Every week, 88Nine music director Erin Wolf shares a sonic gem she found using her nearly 20 years of new-music exploration experience. You can hear all her discoveries live on 88Nine at 10 p.m. every Monday on What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
When one shares over 500 songs a year, it could be seen as real challenging to sift through all of them and find the gold. However, my ultimate rule in putting together a “best of” episode is to simply let those songs that had me coming back for repeat listens rise to the top.
This was a particularly delightful year of returns (Stereolab!) and new projects for perennial faves (Sharp Pins!). It also saw a hella lot of collabs, which put a fun community vibe into the vast musical scene across the globe (Blood Orange, Dijon, Snocaps, etc.). It really is a small world, and this year’s cross-pollination was evidence of that.
While we’re in reflection mode, I’ll quickly share that putting together What’s All This every week is something I truly look forward to. I hope that tuning in, hearing the handcrafted playlist and absorbing those individual songs grabbed you. That you had lightning-bolt moments sending you back for that musical “zing,” seeking out repeat listens, rippling out to adjacent artists and never-ending discovery.
Tap into What’s All This with me one more time this year as I share some of my fave moments and hint at the shape of what’s to come in 2026.
Best new indie music of 2025
- Saya Gray, “SHELL ( OF A MAN )”
- Blood Orange, “Mind Loaded (ft. Caroline Polachek, Lorde & Mustafa)”
- Stereolab, “Transmuted Matter”
- Water From Your Eyes, “Life Signs”
- jasmine.4.t, “Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation”
- Graham Hunt, “I Just Need Enough”
- Sharp Pins, “I Can’t Stop”
- Snocaps, “Avalanche”
- Wednesday, “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)”
- Geese, “100 Horses”
- GOON, “Begin Here”
- Dijon, “Another Baby!”
