Bananas. It’s the only word I have to describe this year. So many wonderful things against a background of undeniable horror. Music serves many purposes, but this year, it gave me respite from this deluge of cruelty and hate. It didn’t dull me into inactivity, but it provided a safe harbor from which I could recharge, regroup, and resist.
Old favorites (Wombats, Nerina Pallot, Neko Case, Ting Tings, St Vincent, Brandi Carlile, the Hives) brought new twists to familiar sounds. And so many new sounds: Big Special, Lola Young, Folk Bitch Trio, Lambrini Girls, and so many more. And I’m seeing the next generation of “old favorites” keeping up the catalog momentum: Viagra Boys, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Ken Yates, Wet Leg, and Amyl & The Sniffers. These are the bands that set 2025 apart from years past, in the best possible way.
2025 Playlist
Track by track, with artist + album
- Can’t Say No
THE WOMBATS – OH! THE OCEAN - Electrified Teenybop!
STEREOLAB – INSTANT HOLOGRAMS ON METAL FILM - High Time
NERINA PALLOT – A PSALM FOR EMILY SALVI - Winning
THE TING TINGS – HOME - Magnetic
TUNDE ADEBIMPE – THEE BLACK BOLTZ - Man Made of Meat
VIAGRA BOYS – VIAGR ABOYS - SHITHOUSE
BIG SPECIAL – POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES (DELUXE) - The Day That I Met God
GARBAGE – LET ALL THAT WE IMAGINE BE THE LIGHT - Wreck
NEKO CASE – NEON GREY MIDNIGHT GREEN - No One Knows Us
BRANDI CARLILE – RETURNING TO MYSELF - Road to Nowhere
MAXENCE CYRIN – PASSENGER - Inept Apollo
NATION OF LANGUAGE – DANCE CALLED MEMORY - Messy
LOLA YOUNG – THIS WASN’T MEANT FOR YOU ANYWAY - catch these fists
WET LEG – MOISTURIZER - Me and the Girls
AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS – CARTOON DARKNESS - Broken Man
ST. VINCENT – ALL BORN SCREAMING
- Maybe When We’re 30
SPORTS TEAM – BOYS THESE DAYS - It’s a Mirror
PERFUME GENIUS – GLORY - Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)
HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF – THE PAST IS STILL ALIVE - God’s A Different Sword
FOLK BITCH TRIO – NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME - Trouble
SHARON VAN ETTEN – SHARON VAN ETTEN & THE ATTACHMENT THEORY - Endsong
THE CURE – SONGS OF A LOST WORLD - Lullaby For The Lost
DONNY MCCASLIN – LULLABY FOR THE LOST - Total Cinema
KEN YATES – TOTAL CINEMA - Flame
JUDITH HILL – LETTERS FROM A BLACK WIDOW - Ocean City
ROBBIE FULKS – NOW THEN - Sleepytime Fantasy
JOYWAVE – PERMANENT PLEASURE - Staying Power
ALLIE X – GIRL WITH NO FACE - Empire of Death
THE LOVELY EGGS – BIN JUICE - Cuntology 101
LAMBRINI GIRLS – WHO LET THE DOGS OUT - The Hives Forever Forever The Hives
THE HIVES – THE HIVES FOREVER FOREVER THE HIVES
IN MEMORIUM
- Personality Crisis
NEW YORK DOLLS – NEW YORK DOLLS - Accidents Never Happen
BLONDIE – EAT TO THE BEAT - Get Smart
SQUEEZE – U.K. SQUEEZE - Neat Neat Neat
THE DAMNED – DAMNED DAMNED DAMNED - Twilight Zone
GOLDEN EARRING – THE CONTINUING STORY OF RADAR LOVE - Take the Long Way Home
SUPERTRAMP – BREAKFAST IN AMERICA
- The Voice
THE MOODY BLUES – LONG DISTANCE VOYAGER - Killing Me Softly With His Song
ROBERTA FLACK – KILLING ME SOFTLY - Mission: Impossible
LALO SCHIFRIN – MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (ORIGINAL TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK) - Kitty ‘Tommy, Quick! Get Up. I Can Hear Clogs Goin’ Up the Street’.
DANNY THOMPSON – INDUSTRY - Why Did We Have to Part
MARIANNE FAITHFULL – HORSES AND HIGH HEELS - Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
TOM LEHRER – MORE OF TOM LEHRER
We lost a lot of drummers this year. The list is long, but two set a special beat from my very early days: Clem Burke from Blondie and Gilson Lavis from Squeeze.
Legends like Brian James (Damned), David Johansen (New York Dolls), and Roberta Flack left the stage. I still remember driving down the coast, back when my mom moved us to Los Angeles, and hearing Flack fill the AM radio airwaves. Neat Neat Neat was one of those primordial punk-pop songs that you just lost yourself in, and it represented arguably the Damned’s finest period. And the Dolls; how many musicians followed their lead to create a soundtrack for those who just didn’t fit in.
Then there are the nostalgic favorites from my childhood: George Kooymans (Golden Earring), Rick Davies (Supertramp), and John Lodge (Moody Blues) all saw heavy rotation from grades seven through ten. Lalo Schifrin, composer of the iconic Mission Impossible theme, and friend to my mother, passed this year. And Tom Lehrer, the iconoclast that single-handedly launched music-comedy into the mainstream, chose to leave his entire catalog to the public domain on his death. That’s a classy way to say thankyou and goodbye.
Richard Thompson’s longtime stage partner Danny Thompson also died in 2025. I can’t begin to count the number of times we’ve seen him, nimbly playing his upright bass, perfectly accompanying Richard’s acoustic guitar. That stage will have an unfilled empty spot reserved for his absent talent.
Marianne Faithfull. I don’t even know how to describe her loss. Ab Fab was right; she was God. I’m grateful to have seen her perform, even if it was just the one time. That was a gift.
Full list of deaths at Wikipedia.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
It was another tough selection this year. Favorite artists like David Byrne, Pulp, and Sparks almost made the cut, but not quite. All the albums had at least one or two truly amazing songs, called out below:
- What It Feels Like
ALY & AJ – SILVER DELIVERER - Stuck in my Head
ARCADE FIRE – PINK ELEPHANT - Thread So Thin
BOB MOULD – HERE WE GO CRAZY - ATM
BODEGA – OUR BRAND COULD BE YR LIFE - Everybody Laughs
DAVID BYRNE & GHOST TRAIN ORCHESTRA – WHO IS THE SKY? - We Hate You
DAVID LOWERY – FATHERS, SONS AND BROTHERS - Who Believes In Angels?
ELTON JOHN & BRANDI CARLILE –
WHO BELIEVES IN ANGELS?
- Going In Circles
GIFT – ILLUMINATOR - To Shore
GRACE POTTER – MEDICINE - Lazarus
KAMASI WASHINGTON – LAZARUS (ADULT SWIM ORIGINAL SERIES SOUNDTRACK) - Crystal Breath
KIM DEAL – NOBODY LOVES YOU MORE - Tina
PULP – MORE - Do Things My Own Way
SPARKS – MAD! - Termination Officer
THEE OH SEES – SORCS 80
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