Despite the year having 27 days left to go, we have collectively decided that December doesn’t count.1 It’s Spotify Unwrapped season, and friends on Instagram have been either sharing why Spotify is evil or their favourite tracks.
Thankfully, I don’t need to worry about alienating either side because my streaming tastes are far too embarrassing to be divulged. Instead, I have curated a list of interesting tracks that represent my year. Enjoy!
✡️ January
January is a good time for getting cosy and watching movies. I was underwhelmed by Nosferatu and The Brutalist in the cinema, but had a good time watching Heretic at home. I particularly enjoyed the mini-TED talk that Hugh Grant gives comparing religions to songs and kept coming back to The Hollies’ The Air That I Breathe, which is the template—the Judaism—for Radiohead’s Creep (Christianity) and Lana Del Ray’s Get Free (Islam).
👨🎤 February
I visited London in February for the first time in years and had a great time seeing it with fresh eyes. It allowed me to be a tourist and do things like visit the place where the cover of Ziggy Stardust was shot. My favourite song on the album is still the first song.
🎻 March
Tindersticks came to Glasgow in March and delivered a sublime set of melancholy songs.
💋 April
Ahead of seeing Ian Leslie talk about John Lennon and Paul McCartney (check out his playlist), I revisited The Beatles for an entire month. Here is a demo, included by Leslie, that led to the band being rejected by Decca.
📺 May
A new Adam Curtis documentary is always a treat, not least for the soundtrack, and Shifty was a brilliant return to form. Here is a classic theme tune to an old TV show (Vendetta) and Curtis’s The Mayfair Set.
💄 June
I didn’t see Oasis in 2025, but I did catch Morrissey and Pulp. While Morrissey’s songs are still great, and it was incredible to hear How Soon is Now live, the atmosphere at the gig was less fun. Both Pulp’s fans and set were exuberant.
🏛️ July
I have been listening to more classical music this year and particularly enjoyed a playlist that a fan made for Lindyman.
🎤 August
I generally prefer audiobooks to podcasts, which are too ephemeral, too slapdash. This year, I particularly enjoyed Strangers and Intimates by Tiffany Jenkins. Alas, Spotify only gives users 15 hours of audiobooks a month. When this happens, you can listen to albums of stand-up comedy. There’s a lot of Stewart Lee and Norm MacDonald on there.
🍝 September
Unfortunately, I missed Spaghetti For Brains’s Charles Mingus listening session during Govanhill Festival, but did greatly enjoy listening to the album itself.
🦒 October
My interest in Geoff Dyer led to me to see him in Edinburgh back in June. His new book is good on bands like Hawkwind, but it is his avant-garde improvised jazz recommendations that I enjoyed most. The Necks’ new triple album, Disquiet, is mesmerising.
🚘 November
One of my favourite genres of music is what we might call Ballardian driving music. I didn’t drive much in 2025, but when I did I listened to this Atrocity Exhibition playlist, which includes interviews with James Dean, speeches by JFK, recordings of Freud, and music by people like Steve Reich:
🐦⬛ December
The month has barely begun. Who knows what we’ll discover in the next few weeks? But I did have a great time watching Game (John Minton, 2025), a new film set in the rave era produced by Geoff Barrow from Portishead and starring Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods.
🎧 Bonus
One of the few podcasts that I regularly listen to is Strange Exiles and I was thrilled to be a guest last week:
Some people have noticed: