Highlights of 2025 – the quick version

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I just published a post about my cover version of 2025 and it became very obvious that if I wanted to do a post for each subsection of my highlights I should have started weeks ago. So this is the quick version…

My favourite songs that reminded me of something else
A weird highlight but there are a couple of them this year that I enjoyed.

Mr Fantasy is 2025’s Chevy Mustang for me. Person famous for something has some sort of episode and invents a character to let them make music independent of whatever baggage they have. Swap KJ Apa’s Riverdale for Max Collins’ Eve 6 and Mr Fantasy’s British backstory for Chevy Mustang’s Euro Californian life coach aesthetic.

I feel like 2025’s Uno II by Viagra Boys should be on the 2010 album Forget by Twin Shadow but I’m not fully sure of myself there. It feels correct but also very wrong, like two opposite vibes that have run into each other in the dark.

Catalonia Dreams by The Terrys is 2025’s Closing Time by Semisonic. Bonus points for “My best friend’s mum got me hooked on cocaine” as one of my favourite lyrics of the year.

Speaking of which…

My favourite lyric of 2025 was:
“I’m dancing with a phantom
Oh my god, you’re very handsome”
From Milky Chance’s Passion. More bonus points to dish out here, because I thought Milky Chance was one Australian man, first name Milky, second name Chance, but instead they are a couple of German men. On reflection these might be points deducted because if it’s not one person’s name and instead a description of a chance that is milky in quality, that sounds awful. In any case. I like the lyrics because they’re nonsense and they make me happy.

My favourite piece of musical commentary of 2025 was from my wife, Shóna, who feels that Tame Impala’s Dracula is the best Halloween song since the Monster Mash, which, she insists, slaps.

My favourite song from 2025 that I’m not allowed listen to in the house anymore was JJ Bull’s Willie Miller is God. A demented earworm about 1980s football which almost ended my marriage because I love it so much.

My favourite live performance of 2025 was Parcels’ appearance on Tiny Desk. Very fun. Pure love of the game from these guys. I enjoy that the drummer isn’t allowed do harmonies.

My favourite bands that I heard for the first time in 2025 were
The Destruction of the Cult of the Sun – a band who made me really appreciate good head phones this year. Very full and atmospheric sounds. Very funky and danceable.
Balu Brigada – a band who Spotify kept suggesting and I kept liking every song that came along.

My favourite return of 2025 was Falqo who put out Feel Your Love 10. Feel Your Love came out in 2014 and is one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s been a few years since he’s put anything out so it was very nice to get some new tracks this year.

Look that’s it. All a bit thrown together but there are some important thoughts that I needed to get written down. I’ve got a playlist of my highlights of the year. It’s on Spotify – I know Spotify is evil, that’s a job for 2026. See you next year, or maybe not who knows

Highlights of 2025 – the quick version

My favourite cover of 2025: Gasoline – originally by Haim, covered by Djo

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My favourite cover of 2025 was Gasoline – originally by Haim, covered by Djo. I really like Djo and Joe Keery in general. I wasn’t sure about The Crux, his album that came out this year, when it came out. There were some stand out tracks and some parts I didn’t love. There were songs that were heavily inspired by other artists and I felt like the album didn’t fully tie all those elements together. I had some good conversations about the album that made me return to it a little less cynically. It’s good fun and you can see what he’s doing. He’s making music independently, writing songs that sound like what he likes, without the curation that would come from major label involvement. It’s a cool thing to be able to leverage his acting success to make what he wants.

I hadn’t heard the Haim version of Gasoline when I heard Djo’s version. I was a big fan of Haim’s first singles back in 2012, but by the time the first album came out I think I’d heard too much of them. They were too cool. I was definitely a little hipster dork about it, but I was only a little boy (I was a 20 year old man) at the time so I can be kind to myself about it now. We went our separate ways, they had major success, I had lesser success, and I was always roughly aware of what they were putting out. But it was only after hearing Djo’s cover that I really went back and listened – and enjoyed – what Haim have been doing since Don’t Save Me.

I like how stripped back Djo’s cover is, almost making the original version sound overproduced. It’s an easy one to sing along to. It’s got nice quiet parts and they resist the urge to blow it up. They manage to maintain the dynamism that is often lost when traditional bands cover pop music. They build layers and Joe Keery lifts the vocals when it needs to be brought to the next level. It’s a cover that stands on its own as a nicely constructed song.

My favourite cover of 2025: Gasoline – originally by Haim, covered by Djo

Hello again, again

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It’s been a while. It is what it is.

I don’t think a real catch up is required here. I might return to some specific musical things later, but nobody needs a blow by blow account of life. I haven’t done anything creative since I last blogged. I’ve been cutting up trees and playing Skyrim. I had a mullet. I’ve been living my life.

I think in terms of summarizing the last few years of music for me, I’ve been listening to country music. Some hipster country music, some of the pop punk equivalent of country music. It definitely hasn’t been a conscious effort. I’m negatively disposed to country music in general.

