Some 2025 Favorites

I still hear people at times complain about the state of new music these days. It continues to blow my mind. Look around outside your bubble sometimes? Dig just a little? There’s never been a better time for creativity itself.

Is the Music Business jacked? Absolutely. It’s a mess, at least for artists and songwriters and producers and those, like me, who have made their living the technical trenches.

But for those with an indomitable creative spirit, I can’t imagine wishing for a more robust environment in which one can realize literally anything you can dream up. Hardware is available everywhere and (in many cases) cheaper than ever (not always a good thing, I recognize). The software is truly mindblowing. The tools for global distribution and discovery are free and ubiquitous. If you are creating for creation’s sake, it’s absolute paradise out here. If you’re wanting to make creativity the way you pay your bills… then, yes, there are some not-so-insignificant challenges… but I maintain that for those who are willing to do the work and are undeniably skilled, all you might need is a little bit of luck. That was not always the case.

Anyways, enough preaching.

I love music. I love finding new music. I love favorite artists taking new chances. I love my friends who are making great work, and I love my friends’ kid’s band who is The It Thing Of 2025… which is a super weird feeling for me*, a mere bystander, so I simply cannot imagine what their family is going through right now. Bananas.

I’ve pulled together 20 songs that have been touchpoints for me this year (playlist is embedded here below, or can be found at this AppleMusic link). Favorites all, personally… but I don’t believe in awards for art and, as such, this is not a “best of” list nor is it organized in any particular manner. I simply resonate with all of these for one reason or another and would love if you found something new for your own ears within.

I used to write a bit more about each song I selected each year, but honestly 1) I’m too busy these days to give that task the effort these songs deserve, and 2) I do think leaving your first listen to some of these as surprising and “blank slate” is the best approach. There’s a few curveballs in here that warrant a second and third listen… I really hope you give them a chance.

One playlist note… I think the energy of the Fred again.. jam is only helped and amplified by the live video of that song, which can be found here and still gives me goosebumps every damn time.

Sorry, two playlist notes… the only reason my friend Stewart Winter’s son Cameron’s solo project (yes, of Geese and now Kimmel and Carnegie Hall and SNL infamy 🤯) from last December didn’t make this list is because of my hard stop for 2025 release dates being included here… but 2024’s Heavy Metal is well worth your time.*

All of these fascinate me, thrill me, inspire me. Maybe they’ll spark something in one of you, that is my hope… for these 2025 selections, and for my own work that we’ve continued to release through The License Lab. Maybe next year I do a Favorite Production Music Tracks of 2026 playlist?

* regarding my deep personal pride in calling the Geese phenomenon… I tried to tell you back with their debut Projector back in 2021. ;)