I don’t listen to whole albums as much as I used to, so this is a skewed or kind of cobbled-together list this year. But I think there are great pleasures to be found here.
Mesmerizing.
A “new” album from one of my all-time favourite musicians, who is sadly no longer performing.
Apple Music · SpotifyThe Smile: Wall of Eyes
Of course, of course.
I’ve been compiling this list annually since 2013. I’ve had a pretty varied list of artists. This year all three have appeared previously. Am I getting into a rut? Well, at least I’m listening to newly-released music (my criteria is only that the music be released during the calendar year); I know some who are still playing the same tracks they were decades ago — which is fine for them, I suppose, but not my jam. I enjoy the thrill of discovery.
I’m a long-time Radiohead fan and this is classic Yorke/Greenwood.
“I can go anywhere that I want / I just gotta turn myself inside out and back to front”
Groove of the year.
Apple Music · Spotify
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Apple Music · Spotify
Drum and bass revival that really moves — and is just a great tune. It rocks, which is pretty rare these days. And the video is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
“If you say so / It’s irrelevant”
Big Thief in Vancouver this year was one of my favourite shows ever. This late-in-the-year release by the lead singer is another bullseye. The piano late in the track is simple and effective in a way that reminded me rhythmically of Radiohead’s “Videotape” and emotionally of the haunting chord at 1:59 of Bruce Springsteen’s “Reason to Believe“. One of the most consistently excellent musicians (both Lenker herself and the full band) of the current era.
See also 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.
A few of my favourite albums from the year. My listening habits have changed over the years: working at home, focusing more on individual tracks in terms of popular music as Apple Music goes off on infinite play and well, yeah, maybe getting older — all have contributed to my album-oriented choices being more subdued.
A long-time hero of my girlfriend’s, from Yellow Magic Orchestra to the wondrous Playing the Piano 2022. Sakamoto died in March; this album had already become regular listening for me. I look forward to seeing OPUS, directed by his son.
One of the soundtracks to my year of work, and evening reading.
“Monotony II” is one of the standout tracks from this Canadian artist’s latest.
A few of my favourite albums.
Sublime sounds, beautiful tunes, lovely playing — including drummer Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet and The Smile.
An album of consistent pleasures; I found myself coming back to it often. Choice lyric: “You paid for lies to be made truth / Does that fuck with you?” You know who you are.
Hypnotic.
These were a few of my favourite tracks.
Radiohead is one of my all-time favourite bands, but for some reason The Smile’s A Light for Attracting Attention never quite grabbed me. After I saw them live (Seattle, December), I wondered if a reason might have been that, while Radiohead works (worked?) out songs live, often over the course of many years, A Light was a “pandemic album.” The track “Skrting on the Surface” was a candidate for this list, being perhaps the closest thing to a Radiohead track we’re ever again likely to get; but in performance everything came alive and “Thin Thing” was one of the highlights. The interplay of Yorke’s bass and Greenwood’s guitar at 3:12 is just so great.
“And then, she’ll steal the photos / From your phone.”
Long ago, I had a copy of Orton’s Trailer Park; but I lost track of her over the years. The Pitchfork review of her new album prompted me to have another listen, and the album one of my favourites of the year; the title track is a standout. She and her band were great live in Vancouver in November.
“Almost makes me wanna cry / The weather’s so beautiful outside.”
How many years has it been now that most of the best rock tracks are by women? Well, in this case a female vocalist. Anyway, a simple but grand pleasure.
See also 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023.
Three of my favourite albums from last year.
One of those albums that I discovered at precisely the right moment, a solitary rainy night. “Sounds like my jazz angel.”
Fucking masterful.
Hopkins is a stalwart for me.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information available on how to access CBC content using Siri on HomePod and HomePod mini, so I decided to put together a guide based on my experience and research. Last updated March 2025.
All results below are from tests on my 2018 HomePod stereo pair running HomePod Software Version 18.3 with the new Home architecture on March 3, 2025.
I bought my first HomePod in June 2018. I listen mostly to Apple Music, along with some podcasts — and CBC news and radio. More than half of my interaction with HomePod is via voice.
CBC has several pages addressing HomePod support:
Someone, somewhere — CBC, TuneIn, and/or Apple — seems regularly to be tweaking many of these commands, as there are changes every month. But there tend to be as many regressions as improvements.
