My Favorite Music from 2025
Here’s where I usually drop a fairly long preamble in which I try to sum up my year in music to some degree or another, whether it’s trying to find disparate themes or some other common touchstone. But this year?
It’s been a year.
Despite everything, it was an incredible year for music and I’m excited to share with you what stood out to me the most this year. In the past, I’ve broken this up into two separate posts with favorite albums and songs but, fittingly I think for 2025, this year it’s all coming to you at once. Below are links to Tidal playlists for my favorite 50 albums, 100 songs, and assortment of EPs.
2025 has been one of the most challenging in my life so far. Music has been one of the few balms to get me through it. I don’t know how I can wrap up any kinds of thoughts on this most fraught of years with any kind of coherence or, really, relevance. So I have to remind myself of my own refrain at concerts: “Less Talk! More Rock!” and just get into it. I've published 3 playlists on Tidal if you'd like to listen along.
Happy listening and here’s to 2026!
I’m hiding the rest below the fold for easy scrolling, click here or “read as single post” to read more…
Favorite Albums of 2025
Rosalía’s high-concept orchestral showstopper of an album engulfed me from the moment it dropped and it quickly shot to the top of my “most-listened” albums of the year after repeated spins getting lost in its world. The Spanish wunderkind has always had a voracious musical and linguistic appetite, having shown no compunctions about slamming genres, themes and languages together with previous projects (I’ve long been a champion of her incredible 2-track EP “Fucking Money Man” which, thematically, teases the main theme she brings to LUX: of the struggle between serving the divine and indulging in the profane), but with this project she takes it all to the Nth degree. Much has already been written and said about the efforts Rosalía and her collaborators went through to bring this album to fruition so I won’t belabor them here other than to say that the obsession with creating as musically wide-ranging and culturally authentic a listening experience has more than paid off. There’s almost too much to say about this album, really let me just sum up by encouraging you to listen to it right away with listing just a few of the moments that I cherish: when a backing choir breaks in to sing “entre la tierra, la tierra y cielo (between the earth, the earth and the sky) just a minute into the listen; when she name drops my beloved last city I lived in in Spain: “perdí mis manos en Jerez” (I lost my hands in Jerez); when Björk descends from on high to proclaim that only “divine intervention” will save us; when timpani’s are used to roll out a languid reggaeton beat in “Porcelana;” when we hear some studio chatter of Rosalia brainstorming how she wants the final orchestral “hit” to sound at the end of “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti” with a improvised “brawhmfh; when we hit the stratosphere-high climax of “Sauvignon Blanc”....I could go on and on really. But I’d like to close these short throughs with yet another in a series of “Cameron mishears lyrics but grasps at thematic meaning anyway” I have to divulge that when I first heard the final track (and not looking at the title of the song by the way) I thought I heard her sing: “tira me más gloria” (cover me with more glory) rather than the actual lyric: “tira me magnolias” (send me magnolias). While the real lyrics are resonant, I can’t help but think about how a plea to the divine for more glory has been perfectly realized by this very album.
The Mars Volta have never followed the easy or mainstream path, even as their two albums since their reformation after a long hiatus in the 2010’s have been a lot less hot-headed than previous efforts, the conviction and musicianship they bring to bear is as ferocious as ever. With Luco sucio; Los ojos del vacío, they deploy their formidable talents with a piece of music that flows like molten lava for 50 minutes; its heat all coiling and burbling just below the surface, the sax taxing center stage at unexpected moments and, above all, moments of sheer sincerity and beauty. It’s a captivating record, one that I can’t stop listening to and one that I think will stand the test of time.
While I didn’t try to piece together any grand unifying theme for music this year, I can’t help but notice an emphasis on human maximalism with so many of 2025’s releases. Maybe it’s the long-tail of the pandemic lockdown and the realization many of us had of the need for human connection, but there are so many instances across a multitle of releases of musical exuberance: big gospel style gang vocals, creative instrumentation, cacophonous production techniques, and, well, full fucking orchestras! Souping up the 70’s garage rock sound they so expertly deployed with 2024’s B-741 with strings and horns wasn’t what I was expecting, it's certainly not surprising that the boys from down under would continue to swing for the fences with their musical endeavors. And its not just a gimmick! The orchestra is deployed so expertly, it’s like King Gizzard always had a 14-piece with them, right? It’s an album that grapples with overexertion, loneliness and the yearning for something better. So, you know, an album for our time.