I watched the first season of True Detective and at one point someone refers to a group of people as “Swamp Folk”. I think of the kind of country music I gravitate towards as Swamp Folx. It’s country but it’s inclusive

Medium Build is the highlight.  His vocals are so powerful and his live versions are so raw. To me, he sounds like full commitment to the lyrics and emotional meaning behind the song without having to sacrifice the listenability.

Is it lame to post YouTube links? YouTube is such a mysterious thing and I’m sorry if you have to watch ads to listen to these songs. Never Learned To Dance was the first song I heard and then there’s a live performance of a couple of tracks.

I’ve probably over done it by listening to him for 2 solid years. The music is intimate and I’ve listened to him at some emotionally weird times so it feels like we’ve crossed a line. Medium Build is like a work friend I got drunk with and we told each other deep personal secrets and now in the cold sober light of day we both feel a little awkward and embarrassed. But hey, sometimes you need to get things off your chest…

Hello again, again

01 June 2023 – DerangedDisco

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I’ve been thinking about the idea that something can be established and cemented in culture and then accepted by subsequent generations. We can delegate understanding to people we trust as experts so we can take medicine without being doctors/chemists and travel in planes without being pilots or engineers. What I like about this is that it protects some absolutely demented cultural moments. I know there are more powerful examples, but the reason this comes to mind is because I’ve been listening to “That’s the Way (I Like It)” by KC and the Sunshine Band.

The bass is ridiculous. The horns are perfect. The backing vocals are iconic. “That’s the Way (I Like It)” is a great song, but what I love is that the lyrics are so fucking goofy. I love that the song and KC and the Sunshine Band as a group get a pass for being so goofy because they existed in the horniest time in history.

I like thinking about lists where there are multiple parameters. A playlist of the best disco songs is fine and dandy, but I’d get much more of a kick out of the best demented disco songs. So I’ve put together an hour of deranged disco for your listening pleasure. Let me know if you have any other recommendations for this playlist or any other interesting musical Venn diagram intersections.

01 June 2023 – DerangedDisco

2 May 2023 – A return

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I took a break from this blog at the end of September 2021. I had just moved. I was back working from the office most days. I was in a burnout. I think I probably could have tipped along at it for another while and been ok, but then external shit came into play.

On the 29th of September, I tore the ACL in my left knee. I proper fucked the knee. ACL torn, some MCL, bits of fracturing where my knee had slid out of place and then snapped back into place. I’d spent all of covid running with the idea of being super fit when I was able to play football again. So much for that.

A physical injury is one thing, but I think the worst part was how I started to feel. I was physically vulnerable. I spent about 12 weeks on crutches between waiting for surgery and recovery. I had the fear.

At the same time, I was feeling bad about work. I applied for another job. I got it. I went against my gut feeling because the money was a lot better. It was a really terrible job.

We got covid and ruined Christmas.

My grandmother died in my first month at the new place. I don’t think my grandad ever really recovered.

I got married in March 2022. It was great. People talk about how the pressure of the day ruins it. I don’t think we felt like that. Maybe we’d change some small details, but it was a great day. I remember watching my family and friends on the dancefloor and just knowing that this was what I’d wanted. We went to Cancun and had a cool honeymoon. I felt good.

The knee was healed by now but I wasn’t putting the full effort into the rehab. I reached a point where I could walk, but I was too scared to run or jump so I didn’t have the drive to get back there.

After the honeymoon, I went back to work and decided I had to leave. I felt isolated and my confidence was through the floor. I moved back to the old job. I felt more secure and less isolated but I had zero confidence.

I got covid and ruined my 30th birthday. I was super run down and my immune system just kept getting overrun. I had covid, then conjuctivitis and then a throat infection.

I did some therapy. It helped. I got some harsh truths, some weakness highlighted, some new perspectives. It was a nice older lady and she told me I was the best boy. I felt a lot better but still not 100%.

I left my job again at the end of 2022. We’re now in Sydney, Australia. I think I should be feeling shitty. My grandad died the week we got here. I don’t have a job. I talk to recruiters and do interviews but people don’t want to give roles to people on working holiday visas. I spend a lot of time on my own. If this was last year, I’d have left a long time ago. It’s not though. I feel ok. I feel relaxed. I feel energised and reinvigorated.

We went to Canberra over the weekend and got rained on for a few days. On the drive home, we talked about where we thought we’d be at this age if we’d been asked 5/10/15 years ago. I don’t know where I thought I’d be, but I definitely thought I’d care more about work than I have over the last few years. I had reached a point where a career intended to enable me to live and be creative without putting pressure on creativity, was taking up so much of my energy that I didn’t feel like I had anything left for me. So I’m going to write again. And I’m dreaming of furniture that I’m going to build. And I’m thinking about bands I want to start when I go home. I feel like I’m out the other side of the burnout. I’m feeling good and I’m going to get back to living.

