a look at my 2025 in music, film, and more

Wake up, Sunday-on-a-whimmers! (Maybe? No? Worth a shot.)

Rather: wake up if you care to know what cultural content I adored this year.

This is a long post. Perfect for scanning once today, leaving the tab open, remembering you did that later during the holiday week, and coming back to bookmark something I mentioned.

Once upon a time, upon a different (enshittifying) platform, I ended each dispatch of this newsletter with a section full of links, recommending what I'd read, watched, or listened to that had been sticking with me.

Somehow, I never thought to write up a year-end guide to what I liked, even though a couple of dear friends have been setting the bar with their own emails. (What's that quote about good artists and stealing? Borrowing? Forget I said anything.)

I admired their diligence in revisiting music they liked throughout the year. For a long time, I've managed to gather new songs each in year in playlists. For the same amount of time, I've managed to ignore said playlists and avoid thinking critically about what I actually really remembered from the year.

There's no doubt in my mind that the streaming era has made my music catalogue recall and general thoughtfulness even worse. I'm already not much of a lyrics guy—I'm more likely to sing a guitar flourish at you, hit the air snare while driving, and hum a hook absentmindedly than I am to break down the meaning of the words. (I aspire to be better about this.)

So, this year I set out to pay more attention to what I was spinning and keep track (heh) of it. And since recommendations are a love language, I'm doing it. I'm writing a thing about the cultural content I loved this year.

Jesse, Mike—this post is dedicated to you and also your fault.

Everyone else, please enjoy my look back at 2025 in content.

What I listened to and loved

All of my most-streamed data is split between platforms this year, since Michelle and I switched from Spotify to Apple Music (hooray lossless! milder hoorah for paying artists just a bit more per stream), and I finally started using Last.FM to track listening, but only in May.

So, quantitative data: take the year off.

Instead, I present a loosely-organized list, followed by a full table of all 30-plus 2025 records that left an impression on me.

All links to Bandcamp, wherever possible. Nothing would make me happier than you buying a record that intrigues you from this list.

Favorite Seattle-surprise

Air Between Us by Coral Grief

Listen if you like: Shoegaze, indie rock, disappearing into the depths of your own thoughts without noticing that you're doing that

KEXP plays constantly in our house. I try to peruse and listen to at least one record from Music Director Chris Stanley and Associate Music Director Alex Rudner's digest that they publish most Mondays.

Coral Grief's atmospheric shoegaze wafted onto that list in July this year, and Michelle and I promptly caught the terrific album release party a few weeks later at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard.

Runner up: Black Thunder by Brittany Davis

Listen if you like: Gorgeous jazz vocals, excellent production, feeling your heart suddenly skip a beat after a particularly affecting lyric

Favorite fuzzy guitar record

Raspberry Moon by Hotline TnT

Listen if you like: Catchy and warm rock, strong hooks, wondering how many pedals it takes to make guitars sound like that

I'm not a music critic and I don't really feel like I can differentiate between types of shoegaze all that much, so I'll say this about the third record from the New York band: They had me from the single, "Julia's War", the type of song you hear once and then sing bits of it to yourself for the next two days.

Then, this summer, the band pulled their music from Spotify. There are plenty of artists out there doing this and, while it may be somewhat futile (Neil Young did give in and put his music back on Spotify after publicly railing against the platform) as far as exposure is concerned, I love to support a band being the change they want to see.

Coral Grief would've gotten the runner-up spot here, but they already got their own category.

Favorite connection with a singer-songwriter

Good Buddy by FONTINE

Listen if you like: Indie rock, songs discovering and embracing your queerness, supporting a super talented indigenous rocker

When I started spinning Good Buddy, I did not expect a to hear a debut that was so focused and clear-of-mind and purpose. FONTINE's songs are singable, funny, and moving—great rock tunes that explore identity, sadness, and the code words truck drivers use to find love.

Runners-up: If You Asked For A Picture by Blondeshell and The Life You Save by Flock of Dimes

Listen if you like: Top-notch indie rock front women who can write the heck out of a song

Favorite record that got me through a lot of focused work

Warsaw 480km by pôt-pot

Listen if you like: Psychedelia, krautrock, Khruangbin, songs that make you rhythmically tap the steering wheel in time

This was another gem I pulled off the KEXP new music lists. I've only scratched the surface of krautrock as a genre, let alone the many bands that take their spiritual cues from it in the decades since its heyday. It feels like a cop-out to say Warsaw 480km is a delightful mix of psychedelic subgenera, but it is, and this list is long, and those of you who will be intrigued by me saying that will be happy you put this one on. (THIS IS MY LIST, I CAN USE CLICHÉS IF I WANT TO.)

