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All Songs Considered

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

All Songs Considered

NPR

Music

4.43.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 playground

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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.

0:22.3

You can subscribe for free using the link in today's show notes or at npr.org slash podclub.

0:30.8

All right, it's all songs considered.

0:33.2

NPR's long-running place for music discovery and super fandom.

0:37.7

I'm Robin Hilton.

0:39.2

And back with me here after way too long is Keanu Ferecloth.

0:44.2

Hey, Kiana.

0:44.9

Hey, Robin.

0:45.9

It's good to be back.

0:47.7

It's been a minute.

0:48.9

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

0:56.1

a minute yeah what what have you been up to so i have been you know going from festival to festival

1:02.7

hosting jazz concerts around town in the country and things like that and you know of course

1:10.6

producing my podcast artemacy C. on DC Radio.

1:14.3

And I actually produced a limited series called Jazz Beyond Tradition,

1:17.9

which aired on WJCT during Jazz Appreciation Month.

1:22.1

So I've been sticking around on the scene and staying pretty busy, I'd have to say.

1:26.9

So this is one of our contenders

1:28.0

episodes. We keep a running list of the year's best songs. We start in January every year,

1:33.2

and we just keep adding to it as the year marches on these contenders episodes. It's where we

1:38.0

update that list with the latest cuts that we love so much. They could end up on our final best

1:43.0

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.

...

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