And just like that, another Cool Music November is behind us, folks. December is here and everyone's posting their Spotify Wrapped. I famously left Spotify earlier this year (something you should consider doing too) but I am also not above looking at every single Spotify Wrapped screenshot posted by every single person I know online.
As an extremely nosy guy I'm always curious about the media people consume, seeing how their favorite artists interact with my preconceived notions about them. I also just love the simple joy in finding out a former coworker got really into The Dismemberment Plan this year or that my friend's kid's ongoing Hans Zimmer phase has totally destroyed his algorithm.
Obviously Wrapped is a lethal combination of navel-gazing ego stroking and FOMO manipulating free advertising for the evilest of streamers and sharing it in 2025 feels a little tone deaf to the valid pleas artists and other people smarter than me have been making all year. What complicates it for me is getting to see people earnestly share the music they love, something that is, at least in my social media sphere, becoming increasingly rare.
Even if it's packaged as a roundup of data visualized KPIs or whatever, I'm happy to learn more about my friends and the shit they're into. Thankfully the other big streamers like Tidal and Apple Music also offer year end stats so we can all just plan on doing that next year.
Anyways here's blurbs about thirteen more songs I listened to and loved in November. Part one is here if you missed it.
Westside Cowboy - “Can’t See”
The very exciting young rock and roll band Westside Cowboy has already been dubbed an official Horse Combinations “band to keep your eye on” and the designation stands with “Can’t See.” The dream of the mid 2000s blog rock scene is alive, baby!
The very exciting young rock and roll band Westside Cowboy has already been dubbed an official Horse Combinations “band to keep your eye on” and the designation stands with “Can’t See.” The dream of the mid 2000s blog rock scene is alive, baby!
Robber Robber’s 2024 debut was an underrated highlight of last year that deserved way more attention than it got and has stayed in regular rotation for the last eighteen months around these parts. They’re back with “Talkback,” a new single that refines the precise, nervy sound of Wild Guess, and has me excited for whatever 2026 holds for these guys.
Fine - “moment”
Fine’s killer run of singles continues unabated with “moment,” which sounds like a deconstructed Mazzy Star song or something.
Fine’s killer run of singles continues unabated with “moment,” which sounds like a deconstructed Mazzy Star song or something.
Robert Stillman - “Reality Distortion Field”
10,000 Rivers, the forthcoming concept album from experimental composer Robert Stillman, is an imagined musical biography of Steve Jobs influenced by Stillman's love of the soft rock and adult contemporary smooth jams of the 1980s. I’m not sure how the excellent single “Reality Distortion Field” is going to fit into all that but I do know that it’s a pretty thrilling listen out of context of the larger work.
10,000 Rivers, the forthcoming concept album from experimental composer Robert Stillman, is an imagined musical biography of Steve Jobs influenced by Stillman's love of the soft rock and adult contemporary smooth jams of the 1980s. I’m not sure how the excellent single “Reality Distortion Field” is going to fit into all that but I do know that it’s a pretty thrilling listen out of context of the larger work.
This Is Lorelei - “Holo Boy”
After the breakthrough of the fabulous Box for Buddy, Box for Star last year, This Is Lorelei’s Nate Amos has dug into his extensive back catalog for Holo Boy, a sort of reintroduction/greatest hits compilation. A collection of ten new recordings of songs originally released between 2014 and 2021 across nine This Is Lorelei records, this is something I'm probably going to be listening to a lot over the next few months.
After the breakthrough of the fabulous Box for Buddy, Box for Star last year, This Is Lorelei’s Nate Amos has dug into his extensive back catalog for Holo Boy, a sort of reintroduction/greatest hits compilation. A collection of ten new recordings of songs originally released between 2014 and 2021 across nine This Is Lorelei records, this is something I'm probably going to be listening to a lot over the next few months.
Wendy Eisenberg - “Will You Dare”
I’ve always been intrigued by Wendy Eisenberg’s work, full of off-kilter compositions and surprising left turns, with the new single “Will You Dare” surprising mostly in its simplicity and straightforwardness. It's a well crafted country ballad accented by twinkling pedal steel and expressive percussion.
