NPR Music - Songs that hit hard in 2025

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

NPR listeners share the one song that hit them the hardest this year, and tell us why they laughed, cried, or simply couldn’t stop listening to it.Featured songs and artists:1. Annie DiRusso: "Back In Town," from Super Pedestrian2. Tunde Adebimpe: "Drop," from Thee Black Boltz3. Brandi Carlile: "You Without Me," from Returning To Myself4. Bad Bunny: "DtMF," from DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS5. Of Monsters And Men: "The End," from All Is Love And Pain In The Mouse Parade6. Eph See: "Malachi The Uber Driver" (unreleased single)7. Audra McDonald: "Rose's Turn," from Gypsy8. Big Thief: "Los Angeles," from Double Infinity9. Flock Of Dimes: "Afraid," from The Life You Save10. Ben Rector: "Forever (Doesn't Quite Seem Long Enough)," from The Richest Man In The WorldEnjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] 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

Well, we're about to stick a fork in 2025. Can't come soon enough. How are we all feeling, Mitra? It's been a year. I thought the heavy sigh said it all. Dora? This was the fastest year of my life. Oh, come on.

Yeah. No. Was it really? Top two, not two. Really? Yeah. This didn't just, like, January doesn't feel like it was 10 years ago? I don't know.

I moved to D.C. this year. So I can't believe I've been in D.C. for one year. Okay. It feels like I've just moved here and it's been a month. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the bar for what is great or amazing has gotten significantly lower for me over the course of this year. I'm just grateful to be here with you too.

Gratitude is actually, for the most part, at the heart of this week's episode, I think. It's our third annual look at the songs that hit hard. It's all songs considered. I'm Robin Hilton. Dora Levitt and M.Tra Arthur of NPR Music here. So each year for the past few years, and it all started with you, Mature, this was an idea I got from you. We have been asking listeners to tell us about a song that hit them hard, specifically new songs that came out this year, songs that they couldn't stop listening to, they were obsessed with that made them openly weep,

or songs that just made them feel something more than any other song. We each brought our own picks, but really we want to get. get to as many listener picks as possible. Listeners wrote in. They sent us voice memos, notes, telling us about the songs that hit them really hard and why and some amazing stories behind them. I thought we should start with one of the voicemails we got.

So our first voice note is from Annie from Miami, Florida. Her song was Back in Town by Annie DeRuso from the album Super Pedestrian. Annie is a mom with an almost toddler, and often overwhelmed by early parenthood. And this is a song that really helped her keep things in perspective this year. I listen to this song. I don't even know how many mornings at like first thing in the morning at like 6 a.m. in my earphones really, really loudly.

And it like transports me back to a version of myself, a younger version of myself that made a lot of stupid decisions that was in a lot of really unrewarding like relationships, but also had a certain amount of freedom at that time. And I don't want to change my life from what it is right now at all, but it does something. It was the biggest gift for me to every single morning for, I'm not kidding, like maybe a month straight, start my morning with that song and remember a different version of who I am, who is still in me and has shaped me today, but who doesn't get as much time to just hang around and make really stupid decisions anymore. Yeah, I gotta be honest, I would not have pegged this song as one that hit hard.

I love this song and this whole album. But then when I heard Annie in Miami intro it, like I got a kind of emotional hearing this. I agree. Like I listened to the song so much this year just because I'm the biggest Annie DeRuso fan. but I love how much Miami Annie was talking about appreciating who you used to be and how that version of yourself is still in there. And Amy DeRuso leans into that so much. She's so authentically and unapologetically herself all the time.

Right. And it's a great way to view your life. It reminded me of the embarrassing part of the phrase, spinning the block. I don't know that I know spinning the block. So spinning the block is very much with the song, she's talking about of like you had this person who you were with and they're terrible they're trash but you can't help but to go right back around i got you and spin that block and you hopefully learn things from that and i am it seems as though any from miami is reflecting on those

times it helped her see how life can be many things it can be like you you you can love the life you have now and miss the life that you had both at the same time and Yeah, no, it's a great pick. Again, Annie from Miami, picking Annie Deruso's back in town from the album Super Pedestrian. Let's go to another listener. Let's do one of the notes that we got from somebody. This is Deborah in Provo, Utah. Her song is Drop by Tunday Adebenpei from the album, The Black Boltz.

