NPR Music - The year’s best songs (so far)

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

It's the midway point of 2026, and it's safe to say that when it comes to the best songs of the year, there's not really any consensus to be found. So we’ve assembled our personal Top 10 list of the most memorable songs to cross our paths, from the outlaw country of Charley Crockett to the glam rock of Friko, Lana Del Rey’s twisted ode to love, Vince Staples' "White Flag" and more.NPR Music’s Sheldon Pearce joins host Robin Hilton.Featured artists and songs:(00:00) Intro(01:38) Mandy, Indiana: “try saying”(05:09) Aldous Harding: “Coats”(09:28) Vince Staples: “White Flag”(14:25) Yebba: “Yellow Eyes”(18:04) Friko: “Seven Degrees”(22:01) Charley Crockett: “Kentucky Too Long”(26:03) Lana Del Rey: “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter”(32:07) Baby Rose: “Friends Again" (feat. Leon Thomas)(37:59) Mumford & Sons: “Rubber Band Man" (feat. Hozier)(42:58) Irreversible Entanglements: “Don’t Lose Your Head" (feat. MOTHERBOARD)Reviews help! Leave us one on Apple or Spotify 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

This episode of all songs considered comes to you from the NPR Music Podcast. We've got new drops, new episodes of the show for you in the feed every Tuesday. You will also find Alt Latino every Wednesday, and we close out every week with New Music Friday. NPR Music, also, where you will find Sheldon Pierce. Hello. Sheldon, are you ready to say what the definitive, unimpeachable, best songs of the year are so far? I'm running to do something like that, I guess. Maybe something a little less definitive, perhaps?

That's what we're going to attempt to do anyway. Well, maybe not so definitive. We're going to at least share what our picks are. We're doing the best we can. It's a deep field. It is a very deep field. Have you seen other lists? Have you been spending any time with all the others?

I've browsed some. I generally don't like to look at mid-year lists. I like to go to end-of-year lists to really see what stuck with people over the course of the year. I find that historically a lot of stuff that ends up on mid-year lists will fall off towards the end of the year. Maybe some of that is like recency bias. Should we not do this? Was this a mistake? No, I think the real point of mid-year list is to get the conversation going.

Yeah. Yeah, I just think it's good to hit the stop button for a minute. Just stop down and try to appraise. Yeah, where are we? I've gone through lots of lists and I will say the one thing I have noticed is zero consensus. Yeah. No, literally, like everyone's got a different top 10, different number one. And that's true for us here too.

We're not ranking these. We each brought some stuff and we'll share what we're loving. But I think that's why I'm not going to sweat, starting with a band that very few people have even heard of, probably. Yeah. It's a band called Mandy Indiana, and they dropped an album that, one of my favorite albums of the year so far, it's called Erg. Yeah. Mandy, Indiana, not a real place. This is a band from the UK.

super noisy, almost industrial kind of sound that, I don't know, it's the kind of sonic thrill ride I'm always happy to take. The song that I want to play is called Try Saying. Honey, is that you? Is that? Is that? When that bass hits and that backbeat hits, this song is so cool.

This is one that Dora Leavitt in Impure Music turned me on to. Played it on the show back in February when it came out. This is actually one of the Tamer songs on the whole album. Yeah. They love dissonance, obliterated noise, very twitchy. Yeah. Love it. I was going to ask, is the clarity the reason that this one has stuck with you of the other songs on this record?

Yeah, it's the most infectious to me. Okay. I mean, it's kind of hooky. I mean, and I think that's one thing that I really love, when a band can take noise like this and somehow make it feel really, like, really get its hooks into you, and you're just grooving and you want to move. I think sleigh bells, the band Slay Bells, 100 Gecks,

death grips, somewhat, you know, a little bit of death grips, like model actress, those kinds of bands. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting because I was curious to hear why this song in particular, The album is one of the defining albums of the year for me. Oh, okay. And I wouldn't have thought to grab a particular song from it. It sounds like such a crazy soundscape that is constantly shifting.

