Getting towards the end of the year over here at V&V (and apparently everywhere else), and so it seems appropriate (like everywhere else) to post some favorites of the year. Here, in really no order, are some of my favorites of 2025.
Now, note these are not “Bests, 2025.” I have not consumed all the media that was created in the past year, and I do not have the faculty to even judge these things on any semblance of objective scale. No, these are merely favorites. Things I liked, perhaps some more than others.
Music
Tunde Adebimpe – Thee Black Boltz
I never really fell under the spell of TV On the Radio like so many other music appreciators, but this, the first solo project from its co-lead vocalist, is absolutely electric. Every song sears with urgency, driving and propulsive, leading one into the next, until you reach the end entirely exhausted. It defies any description of genre — it is at once inscrutable, unhinged, but also contains some pretty and nuanced melodies, and most of it is as catchy as hell.
Turnstile – Never Enough
Too hardcore for normies, not hardcore enough for hardcore fans, Turnstile puts out another weird and great record this year. Continuing to explore new sounds and influences, Never Enough breaks some new sonic ground for the band, and while doing so, sounds friggin great. If you haven’t checked out their magnificent Tiny Desk Concert, do yourself the favor.
De La Soul – Cabin in the Sky
Look, it’s a new De La Soul album. They are missing a key member, but this album is absolutely fantastic. I didn’t need to tell you that; you already knew. I don’t have to tell you anything more about it. Look, they were already a Hump-Day Song of the Week this week.
The Beths – Straight Line Was A Lie
Look, I like The Beths quite a bit. This album is really good. I was just hyped because it has a song titled “No Joy,” which was also the name of one of my favorite records of 2023. But listen to The Beths! They’re also great!
Okay, that’s enough music for now. Let’s move on.
Movies
Absolute caveat that not only have I not seen every movie made this year (noted above), but there are also some movies I haven’t seen yet that I am very excited to see (cough cough PTA).
I think it’s funny, though, but somehow for me the two movies I liked the best were both horror movies? Look, Sinners and Weapons were both some of the best movies I have ever seen, not just this year. Must be a golden age of horror. Thanks, Jordan Peale. Probably impossible to spoil two of the biggest movies of the year, but all that I will say is Sinners had probably the best scene but Weapons was probably marginally a better movie. But just.
Now, also funny, but Frankenstein was also incredible and is my honorable mention. But that’s just what you expect from a decades-long project from Guillermo del Toro. Not spoiling it because I know you never read the book.
You want more? Okay. Mickey 17 was solid. Mountainhead was, as expected, good but not great. John Candy: I Like Me should be required viewing for comedy nerds.
Books
Look I would go on about all the great books I read, but according to Goodreads this year I have only read dragon books. I just finished Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and it is probably my favorite of what I did read this year.
Epilogue
Hope the rest of our other writers come in and add their favorites of the year, but we’re all over the place so maybe we won’t be able to replicate the magic of [checks CMS] 2014.
