if i had to categorize this year in music for me, i think the theme would be "pleasant surprises." these unexpected delights came courtesy of long-time favorites, new acts, and ones that have been around for a while but that i hadn't fully appreciated yet. hope you find a new favorite tune or two or five! as always, i've created a spotify playlist — but if you've gotten rid of your account or prefer another format, i made a youtube one as well after it was requested for last year's list! without any more blabbing, let's get to it.
honorable mentions:
25. worlds worst - "motor mouth"
i cannot describe the amount of anxiety it gives me to omit the apostrophe in this band's name, but that is how they spell it, folks (holy flashbacks to the mowgli's in 2012). but grammatical correctness aside, this shit riiiips, bruh. WW is from salt lake city, which...i'm not sure what sound i would associate with that city, but this is certainly not it. "motor mouth" is short and sweet at just about three minutes, but pummels you with riffage in that gritty philadelphian or maybe even pacific northwestern way, all dive bars with crushed PBRs littering the floor, grizzled townie regulars, and no surface that isn't mysteriously sticky. crank it.
24. the lemonheads - "in the margin"
i'll never count my faves out — more on that in a little bit with motion city soundtrack — but as one of my "all-timer" bands, i was beginning to file the lemonheads into my "best work is definitely behind them" cabinet; partially due to recent records i didn't really dig or revisit and partially due to repeat concerning performances and behavior from lead singer evan dando. however, love chant is pretty darn good! and "in the margin" leads the charge with a spunky, driving riff, dando's signature gift for memorable melodies all over the damn song, and his warm, casual vocal delivery that recalls the scrappy '80s/'90s college rock feel so much that you feel like you're about to take a bong rip in your dorm room. this tune is loose in the best ways, but it lingers in the best ways too, and that's one of the things i love most about the lemonheads.
23. samia - "cinder block"
unintentionally, i always have one song on the list that moves me to tears every time i listen to it. damn you and your stunning voice and heartfelt lyrics, samia! "cinder block" pulls from leonard cohen's word well ("suzanne" and "hallelujah") while infusing her own beautiful perspective through the imagery, the implications, and the deliberately understated, haunting instrumentation. like, "pall malls glistening in the ocean/and you want to travel blind/and you trust me 'cause i've touched your perfect body with my mind"? whew. you can feel the honesty and pain in every line, and this is coming from someone who usually considers lyrics the least important part of a song. "this is my 'hallelujah,'" she jokes halfway through. but honestly? it might be.
22. big bite - "charlotte song"
guys...i fear that not enough people know about the riffmaster and stellar guitarist that is matt berry. i mean, unless you've been seeing me sing his praises here and there on the internet for like 3 years, that is. :) a jack of all bands, matt has bopped around between his solo effort the berries (who put out one of my favorite rock records of the past several years in 2022, and released another really good one this year), small projects like RAM and drug addict, the now-defunct happy diving, and grungy seattle indie outfit big bite.
BB returned after a several-year hiatus with two singles, including "charlotte song." and dude, THIS RIFF. for me, this song is all about the damn riff in the damn verses! one of my primary attractions to berry's playing is his ability to craft these badass, memorable riffs that range from folky-americana twang to screaming, fuzzy angst like we hear here. i love how the bass line sneaks you into the song as if it's tip-toeing. i love how the chorus sizzles with despair ("i don't want to let you down/come on talk it over"/something i still can't quite make out) and then cools into a subtle, restrained drone before DAT RIFF, which almost sounds like something out of an '80s hair metal solo (complimentary), snarls in again under the detached, slacker vocals in the verses. (extreme dee snider voice) i wanna rock!
