Featuring By Storm, xaviersobased, Charli XCX, Mitski, and more

Spring is here in the northern hemisphere, so it’s time for the first-ever Rabbit RoundUp!! Welcome to the new music review/recap series I’m doing, which I hope will be far more sustainable than the Month in Reviews I did back in 2024, which exhausted me and led to some intense burnout that took me nearly an entire year to fully shake off. This is a seasonal article detailing all of the releases from the past season that I loved and/or think are worthy of your time! Hopefully, you’re introduced to something cool that you haven’t heard yet!

Note: These are not ranked; they are listed in the order of their release.

Marty Supreme by Daniel Lopatin

Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never, has been collaborating with both of the Safdie brothers since their 2017 film Good Time. The Safdies have since split, for reasons that are still unknown beyond it being what Benny Safdie called a “natural progression.” Both brothers released films in 2025. Benny helmed The Smashing Machine, The Rock’s good old college try for that Oscar, scored by experimental jazz artist Nala Sinephro. Josh gave us Marty Supreme, one of my favorite films of the year, which was excellently scored by Lopatin — perhaps his finest work in the Safdie canon yet. If you’ve seen the film, his score is implemented masterfully. It makes ample use of synthesizers, stuff straight out of the 70s and 80s, which makes the film, set in the 1950s, feel ethereal. Like something out of a specific time and place. I interpreted it like an older Marty Mauser recounting these stories to his grandchildren. A cocky, self-serving sheen to mask the failures of his youth, he will be a legend by any means necessary. Listen to those grandiose synths, the operatic vocal samples in “Holocaust Honey,” this means something. It’s immortal, it’s timeless, you can’t kill it. Even separate from the film, Lopatin’s compositions retain their strength. You could listen to them running on the treadmill, lifting weights, going for a bike ride, or playing Balatro at 3 A.M., and no matter what, feel like you could take on anything and everything. That is the mark of an effective film score.

Favorite Tracks: “Holocaust Honey,” “The Humbling,” “Vampire’s Castle,” “Marty’s Dream”

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Fetish by Paintscratcher

One of the most audacious releases of the year already, Fetish from Seattle-based experimental artist Paintscratcher is an uncompromising record in every single way. As confirmed in the album’s Bandcamp description, its cover art and song titles are a response to those online who take umbrage at art with sexual themes, especially if said art is made by both queer and/or furry artists. See the backlash furry musicians like Russelbuck and Can of Bliss faced for their RAVEPOP and CHAMPION albums, respectively. There’s anger in this record; it’s not a long diatribe against those with a rather puritanical view of art and sexual expression, no, it’s an act of defiance. In an age where queer voices are trying to be snuffed out by those in power, what time is there to fight amongst ourselves? No, we need to be louder than ever. That’s what this record is all about. Let the brazen, razor-sharp soundscapes of Fetish engulf you as you try to get through this hell with your pride intact. Fuck, have fun, fall in love if you so desire, be loud, aggressive, and unabashedly yourself. Don’t let those in power or those who are misguided and self-loathing dictate how things should go.

Favorite Tracks: “Edge/Denial,” “Plug,” “Frot”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp

Overtime by username & Marsh crane

This album is a real treat. A brisk collection of sleek footwork tracks. I wasn’t aware of either member of this production duo, but Overtime has them both firmly on my radar now. Some form of grand analysis be damned, it’s very hard to write about the songs on this project without resorting to just saying “They sound nice :),” because they do sound nice! They’re pretty hypnotic; it makes this project so easy to just sink into.

Favorite Tracks: “NEVER SWITCH,” “PLAY MY TRACK,” “THAT’S IT,” “NOT ONE OF THEM”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu: Vol. 1 by Xiu Xiu

Xiu Xiu are certainly no strangers to covers, hell, not even albums full of them (see: Nina and Plays the Music of Twin Peaks), but this marks the first in this Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu covers collection. A wide array of covers are present here, all dazzled up or, uh, fucked up in the only way Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo know how. Covers on here range from Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” to Coil’s “Triple Sun” to Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” and even GloRilla’s “Lick or Sum.” Even with some outlandish choices, I found their versions to be pretty enjoyable. While certainly not an essential release in the Xiu Xiu canon, this is definitely worth checking out if you’re a curious fan or if you have a weak heart and you’re looking for a more fun Xiu Xiu experience.

Favorite Tracks: “In Dreams,” “Dancing on My Own,” “Cherry Bomb,” “I Put a Spell on You”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

So Much Country ‘Till We Get There by Westside Cowboy

I’ve had the Windmill Scene on the proverbial “fraud watch” for the last couple of years. Most of the best bands from the scene have either broken up, changed for the worse (Squid are trying to be Radiohead, and Courting are trying to be The 1975), or are running into a wall over and over again, trying to recapture the magic of the best stuff from the turn of the decade. I keep an eye on the space, though, hoping some young band will carve out their own niche and not just try to be the next black midi or Black Country, New Road or what have you. Bands like Maruja and English Teacher give me hope, and after listening to this sophomore EP from Westside Cowboy, they’ve become one of those bands that make me hopeful, too. Their blend of indie rock and alt-country sounds timeless; they have that nice twang to them. The kind that perfectly accents a really good hook or a catchy melody — they deliver both in spades here. Singles “Don’t Throw Rocks” and “Can’t See” are practically radio-ready, while also maintaining that scrappiness that you want from an up-and-coming band. The kind that makes you want to root for them so hard, which I certainly am. This is a band you need to keep your eyes on.

Favorite Tracks: “Don’t Throw Rocks,” “Can’t See,” “The Wahs”

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

656 by Roc Marciano

Besides Reloaded from 2012, 656 is the only Roc Marciano studio album I’ve checked out in full. Even with so little experience with his dense catalog, it’s pretty easy to get on the Hempstead, NY rapper’s wavelength. It’s that classic, drumless production. The kind that just sizzles, it’s tantalizing. Roc Marciano has been a fixture in the underground for over two decades now, and despite never having a huge chart-topping hit or something that makes him a household name, he always carries himself with this elite bravado that makes you lock the fuck in whenever he’s rapping. He’s become a master of this “mafioso rap” sound, a style that was very much in favor among a lot of East Coast rappers back in the 90s. 656 is a very fine record, perhaps not one that stands as tall as a Reasonable Doubt or an Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, but a damn fine record nonetheless. I mean, just listen to “Vanity” and try to tell me Roc Marciano isn’t a master of this sound.

Favorite Tracks: “Vanity,” “Tracey Morgan Vomit,” “Trick Bag,” “Prince & Appollonia”

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

e.t.d.s. by IDK

For a mixtape, e.t.d.s. (even the devil smiles) is a pretty ambitious affair. A concept-driven project where IDK explores the alternate reality in which he served out a 15-year prison sentence, a very real possibility at the time. It might seem antiquated to call a project “vulnerable” or “introspective,” but if any project lives up to those words, it’s this one. IDK throws himself fearlessly into his past. Reliving crucial moments of his troubled adolescence in such a vivid and honest way that the listener feels like they’re actually living through these moments themselves. He reflects on these times and their consequences, both the real ones and the potential ones. These memories are vivid, and he exhumes them with ease and almost interrogates them. These are the things that made him who he is. They’re a part of him. Even after all these years, these aren’t just experiences you easily forget. Many people demonize those who were victimized by our brutal capitalist system. Our justice system isn’t made to rehabilitate; it’s made to brutalize. IDK survived it from a young age and made it out for the better. He fought tooth and nail to make it out alive, channeling all of that effort into his music. This project does a great job exploring not just his trajectory as an artist, but as a person. On the mixtape’s closing track, he says, “A product of relentlessness, but I would rather live a life of way less stress.” This stands out as a very important bar to me; it gets to the heart of what he’s trying to convey with this tape. There’s a lot to unpack with this project, more than you can fit into a blurb for sure. This is definitely one of the standout rap releases of the year so far.

Favorite Tracks: “FLAKKA,” “P.O,” “SCRAMBLED EGGS — TBC :(,” “LiFE 4 A LiFE”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

My Ghosts Go Ghost by By Storm

I’ll cut to the chase, this is my favorite album of the year so far, so this will probably end up being the longest blurb here. Ever since Injury Reserve’s bittersweet magnum opus, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, was released in 2022, the musical futures of surviving members RiTchie and Parker Corey were of great interest to many — myself certainly included. Injury Reserve was no more; that was for certain, but from its ashes rose By Storm and with it a handful of singles over the last few years, with an album waiting in the wings. My Ghosts Go Ghost was worth the wait. Every song on this record is a grower; every time you dive back into this album’s dense, grief-stricken tracks, you end up taking something new with you. The first time I listened to “In My Town,” I was floored, but even after multiple, and I mean, multiple listens, new layers of its beauty continued to be revealed to me. There’s this underlying tension that characterizes this record. RiTchie and Corey work hand in glove with one another. Their chemistry as artists is obvious, as it was with Injury Reserve back in the day; there was a third piece of that puzzle. For as much as RiTchie and Corey have worked together over the last few years, since Stepa J. Groggs passing in 2020, there’s always that sense that something is missing. An indelible part of their musical DNA has been stripped from them, but what are they supposed to do? Stop making music together?

By the Time I Get to Phoenix was mostly recorded before Groggs passed, but this record was put together years after the fact. My Ghosts Go Ghost is their true “picking up the pieces” album. The very hazy and psychedelic sound of this album is a pretty natural progression from the sounds of Phoenix. They maintain that signature weirdness that they’ve channeled so well in the past. What really sets it apart is the tone. There’s this darkness to the songs here that just totally disarms you when it rears its head. The grief is still there, but life continues moving forward. Other problems will arise. RiTchie wrestles with the prospect of parenthood on “Can I Have You For Myself?” On “Grapefruit,” he struggles with the motive behind his art, providing for those he loves, staying true to himself, but also maintaining a safe level of vulnerability — the commodification of his emotions — in his art to avoid giving everything away for the sake of the almighty dollar. These themes make the prolonged future of By Storm uncertain. In many ways, it feels like an epilogue. A necessary project, a statement that the pair needed to make. I adored this album; it’s one of those special albums you only get every so often. One that just completely transfixes you and reminds you of the power and the many multitudes music can hold.

Favorite Tracks: “Can I Have You For Myself?,” “Grapefruit,” “In My Town,” “Zig Zag,” “And I Dance”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Xavier by xaviersobased

For the longest time, xaviersobased was one of the few artists who, at the ripe age of 22, made me feel a little old. There were glimpses of greatness here and there, but they were fleeting, at least to my ears. I felt like he kept making fragments of a great song, but merely fragments. Great ideas would drift in and out before they could fully worm their way into my ears. Listening to Xavier, it all fell into place for me. Nearly every track on this 21-song album left an impression on me. It bridges the gap between the cool production ideas he’s experimented with in the past and more concrete songwriting, which was what his previous projects have lacked, for me, by and large. I know it’s a bonus track, but “Party At My Place” is one of the best songs of the year so far. I can’t get enough of it. It’s like if you threw a club banger in a blender. I’ve been obsessed with it since I heard it. I love this album. After years of trying to “get” xaviersobased, I finally got it.

Favorite Tracks: “Party At My Place,” “Harajuku,” “Wrk Wrk,” “Skrap”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

URGH by Mandy, Indiana

So fucking insane, genuinely. I’m not exaggerating one bit. This album is nothing but pure, unadulterated, unfettered, fiery madness. There’s an intensity to this project that lesser bands could get swept up in and lose the plot, but Mandy, Indiana revel in it. They subordinate it. The closing track, “I’ll Ask Her,” is one of the most scorching hot tracks I’ve heard all year. That’s just a personal favorite, a standout in a record full of standout songs. Don’t let URGH slip under your radar this year. This album demands your attention, full stop.

Favorite Tracks: “I’ll Ask Her,” “Cursive,” “Magazine,” “Life Hex,” “Sicko!”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

Laughter in Summer by Beverly-Glenn Copeland

One of my biggest musical discoveries this past winter was the incredible catalog of Beverly-Glenn Copeland. Through my Discord’s Album of the Week Club, I was introduced to his self-titled record from 1971; from there, I listened to Keyboard Fantasies and the 2019 documentary of the same name. Both of those albums flew under the radar of the music listening public at the time of their respective releases, but Keyboard Fantasies became a cult classic overseas as the decades rolled on. Copeland experienced what few cult artists get the chance to experience: being celebrated while they were still living. He began touring again with a tight-knit group of musicians and found community in the music. Hearing his story and how humble he is, how appreciative he is to have found even this level of camaraderie and success through music, warmed my heart so much.

A few years ago, Copeland was diagnosed with dementia. Learning this after becoming so transfixed with his art struck me like a hard punch to the stomach. It seemed cruel to see an artist so filled with joy, to finally ride this incredible wave of support and tour around the world, breathing new life into these songs that mean so much to you, to see that all threatened was just heartbreaking. Laughter in Summer was a tough listen for me. Compiled and recorded alongside Copeland’s wife, Elizabeth, this album seems like they’re both going through his songbook, the songs that meant so much to him during his youth, as well, trying to keep them alive. “Ever New” is one of my favorite songs of his, and the version of it on this album brought me to tears. So did the two versions of “Let Us Dance” that bookend the album. It’s just such a beautiful, heartbreaking record. This can’t be easy for him or Elizabeth, but they’re both taking it in stride. Just trying to do what they’ve always done, make music. I highly encourage anyone to do even a small dive into the works of Beverly-Glenn Copeland. His albums have a life-affirming quality to them that will warm the heart of even the biggest cynics.

Favorite Tracks: “Let Us Dance (Movement One),” “Let Us Dance (Movement Two),” “Ever New (At Hotel2Tango),” “Shenandoah”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Anata by Joshua Chuquimia Crampton

Joshua Chuquimia Crampton might be the greatest living guitarist who is not named Pat Flegel. No one is making guitar-based music that sounds as delightfully excessive as his. I really got into the music of both of the Crampton siblings last year. The two combined their powers on the incredible Los Thuthanaka record from last year (which ranked very highly on my Best Albums of 2025 list), but I think more people need to dive into the solo music of Joshua Chuquimia Crampton. His 2024 album, Estrella por Estrella, blew me away when I first heard it, and Anata follows in a lot of that album’s sounds. The crazy, layered, psychedelic guitars are here, except this time, a lot more blown out. Like, even just hearing a few seconds of the opening track “Chakana Head-Bang!” or “Convocación ‘Banger/Diffusion’” will knock your socks clean off. Whenever you dive into the world of the Cramptons, you’re sure to hear something that you won’t hear anywhere else, and this record is no different. My only gripe is that I wish I could live in these songs for longer than just 25 minutes.

Favorite Tracks: “Convocación ‘Banger/Diffusion,’” “Chakana Head-Bang!,” “Mallku Diablón,” “Anata”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

MAN BITES DOG by femtanyl

I’m always scared to talk about femtanyl because they always seem to attract some super insufferable, borderline transphobic backlash for not really any reason in particular, from what I can tell. Maybe it’s because they’ve become bigger than you would expect, with tons of hype online and a big co-sign from Danny Brown, leading to both artists featuring on each other’s songs. I don’t think the kind of “music nerd” who thinks Scaring the Hoes is Danny Brown’s best project, one that worships at the altar of Anthony Fantano until he criticizes Kanye West a little too much, is compatible with these sounds and aesthetics — unless they’re being implemented by artists who aren’t visibly or audaciously queer. I’ve always enjoyed the EPs from years passed and I think they showed that Noelle Stockwood was a pretty interesting producer. The future seemed pretty bright for the music duo, yes, duo, ever since Juno Callendar became attached to the project in 2025. They finally released their debut studio album MAN BITES DOG earlier this year, and while I don’t think it lives up to some of the wild sounds of the two preceding EPs, it certainly adds a lot more depth to their sound. I think Callendar’s involvement has definitely added new layers to their brand of digital hardcore, mainly the synth punk influence that is very evident in a lot of these tracks, like “VIDEO NASTY,” giving them a more palatable edge for the uninitiated. I think on future projects, the duo will be able to morph these sounds into something that is totally off the chain. Something that will inevitably piss off the dorks in Instagram comment sections as well as posters on X: The Everything App.

Favorite Tracks: “VIDEO NASTY,” “HEAD UP,” “MAN BITES DOG”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Wuthering Heights by Charli xcx

Despite interviews detailing the production of this album and how she used the film’s screenplay as inspiration, I think Charli and Emerald Fennell approached the story of Emily Brontë’s classic 1847 novel Wuthering Heights from two different perspectives. Fennell has always been a god-awful writer; her instincts are all rotten — she’s allergic to any form of tact or delicacy when touching on anything, let alone an adaptation of such a dense, multi-faceted novel. Whereas Fennell viewed this story as a bog-standard tragedy, a tale of forbidden love, it seems Charli was able to capture the weight and gravity such a story calls for. “Wuthering Heights,” the film, is one of the worst I’ve had the displeasure of seeing in a theater; however, Wuthering Heights, the soundtrack album, is a pretty gripping listen and an interesting entry in Charli’s discography. She stretches her sound quite a bit with producer Finn Keane. Making use of ample strings and more melodramatic songwriting, the latter might sound like a jab, but it works when the songs are so effective at putting you in a mood. Following BRAT would be a tall order; it was the biggest she’d ever been. She was The Moment (her mockumentary released this past January), Taylor Swift devoted an entire song on her awful Showgirl album to her, all eyes were on her, and she decided to throw everyone a curveball with this project. The lead single, “House,” featured groundbreaking composer John Cale, and it was a total departure from the intoxicating messiness of BRAT. Say what you will, but that’s sick as fuck. “Funny Mouth” is one of the most harrowing songs she’s ever made, and if you only saw the scene it’s used in, you might be tricked into thinking the film was worth your time.

Favorite Tracks: “House,” “Chains of Love,” “Always Everywhere,” “Funny Mouth”

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

it’s fine to dream by you are an angel

it’s fine to dream is the first project from J. McClendon under the moniker you are an angel. If you’re a fan of her previous work as one of the lead minds behind glass beach or especially her music as casio dad, you will find plenty to love about this album. plastic death from 2024 was a sprawling art rock affair; this album really leans into the power pop sounds — emphasizing big vocals and that subtle jangle, the kind you might hear in Jeff Rosenstock’s music. It also brings back the sounds she played around with from over a decade ago, with the chiptune and bitpop sound. This was intentional; it plays into one of the overarching themes of the project. She says of this album’s sound in a very extensive blog post about the album that it “could be seen as both a tribute and elegy to that scene and moment, as well as a reconciliation of the ‘old me’ and the ‘new me.’”

There’s this smaller-scale, more intimate maximalism to this album that’s really easy to get absorbed in. These songs have so many twists and turns that always manage to get perfectly anchored by a great hook or a chorus that makes you close your eyes and just go, “Oh, hell yeah.” “Industry” is a great example of this, switching between Midwest emo songwriting and indietronica sounds seamlessly. It’s as if she’s unearthing these old memories not just through the lyrics, but also returning to her old sonic stomping grounds with the maturity and nuance necessary to discern exactly how these moments shaped who she is today. I highly recommend checking this out; it’s one of my favorite albums of the year so far. I also suggest reading her blog post I linked earlier, which provides so much meaningful context about these songs.

Favorite Tracks: “The Same,” “Industry,” “Headphones,” “Escape Your Hometown by Any Means Necessary”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

Nothing’s About to Happen to Me by Mitski

I’m sorta at a loss for words about this new Mitski album. Not because I’m in a state of stunned silence, no, because I don’t really think there is much to say about Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. Her previous album was a massive course correction from Laurel Hell, but this record, while certainly not bad by any means, doesn’t do much to advance her sound further. She dabbles with her usual sounds, and the results are fine. There are some highlights like the lush piano ballad “I’ll Change for You” and the rousing “If I Leave.” Those songs reach the high standards that I personally expect from a Mitski album. The rest of the album is fine, with occasional moments of clunkiness like “That White Cat,” but by and large, this doesn’t even feel like a transitional record. It’s one of the few projects of hers where it feels like she’s resting on her laurels. I still think it’s worth a listen. Like most Mitski projects, it’s pretty brisk, and I know plenty of people who found a lot to love with this one.

Favorite Tracks: “I’ll Change for You,” “If I Leave,” “Where’s My Phone?”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Star Scum City by 2charm

I feel like I’m right to be skeptical of a duo who self-describe their music as “gooner pop,” but y’know what? Listening to Star Scum City, it all made sense. These songs thoroughly titillated me. They lit my fire. They stirred something deep down inside me. In other words, they fuck.

Favorite Tracks: “No Pressure,” “Boyfriend,” “Paris (To Get You Out My Head),” “Invisible Wings”

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

? by Bassvictim

I’m mainly including this one here for the songs “Sometimes I Believe in God (Sometimes I Believe in Me)” and “Going Home.” Those two songs are superb. The rest of this EP from the rowdy, violent, messy-as-all-hell UK duo is just alright. From what I can tell, they’re trying different things with their sound here that probably need some more polishing.

Favorite Tracks: “Sometimes I Believe in God (Sometimes I Believe in Me), “Going Home,” “Babcia Jadzia”

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

westside trapped by heavensouls

I only heard this a few days prior to this article going out, so I’m still trying to gather my thoughts, but I had to include this here because I haven’t heard much like it. I’ve seen my friends and other people online talking about heavensouls, but I kept putting him off. Now I feel silly. westside trapped absolutely blew me away. In the Bandcamp description of the album, he explains that this album “is a love letter not only to Nigerian art but the country that birthed, clothed and bred [him].” It’s essentially a big “fuck you” to the people in power who have imperialized, brutalized, and exploited a country with such a rich artistic history. There’s a defiance, a real confidence to these songs. A beating heart that just won’t quit. It’s the sound of an artist who fully believes in what they’re making. The production is unreal, especially on the final two tracks, the jazzy “shed a tear for me” and the spacey sound collage of “o di gbere.” These songs just envelop you. They’re both masterful in their execution. It’s a sobering reminder that no matter what, imperialism can never snuff out the art, the culture, and the messages of those whom they seek to exploit and dehumanize.

Favorite Tracks: “shed a tear for me,” “o di gbere,” “heyjah obialo, “wake yo ass up for the national anthem”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

EVEN COLDER SPRING by Cities Aviv

After being obsessed with Electric Chair from last year, I went into this new album from Memphis rapper and producer Cities Aviv with pretty high expectations. The production on that album from last year scratched my brain; those songs just strike some kind of deep chord within me that just totally disarms me every time I hear them. EVEN COLDER SPRING is, well, a lot colder sonically, and while his production will always be a strong point of his records, these songs just aren’t the most memorable. It’s a nice listen, if a little long in the tooth, but it always felt like it was waiting to kick into another gear that it just never quite reached (sorry, Liam, I know this is one of your favorites of the year).

Favorite Tracks: “Even Colder Spring — Part 1,” “Blkcardprince / The World Shares Her Tears,” “Operation 8”

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

PLAY ME by Kim Gordon

Kim Gordon’s last album, The Collective, proved to be a divisive one. Blending her iconic, blasé attitude and affinity for noisier sounds with trap beats was certainly a risk, but, for me, it was a risk that paid off. She committed fully to the idea, embracing the ridiculousness of it while also maintaining a reverence for those sounds in which she was a guest, and it resulted in one of my favorite releases of that year. PLAY ME follows in that album’s footsteps, and while it sometimes can feel like a leftovers album, there’s a fire to a lot of these songs that aren’t present on the previous album. Gordon is known for her more abstract approach to lyricism, but those abstractions have never felt more pointed than on this record. While The Collective poked and prodded at Gordon’s musings on the absurdity of everyday life, this record takes direct aim at society at large. She’s combative, assertive, but she also filters it just enough through her bizarre lens that it doesn’t feel preachy — maybe a bit heavy-handed, but never preachy. “Are you my white-collar service worker?” she asks on lead single “DIRTY TECH” over a cloud rap beat as she muses on the idea of someone hopelessly in love with an AI chatbot. The tech world and the billionaire class at large seem to be a prime target for Gordon’s ire here. On “SUBCON,” she gets pretty biting, asking the Bezos and Musks of the world, “You wanna go to Mars and then what? Then what?” through a sea of distorted sounds. “NOT TODAY” is an outlier here for its more straight-up rock, almost krautrock, sound, and it features Gordon asking, “Where’s my gum? Post-mate.” So, she covers a lot of bases here to say the least.

