The Contenders, Vol. 21: Tame Impala, Dominic Fike, Amber Mark, more

All Songs Considered

NPR

Music

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We update our running list of the year’s best songs with club beats from Tame Impala, the fractured pop of Dominik Fike, good vibes from singer Amber Mark and more.

Featured artists and tracks:

1. Tame Impala: “Dracula,” from ‘Deadbeat’
2. Gabriel Jacoby: “The One” (single)
3. Dominic Fike: “Quite The Opposite,” from ‘Rocket’
4. NewDad: “Misery,” from ‘Altar’
5. Madi Diaz: “Heavy Metal,” from ‘Fatal Optimist’
6. Amber Mark: “Too Much,” from ‘Pretty Idea’

Weekly reset: A flamenco performance in Barcelona, circa 1999.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On Fridays, the 1A podcast is all about helping you cut through the info fog and get to what's important in the news.
0:07.6	Close out the week with us on our Friday News Roundup.
0:10.8	Here from reporters who've been embedded with the biggest news of the week.
0:14.9	Join us every week for the Friday News Roundup.
0:17.2	Listen to the 1A podcast from NPR and WANU.
0:22.1	I haven't been outside a minute. Is it still dreary as ever?
0:25.1	It is, very much so.
0:26.2	It's so dreary today. Just been pouring rain.
0:29.8	Good time to stay inside and listen to music.
0:32.0	Yeah.
0:33.1	This is one of our contenders episodes, you know, where we update that long-running list of the year's best songs.
0:38.5	It's a list we start every January, and we keep adding to it throughout the year with the songs that we love so much.
0:46.0	They could end up on our best of 2025 lists when we wind the year down.
0:52.4	Should we start with something that I know that we're both excited about?
0:55.4	Yes.
0:55.7	Yes, please.
0:56.5	This is Tame Impala.
0:58.6	Tame Impala.
0:59.3	Tame Impala has a new album coming called Deadbeat.
1:03.5	And we just got a new single from it.
1:05.5	It's the third one that dropped so far.
1:07.6	It's a song called Dracula.
	...

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