Best of 2025 – Songs

There was an enormous amount of music I loved this year. As usual, I divided this into songs – usually have lyrics, generally concise – and spaces – usually instrumental or minimal lyrics, usually expansive – and I think both lists are bulging with some of my favorite songs of all time. I hope you find something to love here, and I hope you let me know what I missed.

https://tidal.com/playlist/0f306b98-4b51-4098-a7f1-6a0d6b8ad492

• Little Simz featuring Obongjayar, and Moonchild Sanelly, “Flood” – I liked the earlier Little Simz records but her fifth album Lotus plunged its hooks in me from the moment I heard this first single and never really relented. “They want you to stop, then they leave you to rot, but that’s just not my frequency, man.”
• Halley Whitters, “Corn Queen” – The single best modern example of the heavy internal rhyme and alteration country song in the style of Roger Miller, Lefty Frizzell, and Tom T. Hall, a highlight of a record brimming with highlights, and my single favorite song of the year. “No kids of his own, just a two-year-old who thinks he’s everything. Gonna change her name, gonna help her raise a future former Corn Queen.”
• Southern Avenue, “Rum Boogie” – Southern Avenue made a record as good as their breathtaking live show, that stands alongside their vintage rock and soul idols, and came through tragedy to do it. This song evokes a Saturday night in the Memphis I’ve come to know in the last decade-plus better than any I can think of, including a shout out to my (and Anne’s) beloved Buccaneer (RIP). “Down at the Bucc’ played a Midtown ruck, it was a magical little scene: hipsters tripping, eclectic women, and everybody in between.”
• Esther Rose, “Rescue You” – Esther Rose continued to be the finest songwriter at ripping my heart out of my chest in the subtlest, lowest-key way with her devastating Want. This song in particular, with its repetition of “I know you’re scared” and “I would be too” (I think dropping an “I love you too” substitution on the latter a couple of times), is an ice sledgehammer to the solar plexus.
• S. G Goodman, “Solitaire” – Another gorgeous tracking shot through the desolation of the soul and what keeps us going in the face of seemingly assured failure. “I know you cry about your brother for the times that he goes mad. But you look at me the same way, I’d throw my money down on that.”
• James McMurtry, “Pinocchio in Vegas” – A brilliant, perfect blending of wry observation (placing the children’s book character in the adult mire of artifical lights, probate, and the grind) and bone-deep understanding of loss (the wrenching choruses with their point of view shift) that no one does as well as McMurtry. “Pinocchio’s in Vegas with his eyes on the prize. He’s a real boy now, his dick grows when he lies, but his face stays frozen like it’s still made of wood; it betrays no expression as he cleans them out good at that back room table, most every Friday night. He don’t even need the money, he’s just in it out of spite.”
• Lilly Hiatt, “Kwik-E-Mart” – The swinging, laid back groove of this standout track from Forever, Lilly Hiatt’s most assured, rocking record since Trinity Lane, is the velvet glove delivering a sly, winking seduction/self-assessment: “Sweet, sweet perfume; everybody else disappears when you’re in the room.”
• Sunny War featuring Valerie June, “Cry Baby” – Sunny War’s Armageddon in a Summer Dress is a slower burn than her astonishing Anarchist Gospel but the variety of textures and the foregrounding of some of her finest vocals make songs like this one (a duet with one of the greatest singers working, Valerie June) sumptuous slow-motion explosions. “You saw hell today. Ain’t life funny that way? Some grass isn’t green; some pain goes unseen.”
• Willow Avalon, “Something We Regret” – Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell is one of the most assured debuts I’ve heard in years and this brushed-drums rollicking shuffle knocked me over immediately. “I love you like sugar; you love me like sex. Put us both together, we’ll do something we regret.”
• Golomb, “Play Music” – Golomb impress me more and more with each outing, and I’m heartened to see more of the world catching on as evidenced by a recent run with Mdou Moctar and a string of packed European dates. This ars poetica beautifully synthesizes their influences and points at the individual voice they’ve forged from them. “I want to play music that jumps my head to the side. I want to play music in an irresponsible manner. I want to play music with an undeniable question…with no answer.”