It feels like everything is of a larger piece. But now hearing you talk about it, honestly, it rips. I think everything on this record rips. But to the point of accessibility, if you were going to try to play something from this record to try to draw somebody into it, it would be this song. There is something about it that just really grabs you.

So this song from Mandy, Indiana, and the album, Urg, which is up there for our album title of the year, maybe for me. Erg. The song is Tri-Sane, and that came out on February 6th. Yeah, I'm going to take it

in a bit of a different direction and go to another one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums of the year so far. The New Zealand indie folk singer-songwriter, Aldous Harding, returned with a new album. It's called Train on the Island. There's so much great music on this record. It goes so many different directions. It might be my album of the year so far.

What an incredible piece of music. But I want to play what I feel is the standout song from the record. It's called Coates. The thick My wave's hard But in the summer Where you walk in by Eat if you're next to me

On's due enough my instrument Lies where I'm coming Thick coats on the dogs of people Just trying to help Big thick coats on the dogs of people Just trying to help The shifts in this song Just blow me away

I mean it starts off so weird an alien and you're kind of content to camp out in this space. I mean, I'll go anywhere Aldous Harding wants to go. And then it just takes a sudden to shift into this almost conventional sort of ballady kind of, and then it shifts back again with all these weird little vocals going on in the background. I think she's a genius. Yeah, Aldous Harding, I think of as one of music's great character actors. Oh, interesting.

Every single one of her songs feels like she is performed. a specific kind of person. I feel like all of her songs are little worlds that I'm just getting stuck in. This one is such, it's so maze-like in the ways in which it draws you deeper into this world. And then even the hook, this strange turn of phrase that just like kind of wriggles around in your brain. Big thick coats on the dogs of people just trying to help. So what do you, yeah, what do you make of this song? I have been trying to puzzle out what is happening in this song.

I still do not have any sense of what is happening. I think that is one of the joys of her music. There's a crypticness to it. So much of it feels like surreal. When I go see a movie, I want some sort of completely unsatisfying, ambiguous ending that everyone else hates because it's, I'm going to think about it for days afterwards. And that's what her music is in a way.

It's the kind of like, all right, hear this and it's just going to make my brain hum along for days. Just trying to consider. I think it, I think it maybe has something to do with like, these are broad strokes here, but like something about misplaced values, misplaced intentions, a misunderstanding of what a person needs in their life. I don't know. Something about like people just trying to help and they're, I guess they're putting big,

thick coats on their dogs or something. I don't know. It's everything layered on top of one another that really just creates an atmosphere that is kind of undeniable. So that was the song Coates. We featured one stop. That was another song on the record. We featured that one on the show earlier before the album came out. It came out on May 8th, the album, Train on the Island from Aldous Harding.

I got one that just came out. Well, relatively, it's a relatively recent release. And I think for me is a solid contender for album of the year. Vince Staples, the album Crybaby. The song I want to play, we featured on the show, I guess it's been about a month ago, but it's my favorite on the record, and I think definitely one of the best songs of the year so far.

The song is called White Flag. There's so many songs that I'd love to play from this album that I honestly just cannot play. Because a lot of people don't know that this show airs on the radio as well as on the podcast. And there are some language issues. But I feel this whole album is just, he takes such a huge swing across this album. And this song in particular, I think maybe is my favorite. Maybe for similar reasons to the Mandy Indiana song in that it's sort of the hookiest on it.

I think it's a great entry point for what he's doing on the record. thematically, musically. I don't know. We were kind of talking a little bit before the show about it, and you weren't feeling this Staples album as much as I thought you might. Yeah, I'm a big time Vince Staples fan.

There are a few artists that I've written about more than him. And this record, while I do appreciate it as a sort of like sonically ambitious swing for him, this is his first record off Def Jam on Loma Vista, so there is a clear intention to do something big, to do something different. I think lyrically, it feels a bit less sharp, less pointed than some of my favorite stuff of his.

