Happy third day of Christmas, one and all! I hope the season has gotten off to a wonderful start. Today I’m going to do a quick roundup before I focus in my deep-dive on my favourite music of 2025.
Roundup
TV/Film
I rarely watch a lot of scripted media. Between my music and reading obsessions, and the ‘reality competition’ show, and my various YouTube learning-focused follows, scripted tv and film tends to fall to the side for me. But, this Winter, I haven’t been able to avoid jumping on to the Heated Rivalry bandwagon. I’ve always had mixed feelings about the hockey romance subgenre (especially its MM forms), and to be honest, the Game Changers series (on which this series is based) is not even among my favourite within that subgenre. But I was told that the showrunner seriously elevated the source material, and with well-intentioned peer pressure from friends, and the wonderful memes the episodes inspired, I couldn’t not check it out. And I was seriously impressed. It’s not only rare for there to be high-quality Canadian tv, but just as rare for there to be high-quality queer tv. So for this to be so good – well-plotted, well-scripted, well-acted, and well-produced –it’s beyond remarkable. It may not have become my personality the past few weeks like it has for some people, but It’s still been a truly wonderful treat.
Shows
- Heated Rivalry (Crave)
- The End of an Era (Disney+)
- Canada’s Drag Race, season 6 (Crave)
Holiday Movies
- The Muppets Christmas Carol
- The Holiday
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Reading
I’ve been loving my new tradition of dedicating the last half of December to holiday reads and re-reads. While the holiday reads have been mostly duds this year, the re-reads have been spectacular:
- The Color Purple, by Alice Walker (1982)
- A Movable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway (pub. 1964)
- Sweet Sorrow, by David Nicholls (2019)
- Good Material, by Dolly Alderton (2023)
- The Brothers K, by David James Duncan (1992)
In Focus: 2025 in Music!
(This is cross-posted from my dedicated books and music blog)
Introduction
2024 was an extraordinary year for pop music, so when 2025 started there was a big question of whether it would continue the heights of 2024, if it would fall off, or if it would be its own thing completely. For much of the year, the narrative was that it was a dramatic disappointment. And indeed, a lot of the major albums released this year came and went without second thought. I definitely found this too. Until the end of the year, the collective wisdom was that there was that it was a year defined by misses. But as I’ve sat with 2025’s music, what has emerged for me is that it’s been a year that’s rewarded patience. A lot of my favourite albums — the HAIM, Lorde, Favors, Allie X, and even Taylor Swift albums — were ones I didn’t think much of on first encounter, but came to love more and more with each listen.
So while it’s true this year lacked the obvious peaks of 2024, it was a really deep year in music. It lacked obvious picks for my top songs of the year, but I’ve never had as hard a time as I did narrowing my playlist down to 60 songs. I could have done a top 90 playlist and been very happy with every song on it. While I spent a lot of the year hand-wringing about it being a ‘weak’ year in music, at the end, it’s been one of my favourites.
Top 10 Albums
1. I quit (HAIM): HAIM is a band I’ve been waiting to ‘make the leap’ for close to a decade. I’ve always appreciated their music but found it didn’t quite get where I wanted it to be. Upon first listen, this felt like more of the same, but as I sat with the album, the more I absolutey loved it. And when I tallied the numbers in my rankings, it ended up with a score normally reserved for the likes of Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo.
2. The Life of a Showgirl (Taylor Swift): By Taylor Swift’s lofty standards, this was a creatively disappointing album. Yet I maintain that the main problem with this album was in its messaging. If she’d just said that she got together with some old collaborators and recorded a dozen fun songs that captured the light spirit of her triumphant Summer of 2024, I think the album would have been a lot better received. At the end of the day, while far from her best work, most artists would kill to have an album half this strong.
3. Mayhem (Lady Gaga): While most of the albums of this list have risen in my estimation as the year has gone on, this has, if anything, slightly lowered for me. But, it remains that this was an astonishing return to form for her, with a lot of very strong songs that called back to her early-career work without feeling stale. That said, it mostly ended up this high on my list because of its depth rather than its brilliance.
4. I Barely Know Here (sombr): One of the most interesting trends of the past few years has been the slow re-emergence of rock (even if it’s pop rock), and this album from sombr is a great case in point. Grittier in its sound than a lot of the music that’s been popular the past decade plus, it still has great pop hooks and solid lyrics. This is a triumph.
