Music Recap 2025
Last year I wrote my first music recap and I had so much fun so I'm planning to continue it for the next years. This year I gave up on Spotify and because of this I would no longer have a Spotify wrapped, I'll still have one from YouTube, but besides statistics, I want to write what I think was my music recap, what I enjoyed the most listening this year.
Warning: This is going to be a very long post, this year I listened to a lot of music and I have a lot to talk about.
Most listened
This is a straightforward category, here are the songs I feel I listened to the most this year, what I had on repeated and couldn't get sick of.
Beneath the Surface - Incognito. It was a late finding but I listened to it a lot these past few months. I almost forgot, I also tried to learned this song on the guitar, was hard but I learned new chords.
Fire - Xdinary Heroes. I had a big obsession with this song when it first came out (as well as its music video), I love heavy rock and didn't expect a single like this from this band so I was gladly surprised.
Flower - L'arc en Ciel. This year I discovered this band, listened all their discography, watched a documentary, interviews and live performances on YouTube. This song became a favorite, I liked it so much that I tried to learned it on guitar.
Terco - La Texana. La texana was a great discovery this year, from the album this was my favorite song, the lyrics are very nice, I like when artists talk about many different subjects.
Everybody cares, everybody understands - Elliot Smith. In general I listened a lot to Elliot, but this was the song I often went back to when I wanted to listen a song from him.
Show Your Love - Park Hyo Shin. While exploring his discography I found this song that is more upbeat, usually he's know for his ballads so this was very refreshing to listen to. The groove of this song makes me feel very happy.
DSTM - ONE OR EIGHT. It didn't lasted long but for a couple of weeks I'd be replaying this song a lot, it's a very fun pop song!
Album of the year
This year I listened to a lot of albums, many artists and bands I followed released music this year, it was a busy music year yet I was able to listen to most of them. Still, I have some albums from years before that I can't get to forget and made it to the top this year as well. There are also some old but new for me that I got to find this year. This list was the hardest to make, I enjoyed a lot more that aren't in this list but I had to reduce it or I wouldn't finish this post any time soon.
Beautiful Mind - Xdinary Heroes. They released a new album not so long ago and I liked it as well, but for some reason I couldn't get out of my mind the last one. I genuinely liked every song and had the whole album in repeat for a while.
La casa que cae - La texana. Recently I've been exploring more music in Spanish and the first thing that I found months ago was this album. La texana has a very particular sound and was something unexpected when I clicked in the first song, because is a mix of generes and influences. I also love the lyrics, very fun and clever.
Beneath the surface - Incognito. This was my most listened album, is jazz, is groovy, amazing instrumentation, amazing voices. Like is nothing it became one of my favorite albums.
Eros - Lee Chanhyuk. I knew him more for his music in AKMU and haven't listened much of his solo work, so I decided to checked this album when it came out, it was a good decision. Is a great album, it has a retro sound and is very pop but when you look up the lyrics there is a more deep message. In particular I've re-watched the concert in studio video, I've shared it before here in a videoroll I think.
People who stay alone - Sister's barbershop. I discovered this band a long time ago but I only listened to one album from them, an old one, so I went and listened to his last album from 2017. I adored this album! I like the calm and emotional feeling I get while listening to it. I love the intro of People who stay alone (the song), the synths reminds me of space, like a beautiful space. if you have to listen to one song from the album, this one is a great candidate. In case anyone wants to read a proper review, I found this one that I enjoyed reading.
Stunner - TEN. This one was my favorite K-pop album of the year, all the songs are very fun and catchy, it doesn't get boring or repetitive and is of course, highly produced. It fills me with energy every time I listen to it, it makes me want to dance, perfect for when I need to do a task like cleaning or exercising.
Dead Club City - Nothing But Thieves. Yes, I'm talking about this album again, I made a review this year so it's not a surprise that I added it here. Still in my top and I don't thing is going down any time soon. Recently I started to pay more attention to the lyrics and I love it even more.
Cassiopeia - Musogabi. I mentioned this album in the Recap from last year, but I truly listened to it a lot this year as well, I can't get over of how beautiful the songs are. Songwriting with a guitar is one of the things I connect with, simple and raw, but full of emotion at the same time.
DETOX - ONE OK ROCK. I had already a lot of albums in this list, but I can't not add this one. I was waiting for this album, after Luxury Disease I was curious to see what direction they were going to take. This album made me happy, I already made a review so I won't say much than that.
Rising Artist
This category is for artists or bands I discovered this year, not just necessary a new artist that just debuted, but also old ones, is for everyone with the potential to be a future favorite of mine or that I look forward to their next releases. This year was an interesting year were I even discovered a new music genre for me.
Jaze. Thanks to the algorithm I found his last album "QNEPT" and I was shocked at how good his music is, the instrumentation and the lyrics are great. Is a well put together album. I loved listened all of it, every song. Writing this today, he just happened to upload a Live Session and is so good!
Park Hyo Shin. I already talked about him in another post, since then I listened more from him, days ago I listed to his album "Dreamer" out of curiosity and I was absolutely enchanted by it, it moved me deeply. I can say know that he will probably be one of my favorite artists the more I listen to him.
Bratty. I don't know how I just discovered her music, she's already pretty popular, I've listened almost all of her music now and I'm a fan of her style, is the kind of indie pop that comforts me and it inspire me to write songs too.
Sung Holly. She's a musician I've recently followed because I really like her covers. She just released her first single ever and I loved it! I can't wait to listened to more music she'll release.
Lexie Liu. With her last album my interest grew more, I knew a couple of songs from her but didn't follow much her music, I really enjoyed the songs and I feel like her is going to get me more into this style of music, more hyper pop and electronic.
Special mentions
Here I want to talk for a bit of music that doesn't fit in any of the categories but I wanted to recommend because it gave me joy this year. These weren't the most listened but I still loved all this music.
The Decade - DAY6. This one was their 10th anniversary album, I was really waiting for it since I'm a big fan, their music means so much to me that I can't be very objective about them, but even after all that I didn't end up listening to it much. I did find some songs that I loved in this album like "Disco Day" or "Dream bus" and "INSIDE OUT" is one of my favorite tittle tracks from them, but the album as a whole is not on my top.
ALTER EGO - Silvestre y la Naranja. Fun album! one of the greatest Spanish music findings for me this year.
Purple Drop - Humming Urban Stereo. Is a little old pop/electronic sound with soft vocals. I don't listened to it often but was one of those album that I thought "Oh wow, that's cool!". It's quirky and fun.
Jamiroquai - Dynamite. I talked about Jamiroquai before in my jazz acid post, with incognito, I could only listened to both bands forever and never get bored, really.
Fuji Kaze - Prema. The whole album is full with great songs, but I haven't listened to it much to really talk about it in detail.
Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix. It was a classic that I had to check at some time and did not disappointed me, it is really so good!
I was going to make this post like a fake music award, I started to list nominates but at the end I couldn't choose winners, so I just left it as a list of different categories.