Adam
Albums of the Year
Honorable Mentions: clipping. – Dead Channel Sky; Cheekface – Middle Spoon; Vulfpeck – Clarity of Cal; Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow; Rosalia – Lux
10: Maribou State – Hallucinating
Love
Maribou State returned with their first album with their first album since 2017’s Kingdoms in Colour and picked up exactly where they left off with their unique soulful, organic electronic sound, with continued collaborations with Holly Walker who provided the high moments on Kingdoms to help the continuity.
Hallucinating Love is not an album of moments, but rather one that blends perfectly into the background and invites you to sink into it with its rich yet dreamy instrumentals, but is not a challenging listen in the slightest. It’s a warm sweater on a brisk day of an album. “All I Need” does stand on its own merits as a tremendously produced electronic song and is the best single summation of the band’s sound and ethos.
The album’s closer, “Rolling Stone” feels like a cut that is yearning to be placed on a peak FIFA soundtrack in the early teens and ties the album together in a sonically cohesive manner and is a showcase of the band’s much-underappreciated talent.
If I have one request for music in 2026, it’s for a Maribou State collaboration with Clairo.
9: Turnstile – Never Enough
There is balance to force, and there is balance to Never Enough.
If you are unfamiliar, at first pass the approach Turnstile take on the album is jarring and even slighty confusing, like performing a dressage routine before the Kentucky Derby, but it’s the quiet and serene moments that are liberally applied to the album that make the coming crunch and emotional release that much more cathartic. If the album was a conventional hardcore album that was sitting on full tilt like from wire to wire, the needle wouldn’t be moved. In this sense, Turnstile demonstrates an incredible understanding of what makes their music compelling.
“DULL” is probably the best example of the band putting this practice into action, a song that is simultaneously atmospheric and in your face, giving space to breath then force to take it away.
But if there’s a fault in the album, it’s that they go to the well a few too many times, and on the next two songs “SUNSHOWER” and “LOOK OUT FOR ME” both break into a long instrumental section and the back half of the album are little too toothless to pay off all the extended breaks.
Interestingly, this was only the second-best album this year to sample or directly reference The Wire.
8: Tyler The Creator – Don’t Tap The Glass
There’s not a single artist who has had a more fascinating decade than Tyler, The Creator has had. Since the flop of Cherry Bomb in 2015, Tyler has undergone the most unlikely and unexpected transformation, growing both as a person and as an artist, developing a diverse discography with pretty honest and transformative subject matter. His last four albums will be rightfully compared to Kanye’s aughts era or David Bowie’s Berlin albums when it’s time for evaluation of his career as an artist.
But at some point, a rapper just needs to drop the deep shit and fire some bangers off. That’s what Don’t Tap The Glass is: Tyler’s dance album. It’s not deep, it’s just fun.
What makes the album is that even if Tyler checked his baggage at the door, he snuck his impeccable production that he’s honed over the past decade and applied to several different variations of the same overall theme: put the phone down and dance bro. It opens with a flow tag team with Pharrell on “Big Poe”, there’s a club banger in “Stop Playing With Me”, a sweaty aughts dance cut in “Sugar On My Tongue”, a 90’s house and RnB crossover on “Don’t You Worry Baby” in the vein of “My Boo”, and so on.
I appreciate what Tyler has done with his artistic direction and lyrics on his past few projects, but I appreciate his understanding that rap music needs to be fun even more.
7: Mac Miller – Balloonerism
At first, I was against the concept of Balloonerism, an album released nearly 8 years after his passing and over a decade after the rough era where the material used was recorded. I believe that after so long it wouldn’t be possible for anybody to truly understand what remnants were left of the album and Mac’s vision for it, unlike Circles which Miller was working on during his passing.
We’ll never know for sure what Mac’s vision for the album would have been, but I’ve come around to appreciate how they handed the album. Listening to it, it’s clear they used every scrap or audio available, but not in a craven way to squeeze every ounce of material Mac left behind. It’s not a maximalist presentation, but a spacey arrangement that acknowledges that this album isn’t finished: the mix is spacey in a “work in progress” way and there’s a lot of material that could otherwise be trimmed up like a budget brisket, especially on a 11-minute closer to the album.