But I mean, you think he's sort of softening some of his critiques? I don't even think it's that he's softening. I think there is, in an appeal to be heard, a bit more of a broadening of the scope of his songs. he has been known to be a sort of like evasive character in his songs who was kind of eluding any sort of outside definition of his music and for many years he was like my albums are whatever you want them to be like you can decide what they are i don't really care this album is a very clear intentional shift into here is what i'm saying and you need to hear what i'm saying

but with all that said i think even the worst vin staples album for me is a great Vince Staples album. I think he's like one of the defining rappers of his generation. This is so clearly like an Autour vehicle for him. Like you hear this and you're like, oh, he's really ready to embrace being one of the great sort of visionary thinkers. Yeah, I mean, it's a flex. He travels through so many different eras of music. You know, there's kind of punk rock elements and psych rock.

And there's this a song called The Bellows. Big Bad Wolf, it kind of sounds like this 80s era sort of rap, hip hop. Yeah, yeah. It's a little goofy. And then you got the song White Flag, which has this old school soul, almost kind of Motown sound to it. He very clearly wants to be viewed as a serious artist now. Before he was just like, he would say it all the time.

Music was just a thing that he was doing to get his bills paid. And now he is like, no, I want to make my mark. And I think you can't deny that that is fair. clear in this record. You know, it won me over on a personal level with him. I saw an interview one time and whoever was interviewing him said, why don't you ever have anybody over? He's like, why would I have anybody over? I'm like, thank you. Deeply relatable to you. I don't want anybody over at my house. Why would I do that? So Crybaby, the album from Vince Staples, that came out June 5th just at the top of June. All right, Sheldon, we're back to you. What do you got? Similar vein,

song by the singer Yeba from her album Gene, which came out back in March, a really beautiful record named after her grandmother that is sort of all about control and restraint and sort of finding yourself in the wake of tragedy. Yaba, if you know nothing about her, was for a long time known as like a singer's singer. She has a very big, beautiful, powerful voice. And on this record, she decided to pair it way down. I'm making the dial move here. I'm miming turning the dial down.

Yeah, she paired it way down. But in so doing, I think, found a new enriched quality in her songcraft. And I want to hear the single from this record. It's called Yellow Eyes. So much You're Unfurned to Over

Behind my Island And it's Like a little black butterfly Waiting on me So to survive I've tried this

For so long You're unfurnished It felt like a home And it seems like we No more I think I'm jealous So much great ear candy In this one too, man

I love all little thing, just these little things kind of flitting around from the left channel and right channel. And, you know, it's not too weird though, right? You know, there are lots of footholds. Yeah. I think it's a really beautiful turn for her. It is a music of small gestures compared to what she was doing before.

Yeah, that's great. There was a big sort of, like, showy aspect to her music in, like, displaying the raw talent that is very obviously there. This is so detailed in its minimalism, in her show of control, in the ways in which she just tugs on notes, the ways in which she navigates this very intricate soundscape that is very hushed, but like sort of pulling you towards the center of its sound. When you go this route, everything has to be so intentional and so perfectly, produced and selected.

Every decision matters. And I think she pulls it off beautifully. It's kaleidoscopic. And I love how she camps out in this space too. Like I kept waiting for some big drop or something. Right. And it never happens. But it's not a letdown.

I mean, it's great. Yeah, yeah. There's this clear, even releasing this song as the single told me that there was a clear intentionality to telling listeners. The YEBA that you knew before is not on this record. Well, I love this turn for her, the album Gene, and that's J-E-A-N-Gene. That came out March 6th. I've got another one that I, maybe, again, a ton of people don't really know.

But again, I'm picking songs, I mean, that I think are unequivocally the best of the year so far. Robin, it's your show. Nobody is going to stop you. I listened to this song, and I think that's fair to say, objectively, that it is one of the best songs of the year. It's from a band. called Freco, F-R-I-K-O-F-R-I-O-F-E-O, and we'll just hit it. It's a song called Seven Degrees. I wish we don't ever speak of five Six is just really new. I'll tell ya.

I wish we were playing full cuts because this one has such a great build to it. It really, basically becomes a lighters-up, Hey Jude, you know, big group sing-along song. But you hear, like, they are so good at this sort of psych-folk, glam rock, like late 60s, early 60s, early, early 70s sound, very T-Rex, Mark Boland sort of sound. It's funny because it's a play.

