Music Listeners

listening to Your Favorite Songs 2025, part 15

WE DID IT!

part 1 here. part 2 here. part 3 here. part 4 here. part 5 here. part 6 here. part 7 here. part 8 here. part 9 here. part 10 here. part 11 here. part 12 here. part 13 here. part 14 here.

scroll to the bottom for youtube embeds of all the songs!

"Girl like me" - PinkPantheress
from Ponchis:
"Pinkpantheress has been so amazing since she debuted a couple of years back, but this new mixtape took her to new heights that I was hoping for. Girl like me is just one of those instantly fun songs. Its got a fun sample from Basement Jaxx from the song "romeo" (ironically another song on this mixtape is also called romeo) and its Kele Le Roc shouting "Let it all go!" When the song starts, its got this driving / thumping beat then you get a little rewind effect and the beat gets louder. Pink's soft vocals then come through and they're so catchy. Its a huge earworm.

In this song Pinkpantheress is just very straightforward about her relationship. She doesn't like how things are going, and theres no explanation for why they do this (fighting or being together or both?). She finds herself smiling when he's not around. Asking the s/o, why they dont feel like that but then its like you know what: Just let it all go. Its a freeing sensibility just to let go and just enjoy your life. Your mental health should always come first! And the song's energy reflects that. SHES SAYING SOME REAL STUFF IN HERE!!! And it doesn't hurt that the beats this song are so catchy and fun. I catch myself humming this song constantly or just dancing around when its on. SHE IS AMAZING."

Ponchis nailed the analysis, I fuckin loved Fancy That and Fancy Some More?, Pink makes a difficult achievement—making pop music that tips a rather large sombrero to old sounds, but makes them feel fresh and modern—look so damn easy. Even though she dresses like the girls who bullied me in middle school, I can't help but think she's cool. Her tendency to perform live while holding a little purse is iconic. More people should be sampling Basement Jaxx?? Can I brag and say I saw Basement Jaxx LIVE this year and it gave me my entire life and then some? Many of the world's problems would be solved if we were able to all dance to Basement Jaxx together.

"Opt Out" - Snooper
from James Patrick Carmody:
"I think Worldwide captures a lot of the content nausea we deal with in everyday life, and Opt Out especially captures this feeling as an excellent opening track to the album. Satisfaction, distraction - what are you looking for? It also just completely slaps as a song."

REPLY 'STOP' TO OPT OUT / I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT. I just saw a post online where someone said that in order to see prices of items in person at a Kohl's store, you have to download the Kohls app? And connect to their wifi?? Hahahaha. This one's for the meaty humans trapped in captcha hell, solving puzzles to prove they're human until they feel like puzzle-solving robots. Snooper prove devo-core music isn't just playing like nerds on amphetamines—it's about exploring our inevitable devolution, babe.

"Gut Feelings" - Debbii Dawson
from Nicole Tremaglio:
"'Gut Feelings' opens with such whopping 80s-inspired drum beats, you might assume you’re getting Rick-Rolled. Three minutes and twenty four seconds of synth make it the sonic equivalent of the sparkle emoji, and lyrics about self distrust has never sounded so glamorous!!!"

A lot of songs that take strong inspiration from the 1980s temper it with some kind of modernity, but this one feels like it was carved directly from the materials of that decade, which means "Gut Feelings" is made of cakey blue eyeshadow, New Coke, Calvin Klein Obsession, glass bricks, the kind of faux-marble tile flooring found in epic malls, and the kind of hairspray they no longer sell because it'll eat a hole in the ozone layer again. Debbii Dawson apparently was a contestant on America's Got Talent? And released a song co-produced by Zhone, lowkey one of the spiciest producers of 2025 even though he doesn't have a Wikipedia page yet? Also she's from Minnesota and her name is Deborah? I'm locked in.

"hampstead" - Ariana Grande
from Your sister, Allison (ed. note - this is my sister, Allison):
"1. Ari belting 2. Ari singing great lyrics that she wrote (with Max Martin). It's a ballad but it's a banger!"