And that I can appreciate, presenting this album not as “the lost Mac Miller album” but rather as “the Mac Miller album he never got to make or finish.” It’s an album with great performances from Mac that makes me wonder what could have been and appreciate what we got from him.
6: Joey Valence & Brae – HYPERYOUTH
God forbid white boys have a little motion. JVB are back with their third album to follow up last year’s NO HANDS and while they’re still coming with the same unabashed and unafraid banger conveyor belt, HYPERYOUTH sees the band though with a little more of an artistic edge and flash a desire to be more than quirky white boys not taking rap seriously.
Beyond the surface level bops, the album expands upon the core concept of Don’t Tap The Glass that asks the question, “Why don’t kids want to dance anymore?” Not dancing shitty choreographed dances for TikTok but rather dancing to have fun in the club, unafraid of being recorded and posted as cringe for letting their inhibitions loose and actually having fun for once. This is a little more biting coming from JVB rather than Tyler because the commentary on Gen Z and Alpha is coming from actual Z members. At the same time the duo reflect on the fact that they are in fact quickly aging up and admit that some day the party will be over and it’s they’ll have to leave the club scene behind.
But I hope that it doesn’t come any time, because this era of JVB is simply too much fun.
5: Lady Gaga – Mayhem
Let’s keep the focus on Gen Z and Alpha for a second – just as Millennials before them “discovered” Gen X’s music, fashion, and culture, Z and Alpha are currently “discovering” Millennial culture, co-opting our sounds and looks. The entire core concept of Brat and Brat Summer was rooted in the 2000’s pop sleaze sound and vibe that married pop and electronic influences, something Charlie XCX has not exactly worked hard to keep under wraps.
So Millennial music – especially Millennial pop – is in high demand. Who else to give the audience what they want than the queen of monsters herself, Lady Gaga?
Mayhem is a time capsule in that it’s a throwback Gaga album, going back past Chromatica, A Star Is Born, Joanne and even the Tony Bennett collaborations to where she left off 15 years in the Born This Way and The Fame Monster era. And I think it’s even better than those two albums. It’s a very uncomplicated album: just pop the way pop should be, pretentiously unpretentious, not afraid to be what it is and unburdened to be anything complex.
4: Turnpike Troubadours – The Price of Admission
It’s always a treat when you get to watch an artist grow in front of your eyes, and it’s even more special when you feel like you grow with the band. This is a majority of the reason why Taylor Swift has her death grip on millennial women, quality of her last few albums pushed aside.
15 years after their debut, Turnpike offer their most emotionally mature album in a lot of ways with The Price of Admission that feels like it has aged in compliment to how a lot of their fans have over the past decade and a half.
Turnpike was never a particularly live wire of a band but on this album they trade in any semblance of being wiry for a much more even handed and contemplative sound, which is reflected in the lyrics. A lot of subject matter on the album is outright depressing, and a less emotionally mature band or artist would dress it up as such. Loss, heartbreak, and unfulfilled promises dominate the album, but Turnpike toe the line where they are more reflective and, in a way, appreciative of these troubles because they have the awareness that it’s all apart of the great balance sheet of life.
Nowhere is this better seen than on the opening “On The Red River” where this passage serves as the thesis for the album:
We learned pain was the price of admission
And you’re never done paying it down
Perhaps the album could have benefitted from a lively moment here or there, but on the whole, there wasn’t a more emotionally challenging album released this year.
3: Matt Berry – Heard Noises
Yes, that Matt Berry. If you are unaware, the funny British voice man has an extensive music background and an eclectic discography as a solo artist. Over his last few albums, he’s meandered from psychedelic rock to folk rock to country rock and now, back to psychedelic rock in his best offering yet.
