Music Monday: End of 2025 Playlist

And finally, my End of 2025 Playlist is available! It’s a little later than I wanted, but I ran into some delays over the last few weeks, and figured delaying it would be better than rushing things.

I think part of my anxiety about being late is how most places end up doing their year-end lists before the year itself even ends, which I maintain is just wrong; you might still find cool stuff in December! But I suppose it’s too much for me to change everyone else’s mind there. And I guess this isn’t really my “Year End” list anyway, since I kind of let each playlist stand on its own even when they share a year they’re covering. It’s just my “things I liked from the last four months of 2025” list, which is kind of a big difference, but whatever.

We of course have both the YouTube and Spotify playlists that correspond to this article. And just like usual, a lot of these artists are things that I found on Bandcamp; if you wind up liking their music as well and want to support them, that’s a great place to do so! And if you’d like your support to go even further, they even released the schedule for Bandcamp Fridays (where the site forgoes its usual cut in sales so it can all go to the artist) in 2026. I wasn’t quite ready in time for the one in February, but there’s one right around the corner at the start of March!




A quick note: 7mai isn’t on either platform; you can find their music on their Bandcamp page. And the Spotify Playlist is missing a few extra tracks on top of that; Alpha and Strawberry Station didn’t upload their tracks, while Powderpaint and June Jones have recently removed their catalogs from Spotify in protest of the CEO.

(And for a final reminder, I have an Out of Left Field mailing list separate from my baseball writing one. So if you’d like to know right when these articles come out, feel free to sign up here. I don’t use it for anything other than new article notifications too, so no worries about spam. Although if you are subscribed, make sure to check your spam filters.)

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With all that out of the way, let’s start the actual list:

The Playlist, as an Article

Sydney Sprague: I’ve been trying to organize these lists roughly with a “best stuff at the top” mentality for a while now, and while it’s not always perfect (the exact order isn’t always 1-to-1, and I’ll sometimes group stuff based on the flow of the written blurbs in the middle), I do tend to really think about what goes at the top of the list. And while that’s easy sometimes, one album or artist will just stand out to me, this time was a little more difficult. I kept flipping between the top three choices here, and I might even change my mind the day after publication. But I’ve got to publish this list eventually (I’m already behind my loose schedule…), so this is where we’re landing for now. 

Music Monday: Start of 2025 Playlist

And now, we have my second playlist of 2025, covering the stuff I was listening to for the first four months of the year! There’s some more catch-up from the end of 2024, but also a lot of new releases too! I really enjoy putting these together and talking about the music that I’ve been enjoying (and I’d even like to think that my ability to write about music is improving too), I just wish the whole “building playlists and getting it formatted and published” side of things was a little quicker.

Anyway, I’m off to enjoy the rest of my Memorial Day, but first, my usual quick reminders: a lot of these artists (especially the smaller ones) have Bandcamps where you can support them directly! And if you’re interested in these articles and would like to know when one gets published, I have an email list that I use to notify when new things get published! (It’s separate from my baseball mailing list too, for anyone on that one as well).

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Note: Only one song is missing from each list, which might be a first for these? Alpha and Natsume’s collab “Idea” isn’t on YouTube, but it is on Soundcloud. Meanwhile, Alpha’s solo effort “everything” is not on Spotify (or their Soundcloud, for some reason), but there is the YouTube video in the playlist. Also, I'm still doing that 'album title in single quotes' thing to make formatting a little easier.


The Playlist (but as an article)

Great Grandpa: I didn’t really know what to expect from Great Grandpa’s ‘Patience, Moonbeam’ going in other than liking the early singles, which I saw getting some praise before the album dropped. I wasn’t really familiar with their earlier records (which were from a few years ago anyway, as the band has been on hiatus since 2019 or so), and while I pay some attention to big stuff in the indie rock scene, I feel like I usually don’t stray as far into the more folk-ish side of things? I don’t know, maybe people more in tune with those sides of things will have different opinions, but I think so far, ‘Patience, Moonbeam’ is my favorite album of 2025.