Runner up: Promise by Bad Colours

Listen if you like: Dilla-inspired loopy, groovy tunes

Favorite records that a lot of other people have already written about in their year-end lists

Getting Killed by Geese and Never Enough by Turnstile

Listen if you like: The cutting edge of indie rock, hardcore with a set of vibey accents, belting out the choruses, misinterpreting the lyrics (it's "There's a bomb in my car", not "bug in my car", even though I think the latter is funnier)

Michelle and I fell for Brooklyn indie-rock weirdos Geese when they released their last record 3D Country, a record so good we played it endlessly on a road trip where we got detoured for two extra hours in the middle of the eastern Washington high desert while fires raged across I-90. Getting Killed is an incredible leap forward. The band's chemistry is intoxicating, the songs are both exacting and off-kilter, and "Taxes" is the kind of song you know will bring the house down at the end of a show.

Similarly, Baltimore hardcore phenoms Turnstile released a record that skyrocketed them from critical darling to playing 5,000-person venues this year, although for me, Never Enough doesn't quite hit the hardcore amplitudes from their breakout record Glow On. There's still a lot to love: Never Enough makes abundant use of wandering, ethereal interludes and horns that are delightful. The core joy of the band is very much on display. I hope they keep playing free shows in Baltimore and I hope I keep feeling incredible FOMO for seeing a band from one of my favorite cities (and music scenes) do their thing at a hometown show.

One song I couldn't stop playing

"Thread and the Spark" by Jamie Drake

Listen if you like: 80s pop, synths, listening to songs that feel like they could easily back a movie montage

It came to me in a dream. Seriously.

John Richards dropped this track in the first hour of his KEXP Morning Show one day this year. That's typically our wake-up music. So Jamie Drake's crooning punched through whatever final wisps of dreams were wrapped around my brain. I immediately found it on Apple Music and listened to it for three days non-stop.

And now, the full long list of records

For the perusers and the sickos. There's no rhyme or reason here—I attempted to log everything I loved across platforms and genres. I tried to include a vague thought or two to recommend it as well. There's Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist's excellent Alfredo 2, Welsh hardcore rockers James and the Cold Gun's record Face in the Mirror, the hypnotic amapiano house music of MÖRDA's latest release, and so much more.

What I watched and loved

First this was going to be movies-only. Then a few notes on TV appeared. Then I actually went back and looked at the year in television and realized I did watch quite a bit.

So here's one section on the big screen and one on the small screen. (Sort of. People watch movies on their phones now. I don't know. Whatever.)

The films

As writing this post, I've watched 97 movies this year, which is on-pace for me in recent years. So many of them were not from 2024 and I got to cross a good handful off my I'm-almost-too-embarassed-to-admit-I-haven't-seen-it list. (That sound you're hearing is the echo of Michelle's gasp when I told her I'd never seen Dirty Dancing all the way through.)

My top five 2025 releases, ranked

1. One Battle After Another
2. Sentimental Value
3. Sinners
4. The Secret Agent
5. Weapons

Honorable mentions: The Mastermind, Marty Supreme

If part of going to the movies is seeking out art that shows me something I've never seen before, or takes my breath away, Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another (a loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Vineland) is easily my favorite of the year. OBAA surprised, delighted, and thrilled me at nearly every turn; truly, I had no idea what would happen scene to scene. Chase Infiniti and Benicio del Toro took their characters wild and wonderful places, amidst a killer set of top-notch supporting characters and a standout performance from Leonard DiCaprio.

Watch it if you like: Thrilling action, wonderful slapstick comedy, car chases, and the other films of Paul Thomas Anderson (though this is easily his most accessible)

Sinners and Weapons similarly took my breath away. Both start in one genre, then gleefully subvert and contort themselves into entirely different genres. Both come from filmmakers (Ryan Coogler and Zach Cregger, respectively) whose ideas and visions have already wowed me.

Watch them if you like: Horror, vampire flicks, music, Hailee Steinfeld delivering naughty dialogue, and Benedict Wong running like a maniac

The Secret Agent is a sprawling work of historical fiction from Kleber Mendonça Filho, who sets this saga in his hometown of Recife (Brazil) in 1977, amidst the spiderwebs of corruption and suppression that plagued so many Southern American countries at the time. It is a mesmerizing quilt of details centered around a masterful performance from Wagner Moura as a former professor fleeing political violence.

Watch it if you like: A twisty-turn-y political thriller, absurdist humor, Shakespearean final acts

Two sexy, coked-out 80s movies that turned me on and rocked my socks

1. Body Heat (1981), directed by Lawrence Kasdan, starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. The entire cast is sweating constantly, mostly in the good way. Especially during the numerous sex scenes.
2. To Live And Die In LA (1985), directed by William Friedkin, starring William Petersen (and his penis) and Willem Dafoe. This movie actually did the amount of cocaine that Uncut Gems (2019) thinks it did.

