The First of the Worst: Songs that got us through 2025

A selection of new music that saw us kicking and screaming and laughing and loving through 2025.

2025, a year that will live in infamy, draws to a close and so does the first year of The Unstreamables. And so I thought it'd be fitting to wrap up what's been a rotten year with a mix of some of our favorite songs of the year.

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Even though every song on this list is technically streamable, they’re still worth your time and attention. We read a lot about music, go to a lot of shows, and listen widely and obsessively.

I hope this list reflects that curiosity and breadth of taste, rather than the flattening of culture served up by the usual algorithms and advertising bombast.

As for the variety: there are the two feuding brothers who got back together and played their hearts out to the world when no-one believed they ever would. There’s a Vegas-lounge torch song from a broadway musical about a mummified bandit. There’s seeing Sam Fender and Olivia Dean in the biggest arena show I’ve ever attended. And then Popular Music's Desert Motel #1 untouched by any streaming-algo hype where seeing them in East London basement was one of the true highlights of the year.

I’ll also say this plainly: this list is unabashedly queer. Gay and trans love songs are just as good as any other love songs. Rock music is often about sex, and yes, some of these songs mention queer sex. You can turn on the filters on your little distraction rectangles if you want the Kidz Bop version of the Lambrini Girls. But I’m having a see-you-next-Tuesday winter rather than a brat summer. Brats are kids. I didn’t leave Charli off the list—but we’re adults in here.

For me these songs capture the highs and lows of the year. They remind me of the importance of grabbing joy where we can. They remind me of music’s quiet superpower: the ability to transfer emotion between minds without resorting to our usual default of beating the crap out of one another.

It might sound cynical, but it isn’t. It’s proof that we can do better by each other. And that's my hope for 2026 - that we can and will do better for and by each other.

We didn't meet every goal for this project in 2025 - but we'll keep at it. Please take a moment to share this list out to the enlightened music enthusiasts in your life.

Okay, that's all I have to say, except Happy New Year and try to keep your shit together. JT

Logistics:

If you do have a streaming platform subscription and want to add these tracks to your library, this widget from Tune My Music should do the trick. I'm sure they grab our data and sell it. Read their TOCs and act accordingly. An Apple Music widget is also included, below the list.

This is the order I think you should play them in. Not the order I heard them in or the order I'm ranking them in. I don't do that. It's too reductive.

  1. Desert Motel #1 — Popular Music
  2. Wonderwall (Live from Dublin, 16 August ’25) — Oasis
  3. Bloom Baby Bloom — Wolf Alice
  4. catch these fists — Wet Leg
  5. Clean Heart — Perfume Genius
  6. Big Dick Energy — Lambrini Girls
  7. Departures — Model/Actriz
  8. Falling Outta Love — PUP
  9. FIGHT (feat. Jake Shears) — Boyfriend & Jake Shears
  10. Glide — NEIKED & Portugal. The Man
  11. The God of Lying (feat. IDLES) — Gorillaz
  12. Heathcliff — Snocaps
  13. Idiot Box — Sharon Van Etten
  14. Feel Free — Jeff Tweedy
  15. Dan’s Boogie — Destroyer
  16. It’s Amazing To Be Young — Fontaines D.C.
  17. Legalize Living — The Hives
  18. Man I Need — Olivia Dean
  19. Man Made of Meat — Viagra Boys
  20. midsummer pipe dream — Guitarricadelafuente & Troye Sivan
  21. Mind Loaded (feat. Caroline Polachek, Lorde & Mustafa) — Blood Orange
  22. Modigliani — Lucy Dacus
  23. My Side of the Mountain — Orville Peck
  24. NEVER ENOUGH — Turnstile
  25. Nights in Armor — Water From Your Eyes
  26. Open Your Heart — The La’s
  27. Paranoia — spill tab & boylife
  28. Recording 291 — Shamir
  29. Run Free (Nite Version) — Soulwax
  30. Sand Into Stone — Tune-Yards
  31. Tell Me — Sassy 009 & Blood Orange
  32. Taxes — Geese
  33. This Side of the Island — Hamilton Leithauser
  34. Talk to You — Sam Fender & Elton John
  35. Sugar in the Tank — Julien Baker & TORRES
  36. Winchester Mansion of Sound — Neko Case
  37. The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station — CMAT
  38. Part Of Us — Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe
  39. Up to the Stars — Thom Sesma
  40. Zombie — YUNGBLUD
  41. Shapeshifter — Lorde
  42. This Is the Killer Speaking — The Last Dinner Party
  43. House (feat. John Cale) — Charli xcx & John Cale
  44. A Fragile Thing (Mark Saunders Heartbroken Remix) — The Cure
  45. Joy (Live God) — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

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