Our No. 1 songs: 2021

Summary

All Songs Considered (NPR)

Episode: Our No. 1 Songs: 2021

Air date: December 8, 2025
Hosts: Robin Hilton & Stephen Thompson

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Robin Hilton and Stephen Thompson look back at 2021—a year marked by the ongoing pandemic and its cultural aftermath—to share and discuss their favorite tracks, the songs that defined the moment, and what stood out musically. They dive into both personal selections and broader cultural touchstones, underscoring how music released that year captured the confusion, isolation, longing, and tentative hopes of the time.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene – Music in 2021

• Pandemic Influence: 2021’s music is noted as a pivotal outpouring of art responding to isolation, anxiety, and reflection created by the pandemic. The hosts discuss how songs were both a product of and a balm for those times.
  • Robin Hilton: "We're starting to get all the stuff that everyone made during 2020." (01:06)
  • Stephen Thompson: "You're starting to get pandemic culture... works that are about the pandemic." (01:10)

2. Stephen’s Favorite Song of 2021

• Jazmine Sullivan – “The Other Side”
  • Stephen Thompson: "It's just a fantasy about making it big, but through another person. And it's a really hauntingly beautiful song. Her phrasing is just brilliant. It's one of the best R and B records of the 21st century." (02:03)
  • Robin initially guesses wrong (expecting Cassandra Jenkins’ “Hard Drive” or Amy Shark), highlighting how many strong contenders there were.

3. The Song That Embodied 2021

• Bo Burnham – “That Funny Feeling” from the Netflix special “Inside”
  • Stephen Thompson: "It's really, to me, the towering example of kind of the best of pandemic isolation entertainment, like works that were created of and for that moment in history... really kind of summing up that sense of overwhelm." (03:58–04:33)
  • Robin identifies Burnham by his signature deadpan lyricism about modern life but has to ask about the name of the song.

4. Robin's Most Resonant Track

• Elizabeth and the Catapult – “Together Alone”
  • Robin describes first hearing the song: "I just bawled my eyes out because it was so beautiful. And I remember thinking, song of the year." (04:41)
  • Lyrics spotlight pandemic-digital fatigue: "My brain is connected to my hand, it's connected to my phone. One more photo of a wedding or a picture perfect home." (06:17)
  • Robin Hilton: "She called this whole album Sincerely E. She called it a love letter to everyone who's been stuck at home... probably my favorite song of the year." (06:37)

5. Other Standout 2021 Releases

• Olivia Rodrigo – “Driver’s License”
  • Stephen Thompson: "Olivia Rodrigo broke through in 2021, you know, with a pop record that, you know, was full of these big Paramore vibes that was fun and kind of poignant at the same." (09:44)
• Big Thief – “Little Things”
  • Recognized by Stephen as one of his favorites from that year for its emotional lyricism. (10:51)
• Maddie Diaz – “History of a Feeling”
  • Stephen Thompson: "Put out a phenomenal record in 2021." (11:14)
• Girl in Red – “Serotonin”
  • Robin highlights the raw, honest take on mental health: “I’m running low on serotonin / Chemical imbalance got me twisting things / Stabilized with medicine…” (12:09)
• Dodie – “Hate Myself”
  • Robin professes his fandom: "Very big Dodie fan. Love that one." (13:54)
• Amy Shark – “Amy Shark”
  • Robin: “So heartbreaking, so beautiful.” (14:54)
  • Stephen: “Beautiful.” (14:00)
• Joel Ortiz – “Uncle Chris’s Car”
  • Robin: “Another incredible song.” (15:13)
  • This track is praised for its vivid, autobiographical storytelling.

