2025 Roundup

sorry it's late, it's a busy time of year!

2025 was such a strange year! I played some Clovie shows (and recorded a new EP! It’ll be out early 2026), read and wrote more than I ever have, turned 27, got a boyfriend, walked A LOT, went to the Royal Rumble, saw a ton of birds, traveled a bit, cherished my close friendships, switched to Apple Music (if you know me you’ve heard my complaints), saw dear friends get married, did better in fantasy baseball than I was expecting, went to some fun concerts, fucked up my bangs multiple times, got my septum pierced finally, started and finished Baldur’s Gate 3, and listened to a ridiculous amount of music.

Here are some songs I fell in love with that soundtracked my year:

The Burned Down Dairy Queen - Wednesday

It feels like everyone is doing this indie grunge sound right now, especially in the wake of Wednesday’s success, and it’s definitely also inspired me to incorporate that in my own music, especially this album and song. I love Karly’s drawn out vocals, resulting in song that doesn’t have many lyrics but still paints a picture of ennui, and I also love how the band’s twang mixes with their heavy basslines and crunchy guitars. I think this was my second most played song of the year, off the album I listened to the most!

Satellite of Love - Lou Reed

Before 2025, I never gave a lot of time to glam rock, but this year I started dating a David Bowie fan, and that seems to have unlocked an entire genre for me. This song is equal parts silly (come on, a recorder???) and earnest, especially the last minute complete with Bowie’s vocals. The song is so catchy, and I think the way Lou connects jealousy and distance in a relationship to the space race is really special.

I Know It’s Over - The Smiths

There’s a long story attached to the first time I heard this song which includes a new Effexor prescription, David Lynch dying (RIP, I think about him constantly), and crying into a bacon egg and cheese from McDonald’s; It’s a beautiful song that’s stuck with me since that moment. The lyrics to this song are entirely melodramatic (in a good way) and so simple in their depiction of depression and loneliness, and I think that’s what is so compelling about them! “If you’re so funny, then why are you on your own tonight?” is one of the most gutting lines ever, it’s so clear why the Smiths are popular generation after generation.

I’ll Come Running - Brian Eno

Getting into the art pop/art rock portion of Brian Eno’s discography (and Robert Fripp’s guitar work) was one of my favorite things about 2025, and I’m hoping to dive into exploring his ambient works in 2026. I’ll Come Running is one of the sweetest songs I’ve ever heard, the way the lyrics express looking for a partner to experience simple domesticity with is so straight-forward but so special. The instrumentation is also beautiful; I love the piano line, Fripp’s guitar solo, and the “castanet guitars”. I swear I hear something new every time I listen to the song. I’m very excited to put my own Oblique Strategies deck to good use this year!

Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires - Cocteau Twins

I feel like I listened to Cocteau Twins’ lush, dream pop album Heaven or Las Vegas nonstop this year. The entire album is gorgeous, but I specifically love the way this song builds up and releases during the chorus. I think there’s something special about not knowing 100% what the lyrics are saying, especially because Elizabeth Fraser’s voice is just so beautiful, especially the background vocals during the chorus. If I was going to recommend an entire album from this list, it would definitely be Heaven or Las Vegas.

Out on the Weekend - Neil Young

I understand that this song is supposed to be about new love but it’s one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard!!! The lyrics are the highlight, to me, although I love the harmonica and pedal steel, which perfectly capture the weariness expressed in Neil’s lyrics. I think Neil Young is one of the most important songwriters of all time and it’s so amazing to be alive at the same time as him, he’s such a huge inspiration to me.

Marquee Moon - Television

This is a perfect song. Full stop. All ten minutes of it. Listen to it if you like post-punk and you haven’t heard it yet. And if you already know it, listen to it again. I genuinely think the guitars on this song are magical.

Lady Grinning Soul - David Bowie

It was kind of hard to settle on the Bowie song to include on this list, but I think it has to be Lady Grinning Soul. The bass, the piano, the sultry vocal delivery of a sultry description of a sultry woman. This song is such an earworm, and it really showcases Bowie’s vocal skill, plus I love how high intensity the outro is.

