Alt.Latino: What Were Felix and Ana's 2025 Favorites?

Summary

All Songs Considered: Alt.Latino – Felix and Ana’s 2025 Favorites

Date: December 10, 2025
Hosts: Felix Contreras and Ana Maria Sayer

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Episode Overview

In this special year-end edition of Alt.Latino, Felix Contreras and Ana Maria Sayer reflect on their favorite Spanish-language and Latin music releases of 2025. Rather than declaring definitive “bests,” the duo explores music that personally impacted them and showcases landmark albums that shaped Latin music on both regional and global stages. Major talking points include the cultural weight of Bad Bunny’s and Rosalía’s latest records, as well as a curated selection of boundary-pushing albums across genres like jazz, flamenco, and orchestral pop.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Year in Review & Philosophy on “Best Of” Lists (00:41–01:49)

• The hosts reject the rigidity of “best of” year-end lists, preferring to spotlight “personal favorites.”
  • Felix: “I have a thing about the best of because I don't know about that… I prefer to say some of our personal favorites.” (01:42)
  • Ana: “It's so hard.”

Tone: Playful, noncommittal, and reflective, setting a friendly, conversational atmosphere.

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Major Albums that Bookended 2025

Bad Bunny - “De Viti Ramas Photos” (01:57–05:17)

• Significance:
  Felix emphasizes the album’s multi-level impact: personal, cultural (Puerto Rico), pan-Latin American, and global.
  • “It's almost like a reverse telescope… it's global. This whole thing just went so big, and people from all over the world had an appreciation for this in one way or another. That doesn't happen often.” (02:15–03:15)
• Cultural Elevation:
  Ana celebrates Bad Bunny’s commitment to honoring Puerto Rican heritage and music.
  • “His mission of not just elevating himself, but really elevating Puerto Rico was he never lost sight of that goal…” (03:21)
  • They connect the album to Rafael Ithier, founder of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, whose work was sampled on the album and who passed away recently.
• Memorable Quote:
  Ana: “That's the impact, right? In many ways, is taking and sifting through and bringing to the surface some of the most important, valuable, beautiful parts of Puerto Rico and taking that to the world.” (04:41)

Rosalía - “Lukes” (05:17–05:53)

• Musical Universality:
  Felix describes the album’s reach beyond pop into classical and opera; Ana predicts its influence will fully unfold in 2026.
  • “From the individual to opera singers, classical musicians, Spanish musicians, like so many different people have a way of looking at this record and pulling something out of it.” (05:17–05:40)
• Anticipation:
  “I think that that's gonna take on the fullness of its life in the new year.” (05:40–05:53)

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Personal Favorites & Musical Discoveries

Geralt Lajos – “9:30 PM” (06:42–09:52)

• Innovation in Flamenco:
  Ana is enamored with Lajos’s modern flamenco, blending the genre with bachata, percussion, and strings.
  • “She brings that flamenco energy, but then she surrounds it in all these really intense but beautiful beats. I mean, she's just so innovative.” (07:54)
  • Compares the experimentation to early Rosalía but finds Lajos distinct in her genre expansion.
• Historical Context:
  Felix relates Lajos’s work to the evolution since the Gypsy Kings and the nuevas flamenco movement of the 1980s.
  • “But these musicians now are taking flamenco to a whole another level, man.” (09:00–09:52)

Roxana Ahmed – “Todos los Fuegos” (Jazz, Argentina) (10:00–14:49)

• Jazz Crossover:
  Felix highlights the jazz reworkings of Argentine rock and how Ahmed channels historic pain and political commentary through classic songs.
  • “It was like a high watermark… there were all these releases on my top 10 albums.” (10:08)
  • Draws parallels to the Argentine Dirty War and the need for artists to express under dictatorship.
  • “Aliénation, superficiality… cinema verite is a symbol of a search for genuine reality... trying to express themselves underneath this really brutal dictatorship.” (13:13)
  • Ahmed’s creative drive: “…she just had to get it out of her system and she had to do it before she left this realm.” (13:13)

Arat Erse – “Musas en Mi” (14:51–19:28)

