2025: Music in Review

Another year, another lament about the increasingly rapid passage of time, coupled with the never-ending stream of content vying for our attention. For every heartwarming story like the age-appropriate couple caught cheating on the Coldplay Kiss Cam, there were a dozen others highlighting deviant behavior and a "Seventeen X Sacai Labubu Wearing Carhartt WIP Sold For $31,250 On Pharrell’s Joopiter" - if you understood that, you are far more plugged in than I am. We cannot turn our eyes away, and it cannot be good for our ongoing health.

As always, there was a ton of new music released this year, and my own consumption hit pretty high levels - it would have been almost possible to do a Top 100 list solely with albums I picked up in physical form. Coupled with the pickups of secondhand copies, you could nearly label it a "problem". I won't give an actual number on the off-chance my spouse actually reads this, but it was a lot. My physical library has overrun any existing shelving long ago, and hopefully 2026 will be the year I can remedy that issue. Ideally by cutting back, of course. Naturally, the purchased records barely reflects my listening habits, as my working list of candidates for the top 50 list numbered 326 albums. A nice problem to have, but you can imagine there were many worthwhile fatalities.

As is now standard, please see the below Spotty playlist of selections from the top 50 albums, as available, presented in descending order (and capped by my Song of the Year, Burial's "Comafields"). My feelings about streaming and using this increasingly noxious platform could probably fill another page, and I strongly encourage you, should you discover something you like below, to please consider supporting the artist with an actual purchase (whether a physical copy or via Bandcamp). Lord knows many of these artists are not earning a decent living wage by creating something for peoples' enjoyment which people have no interest in paying for. Please enjoy skimming and I hope you find something you like!

