Big Thief’s Buck Meek, Joji and more of the week’s best songs

NPR’s classical critic Tom Huizenga joins host Robin Hilton for our first spin of the best songs we’re hearing in 2026, including new ones from Big Thief’s Buck Meek, the genre-hopping artist Joji, “fragile hope” from composer Daníel Bjarnason and more.


Featured artists and songs:

1. Buck Meek: “Gasoline,” from ‘The Mirror’

2. Pekka Kuusisto & Sam Amidon: "Way Go, Lily" (Arr. by Nico Muhly / Adapted for orchestra by Bernard Rofe), from ‘Willows’

3. Joji: “Love You Less,” from ‘P*** In The Wind’

4. Joyce DiDonato & Time for Three: “Because I could not stop for Death," from ‘Emily - No Prisoner Be’

5. Jana Horn: “Don’t think,” from ‘Jana Horn’

6. Daniel Bjarnason & The Iceland Symphony Orchestra: “Fragile Hope,” from ‘The Grotesque and the Sublime’


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