The 2025 Music Round Up

Jason Decrow/AP

I'm still getting through daily life because of music. Times are tough for most everyone these days. Being young has maybe never been more worrying and uncertain as it is today. But for what it's worth, I see the direction towards good vibes coming from my generation. We are accepting our situation, and finding our way about it. Or at the very least, we are bringing the party back. If this shit is to go up in flames we might as well dance while it happens.

So here's my look back on the music that mattered to me in 2025. Not a Wrapped, not crude surface-level data packaged into infographics—just a more thoughtful accounting of what actually stood out and why. I'm putting on my music journalist hat and doing my best to make sense of what I enjoyed this year and why you might too.

My critique might not be the best. I'm not an insecure white guy with one of those little performative black beanies who also cries in the shower to Kendrick Lamar. Fantano has "the dichotomy is crazy" going for him, but not me, I am only an insecure white guy. This is my first time doing something like this, so give me some grace and realize I am not a music journalist, just a dedicated fan.

@theneedledrop on Youtube

Album of The Year Award:

Forever by Bassvictim

Forever by Bassvictim, an experimental London based duo, is a lowkey buzzer beater. The album came out only about a month ago and I honestly haven't even spent that much time with it, but am confident in this personal accolade. The album deserves its flowers.

American Ike Clateman and Polish Maria Manow are the names behind Bassvictim. I have been following the duo since their breakthrough album in 2024 titled Basspunk. In the year of Charli XCX's Brat I always opted to reach for Basspunk, and considered it Brat but made by, and for, actual fans of electronic music; not pop heads with an appreciation of micro trends. I loved what they were doing then, and for the similarly sounding 2025 album Basspunk 2, so imagine my surprise when I listened to Forever and heard something familiar to their signature sound, but more refined and with a new depth sounding completely fresh.

I'm not sure I have the words to describe this sound all that particularly, at least for fear that picking it apart could really kill some of the magic. I can only speak on vibes. It feels to me like at times this album paints a picture of a kid writing in their diary in a treehouse on a cold dewy morning, very sensory; although this is only but a memory. The album feels grounded in the present where the same kid is a young adult struggling to navigate the world. The picture of the past feels solemn. And the now grown child is reflecting on those now dormant feelings they used to write about when young. Intentionally at times, or even accidentally, in weird places like on the dance floor. Despite the solemn atmosphere, there is comfort, the feeling of the cold air and the smells of morning dew feel like a big hug between the past and the present.

That is a whole bunch of shit, it may be hard to find meaning in, but feels right to me. If anything the ambiguity could be intentional. You can't exactly put a name or a finger to exactly what's going on, but that's fine, somewhere inside it will resonate and you will find yourself just wanting to smile and dance. That's the important bit.

It's only 33 minutes. Brevity and precision is something I respect deeply in this age where music is far too accessible and abundant. Bassvictim has something to say, and they don't overstate it or overstay their welcome.

Runner up: Museum Music by Edward Skeletrix

Edward King Bass IV, also known as Edward Skeletrix, does a bit of everything. He hails from Georgia and began making music young—like 13 years old type young—working under the name Cight producing beats for big names like XXXTentacion and Night Lovell during high school. He was even on my map when I was in middle school, since I was a Soundcloud demon. He's been around for a while working hard, and has earned himself a respectable spot in the scene with more recent recognition from the past few years.

Nowadays Skeletrix can be described just vaguely as a multimedia artist, but I guess he prefers the term "Magician" as listed on his Instagram. I would go as far to call him the avant garde musician of this generation, and this album is my receipts for that claim. Museum Music had a crazy rollout. "Congratulations" was the teaser released prior to the album, and alongside the album drop, Skeletrix opened their complimentary exhibit for one day in NYC. Skeletrix is seemingly going to tour with his exhibit so I will refrain from spoiling what exactly this entailed, but I can say that it was a multimedia exhibit involving performance art from Skeletrix himself in the flesh. I wasn't there sadly but my online circles were talking about it for weeks.

The album itself could be described as a concept album, but that doesn't mean the sound is compromised for some theme or message. Many of these songs punch above their weight class both in their lyrical content and sonic qualities. Plastic Body, Drug Dealer Injects His Fentanyl, Killing Over Likes, and Skeletrix Island are some standouts for those who might be intimidated by the experimental nature to fully commit, but maybe still want to get a taste of this amazing album.

