When we reach for songs to slow the blood, we find a lot of recurring themes. It's not just calming washes of amorphous, ambient tones. These are songs with something your brain can hold on to, with reflections on gratitude and kindness that remind us to hit pause and take notice of all the goodness in our lives.
In this year's second installment of soothing songs, we take a deep breath and let it out with the music of Max Richter, Hania Rani, Fleet Foxes, Yasmin Williams and more. NPR Music (and Pop Culture Happy Hour) host Stephen Thompson joins All Songs Considered host Robin Hilton with more songs to calm the nerves.
Featured artists and songs
- Joan Shelley: "Easy Now," from Over and Even
- Fleet Foxes: "Helplessness Blues," from Helplessness Blues
- Theo Alexander: "re; Waiting," from Animadversions
- Hania Rani & Dobrawa Czocher: "There Will Be Hope," from Inner Symphonies
- Nicholas Britell: "Eden (Harlem)," from If Beale Street Could Talk
- Max Richter: "Dream 3 (in the midst of my life)," from From Sleep
- Stars of the Lid: "Even If You're Never Awake," from And Their Refinement of the Decline
- Iron & Wine: "Passing Afternoon," from Our Endless Numbered Days
- Yasmin Williams: "Juvenescence," from Urban Driftwood
- Gidon Kremer & Keith Jarrett: "Fratres (for violin and piano)," from Arvo Párt: Tabula Rasa
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