50 'Can't Miss' Projects from 2025

Introduced by a quick rant

Dec 30, 2025

Every year is a great year for music. If you disagree, you just didn’t look hard enough. Looking is hard though, I recognize that. There’s more music released in one day than you could feasibly listen to in an entire year. Once you get past the top one percent of artists that can assemble a powerful enough marketing push to make sure you’re aware that they dropped, how do you even find out when an album is released? How do you sort what’s highly listenable from the dogwater? Your ears can only take in so much in one day, how do you decide what gets that precious time? I’m putting in work on that front to make those tough decisions a little easier for you. I can’t pretend that I’ll have identical music taste to everyone reading this, but I do reckon that most people could find at least one new artist worth getting excited about in this post. It’s more important than ever to harbor these human to human music recommendations.

It’s no secret AI is rearing its head in a very ugly way for both music making and music discovery. It’s something that’s fairly easy to overlook for casual music enjoyers (which makes up an overwhelming majority). I know many people even enjoy the recommendations pedaled to them by an AI DJ, or will put on an instrumental album while working and not care if the artist is a real person or not. Small features like that may seem innocent enough on the surface, but I fear they’re just opening the door to more dramatic changes in the industry that will have disastrous effects which many won’t realize until it’s too late. Heavy hitter artists that you see on TV and in stadiums all the time will be ok, but as opportunity for under privileged, under connected, and under financed artists gets thinner and thinner, this could wipe out an entire tier of small & mid-range (primarily independent) artists.

Even before AI came into play, you’d probably already be shocked at how many artists you listen to have to have second streams of income, and don’t make the majority of their money off their music. You might not realize that when you’re standing at a sold out show of even thousands of people, there is a decent chance that the artist will be lucky to break even on the show when everything is said and done. All that factored in with the energy consumption, the jobs it takes away from humans, the way our brains just gradually smooth out the less we have to think for ourselves, is this all really worth it? I think we have to keep talking about this stuff over and over or else we could find ourselves looking around at a world where it is too late. It’s more important than ever to support the smaller artist, the undiscovered artist, the artists breaking the mold, the artists not conforming to sounds that are algorithm friendly, and the artists that pour their real human heart and soul into their art.

With that said though, I should note that I’ve decided to still include Spotify links/playlists here for now, which probably sounds backwards with everything you just read. I support everyone who’s canceled their subscription, and especially admire the artists that have pulled their music off of the service while it’s still the king of the streaming world and the easiest way to provide fans access to music. Unfortunetly though, if you’re paying for any streaming service, your money is inadvertantly supporting something bad. This chart breaks it down pretty well, it’s a “no ethical consumption under capitalism” situation. Spotify has certainly shown face in an extra ugly way this year with their ICE recruitment ads, military AI funding, and general push into AI, and deserve all the backlash they’re getting for it. But it would feel a little meaningless for me to preach to people to switch off of it when most competitors are only marginally better. So at least for now I’m going to keep using my account (on the unpaid tier) to make playlists that can connect listeners to new artists, but once you find an artist you like I highly encourage you to take your support off of Spotify by going to a show or buying something off their website. For every artist on these lists that uses it, I’ve linked to their Bandcamp, and purchasing a physical or digital copy there is still the quickest way to get an artist paid. Especially if you wait until a Bandcamp Friday in which the company waives their fee to send 100% of your money to the artist. Purchasing an album once will put more money in the artist’s pocket than if you streamed it a thousand times. So if you find someone you like on this list, please consider following a link. Now let’s get to the topic of this list:

Every year that this blog has been around, I’ve done a list of my 100 favorite albums. I was listening to too much music, and it felt like I couldn’t possibly make anything shorter for fear of leaving stuff out. Those lists certainly included under appreciated gems, but they went side by side with big time projects from major label artists. While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying mainstream commercial music (major artists are obviously capable of making incredible projects after all), I also know none of you really need me to tell you to go listen to them. There may be some vague interest in if any of the big guns crack my favorites list, but I know the reason most people are here to discover new music. It left me falling into a deep and unnecessary thought spiral about what the purpose of my lists (and end of year lists in general) should be.