Albums of the Year

50. Oklou, choke enough [True Panther]		Like the water you try to keep cupped in your hands, or the dream you groggily try to recall upon waking, choke enough is designed to be on the periphery, to linger with an afterglow but never corporeally. You are told there are pop songs here, and club jams, and sticky melodies, but they are always just past your fingertips. Pop’s most beguiling sprite.
49. These New Puritans, Crooked Wing [Domino]		Jack and George Barnett have been perfecting their art-pop attack for close to two decades, and they wisely never let their high concept flourishes overwhelm the beauty or emotions. Field recordings in a Greek Orthodox church, or in rural Essex? Challenging hymnal music, pounding electronic beats and brooding monochrome band photos? No worries; here is some Caroline Polachek, singing about the love between two mechanical cranes, to lighten the mood.
48. Jairus Sharif, Basis of Unity [Telephone Explosion]		The Calgary saxophonist explores the spaces between us with this latest experiment, as glitchy drone and field recordings sit in proximity with peals of sax runs and a spoken-word Malcolm Mooney feature, culminating in the ecstatic "Sunnyside".
47. Hotline TNT, Raspberry Moon [Third Man]		Will Anderson has expanded the Hotline TNT brand to a full-band, and let the collaborative spirit continue in the vein of 2023's Cartwheel - more crunchy guitars and swirling shoegaze textures, with haymaker hooks and lovelorn, optimistic lyrics.
46. Tunde Adebimpe, Thee Black Boltz [Sub Pop]		Maybe we don’t need a TV on the Radio reunion after all. On his solo debut, Tunde Adebimpe takes the best parts of his generational band and sets the proceedings on fire – these tracks are quick and immediate, with a blinding sheen and conviction. It was always a treat to hear him in conversation with Kyp Malone, but if we can’t get that in 2025, these “magnetic” tracks are more than good enough.
45. Swans, Birthing [Young God]		Michael Gira and Swans have been bringing the nastiness since before I was even born (read: A LONG-ASS TIME). Now into his 70s, and on the self-confessed final album of this “all-consuming sound worlds” iteration of the band, he may have found some peace. As punishingly epic as their 21st century output has been, this is a heavy investment, but one that once again pays major dividends. Whatever the future brings, they have been undeniably generous with their offerings – away, away, away and gone.
44. Daniel Avery, Tremor [Mute]		Before he was a techno DJ overlord, Avery was a rock kid, and he lets his hair down on this throwback to the gloomy 80s/90s industrial scene, a bevy of vocalists (yeule, Alison Mosshart, Julie Dawson, et al) running loose on some of his darkest, most song-centric productions to date. We got some new NIN songs in 2025, but this was as close as we got to a pretty hate machine.
43. Total Wife, come back down [Julia's War]		It is still early, but indications are strong that Total Wife's new album may end up being the definitive shoegaze LP of the decade. Paying worship at the altar of MBV as is appropriate, these tracks have just enough gossamer beauty, just enough pummeling rhythm, just enough stickiness to outlast all comers.
42. Danny Brown, Stardust [Warp]		Despite Atrocity Exhibition putting Danny on the forefront of outré rap, he lamented never having worked with the late SOPHIE (especially after Vince Staples utilized her productions so memorably in 2017). With a newly sober outlook, he enlists hyperpop’s cutting edge figures and absolutely rips into these futuristic club tracks. As ripped as his physique, the album moves along at blinding pace, and Danny’s trademark yowl sounds incredible over the bleeps and serrated tones. Once again, he sets the bar for rap’s possibilities.
41. Smerz, big city life [Escho]		The Norwegian duo made the most effortlessly cool pop album of the year, seemingly unconcerned with appearances but dressed to kill. If it seems like this generation is not concerned with going out and living the high life, it may be because they are sitting at home listening to big city life, wallowing in youthful memories and living vicariously through others.
40. Water From Your Eyes, It's a Beautiful World [Matador]		An entire cosmos held in the grip of a tight 29 minutes, the latest from the Brooklyn duo careens wildly between genres and styles, a post-modern flame-out that demands your attention, while the brief intro/outro form a closed loop that ensures you will fire up the album on repeat.
39. Hayley Williams, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party [Post Atlantic]		Leave it Hayley Williams to be the coolest act in the rock game. After fronting the legendary, influential Paramore (confession: not my cuppa) for close to two decades, she overloads her third solo album with as many musical styles as she dares attempt, and nails every one. In an age where artists regularly drop projects with dozens of lazy tracks to pad streaming numbers (*cough* another artist with a W surname), Williams makes each of these 20 songs a generous, worthwhile listen.
38. DJ Haram, Beside Myself [Hyperdub]		The New Jersey producer has been dropping mixes and singles (mostly for Hyperdub) for quite some time, and cooks up a potent deconstructed club mix for her debut album, touching on everything from hip-hop (with a prominent appearance from Armand Hammer), dabke and hard drum. The Middle Eastern aspect of her heritage and art is utilized to great force here, and there are some truly unsettling elements peppered throughout (i.e. the sound of distressed children in "Who Needs Enemies When These Are Your Allies?").
