2025 Quarter 1 Notable Albums
It’s already April?! Well, three months into this whirlwind of a year and there has already been a staggering amount of good music released into the world. I wanted to do a general round-up of the albums that have caught my attention so far this year. While the whole point of this blog is to point out things I like, this space is also going to serve as a general clearing house for albums I’ve been wanting to write about but haven’t quite gotten to it–the sheer forward momentum of my life coupled with the near-relentless drops of awesome new music has made it very slippery for me to keep my footing so lots of stuff has fallen through the cracks (both on this blog and in my personal life but that’s for another time and place to tell). So, below, in roughly release order, is a list and some thoughts about music I think is worth your time that’s come out since January. Generally, if I’ve already written about something, I’ll just post a link and move on, but I’ll reserve the right to delve into more detail about some of these later on :)
Oh, and I made a playlist with a single song from each of the records of this list as a bit of a thumbnail on the year. To make it a bit more worthwhile, I’ll exclude selecting tracks I’ve already recommended on the blog or put on the regular updating playlist. Listen along to my Quarter 1 highlights here.
Ela Minus - DÍA (January)
Gorgeous and profound. Appropriate for late-nights at the club and the transcendent early-morning comedown. “COMBAT” might be one of the best songs ever written and it’s entirely worth watching the awe-inspiring music video.
Recommended Song: “QQQQ”
jasmine.4.t - You Are the Morning (January)
A stunning collection of personal tunes that lean much more towards the Elliot Smith/Phoebe Bridgers (who produces and makes a guest appearance) side of things than the neon-streaked hyperpoppy album cover would suggest. Fantastic songwriting combined with personal storytelling is always going to be a winning combination (I’ll be using this same set of criteria several more times in this list) and jasmin.4.t shows that she not only has the chops but also has something important to say.
Recommended Song: “Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation”
Songhoy Blues - Héritage January)
Groovy, acoustic-centric desert blue-rock from lonstanding Mali group Songhoy Blues.
Recommended Son: Boroterey"
Human Pyramids - Thank You (January)
It can’t be a coincidence that instrumental group Human Pyramids named their album “Thank You,” as it reminds me of nothing less than Sigur Ros’s landmark Takk (thank you in Icelandic), except stripped of nearly any kind of melancholy (and vocals to boot) and with the optimistic intensity turned up to 11.
Recommended Song: “Moving Home”
Blood Lemon - Petite Deaths (January)
Melodic, driving, heavy, desert riffs from a trio of hard-rocking women. I get the joke they’re making with the title of this EP (certainly in part referencing the fact that at 30 minutes it should probably just go ahead and be called an album) but there is nothing masturbatory or superfluous in this tightly constructed set of 5 incredible tunes.
Recommended Song: “High Tide”
BICEP - CHROMA 008 (January)
Producing team Bicep have been quietly dropping great singles with their CHROMA project for the last year or two but there’s nothing quiet or small about the singles themselves. Their late-night (but not ready for the chillout room yet!) hot, dark, club vibes are second-to-none and the lead track, “TANGZ,” featuring vocalist Eliza is a certified banger.
Recommended Song: “TANGZ”
Mogwai - The Bad Fire (January)
Another scorching hot release combining the best elements of post-rock and sizzling electro-pop by some of the best to ever do it, Mogwai’s The Bad Fire is the real deal and one of the best records this long-running group have produced yet. Read more here.
Recommended Song: “Lion Rumpus”
Birna - Wardruna (January)
Viking metal but played with vintage instruments? It’s exactly what it says on the tin but it’s compelling, primal and worth at least a watch/listen of the linked music video in all chilly, harsh glory.
Recommended Song: “Himinndotter”
PRIMITIVE IGNORANT - PSYCHIC CINEMA (January)
Press materials state that one of the goals of this project was “massive bass,” and damned if alt-pop outfit PRIMITIVE IGNORANT don’t deliver in spades. Dark melodies bounce, razor-sharp earworm synths slide all over and underneath it all is a thundering bass that just doesn’t quit. A really surprising listen and a ton of fun.
