Albums of the Year so far 2025

My faves so far this year:

Real Lies - We Will Annihilate Our Enemies
The Tubs - Cotton Crown
Darryl Johns - s/t (although it was released December '24)
Pulp - More
billy woods - Golliwog
Squid - Cowards
Destroyer - Dan's Boogie
Panda Bear - Sinister Grift
Eddie Chacon - Lay Low
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Half Man Half Biscuit - All Asimov and No Fresh Air

William Tyler - Time Indefinite

Eiko Ishibashi - Antigone
Addison Rae - Addison
Barker- Stochastic Drift

Amaarae - Black Star
Wevie Stonder - Sure Beats Living
DAYTIMERS - Alterations
Ploy - It's Later Than You Think
Rival Consoles - Landscape From Memory

The Armed - The Future is Here and Everything Needs to be Destroyed
Dijon - Baby

Ooh also:

Mörda- Asante III

Oklou - Choke Enough
Edith Frost - In Space
PinkPantheress - Fancy That
Doves - Constellations for the Lonely
Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones

Katarina Gryvul - Spomyn
Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack - Six Tenants Killing One Homeowner Six Times Over

Guests - I wish I was special

Ethel Cain - Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You
Circuit des Yeux - Halo on the Inside
Coma Cinema - Grand Delusion
Jules Reidy - Ghost/Spirit
Ethel Cain - Perverts
Ken Pomeroy - Cruel Joke
Postcards- Ripe
Greet Death - Die in Love
Forth Wanderers - The Longer This Goes On
Caroline - 2
John Glacier - Like a Ribbon
Maria Somerville - Luster
Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory
Oklou - Choke Enough
Destroyer - Dan’s Boogie
She’s Green - Chrysalis
Far Caspian - Autofiction
Charley Crockett - Lonesome Drifter

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Phantom Island

Florence Adooni - A.O.E.I.U.
Water From Your Eyes - It's A Beautiful Place

Daniel Bachman - Moving Through Light

DJ Sotofett – DJ Sotofett & The Colours Of Computer Generated Instruments
DJ Trystero – Cantor's Paradise
Mammo – General Patterns

(takes notes)

love the bandcamp links, good idea.

The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie
Real Lies - We Will Annihilate Our Enemies
Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
Ichiko Aoba - Luminescent Creatures
TOPS - Bury The Key
Kali Uchis - Sincerely,
Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)
PinkPantheress - Fancy That
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Addison Rae - Addison
These New Puritans - Crooked Wing
Gwenno - Utopia
McKinley Dixon - Magic, Alive!
Shura - I Got Too Sad For All My Friends
Erika De Casier - Lifetime
Sally Shapiro - Ready To Live A Lie
Adwaith - Solas
Natalia Lafourcade - Cancionera
Wolf Alice - The Clearing
Laufey - A Matter Of Time

xp yes

https://by-guests.bandcamp.com/album/i-wish-i-was-special

https://danielbachman.bandcamp.com/album/moving-through-light

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Phanton Island

this daniel bachman album sounds very promising, thanks sleeve

he's a good follow on bluesky as well

Lots of ones already mentioned but also

DjRUM - Under Tangled Silence
Ex-Void - In Love Again
McKinley Dixon - Magic, Alive!
Jonny Nash - Once Was Ours Forever
DJ Koze - Music Can Hear Us
Wet Leg - moisturizer
Haim - I Quit
Sports Team - Boys These Days

BC Camplight - A Sober Conversation
Big Freedia - Pressing Onwards
Blood Orange - Essex Honey
Lonnie Holley - Tonky
Jamie Liddell - Places of Unknowing
LSDXOXO - DGTL ANML
Obongjayar- Paradise Now
Pinkpantheress - Fancy That
Real Lies - We Will Annihilate Our Enemies

Real Lies- WWAOE
Jim Ghedi- Wasteland
YHWH Nailgun- 45 Pounds
Barker- Stochastic Drift
HiTech- HONEYPAQQ Vol. 1
Baths- Gut
Ichiko Aoba- Luminescent Creatures
Amaarae- Black Star
Cory Hanson- I Love People

The two that have surprised me the most have been the Cory Hanson, since I did not "like" Western Cum when I heard it, but of course after going back to it I love it quite a bit. I Love People is more folky and countrified, but still has some serious guitar chops and really fantastic lyrics, to my mind.