6. Reflections on 2021’s Strong Output

• Stephen Thompson: "What a great year." (15:59)
• Robin Hilton: "What a great year 2021 was." (16:00)

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Memorable Quotes

• On the challenge of defining the year:
  "Do I pick my favorite song of 2021? Or do I pick the song that most embodies 2021? Because, you know, 2021 still deep. Pandemic."
  — Stephen Thompson (00:51)

• On isolation and digital malaise:
  "My brain is connected to my hand, it's connected to my phone. One more photo of a wedding or a picture perfect tone. It's just so… It’s heartbreaking."
  — Robin Hilton (06:17–06:37)

• On pandemic-created art:
  "It's really, to me, the towering example of kind of the best of pandemic isolation entertainment, like works that were created of and for that moment in history."
  — Stephen Thompson, discussing Bo Burnham (04:33)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:28–01:26: Setting up the episode; discussing what shapes a “definitive” 2021 song.
• 02:01–02:26: Stephen reveals Jazmine Sullivan’s "The Other Side" as his top pick.
• 03:06–04:33: Bo Burnham’s “That Funny Feeling”—the song that summed up the year’s existential confusion.
• 04:40–06:37: Robin presents “Together Alone” by Elizabeth and the Catapult; emotional resonance and lyrics.
• 09:44–12:02: Quickfire run through additional highlight tracks—Olivia Rodrigo, Big Thief, Maddie Diaz.
• 12:02–14:54: Emotional/mental health-focused anthems—Girl in Red, Dodie, Amy Shark.
• 15:13–16:00: Joel Ortiz’s “Uncle Chris’s Car” and closing thoughts on 2021’s breadth of amazing music.

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Takeaway

This episode is a heartfelt and detail-rich curation of 2021’s defining music, layered with personal connection, contextual insight, and a sense of both the upheaval and beauty that characterized the time. The hosts’ picks spotlight how artists processed, chronicled, and even transcended the year’s uncertainty—making sense of it in ways only music can.

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Host sign-off:
"What a great year 2021 was." — Robin Hilton (16:00)
"Thank you, Robin." — Stephen Thompson (16:09)

Transcript

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

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[Stephen Thompson]

Note before the show. This episode contains explicit language.

[Robin Hilton]

All right. It's All Songs Considered. I'm Robin Hilton. Here is Stephen Thompson. Hey, Stephen.

[Stephen Thompson]

It's good to be here, Robin.

[Robin Hilton]

So we're in the home stretch here all the way up to 2021. We're only going to 2024, doing the first 25 years of All Songs Considered, starting with 2000 and then going up to 2024 through 2024, 2025, TBD. But let's look at 2021. What do you think of with music in the year 2021? Should be a lot easier now.

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, do I pick my favorite song of 2021?

[Robin Hilton]

I bet I know what that is.

[Stephen Thompson]

Or do I pick the song that most embodies 2021? Because, you know, 2021 still deep. Pandemic. Yeah, still, you know.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, we're starting to get all the stuff that everyone made during 2020.

[Stephen Thompson]

Yeah, you're starting to get pandemic culture. You're starting to get, like, culture that is not only something that we. That we enjoyed and processed during the pandemic, but works that are about the pandemic. So what do you want? Do you want the. My favorite song or the song that most embodies 2021?

[Robin Hilton]

Let's go with your favorite song because I bet I know what it's going to be.

[Stephen Thompson]

Oh, I'm not sure you do.

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

Yeah.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

I got dreams.

[Robin Hilton]

Okay. It's not what I thought it was.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

Going to be to buy expensive things.

And I know that he's out there. So where's my millionaire?

[Robin Hilton]

I'm not gonna get this.

[Stephen Thompson]

This is Jasmine Sullivan from her album Hoe Tales. The song is called the Other side, and it's just a fantasy about making it big, but through another person. And it's a really hauntingly beautiful song. Her phrasing is just brilliant. It's one of the best R and B records of the 21st century. And a song that I just kept coming back to again.

[Robin Hilton]

So were you. Isn't that the year Hard Drive by Cassandra Jenkins came out in 2020? 2021.

[Stephen Thompson]

Yeah, it absolutely is. And maybe. And maybe that's my favorite song of 2021. Well.

[Robin Hilton]

Or I thought maybe maybe that's the song that you think maybe spoke to the times more than the others. And then my other option for you would have been Amy Shark's Amy Shark.

