bar italia

Last week, we started the countdown. You can see Songs 20-14 here.

Then, yesterday, we gave you 13 on down to 6.

Now, it’s time for the Top 5 Songs of 2025. Let’s dive in!

5. Daffo, “Dagger Song”

I first heard this song in August on my way back from dropping a kid off at college. BUT, I had to…I had to search to find it. Like I couldn’t quite catch who the artist was and then had to listen to back episodes of The Download 15 on Sirius XMU.

But, I found it. And it entered heavy rotation for Dave, at least.

Daffo is the stage name for Gabi Gamberg and this song just hit me.

(I have found, FWIW, that The Download 15 often delivers songs that disappear from the playlists rather quickly. Not sure why this one didn’t get the staying power.)

4. Wunderhorse, “Rain”

Wunderhorse has been well-documented — not just by me; I did that here on my Substack — and they’re definitely going places. A trip to Lollapalooza underscored there otherworldly status.

Note that I’ll share a couple versions of this song below because they appear to be incredible live.

BUT how bout a bonus track, first? Here’s “The Rope.”

Here’s “Rain,” first live on Jimmy Kimmel.

AND, here’s the band Live at The Dublin Castle; shout out to the audio team, this is impeccable.

And, finally, the official audio from the band.

The song stuck with me all year. If you rank it first, I ain’t arguing with you.

3. CMAT, “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station”

This one is 100% on Canadian Steve. I can’t thank him enough for it, either.

I talked about CMAT on this page last week and she definitely has that certain something about her.

What’s beautiful about this song is not JUST that it doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense at first, but that CMAT tells you that it’s not making too much sense.

But it makes total sense: Why do we hate certain people? Why are some things so triggering?

CMAT asks the question. And tries to answer it. Flipping glorious. I dig.

2. Bar Italia, “Rooster”

We thank the YouTube algorithm for this song. You’ll notice the Bar Italia song “Fundraiser” made the Top 20 list (yesterday, ranking 12th). YouTube decided to introduce another Bar Italia song a month ago — YES, THAT RECENTLY — and I absolutely cannot get enough of it.

The video is actually nuts: Get a load of the guitarist deciding to stop pretending he was singing into a live mic. (My buddy Ken said that moment was both “unsettling and very cool.”)

Kicking myself for missing this band when they were nearby. Will make it a point to see them live in 2026, God willing.

It’s the second-best song I heard this year.

1. Preoccupations, “Ill at Ease”

This shall be no surprise to anyone who has followed my work this year.

I telegraphed this decision in July, when I launched The Saturday List; in the very first edition of said list I made a declaration:

I was right. “Rooster,” above, Number 2, came close.

Impeccably crafted song. Lead singer Matt Flegel has a really amazing voice and the lyrics are top notch. For instance:

Let’s carve ourselves a tiny space to live in
And mutually assure our self destruction
Cause all the things I love are things that kill me
And all the things I dread aren’t really there

Funny enough, I heard this song AFTER my post of possible Song of the Decade candidates for the 2020s; It has since moved to the top of my list for the decade. It’s. That. Good.

Behold, Dave’s Song of the Year for 2025: Preoccupations, “Ill at Ease.”

Thanks for reading. Seriously, it means a ton to me.

We’ll have some Honorable Mentions to share later this month. And we’ll return to other programming tomorrow.

Cheers!