Taylor's Favorites – May 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

🏆 Alien Boy - You Wanna Fade?

  • Friendship - Caveman Wakes Up

  • Charmer - Downpour (Review)

  • Home Is Where - Migration Patterns (Review)

  • PUP - Who Will Look After the Dogs?

  • Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

  • Arms Length - There's a Whole World Out There

  • Pretty Rude - Ripe (Review)

  • Beauty Saloon - BS (Review)

  • Teens In Trouble, Bat Boy - Split

  • The Wonder Years - Burst & Decay (Volume III)

  • Squirrel Flower - Live at Top Note Theatre

  • Florry - Sounds Like…

  • Abel - How To Get Away with Nothing

  • Earth - WEM Dominator (Live in London NW1, 2016) 

  • Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (10th Anniversary Edition)

  • Knuckle Puck - Copacetic (Remixed/Remastered)

  • Men I Trust - Equus Caballus

  • Time Thieves - Come Home

  • Raue - too scared to explain

  • Color Temperature - …(b-sides)

  • Pelican - Flickering Resonance

  • Mogwai - The Bombing of Pan Am 103

  • Nymphlord - Rough Blue Blanket

  • Pet Symmetry - Big Symmetry

  • Sunday Cruise - Eat My Heart 

  • caroline - caroline 2


Favorite Songs

🥇Charmer - “Linger”

🥈Wednesday - “Elderberry Wine”

🥉Home Is Where - “Roll Tide”

  • Pantheress - “Illegal”

  • Friendship - “Tree Of Heaven”

  • Greg Freeman - “Curtain”

  • Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band - “New Threats From The Soul"

  • Kerosene Heights - “Waste My Time”

  • Hotline TNT - “Break Right”

  • PUP - “Best Revenge”

  • The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - “Beware The Centrist”

  • Why Bonnie - “Fake Out - Bedroom Version”

  • Holy Fawn - “Breath A Lightless Star”

  • Marble Teeth - “Power Bill Blues”

  • Herr God - “Guns In America"

  • Armlock - “Strobe”

  • Alex G - “Afterlife”

  • Hyber - “Waiting For Your Call” (Swim Select)

  • Shallowater - “Angels - Acoustic”

  • Pacing - “Uno! - boombox version”

  • Adult Mom - “Door Is Your Hand”

  • Career Woman, Pacing - “Boyfriends”

  • Liquid Mike - “Groucho Marx” (Swim Select)

  • Minus The Bear - “Hooray (Demo)” (Swim Select)

  • Lorde - “Man of the Year”

  • Dating - “Left Handed Now"

  • Find My Friends - “Call”