NPR Music - The Best Songs of 2024

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

Our special coverage of the year in music continues with a look at the best songs of 2024, featuring Clairo, Tinashe, Chief Keef, Laura Marling and more.See NPR Music's complete list of the 124 best songs of the year.See NPR Music's list of the 50 best albums.Enjoy the show? Tell a friend and leave us a review wherever you get 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

So my son, who is, he's officially a teenager now, and he has this thing that he does that's just absolutely driving this crazy where he'll ask a question. And the moment you start to answer, he'll say, I know. It is so. Well, it's insane. Did you? Like, what was the movie Alien about? Oh, well, so there's this group of people and they're trapped on a spaceship. And I know.

What's he looking for? then why are you asking? Well, I just mean, like, what's it about? He's like, well, okay, like I was saying, I mean, they're on this spaceship and there's this alien. I know! So he's been listening to a lot of Nirvana lately, which I fully approve.

He's just discovered them. And another thing he's really obsessed with is like whether or not someone is still alive, even if it's someone who, like, from a band from like this year, he'll say, are they alive? Are they still alive? So knowing that he always wants to know of somebody, because I think maybe he just assumes everyone that I must love. Yeah, they're old.

They're from ancient times. They're old and gone. Yeah. So I said, you know, I said, you know, kind of preemptively here, I said, you know, the lead singer, Kurt Cobain died a long time ago. And of course, he says, I know. And then he says, and I also know how he died. And I said, oh, oh, well, how do you? How did he die?

He said, he died from that, you know, that skin disease, the one, you know, like, really, you know, causes deformities. He said, do you mean leprosy? What? And he said, yeah, leprosy. You think Kurt Cobain died of leprosy. Where is he getting his information? He said, I told him that. We are going to get our facts straight on this episode, though, because we are studied.

professionals. Yes. So professional. So professional. Hazel Sills and Sheldon Pierce were doing our best songs of 2024 episode. In addition to the list of the 50 best albums that in PR music put up and out in the world, NPR Music also posted the 124 best songs of 2024. Why do we do 125?

A hundred's just not enough, right? It's not enough. Is it have anything to do with the year? I think it's a good sort of. of pointed number. It just feels right. 124. Is next year going to be 125? No, next year is going to be 700. Oh, yeah. I just

decided right now. 700. Well, we're going to count down all 124 We're here all night. We're going to count down all of the songs. This is all songs considered. We are considering every single one of them. You know, we're just going to highlight some of our favorites from that list of 124. I don't really

have what you might call a run of show here, but I did think that maybe can I start with one that I really love from the list? Sure. Would that be cool? Yeah, of course. I thought that we would start with what I think is an appropriate anthem, at least my idea of an anthem for 2024, the song Working on It from Regime. I mean, it's no espresso.

Or basically anything from Brat. But I just love how totally, uncommitted this song is. You know, like the singer, Bershine Murphy, I mean, she's barely even trying. You know, she's trying to try. You know, and the bar for what success

looks like in this song is just so low. Yeah. It just, I don't know, it really strikes a chord with, I guess, where I am. And I think a lot of people are. Yeah, that's what I love about it. It's like, you know, there are so many dance tracks that make use of the word work.

Like, work. Like, we're going to work it. We're going to dance. Yeah. And this is so weary. It's like, you know, I'm going to get to it. Maybe I'll figure it out at some point. There's a big sort of like putting it off energy, which is really interesting to me because the pocket on this groove is so steady, so locked in.

And then here she is just sort of like laid back reclining into the sofa, like dissolving away. Like, I can't even be bothered to get up and do this thing. you ever been at a party and someone's trying to get it going like something they put on music you can you can dance to it and like someone maybe kind of goes out half-heartedly and they're trying and then it's just awkward and then they go back like that's the song right you could you could dance to it yeah uh so that that came out on the album macro uh came out in july uh on july 12 from bribzine definitely one of my favorite songs of the year what else do we got who wants to go next Hazel, what do you got?

Well, I'm going to follow up that lazy, non-committal energy with something that's a little bit more energetic, a lot more energetic. I want to play a song called Hell of a Ride by the artist Nourished by Time. I really want to hear what you love about this one, Hazel. I think, show me. This is... Yeah, I played this on contenders. You played this on the contenders. Because I find his voice a bit challenging.

There are things I like about this, but what is it that you love so much? So I love the song because... So I have a playlist, a running playlist, called My Crops Are Flourishing. And... What? What? What? It means that like my life is good.

It's music for when my life is good. Like I feel good about myself. I want to pump myself up. And this song went into it immediately because this song, there's just like this energy to the song. It makes me want to like stick half of my body off the top of a car and let the wind go through my hair. Which is ironic because this song to me has such a big pump up energy. I mean, he starts it out by singing, I'm living that good. life. But it's not, it's a sad song. It's, it's bittersweet. You know, it's about saying goodbye to someone and

going through a breakup and, but he, Marcus Brown, who's nourished by time, just brings this incredible energy to this song. I just, I feel like I'm, I'm on a ride with him. Yeah, it's weirdly euphoric for a song that is about like stepping away from something, like separation. There's this like, It has the great dip of, you know, and then sort of launches into that hell of a ride. And it feels like arms spread at the front of the Titanic, honestly. It's way too woozy for me for that sort of image. I just can't imagine, yeah, spreading my arms wide to, open wide to it. I mean, the wooziness is sort of what I like about the song.

But it keeps it from being that kind of, I don't know, euphoric song like you're describing. For me, it feels like it's about to teeter off a cliff at any moment. But I think that's what I like about it, because it just feels like in this song, he's kind of just like surrendering himself to the universe. Like there's something freeing about this song to me. And I think in listening to it, I'm like, you know what? Goodbye. There's definitely a release to it. Hell of a ride.

Hell of a ride from the EP Catching Chickens. And I'm not making the name of that title up. That is, in fact, the name of the EP Catching Chickens. That came out in March, March 22nd. Sheldon, what are you got? Yeah, from a song about sort of breaking up to a song about embracing your legacy and status, I want to play Chief Keefe's One, Two, Three. Sheldon, I understand that you really put your thumb on the scale for this one.

Yeah, get this one. Yeah, I was responsible for making sure that this song. It was on NPR's best songs list. I had a playlist of all the songs before it went live, and this is one, not knowing who had picked what, and I put a big star by this one too. Yeah, Chief Keefe is sort of a really interesting figure. He has been sort of a mercurial figure. He was a major label star turned indie cast off who has just been doing his thing, making abstract songs at his whim. at his whims, really, with no care for who was paying attention to them.

This record and this song in particular is a big turn for him where he's sort of like embracing the idea of his role in rap history and sort of saying, not only have I done all this, but I can do other things. I mean, he self-produced this record. This song is from a record called Almighty So Too. It's the sequel to a very sort of garbled auto-tuney, record from 2013 and it's like if you've listened to almighty so you would not expect this song out of him but if you've been paying attention to him you know that this is what he's always been

capable of and it's really sort of interesting for him to make music that is so distinctly at odds with his perception but also embraces like everything that he's always been there's something slightly askew about it still like you've got this soul sampler element of it but then those drums are still very much drill, like booming and staggered. And it feels like he's playing with the idea of who he is versus everything that he represents.

Yeah, playing is a good word for it because, you know, I'm not a chief chief scholar by any means. But, like, listening to the song, something that I really loved about it is the way that he wraps this song. I felt like it was getting more intense as the song goes on.

And there's just such intense conviction in everything that he's saying. that it felt like a song, obviously, for other people. You know, he's sort of rattling off all these things about himself that he wants people to recognize, but it also felt like he was speaking to himself. Like, it had this kind of like, I'm staring at myself in the mirror quality,

and I'm just like affirmation, affirmation, affirmation, like recognition, recognition, recognition. And it makes it such a powerful track. I mean, a lot of those themes are really nothing new in the world of rap. It's a well-worn path that a lot of artists follow, but he does so much with so little in a lot of ways. You know, there aren't a lot of sort of polyrhythmic fireworks or anything here.

