Every time we update our running log of the year’s best songs — tracks we love so much they’re contenders for our Best of 2025 lists — the music leads us to bigger questions and themes. This week, we consider the fleeting power and freedom of youth, the rise and fall (and rise again) of guitar rock, the delicate balance you’ve got to keep to save any relationship, and more through new songs from Ty Segall, Little Simz, yeule and more.

NPR Music’s Hazel Cills joins host Robin Hilton.

Featured artists and songs:

• 1. Little Simz: “Young,” from Lotus
• 2. yeule: “Dudu,” from Evangelic Girl Is A Gun
• 3. Wednesday: “Elderberry Wine” (single)
• 4. Ty Segall: “Shining,” from Possession
• 5. Nourished By Time: “Max Potential,” from The Passionate Ones

All Songs Considered 25th anniversary segment: Our No. 1 songs from 2014

Weekly reset: Ringing bells at a neighborhood shrine near Osaka

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Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: allsongs@npr.org

Hear new songs from past episodes in the All Songs Considered playlists in Apple Music and Spotify.