12 December 2025 - Fontaines D.C. - Starburster

In a couple of weeks, I'll be chronicling my favorite albums of 2025.  I've been listening to a lot of them this year, and I have focused a lot on recent albums of late.   

One that won't make the list is the latest album by the Fontaines D.C., Romance.  That's not because the album isn't great - it is - but because it was released in 2024.  I *almost* posted about this song before #AmericanAutumn, but decided against.  

It's a shame.  The Grammy-nominated song was also on a lot of year-end lists as single of the year - which makes sense.  The album itself was also on a lot of those lists, and had we done such a list last year, we would have been one of those lists.  It is retroactively one of my favorite albums of 2024.

I waited just as long as I could to post this. 

By the way, the D.C. stands for Dublin City.  The band is from near Dublin, Ireland, and added it as a disambiguation from a Los Angeles band - who seem to have not done much of anything for about five years.  Fontaines D.C. are still making music, still being politically active (their music is not available in Israel as of this writing), and I look forward to what they do next. 

The song itself starts quiet.... with organ, then piano, then drums.... then it explodes!

Look, the band is solid and every performance sounds just like the recording.

The performance from the Glastonbury festival in 2024 is perhaps the greatest crown engagement thus far. 

11 December 2025 - MUDRAT - I HATE RICH C***TS

I was VERY HESITANT to publish this.  I almost posted this under an alternate title ("WE DESPISE THE BOURGEOISIE" which I figured out even before I heard it), but no.  I had to censor the title.  It's not a word we use politely in the United States.  It's a little more casually tossed out in Australia and elsewhere.  

And acclaimed Australian MUDRAT is absolutely from Australia, and he's got some RADICAL views.  His album SOCIAL COHESION - which was shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize - is in my conversation for favorite album of 2025.  It's raw and angry, and a MUST listen.

So, I ultimately decided to post this.  I may have fallen in the category of his white friends who might be initially scared by his rhetoric, but at the end of the day, I absolutely don't wish his silence.  I want to amplify his voice. 

In this song, he makes it very clear his views on Matt Walsh.  I wonder if Matt Walsh has heard this song?  I am totally going to tag him today. 

10 December 2025 - Princess Nokia - Drop Dead Gorgeous

During his presidency, Barack Obama was instrumental in introducing the Lifeline program, which supplied cell phones to low-income people, for free. 

As it turns out, Destiny Nicole Frasqueri was eligible for a Nokia phone. So, as she was experimenting with names - Wavy Spice was an early contender - she chose the one that stuck as a tribute to her Obamaphone. 

Maybe she had an app on that phone that helped her figure out how to create compelling, unique hip-hop... or maybe it's just talent and her tough upbringing.  And, that tough upbringing has not come without controversy.  However, it's made her a strong advocate against racism and sexism, and she not afraid to put her money where her mouth is.  For example, if you watch this whole video, you'll see a racist get thrown off a train by a group of people. including a woman near the end throwing a bowl of 

hot soup on him.

That soup belonged to Princess Nokia, and she's the one who threw it and told him to get off the train. 

Good. She is a badass. 

She released a new album in October, titled GIRLS, and it is fantastic, end to end.  This song - an early single that has been out for several months - is one of the highlights of an overall excellent album.  

9 December 2025 - Ninajirachi - All I Am

I am really really happy that American Autumn is finally over.   Not because I didn't love it, but because, while you were listening to my American music posts, I was discovering music from literally everywhere else.

Take Girl EDM superstar from Australia, Ninajiraci.  Her stage name is a combination of her real name - which is Nina Wilson - and her favorite Pokémon - which is Jirachi. 

Can't deny he's adorable

As I write this, I know that her debut album, I Love My Computer, is shortlisted for won the Australian Music Prize (think Mercury Prize but for Australia), and she also is nominated for eight ARIA Awards (think Junos, but for Australia), which is more than any other artist this year.  By the time you read this, you're going to know if she won any of that (I predict at least 4 of the ARIAs and the AMP win for her, and I will honestly tell you if I got it right) (Update: she won 3 ARIAs and the AMP).   

She's making compelling EDM with smart and fresh lyrics, and she's poised to be a worldwide superstar. 

By the way, she's touring, and I hope we get better live footage of her by the time we actually publish, but for now, have a YouTube Short. 

Even here, you can tell she brings a TON of energy.  

8 December 2025 - (I'm not putting an artist name here and I'll explain why in a minute) - sugarcoat / How It's Done

This is a story of intrigue - of record label intrigue - of KOREAN record label intrigue.

On March 5, 2025,  Alexaundra Christine Schneiderman - who had previously announce that she was going to do a re-debut in April - announced that she was going to be changing her stage name to Kim Se-Ri - and moving her social media accounts to @seriinade. 

Two days later, ZB Label released this song under her former stage name, AleXa. Which, by the way, is a fun single. It's great.  

Well, then, in April, she released an independent collaboration.... as AleXa.

Then, in July.... well, clearly she's familiar with KPOP Demon Hunters (she did audition for the movie), because she released a song.... as AleXa.

In December - literally last week, people - she appears on a music competition on Swedish television.... as AleXa.   

The cover is awesome, but I have no freaking clue what to call her.  Luckily, I *do* know her social media profile.

"OK, but why are you talking about KPop drama during #AmericanAutumn!  Did you forget today's the last day?"

Nope.  The artist whose name I cannot with any reliability tell you is from Oklahoma.   In fact, she's best known for winning the American Song Contest, which was an attempt to make an American EuroVision.  

She represented Oklahoma.  In fact, when I started doing this little exercise, I knew I was ending with this artist, whatever her name is.  

So, I know I usually end these posts with a video.  Not today.  I wanted to thank you for taking this journey with me this autumn.  It's been a huge challenge to get through it, and I think it paid off.  

I promise a non-American artist tomorrow. 

5 December 2025 - Shawn Colvin - Steady On

Our penultimate American Autumn post is today.  

It was the easier Dakota, as Shawn Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. 

This song - her debut single off her debut album of the same name - would not be her biggest hit, but its modest success and heavy rotation airplay on VH1 would fuel her future successes.  

Plus, it's a really happy song, and I think it's a great 2nd-to-last song for this project.  I mean, I am smiling writing this post.  It's just happy.

The album won a Grammy in 1991 for Best Contemporary Folk album - which it really deserved.  She would go on to win two more in 1998. 

I wanted to choose a live performance that showcased JUST Shawn on a guitar, and I found this one, from 2019.  This is in conjunction with an acoustic version of the Steady On album in 2019, to celebrate its 30th anniversary (a year early).

It's still really happy, in its sparseness. 

4 December 2025 - Jewel - Foolish Games

Three guesses on her father's name.  

Juel Kilcher - yep.  Not Jewel at birth.  Indeed, she grew up near Homer, Alaska, singing and yodeling alongside her father.  

And yes.  She was on a few episodes of her family's show.  

This song - written by Jewel - the third single from her debut album Pieces of You, was nominated for a Grammy award and would go on to be one of her biggest hits and indeed, a song that still endures.

Did she perform the song live?  Of course she did, and you know I love featuring performances from the most unhinged festival of all time, Woodstock '99. 

No fires appear to have been started during her performance. 

On her Greatest Hits album, Jewel reimagined this song as a duet, with Kelly Clarkson.  They also performed it together - kinda - as a Zoom duet on Clarkson's talk show. 

By the way, she also has been known to yodel with her dad, even after her fame.