My Favorite Songs of 2025: Asunojokei, Natalie Bergman, Fine China, The Mary Onettes, Turnstile, Denison Witmer

Over the years, Jon DeRosa has become a consummate professional at making music that’s as atmospheric as it is emotional. For 2025’s Ecstatic Lightsongs, he pays tribute to the artists who influenced him: The Chameleons, The Durutti Column, Talk Talk, and other legends. As such, a song like the Durutti-esque “Trick of the Light” possesses a nostalgic quality, but thanks to DeRosa’s deft songwriting and arrangements, as well his collaboration with singer Britt Warner, it never feels slavish or solipsistic.

If seeing the word “Zeppelin” makes you think of Led Zeppelin, then so much the better for this absolute slab of a song from Japan’s premier blackgaze outfit. “Zeppelin” tears out of the gate courtesy of Takuya Seki and Seiya Saito’s solid rhythm section while guitarist Kei Toriki alternates between searing riffs and catchy melodies. Meanwhile, singer Daiki Nuno unleashes all manner of inhuman shrieks and howls, all of which are delightfully at odds with both the song’s yearning and impressionistic lyrics (“The airship carrying the beautiful and the wise/Disappears into the clean horizon/There must be a paradise/I know you and I will get there one day”) and unexpected twists and turns. I don’t know how many times I listened to “Zeppelin” in 2025, but it was a thrilling listen every time I pressed “Play.”

There’ve been a slew of bands excelling at psychedelic, vibe-laden instrumental funk music who’ve emerged from the shadow of Khruangbin. Hailing from Bogotá, Colombia, BALTHVS is one such band. The trio have been recording since 2020, and they’ve been quite prolific, releasing numerous albums, EPs, and singles in the last five years. “Mood Swing (Principles of Rhythm)” is BALTHVS at their finest. Johanna Mercuriana and Santiago Lizcano lay down a solid rhythm section, allowing Balthazar Aguirre’s effortless guitar licks to roam and drift around unencumbered.

As a founding member of Lush, Miki Berenyi is shoegaze royalty. And it’s nice to see that she’s lost none of her touch as the leader of her own trio alongside Oliver Cherer and real-life partner Kevin “Moose” McKillop. For starters, Berenyi’s voice still sounds as effortlessly dreamy as it did on classic Lush releases like 1990’s Gala and 1992’s Spooky. McKillop’s lyrics have the same bite as classic Lush, excoriating the fickle nature and demands of love. And musically, “Manu” sounds like a breath of fresh air straight out of the mid-to-late ’90s, with shoegaze and electronica striking a perfect coexistence.

Natalie Bergman’s solo debut, 2021’s Mercy, was a gut-wrenching album inspired by the death of her father and stepmother, and her efforts to balance grief with the notion of a loving God. 2025’s My Home Is Not In This World finds Bergman in a much better place, with a family of her own. Even so, she still views this world’s trappings with no small amount of skepticism, as evidenced by “You Can Have Me”’s heartfelt plea to give up the hollow pursuit of fame. Her lyrics might be heavy, but Bergman’s coo of a voice combined with her love of classic soul and R&B and lush production ensure that her latest is neither cloying nor maudlin.

By now, it’s a given that I’m going to check out anything and everything that Ben Holton releases. The co-founder of Epic45 has branched out into several solo projects with evocative names like My Autumn Empire and Birds in the Brickwork. For the latter, which serves as a soundtrack for his photography, Holton employs the sort of delicate, nostalgia-laden guitar textures that he does so well in order to convey the beauty of the Welsh coast. I’ve never been across the Atlantic, much less to Wales, and yet I feel like I can see its seaside perfectly thanks to Holton’s reflective arrangements.

City Girl is arguably the premier “chill-hop” producer working today, blending hip-hop beats and grooves with dreamy melodies and production. I don’t know why I feel ok right now, but it’s nice might be their most introspective release yet, and “Playing an MMO in 2004 on a Rainy Day” captures its title’s mood with gentle acoustic guitar, raindrop-like beats, and pensive, twilit pools of synth. It’s the perfect soundtrack for liminal spaces like those depicted on Instagram accounts like Your Past Reality.

Fepeste’s Eric Jett calls his music “dad jams about faith, hope, and worries.” That sense of self-deprecation is actually quite refreshing, especially when it manifests in odes to humility like “That’s Okay.” Given our current age, which is unfortunately characterized by self-aggrandizing politicians and social media influencers, it’s refreshing to hear someone celebrate both God’s sovereignty and their own limited, creaturely status.