The other is the Baths record. I wrote up a single of his (with much praise) for XLR8R back in 2009, and don't think I've heard a thing about him or by him since then... and at first, I was like "my god THIS is his voice? ummm" but then after just letting the record play through a few times, I came to really love it— beautifully produced weirdo gay electric pop, highly recommended. https://bathsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/gut

I would have added the new Blood Orange but honestly think the record is quite boring, with two standout tracks ("The Field" and "Mind Loaded")

Tami Neilson's NEON COWGIRL is my very easy pick for country(-adjacent) album of the year, and it's been a killer year for the genre overall.

Other country / Americana / whatever recs: Tony Kamel, Sam Stoane, Willow Avalon, Kane Brown, Crowe Boys, Valerie June, Olive Klug, Kelsey Waldon, The Kentucky Gentlemen, SG Goodman, Caitlin Cannon, Shawnee Kish, Samantha Crain, Kip Moore, Frankie Ballard, and the new Margo Price that dropped yesterday.

my list so far:

Yellowjackets, "Fasten Up"
Sadist, "Something to Pierce"
David Grubbs, "Whistle from Above"
Hiromi ft. Sonicwonder, "Out There"
Rwake, "The Return of Magik"
Messa, "The Spin"
Tower, "Let There Be Dark"
Knats, s/t
the Cure, "Mixes of a Lost World"
Lacuna Coil, "Sleepless Empire"
Gaahls Wyrd, "Braiding the Stories"
Moonlight Haze, "Beyond"
Blood Vulture, "Die Close"
Pool Kids, "Easier Said Than Done"

i also love the Baths album, T (after not paying him a lot of attention over the years) - "sea of men" is one of my most-listened songs of the year so far

here's my list (so far) - will try to furnish with descriptions/links later if anyone's interested

Smerz - Big City Life
YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds
Moin - Belly Up EP
Voice Actor, Squu - Lust (1)
Megabasse - Flamenca
Annie A - The Wind That Had Not Touched Land
The Cloud Maker - s/t
Pink Must - s/t
Raisa K - Affectionately
Model/Actriz - Pirouette
Volodja Brodsky - Raindrops
Marie Davidson - City of Clowns
Lucy Gooch - Desert Window
Teal - Original Watercolour
Snapped Ankles - Hard Times Furious Dancing
Cloth - Pink Silence
Wilson Tanner - Legends
BITOI - Sirkulu
Mira - Erica
Saint Abdullah and Eomac - Of No Fixed Abode
Water from Your Eyes - It's a Beautiful Place
Froid Dub - Tears Maker Chant
Cuneiform Tabs - Age
Lyra Pramuk - Hymnal
Anthony Naples - Scanners

love that anthony naples record

apols for any thread duplicates but here are mine

resavoir / matt gold - horizon
chiu / honer - different rooms
brighde chaimbeul - sunwise
DJ dadaman / moscow dollar - kagaza
vegyn / air - blue moon safari
hawkwind - there is no space for us
ichiko aoba - luminescent creatures
eddie chacon - lay low
ela minus - dia
ie - reverse earth

Fully agree with sleeve re. the guests album but (and I'm sorry to be that guy) it was a 2024 release. Don't let that stop you if you haven't heard it yet.

Here are my 2025 top picks so far:

Andy Boay - You Took That Walk For The Two Of Us
Rebekkah Karijord - The Bell Tower
MPM - ‘Canopies & Cathedrals’
Benedicte Maurseth - Mirra
Severin Black - Country Music
These New Puritans - Crooked Wing

lol oh shit! sorry, I genuinely thought 2025

Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin - Ghosted III

I slept on the Sotofett record despite loving most stuff he does. It's so fire! So many good reference points melded together but also feels an achievement for the end result to not end up in the shadow of those people. Weirdly it feels conceptually similar to Death In Vegas's record - is this the year of the record collection techno record?