• Poetic Songwriting:
  Ana lauds the lyricism and emotional depth of Veracruz artist Arat Erse, with special nods to lines like:
  • “My mind is an orchestra, always out of tune. The ropes are broken, the wood cracked, there's ash on the ground…” (16:14)
  • Notes the uniqueness within regional Mexican music and the influence of collaborator Leif Bulbeck.
• Chemistry and Production:
  “It's like you could play them back to back and it's, they're like these twin souls… there's just something about, about the way they make music that just feels, feels really right for each other.” (18:32)

Mon Laferte – “Femme Fatale” (22:00–25:56)

• Artistic Versatility:
  Felix, inspired by Ana’s early recommendation, links Mon Laferte’s evolution and vocal prowess to classic chanteuse Julie London.
  • “She has had several iterations… she's like a chameleon, but at the center of all that is her amazing voice.” (24:10)
  • Definition and Appropriation:
    Discusses the “femme fatale” concept and how Mon embodies multifaceted womanhood, resonating as both a Chilean and now the most-listened-to female artist in Mexico. (25:39)

Rasowski – “Daisy” (26:02–29:47)

• Genre-bending Innovation:
  Ana brings Rasowski’s album, noting his ability to blend classical and experimental pop, collaborating across genres (e.g., track with Gene Dawson).
  • “He is a producer first… so that's kind of at the forefront, I think, of how he creates his art, but he's able to take it in all these really fascinating, unexpected directions.” (28:35)
  • The track “Sophia” gets special mention as a fan and critic favorite.

Lido Pimienta – “La Belleza” (31:31–33:26)

• Orchestral Brilliance:
  Felix underscores Pimienta’s use of strings and orchestrations, paralleling Rosalia’s experiments but lamenting that her album was overshadowed.
  • “Her record kind of got lost in the Rosalia hoopla and it's curious that they were sort of on the same musical track without even knowing…” (31:31)
  • “It just really encapsulates just what this year was like in Latin music.” (33:26)

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Reflections on Curation, Memory & Cultural Unification

• Ana’s Process:
  Choosing favorites is “so intuitive”… “do I remember what was happening, where I was, what was going on?” (30:03)
  • “To have an album that feels like it really deeply resonates, I feel something about it, it feels distinct. That's actually, I mean, not that often.” (30:47)
• Felix’s Musings:
  “It's an impossible task…it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. And I'm glad it’s us.” (31:00)
• Cultural Unity:
  Ana concludes the show by expressing awe at how Latin music is uniting people globally:
  • “There is a unification to me, there is like a larger cultural unification of Latin America, of the diaspora of Latin American people across the world. And it's happening through music…” (33:55)
  • “Feels like the type of thing that people will write about in the history books.” (34:30)
• Felix’s Hope:
  “People will see the two high-profile records, the Bad Bunny record and Rosalia record, and realize that it's just the tip of the iceberg… there's so much creativity in Latin music, Spanish language music, whatever you want to call it…” (34:54)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Felix (on Bad Bunny’s global impact):
  “This whole thing just went so big, and people from all over the world had an appreciation for this in one way or another. That doesn't happen often.” (02:57–03:15)

• Ana (on memory and resonance):
  “To have an album that feels like it really deeply resonates, I feel something about it, it feels distinct. That's actually, I mean, not that often.” (30:47)

• Felix (on the breadth of Latin music):
  "There's so much creativity in Latin music, Spanish language music, whatever you want to call it, so much creativity. There's so many different ways to interpret stuff, so many different countries..." (34:54)

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Timestamps for Essential Segments

• Rejecting “Best Of” Lists: 00:41–01:49
• Bad Bunny’s Cultural Impact: 02:15–05:17
• Tribute to Rafael Ithier: 03:57–04:41
• Rosalía’s Universal Album: 05:17–05:53
• Geralt Lajos/Flamenco Innovation: 06:42–09:52
• Roxana Ahmed/Argentine Jazz: 10:00–14:49
• Arat Erse/Poetic Mexican Pop: 14:51–19:28
• Mon Laferte’s Femme Fatale Persona: 22:00–25:56
• Rasowski’s Genre Shapeshifting: 26:02–29:47
• Lido Pimienta’s Orchestral Spanish Pop: 31:31–33:26
• Reflections on Selection Process: 30:03–31:00
• Cultural Unification via Music: 33:55–34:54

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Episode Tone

The episode is deeply conversational, warm, and passionate. Felix and Ana blend personal opinions with critical insights, infusing the show with humor (“I’m quitting the band!” at 00:25), lively debate, and a deep appreciation for the evolving landscape of Latin (and Spanish-language) music.

