Arts & Entertainment

Ethan’s top 7 songs of the year

Ethan Bohnert, Staff Writer

November 18, 2025

Ethan’s Top Songs of 2025

7. Fame is a Gun – Addison Rae

There is a lot of music I enjoy that I don’t mention in polite company; nobody needs to know just how much Car Seat Headrest I have listened to in my life. However, this year was the first time I wished a certain someone didn’t make good music because, unfortunately, former Tik Tok dancer and “bad bleep, uh” Addison Rae has made one of the best pop songs of the year.

After her disastrous first few attempts at releasing original music, Rae has attempted a rebrand towards the cigarette smoking, cool girl chick that has been so successful for artists like Charli XCX and Lana Del Rey. She doesn’t quite stick the landing, however, with her lyrics being largely vapid, especially compared to her inspirations, but “Fame is a Gun” is so catchy it makes up for all of that. If you want a hit of sweet, sweet electropop goodness, it doesn’t get much better than this.
6. Rope (Away) - Swans

Swans is one of those bands where if you have only briefly listened to their music, you would think that people only pretend to like them. The closing track on their most recent album “Rope (Away)” is doing nothing to change that reputation. With a runtime of over 20 minutes, a majority of which is lyricless and without discernable song structure, “Rope (Away)” is the perfect choice if you want to get permanently banned from auxillary. However, it is also one of the most beautiful soundscapes ever put to tape. The first 15 minutes of the song are built around a constant low drone that is fleshed out as more and more instruments get added to what eventually becomes a swirling cacophony of noise. It’s a beautiful shimmering pool of a song, that to fully enjoy, you need to throw your ideas of what a song can be out the window and just allow yourself to sink into it.
5. Kevlar – Ghost Mountain

For most people aware of their work, the names “Semetary” and “Ghost Mountain” function as punchlines. They began working together in 2019 and ever since that fateful day, they have been crafting some of the most polarizing and sometimes genuinely unlistenable music of the last decade.

However, “Ghost Mountain’s” recent debut solo mixtape strays away significantly from the distorted, garish production that has become synonymous with Semetary’s beats, while still being produced almost entirely by him. Gone are the black metal samples and harsh, blown-out vocals resulting in a much more atmospheric and melodically focused sound.

Kevlar isn’t necessarily the best example of this, with the dense barrage of drums, but it was hard for me to pick a song off this mixtape and this was the one that best demonstrates Ghost Mountain’s ability to write incredible vocal melodies. It’s a fun, harmonically interesting, easy to sing along to joyride of a song.
4. Love Takes Miles – Cameron Winter

Technically, this came out at the very end of last year, but I didn't get to put it on my 2024 list, and this song really deserves it and also, it's my list so shut up.

Cameron Winter is one of the best songwriters of the 2020’s and he deserves to be put in that conversation purely due to his recent solo debut album “Heavy Metal” the best song on which is “Love Takes Miles.” A huge chunk of all popular music is about love, but very few are able to capture the nuances of the experience of falling in love like Winter does.

The instrumentation is soft and tender; brushed drums, and several layers of acoustic guitars provide the perfect accompaniment for the agonizingly sincere lyrics. It truly is one of the most beautifully written songs I’ve heard in a long time, and one of the few that tell you to work for your love without passing judgement. “You better start a-walking, babe. Love takes miles.”
3. Professional Vengeance – Jane Remover

Jane Remover’s recent album “Revengeseekerz” is an album shaped by the internet and the overwhelming amount of sheer culture that we are being bombarded with at all times. On the record Jane samples the death noise from fortnight, a scream from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and of course the same glass breaking sound effect that rears its head multiple times per song. She takes those noises and mixes them with a flurry of electronics and drums to create dense walls of sound leaving nothing for you to focus on but the thumping groove of the songs. Although, Professional Vengeance isn't the best example of this on the album, it is definitely the most fun. It is catchy and danceable, and overwhelmingly noisy. Listening to Professional Vengeance will be some of the most fun you have listening to music all year, if it doesn’t give you a headache first.
2. Elderberry Wine – Wednesday

There is something so charming about the wave of alt-country that has been coming out recently, and Wednesday’s new album is one of the best examples of this. Wednesday songs are a scrapbook and the things they choose to take pictures of are relatable and evocative without really saying anything all that meaningful, but to those who spend their time being bored and aimless in the mid-west they bring out such a distinct, visceral feeling. Driving to the airport with the e-break on, grocery store sushi, crying at commercials and smoking shitty weed are all things that make me smile and think about a person or moment that I relate those things to.

If what passed as entertainment for you in high school was a Walmart parking lot, you'll get a lot out of Wednesday.
1. Double Trio 2 – By Storm

In 2021, Injury Reserve released their album “By the Time I get to Pheonix” and in so doing jumped years ahead of what anyone else was doing in the world of experimental hip-hop. Now in 2025 they have returned with a series of singles that have done the same thing yet again.

“Double Trio 2” is a sequel to a single By Storm released when they announced the new name back in 2023 and uses the same sample but to a much different effect. Wild and bombastic, “Double Trio 2” blasts you consistently with horns and stuttering drums that sound almost out of time. These drums in tandem with Ritche’s kilter flows make for a song that feels like it’s lurching forward uncontrollably. This is Hip-Hop's equivalent to free jazz, and it's incredible.

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Ethan Bohnert, Staff Writer

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Rodney Cupp • Nov 21, 2025 at 3:42 pm

“Rope (Away)” is a weird pick for a list of top songs, but it’s good to see the Swans getting some love.

https://thewaynestater.com/27178/arts-and-entertainment/ethans-top-7-songs-of-the-year/#comment-364