December Sweatdown 2K25

The December Sweatdown 2K25 is here! Time to discuss Spotify.

I am leaving Spotify in 2026. I’ve been posting these on Spotify since 2018. December Sweatdown 2K25 will be my final Sweatdown posted on Spotify under The Sweatdown account. I don’t know if Spotify just wipes your playlists out or not if you stop paying for premium but if they do? I’ll just have to update old links later.

You will be able to find all of my playlists on YouTube Music now at The Sweatdown.

I spent hours transferring everything (I guess I could have paid somebody a fiver to do it but hey whatever it’s done) and creating a dedicated channel to my playlists. These playlists aren’t crazy popular but they are the one constant thing I can point to in my life. The one thing I haven’t failed to do every month since 2018. It’s very important for me to keep these going. If you listen? Thank you. If you found a song you like? You’re welcome.

The Sweatdown has existed since April of 2018 as a monthly collection of music I’ve been listening to. Sometimes it’s old tracks but it’s usually new music. Everything from indie to synthwave to rock to alternative and more. Every December is a culmination of the music I’ve listened to.

I did a top 50 last year. This year I only got to 30. 2022, 2023, and 2024 were around 50 tracks so only getting to 30 felt a bit strange and I wondered, have I been down on this year? Has it not been good for music? Or am I just getting a bit tighter on my choices? There’s some familiar faces on the list. Social Order (wish I saw them in Detroit but I just couldn’t make it), Kanadia, Culture Wars, Icarus, Hotel Mira, etc. but also a lot of new faces like Junior Varsity, Pro Wrestling The Band (who I will be seeing this weekend), SOAP, and Ash Molloy.

Moving the playlists to YouTube Music does mean I might have to work harder to find new music. The one power of Spotify was their Release Friday which did find me a lot of great new music. Before Spotify I used to have to find it all myself. YouTube Music so far hasn’t been as good at finding recommendations for me, but I’ll give it some time. If I have to work harder? I’ll work harder. The Sweatdown is worth it.

So let’s go in order of which songs I liked the best.

Nine Inch Nails – As Alive As You Need Me To Be

I really didn’t want this to be my favourite song of the year. Come on Aaron don’t be another 40 just leaning on your nostalgia. But this isn’t nostalgia. This might be one of the most popular songs of the year? Like, I’ve heard it on so many NHL hockey games now. It’s already on the Top 20 most popular Nine Inch Nails YouTube music videos. I feel like especially in the rock genre this was one of the top songs of the year and proof Trent Reznor still has it.

Its connection to that TRON: ARES movie was unfortunate but boy did they go beyond the material. It’s essential Nine Inch Nails but it also feels modern and fresh enough that you don’t see any dust on it. It’s some of Trent’s best lyrics too, exploring the idea of only having so much left to give, “as alive as you need me to be” is perfect content for him to mine.

I honestly wake up to the song now.

Kanadia – Wired

Kanadia made my favourite album of the year in “The Fire That’s Tearing Through Our Home” and I honestly think they are one of the best rock bands around today. The guitar in Wired is incredible. That 10 second shout at 2:40 is just perfectly timed. It’s the kind of thing you just hear and it carries you for the rest of the song. It didn’t need to be repeated. The song title fits how the song makes you feel. Give them a listen. They’ve been a favourite of mine for years. Wish they’d come to North America.

Culture Wars – Typical Ways

I saw Culture Wars back in 2024. I’m kind of mad at the band for re-recording Lies and basically trying to disappear the original version. That is one of my all time favourite songs with one of my all time favourite guitar licks. The new version is… see, I like it, but it’s been Hoobastanked and I can’t deny it. You Hoobastanked it!

Sigh. Anyway we’re talking about Typical Ways. When it comes to the new material that’s supposed to be for a new album that has been coming out since 2024? I would put Typical Ways right up there with Heaven, which I had in my number two spot last year for the December Sweatdown 2K24. That guitar riff they do at 1:30, that almost sounds like a mistake, but it clearly isn’t? God I love that. That gets the blood rushing for me. Some of singer Alex Dugan’s best vocals too.

Pink Skies – Day Drinking

Pure. Nostalgia. I’ve in the past talked about how songs about wishing a love would come back hit me the most. Do it Again by Trevor Something. I Still Wonder by Chain Gang of 1974. This goes right into that category. Makes me float like those songs do as well. The acoustic guitar always comes in at the right time in the song. Anyone who knows me knows why “Day Drinking” would also get me nostalgic. Pink Skies definitely made a song I’ll be listening to well into my silver days.

