Untitled 2025.m3u

A lot can be said about 2025. It was hard, fun, interesting, and chaotic. Thankfully, though, this isn’t a year in review; rather, it’s a year of music in review. I wanted to encapsulate my musical preferences this year in the form of a carefully curated playlist. I hope you enjoy!

Where To Find

You can find the original playlist on Spotify¹. Additionally you can listen to most of it on YouTube and Apple Music via Last.fm².

Playlist Premise

Spoiler alert! If you want to listen to the playlist first without spoiling the intrigue and tracks themselves, do so now.

The playlist premise is rather simple and is as follows:

• Start off slow, go all hopeful and positive, mostly niche indie music.
• Add multiple “sudden emotional pits” to keep things interesting, more so being a metaphorical thing.
• Reach catharsis with some well known songs.
• Rapidly reduce energy afterwards.
• End with something beautiful.

Additionally, I have set a limit for myself: only two (2) songs are permitted per artist, since otherwise playlist would be way too long. Might sound like an easy enough limitation, but it’s really not, it was hard to choose only two songs from artists that I like :c

Playlist Contents

Anyhoo, let’s see what’s actually inside and what I think of each track and why they’re in the position they are in the playlist:

• Music Dealer #1 (MD#1 for short): A friend of mine who suggested be a bunch of banger tracks. If you’re reading this, know that you’re cool asf.
• Music Dealer #2 (MD#2 for short): Another friend of mine who suggested a only a handful of tracks, but deserves a mention nonetheless.