While some songs don’t hit as hard as The Collective, I maintain that Kim Gordon is one of the coolest people in music history, bar none. I mean, on “BYEBYE25!” the beat drops when she says the word “transgender.” She’s on a level of cool most people can’t even dream of.

Favorite Tracks: “DIRTY TECH,” “NOT TODAY,” “SUBCON” “PLAY ME,” “NO HANDS”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Music in Continuous Motion by Bill Orcutt

I’m very new to the world of Bill Orcutt, but I decided to listen to this record because days before its release, he announced an upcoming collab album with cellist Mabbe Fratti, who has quietly been one of the most interesting artists of the decade thus far. If you like guitars, this album is for you. A solo, free-flowing improv piece based around only Orcutt’s guitar. Some moments trail off a bit too much, get a bit too zoned out, but when he locks into a groove, it’s mesmerizing. “Unexpectedly heavy” has this groove that just chugs along and never loses steam. “Because sharp also smooth” has faint echoes of “Health and Efficiency” by This Heat, with that slightly out-of-focus guitar sound. “Unfinished not fragile” just rips, really lives up to the Music in Continuous Motion title. “Or difficult to see” reminded me a lot of something you might hear on a Women album (second Pat Flegel mention in this post, if you’re keeping score). I had a really good time with this one. It’s impressive how Orcutt can make music with just his guitar sound as dynamic as a full band.

Favorite Tracks: “Unexpectedly heavy, “Because sharp also smooth,” “Unfinished not fragile,” “Or difficult to see”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

I Guess U Had To Be There by ELUCID & Sebb Bash

I feel like a bad ELUCID fan because I typically never know about a new album of his until either hours before it drops or when it has already been out for several hours. That was very much the case with I Guess U Had To Be There, ELUCID’s latest, a collaboration with Swiss beatmaker Sebb Bash. The pair have worked together in the past, both on ELUCID’s I Told Bessie and Armand Hammer’s WE BUY DIABETIC TEST STRIPS. They definitely have chemistry. ELUCID is in the zone here over these strange psychedelic beats. I think it’s impossible to get a bad project from him. I don’t think this stands as one of his best, but it’s certainly a worthy entry in his amazing catalog.

Favorite Tracks: “The Lorax,” “Hands n Feet,” “Make Me Wise,” “Alive Herbals,” “Parental Advisory”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

post recovery by midwest, post death

post recovery ticks pretty much all of the boxes for what makes an indie rock record, especially a debut, so exciting. It’s rowdy, delightfully noisy. There’s an ambition here that stretches far beyond the restraints of the recording; the barriers are invisible. The hooks are there, and the band sounds so hungry. midwest, post death was, according to the band, “FORMED IN A DAY OVER DISCORD AND THE ALBUM WAS RECORDED IN 8 DAYS” — all caps were how the message was relayed in the Bandcamp description, so I will respect their wishes and scream it to you all as well. Given those time constraints, it’s so mind-boggling how they put together a record that’s so air-tight, so cohesive. It’s like the stars aligned. Like lightning in a bottle. I’m not sure if the band has legs beyond this release or if it was just a one-and-done, but god, I hope it isn’t. This could be the start of a pretty formidable indie rock band.

Favorite Tracks: “raphaim,” “goodmourning,” “whirligig,” “mon lapine,” “fox”

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

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Featuring Nourished By Time, FKA twigs, Geese, Deafheaven, and more

It’s finally here. These are what I consider to be the cream of the crop. The best of the best. The top 25! I’ve been working hard on finishing these write-ups while listening to the Marty Supreme soundtrack, which has made this a very exhilarating experience. I also want to announce that starting in 2026, I’m going to be doing a series of articles entitled Rabbit RoundUp — name tentative — where at the end of each season, basically quarterly, I’m gonna write about the music that caught my attention from the preceding months. So, be on the lookout for that and enjoy reading this list! Thank you all for your support!

This is Part 2 of the list containing entries 25 through 1
Part 1 of this list containing entries 50 through 26 can be found here ♡

25. I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away by Hayden Pedigo

I’ve already spoken highly about Hayden Pedigo previously on this list because of his amazing collaboration with Chat Pile that was released a few months ago, but I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away is his biggest achievement this year. The final piece of his Motor Trilogy, also made up by his previous albums Letting Go and The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored, stands as one of the best trilogies in music this decade. My experience with the American primitivism sound isn’t super substantial. I’ve heard a handful of John Fahey recordings and Bad Timing by Jim O’Rourke, but besides that, it’s not something I’m super well-versed in. Despite that, the way Pedigo builds these pieces is just immediately transfixing. His guitar playing is so proficient that it makes you feel dirty, a quality I’ve only felt otherwise when listening to Pat Metheny. It’s so warm and expressive, it never delves into technical wankery, it just sounds so honest. Most of the songs throughout the Motor Trilogy all utilize the same parts at their core, but he finds unique ways to reconfigure them for each song; all of them stand out. Especially on this record, which is particularly bright-sounding. It makes you feel like you’re leaving the comfort of your home for a brief summer vacation. You’re excited for what lies ahead, but you know you’re gonna miss your old bed at some point, and you’ll come back around in due time.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

24. Under Tangled Silence by Djrum

This is one of the most delightful records of the year. Under Tangled Silence passes the one test that IDM — obligatory “I hate the name of this genre of music” whenever I talk about IDM — has to pass for me: it can’t be too up its own ass. It can’t lose some kind of personability, that human tether. Felix Manuel’s compositions here are overflowing with life. They’re gorgeous; the jazzy instrumentation on “Waxcap” segues in such a cool way to the song’s fluttering rhythms. “L’Ancienne” fools you with its curious piano riffing at the start before the song ramps up into a pseudo-dancehall track. This marriage of modern classical, soft jazz-type stuff with some unexpected corners from electronic and dance music history is such a treat. You never know where a song is gonna go once you press play. It could play things pretty straight, like the tuneful opener “A Tune for Us,” or it could throw you for a complete loop like the aforementioned “L’Ancienne” or the wild deconstructed club abrasions of “Out of Dust.” No matter which way things go, I was never disappointed in the journey he was taking me on. This was my first introduction to Manuel’s music, and if this album is any indication, I need to go through some of his older stuff.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

23. Motherfucker, I am Both: “Amen” and “Hallelujah”… by Shearling

We may never know exactly what happened that caused the breakdown of LA experimental band Sprain, but that chapter is seemingly over. Their 2023 album, The Lamb as Effigy, was one of my favorites of that year, despite how polarizing it proved to be in online music circles. While it wasn’t clear exactly what happened within Sprain to cause its abrupt end, the future was pretty clear. Sprain frontman Alexander Gregory Kent immediately began working on new projects. The most exciting of which was his new band, Shearling, which released its debut album earlier this year. Motherfucker is, like the last Sprain album, tricky to write about. How would you describe being slapped in the face over and over and over again? How would you describe being dragged around town, tied feet-first to a moving car? Where those experiences are certainly punishing in real life, in music, they can become something riveting. The album is one 62-minute-long piece. It’s sprawling, disturbing, and arduous. Kent’s writing operates in this cycle of fleeting catharsis. All of his, often surreal, writing serves to expel something from within him, but as soon as one thing is purged, another comes to take its place. As the piece fades with atonal instrumentation and Kent’s distant catterwalling, a wave of exhaustion immediately hits you. A good exhaustion, the kind you feel after experiencing art that’s truly challenging. For skeptics of Sprain’s style, Shearling will probably not convince you of Kent’s greatness. For me, a sicko, this is one of the most unique records of the year. One that makes me incredibly excited to hear what kind of horrible experiences Kent can put me through next.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

22. Hornet Disaster by Weatherday

After a six-year wait, we finally got the sophomore album from Weatherday. The Swedish emo/noise pop musician’s previous album, Come In, garnered quite a cult following online. Personally, I was a few years late to it, but I was still excited to hear the follow-up, which had been teased for quite some time. I heard Hornet Disaster for the first time in a Bandcamp listening party, and as soon as that wrapped up, I couldn’t wait to dive back into it. The songs on this one are a lot tighter, brimming with genuine emotion and air-tight songwriting. “Radar Ballet” is one of my favorite songs all year, despite technically being released on a compilation back in 2021. The verses are explosive, and the almost ghastly quality to the “Don’t wanna be okay either way” in the bridge just dances around in my head for days, even weeks. This album doesn’t have any 13-minute epics like “My Sputnik Sweetheart,” but the album itself plays out like an epic, so that ambition certainly isn’t lost. Hornet Disaster offers a pretty extensive view of Sputnik as an artist. This album is the culmination of nearly six years of work, six years of artistic evolution. For some, the result would be an album that’s bloated and lacks any sort of direction. However, the result here is an album that’s loaded with incredible songs that all leave some sort of lasting impression. It’s a triumph.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

21. Balloonerism by Mac Miller

I was debating whether or not to include this album in this list, given that it was a popular bootleg from years back, finally getting an official release this year, but I gave Bait Ones by Jai Paul a shoutout on a year-end list years ago, so Balloonerism is fair game in my book. Those doubts didn’t stick around too long anyway because this album soundtracked the first part of my year. To be honest, Mac Miller had always sort of eluded me. I didn’t dislike his music by any means, but I was never head over heels for it. Something clicked earlier this year, though. I finally got around to his amazing Faces mixtape, and then I heard this album soon after; something just clicked after hearing them both. I got it. “Funny Papers” is easily my favorite track of his. That chorus deals a serious emotional blow, and his verses have some of the most weighty musings on mortality that I’ve heard. The context of Miller’s tragic passing in 2018 obviously looms large over any work of his, both posthumous and the ones released while he was alive, but even with that context removed, his ability to navigate these subjects proved just how great a writer he was. His passing just makes it that much more heartrending. I also think looking at his body of work as new layers to some tragedy is doing them a disservice as well. They’re not funeral marches. Miller was a bright, ambitious young artist who had his struggles. Struggles which he often explored in his art. To reduce him to just those personal battles and not his bold artistry is only looking at half the picture. Despite being released and recorded, respectively, nearly a decade ago, Faces and Balloonerism are still standout projects to this day. Ones that really get to the heart of Mac Miller as an artistic force.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

20. Live Laugh Love by Earl Sweatshirt

After a bit of a disappointing 2022 solo album and a decent collaboration with The Alchemist in 2023, which had all of its hype squandered because of its initial release on the blockchain, Earl Sweatshirt seems to be back in top form on Live Laugh Love. While not exactly reinventing his usual formula, what makes this album stand out among his other records is Earl’s demeanor. He sounds more mature, a bit more reflective — fatherhood will do that to you, it seems. But he doesn’t let this make him humorless; the hallmarks of Earl’s raps are still present here, just a bit more refined. He seems to recognize this, too, given his weary expression on the album art. “INFATUATION” is one of his finest songs in years, with an amazing beat and the kind of effortless poignancy that Earl has become synonymous with over the years. He delivers these sobering, layered meditations in such a nonchalant way. “Bars like the rim of the bath, live, love, and laugh / It’s up like hovercraft.” In these two bars, he lays out this album’s mission statement. He’s done chasing the worthless heights of his relative youth, and rather, he’s using this music to soothe himself. Earl has never been a chart-topper, but nearly every person in their 20s has delusions of grandeur — I should know, I’m in my 20s, and I often dream of owning a big house with a hot tub, which is about as unrealistic as owning any kind of home to begin with, but I digress. This record marks a pretty big turning point for Earl Sweatshirt. He’s in his 30s, he’s a father, but he’s showing no signs of losing his edge. Rather, he’s molded that edge into something different, something that still puts him a cut above many of his contemporaries.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

19. THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED by The Armed

If ever an album needed to live up to its title, it’s this one. Obviously, given the state of things at the moment, there’s going to be plenty of records tackling everything going on, or at least just trying to capture the feeling of equal rage and doom that many of us are experiencing. The Armed channeled all of that into this record. It’s a big ball of fire that can’t be contained. The future is here; artists are vying for attention on platforms filled to the brim with AI-generated slop, the same slop that is actively killing the world around us, leeching our natural resources, and polluting the air we breathe. The only ones who will get off scot-free are the tech oligarchs and the other soulless husks with billions of dollars at their disposal. Everything needs to be destroyed. This record isn’t going to solve any of the problems this futuristic technology poses, but damn it, it feels so cathartic to listen to. We’re on the same wavelength here! The Detroit hardcore band has sharpened its teeth, coming into this album with even more intensity and bite than it did with its previous projects. It’s rare for a hardcore band to get more wild and abrasive as time goes on, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. This is their strongest set of songs to date, apocalyptic bangers to listen to as the world crumbles around you.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

18. ELECTRIC CHAIR by Cities Aviv

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve played “Hell” since this album dropped back in August. Sometimes a record just scratches your brain in all the right ways, and ELECTRIC CHAIR is certainly one of those albums. I despise the vibey, lo-fi hip-hop beats, the ones with the anime girls studying at a desk with a cat on the windowsill behind them. The stuff that has no substance and is all about vibes, but Cities Aviv is able to turn that concept and that sound into something more worldly. There’s a weariness to these tracks, the sense that he’s slinking into the comfort of these fuzzy beats to get away from the chaos around him. It works the same for the listener. It’s so easy to just throw on this album and let it ride on until the end. Then, if you’re like me, you will probably be compelled to spin it again. I’ve listened to a few Cities Aviv projects in the past, but this is the one that just fully grabbed me. I’ve gotten so much mileage out of this album. I’ve heard he dropped another, much longer project, a few months after this, but I haven’t gotten the chance to dive in. Until that time comes, I’m getting lost in ELECTRIC CHAIR yet again.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

17. Through the Wall by Rochelle Jordan

Rochelle Jordan comes into Through the Wall with the mindset that it’s going to be a landmark deep house/dance pop record for years to come. Harnessing the powers of the icons that came before her, she sets out to make a statement. Every melody is as infectious as the music it’s housed in. Jordan’s vocals have so much gravitas to them. Each line she sings just feels ubiquitous, like music that’s been here all along. This was the first Rochelle Jordan album I’d heard in full, but she immediately came off like a superstar to me. Despite the album sounding pretty modern production-wise, especially in how it incorporates sounds ranging from UK garage to downtempo, it somehow has this vibe of a long-lost dance record from the late 1970s. Coupled with how Jordan carries herself on record, looking at some of the photos that accompanied this album’s announcement and its singles as well, it’s easy to get that impression. Everything feels so classic. She has the big hair, the striking poses, the fuzzy backgrounds; it wouldn’t look out of place on a black and white advertisement placed in an old music magazine. Rather than coming off as antiquated, Through the Wall pays tribute to those sounds, those aesthetics, and those icons while also allowing Jordan to forge a clear path for herself. It’s effortlessly bold, and I loved every minute of it.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

16. caroline 2 by caroline

There’s a very strange, exciting energy to caroline 2 — the sophomore record from the London experimental rock group. Sometimes I go into post-rock records with a bit of a cynical mindset. I’ve been burned too many times by albums that were hyped up to me, but just ended up sounding like retreads of the genre’s staples. When I’m blown away by a post-rock album, I consider it a very special thing. Right from the almost arhythmic instrumentation on “Total euphoria,” I felt like I was hearing something truly original. It sounds like you’re sauntering through the burning hallway at the end of Barton Fink. One of those songs you have to crank up really loud and just let it take you to some vivid places. The way the band balances dynamics is so unique. They can crank up the noise and float on softer sounds in such a calculated, strategic way that I was shocked to learn that most of these songs were born from improvisation. “U R UR ONLY ACHING” is a great example of this. The vocal arrangement cascades against this whiplash-inducing instrumental; it’s such a great song. Now, all that technicality leads some bands and artists to sound cold, but caroline manage to make these songs sound so warm and touching while also showing off how tight they are as a unit. This is a powerful sophomore outing, and I think caroline are going to be one of the most compelling experimental bands in the coming years.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

15. I remember I forget بنسى وبتذكر by Yasmine Hamdan

Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan has been making records since the 90s, but I remember, I forget from a few months back was my first encounter with her music. I can’t provide insight on how this album sounds in relation to the rest of her discography, but what I can tell you is that few records this year were as immediately enchanting as this. You could easily kick back and float down the stream this album sends your way, but a closer listen reveals just how much depth and fire are packed into these songs. Hamdan’s lyricism is a bit surreal, but there’s a blunt quality to it that cuts deep. The opening track, “Hon هون,” sets the tone right away. Translated to English, Hamdan describes watching atrocities play out through her phone screen, “There is a dead body in my bedroom,” she sings, before twice repeating these four lines: “A tiny land / With a gaping wound / Some people linger / And some go absent.” I took this to be a meditation on the genocide in Gaza, a horrible tragedy many of us have seen play out through our phones. Hamdan’s way of writing about it was sobering, one that reflects on not just the tragedies unfolding, but how these horrible atrocities almost invade our lives. They’re not things you can just shove to the side; they’re ever-present. They’re not just going to stop at your convenience. The rest of the album is filled with harrowing songs like that, “The Beautiful Losers الحلوين الخسرانين” and the title track, especially. One of the most striking albums of the year.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

14. EUSEXUA / EUSEXUA Afterglow by FKA twigs

I previously thought of FKA twigs as an artist with a real sense of poise. Everything she did felt calculated. Every project is painstakingly crafted, whittled down to the bare essentials. She’s not known for missteps or anything that could be defined as “filler.” That was until EUSEXUA came along, which, I think, has redefined who FKA twigs is as an artist and shows the power she thinks music can hold. Twigs stated that “EUSEXUA is a practice, EUSEXUA is a state of being, EUSEXUA is the pinnacle of human experience.” She created her own belief system around this album; it’s certainly ambitious. It’s as if Twigs is trying to find the meaning of life on the dancefloors packed full of sweaty people feeling the music together. Initially released at the start of the year, EUSEXUA was a great listen full of some of her best songs, although, unlike a lot of her other projects, it did come with some caveats. The collab with North West, “Childlike Things,” sticks out like a sore thumb not just on the album, but in her discography. It’s a song I defended in my review as being “a representation of pure invincible joy,” but as the year has rolled on, its novelty has eluded me.

EUSEXUA was left to linger sort of aimlessly as the year rolled on. It didn’t have the staying power and resiliency of her other albums; it felt like something was missing. Twigs must’ve felt the same because in the middle of November, we got not only a sister album in the form of EUSEXUA Afterglow, but also a redux version of the original album with a different tracklist entirely. Both projects really helped to fully realize what Twigs was trying to accomplish with these projects. Some of the songs that were omitted on the new version of the original album will be missed, “Girl Feels Good” especially, but the changes were all necessary for making a more cohesive, tight listen. One that gets to the heart of EUSEXUA as a practice. Afterglow is full of some amazing moments, too, and it features Twigs delving into sounds I never thought she would. Some songs sound like they wouldn’t be out of place on Ray of Light. EUSEXUA is Twigs’ most ambitious endeavor to date. It’s messy, yes, but at its best it’s transcendent.

Buy/Stream (EUSEXUA v.1): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Buy/Stream (EUSEXUA v.2): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Buy/Stream (EUSEXUA Afterglow): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

13. 45 Pounds by YHWH Nailgun

45 Pounds by Brooklyn band YHWH Nailgun is probably the year’s most exciting debut album. If Geese is the band taking the world by storm and re-establishing New York as one of the premier hubs for rock music in the States, YHWH Nailgun is the stuff that’s fermenting just beneath the surface. The kind of band you see, not performing a free show in a crowded Brooklyn street, but rather in a cramped little venue. One where you can’t help but brush shoulders with the person next to you. Some drinks may be spilled, a fight may break out, but the thing you’re transfixed on is this band that seems to make the soundtrack for moments just like this. The smell of sweat and upcharged alcohol fills the air as this pungent wave of music just permeates everything around it.

The sound of this album is as if you took some notes from Filth-era SWANS, that manic misanthropy and getting-pushed-onto-the-dirty-ground sound, and inserted some really unorthodox rhythms into the mix. That sounds like it might alleviate some things, but it just makes them more bizarre and disorienting. Across the 21-minute runtime, the band just enters a sort of flow state. The music forms into one multi-headed beast, fueled by the band’s almost unconscious will and deep-rooted feelings that drive these sounds out of them. For that reason, it’s hard to just listen to 45 Pounds one song at a time; it’s an album you just have to see through. You hear the unnerving chants of “Castrato Raw,” and you just instinctively let it bleed into “Pain Fountain.” It’s entrancing. Like Geese, I think YHWH Nailgun is here to stay. They won’t attain the fandom of their feathered contemporary, but for those in the know, they’re gonna become one of the most exciting bands in the world.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

12. Seeking Darkness by Huremic

I’ve sung the praises of Parannoul’s music for years now, but as this year has rolled on, his music just hasn’t been doing much for me. Even Sky Hundred, which placed highly on my year-end list last year, hasn’t stayed in regular rotation. I thought I had just become disenchanted with their work, but Seeking Darkness is a massive exception. Premiering on NTS Radio in the middle of March, going under yet another pseudonym, this Huremic project might be the best studio album they’ve made to date. Moving away from their usual pop-centred shoegaze, noise rock style in favor of some crazy, wild experimentation contained in just five sprawling pieces that, despite lacking the usual emo-tinged songwriting of his previous albums, is some of his most emotionally resonant work yet. Musically, these pieces evoke something that his other projects have been lacking for me in recent listens: the power to sweep me right off my feet.

Even if his previous albums have sort of grown off me recently, it’s very hard to deny that Parannoul/mydreamfever/Huremic is one of the most prolific artists this decade. That’s been one of the real treats of this decade in music so far, watching his artistic progression. That’s no different here; in fact, I think this left turn is one he needed to make. All five of these pieces are stunning in their own unique ways. The first has this massive wall of feedback and noise around the halfway point that gives me goosebumps. I never thought the drumming on a Parannoul project would stand out as much as it does on the second part, giving it almost a krautrock feel. The subtle folk elements of the third part provide some brief respite from the chaotic noise sprawl surrounding it. The fourth part is straight-up post-hardcore; it wouldn’t sound out of place on an Unwound record. The final part of the piece reminds me a lot of Flood by Boris in just how smothering the walls of electric guitar feedback can sound. Seeking Darkness is one of the year’s best releases, but beyond that, it’s a bold step forward for Parannoul, and I’m curious to see where he takes the Huremic projects next.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

11. The Scholars by Car Seat Headrest

For a time, the future of Car Seat Headrest was a bit uncertain. The Will Toledo solo project turned full-blown indie rock band has had a rough go of it since the start of the 2020s. For starters, their previous album, Making a Door Less Open, was an odd one to say the least. One that had the band treading into waters they had never prior. That album made it obvious that Car Seat Headrest had become more than just Will Toledo’s band, but some growing pains went along with that. Speaking of Toledo, another uncertainty the band had to wrestle with was the chronic health struggles he faced after he contracted COVID-19 on their 2022 tour. The band spoke to Rolling Stone about this earlier this year, with bass player Seth Dalby saying that at one point he thought that “maybe another album’s not in the cards.” Luckily, that wasn’t the case. The Scholars is an incredible return to form for them and an incredibly promising look at the ground they have yet to tread musically.