21. motion city soundtrack - "downer"
by jove, they've still got it! i have a couple dozen or so "forever bands" — ones that i'll love and cherish for life, and MCS is unquestionably one of them. from the first time i heard "the future freaks me out" via limewire download as a wee 17-year-old lass back in 2003, i've adored their unique brand of moog-y, upbeat-sounding pop punk/emo that masks surprisingly intense lyrics about mental health and relationships.
my friend sent me this meme last year, because he knew i'd appreciate it:
but no matter how much i love a band, there usually comes a time when their creative well runs pretty dry and i lower my expectations for any new album by them by a realistic amount. well, i'm so happy to say that i was SO pleasantly surprised at the same old wasted wonderful world. i don't know how they did it, but they captured the youthful optimism and feel of their earlier work (especially commit this to memory) perfectly, especially on this track.
as always, the light/dark contrast is here. over a sugary earworm of a chorus that would have fit right onto one of those mid-aughts albums, justin courtney pierre sings "don't ask me why/it's a complicated tale/my hands are tied/too tight to lift this veil/of darkest night/and all the promises i made/when i would always let you down/and i will always let you down." then...HANDCLAPS! were it 2004, i totally would have pulled lyrics from this song for my AIM away message, trust.
20. still blank - "ain't quite right"
much as its name suggests, "ain't quite right," from the delightfully geo-diverse duo still blank (jordy hails from hawaii and ben, the UK) leaves you with that feeling that something's amiss, but you're not quite sure what...and you're down to take the risky ride to find out the answer. its tone and tempo give me the same mysterious, dangerous, late-night feel and propulsion as "the wives of artie shaw" by kinski, which would be my top choice if i ever robbed a bank and needed a getaway soundtrack. at the same time, jordy's occasionally soulful wails and breathy whispers float above the dark bass line, giving it a dreamy halo.
19. olan monk - "pomegranate"
the best way i can describe this song — and irish singer olan monk's sound in general — is "dark academia." it's all creaking hardwood floors in a haunted, candlelit library as rain pelts the skylights and you make out in the stacks with a brooding victorian ghost. or maybe i'm just daydreaming again. but in summary, it's a (spooky) vibe. as "old" as it feels, though, there's also synthy, darkwave touches and screeching shoegaze guitars that recall '80s goth sensibilities, plus a heavy, dirge-like vocal delivery. simply put, there's a lot to love. you'll want to cue this one up for your next séance.
18. kasador - "cut it"
canada's kasador play a brand of low-key indie rock that channels mid-2000s garage rock and pop-punk in the most delightful ways that push my nostalgia buttons real good. anecdotally, they also seem like nice dudes, as they started following me on instagram because i used their banger of a song "RIP me down" in one of my reels, lol. anyway, "cut it" is a whole lot of fun, with cute touches like background vocals, a crunchy, chugging tempo, and a tongue-in-cheek vocal from lead singer cameron wyatt. as he explained, "i think vocally, it’s a blend of tom delonge and british rock. it’s sort of comedic and exaggerated. it’s kind of this semi-ambiguous accent, but also really laid back. it’s a derivative of things i used to listen to back in that 2005 era." no wonder i love it!
17. joe jonas - "only love"
joe j. is in his divorced dad healing and dating era and i am HERE FOR IT. as i think i've expressed in previous lists, i'm neutral-to-warm on the jo bros; completely a slave to undeniable bops like "sucker" and "burnin' up," but otherwise shrugging about them most of the time. so i'm happy to share that upon my first listen to joe's solo record, music for people who believe in love (aww), "only love" popped out at me from a storefront and dipped me like a ballroom dancer before kissing me on the lips *hard* and ya know what? i loved every second of it! it's an upbeat little ditty that combines the dance-forwardness of joe's side project DNCE with a sharp, sleek pop vibe a la ZAYN and lots of melodic goodness to grab onto, including the sneaky-huge, life-affirming chorus. also ZAYN-like are the cleverly naughty lyrics "now that i'm here, make the bed talk." okayyyyy, joseph!