Young Gods - Appear Disappear
Gina Birch - Trouble (this is really good btw)

. I only have two to list (at least they’re good ones):

Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Yves Jarvis - All Cylinders
Sofia Kourtesis - Volver EP
Resavoir & Mat Gold - Horizon
Dijon - Baby
Moon Apple - Four Pillars
Jim Legxacy - Black British Music
Ichiko Aoba - Luminescent Creatures
Ben LaMar Gay - Yowzers
Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise in the Hold
Florence Adooni - A.E.I.O.U.
Ulhmann Johnson Wilkes
Juan Wauters - MVD LUV
Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka - Hiraeth
Gwenno - Utopia

need to listen more:
Amaarae - Black Star
The Circling Sun - Orbits
(plus a bunch saved that I haven't listened to yet)

oops, I forgot:
Disiniblud

F7 - Lost In Flower

Typically awesome “tripped out” “hypnotic” techno on Acting Press

my absolute favourites would be the following:

Cuneiform Tabs - Age
Friendship – Caveman wakes up
Horsegirl – Phonetics on and on
Caroline – caroline 2
Smerz – Big city life
Ringo Starr – Look up
Gary Louris – Dark Country
Clipse – Let god sort em out
bd – Economato textil
Mac DeMarco - Guitar
Alex G – Headlights

I really liked these ones too:

Pulp – More
Sofoquina – La colección de garabatos
Panda Bear – Sinister Grift
Ferrocentro Club – VELOZ!
Corazón, Pablo Prisma – Espíritu
Ariel Pink – With you every night
AT - AT
PRESA – Cuerpo en llamas
Big thief – Double Infinity
Los Yolos – Volumen 3

and the last bunch:

Guitarricadelafuente – Spanish Leather
Rubén Blades & Roberto Delgado Orchestra – Fotografías
Real Lies – We will annihilate our enemies
VVAA – Cimatario Fuexo Recordings 01
Cabiria – Radio Coral
KRS-One – Temple of hip hop global awareness
Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles - Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles
Aurora Roja – Aurora Roja

however, I still have many albums to check and there are a few here I haven't listened that much, so their positions could change

https://biota2.bandcamp.com/album/measured-not-found

^^ my #1 so far

Tentatively, mine so far are:

POP/ROCK/R&B/MISC.:
caroline - 2
JUSTIN BIEBER - Swag
CHRIS WEISMAN - Lightly
HAVARD VOLDEN - Small Lives
LAURA GROVES - Yes
SARAH MARY CHADWICK - Take Me Out To A Bar / What Am I, Gatsby?

ELECTRONIC:
GAJEK - Cutting Together Apart
FELICITY J LORD - FJL
fyp - S/T
SHiFFRA - Tepidarium
BEATRICE DILLON - Basho
JIM O'ROURKE - Spring on a Teck (Steamroom 66)
girl scout cookies - neuromancer
LUKID - Underloop
SnP 500 - Unrolled
C.D. NOE - Ornamental Hermits
Aa - 水葬
LONE SENTINEL - One Last Sunset

AVANT/EXPERIMENTAL:
RYAN SAWYER'S SHAKER ENSEMBLE - For Those Who Wish To Sing Will Always Find A Song
MARBLE - Колесница Кришны
%%30%30 + BRYAN RURYK - Outside
A LARGE SHEET OF MUSCLE - PH BALLET
JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA - Gift Songs
whait (More Eaze & Wendy Eisenberg) - Close Quarters

JAZZ/IMPROVISED:
JACOB SACKS, EIVIND OPSVIK, MAT MANERI, BILLY MINTZ - Two Miles A Day, So Depending On
SAM WEINBERG TRIO - Of Peeling Passage: Live at Sisters
TIM BERNE'S SNAKEOIL - Snakeoil OK
MILES CAKEBREAD-KRAUS (W/ STEVEN NORONHA & AIDAN MCCONNELL) - For Now
SAM WILKES (W/ WILL GRAEFE, CRAIG WEINRIB, AIDAN LOMBARD & SHAHZAD ISMAILY) - Public Records Performance
EUCALYPTUS - Topology Of Time And Up Express Etc.
NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY AND BITCHIN BAJAS - Totality / BITCHIN BAJAS - Inland See / NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY - Perseverance Flow (halfway to a 3-way tie)
TORTOISE - Touch
GUH - Still Out Of Frame
NELS CLINE - Consentrik Quartet
BILLY HART QUARTET - Just
TIMO LASSY TRIO - Live In Helsinki
STEVE LEHMAN TRIO + MARK TURNER - The Music of Anthony Braxton
MARK TURNER - We Raise Them To Lift Their Heads

METAL/METALLIC HARDCORE:
GRUESOME - Silent Echoes
AXIS OF LIGHT - To The Great Unbearing North
VACUOUS - In His Blood
LOCKSLIP - S/T EP
KASTURN - Rehearsal II

