NPR Music critics reflect on the lyrics that captured the year’s mood, sparked emotions and stayed with them long after the music stopped.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
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 Rodney Carmichael, hip-hop correspondent and critic for NPR Music. Now, the artist I’m highlighting for 2025 is name Kal Banx. He comes from Dallas but best known for his work with West Coast hip-hop label TDE. But he put his own debut album out this year titled Roa. It’s just, like, this fascinating smorgasbord of rap, soul, blues, bounce. And he just really opens up his soul on this album. And one of the songs is called “Lose Control.” In the lyrics, I’m lost in the world. My hope on a kite. My lungs out of breath. My hands to my chest. My head to the sky. The devil telling me lies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOSE CONTROL”)
KAL BANX: Yeah. I’m lost in the world. My hope on a kite. My lungs out of breath. My hands to my chest. My head to the sky. The devil telling me lies.
CARMICHAEL: Even before you get to the lyrics, it starts out with a sound of him hyperventilating. He’s basically having a full-on anxiety attack, which, you know, anybody who hadn’t had one of those or had reason to have one of those in 2025 might not be fully alive. It’s just such a relatable feeling, and the way he attempts to talk himself down from it, it just really makes him and the vulnerability that he’s bringing on this album my favorite listen of the year.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOSE CONTROL”)
BANX: Got to lose control, lose control…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MALACHI THE UBER DRIVER”)
EPH SEE: One, two, three, and…
ROBIN HILTON, BYLINE: I’m Robin Hilton, host of All Songs Considered. There are a lot of lyrics all from the same song – an entry in this year’s Tiny Desk contest for unsigned artists. It’s from an artist named Eph See – and that’s spelled E-P-H S-E-E. It’s a story song called “Malachi The Uber Driver.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MALACHI THE UBER DRIVER”)
EPH SEE: (Singing) Malachi the Uber driver. We’re not so different. You and I both had tough times in grades four and five…
HILTON: They ended up having this life-changing conversation. They talked about their lives, about their childhoods, about their dreams, how they both wanted to be artists. But the line that really gets me, like, game over gets me, comes at the very end.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MALACHI THE UBER DRIVER”)
EPH SEE: (Singing) Malachi the Uber driver, I think we changed each other’s lives in the span of a ride, a moment in time. I remember what it all could be like.
HILTON: It was obviously a rough year for a lot of people. Everyone seems like they’re on edge and fed up, but this song is just such a simple, potent reminder that, you know, people are actually pretty wonderful, and it’s wonderful to be with one another, even if it’s the company of a stranger.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MALACHI THE UBER DRIVER”)
EPH SEE: (Singing) It made me think of what we’re fighting for.
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