i'm just sand in an hourglass/i'm weighing down a burden
This year, I listened to more music and went to more shows than I have since before the pandemic started. It felt great.
This year I also switched from Spotify to Apple Music, but made a year-end playlist on all three platforms, so I had to fire up Tidal (which I tried out for a bit) and Spotify again. And it's too bad the Spotify guy deserves to be [REDACTED], because the Apple and Tidal UX make it seem like someone who hates music and wants to actively prevent anyone from having an enjoyable time listening to it designed them. A real Sophie's choice of how to make sure the artists you love don't get paid any money.
Anyways, here's all the albums, songs, and shows that I loved the most in 2025.
And here's a link to all of it on Apple Music, Tidal, and Spotify
Albums:
Snocaps - Snocaps
I didn't have a new Crutchfield sisters' album on my 2025 bingo card. But after a few days of semi-cryptic social media posts, there it was on Halloween. Apparently, they wrote the songs for over the course of a couple of months and then recorded it in a week.
It sounds like an album that was recorded in a week, in the very best way. That's the way Allison and Katie used to make records together and Snocaps manages to capture the same spirit of those albums from 10-15 years ago. It's still got some of the rough edges--that sound of living room shows and church basements. You can almost hear the fun they had when they made it.
But while it throws back to an earlier era of their respective music careers, they're not kids anymore. The wisdom of adulthood comes through in the songwriting. And the playing and singing (two things that I still love on those old Bad Banana and PS Eliot et al songs) just sounds better.
A new collaboration wasn't something I was thinking about at all, but it's everything I would've wished for.
Laura Stevenson - Late Great
Late Great might end up being my favourite Laura Stevenson record, but it also might end up being the one that I listen to the least. It's not like any of her previous records are really bursting with joy (although, there are certainly moments on each of them), but this one's just so fucking sad. And sometimes I feel sad. And when I do, the last thing I could think of listening to is 38-minutes of Laura Stevenson singing about her marriage disintegrating. But it's also her most beautiful sounding record. It's got some of her best songwriting to date. And it ends with the gorgeous, defiant little reprise of track one that feels like it's going to break me every time.
I wish I could've seen her play some of these songs this year, but also I don't like crying in public, so maybe it's for the best.
Wednesday - Bleeds
The other indie rock break up record, although this one only has one song that's about the break up (that one's a real heartbreaker though).
More important than the circumstances surrounding the writing and recording is that it might be the most Wednesday, Wednesday album. They've always kind of sounded like three or four different bands to me. And while you still notice the stylistic leap from "The Way Love Goes" to "Wasp," Bleeds really takes all of the different sides of the band and blends them together in a way that never really happened as often as I wanted it to on their previous records,.
Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH
I have never been a hardcore guy, which means I don't have to be mad that Turnstile "isn't a hardcore band anymore." On the other side of it, I also don't care that this is "Glow On, part 2." That record was also very good. Give me more Glow On, man!
A true paradox to be a band that simultaneously changed too much and not enough. Maybe that's why they titled the album like they did.
Skullcrusher - And Your Song is Like a Circle
Proof that an album can be heavy as hell without being loud. And Your Song is Like a Circle is beautiful, haunting and feels like what would happen if you could be physically crushed by the weight of a whisper.
Night Shop - The Beloved Returns
I vaguely knew Justin Sullivan as "the guy who drummed in Babies," but even though this is his third Night Shop release, I had no idea he had this in him.
He has his own songwriting voice, but it's wild that Babies was Cassie Ramone songs and Kevin Morby songs when this dude was keeping time back there with equally good 00s indie rock tunes inside him.
Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - MercyMaybe one day these guys will make a middling record, but it sure as hell isn't going to be one of the ones they do with the Alchemist.
Samia - Bloodless
If this had come out later in 2025, I don't know if I would've picked it as one of my favourite records of the year, but it came out at the end of April and I've listened to it at least once a week since then.
Madi Diaz - Fatal Optimist
Madi Diaz has a knack for singing things that might sound too simple or even kinda cringey in the wrong hands ("my toxic trait is hanging on/your toxic trait is showing up"), but somehow she makes it work. And she makes it work here with just her voice and an acoustic guitar.
Ethel Cain - Perverts
Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You was the one with mostly songs and less ambient noise and I'll take this one that was mostly ambient noise and less proper songs by a nose. I love the experimental side of this record on its own, but the actual melodies also hit so much harder when they periodically escape from the drone.
Songs:
Wednesday - "Elderberry Wine"
Contrary to what I said about this album and the way it amalgamates all the faces of Wednesday together, this song's pretty straight ahead alt-country/Americana. But what a tune. "Said I wanna have your baby/cause I freckle and you tan" is my favourite lyric of the 2025 too.