One fun part about music is occasionally you’ll find an album that feels out of place in time in that it could be released in modern times and be received the same, if not more positively. Heard Noises is the inverse in that I cannot listen to this album without my brain telling me that it’s from the 60’s when LSD and synthesizers were created conspicuously close to each other.
Berry’s songwriting has always been suited to this era of pop and psychedelic music, and there are a lot of artists who try to ape certain eras and sounds in music, but what really elevates this project is that the production plays the role perfectly. Every single instrumentation from the drums to the horns to the guitars is placed pursuant to the goal of the album with unmatched authenticity.
To put it bluntly, Matt Berry released the best Tame Impala album of the year in which Tame Impala dropped an album.
2: Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter
Remember everything I said about Turnpike Troubadours getting more even handed and reserved in their age? Yeah, not applying to Tyler here. Yet…similar results were achieved.
Tyler’s most ambitious album yet isn’t shy to bear its teeth and let the dogs off the leash from the opening song “Eatin’ Big Time” where Tyler slips back and forth between talking about killing a deer and what we can presume to be a rich label executive, to the point where as the song goes you’re not really such which we’re even talking about at any given point. And that’s not even the most unhinged cut of the album. That would be “Bitin’ List” where Tyler almost wishes he had rabies just so he could put one over on those who have wronged him.
But here’s where the ambition comes in: under the watchful eye of Rick Rubin, for every maximalist full tilt song like the titular track, there’s a song like “Oneida” and “Nose on the Grindstone” (which have been around for a while, to be fair) or “Tirtha Yatra” where Tyler recounts his positive experience with Hinduism, even if he can’t pronounce the words right.
But with each listen I come around to “Poachers” more, a song where Tyler reflects how his refusal to trade in who he is for approval and what he believes with the people he grew up with may not have cost him his fame but labeled him a “traitor” to the home and passions he shows in his voice.
Snipe Hunter is what happens when a good artist finally maximizes the talent they have and creates a fun, vibrant yet emotionally mature and complex album.
1: Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out
Clipse is a hip hop duo, and the two of them tell us very different lessons:
- Pusha T will tell you that you probably teach an old dogs new tricks, but if the trick they know is good enough they’ll never need another trick. Push has hardly never not been a Coke Rapper, nor has he shied away from it, famously labelling himself as “cocaine’s Dr. Seuss.” But while people make jokes about it the desire for him to change has not been in demand. His last two solo albums Dayona and It’s Almost Dry were not just critical darlings but were received well with fans of the genre, most because he keep upping the ante with sharper and sharper lines, to the point where it’s sharper than a surgical scalpel (that he uses to mix baking soda, yes) on Let God Sort Em Out. From here I’m not sure where he can go from this album because it’s so preposterous. Listening to this album word for word will involuntarily contort your face into a face that could get stuck permanently.
- Malice will tell you that you can always come back. After leaving the rap game entirely due to finding it in conflict with his faith, he appeared without warning on the closing track to his brother’s It’s Almost Dry, fueling rumors for two years on the group’s reunion which was verified by an announcement in spring this year. While one verse on one song is one thing, coming back into the game after 15 years out of it for at least 13 verses is another ask entirely. Let alone asking him to pen 13 verses that can hold up to the maelstrom his brother is producing. It was very valid to ask how much he still had it in his mid-life. But listening to Let God Sort Em Out, it’s clear that Malice wasn’t just dunce cappin’ and kazooin’. He not only met his brother at the top of his game but challenged him and raised the bar, resulting in an album that will go down in history as the gold standard in the rap game, a touchpoint to be referenced from here on forward.
And among a back and forth that put Sinner-Alcarez to shame is nobody other than Pharrell with probably his best production credit in his career. I could go on and on about how he brought it, or I can just say that he flipped the Goldeneye pause theme music. Because yeah, he flipped the Goldeneye pause theme music. Even the sparse guest features are nothing less than top-shelf, with Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, The Creator, and Nas unsheathing their best bars to supplement the album.
