Twelve Songs From 2025 Good Enough To Play For My Kid

I've got a commute playlist for me & my kid, consisting of tunes I think he‘d think are cool. He has the right to request deletion, but it’s yet to happen. I add one new song every school/camp morning I've got him, and one every afternoon, before it to proceeds to shuffle. We're at about 700 songs and counting, most of it the kind of Dad's Rock School shit you'd expect based on this blog. Stuff one degree from R.E.M., Wire, Spoon, Rolling Stones, Clash, Fugazi, etc. I try to keep things relatively diverse and expansive, making sure he has an appreciation for the wider world. Joni Mitchell, Slim Gaillard, Sam Cooke, Digable Planets, Chemical Brothers, King Crimson, LL Cool J, CAN, Aretha Franklin, Manu Chao, Fairport Convention, Crazy Frog...it's all in the mix. But, between what I know he likes, what I like, and avoiding subjects and words I'm in no rush to introduce, I won't pretend there isn't a general "alt-rock" tinge to it all. I'm driving here.

There's also a real old tinge to it all, not the least because I'm more inclined to say "oh, he’d love 'Lucas With The Lid Off'" than "I should find out if Yung Anybody or This Band's Name Is A Sentence can make it one minute without pissing me off." But, just as I do make an effort to hear new music (behold my favorite albums of 2024!), I try to incorporate new stuff that passes parental muster. And while a lot of the acts in question are certainly old, he currently thinks it's charming and cool that bands even older than his Dad still make music, eager to check out discographies on Wikipedia together. Oh, mini-me...you complete me.

So far, there's been twelve songs from 2025 I've bothered to introduce. Keep in mind his mom will make sure he's aware of the latest TikTok adult-contemporary stuff one degree from Taylor and Beyonce, while classmates will take care of cultural phenomena like K-Pop Demon Hunters. Dad provides the coolness beyond.

The Beths, "Straight Line Was A Lie"

Most modern guitar indie either inspires parody posts or the desire to say "I gave in the '90s" (are we sure that Horsegirl album wasn't found on a thirty-year-old 4-track reel by Numero Group?). But The Beths throw down harder than Bettie Serveert did, which is rewarding novelty enough these days.

Big Thief, "Los Angeles"

It's no "Spud Infinity" in terms of quirky kid-bait, but the shout-out to our home county is appreciated.

David Byrne, "What Is The Reason For It? (ft. Hayley Williams)"

There have been more decades since Sand In The Vaseline than songs I need from David Byrne's solo career (not that I've tried hard to find some). But this number is far more darling and lithe than I usually expect from him. Plus, it has Hayley Williams on it. That's right...Dad's heard about those kids in Paramore! Those kids celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album. Pretty cool, huh? Me and Byrne both still got it!

Alessia Cara, "Next To You"

Social media saturation may keep me from rushing to hear the latest from child stars turned feminist avatars, but I'm not against adult contemporary pop! Especially when the chorus is this much of a '90s throwback. And when the artist isn't all up in my feed, transparently getting enough attention as it is.

Guided By Voices, "(You Can't Go Back To) Oxford Talawanda"

Not only is Thick, Rich And Delicious the best Guided By Voices album title in a while, this is the first song of theirs I've bothered to even hear twice in about a decade. We both love Robert Pollard's prolific output (and creative aesthetic) in theory, so it felt great to confirm he can still pull off a catchy chorus if he wants.

The Hives, "The Hives Forever Forever The Hives"

The Hives were a wonderful cultural presence through the aughts, and someday I'll write a post about the infuriatingly unappreciated Nuggets-Devo synthesis Tyrannosaurus Hives. But they lost just enough energy and inspiration post-Interscope that I've politely kept my distance since. They got the magic back on this song, though. And without a boxed E next to the title!

Hot Chip, "Devotion"

The ultimate Dadpop band: five middle-aged goofballs, sticking together through the years, the tears, the baldness and beards, committed to tender sentiments and sweet dance magic. The new single attached to their greatest hits album (what's more Dadpop than bothering to put out a greatest hits album in 2025?) is predictably fantastic. If you don't know them, or didn't know they were still around, I got your Hot Chip music playlist and Hot Chip video playlist right here.

The Lemonheads, "The Key Of Victory"

I haven't really explained how Evan Dando spends the years between Lemonheads albums, but we're glad he's back. Oddly enough, this song also works as a bubblegum surrogate for Purple Mountains. Maybe I should put some Giant Sand on the mix...

The London Suede, "Sweet Kid"

It was pretty rude for Suede to put out a great Chameleons album a week before the first Chameleons album in twenty years. But I'll allow it, especially since there's a spirited song about dad feelings on it. One that doesn't discuss erotic or chemical rapture! (If you're not sure what Suede you can play a kid without getting questions or seeing gyrations you're not ready for, so far I've gone with "Lazy" and "Electricity.")

Sparks, "Do Things My Own Way"

A band older than me, that my kid likes more than me. We both enjoy the "Cool Places" era and "The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte" (his introduction). However, he also loves "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us", and I cannot handle the early falsetto stuff at all. It's cool, though. He needs to have his own thing, and I'm very much for it being extreme art-rock.

Spoon, "Guess I'm Fallin In Love"

Modern dad-rock at its finest: a post-motorik Stones, if Mick had stuck with economics, and Keith and Charlie were the only mainstays. Can you believe they're Voodoo Lounge years old? I'm pretty sure my sense of them still "having it" is more accurate than the critics who said it of the Stones when Voodoo Lounge came out. Right? Right? (Spoon playlists if you need them.)

X, "Struggle"

Alphabetland by X came out at the right time to rock my then-toddler's world, a thrillingly fast and fun album made by a letter, about letters (as far as he understood). There's even a color pattern to the title on the cover. Even though we're all older and wiser now, he still thinks it's cool that X is named X and their latest album has a song named "Big Black X," named after Exene's initial vision of a big black X on a marquee when they named the band. I'm inclined to agree, but decided to share the song that opens "A E I O U/ you, you, you & you" from Smoke & Fiction instead. (Note: after publishing, I remembered this came out in 2024. I only got around to hearing it this year, though. Sigh. I tried.)

If there’s something else new you think I should hear, and assess for blog or playlist incorporation, by all means, alert me via anthonyisright at gmail dot com.