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

for what it meant per se. And then now he's seeing the world of rap change and not give him sort of his just do. And he's like projecting out the bat signal like, hey, don't, don't leave me out of this conversation because I deserve my credit. Trying to decide what to do next year, and I think I'm going to go with an artist who I only just recently realized is kind of polarizing based on conversations, the exchanges the three of us had earlier this week before the taping. An artist I've loved for a long time, Clero. And I mentioned Clero to you two, and you were both sort of like, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So what is even happening? How can you not love Clero? I think we outvote you here, Robin, so you have to explain to us why you do love Clero. You know what? I think it's best if I say it in a song. Specifically one called sexy to someone. I mean, listening to this now, I feel a little like my sister-in-law one time she had us over for the holidays. And she put on the smoothest of smooth jazz, like capital smooth jazz. and she's just kind of grooving around.

She's like, how can no one like this? It's like, how is that even possible? But I just find Clero's music just so enchanting. It's just enchanting to me. She has such a great ear for melody. The production is always finessed so beautifully. Everything just lands in a perfect little pocket, not too hard, not too soft, not too loud, not too quiet.

You know what? It's basically the baby bear porridge of pop music. Everything just lands so right for me. That's interesting because I've always felt like her music exists, like, on the outside of my perception. Like, I don't have to be particularly dialed into it to listen to it, which is sort of at odds with the way that I like to experience music. But I sort of appreciate, like, the soft soul, the light funk groove of this and of the music. on charm much more than sort of like the hushed bedroom pop of the previous albums. I'm seeing the vision on this.

I do like the melody. I don't know about her voice, though. I mean, I've never quite gotten into Clero because there's something to me quite sleepy about her music. I think that she... You're sleepy. No, Robin. I'm a wide-await.

That's actually true. You are very wide-eyed, wide-await. I just feel like, you know, ever since she came around a few years ago, with her, as Sheldon mentioned, making this kind of bedroom pop, I feel like she's just kind of been like simmering. Like her music, I'm waiting for it to reach full boil. And I totally hear you on the like melody. And I do agree with Sheldon that I think I see the vision here on this song and on this record charm more so than her past music. But I just feel like I'm waiting for her to, I don't know, like, give me more. Like, or give me something.

Do something. I mean, I think the problem is there's not a lot of dynamic movement in her song. It locks into place and it sort of stays there. I guess that's, I mean, this, I think this is a full boil for her, honestly. Yeah, I would agree. I will say that I think this is her strongest song. I think sexy to someone is her strongest song. I think the message of this song is so charming.

Sorry. Not to make a pun. It's so charming, just this idea of kind of quietly yearning for a connection that is so unfortunately rare and fleeting sometimes. I think that this song is just very kind of like adorable. Yeah, if ever there was a case to be made, Robin, I think you're making it with this song. Well, I mean, and this isn't even my favorite song. is the one that ended up on the list of 124 from NPR. I think my favorite one might be add up my love. You know, she's not an artist that I maybe normally would have gone to the mat over. But Hazel,

you pointed me to this article about this whole phenomenon known as Clero Shade. Oh, well, that's just like a meme. I know. But the more I started reading from people who, you know, like who can't stand Clero, then I just started digging in. You know, I think that's what happens. I think with a lot of people is you just, people react to the rabid fandom, you know, it's like movies you go to that you're kind of indifferent to until you find out a lot of people really love it or really hate it. And then that just lights you up. And then you're like, now I'm going all in on whatever, hating this thing or loving this thing. Yeah, I think I found myself on the opposite side of that. Like, I have always thought,

oh, the music perfectly pleasant, I guess. I think what really sort of riled me up was that people were pointing to her as the next big thing very early on. And I didn't see it in that music. Well, that album, Charm, you mentioned it, that came out in July, on July 12th from Claro. One of my favorite albums of the year is just so lovely and just feels so good to listen to you. Yeah, stay true to yourself, Rahman. Don't let us hear pressure you. And if I get a chance to use Clero shade that expression, at some point later in the show, I will, I think the more I read. You can say it, honestly, you can say it right now because Sheldon and I are shading Clara. You can just say it right now. Is it just, it's become a short.

shorthand for any time someone insults anything? Is that what it is? Well, I think it, I think the Clero fan base online in general is very passionate. And I think that it's become this joke that when any other pop star or artist has success, the joke is to be like, hmm, Clero shade. Like, why aren't you talking about Clare? Yes. Or what does this have to do with Clero? Yeah, what about Clero? I mean, sure. I, I mean, sure. I mean, I mean, you know, that Chief Keefe is good and everything, but I couldn't help but notice you didn't mention Clero. Yeah. Well, yeah, well.