To put a bow on it, it’s very fitting that the album’s repeated tagline was declaring it “culturally inappropriate”. It is rap music is falling victim to lowest common denominator soulless streamslop that makes the professional veneer of this album in every element stand in stark contrast. Yes, this was indeed culturally inappropriate because they dared to try.
Artist of the Year: Clipse (Or: The Year of the Comeback)
Honorable Mention: Oasis; Lady Gaga; Tyler Childers; Sabrina Carpenter; Tyler, The Creator
Everything stated above applies. But to expand, the Clipse reunion caps the year of the comeback, foretold by 2024’s news of Oasis’ reunion and their concert series that many didn’t believe would come. Alabama Shakes also reunited, toured, and began teasing a new album. Black Sabbath reunited just in time to have one final concert for the prince of darkness himself before his passing. Turnpike Troubadours and Maribou State reunited and dropped one of the best albums of the year. Rilo Kiley, Grizzly Bear, Rush, and Minus The Bear also reunited.
Reunions and comebacks happen every year, but in 2025 it felt much more culturally prominent than usual and these reunions were far more fruitful and more substantive than just cashing a check, and sitting at the top of the pile is Clipse, who put forth a razor sharp rap album that puts most everything else in the genre to shame, and that’s with one of the members returning to music in general after 15 years away.
Song of the Year: Lady Gaga – “Disease”
Honorable Mention: Wet Leg – “mangetout”; PinkPanthress – “Illegal”; Wolf Alice – “White Horses”; Tyler Childers – “Poachers”; Turnpike Troubadours – “The Devil Plies His Trade (Sn 6 Ep 3)”
Plain and simple, no one song has been as addictive as “Disease” is. “Abracadabra” is a great pop song but I have now idea how that got the popularity over this one. The entirety of Mayhem is vintage Obama-era Gaga pop, but it’s really distilled into one song on the album opener, a thesis statement for everything to come after it. “Disease” is not only the best song on Mayhem, but it’s the best Lady Gaga song, which is a pretty damn high bar for a pop diva who made “Shallow” and “Bad Romance”. The truly great ones never lose their fastball and can paint the black at any time, and Gaga proves that here.
Evan
Albums of the Year
Honorable Mentions: Wet Leg – moisturizer; Lorien Testard – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Original Soundtrack); Chappell Roan – The Subway (yes, I know it’s just a single, but it’s so good)
10: Hayley Williams – Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
Hayley Williams is one of the most skilled songwriters of our time. I am fairly certain there are not nine albums better than this released this year. But with it being 20 tracks long and releasing in the later part of the year, I still haven’t really digested it all, even with two complete listens. Still, what I have digested is pretty stellar.
The title track, “Mirtazapine” and “Parachute” all stand out for the way they marry catchy pop hooks with shockingly honest lyrics. Does this album drop hints that she is no longer dating one of her Paramore bandmates? Well it wouldn’t be a Hayley Williams project if it didn’t, right?
Hayley Williams is 21st Century Music royalty. Whatever she releases demands to be listened to. She’s been singing to us for two decades now, and is still finding ways to reinvent her sound.
“Here come my genie in a screwcap bottle
To grant me temporary solace
I could never be without her
I had to write a song about her”
9: The Beaches – No Hard Feelings
Spoiler alert: this is not the highest-placing band with “beach” in the name, but it was still an excellent album!
“Can I Call You In the Morning?” sets the tone in a way that’s instantly reminiscent of “Blame Brett” two years ago. The subsequent 10 tracks continue the frenetic pace with “Fine, Let’s Get Married” and “Takes One to Know One” as my personal standouts.
If you like Blame My Ex, you will be happy to know much of the follow-up is the same. A lot of albums on this list will be celebrated for evolving and trying something new, but a great record doesn’t need to be a grand experiment. It can be a kick-ass band going harder and faster at what they do best. No Hard Feelings is a delightful listen.
