Honorable Mention: The Chainsmokers – Breathe

This is the best official crop of Chainsmokers songs since at least 2014. I am genuinely shocked at how good some of these tunes are (really low bar), and The Cure is awesome until the final 30 seconds. “Catchy indie-pop edm” is a living corpse of a sound in 2025; tragically The Chainsmokers make it as good as anyone when they aren’t releasing unpalatable frat backyard drivel every month. A few songs from Breathe falls into the latter, but White Wine & Adderall is a pioneering song in the ‘speed garage’ microgenre. I don’t now what the future of this [noun] are, but it would be actually cool to be a fan of a megaDJ that isn’t Tiesto again. They’re also Curtis Sliwa approved, which is larrydavidshakinghead.gif

15. Dev Lemons – SURFACE TENSION

Dev Lemons’ career already includes a few interesting EPs leading up to this. SURFACE TENSION is the most recent release, with 6 fairly focused and direct tunes that really go across the stylistic soundscape. A few moments of screamed or growled vocals, some are straight up singer-songwriter, and some combine both. There’s components of noise sprinkled in, and I’ll be watching to see if there’s a way to blend that with the stripped down songwriter stuff in the future.

14. The Orchestra (For Now) – Plan 75, Plan 76

The Orchestra (For Now) released two interesting theatrical EPs this year, aptly titled Plan 75 and Plan 76. There’s really cool moments on both of them, but it feels like indie music directed by Lin Manuel Miranda. Luckily, the songs are interesting enough I listened to both projects a few times, and at least have me wondering what the heck they’re planning. Apparently it’s an album in 2026.

13. Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals – A City Drowned in God’s Black Tears

This is a genuinely a jaw dropping release. The amount of topics on the first song alone is completely all across the board, and is so explicitly about the modern politics of our time. It’s a really warm way to welcome you into the release, as it never settles down whatsoever. I’ve got it on this list because I am really interested to know if Infinity Knives or Brian Ennals will work separately or collaborate outside of Baltimore. Since their union, we’ve gotten a few (increasingly) interesting releases, and the bars are genuinely getting more and more absurd. If someone told me this was their favorite release of the year, it wouldn’t surprise me. Listen to this if you want to hear people rapping about stimulus checks, kidnapping Jack Harlow, and really hating Joe Biden.

12. horsegiirL – v.i.p. – very important pony

It’s 6 songs, all of which are entirely different styles of EDM/dance music, and they’re all better than whatever [current popular DJ] is putting out right now. There’s bass house, hardstyle, jumpstyle, house, and some dnb-lite all packed into some of the most exciting 14 minutes in music this year. hosegiirL’s been agnostic to performing in the states, but if they ever do pull a US tour expect me at the rail shaking whatever I’ve got and neighing when asked.

11. gingerbee – Apiary EP

There are only so many different ways this sound can progress. Apiary sounds as if Coconut Mall was given screamo lessons, and honestly I’m not sure how all of the vocals were actually recorded. In one moment you’ll be almost overwhelmed with a truly blistering wall of noise, but there’s also horns and strings playing underneath it. The total package is really dense, but I’ll at least listen to whatever the full album ends up as.

10. Shearling – Motherf*****r, I Am Both: “Amen” and “Hallelejuha”…

This ridiculous release comes from the brainchild of Sprain, now solo performing under the Shearling name. I straight up think this release is not worth your time — it’s “woah dude 60 minutes of hard intense noise and it doesn’t stop and all the lyrics are about hating yourself with no room to breathe at all.” If that’s how you want to spend an hour, go ahead. I won’t, BUT Sprain’s last official release The Lamb As Effigy (2023) truly was a stab at a masterpiece and Alexander Kent seems to be quite talented at turning pain & misery into art. I’m quite interested to know if/how/why Shearling will continue, and how the artistry will change in future releases.

9. Florence Road – Fall Back

Listen, the all-women Florence Road already has like 300k IG followers, is signed to Warner, 700k spotify listeners (double my fav band lol), opened for Olivia Rodrigo, and probably going to be massive when their debut comes out. Maybe they’re also a tiktok group? Dunno. They’re the next huge band out of Ireland, making extremely focused and direct indie rock. Many of these tunes are clearly influenced by the noise of the 90s and early 2000s, and sound like you put Modest Mouse and Sonic Youth in a blender. I really liked all 6 of the songs on here, and I think Florence Road’s potential is as high as Fontaines D.C.

8. shopkeeper –4×140

I think this is acloudyskye’s electronic & dance project. Skye released a pretty sick nostalgia indie album earlier this year, but also popped out this experimental electronic EP. A few of the tunes, like Start Again sounds straight ripped from PC Music or Hannah Diamond. It’s a really cool overall sound, almost like Barry Can’t Swim was making music for Burning Man instead of coffee shops. For my house rats, I recommend you devote 10 minutes to this.

