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Another year, another slew of great singles made their appearance throughout our 73 posts of music coverage. If you’re an old school melodic rock and roll fan like me, the jangly, hooky, guitar-centric creativity was off the charts. Sadly, such the jangly, hooky, guitar-centric creativity was off the conventional music charts as well. That’s why we don’t rely on trade mags or corporate radio to tell us what’s top of the pops, we make up our own charts. Now, let me be clear, if I wrote about a song this past year I thought it was great, full stop. We’re an ‘all-positive, all-the-time’ kinda shop around here. So what you have in this post is recap of 50 songs that burned just little more deeply into my psyche this past year. Click on the hyperlinks to hear each of the songs and read the original write ups.
Enough stalling, here are Poprock Record’s top 50 should-be hit singles from 2025:
1. Keyside “Rock My Love”
2. Strange Neighbors “Beer at the Bar”
3. The What Four “Quarter to Midnight”
4. The Lemon Twigs “I’ve Got a Broken Heart”
5. The Sonny Wilsons “Maybe”
6. Pony “Superglue”
7. The Cords “Just Don’t Know (How to Find You)”
8. HOA “Don’t Be A Loser”
9. Tamar Berk “you ruined this city for me”
10. Banda AL9 “California”
11. Martin Luke Brown “To Be a Man”
12. Eytan Mirsky “Lost You in the Jetstream”
13. Grant Lindberg “In My Own Way”
14. Jaime Orr “Somebody Like You”
15. Force Model “How Can One Girl Be So Sad”
16. Log Flume “December’s Ending”
17. Rich Chance “Azelea Close”
18. The Bret Tobias Set “It Begins With Lean”
19. The Memories “Too Weak to be Strong”
20. Death By Unga Bunga “I’m Really Old”
21. Softjaw “I Need You”
22. The Spindles “Getaway”
23. Brett Newski and the Bad Inventions “Narrow Escapes”
24. Chris Church “She Looks Good in Black”
25. Japanese Breakfast “Magic Circuit”
26. Tristan Armstrong “The Lonely Avenue”
27. The Super True “Right Here”
28. The Needmores “Lookin’”
29. Oehl “I Love You”
30. Sally Spitz “Tag Your Sign”
31. Sorry Monks “I Know What’s On Your Mind”
32. The Mayflies USA “Calling the Bad Ones Home”
33. The Geezers “Modern Days”
34. Lolas “Work is the Blackmail of Survival”
35. Tom Henry “Close Your Eyes”
36. The Jeanines “What’s Done is Done” / “On and On”
37. The Tummies “Send Me A Picture”
38. Movie Movie “After Hours”
39. Tony Marsico and the Ugly Things “Goodbye to Lonely Town”
40. Chris Stamey “Anything is Possible”
41. Jim Trainor “Nothing”
42. Hidden Pictures “Wedding Singer (Going Through a Divorce)”
43. Liquid Mike “Selling Swords”
44. Zombies of the Stratosphere “If You’re Into It”
45. Daisy House “The Seducer”
46. The Invisible Rays “I Don’t Dream of You”
47. Nicky Koro “Dreamin’”
48. Pouts “Stay Awhile”
49. The Mommyheads “It’s Only Life”
50. The Berries “Lie in the Fire Again”
My top five this year were real head-turners. Liverpool’s Keyside show the city has still got the fab vibes. Strange Neighbors turned out killer tunes for the second year in a row. The first I heard of The What Four’s “Quarter to Midnight” I was hooked by its adrenaline-soaked beat. The Lemon Twigs have pretty reliably produced should-be hits over the past few years but there was something about “I’ve Got a Broken Heart” that just hit all poprock marks. And from way back early in 2025 I was struck by The Sonny Wilson’s unique sound. No maybe about it. I could go on about the other 45 songs here but you can get the dirt from the original posts by clicking the hyperlinks.
Next up, Poprock Record’s most inventive covers from 2025:
1. The Half Cubes “Whenever You’re On My Mind”
2. Sofa City Sweetheart “Waltz #2 (XO)”
3. Marshall Crenshaw “Never To Be Forgotten”
4. Mike Browning “Lost In Conversation”
5. Chaparelle “I Want to Dance with Somebody”
The Half Cubes put out another amazing album of covers and really outdid themselves but nowhere more strongly than on their cover of an early Marshall Crenshaw classic. Sofa City Sweetheart teased us this past year with an impressive rendering of Elliott Smith’s “Waltz #2.” Not an easy tune to take up. Marshall Crenshaw pulled together a host of songs for a new album, including a cover of a Bobby Fuller Four gem. And then we have Mike Browning covering an obscure Canadian track and Chaparelle countryfying a song everybody knows.
Well, there you have it, some great songs that deserve another shot across your attention span. Click the links for the original posts and revisit just how good 2025 was to us on the single file.
Photo courtesy Carbon Arc Flikr collection.
Marshall Crenshaw has long been my fave solo artist. Why MC? Maybe it was the glasses – he looked kinda smart and rock and roll. But what first caught my attention was the 1000 watt hook lighting up Field Day’s first single, “Whenever You’re on My Mind.” Has anyone recorded a more perfect seven seconds of poprock intro? I don’t think so. But then I’ve always been a sucker for a stunning lead guitar line – stuff like the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” and “Day Tripper” or the Church’s “Unguarded Moment” and Big Country’s “In a Big Country.” But it’s more than just hooks that makes Crenshaw a poprock legend, there’s something about his songs that can always toggle the joy and an involuntary smile from me. And it’s all there with his combination of 1950s Buddy Holly and Everly’s roots, Beatlesque melodies and a 1980s new wave/indie delivery.