REISSUES/ARCHIVAL RELEASES:
FUGAZI - Live at The Forum London UK, 11/04/02 (FLS1045)
COIL - Black Antlers (reissue)
SUN RA - Nuits de la Fondation Maeght
APHEX TWIN - Music From The Merch Desk (2016 - 2023)
ANGEL SNAKE/MONOPOLY CHILD STAR SEARCHERS - Snakinist Sand Form/No Jaw Nite Rights
PHILIP JECK - The Classic: Live in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland 23.05.2008
MARY HALVORSON QUARTET - John Zorn's Bagatelles, Vol. 1 (reissue)
JIM O'ROURKE - Steamroom 67: Getting The Vapors Again
PERILA - The Air Outside Feels Crazy Right Now
KEVIN DRUMM - Neither Here Nor There

Awesome, thanks for sharing Craig!

Cheers, O!
[edit, holy crap, I just caught via following Thom Gill on BC that Evan Cartwright released a new EP three days ago, and it's bizarre chamber arrangements w/ deadpan female voiceover which will def now end up on the above 'Pop/Misc.' list: https://evanjcartwright.bandcamp.com/album/conversations-with-the-moon ]

some I haven't seen in the thread:

ندى الشاذلي [Nadah el Shazly] - لاقني ثاني [Laini tani]
rusowsky - DAISY
sofoquina - la colección de garabatos

Quick addition that really impressed me on the leftfield instrumental side of things:
THE DWARFS OF EAST AGOUZA (Sam Shalabi, Alan Bishop, Maurice Louca) - Sasquatch Landslide

Seconding the Gajek album

I really like the New Eves album. Folk in spirit, but closer to the Slits, Richard Dawson and Life Without Buildings.

Other likes:

Annahstasia - Tether
Purelink - Faith
Lucy Gooch - Desert Window
Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas - Totality
Eiko Ishibashi - Antigone
Jonny Nash - Once Was Ours Forever
Patrick Shiroishi & Piotr Kurek - Greyhound Days

an album i really enjoyed this year that I haven't seen mentioned much is Space Ghost & Teddy Bryant's Majestic Fantasies. super influenced by late 80s/early 90s r&b/new jack swing and UK street soul (loose ends, 52nd street, nick martinelli productions). here's the title track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdWilzqT4P4

^^one of those albums i kept making a mental note to check out but for whatever reason haven't yet. that track is wonderful - thanks for the reminder!

that's nice, those vocals are tight, always my litmus test for this sort of thing.

along those lines, mentioned this one upthread already but Teal's Original Watercolour EP drifts through a kinda street soul/trip hop/"fourth world" interzone, listened to it a lot this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3ARCg5NeyA

would love to hang in the chill out room where that is playing

Crash landing into my top ten: Bug Teeth - Micrographia

― Tim F, Tuesday, December 2, 2025 6:36 AM (one week ago)

Between this and Lightning Bug, it's been a great half-decade for bug-inflected dream-pop.

Some random NZ albums to throw out there:

Grecco Romank - Arts Colony
Ex-Partner - Lore-Core
Ron Gallipoli - An Imposter
Eden Burns - And The Make Believers
O/PUS - Out At Sea, The Water Is Deep
Great Barrier - Repetition
Baby Zionov - Raceways Of My Heart
maxine funke - Timeless Town
Varda - Farthest Shore

Have had Brìghde Chaimbeul's Sunwise on heavy repeat - what an album.

the album by auckland’s own the ringlets is one of my favorite indie albums of the year

Top 5:

Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band - New Threats from the Soul
Cardiacs - LSD
clipping. - Dead Channel Sky
Destroyer - Dan's Boogie
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film

this shinichi atobe album is a nice surprise. i always liked his stuff i guess but not this much.

The Mark Ernestus record is wonderful. Like Basic Channel never went away. Let's get this in the ILM 77!

xp

I had been wondering about the Shinichi Atobe album. It apparently came out in mid-December last year, but I don't recall it hitting our polls. It's really nice, maybe it can sneak in this year.

xp yay hell yeah. it's definitely an evolution too. whoever is singing is amazing, and the drumming is so assured. the reduction and the synth stuff is welcome too ofc, speaking as a basic channel fan. it's a really beautiful synthesis. kind of feels like he's been exploring for the last twenty years with ensembles and this is a boiled-down precis of what he's learned. and also it just sounds really heartfelt and grounded. honestly wish i had lyrics - maybe those are in the physical release.

hell yeah to atobe too! i had no idea it came out. he was always too repetitive for me, i think. dunno if my ears have changed or this is more engaging. but it's just so effortlessly micro beautiful, like it's always existed or something.