Haven't seen it yet because I can't find my copy of the book

Ah, Train Dreams (Netflix). I'll get to you eventually. Hey! If you're reading this and I lent my copy of Denis Johnson's excellent novella out to you, will you tell me you have it? I'm trying to read it again before I watch the movie. My guess is that this movie will crack my top five once I get to it.

Notes about TV I watched (and didn't) in 2025

The surprise favorite

The most exciting new television I watched this year was Netflix's The Eternaut, an Argentinian post-apocalyptic show that tracks a group of best friends as they survive a killer snowstorm and attempt to find their way through Buenos Aires toward safety.

I loved this show so much I immediately went and ordered the graphic novel it's based on, which then lead me to one my favorite discoveries of the year: Fantagraphics.

Graphic novel and comic book fans will probably recognize the name. This year I got to learn that they're a Seattle-based independent publisher and that they have an awesome little reading room in a south Seattle neighborhood I love to visit called Georgetown. The phenomenally done hardcover English translation of The Eternaut just arrived today and I can't wait to dig into it during the coming week off.

Watch it if you like: Character-driven sci-fi, showing and not telling, and if you dig Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers

Ethan Hawke doing deadbeat journalist dad with a heart of gold

I also loved Sterlin Harjo's The Lowdown (FX), his meandering, smoked out, Tulsa-based mystery show starring Ethan Hawke as Lee Raybon, a self-styled "truthstorian" and a charming bag of ass. Lee's trying to figure out who murdered Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson), the lesser-known brother of Donald Washberg (a mostly miscast and occasionally brilliant Kyle MacLachlan), while avoiding death, grieving his break up, and still trying to be a good dad. Come for all that, stay for Ryan Kiera Armstrong's performance as Francis Raybon, Lee's daughter, plus a cameo or two that I won't spoil.

Watch it if you like: Reservation Dogs (Harjo created and show-ran that), dusty American mysteries, having your heart stolen by Kaniehtiio Horn (she stole mine when I encountered her on Letterkenny)

Star Wars for adults

The second season of Andor (Disney+) rocked. I kinda sorta knew it always would. Tony Gilroy is here to have his characters tell us all about how fascism festers and eventually infects the entire galaxy.

If you're not familiar with the show, this is Star Wars, without any of the Jedi. Which is a good thing. Just trust me on this. It's about spies. Spies rule. Or at least I think they do. They're everywhere in this list.

Watch it if you like: SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE, planet-hopping, Stellan Skarsgård wearing a wig

Speaking of spies, two more shows that rock

The Eastern Gate (HBO) is a Polish show that's very much got its eye on Euro-Russian relations. Violent, smart, and gripping, the mini series follows Polish agent Ewa (Lena Góra) as she attempts to flush a mole from her country's embassy in Belarus, all while a tiny slice of disputed territory could be the jump-off for nuclear war.

Watch it if you like: A show with its own geopolitics, hot spies doing hot spy shit

Don't watch if you: Are prone to existential dread about nuclear and/or biochemical warfare

Next up, Slow Horses (AppleTV+). Another season, another outstanding performance from Gary Oldman, a darker turn from Jack Lowden, and my recurring prayer that Apple keeps funding this terrific show. (See the books section for more details.)

The show that I missed and the show that I'm going to keep skipping

I still haven't caught up on two critical darlings from this year: the limited series Adolescence (Netflix) and hit hospital drama The Pitt (HBO). The former is a blindspot I aim to correct at some point. The latter is the first time in a long time I have opted out of a cultural phenomenon. I get it, people love hospital shows and this one both returns a beloved character to people's homes and uses a unique structure to depict the chaos, trauma, and challenges of an emergency room. I'm good. At least for right now.

One show I wanted to love, but just didn't

I'm getting better at putting something down when I just don't dig it. The completist in me is screaming less these days. Which is good, because I just couldn't finish Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth (FX), despite my deep love of the franchise and the tantalizing premise of the show. Hawley made an epic pilot and then basically made a standalone Alien movie for the fifth episode, both of which I liked a lot. And yet, the plot dragged, the themes didn't mesh, and even though Timothy Oliphant fucking nailed the physical acting for his character, I felt like Hawley couldn't settle on a consistent way to write for Oliphant's synthetic servant.