[Stephen Thompson]

That's a great song. That is a terrific song. We also didn't mention silk chiffon by Muna. I could. Oh, man, I could have gone in so many directions.

[Robin Hilton]

So what's the song that you think spoke to the times the most?

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, that would be this.

[Robin Hilton]

Stunning 8K resolution meditation app. Is this Bo Burnham?

[Stephen Thompson]

Yes.

[Robin Hilton]

In honor of the revolution.

[Stephen Thompson]

It's half off at the Gap.

Deadpool. Self awareness, Loving parents, Harmless fun.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

The backlash to the backlash to the.

[Stephen Thompson]

Thing that's just begun.

[Robin Hilton]

I don't know the song, though.

[Stephen Thompson]

There it is again that funny feeling that funny feeling. There it is again that funny feeling.

[Robin Hilton]

Is it called that Funny Feeling?

[Stephen Thompson]

Yeah, that's that Funny Feeling by Bo Burnham from his Netflix comedy special Inside, which was a comedy special he recorded entirely inside his house as he's sort of coming unglued by the isolation and the anxiety around the pandemic. And it's really, to me, the towering example of kind of the best of pandemic isolation entertainment, like works that were created of and for that moment in history. And that song in particular is really kind of summing up that sense of overwhelm.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I have one that speaks to all of those things and themes that you just mentioned.

[Stephen Thompson]

Is it Butter by bts?

[Robin Hilton]

It's not Butter by bts.

[Stephen Thompson]

I love that song.

[Robin Hilton]

This is a song that I remember. When I heard it, I just bawled my eyes out because it was so beautiful. And I remember thinking, song of the year. I'll be very curious to see if you get this.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

When did it happen? I still can't recall it. Life wasn't enough until after I typed it. Tell me a secret. I still won't believe it. Till after you shot it? Till you make it public.

[Stephen Thompson]

Is this Elizabeth in the Catapult?

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah. I mean, she just said her name.

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, she said her name is Elizabeth. And I'm like, this does sound like Elizabeth in the Catapult.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

I am just phoning it in, quite literally. I lost the poetry. I'm texting without feeling the song. Without meaning. A dog without a bone I'm talking without speaking Together, alone.

Together.

[Stephen Thompson]

I don't know if I was still following everything they were putting out in 2020.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, that's the thing at this point. She'd been putting out music for 20 years.

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

Yeah.

[Stephen Thompson]

You know, some really great stuff.

[Robin Hilton]

Great stuff. And then she drops this album called Sincerely E, and it has this song called Together Alone.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

My brain is connected to my hand, it's connected to my phone.

One more photo of a wedding or a picture perfect home.

Lying in bed late in the evening. You're never alone even when you are sleeping. My brain is connected to my hand is connected to my phone.

[Robin Hilton]

So much of it is just her and her piano, but like the lyrics in this song are just all about My brain is connected to my hand is connected to my phone. One more photo of a wedding or a picture perfect tone. It's just so. It's heartbreaking. It is just so crushing, so beautiful. I just think she so perfectly captures just that whole era of being alone, doom scrolling on your phone, wanting some sort of connection with the outside world and unable to reach it. She called this whole album Sincerely East. She called it a love letter to everyone who's been stuck at home and who was stuck at home and struggling during that time. And yeah, probably my favorite song of the year.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

Do you ever think that you're too young to be complaining about your memory?

[Robin Hilton]

Okay, we do need to take a quick break here, but when we come back we'll talk about some of the other stuff that stands out to us from 2021.

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[Stephen Thompson]

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[Stephen Thompson]

Yeah, we haven't even gotten into like Olivia Rodrigo broke through in 2021, you know, with a pop record that, you know, was full of these big Paramore vibes that, you know, was fun and kind of poignant at the same.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

We cross I still hear your voice in the traffic we're laughing over all the noise God, I'm so blue Nowhere soon But I still fucking love you Bab.

