2025 Midyear Recommends

In last week’s Swim Select, I broke format to talk about one of my favorite songs of all time, and this week, I’d like to keep things broken to celebrate the fact that we’re exactly halfway through the year. 

Just yesterday, we published a roundup of the Swim Team’s favorite releases from the past few months, and in keeping with that train of thought, I’d like to share some of my favorite records of 2025, as well as what I’ve been listening to most. First up, here’s a collage of my favorite albums of the first few months

Caroline Rose - year of the slug. A quietly brilliant collection of songs that you can’t find on any streaming service. These tracks are an exercise in restraint, recorded directly to Garageband off a phone and constructed mostly with just Rose’s voice and a guitar. Like if Nebraska was made by someone with access to green hair dye. Read more here.

Ribbon Skirt - Bite Down. Dreamy and darkly groovy indie rock from the Anishinaabe group that captures the betrayal, confusion, and displacement of modern life. No two songs on this record sound the same, but walk the listener through a grungy post-punk landscape that feels like a mirror of the world we’ve come to know. Read more here. 

Michael Cera Palin - We Could Be Brave. It’s easy to clown on this band for their name, but their debut full-length is everything I could have ever asked for. Compelling emo perfection that explodes with anxious energy, but keeps the bigger picture in the back of its mind. Plus, I’m a sucker for a 12-minute closing track. Read more here.

Colin Miller - Losin’. Having played with or recorded most bands in the extended Wednesday musical universe, Colin Miller steps into his own on this harrowing record about losing a father figure and a home at once. The riffs are dusty, the choruses swell, and everything comes together in a compact release that feels like going through your dad’s old keepsakes. Read more here. 

Friendship - Caveman Wakes Up. Funny, cutting, and transparently verbose, Caveman is a record that owes a lot to David Berman, but updates that style of indie rock for a more modern audience. Everything is well observed, plainly spoken, and a little broken, making for a beautiful snapshot of life in the modern age. 

Home Is Where - Hunting Season. An ode to the band’s home state of Florida, Hunting Season is the most fully realized Home Is Where release yet. Leaning more into a deep-fried country take on emo, these songs are a love letter to a home that now must be kept at arm’s length. It’s poetic and earnest, harmonica-filled and thrashy. There’s only one Home Is Where. Read more here. 

Swimming - Old. Sometimes, I listen to emo music and feel really old. Other times, the music is so goddamn tight and timeless that I don’t even care that it’s made by people half my age. Old is one of those records; effortlessly catchy and impressive songs from a very not-old Canadian outfit with lots of promise. Read more here.

Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky. I don’t necessarily think there’s anything particularly deep about the new Momma record, but it’s an album that I find endlessly easy to throw on. Pumped-up grungy guitar riffs, sticky-sweet hooks, and honest lyrics make this an easy listen for every daytime drive or afternoon hang. A rock-solid rock record. Read more here.

Here’s the rest listed out.

Here’s hoping the back half of 2025 has just as many rad tunes.