On their very first releases, like 2000’s When the World Sings and 2002’s You Make Me Hate Music, Arizona’s Fine China were content paying homage to the likes of New Order and The Smiths — and they did so very well. Since then, their music has only grown more expansive, blending ambient, New Age, and post-rock elements with their indelible pop sensibilities. I Felt Called represents the apotheosis of this process, an ambitious album that employs lush, Talk Talk-esque arrangements to create richly layered songs about aging, nostalgia, and the passage of time.

Montréal cellist Rebecca Foon has played with some of Canada’s most well-known post-rock collectives, including Esmerine and A Silver Mt. Zion. But for 2025’s Reverie, she teamed up with her sister, violinist Aliayta Foon-Dancoes from the London Symphony Orchestra. Working together, the two siblings compose pieces that bridge the gap between ambient and modern classical. “Drifters and Dreamers” is more than aptly titled, with enchanting string arrangements set against graceful piano melodies.

Confession time: I’ve never really thought of the trombone as a dreamy instrument. When I think of the instrument, my mind always goes to — of course — the “sad trombone” effect. But on his collaboration with Norwegian pianist Julia Gjertsen, Swedish trombonist Gustav Davidsson makes a compelling case for the instrument, playing wistful and forlorn melodies that pair beautifully with Gjertsen’s own playing. Effortlessly straddling the lines between jazz, modern classical, and ambient, Gjertsen and Davidsson’s Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather is an album perfectly suited for moments of late night solitude and introspection.

In the six years since 2019’s Nonlin, Steve Hauschildt not only experienced the pandemic like the rest of us, but also decamped from the U.S. to Tbilisi, Georgia. Those experiences almost certainly inform his latest album, Aeropsia, and songs like “Dividua.” Filled with flickering and fluttering synth notes and arpeggios, “Dividua” is endlessly and effortlessly pretty, and a testament to Hauschildt’s ability to pull the loveliest sounds from his vintage synths.

Although Ben Holton has a long history of making music with bands like Epic45 and Birds in the Brickwork, Flowers Made of Light is his first proper solo album under his own name. (And given that these songs were recorded after his father’s death, it might also be his most personal work to date.) Musically, it’s not dissimilar from his other projects, blending pastoral acoustic guitar with tasteful accents like Jim Sutton’s fretless bass. Despite its unassuming nature, the album frequently made it into my listing routine thanks to songs like “Mornings.” As its title suggest, it’s the perfect song to listen to in the early hours, its guitar-work, subtle synths, and gentle melodies setting the tone for a peaceful and contemplative day.

The Parisian ambient composer known as Irezumi has always displayed a real knack for crafting deeply personal, even intimate excursions into the shadowy realms of dark ambient. Far more interesting than would-be horror movie soundtracks, an album like Downfall offers listeners a truly rewarding listen. Case in point: “Escape” serves as the album’s centerpiece, both numerically and emotionally, thanks to its slow-burning atmospherics and gently swelling sonics that evoke the soundtracks of legends like Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and Jóhann Jóhannsson.

I don’t know what, exactly, Philip Ekström means when he sings “I hear words unspoken/The game you play is broken/If you’re there again I’ll wake you.” But in another, more inexplicable sense, I know precisely what he’s singing in that melancholy croon of his. Just don’t ask me to put it in words. On their latest album — and first full-length since 2014’s Portico — The Mary Onettes paradoxically transcend the ’80s-isms of their earliest material and evoke them more fully, with the result being pristine indie-pop that’s made all the more special by Maja Milner’s backing vocals.

Jonathon Smith may hail from Kansas City, Missouri, but as “Schulze Variations” proves, at least part of his heart yearns for West Germany circa 1970, when bands like Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel were exploring other planes of existence via cosmic-minded synth excursions. “Schulze Variations” — almost certainly a reference to krautrock pioneer Klaus Schulze — unfolds at a glacial pace, its moody synths and sparse melodies inexorably drawing the listener in and absorbing them like the universe’s gentlest black hole.

Arguably the dreamiest song that I heard last year, Night Swimming’s “Whispers on Argyle” has all of the delicate guitar melodies and hushed ambience that you could possibly want from a dream pop track, and then some. But the Bristol outfit’s secret weapon is Meg Jones’s voice, and “Whispers on Argyle” is a perfect showcase for her breathy, wistful tones. The song’s outro, which begins around the 2:40 mark, might just be my favorite musical moment of 2025.

Although Redder Moon’s If You’re Falling, Dive was released in August 2025, I didn’t discover it until just a few weeks before the year’s end. Nevertheless, as soon as I heard Jeremiah James Gonzales’s gray-soaked synths, spidery guitars, and yearning vocals, I felt like I’d been listening to “Endless Lullaby” for years. Redder Moon taps into the sounds of classic Projekt-style darkwave, making “Endless Lullaby” the perfect soundtrack for long walks on moonless nights, or when you find yourself up way too late with nothing but your own thoughts to keep you company.