16. "white reaper - "blue 42"
one of my favorite garage-punk/pop acts, white reaper, has been through it a lil' bit in the past year or so. right after i saw them live in june 2024 and felt something was silently "off," their rhythm section quit the band, and nobody was really sure what their future held. so i was stoked that they've returned with a new album, only slightly empty, and this fantastic power pop power ballad. with this track, it's the nuances that elevate it: the strange, staticky broadcast of a man talking about computers in the background and that goosebump-inducing guitar solo that comes out of absolutely nowhere to make you go "hell yeah, brother." its pace is slow, but impactful, and it never overstays its welcome.
it's by far the strongest track on the album IMO, which is why i found it absolutely confounding and hilarious to read a review that claimed the opposite, comparing it to "an old eve 6 song that never made it onto a proper record." look, kiddo, i know ball and i know eve 6 intimately. and i don't think i've heard anything that sounds LESS like eve 6 (ok, not really, but there are MANY more evenly-matched comparisons). i briefly wanted to throw the whole internet out the window before i calmed down and remembered that 1) it ain't that deep and 2) while i find it very concerning that people really just be sayin' anything online, i can just shake my head and move on. "blue 42" rulz.
15. djo - "potion"
whatchy'all know about djo? i still think so fondly of my surprise and delight upon hearing steve harrington aka joe keery aka djo's debut album, twenty twenty, in 2019, and that remains one of my favorite records of all time. while none of his releases since have hit me quite as hard, i really enjoyed listening to him get his sgt. pepper's on with the crux. "potion" is exactly the kind of "love" song i adore: it's sweet, but not saccharine; it's tender, but not mushy; it's longing, but not desperate. the lines are quietly charming, beautiful, and hopeful, e.g., "i'm lookin' for it in an alphabet soup cup/i'm lookin' under my thumb" and "glitz and glamour doesn't age like wine does/i'm countin' on love." but in the chorus, the thesis is distilled into something even purer and simpler: "i'll try for all of my life/just to find someone who leaves on the light for me." isn't that all any of us want to find, when it comes down to it? "potion" captures that feeling with a smile, a twinkling eye, and a sigh of temporary acceptance.
14. wednesday - "pick up that knife"
i vacillate on wednesday from album to album, and even song to song — i think i'll always be a twin plagues girly, because they really nailed that alt-country meets grungegaze balance expertly there, IMO. i thought rat saw god was pretty shrug-worthy, save for the fantastic "bull believer," and now i'm back to digging them with bleeds, though i'm still not loving what i call their "waxahatchee-fication" (transition into sleepier, more polished folk) i'm hearing on songs like "elderberry wine."
but!! all that being said, "pick up that knife," among others, walks the tightrope perfectly for me and infuses a rollicking, garage-rock vibrancy into the folkiness and tenderness. i also love the image karly hartzman paints of a death grips pit and a looming biker gang fight that escalates into a lively, freewheeling jam starting at 3:41. my only gripe is that i wish that it would go on for another minute or two because it's so much freakin' fun. i once had to restrain myself from grooving the hell out to it on a subway platform and limited my moves to some head bobs and foot taps, but man! it's so good.
13. cloth - "polaroid"
so, cloth is a duo made up of FRATERNAL SCOTTISH TWINS rachael and paul swinton. it really doesn't get much more adorable as a backstory for an ethereal U.K. indie band. "polaroid" is a smart, airy nugget that's also super accessible; it hits like a breeze and just carries you with it for almost four minutes, with vocalist and guitarist rachael's delicate delivery buoyed by an equally graceful piano melody, urgent bass line, swelling strings, and nagging guitar riff. this is the one i'm crowning with my annual "scene where you're looking out a window wistfully" designation.
12. flycatcher - "dissolve"
"dissolve" leans more '90s alt-rock than the early-aughts indie polish of 2023's "always selfish" (which landed at #14 on that year's list), but flycatcher's choruses remain undefeated and bulletproof. in a lot of ways, their immediate melodic appeal despite being somewhat complex in structure reminds me of neil berthier's (donovan wolfington and PHONY) songwriting knack. lead singer gregory pease's voice is the ideal mix of grungy + folky + punky, and the guitars and drums on this tune match his energy perfectly. highly suggest cranking this in your beat-up '94 camry with crank windows.
