NPR Music - The Contenders, Vol. 20: The Beths, Dustin O’Halloran, Nicholas Payton, more

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

We’ve got six must-hear songs to add to our running list of the year’s best tracks, including some shredding from The Beths, a gorgeous solo piano piece from Dustin O’Halloran, sublime jazz from Nicholas Payton and more.Featured artists and songs:1. The Beths: “No Joy,” from ‘Straight Line Was A Lie’2. Nate Smith & Saje: “Big Fish,” from ‘Live Action’3. Dustin O’Halloran: “Gold” (Single)4. Dara Starr Tucker: “Pure Imagination,” from ‘Time Wouldn’t Wait’5. Grumpy: “Crush,” from ‘Piebald’6. Nicholas Payton (with Esperanza Spalding and Karriem Riggins): “Let It Ride,” from ‘Triune’Weekly reset: A late-summer day at the playgroundEnjoy 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] up for the Pod Club newsletter: www.npr.org/podclubSee 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

Hey, everybody, just a quick note before the show. I know it can feel impossible to find your next favorite podcast, and we're so glad that you're here listening to All Songs Considered. But when you want to switch it up, check out NPR's Pod Club newsletter. Sign up, and you'll get fresh podcast recommendations every week handpicked by the people that live for this stuff. You can subscribe for free using the link in today's show notes or at npr.org slash podclub. All right, it's all songs considered. NPR's long-running place for music discovery and super fandom. I'm Robin Hilton, and back with me here after way too long is Kiana Faircloth.

Hey, Kiana. Hey, Robin, it's good to be back. It's been a minute. You know, back when I was hosting New Music Friday, we used to gab about music together all the time. We sure did. It has been a minute. Yeah, what have you been up to? So I have been, you know, going from festival to festival hosting jazz concerts around town in the country and things like that. And, you know, of course, producing my podcast, Artemis C. on DC Radio.

And I actually produced a limited series called Jazz Beyond Tradition, which aired on WJCT during Jazz Appreciation Month. So I've been sticking around on the scene and staying pretty busy, I'd have to say. So this is one of our contenders episodes. We keep a running list of the year's best songs. We start in January every year, and we just keep adding to it as the year marches on these contenders episodes. It's where we update that list with the latest cuts that we love so much. They could end up on our final best of the year lists. We've got a whole bunch of music that we want to play this week.

Is it cool if I just kick things off with this kind of like a quick short burst of noise here? Let's do it. So this is from The Beths, a band called The Beths. If you don't know them, they're from New Zealand. We've been following them since their debut album. It came out in 2018. They did a tiny desk a couple of years ago that you should totally check out. They've been having a great year.

And I think kind of picking up steam with what I think is the best album that they've done so far. It's their fourth album. It's called Straight Line Was a Lie. And the song I want to play is No Joy. No Joy, Keanu. So maybe this isn't much of a surprise since the song is called No Joy. joy. Yeah. But it's a song very much about depression. But, you know, not really just about depression, but kind of about the lack of finding joy in things, you know, like even after

you've treated your depression and you've kind of come out on the other side of it. What's interesting is that I watched the video for this one and it has such a playful vibe. She's like in a kindergarten classroom. It looks like finger painting and playing with clay. But it reminds you that, you know, those things that we enjoy so much the simple things as kids. now as adults, we don't find so much joy in them in the same way. So I just think it's an interesting paradox this song. Yeah, so that's Elizabeth Stokes. She's the lead singer of the band. She said that she, you know, so she was going through it, and she said that she got medicated for her depression, and that it really helped. Like, she felt a lot better, but that she didn't find joy in the

same things that she did before, or in the same ways. It kind of flattened her out a little bit. Yeah. And so I think that one of the epiphanies, she had while working on this song and this album, is that progress is not a straight line, which is sort of where we get the album title, Straight Line was a Lie. And she realized that life is really, it's about maintenance. It's definitely about maintenance.

And I think now, especially, you know, with everything that's going on in the world, we're just trying to maintain as a people, everyone. So I think, you know, the sentiments behind this track and this entire album, which I love, really speaks to that. Yeah. I was going to ask you what you thought because I know you're a real jazz head,

but if this was something you vibe with at all. Absolutely. Although I am a jazz head, I do appreciate, you know, all types of music. So you don't want to see my playlist because it's really schizophrenic, honestly. I think I do want to see your playlist now. But no, I really do relate to the lyrics of this song especially. But the whole vibe of the album for me, I think, is one that, you know, we can all slip into and just slip away in, which I love.

Yeah. Well, like I said, I think this is the best album that they've done. The Beth's straight line was a lie. Just came out at the end of August. Yes. I did bring some jazz today, but this particular track from Nate Smith really feels like a fusion, sort of alternative jazz.