It's supposed to be a play on like the six degrees of separation theory. So Nico Capitan in the band, he always thought it was seven degrees to separate. Because of his dad. He just got it wrong. Yeah. He was just wrong. So he wrote seven degrees. But it is, yeah.

It's about the idea that we're all connected within six degrees of each day. And there are just like so many really sweet lines in here about like the ideas of being. not so distant from the furthest person on earth. Right. And I think of the song as sort of building its way through these connections to this big, we are the world kind of conclusion, right? Like, we are all connected, we are all one world. And even if you never meet that person,

you're not as far from them as you may think. I mean, that's a theme that I need to hear over and over again. That was the other thing. I heard this and I was like, this is a Robin Hilton song. We're all in this together. We're not going anywhere. Let's find a way to get along.

And yeah, we're all connected. So this is from Freco. When we featured it on the show, this song on the show back in February, we didn't know whether or not it was going to be a one-off or what, but we now know that the band

does have a full-length album. It came out in April on April 24th. The album was called Something Worth, waiting for, and the song Seven Degrees, again, from Freiko. I think I'm going to take it a bit of a different direction. All right. I guess this character from this song could be a kind of person that you are seven degrees

away from. The character is Billy McLean, a small-time cattle rustler. Yes. Finds himself in the crosshairs of the Santa Fe gang. I was so hoping you were going to play this song. And he's settled down from the law, but he's getting a little itchy. It's my favorite song from the album Age of the Ram, which came out back in April. It's Charlie Crockett's Kentucky Too Long.

And in Kentucky too long, I don't come here from Arkansas. Ain't running from no Johnny Law. Please believe me. Kentucky for my health. I don't came here for something else. Everybody knows that dry breath in Texas last week. That's when the things got bleed. Be careful of what you speak.

Might come find you. Talk to talk just this morning. They started shooting out without wanting. If it hadn't been for me sleeping. Kentucky too long. Making something out of nothing to... Please, please. believe me. I ain't in Kentucky for my health, man. This song is so awesome. I'm so glad you picked

this. So we played this on the show back in April and talked about it then. He's just like, what a great classic outlaw country sound. His storytelling. I mean, this is sort of the exact opposite of the All This Harding, right? It's a very clear narrative that he's unfurling here, but you just want to hear the whole story. I love this song so much, man. It's, It is so good, so clever, so funny. I love the cut to him being like, I didn't, I'm a bank robber, but I didn't rob this bank, I swear. And then he's in Big Sandy, the federal penitentiary, the next line. It's like, okay, I'm not sure I believe you.

But there is just like so much happening in this song. It is so groovy as well. so much fun to listen to. Charlie Crockett is so great at writing Outlaw characters who are kind of like bumbling and a bit. They're grifters, man. They're grifters.

He's so legit though, too. Like, this is not pretend Outlaw Country. Or dress up. Dress up country music or whatever. There are some artists sometimes when I hear their stuff or I see them live. And they're even like dressing the part and they're clearly trying to channel

or sort of play homage to a very specific era. And it just feels like cosplay or something. And I never get that from his stuff. There is such a clear reverence from the form. He like really lives and breathes this music. And I think that is why the character comes through so vividly in this song. Credible talent, prolific.

I count 16 albums since 2015. So about 16 albums in a decade along with, a couple of EPs and some other stuff. This one from Age of the Ram came out in April on April 3rd. Sheldon, you and I did this exact sort of episode, mid-year episode, around this time last year. Do you remember what we featured on that episode last summer? You're talking about Lonnie. Yeah, okay, I am.

Well, first of all, I'll say we featured Pink Pantherist, State Side. Perfume Genius, It's Amir. There was a hym song, Relationships. Man, that was everywhere at the time. Yeah. But yes, also, we featured last summer, Lana Del Rey, and we were speculating on the any day now album that has never come. And that song, by the way, was Henry Come On. I think that was one of your piece, wasn't one of your favorites from last year?