Well, I mean, sagging out of Clero, I think I should admit that maybe one of the reasons that I don't connect as much as to her music is because softness and easy and pretty is not necessarily something that I'm looking for in a lot of music that I love. Yeah. I like hard. I like intense. I like annoying. And. So you're going to play the Kim Gordon. Bye-bye.

No. No. I'm going to play a song that came out of the brat phenomenon this year, big album from Charlie X-E-X. I'm going to play a remix that she did with Lord. It's called Girl So Confusing, featuring Lord. Well, honestly, I was speechless when I woke up to your voice. Now you told me how you'd been feeling. Let's look it out on the remix. You always say, let's go out.

Last minute. I would choose for the thinner. And then I gained all the way back. So this trapped in hatred and your life seemed so awesome I never thought for a second my voice was in your hair glitch when I was laughing. Crazy, I'm glad I'm right for you, Charlie. So this was a remix version of the song, Girl,

So Confusing that Charlie put out on her album, Brat. And, you know, the song was so powerful on its own. It was basically like Charlie, you know, the song is about, you know, being in competition, with other women in the industry, sort of having beef with this anonymous artist that I think a lot of people immediately identified as probably being Lord. And then Lord got on the track and they put out a remix version with her verse. And Lord's verse is so vulnerable about being a woman in the industry and like the pressures of it and how there was such miscommunication between the two of them.

And it's such a fascinating track because it was kind of a diss track to begin with. Like Charlie, Charlie is like, what's like, do you like me, do you hate me, what's going on? And then it turns into this really powerful meta-commentary on like how women are always pitted against each other in the music industry once Lord gets on the track and how you can think you know one thing about a music beef. And then actually there's so much going behind the scenes and I don't know, it's just a really, this song is working for me on so many levels. And I think it was really exciting to hear them collaborating. in this way. Yeah, I think this song to me epitomizes both the auto fiction of the Brat era and the I'm Just a Girlism's that have taken over the internet the last few years. But I think what's interesting is a lot of that stuff has often been viewed as like infantilizing and this song is such a powerful

display of agency. There's so many things a song to me is about because on the surface it's just also a fun listen, right? I mean, yeah. I mean, sure, it just sort of documents Charlie X-CX and Lords deciding to work together because of the internet. Yeah. But laced through it are all these little asides about self-doubt and hating the way you look and feeling like you're being left behind by the cool crowd and, you know, and then as you said, Hazel, yeah, and implicit in all that is all the pressures that society puts on women, to look a certain way and be a certain way and act a certain way.

I love Charlie's sense of humor. I think it's all over Brat and the remix album, but, you know, it's a certain way. It's such a difficult task to make a song like this that can also be kind of funny and tossed off, but also be very serious and deep. And I think that few artists could pull something like this off. So Charlie X, CX and Lord together doing a remix of the song, Girl, so confusing came out back in June. Sheldon, you're up next. What you got? Yeah, to transition to another woman pop star who has.

has definitely dealt with these kinds of issues in the industry. I want to play Tenaché's nasty. I've really enjoyed trying to guess what you're... Once you start talking about something, I'm like, where is you going? Is this a Rouge off top? Oh, right, this one. Is somebody going to match my freak?

Is somebody going to match my freak? It's somebody going to match my nasty. I guess I'm another. I'm a athlete. Is somebody going to match my freak? Meet somebody with a good technique. Is somebody going to match my nasty? Just sign it.