• Cymande, “Chasing an Empty Dream” – The first Cymande record in a decade (and 40 years after their run of unassailable funk masterpieces) found them still rocking at the height of their powers. One of the great grooves of this or any year. “Is it real, what they feel? What’s the deal when they’re chasing an empty dream?”
• clipping., “Run It” – I liked the way this frayed, future-rotted, glitchy groove sat between the two more conventional dancefloor monsters on either side and Daveed Diggs’ furious vocal drags the listener through that pulsing landscape by the throat. “Didn’t mean to wake up in the same clothes you’ve been rocking for a motherfucking week.”
• Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 featuring Sampha the Great, “Emi Aluta (Zamrock Remix)” – Sampha the Great’s throbbing remix starts in media res with a vintage Egypt 80 horn burst and adds some simmering contemporary flavor to Seun Kuti’s excellent work carrying on Fela’s message. The sparseness of the vocal call and response before we return to those horns always stuns me.
• Songhoy Blues featuring Rokia Koné, “Norou” – We take the energy down to a more healing, internal place with this gorgeous flowing track from Malian band Songhoy Blues with a remarkable feature from Rokia Koné.
• Patterson Hood, “The Pool House” – I caught some similarity in the sound worlds between Songhoy’s guitar and vocal harmonies and the haunting orchestrations and sumptuous vocal from this personal favorite from Patterson Hood’s best-yet solo effort. “The story that broke him had a gleam in its eyes. Sometimes there’s no coming back from your fears realized.”
• Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “Is My Living in Vain?” – I kept going back to both Hood’s Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams and Oldham’s The Purple Bird because they’re both excellent records with great songs but also for the way they both grapple with sounds that feel heavily 1970s to me: lush arrangements that drift like heat-fog in the borderland between country and soul and very masculine, very vulnerable vocal performances. This full-throated psalm takes the questions that underpin many of our lives and brings them to the forefront. “Is my praying in vain? Is my fasting in vain?”
• Caylee Hammack, “Bed of Roses” – A world-beater of a contemporary country song and eponymous track of Hammack’s terrific sophomore record with a pedal steel line that felt like it waltzed hand in hand with the Oldham it follows but blooms into a bounce. “Bitter grapes make the sweetest wine. The holes I’m digging are just seeds and dreams I’m sowing for my bed of roses, where I’m sleeping just fine.”
• Sharon Van Etten, “I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel That Way)” – I was talking to someone just a few weeks ago, about seeing Sharon Van Etten play solo upstairs at Pianos during CMJ with the Smith Westerns. I’ve been a fan since that first record and watching her music grow in heft and power has been sheer delight and this new record might be my favorite, easily standing alongside the first two but never trying to relive their moments. The bass line on this song is probably my favorite of the year. “Took the medicine; now feeling strange. I can’t imagine why you feel this way.”
• SASAMI, “Slugger” – Former Cherry Glazerr member SASAMI’s astonishing synthpop noir Blood on the Silver Screen is full of razorblade mosaics like this perfect three minutes knife twist. “I’m always running, so I probably should’ve seen it coming.”
• Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Pyramid Scheme” – After their best record yet, this intermezzo of a single kept my appetite whetted for the next full Hurray for the Riff Raff statement. “I don’t know who you want me to be. I don’t know and it terrifies me. Don’t know what you want, don’t know what I want, don’t know what you want from me.”
• The Delines, “Sitting on the Curb” – The torchy collaboration of Willy Vlautin and Amy Boone continues to paint gorgeous overexposed visions of people falling through the cracks and the no-bad-track Mr. Luck and Ms. Doom sustained that remarkable streak. “Don’t you know flames destroy everything in their wake? There’ll be nothing left at home when you come back realizing your mistake.”
• Jenny Hval, “All night long” – I’ve been a fan of Hval through her more experimental and traditional singer-songwriter strains and I especially love work like this that braids those strains together. “What do I know? I’m lost in absentia. Dancing on my grave. What would happen if I fell, if I fell through?”
• Housewife, “Life of the Party” – This Toronto band had escaped my notice until this year’s Girl of the Hour which I found full of sharply carved gems like this one. That rhythm and the voice are at the heart of what keeps me coming back. “Play a game of 20 Questions but I couldn’t answer one, like ‘Where are you going, how does it feel to look back on everything you’ve done?'”