Life’s a Gas - T. Rex

Man I really was on a glam kick this year… I’m a really big fan of the femininity and androgyny that the glam rockers pulled off, and there’s something so alluring about Marc Bolan’s look. I don’t make glam rock but, honestly, I would love to incorporate some of that flamboyance into my own stage presence. The song is short and sweet and I love how fantasy-forward the lyrics are.

My Life in Art - Mojave 3

Along with glam, I listened to a ton of dream pop and shoegaze this year, especially Souvlaki by Slowdive, whose members went on to form Mojave 3. This song definitely sounds different than Souvlaki, leaning more towards a straight-forward acoustic guitar ballad with a hint of dreaminess. The story the narrator tells in this song reminds me so much of the movie Paris, Texas, and the song is about as devastating in a fraction of the time.

Songs I Fell In Love With in 2025 (on Apple Music)

My favorite first watches of 2025:

Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie

I was lucky enough to see a prerelease showing of this at the Music Box Theater in Chicago, which was followed by a Q&A with creators Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol. NTBTSTM has been in the works for a long time and it was so special to finally be able to see it and hear more about their creative process. Nirvanna the Band the Show is one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen, and I highly recommend it to anyone into offbeat humor. I can’t wait for the movie (and hopefully the original series) to get a wide release, because right now you can pretty much only find it on the Internet Archive. Matt and Jay deserve their flowers after all this time, this movie solidified that they’re some of the funniest people working right now! Highly recommend if you’re into the series.

The Godfather

This is like… THE movie. I can’t believe it took me so long to watch it. It’s every bit as good as society would lead you to believe and Pacino specifically shines in his role. I can’t wait to watch the other two.

One Battle After Another

Another movie that’s as good as everyone says! I loved this. It was long but I wasn’t bored once. Benicio del Toro shined!

All About My Mother

One of my first Almodóvar movies, his use of color is so gorgeous, and I love how prominently he features women in lead roles. It’s a love letter to Almodóvar’s favorite movies and leading women, but it also handles delicate and serious societal issues like AIDS and gender identity with straightforwardness and care. I’m so excited to continue exploring his filmography!

My favorite reads of 2025:

Wild Side - Elsie Silver

Special thanks to my bestie Graci for lending me this entire series, I’m currently reading the last book Wild Card. This was my first contemporary romance novel and it’s about a big burly guy who’s secretly a professional wrestler that falls in love with a prickly, small town woman, and honestly it was such a fun read centered around enemies to lovers smut and found family.

Children of Paradise - Camilla Grudova

Far and away my favorite read of 2025, Children of Paradise is what I’d call an “almost horror” book about a group of young adults that work in an independent movie theater, in which the exact date and setting are both left open to interpretation. It deals a lot with the usual themes of being a young adult, but also throws in an unreliable narrator and some pretty gruesome events, along with a bit of the supernatural. I can’t recommend this book enough!

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

The Master and Margarita is a classic Russian literature book that is partially a retelling of Pontius Pilate’s condemnation of Christ and partially about the devil and his entourage appearing in 1930’s Soviet Russia. The book was heavily censored and was not released in full until well after Bulgakov’s death. Honestly, this was a pretty difficult book to parse at times, but I think that’s a lot of the point. Once I was able to settle into the book’s mechanics, it ended up being really fascinating, and I think my brain really enjoyed the challenge. I read the Pevear and Volohonsky translation, but I think I’d like to check out the Burgin and O’Connor translation at some point as well.

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

I’m sooooooooooo excited to finally be reading this series, it feels like it’s been such a long time coming. I’ve seen the Hobbit movies but I don’t remember them super well so it was nice to be able to use my imagination for all of the characters and settings. Those dwarves sure did endear themselves to me, I cried at the end! Looking forward to hopefully exploring more of the series in 2026.

Thanks for reading, y’all! What were you into in 2025? Any recommendations for me? As always, if you end up checking any of this out, I’d love to hear your thoughts after! Love ya!