Hotel Mira – America’s Favourite Pastime

I’ve been asking for a rocker by Hotel Mira for a bit now and fuck they pulled it off here. Honestly, if I can soap box rent for a second? I need rock bands to remember they are rock bands. The softer side is fine but I don’t care if you feel like you gotta jig on a yacht now. Give me some fuckin’ bangers. If Nine Inch Nails can still do it in their 60s you can in your 30s!

Hotel Mira created this slithering banger with venomous lyrics for once not focusing on the lead singers own anxieties and instead about a particular lady (released on Valentine’s Day instead of the song Re: Valentine’s Day lol) and it in a lot of ways reminds me of my favourite song of all time The Night is Alive by Innerpartysystem but with its own Hotel Mira charm. Love it.

Social Order – Waiting

Social Order just keep coming up with songs that hit me harder than other bands can do. They do the 80s dark synth better than anyone in my book. They didn’t have this on their Strangers EP but I hope they keep it the day they do an album.

Clipse, Kendrick Lamar – Chains & Whips

On “Let God Sort Them Out” the album opens with “The Birds Don’t Sing” a song that honestly causes me to cry every time I hear it. And while it’s okay to cry in the club it’s not okay to do it in your top 10. Just as good as Chains & Whips, which also has Kendrick Lamar on it. It’s angry, aggressive, and abrasive the way you wish more rock music would be. Clipse are incredible throughout. I honestly think Malice was my favourite rapper of the year. “Money’s dried up like a cuticle, you’re gasping for air now, it’s beautiful” is fucking haunting.

it’s murph, Emi Grace – Stone Cold Eyes

Emi Grace just keeps doing it. I could have went with Talk About It and was very close to going with Punch Bag but her collab with it’s murph is Emi Grace once again proving she’s an ageless wonder. Her voice could have been on a thousand house and techno tracks in the 2000s when she was BORN. Credit to it’s murph for a fantastic beat but Emi steals the show.

Alexisonfire – Misogyny

“Copies of Old Masters Volume 1” is such a special little project by Alexisonfire. It’s basically them paying tribute to 90s Canadian bands. The cover of “Fully Completely” from Tragically Hip has got the most attention but their cover of Rusty’s Misogyny, a song I just discovered last year, has been my favourite for sure. Not only is it a great cover but it sounds like Alexisonfire so you’ll never feel it’s out of place on the playlist.

Fickle Friends – Fantasy

I was so happy when Fickle Friends released a new album as “Love You to Death” and “Not Okay” from 2022’s “Are We Gonna Be Alright?” are on heavy rotation at all times from me. The new self titled album is… good. It’s a little softer than I was expecting. I wanted something that punched my insides like “Not Okay” did and I wasn’t really finding it. But I did find “Fantasy” and it’s by far my favourite song on the album and getting the same heavy rotation spins. I can easily hear it on repeat and not get tired of it. Natassja Shiner’s vocals are silky smooth and when she gets to the bridge of, “Call me your honey honey it’s my fantasy baby” I just melt every time.

It’s an interesting song because the first verse expresses someone not interested at all and then it gets into the chorus and the other verses and you wonder, is this the same song? Is she talking to the same person? Did she just switch from someone not interested to interested? “And I don’t dream, reality’s so sweet, I’m just like candy, won’t you unwrap me?” is some of the sexiest lyrics you could read. Then you get to that second verse and it’s just… off. It takes a second to recognize there’s some sarcasm there. “I’m so funny, isn’t funny enough? You know I never need a reason” and you compare it to that first verse, and then it kicks into the chorus again and you wonder, is the song fucking with me? Or fucking with the subject? Or fucking at all?

I love it so much. I might even be reading it wrong. Maybe the first verse was just a person misreading and then getting into someone, but I feel like no matter how sexy Shiner makes it? This isn’t a fuck me fantasy. This is a fuck you fantasy.

almost monday – lost

I was right down to the wire trying to decide between sunburn and lost. I was going to go with sunburn until I checked and it’s from three years ago. Oops! Either way you’re getting a fantastic summer song, a real beach jammer. The older I get, “getting lost” becomes less of a romantic concept of starting anew and more about losing your marbles but I still yearn for the good way.

Ash Molloy – will I ever learn?