I've been a nasty. I've been a nasty girl. I was thinking of Bob Edwards, the long time morning edition host here. We were trying to get him an interview with M&M back in 2001. And he always, he had such an NPR. We always, we kept imagining him saying, are you or are you not the real slithful shady and I like to imagine him saying

is someone going to match my freak Sheldon what do you say yeah I mean I've I've been rooting for Tenache since pretty much the beginning so it's really nice to see her not only have a moment

like matching your freak like literally became sort of an identity over the summer which was interesting but beyond that this is like a whole TikTok thing yeah yeah it It really exploded online and created like a viral moment that she has sort of been seeking since Two On became like the only big hit of her career really, almost a decade ago. Yeah.

And she's sort of been floating around as a one-time major label star who became, went back Indian like really rediscovered herself as an artist, I feel. but it's nice to have this overlap moment where a certified hit is also somewhat representative of all the growing that she's done as an artist. I mean, the song sounds so self-assured, but it's also so fun, so infectious, so loose,

this, like, perfect blend of pop and R&B that she's been seeking for a while. It was a TikTok kick. TikTok. It was a TikTok. What is this? Take a week. TikTok hit, but I don't think it did very well on the charts.

No. I mean, I think it was like, I think it peaked at like 61 or something crazy like that on the hot. But I don't define hits by what happens on the chart. That's not where I live. But I'm just saying, like, in terms of the way it sounds, it's a hit. Yeah. I think a meme can kind of kill a song or make it really annoying to me. And, you know, obviously with this song, people were posting on.

line, like, is somebody going to match my freak? And then they would, like, post their Netflix queue or something. I can't match that. Yeah. And, but there's something about that kind of collective interpretation of that line, is somebody going to match my freak that turn this song into one of the most romantic songs of the year to me? I was like, yeah, on one level, is somebody going to match my freak? Like, yeah, you could read, you know, all sorts of dirty things into that. But I'm like, what does it mean to really match somebody's freak? Like, that's so romantic. Yeah.

Having somebody meet you where you are is like a really... Yeah, like and accept you for who you are and get on your level. I mean, the older you get your ideas of nasty and freak change. Because whenever I hear the word nasty anymore, all I think of is something like, oh, that's gross. What are you doing? That's so gross. but this song is so bare bones I think that's what I love about it

minimalism is kind of tenache's deal I think that's what's cool about it it feels so reflective of the music that she's always made but it's also a big step out of her comfort zone I think she's admitted that pretty frequently when promoting this song it feels different from some of her stuff

a lot of her stuff sort of hangs back it's not as forward No. But here, I mean, she is laying it all out. And I think in stepping into the limelight, she really sort of found the pop star ideal of herself that she's always been seeking without, like, having to play the game. So the song Nasty from Tina Shea that came out back in August on, what was that, August 16th from the album Quantum Bay. Quantum Baby. Oh, baby.

I said Bay. I said Bay. I did say Bay. Quantum baby. Well, I want to play something that is totally different and a complete shift in mood because it's just a devastating song. It's one from this band called Great Grandpa.

The song is called Kid. And just for some context going into it, Great Grandpa, it's a band from Seattle and singer Carrie Goodwin and the singer and guitarist Pat Goodwin. They're married. And this song is just gut-wrenching. Again, it's called Kid.

It's a one-off single that they did. And Pat and Carrie Goodwin, they experienced pregnancy loss, and they wrote this song about that. There's a hardened feel to your chest that makes real what's only news. It's just potential bound in mass fully come to. There's a water break in the main. He heard it trashed the interstate, pulled off four stops prior to home, Took a route we never do He said you're not.

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

That's sort of how it felt to me because the song goes in so many different directions. It has so many different kind of sonic shifts and, I love that idea in this song of like, you know, sometimes it takes time to figure out the meanings of things. And like, you might not know that immediately and you're still processing it. And there's something about this song and the directions that it takes and the different beats that it has that I just felt like I could hear that processing. Yeah, this is a song with acts. Like there are movements to this song. It's so shifty, but it's so gorgeous.