1. Good Morning by gifting guide
   A perfect fit for a first track made by someone I know; starts off slow and calm, then goes all hopeful and positive. Think an alarm clock that starts off your day. I recommend checking it and other songs out on their Bandcamp.
2. On Little Cat Feet by Nightmargin
   A bit less positive and slightly more anxious/confused/lost but still hopeful track from one of my favorite games ever—OneShot.
3. Take Responsibility (Hear Me) by Koa
   Depressing, yet upbeat track with lyrics about a sensitive topic³. First track with lyrics and nice vocals.
4. Loving forever by Azure Comet
   Back to positivity with OneShot-like piano in the start and rather unique instrumental closer to the middle. I recommend checking out other their songs, they’re neat.
5. Background pt. 1 by Koa
   Fun instrumental and angsty lyrics. I recommend checking some other songs from this album.
6. Already Dead by KittenSneeze
   Caught my attention by how unique and intense it is. Don’t mind the fact that it says “FNaF song” on the tin, there’s actually a bop inside. KittenSneeze seems to be a controversial character from what I’ve heard, but I’m not educated as to if it’s actually true.
7. Forgotten by Maebi
   First exceptionally-crafted emotional pit, with this cool noisy/grainy texture. This artist’s other works have a similar feeling to them.
8. Summer’s Gone by Azure Comet
   Song with sentimental lyrics and interesting instrumental. This track was my introducion to Azure’s works. Either it or Weather. Also cover art is cute.
9. Cheerleader by Porter Robinson
   Upbeat, positive, and fun. “Is There Really No Happiness?” from the same album was the first Porter’s track I heard back in 2024, although I didn’t dive any deeper until 2025.
10. Von dutch by Charli xcx
    Preparing the ground for hyperpop. Didn’t know that the music video is this vulgar until I made this playlist,, :/
11. 1999 by Charli xcx
    I just wanna go back, go back to 1999, wanna go back wanna go- ahem, yeah it’s catchy. As funny as it might sound, I found out about the original via a cover by PrinceWhateverer titled 2013.
12. ANGELFISH (loser say what?) by Vylet Pony
    First song by my favorite artist. Aggressive, with nice vocals from Namii, and cool cover art.
13. microchip by Oliver Buckland
    BAHAHAHAHA what the hell was that omggg 😭 It’s like if Gir was a track, he’d sound like this.
14. Nightmare Night by Vylet Pony
    Really liked the way this one sounded for some reason. Drop at 0:40 is cool.
15. What I Want by Gregor McMurray
    Suuuper unique, I don’t think I heard anything quite like this before. Chopped up vocals sound interesting.
16. Killing the Mercy by And One
    Dark industrial German music amongst pony hyperpop? More likely than you think. Very ambient track that tells a story about a guy whose hope ended with a busy tone, and whose execution is sealed by law (i.e. dude is about to sudo shutdown --halt because his loved one cheated).
17. WE ARE SO BACK by availax
    Song by an artist I randomly came across and work of whom I fell in love with. You can listen to their entire discography and it’ll be all peak.
18. U Love It by Sophie Powers
    Something different for a change—dynamic, vulgar slutcore song that I found in one such playlist by someone I met online. Really not my cup of tea, but somehow I liked it??
19. Locals (Girls like us) [with gabby start]: by underscores
    Arms, body, legs, flesh, skin, bone, sinew, good luck. Better part of this album is pretty neat, and then there’s “Johnny Johnny Johnny”, one hell of a track because it has lyrics about no laughing matter⁴, and yet the track itself is a bop that will get stuck in your head.
20. yeah! by availax
    Hyperpop I guess but also I wound’t say it’s really hyperpop? This description applies to “what’s a piano?” as a whole.
21. Lick a Rock: by gifting guide
    Here because of a funny name (not really but it is funny). Has those glitchy vibes of the Portal 2 OST, which I love.
22. Solace by Maebi
    Second emotional pit by the same artist and from the same album as the first. Different texture, similar feeling from listening to it. Recommended by MD#1.
23. Takedown by HUNTR/X
    I couldn’t not add KPDH song considering it’s a 2025 playlist.
24. Lazuli by Artifyber
    Banger upbeat song. My favorite song of theirs, actually. For someone who follows their art it can be surprising that they also produce music.
25. Antonymph - Zizkil Remix: by Zizkil
    I kind of cheated here by including third Vylet song but in my opinion, it’s so so different from the original that it can grant it’s spot as a standalone song. Truly an incredible re-imagination of an already banger song.
26. The Ghost of You by My Chemical Romance
    Song about war, losing loved ones in it, PTSD, and alcoholism as a coping mechanism. Most of this isn’t present in the song itself, rather in a music video, which on it’s own could be considered a cinematic masterpiece. Recommended by MD#1.
27. Ich will by Ramstein
    German classic. Included it here because I learned that my dad used to listen to it and other their songs while beating the crap out a punching bag during his prime. Pretty based IMO.
28. You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison by My Chemical Romance
    Initially I wanted to include “Helena” as a second MCR song, but due to some recent events I decided to substitute it with other song of theirs that I like.
29. That’s My Floor by Magdalena Bay
    Hard to explain but the beginning gives off ENA: Dream BBQ soundtrack vibes. Oh yeah, give the rest of “Imaginal Disk” a listen it’s so surreal and fire.
30. Affection Addiction by VocaloKAT
    Song about lust as an addiction, and trying to “quit” it, only for it to get worse. Recommended by MD#1.
31. Military Fashion Show by And One
    Song about cheating and then regretting it badly apparently?? Second song by And One and it too is about cheating, this time reversed however. Recommended by MD#1.
32. Shotgun Blues by Volbeat
    Song with absolutely peak instrumental and vocals. Like it’s just so damn good. Recommended by MD#1.
33. Monster by Skillet
    Song about trying your best to contain the inner Monster/sin from the world, but not being able to do so for much longer, a thought of which causes pain. Love the deep, manly man vocals.
34. Confronting Myself: by Lena Raine
    One of the many bangers produced for the game Celeste. Goes crazy hard.
35. King For A Day: by Pierce The Veil
    A scream of soul about too much shit going on, being pushed to a breaking point, and finally snapping. Oh and, the vocals are so damn fire. Recommended by MD#1.
36. The Only: by Static-X
    Found this song while playing NFSU, a game we used to play with my dad a couple years ago, which in turn he used to play back in the day.⁵
37. Around the World (La La La La La): by A Touch Of Class
    Another one of them older songs. A cover of “Pesenka” by “Ruki Vverh!”. Good luck not getting this stuck playing in your head for a couple of days :]
38. Toxicity: by System Of A Down
    Chaotic and silly song about ADHD. Cool (hi fellow ADHDers). Recommended by MD#1.
39. The Emptiness Machine: by Linkin Park
    First song by them made since the passing of Chester.
40. Going Under: by Evanescence
    Certified Emo 2000s yeahhh. If I remember correctly it was the first track of theirs that I heard. Also check this out.
41. Numb: by Linkin Park
    One of the most popular and profitable of theirs. Mom recently told me that she used to listen to them, with “Numb” and “In the End” being her favorites, so it’s the main reason why it’s here.
42. Look at the Sky: by Porter Robinson
    Calming down in preparation for the end. Song about person with a creative burnout and imposter syndrome, and how they’re getting out of it.
43. Ballade pour Adeline: by Richard Clayderman
    Closing off with some beautiful piano. Not much of a classical music listener, but doing a little detox from hyperpop every now and then is nice. Recommended by MD#2.

