Taylor's Favorites – October 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 4,500 artists on the platform, so pretty much every day, I log in, click “What’s New,” and am 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 from the past month to give people an overview of what I’ve been loving and what they might have missed. 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

🏆 they are gutting a body of water - LOTTO

  • Peel Dream Magazine - Taurus

  • Ribbon Skirt - PENSACOLA

  • Motocrossed - Motocrossed

  • Johnny Football Hero - Contingency Plan

  • Gully Boys - Gully Boys

  • Rocket - R Is For Rocket

  • Zach Romeo - Little Action

  • Stay Inside - Lunger

  • Parts Work - Parts Work

  • Broken Record - Routine (Review)

  • The Wonder Years - No Closer To Heaven (10th Anniversary Edition) (Review)

  • Weatherbox - The Compass

  • Bummer Hill - Don’t Ask Me What These Songs Are About

  • villagerrr - Tear Your Heart Out (Deluxe Edition)

  • Bay Faction - Bay Faction (acoustic)

  • Camp Cope - Live at Sydney Opera House

  • Destiny Bond - The Love (Review)

  • Jim White - Inner Day

  • Disasterpiece - It Follows (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Deluxe Reissue)

  • Dikembe - King

  • Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion (10th Anniversary Edition)

  • Modern Baseball - MOBO Presents: The Perfect Cast LP feat. Modern Baseball (30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition)

  • Flycatcher - Wrench

  • Joyer - On the Other End of the Line…

  • Scarlet Street - NO ALTERNATIVE

  • Militarie Gun - God Save The Gun

  • Dazy - Bad Penny (Review)

  • Jay Som - Belong

  • Wild Pink - Dulling The Horns (Deluxe Edition)

  • Trace Mountains - Into The Burning Blue (Deluxe Edition)

  • Cusp - What I Want Doesn’t Want Me Back

  • Snocaps - Snocaps

  • Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo - In The Earth Again

  • Saintseneca - High Wallow & Supermoon Songs

  • Avec Plaisir - Active Listening 

  • Hemmingway Lane - Arcadia 

  • Camp Trash - Two Hundred Thousand Dollars 

  • Customer Service - If You’re Here, You Must Be Fine

  • Her New Knife - chrome is lullaby:re

Favorite Songs

🥇 Heart To Gold - “Double Vision”

🥈 Parts Work - "Trenton"

🥉 Stay Inside - “Super Sonic"

  • Friendship, More Ease - “Free Association - More Eaze Remix”

  • Wild Pink - “Bonnie One - “Alternative Version” (Review)

  • Ben Quad - “Painless”

  • Spanish Love Songs, Kevin Devine - “Cocaine & Lexapro”

  • Spanish Love Songs, Tigers Jaw - “Berlin"

  • My Morning Jacket - “How Could I Know (Oxen)”

  • Momma - “Cross Your Heart"

  • Horse Rider - “Payphone”

  • Hammydown - “Outside”

  • Skullcrusher - “Living”

  • Annie DiRusso, Samia - “Back in Town - Stripped”

  • Gliterer - “Stainless Steel”

  • This Is Lorelei - “Name the Band”

  • Parts Work - “Trenton"

  • Tiberius - “Painting of a Tree”

  • Future Teens - “Adjust Failure”

  • Default Friends - “Poppers”

  • Insignificant Other - “In Parking Lots”

  • Camp Cope - The Opener (Ten Minute Version)

  • foamboy - “SUMMERING”

  • Mil-Spec - “When The Music Ends 6.52”

  • Agriculture - “Bodhidharma”

  • Sugar World - "In Magazines”

  • Brown Maple - “10 Dollar Garage Sale Keyboard”

  • Oso Oso - “Bad News”

  • Flycatcher - “Down”

  • Squint - “Overslept”

  • Haley Heynderickx & Max García Conover - “Boars”

  • Vagabonds - “Going Somewhere?” (Review)

  • Ekko Astral - “Horseglue”

  • Angel Du$t - “Cold 2 The Touch”

  • Courtney Barnett - “Stay In Your Lane”

  • Parts Work - “No Flowers”

  • Josaleigh Pollett - “Radio Player” (Review)

  • Ratboys - “Anywhere”

  • Keep for Cheap - “Pennywise”

  • Charmer - “Kakariko”

  • The Weather Station - “Airport”

  • Melody’s Echo Chamber - “Eyes Closed”

  • DITZ - “Don Enzo Magic Carpet Salesman”