This track that we're going to listen to features the vocal group Sage. What's interesting about this album to draw that sort of nostalgic connection is that when Nate made it, he wanted it to sound like he was recording to a cassette in his bedroom. And so that sort of brings back those memories of, you know, sitting in your room, listening to music as a teenager. And so this tune is called Big Fish. So Nate Smith with Sage, tell me about Sage. Their voices are incredible.

Right? Really, Sage, for me, has one of those vocal blends that is just one of the best out there right now. The group consists of Sarah Gazzaric, Amanda Taylor, John A. Kendrick, and Aaron Bentledge. And you've seen them separately on Tiny Desk throughout the years, singing background for folks and things like that. Their voices are so homogenous. And the way it just floats over Nate's beats here really makes the song sounds like a dream sequence. But then somewhere in the middle is sort of breaks into this dance beat that makes you want to just get up and hit the dance. and then it gets right back into that dream sequence.

Yeah. It's such a great late-night album, like, where everything is starting to get a little hazy. A little fuzzy, a little bleary eye. You haven't cashed out yet, though. You know, like, kind of to your point about it's got these great laid-back vibes, but also this really a resting kind of momentum to it. It's both super chill and always moving. Exactly.

But it's interesting about Nate is that he has this signature sound that, like you said, is both chilled and laid back, but at the same time, it's sort of jumping at the same time. He really masters that. Have you ever seen any of his tutorials that he had posts online, his drumming tutorial, or rhythm, they're kind of music tutorials, drumming, polyrhythm tutorials? He's a genius. It just seems like he's really, something else is going on in his head there. Because you listen, he's so in the pocket. But when he talks about kind of his approach to music and everything, he says he never counts anything out. He's never counting any rhythms. It's all just feel. Yeah.

And you can tell that it's just innate in him. You know, that beat is just something. The pocket is within him. So Nate Smith with Sage and Sage's S-A-J-E and the song Big Fish from the album Live Action came out in August. All right. We've got more tunes on the way along with your weekly. reset at the end of the show, so keep listening for that. And a reminder, if you enjoy the show, tell a friend, share it with them, leave us a review on Apple Music or Spotify or wherever you listen

to podcasts. I want to completely change gears here. Do you know Dustin O'Halloran? Do you know that artist? Well, you hit me to him and I've actually fallen in love. Oh, it's very easy to fall in love with his music. It goes down so easy. One of my all-time favorite piano, and ambient and instrumental composers. He's put out a bunch of solo stuff over the years, but some people probably know him for the work that he does in the band, a winged victory for the Sullen. He's also done a bunch of film scores, including a couple this year.

He did one that was directed by Scarlett Johansson, a film called Eleanor the Great, and he also did the latest Bridget Jones movie, which is kind of a disconnect there. Bridget Jones and the music I normally associate with Dustin O'Halloram. But he also put out a couple singles just in August. And the one that I want to play is so gorgeous, so calming. It's called gold.

How do you feel? Are you in a better place now? I am. I'm feeling centered and haunted at the same time. I think that's a good way to describe a lot of the music, Dustin O'Halloran does. It can center you and haunt you at the same time. I actually feel like there's kind of some similar.

similarities between this Dustin O'Halloran and the Nate Smith in that Nate Smith said that, you know, when he recorded the album Live Action, he really kind of stripped things back. He was all analog. He didn't do a whole bunch of takes. It was all played live, you know, nothing programmed. And I think part of Nate's goal was that he just wanted something uniquely human and real, you know, nothing too manufactured.

And so last year, Dustin O'Halloran, he put out an album called 1001, which is sort of about living in the age of AI and what it means to be human when everything around you is increasingly artificial. So this song, Gold, is Dustin O'Halloran's reply to that. It was improvised, done in one take, and that was it. I'm sort of seeing a theme here, because it feels like all of these artists are wanting to go back to a simpler time. hearken that nostalgic feeling that we have when things were just simpler. And so I'm saying that in this playlist in general, and we'll see more of that as we share more music here. Yeah.

The song, again, from Dustin O'Halloran, is called Gold, and he released that at the end of August, along with another song that's also really beautiful. You should check out. It's called Red. But to your point, I know this next cut that you want to play, Kiana taps into sort of childhood wonder. and imagining sort of that magical time in life. Yeah, it's the singer Dara Star Tucker, and she has an amazing take on Pure Imagination from the classic film, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Come with me, and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you'll see into your imagination. We'll begin with a spin Traveling in a world of my creation What you see will defy Explanation Paradise Simply look around and view it

You want to change the world There's nothing to it There is no life I know That compares with pure imagination Living there, you'll be free If you truly wish to be with me In a world Take a look

And you'll see Into your imagination We'll begin with a spin Traveling in a world of my creation What you see We'll defy explanation Paradise Simply look around

