Albums of 2025

[VinylGuy]

i was kinda bored with Snocaps but i might try again sometime.

[oftheearth]

Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band - New Threats From The Soul

Great band! Saw them play a few weeks back.

[LoathedVermin72]

My Ticket Home's comeback album is really good. So happy they're back. Now just need a tour announcement.

[VinylGuy]

hey new De La Soul is pretty good

[Higgs]

I enjoyed the album The Paper Kites released a few years ago, apparently another is on the way but not sure if before we move across to 2026.

Anyway, here's one of the singles that hits me just nice. "When the Lavender Blooms"

[LetMeSleep]

Lovely.

[Higgs]

Lovely.

Indeed. I was thinking of you specifically when I posted it.

[liebzz]

I am already starting to see best albums lists for 2025, though there are a few more albums I still want to hear, plus what happens if you release an album in December? Either way, I am not ready yet.

[epilogue]

I am already starting to see best albums lists for 2025, though there are a few more albums I still want to hear, plus what happens if you release an album in December? Either way, I am not ready yet.

RM has THOUGHTS about this, too. You are not alone.

[Jorge]

I am already starting to see best albums lists for 2025, though there are a few more albums I still want to hear, plus what happens if you release an album in December? Either way, I am not ready yet.

NPR specifically states their eligibility is December of previous year to November of current year because of that. They want to publish a list when the topic is hot, and the earlier they do it in the year the more attention it'll get. So they shift their criteria so that an album released in December 2024 can be one of "2025's best albums". Nevermind the fact that properly digesting music should, presumably, if you're engaging with it meaningfully beyond a surface-level, twice-over at best take, take a little longer than the publication deadline...

That's more a gripe about personal lists than some websites. A publication needs to attract clicks. As an individual why am I rushing to share a year-end list while it's a "hot topic"? Wouldn't you want to spend a little longer with the albums, see where they actually fit within you, see how you feel about them with a little more time?

But then where do you draw the line you know? My relationship with music changes all the time, and albums go up and down my estimation and become more or less relevant the more time passes. Is a list made halfway through the next year that much less valid than one made in late December? Is that then much less valid than one I make three years from now, if I decided to do that for some reason? That's the problem when you try to approach these lists as some kind of definitive statement as opposed to a snapshot of where you are currently. You just gotta live with the slight dissonance of changing your mind later, and that's something we should all be more okay with anyway.

[liebzz]

Agree with all of that. When I make lists, I never think of them as final since my mind changes constantly with moods, re-listens, and what I am looking for. I might cry out Born to Run is my favorite album ever, but that’s based on an emotional connection and yearning for dramatic storytelling - but if I want my mind blown from the instrumental passages, I could instead go with The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. And the same applies to albums in 2025 - except
I’ll still make a list largely for the hell of it.

[epilogue]

Lists are fun. They should be fun. Nothing about them should be "official" or "final" or "definitive" or whatever.

[Kevin Davis]

Yeah, the 12/1 “end of year” list is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I get that impressions change but at the very least it seems like you’d wait for the year to end, to give all the year’s albums a chance to actually come out, before publishing a best-of-the-year list. IMO the Village Voice’s “Pazz and Jop” poll did it right — usually around 1/31 of the following year.

I am guessing the tradition of publishing a best of list around 12/1 ties to its historical function as a holiday buyer’s guide of sorts, which makes sense but seems kind of obsolete now.

Ongoing discussions about the “best albums of the year so far” are time-tested and eternally worthwhile, but as an old journalism major, a published article not actually reflecting what it purports to reflect is a procedural bugaboo of mine. Thankfully music lists are low-stakes, but they’re a microcosm of why journalism in the internet era is so godawful — gotta be the first to post, first to share, first to get those clicks, etc., as opposed to being patient and getting better, more complete information.

[liebzz]

Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band - New Threats From The Soul

Great band! Saw them play a few weeks back.

Giving this a listen today. I am sure they sound great live. They really toe the line between folk rock, country and the Kurt Vile laid back vibe. I enjoyed it.

[epilogue]

Well said, KD. I don't disagree with any of that and I emphatically agree with most of it. And yet, I still click on Best of the Year Lists in December all the time and I enjoy reading them.

For me, it's just a way to see what stuff people did listen to at various points that year. At worst, I understand it's not total and fully inclusionary. And best, I find an album that I otherwise would have missed.

[Kevin Davis]

I enjoy reading them too. I can make the necessary allowances in my own mind; it’s just something I grumble about.

[liebzz]

It’s funny because I often feel like it’s a publication exercise in coolness. They need just the right number of popular albums to bring in the casual listeners against the obscure to make sure they maintain street cred. I literally scan them and laugh at how few of the albums they list I’ve never even heard of. There’s an outside chance they just play a word lottery and whatever comes out makes the list. 39th best album of 2025? Whirlwind Jigsaws with their sophomore release A Change in Chimes. At least I tell myself that in support of my denial of lost relevance music taste.

[Jorge]

A greater problem is how many of them feel like lightly remixed versions of each other.

I appreciate a list that shows me something I haven't heard before and feels "personal". The Quietus does a very good one

[epilogue]

A greater problem is how many of them feel like lightly remixed versions of each other.

I appreciate a list that shows me something I haven't heard before and feels "personal". The Quietus does a very good one

That's the stuff

[VinylGuy]

2025 was a weird year for music for me.
I listened to a ton of new music, a lot of it i really liked, but overall it was more about getting into discographies of artists i love and listen to a bunch of old records from different years.

liebzz has been integral in remembering old albums, getting to know new ones and expanding into different music tones.