Recommended Song: “A Day Without You”
Waldo’s Gift - Malcolm’s Law (January)
There was a brief time in the late 2000’s where a type of music emerged that can only be described as “written to be intentionally difficult to play in Rock Band” (looking at you Dragonforce) and while the era of space-consuming plastic instruments dominating our cramped living rooms is over, caffeinated math-rock group Waldo’s Gift is there to pick up the torch with their spiralingly complex but day-glo fun set of tracks on Malcom’s Law.
Recommended Song: “Classic Waldi Anthem”
Moon Apple - Four Pillars (January)
While there’s a whole conceptual conceit about using the form a séance and other various rituals as part of the recording process, Moon Apple’s Four Pillars would easily invoke a meditative and spiritually open mindset regardless. Haunting, ethereal and with just enough flexing of four-on-the-floor dancefloor muscle to keep things moving forward.
Recommended Song: “Séance 1 - Water Snake”
Anderdog & Dessin Bizarre - Imagine (January)
As good a set of 90’s Warp-Record tinged bleeps and bloops as you could ask for. But it’s not fully a throwback either but rather seems to function as a slight update of those classic sounds but tuned to the ears of this century with all its anxieties.
Recommended Song: “Cloud Palace”
zaké - Caelum (Excerpts) (January)
Beautiful and transcendently repetitive. I wrote more here.
Recommend Song: "Caelum, No. II"
Heartworms - Glutton for Punishment (February)
Dark goth-pop at its finest. Read more of my thoughts here.
Recommended Song: "Smuggler's Adventure"
Maria Teriaeva - Sayan - Savoie (February)
Modular synth-based looping pastoral electronic goodness. To really get the full vibe, I recommend the delightful music video for “What Is To Be Done?”
Recommended Song: “eaaasy peaaasy”
Dr. Mocker - Constant Current Stimulus (February)
Heavy and sci-fi tinged psych rock. Read more here.
Recommended Song: “Last World Watching”
Youth Lagoon - Rarely Do I Dream (February)
So much media about the “dark underbelly of small-town life” seems to, at-best, revel at the murky moral depths that a hardscrabble rural existence can force a person to descend to, and at-worst it's simply outright mocked. Trevor Powers and his newly revived Youth Lagoon project knows that while there are indeed deep trenches of things like addiction, abuse and poverty, there are also rays of sunshine, family and hope.
Recommended Song: “Football”
WOOZE - WOOZE (February)
What an unbelievably fun record. I wrote more about it here.
Recommended Song: "Weapons of Mass Seduction"
Ai Yamamoto & Dan West - Microdoses (February)
I remember an interview with Björk where she discussed one of her goals with the quietly magisterial classic Medúlla was to create something that sounded specifically good on tiny, low-quality laptop speakers. And now, more than 20 years later, it feels like Ai Yamamoto & Dan West have taken that goal and ran with it. Of course, not literally as small speakers have gotten infinitely better and, regardless, so many people have easy access to earbuds; but the whole essence of small beats and insular tiny sounds is right here. I wrote more here.
Recommended Song: “Gossamer”
Death by Unga Bunga - Raw Muscular Power February)
Anthemic, triumphant, hard-rocking power pop from Scandinavia. Read more I wrote here.
Recommended Song: "Raw Muscular Power"
Mandrake Handshake - Earth-Sized Worlds (February)
Big-hearted and cosmically-minded psychedelic rock with just enough forays into krautrock grooves and the occasional psych-rock freakouts to keep it interesting.
Recommended Song: “Find the Tree and Dig (Deep)!”
Evergreen - VEGETAL DIGITAL (February)
Effervescent french electro-pop fronted by the great Fabienne Debarre (who I singled out as having one of my favorite records from last year).
Recommended Song: “Végétal”
Fantastic Twins - Suite of Rooms (February)
Heady analogue electronica that features hauntingly distorted vocals and swaths of modular synths and textured drum machines. Closing track “Nuances of Triumph” is a beatless–sometimes ambient–standout in which a creeping dread dissolves into uncertain oblivion.
