You’re about to faint again
2025 Mix 4: Unreliable babe narration, lots of Eurovision hopefuls, a song of the year last year that I'm dragging as a mantra into this one, and the mystery of pervasive Yuri placement solved
Seems like folks in my various internet orbits are getting their sea legs for whatever this year wants to bring us. The first song this week, Samantha Crain’s “Ridin’ Out the Storm,” technically came out at the end of ‘24 and it was my major find from the recently completed Peoples Pop 2024 poll. It just got re-released as part of a 2025 single/EP/whatever despite a solo release back in November, so I’m counting it as a mantra for this year on year-of-impact grounds, just like how Chappell Roan crashed the Pazz & Joppish Expert Witness albums poll.
Speaking of Chappell Roan, I finally came around to “Good Luck, Babe!” being a good song full stop. The key for me was to tune out a reading that presumes the narrator is reliable in describing the facts (as opposed to the feelings) of her situation, good faith acceptance of which makes the song not only righteous but also right. I realized that when I’m actually listening to the song, I don’t trust this narrator—she very well might be righteous and wrong—and that’s what makes the song good. (Taylor Alatorre at the Singles Jukebox had this reading, but I didn’t notice or didn’t absorb it at the time.)
When I let myself just enjoy the character at the center in this way, a lot of other elements of the song that I disliked click for me: the snotty opening (“it’s cool”), the clueless “sexually explicit kinda love affair” bit shoehorned in like the Lonely Island got a cowrite for some reason, the painful stretch to soprano in the chorus with its slightly unhinged feel, the vocal-shredding venom in the bridge—all of it fosters such a palpable sense of insecurity. She needs to be right about this, which is why you can’t fully trust that she is.
If the singer were, say, Lindsay Lohan in “I Live for the Day” (as Frank Kogan recently suggested would be a good analogue) or—as I eventually realized, with no little discomfort, one source I was hearing in that final “I TOLD YOU SO!”—Eminem in “Kim,” any analysis of the song’s power would have to acknowledge the desperation of the fantasy.
The upshot is that there’s no way to be certain who’s lying in the one line we’re given from the other side: “you say it’s just the way you are.” It may well be that the narrator is the one telling the truth, that saying this is just a delusion, an excuse, a “stupid reason.” (If the reason isn’t a lie, though, it doesn’t seem very stupid to me.) But I think while granting that comphet justifiably provides a very large hammer in this situation, you also have to recognize the bloody-minded pursuit of the nail.
Previous 2025 Mixes
1. Samantha Crain: Ridin’ Out the Storm
US
I’m new to indigenous singer-songwriter Samantha Crain, but she’s not new to the country and Americana scene, so I’m happy to have a 15-year back catalog to get to know after being smitten with this one: her lines overlapping on themselves casually as the band rollicks on and the storm rolls in.
2. Julia Michaels, Maren Morris: Scissors
US
An interesting specimen of post-“Say So” pop, missing only one ingredient to take it over the top beyond “enjoyably competent”—being less straight.
3. Willow Avalon f. Maggie Antone: Yodelayheewho
US
4. Mackenzie Carpenter: Dozen Red Flags
US
Two keepers from a January Don’t Rock the Inbox roundup. I’ve resolved to make a more concerted effort to keep up with country this year — it is, after all, one of America’s only remaining forms of genuinely regional-seeming music, which I suspect is one reason why it’s been so successful in the last few years of A-pop contraction.1 But of course I mostly like the stuff that hasn’t made the Trap Daniels transformation, which is to say the stuff that’s subtler and playing less for global reach and, hey, would you look at that, is usually made by women (DRTI informs me that women currently make up about 8% of the country charts). But these selections do at least get me some yodeling yuks and a decent post-Miranda Lambert kiss-off that takes Lambert’s pivot to “El Scorcho” stop-start (almost fifteen years ago!) as seriously as it deserved then and now.
5. TINNA: Þrá
Iceland
This starts a six-song suite of Eurovision hopefuls. I shared some of my favorites last week, and I hope that Eastern European darkness sans novelty distancing breaks through; I was surprised at how seriously the Polish and Estonian entries from last week took themselves as contemporary pop. The only two entries from last year with that sort of ambition were Marina Satti from Greece (who will appear next week) and Angelina Mango from Italy. This one is not really a novelty but it also isn’t aspiring to something beyond Eurovision, a safe road that most Iceland hopefuls this year seem to stick to (have no idea who might make it through). But it does have a country music feel to it that’s even more obvious in the English version (“Words”).
6. FIÏNKA: Культура
Ukraine
7. GRISANA: Kohoney
Ukraine
Was hopeful for FIÏNKA making Eurovision in 2023, and am now hopeful she’ll make it in 2025 with an even better song. She seems to be in a good position, but who knows. The best Ukrainian song in competition, though, was GRISANA’s “Kohoney,” which didn’t make it to the Ukrainian finals. (Despite the cowgirl accoutrements, it is not meaningfully engaged with country, ditto the imagery in the Spanish entry “Bésame” by Carla Frigo, which has haystacks and horseback-riding but no country music influence to speak of.)
8. Lachispa: Hartita de Llorar
Spain
The Spanish song to beat this year, and probably my favorite, though it’s close with Mel Ömana below. Starts wispy, then unexpectedly explodes into a chorus wail with much more firepower than you might be expecting. Makes me wonder if anyone in America could pull off that range.
9. Tautumeitas: Bur man laimi
Latvia
The Latvian knuckleheads from 2022 who brought you “Instead of meat, I eat veggies and [censored]” (Citi Zēni) have another entry this year that sounds like Miranda! and I’d bet will be competitive. But my heart is with this women-in-the-woods art-folk sextet.