Here’s a review of the commands provided on those pages, and their current status.
| Page (above) | “Hey Siri …” | Result |
| 1 | “… play CBC Radio.” | Failure: “Okay, The World This Hour now playing. Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.” |
| 1 | “… play the latest news from CBC.” | Failure: “Here’s the latest news. Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.” |
| 2, 3 | “… play CBC Radio news.” | Failure: As of January 2025 plays CBC Radio One Toronto. For a number of months previous, had been playing Apple Music tracks apparently with the word “news” in the title. |
| 2, 3 | “… play CBC Radio 1.” | Success, starting in May 2024, for the first time in a while. Plays CBC Radio One Vancouver for me (my location). |
| 2 | “… play CBC Radio Music.” | Failure: Tries to play The World This Hour, then says “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Music.” |
On the 2018 page (3), there is a video with Piya Chattopadhyay demonstrating the “play CBC Radio One” command. The video ends by promoting a url, cbc.ca/smart, which as of this writing only has instructions for Amazon Alexa.
Page (2) states “We will continue to work on our Apple implementation of the voice experience and will announce late in 2019 when it’s ready to go. Stay tuned!” Page (3) says “New experiences are coming in 2019.”
I wrote to CBC in June 2019, and received the following from CBC Audience Services:
“CBC Radio One is limited to the Ottawa feed on HomePod. CBC Music is not officially supported on HomePod either. All a work in progress and changing constantly. We are continually working on improvements and upgrades on all digital platforms.”
There is a lot more CBC content Siri on HomePod can access besides Ottawa Radio One (see below). But since that message, CBC had stopped responding to emails or tweets on the subject until, quite unexpectedly, an email arrived July 11, 2022, which stated in part:
“This is a known issue which we are currently investigating. Please read the following CBC Help Centre article referring to this issue: NEW Issues connection to CBC Radio networks on internet devices [apparently updated in early 2023, though it doesn’t appear there were changes]. We do apologize for any inconvenience.”
It’s also unclear who has responsibility for ensuring that Siri can be used to access CBC content. The page sent to me above says to “reach out to the software support team for your device or service and ask them to contact CBC directly.” But is this TuneIn (the service that provides radio to Apple Music and hence via HomePod)? Apple? I replied with all of these questions, but in a response sent July 19, 2022, only got back “As the article link from our help centre says:” with the first and third paragraphs of the above page quoted, and “That’s all I can give you for the moment.”
It’s not clear whether by “this” they were referring to issues with HomePod in general — every time I email or tweet CBC I include a link to this page, but have no way of knowing whether they’ve looked at it — or some specific issue, perhaps the recent problem with CBC Music Vancouver.
I followed up with an email on July 2, 2024, but as of January 2 2025 had not received a reply.
Particularly with the introduction of the HomePod mini, not to mention the second-generation full-size HomePod, these issues would seem to be a significant oversight on the part of CBC. But in the meantime, I’ve discovered through trial and error that there are other commands that work, over and above the few documented on the original web pages from 2018-20. I also looked at the TuneIn pages for CBC stations and music. The following is my analysis of what plays based on various commands. It’s worth noting that some results may be affected by my location, Vancouver; thanks to ThiefClashRoyale for doing some tests from Ottawa in March 2023. (I have omitted podcasts, since they can be asked for directly; some generic commands like “play the CBC news” happen to redirect to podcasts.)
| “Siri…” or “Hey Siri…” | Result | Notes |
| “… switch to CBC news.” | Failure | “Sorry, I can’t play that right now.” Worked when tested in both September and November 2023, but not in October. September 2023 was the first time it had worked in months or years of being broken, but this is a new error as of February 2024. Making this request is supposed to play The World This Hour when you ask “…what’s my update?” |
| “… play the CBC news.” | Failure | “Here’s the latest news. Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.” Had been fixed as of September 2023 — played The World This Hour. It had played The World at Six podcast for a couple of months until the November 2022 update, when it started playing Quirks and Quarks, then switched to Front Burner in June 2023. |
| “… play CBC Music.” | Failure | Tries to play The World This Hour podcast, then says “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.” |
| “… play CBC Music Vancouver.” | Success | As of January 2025, works for the first time in quite a while. |
| “… play CBC Music Halifax.” | Success | Had failed in August 2024 for the first time in a couple of years: “Okay. Here’s CBC Radio” which plays random tracks of podcasts. Once got back “Okay. Sorry, something’s up. Please try again in a little while.” But working again as of September 2024. This is no longer listed on TuneIn’s Stream CBC page. |
| “… play CBC Music Edmonton.” | Success | Fixed as of February 2025. In previous months, had been trying to play The World This Hour podcast, then says “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.” This is only one of three CBC Music stations, along with Vancouver and Toronto, remaining on TuneIn’s Stream CBC as of August 2024. |
| “… play CBC Music Winnipeg.” | Success | Fixed as of January 2025, though it is no longer listed on TuneIn’s Stream CBC page. |
| “… play CBC Music Toronto.” | Failure | “I couldn’t find CBC Music Toronto in your Apple Music library.” |