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For More:
Explore NPR’s complete “Best Songs and Albums of 2025” coverage at: npr.org/bestmusic2025

Transcript

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Support for this podcast and the following message come from the University of Kansas Cancer center, where clinical researchers work tirelessly to turn scientific advances into breakthrough treatments, shaping the future of cancer care for this community and beyond. Learn [e-mail] A quick note before the show.

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This podcast contains explicit language.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Felix, I have something to tell you.

[Felix Contreras]

Dime.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

I'm quitting the band.

[Felix Contreras]

I knew it.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

You knew it.

[Felix Contreras]

Yeah.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

God, I was expecting more, more waterworks, to be honest.

[Felix Contreras]

There'll be other background singers.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Oh, my God.

Now I'm the one who's crying.

[Felix Contreras]

From NPR Music, this is not Latino. I'm Felix Contreras.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Let the chisme begin. And the chisme is apparently Felix hates me.

[Felix Contreras]

I could just tell you weren't into it.

The teasement this week is we're looking back at the end of the year.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

The best music of 2025. This was a daunting year. Maybe I say this every year, Felix, but I do feel like this year in particular there was so much culture shifting, record breaking music from the Spanish language world. So we kind of got to be at the forefront of a bit of that.

[Felix Contreras]

It's again, and I've been saying this forever, but the variety of expression is just mind boggling.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

The.

[Felix Contreras]

It's almost unfair. Almost, almost unfair. Okay, what we're going to do this week is we're going to go over some of our favorites because, you know, I have a thing about the best of because I don't know about that.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

It's so hard.

[Felix Contreras]

I prefer to say some of our personal favorites.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Okay, I like that. Okay, let's be non committal about it.

[Felix Contreras]

So we're going to, we're going to. We each brought in some of our favorites, but also we have to talk about the, the two records that bookended the year.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

That would be De Viti Ramas photos by Bad Bunny and Luke's by Rosalia.

Okay, Felix, let's start with Bad Bunny.

[Felix Contreras]

You know, we had I think at least two episodes about the Bad Bunny album and it deserved it because it is such a, a major work. This is how I saw it. It impacted me on an individual level, just following his career from his first record and then hearing the changes and then hearing what he came out with. And then it's almost like a reverse telescope. Then you zoom out a little bit and you see how it impacted the island, Puerto Rico. Significant impact, unprecedented, historic. Then zoom out a little bit more and then it's all of Latin America. He's reminding people, like, don't forget where you came from and celebrate where you are. And then you zoom out even further, and it's global. This whole thing just went so big, and people from all over the world had an appreciation for this in one way or another. That doesn't happen often.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

And, Felix, the thing that I actually want to zoom in on is how front and center his mission of not just elevating himself, but really elevating Puerto Rico was he never lost sight of that goal. I was writing about Bailo Novidable yesterday, and I was thinking even about his insistence on in a pop song, including improvisation in a way that you wouldn't hear in a pop record to pay homage to salsa. And I think this is a perfect moment, Felix, because of what's happening right now. To talk about the fact that Rafael Izier passed away this week, can you explain to people who he was?

[Felix Contreras]

He was the founder of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, a cultural institution, a salsa musical institution on the island. And in fact, the first sound we hear on that Bad Bunny record is from the El Gran Combo of Puerto Rico. And it must have been such a joy for him to be able to experience the popularity of that song on that record. Let's hear a little bit of the original.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

It feels so striking to me, Felix, how many new hundreds of millions of people heard El Gran Combo, his work, his legacy for the first time this year. I mean, that's the impact, right? In many ways, is taking and sifting through and bringing to the surface some of the most important, valuable, beautiful parts of Puerto Rico and taking that to the world. And that, to me, is like, that's his. That's his calling card. That's what he's done for people.