37. Ethel Cain, Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You [Daughters of Cain]		The strangest artist to have become a massive star (with plum spots on Obama’s year-end lists) despite proclaiming “I’ll never be that kind of angel”, Hayden Anhedonia initially dropped a 90-minute ambient album called Perverts in January (labeled an EP, as if that would confound expectations for the follow-up to Preacher’s Daughter) before unleashing Willoughby as a prequel to her debut. At 73 minutes the shortest Cain album yet, these slow-mo masterpieces fill in the story of the Ethel Cain romance with Tucker, even as we know where it ends. Riveting and essential.
36. Sudan Archives, THE BPM [Stones Throw]		An absolute blast, Brittney Parks' third album as Sudan Archives trades in the R&B of her breakthrough for a neon-drenched night on the dancefloor, as the BPM of the title pushes to ever higher extremes. Her trademark violin makes brief appearances for unexpected texture, but otherwise the proceedings are pure Detroit and Chicago beatwork, experimental and optimistic. May the future be so hopeful.
35. Erika de Casier, Lifetime [Independent Jeep Music]		Once again the coolest girl in the game, de Casier dropped yet another gem completely unannounced, allowing this album to play out like your older sister casually singing over some old R&B and trip-hop tapes, like a lost spring afternoon from the 1990s. Tightly compact and fat-free, this is pop to drift away on.
34. Voices From the Lake, II [Spazio Disponibile]		Donato Dozzy and Neel had already given us 2012’s masterful self-titled debut and it did not seem likely that the act would be an ongoing concern, but thirteen years later we have been graced with another meaty slab of their ambient dub techno; warm washes and submerged bass, the aural equivalent of a forest bath, a balm as the world slowly immolates.
33. Blood Orange, Essex Honey [RCA/Domino]		It seems unlikely that Dev Hynes can create anything but truly transcendent music; bring in as many collaborators as he may like (and he has an insane Rolodex he flexes here), the focal point of the albums will always be him, as he explores the grief and loss of returning to a home that doesn't correspond to memory. It may have taken six years, but he makes every moment count.
32. Saint Etienne, International [Heavenly/PIAS]		Pour one out for the originals. The quirky British band, who had been at the forefront of smart pop since 1990, announced that, in an effort to end on a positive note, their twelfth album would be their final one, and did they ever go out with a corker. Filler-free and relentlessly tuneful, each of these songs is carefully considered for maximum pleasure impact, and leaves you wanting more. Good thing they have decades’ worth of killer material to revisit; rest in peace.
31. Wet Leg, Moisturizer [Domino]		A young act that could have imploded under the pressure of a giant debut album has quickly turned into a promising career band, as Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers expand into a proper five-piece and buck the sophomore slump with this collection of punchy and perverse tracks. Teasdale has found acceptance and love in a queer setting, and she will make sure we all hear about it in our heteronormative sphere - play the armpit-shaving game at your own risk.
30. Viagra Boys, viagr aboys [Shrimptech Enterprises]		The most meta album yet from the reliably entertaining Swedish band, these dissections of modern masculinity and capitalism come laced in barbed wire, their jazzy punk-funk attack as pointed and catchy as ever. Sebastian Murphy is a full-bodied caricature of a skeezy paranoiac, a “man made of meat” – long may he rant and rave.
29. Dijon, Baby [R&R/Warner]		The future of R&B may be in Dijon’s hands, and it may sound like this blown-out, loose collection of psychedelic noodling and seemingly formless songs. The man can sing, and he can write with the best of them (including with collaborators like MJ Lenderman, or for Justins like Bieber and Vernon), and if you were willing to invest the time, this baby proved to be a great time.
28. Just Mustard, WE WERE JUST HERE [Partisan]		The Irish shoegaze band finds a bit of light in a seemingly dark world, as their shrill guitars and Katie Ball's solipsistic lyrics and hauntingly reverbed vocals underpin a solid collection of anthems for end times. Urgent and enigmatic, with a great balance of noise and silence, this band with the questionable name is the real deal.
27. Addison Rae, Addison [Columbia]		The little album that could, Addison kept chugging along and unassumingly broke down all sorts of walls for the former TikTok dancer (shudder), the one who, along with her two female co-writers/co-producers, understood what made the pop music of the past three decades so great and captured some universal feeling within it; forlorn helplessness and also unabashed joy. No deluxe editions, just 35 lean minutes of 10 perfect gems, capped by the flawless trip-hop of "Headphones On" and its heartbreaking "I wish my mom and dad could've been in love" line. Very intrigued to see where she goes from here.
26. Nourished By Time, The Passionate Ones [XL]		Marcus Brown made a huge splash with 2023’s Erotic Probiotic 2 (recorded in his parents' basement in Baltimore) and his major-label debut for XL is a giant leap forward, with (ex)pensive Prince-coded production and yearning vocals that provide the beauty of solitude, of a singular talent incubated in isolation and inspired by everything around them. Wandering down a glowing street at night, considering art and relationships, this is an album to warm the spirits.
25. Rochelle Jordan, Through the Wall [EMPIRE]		The Canadian R&B singer's third album can be viewed as the flip-side to Beyonce's classic Renaissance as she takes club music and Y2K-era radio-pop into her own hands and pays tribute to the divas who paved the way: Donna and Janet and Brandy, R&B and dance music braided with funk and soul, all put together as an irresistibly glossy night out.
