Music Listeners

listening to Your Favorite Songs 2025, part 10

let's continue to get ready to rumble...

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.

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

"06 wayne rooney" - Jim Legxacy
from Callum, the Chef de Party:
"Jim Legxacy has been positioning himself in my little world as someone who consistently innovates british music by mashing so many genre inspirations together it makes your head spin. Having been seen on producer credits for bit hitters like Dave his solo work pulls no punches, previous singles such as Old Place draw grime beats over a beautiful midwest emo style noodle guitar rap with hype man stylings, it's SO GOOD.

The Black British Music Mixtape draws from emo, grime, drill, dancehall, afrobeat, somber acoustic ballads and high energy rap but in '06 Wayne Rooney he delivers what I can only describe as a South London Ends Kelly Clarkson BANGER.

It's a wonderfully nostalgic summer pop rock anthem that swells with musical optimism, but has lyrical depth about Jim's personal struggles. Providing that 00's styling emo dichotomy of dancing to joy division we all know and love."

John of John's Music Blog made a playlist a while ago that was nine hours of his interpretation of "pop punk": a galaxy-brained synthesis of the obvious first order pop punk classics ("In Too Deep" by Sum 41, for example) plus plenty of the more diffused second order pop punk descendants (Lil Uzi Vert, Kelly Clarkson, Wavves). It is awesome, and listening to "06 wayne rooney," I was reminded of the playlist for the first time in a while and think this song deserves a top spot on an updated version. At its best, pop punk tugs at your heart like a cat attacking the drawstrings on your hoodie, while also pumping you up like a very good sports coach, giving you the ability to cry and run through walls at the same time, a real emotional free-for-all.

"Despeñaperros" - Maud the moth
from Cooljma

This song makes me think of a very beautiful and kind of scary gothic ballet. Très cinematique. I didn't watch the video until after I heard the song, but even the song sounds like it's in black and white.

"Narcissist" - the Tubs
from Paul Gilbert:
"Last.fm numbers don't lie. It's a standout track from my favorite album of 2025, really showing off the Tubs's mix of punk, dream-pop, and folk."

A soulful ode to being so bored with your life that you're okay with starting a romance with someone who sucks, hahaha. The opening lyrics are amazing: "Jane says you're a narcissist / Well, I wanna see / You should do it to me." This song hits like a REM track with Morrissey vocals, which is an unexpected but killer combo as far as I am concerned!

"The Bog Body" - Viagra Boys
from Madison Van Houten! Former Alternative colleague, graphic designer in the music industry, fervent reader of this newsletter, known as @madisonvanhalen online:
"The lyrics in this song absolutely kill me. I am constantly replaying the part where he is admonishing someone for not knowing the difference between a swamp and a bog. One day I will sing this at karaoke and bring people to their knees. "You say you hate the swamp woman / What the hell are you on about? / Do you even know the difference / Between a swamp and an ancient bog?"

Listen. I was going to be okay with Viagra Boys whiffing whatever album would come after their 2022 breakthrough Cave World. "You can't win 'em all," I said to myself, before hearing a single note of this years' release from the VBoys, an orthographically idiosyncratic self-titled album (ahem...viagr aboys). Welp, everything on it bangs, per usual. Why did I ever doubt?? It was one of my favorites of the year.

"The Bog Body" is of course about a friend or lover being jealous of a dead woman found frozen in a bog, which hey, who among us? The only reason I missed Viagra Boys at this year's Coachella is because T-Pain was playing at the same time, and I've seen VB twice, and T-Pain zero times. Sometimes you just get boned by that damn schedule. Also, Madison's favorite lyrics go on to actually explain the difference between a swamp and an ancient bog ("In a bog you are pickled / In a swamp you would decomposе")—wonderful service journalism from Sebastian and the squad.

"Umbra" - Ghost
from James P:
"It's about how even when you're stuck sitting in church, you can still feel the power of Satan's love. And I love when Ghost leans into prog rock."

This sounds a little like the theme song to a really good '90s television show where people in costumes fight weird monsters. It's funny that there was that SNL sketch about how hilarious it is to desire "more cowbell," but like...I do...want more cowbell. When I heard this song had cowbell, I smiled. It made me happy. The cowbell made me happy.

"Until Night Bleeds" - Claire Noelle
from charlotte mulvey aka Ciemme:
"i did not expect a 90+ Deltarune fanfic album to be one of my favorite albums of the year, which is to say i did not expect A World Above Your Dreams by Claire Noelle. based on the game and soundtrack by Toby Fox and made to accompany fanfics by wisdomsarts, Claire Noelle arranges Fox’s compositions around exquisite compositions of her own with astounding production, especially given the scope of the project as it booms with the force of a complete orchestra.

it’s one part chiptune, one part film score, one part rock opera- a little bit cringe, yes, but good enough that i’m writing this nonetheless. the eleventh track, Until Night Bleeds, is the one that stood out immediately. it pulses with action, tension, nocturnal menace- the type of energy that makes you dance and run through a brick wall in equal measure."

One of many examples of a song that I would never encounter in a zillion years if someone cool didn't tell me about it. This is what the algorithm cannot do! This is why HUMAN-TO-HUMAN CONNECTION harnesses THE POWER OF MUSIC most THOROUGHLY. I don't know anything about Deltarune but I know this song is a true banger. That first crunched-out disco moment sounds like a real Dance Dance Revolution ankle-twister. Did you know that in the early days of Covid, when we were still calling it "coronavirus" in conversation, I had a really intense phase where I was getting most of my exercise from playing Just Dance? I had the "Bangarang" choreography almost memorized. It was an interesting time.