⬅️ Click here for the MOVIES section Click here for the TV/BOOKS/MISC section ➡️
MUSIC
Top Ten Songs of 2025
#10 "Six" Rose Betts
Rose Betts continues to be the best at bringing traditional musical genres to life in the modern age. "Six" is one of her best songs yet, blending poetic lyrics with a driving composition that wouldn't feel out of place on a medieval pirate ship.
#9 "All the Love" Ayra Starr
New Ayra Starr songs are more or less guaranteed to loosen up the knots in my shoulders. She possesses this cool, elegant confidence that makes her songs both propulsive and preternaturally calm.
#8 "Beggin' for More" Dixon Dallas [NSFW]
There's nothing I love more than a song where the chorus takes on a different context each time it's repeated, and if a song can do that with explicit lyrics about gay sex, it's all the better for it.
#7 "Sorry I'm Here for Someone Else" Benson Boone
Benson Boone might be the most inexplicably hated pop star of the current era, but he won my heart forever with "Sorry I'm Here for Someone Else." You may have heard that I love songs where the chorus takes on a new context each time, and this soaring pop-rock track combines that instinct with a surprise twist ending! I didn't even know songs could have those!
#6 "How Bad Do U Want Me" Lady Gaga
That "Only You" sample? Chef's kiss. It floats airily around a song that goes back and forth between "dreamy lullaby" and "scream-along anthem for driving down the highway." Gaga's new album is full of vibey tracks, and "How Bad Do U Want Me" evokes that atmosphere perfectly without sacrificing being hooky and irresistible.
#5 "Too Much" Dove Cameron
Having seen all of the Descendants movies and both seasons of Schmigadoon, I thought I was very familiar with Dove Cameron's game. Turns out I was very wrong. Her pop tracks from throughout 2025 ("Romeo" and "French Girls" are both exquisite, too) have been invigorating in a way that nothing from the Top 40 has managed, blending her breathy falsetto with driving hooks that turn her from an underrated performer to an up-and-coming icon.
#4 "Señor Bendito" Fanny Lu
Although Colombian pop star Fanny Lu has released plenty of singles over the years, 2025 saw the release of her first album since 2011. I was worried she wouldn't be able to recapture the magic of her earlier work, but she blew those fears away with the tropi-pop grandeur of "Señor Bendito." The religious lyrics don't really speak to me, but never has the sentiment "let go and let God" been delivered in such a vibrant package.
#3 "KFC Santería" Cain Culto
This song about being a gothy queer Latino dude who grew up in Kentucky is blessed with some clever and occasionally filthy lyrics ("juicy looking breast, wings, thick thighs" is a stroke of genius). But it accomplishes that blend of identities in its production as well, wrapping bluegrass sounds around a driving, melodramatic violin riff.
#2 "Disco Cowgirl" G Flip
If you've been reading these Flashback posts for any amount of time, you'll know that one of the best things a song can do for me is have a soaring chorus that levitates you a few feet off the ground every time it blasts through your speakers. Well, every time G Flip scream-sings "oh-oh-oh," I feel like I've rocketed to Mars. And that key change? Goosebumps.
#1 "Link" Djo
"Stranger Things star Joe Keery is making music now? That'll be worth a laugh."
Words spoken by a fool! Somehow, Keery (performing as Djo) has managed to pay homage to the 1980s in a way that is far more authentic than his Netflix hit, taking the decade as an influence (this song doesn't exist without Talking Heads, The Cars, or Oingo Boingo) without just spitting out a generic pastiche. "Link" blends introspective lyrics with a dynamic and multilayered production that is endlessly engaging.
Best 2024 Song I Missed: "Over Me" Reeve Stimpson
I love the music of the 1980s, but modern songs attempting to do an '80s pastiche can go awry more often than not. I find that it helps to hone in on a specific angle rather than just channeling "synths and big hair." Djo has his Talking Heads. Conan Gray's Found Heaven had A-ha and David Bowie. And Reeve Stimpson takes Huey Lewis and the News for a spin with "Over Me," which combines a soaring chorus (natch), charming "ooh oh" backing vocals, and a fun lyrics into a delicious gumbo that perfectly blends old and new.
Bottom Five Songs of 2025
#5 "Sugar on My Tongue" Tyler the Creator
I feel like every year I include a song that I eventually grow to like, and I fear that this song might be the one, which is why I'm placing it at #5. It does have solid, catchy, production. I just find the chorus to be aggravatingly repetitive, simple and childish, like the world's horniest jump rope rhyme.
#4 "Til The Nights Done" Xav
Drake himself can barely make good Drake music these days, so I don't know why Justin Trudeau's son thought he was the right person to take a crack at it.