I think anyone can relate to a song asking the question of if one can ever learn from their mistakes. I’m still making mistakes I made as a teenager. I’ve learned from a lot of things, but some stuff you easily slip back into. Knowing you’re doing the wrong thing and still doing it is often considered the worst possible behaviour but it’s very difficult to unlearn bad behaviour. Especially in matters of the heart.

Pro Wrestling The Band – Falling in Love

This is the first time I found a band from an Instagram ad. These guys from London are quite in tune with 90s Canadian alternative rock roots. I don’t say that as a criticism as they have used it all to form their own sound and their own tempo. I enjoyed their album and I’m not surprised they did the music video and single for this. Looking forward to seeing them live. Go to shows live until you go deaf, and then go anyway.

Tyler Childers – Eatin’ Big Time

Childers is my favourite country artist but I also love how… not country this is? Maybe it could be considered southern rock, which is pretty adjacent, but it’s both a nice song about making it and making sure everyone is taken care of, but also a fuck you. The way Tyler sings is absolutely in a fuck you tone, even if the song is more about an appreciation of your situation and getting to enjoy the spoils of your success. There’s still a real, this is fucking mine to it, that carries the song somewhere it wouldn’t be if it was softer or more elegant in the point.

Slowly Slowly – How Are You Mine?

I like this song a lot. It has a good tempo without feeling rushed and has a good chorus. Hard to say much more than that.

ALEXSUCKS – Flowers & Dirt

Songs are getting shorter and shorter to fulfill the needs of shorts videos on TikTok and the like, which can be disappointing, but sometimes a song doesn’t need more time. Flowers & Dirt doesn’t need more than two minutes. It gets in, gets out, and you appreciate everywhere it went during.

Tyler, The Creator – Stop Playing With Me

Another short song, but unlike Flowers & Dirt? This does so much in two minutes 14 seconds you’re not sure if you could handle more. THANK THE GODS I’M NOTHING LIKE YOUUUUUU. Loved this record by Tyler, The Creator.

DEVORA – Cocaine Karaoke

I noticed that the music video for this was under 3 minutes. I went with this version instead. DEVORA has such a great voice and I love the flow of it. I love the line, “Broke my back running up that hill just to die on it”

Starbenders – hello goodbye

When I was going through my playlists I wondered why I wrote this song down a few weeks for the end of year and then that chorus of “hello goodbye my valentine” hit and I remembered why again. Dreamy guitars, dreamy vocals, just stabs you with a harpoon and refuses to let you get away.

The Smallest Number – Honey

I had to include the new Patrick Nissley project. You can hear the Innerpartysystem in it. Looking forward to more.

Junior Varsity – Cross The Street

Is it wrong to have a crush in my 40s? It probably is. I probably shouldn’t use the word crush anymore. But I got a crush on Brooke Danaher. Gotta be the most adorable girl in music right now. Oh right the song. The song is dang fun! All of the Junior Varsity songs are!

instant crush – STAB MY BACK

Another song like hello goodbye by Starbenders that gets on this just for having a kickass chorus.

Marlhy – Heatwave

It’s no surprise that Marlhy is primarily a drummer because the drums on this song are fantastic. Love her Harlem Heat boots in the music video.

swim school – Alone With You

What a beautiful dreamy song.

Mother Mother – Nostalgia

Mother Mother making a song called “Nostalgia” when “Body of Years” by them gives me instant nostalgia for my college days is funny. “Nostalgia, you’re a traitor, it was perfect then but now it’s heartbreakin'” is such an honest lyric. It’s easy to forget the real definition at times.

Yukon Blonde – Keep on Breaking My Heart

Loved hearing this live (even if half the show I was in pain) and definitely my favourite song from their new album “Friendship and Rock & Roll” that chorus is just timeless.

SOAP – Post Sex Ping Pong

You just have to read the title and then listen to it. The song is just pure fun.

LEAP – Over & Out

This is just a good straight up rock and roll song.

The Blue Stones – Come Apart

I wasn’t as crazy for the Blue Stones album “Metro” like I was for their previous album “Pretty Monster” but Come Apart definitely stood out among the tracks. It has the best guitar grooves and the best energy.

Icarus – Remember Me

I think Icarus did a nice pop song here with a good beat.

Thank you for reading and thank you for listening. Remember that all new Sweatdown playlists will now be on YouTube Music instead of YouTube. Photo by me. See you in 2026!