I really want to stress here that this isn't dedicated to "finds" in the sense that these are super niche projects no one knows about. It's anything that I listened to for the first time this year. I just wanted to clarify that before I share my main pick. First though... Honourable mention: Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World In all honesty, this might be my favourite find of the year, but it felt jammy enough picking You Lose! as my song pick, so I opted to leave it as an hono

This category is dedicated to the songs that I didn't get around to when they came out but discovered in the past year, whether that's because it came out before I was into music like I am now, or whether it's just one that escaped me the first time round. Honourable mention: Mk.gee - Alesis Two Star & The Dream Police was a strange album to get into. I was warned beforehand, but it didn't make the experience of "learning" the album any less strange. It's almost as if it was

This category is pretty straightforward, but a crucial one for any music fans journey: it's all about the albums that took me by surprise and opened me up to a new genre or style of music. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme Normally this category would go to an album or artist that came out this year, but unfortunately no album or artist was able to break any boundaries for me with their releases this year, at most putting a dent in the walls of my comfort zone (such as Deftones

This superlative is dedicated to the album that best executed on it's concept. Naturally it needs to be a concept album of some description, but crucially the overall quality of the music isn't being judged here. It isn't the best concept album, it is the best concept for an album. Honourable mention: FKA twigs - Eusexua For 2025, twigs turned her attention to club culture for inspiration, hoping to capture a very specific sense of belonging and euphoria she felt in raves an

This category is dedicated to bands and artists that have taken a huge leap forward in living up to their creative potential. The band or artist that I choose here is a band or artist which has always seemed promising but has always seemed to be missing something that takes them from a talented act to keep an eye on, to a genuinely great act. Sorry (2025 project: COSPLAY) This was a tricky category this year. It feels as though all the up-and-comers up-and-came all at once la

The album that I feel has gone most undeservedly under the radar Honourable mention: $ilkMoney - WHO WATERS THE WILTING GIVING TREE ONCE THE LEAVES DRY UP AND FRUITS NO LONGER BEAR? Sometimes you will just see a title and decide you have to listen to the work just because that title is too compelling. This album is full of those types of titles, and the music backs it up. This album is about as insane as it's art. It's extremely overwhelming, and I definitely haven't listened

The Leonard Cohen Award is for an album from this year that embodies the lines "There is a crack, a crack in everything // That's how the light gets in". It's not a perfect album by any means, but this album seems to defy critique, sometimes being entirely unaffected by it's flaws and sometimes even being improved by them. Lily Allen - West End Girl If you look at the publish dates of these posts, you might notice that this post took a little longer to make than the ones befo

This category is for my favourite banger of the year, including any song that seems intent on giving me whiplash or hearing loss. Anything that feels gnarly and gritty enough to have me stank facing. Honourable mention: Maruja - Look Down On Us I really enjoyed the Maruja album as a whole this year and this song really sums up what I love about it. The prominent use of saxophone in rock music is one of those things that just really works for me, and here it is used to great e

The second of my year-end categories is dedicated to my favourite bop of the year! That means my favourite of the songs that aim to get me moving and grooving. Honourable Mention: underscores - Do it I've been absolutely loving the off-kilter electronic-leaning sound that underscores has been leaning into as of late, and this is my favourite example so far. On Do it she makes use of a wide array of sounds, from acoustic guitar, to a ding that sounds like a cash register, to

Happy new year everyone! I hope your years were less miserable than the average person's seemed to be. Over the next twelve days I'll be going over some of my favourite things in music over 2025, from albums that broke down a boundary I had in my musical awareness, to under-loved albums, to my favourites overall from the year. Starting things off here with my jam of the year: the best song for kicking back and vibing. A low-key song whose sound comforts instead of energizes.

I've been listening to a lot of Bobby "Boris" Pickett lately, and I gotta say, the Monster Mash lore is fascinating, yet despicable, like...

This one is going to be a refreshingly low-effort post just to share my playlist for my top 50 songs of the year. Feel free to check it...

I had the thought when my parents were listening to the radio. I realized that there was more creativity to be gleaned from the music...