So with that in mind, I’m starting a new list this year. 50 ‘Can’t Miss’ Projects. It’s so easy these days to miss when a project gets released, with the amount of non-music news to keep up with, coupled with the amount of music being released, it’s a never ending avalanche that can easily leave you crushed in the dark. Aside from discovering new music, sometimes I’ll notice my friends will even miss when an artist they actually really like and keep up with drops a new project because the posts or ads for it never crossed their radar during the rollout! It’s happened to me too! And if it’s happening to someone like myself, who tries to keep up with new music like it’s my second (unpaid) full time job, what hope is there for the rest of you?

So this is a list of projects I fear people may have missed this year, that I think are worth your time to go back and discover. There’s no real definition or criteria here outside of that. Some of it may be artists you’ve never heard of in your life, others may be some more recognizable names with a release that didn’t get the proper attention it should have. Great projects that aren’t getting enough love on other end-of-year lists or are being left out of online discussion (Geese for example, does not qualify). I took careful consideration into what made the cut, and then listed them unranked, in alphabetical order. I think if the 50 projects on this list were the only music you listened to this year, you could walk away thinking 2025 was a great year for music.

I’ll still do a shorter list of my 25 favorite albums of the year, going up later this week. That, combined with this list and my 25 favorite EPs list from yesterday, still makes for 100 projects all together. Playlist at the bottom. Dig in!

50 ‘Can’t Miss’ Projects from 2025!

Death By Algorithm

50 'Can't Miss' Projects from 2025

Introduced by a quick rant

50 ‘Can’t Miss’ Projects from 2025!

listed alphabetically.

ELF. - Alfred.

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap

Recommended For Fans Of: Ghais Guevara, McKinley Dixon, Open Mike Eagle

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

when all is said and done - Amie Blu

Genres: Alternative, Folk, Rock

Recommended For Fans Of: Dora Jar, Hannah Jadagu, Humble the Great

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | SOUNDCLOUD

Someone Should Stop Her - Anna Shoemaker

Genres: Indie, Rock, Pop

Recommended For Fans Of: Hana Eid, Keni Titus, Taylor Swift

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

Super Pedestrian - Annie DiRusso

Genres: Alternative, Rock

Recommended For Fans Of: Ally Evenson, Blondshell, Charly Bliss

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | SOUNDCLOUD

more - anderson hao

Genres: Indie, Alternative, Pop

Recommended For Fans Of: Quiet Light, mimi bay

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

Purity - Anysia Kim & Tony Seltzer

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, Hip-Hop/Rap

Recommended For Fans Of: keiyaA, duendita, Liv.e

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

ISOLA - Ayoni

Genres: Pop, Alternative

Recommended For Fans Of: Lola Young, RAYE, Adele

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

Easy - Bleary Eyed

Genres: Alternative, Shoegaze, Emo

Recommended For Fans Of: they are gutting a body of water, Camps, Big Moth

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

Kids - The Booyah! Kids

Genres: Indie Pop, Synth Pop

Recommended For Fans Of: MICHELLE, Gus Dapperton, Ginger Root

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

jones - boylife

Genres: Pop, Indie, R&B

Recommended For Fans Of: Keshi, Dijon, Mulherin

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | SOUNDCLOUD

fairytales - BxRod

Genres: R&B, Pop

Recommended For Fans Of: Kali Uchis, Take Van, Asi Kemera

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

Cuntry - Cleo Reed

Genres: Folk, Alternative

Recommended For Fans Of: Annahstasia, Maiya Blaney, Joviale

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

Quitter - Comet

Genres: Grunge, Rock

Recommended For Fans Of: Pretty Sick, Glixen, Hole

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

Lust for Life, Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’ - Courting

Genres: Rock, Garage, Indie

Recommended For Fans Of: Sports Team, Squid, Yard Act

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

bender 2 - DavidTheTragic

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap

Recommended For Fans Of: Kenny Mason, Luke Bar$, Niontay

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | SOUNDCLOUD

Pain & the people around me - Deem Spencer

Genres: Indie, Alternative, Hip-Hop/Rap

Recommended For Fans Of: Kelly Moonstone, Zack Villere, London O’Connor

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

Time Flies - dexter in the newsagent

Genres: Pop, Indie, Electronic

Recommended For Fans Of: Natanya, Jim Legxacy, Jae Stephens

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | SOUNDCLOUD

The Lost Tape Vol.3 - dreamcastmoe

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Indie, R&B

Recommended For Fans Of: Kadhja Bonet, Sunni Colón, Deem Spencer

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP

Dirty Harry 2 - El Cousteau

Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap

Recommended For Fans Of: Veeze, Niontay, MIKE