Deborah says, I found this album in the spring when I was doing a lot of bike riding after a long winter. And this song enhanced both the angst and oh so much angst there's been since January that gets me on my bike in the first place and also the joy I feel when I'm riding it. It's both vulnerable and bouncy, which is a beautiful soundtrack as I ride up and down the canyon near my home. I said at the top of the show that gratitude. seem to be the most often recurring theme in all of the submissions we got from listeners this year. And that's what this song really is ultimately about, just appreciating your life and just the simple pleasures. I love the phrase, the spark of revival.

Yeah. That return, that rejuvenation. I mean, I love how Debra talks about riding the bike, because I can see that imagery and listening to this song and using it to sort of push you. Keep you going. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you do that? I used to ride my bike all the time and listen to music.

Oh, it's been a minute. All the time. Yeah. Yeah, I so relate to that. When I was in college and I was being, like, restless and anxious, I would just get on my bike and ride as, like, hard and fast as possible with a really good song with a great beat just like this song. And it was just the best way to process, like Deborah said, all of the angst in the world. Yeah, this song is kind of about just what a blip your life.

is in the vast timeline of life, you know, the universe. It goes by pretty quickly and if you're not paying attention, you're just going to miss it all. And yeah, so that pick from Deborah and Provo, the song Drop. Let's go to another voice memo we got. This one is from Julie in Kansas City and the song that she picked is You Without Me by Brandy Carlisle. And let me tell you, this was the single most mentioned song in all the voice memos and notes and letters and emails we got from people. This I completely lost track how many times this song was mentioned.

Could have gone with any of the stories we got. But again, this is Julie from Kansas City. To me, it's all about a child growing up and figuring out who they are as an individual and how hard yet rewarding it is for a parent to watch that happen. It reminds me of when my daughter, who's now 34, went off to kindergarten and came home each day with the influences of people outside of our family. She would have a new phrase or action that I know did not come from me.

It was amazing and heartbreaking all at the same time. I especially connected with the line and the song that goes, I never heard that voice before today. I remind myself to breathe. There you are. It's just you. me. Ugh, I'm tearing up right now just thinking about it. I've got to go listen to it again. Was your smile always crooked? Was the freedom ever free?

Did you kick the rocks between your feet? After all this time with me, you can listen to your own records now, decide what you believe. You can pray on stars and skip the gods like stones across the sea. But I want me self and heavy What you have to do And the star He's just heard that voice There you are

It's just you Without me When you're just going to have to go first I got beef with Brandy Carlis Because I have shed more tears Listening to her music When you start with I've got beat I was like

What are you going to say? You've got a very different take on this song No my beef is She has made me cry more than probably any artist than I can ever think of listening to her music and I do not like to cry that much.

So I got beef with you, Brady Carl off and make me cry all the time. I was maybe, what, 15 seconds into it before I started blubbering. And I think for me, it certainly makes me think of my own kids, but I don't think you have to have kids because you can read this both ways.

You can see it from both perspectives as both the parent and the child in this, I think. Completely. And just hearing Julie talk about viewing your daughter as a person beyond you. Even, I mean, I started crying listening to the voice memo before I even cried more listening to the song. It's such a gift to be able to see someone you love grow separate from you.

Yeah. And that's it. You know, the thing I think that Julie was saying was that, you know, when you realize, and I had this moment, too, when you realize that they're at school or wherever and they're away from you all day long and they'll come home and they'll tell you about their day and you're like, wow, you're having this life that I am simply not a part of at all. And it's not that they're becoming someone you don't want them to become. It's that you're missing everything.

You're missing everything. But I also love, there's a line, I showed up with a broken name and handed it to you. And just thinking of, I'm not a parent, but just thinking of, you know, any parent kind of comes into that situation of parenting with their own baggage and complications. and a child has to find their way through that and make their own sort of personhood. Well, like I said, you without me, the most mentioned song of any song that we got in this call-out.

There were others from the album that people mentioned. The album is returning to myself from Brandy Carlyle. There were actually several songs from that whole album that people mentioned. But, yeah, you without me by far the most mentioned. All right, let's go to another one of the, that we got from a listener. So Barbie from North Carolina picked the song

DTMF by Bad Bunny from Debbie Tirar Most Photos. And she told us that the song is about enjoying time with your loved ones. As I grow older and the distance between us seems to expand, whether physically or as summer now in the Great Beyond, the song reminds me of the good times I did get to share with my family. I should have relished those times more when I was in it. Trozon's so beautiful that be in San Juan

Disfrutating of those things that that are who are going Disruting of the noches of that that they don't they don't But, but, trying to go to the last And I'm

and to tell you the things that I can't You seem to my crotch And I'll try to the photo that I Tired you. A chabrotte. It's a beautiful. This actually might be the second most mentioned song of all the ones that we got in. I think people just, you know, the title means, I think I should have taken more photos.