24. Black Country, New Road, Forever Howlong [Ninja Tune]		BCNR already proved their mettle handling a seismic lineup change on the Live at Shepherd’s Bush album, but they solidify their standing on their third studio album. Intricate songwriting, overflowing with charm and deftly handled by their roster of three exemplary singers (Georgia Ellery, Tyler Hyde, and May Kershaw), this collection of indie rock and chamber pop unfurled at its majestic pace.
23. caroline, caroline 2 [Rough Trade]		What you will not get from traditional song structure you will get tenfold in bravura exploration, as the London 8-piece explode the notion of rock music. Already one of the more inscrutable bands of the Windmill school, caroline blossom with a truly experimental work that grows more alluring as your play it. Bonus points for the amazing song titles ("Coldplay cover" chief among them) and the mind-melding caroline/Caroline Polachek hookup.
22. Yazz Ahmed, A Paradise in the Hold [Night Time Stories]		Exploring her Bahraini heritage by synthesizing traditional Arabic instrumentation, melodies, and rhythms with modern production techniques and musical structures that draw from jazz, electronic, and hip-hop, trumpeter Ahmed creates a spellbinding journey. More than a dozen instrumentalists and singer Natacha Atlas contribute to the tapestry, and you leave the album eager to return.
21. Armand Hammer & the Alchemist, Mercy [Backwoodz Studioz/Rhymesayers]		Building on the strength of 2021’s Haram, the duo of billy woods and Elucid once again team with producer extraordinaire the Alchemist for a dense, self-contained blast of abstract hip-hop where wisdom and surreality go hand in hand. It’s hard to believe how long the three of them have been on top of their game, but once again they have bodied the rap game.
20. Deafheaven, Lonely People With Power [Roadrunner]		Finding the ideal middle ground between New Bermuda’s ferocity and Infinite Granite’s wide-eyed glaze, the blackgaze forerunners drop perhaps their most essential work to date, enlisting Paul Banks of Interpol for the occasional spoken-word bit and gnashing their teeth furiously in the cacophony of shredded guitars and shredded vocal cords. This might be the top of the mountain, but if any band can surprise us, it is Deafheaven.
19. Earl Sweatshirt, Live Laugh Love [Tan Cressida]		Time is not a joke: Earl is now a father and naming albums after cliched affirmations. However, you would never accuse him of going radio-friendly – he may be in a better place, but his generational penmanship is still in service of pushing the envelope. His raps have rarely been so light and healing, but the music remains as generously brief as his past decade. A master at the peak of his craft.
18. Barker, Stochastic Drift [Smalltown Supersound]		Sam Barker made a name for himself with 2019’s Utility, an exercise in techno-with-no-kick. After a rough pandemic that made him second-guess music, he got back to basics and dropped this gorgeous, crystal-clear IDM record that hit all the pleasure centers of ravers everywhere – breakbeats and dub prance in unison, a studio album that sounded perfect reforming in your living room.
17. keiyaA, hooke's law [XL]		Hooke's law interrogates the linear-elastic relationship between stress and strain, with the force of strain always being proportional to the extension. I'm sure there are smarter people who can dumb that down, but essentially, keiyaA is going through things and working it out on this expansive, jazzy avant-R&B collection. A road-not-taken scenario for post-Y2K beats, with a decidedly late-capitalist anxiety around it all, this is a masterful snap of our times.
16. Djrum, Under Tangle Silence [Houndstooth]		Felix Manuel’s third album had to be restarted from scratch and represents the changes we undergo in our lives, with all the improvisation and free-form structures that requires. What starts off as lulling piano-based ambient almost imperceptibly ends up firmly in the rave realm; these tracks are a journey and feature a number of live instruments as opposed to samples, the flesh and the machine in perfect harmony.
15. Greet Death, Die In Love [Deathwish]		Ostensibly shoegaze, but with the clean sheen of 90s radio alternative and post-rock; achingly pining, but also released on Converge singer Jacob Bannon’s Deathwish label, Die In Love was my big surprise of the year. The tracks explore co-vocalist Harper Boyhtari’s transition, and explore the attendant alienation and self-discovery, while the music shimmers and warps around her. Call it American Gothic, but above all a great album.
14. Pulp, More [Rough Trade]		Their legacy did not need anything else to burnish it. In fact, most aging bands risk tarnishing their past with a mediocre album long (long) after their salad days. We should not have worried about Sheffield’s finest – their eighth album is a natural progression from 2001’s We Love Life, a mature and candid reflection on aging and Jarvis Cocker’s continued perversity into beyond-middle age. If the music doesn’t bop as hard as His N’ Hers, that is just the price of growing old with grace.
13. Clipse, Let God Sort Em Out [Roc Nation]		It could never be the classic 00’s Neptunes-Clipse hookup, but damn if they don’t recapture at least some of the glory. The Thornton brothers’ cocaine shtick never seems to get old, and they drop some of their coldest and most ruthless barbs over some of Pharrell’s least tuneful, most menacing production in a minute.
12. Blawan, SickElixir [XL]		With memories of working in a slaughterhouse as a youth on his mind, in the aftermath of sobriety and burnout, Jamie Roberts turns the club into an inferno on this disorienting collection that plays like Death Grips and SOPHIE engaged in a noise duel to the death. Too weird to dance to, but too rhythmic to stand still, you merely end up confused and exhilarated.
11. Stereolab, Instant Holograms on Metal Film [Warp]		Speaking of legacy acts that didn't need to risk it... Stereolab last released an album in 2010, and their return this year felt like an exhalation, of a generational band swooping in to show other artists how to engage with their music, to create with unbridled joy and open hearts. You already know what to expect from a Stereolab album - fresh lounge-pop, locked-in motorik, Laetitia Sadier's instantly recognizable voice - so come in and enjoy.