I mean, you have that almost like hide-and-seek opening, but then it bursts into like this symphonic movement. Moving in its portrayal of like navigating grief. I mean, it has this pair of lyrics where it sort of breaks out the duality of good things and dark things like both in time defining their meaning. Yeah, and one of the things that's so inspiring to me about it is that they balance that grief

with a kind of wisdom and appreciation. for the fact that they understand that everything really is just so fleeting and temporary. And, you know, the entire experience of being a human requires you to experience a certain amount of grief, along with the joy. Yeah. Just really, really beautiful. And, yeah, and to your point about all the shifts, Stephen Thompson at Imperial Music turned me on to the song, and we were talking about it. And I said, you know, if this were a little faster and about anything else, we'd be marveling at all the hairpin turns and all that just because there are so many incredible sonn.

I'm still marveling at them. This is the first new music from Great Grandpa, not Great Great Grandpa. This is the first new music from Great Grandpa. In five years, they had an album called Four Arrows that was out in 2019. Haven't heard anything about a new album coming from them next year, but that would be just wonderful. Hazel, what horribly dark, twisted, hard-edged, angular thing are you going to reach for? I'm leaving.

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

I am going to play a song that kind of blew me away when I first heard it this year. It is from the debut album by this band Echo Astral. They are a DC-based punk band. And the song that I want to play opens that album. It's called Head Empty Blues. It's so rare for me to hear a debut album from kind of a new. band, rising band, and think they're like fully formed. They have such a strong point of view and sound.

And that is what I felt listening to this song. Jail Holesman is the lead singer and she is so unbelievably charismatic and I just love listening to her. And this song is so dark. It's like basically about being stalked. But then it kind of takes these kind of irreverent turns where it's like, I'm thinking of the emoji where it's like, Like the eyes are crossed and the tongue is out the side of the mouth.

It's like, ha ha, ha. Like, the world is ending, but, like, I'm having so much fun. And I'm scared, but, like, whatever. Like, it has this really compelling mixture of LOL and, oh, my God, everything is so dark. Yeah, I mean, it's about being stalked by a very particular kind of guy, too. I mean, there's a lyric where she's like, is it Boniver or Bon Iver? I don't care. I'm getting stuck.

I've got stalkers outside not going out tonight. And it's like, yeah, like, who cares about the pronunciation of this thing? You are invading my personal space. Go away. Jail Holesman is so funny, too. I mean, yeah, rock's so hard. But, like, there's that. I think she says another point in the song is something about Molly Shannon.

Like, my brains bust like Molly Shannon. And there's the song Beethoven, we played that on All Songs Considered earlier in the year. And she paints this whole scene of completely losing it in an office, but it's an empty office on like a Friday afternoon and nobody's around. Yeah. You know, just that the image is so sort of comical. But the rage at the heart of it is so real, too. I mean, the stuff is so striking that she's saying, I'll be buried alive before I ever find a friend. Like, oh, my goodness.

God. I know, but it feels like a song for people who are at one. And maybe I'm speaking for myself. I'm like, it's a song for people. I can just say myself. Who are like oftentimes, you know, boiling with rage at the state of the world. And then also can hold at the same time in your head

that we are just on a spinning rock. Yeah. And nothing matters. Yeah, yeah. Isn't that so fun? I mean, that's my jet. That's everything that I love in life. It does, it does feel like that's like half the energy.

So Echo Astrol, the song Head Empty Blues, from the album Pink Balloons, they name check on that song, came out all the way back on April 17th. Sheldon, how do you follow that up? Well, I'm going to take us in a completely different direction with A Rouge Aftab's Rat Kirani. A friend of the show, our colleague Lars Gottrich, called this album a Shadei tribute in the best. ways, which is funny, because she has expressed displeasure with that kind of characterization over the years

saying that that's not good. Like, you shouldn't sound like anybody else. But then she makes this record. This record is very Jardé, come on. It's got a very quiet storm energy. Her voice is very, very similar. Oh, yes. And I think it's even pushing into that

same kind of, like, I don't want to say smooth jazz, although Chade did. have a saxophone. Late night. It's late night, late night music. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's very clearly like pivoting in that direction, which is interesting. But I love her in this mode. There's something so arresting about the way that her voice almost feels suspended in this song. Yeah. Yeah. There's such a warmth to this song. And her voice is just so unbelievably light. Like it's just so airy and gorgeous.

