The 3rd Annual Don’t Sucky Awards
Welcome to the Season Finale of Songs That Don’t Suck — Episode 150. And not just any finale… the Season 3 curtain call. 🎤✨
Whether you’ve been here since the early days or you’re dropping in for the first time: thank you for showing up. Seriously.
This episode is a victory lap, a stats flex, a love letter to music discovery, and the official home of the 3rd Annual Don’t Sucky Awards—where we honor the best of the 222 songs featured this year (because yes, we actually listened to them all… again 😅).
Three Years In: The Discovery Machine Keeps Paying Dividends 🎶💸
Before we hand out trophies, we’ve gotta look at how far we’ve come—because the numbers are WILD.
Spotify Wrapped: The Long-Term Relationship Status = “Committed”
Here’s the listening evolution:
- 2022: 23,000 minutes + 1,000+ artists
- 2023: 43,580 minutes + 2,500+ artists
- 2024: 42,000 minutes + 3,500+ artists
- 2025: 46,481 minutes + 4,300+ unique artists 🤯
Top genre this year? Alternative Rock, across 369 genres.
And then Spotify chose violence and gave a “listening age” of 51.
Ouch.
Especially when you just turned 50 this week. 🎂🎵
(Still not as brutal as your youngest daughter getting a listening age of 76… which is, mathematically speaking, only a casual 60-year gap. Totally normal. Nothing to see here. 😂)
Concerts = Church (And 2025 Was a Holy Year) 🙏🎸
If live music is church, you were basically on tour with the congregation:
- 2024: 16 concerts
- 2025: 20 shows (leveling up!)
And here’s the best part: 5 of those shows were artists discovered through the podcast, including:
- Bridge City Sinners
- The Bank FEEL
- The Paper Kites
- High Fade
- Wynton Existing
Plus some absolute bucket-list moments: Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and Enter the Haggis. 🔥
And yes—2026 has been warned. You’re coming for that total.
The Podcast Grew Like Crazy This Year 📈🌍
This season wasn’t just about the songs—it was about the community.
Songs That Don’t Suck growth stats (2025)
- +117% listenership
- +54% followers
- +44% total listening time
- Heard in 30+ countries
- 270+ listeners had it in at least their Top 10 podcasts 💥
That’s huge. That’s real. And that’s because people shared it, told friends, posted about it, reviewed it, and kept showing up.
So yeah… thank you. 👏
The 2025 Don’t Sucky Awards: How the Madness Works 🏆
This year’s awards are the culmination of:
- 222 songs featured
- 77 unique listed genres
- 138 tracks with no genre listed (because genre tags are apparently optional now??)
Some songs claimed up to 8 genres each, because modern music classification has become:
- fractured
- chaotic
- kind of hilarious
So you did what any sane person would do: dumbed it down to 7 categories using Spotify genre data plus your ears as the final judge.
Then came the real work:
- shortlist
- relisten
- analyze
- agonize
- lose sleep
- crown winners 🏅
Let’s get into it.
🏆 2025 Don’t Sucky Award Winners
Country/Americana Winner
“One Bullet Left” — Yam Haus
Nominees:
- “Waiting to Provide” — Florry
- “Down to Be Wrong” — HAIM
- “Wishful Thinking” — Paige Fish
- “One Bullet Left” — Yam Haus ✅
- “I Miss Daytona” — Sydney Shae
Even though Yam Haus calls themselves indie rock, this track hits with a Country/Americana flavor, and Spotify didn’t even give it a genre label—so your ears made the call. Strong chorus, strong message, and it stuck around long after Episode 102. 🎯
Folk Winner
“Grieving” — Leith Ross
Nominees:
- “I’m Alright” — Johnnyswim
- “We the People Fuck the Man” — Langhron Slim
- “Grieving” — Leith Ross ✅
- “Truth or Consequence” — Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
- “Dark Night of my Soul” — AVTT/PTTN
This one connected instantly back in Episode 119: pure vocal delivery, beautiful storytelling, and rich folk textures (banjo + fiddle = instant credibility). No surprise it resurfaced as a mid-year favorite and ultimately took the crown. 🌙🪕
Pop Winner
“Never Better” — Wild Rivers
Nominees:
- “Never Better” — Wild Rivers ✅
- “L.A.” — Couch
- “Cancerian” — KT Tunstall
- “Sex, Drugs and Existential Dread” — Chloe Quisa
- “True-ish” — OSTON
Pop isn’t where you “hang out”… but 2025 proved you visit often enough to find gold. And this song? Constant repeat. Smart lyric turns, great structure, and it earned its spot after Episode 114 and the mid-year roundup.
