It is more durable to construct a New 12 months’s playlist than it’s for different winter holidays. NPR has some recommendations on discovering the suitable music to ring within the new 12 months.
ADRIAN MA, HOST:
OK. OK. Wait a tick. Wait a tick. It’s December 30, folks. 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 12 months’s? Sounds fairly good, proper? Besides, , once I began to consider it this week, I noticed that, in comparison with different winter holidays, there aren’t that many New 12 months’s-themed songs. I imply, after all, one involves thoughts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “AULD LANG SYNE”)
GUY LOMBARDO: (Singing) Ought to auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne.
MA: That, after all, is “Auld Lang Syne.” And, , I like a convention as a lot as the subsequent particular person. However I can not assist however assume that there have gotten to be different choices for New 12 months’s playlists in addition to, , a people tune from over two centuries in the past. Fortunately for us, we at the moment are joined by Ann Powers, NPR music critic and correspondent. Ann brings us a number of different musical decisions to assist ring in 2024. What’s up, Ann?
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: Hey, Adrian. Let’s celebration.
MA: Ann, I’m prepared. However I have been racking my mind the previous few weeks attempting to consider different New 12 months’s anthems, . After all, there may be “Auld Lang Syne,” however that tune 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 pondering of which might be really New 12 months’s jams?
POWERS: Nicely, Adrian, after all, pop music is all about cashing in on our sentiments and our particular events. So there have been instances of pop teams writing songs particularly for New 12 months’s. For instance, the Swedish supergroup ABBA. They’ve a tune referred to as “Glad New 12 months.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HAPPY NEW YEAR”)
ABBA: (Singing) Glad New 12 months. Glad New 12 months. Might all of us have a imaginative and prescient every now and then.
POWERS: After which, then again, there are songs that individuals 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 traditional, “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 wish to type of boost their ball drop second?
POWERS: I like Pink’s traditional 2010 celebration anthem “Elevate Your Glass.” It is an inclusive, optimistic and completely enjoyable tune to boost a glass to at midnight.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RAISE YOUR GLASS”)
PINK: (Singing) So increase your glass if you’re mistaken in all the suitable 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. Positively.
MA: And we’re marching ahead via time. Something from this 12 months that might be a New 12 months’s anthem?
POWERS: Nicely, Adrian, I am sitting right here in my Christmas present, which is a sweatshirt that claims, I’m Kenough. So the place I am going with this.
MA: (Laughter) I am choosing 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 feel bringing some “Barbie” magic to the celebration is sensible. Dua Lipa’s tune “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 a number of New 12 months’s Eve playlists.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DANCE THE NIGHT”)
DUA LIPA: (Singing) See my heartbeat tonight. I can take the warmth. Child, finest imagine that is the second I shine.
MA: These songs, , what I am realizing, although, fairly like express New Years anthems – proper? – there’s nonetheless – have a number of these.
POWERS: Proper. There is a new factor that is been taking place for some time. It is referred to as the New 12 months’s Eve beat drop. Followers are timing their favourite songs so {that a} explicit 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 tune “Alright.” Should you begin the monitor at 11:59:41 at, , the previous couple of seconds of 2023, should you begin it precisely then, the phrase we’ll 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, , what should you’re not, like, a New 12 months’s Eve celebration down type of particular person? Like, I would depend in that camp. Like, January 1 begins to creep up and also you may begin feeling somewhat – I do not know – anxious or reflective, possibly even emo. So do you’ve gotten any musical prescriptions for that?
POWERS: I feel the proper New-12 months’s-Eve-to-New-12 months’s-Day tune is one that mixes that type 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 – a number of us are feeling a bit ambivalent in regards to the future. So I am turning to an appropriately type of mixed-feeling tune 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 Demise 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 traditional album, “Transatlanticism.” And it incorporates, to me, the proper tune for what we’re speaking about. The tune is known as “The New 12 months,” and it goes from type of like, I do not know the best way to really feel about this, to, 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.
Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content might not be in its closing kind and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might range. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.