11. annie dirusso - "hungry"
annie's out for blood with this one. reckoning with a past abusive relationship, she delivers takedown after takedown — beginning with a controlled, menacing delivery over a sparse guitar line that barely masks the simmering rage underneath with hyper-poppy autotune. the undeniably infectious chorus invokes a brilliant metaphor: "upstate trees/i watched you flash your teeth/when a bear gets hungry/doesn't care who it eats/you don't care/who you eat." the tension slowly comes to a boil by the end, with the gloves coming off completely: "today i called my mom/and told her what you did/after all of these years/i'm finally sure of it/told me your mom's a bitch/although she raised a monster/i don't think she is/it makes me not want kids/just knowing what you did/it makes me not want kids." sometimes, the darkest stories are hidden underneath the brightest appearance.
10. bedridden - "gummy"
much like a weed gummy, this deliciously fuzzed-out, grungy shoegaze track from brooklyn's bedridden took a little while to kick in for me. but once it did, i was like, "...oh yeah, that's the stuff." there's a killer riff and multiple melodic motifs that keep things interesting and slightly winding, even though the song follows a pretty conventional structure.
and the lyrics, allegedly about lead singer jack riley rebuffing a coworker's advances after taking an MDMA gummy, are slyly hilarious: "remove your hand with a butter knife," "she said 'fuck me now'/'turn that frown upside down'." if i didn't know any better, i'd believe you if you told me this came out in 1993 — the "cherub rock" vibes are strong. bedridden's album, moths strapped to each other's backs, was one of my favorites of the year (and produced by aaron kobayashi ritch of momma, who is elsewhere on this list). definitely worth a listen!
9. SASAMI - "the seed"
sasami, a solo artist formerly of the band cherry glazerr, was a new discovery for me this year. but after i first heard this song, she had my undivided attention. half pop, half rock, the languid, lush energy of its verses and dainty piano melody contrast beautifully with the unexpectedly heavy chorus that barrels ahead (and makes you want to bang your head). she repeats the words "love," "pain," "growth," and "change" in different ways throughout the song, weaving them through different lenses so cohesively that you don't even notice the repetition unless you're really paying attention. in fact, the whole track envelops you in that way, slyly hypnotic in its elegance.
8. MIRADOR - "raider"
a riff so dirty, ya gotta make the stank face!
mirador is the side project/supergroup of jake kiszka of greta van fleet and chris turpin of british blues-folk duo ida mae (and formerly, late-aughts indie rockers kill it kid). or, in gen z parlance, "when two guitar baddies come together to maximize their joint slay." the two met when ida mae opened for greta in 2019 (i saw this tour!) and "courted" each other for a bit — i loved hearing chris recount on this podcast how blown away he was the first time he saw jake perform, and i was slamming my fist on the table saying "YES! EXACTLY MY EXPERIENCE! HE GETS IT! AND HE KNOWS HIS SHIT!" the band was born after they bonded over old blues during late nights with too much wine at jake's nashville house, and later recruited formidable london session players nick pini (bass, keys) and drummer mikey sorbello, formerly of the graveltones, to round them out.
i listen to a lot of guitarists, and while i love jake's articulation, tone, and compositions, what sets him apart for me is his evocation of song-related imagery (e.g., the "built by nations" solo comes in like a screeching eagle, part of the "age of machine" solo sounds like equipment malfunctioning, "the archer" gallops into a medieval forest, etc.) it's frustrating to me when jealous men— uhhh, i mean people — who clearly have only surface-level knowledge try to diminish or dismiss his talent. his husky voice, which has been a treat to discover, slightly recalls paul rodgers of free and bad company. meanwhile, chris is one of the best blues players around, and his voice is phenomenal; as one (french) reviewer put it, "turpin's voice is a tightrope between rage and fragility...he can roar like a possessed preacher, then break into a whisper."
