Not much has changed in my listening habits this year: I seldom focus entirely on what I’m listening to, whether it’s podcasts or music; it’s more like a background to keep my brain busy during manual activities, or to stop the back of my brain from distracting me when I’m working.

Podcasts

One thing that’s apparent from the Overcast summary-of-the-year picture is that I’ve listened to podcasts for almost 100 hours more this year, compared to 2024.
I believe it could be attributed to the frequent travelling in these last months of the year, although that should be compensated by less walking. I’m not fully convinced by my own explanation.
But the number of hours I listened to my favourite podcasts hasn’t increased much. Compared to last year, I’ve completely abandoned Loremen, that has dropped from 12+ hours to a total of 56 minutes. I can’t tell why.
The result is that the Top 10 this year is almost monothematically centered around films.

So, here’s the updated list:

  • ↔️ The Empire (film) Podcast + the Empire Spoiler Special Podcast: the two main Empire podcasts are still my favourite titles. There’s not a lot to add to what I wrote last year, except that maybe I’ve become less interested in listening to interviews with British talents I don’t really know. After so much time spent ‘with them’, the main hosts (usually Chris Hewitt, Helen O’Hara and James Dyer) feel almost like friends (although they essentially don’t know I exist), and I ended up genuinely feeling for the good and the bad times in their personal lives; my eyes welled up during the last few minutes of this year’s last episode

  • ↔️ The Evolution of Horror (standard and Patreon feeds): no surprise here either, Mike Muncer’s exploration of the genre is still very entertaining thanks to the host’s preparation and the varied roster of guests. I’m a bit surprised that the total amount of hours is much lower than last year’s (72 versus 118): although I’m not really following the current season about man-made monsters, I didn’t listen much to the previous one either

  • ↔️ The Detective & the Log Lady: Mike Muncer again, continuing and completing his rewatch of Twin Peaks with Stacie Ponder. This year’s episodes were focused on The Return, and it was good to listen to someone watching it for the first time go through the same feelings of befuddlement as I was, even on my second watch. Most of the season happened after Lynch passed away, which added a different tone to the discussion

  • ⬆️ Accidental Tech Podcast: apparently I listened more to this tech podcast this year than I did in 2024. The unofficial trend of the year was disappointment in Apple, be it Tim Cook’s management choices (which I share), or the Liquid Glass UI revamp (which is sometimes bad, but occasionally pretty to look at)

  • ⬆️ Nuovi Incubi: a higher spot in the Top 10 for the Italian-language, women-hosted horror podcast by Marika Paracchini and Lucia Patrizi. The two hosts are very enthusiastic, and although I don’t often share their opinions, their preparation often gives some insights that I didn’t think about

  • 🆕 Colors of the Dark: the first new entry in this year’s stats is Fangoria’s podcast, hosted by Rebekah McKendry and Elric Kane. Clearly, it’s yet another horror-themes title, which often discusses films that I haven’t heard mentioned anywhere else

  • 🆕 Final Girl After Dark: the new podcast by Stacie Ponder mostly consists of the host recounting the plot of a horror movie, with lots of digressions and tangents in her unique and very entertaining style

  • ⬇️ Indagini: a big drop in listened hours for one of the best respected Italian true-crime podcasts, hosted by Stefano Nazzi. Basically, I’m not a big fan of real-life murders, which explains why the total time I spent on it is less than 12 hours

Music

2025 has been peculiar from the point of view of music as well.
In need for something uplifting, I came across a YouTube video showing Japanese dance group Avantgardey perform on America’s Got Talent; their unique style made me smile, so, after repeated viewings, I tried to elicit the same feeling of fun by listening to the first song in their performance on Apple Music. It worked.

Therefore, my Top Songs for the year are (sorry, only Apple Music links because Odesli no longer works):

  1. Cinderella Honeymoon (Sped-up version) by Hiromi Iwasaki : this is the song in that performance, to which I listened 101 times - meaning most mornings on my way to work in order to muster some good mood. I think it’s about a temporary love story that ends at midnight. If Avantgardey’s dance routine wasn’t funny enough, I smile every time I get to the end of the song, where the singer triumphantly repeats that now she’s alone at home clipping her nails

  2. Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves : quite less obscure than my number one song, I started listening to it right before the other one while going to work (the two songs’ combined duration covering exactly the walking distance between home and my then-office). Another uplifting song that gives me a good stride when walking. I only listened to it 39 times

  3. Boots by Christopher Ake : on the other hand of the mood spectrum, I listened to this on a period where I just needed to push through a difficult time without thinking. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, as heard in the 28 Years Later trailer and then film, pushed me to just move my feet up and down again, 22 times

  4. Immigrant Song by Karen O, Trent Raznor and Atticus Ross : the same principle as the poem above, the version of Led Zeppelin’s classic from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo brings me to plough through whatever is going on. I did that only 15 times

The rest of the Top 12 is composed of Robbie Williams songs (Shine with Take That, Something Beautiful and Supreme) - which I listened to for a while after watching Better Man, or other Japanese pop songs whose titles I wouldn’t know but would follow Cinderella on continuous play on Apple Music.

Like for 2024, my Top Albums of the year are a total travesty because they are only the albums I listened maybe once during the whole twelve months:

  1. Anthology 4 by The Beatles : the latest issue in the bottom-of-the-barrel series releases some additional stuff that wasn’t good enough thirty years ago when the previous Anthologies came out, let alone in the sixties. I listened to it once out of curiosity, and then proceeded to cleanse my ears with Abbey Road, that doesn’t appear in this top 5

  2. Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain by Yann Tiersen : I’m pretty sure I listened to this soundtrack in the days following the screening of the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film at the Cinematek, when I was full of Parisian mood. The soundtrack is still lovely, but after a while the songs start sounding all very similar to one another

  3. All Things Must Pass by George Harrison : I listened a couple of times to a couple of songs in the album, so Apple Music thinks I love the album. I do love the title track, and Isn’t It a Pity. Both songs about sadness and trying to rationalise it

  4. Oxygène by Jean-Michel Jarre : I haven’t listened to this album for decades, but for some reason it came to my mind while I was looking for some focus music.