5. Happiness Is Going to Get You (Allie X): I was actively disappointed with this album on first listen. Allie X is an artist who generally tries to find a happy medium between experimental artists like Grimes and St. Vincent and mainstream pop, and at first I thought this really missed the mark and was just weird. But I’m so glad I gave it a second and third and fourth chance, because, in keeping with the theme of the year, I love it more and more each time I listen. Highlights for me are “Reunite,” “I Hope You Hear This Song,” and “7th Floor.”
6. Virgin (Lorde): This is a confessional album in the deepest sense. It’s often raw and uncertain and uncomfortable, and it lacks obvious radio- and playlist-friendly hits. But what it lacks in hooks, it more than makes up for me in its depth and coherence.
7. A6 (Lights): This is one of those cases where an established artist captures lightning in a bottle and creates something that completely blows their previous output out of the water. Lights has been around since the late ‘00s and yet this feels completely fresh and unique and a pure endorphin rush. Highlights are “ALIVE AGAIN” (which just missed out on my top 10), “DAMAGE,” and “WHITE PAPER PALM TREES.”
8. Who’s the Clown? (Audrey Hobert): Humour in lyricism has been a fun trend the past few years, led by whip-smart artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter. Audrey Hobert takes this one step further, at times leaving me wondering if she is trying to be a ‘legitimate’ songwriter or a comedy act like Flight of the Conchords twenty years ago.. But she combines so much vulnerability with her comedy that it really works. I’m not sure what her future might be in music, but I’m really glad to have this album and songs like “Phoebe” (which has my favourite lyric of the year: “I know my life is so enticing / in the corner eating icing”), “Sue Me,” and “Thirst Trap.”
9. Night Driving (Max McNown): Young country-adjacent singer-songwriter Max McNown released three albums-worth of music this year. While I admit to finding the volume a bit overwhelming, the quality was remarkably consistent across it all. But for me this first release is a cut above, and something really special, with particular standouts “Better Me for You, “Won’t Let Me Go,” and “Hotel Bible.”
10. The Dream (The Favors): This was my biggest surprise of the year. This is a side project of Finneas (a recording artist in his own right but best known for producing for his sister Billie Eilish) and Ashe. I barely took notice of it when it came out, but as I dug down into the year’s music to make my year-end list, the more I became obsessed with it, especially songs like “The Hudson,” “David’s Brother,” and “The Little Mess You Make.” The retro production on these tracks soars and just goes to show how strong a producer Finneas is. Now if only he’d put the same effort into his solo projects!
Other Albums of Note
- Revelation (The Knocks and Dragonette): Both The Knocks and Dragonette have been around for a long time, with middling success. But this dance collaboration is so good it left me breathless, and fell just outside my top ten albums.
- FUNNY little TEARS (Damiano David): I’m always on the lookout for the next male artist to break out in the pop space. And I think that, were it not for some controversies related to his personal life, this album by Damiano David, featuring such great songs as “Zombie Lady,” “Next Summer,” “Voices,” and more, could have launched him into superstardom. Alas.
- No Hard Feelings (The Beaches): At least locally here in their hometown of Toronto, The Beaches have been slowly bubbling up over the past couple years. So, I had high hopes for this album. And my hopes were vastly exceeded. This a deep album that feels effortlessly cool.
- Lux (Rosalía): I don’t think there’s much doubt that this is the most artistically interesting and important album of the year. Singing in fourteen languages and collaborating with artists as diverse as Ryan Tedder, Björk, and the London Symphony Orchestra, this album is a triumphant ode to both the universality of hope and longing and the specificity of of how they’re expressed.
- Wishbone (Conan Gray): While this album didn’t hit the way I’d hoped, songs like “Actor” and “Vodka Cranberry” are fantastic, and he’s still my top bet for next breakout male pop star.
Top 10 Songs
1. “The Subway” (Chappell Roan): This song had a strange trajectory. For the first week after it was dropped, it was everywhere — I was hearing it in restaurants and stores, my social media feeds were filled with memes about it, and my YouTube recommended videos were filled with content-makers fawning over it. But ten days later, it seemed like the whole world had forgotten it existed. Except for me. I maintain that this is a brilliant song. Chappell Roan’s vocals are incredible on it, the lyrics are great, the production fits the song perfectly, and it expresses a feeling or idea I didn’t realize was a hole in my pop culture landscape. Please stop sleeping on this fantastic song! (Favourite lyric: “But I’m counting down all the days / ‘Til your’re just another girl on the subway”)
2. “Relationships” (HAIM): No song better captures this year’s theme of ‘growers not showers’ than this. On first listen, I found it bland and a bit off-putting. It wasn’t until a few listens in that it really hit for me, with its subtle hook, growing production, driving rhythm, and fun, honest, and relatable lyrics. My love for it just kept growing and growing throughout the year until it ended up at number 2. (Favourite lyric: “Relationships / Don’t they end up all the same / When there’s no one left to blame?”)