Even though she's released a well-received album, starred in two mega movies, and plotted an arena tour for next year, Ariana Grande has spent the past couple of years feeling a little closer to a tabloid entity than an artist to me, what with the SpongeBob adultery of it all; "hampstead," a bonus track released this year as part of a bonus addendum to last year's eternal sunshine, reminds me that she's still a beam of pure talent, capable of using her voice to hit me in the honey nut feelios again and again, even if her romantic practices are of questionable character. Also, separating the drama from the art has always been a difficult ask re: Ari—after all, this is a woman who has a song in her discography called "pete davidson." Do we love mess, or don't we?

"Fear me, stranger / A little bit of sugar, danger" is such a quintessential Ariana Grande style lyric, it's gorgeous in its current piano habitat, but I could also imagine it over a peppier Max Martin synth pop beat from last decade.

"Midnight Licking Hours" by Cocojoey
from Ryan Dann:
"I didn't realize I needed some maximalism in my life until I heard Cocojoey."

I was extremely Vince McMahon meme during my first listen of song. Every escalation increased my mirth. The bonkers slap bass, the breakbeats, the video game speed run synth solo, the screaming breakdown...immersive, overwhelming, delightful. Man, Hausu Mountain continues to crush. Love the virtual cat in the music video as well.

"One in a Million" by Bladee
from Nora Nygard (@noranygardxx on IG, @noranygardx on tiktok)
"another year another bladee song... I saw Bladee on his martyr world tour and it was so fun, one of the best, chillest crowds i've been in for a long time. I was probably tied for oldest attendee (i'm Bladee's age give or take) and it made me so happy to witness this cohort of cool, kind, fashionable young people who love music. Also the merch line was the most insane i've ever seen but that's another story, sadly the pink hoodie sold out while i was waiting to buy it :(

there are a lot of things i like about this song lyrically, but what really resonates with me is the way Bladee portrays futility. The song laments the hellish pointlessness of daily life ("every day i wake up to the same fucking thing," which was very cathartic to sing along with at the show) and bladee extends the meaning and impact of these feelings by using symbolism/imagery ("mansion on the hill, stood in a pool of blood") and a heightened perspective that embraces nature and the existential cosmos: "look at the sky and exist" and the line "one in a million," which is used here not to indicate luckiness, but instead Bladee inverts it to emphasize the insignificance of the individual. Bladee questions whether it's possible to overcome any of this, whether by taking drugs, by seeking spiritual redemption, or by mixing blood with spit (idk what kind of spells he's up to).

all of that being said, what I like the most—and maybe some of this is projection—but what i love is that bladee portrays the meaninglessness of life in the context of tragedy, tragic suffering, pointless suffering. Evil things in my mind spin and spin every day same fucking thing and the tragedy is that we are born with a single brief life and we suffer for no reason. we suffer alone, isolated, one in a million, and we suffer on a societal level, standing in pools of blood. for what? nothing? It feels impossible to escape.

As far as the production, the musical element that really has me locked in is the soft, fuzzy, sustained synth. Looping chords with perfect simplicity (which is so hard to do), it has kinda an organ energy (it's probably filtered saw waves), slightly side-chained to the kick, cut up rhythmically and filtered for variations in the verses—and crucially has a second, higher-pitched layer to elevate the energy of the repeats of the chorus (or post-chorus). This higher layer is what gets stuck in my head. It perfectly emphasizes the ethereal and tragic nature of the lyrics. You can hear it the first time at 0:43. It's so simple and so effective and, although I love complexity in music, I will always be in awe of the power that can come from simplicity. it takes a huge amount of effort and skill to make it work.

the vocal production is also really sick, with a lot of subtle layering, and some really nice details, e.g. the ping-pong delay at 0:29 or the low sustained note in the transition at 1:42.

I feel pretty disconnected from everything, society, people, music, life itself in general. so I felt lucky to experience a sense of belonging at Bladee's show (even if i also kinda felt like an oldhead auntie) instead of an increased sense of alienation, which is what pop culture usually makes me feel. Bladee's doing something really special imo. Drain gang for life <3"

Nora remains a formidable intellectual authority on Bladee; I was happy to listen to "Flatline" for last year's Favorite Songs roundup, and now I'm happy to dip back into Bladee again. The Scandi melancholy continues apace, and Bladee has the sweetest, saddest vocal delivery that makes his bleak POV charming, even appealing. If there were even a speck of perceived affectation on his vocals, the whole thing would fall apart. But Bladee delivers it plain. All scenarios, whether "tragic" or "vapid," carry the same emotional weight, settling on your ears like a thick plain blanket of Swedish snow.

