Posted December 29, 2025Dec 29 It's that time of year in that dead gap between Christmas and New Year where I rank my favourite songs of the year. I do want to actually do a full countdown this time as I think I'm in a better place to. 2025 has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me personally, but throughout I have managed to keep up pretty well with music of the year and have a very solid list. Though mainstream-wise, it's definitely been a huge step down on 2024 which culturally felt like the best year for music in a long time. I blame Alex Warren xI will also start with my countdowns in Film, TV and Albums, I don't want to burn myself out so they'll just be standard lists with no commentary, but I may have posted thoughts on them in the relevant thread xI as always appreciate all comments and reading throughout!
December 29, 2025Dec 29 Author Albums1. Night Tapes – portals//polarities2. Ethel Cain – Willoughby Tucker I Will Always Love You3. Snapped Ankles – Hard Times Furious Dancing4. Sudan Archives – The BPM5. Maria Somerville – Luster6. Gelli Haha - Switcheroo7. Ethel Cain – Perverts8. Lily Allen – West End Girl9. Wolf Alice – The Clearing10. Oklou – Choke EnoughSubject to change as I do still need to listen to a few acclaimed albums once the lists are out (LUX is definitely top of my list, but I do want to do a deep dive with her), all of these artists will have one song from each era appear in my top 50 as per my own self-imposed rules (the Ethel Cain albums are both very different beasts so feels right to acknowledge them both), the exception is Lily Allen which I did feel worked better as a single piece of work rather than having individual highlights.FilmsFlowNo Other LandNosferatuHallow RoadOne Battle After AnotherSinnersMemoir of a SnailWeaponsFrankensteinBring Her BackAll We Imagine As LightDreams/Love/Sex: DreamsSorry BabySavagesFinal Destination: BloodlinesK-Pop Demon Hunters28 Years LaterSeptember 5BugoniaThe BrutalistMay still be able to add Marty Supreme this year depending on if I see it before Wednesday. A pretty decent year for films overall, Flow I think will go down as an all time favourite which I haven't found in a while <3TVPluribusAdolescenceSeveranceThe StudioBlack MirrorThe Traitors + Celebrity Traitors (probably the first reality show I am ever putting on here x)The Last of UsOnly Murders In The BuildingPrehistoric Planet: Ice AgeSean Combs: The ReckoningA few I do need to finish like The Beast in Me, Alien: Earth, The War Between the Land and the Sea and Invincible and a few names I will probably belatedly start. Didn't think Adolescence could be challenged but Vince Gilligan proved me wrong x
December 30, 2025Dec 30 Author Saltillo – Hair on the Head of John the BaptistKneecap & Paul Hartnoll - Sayonara Perfume Genius feat. Aldous Harding – No Front Teeth HUNTR/X - Golden Yndling - It's Almost Like You're Here Jinkasei - angels Fcukers – I Like It Like That Four Tet – Into Dust (Still Falling) Sabrina Carpenter - ManchildBlood Orange – Look at YouStarting the top 50 off is Blood Orange, I'm aware of a few songs by him but this cut from his fifth album is the most I've been captivated by him, his sparse and soulful vocals blare over a minimal, ambient synth and orchestral backing that is striking and atmospheric, it changes midway though as he switches to a softly spoken vocal where it takes a more poignant, elegiac tone. He was struggling with grief from his close friend Mac Miller and his mother when he recorded this and it shows, it does make me interested to check out the album even if I'm not familiar with his past work. Another here you may not know is Jinkasei, I get recommended several of what I would call moody breakcore in the style of Sewerslvt with classical instruments thrown in and they are always great, sometimes hard-hitting if sometimes blending into one another, Jinkasei stood out to me as it interpolates the verses from Linkin Park's Numb and putting it in a breakbeat context is the sort of innovative reinvention that works really well and it jumps into a beat frenzy at the end somewhat reflecting the tormented mood throughout.Several songs here from the ever-reliable 6Music/critic sphere, Four Tet is a slow building minimalist dance track made up of just one lyrical couplet: 'Still Falling/Breathless at once' over a lush string and beat backing which creates a wonderful slow build. Fcukers were not an act I was familiar with but this single (and Play Me) were both pretty banging electronic tracks with a catchy hook, some summery and silly lyrics as well as some addictive, throwback production that make it instantly memorable that could easily fit in amongst a Charli XCX album. Perfume Genius is an act that's been around a while but I've never fully checked out, I've got to say his voice is still 50/50 for me, but No Front Teeth is a great song with ever-changing tempos and switch-ups that goes a lot of places over it's six minute runtime and Harding gives a wonderful wistful vocal in the chorus that is part ballad and part full on rock stomper.I first became aware of Kneecap with their excellent (loose) biopic last year, they specialise in Irish language hip hop and are unashamedly forthright in their solidarity with working class culture, Irish Republicanism and rights of language, as you can expect, still it was great to see their music getting airplay at the start of the year, sadly their forthright calling out of genocide didn't please the corrupt capitalist suits and they wasted no time in digging up past clips (out of context mainly) to run them in the media and paint them in the worst possible light, thankfully they have avoided any charges and still got to play at Glastonbury, this whole thing