Here we are, year later. At this point, honestly, I've decided to quit waiting for an album. She seems content to just release these sort of one-off singles, and I'm happy to get whatever we can get. The song that she released earlier this year that I want to play and is definitely one of my favorites and I think one of the best of the year so far is called White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter. Here's my white feather hawk tail deer hunter likes to keep me cool in the hot breeze summer, likes to push me on the screen John Deer Moore. I know you wish you had a man like him.

It's such a bummer when I met him like an arrow like a bird in the heart like the Sparrow in the dark snap crackle pops bear a mesh he's just in my bone marrow everyone knows I had some trouble but I'm home for the summer and I wanted to know if I could use your stove to cook something up for you because you're positively voodo everything that you do Did you know exactly how magic who are? Whoopsie, Daisy, you, yelling, I love you. Out to my white feather, cocktail de lutter.

Take my head off the stove, yeah, you, dinner's almost done. Whoopsie, Daisy, you, I imagine you do. Oh, how absolutely wonderful that you are. This is another one that we played earlier in the year. I think you were on that show. And I think maybe I said this at the time,

but you know, with Lana, you never really know what you're going to get. But this is my favorite, Lana Del Rey, the very narrative-driven, sort of surreal, kind of David Lynchian, sort of universe of Lana Del Rey, kind of creepy, unsettling, and out of time. You talk about an artist who makes the kind of songs that make me think for a very long time about, what is she doing on this song,

and why this direction and, you know, how seriously should I take her? I mean, she is an artist that invites so much consideration for me. I don't remember. Was the jury kind of out for you at the time when we first played it? Yeah, I wasn't really sure about this song at the time. It has really grown on me since. Out of time is a good way to put all of her music. There is something like specifically very like almost charmingly haunted about this song in

particular. And I was sort of wrestling with in the midst of, you know, like the emergence of like trad-wifery. Well, that's the whole thing. I mean, like, this song is very trad-wife-coded, right? But it's very subversive, too. Yeah. I don't think that it's like she's making a statement about how this is the way things should be or whatever. Or, I mean, I don't even really know how to take exactly what she's saying on it. But where I've settled is there is something kind of curdled about it. Like, I mean, it's very clear in the lyrics that things haven't gone perfect for this relationship even, where she's like, we've had some trouble, but like, we're kind of sticking

together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're working through it, though. Yeah. I'm still with him, though. I think it's just like, there's something about her narratives that I never entirely trust. Yeah.

Which is great. I like that. It kind of keeps me on my toes. The ground is always sort of shifting beneath me. And at the same time, it's just the production and the music and her voice and the melody and all the different little elements coming in make it all so wondrous. It's just like I am completely lost in this. I don't think I can safely make any assumptions about this song. And there is like something bittersweet about all of this.

There's a fog pressing in from the edge of the frame even as she is talking about living this dream romance of hers. Yeah. You know, there was a lot of, I think, completely unfounded complaints or claims and criticisms of her early on about authenticity or what people saw as like a lack of authenticity. I think the exact opposite. I think she doesn't give one iota what people think or whether her music fits into any neat little category or, like, she is just so uniquely Lana Del Rey. And I think this song sort of exemplifies that. everything that she is, how she stands alone, how her music is authentically her, because she is the only person who can make it.

Like, there's nobody else who can do this. So that song, White Feather Hawk Tail, Deer Hunter, from Lana Del Rey, that came out back in February. On February 17th, she dropped another single this year that was actually for a video game, a James Bond video game. Did you hear that one? I haven't heard that one. Yeah, it's called First Light. It's a very James Bondi theme.

I think the story that I read at the time was that she always wanted to do a James Bond theme. And I think maybe even came close and it never happened. So she did it for this video game. Where do you want to go next, Sheldon? There is a kind of song that is eternal and a kind of artist who is singular. And when you get those two things that come together, it just makes for a specific kind of magic. It's the singer Baby Rose's duet with Leon Thomas' friends again. Any other singer who can deliver a knockout punch faster than Baby Rose, like, I mean, the second, the first note out, you're like, you're like, you swoon and fall over.