10. Oneohtrix Point Never, Tranquilizer [Warp]		Daniel Lopatin has been forging ahead with his OPN project for well over two decades, much longer than the 80 and 90s that he consistently plumbs for juicy samples. Returning to the plunderphonics of 2011’s Replica (my AOTY) from a warmer perspective, he pulls snatches of untold numbers of sounds and elements from lost media of those now-faraway decades for a heady journey through our collective youth. You will once again yearn for something unidentifiable that has been lost.
9. aya, hexed! [Hyperdub]		Rotted music for our brainrotted age, aya pushes all the unpleasantries to the forefront (starting with the album cover of her actual mouth with actual worms; a must-have on vinyl!) as she forces queasy electronic and grinding nu-metal into a shotgun marriage, with nary a thought spared for traditional song structures or locked tempos or polite lyrics. The best bad time of the year.
8. FKA twigs, EUSEXUA / EUSEXUA Afterglow [Young]		After a debilitating bit of writer’s block, twigs re-entered the club and found her mojo. Stirring the plot with the late-year release of not only a brand-new collection of tracks (the Afterglow that was not a deluxe edition) but also a revamped edit of EUSEXUA proper, we were essentially treated to 27 tracks of top-shelf dance-pop that made the world seem better for a brief moment. There is likely a single, unimpeachable collection of tracks that could be chiseled down from her output, but what’s the fun in turning anything (except maybe North West) away? It feels good.
7. Geese, Getting Killed [Partisan]		Like a bat out of hell, Geese are in attack formation and set to strike. I slept on 2023's 3D Country, and Cameron Winter’s solo album from last December was a slow grower through the year, setting the stage for a grand takeover – consider it complete. As if turn-of-the-millennium Radiohead had sought to emulate Tom Waits rather than Aphex Twin, these rock tunes come at you fast and furious, impressive rhythmic interplay providing a bed for Winter’s acquired-taste crooning. An instantly legendary third-album level-up, the sky’s the limit for these fowl.
6. Wednesday, Bleeds [Dead Oceans]		Capitalizing on the surge of interest after 2023’s Rat Saw God and guitarist MJ Lenderman’s departure and solo success, the North Carolina band went from strength to strength on this new album, turning up the guitars and sharpening the vivid storytelling, and in general acting like one of the definitive artists of their time. Expect more greatness to come.
5. Deftones, private music [Reprise]		Whatever magic the Deftones have stumbled across, they are wielding it like a master samurai. Now on their 10th studio album after 30 years as a band, they have weathered the foulest storms and keep coming back with a slightly refined sound that younger bands genuflect before. Perhaps their most immediate work since Koi No Yokan, these eleven tracks swirl on an ocean of riffs, monster drums and Chino’s inimitable wail; when he drops to his lower register on closer “departing the body”, you immediately become a believer. I personally got to knock them off my concert wish list this year, and it was as good as I had hoped.
4. james K, Friend [AD93]		james K has been clubbing for many years, and apparently Friend had been recorded “many Januarys” ago; what on earth took so long to release it? Friend captures the 90s vibe better than most actual 90s music, this is a throwback to trip-hop’s peak, adding in a generous dash of shoegaze for a spectral hour of nostalgia and pop moves. Endlessly repeatable, and a true friend through the year.
3. billy woods, GOLLIWOG [Backwoodz Studioz/Rhymesayers]		At this point, billy woods could rap the proverbial phone book and make it sound like the truest thing you’ve ever heard. Inspired by a short story he wrote as a child, and his mother’s notes that it “needs some work”, woods adapts the racial golliwog caricature and places it firmly into the horrors of our modern age: a world hostile to every face of Black existence; neighbors not wanting to be first to loot a dispossessed family’s possessions on Christmas; samples of phone calls and screams weaving a tapestry of disorientation.
2. Rosalia, LUX [Columbia]		“Sometimes being in complete darkness is the best way to find the light”. The art-pop power move of the year, LUX is an album of such complex layers and varied allusions spread across one hour of baroque neo-classical trap and fourteen languages that it was hopeless to think it could be parsed for a mere year-end list with barely two months to spare. Thankfully, the “pop” manages to cut through the “art” of it, and it never feels like homework. This isn’t music that you throw on to chill to – like the finest wine, it reveals itself slowly over time, rewarding deep and focused listening as you attempt to unravel its themes of feminine mystique, transformation and spirituality. One of the clearest decade-end contenders, and sets up impossible expectations going forward.
1. Los Thuthanaka, Los Thuthanaka [self-released]		If you have been in thrall to the loop since you first heard From Here We Go Sublime, you likely were blown away by siblings Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton's debut effort dedicated to the "mutuality" of their Andean heritage and queer guardian, not least due to the non-existent mastering that pushes each of these eight tracks into the red with an unruliness not even the most abrasive metal album could reach. "Trance" and "psychedelic" in their literal meanings, the repetition and increasing pressure at first maddening until it reaches divinity - the queer-people medicines are here and they are healing. Los Thuthanaka Album