• Lisa Curtis, “Nothing More to Miss” – I try to keep myself open to new art (music especially) from a lot of channels but a perpetual source is recommendations from friends. This Columbus artist Lisa Curtis hit my radar courtesy of pal Vera Cremeans – also a hell of a singer, she features prominently in the theater best of – and I was stunned by the quality of the song and voice. I can’t wait to hear more from Curtis. “I let myself think that life is better when I am your bitch. But one day I’ll get better and there will be nothing left to miss.”
• Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ featuring Ruby Amanfu, “Room on the Porch” – The Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ collaboration continues to highlight their strengths and this song adding the great Ruby Amanfu is a beautiful, warm exemplar. “All of our friends are now your friends, that’s how we do it here.”
• Valerie June, “Trust the Path” – Valerie June continues to reshape soul music in her image while paying all tribute to the shadows she grew in on her astonishing Owls, Oracles, and Omens with evocative, sympathetic production from M. Ward and a band including Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits) and Josh Johnson (Jeff Parker, SML) always centering her voice and songs. “Promise me you’ll venture toward unknown, every step a new discovery shown.”
• Alabaster Deplume, “Invincibility” – Poet and saxophonist Alabaster Deplume gives us a chambery mood record and this song – with a vocal arrangement from Donna Thompson – keeps haunting me. “You can make asunder me all the same, sing all you like, it won’t be my name.”
• Maya Delilah, “Actress” – The first full-length from this British Blue Note artist reminds me of everything I loved about the ’90s/’00s soulful trip-hop/acid jazz era where this kind of smoky mid-tempo tune was in every lounge or chillout room. This version is better than I’ve heard anyone pick up those threads in many years. “I’m falling off the stage to play me in real life. Come get a single take without the lights ’cause I’m running out of places to hide.”
• Vandoliers, “Life Behind Bars” – The Vandoliers’ astonishing Life Behind Bars was a reinvention and a restatement of purpose in addition to being their strongest set of songs. This title track is the kind of buoyant but unsparing stagger down memory lane that got me into alt.country/Americana in the first place. Perfection. “I’ve spent my life behind bars and moving cars. I’ve stayed out all night shooting stars and earning scars. Yeah, I’m guilty as charged.”
• I’m With Her, “Year After Year” – The first I’m With Her record I liked quite a bit but not as much as the solo careers of Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins, and Sara Jarosz, all of whom I’m a huge fan of, but the group’s return Wild and Clear and Blue laid waste to those reservations. “Passing ’round the guitar; fire crackles and roars. And the faces through the flames are all ones I adore.”
• Tunde Adebimpe, “Magnetic” – Adebimpe’s Three Black Boltz isn’t a wild departure from his work with TV On the Radio but it’s at just enough of an angle to scratch a different itch. In a more just world, hooky dancefloor filler would have been coming out of every idling car all summer. “I was thinkin’ about the human race in the age of tenderness and rage. Had me seekin’ for an extra page.”
• Lily Bloom, “Kerosene” – Columbus harpist/keyboardist/singer-songwriter Lily Bloom put out of the best debuts in a while, Spirits, and this smoke-cured-velvet single is a shining example of the pleasures within. “Cast a look like obsidian; see what you’re trying to hide. Your speech is like a penumbra, trying to see what’s on the other side.”
• Kassi Valazza, “Your Heart’s a Tin Box” – This Portland singer-songwriter expanded her arrangements and tonal palette on From Newman Street, and this loping, dreamlike take on the struggling artist travelogue held onto me from the moment I heard it. “Disassociation. They want you to think you think too much.”
• Ashley Ryan, “My Crazy” – A stellar example of contemporary country, the “First time I’ve felt this way” tropes with a crystal clear voice and a fast-shuffle beat propelled intertwining banjo and fiddle lines. “Like my crazy’s got some making up to do.”
• Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson, “Going to Raleigh” – This reunion of 2/3 of the original Carolina Chocolate Drops in tribute to legendary North Carolina musician Joe Thompson was a combination of scholarship and pleasure that was nearly unequaled this year. And a rare instrumental on this list that felt like it really only made sense in the “Songs” bucket.
• Olive Klug, “Train of Thought” – Another shuffle but threaded with samples and a fascinating effect on Klug’s vocal. “I’m just peeking through the darkness waiting for the end to start; there’s this strange librarian smashing all the windows of her car.”