“Antisocial, maladjusted
Noncommittal, can’t be trusted
That’s so us and everything you do that’s shitty
Count on me ’cause I’ll one-up it”
8: Pollyanna – Weirdo
This is the only album on this list without a Wikipedia page, so the only analysis I can give you is IT ROCKS.
The unabashedly queer band’s second album moves at a breakneck pace, highlighted by the non-binary anthem “Boygirl.” My other favorites are “Narcissist,” “Gravedigger” and “Petty,” all of which have me desperate to be in a Pollyanna mosh pit.
Weirdo is one of those albums where when you hear a song for the first time on a random shuffle, you assume it came out in 2007, which is the highest compliment you can give to an alternative rock album. I cannot wait to see what Pollyanna give us next.
“I like being one of the dudes
I like breakin’ all of the rules
Some days I feel like dying
But other times I’m on top of the world”
7: Winona Fighter – My Apologies to the Chef
Hey, did you really like that fast-paced pop punk album? Then I have great news for you, My Apologies to the Chef also rips.
Expanding on their five-song EP from 2022, My Apologies to the Chef is phenomenal for a true debut album. Highlights are “You Look Like A Drunk Phoebe Bridgers,” “ATTENTION” and “Wilbrn St Tvrn,” two of which are from that EP, showing Winona Fighter has had the juice from the beginning.
My Apologies to the Chef is the type of album where it feels wrong to be on your phone while it plays. I assume if you hold your phone up to take a video at a Winona Fighter concert, the entire mosh pit will boo and make you feel like a bad person. Be in the moment and bang your head like our ancestors did. Songs this good deserve to be heard.
“Hey you, feeding off the people
Tell me, do you even know why?
Praised be your Sundays in the steeple
While everything you touch just dies”
6: Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend
The No. 1 and No. 3 albums of 2024 according to the Billboard charts were Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, respectively. Both were produced by Jack Antonoff, but he only produced one of those artists’ 2025 follow-ups. The album he produced features tons of musical experimentation, sounding closer to ABBA, Dolly Parton and Madonna than anything else released this year. I’m not going to talk about that other album.
Once everyone moved past the cover art discourse that defined Man’s Best Friend’s pre-release cycle, they remembered that albums are best-enjoyed post-release. “Manchild,” “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night” and “Nobody’s Son” all soar, with the latter being my new favorite song in Sabrina’s entire discography.
While this is the 26-year-old Carpenter’s seventh album, it’s the first one to release following her ascension to cultural stardom. She would have dominated the charts by releasing more of the same, (and let’s be real, lyrically it is exactly what we’ve come to expect) but sonically, Man’s Best Friend circles several different genres to give each of its 12 tracks an identity of its own. That’s the difference between being a singer and being an artist.
“Probably should have guessed
He’s like the rest
So fine and so deceiving
There’s nobody’s son
Not anyone left for me to believe in”
5: The Last Dinner Party – From the Pyre
The only repeat from my 2024 ranking, The Last Dinner Party makes being British sound awesome. I’m sorry for all the food jokes I’ve made.
The five-piece wastes no time reminding us they’re back, with an insane opening run of “Angus Dei,” “Count The Ways,” “Second Best” and “This is the Killer Speaking.” If you’re gonna release a 10-track album, the bangers better keep coming, and they do here.
Landing on Evan’s Albums of the Year in two years with just two albums is some crazy efficiency. Whatever TLDP releases next, I will be there day one.
“If only you’d been honest
Could’ve spared this bloodshed
Now I’m wanted ‘cross several county lines
When your hand is bigger than my heart
You can crush it just the way I like”
4: Various Artists – KPop Demon Hunters (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film)
Heartbreaking: The Worst Streaming Service You Know Just Made a Great Album
While 2025 didn’t have a traditional song of the summer, KPop Demon Hunters was undeniably the music moment of the year. If you didn’t know about it, your probably didn’t have kids. Even if you don’t have kids and think you have no business listening to an animated children’s movie original soundtrack, you don’t know what you’re missing.
