The year that killed music (best and worst of 2025)

December 16, 2025·47 min·4 clips

Morgan Wallen's troubled history and chart-topping success define country's explosive 2025 takeover.

The year gets a hard eye-roll first. Rihanna Cruz, Charlie Harding, and Nate Sloan reach the end of 2025 with grim little jokes about how rough it felt, then make the only sensible move: talk about songs. Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift come up as proof that big pop moments kept landing, but the excerpt soon drifts toward something weirder and more fun. That something is Catriel and Paco Amoroso. The Buenos Aires duo get framed as Latin music underdogs, with a 2024 debut and an NPR Tiny Desk boost helping push them into a huge 2025. Their sound does not sit still. Pop, Latin music, hip hop, jazz, neo-soul, and 90s house all show up, but it does not feel like a checklist. It bounces. Their Best Alternative Song winner becomes the thing to pick apart because the joke on top keeps bumping into smart arrangement choices underneath. The fake producer bit lands fast. Jimbaland, pointedly not Timbaland, tells them they need a bigger audience, muscles, and sports cars, making fame advice sound like a cartoon. Then the groove makes the case. Beneath the body-image and glow-up talk, the track rides a funky bass line and a cool piano figure that keep the bit moving. The vocals help too. Paco's rougher voice grabs the ear while Catriel's smoother delivery gives the pair contrast, almost like character comedy inside the hook. That is the show's sweet spot: hearing a goofy song as more than a novelty, with rhythm, production, persona, and pop mechanics all doing work. Even the credits keep the mood loose, ending with a pre-recorded tag that slips in like one last studio-room joke.

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