7. Wishy – Planet Popstar

If you distilled all 2000s radio pop music into a few key features, they’d all be highlighted on here – fish eye lenses and trampolines. Sometimes it’s a Third Eye Blind impression, sometimes it’s just straight ripped from 2004. They already have a full length LP, but I find Planet Popstar a bit more interesting and hope the future of Wishy embraces this pseudo-shoegaze & aughts nostalgia even more.

6. Dog Race – Return of the Day EP

Waiter, waiter, more good alternative rock from the UK please! This variation is goth rock, with catchy synths & chords and wonderfully haunting vocals. Return of the Day (Colours) is the largest high on here, but I also really like the striped down 40 Winks to Wyoming. Why do Brits know what Wyoming is? We’ll answer that another day, maybe on their next release.

5. Gelli Haha – Switcheroo

Gelli Haha is pop’s newest little weirdo, and her debut album (under this name) kicks with intentions on her sleeve – Funny Music tells you all you need to know. It ends with her saying “bonk” and a hammer sound. It’s continually exciting to hear and see artists embrace humor and fun in their music, but the nu-disco and rippling entrancing melodies kept my interest peaked throughout. Some of the best club-ready beats of the year ready to soundtrack a bender are on here, yet there’s more than enough lustrous choruses throughout to ear worm your commutes. Even slower cuts like Johnny intertwine humor and luscious synths. Switcheroo is a truly fun project, and I’m interested to see if the Gelli Haha name will continue/go all in on the ridiculousness. There’s not enough here to gnaw on forever, so let’s see what the future holds.

4. Rebecca Black – SALVATION

American Doll bangs. Sugar Water Cyanide bangs. Tears in My Pocket bangs. Do You Even Think About Me bangs. Trust! is cool. Salvation is fun. Twist the Knife is a Katy Perry song. There’s enough meat on here that kept me listening throughout the Spring and early summer, and a few of the tunes are still in my rotation. I’m far more interested in future Rebecca Black releases than the many artists that meme-ify their music by having her as a feature, especially if she leans into this gross rave sound. She did open for Katy Perry’s most recent tour, which… eh.

3. Stratford Rise – Stratford Rise

I described this to a friend as “actual scaring the normies” music. All 4 songs are so detached from rational song structure or instrumentation, it’d be hard to jump into this without at least a foray into other experimental sounds. This is a level past the YHWH Nailgun-level of oddity. Succinctly, it sounds like:
1. the vocals from System of a Down
2. 4 guitars that are all doing their own thing
3. drums that are playing random blues beats
4. a synth that is being banged against the wall
Snowsports is genuinely awesome, I don’t know how they made those noises. I’ll be eagerly watching how this transpires in the future, and if they really truly lean into overwhelmed-as-a-feature.

2. UNIVERSITY – YES EP

Three songs, 23 minutes. YES EP combines the freeform nature of post-rock and post-genres with the instrumentals of emo & screamo, coming to you live from England. Bee is also a borderline post-country song. The guitars & drums go absolutely ballistic and the vocals feel like they’re just smashing notes into the ether. Their full release, McCartney It’ll Be Okay earlier in the year wasn’t as focused as this, and an EP this broad gives me some real hope for the potential & future of UNIVERSITY. It almost feels like a victory lap from that record, and could have easily been added onto a deluxe edition, yet superior with more fleshed ideas. One of my favorite releases of the year.

1. Julia Wolf, 2DUMB – 2MUCH PRESSURE

Julia Wolf’s 2025 album PRESSURE is awesome (NSFW album cover), combining aspects of metalcore, indie, and hyperpop together. This is a full on stupid release, with 2DUMB’s production tags being added without any regard for the song and flipping every single tune Julia handed over. Julia Wolf’s original material is sensational and 2DUMB is genuinely making 30 of the best beats of the year but has an adlib of “DANG JULIA WOLF, 2DUMB SUCKS TYLENOL, TOO MUCH BENEDRYL” over every transition. Julia’s effortlessly cool while 2DUMB is trying so extremely hard to make beats your hometown’s resident degenerate would think are so sick. It’s rare to get any official releases like this – entirely from how absurd it is – and it will be even rarer to find the quality underneath the irony. Moments & adlibs are borderline anti-music, with the unintentional intention of being knowingly horrendous. Dive in with your post-irony current-realism forgotten-amusement lens and join me in nodding to the outro of Loser.

Julia Wolf is collabing and sending her songs to anyone: Drake, mgk, Yeat, Rj Paisin, and now 2DUMB. If you like the really wacked out 100gecs remixes or the wilder Dylan Brady songs, you’ll love this. Julia Wolf’s got an exciting future with a refreshing amount of stylistic combinations possible is pushing the contemporary definition of music. 2DUMB exists, which just might be enough.