• Born Ruffians, “Mean Time” – This Toronto band had somehow slipped under my radar until this year – doubly surprising because someone who’s been signed to both Warp Records and Yep Roc feels like I’m squarely in the center of that Venn Diagram. The soundworld they created on Beauty’s Pride, of which this is a strong example, I found really evocative. “A drop of rain on the window; a sudden burst of chemical bliss. Fresh plastic and Coca-Cola mist.”
• Model/Actriz, “Vespers” – This Brooklyn post-punk quartet’s second album, Pirouette, hit every button I want from that genre, and I felt like this picked up on the electronic textures of the previous track and flowed into the silkier use of electronics and slightly downshifted driving rhythm of the next. “Now give thanks to theatre who I beseech religiously. Are you her? ‘Cause God gave me poise enough for the sharing.”
• Maren Morris, “Bed No Breakfast” – This, the first single I heard from Maren Morris’s terrific divorce record Dreamsicle, hits a perfect blend of gauzy, post-Quiet Storm textures and a grinning, unsparing lyric I’m always a sucker for. “Sun is coming through the curtains, think I heard a bird chirping. Won’t you sleep better at your place?”
• Kali Uchis, “Silk Lingerie” – The sustained keyboard chords and slow-creep drums of this highlight from Uchis’s Sincerely, P.S., set up her torchy vocal perfectly. Made for a pour of good bourbon, a medium strength cigar, and a loosened tie. “These pretty tears got my heart super soaked. I start to drown from the inside out.”
• PinkPantheress, “Girl Like Me” – Raising the pulse a little with this shiny dance-pop miniature. “Think of me: you can’t pay for therapy. Nothing left to bleed; you spent all your clarity.”
• Mekons, “Private Defense Contractor” – A similarly slinky groove from post-punk originators Mekons tied to grim sociopolitical commentary. “In my fantasy world, the owl has flown. Cryptic signs say: crawl under the throne; May the Happy Church hold you; police, priest, your body forevermore.”
• Sweet Megg, “Bridge and Tunnel (Dance With Me)” – One of my favorite newer Nashville singer-songwriters; great band, great arrangements, voice that recalls Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt but doesn’t sound like anyone else. “Take me out in the morning, take me home at night. Take me without warning, working hands feel alright.”
• Erika de Casier, “Lifetime” – I liked the way the horn section of the previous song dissolved into the mist and an insidious drum pattern that kicks off this intoxicating tune from the Danish singer. “It lingers in my body when I realize that love is all we have.”
• Sarah Borges and Eric Ambel, “Mercy of the Moon” – Jeremy Tepper’s death in 2024 was a huge loss to the Americana world (as an organizer of the Outlaw Country Cruise and of Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country Radio) and the New York roots music world lost one of its greatest advocates and connectors. This tribute single from Sarah Borges and Eric Ambel reminds us we also lost a hell of a songwriter and they knock this one out of the park. “I try to fight it but now I know: it’s out of my control. And I can’t even get my guitar to stay in tune; I guess I feel I’m at the mercy of the moon.”
• Dierks Bentley, “Well Well Whiskey” – Once in a while, Nashville superstar Dierks Bentley lines up with my tastes beautifully and this example – whose title probably flagged me in the eyes of many of you reading this – is his voice in its lowest, snarliest register riding a beautiful tension-and-release arrangement. “Damn if I don’t miss you, damn if you ain’t here sitting at the bar, making it hard for this boy to drink a beer. Well, well whiskey, looks like we meet again. Well, well whiskey, what trouble we getting in?”
• Joshua Ray Walker, “Dance With Who You Came With” – It’s a measure of Walker – already one of my favorite honky-tonk voices to come out in the last decade – that he took on my most reviled country subgenre (post-Buffet Tropics Nostalgia) and used that frame to paint one of my favorite songs of the year in this updating/revisioning of “Save the Last Dance For Me” that lands somewhere between lower Texas and “the islands.” His supple voice and good humor actually make me want a blender drink and a hammock. “You can dance with who you came with, or you can dance with me. Let me spin you ’round the dancefloor or you can dance with me.”
