing about this duo, is their friendship and also the way their voices come together

It's just gorgeous and they're really funny. And this song is so, it's so intense, but there's also just a kind of shaggy dogness about it. When I first heard this song, I thought it was about summer camp because, I mean, the hook is I left my lungs in Maine, which I thought, well, that's like a kid swimming in a lake, you know, and he's thinking about the memories he's bringing back. It turns out it was really about a writing session. It was about they went, Tyler and Harlow went to Maine to work together and refine their songwriting. And this EP follows their debut album, which came out last year, and has the adorable title of We're Starting to Look Like Each Other. I think that's so cute, too, about friendship. But the song just explodes with all of the emotions and all of the feeling about what it means to learn to lose something, to love something, to miss someone, but to know.

you have to continue and move on, you know. And that's where we're out with our kids. That's where we're out with our kids. Exactly. No, it's absolutely true. And it's also, and it's the song, I mean, I've only heard what you played for me so far, but it really sounds like a composite sketch of so much of the music I've loved in the last 20 or so years.

That's, you know, that like big-hearted voices kind of rising up together. Exactly. You know, conjures everything from kind of your, you know, like certain strains of emo, to certain strains, to certain strains of kind of mumford core. Yes, yes. Which is kind of coming back a little bit. It totally is. I can't wait to dig deeper into the song.

And the band is called Hey comma nothing. Hey comma nothing. But I got to tell you, I almost brought you a song by a group I know you like Efterklong. They came back this year, the Danish group. When I was researching them, I didn't know about them. But you wrote about them, I don't know, like eight years ago or something? What is time? Anyway, that's another great record with big choruses and big, big emotion.

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

Well, let's keep our feelings alive in 2025. Oh, my God. Hi. Hi, Anna Maria. How you doing? I'm doing good. How are you? Where are you?

I'm doing well. I am in a waiting room. Even better. The commitment is so there, and I love it. Well, Anna, you're a tricky person to shop for. I, you know, because, because first of all, you have your finger on the pulse. Second of all, you're a young person. Some could say.

You know, you have your own young person language and your own young person music. And I feel like I'm stepping in like gathering, like you're showing up at your dad's friend's Christmas party. I'm like, let me say the sick thing I got for you. Yeah, we'll be playing a song. But I ended up picking an artist that I know you to like and that did not make our year-end coverage. And I wanted to talk about how that could possibly have happened because I love this record so much. Anna, you are a fan, correct me if I'm wrong, of Omar Apollo. I am indeed.

Okay. Omar Apollo is awesome. Omar Apollo is awesome. Punto, objective. Yeah, and put out this gorgeous record this year called God Said No. And I kept coming back to this record over and over again. You know, his background is in this kind of bedroom R&B, you know, this very, very intimate music, stories of coming of age and queerness and kind of stepping into your own identity. And this record is so gorgeous, but there's one song from it in particular that I've gone back to again and again.

again and again that absolutely takes my soul and crushes it like a Dixie Cup. I'm so intrigued because I have one from that record too that does the exact same thing. All right. I'm curious here. For me, that song is called Plain Trees. And it's a duet with Mustafa. And Mustafa made our year-end list. Mustafa's amazing.

Mustafa sends me to heaven. Mustafa's voice makes me cry every time I hear it no matter where I. That voice just sends me soaring. Together, they made this really intense ballad that is so, so beautiful. Again, this is called Plain Trees. Underneath this tree, giving life to with the leaves. So slow. Oh my god, I hear that voice.

This is actually the most beautiful gift you could give me because I listened to this song obsessively and I sent it to everyone I knew when it came out because I was like, oh my God, Omar Apollo and Mustafa and harmony and I can't and then he comes in on that verse Mustafa does. And it's like, oh my God, I can't. And I forgot about it.

I really kind of did. And you know how when you hear a song and you love it so much and you listen to it 20,000, times and it's so beautiful, but it's like you just wish you could hear it for the first time again so badly. And you kind of just gifted that to me. I was like, oh my God, I haven't heard in so long. It's kind of like, it's like you lost your jacket and my Christmas gift for you is that I found it. You found my favorite jacket again. Thank you. And I lost it. I was like I lost it for so long. You kind of start to forget about it. And then, oh my God, that song is so beautiful.

Exactly. And every note, every little note of instrumentation that kind of swirls around them is pinging some feeling that you don't entirely know how to access. There's something about the instrumentation behind them that is enhancing the intensity and that swell of feeling. I cannot get enough of this song. I always say I'm like the key to a really good vocal is I need to really hear that you're hurting. Like I need to be able to so. hear so hard that there's so much hurt inside you're really like screwed up in there and the two of them together oh my god there's such a combined level of hurt magic that's what everybody looks for from every song so yeah this was great thank you it's always so nerve-wracking when you're handing somebody i'm so honored that you are so nerve-wracked by by me i'm like wow It's so flattering. I want you to come up to me at holiday parties and give me the music wrecks.

I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Anna. My dream in life is to be the uncle who isn't unnerving. Yeah. No, you're doing it. Let me validate. You're doing it successfully. So, Anna, who are you giving your Secret Santa gift to?

Stephen, I actually already gifted away my song. So I think that means we're done. It's 10.30 in the morning. I think this workday is done. I think we can all go home now. Exactly. We can all go home and listen to our gifts. I decree it. We can all go listen to our gifts. I'm actually going to go cry to that song. Can we play it? Crying is the greatest gift of all. I was like, this is amazing. A 10.30 cry. Well, that has been it from NPR music. This is all songs considered. Thank you all for listening. And we hope you all have a restful, peaceful, delightful, delightful holiday season.