If you do it You want to change the world There's nothing to it There is no life I know That compares with pure imagination Living there You'll be free If you'll be

One of my all-time favorite songs, Kiana. Really? I didn't know that going in. Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, I come to melody first, I've always loved the words to this song. But I think the melody in this song in particular, one of the all-time greats. Absolutely. You know, what's interesting about Dara is that most people discovered her through her viral TikTok series called The Breakdown. She has, I want to say,

over a million followers on TikTok, and she gives these takes on politics and culture. But at heart, first for her is that she's a singer and she came out of the Nashville music scene. And she's even a brilliant songwriter. She helped write the Grammy-winning title track from the album, Oklahoma, by Ketmo. So she's out there doing her thing. She's so talented, so brilliant. And I think she's bringing folks into her music even more so because of her viral video series. Well, one of the things that's really interesting about her take on this song to me is it's, you know, it's been done so many times.

It's been interpreted and covered so many times. My favorite will probably always be Gene Wilder's version. Yeah. You know, it's sweet and it's innocent, but maybe just because of the film it's featured in and the world the song inhabits. And also just the wonderful weirdness of Gene Wilder. His version, it just has such a hint of strange to it that I love. This version, it's one of the brightest I've ever heard. It's like all joy, all innocence.

It is. And it really evokes that soulful and intimate feel. which gives it more of a, I guess, an adult take to it, which is kind of cool, because again, we're sort of, if we're getting back to that theme, you know, of nostalgia and going back to things that are simpler, I think it's cool that she's taken the song and really made it her own and put that sort of adult touch on it while also, you know, harkening back to those soundtrack that we love from the classic movie. So Darah Star Tucker, pure imagination from the album Time Wouldn't Wait. Do you ever listen to a newly discovered band just because of its name? Like, just the name alone is enough to get you to listen? Definitely. I do it all the time.

And in fact, one of them is a band called Grumpy. Perfect band name. Definitely. Captures the sentiment of the moment for me. My wife says I have early onset Grumpy Old Man Syndrome. Oh, no. Yeah. And I said, there's nothing early about it at all.

It's been hearing me all the time. Thanks. The grumpiness was in me the whole time. Yes, grumpy. And, you know, more often than not, when I listen to a band just because of its name, I end up loving them. And so when I saw Grumpy and I saw that they have this new EP coming out, I listened to some of the singles that are out. And sure enough, I absolutely loved it. The EP is called Piebald.

And the song I want to play from it is called Crush. What were you saying about the best song, something like it took you back to the 90s or something like that? Right. Just as this does. Yeah, this totally does. I agree. Some great late summer vibes to it too, I think. Haven Schmidt's voice is angelic on this one. It really is. And the lyrics just bring you back to when you had that crush, you know, as a teenager. and you know you're a giddy and kind of nervous at the same time. I think it's, again, that theme of nostalgia. I don't know if we even planned that, Robin.

No, I mean, it happens all the time. All these themes always emerge. It's almost like we pick all the songs specifically for the themes. Right. But have you seen the video for this song? It's very strange. I haven't. Oh, so you mentioned Heaven Schmidt.

This is mostly Heaven Schmidt's project. And in the video, they appear as something. some sort of bizarre sea creature. It takes place on a beach. And they're kind of creeping around on this beach where these sunbaters are lying out in the sun, but they all have fish heads. Oh, wow. It's very hard to describe. It's very weird. But the weirdness of it all is what really drew me in, too. Yeah, absolutely. And the innocence at the same time is sort of strained and quirky. Well, yeah, I think Heaven Schmidt has a great sense of humor.

Yeah. It's a little bent in ways that I love. And I think that's another reason this works so well for sure. So this EP from Grumpy, again, is called Piebald. It is out at the end of the month on September 26th. But Kiana, I know you've got one more that you want to play for us. Yes, Nicholas Payton featuring Esperanza Spalding and Corremian Riggins. This tune is called Let It Ride is from their album Triune, which is really a reunion for them.

You know, I talked about the hint of Strange and the Gene Wilder version of Pure Imagination. This song, I think, from Nicholas Payton, I think it has a hint of the Strange in it in a great way. It does. He does that very well. This group has reunited. Back in actually 2010, they were a quartet, but on piano they had Taylor Aixie. And so Nicholas had been saying that he had just been trying to get this group together, but they just couldn't get their schedules right. but the stars aligned and they came together on this record. And it really feels like they've picked up where they've left off on this one. So we'll go out on this. Nicholas Payton, again with Esperanza Spalding and Creameriggins,

the song Let It Ride from Triune. Kiana Faircloth, so great to see you again. Thanks so much for hanging out and sharing all these great tunes. Absolutely. Great to be back here, Robin. Thank you. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered.