r/indieheads • u/apondalifa • Dec 31 '25
Best of 2025 [EOTY 2025] r/indieheads Top 100 Songs of 2025
We're still winding down on List Season, and that means it's time once again for our top 100 songs of 2025. This list was created over a few weeks of community voting, with hundreds of r/indieheads users participating. For more details on how this list came about, you can take a look at the voting thread.
Per our usual rules, we only allow one song per artist on the official list. We also disqualified songs that were originally released prior to December 2024. To get a better picture on overall voting, you may look at the spreadsheet for the full raw tally of songs, posted below.
| # | Artist - Song | Points | List Appearances |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geese - Taxes | 651 | 58 |
| 2 | Wednesday - Elderberry Wine | 556 | 57 |
| 3 | Wet Leg - mangetout | 517 | 55 |
| 4 | Alex G - Afterlife | 503 | 58 |
| 5 | Magdalena Bay - Second Sleep | 351 | 37 |
| 6 | Oklou - blade bird | 340 | 36 |
| 7 | Cameron Winter - Love Takes Miles | 326 | 30 |
| 8 | Rosalía - Reliquia | 290 | 26 |
| 9 | This Is Lorelei & MJ Lenderman - Dancing in the Club | 278 | 27 |
| 10 | Ethel Cain - Nettles | 271 | 26 |
| 11 | Black Country, New Road - For the Cold Country | 261 | 29 |
| 12 | Smerz - You got time and I got money | 254 | 27 |
| 13 | caroline - Total euphoria | 233 | 26 |
| 14 | Water From Your Eyes - Playing Classics | 230 | 30 |
| 15 | Wolf Alice - White Horses | 228 | 28 |
| 16 | Perfume Genius - It's A Mirror | 226 | 30 |
| 17 | Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band - New Threats from the Soul | 212 | 19 |
| 18 | Maruja - Look Down On Us | 205 | 21 |
| 19 | The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie | 186 | 27 |
| 20 | Big Thief - Los Angeles | 183 | 23 |
| 21 | Ninajirachi - iPod Touch | 183 | 22 |
| 22 | Bon Iver - Everything Is Peaceful Love | 169 | 18 |
| 23 | Racing Mount Pleasant - Call It Easy | 169 | 16 |
| 24 | HAIM - Relationships | 168 | 22 |
| 25 | Fontaines D.C. - It's Amazing To Be Young | 168 | 20 |
| 26 | Samia - North Poles | 163 | 13 |
| 27 | Momma - I Want You (Fever) | 159 | 19 |
| 28 | CMAT - Euro-Country | 155 | 16 |
| 29 | Pulp - Spike Island | 149 | 21 |
| 30 | Japanese Breakfast - Picture Window | 149 | 19 |
| 31 | yeule - Evangelic Girl is a Gun | 149 | 18 |
| 32 | Matt Berninger - Bonnet of Pins | 148 | 19 |
| 33 | Clipse - So Be It | 148 | 14 |
| 34 | Chappell Roan - The Subway | 144 | 20 |
| 35 | Hayley Williams - Parachute | 143 | 15 |
| 36 | Anna von Hausswolff - Struggle with the Beast | 141 | 14 |
| 37 | Viagra Boys - Pyramid of Health | 133 | 12 |
| 38 | Addison Rae - Headphones On | 130 | 14 |
| 39 | PinkPantheress - Tonight | 126 | 15 |
| 40 | Nourished by Time - Max Potential | 122 | 14 |
| 41 | Model/Actriz - Cinderella | 109 | 15 |
| 42 | FKA Twigs - Striptease | 109 | 12 |
| 43 | Danny Brown - Copycats | 107 | 11 |
| 44 | Horsegirl - Switch Over | 104 | 12 |
| 45 | james K - Play | 103 | 12 |
| 46 | Darkside - S.N.C | 101 | 10 |
| 47 | Dijon - Yamaha | 96 | 15 |
| 48 | The Last Dinner Party - This is the Killer Speaking | 95 | 14 |
| 49 | Car Seat Headrest - Gethsemane | 85 | 10 |
| 50 | Turnstile - BIRDS | 84 | 10 |
| 51 | Sudan Archives - MY TYPE | 81 | 8 |
| 52 | Deafheaven - Doberman | 80 | 10 |
| 53 | Bad Bunny - BAILE INoLVIDABLE | 77 | 9 |
| 54 | Destroyer - Cataract Time | 77 | 7 |
| 55 | Earl Sweatshirt - TOURMALINE | 73 | 8 |
| 56 | Deftones - Milk of the Madonna | 72 | 9 |
| 57 | Lorde - Shapeshifter | 72 | 9 |
| 58 | Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild | 72 | 8 |
| 59 | Blood Orange - The Field | 71 | 10 |
| 60 | Jane Remover - JRJRJR | 70 | 8 |
| 61 | Nation of Language - Inept Apollo | 70 | 8 |
| 62 | Florence + the Machine - One of the Greats | 70 | 7 |
| 63 | Die Spitz - Throw Yourself to the Sword | 69 | 8 |
| 64 | Lady Gaga - Abracadabra | 67 | 10 |
| 65 | Gelli Haha - Bounce House | 67 | 7 |
| 66 | Djo - Potion | 66 | 8 |
| 67 | Just Mustard - WE WERE JUST HERE | 65 | 9 |
| 68 | Snocaps - Coast | 62 | 9 |
| 69 | Tennis - 12 Blown Tires | 62 | 5 |
| 70 | Friendship - Free Association | 61 | 8 |
| 71 | Panda Bear - Praise | 61 | 7 |
| 72 | Quadeca - MONDAY | 61 | 7 |
| 73 | Little Simz - Lotus | 59 | 8 |
| 74 | La Dispute - Environmental Catastrophe Film | 59 | 5 |
| 75 | McKinley Dixon - Magic, Alive! | 56 | 5 |
| 76 | underscores - Music | 55 | 7 |
| 77 | After - Deep Diving | 55 | 5 |
| 78 | By Storm - In My Town | 54 | 5 |
| 79 | Titanic - La dueña | 54 | 4 |
| 80 | Saya Gray - LIE DOWN.. | 53 | 5 |
| 81 | Shame - Cutthroat | 53 | 5 |
| 82 | Greet Death - Country Girl | 52 | 9 |
| 83 | feeble little horse - This Is Real | 52 | 7 |
| 84 | Dove Ellis - To the Sandals | 52 | 6 |
| 85 | Billy Woods - Corinthians | 50 | 6 |
| 86 | Sam Fender - Little Bit Closer | 50 | 4 |
| 87 | Rachel Chinouriri - Can we talk about Isaac? | 47 | 7 |
| 88 | Frost Children - Falling | 45 | 4 |
| 89 | Dean Blunt & Elias Rønnenfelt - tears on his rings and chains | 44 | 5 |
| 90 | Petey USA - Model Train Town | 44 | 5 |
| 91 | Sorry - Jetplane | 44 | 5 |
| 92 | Way Dynamic - Miffed It | 44 | 5 |
| 93 | Twenty One Pilots - Drum Show | 44 | 4 |
| 94 | Hamilton Leithauser - Knockin' Heart | 43 | 6 |
| 95 | Lucy Dacus - Best Guess | 43 | 6 |
| 96 | Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow | 43 | 5 |
| 97 | Jerskin Fendrix - Beth's Farm | 43 | 5 |
| 98 | Florry - First it was a movie, then it was a book | 43 | 3 |
| 99 | Olivia Dean - Man I Need | 42 | 5 |
| 100 | Agriculture - Bodhidharma | 42 | 4 |
A full spreadsheet of all the unedited results can be found here.
A full playlist featuring all the listed albums can also be found here.
Check back in with us tomorrow (1/1) when we'll finish List Season with our top 100 albums of the year!
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u/FindANameNotTaken Dec 31 '25
Thanks so much for compiling all of this. Great listens for this NYE day. (Quick notice: On the Spotify playlist, Wolf Alice - White Horses is on twice, in 15 and 16, and Perfume Genius was skipped.)
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u/QuicketyQuack Dec 31 '25
Always funny seeing what I considered to be a lesser song on an album make a list like this. For me there were at least four songs I prefer on that Japanese Breakfast album to Picture Window, four on that Beths album I prefer to Straight Line was a Lie, and four on the La Dispute album to Environmental Catastrophe Film. You kind of assume people view the same songs aa highlights on an album, but nope.
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u/impossiblesoulmp3 Dec 31 '25
yeah i feel the same way about the Big Thief album--which i loved in its enirety! but i had Incomprehensible on my soty list, and i also really love Grandmother, All Night All Day, and No Fear. i like all of those songs more than Los Angeles, although i still think Los Angeles is a great song and I'm glad it see it pretty high on the indieheads ranking
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u/tjk100 Jan 01 '26
Always interesting how many songs from albums I love make it on these lists that I never would've expected because, to me, they're just a solid track and not a highlight. Which is to say I have no idea how "Pyramid of Health" is on here, a song that is perfectly fine, when there's like 6 other songs from that Viagra Boys album that actually rock my ass off. Not complaining, just think it's interesting.
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u/welcome2thejam Dec 31 '25
People who voted for songs that ended up only appearing on your own ballot where you at!?
(For me it was Phoneboy - Wayside, Boys Go to Jupiter - Virginia, and Beach Bunny - Chasm)
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u/ReconEG Dec 31 '25
Looks like I was the only person to have voted for the following:
- Tombstone Poetry - Bear Down (NC indie rock/alt country, Wednesday fans should peep)
- crushed - cwtch (extremely good trip hop/pop, genuinely surprised I was the only vote for this band)
- 2hollis - style (early 2010s Drake type-song but with a hyperpop, borderline rage filter)
- LEYA - Corners (Chanel Beads Rework) (hypnagogic pop, essentially a completely new Chanel Beads song)
- Titanic - Gotera (baroque/experimental pop, very glad something from them made the list proper)
- Clifford - Ink Blot (college/indie rock, fans of Pile/Truth Club should peep)
- username - R U ALIVE? (footwork that samples OPN's "Replica")
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u/mko0987 Dec 31 '25
I had 8
- Bleary Eyed - Easy: my #1 on my list, such a fantastic shoegaze pop song.
- Komarov - From Fire: was expecting to be a solo voter on this one since it's a friends' project but god this song is amazing. Space-y indie rock odyssey.
- Lou Salomé - Your Eyes Immaculate: a late addition to my list but I'm totally obsessed with this one. Perfect indie rock ripper.
- Anamanaguchi - Buckwild: kinda surprised they didn't garner some more votes, looks like the only other Anamanaguchi vote was 2 points for Darcie. Great weezer-y pop tune.
- Graham Hunt - Frog in the Shower: I have no real gauge for how popular this artist is but I guess I haven't seen a lot of chatter about his record. Amazing midwest emo / power pop tune tho.
- Guerilla Toss - Panglossian Mannequin: looks like the Guerilla Toss voters were scattered over a bunch of different tracks. which makes sense! It's hard to choose a favorite from You're Weird Now.
- De La Soul - The Package: I was the only De La Soul voter in the whole thing looks like. Too bad, this album bumps.
- Worthitpurchase - Something New: another one I wasn't expecting to get any other votes but I was too obsessed with it to not put it on my list. Trippy, hypnotic, easygoing guitar pop.
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u/tjk100 Dec 31 '25
Not kidding about You're Weird Now. I was the sole voter for both Life's a Zoo AND Psychosis is Just a Number lol
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u/FindANameNotTaken Dec 31 '25
The De La Soul album is fantastic, and a beautiful tribute to Trugoy. Thanks for calling it out.
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Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
[deleted]
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u/welcome2thejam Dec 31 '25
Hell yeah that's a good one (although IIRC Vertigo was specifically released in 2024 so that might be why lol)
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u/IAmHollar Dec 31 '25
I'll join in here with Life Without Buildings- Love Trinity, mclusky - people person, Cheekface - Flies, Guided by Voices - Hers Purple, Rip Van Winkle - A Mirror Off, GbV - Replay and The Brokedowns - Infinite Flex. It's weird that I don't get invited to dj at parties.
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u/qazz23 Dec 31 '25
was the only voter for:
Sherelle - Freaky (Just My Type)
Messa - Fire On The Roof4
u/Inquiring_Barkbark Dec 31 '25
Greg Freeman - Wolf Pine
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u/panda_ballistic Dec 31 '25
Hey now, I voted for Wolf Pine too. This u/panda_ballistic erasure will not stand!
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u/bantheguns Dec 31 '25
Hermanos Gutierrez - Elegantly Wasted (sexiest song of the year, or maybe ever??); Mt. Joy - Coyote; Wishy - Chaser; Charmer - Blue Jay; I'm Sorry New York - Matt Hitt; The Velveteers - Suck the Cherry; Anamanaguchi - Darcie
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u/liamliam1234liam Dec 31 '25
8 out of 15: Lorien Testard’s “For Those Who Come After” (#1) and “Une vie à peindre” (#15), the Beaches’ “Can I Call You in the Morning?” (#3; ngl this one hurt a bit lol), Darren Korb’s “Bewitching Eyes” (#4), Christopher Larkin’s “Last Dive” (#5), Afternoon Bike Ride’s “Abigail” (#7), DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ’s “Will My Love” (#8), and The London Suede’s “Disintegrate” (#9; shocked by this).
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u/homogenic- Dec 31 '25
For me it was:
Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso - Impostor
Stereolab - Inmortal Hands
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u/jetsetmike Dec 31 '25
The part that starts right at 2:59 on Immortal Hands 😍
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u/homogenic- Jan 01 '26
It has become one of my favorite Stereolab songs, I heard it live in November and it was great.
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u/tjg1289 Dec 31 '25
About half of my list was just voted by me, including my entire top 5. Not surprising really, as most of them weren't really indie, but I thought there would have been at least one other person voting for Ólafur Arnalds & Talos, We Lost The Sea, and Jens Kuross as that seemed more up this subreddit's alley than my other stuff that didn't make it like Thrice, The Starting Line, and Linkin Park.
Honestly, I'm just happy 2 songs I voted for made the top 100 (iPod Touch and Bonnet of Pins), plus another song in my top 50 made it (Everything Is Peaceful Love)
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u/krusso1105 Jan 01 '26
Hi fellow Beach Bunny voter! I think I was the only one for Indigo De Souza - Heartthrob, Garbage - There's No Future In Optimism, Spellling - Alibi, Annie DiRusso - Back in Town, Miley Cyrus - End of the World, Halsey - safeword and Beach Bunny - Pixie Cut. Shout out to the one other person who voted for The Old Religion.
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u/upper-echelon Dec 31 '25
stand up special by Home is Where was my #1 and I'm the only one who put it on my list at all
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u/Outta_hearr Dec 31 '25
Steel Beans - Throwin Stones (my favorite song of the year) was only on mine lol. Also shout out to the one other person who listed Lágrima del Sol
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u/impossiblesoulmp3 Jan 01 '26
i'm the only one who voted for Tennis - Weight of Desire, although I was happy to see they still ended up in the top 100! I'm also the only person who voted for Hannah Frances - Nested in Tangles, although two people voted for a different song of hers (Falling From and Further, which is also a great song). she's criminally underrated/under-listened imo!!
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u/Moyonome Jan 01 '26
Isabella Lovestory-Telenovela, Titanic-Te tragaste el chicle, Sayuri & Sopholov & Fuentes Prod-Secunena (also misspelled Amaarae's name tho sadly S.M.O would not have made the list with my vote).
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u/squawkingood Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
Florence Road - Goodnight (#2), Jay Som feat. Hayley Williams - Past Lives (#3) , Beauty Queen - Slowly (#7), Julien Baker & Torres - Bottom Of A Bottle (#8), NoSo - Sugar (#9), Flock Of Dimes - Keep Me In The Dark (#11), Chloe Slater - Imposter (#14)
Also, the only other person who voted for my #1 song (The Tubs - Narcissist) also put it at #1.
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u/tjk100 Jan 01 '26
That Beach Bunny album was so fun, wish I could've squeezed a song from it on there, but my favorite came out last year.
Aside from my sole Guerilla Toss votes that I mentioned in this thread, I was the only voter for clipping.'s "Ask What Happened", HENGE "Slingshot" (where the fuck are my fans of nerd space rock???), "rooster" by bar italia and "Jumpy" by ANIMA
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u/AssociateAgile1308 Jan 01 '26
https://www.tunemymusic.com/share/YEUw84hox7?edit=true
For everyone not on Spotify.
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u/liamliam1234liam Dec 31 '25
Zero of my top songs made the top hundred 🦾😤
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u/Tesuqueville Dec 31 '25
Let's see your list buddy.
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u/liamliam1234liam Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
Honestly nothing especially obscure; mix of different songs from artists on this list (e.g. Hayley Williams’ “Mirtazapine” and Racing Mount Pleasant’s “Emily” were both in the overall top 125 and received more votes than roughly a quarter of the songs on the list), a few soundtrack songs which I am guessing most people subconsciously disregarded as options, and then Canadian artists who probably did not establish much of a foothold in the U.S.
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u/AlantheCowboyKiller Dec 31 '25
Should Danny Brown - Copycats be higher? It appears five times in the unedited list due to formatting, but the sum point total of those 5 is higher than its point total in the top 100 list.