• WITCH, “Nadi” – Turning the groove up a little bit with this heater from Zamrock all-stars WITCH.
• CIVIC, “The Hogg” – Another Gonerfest veteran, Australian rock powerhouse CIVIC returned with their raging, pummelling Chrome Dipped. “Sunshine on the ocean floor; catch glimpses on our favorite walk. Hand in hand, feel the breeze and the wind on the shore of the wars we once fought.”
• MSPAINT, “Surveillance” – MSPAINT continue their explorations into samples, rapping, and synthetic textures on their ferocious No Separation and while I had some reservations on the nu-metal vocal harmonies the songs always won me back over. “There’s no prescription for scorched earth.”
• Kae Tempest, “Breathe” – I knew Tempest as a poet before I knew they even made music and this self-titled album reminded me what a crucial voice they bring to society. “How many hells must a person inhabit before they can see their life hangs in the balance?”
• Buscabulla, “Incredula” – Always delighted to hear this Puerto Rican Duo return with new music and Se Amaba Asi was every bit as good as those first couple of EPs that made me fall in love with them.
• Natalie Bergman, “Gunslinger” – Formerly of Wild Belle, I liked all of Bergman’s My Home is Not in this World album, but this song – co-written with Daptone rhythm section Homer Stenweiss and Nick Movshon, who played on most of the record – crushed me immediately and still does. “I picked him up and dusted him off when another might have left him for dead. He had whiskey on his tongue, he was parched by the sun; I never should have given him a chance.”
• US Girls, “Firefly on the 4th of July” – The over-sustain on the organ throws the groove off on this in an extremely appealing way, unbalancing the listener and making us lean in; and that leaning in is more than rewarded. “The world’s a dream we’ve all unseen.”
• Sunny Sweeney, “Diamonds and Divorce Decrees” – A favorite country singer of mine returned with a record Rhinestone Requiem easily among her best work. “I’m stuck between ‘I Do’ and ‘I’ll Never Do That Again.'”
• Marc Ribot, “Map of a Blue City” – A lot was made of “Marc Ribot sings!” in the lead-up to Map of a Blue City when he’s been singing for a long time – I first heard his voice on a record buying Shrek’s Yo! I Killed Your God! in college – but there’s definitely more of a singer-songwriter element to the tunes on this beautiful record that feels very of a piece with the rest of the New West Records catalogue. “It’s not a blue map, it only looks that way. It’s a map of a blue city.”
• Joshua Redman, “Borrowed Eyes” – Another rare instrumental on this list but Redman’s singing sax tone and the clarity and conciseness of the writing made it feel right, especially as a slightly warmer counterpoint right after the Ribot.
• DANA, “7 Years Bad Coke” – Bringing the intensity back up with this high water mark noise-disco rager from the best, most nuanced record by my favorite Columbus band. “Man, I thought this shit was supposed to be fun.”
• Dave East and Young Chris featuring Ransom, “Kiss the Sky” – I liked the way this beat felt following the more corroded Dana track and I loved the interplay of voices. “Look in his eyes, hit him, let him kiss the sky.”
• Jessie Murph, “A Little Too Drunk” – A perfect pop song, no notes. “I’m’a call all my old bitches and tell them it’s love.”
• Amanda Shires, “Lose It For a While” – Shires came back after a string where every record was better than the last and outdid all my expectations with one of the all-time-great breakup records, up there with For The Roses and Hot Buttered Soul. “Maybe they were meant to go until they’re gone. Maybe they were nothing at all, not even tears, until they got here.”
• Margot Price, “Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down” – Bringing the emotional content into a more sunshiny place, Price takes Kristofferson’s aphorism – the man shows up in a sample that feels like a blessing – and flips it into a bop that’s just as defiant and powerful. “They wanna wear your rhinestones, man, they ain’t got the backbone. Those tone-deaf sons of bitches, they don’t know your rags from riches.”
• Robbie Fulks, “That was Juarez, This is Alpine” – Robbie Fulks returned to some instrumental colors and rhythms he’d eschewed on the last few records to great effect on Now Then. “Now the heat of the skies hits the back of our eyes til we run from the punishing air to reflect in the cool of the car: ‘There but for fortune…’ Such a hollow prayer.”
