my personal must-listens for the remainder of 2025
Happy Weird Girl Winter!! Feeling inspired, so doing my part in Keeping Austin Weird with my current mix. Spotify Wrapped (allegedly) drops this week, and every year it reminds me how much more I could be streaming the little guys, my actual favorites, the new and old up-n-comers. it feels only fair to gather my motley crew and share ’em. This Fall/Winter, I’ve hyperfixated on the following new-ish or new-to-me artists, namely: Dove Ellis, Jay Som, Mini Skirt, Oxis, LAUNDRY DAY, and emory (with a few honorable mentions, including Man/Woman/Chainsaw, who have officially fiddled their way right into my left ventricle).
Dove Ellis
With a Cameron Winter-esque lilt, yet remaining entirely singular, Galway’s Dove Ellis genre-bends like no other, *perfectly* suited to opening Geese’s Fall 2025 tour. He had me entranced in early Sept with his “To The Sandals” drop, and even more so with November’s “Love Is.” His three-strong Spotify presence all tease forthcoming debut album Blizzard, out this Friday, December 5(!!). Moments of his melodies bring me to church basements, slanted-sunlit late afternoon drives, way-too-baggy acid-washed jeans, and dingy phonebooths at night. It’s nostalgic and completely fresh all at once. TBH, if “Love Is” doesn’t top my 2025 Wrapped, it’s because I missed the analytics cutoff.
He’s hit the ground running with objectively beautiful falsetto and deliciously twangy and rich basslines and sax features. Dove’s sound meets a generation pining, and I would liken him to an Enneagram 4’s sombr: they’re swimming in the same melancholia, albeit more raw and perhaps slightly more jaded strokes from Dove. Thankfully on Lorem‘s radar, Dove is set to become a “weird girl winter” staple.
Jay Som
The inspiration for my hyperchill playlist — Jay Som (Melina Mae Cortez Duterte) is by no means new but completely new to me as of October 2025. Turns out she’s toured with boygenius? ok hi! Som’s 2025 album Belong, her first full-length project since 2019, is supported by its doubletime backbone and laid-back but very much high energy… as if indie rock and hyperpop took a Xanax, in the best way possible. “Past Lives” Hayley Williams feature gives a sneaky punk feel that floats in and out of her other tracks. Favorites include “Cards on the Table” and “Appointments.” I have more past-tense discography to tap into here, but until then, Belong will keep getting cycled album-wide.
Mini Skirt
Louder than my usual favorites, Down Under’s Mini Skirt somehow had me at hello. Not only do I love their band name or completely unabashed Auzzieness, but I like expanding my horizons and maintaining a well-balanced musical diet. More to come here, but been keeping tabs on these lads since September’s “Been A While.”
Oxis
Weird Girl Winter in fullllll swing with Oxis’ fish-forward bedroom alt-electronic bops. Office Mag coined her the “princess of marine electronica.” And yes, she reigns, but perhaps because most of us have yet to encounter marine electronica anywhere else? She blew up with her looped track “Long Sardine,” later remixed, and upon opening for Magdalena Bay this past year. Regardless, “Fry” was my foray into Oxis, but I stayed for “Long Sardine” and its pop crossover remixes (Long Sardine x Mr. Brightside, x Youth, x Aguas de Marco? Lol). Her rendition of The Killers’ classic reiterates the complete unseriousness of its virality but also takes it somewhere it’s never gone, which is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Speaking of complete unseriousness, there’s nothing I love more than a snarky/silly Spotify bio, which she’s got. Her Spotify reads as a puny-fish Pinterest board, and her discography runs a mile wide and an inch deep, with seven- or eight-piece micro-albums released pretty frequently.
Oxis feels deeply Gen Z, definitively digitally native, yet grounded in authentic output. Her entire brand, really, feels like the product of late-stage California surf culture, COVID/smartphone-induced isolationism, and an entire generation of kids raised on Spongebob. I think we’re all subconsciously drawn to what’s really real, and though ocean sirens may not *actually* exist, the fact that one girl in LA took it upon herself to go by “Tuna” (Latin auxis retromodded into “Oxis”), to research teeny tiny fish, and to release beautiful, unique sounds (…named after sea creatures, obviously) stands alone as deeply real.
LAUNDRY DAY
Ok, I may have been lying through my teeth because inevitably, it’s actually “SUPERMODEL” that will top it all for 2025 listening. LAUNDRY DAY has hopped on and off my radar, with a few singles I’ve liked here and there, but they came back full-force and for good with 2025’s EARWORM.
The first-dropped single from their most recent album, “SUPERMODEL” is a good old-fashioned BOP-iana Grande, followed by the release of blasé loser anthem “APEROL SPRITZ” about yet another one that got away. Upon the album drop, we were graced with “LITTLE MISS JADED,” calling out girlie pops everywhere pretending they DGAF, when in fact, they GAF, big-time. And if LD could’ve written “MEDICINE” about MY smile, I would be flattered for a decade hence.
LAUNDRY DAY gifts us low stakes, high dopamine listening and capitalizes on New York’s it-girl energy. Pining after Canal Street baddies like sombr (he’s everywhere!), but in a much happier-go lucky fashion, and I mean literally: these are the type of NYC-bred dudes to wear massive jorts and flaunt an ultra-candid social media presence (check the IG for a recent Buccee’s gas station field trip).
emory
Last, but certainly not least, is bedroom-hyperpop wizard, emory. She found me with “hang on the wall what you kill,” which fit perfectly with my then building scorpio moon playlist (for obvious, autumnal, Big Three reasons). It’s got this spookiness and sweetness that captured what modern-day October feels like. Of course I had to keep listening and was then enamored with her most-streamed to date, “double dog,” particularly its bark track. Her sound makes me think she was raised by wolves with mixing boards in a barren landscape. In other words, she KNOWS yearn, and she can produce it.
J’adore this profile by Flaunt on the now probably 24 yo singer-songwriter’s release of single “moth” and yeah, they nailed her crowd, all of us feeling superior for finding her at only some ten thousand streams (yes, I too am incredibly annoying). She’s released some tasty singles and EPs since 2024, and until future drops, I’ll be ripping “bug,” “bends,” and “dirt.”
anyway! enjoy my unbelievably random hodge-podge of current favorites below. Honorable mentions include (and are featured): as referenced, Man/Woman/Chainsaw (an eclectic mix of truly gifted UK teens if I do say so myself, putting those violin lessons to mighty good use), Hudson Freeman (demo or full production, changing my life as we speak), Junior Mesa (“im not ur man” is simply *fine art*), Why Bonnie (new-to-me, I’m 3 yrs late to the party), and Eli Smart (the Hawaiian/Englishman enigma). 🍒
Cherry-Picked 
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