It's been a minute since we got together to share some all-new music – not since our Nov. 6 show of last year, in fact. Hopefully you used the past several weeks to dig into our look back at the year in music for 2018, our remembrance of the artists we lost, Viking's Choice, Glaring Omissions and, of course, our annual Holiday Radio Play.

But we're back now with a batch of essential songs to start the new year right. This includes a spare and profoundly moving new track from singer Lana Del Rey called "Hope is a Terrible Thing for a Woman Like Me To Have – But I Have It;" a brutally candid critique of toxic masculinity from Stella Donnelly; and the thumping, propulsive sounds of Priests and their new song "The Seduction Of Kansas."

Also on the show: Perfect guitar pop from Telekinesis, and the punk-saxophone of Joy On Fire and the sweet harmonies of The Wild Reeds, both of whom pay tribute to a lost mother.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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