This is a concept album, and I’m not going to divulge all the lore in this blurb, but to put it in very simple terms, there’s a whole gaggle of characters and some of them go to this normal school, but there’s also a school for clowns across the pond and also some of the characters are in a rock band and some of those characters also die, but they also don’t. Ok, got that? Well, even if you don’t, the songs on The Scholars absolutely soar regardless. The opener “CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)” is one of their strongest openers ever. It’s an amazing callback to the defiant indie rock bangers of decades past, French horn flourishes and all (courtesy of Arps from bit depth). The entire album is full of great tunes, but the most surprising moments here are the ones where Toledo isn’t the one on lead vocals. Notably, Ethan Ives, who really stands out on the massive epics “Reality” and “Planet Desperation.” The Scholars is just a real treat. I love this band, and this album has contributions from some of my online animal pals, which makes it that much cooler to me.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

10. The Wringing Cloth by Old Saw

For those in the know, Old Saw have consistently been one of the most exciting bands in recent memory. The Vermont ambient Americana band has been quietly building a great discography. Assembling the roadmap for a vision of America that’s never existed. The kind of stuff that’s only existed in storybooks and rose-tinted glasses. Many artists have tackled this subject before in various mediums and with varying degrees of nuance or tact. Some choosing only to give into the rose-tinted, “good old days” mentality, something to assuage the weakest among us and to fuel propaganda. Old Saw are nothing like that. Their vision of this Americana is desolate and as warm as the North Pole. Their soundscapes are so uniquely American in a way that’s more disturbing than comforting. The old America, the one with the small towns and old cars and whatnot, never really existed in the way it’s said to have. And if it did, it’s certainly no place to find comfort in.

The Wringing Cloth stands as their best work to date. It’s an hour and 13 minutes of Old Saw enveloping you in their world. You don’t get lost in it, you feel hyper aware of everything. Each new twisted slide guitar note in “Redaction Hiss” makes you feel hopeless, like there’s no escape out of this rural hellhole you’ve found yourself in. The only thing besides this dilapidated old town is ropes upon roads upon roads, maybe leading to something better or perhaps leading to nothing at all. By the time you get to “Salt Tar,” the album’s most hopeful sounding piece, you feel ragged. Beaten down by the suffocating sounds of this visceral sonic depiction of rural America. If that sounds like fun, be sure to give The Wringing Cloth a listen!

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

9. Lonely People with Power by Deafheaven

Ah, Deafheaven. No doubt the most popular modern black metal band that seems to ruffle everyone’s feathers in some way. To the stubborn music critics who adhere strictly to the established canon and view all metal besides Sabbath as juvenile to the “kvlt” dorks who whine about what’s real metal or not, Deafheaven is sure to get some response. To most well-adjusted people, of which I say I at least teeter on the edge of being, Deafheaven is a pretty cool band. Besides their misguided 2021 wholly-shoegaze effort Infinite Granite, I think they’re a very consistent band with some great records under their belt. Lonely People With Power proved that assertion tenfold, perhaps dethroning the massive, looming shadow of Sunbather as the band’s strongest effort to date.

All of the sounds Deafheaven have explored in the past, yes even the tepid shoegaze, are implemented wonderfully here. “Heathen” bridges the gap between Infinite Granite and the band’s presiding albums in a way that makes you wonder why we couldn’t have just skipped that boring chapter and gone straight to this one. They strike that balance so well throughout the album, these songs are as searing as they are atmospheric. George Clarke’s vocals have never sounded better than they do on tracks like “Doberman” and “Revelator.” His screams sound pained, but they have this unyielding sense of rhythm to them that helps the songs barrel on. The band is on fire too, namely Daniel Tracy’s pummeling drumming which finally get the chance to shine again. Lonely People With Power is Deafheaven proving they’re still one of the best modern metal bands we have. It’s a statement as definitive as their work in the 2010s.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

8. Baby by Dijon

Despite some impressive credits racked up over the last eight years or so, 2025 has undoubtedly been Dijon’s biggest year to date. He gained widespread attention for his work on Justin Bieber’s embarrassing trans-racial psychosis album SWAG, his touches on that album were easily the best things about it, he featured on Bon Iver’s SABLE, FABLE which was discussed in part 1 of this list, and he made a cameo in One Battle After Another — a Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece and my choice for best film of the year. However, his biggest achievement, maybe yet, was is his own sophomore album, Baby, which released out of nowhere in the heat of the summer. One thing you can’t deny about Dijon is his talents as a producer. He can adapt to so much while never sounding like he’s compromising. In his own solo work, the only thing his production has been missing has been the songs to back them up. To say Baby has the songs is an understatement.

The closest thing I can compare this to is Jai Paul’s forward thinking Bait Ones collection, which people are still trying to catch up to today. Similar to what Jai Paul did, but with a different set of influences, this album takes pop and R&B sounds from the past and the present and builds them up and tears them down in equal measure. It’s messy, it’s raw, it’s beautiful, it’s catchy, it’s honest. “Yamaha” captures everything that’s so special about this album. Dijon’s dynamic vocals paired with likewise production and a chorus that you couldn’t get out of your head if you tried. Baby is a triumph and one of the best R&B records in recent memory. An album I think people will be trying to catch up to for the next few years at least.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

7. Iconoclasts by Anna Von Hausswolff

Very few albums absolutely floored me like Iconoclasts from Anna Von Hausswolff. The ethereal Swedish singer-songwriter captured the attention of many after her 2018 album Dead Magic — an album that I didn’t fully fall in love with until I relistened to it prior to checking out this project. Little did I know that the dark sonic textures of Dead Magic really wouldn’t be present here. Iconoclasts features much brighter sounds; its instrumentation feels like staring directly into a spotlight, but rather than feeling that burning sensation in your eyes, you’re transported somewhere else entirely. Somewhere beyond where we currently are. This album occupies a space of its own where Hausswolff flexes not only her vocal abilities, but her unique songwriting as well.

Alongside Hausswolff’s captivating presence, another thing that characterizes this album’s sound is Otis Sandsjö’s saxophone playing, which is used to create this sort of unnerving, dark anchor for the more maximalist instrumentation on this album. It’s easy to get swept up in these songs and their disarming bliss, but these songs usually have something to keep them somewhat tethered to our world. The title track is an odyssey, perhaps the most ambitious song Hausswolff has ever made. The pulsing rhythms paired with her tortured vocal performance create this cascading display of pure intensity before leading into the song’s outro, which makes use of some lush strings and brings everything to a close masterfully. A home run of a song. Iconoclasts is full of songs like that, I can’t think of a single moment when I wasn’t absolutely swept up in Hausswolff’s world.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

6. Bleeds by Wednesday

Some albums are like lightning in a bottle, and Bleeds by Asheville, North Carolina band Wednesday is without a doubt one of those albums. The band is at a strange spot right now, for most bands it would be a transitional phase, but Wednesday are able to make the most of the chaos. This is the first album from the band following the break-up of Karly Hartzman and MJ Lenderman, whose brilliant album Manning Fireworks from last year gave him a ton of momentum in his own right. However, even with people catching Lenderman fever last year, Hartzman’s songwriting is the album’s biggest strength. She wrote in an essay for Vulture that recording some of the album’s songs was akin to “Poking roadkill with a stick. Making it twitch.” These songs amplify fresh wounds, not allowing them the proper time to heal.

The sound of Bleeds is mercurial. The softer, country-tinged ballads clash helplessly against heavy swaths of noise. These sonic juxtapositions sound so natural, there’s no way this album couldn’t be so exhilaratingly disjointed. “Elderberry Wine” tells us that sweet songs are long cons, and that idea is hammered into your brain not just by that song in isolation, but by the unpredictable nature of the songs surrounding it. It’s hard to tell where Wednesday goes from here. The band is fundamentally different from here on out, but Hartzman and crew are always gonna find some sort of twisted sense of solace in the music.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

5. GOLLIWOG by billy woods

If somehow you’ve been completely unaware of what’s been going on in hip hop for the last decade or so, billy woods is perhaps the most exciting rapper we have today. Whether it be his collaborations with ELUCID in Armand Hammer, whose album Mercy made an appearance on Part 1 of this list, or just his solo works, I think woods makes a very strong case for one of the best discographies in hip hop of all time. Which is why it was no surprise when his album from this past Spring was absolutely incredible.

This album sees the enigmatic rapper adding even more depth to his sound by penning some of his most striking verses to date and following up on some of the sonic threads he wove on projects like Aethiopes. Those unsettling beats, genuinely haunting stuff that makes woods’ words that much more gripping. He teams up with an array of rappers and producers with whom he has plenty of history. Obviously, ELUCID is here, alongside Kenny Segal, The Alchemist, DJ Haram, and El-P, among others. It sounds cliché to say that this is the album woods has been building towards, but it really does feel like the culmination of a lot of the ideas he’s explored so masterfully in the past. Yet, I certainly don’t think this is the apex of his artistry. Apart from the riveting, visceral nature of his work, a big part of what makes billy woods such a captivating artist is the constant feeling that he’s always on the verge of another breakthrough. I think it’s time to put him in conversations alongside the all-time greats of hip-hop.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

4. Getting Killed by Geese

At this point, I’m sure everyone is a bit tired of hearing about Geese. They have been, without a doubt, the most talked-about band in years, for good reason. I can’t remember how long it’s been since an American rock band captured everyone’s attention like this, music listeners both chronically and less chronically online. I’ve been on the Geese train for a few years now, 3D Country landed a very high spot on my Best Albums of 2023 list, but things have really picked up over the past year. Back in the summer, after seeing them open for Vampire Weekend, I wrote an article entitled “Cameron Winter is a Gen Z Icon in the Making”, which discussed the Geese frontman’s steady rise in popularity following his Heavy Metal album from late last year. I assumed their popularity would continue to grow after the release of Getting Killed, but I couldn’t have anticipated just how much this record has expedited their rise even further.

As much conversation has been about the band and what they represent as there has been for the album they released a few months prior, but this band wouldn’t have this much hype if the songs weren’t there. Getting Killed is the band’s strongest statement to date, full of electric performances and the kind of songs that really stick with you. When I first heard “Au Pays Du Cocaine” when they played it live in the summer, I was taken aback, and the version on record is just as stunning. They’re such a dynamic band, able to twist and turn between explosive numbers like “Trinidad” and “Bow Down” seamlessly into the lowkey grooves of “Cobra” and “Islands of Men.” Whether you love them or you find them irritating because of some silly discourse on Twitter, Geese are here to stay. Especially with how excellent this album is.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

3. Birthing by SWANS

In hindsight, it was foolish to assume that SWANS previous album The Beggar was any sort of send-off for the post-rock stalwarts. Each colossal new album raises the question of “When are they gonna hang it up?” I think Michael Gira asks the same question after each record, but he can’t stop. Gira puts so much of himself into his work, it’s like he’s trying to extract something from the music that no one else can. Birthing is a bit of an ironic title because this does mark the end of an era for SWANS. This album and their ongoing tour supporting it mark the end of their “big sound.” Yet, even as the closing chapter for this stage of the band, Gira and crew still stumble upon new ideas. New avenues of their sound to explore, it feels criminal that this is the last studio album of this sound. How do you listen to the intense electronic noise intro of “The Merge” and decide this is a proper conclusion? Perhaps the best closing chapter for Gira and SWANS is a messy one. Something that closes the door begrudgingly, it’s probably what Gira thinks he deserves and who am I to argue?

Even outside of this context, Birthing is one of the band’s best collection of songs maybe ever. A lot of these songs were heard on their fantastic Live Rope album from last year — another late career highlight — and their studio counterparts still manage to flesh out what Gira is going for in his mind. There’s an old Bob Dylan quote from an interview he did with Playboy in 1978, “The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on…the Blonde on Blonde album.” That quote has always struck me, but I always seem to recall it when listening to the post-reunion SWANS records. I think the reason Gira has a hard time letting go, why Birthing had to happen and why the band continues to toy around with new compositions on this current tour despite this being the end of this iteration of their sound, is because he still hasn’t perfectly captured what he hears in his mind. Ever since SWANS got back together, Gira has been hellbent on capturing that. I don’t think SWANS will ever reach that point, but it’s an impossible point to reach. That tension is half the reason Birthing and most of the post-reunion SWANS records are so arresting.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

2. Los Thuthanaka by Chuquimamani-Condori & Joshua Chuquimia Crampton

One of my biggest music discoveries this year was the music of both Elysia and Joshua Crampton. Elysia Crampton, a.k.a DJ E or Chuquimamani-Condori, has been pushing the boundaries of modern electronic music for over a decade at this point, with albums like 2013’s The Light That You Gave Me to See You and 2023’s DJ E. Her brother Joshua, while having a lot less extensive back catalogue, released Estrella Por Estrella last year which features some of the most bizarre guitar work I’ve ever heard. Los Thuthanaka is the siblings combining their powers, and it sounds unlike anything you have ever heard. The Cramptons have such a unique look at music as an art form, completely challenging the notions of what it’s supposed to sound like. They both completely ignore convention and push each facet of their sound to the extreme — they make other maximalist records sound minimalist in comparison. As soon as you press play, the bed of noise on “Q’iwanakax-Q’iwanakax Utjxiwa” just completely submerges you in the sound; despite the unorthodox nature of these songs, at no point are you at odds with them. By pressing play, you’re in their world now. You surrender yourself to the off-kilter rhythms and the staggering sounds these two layer over top of them.

