Twenty twenty five. Couple things stood out to me this music year. One, how I'm finally starting to make (or am just waking up to the fact that I've long been making) the slide into irrelevance, so much that was celebrated fell like a brick on my dumb ears (No Joy, Rosalia, Geese, Los Thuthanaka, Nourished By Time, Dijon, well okay Geese and Rosalia might be starting to make sense, but I don't spring to it like I used to). Two, how many many artists that I'd otherwise celebrate didn't really excite me with their projects this year (The Beths, Destroyer, Field Music, Flock Of Dimes, Hand Habits, Jenny Hval, Will Johnson, Lorde, Rival Consoles, Sloan, Son Lux. Taylor. Tune-Yards. Liz Vice.). So much so that I couldn't quite get to twenty-five in twenty-five as has been my algorithmic habit over the last few years. I do think there are records from this year that I just haven't engaged with enough, which would have made or even topped the list if I'd given them any time (Sprints, Maria Somerville, Smerz, Doe Paoro, The Moles, Matt Pond PA, Little Simz, Cate Le Bon, Rochelle Jordan, Ezra Furman, Daughter Of Swords, Chronixx, Big Thief). I think this year of single parenthood did curtail the time I've previously enjoyed to give myself over to the task.
But I engaged with certain music this year like I always do, incessantly. Here are fifteen albums I think are worth revisiting. One through seven really are my favorites this year, that is, I returned to them over and over on purpose to do something for me, like spirits. Eight through fifteen are roughly in some kind of critical order but it's less important. Don't stop being curious about what's out there for you.
Rhythm metal played by snakes.
Learning what every serious artist clamoring to collaborate with her already knows, that Madison spins straw into gold. Serving AOR like it was dinner, couldn't eat another bite, okay just one more.
I'd even kiss a Sunset pig.
LA jazz collective channeling early 80's Eno/Byrne, mid 70's motorik/fusion, and 00's ambient/post-rock like what even is genre? Kinetic bliss-out music.
Music for getting things done or not. In today's glut of cheap ambient, it's refreshing to get something this consistent from one of the best to ever do it.
Words words words
Sam makes me feel like a young kid at the summer folk festival again, a citrus-sharp nostalgia for me that's probably not generalizable but these are my picks not yours.
Honestly I think Madison Cunningham just primed me for this kind of music this year: thoughtful women at the top of their sophisticated pop game. If Kacey Musgraves comes off to you as a little too basic, come on over here I got something to show you.
Refining the palette she used on Ignorance, Tamara makes a quintessential grower, coming in under the radar and then expanding in your estimation until you give it up.
This dance pop stuff is like candy: stick guitar, beats, some high alto singing non sequiturs over it all. Lotta practitioners right now. But Maribou State stands out, and they can do it live.
Inflo is a cult but god damn.
Telling short stories about characters with perfect singer-songwriter sensibility. It almost feels like a joke. But it's not, I think, I don't know, if it is it's on me, I love these sad sacks.
I've been stalking Nicolas Jaar since Space Is Only Noise. Dave Harrington's addition takes Nicolas's goth/art impulses and twists them into something funkier. Add the Avalanche-esque sample screwing and this is catnip for my weird pop receptors.
This is not the sound of a new man, or a crispy realization. It's the sound of the unlocking and the lift away: my love will be safe with Justin (and Jenn Wasner).
I'm not usually a fan of garage psych, perenially cool and mostly boring. But Kai Slater has a savant's ear for melody, and his jangle-heavy production is SO ON TARGET it blasts past pastiche into real 'new classics' territory. I challenge anyone to listen to With A Girl Like Mine or You Don't Live Here Anymore and not feel like you've been unstuck in time. With A Girl Like Mine worked on me like an anchor, dragging the rest of the songs along after it straight down to the bottom of this list. Which in typical psych topsy-turvy logic, is actually the top.
Xtra bonus: I absolutely dropped the ball last year on Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk (8/23/2024, Mom + Pop), the kind of brilliant overstuffed self-referential concept album that most artists dream of pulling off. Has an overture and a finale and every moment in between is pure pop electricity. Might have given Bonny Light Horseman a run for their #1 slot, honestly.