I think it's just the idea of time passing and you missing things and realizing, well, it actually ties very much in with the Brandy Carlyle song in a lot of ways, yeah, that you're missing a lot of it if you're not paying attention and how fleeting it is and just to appreciate it. I also feel like this song gets at. going to always wish that we spent more time too. And so I feel like Barbie says I should have relished in those times when I was in it, but also I did get to have those times in the first place, which is such a beautiful sentiment and goes along with the gratitude that we're seeing all across.

This year, in my own personal life, I have started taking more photos. I've started sort of trying to capture those memories a lot more physically because it is fleeting. Do you feel like you don't take enough photos or you weren't taking? enough photos? Not meaningful photos. Some of them were just sort of throwaways, but realizing the people that we've lost, the parts of our home that we've lost,

every time I go home, it's a very different place. So just having those moments to really, yeah, okay, I remember these places. I remember these moments. I love the idea of I should have taken more photos as a way of summing up how fleeting life is and how you need to appreciate it. The truth is I've got way too many photos.

I just, I think all the time, like, my poor kids, this is the most documented generation of all time. It's thousands and thousands and thousands of photos that they're going to drag into the trash bin when I kick it and it's up to them to sort through it all. But you never, I think about a photo of my mother and I that is very precious to me. And it was taken by a dear friend of mine who passed away during COVID. And so there's a couple of different layers of that when I look at that photo. I look at this picture I love of my mom and I, but I also think about my friend who I've lost. Yeah. I love sitting with people and looking through their camera roles and the photos that are meaningful to them.

Even those throwaway photos, it's don't get rid of any of them, Robert. I won't. I won't. You know, I had all these journals that I was going to get rid of. I had, it must have been 20, 30, oh, over 30 years of journals. And I thought, I don't want, my kids don't want to go through this. they probably won't even be able to read cursive by the time these end up in their hands. And I was about to throw them out.

And a friend of mine called me up because I texted him and said, he's like, don't do it. Don't do it. And he said the most powerful thing. He said, after you're gone, your kids get no more new words from you. That's it. They get no more new words from you. Those journals, when they go through those, those will be the way they have new words from you after you're gone. And I thought, oh, God.

I was so close to just throwing them in the trash bin. That's so beautiful. Yeah. Wow. Keep your journals. Keep all your stuff. Yeah. I never get rid of anything.

So that was from Barbie in North Carolina. The song she picked again was DTMF by Bad Bunny. Let's go to another voice memo. So Beth in St. Louis Park, Minnesota picked The End by Of Monsters and Men from All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade. The first time I heard it, I just instantly had chills. because it is a beautiful, gorgeous song. The harmonies are unbelievable. And as I listened more and listened to the lyrics,

I was struck by how haunting the song was. It's a song about kind of the end of the world and just continuing to go about your life because there's really nothing you can do. And that just felt a little relatable in 2025. So this song just brings tears to my eyes every time I listen to it because it is beautiful. It is stunning. And it just feels very topical.

Waking up just before the morning. Someone said the world is ending. Something's kind of falling from the sky. That's alright with me. Such is gravity. Everything around here must come down eventually. Come on, darling. Come on back to me somehow.

Guess it's the world revolves around the coffee and then said, What's your mind? Ever since I heard the song, per Beth's suggestion, I haven't stopped thinking about the line, everything is falling from the sky. but that's all right because it's just gravity. And that line, even in the past week, has given me a new type of reflection on this year. Because this year has really felt like everything is falling down and there's so much chaos

and there's not much explanation for it. But here we're just saying it's bound to happen. It's gravity. It's out of our control. And that lets me breathe a little bit easier. And sometimes it's okay to just sit with that. Pushing through. Pushing through despite all of the madness, the sky falling, everything,

it really does make you sort of think about, okay, how do I just find the best way through? Yeah. So, yeah, I will say that I also, Dora had not listened to the song until Beth and St. Louis Park, Minnesota, recommended it, and I'm so glad she did. I actually discovered a lot of songs that I had missed this year going through all these listener picks. Should we do our own picks now? Should we do our personal picks? Let's do it.

