Lee’s Favorite Songs of 2025 — A Playlist

It is again time, on my birthday, to give you all a present: a playlist of my favorite songs of the previous year. These are not necessarily the best songs from 2025, but they are my favorites. All through the year, I put songs I like into a folder. At the end of the year, I had more than 10 hours of music that I had to narrow down to a manageable amount of music. It was heartbreaking having to eliminate so many great songs.

I had four absolute, unbreakable rules in making this playlist:

1. All songs must have been released in 2025
2. Only one song per artist is allowed on this list
3. Cover versions and re-release/archival songs are not included here but will be on separate playlists, to be released tomorrow and the next day
4. I can fudge any of the absolute, unbreakable rules I want, because this is my damn playlist.

The list is not in order of my favorites. I do not have particular favorites among the songs on the list. I love all the songs. They are sequenced for your listening pleasure. Enjoy the Playlist!

1. Rosalía – Mundo Nuevo. Rosalía is the great Spanish singer, rooted in Flamenco music, but singing in a variety of styles. This song is from “Lux,” the album of the year, brilliant and surprising. Rosalía sings in 13 languages and in a wide range of styles, from opera to Kate Bush-esque. The whole album is great, and it was hard to pick just one song for this playlist. But I love the sweep of Mundo Nuevo, which fuses a Middle Eastern, flamenco flavor with soprano diva vocals.
2. 13^th Ward Social Club & Nadri Brown – Cool Cat. 13^th Ward Social Club is one-man-band Justin Catoni from Providence, Rhode Island. He makes upbeat instrumental music with lots of brass that ranges from “psych-rock, samba, jazz, afrobeat, and Holy Week processional hymns.” His varied musical interests are indicated by his choice of cover songs:  from Buena Vista Social Club/Compay Segundo to Fela Kuti. In this song, Catoni is joined by Nadri Brown, a Brazilian immigrant living in Chicago.
3. Margo Price – Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down. The great Nashville country/americana artist sings a song of defiance against the shitty powerful people we have to deal with in this shitty world. We need her energy and defiance in these shitty times.
4. The Cords – Fabulist. The band is comprised of two Scottish teenaged sisters. I am a sucker for this combination of loud guitars and sweet melodies. Very catchy.
5. Mavis Staples – Beautiful Strangers. The venerable Mavis Staples – soul legend, gospel great, prominent activist, and national treasure – continues to make great music at 86 years old. Her 2025 album “Sad and Beautiful” was produced by Brad Cook, who also produced records by Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, and Nathaniel Rateliff. The song “Beautiful Stranger” was written in 2016 by Kevin Morby as a protest song in remembrance of the Paris 2015 attacks, Orlando 2016 shooting, and death of Freddie Gray. Staples’ version is gentle and full of grace.
6. Keren Ann – La Sublime Solitude. The great Dutch-Israeli-French singer and songwriter Keren Ann, releases her 10^th album. The moving song “La Sublime Solitude” is the album opener, a celebration of spending time by yourself.
7. Joe Ely – Adios Sweet Dreams. We lost Joe Ely this year. Ely was the great Texas singer-songwriter, who started singing with his pals Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock in the more-a-legend-then-a-band The Flatliners. He went on to open for the Clash and sing with Bruce Springsteen, Uncle Tupelo, Los Super Seven, The Chieftains, James McMurtry, The Clash, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, and Guy Clark. Raised in Lubbock, Texas, Ely followed in the footsteps of fellow native son Buddy Holly. Elly released 22 studio and live albums over 38 years, including 2025’s great “Love and Freedom.” This song tells the moving story of two Mexican immigrants who come to the U.S. to make a better life for themselves. But the “land of the free” is not what was promised to them, and the narrator laments the loss of his sweet dreams and his love Maria, who was separated from him on the journey north and may be dead.
8. Laufey — Lover Girl. Who would have predicted that a 26-year-old Icelandic singer would have huge hits with her Gen Z peers with songs in the sound of early 1960s pre-rock singers like Julie London, Jo Stafford and Dinah Shore, perhaps the least cool music ever? Not me. But Laufey writes great songs and has a great sound, and her music is catchy. She is one of the few artists (along with Rosalía and Beyoncé) that my 21-year-old child and I love equally. 