There's comfort in abjection, maybe, especially if the point of music is to draw others near, and to commune together, even if what you have in common is the feeling that life is ultimately tragic and unforgiving.

"Afraid" - Flock of Dimes
from Melvin Peña:
"I have been so lucky - so blessed - over the past decade that whenever my favorite artist, Jenn Wasner, played anywhere around North Carolina's research triangle, that I could be there to bear witness.

The past couple of years have seen Jenn do a series of living room show tours, organized by the folks at Undertow Music. In November 2024, Jenn played an unbelievable 5 nights across North Carolina: Durham, Raleigh, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, and Charlotte all got a look in.

I went to every single show and cried ugly tears at every single one. I knew that she was going to be relocating to the West Coast that winter, and that this would probably be the last time I'd be able to show this kind of support, this level of appreciation. I wasn't about to miss a moment.

People would hear me say I was going to all these shows and say, "Oh, you are a super fan!" I get that reaction a lot, but the truth is, I know where my joy is and I pursue it faithfully. For me, real joy, dependable joy - the kind of soul-filling satisfaction I experience when I have the opportunity to see art be created in front of my eyes - is miraculous. Who wouldn't want to see a miracle performed?

"Afraid," the first track on The Life You Save, the latest Flock of Dimes record, opens with the light splash of a cymbal and a bass note. It sounds like immersion. Synaesthetically, it's like the feeling of settling into a hot tub, or like the feeling of being hugged. More accurately, there's a Welsh word, "cwtch," which is what they call an "embrace with a sense of offering warmth and safety."

That's also a perfect way to describe the feeling of living with this song, and the record it kicks off, throughout 2025. Don't tell anyone, but Jenn gave me early access to it back in March, and I listened to it several times a week every week until it dropped in early October.

In the course of 8 months living with it - running in the park, walking my dog, kayaking on the lake, driving in the car, taking a shower, getting ready for bed, or getting dressed in the morning - wherever and whatever I was doing, I was taken back into those living rooms, embraced, and held by the music, challenged and confronted by the lyrics, and given solace by the experience.

"I had to grow," Jenn sings, "so I grew." The amount of life you have to live between the first part of that phrase and the second, and the amount of wisdom you have to acquire before you can put it into words. It's just so powerful when it finds you.

I hope this song finds you, and I hope, when Jenn starts up her next round of living room tours, that you'll make time to experience the miracle yourself."

What a beautiful recommendation and write-up from Melvin to close out this year's batch of songs. Repeating what he wrote, one more time for emphasis: For me, real joy, dependable joy - the kind of soul-filling satisfaction I experience when I have the opportunity to see art be created in front of my eyes - is miraculous. Amen.

On "Afraid," the lines "I did not enter this world afraid" and "I did not enter this world alone" of course remind me of the wildest thing I did this year, which was have a baby. A baby who, God willing, will grow up and become a person in the world. I love her so much. I get upset when I think about how I helped bring a person into existence who will experience pain that I won't be able to prevent, or pain that I myself will cause. I fear the inevitable schism, the moment when she will say to me some variation of "I didn't ask to be born." That's the funny thing about being born: no one puts in a request for such a thing, but it happens all the same, and here we all all.

"I did not enter this world alone"—hey, that's nice to think about. No one enters this world alone. Everyone is guaranteed at least one person present for their birth, at least one witness as they cross the threshold, because that's how life works. And maybe that act of witnessing, the act of Being There, is also the true beginning of what gives life meaning—which to me, is spending time with people I love, meeting people I don't know, turning those people into people I love as well, until eventually I can look back at my life and believe there was something purposeful, maybe even sacred, about all that reaching out. That's the example I can set with my daughter, and whatever she wants to learn from it is up to her.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your favorite songs this year. It fills my heart to the brim. I got to spent the past six weeks listening to sick tunes, what could be better? More fun weirdness for I Enjoy Music to come...