This is one I know Dora you really, really love as well. In fact, I wouldn't even know about this song if you hadn't picked it. For the Tiny Desk Contest entry, it's a song called Malachi, the Uber Driver. Can't tell you how many times I audibly sobbed to this song. The audio that I have for it is the audio from the actual Tiny Desk contest entry that FC sent in. And we can talk a little bit more about it after we hear some of it. Hello, Tiny Desk. My name is FC.

And this song is called Malachi the Uber Driver, inspired by Malachi the Uber Driver, who inspired me one night. Malachi the Uber Driver picks me up half past midnight. I just had the time of my He just spent the whole night jokes and says He's world wide He only drives to pass the time And I believe him

He calls me Artists who thrive But don't make a dime If they do, that's fine They're still into pain Not to mention the hatred, It's all in your face I guess what I'm saying is

Malabur driver We're not so different You and I both Had tough times In grades 4 and 5 I even took to art to ease our minds you told me about your grandma and how she would send you art supplies to try out. I had to get to the part where they know how the driver got art supplies from their grandmother

and how they realized that they weren't that different in grades four and five. They both went through hard times. It's not a sad song. It just reminds you of your humanity and such a potent reminder of how important it is and rewarding it is to just be with your fellow human being and be kind and share with one another and have moments like this. I just love this sort of chance encounter, sort of gives them this revelation, this sort of life-changing revelation as it was. were. But I also just love that the artists in them saw the artist in him, even as they weren't doing their art. F.C. answers one of the biggest moral philosophy questions of what we owe to each

other. Just in this one interaction, like you said, with another artist. And it's, I was thinking about how the first time I heard this song was like a year ago. And how I haven't stopped thinking about this encounter that they had. This song feels like it's been ingrained in me all year. The best line, I think, actually comes at the very end when I really lose it. It's when FC says Malachi, the Uber Driver, I think we changed each other's lives. Yes. In the span of a ride, a moment in time, I remember what it could all be like.

Oh, my gosh. So this is, again, this is, again, the audio version of the song and performance that FC sent in for their Tiny Dust Contest Entry, but they hit me up recently and said that they're going to give the song a proper release with studio recording early next year. I think look for that in January. Maitra. Yes. Let's do your pick. When I was thinking about my song, I just could not stop going back to the rendition of Rose's Turn from this most recent production of Gypsy sang by Audra McDonald. Why did I do it? What did it get me?

Scrapbooks full of me in the background. Give them love and what does it get you? What does it get you? One quick look as each of them leaves you. All your life and what does it get you? Thanks a lot and out with the garbage. They take boughs and your bat in zero. I dream

I dreamed it for you, June. It wasn't for me. Her beef. And if that wasn't for me, then... I get very emotional every time I listen to the cast album with this performance. Every time I think about the times I saw her perform it,

every time I look at a clip from her performing it on the Tony Awards, which is where most people will probably be familiar with this performance, who aren't already familiar with the musical that's been out since 1959. And so because it's been out for so long and there have been so many iconic voices

that have done this song, Ethel Berman, Patty Lepone, Bernardine Peters, what really speaks to me is the way she really punches in and leaves you in my turn and for myself because nothing in her life has been for herself. And so every time I listen to it, I get emotional. I also, because of the fact that I just can't even ignore it,

the fact that this is the very first time that this character was portrayed by a black woman on Broadway. I think of, and that time period that this still takes place. And I can't help but to think about the elders, the women in my life, who would have been of that generation, who lived in the background of their own lives. So I just get emotional in it where I think about it. This is such a Broadway classic standard. Yeah. And the first time I listened to this version, I kind of forgot that because she does it in such a new, refreshing, incredibly passionate way in a way that I feel like Rose's turn, I've heard so many times in so many different iterations.

And Audra knocks all of those other versions out of the park just by her passion alone. And again, that's from a Broadway cast recording of Gypsy that just came out earlier this year. Dora, we should do your pick. My pick is Los Angeles by Big Thief from their new album, Double Infinity. And when I first heard the song, I was on the plane back from California. And I was just sobbing audibly on the plane. And the person next to me was like, should I like do something? And my sister a few weeks ago actually texted me

And I'd never told her the story and said that The laugh at the beginning of this song sounded like my laugh Which was funny because I never even heard the laugh at the beginning of this song But I liked that it reminded her of me Because when I was crying to the song It was because I was thinking about my family as well But serious box is full And we are kissing in a fistful

Fragments falling down I throw them up and I watch them up and I watch It's funny you say that about the laugh because that was the first thing that I clocked when I was listening to this because it's such a joyful, it's the kind of laugh that you have when you're just hanging out with friends as opposed to like being told a joke or whatever or seeing something funny. It is just pure joy and joy from the company of others. Absolutely. This whole song is about feeling comfort in the ones that you love. and your community. And like I said, I moved away from my family this year. Oh my God, no, I'm going to cry.

