Musings Of A Broken Record's End Of Year Recap (Part One)

Some Musicstackers sound off on their favourite song of the year.

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Year-end recaps aren’t something I typically focus on here at Musings, but this year was the first time in ages that I developed an interest in following current music. As a result of this, I wanted to know what else my fellow Substackers were listening to, causing me to jump head first onto the end-of-year bandwagon.

It was actually hard for me to pick just one song this year. I’d have to go with “It’s Amazing To Be Young” by Fontaines DC.

Turning 40 this year was incredibly rough. It isn’t old, but I feel like there are so many things I still haven’t done. That’s not exactly why I played “Amazing” non-stop, but I’m sure it was one of many varied reasons. Honestly, it’s a great track reminiscent of 90s alternative rock, and these guys are a band I cite often when people inaccurately lament rock music as a dead genre.

I wanted to know what else some of the other writers who make up Musicstack were listening to, so I asked around. In the process, I found some pretty cool stuff to add to my own playlists.

-Mark/Musings Of A Broken Record

Steve Bradley of Musical Chairs:

(On “Bookends” by U.S. Girls)

"There is something incredible and intriguing about the Toronto-based artist U.S. Girls - she is like a pop star from another dimension and normal rules simply don’t apply. The 11-minute epic Bookends is my song of the year - like Billie Holiday on a day trip with Funkadelic and Sonic Youth. Madness made from magic!

Tamara Casey of Rare Groove Productions:

(On “Believe” by Kashus Culpepper)

“Believe” by Kashus Culpepper is my record of the year. This song hit me like a ton of bricks. The vocal is spectacular. It reminds me of the great soul records of the ‘70s, Otis or The Rev. Al Green. The music is pretty straightforward until it hits the soaring chorus. The lift into the chorus is pure magic. The background vocals sound like a beautiful gospel choir, which is a perfect fit for the lyric. The verse lyrics are poignant, and then, again, that beautiful chorus brings lyrical solace. The chorus breakdown at the end showcases the strength of the vocal performance.

Is Southern Gothic Rock a genre? If not, it should be. I had never heard of Kashus until I heard this song on SiriusXM The Spectrum. The high quality production on this record ensures that it sounds fresh but does not mask the fact that this is a solid song from top to bottom that would be just as compelling as a guitar/vocal or piano/vocal acoustic track.

wordsworthesq of wordsworthesq:

(On “Euro-Country” by CMAT)

I honestly don’t know if this is my favorite song of the year. I could have easily swapped this out for “When a Good Man Cries” by the same artist and felt just as satisfied with my decision. But "Euro-Country" was the first song I heard by CMAT, so it became the introduction to my new musical obsession, which was almost instantaneous.More important, it hit like nothing else has in a very long time.

“Euro-Country " is a heart-wrenching anthem about financial crisis and everything that happens in its wake, be it loss of national identity or loss of lives. Going through my own crises, it broke and healed me. For the first time in weeks, I felt like I could breathe because someone was articulating a pain I was going through in away that helped release it. It also reconnected me to music in such a profoundway that I subsequently played it, and the album, every day, sometimes morethan once, for sustenance. For that reason, “Euro-Country” has a special place in my heart, now and always.

NickS (WA) of Earnestness Is Underrated

(On “Steam Powered Aereo Plane” Performed by Alison Brown, Brittany Haas, Kathy Mattea, Megan Lovell, Missy Raines, Sierra Hull)

This was released last December, but I first heard it mid-year and it feels like a perfect Summer song to me. Joyful, loose, and funny. Every time I listen to it I’m more impressed by the playing; absolutely stellar musicianship. It isn’t easy to make playing sound spontaneous and carefree and everyone embraces that spirit. Kathy Mattea’s vocals are the perfect fit bringing the whole thing together. It’s a tribute to the late great John Hartford; covering a song from his 1971 album Aereo-Plain which Mattea calls one of the earliest examples of “newgrass” and credits as one of the records which inspired her to become a musician.

Kevin Alexander of On Repeat Records:

(On “Andromeda” by Preoccupations)

Ill at Ease is Preoccupation’s fifth record, and arguably their most accessible. It’s a post-punk record, but it’s as pop as anything Psychedelic Furs or The Sound ever put out. On a more contemporary note, I kept drawing a line to The Helio Sequence. For absolutely no reason at all, the record’s “Andromeda” reminds me of “Keep Your Eyes Ahead.” While I’m at it, Matt Flegel’s almost raspy vocals will evoke comparison to The Fur’s Richard Butler’s. None of this is derogatory. In fact, it’s all in the plus column for me. There has been some chatter that this record is too pat, too polished compared to their previous releases. I am not in that camp. Sure, there are a points where I miss that earlier volatility, but I like my post-punk dance-y, and this delivers for days. “Andromeda” is my fave track of the year (and has been since July), Get in, we’re listening to the soundtrack to the apocalypse.

Dan Epstein of Jagged Time Lapse

(On “I Hear Fall” by The Meadow Gallery)

Autumn is the most difficult of nature’s four seasons to capture in song, but Derek See and Miranda Thompson (aka SoCal duo The Meadow Gallery) absolutely nail the assignment with “I Hear Fall,” a sweetly melancholic slice of dream-pop that’s all crisp air, warm cider, glowing leaves, hazy bonfire smoke and romantic walks in the woods. Throw in music that splits the difference between the artful ornamentation of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys and the watercolor washes of early Mazzy Star, and you get three minutes and nine seconds of autumnal perfection.