[Felix Contreras]

And the other album, of course, is the Rosalia record. Again, it's another one of those records where, from the individual all the way out. And in this case, you know, from the individual to opera singers, classical musicians, Spanish musicians, like so many different people have a way of looking at this record and pulling something out of it.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

And that's kind of a fun one, because really, I think that that's gonna take on the fullness of its life in the new year. We haven't even seen yet what's gonna happen. She's gonna tour it. There's all kinds of things that I think will come from a record like that.

[Felix Contreras]

Three years in the making, it was worth the wait, definitely.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Los Hilsan Milan.

LA.

[Felix Contreras]

Okay, we talked about the big ones, so we're going to talk about some of the other things that we heard this year that deserve recognition and deserve to be talked about. So you can go ahead and start.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Ooh, this is my favorite kind of episode, Felix, because we just get to revisit all of the most fun things. I was having so much fun re listening to things for this episode. Okay. Spanish singer Geralt Lajos released her album earlier this year called 9:30pm I could not get this track, La Fe, out of my head.

Felix. I brought this up on the show a couple times already, but that professor that we spoke with, in spite of Spain, it's always stayed with me, the flamenco professor, that she told us that flamenco was just the infusion of pain and intense emotion into Spanish pastoral music. And this, to me, is like the contemporary version of what that is like. She brings that flamenco energy, but then she surrounds it in all these really intense but beautiful beats. I mean, she's just so innovative, Felix, to me, in a way that I think a lot of people might compare her to what, funnily enough, an earlier Rosalia was doing. But this is just completely different. Like, it really is. It's taking that concept of using flamenco, which is such a rich genre, as a base, but then is expanding on it in entirely different ways than she ever did. In different ways and equally amazing ways. But I really do believe. I mean, what Geralt brings is, like, this album has everything. It has bachata, and there's this incredible percussion and strings, and she really does go everywhere within the realm of what this genre can be, you know?

[Felix Contreras]

And at the end of the year, I think I can look back at a lot of the other Spanish artists that we've talked about over this past year and doing different things, sometimes using flamenco as a base, sometimes not, but just incorporating some of the cultures that are there. And then, you know what? I was thinking about this the other day, and it made me think back to, I don't know, what was it? The 80s? The Gypsy Kings, you know, when it was a nuevo flamenco, it was a new way. It was a popular way, but it was still very much flamenco people, really, they were so popular. They're still popular. They were innovators in that and making flamenco popular like that. But these musicians now are taking flamenco to a whole another level, man.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

That was La Fe by Geralt Lajos from her album 9:30pm okay, Felix, first one, what's it gonna be?

[Felix Contreras]

Okay. As you know, I leaned into jazz a lot this year. What.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

That doesn't sound like you.

[Felix Contreras]

I think more than. More than my past years. I even did a whole episode on jazz musicians from Latin America because to me it was like this was like a high watermark. It was. Something happened. And there were all these releases on my top 10 albums. I had at least three or four musicians from Latin America who had released jazz albums. And the one I'm going to play right now is by Roxana Ahmed, the Argentine vocalist. She released an album called Todos los Fuegos. And it was again, it was a reworking of all of this great Argentine rock from the 80s. And she did jazz arrangements of these songs with the great Argentine pianist Leo Genovese. I brought in a track called Cinema Verite. Let's hear a little bit and I'll tell you a little bit about it after.

That. Soprano saxophone is played by a guy named Mark Small. And it reminds me of this stuff that Wayne Shorter used to do with Joni Mitchell. Cinema Verite was composed by Charlie Garcia when he was in a group, Ceru Giron. They released an album called Peperina in 1981. Let's hear a little bit of the original. So you can see like it's. It's very close, but there's. There's more of a jazz sensibility to the new version. But listen to the original.