Have had Brìghde Chaimbeul's Sunwise on heavy repeat - what an album.

Samesies.

i gave the shinichi atobe album a closer listen on a run and god it's off the hook. sounds like a stone cold classic to me. so elegant and serene with some monster beats too. the track it closes with is almost laugh-out-loud audacious. super funky and playful.

new k-lone o m g

― ivy., Friday, 28 November 2025 20:48 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

great record

― nxd, Saturday, 29 November 2025 10:04 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes, this is great

I kinda don't want to find any more albums of the year in December, but:

Hannah Frances - Nestled in Tangles

yes that’s a great one

Well Voices From the Lake decided to drop a sequel 13 years later in December and it's absolutely stunning too. Instantly one of my favorite electronic albums of the year

agreed, it’s wonderful

I liked a song of the Snocaps album that I saw on a few lists, so I listened to the whole thing and realized that I've been intermittently trying and failing to get into Waxahatchee for years when what I really need to do is listen to Allison Crutchfield.

i miss swearin’ every day of my goddamn life

The album I was most impressed with this year has to be Billy Woods - Golliwog
I don't know why I was worried it wouldn't hold up to repeated listening, but it just got better for me.
Love that I can play it all the way through, and I'm pretty sure it will stay with me for the foreseeable.
It's like an after hours spoken word scene, with stage settings and sound production by Marc Chagall and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Listen closely and you'll also hear, intercepted from the ether, snippets of brutal truths being reported from the front lines.

Voices From the Lake II is incredible, yeah.

others

Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise in the Hold https://yazzahmed.bandcamp.com/album/a-paradise-in-the-hold
Acopia - Blush Response https://acopia.bandcamp.com/album/blush-response
Lowli - Window in the Woods https://lowli.bandcamp.com/album/window-in-the-woods
Akasha System - Heliocene https://akashasystem.bandcamp.com/album/heliocene
Akasha System - Sun Archive https://akashasystem.bandcamp.com/album/sun-archive
Rene Najera - Painted Life https://renenajera.bandcamp.com/album/painted-life

This was a completely nutso year for good music, everyone’s list I look at has like 30 cool-sounding things I have never even heard of. Here’s my favorites! No AI nonsense, I promise. Every single one of these releases is on Bandcamp if you want to check any out.

The really really good baker’s dozen top pix:

Biota - Measured Not Found
More of their magical sound alchemy, a funhouse mirror of refracted musical glimpses. My fave of the year by quite some margin, also their first record since 2019.

Legendary Pink Dots - Chemical Playschool Volume 25
The continuing 25-year-old series exploring the band’s weirder side, therefore my favorite - all of these volumes together are really the way to hear the band in my opinion, speaking as a lifelong fan. Now featuring a fully integrated lineup, with Edward Ka-Spel as the sole original member. I saw the band in July and their set was almost entirely new stuff, they never rest or look back.

Daniel Bachman - Moving Through Light
Really lovely sound experimentation that (I think) is largely based on guitar input? As I write this I am thinking Fennesz might be a reference point, although this stuff is much denser in a Vladislav Delay kinda way it still maintains a very organic feel.

Grykë Pyje - Crepuscular Elixirs
A serious witch’s brew of wildly experimental instrumental songs based on some kinda inscrutable magic theme, somehow this band is related to Baldruin and the “Gespensterland scene” of like minded European weirdos.

brm & frank - Plastic Magic Box
Thanks to ILM for this tip, very nice zoned ambient fuzziness from two Tasmanian teenagers who really dig William Basinski. Some of this also recalls Zoviet France at their softest, a real winner and well worth your time.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Phantom Island
This was the year I drank the Gizzard kool-aid. This is just a great rock album, I swear there’s some track on here that sounds like a prime Beatles/Revolver outtake circa late 1966. The orchestra helps and embellishes, but this is really the band’s deal. One latepass please! For the record it was their recent "Live In Bulgaria" "bootleg" on Bandcamp that finally made them click for me.

