Our no. 1 songs: 2024

Summary

All Songs Considered (NPR)

Episode: Our No. 1 Songs: 2024

Hosts: Robin Hilton, Stephen Thompson
Date: December 29, 2025

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Episode Overview

This special anniversary episode marks the end of the podcast’s multi-part retrospective, as the hosts look back at their number one picks from each year since All Songs Considered began. Today, Robin Hilton and Stephen Thompson focus on 2024, reflecting on songs that defined the year both personally and in the wider music world. Expect passionate debate, moving stories, and a loving tribute to the power of music to inspire, break hearts, and connect us across time.

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Key Discussion Points & Song Highlights

Reflecting on 25 Years of Picks

• Robin and Stephen mark the occasion of All Songs Considered's 25th anniversary.
• Robin sets the stage by saying, “Not just to the end of the year 2025, but to the end of our look back at the past 25 years of All Songs Considered.” (00:22)

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Stephen’s First Pick: "Highlands" by Middle Kids

Timestamps: 01:11–03:04

• Stephen introduces “Highlands” by Middle Kids as his top pick, betting Robin doesn’t remember it. (“I bet you don’t know this song.” — Stephen, 01:11)
• Lyrics sample: “Take a look around. The town you grew up in is tired and fading... out in the open, wherever you are. We're just getting started. Out of the dark into the Highlands." (01:48)
• Stephen expresses a sense of injustice:

  “The fact that this song has not been widely embraced by the entire world as one of the greatest, most inspirational songs in the history of the universe is beyond me.” (02:48)

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Robin’s First Pick: "Modesto" by Pedro the Lion

Timestamps: 03:35–06:43

• Robin selects "Modesto," highlighting its narrative about pursuing art, surviving disappointment, and discovering unexpected victories in adulthood.

  “By the end, I think life is beautiful and I want more. … It’s really a simple story… but really, the song is about chasing dreams, youthful idealism, and how you hold on to those dreams as you get older.” (04:28)

• Stephen praises lead singer David Bazan’s “crushing” and emotionally raw storytelling, a talent rooted in the 1990s but still vital today. (05:12)
• Moving lyric:

  “Make all the messes you can manage to make and move back to Seattle, be the drummer in the band...” (05:37)

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Big Pop Hits of 2024 & Ubiquity Fatigue

Timestamps: 08:55–09:20

• Stephen nods to the “huge pop bangers” of the year like “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter and “Brat” by Charli XCX.

  “Some of which are so ubiquitous that I’m not going to punish people by playing them... upon the 490 octillionth listen have started to wear on me a little bit.” (08:57)

• Robin and Stephen specifically call out the Charli XCX/Lorde remix, “Girl, So Confusing,” noting its creativity and cultural resonance (09:19).

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"Girl, So Confusing (Remix)" by Charli XCX featuring Lorde

Timestamps: 09:26–10:09

• Lyrics highlight the complexity of female friendships and fame:

  “It’s so confusing sometimes to be a girl... How do you feel me enough, how do you feel me in a...” (09:26)

• Stephen regards it as "a real revelation in 2024 and so crucial to anyone... interested in experiencing empathy for pop stars..."

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Deeply Felt Songs: "Plane Trees" by Omar Apollo ft. Mustafa

Timestamps: 10:48–12:54

• Stephen’s emotional favorite is “Plane Trees” from Omar Apollo’s album “God.”

  “This song for me is just like… it’s a feelings bomb in the best way and just—God, the way their voices come together. So beautiful.” (12:54)

• The refrain “Our presence made the ground glow” captures the warmth and ache of memory and connection amidst loss.
• Robin agrees:

  “Yeah, this. I actually only have a couple of songs of his from this record and this is one of them." (11:33)

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Literary Songwriting: "Petco" by Cassandra Jenkins

Timestamps: 13:44–14:43

• Robin brings up “Petco” by Cassandra Jenkins for its attention to the smallest yet most profound details of daily life.