Gray’s album has been the biggest grower of the year for me and one of the best examples I’ve had of the value of waiting until the actual end of the year to let my thoughts fully percolate before finalizing my favorite music lists. When I originally assembled my draft list in November, SAYA was certainly in the running for making the top 50 list but I definitely had it closer to the bottom than the top. But as I revisited it to confirm my thoughts it just kept coming back around in my head and I had to listen one more time. And another. And another. And I realized that Saya Gray’s songwriting talents had fully revealed themselves and this record deserved even more attention. I’m not quite sure exactly what element to point to that makes this record so special, maybe it’s the sinewy lyrics or the unexpected vocal tics, maybe it’s the sideways melodies or maybe its Grey’s ability to go from the intimate to the grandiose on a dime; or maybe it’s just all of the above.
I wrote about this record earlier this year and it’s one that hasn’t worn out its welcome at all. It’s just so sincere, joyful and bursting with creativity and energy, you can’t help but get swept away with it all. Its concerns might be specifically very youthful (high school references abound) but its emotions and empathies transcend temporal bounds. 8-bit sounds are inextricably connected to my own youth, so I can’t not acknowledge the nostalgia factor here, but Gosh Diggity just have the gosh darn juice, you know? They’re gonna go far.
I guess we’re in some kind of Geese backlash right now? No matter, it’ll all blow over because the music is just that fucking good. I don’t know how these kids make such a racket with what actually appears to be pretty bare instrumentation. It’s a bit of a miracle, even though one that’s always in your face. It’s not a particularly aggressive album, per se, but it’s one that’s so confident in its swaggering musical impositions. It’s not often you can go from screaming about bombs in your car to begging to wash your lover’s feet in the space of a single track, but Geese don’t waste any time in making sure the listener knows that they shouldn’t rest on their laurels for a minute. It’s a nervy, exciting listen that has indie rock DNA dating back to the very beginning of that whole distinction in rock music along with some very modern sensibilities in more meandering song structures and genre-bending allowances. I posted about some of my favorite album art of the year and I just have to point out how much what I perceive is being depicted matches with the vibe this album exudes: on the cover, I see angelic figure, obscured by harsh divine light, blaring a trumpet while pointing a gun in your face. “There is only dance music in times of war!” Indeed.
I didn’t know that I needed instrumental spaghetti-western streaked hard rock that features the clarinet until I dropped the needle on this record from Greek rockers King Garcia. It’s energetic, thundering and the kind of music that keeps you on the edge of your seat, even as it pummels you into a hazy submission.
A new record from this long-standing synth-rock band is always welcome but Dreams Go seems, similar to the Bon Iver record from this year (and just a bit further down my list) is something like an ur-POLIÇA project. Dreams Go refines and distills every distinctive element of the band: its roiling rhythm section, lead singer Channy Leaneagh’s captivatingly detached delivery, the hazy production, those magnetic basslines. It's humble and languid but somehow there’s really not a single wasted moment during the whole thing.
It’s simultaneously easy and difficult to describe Cloakroom’s whole thing: midwest emo for stoners who love MBV as much as Promise Ring and grew up listening to Crook and Chase’s country countdown. Hmm. Well, regardless, the dreampop/shoegaze/emo/western thing that Cloakroom brings to the–ahem–table with their latest record is not only fascinating but its also just so inviting and listenable. Few records this year have made me want to hit “repeat” as often as this one.
Eight tracks of breezy, alt-country inflected indie rock that go down so smooth you can easily overlook the absolutely immaculate musicianship on display here. There’s that little organ riff that takes over the back-half of “The Crying Hour,” the sunny guitars and 90’s era pop rock “rap” of “Nothing,” the little shuffling drum beat on closing “Pride in the Fall,” I could go on. One of the members of First Rodeo is the frontman for friend of the blog Vista House and here they lean even further into the western/americana vibes than that already tumbleweed-tinged project. I’d go as far as to say that in a better world were Mark Linkous was still with us, he’d have jumped on a chance to work with First Rodeo. There’s more than a little of the cracked small-town ennui of Sparklehorse’s seminal Vivadixiesubmarienetransmissionplot here and they seem to pay tribute specifically with the haunting “Familiar.”
