The Contenders, Vol. 1: The songs we can't stop playing this week

All Songs Considered

NPR

Music

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

A new year means a new running list of our favorite songs, from the transfixing voice of Anna B Savage and FKA Twigs' moody club beats to the '80s-influenced rock and pop of Sharon Van Etten and more.

Featured artists and songs:
1. Ela Minus: "Broken," from DIA
2. Anna B Savage: "Lighthouse," from You & i are Earth
3. Horsegirl: "2468," from Phonetics On and On
4. Miya Folick: "This Time Around," from Erotica Veronica
5. FKA Twigs: "Perfect Stranger," from EUSEXUA
6. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: "Afterlife," from S/T

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Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: allsongs@npr.org

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hazel, is there no sign of snow in New York? Did you have any trouble getting in?
0:04.4	I got in just fine. There were little flakes, little flurries when I got in, but nothing crazy.
0:11.1	When I moved here from the Midwest, anytime there was a flurry, schools were canceled, roads closed.
0:18.3	And I just thought, oh, this is ridiculous. But this is, this is legit. It took me
0:21.9	a while to get in. It was very treacherous. This is a legit storm. I'll, I'll give it that.
0:27.9	Are you ready to lash yourself to the mast and ride out whatever 20, 25 has in store for us?
0:34.1	I think I have no choice. I think I have no choice, but I'm ready. Yeah. I'm ready.
0:38.0	Yeah. Yeah. Well, who knows what wondrous things await us. We can't really say, but we do know that
0:45.1	we've got music to help us and to guide us and to be a companion with us this year. And since it's a
0:51.3	whole new year, we get to hit reset on our list of contenders,
0:55.4	songs that we love so much. They're in the running for the best of the year, which seems
0:59.0	kind of silly to say at this point where it checks watch a week into January. You know,
1:06.3	way too early to have much of a list yet. In fact, I think everything that we're playing actually
1:10.4	came out late this past year, but they're all from albums coming out this year.
1:15.3	Yeah, there's a new album. It's out January 17th by the electronic artist Ella Minus. It's an
1:22.4	album called Dia, and I really am just obsessed with this one song on it called Broken.
1:28.2	Mother, I've been a fool.
1:31.8	I let them in even when you said to not listen.
1:43.1	Went to hell and back
1:46.0	Left all the way
1:49.0	Now I'm broken
1:52.0	I've been a fool Acting acting or fool, and now I'm broken.
	...

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