  “You talk about an artist who can capture every complicated feeling or idea in the tiniest detail. Yeah. Like walking through a Petco.” (14:24)

• Stephen relates personally, referencing his frequent trips to Petco and musings on caretaking.

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Additional 2024 Standouts

• "Patterns" by Laura Marling

  • Robin: “Really, really beautiful.” (16:21)

• "Good Luck, Babe!" by Chapel Roan

  • Stephen: “We talked about Chapel Roan when we talked about 2023, but certainly that song, man, what a piece of songwriting.“ (16:24)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On emotive songwriting:
  “Talk about songs that just wreck me. Songs that make me cry every time—You and I have bonded over our shared love of this song, to the point where I was almost a little hesitant to bring it...”
  — Stephen, referencing Matty Diaz’s “God Person” (03:12)

• On nostalgia for recent releases:
  “I know this stuff hasn’t really been out that long and it seems kind of silly to get terribly nostalgic for it—but I thought for sure you were gonna go with this...”
  — Robin (13:31)

• Show’s closing tongue-in-cheek finality:
  “There will be no years. There will be no more years.”
  — Stephen (17:38)
  “No more years, no more music. But thanks so much, Stephen, as always.”
  — Robin (17:40)

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Segment Timestamps

• 00:22 — Kicking off the 2024 picks discussion
• 01:11 — Stephen introduces "Highlands" by Middle Kids
• 03:35 — Robin introduces "Modesto" by Pedro the Lion
• 08:55 — Biggest pop bangers: "Espresso," "Brat," "Girl, So Confusing"
• 10:48 — "Plane Trees" by Omar Apollo ft. Mustafa
• 13:44 — "Petco" by Cassandra Jenkins
• 15:17 — "Patterns" by Laura Marling
• 16:24 — "Good Luck, Babe!" by Chapel Roan
• 17:38 — Bittersweet show close ("No more years, no more music...")

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Tone

Casual, passionate, and deeply warm. The hosts joke, reminisce, and share genuine emotion over the music that has meant the most to them and their listeners over the past quarter century—capturing both music discovery and heartfelt nostalgia in their signature NPR style.

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Takeaway

If you missed 2024 in music, this episode delivers a crash course—not on the most streamed hits, but on the tracks and artists that moved and changed the lives of music lovers, critics, and, now, future listeners.

Transcript

[Sponsor Announcer]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Rosetta Stone, an expert in language learning for 30 years. Right now, NPR listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership to 25 different languages for 50% off. Learn more at rosetta stone.com NPR Stephen Thompson, hello, Robin.

[Robin Hilton]

We made it.

[Stephen Thompson]

We did.

[Robin Hilton]

Not just to the end of the year 2025, but to the end of our look back at the past 25 years of all Songs Considered. It's for our anniversary this year.

[Stephen Thompson]

I look forward to never reflecting on anything ever again.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, we've been doing a lot of reflecting, looking back at our number one songs from each year, all of our picks and the NPR music team's picks for 2025 are up. They're out in the world. People can go online or listen to earlier episodes of this podcast to hear what's on those lists. But we have one more year from our anniversary shows that we need to do, and it's 2024. I've got a couple things that I immediately think of for 2024, but why don't you go first? And this is sort of your last chance to play Stump the Chump with a song that I can't even remember or never heard, even though it was just a year ago.

[Stephen Thompson]

You know, I'm going to go, oh, man, there's so many directions I could go because there were so many great, like, big monoculture pop hits and also just songs that wrecked me in various ways, which I'm sure we're going to get to. But I think I'm just going to go with this banger. And I bet you don' know this song.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, you're correct. Oh, well, this does sound really familiar.

[Song Lyrics]

Take a look around. The town you grew up in is tired and fading, endlessly sighing. Your family is there expectantly waiting. Your mother complaining. Your father is quiet and on the way to the station you pass by the houses dark windows saying there's a reason you sneak out at night to be with all your friends in the open, out in the open, wherever you are. We're just getting started. Out of the dark into the Highlands. Give me your heart, I wanna hide it and I can't keep waiting for this to change.