It all just sounds so amazing, lush and layered, warm and intimate. But it’s all in service of such pretty arrangements, too, full earthy guitars and stacks of voices and string sections. There are just so many small parts that stand out in my memory because of how good they sounds, but also how good they are in the song, from the cello mirroring the melody on “Never Rest”, to the pedal steel guitar on “Junior”, the mirrored vocal harmonies of “It’s funny how I need you/Damn” on “Emma” and “Doom”, the drums and pianos on closer “Kid” (really, everything on “Kid” is amazing, it can easily bring me to tears when it all comes together).

Music Monday: End of 2023 Playlist

Just in under the wire, it’s time for another Music Monday Playlist! As usual, here are the links to the YouTube and Spotify playlists:






The notes on what’s missing: I couldn’t find 7mai or alpha’s songs on YouTube or Spotify, so I’m just linking their Bandcamp pages here. Also, I could only find Flood District’s music on YouTube, but it is on the Spotify list.


One thing I will note here: I’ve historically included YouTube and Spotify playlists in these articles that you can listen along to or sample. Those two platforms are the most requested ones, but I’ve been strongly considering dropping the Spotify one; the most recent reason being the platform changing their rules and demonetizing over 80% of songs on the platform. Essentially (assuming my understanding is correct), artists who can’t reach minimum average listens across their catalog aren’t eligible to claim royalties any more.

I didn’t want to just stop offering it without a warning, but I also don’t know if any of the artists I mention here fall under that threshold, so I’d push people to listen to the YouTube version if possible. Their payouts still aren’t great, but at least they aren’t doing that (to my knowledge). Also, maybe consider supporting ones you really like through Bandcamp or something (which is having their own issues, but nothing on that level); many of them have pages there, and that’s even where I find a lot of the smaller artists. And if the next playlist post I make doesn’t have a Spotify version, that’s probably at least part of the reason.

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I feel like I usually have a strong outline here, starting with my favorite release and going down from there, but… I kind of didn’t this time. So instead, here are just my collection of thoughts, roughly assembled into the order they are on the playlist.


The Beaches: I had a friend recommend their new album Blame My Ex to me the week it came out. It was some fun and catchy indie rock, and I enjoyed it enough to check out some earlier EPs and singles (which also got some representation on the list). Several weeks after that, I saw them starting to pop up in more places, so I get to say that I was (moderately) ahead of the curve here! (Although maybe it’s just my local alternative station; their peak chart position feels low given how much it’s been popping up, or maybe it’s just slowly rising?)


Underscores: I feel like Underscores has been on a solid upward trajectory. I liked her debut album Fishmonger, and I enjoyed her follow-up EP(?) Boneyard AKA Fearmonger even more (both featured on one of my playlists), but Wallsocket is yet another step forward. It’s an interesting album, one that focuses on storytelling and characters, a rare approach that I really love. We get stories about bank robbers on the run, young obsessive not-quite-stalkers, feuding small town elites… there’s a lot, and I need to give it another listen trying to piece together a larger narrative (it’s supposedly about the small town of Wallsocket, from the little bit of behind-the-scenes descriptions I’ve let myself read, but I don’t want to spoil myself entirely). It’s hyperpop, but the much more experimental end, the kind that pulls from any- and everything; you’ll get traces of pop-punk, folk, alternative, electronica… I’ve already included my favorite songs, “Cops and robbers” and “Locals (Girls like us)” on past lists and don’t like to re-use, but “Old money bitch” and “Johnny johnny johnny” are also solid choices.


St. Lucia: I called their fourth album Utopia one of my favorite albums on my End of 2022 Playlist, but one of my reservations at the time was that it ended on a relatively weak note. One of my favorite things about St. Lucia albums are that they tend to end on a high note: usually a longer track that starts small and driving, then gradually builds to some crashing finale to drive the whole thing home. Sure, maybe it’s a specific trope, but damn if they don’t do it well.

Utopia was missing that, and trying new things is nice and all… but the Deluxe version of the album adds banger “Two Moons” at the end, and gosh, does it just make things feel right. I love it. They also released an album of unreleased songs from their debut When the Night to celebrate its tenth anniversary, and “Poet” is here for that.


Lauren Mayberry, CHVRCHES: I’ve been working on a larger CHVRCHES post when I have free time, and it’ll hopefully be coming out soon. In the meantime though, I’ve added a song here from their tenth anniversary special edition of The Bones of What You Believe. Also, I loved lead singer Lauren Mayberry’s new single “Shame”, although I still haven’t seen news on if there’s a full album in the immediate future?