So this song is about alienation, superficiality. And cinema verite is a symbol of a search for genuine reality. And it's like a disguised subject because it's comment on society. Because in 1981 they were toward the end of this really brutal dictatorship in that era in Argentine history called a dirty war. State sponsored terror was when the word disappeared became a noun. Very, very intense time in Argentine history. And this band and this writer and a lot of the writers that were featured on this record were all doing the same thing. They were trying to express themselves underneath this. This really brutal dictatorship. And Roxanna Ahmed told me during an interview in the episode I did that she just had to get it out of her system and she had to do it before she left this realm. And it was one of my favorite records of the whole year. It was called Todos los Fuegos.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

I love the production of it. It's. It's creative, it's a little avant garde. It feels right for the moment, hearing the original and hearing what she did. I mean, it does feel distinct in a way that is. I do love her, she's wonderful. And it feels very much right with her and right with the time and.

[Felix Contreras]

All the Other musicians that are featured, Fito Paez, who we had on a tiny desk this year. Gustavo Serrati. All of these great Argentine writers are coming out of that era of Argentine music. It was just so poetic. It was so powerful. There was so much symbolism. And I think that she did a great job pulling all that together. The album again is Todos los Fuegos. The artist is Roxana Ahmed. And we heard the cut Cinema Verite. You're up again.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Yes.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Oh, great. Okay. Arat Herse. I brought this album on not that long ago because it came out not that long ago, and I've really been personally listening to it a lot. The album is called Musas en Mi, and I'm going to play you the opening track, which I haven't played you yet, Felix, So congratulations. Mimente es una orques.

There's so many beautiful things about this album, Felix. I mean, it's this gorgeous voice that Erat has that just communicates so much. But it's really the lyricism. To me, it's like this Boesia of, like, even how he opens that song. My mind is an orchestra, always out of tune. The ropes are broken, the wood cracked, there's ash on the ground, sheet music stepped on. They all play at the same time, whatever they want. I've tried to listen, but I don't understand anything. And he works through a lot of these themes and these ideas of his head and his brain and his mind and his love throughout the album. And it just is really quite special for where he's from. He's from Veracruz. There's not really anyone doing anything like that there that I've heard are really in all of Mexico. I mean, it sounds really distinct. The closest I've heard. He has moments of vague Ed Maverick ISM type of energy. But even so, I mean, there's something slightly more Norte? N or Mexican sounding to Ed Maverick than I even hear from.

I want to play you another cut from the album called Que Latte.

[Felix Contreras]

I'm so glad you brought this one back in because I forgot that I really like this one a lot. I didn't add it to my collection.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

I think I told you. I told you to go listen to the whole thing. And I don't think you did.

[Felix Contreras]

I did not.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

I know. I know when you're actually not gonna do it. And I was like, this has to come back so that he'll actually go listen to it.

And since I brought this album on the show, I actually went and saw Leif Bulbeck in concert. In la, who was the producer on this record, reignited my absolute obsession and love for that man. And it's amazing to me. I mean, one, this album just sounds so like him. It's, it's bonkers. It's like you could play them back to back and it's, they're like these twin souls leave from Canada and Arat from Mexico. And yet they have this just beautiful chemistry of, of sound and soul and lyricism and, and I don't even know how it is that the lyricism feels aligned as well, because I don't think Leaf had anything to do with that. And yet there's just something about, about the way they make music that just feels, feels really right for each other. It's, it's really cool.

Those are some songs from Arat Erse's album Musas and Me. Okay, Felix, a wait break.

[Felix Contreras]

Yes.

Beat me to the punch. We do have to take a break. We'll be right back.

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[Felix Contreras]

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[Felix Contreras]

And we're back. And I gotta let you know to check out NPR Music's full coverage of the best songs and albums from 2025. We'll have a Bunch of episodes of All Songs Considered coming out this month. And we've got lists going up already this week and through the rest of the month. You can check it all [e-mail] bestmusic2025. Speaking of best music, let's get back into our list. Let's see whose turn is it?

[Ana Maria Sayer]

It's Felix time.

[Felix Contreras]

Oh, it's my time.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

See, that was my audition. Felix. What? Think put me back in the band?

