2025 was a really good year for music for me. My music collection system is pretty basic: every year, I cut a new playlist and add songs that I’m currently resonating with. The playlist gets progressively longer until the end of the year, after which I reset and start with a blank slate in January. I started this back in ~2018 after feeling like I was in a musical rut, finding everything I listened to stale.

2025 was by nearly 2x my “highest discoverability” year yet. It was a really fun year for discovery and collection! Whereas 2024 had a few albums that I listened to a lot, 2025 had higher breadth, still with much that I listened to frequently.

“No Skip” Albums

First up are the albums for which every track made it on my 2025 playlist.

Couch’s Big Talk was my sleeper hit for Best Album of the year. As the pre-release singles for Big Talk were coming out over the summer I remember thinking “huh, Couch has new tracks, cool!” I was on vacation when the album actually dropped, and it was a couple weeks before I realized that between Spotify’s Discover Weekly and Release Radar, I’d independently added every song on Big Talk to my 2025 playlist without realizing it. It’s really my quintessential no-skip album for the year.

I also got to see Couch live recently in Seattle and they were fantastic in person. It was a sold out concert in a relatively small venue, and was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in recent years.1 Couch is still new enough that it’s possible to know their entire discography back-to-front without too much investment.

Entry point songs:

Parcels’ LOVED

Parcels’ LOVED

Parcels’ LOVED was another album that snuck into “no skip” status. I first heard of Parcels from their 2018 Tieduprightnow, and the got reintroduced to them via the Berlin live recording of Lightenup showing up in my Spotify Discover one week. That track became my goto “get up and face the day” track for much of the mid-summer. When LOVED came out in September, it was a similar slow burn to Big Talk in that I slowly realized that I’d added the entire album to my 2025 playlist.

Why Parcels? There’s just a clear earnest joyfulness that I find endearing. I sent one of their tracks to a friend recently, and their response was something like “Yep, this is Ben music”.

Entry point songs:

Really Great Albums

Magdalena Bay’s Imaginal Disk was technically released in 2024, but I’m including it in this list because they toured on this album in 2025. Imaginal Disk is a bit of a funky concept album, steeped in weird Y2K-era imagery. This review described it as “a time capsule of post-internet existentialism”, which I’d endorse. For a flavor of this, watch the music video for Image.

Entry point songs:

Anemoia

Anemoia

SG Lewis’ Anemoia is a really fun electronic album. I’ve been following SG Lewis for a few years, saw his tour was stopping through Seattle, and listened to a bunch more of Anemoia than I would have otherwise. The word “anemoia” is picked up from John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which defines it as “the feeling of nostalgia for a time, place, or situation one has never actually experienced”. Both the album, and Lewis’ live performances of the tracks, convey this vibe quite well. The tracks, despite being “just” dancey electronic music are quite memorable. I find myself pulling out my phone to play a specific song from this album with surprising frequency.

Entry point songs: Memory, Transition, Baby Blue

Cory Wong’s Wong Air (Live in America) is snuck in here because… I listened to so much Cory Wong in 2025, and saw his band live over the summer, and already have tickets to his Spring 2026 tour. I would be remiss if I didn’t include something of his on this list. I remember first running into Cory via his 2020 album “Elevator Music for an Elevated Mind”. I just thought the title was funny and liked a few tracks on it. This has grown into an unabashed appreciation for most of his work. I’m also a big fan of Vulfpeck, of which Cory is a member.2

Wong is doing Big Band music in the 2020s is in such a fun, energetic, contagious way. Seriously, just listen to a live track like Ketosis and try to stay still. It was a treat to see him live.

Entry point songs:

Honorable Mentions

Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM should probably go without saying was a top album for 2025. When the single for Abracadabra came out, I immediately strapped on my running shoes upon hearing it and got quite close to a personal record pace 5k. By play count, Abracadabra was my number one most listened to song of the year. Gaga’s SNL performance of Killah is also a must-watch.

Florence + The Machine’s Everybody Scream was a highly anticipated album for me this year, and it was enjoyable! The studio album itself didn’t initially resonate with me as much as I expected, but several live recordings from it have been fantastic. In particular, this live recording of Sympathy Magic is flooring, and this one of title track, Everybody Scream, is also great. I’m looking forward to the tour for this album next year, and I suspect this will be an album that grows on me over time.

Entry point songs:

Everything Else

Alright, we’re all the way through albums. :phew:

Random Good Vibes Released in 2025

  • Sailing Away by Antoine Bourachot.
    • The feeling: Running in the sun on a beach in Spain.
  • U Know Y by CAPYAC.
    • The feeling: When one realizes the work week is over for the weekend.

Good running music Released in 2025

  • Focus by John Summit.
    • I must have listened to this track 100 times on runs over the year.
  • Infohazard by Ninajirachi.
    • The music video is mesmerizing; a must watch (esp. 3:00 to the end).
    • I have distinct memories of listening to this song and sprinting around the pre-sunrise streets of San Francisco in the late summer.

Not At All Released in 2025

Snarky Puppy’s Lingus (We Like It Here) is up there for the best improvisation I’ve ever heard, bar none. The Youtube video from 2014 is a masterpiece. I come back to this track weekly, listening the whole way through.

Weekend Soundtrack

Above & Beyond Group Therapy is a quite fun weekly electronic set. This is my “put on and do weekend chores” playlist. I’d recommend this set from November as a good entry point.

As I said in the beginning, it was a great year for music. :) I got out to see more concerts than I have in recent years, and put more time and attention into, for example, listening to Spotify’s suggested new music every week. This year will be hard to top, but I’m looking forward to seeing what 2026 brings when I reset my playlist to a blank slate on January 1.

  1. The vocalist for the opener, Night Talks, also performed with Cory Wong in Chicago in this excellent recording of “Synchronicity”. ↩︎

  2. Stop what you’re doing now and watch Vulfpeck’s 2025 Madison Square Garden concert recording. It’s such a joy. ↩︎