Taylor's Favorites – April 2025

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There’s new music coming out constantly, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up. 

Since January of 2021, I’ve been creating monthly playlists with the sole purpose of housing new music. Say what you will about Spotify (and I have); the platform is at least good at showing you new releases from artists you follow, thanks to its robust social-media-like system. I’m currently following over 4,000 artists on the platform, so pretty much every day, I can log in, click “What’s New,” and be met with a steady scroll of fresh music. This is a double-edged sword because it feels like new songs materialize each day to sweep away the previous ones. For that reason, I started creating these playlists to keep track of all the latest music that’s on my radar as it comes out. 

In previous years, I’ve also used a note on my phone to jot down my favorite songs and albums. Each month, I’d crown one record as my favorite, adorning it with a little trophy emoji, then list a bunch of other albums, EPs, or splits that I liked. I’d do the same thing with songs, shouting out three of my favorites with similar wayfinding emojis and then listing any other tracks I enjoyed that month. It’s fun to condense hundreds of hours of music down to a shortlist of things I’ve been obsessed with, but I also hope there’s utility in it for friends who might not be keeping up with new releases in the same obsessive way. 

I’ve decided to publish both of these elements as a new regular feature within Swim Selects. Each month, I will publish this list of my favorite albums and songs to give people an overview of what I’ve been loving. On a related note, it’s probably worth stating that these are definitively my favorites, so the list is often biased, emo, and far from comprehensive, but hopefully it gives you at least one or two new things to check out. Anyway, onto the music. 

Favorite Albums

🏆 Ribbon Skirt - Bite Down (Review)

  • Colin Miller - Losin' (Review)

  • Lily Seabird - Trash Mountain

  • Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky

  • Bon Iver - Sable, fable

  • Avery Friedman - New Thing (Review)

  • Craig Finn - Always Been

  • Truth or Consequences New Mexico - This Time of Year (Swim Select)

  • Rodeo Boys - Junior

  • Collars - Half Life (Swim Select)

  • Samia - Bloodless 

  • Beach Bunny - Tunnel Vision 

  • Heart Attack Man - Joyride The Pale Horse

  • Wishy - Planet Popstar

  • Adeline Hotel - Aquarium Drunard Lagniappe Session

  • Babe Rainbow - Slipper imp and shakaerator (Review)


Favorite Songs

🥇Colin Miller - “Birdhouse"

🥈Friendship - “Resident Evil”

🥉Florry - “First it was a movie, then it was a book”

  • Collars - “Posturing”

  • Lilly Seabird - “Arrow”

  • Bon Iver - “Day One”

  • Lorde - “What Was That"

  • Momma - “Last Kiss”

  • Hotline TNT - “Julia’s War”

  • PinkPantheress - “Tonight”

  • HAIM - “Everybody’s trying to figure me out”

  • Ben Kweller, The Flaming Lips - “Killer Bee”

  • Home Is Where - “Migration Patterns”

  • Charmer - “Blue Jay”

  • Wet Leg - “Catch These Fists"

  • Raue - “Are You Bored Yet?”

  • Craig Finn - “Fletcher’s”

  • Avery Friedman - “Finger Painting”

  • Colin Miller - “Lost Again”

  • Greet Death - “Country Girl”

  • Alien Boy - “Pictures of You”

  • phoneswithchords, Color Temperature - “black lung”

  • shy kids - “you know i love you already”

  • illuminati hotties, PUP - “Wreck My Life”

  • Addison Rae - “Headphones On”

  • Dance Myth - “Little Bird”

  • Greg Freeman - “Point and Shoot”

  • Worry Club - “Anything Else”

  • HAIM - “Down to be wrong"

  • Craig Finn - “Luke & Lenna”

  • Tunde Adebimpe - “The Most”

  • Avery Friedman - “Biking Standing”

  • Colin Miller - “Little Devil"

  • Young Thug, Future - “Money On Money”

  • Abel - “Loathe”

  • Car Seat Headrest - “The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man)”

  • Hotline TNT - “Candle”

  • Indigo De Souza - “Heartthrob”