You're doing great. I moved away from my family this year. And my family also has moved across the country. We still all live in New York. And I've really felt the distance. But Adrienne here, I really love how she talks about how, how even when we're separated from one another, we all feel the same things. And we all feel the beauty and the weight of the world around us and the metaphysical. And that is what connects us,

even across all of this distance. I mean, that's what she does in her music so well, all the time. All the time. Yeah, just even as epic as it gets or as intimate, it's, there's always, the metaphysical is a great word to use to describe the music of Adrian Linker and Bigfeefe. Yeah. There is so often where I go to call my mom, and the first thing out of her mouth is, I was just thinking about you. Those moments where the connection is so strong with people we love in our lives that you don't have to, you can hear somebody and be like,

I think I need to put my eyes on them. I need to see them to just sort of make sure everything is good to go. She says we dream our dreams together without lying in the same bit, which I just, I believe so much in the power of our dreams. And that line really stuck with me. What a beautiful pick. Yeah, there's a great sort of euphoric, Hey Jude sort of breakdown at the end of the song

that could go on for another 10 minutes. But, yeah, really beautiful. All right, just a couple more picks that we want to play, and they're both from listeners. The first one comes from Caitlin and Gaithersburg, and the song she picked is called Afraid by Flock of Dimes. And this is one of the notes we got. Caitlin wrote, I've done a lot of soul searching since my mother died of endometrial cancer in

2022. And this song really spoke to my experience with loss, grief, and learning to accept the inevitability of change, transformation, and death. The lyrics, I did not enter the world afraid, and I refused to leave it that way. Made me think of how courageously my mother lived, despite a very challenging life. How bravely she fought to stay with us and when it was time to go, fearless she was and taking that last step, even though it meant leaving all she left behind. The lyrics, I had to grow so I grew. I didn't mean for it to take me so far gone from you. Sort of spoke to the idea that growing up, growing old and dying takes us away from our old selves and our loved ones, but it's an important and inevitable part of life to be embraced and met with

courage. I'm going to thank Caitlin for writing in and sharing this story. It was really moving and very powerful, and I love, love, love the takeaway from Caitlin's note and from the song, just embracing the inevitable with courage, fearlessness, the importance of staying resilient all through life. And there's a kind of magical wonder in this song. You can even hear it sounds like a playground,

children played on a playground off in the distance. It's interesting you mention that because I think When we are younger, we have a lot of abandon and fearlessness, and we learn the fear. We learn to be afraid of what is possible. We learn to be afraid of finding who we are, of finding our joy. And as the song says, I didn't come in here afraid. I had to learn that. Really, that line, I did not enter this world afraid, and I refused to leave it that way.

That's been rattling around in my head ever since this listener, Caitlin and Gatorsburg, flagged it for me. And it's like, what a great mantra. Oh, completely. So many stories and songs that we got way, way more than we could fit on a single show. So we'll do this. We'll make a playlist in Spotify and Apple. If you search for songs that hit hard and NPR or all songs considered, you'll find it. And we'll put full versions of all the songs that we played here on the show in there, along with a bunch of the other picks that we got.

We'll go out on a voice memo. This is from David in Cincinnati. The song you picked is Forever. seem quite long enough. It's from an album called The Richest Man in the World by the singer Ben Rector. I'm just going to let David set it up and we'll go straight to the song. We'll go out on this. But Dora Levitt, Mitre Arthur, thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Making us cry. Yeah, crying. You're welcome. I'm Robin Hilton for NPR Music. It's all songs considered. Again, here's David in Ohio with the song forever. Doesn't seem quite long enough.

by Ben Rector. It speaks to my heart and my emotions about what it's like to have a young family. My kids are getting older. My wife and I have been together for 23 plus years now and just realizing there's a lot of things that we take for granted in our lives. And I'm really grateful for them. But a lot of things could happen and we don't know when or what could happen in the future. but the refrain of the song says over and over again, forever doesn't quite seem long enough. And that's kind of how I feel. I'm still in the years of my family

when the days seem long and the years seem short. So, yeah, it's a really moving song. It's got a really upbeat tempo, and it speaks to me deeply about the phase of life I'm in, and especially as I think about the years to come. So thanks for this assignment. This was really neat to reflect on.