“Stay With Me” LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON · OTHER APPS Sam Smith is a Grammy and Oscar-winning singer and songwriter from London, England. Their first album, In the Lonely Hour, came out in 2014. It went quintuple platinum in the US, and the biggest hit from that album is the song “Stay With Me,” which has over 2 billion streams on Spotify alone. For this episode, in honor of the song’s 10th anniversary, I talked to Sam about how “Stay With Me” was made. I also talked to Sam’s frequent collaborator, Jimmy Napes, who is an award-winning producer and songwriter as well. The two of them t ..read more

“Staying” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS Lizzy McAlpine released her first album in 2020, and her second album in 2022. And between the two, she’s had a lot of success. One of her songs, “Ceilings,” was a viral TikTok hit, and has been streamed over half a billion times. So you might think, with all that success, you’d want to keep working in way that’s been working. But while Lizzy was making her third album, Older, after almost a year into the process of recording, she threw the whole thing out. She ..read more

“Do You Realize??” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983. Over the last four decades, they’ve put out 16 albums. In 1999, they put out their album The Soft Bulletin, and that brought them a new level of success. And then, in 2002, they followed it up with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which was their biggest album to date. Pitchfork named it one of the top 5 albums of the year, Stereogum called it one of the best albums of the decade, and they won a Grammy ..read more

“Low Rider” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS The band War formed in 1969, in Long Beach, California. “Low Rider” is from their 1975 album Why Can’t We Be Friends? The song was a hit as soon as it came out. It went to #1 on the Billboard R&B charts, and it’s just had tremendous lasting power ever since. Besides being in the movie Dazed and Confused, where I heard it, it’s been sampled by the Beastie Boys, it was covered by Korn, and it was the theme song for all six seasons of The George Lopez Show ..read more

“Y.B.P.” (feat. Bruiser Wolf) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS Danny Brown started his career in 2007 by handing out mixtapes in Detroit, where he’s from. In 2011, he put out his acclaimed second album, XXX. Since then, he’s collaborated with rappers like Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky and JPEGMafia, but he’s also worked with electronic bands like Purity Ring and The Avalanches, and he did a verse on a remix for Korn. When I first heard him, around when XXX came out, I was really drawn to his voice. And I a ..read more

“You Louisiana Man” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS Rhiannon Giddens has released five solo albums since 2015. Before that, she was a member of the Grammy-winning band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. She is now also the artistic director of the Silkroad Ensemble, the musical supergroup that Yo-Yo Ma founded. Rhiannon Giddens is one of those people where I feel like they have to start inventing new awards, because she’s already won all of them. She’s got multiple Grammys, she won the Pulitzer Prize for a ..read more

“Basket Case” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS Green Day is a punk band from the East Bay in California. Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool have playing music together since 1987. They’ve sold over 90 million records. They’ve won four Grammys, including twice for Best Rock Album. They put out their first album in 1990, and in 91, they put out their second album, Kerplunk!. And then they moved to a major label, and in 1994 they put out their third album, Dookie, which was huge. It helped bring ..read more

“The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” Deluxe Anniversary Edition View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS The first episode of Song Exploder, about The Postal Service song “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight,” came out 10 years ago, in January 2014. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the podcast, we’re doing what bands do, and putting out a deluxe, expanded edition of our very first release: this version features a new interview, new insights, and new pieces of the song and demo. The Postal Service formed in 200 ..read more

“The Teacher” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS For the last episode of the year, I got the chance to drive up to Northridge, California, and have a conversation with Dave Grohl. We talked about the Foo Fighters song “The Teacher,” which is an epic, 10-minute long song. Dave told me it’s the most important piece of music he’s ever written, because it’s dedicated to his mother, Virginia, who passed away in 2022. Dave Grohl started Foo Fighters in 1994, after Nirvana ended. This year, Foo Fighters set a re ..read more

Escapism (feat. 070 Shake) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON· OTHER APPS Raye is a singer, songwriter and producer from London. Besides being an artist in her own right, she’s also been a songwriter for other artists since she was a teenager. She’s co-written songs for Beyoncé, Charli XCX, and Ellie Goulding. In 2023, she released her debut album, My 21st Century Blues. The first single, “Escapism,” became her first song to hit #1 in the UK. It’s gone platinum in the US, the UK, and seven other countries. It feature ..read more