Anyway, here’s Get Lucky.

2 May 2023 – A return

27 September 2021 – Taking a break

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I’m taking a break from the blog for a while. Between moving and going back to working from the office, I feel like I’ve lost momentum. I’m not sitting at my desk on my own for eight hours a day listening to music the whole time. I don’t have a commute on a bus where I could sit and search for music. It’s become a bit of a chore to come up with songs of the day. And that makes me feel shitty about the whole thing because there are so many songs that I love that I still want to talk about. I’ve also just been doing other stuff. I’ve been building furniture for the new place. That’s kinda just taken up the space in my brain that was the blog for the last six or seven months

So I’ll be back in two weeks or so. Hopefully feeling fresher and re-engaged.

27 September 2021 – Taking a break

23 September 2021 – Rescue Me by Fontella Bass

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I only realised when I did my reading about “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass, that the recording features Maurice White and Louis Satterfield from Earth, Wind & Fire. I’m pretty sure this is a first for the blog, to have the same people featured on consecutive songs. Kinda impressive really to see people popping up again in another great song.

“Rescue Me” is so good. It’s a sing a long tune and and one for dancing. I love the 60s R&B drumming that drives the song along. The piano playing feels frantic, like the person playing the piano is dancing at the same time. It’s a great example of a song that feels happy but the lyrics are sad. I’m not entirely sure if it’s a sad song. I ask Shóna to rescue me about 4 times a week and that’s mostly when I have to do things I don’t want to do, like going to work on a Monday morning. The more I think about it, the more I feel like these lyrics could be written by me back in the days of commuting on the bus, feeling very melodramatic.

I wish I could write a song like “Rescue Me”. It’s a song that knows its strengths. It gives the listener plenty of what we want, lyrics that are easy to remember, repetition of the really good singing parts by Fontella Bass and top notch call and responses.

You can listen to “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass here.

23 September 2021 – Rescue Me by Fontella Bass

21 September 2021 – September by Earth, Wind & Fire

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Picking anything other that “September” today would have been the wrong choice. “September” is a perfect song. The intro is iconic. The vocals, also iconic. The flourishes on the horns are flash, but perfectly measured. The bass grooves away. I love how the singing stretches a little bit in the second half of the second verse. Maurice White just kicks it up a notch. I’d love to find a version of the song where he went all Mariah Carey on it.

I think every night out should end with “September” regardless of what else was being played. It’s so happy. It’s all about love. It talks about dancing. It has nonsense lyrics so everyone can sing along. The end just drifts out in to the universe. And then the lights would come on and the night ends on a high.

You can listen to “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire here.

21 September 2021 – September by Earth, Wind & Fire

20 September 2021 – Know Your Enemy by Rage Against The Machine

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I’ve got a good Dad. I always hate when you hear about dads having to “babysit” their own kids. My dad was very involved and I think that was a really positive thing.

One of my key memories from when I was very little and we’d hang out with my dad at home was listening to Rage Against The Machine’s self titled debut album. Colin and I would run around in circles and throw ourselves into the couch. And we had to promise that we wouldn’t say any of the bad words we heard.

That album was an album that I just knew as a complete album. I didn’t know what the “singles” were. I think it’s a really consistent album. Even the less memorable songs are very solid. “Know Your Enemy” is a real wiggler. You can imagine how it works for a little kid running in circles. The intro really is the peace before the storm. And it’s a double drop. The riff kicks in and lifts it but then when the lyrics properly start it goes up another level.

Rage Against The Machine get a bad rep. I think they’re associated with teenage years of angst and lame attempted nonconformity. The truth is they talk about plenty of things that I agree with wholeheartedly. “Know Your Enemy” is a cool track with some fairly reasonable hot takes on the land of the free that I probably didn’t fully get until I was older.

You can listen to “Know Your Enemy” by Rage Against The Machine here.

20 September 2021 – Know Your Enemy by Rage Against The Machine

18 September 2021 – Need Your Love by Tennis

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Tennis cropped up on my Release Radar this morning. They had a song on the Rick and Morty soundtrack. I remember watching it and being intrigued by the song but then I forgot about it. Then when “Borrowed Time” showed up in the playlist today it all made sense. I really like that song and it sent me down a Tennis rabbit hole.

“Need Your Love” is a cool song. It’s got a flipped, anti love song kinda vibe.

I need your love and I need your touch
Like I need a bolt of lightning from the sky above

The chorus leads in with a traditional love sick line, but follows it with a turn around that counters that. There’s a choppiness to the timing of the song. It moves along and then slows down and gets back going before slowing all the way down. The drumming has a relaxed feel to it that I like. It suits the vocals. They’re sweet and effortless. The whole song has a very laid back 70s vibe and reminds me of what I would call “disco ballads”, things like “How Deep Is Your Love” by the Bee Gees.

You can listen to “Need Your Love” by Tennis here.

18 September 2021 – Need Your Love by Tennis