Written by: Alex Green
Stereo Embers The Podcast’s Best Songs Of 2025
1. The Holy Brothers–”Come Shine Love”
In late summer, I was at Muir Beach staring down at the Pacific, which was thundering below with some serious West Coast muscle. The sun had a little under a hovering hour left and it was reflecting off the surf; shimmering through the waves like a disco ball had exploded under the ocean and the fugitive shards were rising to the top. The Holy Brothers’ “Come Shine Love” lives in that explosion. The blending of the voices of Willie Aron and Marvin Etzioni is a beautiful thing to behold; it’s Lennon/McCartney, it’s Difford/Tilbrook, it’s heaven/earth. This is such an unreasonably beautiful number that veers into the territory of spiritual confirmation; filled with cosmic solace and almost supernatural healing, it’s just exquisite. As Mark Helprin wrote in Il Colore Ritrovato, “Sometimes in a simple sequence of notes a shaft is opened into precincts of pure and perfect light.”
2. Hotel Mira–”America’s Favourite Pastime”
Hotel Mira play a scruffy blast of arena-ready rock and roll straight from Canada that’s a scrappy mix of The New York Dolls and Astronauts-era Matthew Good. Helmed by the absurdly charismatic frontman Charlie Kerr, “America’s Favourite Pastime’s” sleazy verse gives way to one of the biggest choruses in recent memory.
3. Bill See–”The Heart Survives”
Returning from a musical hiatus, the former Divine Weeks frontman is not only back, he’s reinvigorated and battle ready. The opening track to his Bow To No One album, “The Heart Survives” is a swooning and cathartic number that sounds like a fever breaking. Backed by an acoustic guitar and ghostly background vocals, See’s delivery is achingly precise and the message of the song is clear: the heart is the arbiter of everything and if you don’t trust it, you’ll never know the truth. This is a fight song for integrity—and good god, we could sure use one of those right now.
4. BC Camplight–“Where You Taking My Baby?”
Conversational, discursive and soulfully imploring, this track from BC Camplight’s remarkable A Sober Conversation album is deeply affecting. An open letter from an open wound of a man, “Where You Taking My Baby?” is filled with windswept vocals, rushing sonic architecture and existential dread all coated in a sweeping arrangement. An instant classic.
5. Rebecca Foon–“You Have Known Beyond This Time”
Taken from her sonorous and magical new album Black Butterflies, Rebecca Foon’s “You Have Known Beyond This Time” is fueled by deep underwater beats that splash elegantly behind her hushed vocals. The Juno-Award-winning cellist flexes some pretty serious trip-hop muscle on this album and this track is a great sample of its endless and swooning beauty.
6. The Loft–“Feel Good Now”
As catchy as anything you’re likely to hear this year (or any year), The Loft’s “Feel Good Now” is the perfect theme song for glass-half-full folks, but the obverse crowd would have trouble not joining in as well. The infectious jangle, irresistible chorus and spry bass make this impossible to resist, while singer Pete Astor sounds as commanding as ever. This is nothing short of a three-minute pop clinic.
7. The Moderate Lovers–“Lucy’s Gardening Again”
Out of the ashes of the late, great Soap Star Joe comes The Moderate Lovers. This Australian outfit’s new EP Crayon Shades is out-of-the-box brilliant and though it’s hard to pick favorites, the sunny pop of “Lucy’s Gardening Again” is the perfect answer to the grey weather here in California right now, so that’s today’s choice. Singer/guitarist Mick Turner has preternatural pop smarts and this track has C86 hooks, pastoral jangle and the kind of rhythmic beauty that’ll keep it in your head for days.
8. Mike Delevante–“The Rain Never Came”
Taken from his first solo effort September Days, on “The Rain Never Came,” singer/songwriter Mike Delevante brings to mind the winning Americana of The Jayhawks’ Tomorrow The Green Grass. This is one of those tracks that eludes the timeline; the ageless jangle, the perfect vocals, and the sweet delivery all combine to form a deeply satisfying number. And it gets the job done in under three minutes. Not easy.
9. SunYears–“Spanner In The Works”
Perhaps best known as the Peter portion of the Swedish outfit Peter Bjorn and John, Peter Morén’s busman’s holiday outfit SunYears are a pop delight. Taken from the new album The Song Forlorn, “Spanner In The Works” is a percussive wonder; spry and nimble it’s loaded with clever lyrics and sneaky hooks.
10. Will Dailey–“My Old Ride”
Wistful, nostalgic and emotionally wrenching, Will Dailey’s “My Old Ride” is a mournful tribute to a car, a life hovering on a specific timeline and the way hope glows like an ember in all of our young, soaring hearts. This one will bring you to your knees. The Boston singer/songwriter has been quietly releasing some of the best music in years and that he’s something of a secret is just absurd.
11. Josh Joplin Group–“I’m With Gorillas”
Armed with inimitable phrasing, lyrical smarts and melodies galore, Josh Joplin keeps moving from strength to strength. “I’m With Gorillas” is melancholic and comforting at the same time–a tricky tightrope to walk, but Joplin has always been the man to it. “Listen to me, listen to me…” the song implores. It’s impossible not to.
12. Alison Shearer–“Skylark”
The New York-born saxophonist/composer Alison Shearer’s new album In The Garden is one of the most dynamic, stirring and altogether thrilling albums of the year. The follow up to her View From Above album, which was a moving tribute to her father John Shearer, the legendary civil rights-era photojournalist, In The Garden is a delicious blend of inventive time meters whose inspirations range from philosophy to children running through a Pakistani marketplace. Played with elegance and grace, “Skylark” is a seamless collision of formalism and modernism that’s powered by sunny sax fills, a killer drum breakdown and a buoyant vision of the future.
13. Robert Forster–All Of The Time
Taken from Robert Forster’s Strawberries LP, “All Of The Time” may be powered by a dark and chugging guitar, but the message here has not a trace of darkness in it. An achingly honest (“And the reason that I need you/Is that I love you all of the time”) and soulfully precise number, Forster’s unabashed love song may contain allusions to surveillance and lonely nights, but the mid-song call-and-response is a joyful reminder that all that dark stuff is in the past; shoved effortlessly to the side by love.
14. Surface Wound–“I Wrote This Song For The Sleaford Mods”
Well, somebody had to. Piloted by Sandy Smallens of Too Much Joy, “I Wrote This Song For The Sleaford Mods” is a bass-driven homage that twists its way into pure meta bliss. Both a tip of the hat and a nod and a wink, Smallens honors the UK outfit with equal parts youthful excitement and professional admiration and parenthetical post-modern genius. Tons of fun. Why don’t more bands do this?
15. Tamar Berk–“You Ruined This City For Me”
Taken from her fabulous album OCD, Tamar Berk’s “You Ruined This City For Me” has all the smooth sizzle of early Blondie and the jaunty, new wave hustle of this track is hard to resist. Berk gets in the pocket early on this one and from there she delivers a smooth and commanding vocal turn that tears the cover off the ball without her even breaking a sweat.