Two more TV notes

Yes, I've seen most of Heated Rivalry (HBO). Yeah, I went to the cottage. It's hot, it's queer, and it's a miracle that someone in Hollywood (but actually Canada) was on BookTok in 2023, saw the gay hockey romance fantasy subgenere go gangbusters, and got this greenlit so fast that it's already on our TVs. If you're reading this and saying to yourself, "What the fuck did he just write?", just check out how the Seattle Kraken had to take down some of their social media content because fans got too horny.

Yes, I'm watching Pluribus (AppleTV+). No, I haven't finished it. Yes, Vince Gilligan is really, really good at making television. Rhea Seehorn is out-freaking-standing. And, I'm not sure I'm all the way in. It's brilliantly constructed and plotted, I love a show that's about what would happen if we replaced all of our interactions with a way-too-willing-to-please large language model, and Gilligan is maybe having too much fun with his director bullshit for me? I dunno, I'll have more to say whenever I finish it.

What I read and loved (books)

I feel like I've hit a pretty good rhythm this year of reading one book (usually before bed) and listening to another (while I run or do chores). I'm nearly finished reading Wolf Hall (paperback) and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (audiobook). Thoroughly enjoying both.

Now, about what I've finished.

All links to Bookshop.org, which'll help you shop through independent stores.

Reads like fiction, is kind of unnerving that it isn't

The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer

Read it if you like: Nonfiction prose that hits like an amphetamine (maybe, never tried one), profiles of people you think probably should've thought twice before giving a producer and reporter so much access, pondering the legal limits of implementing and moral dilemmas associated with capital punishment

Man, you're telling me that Gary Gilmore, a guy who plead guilty to first-degree murder and dared the state of Utah to execute him on schedule, let Hollywood and the press this far into his life and that the people around him followed suit?

This is a wild book. Mailer describes Gilmore's crimes in heart-pumping detail. Yes, he prints Gimore's graphic love letters. And maybe the wildest part of this is how many people thought they knew better what he wanted than he did. And that Mailer dutifully captured all of it.

I read the version with a foreword by Dave Eggers, where the best thing he does is tell you to stop reading the foreword and just read the book, then come back to the front when you're done, if you want.

Do the words Gothic Sci-Fi Horror excite you?

Rose/House (2023) by Arkady Martine

Read it if you like: the sound of a book that combines near-future sci-fi murder mystery with The Haunting Of Hill House

Martine won me over with her spectacular queer space opera duology A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace. This novella, which Martine published after winning the Hugo award twice for each of the aforementioned novels, is a delightfully spooky book. And, whether you're a fan of artificial intelligence, a skeptic, or a luddite, Rose/House will likely make you think about whether or not artificial general intelligence is a good idea. (You're right, we already know what happens with Skynet, it isn't a good idea.)

I wasted so much time doing this

Y'all, I got through books 2-5 of Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive in the first half of the year and I'm here to tell you: These books are bad! Or…maybe they're better sorted as young adult fantasy.

Listen, I get it. Sanderson writes easily accessible prose, he constructs a good battle scene, and he is a master world-builder. For people who are just getting into fantasy, or have never read a series that an author really nailed, these books are probably a thrill.

I have three major problems: Sanderson's characters have the emotional depth of myopic teenagers; he does way too much long-winded telling and not enough showing; and his hubris has completely devoured this series. He wants you to think that connecting all of his series through the project of the Cosmere is a cool idea. But listen, he has a factory of people working for him now, he's pumping these books out (relative to how unnecessarily long they are), and I am convinced that the Cosmere is Sanderson trying to create his own fantasy version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If that sounds good to you, and you'd rather read for easter eggs that require you having read everything else to find them and battle scenes that feel like the literary equivalent of an MCU third act, go for it!

A much better fantasy series with plenty of books: Both of Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogies (The First Law and Age of Madness), which are a lot more violent and have fully adult, well-realized characters

If you simply must see what this Sanderson guy is all about: Try the first Mistborn trilogy. It's got all the stuff he does well and less of the stuff he sucks at.

A contemporary British spy series with a TV show you can watch in tandem

Two words: Slow Horses.

Read it if you like: Spy novels, excellent narrative grammar, and fart jokes

The best time I had with audiobooks in 2025 was listening to Slow Horses, Dead Lions, and Real Tigers. The only interpretation of Mick Herron's spies who suck at their jobs that's better than narrator Gerard Doyle is actor Gary Oldman's singular performance of Jackson Lamb on AppleTV+'s adaption.

Let me wrap it up there. Believe it or not, there's a cat on my chest (new Geese lyric??) who's making it a lot harder to type.

If you've got your own recommendations, if something I wrote about got your blood pumping, or if you just want to get in touch, hit reply and say hello. I'd love to get an email from you. And, of course, feel free to forward this to someone who needs to hear that Brandon Sanderson is actually bad.

Happy new year.