Now, not only do I need the œ on my clipboard, I have to do an accented e as well!
Adèle Castillon is worth it, though. She started her career in 80's nostalgia as 1/2 of Videoclub, but in 2021, she stuck off on her own.....
And, in 2024, she released Crèvecœur, following it up in February 2025 with an EP called..... Crèvecœur. It was absolutely part of the same project, and together, they make an album that tells a story of heartbreak and reaction....
This song, which leads the collection and still leans into the 80's nostalgia, is accompanied by an animated video that tells a story, too.
Adèle Castillon and Matthieu Reynaud have solo careers now, but they were in an electronic duo called VIDEOCLUB before that.
They were also in a relationship with each other but they are no longer in that relationship.
Those two items are related.
But when you see this video, know that these two musicians were very much in love.
And this is a love song - co-written by the duo and Esteban Capron - that sounds like it could be from 1983, and yet it's from 2018.
This live performance is from 2019, two years before the breakup. I just want to point out how well Adèle just OWNS the stage. Also, you can see it's just two musicians creating all this sound.
The reason I wanted to point that out....
Here's Adèle - who toured alone as VIDEOCLUB until the end in 2021 - performing this song NOT as VIDEOCLUB but as Adèle.... in 2025.
Also, the crowd knows the words.
In fact, this performance from 2021 by VIDEOCLUB came three months AFTER their announced breakup.... and it's just Adèle front and center.
By the way, Mattyeux is the new stage name of Matthieu Reynaud and he tried to do a version of this song....
It's just lacking...... and incomplete.
By the way, he also attaches the VIDEOCLUB name to his solo stuff on Spotify to this day.
On the other hand, Adèle absolutely owns the song.
It's a pretty well known fact that I don't love jazz.
At all.
So when a vocalist comes that makes me really enjoy jazz and makes me repeat their album, it's a big deal.
Laufey is that artist.
And the Grammy-award winning artist - who is nominated for a Grammy this year for her fantastic A Matter of Time album - did that TWICE for me in 2025 - once with A Matter of Time, and once with A Very Laufey Holiday. They are BOTH great albums.
This single is a highlight for me - a story of real love (co-written by the artist and producer/collaborator Spencer Stewart) where it's OK to make dirty jokes with your lover. The video was shot on 35mm film to give it a cinematic feel that matches the song.
Of COURSE she performs it live. And her huge voice matches perfectly with the large Guggenheim performance space (and yes, she's really playing guitar, too).
And, watching this performance, it feels less jazzy and more rock-and-roll throwback.
You knew we had to get to this viral song about smoking at some point, right?
Well, what you didn't know is that, as part of my 1000 albums project, I listened to a Princess Chelsea album - 2023's Taite Music Prize-winning Everything Is Going To Be Alright. It was really, really excellent, and I loved the album. I was seeking a Princess Chelsea song to post.
Taite Music Prize - it's for music from New Zealand. Chelsea Nikkel, who is the titular Princess, is from Auckland.
And, unrelated, the kids started getting obsessed with this creepy, weird song from 2011 that is also enchanting. That song, as it turns out, is from Princess Chelsea's 2011 debut album Lil Golden Book. THAT album is now on my list.
The song is literally a couple arguing about smoking.
The Lee Hazelwood part (to Chelsea's Nancy Sinatra) of the song was sung by Chelsea's co-producer and former Brunettes frontman Jonathan Bree (she was also a part-time member). And it's now on repeat.
So, despite this being a 2011 song, and despite Princess Chelsea releasing a lot of music in between 2011 and... now..... she did not tour the United States until 2023 - in support of Everything Is Going To Be Alright.
After her starring role in Mean Girls - the musical film and Broadway musical versions, not the original starring Lindsey Lohan - Reneé Rapp (the name was given to her at birth by her parents who really wanted her to have a musical career - this is not a joke) really wanted to expand her music career and started posting clips to social media of a few test lyrics.
One of those lyrics: "I'm a real bad girl but a real good kisser."
That became the first line of "Leave Me Alone", the lead single from her excellent 2025 album BITE ME. It's a fun, cheeky, in your face IDGAF anthem.
She puts on a hell of a live show, by the way.
And yes, I hunted down a version where she says "bitch" and not "babe". THAT was not easy, but I do this work for you.
Happy New Year, and welcome to the best year of Wicked Guilty Pleasures yet.
We're opening with Twice breakout star Chaeyoung, who had in my opinion the greatest Korean album of 2025 with her solo debut LIL FANTASY vol.1 - and this album and its main single (which we are featuring today) are just great.
In atypical K-Pop fashion, Chaeyoung didn't just show up at the studio and sing and dance like the good little idol. No, she was a producer and co-writer of all the songs on this album, including this one, on which she co-wrote both lyrics and music and co-designed the vocal arrangement.... AND produced this song!
The video is clearly evocative of Alice In Wonderland. We all get that, right? It's almost like Chaeyoung is leaning into the whole li'l fantasy thing.
She may be a complete artist.... no doubts there.
But also, she's a K-Pop idol and we know how those live performances go.
What you DON'T usually see is an excited, engaged crowd at these performances, but here we are.
So here we are, at the end of the year. I started writing this post in early November, and as of this moment, as I look at my Spotify On Repeat playlist, three Addison Rae songs are in my top 10.
This one is #1.
It has been for months.
It ended up #11 on my Spotify Wrapped, by the way.
(Update: by the end of December, it slipped a little bit but it's still pretty high up - #8)
This would be her second Billboard Hot 100 hit (after last year's "Diet Pepsi") (and yes, there's a third, coming in a future post), and was a bigger hit in other countries. It was also in the conversation this year for Song of the Summer and went a LONG WAY towards legitimizing her as an artist and a songwriter (she co-wrote this).
The song is deep and emotional, and has several tonal shifts throughout.
This is why I choose this song as both my favorite single of the year, but also the last post of 2025.
And yes, this video was really recorded in Iceland.
Like our "Diet Pepsi" post, we're going to feature her August performance at the GRAMMY Museum.... because it's great.
We had a spectacular 2025 with you. This blog feels reenergized, and I feel like we're just hitting our stride. Thanks for being here.