[Stephen Thompson]

Driver's license Driver's license was the first, but then there were a bunch of kind of spikier, punkier pop songs. Big Thief put out one of my favorite songs of that year with little things.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

A little stronger.

Everything we talk about.

L City is a crowded place.

That'S just a shadow face.

[Stephen Thompson]

We could keep rattling off songs from 2021. Matty Diaz put out a phenomenal record in 2021 called History of a Feeling.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

And I found new ways to count the days that you're not in.

[Stephen Thompson]

And.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

There'Ll come a time when you won't be on my mind every second doesn't that count for something?

I still get a tremor every time I face west.

[Stephen Thompson]

Really, I I could keep going far longer than anyone would.

[Robin Hilton]

Want to listen that ship has already sailed But I would go with Girl in Red Serotonin came out that year.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

I'm running low on serotonin Chemical imbalance got me twisting things stabilized with medicine there's no depth to these feelings Dig deep, can't hide from the corners of my mind I'm terrified of what's inside.

I got intrusive thoughts like cutting my hands off like jumping in front of a bus like how do I make the stop when it feels like my therapist hates me Please don't let me go crazy Put me in a field with daisies Might not work, but I'll take them maybe been breaking daily but only me can save me so I'm.

[Robin Hilton]

Capitulating Crying like a silly baby Dodies hate myself could it be different?

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

Did it ruin the day or do you look angry oh, what did I say?

Filling in the gaps Build a problem that neither of us need Something wrong with me.

I'M getting desperate Losing my mind? Oh, how do we get here every time?

One more fold the arms? One more do the dance? Really is no need something more with me?

No, I don't think I can help.

Nope. Oh, so logical. I'm not magical? I can't read your mind but how can you not hear the whole conversation? I've sincetill with the brain on fire. I know, it's amazing. Eyes closed isn't helping me go quite ahead myself.

[Stephen Thompson]

You're a big Dodie.

[Robin Hilton]

Very big Dodie fan. Love that one. I mentioned Amy Shark's song. Amy Shark, which you turned me on to.

[Stephen Thompson]

Beautiful.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

I grew up in a small house near a cemetery? You could hear them howl as they lower the ones they love in the ground?

I pulled out my own baby teeth? The pain never seemed to bother me? I made friends with the kids down the street?

I better go, it's getting late? I've been outside all day on the walk home? Work out what I'll say?

I still lose it every now and then in an interview or photo shoot? I could be halfway through a show and it all comes creeping in.

[Robin Hilton]

And.

[Song Lyrics / Guest Singer]

I've sacrificed all my friends, Birthdays, weddings, everything? And it's heartbreaking but this is my dream.

And I did it all without a phone call or Christmas Christmas card? You have no heart. This is my way of saying don't start.

[Robin Hilton]

So heartbreaking, so beautiful. Uncle Chris's Car by Joel Joel Ortiz. He dropped that. That year was another incredible song.

[Joel Ortiz]

24 hours later, we and my uncle Chris Carr made a left into the projects and the life of being pissed Paul Onesie sliding up and down the hallway on the sixth floor note in my hand borrowing cooking oil from Ms. Moore kicking on the witch door Jumping down a flight stairs clearing the syringes. Luckily I was dope enough to miss them shits by inches. Moms in front the building getting splinters on the benches while the hustlers made a killing doing dealings near the entrance. Survival in the trenches. Detectives in them trenches showing pictures of the people I would grow up to be friends with. By the time I turned 16, I respected a gun kick. Emptied out this one clip in Bushwick on some dumb shit. Saw that crack money immediately started selling Poured some grams on Kosciusko in 9 7.

[Stephen Thompson]

What a great year.

[Robin Hilton]

What a great year 2021 was.

Oh man. But we'll go out on this. Until next time, thanks as always, Stephen.

[Stephen Thompson]

Thank you, Robin.

[Robin Hilton]

And for NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton.

[Joel Ortiz]

It's all songs I was living that day and night. Mom's like, don't throw away your life, but this my way of life. Plus, if God really wanted me to get far, then why my uncle Chris Carr go left. He should have made a right.

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