| “… play CBC Radio One.” | Success | Working in May 2024 for the first time in a while. Plays CBC Radio One Vancouver, my location. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Vancouver.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One St. John’s.” | Success | St. John’s, Newfoundland. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Saint John.” | Success | Saint John, New Brunswick. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Kelowna.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Toronto.” | Success | Station artwork is, for some reason, the 1974–1992 CBC logo rather than the CBC Radio One logo that all the other stations use. |
| “… play CBC Radio One London.” | Success | Had stopped working in August 2024: “Now playing [indistinguishable] station.” Some kind of EDM. But working again in September. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Kitchener-Waterloo.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Halifax.” | Success | Had stopped working as of August 2024: “Okay, here’s CBC Radio.” Plays random stuff. Back in September 2024. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Moncton.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Edmonton.” | Success | Had not been working as of August 2024: played random stuff. Working again as of September. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Prince George.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Ottawa.” | Success | Had stopped working as of August 2024: played “100 Songs for Kids Sleep – Deep Sleeping Music for Toddlers and Infants to Sleep All Through the Night, Soothing Lullabies” of all things. Fixed in September. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Winnipeg.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Sudbury.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Montreal.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Victoria.” | Success | Had been playing music for some months; fixed as of January 2025. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Charlottetown.” | Success | Had stopped working in August 2024; played “Gospel Station.” Back in August. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Regina.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Fredericton.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Thunder Bay.” | Success | |
| “… play CBC Radio One Goose Bay” | Success | In September 2022, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page for the first time in a few months, and discovered this station had been added. Bonus! As of October 2023 it’s no longer listed, but still works. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Barrie” | Success | Added to TuneIn circa September 2022, but Siri wasn’t able to find it until the February 2023 update. As of October 2023 it’s no longer listed, but still works. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Kingston” | Failure | March 2025, Steppenwolf. February 2025, Lady Gaga. January 2025, back to Bruno Mars. December 2024 played Nicki Minaj. November 2024, played “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars. October 2024, played “The Zane Lowe Show.” September 2024, a track by Bruno Mars. August 2024, a track by Sean Paul. July 2024, “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins. As of May 2024, was playing Apple Music One. As of October 2023 it was no longer listed on TuneIn’s Stream CBC page. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Peterborough” | Success | In October 2022, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added — it resulted in an error until the November 2022 update. As of October 2023 it’s no longer listed, but still works. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Saskatoon” | Success | Added some time in September 2022. As of October 2023 it was no longer listed, but was added back by May 2024. It worked the whole time. Odd. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Sydney.” | Success | In April 2023, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Windsor.” | Success | In April 2023, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added. As of October 2023 it’s no longer listed, but still works. |
| “… play CBC Radio One Calgary.” | Success | In April 2023, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added. Interestingly, in June 2023 I was testing all the channels and my HomePods were playing Windsor above; I asked for Calgary and on the first try it said it couldn’t find CBC Radio One Windsor-Calgary. Same happened in March 2024. |
| “… play CBC North Iqaluit” | Success | In July 2023, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added. But as of December of that year it had been removed, even though the command still worked. Interestingly, “… play CBC Radio One North Iqaluit” doesn’t seem to work. |
There’s clearly some room for improvement here. CBC should at least fix the incorrect mappings. It’s unclear to me what the relationship is between an entity like CBC and Apple, but there’s a blurb and link on Apple’s Siri for Developers page for integration of a streaming service with HomePod (I don’t currently have an Apple Developer account, so I can’t view the page).
Please let me know if you have any updates or other information, and I will try to keep this page current.
Three pieces that I kept coming back to in the (first) year of Covid-19.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross said “the current [pandemic] crisis was the reason they completed the two records in the first place, ‘as a means of staying somewhat sane'” (Pitchfork). While my neighbourhood was boarded up in the spring, this track in particular seemed the pitch-perfect soundtrack; but both albums — Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts — helped get me through that initial strange, disconnected time.
A Hopkins– like perfect balance of melody and electronics; her second appearance on these lists of mine (see 2017). The outtro, hinted at through the verses, is crowning. “And so / Let go of the hope / That it could / That it could be.”
That processed guitar sound on the classic changes! “No, I’m not afraid of hard work / I get everything I want / I have everything I wanted.”
No real honourable mentions this year; I am starting an equivalent “Three Albums” list that mostly takes care of that. My Jazz list also moves there this year.
See also 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023.