Peter’s favorite tracks of 2025…double playlist!

I’ve curated two different playlists for 2025, one with singing, and one without singing. Most of the time, my year-end playlist picks feature mostly songs (with lyrics), but this year there were a lot of instrumental tracks that I thought were worth sharing, so I made a second playlist. I thought about trying to find a theme, but besides “Almost Completely Women Vocalists,” I’m stumped. I welcome suggestions.

Peter's Favorite Tracks of 2025 

You can also find this playlist on Apple Music.

 

1. Madison Cunningham: “Golden Gate (On and On)” from Ace – Let’s start out with bass clarinets, shall we? Beyond prominent use of one my favorite instruments, the texture building and the rush at the beginning of the chorus stood out.
2. Hope Tala: “Survival” from Hope Handwritten – A relatable message to the modern condition, set to a groove: several things can be true at once—we have real challenges and feelings in the present that are not negated by more difficult challenges of the past, and we can be successful and suffer at the same time.
3. Sarah Siskind: “Come on Heart” from Simplify – An earnest, simple, and onomatopoetic song.
4. Madi Diaz: “Fatal Optimist” from Fatal Optimist – Diaz made this list for the second year in row with this similar theme to The Beth’s “Future Me Hates Me”—this relationship is a bad idea, but I guess I’m doing it anyway.
5. Molly Tuttle: “Summer of Love” from So Long Little Miss Sunshine – Turning to real optimism, is this song about pining for a past moment in history, or a failed relationship? Probably both. Also, I love some good song call backs. Tuttle proves she doesn’t have anything to prove with this album—she’s doing what she wants.
6. Mishra: “Akhiyaan Udeek Diyann (feat. Deepa Shakti)” from Turn O Spinning Wheel – Maybe the most successful fusion of South Asian and Celtic music I’ve heard. Also, another bass clarinet!
7. Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover: “Flourescent Light” from What of Our Nature – Contemporary folk music about how we may have traded something vital to get our modern conveniences; fittingly, the production is live and sparse.
8. Rosalía: “Reliquia” from Lux – For many, Rosalía produced the best albums of the year as the Spanish artist brought up from a Flamenco tradition swings hard with emotion and maximalist production.
9. Phoebe Rings: “Fading Star” from Aseurai – I found out about this New Zealand retro band when they opened for The Beths. This one hits all the right notes (and timbres). Taking care of the elderly has never been so cool.
10. Hayley Williams: “True Believer” from Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party – This very specific, biting gothic song is about Williams’ hometown, Nashville. And is somehow (necromatically) optimistic
11. Oklou: “blade bird” from choke enough – The French electronically-assisted singer’s debut album made a lot of year-end lists. I, of course, love the bird theme, including the birdsong that is mixed in. The bridge section surprises with faster melodic movement than the verse/chorus.
12. Haim: “Spinning” from I Quit – Perhaps the song that inspired the most repeat listening on this playlist, it starts with some Prince-inspired synths and builds and layers right up to the end, making great use of the sisters' vocal harmonies.
13. Brighde Chaimbeul: “She Went Astray” from Sunwise – How about some loud bagpipes drones to wake you up? Interspersed with some rhythmic call and response in Scots-Gaelic? Actually, let’s make it a canon, too.
14. Momma: “I Want You (Fever)” from Welcome to My Blue Sky – Shoegazy, headbangy, guitar rock. Great use of an intro that is also a pre-chorus; pull it all back at the start of the chorus; and make up for a repetitive chorus by delaying its return.
15. Jenn Butterworth: “The Housewife’s Lament” from Her By Design – Butterworth performs an American song dating from the late 19th-century. When you put it that way, what a depressing life many women led, historically and still lead today; not to diminish their plight, I think most people can relate to monotonous, neverending chores. The arrangement is meticulous and beautiful, and the vocal performance is haunting. And the vacuum at the end is a nice touch.
16. Girlpuppy: “Windows” from Sweetness – Georgia artist’s debut album. Somehow, the one-word chorus gets me—and the way she riffs on it toward the end.
17. High Horse: “Discern (feat. Jacob Jolliff)” from High Horse – This band is taking the Newgrass innovations from The Punch Brothers and moving in their own direction. I love the close, tall vocal harmonies and the changing time signatures.
18. Allt: “Caim Chaluim Chille Chaoimh” from Allt, Vol. 2 – I’ve written before about Allt, formed from two power couples from Scotland and Ireland. Technically from late 2024, this album is their second, and this was the most enchanting and haunting selection, with Fowlis on beautiful vocals. It’s a prayer in Scots-Gaelic, Irish, and little Latin. And a surprise oboe.

Bonus playlist: Peter's Favorite Instrumentals of 2025 

You can also find this playlist on Apple Music.

 

My Favorite New Albums of 2025

Happy New Year! Better late than never; I had a lot of material to cover before I could post this. I listened to a record 124 albums in 2025—79 were new albums from 2025, 20 were from 2024 (and 14 were the complete albums of Caspar Babypants, but maybe I will write about that journey another time). Here are my top 5 albums from 2025 in no particular order. Soon, I will post my favorite tracks of 2025.

Straight Line was a Lie by The Beths – Chiming, harmonic depression therapy – Start with the title track "Straight Line was a Lie". I feel like so much of influencing culture is about "try X and Y will happen" or "buy W and it will solve your problems." This song is about trying a bunch of things to improve your situation and getting nowhere, which is true to life and this year for me. The quiet line "I don't know if I can go round again," delivered in the middle of a raucous song, is deeply relatable. Also, I love how the song doesn't really have verses (it's all chorus, baby!) AND it starts off with a recorded mistake. If you are wondering if they all perform the recorder break in “No Joy” in their live show, the answer is yes.

Anything at All by Denison Whitmer – Elevated pedestrian – I did not know anything at all about Whitmer until I heard about this album, produced by Sufjan Stevens’ label Asthmatic Kitty, in February. You can hear Stevens’ influence; Stevens also plays and sings on most of the tracks. The palette Whitmer creates is lush and beautiful; also its optimism (and some soft-spoken depression) is a good counterpoint to everything else going on this year. This album has the best song about birds (and flowers and happiness) this year: “A House With”. Also, check out the pedestrian and delightful “Clockmaker”--which seems to exist to tell a ”dad joke”. 

Tunnel Vision by Beach Bunny – Depressive, introspective mosh pit – Beach Bunny’s first album Honeymoon (2020) and second album Emotional Creature (2022) both made my best-of lists, and their third album doesn’t disappoint. I knew it was going to be on my best albums of 2025 list on first hearing. The lyrics are chock full of anxiety, self-doubt, and incisive social commentary, but the music is layered, varied, and full of hooks. Maybe start with “Big Pink Bubble” and if you don’t like it, you’ve only wasted two minutes.

Precipice by Indigo de Souza – Well-constructed slice-of-life synth bops – de Souza is a North Carolina artist who has recently relocated to Los Angeles after her home was destroyed in Hurricane Helene. With some experimental music bones, the strength of this album is in the production and the hooks. Try out “Crying Over Nothing” or “Pass It By”.

Flyway by Tern – Scottish/Nordic boundary pushing folk – The double bird reference made me (figuratively) pick up this album, but the combination Scottish and Nordic influences and the impeccable playing kept me listening to this album, the first for Shetland Islands-based group Tern. It is not a straight folk album—there is some classical treatment of folk melodies, for example in “Storpolksa.” Usually, piano in Celtic music is an automatic turn-off for me, but this group pulls it off somehow. “Living Stream” is a good example of Tern’s inventive approach to folk tune arranging.