Writer T.S. Eliot takes a reflective puff at a cigarette before starting work.

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It’s been more than 100 years since T.S. Eliot published The Wasteland, his infamous poem on disillusionment and despair, and for many of the decades since, popular culture has considered April, as he noted in the poem’s opening line, the cruelest month.

This week on the show we reflect on this heady season of renewal with songs that are both cringe-inducing and hilarious, from the cruelest takedowns to the most insidious earworms. NPR Music editors Hazel Cills and Sheldon Pearce join host Robin Hilton.