Joyce Manor - "All My Friends Are So Depressed"
I have never really got into this band, so somebody tell me if they have more of these Smiths worship songs, because this one fucking rules.
Laura Stevenson - "I Couldn't Sleep"
I think you could argue that "Not Us" or maybe the signing-the-divorce-papers song or maybe a half dozen others were the saddest one off of Late Great, but my vote is for this one that's about being so excited about someone new, but then being kind of happy when it didn't make you feel much of anything in the end--the big relief of knowing that you actually don't have to let go of what's hurting you yet. It's got the best chorus on a record full of great choruses too.
Neko Case - "Wreck"
Anyone can write a love song proclaiming you're their whole world, but not many people can make you believe you're the centre of their entire solar system and vice versa. "Maybe I'm the sun to you/do I place freckles onto your face?/I bet, I bet, I bet I do."
My Wonderful Boyfriend - "I'm Your Man"
I kinda wish I had formatted this "Song Title" - Band Name instead, so this looked like a quote. Helluva song, also.
Snocaps - "Cherry Hard Candy"/"Brand New City"
One each with each twin taking a twirl on lead vocals from my favourite record of the year. "Cherry Hard Candy" has a little twang to it, but it's the first song that jumped off of Snocaps that really screamed "Katie's doing indie rock again." And "Brand New City" sounds like if you tried to re-write a Swearin' song to fit on Out in the Storm.
Suzie True - "Every Dog"
I could not escape this song whose lyrics I lived for many years, many years ago.
Flock of Dimes - "Long After Midnight"
I just wanna say that it's pretty rude that Flock of Dimes played in LA the same night I had Snocaps tickets instead of the night before or after, despite the fact that she made maybe the most beautiful song of the year.
Ethel Cain - "Nettles"
The Berries - "Angelus"
There's no big hook on this song. The chorus is super understated. And even when one of the guitars breaks into a little solo near the end, it's not particularly showy. But it's this pastiche of all the best parts of 80s radio rock (Tom Petty, Bruce, etc) and it grabbed me in the first 5-seconds and never let go.
Turnstile - "Birds"
Maybe the most straight ahead punk song on NEVER ENOUGH and for sure the sickest riff on NEVER ENOUGH. It also gave us one of the best Tiny Desk moments of all time.
Folk Bitch Trio - "Moth Song"
I'm still kinda sore that their winter tour had them go from California to fucking Winnipeg, two shows in Saskatchewan, and then Edmonton, but there was no Vancouver date. But there's the part in this song at around 3:50 when the violin starts swelling up behind the harmonized vocals and I can't be mad at anything in the world anymore until it ends.
Ransom, Boldy James, and Nicholas Craven feat. Young Chris - "Collection Plates"
Boldy and Ransom drop serious bars and Nicholas Cravens (Canada mentioned!) brings perhaps his best beat from amongst the many he made for James this year, which is saying a lot. But then out of nowhere--two decades after the last Young Gunz release--there's a Young Chris verse? And he absolutely kills it, starting off with a Raekwon/Purple Tape reference? My easy pick for rap song of the year.
Robyn - "Dopamine"
It's been seven years since the last Robyn record, so of course the lead off single to the next one was going to be a banger. "Dopamine," like basically every Robyn gem before it, is a dance floor filler, a singalong number, and an in-your-adolescent-feelings masterpiece.
Gladie - "Car Alarm"
I was trying to leave off songs that were singles from albums that we're going to get in 2026. One, cause I'll listen to and talk about them a ton next year. But also because there were just so many songs that I loved this year and I had to find some way to pare things down. But one of my favourite things in music is when Augusta Koch growls out a line so hard that it sounds like her voice is going to break right before she brings things back under control. And that happens on the second line of this song and it might be my favourite 2-seconds of recorded music in 2025.
Momma - "I Want You (Fever)"
Dream pop vocals over Smashing Pumpkins guitars soundtracking a love triangle call to arms: "everybody knows that this is going down/we're the talk of the town/pick up and leave her/I want you. Fever."
Militarie Gun - "B A D I D E A"
Chappell Roan reminded everyone that spelling is fun a couple of years ago and the Gun paired that with their "hardcore guys make a Guided by Voices album" thing to make another perfect pop song.
Editrix - "Flesh Debt"
I'm astounded that someone was able to convincingly make a math rock song sound very horny.
End It - "Life Sublime"
As previously mentioned, I am not a hardcore guy but I listen to this song and for 2-minutes I think that maybe I could be a hardcore guy.
Alexa Rose - "Anywhere, OH"
I'm a real city person. I simply do not get the charm of small towns. I love density and the hustle of a big city. And the idea of having to hop in a car just to get groceries or something sounds like Hell. But by the time this song ends, I'm convinced that, I too, could fall in love with some middle of nowhere place in Ohio after a 30-minute pit stop.
