From tear-jerkers to mic-drops, NPR's music critics share the 2025 lyrics that made them laugh, cry and hit replay. Right about now, music critics are sharing their favorite albums of the year or ...

One of the biggest things that music can provide people is comfort. Turn on a favorite song and it’s a few minutes where you can escape to a place that you already know you love and that makes you ...

What are the best country songs of 2025? These five are a great place to start.

NEW YORK – What makes a great song of the summer? Is it an up-tempo pop banger? Something with an earworm chorus? Does it need to feature the words “summer,” “sunshine,” or another synonym — ...

What makes a great song of the summer? Is it an up-tempo pop banger? Something with an earworm chorus? Does it need to feature the words “summer,” “sunshine,” or another synonym — “California” — in ...

Alex Warren’s chart-topping ballad “Ordinary” is this summer’s most popular song by the numbers, but critics and music fans have lamented that this summer seemed to have few breakout hits as the ...

What is 2025’s Song of the Summer? As Labor Day looms, we still don’t have an answer—but there’s a solid pool of candidates. But what makes up a Song of the Summer? We’ve boiled it down to five ...

Notice anything unusual about this year’s top hits? Yes, more than half of them are from last year. What’s going on? Sure, factors like release schedules, timing (a song that was already charting in ...

Gone are the sweaty days when “Not Like Us” lit up parties nationwide, uniting Drake dissers everywhere. There are manchildren and daisies and animated anthems from “KPop Demon Hunters,” but nothing ...

NPR Music critics reflect on the lyrics that captured the year's mood, sparked emotions and stayed with them long after the music stopped. Lyrics of a song can reach us in ways that no other speech ...

Lyrics of a song can reach us in ways that no other speech can. Some of our colleagues at NPR Music have been thinking about which lyrics from 2025 have moved them. RODNEY CARMICHAEL, BYLINE: Hey, I'm ...