My habit of seeking out new music began with a few strokes of good luck. I grew up in a college town in the early to mid-nineties, during one of the golden eras of college radio. I spent a significant portion of my time with my ear pressed against a cheap hand-me-down AM/FM boom box, dialling through forests of static until I found a coherent tune from one of the stations broadcasting out of Ohio State University or a smaller school nearby. My older siblings were already in college, and they would return home with mixtapes ripped from their own campus radio stations, adding fresh sounds to my sonic universe. It wasn’t uncommon for me to hear new music and sense that it was altering my brain chemistry, in a way that I could palpably feel. I still remember hearing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time, huddled in the back seat of my oldest brother’s car and looking out of the window in joyful disbelief.
New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.
I have kept up my eager pursuit of new music all these years later, because I refuse to believe that the hope of brain-shifting listening experiences must be abandoned with childhood. My listening practice today is sprawling, involving as many as thirty albums a week. Each Thursday, I share a playlist of my favorite new songs on Instagram. I’ve maintained this habit for years, though it feels more important to keep up now, as the platforms through which we consume music try to seduce us with the comforts of what we already like. The ritual has become a way to resist the nefarious designs of the algorithms that wish to remind me, again and again, of what I loved once, until I don’t see fit to love anything else. Through tallying my favorite listening, I am reclaiming confidence in my own taste, even if it is still evolving as much as it was when I was using that boom box. So here is a list of songs I loved this year. I hope there are at least a few that might open up something in you.
“Green Juice”
anaiis
From the immense album “Devotion & the Black Divine,” by the French Senegalese singer-songwriter anaiis, “Green Juice” is a sparse production featuring a bouncy bass line and twinkling bells that hover in the background of anaiis’s light, airy vocals. A friend of mine described the song as “Warm, like a summer evening,” which feels accurate to me, listening to it now that winter has closed in.
“The Weight”
Agriculture
This song, from Agriculture’s album “The Spiritual Sound,” is an outpouring of pain and rage from the singer Leah B. Levinson, who details, in twisting screams, the violent homophobia that their friends have endured. The L.A.-based group refers to their music as “ecstatic black metal,” which I take to mean that it intends to transport listeners to places where they would not otherwise go.
“Collection Plates”
Ransom, Boldy James, Nicholas Craven, Young Chris
I’ve greatly enjoyed the past few years in rap music, thanks in large part to the confident soundscapes being built by a new generation of producers. The Montrealer Nicholas Craven is one standout, and this track, anchored by a looped vocal sample, provides an incredible playground for his frequent collaborators, the rappers Boldy James and Ransom. But the song’s central delight, for me, is the presence of Young Chris, of the Young Gunz, whom I hadn’t heard much from since the band’s heyday in the mid-two-thousands.
“This Night Has Been Unkind”
Superstar Crush
The album “Way Too Much,” by the Hamilton, Ontario, pop group Superstar Crush, seemed to pass under the radar, despite possessing many of the same features as other hit albums this year: big, flashy guitar work, churning and relentless rhythms, and songs that feel like they never stop building. “This Night Has Been Unkind” is an almost six-minute ode to heartbreak, accelerating to a heavy sprint of horns and drums before winding down to a feeling of emotional exhaustion.
“EMILLIO PUCCI”
ANKHLEJOHN, August Fanon
The album “LIVE! At the Disco” is a collaboration between the D.C. rapper ANKHLEJOHN and the brilliant experimental sound artist August Fanon, who works largely at the intersection of jazz and soul. “EMILIO PUCCI” stands out for the sweetness of the vocal samples and also because it feels like two songs in one, fading away within the first minute and then returning, seamlessly, as an entirely different machine.
“Falling Down Stairs”
Sorry Girls
This was a great year for the subgenre of songs that I tend to think of as “Sad, But Willing to Dance.” “Falling Down Stairs” is, lyrically, about the ache of reaching for someone who is not fully reaching back. But the music is danceable enough to make you slip away and forget the pain of it all.