As the saying goes, like father, like son… Charlie Martin is the son of Starflyer 59’s Jason Martin, and like his old man, the younger Martin possesses both a knack for catchy melodies and a love for retro style. And like his dad, Charlie writes about — what else? — the up and downs of making music and life in the good ol’ days. On paper, he’s too young to sing such lyrics as “You’re always looking back on things that can’t remain/You’re always searching for a life you can’t contain,” but when they’re delivered via surf-y melodies and some no frills production courtesy of the older Martin, I ain’t gonna complain.

In a more fair and just world, Poland’s Starsabout would be a global sensation; simply put, we need more music like this, music that’s mature, thoughtful, and oh so romantic. “Night of Blooming Wonders” ably calls up the ghosts of Bark Psychosis and The Blue Nile with its rich production, wistful lyrics, and sophisticated arrangements. (Among other things, the song’s proof that you can never go wrong with a tasteful sax solo.) On a related note, Starsabout also released a gorgeous live version of this song as part of a four-song EP recorded for the Dobra 12 Live Sessions.

For over 20 years, Paul Dickow has been releasing immersive soundscapes via his Strategy project (2004’s Drumsolo’s Delight, with its dub-laced ambience, is still one of my go-to albums for late-night coding sessions.) The title of his latest album, A Cooler World, is quite apropos: a song like “A Distant Destination” envisions futuristic northern expanses, with chiming synth clusters that sound like they were carved out of the purest polar ice. Indeed, don’t be surprised if the room temperature drops a few degrees while this song’s playing.

Baltimore’s Turnstile emerged from the city’s hardcore scene to critical acclaim, earning multiple nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Released in June 2025, Never Enough quickly became one of the year’s most acclaimed albums, with the band expanding their hardcore sound with electronics and poppy melodies. Case in point, “I Care” blends Johnny Marr-esque guitar riffs with bouncy rhythms and electronic flourishes, all of which pair quite nicely with Brendan Yates’ impassioned vocals.

Hailing from the city of Leeds, VENUS GRRRLS deliver a blistering blend of goth and riot grrrl punk highlighted by Grace Kelly’s powerful vocals and Eliza Lee’s searing guitar riffs. The band’s catalog is all pretty exhilarating, but the “Eighteen Crows” single reveals the all-girl band at the height of their powers.

Russia’s Zaplatkin Fedor Pavlovich, aka The Void Wanderer, released one of my favorite albums of 2024 with Empty World. And he followed it up in 2025 with the excellent Life is Exhausting, another dive into melancholy vastness. As expected from its title, “Forgotten Shrine in the Mountains” conjures up vistas that are both foreboding and reverential, as if simply pressing “Play” suddenly places you on hallowed ground. To paraphrase my own review, I know I’m predisposed to atmospheric music with a melancholy bent, but songs like “Forgotten Shrine in the Mountains” nevertheless carve out a serene, otherworldly space that provides a welcome sense of refuge in troubled times.

My son and I spent a good deal of 2025 watching classic westerns, many of which were graced by Ennio Morricone’s iconic soundtracks. The Italian composer is almost certainly an influence on Western Skies Motel’s windswept instrumentals, which evoke wide open spaces, desert storms, and black-clad gunfighters slowly marching down the street to their inevitable showdown.

Given that my wife is an avid birder who also wants to fill our house with potted plants, I have to smile every time I listen to Denison Witmer sing about finding joy and solace in the presence of cardinals, waxwings, geraniums, and philodendrons. Witmer’s indie-folk has always been heartfelt and personal, and “A House With” — along with the rest of Anything At All — is no different. As for the presence of Sufjan Stevens’ lush production and arrangements, they serve only to make Witmer’s gentle odes to a simpler life all the more affecting.

When it comes to making icy ambient techno, nobody does it better than Iceland’s Aðalsteinn Guðmundsson, who releases music as Yagya. “Vor 2” represents Guðmundsson at the height of his chilly powers, blending deeply reverberating dub textures against a shuffling beat and a dreamy sense of melody. I’ve been a fan of Guðmundsson’s ever since 2016’s Stars and Dust, and 2025’s Vor makes it clear that he still has plenty of tundra-like soundscapes to explore.

After a too-long absence, Michael Plaster — who previously released music under the Soulwhirlingsomewhere moniker, including one of my favorite albums of all time, 1993’s Eating the Sea — resurfaced with a new project called Yttriphie. But even though Yttriphie’s a new name, one thing remains unchanged: Plaster’s ability to create soundscapes that are charged with rich emotional depth, as heard on An Extremely Slow Motion Explosion. Plaster frequently lent his baritone to Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s songs, but no such vocals are necessary on “Myrskiiyinen,” as an echoing beat tries to keep pace with unfurling drones and melancholy piano arrangements.