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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.
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