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

Yeah, I mean, we got a lot of music this year that straddles enough sonic universes that it makes it very hard to categorize. I would put this, you know, and particularly a lot of music that straddled ambient worlds and jazz and global sounds. And I would definitely put this one from a Ruzovtub, Night Rain, near the top of the list. So I wasn't sure how much music we'd get to, but we're moving at a pretty good clip here. So let's just all do one more pick. I have got one that I really did not see coming this year.

It's from Laura Marling. The song is called Patterns. It's from her new album, Patterns and Repeat, that came out in October. And I say I didn't see it coming because, I mean, Laura Marling had largely fallen off my radar, I think. I haven't been listening to a lot of straight-up singer-songwriters. And this song from her, I think, is just breathtaking. But your friendly nose hangs around. You still ever by,

The ground can fly with ever more relief. And repeat. Oh, it's just so lovely. And I am a sucker for that drop-D tuning that she's doing on the guitar, on the nylon string guitar, classical string guitar, very Nick Drake. It works so beautifully. But really, her lyrics and her observations are what really get me. She has this great way, I think, of coming at topics and themes. She kind of comes at them a little sideways, you know, not too straight on, but in a way that also still feels very plain spoken.

Motherhood is sort of one of the most powerful topics and artists can explore in general. But I think what is so singularly striking about this song is the way that it feels, it's just slightly offbeat a little bit in the way that she approaches the subject. It's all building towards this image of the cyclical nature of life, how it's all bigger than us, but how we are all like also a part of the intimate fabric of that, just the duality of like the universal and the personal is so, so gorgeous. I covered this album for New Music Friday when it came out, and like you, Robin, I hadn't really thought about Laura Marling in a bit.

Like, I hadn't kept up with her work, and I heard this song, and I was like, oh, man, I love Laura Marley. Right? She's so good. And she wrote and recorded most of these songs right next to her daughter after she had been born. And I think it really does feel like the kind of, of song that you come to when you've brought life into the world and you're thinking about things

like family and time and like the changing shape of your existence and there are so many kind of powerful images and turns that this song takes and i just think it's it's really beautiful she could have gone so many different directions with this song right and i think one of the other the things that works so well for me with this song is how she invokes the passing of time. She could just sort of sit back and marvel at the miracle of life, right? But she weaves this little thread of melancholy in there, this reminder that this is, you know, a cycle. She has this closing line in particular about how time seems to speed up as you get older. You know, it just disappears from you and slips away from you faster.

and faster. She says, and now the time leaps by and starts to fly. That is a deep understanding to come to as a parent. And I think actually a lot of parents would say that they come to realize that pretty quickly after, you know, they've had kids. But still, just so beautiful. I mean, I honestly, I could listen to Laura Marling, seeing the instructions to an airline vomit bag. It's just like, you know, and it would be gorgeous. And I'd say, play it again. Oh, Laura Marling. Yeah, I'm with you, Hazel. I love Laura Marling. So glad to have her back. And, you know, in our defense, her first music

in a few years, it's been a minute since we'd heard from her patterns and repeat the album that came out October 25th. All right, Hazel, you're up next. What's your last pick? Well, we just heard that beautiful, quiet Laura Marling song and now it's back to me and I'm like, get your coat on. We're going to go party again. What's wrong with you? Why are you sitting there? Get your coat. Get up. I want to play what I think is the most important film score of the year. Yeah, I'm going to go on record. I'm going to say, I've seen a lot of movies this year. I've listened to a lot of scores and I think this is

the most important music to come out of movie this year. It is the score for the Luca Guadne. movie Challengers by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and this is sort of the main kind of song of the score called Match Point. So for people who have not seen Challenger's, it is a movie about a very sexy, sweaty love triangle that takes place in the upper echelons of professional tennis, and there are all of these matches in the movie

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

And it had a life outside of the movie that I think is very, very, very rare for a score to do. I mean, I danced in clubs and at DJ sets to this song multiple times for the summer. And people were living it up and loving it. And I just think that it is, it's great dance music on its own. I really do. I was listening to this score long before I saw the film, and I have since seen the film. But, you know, I mean, anytime Trent Reson, and Atticus Ross put on new music, I immediately listened to it.

