STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's get a music recommendation now. Each month, NPR Music asks public radio hosts and DJs to tell us about a new song they play on the air a lot, the song in Heavy Rotation. And recently we asked DJs to reflect on some of their biggest songs of the year just past. Benji McPhail of KUNC nominated the song, "Hey Mami."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEY MAMI")
SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) Hey, mami. I know what you want, mami.
BENJI MCPHAIL, BYLINE: Sylvan Esso is a duo out of Durham, North Carolina. The thing that makes the vocals so appealing - the woman is named Amelia Meath. Nick Sanborn is her partner, and he gives her a lot of room to really project that voice.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEY MAMI")
SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) She walking so fast. She walking so fast. She walking so fast. Oh, our lady, she don't know how she go.
MCPHAIL: It almost feels like it's recorded on a street corner somewhere. She's walking so fast - you know, you've got this mental picture of a woman kind of going, you know, through the street corner. Cat calling is definitely an aspect. It's just part of the street scene that they create at the beginning, I think. You know, she might be walking past a construction zone. In fact, there are parts where the music really does sound like, you know, there's hammering or there's people working on jackhammers.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEY MAMI")
SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) She walking so fast. She walking so fast. Oh, our lady, she don't know how she go.
MCPHAIL: It really isn't until, you know, about a third of the way through taht you realize that there's a lot more to this song than just the vocal performance. And, you know, that's when it kind of pulls you in even more.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEY MAMI")
SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) Flies right through the sound, moving her body all around town. Hey, hey mami. Hey, hey mami. I know what you want. I know what you want.
MCPHAIL: This is the only band I can think of where they combine the street corner kind of a cappella sound with an electronic sound, and in theory that really shouldn't work. But for whatever reason, the combination works for these guys, and it works really well.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEY MAMI")
SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) She floats. Along she goes. She owns the eyes as she flies right through the sound
INSKEEP: That was KUNC's Benji McPhail talking about Sylvan Esso's song "Hey Mami." You can hear that and many others on our Heavy Rotation music stream at npr.org/music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEY MAMI")
SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) Sooner or later, the dudes at bodegas will hold their lips and own this. Curling their toes on a shivery tip. But out here, oh, she don't know the gravity she owns as she pulls on the eyeballs of all the kids standing tall. Hey, hey, mami. I know what you want, mami. Hey, hey, mami. I know what you want, mami. Hey, hey, mami. I know what you want, mami.