“Slow It Down”
Joe Kay, Isaiah Falls, Cruza
Cruza, an alternative R. & B. band out of Florida, made one of my favorite albums of last year, “Cruzafied,” and this new song might be the one I listened to the most throughout 2025. Its primary scaffolding is bass and the rhythmic clapping of hands, which at first I thought might become grating. But then the track unfurls other elements: guitar, and stunning vocal arrangements.
“Grief”
Divide and Dissolve
Divide and Dissolve, an instrumental project helmed by the composer Takiaya Reed, runs a gamut of sounds, from the weightier precincts of doom metal to softer, more atmospheric arrangements. “Grief” is the shortest of my favorite songs of the year; it’s just under a minute and a half, but it feels full, and slow-moving, like watching a dark cloud inch its way in front of the sun.
“Hum of Your Voice”
Makin’ Out
I like a song that gets right to it, and “Hum of Your Voice,” by the Minneapolis punk band Makin’ Out, drops the listener into the middle of a conversation with the singer Caitlin Angelica. She has an unforgettably expressive voice, wringing the feeling out of each syllable in the chorus: “I don’t wanna be alive / I don’t wanna die / I just wanna lay down next to you.”
“A City Drowning. God’s Black Tears”
Infinity Knives, Brian Ennals, Nicolas Ratany, Émile Joseph Weeks, The Lil’ Black Oxen
“A City Drowned in God’s Black Tears” is among the most expansive and ambitious of the albums I loved this year. This not-quite-title song, which is nearly eight minutes long, is a sort of mini-suite, opening with a dog barking, giving way to an acoustic-guitar melody accompanying polyphonic vocals, then becoming electric and crashingly alive, until the relentless screech of a guitar drags you to the end.
“Hello”
Fusilier
It is hard to make music as thoughtful and precise as that of the singer-songwriter Blake Fusilier while still delivering the feel of an improvisatory stage show. He pulls from funk, classic soul, and contemporary R. & B., and he doesn’t tend to silo his influences. “Hello” is part acoustic folk song, part upbeat R. & B. jaunt, and it never becomes any less surprising as it shifts between the two modes.
“Love Ray Eyes”
SPELLLING
The Oakland-based experimental artist Chrystia Cabral, a.k.a. SPELLLING, resists genre categorization in a way that allows her almost to defy time. “Love Ray Eyes” would easily feel at home as a soul-rock anthem of the seventies or eighties, but its explosive chorus and enticing vocal dramatics bring to mind mid-two-thousands My Chemical Romance.
“History of Violence”
Backxwash
“Only Dust Remains,” by the Zambian Canadian rapper and producer Backxwash, is one of my favorite albums of the year, as much for its atmospheric electronics as for its way with language. The song “History of Violence” confronts both personal trauma and the brutalities of the world beyond the self. The scathing litany of an outro is delivered in a near-shout: “Never mention the women / Never mention the children / Never mention the victims or you’re in league.”
“Beautiful BLACK”
Goya Gumbani
Featuring a horn-and-keys-driven, jazzy framework, and the laid-back flow of the London-based rapper Goya Gumbani, this song feels like a tune I could have seen performed once upon a time under some blue-tinted lights on a too-small stage, looking across the room and locking eyes with the future love of my life.
“MVP”
MICHELLE
Long live MICHELLE, the R. & B. collective made up of six twentysomethings from New York. They bid us farewell earlier this year, but not before dropping the EP “Kiss/Kill,” which includes “MVP,” perhaps the best song of their brief and stellar career. It’s about the overflow of desire, a desire so intense that a lesser heart might think of all that wanting as greed. MICHELLE knows better.
“Smoking Death”
Dreamer Isioma, Dua Saleh
“StarX Lover,” the 2025 album by the Nigerian American singer-songwriter Dreamer Isioma, is relentless, like someone clawing their way through a wall to deliver the good news of their survival. “Smoking Death” is a colossal sonic experience that hits a high point midway, with a refrain of red that repeats until it puts a listener into a trance.
“No More Rehearsals”
Everything Is Recorded, Roses Gabor, Jah Wobble, Jack Peñate, Yazz Ahmed
Everything Is Recorded is a project spearheaded by the producer Richard Russell, who has worked with artists including Gil Scott-Heron, Bobby Womack, and Kwes. “No More Rehearsals,” one of the greatest songs released under the moniker, features Roses Gabor’s voice, gentle to the point of near-whispering, softly layered over a backbone of piano. It just feels nice.
