MY FAVORITE THINGS – 2025 Edition

Songs

• Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn “Life in Numbers (Live on KEXP)” - The most powerful, heartbreaking performance of 2025. A life lived in 4 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk6qV9lWB_M&list=RDtk6qV9lWB_M&start_radio=1

• MJ Lenderman, “Dancing in the Club” (This is Lorelei cover) – the song I listened to most. Pop, country and self-deprecation. 

•  Johnny Blue Skies, “One for the Road / Purple Rain” – Sturgill at his best. I only briefly ascended into heaven. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guVWOOC8SHY&list=RDguVWOOC8SHY&start_radio=1

• Blood Orange, “The Field” – Atmospherically, song of the year. The wide open spaces and longing for better times couldn’t have come at a btter time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTaz0TB9Zco&list=RDyTaz0TB9Zco&start_radio=1

• clipping., “Ask What Happened” – Daveed Diggs goes so hard, righteously raging against the 1980s and 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOlhW0kAf6k&list=RDzOlhW0kAf6k&start_radio=1

• Bon Iver, “Day One (ft. Dijon & Flock of Dimes) – Hopeful Bon Iver ain’t always the best Bon Iver, but the number of ideas crammed in here make for a tune that can’t be escaped.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd2bebzkPS0&list=RDjd2bebzkPS0&start_radio=1      

• Little Simz, “Lotus (ft. Michael Kiwanuka and Yussef Dayes) – Maybe the best rapper alive. Maybe the best drummer alive. Crown her already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2BplWSCZpY

• Dijon, "Rodeo Clown" - not a 2025 song, but sending people home with this ringing in their heads is peak art https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkq0-kNPW5U&list=RDWkq0-kNPW5U&start_radio=1

 
Albums (in no particular order)

• Geese, Getting Killed – rock is fun again
• Rosalía, Lux – the most album of 2025
• Dijon, Baby – high time he gets his flowers
• Wednesday, Bleeds – detail is the soul narrarative
• Bon Iver – Sable Fable – from darkness to light
• Rhett Miller, A lifetime of riding by night – a songwriting legend stares down mortality
• Ryan Davis & the Roahhouse Band, New Threats from the Soul –“I left my wallet in El Segundo

 "I left my true love in a West Lafayette escape room

She had the kind of smile to get a blue swine in trouble

Kind of smile to get a violent one- or two-time felon employed

My little Jessica Rabbit, my Betty Rubble, my Moki Cherry, my Peggy Bundy, my Helen of Troy

But I thought that I could make a better life with bubblegum and driftwood” 

 
TV/Movies

• The Lowdown – Shaggy and hilarious and wonderfully shot. Looked forward to each new episode.
• Taskmaster, Season 19 – Late to the party, but never not laugh out loud funny. 
• One Battle After Another – The roof scene. Thank you, Sensei.
• Colin From Accounts – A scrappy little show with a scrappy little dog where you want to love the characters even as they make terrible decisions over and over.
• Everybody’s Live – I’ll let someone else provide a proper review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIGDU9T0wCQ