Every December between Christmas and New Year's, I try to catch up on music released during the year.
It's a good time to read up, sample other people's best-of lists, compile them into a playlist, live with the first draft of 80-100 songs, rearrange them, make some cuts, and then I have a broad, representative list to come back to.
If this collection tees up some songs for your own discovery, so much the better.
Methodology
Nothing fancy here, I just limited this to one song per album - although Lady Gaga gets in twice with her Bruno Mars single.
Some years, I also tick off a list of the best albums.
I hate saying this as a guy who still likes to record and release albums, but full records are increasingly irrelevant.
If I did have a list, I'd make sure to start with Lily Allen’s record and the Wet Leg album, and I'd take it from there.
Last note: I have no problems including music from friends and people in music whom I know, and mixing them in with more famous songs.
The funny thing is that they hold their own and fit right in.
Case in point: My buddy Spud Davenport's song, "(I Hope Everybody Is) Looking Out For Me," is here and belongs in the Top 20 as much as anything else.
What Did I Learn About 2025 Music
This year, like I've felt doing this the last several years, most music on year-end best lists just isn't for me.
It feels like things are on two tracks in pop/rock/indie/alternative: Things are a little too slick like Taylor Swift / Sabrina Carpenter stuff (as good as it is) or a little too shoegaze-y and mellow like Lucy Dacus / Bon Iver / Japanese Breakfast, etc (as good as it is).
The unspoken formula for great music is blending the familiar and the novel; of course that's always in the ear of the beholder.
So much of this year's critical darling music is a little on the boring side for me.
Most of those 50 songs on this list I pieced together have some novel and fresh elements that keep music exciting.
The List
OK, enjoy.
(Comments on songs below the playlist below.)
By the way, if there are anything more than 50 songs in the Spotify playlist, then it’s something I discovered and added to the playlist well after this article was posted.
And have a great 2026, everybody.
1 Sports Team "Condensation" - Might not be my favorite song but it has great leadoff song energy in a mixtape.
It’s rock, has some fun chord changes and not preprocessed or navel-gazing.
Sold.
2 The Mountain Goats "Through This Fire" - Though they might seem aligned with the bearded low-fi indie 2020’s music that’s boring me, there’s something way more electric and exciting about The Mountain Goats.
Their song "Southwestern Territory" is one of my favorites, ever.
This one isn’t far behind.
3 Mac DeMarco "Holy" - Wow, if it’s possible to be "aggressively restrained", this guy accomplished it.
Quiet but pleasant and inventive.
DeMarco has been plugging away for a while but nice to hear him catching on.
4 Drugdealer featuring Weyes Blood "Real Thing" - Finally, a new pop song that doesn’t sound like it could have been made by a computer.
It’s somehow warm, retro, modern and bouncy.
5 SZA "Scorsese Baby Daddy" - She is an R&B breath of fresh air.
Her 2022 song "Kill Bill" is on the short list of best and biggest songs of the 2020’s, but this steadier song seems like more of what’s she’s really like, and what we’ll hopefully keep getting for years.
6 HAIM "Relationships" - These sisters are probably the best music being made these days that are universally critically adored.
If you don’t know em, think cross between Heart and Vampire Weekend.
Btw, they’re a great interview unlike most singers.
7 Bon Iver "Everything Is Peaceful Love" - Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) could be guilty of boring beardy low-fi but there’s always enough chords and fresh production that keeps his songs several steps above ASMR.
I’m not saying enough good things about this song, it’s really nice.
8 Craig Finn "Crumbs" - Finally, a grown up in the room.
This is more like my bread and butter.
How come there aren’t more iconoclastic successes with humor, personality and sarcasm in modern music.
Maybe not quite up to Hold Steady highlights but close.
9 Lady Gaga "Vanish Into You" - Hats off to Lady Gaga again.
Taylor Swift may have conquered music but Gaga seems to have an unlimited capacity to make monster pop earworm juggernauts out of personal, intimate stories and feelings.
10 Panda Bear "Ferry Lady" - This could be higher in the list.
So much fresher than even the rest of these good songs.
This dude makes sampling and looping sound warm and lo-fi and indie.
Fucking great.
11 Goose "Dustin Hoffman" - Since when does a jam band make a really well-recorded album?
I personally think Phish did great, but I think Goose is really starting to figure out recording.
I love Goose, but this might be their best song.