This reminds me of what they did for the social network, because they don't always do this sort of thumping synth heavy music. They can get very quiet and beautiful, and they have a real range. But this is very specifically similar to social network, and that it does have that pulse to it, but there is just this very deep thread of absolute dread. I think that runs through all of this music, Because there's this tension in the story, just like there was this tension in the social network. I mean, you know, like social network's like, yeah, man, we're all getting rich and we're making this thing that's going to change the world.

But the music said, you know, and the music was like, yeah, dun, done, done. But under it all was like, yeah, but. And there's a big, yeah, but to challengers, too. I still have not seen this movie, but I do love this song. And I think it's exactly because of what you're talking about, Robin. There is this, I mean, it is a true dance track, right? There's almost a trance aspect to it. But there's also something like foreboding about it.

This song just builds really incredibly in a way that is, I feel like more so than the score for social network, like really designed to get you tense. All right. Matchpoint was the cut from Challengers, the Challenger score that came out in April, came out on April, 26. And as I always say, way more music than we could ever fit on a single show. The list of 124 songs that NPR music put up is out in the world. You can see that on the NPR website along with the 50 Best Albums. And if you missed our two-part conversation about the best albums of 2024, that's already gone out into the podcast feed as well. But let's do one more before we go. And Sheldon goes to you. Yeah, I think we're going to go off on the radio head. Go off? We're going to go off on this. Yeah.

We're going to go out. We're going to go out on the show's ending after the song. The whole program is ending. We had a great run. Thank you. It's been 25 years. Sweet ride. The radio head side project, the smile had.

Can you call it that now? It feels like this is the main gig now, but. I mean, I don't even know, yeah. Listen, I don't want the lawyers. I don't want the lawyers coming after me. And I don't want the, the, the, the, the, the reditors coming after me either. So, so for now, it's still the Radiohead Side Project. They, they had a really busy year, surprisingly.

I mean, they released a record at the top of the year that I love, Wall of Eyes, in January, and came back. They weren't done and released another in October called cutouts. And the standout from that second record is, Don't get me started. Robin, I know you love this song, as much as I do. You wrote about it for the list of songs. What do you love about it?

I do love this song. You know, I think that it's very easy to get lost in all the production on this. But they're making some, I think, pretty acute observations about the age of blame. Yeah. The age of what aboutism, you know, finger pointing. You know, nobody wanted to take responsibility for anything. The way that Tom York just keeps insisting. over and over in this song.

You know, that the real problem here is that you just don't understand him. You know, you don't get me. You know, this song is all about, it's not me, it is you. Yeah. You are the problem. But there's, at the same time, there's this thing, like, did you guys see the Station 11, the TV adaptation of Station 11? Did you see that?

I started it. I didn't finish it. So, and I mention it specifically instead of the book because there's a line in the TV show that I read the book and I don't think it's. in the book. But there's this great recurring line in the show where someone says, to the monsters, we're the monsters. And that is what I kept thinking of while listening to this song is you see all these monsters in the world, but to the monsters, you are the monster. I totally agree. I mean, there's this sort of ghost in the machine aspect of this song sonically that makes me feel like

it is representative of, to your point, the phenomenon of being an avatar, unlocked. that can't be fully known by your entire audience or everybody who's coming, the constant feedification of our lives for like lack of a better term and then context collapse. And this idea that, listen, you can't understand who I am at URL from a distance. It's about deflecting viewership away from him. Like, don't perceive me. The choose someone else feels like the key. aspect of this song.

Get away. When you're thinking about the way that his voice sounds, like how it seems to go in and out of phase, it's almost translucent in some moments. It's like, I don't want to be perceived by you, much less be villainized by you. So go somewhere else, dude, somewhere else. You don't get me.

Maybe you never will. So spend your time somewhere else. It's been a great 2024, everybody. You should fade our vocals out like this. So we'll go out on this from the smile from their album cutouts. Their second of 2024, this one came out in October. Thanks so much to both of you, Sheldon, Hazel. Thanks so much for having me.

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