I think "explaining" art is stupid anyways, so I won't spell out the whole performance. What I will say is this: the cultural context matters. Rap has been culturally dominant for quite some time now, "rage" rap is in, and the culture as a whole has taken a pretty perverse form. This project submits itself to something resembling rage rap, makes a critique of this culture, calls for everyone involved to reflect. It's worth engaging with on your own.

Artist with the Most Motion in 2025 Award:

Fakemink

My Algerian king, Fakemink, had the most motion this year by far. He got cosigns from some legends of the underground and mainstream, boasting a collaboration with Ecco2k and Drake even brought him on stage at a festival!? I remember just a year ago this man fucking around on Instagram live doing fuck all hanging around his room in London, pigeons flying through his window landing on his head and shit. That was his first cosign maybe. Animals know shit. The same kinda thing happened to Bernie Sanders. Two heroes of the people I guess.

Banter aside, LV Sandals blew the fuck up, and he brought those couple of scousers up with him. EsDeeKid is now trending too and even was a contender for this category, but the underlying sentiment from that is Fakemink is leading the charge for the UK underground. The movement goes beyond him, and he stands on the shoulders of people who came before him, but what he is doing is totally unique and it makes all the most sense that he is getting love.

Runner up: GEESE

As many would expect to see somewhere on this list, we have the Brooklyn band that took Pitchfork-adjacent music writers by storm in 2025, GEESE. These guys killed it this year.

I don't have a personal story with them or their music, I just learned about them this year. All I know is their recent album kills, and they got a lotta deserved love for it, and they will be recognized by me for their serious motion this year.

I can't say too much about this band or their album that hasn't already been said. I must admit it. There are others with much better insights than I. So I will just tell you to go back and take a listen if you haven't already. If you find they pique your interest, please go ahead and look for some of the many opinions about them from this year.

Now finally, for the boys: GEESE is the go to band to associate yourself with to garner attention from the ladies. This is peak performative male music. If you missed the memo earlier in the year, you were supposed to spam this shit throughout the year so you could flex that #1 GEESE placement on your Spotify wrapped! Although, that ship has sailed already, and you probably have some lame shit up there; so you missed out. You're still a chud and will be getting no esoteric baddies off the Instagram stories, but you could at least do yourself a favor and give them a listen, for your own sake.

For any beautiful esoteric women who might be reading this: my decision to talk about GEESE is not at all performative and (despite there being an unknown amount of layers of irony in this footnote) a 100% genuine decision. I am single and my inbox is OPEN.

Song of The Year Award:

Music and Me by Fakemink

I almost instantly knew this spot would be reserved for 'mink. Real shit. The choice here for Music and Me jumped out without much thought either, but a couple others from him have an argument for them too.

This track is Fakemink in prime form, like Didier Drogba in the air. He linked up with the producer Ok as the metaphorical winger here, delivering up a beautiful cross in the form of this dreamy beat that feels like the final evolution of cloud rap production. As a fan of the genre since its inception, I'm dead serious about that, and I'm glad Fakemink did not waste this opportunity. His delivery is perfect and the lyrics show the kind of maturity I see as part of the end game for cloud rap. It's deeply spiritual, connected to his muslim faith, and he uses that to circle back to his experience with the kind of internal and moral struggles that cloud rap has long been married to.

Rocky's got himself a family with Rihanna, Yung Lean along with the Drain Gang boys have gotten sober and are doing well, and a bunch of other notable names in the cloud rap game have settled down and are in better places. So seeing a young man early in his career in this state, in lockstep with the philosophy from the OGs, it feels a bit like a homecoming resolution. It honestly might speak to the fact that by the end of this year I finally feel like I can let cloud rap rest, especially with such a good music video. The game has been won, and Fakemink needs to take a bow.

Martin Scorsese

Runner up: LIKE WEEZY by Playboi Carti

This song was being played by me 24/7 this year, I was always in the mood to hear it. I think MUSIC as an album will be remembered for a while not only due to the crazy hype around its release and the various controversies surrounding it, but that it genuinely had some great songs on it, this one being my favorite example.