I had only heard Elysia’s DJ E album prior to this, but revisiting this album after venturing deeper into both of the Crampton siblings’ work, it still absolutely floors me. At the risk of sounding too hyperbolic, Los Thuthanaka treads sonic ground that most artists wouldn’t even dare. If Elysia and Joshua Crampton are not on your radar, they need to be as soon as possible.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, YouTube

1. The Passionate Ones by Nourished by Time

When I first heard Nourished by Time’s Erotic Probiotic 2 album back in 2023, it immediately shot towards the top of my year-end list. From that moment on, I considered myself a huge fan of Marcus Brown’s intoxicating mix of bedroom pop with maximalist R&B stylings. Going into The Passionate Ones, his sophomore album, I had only heard one single prior — the lead single, “9 2 5.” I went in almost completely blind, but filled with high expectations. Somehow, Brown far exceeded those high expectations with this album. At the heart of Nourished by Time’s music is the constant struggle of being an artist, let alone just a person, in the modern age. Where these archaic systems clash with new ideas, a yearning for something to change within them, but perhaps above all else, the never-ending desire for genuine connection. Brown’s heart-rending musings on love are never cliché; they always focus on some form of pure connection with someone rather than just intimacy. “If I’m gonna go insane / At least I’m loved by you,” he sings in the euphoric-sounding chorus of “Max Potential.” Not to hoist too much onto Brown’s art, but I think he’s one of the most important artists of our time.

Everything is cranked up to another gear, from the dizzying production to the kind of hooks and melodies that get lodged in your brain for weeks, even months, after first hearing them. I think Brown is one of the best pop songwriters on the planet right now. He’s able to blend those more sensitive numbers (“Max Potential,” “When the War is Over”) with the strange comfort one can find in pop and dance music (“BABY BABY,” “Automatic Love”) so seamlessly. This album was just what I needed, and still need, at this current moment. The Passionate Ones soundtracked my 2025 more than any other record. Sometimes you just need to dance the pain away.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

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Featuring ROSALÍA, PinkPantheress, Clipse, Panda Bear, and more

It seems like the next few years under the Burger Reich will be tumultuous, to say the least, but at least we have music to help us cope. Compared to last year, 2025 seemed a lot more tame. Likely due to the lack of interesting things happening on the pop side of things, most of the hit songs of last year are still the hit songs of this year. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some exciting things happening. They’re just not as loud as they were before. I heard over 220 projects this year and there was definitely no shortage of excellent albums, so here are some of my favorites!

This is Part 1 of the list containing entries 50 through 26
Part 2 of this list containing entries 25 through 1 can be found here ♡

50. Egotrip by John Michel & Anthony James

Egotrip from Philadelphia-based rapper John Michel and producer Anthony James sounds like a love letter to the chipmunk soul sound of the 2000s. A project this indebted to that sound could easily come off like jingling keys for those who balk at current hip hop trends, but Michel brings the kind of youthful energy that unlocks the timeless quality of these beats. For a sophomore project, there’s a proficiency on display here that’s nothing short of impressive. The flow on “Going Down” is so smooth, it’s easy to just nod your head along to, but on repeat listens Michel’s words really stick out. This kind of opulent, expensive sound was used by many to flaunt their wealth, but Michel takes these beats and puts an anti-capitalist spin on them which stands in stark contrast to, say, the things Kanye West produced for Jay-Z back in the day. These beats are pretty fantastic too. James’ production work on this album is amazing and proves that there’s more life to this sound than I previously though. The word that keeps coming to me in regards to this album is “proficiency.” Not the kind you just admire and quickly move away from, but rather, this album is so proficient that it just captures your attention effortlessly. It’s just damn good, to put it plainly.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

49. SABLE, fABLE by Bon Iver

There’s been a rift between Bon Iver fans for the better half of a decade now. One side prefers the folkier stylings of his first two albums and doesn’t care for their more ambitious electronic albums. The other side enjoys most of their music, whether it’s folky or not — I fall on this side of the spectrum to be clear. Late last year, Justin Vernon and the other people in Bon Iver (it’s a bit of a Maroon 5 situation) released a mostly acoustic EP in the form of SABLE. This was the most in line with their early work, and the most a lot of people enjoyed a Bon Iver project in a long time. I found it to be pretty good, but I felt like there was something more to it. That something more was fABLE. Going from “AWARDS SEASON” to “Short Story” is like opening the blinds to start your day, letting the sunshine fill up your room. That’s what most of fABLE sounds like. Vernon’s writing has always had this mystique to it that lends itself to some colder sentiments. This is something I think he’s been trying to shake. I don’t think he wants to be looked at as another dour singer-songwriter for people to romanticize their sadness to. You can’t be stuck making songs like “Skinny Love” forever; it doesn’t even sound like that same guy wrote a song like “Everything is Peaceful Love,” which instantly became one of my favorite songs they’ve ever made. The chorus on that track is unbelievable. I didn’t think he had that in him. This project is very different, even for Bon Iver, but I think it’s one of his most sobering works to date. Vernon described this as “the epilogue” to the first four Bon Iver albums, and I think that’s the best way to put it.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

48. Tether by Annahstasia

The first notes sung on Annahstasia’s debut album, Tether, were hypnotic to me. I’ve heard quite a bit of music in my 22 years on this earth, and I’ve heard more than my fair share of amazing vocalists. It takes a lot for me to be stunned by a vocal performance alone, but Annahstasia’s vocals floored me on first listen, and even upon relistening, I’m just taken aback by how much weight she’s able to deliver to even the softest notes. She has this weathered quality to her voice, one that makes her sound wise beyond her years. All of the emotions explored on Tether have this honest maturity to them that really sets her apart from others in the singer-songwriter world. She’s able to convey just as much with words as she does the lyrics themselves, which is so refreshing in this current age of singer-songwriters and folksters who are obsessed with penning another overwrought chapter in their storybook and shelling it off to their sycophant fans. Songs like “Overflow” are songs that some artists spend years trying to write, and Annahstasia nailed it on her debut album. Her words sound so calculated, but the way they flow out of her just sounds effortless. Tether is an album that’s gonna age like a fine wine, and I can’t wait to hear where she goes from here.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

47. Apiary by Gingerbee

It’s impressive how much internet-based band Gingerbee can do in just 22 minutes. The band, consisting of members from both Brazil and across North America, can effortlessly switch from midwest emo to screamo to samba to chamber pop with ease. This eclecticism never feels gimmicky; some records fall into this trap, but Apiary makes it all sound so natural. Multi-instrumentalists Gustavo Nome and James Witte-Cook are responsible for most of the album’s varied sound. Utilizing the cavaquinho, the cuíca, and various woodwind instruments, among so many others. Vocal duties switch between Melody Sohani and Nome, providing the “clean vocals,” and Dani Giguere, providing the “harsh vocals,” and that dynamic makes this an even more unique listen. As far as debut albums are concerned, Apiary is one of the most compelling in a while. There’s no telling where this band will go on future projects, but they’ve become a band you need to keep your eyes on.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

46. Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse

When rumors began to circulate about a new Clipse record, featuring production from longtime collaborator Pharrell, I was skeptical, to say the least. Pusha T has been doing fine for himself, and his last two solo records have been pretty decent. Malice dove deep into Christian hip hop, so needless to say, I didn’t know what energy he would bring. Pharrell has drowned a lot of his goodwill by performing “Happy” at an IDF fundraiser, going on to say he “hates politics” when he faced backlash for it, and, among other things, he’s just lost that magic touch he used to bring to his music. Against all odds, Let God Sort Em Out turned out far better than I think anyone could’ve hoped for. Yes, a good chunk of this album is men who are pushing 50 airing out their dirty laundry, but I didn’t binge The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives for nothing. I love me some drama! Especially when it’s delivered in the form of some great songs. Pharrell is still the weakest aspect of the album; no beat here matches the sheer perfection of “Grindin’” or “Mr. Me Too” — perhaps because the other half of The Neptunes, Chad Hugo, has been locked in a legal battle with Pharrell and the pair are no longer on speaking terms — but he holds up his end just enough to allow Push and Malice to rekindle some of that magic. The clear standout track here is the excellent “So Be It” which has some of the best verses in the entire Clipse canon. It features some really striking reflections on fame and how it corrupts people, of course, with a whole verse full of jabs at Travis Scott thrown in the mix from Push. Let God Sort Em Out has its flaws, but in a way, its flaws make it a much more interesting listen for me than it would be if it were some squeaky-clean, feel-good reunion record. That messy quality has always given Clipse some edge, and that remains to be the case on this album.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

45. Instant Holograms on Metal Film by Stereolab

Speaking of reunions, after reforming with a different lineup for a tour back in 2019, Stereolab finally returned to the studio for their first album in 15 years. On it, the legendary band proves that even with the passing of time, they retained all of the qualities that made them so special in the first place on Instant Holograms on Metal Film. The years out of the studio together seems to have rejuvenated them. By the end of their original run, they seemed a lot less engaged than they had been throughout the decade or so prior. This album sees them operating in full swing once again, and while it doesn’t reach the massive heights of albums like Emperor Tomato Ketchup or Cobra and Phases, it does a damn good job of reminding you what made Stereolab so amazing in the first place. From the opening riff of “Melodie Is a Wound,” you know you’re right where you need to be. This is Stereolab. Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier seem to be writing with a purpose again. Despite the long break between albums, the songs here have that urgency that became such a special characteristic of their best work. If there was ever a time that called for a band like them to grace us with their presence, that time is now, and they’ve decided to take that into their own hands. After all, no one except for Stereolab can be Stereolab.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

44. Showbiz! by MIKE

Along with billy woods, who we will talk about twice later in this list, it’s hard to argue that MIKE hasn’t been among the most consistent hip-hop artists of the decade so far. Each project is worthwhile in some sense, adding new layers to his formidable body of work. Showbiz! is another great example of this, and while not being his strongest effort, it still stands as one of the year’s most important releases in the genre. The best MIKE projects are the ones you can sink into, stuff like Burning Desire or Tears of Joy (my introduction to MIKE), and Showbiz! is definitely one of those albums. Much like Burning Desire, which I still think is his strongest album to date, this album goes in so many interesting directions through its production, and MIKE never sounds out of place throughout any of it. Very few rappers can be as cohesive as he is; he’s like glue. He also shows out as a producer on this album, producing most of the tracks here under his DJ Blackpower pseudonym. His use of jazz samples avoids some of the pitfalls artists can fall into with the whole jazz rap sound, i.e., making it just sound like cheap window dressing to give the music some faux sense of introspection. The way MIKE blends it in with the other timeless sounds makes it sound so storied. Like music that was made to be cherished, it’s like flipping through the annals of Black music history and keeping those sounds alive. This makes his ruminations on home, family, and spirituality that run throughout Showbiz! all the more potent.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

43. BLACK STAR by Amaarae

One night, a few months ago, I listened to Amaarae’s 2023 album, Fountain Baby, a few hours before BLACK STAR was released at midnight. The former had slid under my radar from that year, but I was instantly entranced by it upon listening. It made me all the more excited for BLACK STAR, an album which I’ve noticed hasn’t captured people’s attention like her previous effort, and I think that’s a shame; this album is great. It’s unabashed in its approach, so many of these songs are just intoxicating listens. Stuff you just get swept up in. So much so that the rocky interpolation of Cher’s “Believe” on “She Is My Drug” just ends up working against all the odds. Amaarae’s confidence is off the charts; you can tell she went into the studio with a chip on her shoulder, and that energy is really what carries these songs to greatness. She wanted to make a soundtrack to those hedonistic nights in the clubs, where you get lost in the rhythm with someone. Even if you’re like me and don’t go to the clubs, you get exactly what she’s going for. This is one of the most fun albums of the year. Amaarae came back with a project that was louder, bolder, and more polished. One that really showcases her as one of the most interesting artists in pop music.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