Honorable Mentions

Soundtrack, K-Pop Demon Hunters
From ages 2 to 12 to beyond, this was the one album that united all families in 2025; a pop-culture phenomenon, with some of the biggest tracks in K-pop history, and a guaranteed time capsule. Together we were golden.

Lady Gaga, MAYHEM
It may sputter out towards the end as it sashays towards her surprising biggest-ever hit, but the front half of Mother Monster's latest is some of her most thrilling material in years.

Mac Miller, Balloonerism
Recorded in 2014 with the assistance of Thundercat, these jazzy and psychedelic tunes showcase just what a promising and rare talent Mac Miller was, and the wealth of great music we've been robbed of - it's never been so poignant to hear someone declare "the best is still to come".

Dream Theater, Parasomnia
The long-awaited, inevitable return of Mike Portnoy behind the drums results in one of the band's most hyped albums, although the formula is still as strong and predictable as ever.

Destroyer, Dan's Boogie
Dan Bejar chugs along on his 14th album, as verbose and musically tasty as ever.

Sloan, Based on the Best Seller
Halifax's power-pop legends continue to gift us with top-shelf tunes as they close in on their fourth decade together as a single, cohesive unit.

Jim Legxacy, black british music (2025)
Moved down to the Honorable section as I balked at the mixtape designation, but make no mistake - Legxacy is the real deal and is going places.

PinkPantheress, Fancy That / Fancy Some More?
Ditto for PinkPantheress; there was hardly a better time to be had with an album than this 20-minute throwback mixtape to the golden Y2K era, and the attendant jumbo-sized deluxe edition was almost better.

Suede, Antidepressants
The most heartening second wind that any 90s band (UK edition) has had, Suede continue to bring the fire and tunes.

Turnstile, NEVER ENOUGH
On which the biggest hardcore band of their (or maybe any) generation decides they want to keep expanding their sound into the realm of Synchronicity. Purists balked; the rest of us soaked up the invisible sun.

Superchunk, Songs in the Key of Yikes
Another "second wind" artist, North Carolina's best have put together an absolutely stellar 21st century oeuvre, and they don't appear to be stopping anytime soon.

Alison Goldfrapp, Flux
Madam Goldfrapp's second solo album was a little bit more of the same, a pop rush on equal footing with her band's Head First.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Perimenopop
The fantastic album title should indicate the endless pop thrills found within; she is making the most of her resurgence following "Saltburn", though she has never gone away and has tons of gems to look back to.

Cate Le Bon, Michelangelo Dying
Another collection of beautiful, stately art-pop, though perhaps a little more distant than Pompeii was.

Boldy James, [INSERT FAVORITE]
The Detroit rapper went on an all-time tear in 2025, releasing no fewer than 8 albums; I enjoyed them all pretty much equally, so here they all are chronologically for your consideration: Murder During Drug Traffic (prod. RichGains); Permanent Ink; Token of Appreciation (prod. Chuck Strangers); Alphabet Highway (prod. V Don); Hommage (prod. Antt Beatz); Conversational Pieces (prod. Real Bad Man); the Magnolia Leflore mini-album (prod. Your Boy Posca); Late To My Own Funeral (prod. Nicholas Craven); and Criminally Attached (prod. Nicholas Craven). I guess my pick would be Conversational Pieces as Boldy always kills on a Real Bad Man production, though my favorite track was the James Bond-sampling "Himothy McVeigh" off Hommage. Maybe we'll get a round 10 albums from him in 2026? Stay tuned!

