Taylor’s Favorites – February 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 I enjoyed. 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

  • 🏆Caroline Rose - year of the slug

  • Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table

  • Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On

  • Ian Huschle - Algae Days

  • Art d’Ecco - Serene Demon

  • Haunt Dog, better living. - 5th Wave Disaster

  • My Own Desert Island - Spinning Around the Sun, Though My Feet Still Touch the Ground

  • A. Lee Edwards – Interpreting Heart Sounds, Vol. 1

  • Customer Service - to you, after 2000 years

  • Casper Fight Scene - S/T

  • Anxious - Bambi

  • you, infinite - you, infinite

  • Runaway Brother - What You Need


Favorite Songs

🥇 Friendship - “Free Association”

🥈 Colin Miller - “Cadillac” 

🥉 (T-T)b - “Sugar in the Raw”

  • Waxahatchee - “Mud”

  • Chastity Belt - “That Guy”

  • phoneswithchords, Nick Webber - “I’m finally out from under the clouds.”

  • Laura Jane Grace - “Your God (God’s Dick)"

  • hey, nothing - “Barn Nursery”

  • Adult Mom - “Door Is Your Hand”

  • Pet Symmetry - “Big Engagement”

  • Vulfpeck - “New Beastly”

  • Arms Length - “Funny Face”

  • 5ever - “Cupid’s Chokehold, Pt. 2”

  • Ezra Furman - “Grand Mal”

  • Ben Kweller, Waxahatchee - “Dollar Store”

  • Addison Rae - “High Fashion”

  • Rookie Park - “Untitled”

  • Sleigh Bells - “Bunky Pop”

  • Tiberius - “Sag”

  • Patterson Hood - “The Forks of the Cypress"

  • Carbite - “Die in Denver”

  • Cryogeyser - “Blew It”

  • Collars - “Polygon”

  • Gravedweller - "Honey Babe”

  • Quinn Cicala - “Corner"