10. Mel Ömana: I’m a Queen
Spain
Down-the-middle Spanish-language pop here with no extra frills, which is why I think Lachispa might have the edge. I would be thrilled if everything in the competition this year was, you know, good-good, not just Eurovision-good. But Eurovision-good is good, too! And to be honest, I might have paused on this one if I came across it in the wild anyway. Was my kids’ favorite of the ones I played them.
11. Yuri: Ushirojikan
Japan
Patrick St. Michel helps me solve a mystery about how Yuri, an up-and-coming star in Japan, eluded me until I did my year-end stats round-up and discovered I’d featured her three times. One reason is that her work is split between two profiles on Spotify, as Yuri and yuri. It wasn’t until I searched her YouTube that I connected the discographies. This might be her best song to date, with production from pop and vocaloid producer Sasuke Haraguchi, whom I’ve featured twice before. (Weirdly, the song title written in Japanese characters is in her capital-Y profile and the title written in English characters is in her lowercase-Y profile.)
12. Karen y Los Remedios: Las Muchachas (Mexican Institute of Sound Remix)
Mexico
Mexican art-pop remixed into Mexican artier-pop via an electronica producer, described as “existential cumbia” and more or less lives up to the phrase.
13. Qing Madi: Akanchawa
Nigeria
Post-Tems Naija-pop blissout — this one has the easy flow of “Love Me JeJe,” forgoes the glassy impenetrability that sometimes afflicts Afrobeats for something smaller and more charming, sounds like it could be nothing or could be enormous.
14. Roland Clark: First Time I Met Deep
US
Longtime deep house producer whose previous foray into “deep” as character (“I Get Deep”) got sampled in Katy Perry’s “Swish Swish” (the slowed-down rap at the start). His previous work was sampled a few times in Fatboy Slim, and there’s a well-known previous single, “The First Time” (“The first time I met house…”) that this is a riff on. As far as I can tell this song was first released in 2024 and is being officially released in 2025, but there is also a “remix” of the song that first appeared six years ago, so I must be missing something. But it’s mostly a nudge to check out the discography.
15. Son of Ika f. Jamokay, Machala Sango: Obodo Robodo
Nigeria
Another interesting midpoint between Naija pop and cruise, has the frenetic accompaniment clattering in the background but a sunny group chorus on top.
16. Singom f. Rila: Fecc Noël
Senegal
Senegalese pop that that is technically a Christmas holdover but doesn’t scream yuletide, cares more about the the fecc (dance) than the noël.
17. Marki f. Sofía Mora: Ojos negros
Argentina
Starts as the sort of soft art-bossa that I am a predictable sucker for, with Marki’s busker croon on the borderline of being a deal-breaker. But then it breaks pop and brings in a ringer vocalist. Strong choice.
18. Matmee Marisa: คงเป็นเพราะ (Why)
Thailand
Hate to be the “guy who has only seen Boss Baby” tweet with mid-aughts confessional music but, uh, I got some mid-aughts confessional vibes from the singer on this one! Was pleased to see that the video has been captured on a clunky millennial camcorder, probably in an attempt to leapfrog the aughts and hit the ‘80s, as everyone does nowadays. But they were mining the ‘80s back then, too—just ask Kelly Osbourne!
19. 艾薇 [Ivy]: 安全下船
Taiwan
Taiwanese singer Ivy seems to have lyrics to match the fun she sounds like she’s having throughout—“Idiot, can you please get to the shore quickly?”—even though my computer is stubbornly translating the title as “Safe Disembarkation” (I think maybe “Safe Landing” gets at it?). But when it counts most the words eventually make way for little vocal cut-and-pastes and operatic whoops that steal the spotlight.
20. 鳥居れな [Rena Torii]: Porsche on 8th Street
Japan
A sprightly waltz from a Japanese singer-songwriter that has a little Marit Larsen in its pretty, busy arrangement (yes I am also the Boss Baby tweet for Marit Larsen). Eventually tips into corny jazz-pop, not unsuccessfully.
21. Eileen Yo游宇潼: 關於我失眠的某三個夜晚
Taiwan
More Taiwanese pop, downtempo jazzy trip-hop with enough personality from Eileen Yo and stylistic switch-ups to keep it from blanding out into mood music, even if the culminating crescendo climax at the end doesn’t feel entirely earned.
22. N NAO: Corps
Canada
Minimal Montreal electroclang, like Little Dragon with a fainter pulse.
23. Yumiko Morioka, Takashi Kokubo: Gaiaphilia
Japan
The first inclusion from Mr. Cubicle’s ongoing songs of the year, an eclectic crop of songs to beat the band—or at least to include in my playlist haul, hopefully remembering to give it attribution as I go. I know that Monsieur Cubicle has incorporated one of my own mix-missers, which I’m sharing over on Bluesky as the year progresses: the unforgettably named Twoosty Mayonez (hm, maybe that should have gone in this slot?).
I went with this eight-minute new age instrumental with water noises that are mixed just high enough to go beyond white noise machine and hit Pavlovian bathroom response. I thought it might be soothing to listen to this while driving, but it ended up making me extremely anxious, so I switched back to “Sigma Boy.” I think maybe I don’t know how to relax? Subject for future research and/or diagnosis. But who has the time!
***
That’s it! Until next time, RELAX (don’t do it) (…er, no, not like that).
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title translated from 艾薇 [Ivy]: 安全下船 [Safe landing] (“你又快暈爆”)
Another major regional export — and one that it is more distinctively regional in how it operates within the US, too — is hip-hop, which has been global way too long to have a clear sense of its uniquely American regional currency. In fact, the way hip-hop has finally been metabolized by country music (the 2010s trap variant, anyway) makes it seem as if America itself was the last remote nation to figure out something they literally invented.