[Felix Contreras]

No, not quite. Speaking of vocalists, I want to play a track from Mon La Fer's album Femme Fatal. When you brought it in, you know, I was at a disadvantage because I hadn't had time to listen to the whole record. And the track you brought in really left an impression. So I went back home and I listened to it, and it made me think of something else. But first, let's hear the track Veracruz so you get an idea of just. Just what's behind the concept of Femme Fatale Folucio.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Okay.

[Felix Contreras]

When you played it earlier in the year, I heard it, and I went and heard the rest of the record, and I thought, wait a minute, this reminds me of something. And I just kind of thought about it for a minute. It reminded me of this album by a singer named Julie London. And the album's called. Her name is Julie. Check out this song.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

I.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Should care.

I should go.

Without sleeping.

I should care.

I should go around weeping.

[Felix Contreras]

You see what I'm saying?

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Yeah, a thousand percent.

[Felix Contreras]

It's testament to the skill and the vision of Mon La Fert. Because she has had several iterations. She kind of grabs onto different things, themes, and concepts, and she's like a chameleon, but at the center of all that is her amazing voice. And in this particular case, she's. They. She named the album Femme Fatale. And I. You know, it's something I've always thought I knew what it meant, and I looked it up. It's a French word, fatal woman. And it says, femme Fatale is a mysterious, alluring, and seductive woman who uses her charm and sexuality to manipulate men, often leading them to danger, ruin, or disaster.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

That does sound very mon appropriate.

I honestly think of Mona and I think of my grandma thinking, with all these women, I'm like, this is what she sounds like, Felix. I also think I quite literally said she's a chameleon when I brought this album on. And this just goes to show, you should listen to me when I tell you to go listen to an album. But I 100% agree. I mean, she is so capable of Embodying, I mean, that's so much of what she is and who she is. Right. I mean, you think about down to literally her being this Chilean artist who moved to Mexico and very much embodied Mexico, much in the style of Chavel, of Vargas. And she continues to evolve and be different versions of what a woman can be, of what a Mexican woman can be. She was actually, Felix, the most listened to female artist in Mexico this year.

[Felix Contreras]

Really?

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Yeah. So talk about finding a new home and finding a beloved, you know, community and audience there. That's how well she has. Has adapted and become part of that. And this, I think, is just another iteration of bringing something new to. To that public that she has kind of endeared herself to.

[Felix Contreras]

That was Mon Lafert, and the track's called Vera Cruz. And the album is Femme Fatale. Okay, your turn.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Okay, Felix. Oh, my God. We've already arrived to my last album.

[Felix Contreras]

Your last track.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Oh, how could it be? Okay, well, this is a good one. I'm very excited about it. So, Rasowski, you've heard me talk about him a couple times. A lot of times, maybe this year. I think in my head, I've talked about him more times than I have because I listen to him so much and think about him so much in conversation with a lot of the artists that I bring. But anyways, released his debut album this year called Daisy, and this is the opening track that I have not yet played on the show called Kinky, Figaro.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Sail.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

I love it when you take your life now bitch shout out I love it when you take your light now Bitch shout out.

[Felix Contreras]

That didn't go where I thought it was going.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Yes, that is all one song. Felix.

Talking about people playing with classical in interesting ways. I mean, he earlier this year was doing that, and he is one of those artists that collaborates across genres regardless of place and time. That was a track he did with Gene Dawson. I'm gonna play you literally just going into the second track on the album called Johnny Glamour to get a feel for just how much he shapeshifts on the.

It almost has the tempo of the palmas, Felix, but nothing of the rest of it. It's really fascinating the way he is able to manipulate sound. He is a producer first. I've talked about this, and so that's kind of at the forefront, I think, of how he creates his art, but he's able to take it in all these really fascinating, unexpected directions. I got to bring him in this year, Felix. You saw him live for a tiny desk, so I have to close us out on a song that I think is a lot of people actually saw it on a couple people's top song list. This track is called Sophia.