43 songs. 2 hours 24 minutes of playback. Crazy right?

I like the number 43.

Initially this playlist only had 38 songs, but I remembered some more that I wanted to add, so it became that accidentally.

Playlist As a Table

Because why not, plus it has a bit more info.

This section was removed in one of the early edits half a year ago and only added back now due to how annoying tables are to deal with.

Playlist As a CSV

Sure, go ahead, have fun! Make charts, train a Markov chain to pick similar tracks from Anna’s Spotify archive, or just view it in LibreOffice.

playlist.csv • 9.1 kB

Trivia

• Cover for the playlist is fully custom; shot on my old Kodak camera, ruined to look cool, and noised to obilivion. I had to reverse engineer it later in Figma since the initial version was in a very low resolution (300x300px) which wasn’t enough for a 1920x960px banner.
• Initially I spent a long time sorting the playlist by hand to play without stitches with gapless playback and 1s crossfade, but of course it wasn’t feasible, I only managed to do this with 1/3rd of it, the rest? I had no idea how to organize. I however had a very clear goal in mind; start with Good Morning, use Maebi tracks as this cool metaphorical thing, put microchip somewhere unexpectedly, and end with Look at the Sky and Ballade pour Adeline. With this goal I tasked Claude to sort the playlist based on energy values in CSV that I acquired from chosic’s Spotify playlist sorter (it has a lot more values, but energy made the most sense to me), and respect my initial goals that I outlined earlier, and after a couple attempts I had a smooth energy growth with three drops, just like I wanted. Point is, Claude had no say in the creative regard, didn’t pick songs for me, or remove any, and was used solely as a tool for processing existing data. As for the blog post itself it is 100% outlined and written by me. No AI proofreading, no suggestions, no nothing.
• This is not the first time my “music taste” is being mentioned on this blog; I mentioned Vylet Pony in New Era, and PrinceWhateverer in Rewriting My Neocities Website Was Fun!.
• This is my first ever proper playlist.

Conclusion

This project took be quite some time to cook up, but as to blog post it was thrown together in a day, the reason for the rush is that I wanted to finish this to-do item before the end of January—first month of the year—because afterwards it won’t really count as start of the year, and won’t be as cool.

I will likely make a bunch of post publication edits, and when I’m done I’ll let you know here.

2026-02-13: Said edits are now in place. I went over the whole thing and now it’s pretty much a Ship of Theseus. If you have read the initial revision, first of all I’m deeply sorry, and second I’m pretty happy with the way it is right now and it won’t change much, so you can probably re-read it. Or don’t. I might make some more edits but it’s done for the most part.

Sooo yea, first blog post of 2026, exciting huh? Next blog post is in the works but you know how it usually goes, so I won’t promise when it’ll be out or if it will be out in the first place.

Thanks for reading through this huge pile of disjointed words, I hope it was somewhat fun and I’ll see you in the next one. Stay healthy and say your loved ones that you love them.