The Ex - If Your Mirror Breaks
Mekons - Horror
It’s not that these two records are GREAT, per se, but they are fine and worthy examples of where these bands have landed. Like the Pink Dots, The Ex always move forward and never play old stuff live (although they have been reissuing their old catalog at a rapid rate, which is great). Live, the Mekons prefer a mix of old and new, always varying their setlists considerably between tours (I’ve been lucky enough to see them in 1992, 2019, and this year). Listening to these records is like hanging out with an old friend.

Young Gods - Appear Disappear
I can’t believe this band is still as awesome as they were in 1987. I think the singer is now the only original member? It’s impressive how they are still immediately identifiable. This fucking rocks, if you’ve never heard them it’s as good a place to start as any.

Gina Birch - Trouble
Post punk icon (from The Raincoats) with her second recent solo album, even more rooted in her thoughts about age, mortality, and continuing to raise hell. “Causing Trouble Again” is an instant classic, a “list song” up there with Le Tigre’s “Hot Topic” (actually the sound of this album owes a lot to Le Tigre now that I think about it) and Chumbawamba’s “Misbehave”.

Abi Ooze - Live At Lemp
I don’t always get where she’s coming from with her overall sound/production, but this is her 3rd tape/digital EP in a row with at least two total earworms. I think it’s some of the catchiest pop-punk out there right now, even with it’s angrier DIY/NWI roots (she was briefly in Liquids which is how I discovered her solo work). Again, an artist I was lucky enough to catch live this year. Freed up to do vocals with a band behind her, she acted like a born rock star and mesmerized the crowd of approx 30 Portland folks. It was really something.

Necks - Disquiet
Man, this fucking band. The telepathic interplay here is on such an incredibly high level, like AMM if they decided to be a rock band in the style of Can or electric Miles. This massive triple CD is ironically a perfect entry point for the band, showcasing a few of their varied approaches across four long tracks. All instrumental, all riveting. Keyboard/bass/drums.

Eve Libertine & Eva Leblanc - Live at the Horse Hospital
Eve is and was always my favorite Crass member, and I always have time for anything she does. This awesome live set features several of her finest songs from Penis Envy recast as vocal/electric guitar duo takes, along with contemporary material that fits right in.

Oh and there's more! These are also good records fwiw:

Surface Of The Earth - In Colour - shadowy NZ hums and drone
Snooper - Worldwide - I need more time with this, not as immediate as their debut which is a good thing.
Dwarfs Of East Agouza - Sasquatch Landslide - gnarly improv
Legendary Pink Dots - So Lonely In Heaven - their proper studio album of 2025
Edward Ka-Spel/Twilight Circus - 800 Saints - a really great collab between EKS and an ex-Pink Dot
Edward Ka-Spel - A Monument to Wasted Tears - he just keeps putting out good solo albums
Public Enemy - Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025 - who woulda thought, etc. it’s good!
Lyra Pramuk - Hymnal - wild voice-centered layer cake
Obscuress - Maltha - C Carter of Charalambides and an accomplice get out there
Stephen Vitiello, Brendan Canty, Hahn Rowe - Second - this’ll satisfy any adventurous Fugazi fan
Michael Hurley - Broken Homes And Gardens - posthumous release, too patchwork for me but has some luminous high points including (FINALLY) a take of “In A Dress”.
Stereolab - Instant Holograms On Metal Film

A bunch of good-to-great young punk kid singles with one exception:

Tee Vee Repairmann - I Wanna Be A Ramone - if you just listen to one of these, this is the one.
Skull Cult - Can You See What I Mean
Busted Head Racket & Billiam - Kidnapped!
Split System - No Cops In Heaven - this is pretty damn great too
Power Pants - a bunch of digital/tape singles, I can’t even keep track
Heather The Jerk - Very Motorcycle
The Gobs - Obsgay Uleray
Billiam - Sylvie S Goes To Hawaii
Media Puzzle - Intermission
Daniel Bachman - Untitled/Dreamweapon - wild angry improv noise w/violin and ranting

reissues:

Bad Brains - Live At The Bayou - Stunning. On first listen I heard possibly the best versions ever of a couple classic tracks, plus this has some previously unreleased covers & originals.

To Live And Shave In LA - The Wigmaker… - One of the greatest noise albums of all time finally gets a well-deserved deluxe reissue, this blithering meticulous nonsense is right up there with Hanatarash 3 or whatever else you want to nominate. Essential for all freaks and mutants.