[Robin Hilton]

Don't know it.

[Stephen Thompson]

This is a song called Highlands by the band Middle Kids.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh yeah, I know.

[Stephen Thompson]

Middle Kids, Australian band, and Middle Kids is one of these bands. They've been floating around for years and every single time they put out a song or an album, I hear it and I'm like, this is phenomenal. Who is this all Right.

[Robin Hilton]

A band I already love.

[Stephen Thompson]

A band I already love. And this particular song, to me, the fact that this song has not been, like, widely embraced by the entire world as one of the greatest, most inspirational songs in the history of the universe is beyond me.

[Robin Hilton]

I thought for sure you might go with Mattie Diaz's God person for that. I mean, is that song. Is that your favorite song, would you say, of 2024?

[Stephen Thompson]

Talk about songs that just wreck me. Songs that make me cry every time you and I have bonded over our shared love of this song, to the point where I was almost a little hesitant to bring it just because you and I have, I think, on a podcast, we openly wept listening to that song.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

God person, Matty Diaz. I could very easily pick that. But I'm gonna go with this one that I'm pretty sure you're gonna know.

[Song Lyrics]

Modesto.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Oh, he says the name right there.

[Stephen Thompson]

That does help narrow it down from Pedro the Lion.

[Song Lyrics]

Darestone. Isn't lonely like you thought it would be. At first, I worked a vacuum cleaner salesman job for men I later recognized in Glengarry Glen. I only sold one. She couldn't afford it. She wrote out the check and burst out sobb.

[Robin Hilton]

This song, kind of like the one you played for me, it just keeps building. And by the end, I think life is beautiful and I want more. And it's really. It's just a simple story that he tells about how he came to art and music and to appreciate things like that and follow that as a career and life path for him. But really, the song is about chasing dreams, youthful idealism, and how you hold on to those dreams as you get older. You know, it's like for most people, all those dreams don't always come true. And, you know, I guess the song is kind of a reminder that sometimes they do in small ways that you're not even aware of. And, I don't know, the song kind of crushes me in the best way.

[Stephen Thompson]

I mean, David Bazan has been crushing me in the best way since the early days of Pedro the lion in the 90s. And he's continued to be such a vital songwriter, and he's. He's had this string of albums, each of which is kind of named for a different place in his life where he's reflected on his childhood and his.

[Robin Hilton]

Behavior and a truly, truly gifted storyteller, too.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Yeah.

[Song Lyrics]

Jim said, hell, yeah. Then he handed me a tape. What I heard in my Walkman headphones pacing by the speakers. And the A was a beautiful area's tragic mess. They sent tears streaming down my face, grabbed me by the lapels, stood me up and put a four track in my hand and told me son, make all the messes you can manage to make and move back to Seattle, be the drummer in the band. There's a girl from there that Friday on my lunch break I let her and I think she likes me too. And I'm gonna find out. I'm gonna go to Bible college on my cousins.

[Robin Hilton]

Okay, we need to take a quick break here, but when we come back we'll have more songs that remind us of 2024.

[Sponsor Announcer]

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[Robin Hilton]

What else do you think of when you think of 2024?

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, I certainly think of a number of huge pop bangers, some of which are so ubiquitous that I'm not going to punish people by playing them like Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter, a song that I actually really love. But upon the like 490 octillionth listen have. Have started to wear on me a little bit. I mean, the entirety of Charlie XCX's brat, you know, was.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, girl, so confusing.

[Stephen Thompson]

Girl, so confusing. The one featuring the. Especially the remix of it that features.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Lord.

[Song Lyrics]

It'S so confusing sometimes to be a girl, Girl, girl, girl, girl. It's so confusing sometimes you. How do you feel me enough. How do you feel me in a.

Well, honestly, I was speechless when I woke up to your voice. Now you told me how you'd been feeling. Let's work it out. On the remix. You'd always say, let's go out. But then I canceled last minute. I was so lost in my head and scared.