There were so many more incredible albums released in 2025 so I’d just like to drop a big list with my remaining top 50. And trust me, it was hard to even narrow it down from here; and, of course, the normal caveat that this whole ranking thing is pretty silly so take it with a grain of salt.
Favorite EPs
I don’t seek out EPs so it’s not a very long list, but these shorter projects were so impactful to me this year that I wanted to highlight them here.
This EP is really the reason for a discrete list as it bounced in and out of my “Best Album” list so much that I just couldn’t bear to leave it behind. Just a stunning little collection of nostalgic, vaporwave adjacent synth pop tunes. The opening track I wrote about before, but every track is worth your time, especially the slinky “Sabre-Toothed Tiger” which documents that strange feeling of simultaneous detachment and intimacy from viewing ancient animal relics in controlled museum environments.
I also couldn’t bear to leave a wrap-up of this year behind without touching again on experimental composer Carmel Smickersgill’s project from May. I wrote about it at length here.
Six tracks of sparkling yet gritty indie rock that demonstrate that Florence Road have immense potential. If there were any justice in the world, “Goodnight” would become THE breakup anthem with its enormous shoutalong hook, stomping beat and just relatable vibes: “don’t cry on my shoulder when I say it’s over! Good night, night, night!”
We never really did reach peak “IDM” did we? The term was instantly maligned the second it was conceived (for somewhat obvious reasons I won’t litigate here) but man, sometimes I hear bleeps and bloops that drag me back to 1999, scouring the early Warp Records website.
B. Hamilton put out a great full length that just missed my top fifty (and indeed a track from that record is in my top 100) but this EP has to get some special recognition for its name alone. If you’re still using Spotify, stop!
Favorite Songs of 2025
Ela Minus - “COMBAT”
Bon Iver - “Day One”
The Mars Volta - “The Iron Rose”
Rosalía - “Berghain”
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - “Aerodynamic”
Geese - “100 Horses”
Jessica Winter - “The Worst Person In the World”
Hachiku - “Room for Everybody (Never Let Go Of The Joy)” feat. Mary Lattimore
Saya Gray - “LIE DOWN..”
Tuvaband - “Futile Maze”
Cloakroom - “Bad Larry”
King Garcia - “Sweat”
unitrΔ_Δudio - “tidewatch”
Jake Nicoll - “Waiting Room”
POLIÇA - “Wound Up”
Adult Leisure - “See Her”
First Rodeo - “Pride In The Fall”
Gosh Diggity - “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!”
Adult Mom - “Crystal”
Matt Berninger - “Times of Difficulty”
Florence Road “Goodnight”
Sky_A - “Sit with Us”
WOOZE - “Sabre Tooth Spider”
Youth Lagoon - “Football”
Fortitude Valley - “Sunshine State”
Ciao Kennedy - “Foire du Midi”
Pyramids - “Mira Mirame Brillar”
Heartworms - “Jacked”
Ani Glass - “Phantasmagora”
jasmine.4.t - “Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation”
Sorry - “Waxwing”
Haru Nemuri - “indulgentia”
Liquid Pennies - “Echolalia”
Black Country, New Road - “Besties”
Midnight Generation - “Don’t Wait Up”
Ai Yamamoto & Dan West - “Komorebi”
Idiogram - “Chromosphere/Tidal Disruption”
36 & zaké - "Stasis Sounds for Long-Distance Space Travel (Blue New World 4)”
Celestial - “I Can Hear The Grass Grow”
Sinemis - “Exit Democracy”
Voices from The Lake - “Blue Noa”
Carmel Smickergill - “Suck Don’t Sip”
STERÖID - “CHAINMAIL COMMANDOS”
SKLOSS - “Imagine 100 Dads”
Milkweed - “How Conchobor was Begotten”
DARKSIDE - “Graucha Max”
The South Hill Experiment - “Maybe It Takes Time”
The Wind Ups - “A Fine Pink Mist”
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - “The Real Contra Band”
Alex G - “June Guitar”
Comments
Post a Comment