I'm sold. I mean, oh my goodness, what a voice. One of the singular voices in music right now. Oh, this century. Yeah, it's just, it's so undenched. The power that it holds the amount of control that she has over it. I mean, they're not reinventing the wheel on this song, right? This is this is tried and true. This is sole standards if there ever was one. But I think what really works about this is I can't imagine many people who could go toe to toe with her the way that Leon Thomas does. Yeah, another great perfect together. There is just truly a match made in heaven that is really sell. the friction of this song for me. You can feel them pulling together

even as they try to push each other away, and it's the magic of that that is really selling the illusion of this song for me. You know, we've gotten so much stuff here that we've played that's very forward-looking, sonically adventurous, lots of really cool production things going on. But also, you know, at the same time,

there's just such a love of classic, old-school, vintage sounds. You know, like, certainly this baby rose, but the Vince Staples, I think, you know, you've got that very old school soul. The Freiko song really looks back to glam rock. Even the Charlie Crockett is channeling a totally different era. But in all of these cases, they really make it come alive again in really fresh ways, I think. Yeah. There's nothing that feels reductive about it, nothing that feels retroactive. It all feels like a continuation.

right? There is an appreciation for what came before, but it is very, it's all very clearly rooted in the here and now. So the song Friends again from Baby Rose and Leon Thomas is from an album that actually isn't out yet. It's coming up real quick, though. It's called Another Great Title. Yeah. Urinalism. Really good. Urnalism, like yearning journalism, urnalism. It's out July 10th. So we've been assembling essentially a top 10 list here. We each brought five things and I think we each have one more thing that we want to play. Do you have like a number one? Is there a number one you'd pick out of all of these before we get to these last two? I'm not sure I have

a number one. Maybe, maybe Yeba would be my number one song right now, I think. To me, I think it's between Lana and Vince Staples. Okay. I think either of those, I could go either way. Yeah, you've, you seem really excited about the Vince. I, I, yeah, I am. I love. I love it. I'm, I love, that for you. I've probably listened to it more than any other full, like all the way through. Yeah. As an album album, probably more times so far this year than any other album. Well, as a member of both of those cults, I'm happy to have and receive you into them.

Well, we're leaving so much on the table here. As I said, I do have one more than I want to play, but do you have any honorable mentions that you want to just sort of rattle? off real quick. Yeah, some that really come to mind for me, and I was quibbling over as I was making this list, Olivia Rodriguez the Cure, Robbins, Talk to Me. There's a great song from the Gia Margaret album singing called Moon Not Mine that I find really moving. Yeah. The rapper Isaiah Rashad released a great record called It's Been Awful, and there's a song on there called Superficial. I mean, the list, it just feels like goes on and on and on. Like, we could do this show 10 more times and have 10 more variations of songs.

Yeah, I actually had a Giamarget song, too. Everyone around me is dancing. I really love that one. Francis of Delirium, It's a Beautiful Life. These are songs that we featured on the show. I think that you two song American Obituary. You were really feeling that when it came out. I think that's a fair contender for one of the years best so far.

I think several Noah Con Cuts, my favorite's Porch Light. jungles carry on. I like that James Blake song a lot. I had a dream she took my hand. But the one that I just decided to go with here, to play here, and again, I just picked because I think, you know what, I mean, I do love it. But I really think this is undeniably a great song. And perfectly executed, start to finish, it's infectious, it's thoughtful, it's moving, and it's a very easy song to listen to. It's from Mumford and Sons. It's the song, Rubber Band Man. Losing And the beggars start

Choosing the chaos in your head It calls the cracks to start Showing, all knowing All blowing with the light of it Dying To raise the day It takes this song About 30 seconds to go from

This quiet, introspective, thoughtful song To we're just A total euphoria, we're sore through the clouds. The look on your face right now says not a big Mumford and Suns fan, Sheldon. We talked about this one before. I need you to sell me again. Oh, come on, man.

I mean, it is, people have a knee-jerk reaction to this band. I think they say, oh, it's Stomp, clap. And as soon as they hear Stomp, clap, they think, I'm out. Not having it. And to be fair, there are definitely elements of that in the song, and it crosses up. I get it. It's very earnest music. But it's so joyful.