[Stephen Thompson]

To be in the picture is a song that I just felt was like a real revelation in 2024 and so crucial to anyone who, anyone interested in experiencing empathy for pop stars should listen to that song. But while we're talking about songs that wreck us, man, you know, I could talk about Great Grandpa and their song Kid, which was probably my favorite song of 2024, but I really want everyone to hear this song by Omar Apollo from his album God.

[Song Lyrics]

How could we be dying. If we're lying.

Down.

Underneath.

[Sponsor Announcer]

The street.

[Song Lyrics]

Giving life to withered leaves with our.

Breath.

We still breath.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, this. I. I actually only have a couple of songs of his from this record and this is one of them. It's Plane Trees, right?

[Stephen Thompson]

Plane Trees featuring Mustafa, who is a wonderful, wonderful singer in his own right. And when his voice comes in in a later verse, it will wreck you even more than the rest of this song. And you know, it's this song and this, this line that comes through in the chorus over and over again. Our presence made the ground glow Our.

[Song Lyrics]

Presence made the ground glow how could we be smiling? How could we if we're aside now hanging from our knees.

Stretch.

Never speak.

Hours.

[Stephen Thompson]

And you know when you're, when you're reflecting like on breakups or, you know, hardships or just people you miss and you think about them when you're looking at those relationships in a. In a warm and wistful and maybe even grief stricken way, that is such a beautiful way of describing how like a strong memory of a personal or romantic connection can feel. And so this song for me is just like. It's a feelings bomb in the best way and just. God, the way their voices come together. So beautiful. Everybody should love this song.

[Robin Hilton]

I know this stuff hasn't really been out that long and it seems kind of silly to get terribly nostalgic for it. But I thought for sure you were gonna go with this.

[Stephen Thompson]

Is this Petco by Cassandra Jenkins? Oh, my God.

[Song Lyrics]

Outside my window I saw two doves wrapped up in filthy and true love. The walls are blushing and louring. The dishes pile up. My heart sings. It's become my second name.

[Robin Hilton]

You talk about an artist who can capture every complicated feeling or idea in the tiniest detail. Yeah. Like walking through a Petco.

[Stephen Thompson]

Walk through a Petco. Staring into the eyes of a lizard and contemplating whether you're able to take care of another living thing.

[Robin Hilton]

Right.

[Stephen Thompson]

Which is like, if I'm in a. I go to Petco all the time. Cause I have, you know, I have a cat, and I still contemplate whether I'm able to. I have two children. They're adults.

[Robin Hilton]

And we hadn't really played her, so I thought for sure. Well, I guess we did.

[Stephen Thompson]

We mentioned Hard Drive.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, we mentioned Hard Drive in a previous episode.

[Stephen Thompson]

One of the best songs of the 21st century.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, so good. I would also mention Laura Marling's Patterns, that song.

[Song Lyrics]

Zena. You're squared your toes but your friendly nose hangs around. You still a belly the reunite knows that your feet are on the ground. But as the years go by and points comply with ever more relief.

[Robin Hilton]

Then.

[Song Lyrics]

Patterns in repeat can begin.

[Robin Hilton]

Really, really beautiful. You didn't mention good luck, babe. Yeah.

[Stephen Thompson]

We talked about Chapel Rome. We talked about Chapel Rome when we talked about 2023. But certainly that song, man, what. What a piece of songwriting.

[Song Lyrics]

It's fine. It's cool. You can say that we are nothing but you know the truth and guess I the fool with her arms out like an angel through the caution realm. I don't want to call it off but you don't want to call it love. You only want to be the one that I call baby Concussion. Boys and wives shoot another shout just stop the feeling you could change just the way you are making no excuse for stupid reason.

[Robin Hilton]

But we'll go out on this, and normally I would say, until next time, Stephen, but this is out of years.

[Stephen Thompson]

There will be no years. There will be no more years.

[Robin Hilton]

No more years, no more music. But thanks so much, Stephen, as always.

[Stephen Thompson]

Thank you, Robin.

[Robin Hilton]

And for NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered.

[Song Lyrics]

When you love me. Yeah.

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