i can't overstate how much more i loved mirador's self-titled debut album than i expected. i didn't think i'd dislike it, as i saw them live twice before the record came out — they're a phenomenal live band (the boston show was a comfy #2 of this year for me) and i dug the songs i heard. but the singles they chose did them a disservice, save for the beautiful reinterpretation of buffy sainte-marie's "must i go bound," because i think they downplay how incredible the album is. if it were up to me, "raider" would've been a no-brainer, because it packs a punch and captures the band at its best.
it draws you in with an arresting vocal harmony, accompanied only by sorbello's powerful drums, before quickly opening up into a gritty, sexy, detroit-garage-rock anthem — the verses' vocal style and structure wouldn't seem out of place on an early white stripes record. an '80s-metal-infused bridge sends you into space before that stripped-down dual vocal yanks you back down to earth, then the band kicks back in to kick your ass one more time, just lettin' it all hang out. the album was recorded live with dave cobb in savannah, georgia, and you can feel the swampiness oozing through the speakers. when i listened with my good headphones after some herbal refreshment, i wrote, "it feels like you're sitting in a garage, watching them play this," so it was validating to read this in a guitarist magazine interview:
Jake: "I think the way we approached this record, in terms of tracking it, was such a fever-pitch thing. It was such a frantic approach...We were acting purely on instinct.
Chris: "The other moment I think of like that is with Raider — that's the first song we tracked in all of those sessions, and it's an ugly riff, you know? It's heavy duty and the band is not perfectly together, and it's heaving and it's ugly. I just think that, for me, was another moment of just falling off the end of this arena tour for the first time — high intensity, where we were thrown in front of Greta's audience. Our first show was in front of 12,000 people and there's a lot to prove. Then here we were in this studio, late at night in Savannah, after probably too many tequilas. It was like, 'Okay, we're gonna lean into this. Here we go. And you can feel that energy." yes, i sure can!
oh, and perhaps most importantly...i could be wrong, but i do believe that the lyrics refer to, uh, eating box. and who doesn't love a good munch anthem? feminist kings!
7. momma - "i want you (fever)"
it would be a huge understatement to say that momma are no strangers to my year-end songs list; "biohazard" was #3 in 2020, "speeding 72" was #1 in 2022, and "ohio all the time" was #3 last year! "i want you (fever)" is still very much in line with the sunnier, more upbeat veruca salt tack they've been taking with the past couple albums. it features a movin'-groovin' tempo, almost celestial-sounding instrumentation, soft, sweet vocals, lyrics about young love and the related hijinks that ensue, a simple yet elegant singalong chorus, and a bridge that grabs you by the collar and demands accountability. it's momma doing what they do best — nothing crazy, just stellar songwriting and songcraft — but that's where they shine.
6. wes parker - "eggshellz"
WHAT ARE THESE MELODIES?! i gotta thank the algy for delivering this complete hidden gem of a track by wes parker to me, as it started playing as a recommended tune after one of my playlists finished up. sonically, it's like an after-hours sister song to "little things" by still woozy — which made my list last year — all hazy and confessional and earnest. and melodically, the whole thing lights my lil' brain up like a christmas tree, both smooth and scuzzy thanks to that unexpectedly rockin' bridge and solo. the ONLY thing that annoys me is that he says "commotion" in the second chorus. how do you show someone "the meaning of commotion?" it should clearly be "devotion." i know i didn't write the song, but like...just sayin'. this is one of those tunes that makes you feel like it was plucked out of the ether.
5. wombo - "danger in fives"
"danger in fives" (and wombo in general, kind of?) are like if a manic pixie dream girl were a song/band, but in the best, most charming zooey deschanel way possible — definitely a jess day over summer finn. it's undoubtedly one of the most unique and memorable songs i've heard all year, but the best part is it's actually legitimately fantastic, too! the best of both worlds. for the entirety of the track, lead singer and bassist sydney chadwick sounds like she's telling you a secret over high tea after you accidentally fell into wonderland, and the instrumentals follow suit; i can't take credit for this, but i read a comment on this video that called the guitar riff "the cheekiest riff i've ever heard in my goddamn life." i have to concur, and there is really no more accurate way to describe it. and y'all know how much i love me some cheeky whimsy. it's hard to believe the band is from kentucky, because something about this tune has a distinctly british or european quirkiness and nerviness to me.
