It is tougher to construct a New Yr’s playlist than it’s for different winter holidays. NPR has some recommendations on discovering the best music to ring within the new 12 months.
ADRIAN MA, HOST:
OK. OK. Wait a tick. Wait a tick. It’s December 30, individuals. Allow us to formally press pause on the Christmas tunes which were boring their approach into our collective skulls for weeks now and get some recent songs, OK? How about some music for the New Yr’s? Sounds fairly good, proper? Besides, you understand, after I began to consider it this week, I noticed that, in comparison with different winter holidays, there aren’t that many New Yr’s-themed songs. I imply, in fact, one involves thoughts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “AULD LANG SYNE”)
GUY LOMBARDO: (Singing) Ought to auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne.
MA: That, in fact, is “Auld Lang Syne.” And, you understand, I really like a practice as a lot as the subsequent particular person. However I am unable to assist however assume that there have gotten to be different choices for New Yr’s playlists apart from, you understand, a people track from over two centuries in the past. Fortunately for us, we are actually joined by Ann Powers, NPR music critic and correspondent. Ann brings us a couple of various musical selections to assist ring in 2024. What’s up, Ann?
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: Hey, Adrian. Let’s social gathering.
MA: Ann, I’m prepared. However I have been racking my mind the previous few weeks making an attempt to consider different New Yr’s anthems, you understand. After all, there may be “Auld Lang Syne,” however that track is like 200 years previous and there are X variety of interpretations of it. However are there different songs on the market that I am not considering of which can be really New Yr’s jams?
POWERS: Properly, Adrian, in fact, pop music is all about cashing in on our sentiments and our particular events. So there have been circumstances of pop teams writing songs particularly for New Yr’s. For instance, the Swedish supergroup ABBA. They’ve a track known as “Comfortable New Yr.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HAPPY NEW YEAR”)
ABBA: (Singing) Comfortable New Yr. Comfortable New Yr. Might all of us have a imaginative and prescient at times.
POWERS: After which, then again, there are songs that folks have tailored to suit the vacation. Songs about countdowns actually work effectively, for instance. One I hear quite a bit at events now could be Beyonce’s basic, “Countdown.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COUNTDOWN”)
BEYONCE: (Singing) My child is a ten. We dressing to the 9. Make me really feel so fortunate, seven. He kiss me in his six. We be making love in 5. Nonetheless the one I do that 4.
MA: What else are you listening to on the market for individuals who may need to sort of boost their ball drop second?
POWERS: I like Pink’s basic 2010 social gathering anthem “Increase Your Glass.” It is an inclusive, optimistic and completely enjoyable track to boost a glass to at midnight.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RAISE YOUR GLASS”)
PINK: (Singing) So increase your glass if you’re flawed in all the best methods, all my underdogs. We’ll by no means be, by no means be something however loud and nitty-gritty…
MA: OK. That is actually making me want I had a glass right here within the studio proper now.
POWERS: I do know. Undoubtedly.
MA: And we’re marching ahead via time. Something from this 12 months that may very well be a New Yr’s anthem?
POWERS: Properly, Adrian, I am sitting right here in my Christmas reward, which is a sweatshirt that claims, I’m Kenough. So you understand the place I am going with this.
MA: (Laughter) I am selecting up the reference, yeah.
POWERS: This was the 12 months of “Barbie.”
(SOUNDBITE OF DUA LIPA’S “DANCE THE NIGHT”)
POWERS: And Greta Gerwig’s film was such a feelgood hit that I believe bringing some “Barbie” magic to the social gathering is sensible. Dua Lipa’s track “Dance The Evening” has already been nominated for a Golden Globe. It is in all probability going to get nominated for an Oscar. And it is making lots of New Yr’s Eve playlists.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DANCE THE NIGHT”)
DUA LIPA: (Singing) See my heartbeat tonight. I can take the warmth. Child, greatest imagine that is the second I shine.
MA: These songs, you understand, what I am realizing, although, fairly like specific New Years anthems – proper? – there’s nonetheless – have lots of these.
POWERS: Proper. There is a new factor that is been occurring for some time. It is known as the New Yr’s Eve beat drop. Followers are timing their favourite songs so {that a} specific beat or a lyric will play precisely at midnight. For instance, a well-liked one for the previous couple of years is Kendrick Lamar’s track “Alright.” In the event you begin the observe at 11:59:41 at, you understand, the previous couple of seconds of 2023, for those who begin it precisely then, the phrase we will be all proper will hit proper at midnight.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALRIGHT”)
KENDRICK LAMAR: (Singing) We gonna be all proper.
PHARRELL WILLIAMS: (Singing) We gonna be all proper. We gonna be all proper. We gonna be all proper. Do you hear me?
MA: One of many issues I am noticing is that every one these songs are, like, fairly upbeat.
POWERS: Yeah.
MA: However, you understand, what for those who’re not, like, a New Yr’s Eve social gathering down sort of particular person? Like, I’d rely in that camp. Like, January 1 begins to creep up and also you may begin feeling just a little – I do not know – anxious or reflective, possibly even emo. So do you will have any musical prescriptions for that?
POWERS: I believe the right New-Yr’s-Eve-to-New-Yr’s-Day track is one that mixes that sort of like willful optimism and the reflectiveness and even skepticism we would have about how issues are going to go within the new 12 months. And, Adrian, let’s be trustworthy, it is – lots of us are feeling a bit ambivalent concerning the future. So I am turning to an appropriately sort of mixed-feeling track right here.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE NEW YEAR”)
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE: (Singing) So that is the brand new 12 months.
POWERS: It is from the band Loss of life Cab for Cutie.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE NEW YEAR”)
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE: (Singing) I do not really feel any completely different.
POWERS: And 2023 was the twentieth anniversary of that band’s basic album, “Transatlanticism.” And it comprises, to me, the right track for what we’re speaking about. The track is known as “The New Yr,” and it goes from sort of like, I do not know really feel about this, to, you understand what? Let’s simply really feel good. As exhausting as it’s, let’s strive.
MA: That’s NPR music critic and correspondent Ann Powers. Thanks, Ann.
POWERS: Thanks a lot, Adrian.
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