I'm always fascinated by New Zealand and interested to hear the bands from there, going back to Split Enz and the Chills up to contemporary acts like the Beths. Balu Brigada is two brothers from Auckland who haven't released a full-length yet, but "So Cold" hit #1 on alternative radio and crossed over to pop radio, and they opened Twenty One Pilots' world tour. And given the way the alternative charts have been clogged up with these boring established bands like Mumford & Sons and Cage the Elephant, it's exciting to get some new blood that write good songs. Here's the 2025 singles Spotify playlist I update every month. 

A few days after I named Ella Langley and Riley Green's "You Look Like You Love Me" my favorite country single of 2024, it became the year's first and only country radio #1 by a woman (and even then, obviously, a collaboration with a more established male singer). And Langley's follow-up single is really great too, shows she can do something a little more melodic and sultry.  

Another second hit that I really like from someone who broke through on country radio last year, although I still feel like as a pop artist who broke through with a country song, there's still a strong chance that Dasha's best long term prospects are as a pop artist. In any case, I like her voice. 

Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons signed Benson Boone to his label, and Benson is, like Reynolds, an ex-Mormon and BYU dropout, which seems like a very specific cultural thing they've tapped into (Benson's upcoming tour has three Salt Lake City dates, so I get the sense Mormons don't mind that he doesn't currently identify as a Mormon). And Boone, like Imagine Dragons, has become extremely successful in an extremely uncool way, although I feel like a lot of people didn't really have any clue who Boone was until that Grammys performance. "Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else" is a bit more uptempo and new wave-y than his most popular stuff, and just him choosing to launch his sophomore album with a song that sounds like this has endeared him to me a little bit. 

When Justin Moore released his album This Is My Dirt last year, Dierks Bentley guested on "Time's Ticking," but Moore released a solo version of the song that's now a charting single, which is something that seems to happen sometimes in country, like Bentley's label didn't clear his version for a single release because he has his own song out, who knows. In any case, I kind of like the song better with just Moore, there's nothing about the lyric that really lends itself to being a duet. 

"Birds of a Feather" is a constant presence on Top 40 radio, it actually increased in spins last week, but the song that follows is on Hit Me Hard And Soft has also made a good follow-up single. It's not quite as good as "What Was I Made For?" but her slow songs have really grown on me, she really knows how to get a big, compelling sound out of her voice without singing loudly, kind of an interesting talent. 

It feels like we only get one or two big R&B wedding dance/line dance-type hits per decade, and things like DJ Casper's "Cha Cha Slide" or V.I.C.'s "Wobble" took years to become staples, so it's kind of fun to see something like "Boots On The Ground" become a phenomenon in real time -- releasing this just before Beyonce started the Cowboy Carter tour was a really smart move on his part, whether or not he had any idea she'd incorporate it into her show. 

This was never one of my favorite songs on GNX, and it still isn't, really, but I was curious to see if anything from the album would pop off after those first three hits were inescapable the last few months. And "Peekaboo" is growing on me, it definitely feels like the right contrast to those songs. 

I really liked just about every BigXThaPlug I'd heard until he recently released his first top 10 hit, "All The Way" with country singer Bailey Zimmerman, which feels like he's really just speedrunning to have a crossover hit when he was doing a great job building a regional fanbase. So I'm glad that he's still also working one of the better songs from Take Care to rap radio. 

I don't mind Jack Harlow being a pop rapper who understands what his lane is and works the heartthrob angle, but god he always says such embarrassing shit on these songs, what the fuck.