I was afraid this year’s list of my favorite songs might be short. In June, I started listening, one per day, to the albums in Robert Dimery’s 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. This sweet site facilitates that project, btw, choosing (mostly at random) which album I’ll, erm, engage on a given day. Today, for instance, I had Björk’s Medúlla. Anyway, this project has meant that I’ve just had less time to find new music. It also means the Spotify algorithm has completely forgotten what kind of music fan I actually am! Instead of offering me fun alt-country, folk, and Americana, Spotify serves up older schlock classics, thinking all I want to listen to is 1960s-style psychedelia or early British punk. Ugh.
Still, I’ve somehow managed to compile a fairly lengthy list of mostly roots-y songs that somehow got through all the Led Zeppelin and into my earbuds. Is there anything on the list that captured your fancy in 2025? And, most importantly, what did I miss?
- “Ain’t It Nice,” Madison McFerrin
- “Ankles,” Lucy Dacus
- “B-Attitudes,” Samantha Crain
- “Between the Ditches,” Zach Top
- “Bombs of Beirut,” Kronos Quartet & Mary Kouyoumdjian
- “Como Quisiera Quererte,” Natalia Lafourcade (feat. El David Aguilar)
- “Confront It,” Caroline Spence
- “Cop Car,” The Head and the Heart
- “Disco Polo,” Basia Bulat
- “Elderberry Wine,” Wednesday
- “Everybody Laughs,” David Byrne (feat. Ghost Train Orchestra & St. Vincent)
- “Fire Sign,” S.G. Goodman
- “Foxes in the Snow,” Jason Isbell
- “Grandmother,” Big Thief (feat. Laraaji)
- “Granite Mills,” Alison Krauss & Union Station
- “Hand Me Downs,” Amble
- “Helter Skelter,” Shovels & Rope
- “High,” Hayes Carll
- “I Believe in You, My Honeydew,” Josh Ritter
- “I Want to Know What Love Is,” Iron & Wine + Ben Bridwell
- “Joy, Joy!,” Valerie June
- “Keeping My Windows,” Will Hoge
- “Lonesome Drifter,” Charley Crockett
- “Meet Me at a Dive Bar,” Audrey Spillman (feat. John Moreland)
- “Memory Mountain,” Max Gomez
- “Nose on the Grindstone,” Tyler Childers
- “Oh, Sleepyhead,” Micah P. Hinson
- “Once a Day,” T’Monde
- “One More Dance Around the Sun,” Great Lake Swimmers
- “People Ain’t No Good,” Shovels & Rope (feat. James Felice)
- “Quits,” Jesper Lindell
- “Robin’s Egg,” Iron & Wine (feat. I’m With Her)
- “Save Your Soul,” Kathleen Edwards
- “She Explains Things to Me,” David Byrne (feat. Ghost Train Orchestra)
- “Silver Spoons,” Portugal. The Man (feat. Lucius)
- “Smile Like You Mean It,” Andrew Belle
- “Snapping Turtle,” S.G. Goodman
- “Stranger,” Ken Pomeroy
- “Sunday Love,” Bruce Springsteen
- “Taxes,” Geese
- “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” Ryan Adams
- “This Beer Is Making Me Awesome,” Dos Borrachos
- “Townies,” Wednesday
- “True Believer,” Jason Isbell
- “When the Truth Comes Out,” Kathleen Edwards
- “Where You Taking My Baby?,” BC Camplight
- “The Whole Woman,” Anna von Hausswolff & Iggy Pop
- “Wreck,” Neko Case