#3 "Wayuwanna" Mr. Fantasy
There are 15-second portions of this song performed by Riverdale's KJ Apa (in drag as some sort of Britpop goblin) where I go "hmm, maybe there's something here," and then he's back to weakly bleating out faux-seductive verses in an untrained, gravely voice and I remember what I'm listening to.
#2 "Let Me Be Your Star (Opening Version)" Smash on Broadway Cast
I know the fanbase of Smash got pretty small by the end of season 2, but presumably that's who this Broadway adaptation is meant to appeal to, right? So why fuck with the tempo and make it sound like Ivy Lynn is speed-running one of the only true masterpieces to have come out of contemporary musical theater? Also they add these shitty extra verses that straight-up don't work. It's all a mess. I hate it. Maybe you won't hate it. But as someone who made sure to grab his DVDs of Smash while evacuating from the L.A. fires back in January, I cannot eliminate my bias.
[Speaking of the fires, myself and my apartment are thankfully OK. But not everybody is as lucky as me, and we are still rebuilding, so please consider donating to the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Recovery Fund.]
#1 "Only One of You" Luke Evans
Actors really did think they could sing this year, didn't they?
Best Music Video: "Changes" Charlie Puth
While I don't love modern artists' tendencies to use videos to announce pregnancies (they're music videos, not e-cards), Charlie Puth makes up for it with a delightful collage of whimsical stop-motion.
Runner-Up Music Video: "Modern Times" MIKA
MIKA's "Modern Times" music video, which draws inspiration from everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Pablo Picasso, is an endlessly creative, visually inventive thrill ride in spite of the fact that the single itself isn't particularly memorable. The only reason that I didn't give this one the top slot is the fact that Charlie Puth has literally never made a good music video before "Changes," bless him, so I wanted to give him kudos.
Worst Music Video: "Miss Erotica" Peach PRC
I love Peach PRC, and this is a solid song, but I got so distracted by the video that I had to just listen to the song with my eyes closed in order to fully appreciate it when it first dropped. The "Miss Erotica" video has more confusing elements (including its bizarre shyness about showing her being a centaur, which is presumably the whole point of the story it's telling) than actual bad elements (the too-dark lighting, for instance), but when a song gets buried inside its own video, that's how you know you've messed up.
Best Lyric Video: "Basic Being Basic" Djo
While Djo elliptically references his time on Stranger Things throughout his work, Djo the musician is a fundamentally different performer from Joe Keery the actor. That's why this reverse-motion video of a crew eating lunch feels all the more cheeky and off-kilter. It exposes some of the behind-the-scenes of his life without actually out-and-out connecting the dots, allowing for a fun, shaggy, "just messing around" vibe without destroying the wall between his two worlds entirely.
Worst Lyric Video: "Life of a Showgirl" Taylor Swift (feat. Sabrina Carpenter)
Now now, I'm not trying to say anything outright mean about miss Taylor Swift. I can't commit another pop music deadly sin so soon after coming out as a Brat hater last year. But the dizzying kaleidoscope effect used here makes me feel like throwing up when trying to read the words printed on the screen, which isn't super helpful considering that the video exists for the express purpose of delivering those words.
Best Collaboration: "Berghain" Rosalía, Björk, & Yves Tumor
I could never have predicted that Björk and Rosalía making a song together would pay dividends, but I guess that's why I'm not a record producer. "Berghain" is dynamic, bombastic, and shockingly smashes together classical music, Spanish-language pop, and avant-garde Björkiness to create a dramatic, quasi-medieval adventure of a track.
Worst Collaboration: "Die with a Smile" Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars
"But Brennan," I hear you saying. "This is a 2024 song." And indeed it is. So tell me. Why is this dreary dirge of a duet No. 1 on Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 2025? Can that many people possibly have had this sludgy failure of a pastiche on repeat throughout the year, even after Gaga released 13 superior tracks on this year's album Mayhem?! (On which "Die with a Smile" is track 14.)
Best Guilty Pleasure: "Golden" HUNTR/X
I'm not a contrarian on purpose, but I have always lived by the credo that if a musical that has just one song nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song, it's the wrong song. For instance, "Dos Oruguitas" is not the song from Encanto to reward, and everyone knew it. However, I do feel deep guilt for loving "Golden," thus trampling all over my golden rule. It is going to get that nom for sure, and it will earn the hell out of every accolade it gets. Dammit.