Reissues, Live Albums, etc.

Q Lazzarus, Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus
Sacred Bones Records has done us a huge favor by releasing this soundtrack to the documentary covering the life of Diane Luckey, aka. Q Lazzarus, whose rendition of the title track was so hauntingly used in 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs" and who was almost never heard from since. Her output covers all sorts of genres and was buried in the detritus of the times, and it goes to show that as much as we may know about music, there are always hidden gems to uncover. It's a shame the acclaim has to be enjoyed posthumously; she may be gone, but the music will last on.

Husker Du, 1985: The Miracle Year
The rock legends will seemingly never remaster the notoriously sub-par production on their unbelievable SST albums; leave it to Numero Group to showcase just what a ferocious band they were at their peak with these live recordings from a year that saw the release of two masterpieces. Urgent and frothing, the trio has never sounded better.

Jeff Mills, Live at Liquid Room
Lionized as one of the greatest techno sets ever recorded, Mills' blistering hour of power in Tokyo's Liquid Room was given a 30th anniversary reissue on CD - no frills, no gimmicks, just euphoria.

The Gits, Frenching the Bully / Enter: The Conquering Chicken
Sub Pop does right by the incendiary early-90s punk group, deciding to let the music overpower their tragic end with a fresh remaster that bursts out of your speakers and brings the lamented Mia Zapata back to full-throated life.

The Beatles, Anthology 4
The Beatles were around as a recording unit for only eight years, but their work will be reissued and re-sold for the next eight centuries. I don't believe anyone was clamoring for a reissue of their 1995-96 Anthology sets - in fact, using a Music World gift card to purchase the first edition instead of Mellon Collie and encountering a bunch of radio chatter and skiffle nearly killed the band in the cradle for me. Nonetheless, the Beatles barrel is starting to feel pretty low, although the proliferation of A.I. will doubtless ensure that their music can be heard in new ways. The enterprise was worth it for the expanded Anthology TV series, streaming exclusively on Disney+.

Worst

With the proliferation of A.I. slop in nearly all aspects of life, it was inevitable that the technology would be used not merely to edit and enhance elements of songs but to create entire fictional artists ("The Velvet Sundown"; "Xania Monet", etc.) who would then be used by streaming platforms to pad their playlists for free and allow their CEOs to invest in A.I. warfare companies, while running ICE recruitment ads and paying ever less money to artists. The increasingly dystopic landscape has led to a rash of artists pulling their music from Spotify in protest; artists like Massive Attack, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Hotline TNT and King Gizzard aren't exactly household names, so it ultimately makes little difference on Spotify's bottom line, and even if global superstars like Taylor Swift followed suit, the streamer would likely just replace her with the horrific A.I.-generated "We Are Charlie Kirk" song. Hell isn't merely around the corner but staring us right in the face.

You don't have to look far to find terrible music, and this year we were provided with a bounty, starting with...Kevin Parker and Tame Impala?? I get that he has been drifting away from his psych-rock origins and has been playing the sequencer for nearly longer than his guitar by this point, but Deadbeat was such an on-the-nose title for his new bush-doof inspired album that it was painful. It's clear what he was going for, and it may end up being revalued in the future, but it alienated his psych-rock fans and was mocked by the electronic crowd he was aiming for. A baffling faceplant. There were also awful new albums released by perennial contenders like mgk (name re-brand and Bob Dylan announcement did not cancel the suckage), Morgan Wallen, Drake, Sleep Token ("metal for Disney adults" is a timeless burn), and even an aborted comeback attempt by Will Smith, which was so bad it had to be heard to be believed.

In 1992, after 11 years ensconced at the top of the political world, President Bush was unable to name the price of a quart of milk, proving how out of touch he was. In 2025, after 11 years ensconced as the top pop girlie, Taylor Swift misinterpreted a study of Charli XCX's personal neuroses as a diss, and dropped an abhorrent response, proving how out of touch she is. In 2025, most of the music world has finally (finally) glommed on to the fact that Taylor Swift's music has been, of late, not very good. In fact, The Life of a Showgirl set a new low not only by what it represents (for all the hype about bringing Max Martin back into the fold, the music is still a somnolent bowl of pablum), but for the absolutely dismal lyrics which plumb new depths, repeatedly. She has been heading into the thicket of 10 dollar verbiage for years, but gets completely lost in the woods here. I don't need to rehash her baffling misinterpretation of a Charli XCX lyric as a diss, or the song-long ode to redwood dick, or signing cheques because her dick's bigger, or kissing the mahogany grain, or being punk on the internet, or the WTF misreading of the fate of Ophelia; if she is our English teacher, we'd better start learning Mandarin. I don't even need to remind myself that there are some 40 physical variants of the album to part Swifties from their money. She has long ago descended into her villain phase, the artist who cannot rest unless her name is on our tongues and in our minds, always and forever. We need to vote her out of power.