only appealed them more to me but it is a shame it meant their music was blacklisted by BBC, thankfully then this remix of Sayonara came about later in the year when the dust had settled a bit (and Bob Vylan had stole most of their outrage x) which allowed me something, it might not be as raw as their other work but the pulsating, fast paced beats combined with their typically brash Irish delivery is still a treat and I'm glad I got to include them in some way here.On the mainstream side, some of these certainly seem divisive but I am unable to resist - K-Pop Demon Hunters has been the cultural phenomenon of the year, a movie of that title certainly had no business being as good as it was and the excellent soundtrack by fictional group, HUNTR/X is definitely part of it's appeal. Golden is your classic 'I've realised who I am and going for it' centrepiece song that we've seen in many Disney films, and I initially preferred others from the soundtrack for being a little more musically interesting like How It's Done and the Saja Boys' Your Idol, but the sheer ubiquity of Golden just made it quite irresistable, it's much like Let It Go in that the power of the vocals (BAAARNABY), context of the film and anthemic, singalong factor (experiencing this a lot in real life too) really makes it memorable, it's one of the more interesting chart stories this year and one I'm fully behind. Sabrina Carpenter was also back for more, I just really like how she so easily pisses everyone off while clearly having the best time doing it and there's not many that can pull off a song about men that can't get it up and still get a massive hit with it, I do think the synth line apes Chappell's Good Luck Babe quite a bit, but Manchild is still a really fun, endearing song that really throws everything at that post chorus that makes it quite addictive.Finally some Buzzjack discoveries, BJSC moves so fast and with so many other song contests and just general life duties, I'm sad to say I forget more songs I vote for than I remember these days, but there is still some absolute hidden gems that I love discovering - The entry from Yndling is a beautiful, atmospheric journey with a suitably subtle and enigmatic Bjork-style vocal that culminates in a great guitar solo, it could fit very easily into a Twin Peaks soundtrack and that's always wonderful x Saltillo was a late year find but is the sort of under-the-radar thing I'd have never discovered without Buzzjack, a 2006 song off one of the only musical works from a multi-instrumentalist who is primarily a painter, but he clearly beings his experimental passions to his music as well, with a distinctive title, the song is primarily built around excerpts from William Shakespeare's Hamlet with a trip hop and classical backing with the chorus occuring as a refrain, I'm not clued up enough on religious lore to see how John the Baptist links with Hamlet, but I'm sure he knew what he was doing and the result is a haunting, unique blend of modern and classical styles that stands out for miles.
December 31, 2025Dec 31 Hi there Chez!Nice to see "Golden" and "Manchild" at the start of your top 50 list!Can't wait for the rest!
December 31, 2025Dec 31 Just giving Look At You a listen now - the lyrics are certainly cryptic and need a bit of mulling over I think! Seems to go quite well with the backing track though.
December 31, 2025Dec 31 Chez, Happy New Year, looking forward to following your countdown as always!portals//polarities is a fantastic choice of favourite album and also made my top 10 when I quickly chucked a list together ❤️ I also really enjoyed those projects from Ethel Cain x2, Snapped Ankles, Sudan Archives, Lily Allen and of course, Jadakissnia alumnus Oklou - so taste on point as ever. I wanted to love The Clearing more, as the bar was so high from previous projects, but it does still have its moments.You planning a ROSALÍA deep dive is music to my ears 😍 her last three albums have been my AOTY for 2018, 2022 and 2025 (just to balance out the stanning, her more flamenco style first album isn't quite as earth-shattering for me, but still solid and contains the BJSC DNQ 'Catalina') so I hope you enjoy them even a fraction as much.At some point I'd definitely recommend a deep dive of Dave's three albums too. All critically acclaimed with a lot of interesting commentary, wordplay and beautiful piano/string instrumentation. So I think you could potentially enjoy them as well even if rap isn't usually your genre of choice.I've really slowed down the movie watching recently due to BJSC hosting, getting ill, 2006 #1s and now EOY planning oops but I'll aim to get back on top of it in the new year, Oscar season is usually good motivation. From your list I've only seen One Battle After Another and The Brutalist but will expand on that, especially Flow!!My favourite songs to appear so far are: 'I Like It Like That', 'It's Almost Like You're Here' and 'Hair on the Head of John the Baptist' <3 love that those two entries performed so well too, especially for two nations who don't end up in that top tier very much.
December 31, 2025Dec 31 Interesting to see Night Tapes as your favourite album. I need to give that another chance as I listened to it a couple of times but then it got a bit drowned out by other big albums around the time for me - but I felt it would be a grower and I do vibe with the overall feel of it.But mainly I'm commenting to say that this has just made me realise that I have completely forgotten to watch Flow, even though I'm convinced that I would definitely love it. I may have to rent it tomorrow as I feel like that would be an excellent way to begin 2026 - so thank you for reminding me of it!
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