ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2025
Once again, same as it is every year, my albums of the year. Only one more year to go to achieve 40 years of chart lists (see them all!). I didn’t get quite as much listening done this year due to some demanding extra-curriculars, and it felt like an “off” year generally, but last year was so rich for new music for me that a drop-off was inevitable. There were a few reissues that gummed up my 2025 deep listening time too. But I still found lots of new things that I really enjoyed, especially in the final third of the year.
1 BALLOON BALLOON BALLOON – Sharp Pins
2 BLEEDS – Wednesday
3 NESTED IN TANGLES – Hannah Frances
4 PHONETICS ON AND ON – Horsegirl
5 LIFE, DEATH AND DENNIS HOPPER – The Waterboys
6 RASPBERRY MOON – Hotline TNT
7 MORE – Pulp
8 IT’S A BEAUTIFUL PLACE – Water From Your Eyes
9 WHEN I PAINT MY MASTERPIECE – Ada Lea
10 GETTING KILLED – Geese
11 JOEY – Joey Joesph
12 EURO COUNTRY – CMAT
13 THE BERRIES – The Berries
14 MICHELANGELO DYING – Cate Le Bon
15 BURY THE KEY – TOPS
16 INSTANT HOLOGRAMS ON METAL FILM – Stereolab
17 BURNOVER – Greg Freeman
18 NEW THREATS FROM THE SOUL – Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band
19 SWITCHEROO – Gelli Haha
20 COTTON CROWN – The Tubs
21 GRASS – Grass
22 SONG SHARDS – Peter Stampfel
23 MARAVILHOSAMENTE BEM – Julia Mestre
24 UP LATE WITH DUMBELLS – Dumbells
25 SPRING GROVE – The Ophelias
26 BUGLAND – No Joy
27 SOUNDS LIKE… – Florry
28 TOMORROW COMES CRASHING – Smut
29 LUMINESCENT CREATURES – Ichiko Aoba
30 2 – Foxwarren
31 SNOCAPS – Snocaps
32 I LOVE PEOPLE – Cory Hanson
33 ANTIGONE – Eiko Ishibashi
34 LOVE CHANT – The Lemonheads
35 SPRING BOARD – The Chills
36 BUYER BEWARE – The Men
37 ALL CYLINDERS – Yves Jarvis
38 SINISTER GRIFT- Panda Bear
39 ANIMARU – Mei Semones
40 TIMELESS WORLD FOREVER – Graham Hunt
One record arrived too late for consideration (last week) but I am sure would have made the list given time to bed in, it’s a good one:
HOLO BOY – This Is Lorelei
I’ve stopped using Spotify this year but I know a lot of you still use it so I’ve done a playlist of a song from each album (bar the one where the artist had taken their music off). You can listen here. I’ve also done one for Tidal.
Thank you for the extra Spotify playlist.
How do you listen to your digital music? Tidal? I have seen many a push this year to abandon our corporate tech overlords and am contemplating joining the effort.
Yes, Tidal, I cancelled my Spotify sub this year for all the reasons you might imagine. But anything I listen to more than a few times, I buy from Bandcamp if funds allow. Seems only fair as the return from streaming is so poor for artists.
Hi John!
Happily received a copy of Kill or be Quilt for Christmas, read it the other day. Loved it! Only regret is that it wasn’t 4 times longer, so i could savor it more. I especially loved how the artist made a point of showing Shauna’s emotional state via … i don’t quite have the words. Metaphor? Close enough. It was great. Went to the bookstore today to order The Great British Bump-off, which I somehow missed.
Even if America is annoyingly toxic nowadays, please keep allowing us to buy your books. Thanks.
And thank you!
I bought myself Kill or Be Quilt as a Christmas present. Loved it, just as much as The Great BBO. So many clever little jokes in panel backgrounds. My daughter who is on a(n)(American) morris team appreciated the brief appearance of the morris dancers.
Happy holidays!
I am always excited to see these because of how little overlap there is with what I typically listen to (which, for the record is mostly MBIWB (music before I was born), anime music, and spaces adjacent to those – e.g. Traveling Wilburys for MBIWB-adjacent or VTuber operas for anime-adjacent).
So thank you for your annual tour through some of the music I missed! Our tastes do not always line up, but there are some albums on your past lists that have become some of my faves as well. I am curious to hear what the albums on this year’s list (and honourable mention) have to offer.
I’ve only heard of one of these musicians/musical ensembles (pulp), but I’m pretty sure you’ve invented the rest from whole cloth
Really liked Balloon Balloon Balloon when I listened to it but I didn’t quite pull the trigger on it last Bandcamp Friday. I’ll probably grab it next time around, in February.
I was severely disappointed that I had to miss Stereolab when they came around here in concert — haven’t seen them live since Dots and Loops — but I’m hoping they will return to touring and putting out new albums regularly