3. “Elizabeth Taylor” (Taylor Swift): This song just sounds like a luxurious Summer on the Amalfi Coast. Its themes of the fickleness of fame, wealth, and love, may not be as universally relatable as a lot of Swift’s work, but fits in perfectly with the lore of the ‘expanded cinematic universe’ of her music. And, most importantly, it’s a bop. (Favourite lyric: “All the right guys promised they’d stay / Under bright lights they withered away / But you bloom”)
4. “Gone” (HAIM): This defiant song about having the courage to leave a bad but comfortable relationship hits hard, and its sample of George Michael’s “Freedom! ‘90” is perfect. (Favourite lyric: “You packed my shit (Freedom!) / But it’s nothing I needed (You gotta give what you take!)”)
5. “Revelation” (The Knocks and Dragonette): With its combination of strong lyrics and europop dance production, this sounds like it could have been on Robyn’s Body Talk. (And that’s a huge compliment.) (Favourite lyric: “I don’t care if you’re sweet salvation or temptation / Take me home”)
6. “How Bad Do U Want Me” (Lady Gaga): There was a running joke on the internet after the polarizing response to The Life of a Showgirl that this Lady Gaga song was the best Taylor Swift song of the year. While that’s not fair to either artist, this song would absolutely fit on 1989 (again, highest praise). In terms of its hook and production, this is probably my favourite song of the year; some weird lyrics just take me out of it a bit. (Favourite lyric: “’Cause you hate the crush, but you love the rush / And I’ll make your heart weak every time”)
7. “Honey” (Taylor Swift): This is, last time I checked, the least-streamed track off of The Life of a Showgirl, and aside from being at the end of the album, I cannot fathom why. It has some of her best writing on the album (and includes none of the millennial slang problem of some of the other songs), her flow in the second half of the verses is impeccable, and it expresses a sentiment I haven’t really heard before in pop music. It’s great. (Favourite lyric: “Buy the paint in the color of your eyes / And graffiti my whole damn life”)
8. “All over me’ (HAIM): I really don’t resonate with the casual sentiment of this song, but I resonate strongly with its production. (Favourite lyric: “Your bed or my floor, but don’t tell me that you’re in love”)
9. “dime” (sombr): I loved this album so much, so I was so glad this song from it, about the universally relatable feeling of wanting more from someone than they can give, made my top ten. (Favourite lyric: “You’re living in the city / And I’m living in the crevices of your heart”)
10. “Basic Being Basic“ (Djo): This was an early-year release that I knew from the first listen would be in my year’s top ten. It’s just so so so infectious. The album didn’t quite live up to its promise for me, but I’ll always love this single. (Favourite lyric: “I think you’re scared of being basic / That’s ironic ’cause it’s reading like you’re even more basic”)
Other Songs of Note
- “Man I Need” (Olivia Dean): It didn’t make my top ten, but if I had to bet on a song from 2025 that will have the longest presence and impact, it would be this perfect song from Olivia Dean. It hits the sweet spot between different genres, and between being grown up and feeling young and fresh.
- “People Watching” (Sam Fender): This song is just so good. It’s like vintage Don Henley in the absolute best way.
- “Zombie” (YUNGBLUD): No one embodies the renaissance of heavier, guitar-led music this year like YUNGBLUD, and this song was the best of the bunch.
- “The DJ” (Knox): Being in my mid-40s, Knox’s fun, ‘college radio’ antics shouldn’t be for me, but I really loved his album, and for me this was the standout track.
Most Surprising Inclusion
- “Focus Is Power” (Self Esteem): This is surprising only because Self Esteem has had a difficult time breaking into the North American musical consciousness, but the album was strong, led by this empowering single.
Notable Song that Missed the Cut
- “Golden” (HUNTRX): I have nothing against KPop Demon Hunters or this song, and I’m really thrilled to see that it’s had the impact it’s had. This is unquestionably the song of 2025 in the wider world; it’s just not for me.
Matthew Root 