There are only seven original songs from the movie, five by HUNTR/X, one by Saja Boys and one Rumi/Jinu duet. The album features additional tracks by TWICE and other contributing artists, but frankly, I’ve barely heard them. The diegetic tracks carry this forward. “Golden,” “Soda Pop” and “What It Sounds Like” are my favorites personally, but come on, it’s all great.
In a time where Disney animated musicals have failed to register the cultural influence of past decades, it’s awesome to see the medium carried forward in new and original ways. Children’s entertainment can vary in quality greatly, and its popularity does not always correlate with its artistic value. KPop Demon Hunters is a well-made project made with passion and effort. It deserves every one of its bajillion streams.
“We broke into a million pieces, and we can’t go back
But now I’m seeing all the beauty in the broken glass
The scars are part of me, darkness and harmony
My voice without the lies, this is what it sounds like”
3: Renee Rapp – Bite Me
While Renee Rapp was not featured on my 2024 list, her girlfriend Towa Bird was for her debut album American Hero. That’s a power couple in my eyes.
I’ve always enjoyed Rapp’s music and performances, but felt I had a good grasp of her artistry and knew what to expect. That’s why her sophomore record blew me away with how much I loved it. “At Least I’m Hot” and “You’d Like That Wouldn’t You” and some of my favorite pop bangers of the year, but neither compares to the star of the show, “Kiss It Kiss It.” The song is about something I won’t mention because I don’t think I can talk about it on and the valley shook dot com, but holy shit is it a banger. It should’ve been the lead single and in a just world, 2025’s actual Song of the Summer.
Renee Rapp’s reputation as a hilariously unhinged theater kid is well-earned as she has always had the voice and chops to back it up. With Bite Me, she has leveled up her songwriting ability, and in my eyes, stands with the best pop stars Gen Z has to offer. Seriously, “Kiss It Kiss It” is so catchy, I actually can’t wrap my head around it.“
“I know that I′m supposed to miss you and wish that you were here
But the more I drink, the more I think you might just disappear”
2: Lady Gaga – Mayhem
I mean, what else is there to say? Seriously, because Adam already said it.
Lady Gaga’s sixth true solo album is a throwback to her original late 2000s sound, but also a throwback to late 2000s pop in general. It dabbles in pop, rock, disco and dance, and it works every time. Despite being just short of an hour, there’s very little fat here. “Disease” might be her best opening track ever (as long as you don’t consider The Fame Monster a standalone album). “Vanish Into You is my favorite on the album, and one of my favorites by Gaga since maybe as far back as her debut. “How Bad Do You Want Me” is a better Taylor Swift song than every Taylor Swift song. Sorry, I’ll stop bringing her up now.
My favorite music YouTuber Mic The Snare argues Mayhem is Lady Gaga’s best album. I still don’t know if I agree or not, but the fact that this is a debate for a musical titan of our time proves what an excellent record this is. Would anyone like to Venmo me several (many) hundreds of dollars for my wife and I to see her on our honeymoon in two months? Please? 🙂
“Saw your face and mine
In a picture by our bedside
It was cold in the summertime
We were happy just to be alive”
1: Beach Bunny – Tunnel Vision
If you’re familiar with Beach Bunny, you probably know one or two of their pop punk bops about high school era love or insecurity around the COVID days. Tunnel Vision is their third album released since 2020, and while it’s musically consistent with the first two, lyrically it explores deeper themes about life in America in 2025. It’s my favorite album of 2025.
BB comes out swinging with the irresistibly catchy “Mr. Predictable” and “Big Pink Bubble” out the gate. My other favorites are the head-banging “Pixie Cut,” the electric “Vertigo” and my absolute favorite “Just Around the Corner.” Not one of these songs sounds like a first draft. Every lyric, riff and chord carries real emotion. You can hear how Beach Bunny has grown up.
At just 10 tracks that add up to be just under 30 minutes, Tunnel Vision is the shortest album on this list. It works because there is not a second of fat, fluff or baggage. Every single second of this record is undeniably fun to listen to. It’s my album of the year because seven months later, I haven’t stopped listening to it, and haven’t considered it.
