{"id":3583,"date":"2025-12-31T01:31:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/?p=3583"},"modified":"2025-12-31T11:45:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T19:45:46","slug":"rankstravaganza-my-30-favorite-songs-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/2025\/12\/rankstravaganza-my-30-favorite-songs-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Rankstravaganza: My 30 Favorite Songs of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This time a year ago, I had a few theories as to why my annual list was dominated by Pop Music With a Capital P. One was that 2024 was just an exceptionally good year for music, and modern pop in particular. That seems to have coalesced into the general<\/a> consensus<\/a> on<\/a> 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile the consensus on 2025 has more or less congealed into, “What the heck happened?” Albums flopped. Charts filled up with prior years’ songs. People were so baffled by the lack of a clear feel-good hit that Stereogum’s readers named a sad alt-country ballad the Song of the Summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, the story of 2025 was falling further and further into the singularity that is #MusicSky<\/a>. I participated in even more polls and challenges on Bluesky dot com. I got introduced to so much great music that I have a backlog of *checks notes* 261 songs (!) that I fully I intend to download and add to my old-man-who-refuses-to-stream collection of digital music files living on a hard drive. Only a handful of these are new releases, but the fact remains: I am drowning in a sea of fantastic music recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And looking at my Top 30 tunes, this year is a bit more balanced. There are pop megastars, indie darlings, legacy acts I’ve loved for decades, and deep underground unknowns. There are songs of the political moment and mindlessly enjoyable fluff. There are not as many East Bay musicians this time, which is a bummer. And I need to branch out and explore more of what’s happening outside the Anglosphere. I’ll get to that as soon as I go through that 261-song backlog and the 10 additional tracks that have come to my attention while I was typing this paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per usual, I’ve got playlists for your listening convenience in Spotify form below and YouTube Music form here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n