Best of 2025 – Day 1

Here we go, I’m back on my bullshit.

I haven’t done this in a while, so pardon me while I shake a few cobwebs out in these posts.

I fell off the wagon with my annual “best of” posts back in 2023. To be honest, I used to do these while I was slacking off at work around the holidays at my old job, and back in 2023 I took my current job where it turns out, that time to dick around just disappears as I stayed busy through the holidays. This year I’m taking it upon myself to get back to it, and also to hold myself to it, in the little bit of free time I have around the holidays this year.

To kick things off, here’s my playlist for this year. I usually hold this until the end, but in the event that I don’t actually commit to all these posts, I wanted to make sure I shared it with you all. It’s only on Spotify, but if someone wants to be kind enough to convert it to another service, I’ll add that in as well. As always, it’s made to be listened to in sequence, but feel free to listen however you want. The order really doesn’t give away my top 10 albums of the year, it just helps me share some of the stuff I thought was rad and worth sharing.

I’m changing up the structure of these posts once again. It’s just going to be about songs and albums this year (as of right now). I might do a post about concerts, and maybe I’ll do a post about games, but the jury’s still out on all of that. I’m aping Giant Bomb’s Game of the Year format, with a few days worth of fun categories, which will help me feature things I won’t get to cover in my top albums list, simply because there was SO MUCH GOOD MUSIC this year. There are albums (hell, even songs) that aren’t on my top 10 that I still want to write paragraphs about. Whether it’s bands that I’ve loved for decades, or bands who are brand new to me, there has been a ton of stuff this year I kept coming back to. Statistically speaking, if you’re reading this, you’re likely one of the people who already follow me on social media or chat with me daily, so the presence of some of this music is probably less of a surprise than the rankings or the specifics of my thoughts, but I’m here to put it all on the table. Alright, I’ll stop talking about talking about things and actually get into today’s categories.

Top Album from 2023 of 2025

Free Throw – Lessons That We Swear to Keep

Honorable Mentions: The Wonder Years – “Burst & Decay (Live in New York)”; saturdays at your place – “always cloudy”

I first did a category like this back in 2019, and it turns out that album became pretty influential on just about everything that came after it. Beyond that, it’s pretty nice when I can take a moment to be retrospective on the quality of music in the previous year when I am so often listening to what’s new. Looking back, 2024 was a boring year for me when it came to music. When I looked at the list of everything that came out last year, I realized there was not a ton of items on that list that I’ve revisited. I obviously didn’t do a top album ranking of 2024 either, and I feel like I’m not really missing it. However, 2023 had quite a few albums that I went back to this year and dove deeper on. The two honorable mentions will get their shine later in these posts, so the one I want to dive into right now is Free Throw. Their two most recent albums earned honorable mentions in 2023 and in 2019, and at both of those times I said that it felt like it didn’t click. Actually, in 2023 I said:

I just don’t think I’ve ever been depressed enough to really, truly click entirely with a Free Throw album. In fact, if I ever get to the point where I feel like a Free Throw album really speaks to me, then it’s probably time to get back to a therapist.

I should probably schedule that appointment then, because Free Throw finally clicked with me. After seeing them back in November of 2024 with Four Year Strong, I fell down the Free Throw rabbit hole, largely driven by this album, but I’ve also gotten into their older releases. Yes, they are categorically sad music for sad people, but it’s dynamic and moving in a way that makes it easy to see why they have such a dedicated following. They’ve got some incredible hooks, and an unmatched amount of emotional energy to their songs, and lead singer and lyricist Cory Castro does an excellent job telling a story. I also think that both he and the rest of the band have significantly improved as songwriters as they’ve gone on. You’ll see their latest track on my playlist for this year, which exudes poppiness while still retaining that edge that Free Throw is known for. Free Throw is a cult and I’m looking forward to whatever these guys do next.

The “Top 2025 Album of 2026” Future Class Award

This category is for albums I didn’t put enough time into this year for one reason or another, but I want to listen to more next year. I’m not picking a winner right now, but these are all some pretty likely contenders to take this crown come next December. Have Mercy’s latest is an album I discovered fairly recently, but every time I listen to it, I want to listen to it again. The other two albums I picked are growers that didn’t impress me at first, but upon repeated listens, have moved up a few notches in my list. Bambi came out in the beginning of the year when not much else was out, so I don’t know why I wasn’t listening to it more then, especially considering how much I loved their previous effort, Little Green House. After seeing Anxious live earlier this month, I was reminded how much I enjoyed them, and picked this album back up. I was initially put off by the Kerosene Heights album, but I heard so much buzz about how good it was, I decided to give it like four more chances, and finally started to come around to it. You’ll find tracks from all of these albums on my playlist for this year if you want to check them out and add them to your rotation for next year.