Recommended Song: "Ariadne's Thread, Unraveling”
That Which is Not - Wearing Serpents like Garlands (February)
Hypnotic, sometimes ambient, sometimes drone, sometimes neo-classical, this album unfolds in two 20 minute pieces that seem to spiral off into dark, transcendent infinity. Also, that album cover. Wow.
Recommended Song: “Wearing Serpents Like Garlands”
Deep Sea Diver - Billboard Heart (February)
More than 20 years ago, Brandon Flowers declared his need for “glamourous indie rock & roll,” and I can’t think of a better descriptor for the truly awesome new record from indie-rockers Deep Sea Diver.
Recommended Song: “Tiny Threads”
Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table (February)
You know when a record is, just, like so good? Like the second you hit play and hear that first note you know you’re in for a good ride? Where each track is somehow better than the last? And somehow, even beyond that, all the cuts come together to make the whole album greater than any one single song? You know?! Cloakroom’s latest definitely, and almost instantly, fit that bill for me. From “The Pilot’s” lurching, sadly triumphant blasts of noise to “Bad Larry’s” infectious twang to even the spacey underwater churn of closing “Turbine Song,” there’s not a dull moment on the record and easily one of my favorites of the year so far. I also gushed more about it here
Recommended Song: “The Pilot”
DARKSIDE - Nothing (February)
Worth it for the gobsmackingly good single “S.N.C.” alone. And it’s not even the best track on the album! (For my money, that’s “Graucha Max”--but as I hope you can surmise, it’s all pretty righteous!)
Recommended Song: “Graucha Max”
Pretty Lightning - Night Wobble (February)
For fans of Khruangbin and Calexico who can also groove to The Budos Band, this incredibly fun record is chock-full of dusty, slinking, psychedelic jams.
Recommended Song: “Glade Runner”
AeTopus - iota (Feb)
I’m here for any artist that references the absolute legend that is Ray Lynch and even more daringly for an electronic artist with “ae” in their name, AeTopus’s iota sits right between those cozy new-age aesthetics of 80’s Lynch and the burbly digital landscapes of early Autechre.
Recommended Song: “Level”
Hachiku - The Joys of Being Pure at Heart (February)
What an incredible burst of optimism and hope in increasingly dreary times. Joining forces with friend-of-the-blog Mary Lattimore brings new, sparkling (yet somehow soft) tones to the already stellar bedroom synth pop. One of my favorites of the year and I singled out one of its best tracks here.
Recommended Song: “Keep on Swimming” (feat. Mary Lattimore)
Saya Gray - SAYA (February)
Incredibly accomplished and catchy art-pop that delicately balances experimental flourishes with tight earworms. And don’t miss her remarkable turn on Tiny Desk.
Recommended Song: “EXHAUST THE TOPIC”
Nicole Miglis (of Hundred Waters) - Re: Communicating (March)
Hundred Waters’ 2017 album Communicating was one of my favorites of that year and now, eight years later, lead singer Nicol Miglis blesses us with haunting, beautiful instrumental piano renditions of that still stunningly good album. If there’s any fault, it’s that we’re missing a rendition of “Takeover,” though that was a fault in the original album as well as it was relegated to an EP. Regardless, it’s a wonderful little recording and I hope it means more music from Hundred Waters is in the works.
Recommended Song: “(blanket me)”
saoirse dream - saoirse dream (March)
Hi-tempo, noisy, bedroom hyperpop with a chiptune edge tackling incredibly personal struggles with artistry, queerness, trans identity, performance and fame.
Recommended Song: “down in flames”
Neutrino Effect - FAMINE (March)
Spacey, atmospheric darkwave, glitchy beats. Delicious late-night stuff.
