Taylor's Favorites – December 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

🏆 This is Lorelei - Holo Boy 

  • Merce Lemon, Fust - Cup of Loneliness / Choices (Review)

  • Seer Believer - Make a Wish

  • Pickle Darling - Crumple Zone

  • Melody's Echo Chamber - Unclouded

  • Dove Ellis - Blizzard

  • Ness Lake - Normal Speed (Review)

  • Smoke Detector, Field Rush - Smoke Rush 2016

  • Yo La Tengo, Jad Fair - Strange But True

  • xiexie - zzz

  • Merce Lemon - Audiotree Session

  • Tercel - Tercel (Review)

  • Adebesi Shank - This Is the Christmas Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank (Review)

  • Duncan Troast, Charlie Martin - music for 2 pianos

  • Brown Maple - if we were never friends

  • HEALTH - CONFLICT DLC

  • Cherished - Cherished


Favorite Songs

🥇 Dove Ellis - “Love Is"

🥈 Ratboys - “What’s Right?”

🥉 Red Sun - “Slayce"

  • Bay Faction - “2”

  • Dove Ellis - “Jaundice"

  • Parkway & Columbia - “Regular Signs” (Review)

  • Scary Monsters - “Golden Road Alabama”

  • ManDancing - “Never Try”

  • Abel - “Doom Cycle”

  • Ness Lake - “Deserving"

  • Sweet Pill - “No Control”

  • cootie catcher - “Straight Drop”

  • Worry Club - “Fade Away”

  • Ferris Wheel Regulars - “Wires Cut For Two”

  • Draag - “Miracle Drug”

  • J Mascis - “Say It On”

  • Remember Sports - “Cut Fruit”

  • This Is Lorelei - “But You Just Woke Me Up”

  • Soft Kill - “Honey Pack”

  • Peaer - “Bad News”