[Felix Contreras]

I gotta ask you, Anna, there was so much music and you brought in so many great tracks. And I know you have an expansive like, list of stuff to listen to for this end of the year. Like, how do you pull out the things that really stood out to you? What is your criteria? We've never talked about this.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

You know, you're tripping me up even trying to answer this because it's so intuitive. Like, I think in our process of picking 10 albums, there were eight that were like immediate. Yes for me. Like it was sitting there like flow, like just thinking of like literally having album names in my head that I was like, oh, yep, this. Oh, yep, this. Oh, oh, Daisy. Yeah, oh that. A dot album. Yeah. Like it's really is that thing of do I remember what was happening, where I was, what was going on? Maybe even a memory attached to it, a feeling attached to it that it's like it left such an impact on me. And that's not that often actually. I listen to so much music and I'll think like, oh, that's maybe worth sharing or that's has something interesting to it or there's something interesting to connect to it or say about it. But to have an album that feels like it really deeply resonates, I feel something about it, it feels distinct. That's actually, I mean, not that often.

[Felix Contreras]

I can relate to part of that. Yeah, absolutely. And people will see that whenever they see our. Our top 10 album list online. We had to cull 10 albums from a whole year for our part of the NPR top 10 album list. And then from those 10, we had to narrow it down to three each to bring him on the show here. It's like it's an impossible task. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. And I'm glad it's us.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Yeah. Such a tough job. Okay, Felix, last but not least, what's your final pick?

[Felix Contreras]

You know, I brought in the Lido Pimienta album, La Belleza, because she was not the only Spanish language artist that used strings and orchestrations this year. Her record kind of got lost in the Rosalea hoopla and it's curious that they were sort of on the same musical track without even knowing right early on this year. I remember being completely blown away by the way that she was using strings and her just genre defying way approaching music. I'VE been a fan of her music and her voice for so long. We all have. And, you know, the record was just such a big deal. It deserved to be mentioned at the same level as the Rosalia record. I think I want to play a little bit. This is called.

And you could hear some of the orchestrations, the horns, the strings, the woodwinds, all that stuff. Check it out.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Peronos.

[Felix Contreras]

Hear strings, I hear clarinets, I hear oboes, you know, and. And I really need to say that one is not better than the other. When we're talking about Rosalia's album Love Looks Right, one is not better than the other. They're just different. It just really encapsulates just what this year was like in Latin music. The album's called La Belleza. The artist Lilo Pimienta, and the song we heard is Quiero que Mebesses. Okay, Ana, any summation of the year from you? Like, what are your grand thoughts about the year in music?

[Ana Maria Sayer]

I think the thing that has come back to me again and again and again this year is like zooming out beyond the music and the culture and what we do here. There is a unification to me, there is like a larger cultural unification of Latin America, of the diaspora of Latin American people across the world. And it's happening through music. And that's been really, really, really incredible to watch and witness and at times be a part of. Felix, I think with what we do at Tyondesk, with what we do here, I mean, it really is this monumental thing of this moment. Feels like the type of thing that people will write about in the history books, and they'll write about it through the lens of music and the impact it can have and the way it can shape not just itself, but the way it can shape literally the movement of people and the world and how we see things and do things. So that's more what I've been thinking about this year. What about you?

[Felix Contreras]

You know, I'm hopeful that people will see the two high profile records, the Bad Bunny record and Rosalia record, and realize that it's just the tip of the iceberg. Because there's so much creativity in Latin music, Spanish language music, whatever you want to call it, so much creativity. There's so many different ways to interpret stuff, so many different countries. I mean, think about it just in this show alone, we've heard music from Spain, from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia. I never get tired of trying to find stuff that will just completely blow my mind and makes me hear things that I've never heard before. And this year was a very, very good year for that.

Our band should learn that song.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

Our band should learn that song. You have been listening to all Latin. Nice segue. Let's wrap this up.

[Felix Contreras]

Nice segue. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

The executive producer of NPR Music is Saraya Muhammad.

[Felix Contreras]

The executive director of NPR Music is Sonali Mehta. I'm Felix Contreras.

[Ana Maria Sayer]

And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Thanks for listening.

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