Hello! I’m Simon — I host Park Life every Friday from 11am to midday — and this is my Top 10 (well… 11ish, actually) for 2025. Most of these picks are wildly unsuitable for Park Life, but they’re my personal favourites. Expect a big dose of electronica, some experimental bits, a light ambient sprinkle and a cheeky shot of strident synthpop. Mmmmm, delicious! Oh, and there are only eight albums on the list — which is totally fine, because I’ve got other favourites from other mediums to shout about too.

Music

Film & TV

      • My pick for best film of 2025 is Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia”. Lanthimos continues to provide a modicum of much-needed hope whenever I look aghast at the franchise-ridden wasteland of modern cinema!
      • My pick for best TV series of 2025 is Vince Gilligan’s “Pluribus”. Obviously.

Writing

      • The best fiction I read last year was “High-Rise” by J. G. Ballard. Yes, yes; I know it was published in 1975 – half a century ago – but it was my first read of it (I’ve no idea why I waited so long) and, to the best of my knowledge, I didn’t read a book published in 2025 because of… reasons.
      • The best non-fiction book of 2025 was Caroline Fraser’s “Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers”, which investigates the link between environmental toxins and the surge in serial killers in the 1970s/80s Pacific Northwest.
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