“Took the trash out last week
And I question almost everything I think
And yeah, it’s garbage to sit around
But if I stand up, someone could push me down”
Poseur
I turned 50 this year. One of the great things about turning 50 is that whatever lingering attempts to hang on to coolness are completely gone. I just don’t care about it at all anymore.
Which, admittedly, makes a pop music list a little difficult. Pop music, more than any other popular artform, is all about cool. It’s about the Young and the Now, and frankly, I don’t think the Young are all that interesting, and the Now sort of sucks. So I’m free to like whatever the hell I want, not that I was too shy about it in the past.
And as I’ve moved on to the next epoch of life, it feels I’ve brought culture along with me. There were some interesting reapprasials of popular theory this year, notably Kelefa Sanneh going on the New Yorker to not quite apologize for Poptimism, but maybe to admit its all gone too far.
Look, the deal used to be that Elvis Costello got the critical acclaim and Van Halen got the money and the girls. And despite David Lee Roth’s classic complaints (“it’s because critics look like Elvis Costello”… a fair charge), it was a fair deal. But now the most popular acts on earth want critical supremacy, too, and their fanbases are, well, rather enthusiastic about it. And its pull a chill on any sort of criticism, unless you’re an outlet so small no one notices. Which I happen to have.
Freddie DeBoer picked up the mantle and pointed out that Poptimism is largely attacking a strawman. The nostalgic old dude repping old rock bands doesn’t really exist in anything but imagination. Older white dudes are falling over themselves to praise Taylor Swift and Lana del Ray, too. So, luckily, I’m here to fill the shoes of the missing strawman.
The problem is, here I am, all ready to be cranky and mean, and…. This year was sort of awesome. OK, I am an old guy, and my favorite release was probably the 20th anniversary remaster of the Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday, but still… whatever you were into, there was something for you.
Maybe the reason critics weren’t as mean this year is as simple as that they were satisfied by the work being made. This was a great year, across multiple genres. But these are the uncool records I liked most.
10: Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow & Amanda Shires – Nobody’s Girl
Alt-country’s power couple broke up. It’s funny listening to music that is popular in a niche, but not broadly popular because in the right spaces, this was the biggest celebrity news of the decade. Isbell and Shires’ marriage ending now seems like the only way it could have gone, and the final part of it is the Divorce Albums each released to argue with one another about what went wrong. Isbell puts on the best “oh golly” face and tells us that he’s sorry that his songs mean different things now. He’s conscious of the audience and lets us in that part of it at least. Shires? Not so much. This is personal, and she rages that Isbell rearranges the str to fit his own narratives to make him look better. It’s a masterclass of songwriting and storytelling, especially the lies we tell ourselves.
It’s a dialogue that they are not having with each other, waiting for the audience’s approval.
9: The Dirty Nil – The Lash
The Dirty Nil are a Canadian punk band which came up at about the same time as PUP. While PUP has gone on to some modest commercial success and become a fixture of the indie scene, it never quite happened for the Nil. Which is a shame, because the Nil are one of those bands who don’t reinvent the wheel, they just enjoy the fact the wheel is an awesome invention. They play straight ahead rock n roll with no BS, and it is great. OK, there’s some bitching about the music industry, but that’s to be expected by the losers of the game, and they are entitled. If you’re gonna complain, put it behind a killer riff. I know you can you hear me now.
8: Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter
Every year, there’s an alt-country musician who breaks out into mainstream rock circles and becomes the Country Singer You’re Allowed to Like. It’s a terribly limiting way to approach music, just admit you like country music and the whole world opens up to you. There’s a great Brent Cobb record out this year, too! But if we get our one country record, the tastemakers got it right this year. This is the one to get. It’s got that old country feel while at the same time feels current. He jumps from taking about his thousand dollar meal and the waste that it is to talking about his daddy’s advice to keep your nose on the grindstone and out of the pills. Let’s hope he does.
