Can making and listening to music save the world? It's a lofty question and maybe easy to dismiss as overly serious. But the songs in this week's mix consider the power of creativity, how it can lead to clarity and calm, or maybe just provide a temporary respite from whatever ails you.
Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy takes this idea to heart with nearly two hours of music on a new, triple solo album called Twilight Override, an opus he says is designed to overwhelm an overwhelming world with goodness and light.
Our update to the running list of this year's best songs also includes the singer and guitarist Jay Som, who collaborates with Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World for her first new album in more than six years. In addition, John Vanderslice and producer James Riotto team up for a band they're calling Google Earth and (we're not making this up) a new album called For Mac OS X 10.11.
Then there's the sludgy, introspective rock of Goon; and drummer and producer Kassa Overall reinterpreting classic hip-hop tracks by artists like Wu-Tang Clan, OutKast and Digable Planets as jazz instrumentals.
Elsewhere in the episode, we discuss our No. 1 songs from 2021 in the All Songs Considered 25th anniversary segment, and our weekly reset takes us to twilight at Nags Head, with crickets and a barking dog in the distance.
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Featured artists and songs
- Jay Som & Jim Adkins: "Float," from Belong
- Google Earth (John Vanderslice & James Riotto): "meow meow," from For Mac OS X 10.11
- Goon: "For Cutting The Grass," from Dream 3
- Jeff Tweedy: "One Tiny Flower," from Twilight Override
- Kassa Overall: "Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)," from Cream
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