• Patty Griffin, “Back at the Start” – If there’s such a thing as a weak Patty Griffin song, I’ve never heard one, and Crown of Roses is stuffed with winners, like this warm, propulsive gem. “Baby, it’s just you and all the umpires, hoping no one will notice that you don’t know what you’re doing.”
• Charli XCX featuring John Cale, “House” – A collaboration I didn’t expect and one I really loved, Charli XCX leaning into her dark mythopoetic ballads, some of my favorite corners of her catalog, with a fountain-of-gravel assist from Cale. “Another world I created for what? If it’s beauty, do you see beauty? If there’s beauty, say it’s enough.”
• Kronos Quartet featuring Allison Russell, Asha Bhosle, and Willie Nelson, “Hard Rain” – A stunningly gorgeous version of one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs tying together these distinctive voices and a chorus including Iggy Pop and Tanya Tagaq woven through a magical arrangement by Kronos Quartet. “I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest, where the people are many and their hands are all empty.”
• The Sleeveens, “Drowning” – Irish-Nashville powerpop band covering my favorite Greg Cartwright song. It’s like this was made specifically for me. “Oh, I can’t tell you no lies – saw the spark of love in her eyes, then it died. Made me cry.”
• Blueprint, “Black Plates” – Blueprint returned this year with a stone classic in Vessel and this paean to digging in the crates was on the playlist at every party we threw since the release date. “To you, just records; to me, a goldmine.”
• Vybz Kartel featuring Beenie Man and Monster Twin, “Furnace Riddim (Brawta Mix)” – Vintage Vybz Kartel and Beenie Man with Monster Twin who I didn’t know as well.
• JID, “What We On” – Growling seduction from JID’s consistently impressive God Does Like Ugly. “Knee deep down in that paint, call a holiday to the saints.”
• Lorde, “Broken Glass” – stellar miniature from Lorde digging deep into her signature mix of heartbreak and groove. “I want to punch the mirror to make her see that this won’t last. It might be years of bad luck but what if it’s just broken glass?”
• Demi Lovato, “Here All Night” – A marvelous, ridiculous club anthem with a metaphor more than strong enough for all the contortions Lovato has in mind. “I don’t want all natural, I want to go electronic, because if the music ever stops I might go psychotic.”
• Cristina Vane, “You Ain’t Special” – Wry, subtle highlight from Vane’s excellent singer-songwriter record Hear My Call. “Honey, you ain’t special like your Mama said you was. And if you ain’t special, I ain’t got no more time for the two of us.”
• Molly Tuttle, “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark” – Tuttle continues to grow into her voice as a songwriter, equaling her justly acclaimed reputation as one of the great bluegrass guitarists of her generation. The push-pull on this song is intoxicating. “If I was smarter, I’d up and leave, but I like to play with fire.”
• Sabrina Carpenter, “Go Go Juice” – A sugar-rimmed tribute to the pull of bad decisions and a highlight off another gleaming, perfect pop record from Carpenter. “Some good old fashioned fun sure numbs the pain.”
• Snõõper, “Worldwide” – Another burst of joy from Nashville’s rising pop-garage champs. The drum machine textures add a level of falling apart mystery to this record I really loved. “Do you really need me?”
• Kid Cudi, “Mr. Miracle” – Cudi’s great memoir for me to check in on his material since the era when I was a superfan and he’s still putting out consistent, emotional earworms. “I was out and I was spinning, circles, I was dodging demons. Tell me, how did you defeat them?”
• Jamie xx, “Dream Night” – Another instant dance-pop classic from Jamie xx. “I saw a dream last night, bright like a falling star.”
• Moviola, “Kid Familiar” – A beautiful tune from Moviola’s breathtaking Earthbound, with a patchwork quilt of a subtle groove and glowing with mystery. “The flip side’s a charmer, the disc jockey said.”
• Hayes Carll, “Good People (Thank Me)” – A lighthearted, grinning stomp from Carll’s excellent We’re Only Human. “I know a guy, he’s always worried. He’s in no hurry to try and see how he might have a couple issues. Well. I’ll be honest, that guy’s me.”
• Marissa Nadler, “Light Years” – Another stunning record from Nadler, leaning into her more expansive palette of the last few but bringing back some stabbing specificity. “You knew the ways you numbered the days, cruising the night trying to find her. Then you tried to erase all the x-rays you took. No reminders.”