42. Nine Skies by ninasdfghjkl

Despite making albums for a long while now, under various names, my introduction to Nina’s Keysmash was through her album from this past summer, Nine Skies. The thing that really took me by surprise with this project is how Nina is able to harness these sounds to her advantage. Plenty of artists can get bogged down under the weight of eclecticism, often losing the emotional anchor of the music in the process. However, Nine Skies sees Nina whirling them all together to make a very unique and personal artistic statement. The album plays out like a journey through her mind and her own identity. As the listener, we become privy to all of the ups and downs Nina experiences. The moments of pure happiness clashing with numb deflection give way to a real purging of the soul by the end of the album. This plays out musically, too. She can lean into some bouncy electronic styles with tracks like “Sunburn” and “I’m Literally Just a Dog Dude,” but then she’ll throw you for a loop with the screamo-inspired closer “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven.” You can really tell how much Nina believes in these songs, not just by her songwriting, but by how confident those production choices are. One of the most interesting listens of the year, I feel like Nina’s Keysmash has reached that next gear, and I can’t wait to hear what she does next.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube

41. Pirouette by Model/Actriz

I was left starstruck by Model/Actriz’s debut album, Dogsbody, from a few years back. It was sleazy, gross, sweaty, and absolutely exhilarating. The kind of stuff that noise rock often lacks. Pirouette is a worthy follow-up, retaining much of the hedonistic, debaucherous vibe of a New York club that the previous album had, but it’s held back just a bit from the heights of its predecessor because it feels like a transitional point in the band’s overall sound. Still, even with that, it’s chock full of great stuff. The noisy, grimy nature of the debut is quelled a bit; often, the crunches of noise act as a part of some twisted groove. However, one thing that hasn’t changed at all is Cole Haden’s presence as a lyricist and vocalist. He’s just as captivating here. He brings the same raw, sexy energy as Bette Davis or Madonna, but he’s able to turn it all on its head with frequent flashes of sobering emotion — see lead single “Cinderella.” These songs certainly don’t lack depth. Model/Actriz is one of the most dynamic bands in the world right now. As songwriters, you can really hear their confidence growing. They take risks here, mainly by fully embracing the dance aspects of their sound, and those risks usually pay off. The way they’re able to make these sounds so intense and irresistible is so impressive. It’s a balancing act, but they never let those struggles show. They do it almost effortlessly, adding new layers to their sound in the process. Even with how great Pirouette is, I think the best is yet to come for Model/Actriz. I don’t think they’re done evolving their distinct sound.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

40. Um Mar Pra Cada Um, / Antes Que a Terra Acabe by Luedji Luna

In just two weeks back in June, Brazilian singer-songwriter Luedji Luna released two of the year’s most intriguing albums — those being Um Mar Pra Cada Um, and Antes Que a Terra Acabe. This is one of a few entries where I’ll be talking about multiple projects by the same artist, but I feel like in all of these cases, you can’t have one without the others. On these albums, Luna masterfully blends the staples of MPB with those of American jazz and R&B music. The result is two albums full of incredible music. Stuff that sounds truly timeless. These sounds have mingled together in the past, especially with jazz, but Luna brings some kind of fresh edge to them that it never feels outdated or antiquated. Perhaps because she and the other musicians here bring some really unorthodox energy to these songs, they refuse to play it safe. You might expect the drums or maybe the saxophone to play around in a certain way, but you quickly learn that they refuse to play by the rules. Despite some amazing pop songwriting on display throughout both of these albums, Luna is not interested in just making simple, easy-going pop music; she’s interested in crafting full-blown sonic experiences. Speaking of the musicians here, Antes Que a Terra Acabe boasts some features from Brazilian music royalty. The opening track features both Seu Jorge and Arthur Verocai. Later in the album, Milton Nascimento lends some of his multi-instrumentalist talents to the song “Mara.” Both of these albums seemed to fly under many people’s radars, but if you’re a fan of any of the genres swirling around here, do yourself a favor and check them both out.

Buy/Stream (Um Mar Pra Cada Um,): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Buy/Stream (Antes Que a Terra Acabe): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

39. Perverts / Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You by Ethel Cain

Ethel Cain sure has had an interesting year, huh? Everything seems to have calmed down now, but it seemed like she was at the center of multiple online discourses over old tweets or something she posted on Tumblr or something or other. I really don’t know much about all that, rather than having to mute the words “Ethel Cain” on Twitter, but I do know she released two amazing projects this year — both of which I decided to include as one entry because Perverts is technically an EP. She kick-started the year with a 90-minute EP that felt like the Ethel Cain that had been hyped up to me by so many of my friends when her debut album dropped. There were moments on that record that were basically pop; I wanted something weird and sinister. Perverts scratched that itch with its dark, frigid drone soundscapes that make the perfect environment for Cain’s captivating vocals. Later in the year, we also got her sophomore album, Willougby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You. An album that bridged the gap sonically between Preacher’s Daughter and Perverts. It’s quite a triumph. Her lyricism and storytelling are upgraded, and it really sounds like she’s coming into her own as an artist. She has a very distinct, albeit polarizing, aesthetic, one that I find easy to get lost in when I listen to her songs. It’s all haunted. Cain explores her own experiences through the ghosts of the past. None of these experiences start with us, and they won’t end with us either. Say whatever you want about Ethel Cain, and I’m sure you will, but she’s really hitting quite the artistic stride with these projects.

Buy/Stream (Perverts): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

Buy/Stream (Willoughby Tucker…): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

38. Self-Help Pt. 3 by Bałtyk

Acting as both a send-off to the Bałtyk name and the third entry in his Self-Help series of albums, this project is one of the most stirring and honest of the year. The Warsaw-based singer-songwriter writes about love and domesticity in a way that tugs right at my heartstrings. “We watch Twin Peaks: The Return for the third time / I instinctively grab your paw as love blinds my glassy eyes,” he sings on “Oxygen” a song that, like most the album, is as honest as a diary entry meant for your eyes only. The entire project is like that. He just sifts through little details about daily life, stuff that eventually fades into the mundane. Things that we just let slip into the background and become normal fixtures of our lives. Stuff we take for granted and put to the wayside, things that occasionally enter our conscious here and there. The natural, unpredictable ebb and flow of our connections to ourselves and the people in our lives, even the world outside of our little bubble. “This song is old now / It’s about us now.” He’s able to be hyper-specific in his writing, but it’s so easy to latch onto even if you’re not in his shoes. This is a wonderful album. I’m so stoked to see what Horse Club does next.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

37. Only Dust Remains by Backxwash

I was first introduced to Backxwash with her 2020 album God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It, and, like many other records released in the dead heat of COVID, I found myself reluctant to return to it. I’ve kept up with her albums since then, but I was waiting for one to truly grab me. To really make the most of the unique sensibilities that informed her art and funnel them into an amazing album. Luckily, she did just that with Only Dust Remains. It’s a focused, intense listen with some real off-the-wall production, all anchored by her most introspective writing yet. The pressure of the world can be unbearable at times, but sometimes you just need moments of unbridled catharsis and revel in them. Like Backxwash does on “9th Heaven,” ending the song by saying “I feel so motherfucking free.” However fleeting those moments may be, life always has a way of kicking us down again; it’s moments like that which truly make Only Dust Remains her strongest album to date. It’s an album about resilience and how that can give way to a weary sense of comfort in oneself. The battles are never over, but you can’t walk away from yourself.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

36. Pain to Power by Maruja

The current state of the Windmill scene has been embarrassing to say the least. It’s cannibalizing itself. Everyone sounds like each other. One of the brightest spots in the scene has been the bizarre improv-driven post-rock band Maruja, who have released three EPs over the last few years that have been incredibly noteworthy — they’re handily the best band currently active in the scene. Their inevitable debut album was one of my most anticipated, but little did I know how much different Pain to Power would be from their EPs. Instead of continuing down the path of super atmospheric post-rock, doomed to be another in a long line of Rate Your Music’s favorite bands until they found something new and even more atmospheric and British to obsess over, they shove all that away and kick out some jams. The band pumps up the energy in a way that both departs from their established sound and builds upon it. It’s a bold move, one that could’ve easily backfired, but they nail it here. The energy is there, and so are the songs. It’s not like they’re on a whole “You Get What You Give” type of vibe; rather, they’ve just injected some crazy new ingredients into their music that put it in a much different light. Something many of their contemporaries are unable to do.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

35. Signals by Keep it Together

Keep It Together has been one of the more exciting furry bands for a few years now. The project helmed by Jake Ennis has slowly formed into a fully fleshed-out band, and never have they sounded better than they do on Signals. The album accompanies the comic of the same name, but even without reading that, it’s hard to deny how awesome these tracks are. “Navigator” was an explosive lead single that has all the wistful, washed-out sounds you want in an indie rock song. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to hitch-hike to the next town over with some people you barely know, just leave it behind and try to find something better out there. Compared to their last few records, which were all pretty good, Signals has Ennis reaching that next level in his songwriting. The choruses pack a punch, the verses have tight melodies, and the band captures that controlled chaos that makes you remember your favorite indie rock songs. It’s real student of the game type stuff. This is a wonderful project, and Keep It Together needs to be on your radar if they’re not already.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

34. Mercy by Armand Hammer & The Alchemist

Spoiler alert: this will not be the only billy woods-related project on this list. Armand Hammer returned with their follow-up to 2023’s We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, an album which, despite being edited after its initial release, has only gotten better with time — as most projects from billy woods and ELUCID tend to do. Mercy sees them teaming up with The Alchemist, a producer whom I have some mixed feelings about. Outside of a few shining examples, as of late, The Alchemist’s catalog has been full of a few duds. As a producer, he’s sort of flanderized himself. He’s become the “introspective jazz beats” guy and nothing more. His beats often just sound like window dressing, especially when the rappers don’t hold up their end either. However, teaming up with two powerhouses like woods and ELUCID makes his beats sound like strokes of genius. I said this last year when I wrote about his REVELATOR album, but ELUCID is one of the most unique rappers we have. Everything he says is so rough and honest. This record is full of some great verses from him, namely the ones on “Dogeared” and “Peshawar.” It says a lot about the run the Armand Hammer duo is on that Mercy is this great while still not being one of their absolute best. They’re on a generational run right now.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

33. Lotus by Little Simz

One can almost feel bad for Little Simz for the pressure that has been on her last two projects. They stand in the shadow of her wonderful 2021 album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, which I still think stands among the best hip hop projects released this decade so far. Lotus is her most fleshed-out record since then, and she’s certainly not resting on her laurels. Some artists would try chasing the heights of their past home runs, but not Simz. Here, she just does whatever she wants. There’s almost a post-punky vibe to these songs. Most of the songs on Lotus have this distinct, dreary atmosphere to them, but it’s not the suffocating kind. It’s like they’re slinking down a busy street at night in the hottest part of town. Everyone is hustling and bustling around her, but Simz is walking alone, alone in her thoughts. When songs introduce more diverse influences, like the Afrobeats styling of the songs with frequent collaborator Obongjayar, it never feels jarring or out of place. It’s all just a journey through Simbi’s world. The loneliness, the betrayals, the struggles with fame, they all inform this record’s themes, but she never sounds consumed by it, even if she is. Her head is held high as she wades through these waters on an album that further proves she’s one of the most compelling rappers in the world.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

