I posted my list of favorite from the first half of 2025 back in July (here). Rather than replicate that list for my full year review, consider this a continuation — the best songs from the second half of 2025.
Permission, Alex Wong featuring MILCK (from the Shamus Records release Permission)
“Permission” is a defiant sing-along anthem that crescendos to a glorious and cathartic conclusion. Wong delivers a wonderful and empowering rallying cry about claiming the right to be heard:
Scream it out loud
let your voice crack
cut through the silence
take it all back
you can take up space you don’t have to wait for it to be given
You have permission.
Billionaire, Kathleen Edwards (from the Dualtone Records release Billionaire)
Edwards celebrates the memory of a late friend with a song that frames grief as overwhelming love—so abundant that, if it could be spent like money, the singer would be a billionaire.
Speechwriter, Joelton Mayfield (from the Bloodshot Records release Crowd Pleaser)
Joelton Mayfield captures the unease of living someone else’s script on “Speechwriter,” a pulsing anthem that questions whether the surface of success masks a life that was never really your own—crystallized in the narrator’s admission that he’s not sure he likes his odds after being told he was “born a success.” The song erupts into bursts of Neil Young and Crazy Horse intensity, small revolts against all those inherited expectations.
Like a Rembrandt, Julianna Riolino (from the MoonWhistle Records release Echo in the Dust)
Riolino portrays a disintegrating relationship through the striking metaphor of art abandoned in an empty museum, wrapping that melancholy in an unexpectedly catchy, sing-along melody.
Dreams, Jade Bird (from the Glass Note Records release Who Wants to Talk About Love)
Don’t let the soaring, melodic brightness fool you—this glorious pop song carries heavy emotional weight, wrestling with the cruel paradox captured in its central question: “Is this what dreams are made of / being so in love you can only break their heart?”
Wait For Us To Be Home, John Calvin Abney (from the Tin Canyon Records/Well Kept Secret release Transparent Towns)
A slow-burn confession of a life worn thin, “Wait For Us to Be Home” turns restlessness into a simple, aching wish to get back to steady, comforting surroundings and the refuge of a loved one. A final musical swell doesn’t resolve the tension so much as amplify it—like the desire for home finally overflowing.
Pride Is a Gun, Bird Streets (from the Plastic Dreams Records release The Escape Artist)
A bracing self-reckoning, the song confronts mistakes made out of pride—and the futile wish for an “undo” button on the choices that changed everything. Its musical anxiety intensifies the exasperation, like regret pacing the room with nowhere to go. Bird Streets’ sharp, wry pen lands a perfect gut-punch with a nod to The Who—“Hope I die before I get old” recast as “the funniest joke anyone ever told.”
For the First Time, William Prince (from the Six Shooter Records release Further From the Country)
“For the First Time” begins in hushed restraint before erupting into cathartic release, Prince’s voice leaping an octave as swelling strings and wailing slide guitar transform a meditation on his father’s death into visceral, devastating power. It’s a masterclass in musical tension that finds transcendence in its raw honesty.
I Leave Everything To You, The Swell Season (from the Masterkey Sounds/Plateau Records release Forward)
Markéta Irglová’s moving piano ballad looks back on a life lived—with experiences good and bad alike—and frames it as the legacy she’ll leave behind; the understated beauty of her voice makes every line land harder.
Blue, Malin Pettersen (from the Die With Your Boots On Records release Wildflower)
Pettersen tells the classic tale of someone who’s quick to say “I know how you feel” until they’re finally forced to live it themselves, set against an upbeat, uplifting melody. The juxtaposition makes the song that much more potent.
Another Planet, Will Hoge (from the self-released Sweet Misery)
Will Hoge delivers an unbridled rock song that captures the disorienting aftermath of a breakup, where you’ve lost not just the relationship but your entire center of gravity: “How lonely would the ocean be in a world without a moon?” Best played loud.
Minefields, Travis Roberts (from the New West Records release Rebel Rose)
If Will Hoge’s “Another Planet” is a rock song set at 10, Travis Roberts’ “Minefields” cranks it to 11. Furious guitars and a pounding rhythm give the song a nasty edge and raw anxiety as he tries to escape the memories of a failed relationship: “Memories and minefields, I tip-toe just trying not to step on one.”
Division, West Texas Exiles featuring Kelly Willis (from the Floating Mesa Records release 8000 Days)
A classic Texas breakup song with a gentle, folksy sway, it chronicles a relationship’s unraveling through the grim math of splitting up a shared life. Its gut-punch comes in the he/she call-and-response, with his “keep the shit you know I bought” met by her “exhausted from the years we fought.”
It’s a Big Old Goofy World, Session Americana (from the self-released Where We Are)
Session Americana transforms John Prine’s quiet, restrained gem into a freewheeling hoedown, adding horns and infectious energy that turns the song’s goofy wisdom into pure, unfiltered fun. Where Prine whispered his truth, Session Americana invite it to dance.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.