There's so much community in it. It's an earworm of a song. There's real heart to it. There's love and passion. And it's an emotional journey. I love the way it rises and falls, but ultimately just takes you into the clouds. Like I said, just soaring.

And these are good things. Sheldon, I think I said that the last time we talked. These are good things. I appreciate how much you love this song. I, I, oh God. It's like, well, I'm sorry you feel that way. Yeah, okay. I, I, I, there's just something.

Is it overly earnest? Is that it? It's just too earnest. Yeah. It's two on the nose. Yeah, there's, there's too much hard on the sleeve feelings to me in a way that feels almost trite at times. And, and to a certain, to a cynic like me feels a bit corny, honestly.

Okay. Well, cynicism is poison. We were just talking about this before. We were just talking about this before the show. Right before we should have been recording that conversation. I am an earnest person largely. I can be kind of cynical. And I think there, you know, if I'm being totally honest,

there is a part of me when I hear songs like this that I think, oh, this is kind of corny. And I don't want to, but I can't help it. It's just too good. It's too good of a song. And that's why I say, you know, I really, really waffed. on this pick on this one.

It was the last one I picked for this episode for the best of year so far. It was on our preview show back in January as an album that I was excited about. And I think that I had the same reaction

then. It's like, you know, I've got to admit, I can't help it. It's too good. It's too good. What do you want me to do? And that, if nothing else,

is what I really like about this and the show is because it was like you were doing everything to try to fight your nature, not to put the song on this list, but you just could not help yourself.

Yeah. You were like, this song is one of my songs. And I think that's great, honestly. Listening to rubber band man, it's big, like, arms outstretched, embrace. I totally see what you see in it. Let's go. That's like, I'm ready for this journey.

You can take me there. Let me tell you, they came in for a tiny desk too. genuinely the nicest guys on the planet. Yeah. The kindness just radiated from them. They were just so great to be around. The energy was wonderful. And Marcus Mumford's voice in the tiny desk space was incredible.

Everyone should check that out, the tiny desk online. They closed with this song, by the way. And I told them afterwards, I smell record of the year. I wouldn't be surprised. 100% going to be nominated. Yeah. So Rubber Band Man from the album, again, Price Fighter from Mumford and Sons.

But Sheldon, you get to take us out. Yeah, I'm going to do a song that is also sort of about community from one of my favorite albums of the year. It's by the free jazz collective irreversible entanglements, which has been around for about a decade, but has just started releasing albums on Impulse. It's led by the spoken word poet and musician Kameh Ayua, also known as Moormother. Pretty much anything that Moor Mother does, I am on board with.

I think she is one of the great experimental artists of the 2010s and 2020s. And the song that I want to play is from the band's new record, Future Past, Present. It's called Don't Lose Your Head. It's a mix of atmospheric jazz and global music and, of course, more mother's signature spoken word. It's about liberation and fighting the good fight, but it's also just so groovy, so rich. There are so many, like, awesome transitions in this song, especially for how short it is. And it's really been one of my standouts. Well, I love how we're closing the show out here because, you know, we could have gone with maybe Olivia Rodrigo.

Yeah. You know, Taylor's got a new song out right now. Ella Langley's really been dominating the charts. But we're going to go out on some free jazz. Yeah, I get the impulse to think big, to think universal, to think about the centerist music fan. I understand that free jazz is not everyone's type of tea. Go to them all. Free jazz may be a bit of a tough sell for some people.

But I think even for the most skeptical jazz cynic, there is almost like a groove forward funk energy to this song that can probably be appreciated. Well, we'll go out on this. Irreversible entanglements, the song, don't lose your head. Sheldon Pierce, always a great hang. Thanks so much for having me. It's all songs considered,

from NPR music Don't lose your head messing with the cause Don't lose your head Messing with the foundation for the generation It's time to organize and plan Inspiration for your creation

The people will overstand It's time to stand for liberation They try to take our land It's time to stand for liberation We know that they got their plan Where will they stop the execution? Where will they stop the persecution? We know that they got their plan.

We know that they got their plan. The people will rise and stand.