• Lido Pimienta, “El Dembow del Tiempo” – The chamber music flavors of Pimienta’s La Bellezza were a surprise after the panoply of grooves that originally hooked me on her songs but I quickly came to love this luminous body of work.
• Jehnny Beth, “High Resolution Sadness” – I loved Savages and Jehnny Beth’s solo work continues to expand and explode in all directions. “The world is a sad machine.”
• Lady Wray, “Be a Witness” – One of my favorite throwback soul records and another winner from Lady Wray, with an undeniable disco throb. “Hold on tight and don’t let go.”
• Annie and the Caldwells, “Wrong” – Another gorgeous updating of vintage disco sounds by soul-gospel family band based in Mississippi produced by Columbus expat Sinkane. “I thought I was doing right, then I realized I was wrong.”
• Curtis Harding, “Time” – One of my favorite soul-rock singers returned with a stellar slab, exemplified by this horn-drenched call to prayer and defiance. “I never thought I would get so low. You picked me up off that killing floor, let’s go.”
• Sudan Archives, “Ms. Pac Man” – A slinky, funny track with delightful arrangement surprises. “Put it in my mouth, and my bank account! Fuck you on the couch in my favorite blouse.”
• Hand Habits, “Lioness” – I also loved Hand Habits’ new record of originals, but this Songs:Ohia cover (in a remarkably strong tribute record) fucking haunted me. Brought out new colors in a song I’ve loved for decades and hit me harder with what I already loved about it. “If you can’t get here fast enough, I will swim to you.”
• Garlic Jr., “FTH” – Hakim Callwood’s expansion of his art into music consistently delights me but this sing-along scorched-earth treatment of a Cleveland-based restaurant chain some of my dear friends have been directly mistreated by was my fist-pumping song of the summer. “I don’t care if the sky falls as long as TownHall falls too, that’s just true, I hate to break it to you.”
• Lily Allen, “Pussy Palace” – Allen made a record I loved just as much as her astonishing debut, bringing the same wit and fire, and fusing it to everything she knows now. “Hundreds of Trojans, you’re so fucking broken.”
• Des Demonas, “Des Demonas Against Fascism” – Des Demonas expanded their palette without sacrificing anything in their best record yet. The groove and deadpan vocal on this are unassailable. “Living in a world with no pain, no fear.”
• Mon Rovia, “Field Song” – Mon Rovia’s blending of roots in Liberia and his relocated home of Appalachian along with indie-pop really came into its full power this year. “Baby, I’ve been working some things off, trying to get right for myself, not anybody.”
• Cardi B featuring Kehlani, “Safe” – A muscular duet from Cardi B’s excellent second album. “When I spaz and crash, you ain’t gon’ dip, right?”
• Bee Humana, “Oceanic Blues” – Beautiful example from Columbus noir tropicalia band Bee Humana growing leaps and bounds since settling in with a steady lineup of singer-songwriter Bee Shuman with Dave Holm and Sam Brown. “The devil took my hand and led me, led me to the bottom of the sea.”
• ROSALÍA featuring Estrella Morente & Sílvia Pérez Cruz, “La Rumba Del Perdón” – I’ve got nothing to add to the LUX conversation, but I love it as much as the rest of the world does.
• Kojey Radical, “Rotation” – This British R&B artist hit my radar this year with his leather-smooth Don’t Look Down. “Lady Luck just made me clap and I gave her a standing ovation.”
• Erykah Badu and the Alchemist, “Next to You” – The Alchemist producing whole records really bore fruit and the synchronicity he found with one my all time favorite songwriters and vocalists, Badu, exceeded all expectations. “Follow me and we gon’ break the rules.”
• Fred again… featuring Amyl and the Sniffers, “You’re a Star” – Fred Again’s moody collaged dance tracks found a perfect foil in Australian garage-punk superstars Amyl and the Sniffers and built a gloriously rough take on grime. “Hey, you’re a lit one, always been a big star, never been a dull one. You wanna get out of here.”
• Robert Finley, “Praise Him” – Beautiful soul-gospel from one of the best still doing it. “I’m going out of my mind so I better testify while I can.”