Test Dept. - Industrial Overture - Reissue of a bunch of early tapes plus Peel Sessions etc, very cool and I’ve barely listened as it came out like a week ago.

Husker Du - 1985: The Miracle Year - absolutely definitive live document of this specific era of the band, if you are even a casual fan you gotta hear this.

Vox Populi - Sucre De Pastèque - one of their best, most out-there tapes finally gets a reissue, this band gets tagged as “ethno-industrial” but they are so much more.

World Of Pooh - Tight & Loose - Barbara Manning fans unite, this compiles a bunch of great singles and misc tracks plus unreleased stuff. Makes a fine bookend to their lone studio LP, also recently reissued.

Paris 1942 -S/T - Did you know that Mo Tucker and the Bishop brothers from Sun City Girls used to be in a band together? I did, you may not have. This features the unmistakable sounds of a proto-SCG unit learning how to play together, each person bringing in ideas. It’s awesome to hear Tucker’s minimal style along with the Bishop bros and their blasted guitar lines.

E.G. Oblique Graph - The Complete Oblique - Newly unearthed recordings reveal the earliest creative impulses of the guy who went on to become Muslimgauze.

Zoviet France - Chasse 34xCD box (plus tape) - I already had this set as three LP boxes (yeah I know) but it was cool to see these sets get reissued again as CDs (they were available as 3 separate CD boxes as well as the absurd all-in-one chunk covering their whole discography (more or less).

cosign the Bachman love, sleeve— that record is mostly heavily processed guitar, yes. it’s gorgeous.

the Lyra Pramuk is terrific

xp he's a great bluesky follow, he's doing this work recording the (literal) sounds of old trees that's gonna be a release soon.

Great list sleeve

^

Thanks, sleeve! I missed the brm & frank discussion so I appreciate you flagging it here. Gorgeous, really.

mine:

steve tibbetts ― close
jenevieve ― crysalis
florence adooni ― aoeiu
william tyler ― time indefinite
eiko ishibashi ― antigone
nourished by time ― the passionate ones
jerkcurb ― night fishing on a calm lake
lightning in a twilight hour ― colours yet to be named

wow I missed this, from the ILM EOY noms list
Holden & Zimpel - The Universe Will Take Care Of You
https://jamesholden.bandcamp.com/album/the-universe-will-take-care-of-you

i wrote up my top 10 a few days ago https://hologramofthesenses.substack.com/p/aoty-2025

Listened mostly to pre-2025 musics this year ( Lô Borges and Dave Ball RIP) but what I did love - i.e played repeatedly at some point or another- gave me hope:

Wet Leg
Peter Murphy (bar the first and last tracks this was my fave from him in eons)
Klein
Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force
Shackleton/Zimpel live versions

*what I did love that’s new

no mentions of memorials is crazy

… no it’s not - came out in 2024. idiot me

Gina Birch - Trouble
Post punk icon (from The Raincoats) with her second recent solo album, even more rooted in her thoughts about age, mortality, and continuing to raise hell. “Causing Trouble Again” is an instant classic, a “list song” up there with Le Tigre’s “Hot Topic” (actually the sound of this album owes a lot to Le Tigre now that I think about it) and Chumbawamba’s “Misbehave”.
sleeve

Good "Five Questions For Gina Birch" on Magnet Magazine site too.

i've missed the latest updates to this thread, gotta review sleeve's list.

just wanted to note something somewhere about this steve hauschildt album, aeropsia. i can't stop listening to it. it's so glassy and smooth, endless gorgeous drift. perfect ambient music but there's a lot of subtle development, movement and use of space. depthless. stars of the lid crossed with fennesz i guess is a rough traingulation. i dipped into some of his back catalogue today but i wasn't nearly as impressed tbh.

also my partner really loves it which is a boon for our shared couch time listening lol

will do-sign aeropsia, magical album

listening now, haven’t really kept up with his stuff in a while but this is beautiful

:)

feel like i’ve added about ten new albums to my yet-to-be-posted EOY list in the past week lol

i find one i like and i listen over and over lol, so my list is small and i'll never catch up with everything.

*cosign, not do-sign, duh

https://exactoriginconfused.substack.com/p/22-subjectively-great-electronic

Necks

top 5 for me definitely

One of those albums that would sound even better if I still smoked weed, but digging it anyway:
Tuxedomoon---Desire (45th Anniversary Edition, lotta bonus tracks)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5037jvDM8c8