Think back to a time when the concert encore and a power ballad went hand-in-hand. This week, Sean Faust returns as guest curator as we craft the show’s first-ever Vol. 2 episode, picking up right where our original ’80s & ’90s Power Ballads playlist (Episode 16) left off.

This follow-up dives deeper into the era of soaring choruses, emotional guitar solos, and arena-sized feelings — the kind of songs that closed shows, slowed dances, and somehow made heartbreak feel heroic. These are the tracks you waited all night for, hoping the band would come back out and deliver one last gut-punch anthem.

Sp ...