7: The Beths – Straight Line Was a Lie
The Beths are quietly putting together a Sloan-like career. Just releasing a really good album every year that doesn’t break out into the mainstream, but at the same time, maintains the high quality of their earlier releases. They are Spoon without the hype. Every record hits, but they are out there hitting singles and doubles, never that big home run. I like their comforting consistency, it makes me feel better. I hope they keep doing this for decades.
6: Friends in Real Life – Acoustic and The Remixes
Patrick Schneeweis has been bubbling along the indie folk scene for quite some time as Pat the Bunny. And yeah, no one should be allowed to have TWO twee band names which are really standalone projects to their credit, but what are you gonna do? He makes heartfelt songs which yearn for connection, but what I think really connected m to this project is that he released two versions of the album, one with all of the studio effects and one as a purely acoustic record. It’s something to hear the same ideas stripped down, and built up, leaving different impressions, even if the studio trickery is pretty minimal. Still, he’s reaching out, and I hear him. I’m here.
5: Pigeon Pit – Crazy Arms
I love the discovery. I love old records which I know every note and groove on, as well. Those are your old friends, but there’s nothing like making a new one. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon this band, but their cowpunk vibe is just my jam. But what I really love is how lead singer Lomes Oleander spits out the lyrics like she is running out of time to get them out. Like, if she doesn’t hurry up, the thought will be gone and never be heard. It’s a stream of consciousness sound that forces me to sit up and try and pick out every word before it disappears.
4: Wet Lef – Moisturizer
They say the hardest thing to do in pop music is make the second album. You have your entire life to write the first, and then just a few months to turn around and make the second, and basically, you’re whole future depends on whether the critics deem you as sustainable. It’s the moment you find out if you’re the Stone Roses.
Wet Leg had a buzzy debut which I absolutely adored, but I’ll be honest, it was the kind of thing that could have been a one off. They were too in on the joke and the songs weren’t meant to be taken entirely seriously. That doesn’t lead to sustainability. So they go into the studio and come out with a tighter, more furious record that rocks just as hard. I am so in. Maybe the best band on earth right now.
3: Wednesday – Bleeds
Is this the last gasp of a great band? Wednesday has been on a pretty great run since 2021’s Twin Plagues to 2023’s Rat Saw God and now, maybe the best record of their career. And right when guitarist and official Mr. Everywhere in Indie Rock MJ Lenderman has decided to no longer tour with the band. Yeah, he’ll still record with them, but he and lead singer Karly Hartzman broke up and well, we can all see where this is going. If anything, this is the last time they will be that first incarnation of themselves.
What a way to go. I’ve always resented the country-gaze moniker, mainly because I can’t stand shoegaze, but… man, they got a point. And I do like the country part. They just feel like a band who knows exactly who they are right now, playing Hartman’s lyrics against Lenderman’s guitar work, and it feels like a conversation that is no longer going to exist.
2: Geese – Getting Killed
I’ll admit it, until this year, I could not keep the bands Goose and Geese apart in my mind. I kept confusing them, and neither seemed all that important enough for me to learn the difference. I mean, they were fine, but that’s about it.
And then… holy crap. Geese showed up this year and absolutely killed it. It’s been all over the official lists as the best album of the year, and rightfully so. It’s a wonderful album with songs which make you sit up and take notice. There’s nothing quite like watching a band take The Leap. They took it.
1: Beach Bunny – Tunnel Vision
I had a bad year. I had three surgeries. I got divorced. My house fell apart and I had to buy a new foundation and re-plumb the entire house. Things burned down and grew back again. And the great thing about pop music is it can accentuate a mood, but it can also change it.
I listened to this album about a billion times this year. I love power pop because it makes me happy. The candy coated vocals and incredible hooks just keep bringing me back. Is it good for me? Probably not. Neither are M&M’s, but I can eat a handful of those, too. Joy matters. Sometimes we need some candy to make ourselves feel better about the big bad world and I stay out of trouble in my big pink bubble until it all comes crashing down.