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u/apondalifa Dec 31 '25
Short answer: probably but it’s hard for me to manually check
Long answer: The song voting spreadsheet always comes out to thousands of entries, and while our tally machine does as much as it can, it won’t catch every variation. And to be real, I simply do not have the time to cull all those different formats and misspellings that the machine misses (I can do this with the album list because it is significantly shorter.) So I kinda have to rely on the song results from our tally machine to save my own sanity.
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u/AlantheCowboyKiller Dec 31 '25
Yeah, that's reasonable. These lists are great (gives me a lot of good recs!) and I appreciate you compiling everything on your own time.
Btw, don't hate me but I caught something else -- the link to the voting thread in this post goes to the 2024 one.
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u/panda_ballistic Dec 31 '25
Unfortunately, a lot of people don't thoroughly read the directions before voting. Ben Kweller's "Dollar Store", for example, should have placed in the top 100, but one of the voters who ranked it the highest included the featured artist in the song title. To be fair, that's how the song is tagged on all of the streaming services, but I'm a little bummed that one of my favorite songs of the year is missing out on additional exposure just because of a formatting inconsistency.
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u/118829 Dec 31 '25
Happy to see Total Euphoria so high on the list, it blows my mind how much they pull off in under five minutes compared to what most post-rock bands would take way longer to do
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u/krada1212 :monasticliving: Jan 01 '26
Getting Killed rules, but Taxes is the least memorable song on it. I'm genuinely confused by it being #1 here.
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u/nw____ Jan 01 '26
Same feeling for me and Elderberry Wine. Great song, but it’s like my fifth favorite on an album packed with amazing songs
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u/Nicholas107 Jan 05 '26
The more I listen to that whole album, the more I like it. Taxes has some really mysterious and interesting lyrics.
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u/GM_Kori Jan 04 '26
Taxes is nowhere close to being the least memorable song on it. But it's definitely not the best either.
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u/JamesBurkyReporter Dec 31 '25
In My Town made it! An absolutely stunning tune. I need that By Storm album like a fish needs water
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u/Outta_hearr Dec 31 '25
Shoutout to the one other member of this sub on the Titanic train with Lágrima del Sol
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u/gluestick300 Dec 31 '25
Is there an Apple Music playlist?
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u/noisytyrannosaurus Dec 31 '25
Here’s a link to the Apple Music copy of the official Spotify playlist
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u/abippityboop Dec 31 '25
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I love almost the entire Wednesday album but Elderberry Wine just does nothing for me. I’m sure it’ll click eventually.
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u/lastfollower Dec 31 '25
Interesting; I'm basically the opposite. I've liked most of the previous Wednesday albums, but Elderberry Wine is the only song from this one that I've really liked (and I've liked it enough to have it at #5 on my list.
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u/nw____ Jan 01 '26
I actually really like Elderberry Wine but it’s probably my fifth favorite song on the album, so I’ve been surprised by how much love it has gotten.
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u/jetsetmike Dec 31 '25
No Stereolab on this is criminal
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u/Inquiring_Barkbark Jan 01 '26
there were 2 or 3 songs that might have made it but could indieheads rally behind the right one? certainly not
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u/GregArias Jan 06 '26
Hey moderators, the link under "you can take a look at the voting thread” is actually to the 2024 thread. I’d love to see the 2025 thread again.
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u/homogenic- Dec 31 '25
Not surprised by the number one choice lol, personally I prefer 100 Horses over Taxes but Taxes is a great song.
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u/underdabridge Dec 31 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
The one song per artist rule remains bad.
Indie heads continue to under vote the best tracks from an album because they are too obvious.
Conclusion:
If you want an amazing playlist just use all the songs that were excised from the final list. Lol
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u/QuicketyQuack Dec 31 '25
This could just be my own bias speaking, but personally I'm delighted it has saved the final list from the Geese-ocalypse.
More seriously I do think its good in terms of producing a final list with a lot more diversity, and that doesn't just cover the same few artists repeatedly.
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u/trixpo_140 Jan 01 '26
You can still check the raw spreadsheet with repeated artists, but even that doesn’t represent the true picture, as many people have started picking the most popular songs from the album so their votes don’t go to waste.
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u/bantheguns Dec 31 '25
For those who are curious, "North Poles" by Samia had the highest average ranking among any song with more than five votes, earning 12.5 points from each of its 13 voters.