4. courting - "after you"
bratty? check. british? check. sounds like it should be on a skateboarding or FIFA video game soundtrack? cheeeeck! "after you" is exactly my brand of cool, strutting rock that hides an unexpectedly memorable melody underneath the buttoned-up sheen, buzzing guitars, and bare-bones breakdown. it gets in, gets out, and gets proper stuck in your head for the next three days despite the chorus having a total of eight words.
3. addison rae - "times like these"
if you'd have told me a year ago that i'd have an addison rae song in my top three songs of 2025, i'd have said... "who?!" indeed, i guess i was living under a rock because i truly had no clue who tiktok star addison was until she released her debut album in june and i listened out of curiosity because of the buzz it was getting. i liked it immediately, and really fell in love with it in short order during my solo summer road trip to vermont and montreal. i'm not ashamed to admit that it has become my go-to comfort album this year.
addison was written and produced completely by women (we fucking love to see it!) and immerses you in a beautiful, lush, dreamy, and completely cohesive soundscape that — for me — narrates every facet of girlhood and captures the feel of the slightly more romantic and glamorous life i love to escape into from time to time. she's dancing. she's dressing up ("high fashion" is a brilliant, unconventional, glossy pop nugget that was neck and neck with this one). she's sitting on his lap sipping diet pepsi. she's losing herself and finding herself again (if i made a list of favorite 2025 interludes, "lost & found" would be #1). she's crying in the rain. she's got her headphones on, listening to her favorite song. and in "times like these," the song that really got its hooks into me, she gets surprisingly deep with the passage of time, her sense of self, and navigating it all.
2. twen - "godlike"
"godlike" was released in mid-august, and it makes SO much sense because it is truly mid-to-late august in a song. it's that day when there's a little breeze that whispers that fall is around the corner, but captures a certain carefree magic that motivates you to cherish the last few, fleeting joys of summertime. twen, a duo consisting of vocalist jane fitzsimmons and guitarist ian jones, are DIY vanlifers who specialize in a quirky brand of '90s-style indie rock with shoegaze and psychedelic flourishes. i'm still not sure exactly what this one is about, but the lyrics perfectly mirror its expansive, dreamy, and groovy sound: "you better believe it's just the way i get by/moving along 'til i can reach that high/don't take me backwards/loop that sky/give me some traction/'til i'm way too godlike." not unlike the addison rae track, it's the kind of song i like to refer to in my shorthand as a "cool teen movie song," where you immediately feel like you're the main character as soon as it comes on. amen!
1. vundabar - "beta fish"
boston's own, bay-beee! not to get all cheesy 'n shit, but have you ever had that moment after a bit of a rough patch that just cracks you wide open and reminds you that life is really, really good and that you're going to be really, really good? "beta fish" is the sound of that moment for me. while vundabar's surgery and pleasure had already climbed pretty high up on my "favorite albums of the year" list by may, this song (inexplicably) hadn't really grabbed me yet.
but on the last night of a wonderful, healing vacation in costa rica after months of deficiency-related anxiety and woe (take your vitamin d, y'all!), it came on as i was getting ready for dinner in my hotel room and just HIT. i soon found myself dancing like a maniac to the wiry, off-kilter guitars, the undeniable, slinky bass groove, and vocalist brandon hagen's controlled-to-manic vocals while tears formed in my eyes and i stepped out onto the balcony to look at the ocean and take it all in. i suddenly appreciated everything i missed before — in the song and beyond.
my favorite thing about this track is how it sounds so perfectly unpolished, raw, and kinetic: after a somewhat restrained buildup, the second chorus just explodes with energy that feels like grief, glee, and "dancing yourself alive." later on, when hagen pleads, "i need to shake! just a little bit, just a little bit" over and over in an increasingly desperate tone, you can literally hear the lyric become a personal mantra of sorts. then, he collects himself and carries on. because that's life, man — especially in 2025.
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