• Florence + the Machine, “One of the Greats” – Florence Welch keeps getting better and better, more specific and more outward-looking. The band and arrangement foreground the drama but also let the jokes in this, one of her funniest songs, land without overplaying it. Extra points for my old pal Chris Vatalaro on piano. “I wrote down all my fumbling visions, transmitted by a television, got everything I thought I wanted and cried hungover in a hotel closet.”
• Neko Case, “Wreck” – I’m still unpacking Case’s Neon Grey Midnight Green but this song, with the sweeping strings, stabbed me in the heart the second I heard it. “And I know I can’t burn this bright forever so just stay til the end of the fireworks show.”
• Colter Wall, “Memories and Empties” – Colter Wall with a perfect ’60s soul-honky tonk mixture and the kind of wry wordplay his voice fits around like a glove. “This path only leads to a barstool where your memory can be left behind. Replacing memories with empties again.”
• Armand Hammer and The Alchemist featuring Kapwani, “Dogeared” – Another of those fantastic Alchemist records I mentioned earlier this one supporting the duo of Billy Woods and Elucid featuring Kapwani. A dusty, light-dappled memory play. “She finished her drink and looked at me inquisitively, asking, ‘What’s the role of a poet in times like these?’ I never answered, but it stuck with me all week.”
• Rissi Palmer, “Old Black Southern Woman” – A beautiful grappling with lineage and self-determination from one of our finest country singers. “I want to be an old black Southern woman, the kind my mother never got to be.”
• Kenny Barron featuring Cecile McLorin Salvant, “Thoughts and Dreams” – A perfectly carved jewel from pianist Kenny Barron’s Songbook record ord, with Cecile McLorin Salvant as vocal partner. “How sweet the memories that choose to linger: the scent of that one perfume in a moonlit room; the long night of longing ending.”
• Jason Isbell, “True Believer” – For me Isbell’s Foxes in the Snow was his first record since Southeastern where I skipped more songs than played through multiple times, but this (along with “Eileen” and “Ride to Robert’s”) I think is a stone classic as good as anything he’s written, with a gut-wrenching vocal that really benefits from the album’s barebones ambience. “If I got a little loose, I just forgot to be afraid, but I started out a true believer, babe.”
• Brandi Carlile, “A War With Time” – This standout from Carlile’s beautiful, contemplative Returning to Myself feels like it helps set a tone for this phase of her work. “I don’t remember the faces, just the anger and the haunted places. So alive I could taste it on the rain. Even the roaches come from somewhere”
• Jerry David DeCicca featuring BJ Cole, “Good Ghosts” – DeCicca’s the best songwriter I can think of working today at incorporating his heroes (like pedal steel icon BJ Cole here) without being intimidated by them, creating a situation where their genius perfectly fits his song (not unlike one of his heroes Warren Zevon and man, what I wouldn’t have given for a late-period Zevon record JDD produced). His Cardiac Country deals with everything in the world, especially mortality (given additional urgency with the artist’s open heart surgery) with the same warmth and good humor he brings to everything. “Maybe I’ll see you in a dream of deep blue. In a town where no one’s lonely, populated by only good ghosts.”
• Todd Snider, “The Human Condition” – Someone gone far too soon even though he left us a voluminous body of work, Snider’s valedictory High, Lonesome, and Then Some, was another weathered masterpiece. “I was born in the human condition, dancing like I don’t know how.”
• Leslie Odom Jr., “American Tune” – A beautiful read on this Paul Simon song from one of our finest interpreters, captured on a gorgeous live record. “I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered. I don’t have a friend who feels at ease. I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered or driven to its knees.”
• Willie Nelson featuring Rodney Crowell, “Oh What a Beautiful World” – Some of my favorite entries in the Willie Nelson catalog are deep dives into a single songwriter like the gorgeous Rodney Crowell songbook investigation-as-act-of-love album this duet gives its title. “It’s the rise and the fall of your clocks on the wall. It’s the first and the last of your days flying past. Oh, what a beautiful world.”
• Mavis Staples, “Anthem” – A new high-water mark in matching singer with song. One of the great voices of faith over the last century making Leonard Cohen’s paean to believing because nothing is perfect, not in spite of it or out of some hope perfection is down the road, entirely hers. “Ring the bells, that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”