12 Denison Witmer & Sufjan Stevens "Focus Ring" - Denison Witner is pleasant enough acoustic music.
All he really needed was the Sufjan Stevens touch to make it sparkle and be worth repeat listening.
Nice.
13 Uwade "Call It A Draw" - Another part of the extended Fleet Foxes, Mountain Goats, Animal Collective universe.
Her voice sounds great.
It’s not often somebody uses strings and backwards loops but so subtly that you really don’t notice them.
14 The Lottery Winners "Turn Around" - Shorthand: if Oasis songs were done by MGMT.
[exhale]
After all of this indie-folk, good to hear some legit crative pop rock.
15 Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band "New Threats From The Soul" - What a cool rock country song, like an inverted version of Rolling Stones "Dead Flowers."
His voice sounds low like Nick Cave except with 200% more optimism.
16 Kesha "LOVE FOREVER." - For modern pop it might be Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter’s world and we’re just living in it.
But don’t sleep on Kesha.
Great to have this song around, although my old man gripe is to lay off the auto-tune in the chorus.
17 David Byrne & Ghost Train Orchestra "Everybody Laughs" - I don’t think David Byrne has ever made a boring record (except for his dicking around with chamber music).
He’s still playful, fun and creating.
Maybe not in his top 50 songs, but that’s a tough list to crack.
18 Matilda Mann "Just Because" - Be patient, give it 30 seconds to get a groove, and 50 seconds to get interesting.
And how bout this lyric: "Just because you think it's love / doesn't mean it is / doesn't mean it was."
19 Spud Davenport "(I Hope Everybody is) Lookin’ Out For Me" - This is the only "unsigned" song in this list and, paradoxically, it might have the best and most interesting production.
Human horns, human drums, a particularly human voice and a human sentiment.
A breath of fresh air.
20 Lily Allen "4chan Stan" - This song may rise up my personal charts (like a lot of this album) as I keep getting used to it.
But I think Lily Allen is the most underrated voice in pop.
The thinking man’s Amy Winehouse, or a more productive Nellie McKay.
21 Dean Johnson "Blue Moon" - You could have told me this was Sondre Lerche and I would have believed you.
Iconoclastic personal quiet songwriting while still being audience-forward and pleasant.
22 Wet Leg "catch these fists" - Thank god, a great rock album in 2025.
I feel old because this 20-year-old sound they’re harkening back to (Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys) is from the 2000’s and it feels like yesterday.
23 Black Country, New Road "Besties" - Starts out a little folkie indie, but please stay with it.
This song goes so many places like peak Joanna Newsom or Nicole Atkins.
It’s almost classical in that there are 4-5 "movements" to this song.
24 Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars "Die With A Smile" - I’m not even that big of a Bruno Mars fan normally, but this is so patient, old school mid-tempo toe-tapper.
And the harmonies in the chorus will knock you out.
Good for for your date night playlist.
25 Olivia Dean "Man I Need" - Inspirational, smooth and great pop.
Her voice reminds me of Adele but a way more bouncy groove.
Please listen to this song to see if crawls into your head.
26 Sabrina Carpenter "Manchild" - She’s right on Taylor’s tail if you asked me.
It’s pretty gratifying to see big pop like Olivia Rodrigo and stuff like this from Sabrina Carpenter be hugely popular while being musically inventive.
27 Madison Cunningham "My Full Name" - I’ve seen her play a couple of times at Largo in LA (I shouldn’t write about how that’s the best venue in the world so it’s still a relatively easy ticket to get).
Quiet stripped down ones like this from her are just right with her voice and sensibility.
28 Manic Street Preachers "People Ruin Paintings" - Loved these Welsh dudes in the 90’s and they haven’t stopped.
I always get fooled by peppy-sounding songs that are about heartbreak; I don’t tend to "get" the lyrics until like the 7th or 8th listen.
29 Suzanne Vega "Alley" - God bless her, Vega is still an observational storytelling songwriter.
And if it wasn’t for some nods towards modern production and drum sounds, this could have fit on any of her 1990s or 2000s albums.
30 KPop Demon Hunters Cast "Golden" - If you didn’t have this crawl into your ear this year, you’re probably both old and don’t have kids.
A phenomenon.
Although I think I liked "Soda Pop" more, but this gives the playlist some well-needed energy here.
31 The Black Keys "No Rain, No Flowers" - I bet you forgot about The Black Keys, didn’t you.
OK, THIS might be the best produced song on this list.
It kinda rocks yet doesn’t rock the boat.
You can hear the groovy resilience - after their managment really tanked recently; a lot of bands could have given up.