9. Patty Griffin – Back at the Start. The great singer-songwriter Patty Griffin released her 12^th album this year, and it is another winner. Griffin got her professional start in Boston in the 1990s and I started loving her music from her powerful first album Living with Ghosts. She has long-since relocated to Austin, Texas (shout out, Johnny Hartigan). Griffin’s voice has changed since her battle with cancer. Her voice lost some of the intensity it used to have, but has picked up a weathered grace. Griffin’s new record “Crown of Roses”, is consistently great. It was another record where I had a hard time picking only one song for this playlist.
10. Michigander – I’ll Be OK. The Kalamazoo rock group channels 1970s-style rock. Michigander is led by vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist frontman, Jason Singer.  They get extra points for the Michigan connection.
11. Annahstasia – Tether. Annahstasia released her debut album in 2025, and is hard to classify. It is an R&B folk album, somewhere between Tracy Chapman and Sade.
12. Romeo Santos, Prince Royce – Dardos. The two biggest stars of Bachata music release their first album together. If you don’t know Bachata, which originated in the Dominican Republic, picture a beefy, macho guy, singing sophisticated delicate dance music in falsetto. Their joint record “Better Late Than Never” is uniformly great, all worth a listen to.
13. Ashley Monroe – There You Are. Monroe is one of my favorite country singers, and 2025 album “Tennessee Lightning” is another compelling entry into her body of work. You may also have heard Monroe in the country supergroup Pistol Annies with Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley.
14. Julieta Venegas – Tiempos Dorados. Venegas is a Mexican singer, songwriter, keyboardist and accordionist living in Buenos Aires. She is known for indie pop-rock. Venegas released this great song in 2025, and we hope for a full new album in 2026.
15. Durand Bernarr – Unspoken. Bernarr has sung backup vocals for Erykah Badu, Anderson.Paak, and Kaytranada, among others. His fourth album BLOOM was released in 2025 and has been nominated for several R&B Grammy awards. It won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist, honoring musicians who use songs, music videos and live performances to accelerate LGBTQ acceptance. 
16. Julian Lage Et Al – Talking Drum. This funky instrumental is a release from jazz guitarist Julian Lage’s upcoming album, due on January 23. It also features John Medeski, Jorge Roeder, and Kenny Wollesen.
17. John Gorka – Particle or Wave (Solo Acoustic). I have been a fan of acoustic singer-songwriter Gorka’s music since the mid-1980s, when he was part of the Fast Folk collective with Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin and others. This 2025 song has a simple but important message: “there is goodness in the world.” I have turned to this song for solace many times this year to help cope with the hard times we live in.
18. Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu. Ethiopian jazz percussionist and the father of Ethio-jazz, recorded his last album “Mulato Plays Mulato” in 2025 before his retirement. You may know his music from the Jim Jarmusch movie Broken Flowers.
19. Robert FinIey – I Wanna Thank You. Seventy-one-year-old blues, soul and gospel singer Finley hails from Northern Louisiana. His 2025 album “Hallelujah! Don’t Let the Devil Fool Ya” is the most recent Finley album produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.
20. Rodrigo Bezerra – Sonhar Sonhar. I really don’t know much about the Brazilian songwriter, singer, guitarist and producer Rodrigo Bezerra. This song is from his ninth album (I think). I do know that I like this song quite a bit.
21. Shinyribs – Shitty Music. “I don’t wanna hangout with anyone who listens to shitty music.”  These are words to live by. Thank you, Kevin Russell, frontman for the Austin, Texas group Shinyribs, for your wisdom.
22. iLe – Un Amor de la Calle. In a year with so much great Latin music, the album Como Las Canto Yo by iLe may be my favorite (but what a Sophie’s choice!). The record is full of haunting boleros, and Puerto Rican iLe sings her heart out.
23. Trombone Shorty and the New Breed Brass Band — Line Em Up. Kick ass brass band music, New Orleans style. Try to stay still to this one – you can’t!  From New Orleans Trombonist Troy Anderson, aka Trombone Shorty, and the New Breed Brass Band from their great 2025 album Second Line Sunday.