Here Playboi Carti channels something unique among this Y2K craze, a little love for culture found at the end of the decade. The song is driven by a great sample of Bend Over, a classic song of the era by the Atlanta hip hop group Rich Kidz. This on top of the fact the song is named LIKE WEEZY for fucks sake, wraps this song in the clear love Playboi Carti has for this era of southern hip hop. The song also comes with a decent music video that just feels as if I am sitting at home as a kid watching VH1 again.

There isn't much technical rationale I have for this decision, this one comes from pure intuition. But I will say after years of thinking he fell off, I will defend this Carti album, especially this song off of it. It's all fresh sounding. After the first listen of the album I knew this track would be the song of the summer, and even in December I'm still feeling it.

Who to Watch in 2026 Award:

Effie

There is a small movement currently picking up steam in East Asia evolving out of the rage rap and hyperpop era that takes influence from all sorts of electronic music subgenres from Hardstyle to Skrillex-style Dubstep. The sound ends up somewhat comparable to the work from the American artists 2hollis and Nate Sib, but this movement currently displays greater range and puts more importance on aesthetics. I generally find it to be more interesting.

The notable names off the top of my head are Sebii and Billionhappy from China, Kimj and Effie from South Korea, and Kegøn from Japan. There is a lot of collaboration going on amongst these artists, and I actually found out about the East Asian underground from a collaborative song between Chinese rapper Jackzebra, and the previously mentioned rapper Sebii and producer Kimj.

Enjoying that track and being intrigued I dug around and eventually found Effie. I settled on seeing her as the standout from this community for the pure quality of her work. The passion is clear, I see how earnest it all is and how much fun she is having making music. The energy is infectious.

Her latest album "E" is a nod to Ecco2k's album with the same name. It should be no surprise Effie has cited Drain Gang as an early inspiration for pursuing music. I see the link there and assume its part of the reason I've found myself such a fan of her project.

2025 was a great year for Effie with her EP "pullup to busan 4 morE hypEr summEr" and latest album "E" being some of my favorites from this year; although I still see the sound developing further so I am excited to continue watching her career closely in 2026. If I am lucky I hope to catch a live performance from her in Tokyo or Seoul soon.

Runner Up: Frost Children

Frost Children is the sibling duo of Angel and Lulu Prost, originating from St. Louis, now based in New York City. The Frost Children are finally bringing the party back to the USA. Their sound draws a lot from the golden age of Electronic Dance Music, the post-2008 financial crisis EDM festival culture. This was before festivals became something totally else. Emo pop punk vocal delivery, dubstep beats, and crunkcore aesthetics—they have something going on that's familiar but totally their own thing and unwilling to be categorized. To me, they are the younger cousins of The Hellp, and grew up listening to Breathe Carolina instead of Justice and dress like ex-scene kids instead of Hedi Slimane fanatics. If that paints a useful picture to you, let me know, I might be a bit lost in the sauce.

The Frost Children have been making music for some time now, but in 2025 they refined their sound on their latest album "SISTER". Here they broke out of the memetic genre-fication and quieted the comparisons to various hyperpop acts from their critics. This album is something I wholly recommend. Put it on for a night you want to dance, it might be cathartic if you missed this sound as much as I have.

I first discovered the Frost Children in 2024 with their song "Flatline". I enjoyed it then, and still quite like the song, but the kicker is that the track was in FC24, in EA's previously named Fifa series of video games. And in my experience, EA does nothing better than pick out rising stars for these soundtracks. 2hollis and Foster the People being two of the many examples for artists featured on one of these games prior to their blow up, so I'll keep an eye on them. I hope for them to have continued success and am excited for what's in store for them during 2026.

Conclusion

This was another great year for music, I can't help but feel it keeps getting better. There is so much to go through it's almost impossible to do something like this seriously without it being a fulltime commitment. Even then, that person would still be "wrong". There is no objective truth! If anything, an analysis of the sort of "trend" or "direction" of things is more of a concrete thing to be analyzed and debated.

But that's not really what this was about. This was about the music that kept me going, the sounds that made sense when not much else did, the party I needed to find while everything else feels uncertain. That's worth sharing, even if it's messy and incomplete.

drowning in distortion