Also: you’ve officially entered the era of “no guilty pleasures, only pleasures.” Respect. 😎
Metal/Hard Rock Winner
“Aozora” — Karnivool
Nominees:
- “Shine” — Return to Dust
- “The End” — Mammoth
- “Aozora” — Karnivool ✅
- “Blood God” — Black Orchid Empire
- “The Soul Your Tethered Too” — Nuns of the Tundra
This category is your roots—your home base—your loud, glorious origin story. 🤘
And “Aozora” hit that sweet spot: progressive heaviness, technical skill, melodic tension, great vocals, and transitions that actually make sense (rare, powerful magic). You discovered it in Episode 144 and it didn’t let go.
Also appreciated: the official anti–cookie monster vocal stance. 🧌🚫
Indie/Alternative Winner
“Big Familiar” — Stella and the Very Messed
Nominees:
- “Shot in the Dark” — The Format
- “Never Give Up” — Tors
- “London” — Badflower
- “Cold at Night” — Mountain Goats
- “Big Familiar” — Stella and the Very Messed ✅
Indie/Alternative is the deep end of this podcast—76 songs deep, actually.
But this one stood out hard: vibe, vocals, replayability, and the immediate reaction of:
“When can I see them live??”
(Answer: apparently Texas… for now. Heartbreaking. But hope remains. 🥲)
Rock Winner
“Changing” — Scarhaven
Nominees:
- “Rock n Roll Heaven” — The Spin Doctors
- “Who’ll Stand With Us” — Dropkick Murphys
- “Changing” — Scarhaven ✅
- “I’ve Got a Broken Heart” — The Lemon Twigs
- “Dreaming in Stereo” — The Jellybricks
Rock may not run the charts like it used to, but people are still plugging in and dreaming big. And Scarhaven? They delivered.
This song got teased relentlessly on social media for months… and when it finally dropped, it paid off the hype debt in full. Bonus: they’re starting to tour regionally, and the “new grunge/post-grunge” movement is clearly heating up. 🔥
Unicorns Winner
“Things” — After Cooking
Nominees:
- “Ninth Street Getdown” — Da Land Brass Band
- “Brainrot” — grandson
- “Things” — After Cooking ✅
- “1976” — Giobia
- “For You” — antronsongs
Unicorns is the category for music that doesn’t fit the map—but still hits the brain just right. From rap to baroque weirdness to Star Wars-costumed soundtrack chaos… this is the land of fearless creativity.
And After Cooking? That’s next-level.
One-man performances, garbage turned into instruments, loop pedals, laptop wizardry—the whole thing echoing the glorious DIY spirit of Gizmodgery by Self (college-era classic). 🧸🥁💻
The Songs That Don’t Suck Artist Hall of Fame: Inaugural Class 🏛️🎶
This year you introduced something new: a Hall of Fame for artists who’ve become true podcast staples.
2025 Hall of Fame Inductees
- The Struts
- Johnnyswim
They couldn’t be here (tragic), but you accepted the honor on their behalf (heroic). 🥇
The Finale Message: The Hunt Continues 🔎🎧
That’s the Don’t Sucky Awards, and that’s Season 3.
The thesis remains undefeated:
Great music is still out there.
The trick is finding it… and sharing it.
And because you’re a benevolent playlist wizard, you made a single playlist with:
✅ all nominees
✅ all songs featured in 2025
Find it in the show notes or at songsthatdontsuck.net.
Thank-Yous (Because This Thing Isn’t a Solo Act) ❤️
Before the curtain drops:
- Family — for supporting the weekly grind and letting this “crazy idea” exist
- Listeners — for liking, sharing, reviewing, commenting, and telling people
- Zach Bowders — the official voice of the show (check out his podcast Data + Love)
- Music podcast community shoutouts:
- Scott & Rico (Rock-n-Roll Autopsy)
- Big Rick (Rock Talk Studio)
And yes…
Season 4 Starts in January 🎉
New year. New music. New discoveries.
Same mission: fresh favorites + brand-new gems—because your playlists should never get stale.
See you in Season 4. 🎧🚀
