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Heavy Rotation: 5 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing

Metric's "Youth Without Youth" is blowing up at 89.3 The Current in the Twin Cities.
Brantley Gutierrez
Metric's "Youth Without Youth" is blowing up at 89.3 The Current in the Twin Cities.

There's no clear formula for why a new song catches fire at one of our partner radio stations. Sometimes it's a hook you can't get out of your head, and sometimes it's a tune's ability to distill a station's overall vibe into three sublime minutes.

We asked five stations to select a song currently blowing up on their airwaves and tell us why. For a limited time, you can download their answers — the results include new music from the smart Canadian pop band Metric, U.K. singer Lianne La Havas, folk newbie John Fullbright, funk collective Brownout and British pop group alt-J.

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