Music

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

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

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

16 September 2021 – Phantom Limb by The Shins

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“Wincing The Night Away” is a wonderful album. We had visitors from America at one point when I was a kid and they brought it and it has become one of my favourite albums. I return to it every few years and it’ll have a week or two of being the only thing I listen to.

“Phantom Limb” is the song that’s been stuck in my hear this time around. I think it’s the best example of everything that I like about the album. I like the vocal melodies a lot. It’s not a case of an incredible voice as much as really nice ideas for where the vocals go. I like the buzzy bass sound. It’s got a melancholy kinda folk sound which I find quite peaceful.

The Shins are a funny case of a band that I might not have given a chance at another time. This album came out when I was around 14. I don’t think I was as culturally aware as I was later in my teens. I wasn’t really aware of any buzz around them and I missed the later weirdness around the band’s line up changes. To me, this was this nice chill album that reminded me of the calmer Beck albums and frequently took very nice little melodic turns.

You can listen to “Phantom Limb” by The Shins here.

16 September 2021 – Phantom Limb by The Shins

14 September 2021 – Make It, Take It by Amanda Blank

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When I was doing my leaving cert in 2011 I listened to Amanda Blank’s “I Love You” album a lot. I distinctly remember putting it on and dancing to the whole album straight through.

“Make It, Take It” is such a cool opener. It sits in that sweet spot between indie, dance and hip hop. It’s high energy. It’s got a great bass line. The vocals are super slick. The chorus has a layered harmony and the repetition fits perfectly with the quite modular production. It’s just a cool, very danceable track.

You can listen to “Make It, Take It” by Amanda Blank here.

14 September 2021 – Make It, Take It by Amanda Blank

13 September 2021 – WWW by STS feat. Count Justice

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A few weeks ago I had a short lived dive into my iPod Classic and a look at (and listen to) some of the old tracks from my days scraping blogs. One of the tracks that I rediscovered was “WWW” by STS. It was always one of my favourites. I’m not sure where I first heard STS, but I downloaded quite a lot of his music.

I like “WWW” a lot. It’s a very solid song. It has what I would think of as quite an Atlanta type sound. The piano and harmonies combo would sound at home on a Big Boi album. The beat is punchy. I like the vibe of the lyrics. It’s kinda like Marie Condo’ing your conversations. There’s a million conversations we could have that wouldn’t bring us joy, but why bother? STS wants to talk about “Women, weed and what to wear” and so he does. It’s a bit facetious, but I think as I get older and more comfortable in myself, this makes more and more sense. I’d rather hear another person talk about something they’re passionate about than make small talk. And STS is good at talking about his passions on “WWW”. There’s two very smooth verses and the hook is very catchy. The word play is clever. The flow between the topics is seamless.

It’s a fantastic song and finding it again has encouraged me to bring the iPod for the walk to work tomorrow to see what else I’d forgotten about.

You can listen to “WWW” by STS feat. Count Justice here.

13 September 2021 – WWW by STS feat. Count Justice