The Complete Swim Selects of 2025

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At the beginning of 2025 I was listless, jobless, and unsure of what the year would bring. In a desperate bid for some sort of agency, I instituted Swim Selects, an alliterative weekly column that allowed me to highlight a recent song or new release I had been enjoying. 

I committed myself to sharing a fresh piece of writing every Tuesday, and the result was extraordinary. This weekly cadence has allowed me to talk about many of my favorite bands throughout the year and capture my thoughts in a relatively fresh state. I couldn’t overthink things or psyche myself out. No matter what happened, I wanted something to go up every week, so it kept me regular and honest. Now I can look back at this list of songs and remember where I was each week, which is a pretty special experience. 

On top of these weekly selections, I would compile my favorite songs, EPs, and albums into one big bullet-pointed list at the end of each month. In my mind, these were for anyone too busy to be checking streaming services for new music every day, but also served as helpful reference points to look back on throughout the year.

All of this was in service of sharing new music I was excited about; that’s pretty much always the goal. While Swim Selects will continue in 2026, I expect this portion of the site to take a slightly different shape as I find equilibrium in a new job, new apartment, and new life. Lots of change, but that’s when you need routine the most. 

To put a button on 2025, I’d like to collect all of this year’s Swim Selects in one place as a very specific sort of year-in-review. It’s really remarkable to look back and see this list in sequential order, ‘cause it really starts to feel like time travel. Also, I’d like to shoutout to the handful of writers who jumped in for Swim Selects of their own, sometimes as pinch-hitters during a busy week, other times just coming to me with cool music they wanted to highlight. 

Below you’ll find every Swim Select of 2025 in sequential order, including all the monthly roundups sprinkled throughout. If you’re interested in seeing everything in one place, you can hear all the music Swim Into The Sound covered this year in this playlist right here. That’s over 48 hours of great music, and I’m excited to see what comes our way in 2026. 

The Swim Selects of 2025

Thanks for keeping up with Swim Selects in 2025, here’s to another year of great new music in 2026.