I’ve always been intrigued by Wendy Eisenberg’s work, full of off-kilter compositions and surprising left turns, with the new single “Will You Dare” surprising mostly in its simplicity and straightforwardness. It's a well crafted country ballad accented by twinkling pedal steel and expressive percussion.
mercury - “Heaven”
This new track from Nashville’s mercury is so good, another rare zoomer shoegaze W.
This new track from Nashville’s mercury is so good, another rare zoomer shoegaze W.
Leonard Cohen - “Diamonds in the Mine”
Tracks like “Diamonds in the Mine” get me thinking about how Leonard Cohen might be for me what Tom Waits is for a lot of people. They’re both fedora wearing degenerate poet weirdoes but there’s an authenticity to Leonard’s romantic scumbag persona that works for me in a way Tom’s old timey hobo cosplay never did. Anyways I always liked it when Leonard puts on his scary monster voice for this jaunty song about abject misery and loss.
Tracks like “Diamonds in the Mine” get me thinking about how Leonard Cohen might be for me what Tom Waits is for a lot of people. They’re both fedora wearing degenerate poet weirdoes but there’s an authenticity to Leonard’s romantic scumbag persona that works for me in a way Tom’s old timey hobo cosplay never did. Anyways I always liked it when Leonard puts on his scary monster voice for this jaunty song about abject misery and loss.
The new Fabiano do Nascimento record is called Cavejaz because it’s jazz that sounds like it was recorded in a cave or maybe was made to soundtrack the act of hanging out in a cave. The atmospheric guitar and tabla duet “Velho Templo” is one of several tracks on the record pulled from a live collaboration between do Nascimento and Japanese musician U-zhaan.
Paul McCartney & Wings - “Let Me Roll It”
We had the privilege of seeing Paul McCartney live last week and what might have surprised me most was how hard the Wings songs hit. I don’t really go deep on their catalog, but hearing all-timers like “Let Me Roll It” and “Jet” performed with enthusiastic heaviness and muscle fifty years later has me convinced it’s time to start cookin up a Wings phase.
Spencer Radcliffe - “Shield and Sword”
Spencer Radcliffe surprise released his first new singer-songwriter record in six years a few weeks ago and I’ve had it on repeat ever since. I’m such a sucker for bands referencing other bands in their songs, I could have ran through a wall the first time I heard him quoting “The World at Large” midway through the album’s opening track.
We had the privilege of seeing Paul McCartney live last week and what might have surprised me most was how hard the Wings songs hit. I don’t really go deep on their catalog, but hearing all-timers like “Let Me Roll It” and “Jet” performed with enthusiastic heaviness and muscle fifty years later has me convinced it’s time to start cookin up a Wings phase.
Spencer Radcliffe surprise released his first new singer-songwriter record in six years a few weeks ago and I’ve had it on repeat ever since. I’m such a sucker for bands referencing other bands in their songs, I could have ran through a wall the first time I heard him quoting “The World at Large” midway through the album’s opening track.
Fridge - “Harmonics”
Lately I’ve really been spending a lot of time lately listening to C-tier post rock bands from like 1998. I wasn’t familiar with Fridge, perhaps best known as the band Four Tet was in before he got famous as Four Tet, until pretty recently but I am absolutely loving their record Happiness. “Harmonics” reminds me of The Books’ jittery folktronica, spare twinkles of automated sounding pitch harmonics punctuated by glitched out open acoustic strums.
Lately I’ve really been spending a lot of time lately listening to C-tier post rock bands from like 1998. I wasn’t familiar with Fridge, perhaps best known as the band Four Tet was in before he got famous as Four Tet, until pretty recently but I am absolutely loving their record Happiness. “Harmonics” reminds me of The Books’ jittery folktronica, spare twinkles of automated sounding pitch harmonics punctuated by glitched out open acoustic strums.
Full November 2025 playlist is embedded below! Streaming now on Tidal and not Spotify!
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