32 Alex G "Afterlife" - I’m a sucker for 12-string guitars and mandolins over a steady rock drumbeat.
If Elliott Smith was in a group (and not clinically depressed) it could have sounded like this.
33 Divorce "O Calamity" - Mostly one female voice and a guitar, could be on the sad, whiny side but the Manson lyrics keep it light, iroincally.
Then the harmonies join in the chorus and this goes up ten notches.
Really cool.
34 Robert Plant "Chevrolet" - Lists like this usually don’t have musicians under 35 years old, but sometimes legends still give a shit and try.
This is such a cool folkie but modern cover of a great blues standard.
If you liked his stuff with Alison Kraus, grab this one.
35 Taylor Swift "The Fate of Ophelia" - Everybody likes to take a shot at Taylor Swift for being the Amazon of music, an unstoppable, ubiquitous corporate juggernaut.
But she’s damn good and this pop about Shakespeare’s character having something to say about women are still treated?
Good stuff.
36 S.G. Goodman "Snapping Turtle" - When it comes to straight-ahead, rock-adjacent female country singer-songwriters, I’m looking for somebody to step into the void that Lucinda Williams is leaving.
That’s a big ask, but give this a real shot if you like Lucinda.
37 The Doobie Brothers "Learn to Let Go" - Maybe it’s because I’ve been working on finally writing up my "yacht rock manifeso" (coming soon) but this vintage McDonald / Doobies tune came just at the right time.
Put it in a Michael McDonald or yacht rock playlist right now.
38 Gorillaz & Sparks "The Happy Dictator" - Funky collab/mashup of Sparks theatrical and Gorillaz electro pop mentality; comes off like a great LCD Soundsystem outtake.
Weird lyrics.
This one might stick with me for a while.
39 Lady Wray "My Best Step" - Iconic lady R&B, like somebody who grew up on Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings instead of being old enough to listen to Aretha and Gladys Knight on the charts in real time.
You can’t have enough female keyboard soul.
40 Lucy Dacus "Ankles" - This song starts out kinda precious but get into where drums and instruments come in and it might feel like quirkier and younger Aimee Mann.
41 Japanese Breakfast "Orlando in Love" - OK, we’re back to our baroque indie folk pop that CAN be boring, but this isn’t.
Here’s some shorthand: If you like Kate Bush and have an open mind, you should like this.
42 Hannah Cohen "Earthstar" - Just like classic Belle & Sebastian, this quirky quiet little number has so much more groove than you would imagine.
Indie romantic doubts rarely have such a spacey keyboard solo or slippery bassline.
43 Wednesday "Townies" - I swear the verses sound so much like an old indie rock song I can’t place, it’s driving me nuts.
Slide guitars, but pure indie rock.
Is it the best song here?
No, but I want to get to know this one and see if it sticks.
44 This Is Lorelei & MJ Lenderman "Dancing in the Club" - Goddamn if this doesn’t sound like Ryan Adams or Uncle Tupelo.
That’s a great thing.
Maybe it’s only this low on this list cause it’s not necessarily innovative but really good.
Add it.
45 Arcade Fire "Alien Nation" - "Alien Nation" sound like "alienation", get it?
This doesn’t live up to their best, but it’s still more interesting and compelling than most everything this year.
They always sound BIG.
The sexual misconduct stuff is a bummer, and they’re now divorced where their marriage was a big part of their identity.
46 Brandee Younger "Gadabout Season" - Did I just put an instrumental jazz harp track on this list?
Yes I did.
If that sentence piques your interest, then you’re gonna love this.
Inventive as fuck.
47 Elton John & Brandi Carlile "Little Richard's Bible" - Hey, I’m not even sure if this is good.
When you describe a track as "rollicking", I’m usually out.
But there’s something at least a little interesting about this.
48 Debbii Dawson "Chemical Reaction" - This sounds like such well-crafted white girl faux-disco pop, I did a double take to find out she’s Asian-American, but who cares.
For pop fans only.
49 Hayley Williams "True Believer" - "Poor man’s Sia" sounds too dismissive.
It’s persistent and quirky enough to stop short of being a quiet "I can make it" anthem.
50 Nourished by Time "Max Potential" - A little odd; kind of experimental but not off-putting.
Reminds me a little of TV On The Radio.
The chorus hook of "If I’m going to go insane, least I’m loved by you" really stick with repetition.
I should move this higher, but it’s a great closer for the playlist.