Best Pop-Punk Wrestling Theme

Hot Mulligan – “Prototheme” (AEW’s Kyle Fletcher)

Runner-up: The Wonder Years – “New Lows” (WWE’s Becky Lynch)

The craziest thing about picking a winner here is that this category even exists. Not only did this happen once this year when Kyle Fletcher debuted his new theme by Hot Mulligan at AEW All In in July, but then Becky Lynch debuted a new theme by The Wonder Years at Summer Slam only a month later. Neither one of these were not on my 2025 bingo card at all, but both were a very welcome surprise. On top of that, they’re both really good songs, so this was tough competition. TWY put together a banger that sings about sticking to your guns and overcoming adversity, while Hot Mulligan screams about the ways capitalism and fascism are ruining society today. One of my favorite Hot Mully tracks is “Drink Milk and Run,” which has a similar anti-capitalist message, and that’s a message I think more songs today should have. If you’d ask my wife, she’d pick The Wonder Years here, but this is my blog, and I’ve gotta go with Hot Mulligan for this pick. Again, just crazy that we’re even having this discussion.

Best Comeback

The Starting Line

Runners-up: Motion City Soundtrack, Boys Night Out, The Format

Let’s start this one off by discussing why I didn’t pick some of these artists as winners.

The Format is one of my cornerstone artists. Their 2006 album Dog Problems is usually my response to the question “What’s your favorite album of all time?” because it brings together so many of my musical interests. I love their new lead single, “Holy Roller,” the title track off their upcoming album, but I haven’t listened to anything else they’ve released for it because I want the album to be as fresh to me as possible when it releases in 2026. I’m willing to put all my chips on The Format, but I think we’re only on the onramp to what they have in store, so I am not going to give them this award in 2025.

Boys Night Out’s comeback is a bit of a dual-edged sword. Yes, I saw a band named Boys Night Out play music this year (twice), but the only original member of the Ontarian band is lead singer and lyricist Connor Lovat-Fraser. When Connor decided to bring the band back (at the recommendation of his therapist, to deal with the trauma of his wife being murdered), the rest of the members did not want to join him in this excursion, so he enlisted a new crew. It’s not entirely a Ship of Theseus situation, but not all the way to an Everclear situation. That being said, it was a ton of fun seeing them twice this year,, and their new song, “100% Ghosts” fucking rips. Given those two different sides of the coin, I can’t give them the best comeback, but I have high hopes for 2026 for the band.

Here’s where it gets contentious. I love the new Motion City Soundtrack album (spoiler alert: I’m going to talk about it more later). My love for this album is noteworthy because I haven’t loved an MCS album since Even if it Kills Me. Everything after that album to me sounds like “just an MCS album,” but this one is different. It’s been 10 years since they put out a new album, and there’s a spark in this one that feels like the band is diving back into their Commit This to Memory or Even if it Kills Me spirit. These songs are equal parts fun and well written, with some of Justin’s best lyrics, in my opinion, in years. I could have given MCS this award if not for the winner of this category.

To expand on what I just said above about The Format, if you were to ask for my top five albums of all time, somewhere in that top five, you’re likely to find The Starting Line’s 2005 album Based on a True Story. After announcing their hiatus in 2008, The Starting Line seemed to be content to be a “special appearances” band. They came around for an anniversary tour for Say it Like You Mean it, played their hometown holiday shows, appeared at festivals, and would even sporadically play new songs at some of these. However, their days as a touring band seemed over. They appeared to be content doing their other projects and working their day jobs, and that was it. Then in June of this year, out of nowhere, we got a new song, an announcement of a new album, and an actual tour. I’ll talk more about the album in a later post, but suffice it to say, the album is gooooooood. The Starting Line is back, and even if they’re not hitting the road as hard as they did in their youth, they still sound amazing, and it’s such a joy to see one of my favorite bands not only getting out there, but doing it as well as they ever did.

Alright, that’s where I think I’ll wrap for today. As I write this first one, I’m shooting for getting these out one per day, but we’ll see. We’re playing it by ear over here.

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