Working on the computer permits me to listen to a lot of music. I'm often chasing that 'flow state' while writing code, and for me music is an essential part of that recipe. In turn, Spotify's yearly wrapped is an event that I anticipate each year.

The 2025 wrapped was a milestone for me. One entire decade of listening. To celebrate crossing this threshold I'm going to dig into my personal picks for song of the year to see if I can learn more about the songs that shaped my listeng experience.

Alright enough yapping. Let's get into the tracks.

2016 - Brand New - The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows

Released on July 9, 2003, this was Brand New's first charting song. It reached number 37 on the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart and was later re-released on the band's sophomore album Deja Entendu. The album's title is the French translation of "already heard", which is a little jab from the band saying, you've already heard music like this.

In Brand New's own words , "No matter who you are or what your band is about, you can't put a record out without people saying it's derivative of something else. So by saying the record's already been heard, it's kind of like saying, 'Yeah, you're right. We're doing something that's already been done before.' We're not trying to break new ground in music. We're just trying to make good music."

2017 - Noname - Diddy Bop

The Diddy Bop, for the uninitiated, is a dance move popularized in the 90s. Without getting too distracted by Diddy's tarnished legacy, the namesake of the song is just one of many references to a time period in Noname's life when she still held onto her childhood innocence. I think that sense of growing up is what resonated with me here given that I would have been in my freshman year of college during this time.

During her 2017 Tiny Desk Concert Noname explains how the album as a whole was in response to her fans positive reception to her vulnerability on the track 'Yesterday'. On Telephone she is really leaning into her authentic experiences that shaped her.

As a little side note, I read on Reddit that this song was a 'sister song' to Stoney by Saba, meaning that they were recorded by the same group, on the same night.

2018 - Basement - Oversized

Coming off of their 2012 hiatus, Oversized is a one of the few soft cuts on Basement's comeback album Promise Everything. Described by the band as "about being afraid to reveal who you really are to the people you care about and who care about you". This comes through in the songs tone, which stands in contrast to the tracks before it, and I think pretty effectively communicates this idea the quiet thoughts of self-doubt.

Self-doubt obviously being something the band has struggled with since the beginning, given that when asked about their hiatus the band's reason was mostly that they didn't see it as something sustainable over the long term.

2019 - Daft Punk - Beyond

Beyond was released as a part of Daft Punk's fourth and final album, Random Access Memories. In a departure from their previous work, the duo chose to work exclusively with live musicians for the production of the album. According to Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk (that's the silver robot) "We wanted to do what we used to do with machines and samplers, but with people."

On Thomas' robot persona, it's actually inspired by robot from The Day The Earth Stood Still, whose name is Gort (lol). The original motivation for the helmets was to create personas that would allow people to focus on the musical experience more than the people behind the masks.

2020 - Peach Pit - Second Life With Emily

Nearly all Peach Pit songs are about are their friends and the company that they keep. Keeping on that trend, Second Life With Emily is quite literally about the frontman Neil Smith's Second Life crush, Emily. On an Instagram live Neil said "I like to relate the song to how much attention I gave to a specific girl who wanted nothing to do with me".

2021 - Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson - Pancho and Lefty

Originally written and performed in 1972 by Townes Van Zandt , Pancho and Lefty released to a lukewarm reception. The song was destined for greatness though, because by 1983 Willie and Merle would catapult it to number one on the Billboard country chart. At the time, Both artists were searching for a headlining song to round out their joint album. Having never heard the original, Pancho and Lefty was recommended to Willie by his daughter Lana. The version that we have today is actually the first take from that night.

Many people speculate that the song is about Francisco "Pancho" Villa, who was a Mexican leader and politician that forced out the Mexico's Dictator during the Revolution of 1911. Van Zandt's publicly stated that he's not opposed to this theory but, at the time of it's writing, the song had no real world inspiration.

2022 - Brand New - Waste

Following the release of Deja Entendu, Brand New became a much more secretive band. There's nearly no public statements from the band about Waste, or the album Science Fiction.

One thing we do know is that the album cover is by a Swedish artist named Thobias Fäldt. It was one of many photos in a collection for a Vice article from 2008. However, it's not totally clear what the article was is about so if you are able to dig that up, send me a message. I've always found the album cover interesting, if not a bit haunting.

During the album's release, if you pre-ordered a copy, the band sent out a limited edition CD with only a single hour-long track titled "44.5902N104.7146W". Those coordinates map back to the Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and it's no coincidence that this was the setting for the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

2023 - $uicideboy$ - 1000 Blunts

The iconic female voice on the track is a sample from the Kllo's song Bolide, and surely contributes to it's mainstream adoption. Listening to 1000 Blunts you will probably hear her say "Haunted, Can't escape my mind" like Ruby's interpolation, but the lyrics are actually "Hold tight, I'm noticing the mind".

Two other tracks are also sampled here, both of them by Memphis rapper Kingpin Skinny Pimp of Gimsum Family. Although its unclear how the Kllo sample made its way into 1000 Blunts, $uicideboy$ have been longtime students of the mid 90s Memphis rap scene and often sample Gimsum Family tracks.

Being one of the boys biggest songs makes 1000 Blunts many peoples entry point into their catalog, but it's actually a sequel to, you guessed it, 100 Blunts. Released 8 years prior, The growth on display here is obvious, but you can't fully appreciate the $uicideboy$ arc without understanding their battle with addiction. The drugs and (somewhat) newfound sobriety has a clear impact on their music from both eras.

2024 - Faye Webster - Kingston

With roots in Atlanta, it's a safe bet that the Kingston Faye sings about here is Kingston, GA. A tiny town with a population of ~1000, it doesn't seem to be known for much of anything aside for its Civil War roots.

Kingston's album, Atlanta Millionaires club, has much more interesting lore. In an interview Faye explains: "My dad and his friends inspired the title of the album. They called themselves ‘Atlanta Millionaires Club’ when they were in College and even printed shirts with the name on them. I used to wear them all the time until they were in shreds."

What makes Kingston so remarkable is it's incredibly cozy and authentic feel. We get a peek into how that was captured in the same interview. Being hot off the receiption of her freshman album Faye had much better support for it's recording. "The tracks were recorded live. We just pressed play and started recording". She continues, saying "It was my first time at the studio with a band and of course not everything went perfect, but the imperfection gives the album its special groundedness."

2025 - Billy Strings - Away From The Mire

Released when Billy was only 26, Away From The Mire is from his Sophmore album Home. In an interview Billy shed some light on the songs origins. "The song ... came about from a fight I had with my brother I wrote all this stuff, and it’s really a song about letting go of the pain, moving on and getting on with your life, and not dwelling on the past and being stuck in the stuff that happened before."

When asked about the album's title, Home, he responds "I’m starting to feel at home in my life. I’m 26. It’s the second record. I got a nice little house in Nashville. I feel at home there. And I’m starting to feel at home with all of this."