With her pure, bracing vocal set against an achingly somber piano, Emily Scott Robinson doesn't marinate in misery so much as summon the strength to venture up to a precipice and stand at 'the edge of something wild.' - Stephen ThompsonĪ rock and roll shredder for our era of global crisis, Mdou Moctar brings not only chops but his full humanity to the table on Afrique Victime. There are breakup songs, and then there's the breathtaking 'Let 'Em Burn,' which fans out to survey the wreckage of a painstakingly curated life - 'faithful wife of fifteen years, mother of three' - that's been brought low by the realities of depression, disappointment, lost faith and crippling doubt. While the bridge of 'deja vu' may have inspired enough of the titular sensation to force a post-release interpolation credit, the track is all Rodrigo: a sharp send-off of an earworm, somehow delivered with both irreverent playfulness and brute force. But for Olivia Rodrigo, a star pupil of the Swiftian school of specificity, the devil of a former partner is in the details he's recycling with a new flame: shared strawberry ice cream and Ryan Murphy reruns. In the foggy aftermath of a romantic relationship, details can feel dreamlike - hazily rendered, misremembered. Spotify / Apple Music / Tidal / Amazon Music / YouTube Music Stream NPR Music's 100 Best Songs Of 2021: If you find yourself losing steam or feeling down or wondering when things will finally turn around, feel free to skip the rest of 'All Too Well.' (Jk, Taylor!) (Oh, and you can find our 50 Best Albums of 2021 here.) It's our sincere hope that as you make your way through our 7-hour playlist of the year's 100 best songs, you'll feel the same. In other words, we could be human again, and it felt good to be back. Perhaps we kept some truths concealed during dire straits, so as not to appear frivolous (or feral) in the face of unforgiving circumstance. Maybe, after 20 months behind masks, we felt like revealing ourselves again. Perhaps the crowning of Cardi and Megan's 'WAP' last year signaled a transgressive sea change.

'Only here to sin.' That admission from NPR Music's song of the year lies at the heart of many of the stories told across these 100 tracks.

A star is born soundtrack lyrics