The Twelve Inch (Disco/80s) of The Twelve Inch

(On “Towards Horses” by Real Lies)

When I started writing The Twelve Inch almost two years ago, I knew I was signing up for something that would devour most of my free time. I’ve always lived by the rule: do it well or don’t do it at all. In for a penny… and all that.

What I didn’t anticipate is how much it would cut into the time I used to spend discovering new music. Finding new sounds used to be a daily ritual. Now, I have to outsource that joy a little. Thankfully, I stumbled onto a handful of brilliant Mixcloud curators who run weekly shows dedicated to new music. One of those shows introduced me to Real Lies, a London duo with an album that stopped me in my tracks: We Will Annihilate Our Enemys.

The sound? A head-first dive into late-90s and early-2000s rave DNA, spiked with Eurodance energy and heaped with breakbeats. Imagine Underworld with no chill. I was hooked instantly. The track I’ve replayed most: “Towards Horses.”
Despite the fire-and-brimstone title, the album is surprisingly hopeful. Beneath the adrenaline and nostalgia is a simple, human message: maybe love and connection are still our best way out of this fractured, overheated era.

Jon (Animated) of Animated

(On “Ruin The Friendship” by Taylor Swift)

Taylor Swift - “Ruin The Friendship” - It isn’t dramatic or overproduced for me, it just sits there, honest and uneasy, like the feeling it’s describing. It seems to capture that impossible moment when friendship starts to blur into something riskier, and you can’t tell whether to step forward or back. It’s not about grand heartbreak, that some songs are, but it seems about the fear of losing something good just by wanting more, and that’s what makes it so human. A challenge to do which she does so well.

Amy McGrath of Write Hear

(On “Chimera” by The Alarm)

This is one of the last songs from The Alarm with vocalist Mike Peters, who died on April 29 from a rare form of blood cancer. He was 66.
While some mere mortals would have curled up in a ball, he continued to make music through his treatments, and Peters, not with an ounce of irony, named this song after the medical terminology for his specialized cancer therapy, while couched in a centuries-old fable.

This is a full-throttle guitar assault, as Peters growls over the propelling drumbeat, literally casting himself as the Greek mythology figure Chimera, a fire-breathing creature comprised of several animal parts, knowing full well his life was held together through the strands of a treatment that could kill him or save his life.
The dark celebration of this song also wraps its arms around Peters’ Welsh roots. The noted telling and re-telling of folklore within Wales is legendary and epic in nature. For Peters to place himself in that realm, knowing what we know about the fiery nature of not only the beast but of The Alarm’s musical history, is quite simply stunning.

Ryan Mac of Ryan’s Reviews and Fullweird Al-Chemist

(On “Golden” by HUNTR/X)

As someone who writes about Weird Al and heavy metal, my selection for song of the year is, naturally, “Golden” by Huntr/x from the “K-Pop Demon Hunters” soundtrack. I don’t listen to a *ton* of current music, so my frame of reference is a bit skewed, but I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that a K-pop song from an animated kid’s film would be the 2025 track I would keep going back to.
The movie’s soundtrack has its share of legit bops (“How It’s Done”, “Takedown”, “What It Sounds Like”, among others). However, “Golden” stands above the rest because of the infectious beat, addictive rhythms, and catchy lyrics that have resulted in many seat dances and full-throated (and terrible) sing-alongs in the car.

Shanté of things i collected and The Music Directory

(On “Sweetie” by Kokoroko)

When I was asked to submit my favorite song of the year, I nearly flipped a coin to decide between “Sweetie” by Kokoroko and “LIE DOWN..” by Saya Gray. I love both songs for different reasons, and Saya’s self-titled record will undoubtedly top my favorite album list for 2025. For this occasion, I’m going with “Sweetie” because the harmonious horns that sustain the song made their way into both my heart and my dreams (seriously, I dreamt that I was in an auditorium full of people gleefully singing in unison). It’s an uplifting groove that will carry me through many seasons.

Maple Mixtape of Maple Mixtape

(On “Can I Call You In The Morning?” by Beaches)

A band that I consistently love - even though middle-aged Gen X dude is likely not their target market - Toronto’s The Beaches had another tremendous year with their ‘No Hard Feelings’ LP. The latest single grabbed my ear - ‘Can I Call You In The Morning?’ opens with another guitar masterclass from Kylie Miller and carries on with yet another arena-ready chorus. If you can see them live, you should!

Garry Drake of Breaking Ranks

(On “100 Horses” by Geese)

This song captures the magic of Geese in less than four minutes. It tests your resolve for Cameron Winter’s voice at the beginning, but pays off as he ramps up the intensity, just like in all the songs on Getting Killed; the tempo increases as it progresses; and you can clearly pick out each instrument at every point of the song: the fuzzy bass, plucky guitar, shuffling drums, keeping time but also constantly pulling the song in a different direction, creating a tension that is matched by Winter’s vocals and the slightly mistimed backing vocals. It’s a wild adventure, appropriately stopping abruptly.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to Part One! Because I asked so many people, I decided to split this up into parts, with the rest of the picks scheduled for next week.

If you weren’t asked (And in that case, I’m sorry!), sound off in the comments.

Next Week: Musings Of A Broken Record’s End Of Year Recap (Part Two)