Worst Guilty Pleasure: "Laika Party" EMMY
This Eurovision track is undeniably catchy, but there's something so embarrassing and tawdry about evoking the unfortunate history of the first dog in space (who died hours after leaving the atmosphere because she was sent into orbit with no plan for retrieval) just so you can arrange the hook around the pun "like a party."
Best Comeback: Ke$ha
Kesha dropped the dollar sign from her name quite a while ago, but she brought it back to celebrate the 15th anniversary Animal and Cannibal, which are her first album and EP respectively. In honor of the occasion, she also polished up some unreleased tracks from that era. My favorite is "Shots On The Hood of My Car." While it's hardly a masterpiece, it's a satisfyingly vibey track that blows my hair back with its sheer early-2010s nostalgia.
Worst Comeback: 3OH!3
Ke$ha's "My First Kiss" and "Blah Blah Blah" collaborators 3OH!3 have also beamed back in from 2010. However, their new music replaces the snotty earworminess of tracks like "Don't Trust Me" with vile electronic slop and barely-thought-out lyrics that enthusiastically deliver bad, confusing sex jokes with all the vigor of a 12-year-old who think he knows all there is to know about copulation because he saw a Playboy once.
Most Random Pivot to Music: Frances Anderson
Lily from Modern Family is a singer now! Sure! Why the hell not?
Best Cover Song: "You're the One That I Want" Satan Takes A Holiday
I used to be all about switching up the genres of songs, but I'm a bit harder to please these days. I tend to need the genre-switchup to actually be accomplishing something. Satan Takes A Holiday's take on the iconic Grease song certainly does the trick, using a haunting atmosphere to strip away the bubblegum quality of the production to reduce the lyrics to their bare bones, making them play more like a desperate demand rather than a bit of coy teenage flirtation.
Worst Cover Song: "Bette Davis Eyes" Jojo Siwa
I was trying to come to this cover with an open heart, even though I knew it was being roasted all over the Internet. Before listening to "Better Davis Eyes," I figured Jojo Siwa's raspy voice would fit well with this iconic Kim Carnes track, and that maybe people were overreacting because they love to hate Jojo Siwa. But then I listened to the song. Nope, everybody was absolutely right about it. Yuck.
Best Lyric: "And my share of the beauty our mother passed on is an echo I cannot contain/So I break every mirror to see myself clearer or to find some excuse for the pain" - from "Save Me a Seat" by Rose Betts
Over the years, decades, and centuries, artists have made a lot of hay out of the sudden discovery that they are no longer 21 years old. However, the inner turmoil of aging has rarely been described more succinctly or poetically.
Best Sample: "bing bong" bbno$
"Gucci Gucci" by Kreayshawn is an inspired choice for a sample, and bbno$ works it into the lyrical flow of "bing bong" perfectly. He's one of the most playful rappers out there, and pulling in samples that are this lively and fun is yet another way that he refuses to take himself too seriously.
Top Five Song Discoveries of 2025
#5 "The Worst Person Alive" G Flip (2023)
"Disco Cowgirl" led me by the hand down the garden path of G Flip's discography, and this track is a major standout from my explorations. It takes the seemingly disparate genres of "laid-back chill vibes" and "emotionally raw breakup anthem" and blends them together perfectly in a feat of impossible alchemy.
#4 "Break It Down Again" Tears for Fears (1993)
For whatever reason, this gloriously theatrical track totally slipped past me. It might just be the most 1980s-sounding track to have hit the airwaves in the same year as Nirvana's "All Apologies." You gotta admire Tears for Fears for sticking to their guns.
#3 "Gloom" Djo (2022)
Consider me a full-on Djo stan from this year onward. While gobbling up his terrific 2025 album The Crux, I was also exploring his older tracks. "Gloom" combines his playful lyricism ("my dog's expecting me, I'm ready to go"), his kitchen sink instrumentation, and his ability to speak-sing with flair into a track that is simultaneously flippant and propulsive.
#2 "Smoke Signals" Mykyl (2024)
I've been spending a lot of time over the past few years diving into the world of alternative pop, and Mykyl's tracks are invariable standouts. My favorite is "Smoke Signals," which is an excellent example of his ability to make introspective lyrics about mental health and loneliness feel lively and fun. I especially love the way the production drops out in the chorus to let the vocals stand out.
#1 "DUMB" People R Ugly (2024)
People R Ugly first got noticed thanks to the irreverent comedy songs "BRAIN DEAD" and "Church on TV," which are both great, but "DUMB" is where they show that they're much more than a novelty act. The song fearlessly folds 1950s harmonics into a modern pop-punk track and reaps the benefits.
2025 Crush: The Saja Boys
Abby is my bias.
Word Count: 2616
No comments:
Post a Comment