“Gold Filigree”
Yves Jarvis
The Canadian multi-instrumentalist Yves Jarvis is the artist I pushed on the most people this year. I adored his whole album “All Cylinders,” and this midtempo tune is the highlight. It’s a sensual ode to the admiration of another, with a second act that veers hard into howls of electric guitar. But, admittedly, the part of the song I enjoy the most is the rhyming of “jewelry” with “tomfoolery.”
“Second Line”
Fines Double, Mic Write
The brilliant album “Espejismo,” by the Portland, Oregon-based producer Fines Double, features a wide variety of m.c.s and wonderfully dense production. Many of his beats—like this one—are drenched in brass, giving them the feeling of a slow and not unenjoyable march to a dark place.
“break it”
keiyaA
KeiyaA is a Chicago-born songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist whose arrangements are hyper-populated with sounds: shattering glass, clips of poems, and constantly churning percussion. On “break it,” the drums provide an anchor, blurring with the sometimes-warped samples of voices that hypnotically repeat the song’s title.
“My Love”
Hannah Jadagu
I like songs of longing that rely on the vulnerability of plain language: you are somewhere, and the person you love is somewhere else. This track, by the Texas-born, New York-based pop singer Hannah Jadagu, contains one of my favorite lyrics of the year: “My love, I hope you get all my time.”
“Small Town Cemetery”
Greet Death
Another great line—“I hope you lay next to me / In some small-town cemetery”—opens this song by the Michigan band Greet Death. A two-and-a-half-minute dirge made up of vocals and acoustic guitar, it’s an ode to love’s permanence, even in death, even in burial. The song speaks to the romantic in me who doesn’t think love ends when our hearts stop.
“Bodies Under the Rose Garden”
Pretty Bitter
This track, from the album “Pleaser,” by the synth-pop group Pretty Bitter, starts with a tantalizing loop of guitar that eventually gives way to the chopped-up sounds of a drum machine. The lyrics unspool a fantasy of burying an abuser—“Muddy shoes and bloody dues.” Mel Bleker, the group’s lead vocalist, has said that the song is “meant to be set in a sort of dream world where you’re allowed your justice.”
“BTNY”
Bartees Strange
In February, I wrote about the sprawling, high-concept album “Horror,” by the genre-spanning Baltimore-based singer-songwriter Bartees Strange. A six-song EP he released in October, “Shy Bairns Get Nowt,” is sparser and conceptually looser, highlighting his lyrical and vocal chops. “BTNY,” the opener, is a heart-wrenching lament, with Strange’s voice near breaking as he sings, “I think of everything I didn’t do for love.”
“Tumbleweed”
mofie
This upbeat, acoustic song by the alt-pop musician mofie feels like the kind of music you would play with friends around a porch in summer, if your friends were talented enough to do so. (Mine were, though I, unfortunately, was not.)
“fone sex”
Jessy Blakemore
Jessy Blakemore’s début album, “if you need me, i’m a few missed calls away,” doesn’t offer much in the way of volume or layered production. The British Zimbabwean singer’s voice and writing are the stars, and much of the record is driven by her own acoustic guitar-playing. “Fone sex” is a highlight, in part for its vulnerability: at its core, this is a song about feeling inadequate.
“Sopro”
Unflirt
Unflirt is the stage name of the London singer-songwriter Christine Senorin, whose voice has a sweetness that makes language feel secondary to the pleasures of sound—which isn’t to say that the lyrics to her songs are skippable. “Sopro” tickles the part of me that loves hearing about the burdens of longing, but her voice, wrestling with a driving and distorted guitar, charges me with a sense of delight.
“Wheel”
Kathryn Mohr
Kathryn Mohr’s “Waiting Room” was created in the depths of a self-imposed isolation, during a stint in Iceland, where Mohr recorded out of an abandoned fish factory, and sonically it pulls a listener to that same desolate place. Its songs are dark, accented by the sounds of crackling static, or of locks breaking, or of doors opening. What sustains the listener is Mohr’s voice, which is steady and inviting, particularly on “Wheel.”
