April 18, 2026

by Robin Hilton

This week, Robin Hilton, the host of NPR Music’s podcast All Songs Considered, is sitting in for Ann Powers, and looking for songs that provide a reset.

Photo of a rainbow and a field of flowers

Sabine Dobel/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

It’s easy to take music for granted, especially in the age of streaming. It asks virtually nothing of us to hear it — no real financial investment or obligation, no crate-digging or hard-earned discovery, and everything ever recorded is available anytime, anywhere for anyone. As a former intern once shrugged to me, “Music is just there, like ... in the air.”

But music still holds power. It’s rare and magical and reaches us in ways that a lot of things (poetry, film, paintings, etc.) don't, simply because music can, in fact, come to us through the air and hit us even if we’re in the middle of anything other than the pursuit of great art — walking the dog, driving to work, waiting in line at the DMV. And in those banal, mindless, entirely unremarkable moments, the right song can come on and suddenly change everything. Not just the air in the room, but the rhythm of your heart and the climate of your mind.

For this week’s All Songs Considered, NPR Music’s Noah Caldwell, Dora Levite and I explore this phenomenon by sharing a playlist of songs for starting over. It is springtime after all, a time for new beginnings. And what are new beginnings if not a reset? That’s what our mix of songs endeavors to do — to reset or completely reconfigure your day, your mood or maybe even your life. There are, of course, all kinds of ways a song can do this. They can be literal and liberating, like Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” or just an instant jolt of adrenaline, like “Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys. Or maybe you just need a good, cleansing cry; something like “‘Amy Shark” by Amy Shark, one you might not have heard before, can help you get it all out.

What’s your go-to song when you need a reset? What can you count on to lift you up or steady your mind? Is there a song that surprised you and, out of the blue, gave you a whole new direction or purpose in life? Tell us about it by clicking the button below, or email us at allsongs@npr.org. We’ll include it in our growing playlist — or maybe even feature it on a future show.

What song is your reset button?

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