Deaths

As always, the passing of artists young and old tends to be the worst news of the year and this space offers me a chance to look back and pay tribute to them. Here is an abridged list of those we lost in 2025.

Garth Hudson (January 21) - The Band's multi-instrumentalist secret weapon was 87.
Marianne Faithfull (January 30) - the singer behind the classic Broken English album was 78.
Irv Gotti (February 5) - Murder Inc. had the pop-rap game in a chokehold shortly after Y2K; their impresario passed away at 54.
Rick Buckler (February 17) - the drummer for new wave legends The Jam was 69.
Roberta Flack (February 24) - killing us softly with her voices and piano, Ms. Flack was 88.
David Johansen (February 28) - the legendary frontman for the New York Dolls was 75.
Angie Stone (March 1) - the R&B/neo-soul singer was tragically killed in a car crash aged 63.
Roy Ayers (March 4) - hugely influential jazz vibraphonist and keyboardist, Ayers was 84.
Dave Allen (April 5) - the bassist for Gang of Four was 69.
Clem Burke (April 6) - inimitable drummer for Blondie, Burke was 70.
Max Romeo (April 11) - the Jamaican reggae legend was 80.
Roy Thomas Baker (April 12) - forever entwined with Queen as their key producer, he worked on hundreds of albums across all genres; Baker was 78.
Alf Clausen (May 29) - as the composer for nearly 30 years' worth of Simpsons episodes, his work was as familiar to me as air; he was 84.
Sly Stone (June 9) - crucial R&B/rock figurehead, highly troubled but even more gifted, Stone was 82.
Brian Wilson (June 11) - about as legendary as they come, the Beach Boys' driving figure was 82.
Chuck Mangione (July 22) - the smooth jazz flugelhornist's reputation was saved by the resurgence of soft rock; he was 84.
Ozzy Osbourne (July 22) - barely three weeks after a giant farewell concert to Black Sabbath, Ozzy succumbed to death's grip at 76. Incalculably influential.
Terry Reid (August 4) - the British vocalist with the enormous lungs was eternally underrated; he was 75.
Brent Hinds (August 20) - after an ugly, public dismissal from metal legends Mastodon, the troubled guitarist was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 51.
Rick Davies (September 6) - the Supertramp singer/keyboardist was 81.
Tomas Lindberg (September 16) - the singer for influential Swedish death metal act At the Gates was only 52.
JD Twitch (September 19) - one of the driving forces of Scotland's enormously popular DJ duo Optimo, Twitch was 57.
D'Angelo (October 14) - Shit. Damn. Motherfucker. A catastrophic loss for R&B and music in general, the enormously talented multi-instrumentalist made three perfect albums since 1995, and passed of pancreatic cancer at only 51, leaving a crater.
Ace Frehley (October 16) - the Kiss guitarist was 74.
Sam Rivers (October 18) - Limp Bizkit's bassist was only 48.
David Ball (October 22) - one half of Soft Cell, the synth-pop keyboardist was 66. I strongly urge you to play Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret in full right now.
Peace (October 25) - the Freestyle Fellowship rapper (whose second album Innercity Griots is a full-stop masterpiece) passed at only 51.
Jack DeJohnette (October 26) - most famously one of the drummers of Miles Davis' electric period, DeJohnette was force behind the kit; he was 83.
Lo Borges (November 2) - the Brazilian guitarist and singer was 73.
Mani [Gary Mounfield] (November 20) - the Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist with some of the tastiest licks in modern rock was 63.
Jellybean Johnson (November 21) - the Prince associate and drummer for funk band The Time, Johnson was 69.
Jimmy Cliff (November 24) - The Harder They Come is likely the single most influential reggae album ever and crucial to breaking the genre in North America; Cliff was 81.
Perry Bamonte (December 24) - a longtime Cure guitarist, Bamonte was 65.

Thanks for sticking around and see you all in 2026!

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