
Despite the hefty dose of video game music, Spotify Wrapped pegged me as a 57-year-old
I’m sometimes still asked for my student ID, even though I’m officially on the steadier side of 30. Spotify knows all my secrets, though: It found the suspiciously wrinkled portrait in the attic, and stared straight into my soul, guesstimating my listening age as 57 in my 2025 Wrapped.
Supposedly, I racked up 353 different genres this year, too. I’ve always had eclectic tastes with a penchant for the weird and the wonderful, so neither this stat nor the visage of an elderly man is entirely out of place—and if I had to guess, the dollop of classical music included in my top songs in the year is certainly playing a part in this chronological aberration.
I’ll give you some of my top suggestions for the year below, but first, I’d still like to take some umbrage in this silly little stat. After all, surely there’s more than enough video game music on the playlist to grant me at least a soft cap of 45 years?
First, the ambitious but flawed Knights in Tight Spaces has a wicked soundtrack, courtesy of nervous_testpilot of Frozen Synapse fame. As for so many others, Blue Prince was one of my standout game experiences of the year, and the song in the OST that plays when you open the door to Room 46— Ovinn Nevarei —is glorious.
The Spotify algorithm has also blessed me with a song from the as-of-yet-unreleased VICE Undercover ’s soundtrack, which comes with obvious Miami Vice inspirations that it proudly wears on its sleeve; I ended up infatuated with one of the remixes for The King of Miami . For an even deeper cut, there’s the version of Feel Good Inc. that is made entirely of Stronghold Crusader ’s sound assets , alongside bits of the Stellaris and GTA 5 soundtracks. Couple these with some choice selections from The Tetris Effect and the Unreal Tournament remix album of Alexander Brandon and Michiel van den Bos, surely we can settle on 40 years at most?
No? Alright.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZEVXdiwCd5vwzDfr?si=69122df0cdaa4f4f
Enterprising musical sleuths will find a few more games-related entries on my top songs playlist for the year, but I’d like to leave you with some different recommendations instead to wrap this up. Vangelis’ The City is a joyously perfect musical distillation of a big-town atmosphere, John Rutter’s classical works offer a Mozart-like easy entry into the world of beautiful choral arrangements, Alpine Universe offers a fascinatingly unique take on the mix of electronic and classical music, and if you have never heard of Sparks and Yello before, you are missing out. As for a bit of internet humor, Tom Cardy’s 3 Hours With A Close-Up Magician was a surprisingly good background song for endless chess binge sessions.
You know what, now I’m starting to see why one of my colleagues wondered whether the digits in that age guess should be flipped…
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