Great Grandpa - "Kid"
I love this song so much that I went backwards and listened to the rest of Great Grandpa's music and nothing's really grabbed me (terrible fucking band name also). But this song? This sprawling, cinematic, goddamn gorgeous 5-minutes of perfect orchestral pop? I've had it on repeat since I heard it.
Clipse feat. Tyler, the Creator - "P.O.V."
Listen, it was monumental to get a new Clipse album in 2025. A blessing to get Push back with Malice and have him drop the "No" and rap about drugs and cars and how you best not cross him again. But my fellow olds really overstated how good the actual album was (very good, but it's not a crime that it didn't make every year end list, grandpa!).
This track though? If this was all we'd got, I still would've been over the moon. You could tell Tyler was, because even though he made an excellent album of his own this year, he saved his best verse of 2025 for this guest spot with a couple of his heroes.
The Waterboys feat. Fiona Apple - "Letter from an Unknown Girlfriend"
This could be a Fiona Apple song. For starters, it's just her on both piano and vocals--no Waterboys in sight. But also "song sung from the perspective of a woman who dated Dennis Hopper" sounds like a Fiona Apple concept. It's the delivery though--she doesn't sing it like it's someone else's song--she sings it like it's escaping directly from her soul in that whisper to roar way that only Fiona Apple can.
Hamilton Leithauser - "Knockin' Heart"
After hearing "The Rat," I have believed that any song where Hamilton Leithauser gets loud is a good song and I have heard no evidence to the contrary since then.
Lucy Dacus - "Ankles"
The spiritual opposite to the Laura Stevenson song. If you've ever experienced the moment when someone you love platonically becomes someone you love romantically and the physical part actually lives up to everything, then you probably also love this song. If you haven't, you should give it a shot. Or, I guess you probably shouldn't if you're partnered up, but if you are and you did, you could live "I Want You (Fever)" too.
Sharp Pins - "I Don't Have the Heart"
Kai Slater put out two albums of perfect bedroom pop this year and this was my favourite song from either of them.
The Armed - "Sharp Teeth"
The Future is Here and Everything Needs to be Destroyed is the first Armed album that I really got and "Sharp Teeth" encapsulates everything that I loved about it.
Jeff Tweedy - "Enough"
How long should an album be in the streaming era? Back in the day, it made sense to cut things back so they fit on a single CD (two at most). But now? Why not turn on the firehose and give us everything? Between this and the last Wilco record, it seems like Tweedy's operating under the same philosophy. And look, there's more than a few skips on the three(!) Twilight Override discs, but there's also songs like this that remind you that Jeff Tweedy's been one of the planet's greatest songwriters for my entire adult life.
Skullcrusher - "March"
The album version and the video version (linked above) of this song are a little different. The latter's Helen Ballentine giving this song the live Cat Power Covers Record treatment--just her over top of some sparse, plunked out piano chords (although, the album version is pretty sparse too). And it's hard to decide which one breaks me harder.
Shows:
Snocaps w/Mike Krol @ the Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles, California
Two of my favourite musicians playing my favourite record of 2025 in full, plus some of my most beloved songs that I haven't heard live in years. I wrote about this show earlier this month.
Oasis @ Rogers Stadium, Toronto, Ontario
Who knows what's going to happen next. Maybe they'll keep doing this nostalgia tour until they hate each other again. Maybe they'll quit while they're ahead. But no matter what the future holds, there was this year when Oasis felt like the biggest and best band in the world again. I wrote about this show in August.
Rilo Kiley @ the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
In May, I was away from work for a couple weeks to embark on the most middle aged millennial vacation of all time, where I traveled to my family's ancestral homeland to surprise my aging parents on what my mom claimed would be their "last trip to Japan" (they went back in November lmao) and then rushed home in time to see the emo pop band I love on their first tour in almost two decades.
Both parts lived up to expectations.
Mannequin Pussy w/Gouge Away @ the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
Obviously, I like Mannequin Pussy. If I didn't, I wouldn't have bought tickets to this show. But I bought tickets, because I love Gouge Away's live show (a blessing to also see them with Chat Pile as well this year and with Wednesday next year) and thought I liked Mannequin Pussy fine enough. But holy shit, what a performance. I fucking love Mannequin Pussy now (a sentence I try to avoid saying out loud). I wrote about this show in July.
Piss w/Emma Goldman, Cherry Pick, and Perra @ the Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver, BC
I don't think my opinion on who Vancouver's best band is really carries much weight anymore (and it didn't carry a whole lot more back in the day either), but I'm pretty sure I would've thought Piss were Vancouver's best band at nearly any point in time when I was writing this blog on the regular the first time around too. I wrote about this show in November.
now playing: Counting Crows - A Long December