Recommended Song: "HEKATE"
Sunny War - Armageddon In A Summer Dress (March)
Country-tinged gothic rock with some real truth to speak to power. Sunny War has a lot on her mind and a lot of important things to say, “Walking Contradictions” is as catchy as it is difficult to listen to, with its incredibly accurate call-out of do-nothing liberals (and yes, even us leftists) in the face of the Gaza Genocide specifically and all the other horrors and colonolial-capitalst induced drudgery of the world generally.
Recommended Song: “Walking Contradictions” feat. Steve Ignorant
Cutouts - Snakeskin (March)
Hell yeah. Pristine to the point of minimalist gothic darkwave synthpop.
Recommended Song: “Narc”
Amulets - Not Around But Through (March)
A couple of years ago, Madeline Johnson (of Midwife) coined the term “Heaven Metal” to denote her particular brand of dark, misty acoustic sonic expressions. While Midwife trades particularly well in the currency of space and silence, I think the vibe is wide enough to include a swath of other artists. Here we have Amulets, which takes the Heaven Metal moniker and expands it in all directions. It’s both heavy and airy, mystical and grounded. And, sure enough, Midwife shows up on track three, giving it her blessing.
Recommended Song: “Sun Unseen”
Ciao Kennedy - Solarium (March)
Infectious, electronic-tinged math-rock adjacent tunes from an outfit from Brussels that kind of sounds like a strange blend of Ratatat’s big beats and BATTLE’s penchant for left-field pop swerves. “Foire du Midi” is the furiously inventive and rollicking centerpiece of the album that kind of has to be heard to believed: it starts in off-kilter carnival then, as solarflare-synths descend from on high, it turns into a heroic astral soundtrack sendoff.
Recommended Song: “Foire du Midi”
Motorpsycho - Motorpsycho (March)
Holy smokes! How have I not heard of this hard-rocking psychedelic group from Norway before now? They’ve been releasing what appear (from some limited sampling I’ve done) to be all excellent records for over 30 years and this year, with their self-titled, they’ve hit my radar in a major way. This whole record is a blast and I really look forward to diving into their back-catalog!
Recommended Song: “Stanley (Tonight’s the Night)”
Kinlaw - gut ccheck (March)
Lead track “HARD CUT” might have you thinking you’ve in for a darkwave journey through the oilest parts of a true nightlife psyche (it’s a real banger, in other words). But the track immediately following, “RULE OF THIRDS” plays like a bleary-eyed morning-after r&b not-smooth jam. So, expect variety with gut check and, really, with the enormous contrast and display of range, it makes the harder cuts hit that much stronger. Great listen, front-to-back.
Recommended Song: “HARD CUT”
Aleksi Perälä - Vortex 4 (March)
The prolific Aleksi Perälä has embarked on another series, this time titled Vortex. And with Vortex 4 he drops some of the catchiest and stickiest tunes in his long career. Shades of early Chris Clark mixed with the hypnotic attention to detail we’ve come to expect from Perälä make this an extremely compelling entry in his vast body of work.
Recommended Song: “FI3AC251001”
Idiogram - Radium of Broken Parts (March)
What an incredible debut! And this instrumental post/math-rock group also has a great eye for an album cover to boot! A truly mind-blowing listen on my first turn through, I almost kind of can’t believe this album exists. One of the best so far this year and a group I really have my eye on now.
Recommended Song: “Bevel”
The South Hill Experiment - EARTHBREAKS (March)
Music that sound like an old, comfy pair of jeans feels. I can’t believe this only came out a week or so ago. Even after just a few listens, the melodies sound relaxed and familiar (in the best way) and this set of 11 shaggy, anthemic indie rock songs just flows along with the grace and beauty of a river into an ocean.
Recommended Song: “Silver Bullet”
Use Knife - État Coupable (March)
I’m not even sure where to start with this exhilarating record. Clattering drums roil, synths strike deep underground, angular pads build and release tension with exquisite precision and, in the thick of it all, the incredible vocals from singer (and percussionist) Saif Al-Qaissy. It’s breathtaking stuff.
Recommended Song: “Demain Sera Mieux”
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