chaosincurate's 2025 Favourites (2/12) - Bop of the Year

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 a gnarly bass synth, and a whole lot more that feel finely tuned and perfectly balanced, but in such a unique way, like those videos where someone trains an AI model to recreate an optimal version of something simple like walking and they end up doing strange lopsided cartwheels or something.

Japanese Breakfast - Picture Window

A very different kind of bop to the honourable mention, but an equally stellar one. One of the 3 standouts from this album for me, Picture Window is the second song in a row now that I've selected as a favourite in which the lyrics are a massive part of my love for it. And to push the similarities even further, it's another song about a strenuous relationship dynamic. Something was in the water in 2025, everyone was writing about bad relationships.

From the first second you're given a musical snapshot of unrest. One that is short-lived and doesn't return as it's replaced with a country-tinged instrumental that moreso evokes a feeling of yearning than a feeling of dread or standard upset. The first verse ties into that feeling, leading with the adventurous depiction of the partner "My baby loves a port town and a shuffle // Only cries on Ferris wheels" followed by a depiction of the protagonist as a sort of anchor (which is reiterated brilliantly later): "This baby's on the verge of if she lost him would most certainly be committed". As much as that is the foundation for the rest of the song though, they may be the weakest lines of the entire song.

There are plenty of lines I could pick out, but I want to pick out the lines between the first and second chorus:

"

Heart breaking like a punch card

Keeps his mouth shut

Keeps his mind fixed and well-hidden

You dream enough for two, dear

Picture window

Looking out on somewhere else

Do you not conceive of my death at every minute

While your life just passes you by?

"

Each of those lines builds on each other so elegantly and are some of my favourite lyrics of the year, and they're right up there for all time too. "Heart breaking like a punch card" is a brilliant double entendre in a sense, depicting a routine, boring type of harm while also feeding into the following line, demonstrating that the harm is being done via silence, a mouth shut much like the method by which a punch card is punched, while also being done as a sign of loyalty (although the protagonist here feels as though they are abusing that loyalty and keeping them from being happier, so it is certainly warped loyalty).

In the next few lines the lack of assurance the narrator feels becomes clear, comparing the partner's dreams to something seen through a picture window: something that isn't there with them and can't be acquired without leaving. The image of someone looking out on a dream life through a window that they can't achieve with someone they care about is a brutal one, and is made all the more brutal by the fact that the lines that surround it portray someone who is willing to sacrifice that, but is unable to reassure his partner of that because even stating that he feels the desire for something unattainable feels like a betrayal.

And finally the pre-chorus where the protagonist tries to understand what is going through his head and questions if they ever think it would be easier if the person anchoring them to a life that they aren't fully happy with just died. Not out of malice or hatred, but out of convenience. It's a devastating thing to consider, and the dreamer in the song may not feel that way at all, but they aren't willing to communicate honestly about the situation, which causes the protagonist's mind to wander.

There's so much depth in these lyrics, so much to pick apart and take away from them, and that is primarily what makes the song one of my favourites of the year. Although a country-tinge has never sounded so good to me either, and the sound suits the subject matter perfectly.