“Receipts”
PremRock, billy woods, Controller 7
What a year for the rapper billy woods, who released both an acclaimed solo album and an equally acclaimed collaboration as part of the duo Armand Hammer. But my favorite bit of work of his came on another musician’s album, the hip-hop artist PremRock’s “Did You Enjoy Your Time Here . . . ?” Both artists’ verses are rich, and teeming with introspection.
“What I’ll Do”
Elujay
Released on Elujay’s album “A Constant Charade,” in late November, this is the most recent song on my list, but it has been in frequent rotation since I first heard it. It is breezy and sweet, another one of those songs that emits a warmth from its center.
“I’M IN THE MARKET TO PLEASE NO ONE”
Winona Fighter
In addition to having a perfect band name, Nashville’s Winona Fighter happens to have released one of the great pop-punk records of the year, “My Apologies to the Chef.” This song is angry (“boys like you should rot for what they’ve done”), but it’s angry in a way that provides catharsis for the listener, transforming romantic resentment into collective, moshable release.
“Heart of a Child”
Mereba
This song, by the singer-songwriter Mereba, is about tapping into the youthful wonder that still lives within us, waiting to be accessed by the adult self. It is an airy, bouncy R. & B. track, alive and playful. Additionally, I adored the music video, which Mereba, who is half Ethiopian, filmed on the streets of Addis Ababa.
“Figure It Out”
Sasami
Sasami’s previous work as a recording artist incorporated elements of metal and shoegaze, and much of the commentary around her latest album, “Blood on the Silver Screen,” referenced her “pivot to pop.” But what she’s done, on songs like “Figure It Out,” is map her sonic intensity onto catchy hooks without leaving any of her abundant song-crafting tools by the wayside.
“Blackout”
YHWH Nailgun
“45 Pounds,” by the experimental rock band YHWH Nailgun, was one of the best début records of the year. Like many of the songs on the album, “Blackout” is shaped by the use of a rototom, a shell-less drum that has a distinctively clear sound. On “Blackout,” the percussion occasionally gives way to swelling synths, which sound as bright as sun blaring in past curtains.
“Lucky Superstar”
Pictoria Vark
What makes this fuzzed-out indie song uniquely haunting is that it is written from the perspective of the viewer. The chilling opening line—“I’ll track you down”—cuts straight to the reality of being an artist in the public eye. It’s been stuck in my head all year.
“Dreams, in Color”
Fictionals
I was tipped off to a four-song EP called “Ancestor,” by the bedroom-pop artist Fictionals, while visiting their home base of Washington, D.C., for a book event. This track, consisting largely of vocals and horn, gives me the feeling of actually floating.
“Sunshine”
Aqyila
This was a single off one of my favorite R. & B. albums of the year, by the Canadian musician Aqyila. It’s a song about romantic desire that is, as the lyrics put it, interested in “something deeper than the physical.” The message of “Sunshine” is: I need you here. There’s a part of me that is lesser without you.
“tension”
Anysia Kym, Loraine James
Anysia Kym is a Bronx-born, Brooklyn-based singer and producer. Loraine James is a British electronic producer. On the EP “Clandestine,” a dream collaboration, both build soundscapes that feel eternally open for transformations and surprising shifts. On “tension,” the drums are blown out and the jerky rhythms are positively unsettling, in the best way, fostering a sense that anything could come next.
“Feels So Wrong”
Mamalarky
One of my favorite live-music performances this year was Mamalarky, the Los Angeles-based indie group, playing through their album “Hex Key.” The band is a hugely fun watch, commanding the stage with ferocious and infectious energy. “Feels So Wrong” illustrates the truth that, even when singing about sinning, you don’t have to sacrifice pleasure.
“Ate the Moon”
Tunde Adebimpe
It was a bold move for Adebimpe, the co-front man of TV on the Radio, to release a début solo album this deep into his career. The boldness paid off. “Ate the Moon,” a dancey track propelled by percussion and large splashes of synth, both confirms our collective anxieties and offsets them with the promise of light: things out there are bad, and they might get worse, “But here comes fire, ideal fire / Fiending up like blazin’ desire.” ♦