With ten albums, six EPs, and a host of one-off singles, compilation contributions and covers there’s plenty of Crenshaw to choose from. What follows is just my whirlwind and idiosyncratic take on a pretty fabulous and inventive career. Now to begin, let’s be clear that MC’s first two albums, the self-titled Marshall Crenshaw and Field Day, are pretty much poprock perfection. I shouldn’t single anything out – these records are nonstop ear candy. I’ll say this much, you can dance to “She Can’t Dance” while “One Day With You” is a masterclass in melodic songcraft. Funny, though I first heard MC via Field Day’s initial single, I didn’t pick up the album until years later. Problem was, as an older release (by one year when I first heard it!) the damn record never went on sale at my local retailer.
The first Crenshaw album I really got into in real time (i.e. when it was released) was Downtown and it remains my favourite, mostly for sentimental reasons. I bought it and played it non-stop in my first one-room apartment in Vancouver’s West End. It was both a declaration of adult independence and – thematically, with its retro 1960s Warner Brothers vibe – a strong link to my parents’ record collection. The album rocks on tracks like “Right Now,” “Little Wild One,” “Terrifying Love,” and “(We’re Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds” while Everly-ing the hell out of “Vague Memory” and “Lesson Number One.”
From then on I’ve pretty much picked up every EC release as soon as they hit the shelves and never been disappointed. If you’re just starting out, here would be my picks from each to get you into the groove. From 1987’s Mary Jean & 9 Others I’d drop the needle on “Mary Jean” and “Calling Out for Love at Crying Time.” You really get a sense of Crenshaw’s mastery of the hooky lead line here. 1989’s Good Evening is hard to make choices over given its exquisite, dynamic mix of originals and covers. Personally I love “Someplace Love Can’t Find Me,” “She Hates to Go Home,” and “On the Run” but really I feel like I’m choosing which limb to hack off because every song here is pretty special. In 1991 MC left Warners for MCA with Life’s Too Short. In interviews for the record Crenshaw talked about the work he put into extending his guitar technique and it showed on should-be hit singles like “Delilah,” “Fantastic Planet of Love,” and “Don’t Disappear Now.”
And then Crenshaw left the major label scene altogether for the relative freedom of more independent releases, first with Razor and Tie and then with his own 429 Records. Since then he’s moved in some new directions musically but always offered up some melodic poprock gems, like “What Do You Dream Of?” and “Starless Summer Sky” from 1996’s Miracle of Science, or “Television Light” and “Right There in Front of Me” from 1999’s #447. In the new millennium there’s been “A Few Thousand Days Ago” from 2003’s What’s in the Bag? and “Long Hard Road” from 2009’s Jaggedland. #395 is MC’s EP collection from 2015, a kind of quasi-album at 14 tracks, and it sees Crenshaw back in excellent form with “Moving Now,” “Front Page News,” and a killer Bobby Fuller cover “Never to be Forgotten.”
Just to prove my MC cred, here’s snap from my past featuring my unique bachelor apartment decor! Ok, this is actually my second apartment (circa 1987) but if you look up in the far right corner, you’ll see the Billboard magazine ad/poster for MC’s debut LP that appears above on the wall! Photo credit: James Koester.
What started out as a home demo B-side has gone on to become one of Marshall Crenshaw’s most enduring and widely covered songs! Crenshaw recalls that “You’re My Favorite Waste of Time” was written while he was still employed playing John Lennon in the off Broadway production of Beatlemania, and that it was one of his very first forays into songwriting. Marshall’s version of the song – still the definitive treatment IMHO – has him playing all the parts in his New York City apartment home studio in 1979, despite being credited on the 45 to the ‘Handsome, Ruthless and Stupid Band’ when released as the B-side to “Someday Someway” in 1982. Cover versions have emerged at regular intervals since then. What draws people to the tune? No doubt it’s Crenshaw’s unmistakable, unforgettable vocal hook in the chorus that gives the song its classic and timeless poprock sound.
Bobby Fuller’s untimely death in 1966, just as his career was taking off, deprived popular music of his unique Buddy Holly-meets-British Invasion sound and clear songwriting promise. Case in point: “Let Her Dance,” an ear-wormy, hook-rich masterpiece. The song contains a brilliant juxtaposition of musical tensions that pull between the beat, lead guitar line, vocal melody, and some inspired background- vocal counterpoint. No wonder it’s been covered by countless bands, each choosing to balance the competing elements in somewhat different and intriguing ways. Today’s post explores that variety with a “Let Her Dance”-a-thon. Get your dancing shoes ready!
Where to start? With The Bobby Fuller Four, of course. Though here fans may not know that “Let Her Dance” was actually a rewrite of an earlier Fuller release, “Keep On Dancing.” IMHO the rewrite improves things considerably but compare for yourself below. Now, confession time: the first version of LHD I heard was actually by Marshall Crenshaw from his 1989 Warner’s swan song album, Good Evening. Marshall is a huge Fuller fan, describing him as his “favourite rock star ever to be murdered by gangsters.” More seriously though, at a South by Southwest Bobby Fuller panel session, Crenshaw called the group “…one of the great rock ‘n’ roll bands,” insisting “[t]hey did what they did with so much conviction and energy. Those guys really knew what Fender guitars were for.” In addition to LHD, Crenshaw has covered Fuller’s “Julia,” “My True Love,” and “Never To Be Forgotten.” And Crenshaw’s LHD is a loving homage, fattening up the opening guitar, spacing out the vocal parts, and adding a nice echo-y bit to the bridge. Compared to the original, all that’s missing is Fuller’s heavenly wall-of-background-vocals.
Poprock Record 