32. Sinister Grift by Panda Bear

Most of the Animal Collective troupe has flown under the radar in recent years. As a band, after the wild Centipede Hz, it really feels like they lost their edge. Their last two records have been decent, but their biggest accomplishments are being decent course corrections rather than pure highlights in their discography. As a solo artist, Panda Bear has always kept things exciting and tried new things to varying results. All of this to say, I don’t think anyone expected a record like Sinister Grift from him in 2025. This album reminds you why you fell in love with Panda Bear’s music in the first place. It strikes that perfect balance between weird psychedelic sounds and the classic pop stylings that he’s played around with for decades. Fittingly, this album features a collab with Cindy Lee, whose excellent album Diamond Jubilee from last year did the same thing. Take “Venom’s In” for example, which is one of his best songs in a long time. There’s that classic Brian Wilson-esque percussive elements mixed with a smooth bed of synths that create the perfect footing for his vocals. Like the best AnCo-related projects, you can just dive into this album and never want to leave. Probably my favorite Panda Bear project since like Tomboy or, dare I say, his strongest solo effort since his 2007 magnum opus Person Pitch.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

31. In the Earth Again by Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo

When this project was announced, I had no idea who Hayden Pedigo was. I was only introduced to him through his incredible record from earlier this year, which will be discussed in the next part. From there, I listened to the other two albums in his Motor Trilogy, and I was hooked. I’ve talked at length about Chat Pile; however, they had already been one of my favorite bands of the last few years, their album Cool World from last year being in my top 10 of the year. I was very curious to see how their opposing styles would come together on this project, but I think it proved to be fruitful for both Pedigo and Chat Pile. They both shine here, or maybe shine isn’t the best way of putting it. These songs tend to be very dour. In the Earth Again often puts the Oklahoma City sludge metal/noise rock band in unfamiliar territory. Songs like “Demon Time” and “Radioactive Dreams” blend their signature dread with Pedigo’s masterful fingerpicking and vocals from Raygun Busch that lack the paranoid misanthropy he has on a lot of their songs. He sounds more gloomy than anything most of the time, which really makes those songs unique in their catalog. The biggest departure is the closer “A Tear for Lucas,” which is basically just a folk song with a super intimate vocal; it’s great. Of course, they crank up the noise every now and then — like on “The Matador,” which might be one of their best songs to date. All in all, this collaboration worked out better than anyone could’ve hoped.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube

30. CHAMPION by Can of Bliss

If you’re one of those prudes who balk at the sight of fat furry artwork or furry art in general, CHAMPION is not the album for you. That’s a damn shame, too, because by being one of those boring prudes, you’re missing out on one of the most insane records of the year. The eclectic Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and producer Can of Bliss has been cooking up some of the wildest, most infectious songs in the furry music scene for a few years now. I was introduced to their music by a recommendation from Arps Bau — the lead mind behind bit depth, as well as the furry community’s resident French horn player — and I immediately fell in love. It’s like Jeff Rosenstock by way of AG Cook, taking the emotion of pop punk into a wild entanglement with electronic music. CHAMPION is their most personal project to date in the sense that Can of Bliss is being unabashedly themself. From the provocative cover art to the themes of anxiety and sexuality explored within these songs, they’re laying everything bare. The way these big, hypnotic songs juxtapose the sobering emotional depth of the lyrics just makes the album so engrossing; it makes the songs addictive. Despite everything being so loud and a bit claustrophobic, the utter catharsis that runs through this project is unstoppable.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

29. Fancy That by PinkPantheress

The ceiling for PinkPantheress continues to grow higher and higher. When writing about her debut album Heaven Knows a few years ago, I remarked that she was making “music specifically crafted for this moment in pop music history,” a statement which I fully stand by and something I think has come to define PinkPantheress as an artist. The Y2K nostalgia wave has been firmly planted in the cultural consciousness for a few years now, and while it’s probably going to become antiquated sooner rather than later, PinkPantheress is making the absolute most of it. I would say she stands at the forefront of it, mainly because she has the songs to make it feel less shallow than many of her contemporaries. It seems like a cool quirk of her music rather than a mission statement or something cooked up by a label to catch the attention of some aesthetic-obsessed twenty-somethings who just learned what Frutiger Aero was this past year. Her lowkey, always catchy tunes have been giving her a ton of cache, especially the ones on Fancy That. I’ve heard her music everywhere this year, and it always brings me a smile. PinkPantheress should be playing everywhere. She’s the moment, and she’s been the moment.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

28. Tranquilizer by Onoeohtrix Point Never

Admittedly, I’m not much of a savant when it comes to the work of Daniel Lopatin. I heard his seminal album, Replica, only last year, and this past summer I went through some of his other big projects at the recommendation of some friends. I had a ton of respect for Lopatin’s work, but I don’t really think I’ve fallen in love with one of his albums as I did with his most recent studio effort, Tranquilizer. Assembled from now-deleted sample libraries from the 90s that he discovered on the Internet Archive. Lopatin revives and repurposes these sounds to create some strange pieces that evoke both feelings of nostalgia and a palpable sense of uncertainty. Over the years, I think a lot of people have become increasingly obsessed with archiving. Whether it be just making sure everything is preserved in some way, especially with the Wild West nature of the internet, or trying to dig up long-lost pieces of media from decades passed, there’s a sense, or perhaps a fear, that nothing will last forever. These sample packs being deleted from the Internet Archive inspired Lopatin to put his full focus on Tranquilizer. I don’t think there’s an urgency to this record, but you get the sense that Lopatin felt he needed to make something out of these sounds. To give them new life, to show their potential, and he does just that. The result makes for what’s probably my favorite Oneohtrix Point Never project.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

27. LUX by ROSALÍA

To be quite honest, I’m still trying to wrap my brain around LUX, ROSALÍA’s highly anticipated follow-up to one of the most eclectic pop albums of the decade in MOTOMAMI. To say that this album is a left turn would be an understatement. A lot of the bombastic electronic elements of her previous album are traded in favor of operatic vocals and lush classical arrangements. There’s also not really one singular, standout song on LUX that would make sense for a single. There is no “SAOKO” here, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This album is split into four different Movements, each containing its own unique moments of sheer brilliance that will leave your jaw on the floor. Her vocals sound better than ever. She’s pushing herself to the extreme, even singing in fourteen different languages, trying to extract every bit of emotion she can get out of these pieces. Trying to cross every barrier she can, both linguistically and musically. Far more often than not, she succeeds, but LUX is a record I still need way more time with. Rest assured, though, this is a very special album. One that I think redefines who ROSALÍA is as an artist going forward.

Buy/Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

26. I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi

The debut album from Australian EDM artist Ninajirachi reminds me a lot of the bloghouse records from the 2000s. Sonically, it’s carrying the torch of those artists, but thematically, I Love My Computer couldn’t be more removed from them. This is an album made by and for people who are chronically online. People who have only ever known a world where the internet was the dominant form of connection and communication to the rest of the world. While I’m sure this may sound miserable to some, Nina Wilson’s songwriting and production on this project is just pure ear candy that makes even the most tired internet users want to shake it. In an era where electronic dance music has become a tool for artists to explore more complex emotional themes in their music, Wilson uses this record to examine her own personal connection to the world of the internet and modern technology in general. It never comes off as gimmicky, one because the songs are amazing, and two because she toes the line between earnestness and humor that gives these songs some extra depth beyond the euphoric, festival-ready songs.

Buy/Stream: Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud

all words written by me
no generative AI was used in the process of making this article

find me elsewhere on the internet through my linktree
also i do all of this stuff for the love of the game, no checks are being sent my way, but here’s my ko-fi if u would like to support me financially, throw me some carrots if u will :D

thanks for reading!!
peace and love,
ciarán 𓃹𓃒

In the attention economy reliant on hype moments and aura, Cameron Winter seems to have neither yet stands head-and-shoulders above his colleagues

A few weeks back, at the beginning of June, I saw Geese open for Vampire Weekend in a rained-out amphitheater in Asheville, NC. I had been just as excited to see them as I had the main attraction, despite being a Vampire Weekend fanatic for most of my adolescence. The band’s previous album, 3D Country, knocked my socks off; it remains one of my favorite rock records of the decade, along with its sister EP 4D Country. Clearly, I was not the only one who fell in love with the band. Of course, many people crowded in downtown Asheville were excited to see Vampire Weekend and go berserk at the opening riff of “A-Punk.” Or you’re like the poor guy with a sign that read “PLAY ‘HANNAH HUNT’” who hopefully enjoyed the show even if the band did not oblige their rain-soaked request. Still, I noticed a surprising number of people donning Geese merch and hounding the stage awaiting their arrival despite the downpour. Perhaps a great deal were there for both bands, like me, but I suspect there’s more to the story here.

The band tore through their set, the majority of which was made up of their soon-to-be-released album Getting Killed. As the rain drenched the crowd, frontman Cameron Winter awkwardly proclaimed “Fuck the rain” to thunderous cheers from the crowd. My friend and I had taken shelter under a tree, but when it became obvious we were going to get soaked no matter what, we made our way into the crowd proper. The warbled sound of the amphitheater made it sound like the band was throwing balls of noise at us. Not ideal, but it was electric. The whole band was captivating, especially drummer Max Bassin, but all eyes, including my own, were on the enigmatic Winter. He announced at one point before leading into the still unreleased “Islands of Men” that Sly Stone had passed away that morning, and he apologized if the crowd was hearing it from him for the first time. I’m sure the brief eulogy flew over many of the crowd’s heads — besides myself, I really doubt many there were fans of The Family Stone — but even still, they hung onto his every word. Every word he spoke, every word he sang, they were with him the whole time. It was equal parts captivation and equal parts pity. Winter has the stage presence of a dog left out in the rain. His words are weighty and clearly have some deep-rooted meaning to him, but the audience listens to him as pitifully as they do prophetically. Perhaps it was the rain or being transfixed by Winter on stage like everyone else, but despite being a fan of the band for years leading up to this show, a switch flipped in my brain. What went from me simply loving a band evolved into me believing Geese, and by extension, its singular frontman Cameron Winter, are among the most important musical acts of our time.

Between 3D Country and now, the band has only gained more followers. While I’m sure the band’s music has done more than enough to sell itself to the people in its own right, I would argue the band’s fanbase has gotten even more fervent in the wake of frontman Cameron Winter’s solo album from last December, Heavy Metal. Contrary to the title, the album is rather tame, even in comparison to the band’s sound. Gone are the country-tinged, hot pavement stompers, and in are these somber pocket symphonies that Winter takes full command of. His words have even more bite to them, and his melodies feel timeless; it’s something new entirely. Winter balances humor with self-hatred so effortlessly that you can hardly tell if certain songs are life-affirming or soaked in misery. All of this has turned him into a burgeoning star in his own right, separate from the band. Listening to Heavy Metal religiously since its release and catching the band live has also made me a bit obsessed with him, not in a creepy way, but I find his art and his position in the loose culture of alternative music deeply fascinating. Or rather, why his music speaks to me and many others in my generation.

Winter’s solo performances have inundated my YouTube recommended feed. He’s usually playing in very intimate venues, even churches, with only a piano to back him up. Winter has been undertaking solo shows around the globe, all the while, Geese were touring at the same time they were mixing and mastering their upcoming album. It’s hard to argue he’s not one of the hardest-working artists going today. He also nabbed solo gigs on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Later… with Jools Holland, which, despite being in the age of the internet, still gives an artist some level of legitimacy. Winter looked like a fish out of water on those stages, but he looks that way everywhere. It’s hard to look at Cameron Winter and see someone who’s relaxed anywhere, much less when the hot stage lights are beaming down on him.

Perhaps this is what makes him so captivating; he operates with this nervous energy that most of my generation can relate to all too well. This is only amplified by his songwriting and how he performs the songs from his solo record. It sounds as if Winter is searching for meaning through some sort of external means. Whether it be harkening to the tragic tale of the Rolling Stones’ founding member Brian Jones, his love interests, or religious fanaticism, Winter is still trying to figure out who he is through concepts of the world he inhabits. The songs feel a bit meditative on the album, but when he’s performing them, he never plays them one-to-one with their studio counterparts. Words are changed, the arrangements are played around with, and it all feels languid. It feels real, it’s arresting watching him roll through these tunes with a kind of chaotic grace. Furthermore, all of the music videos Andy Swartz directed for Heavy Metal are live as well. Winter lurks around in public spaces with headphones on, holding a bulky Shure microphone, singing along to a backing track. It’s almost impossible to sing along with him if you’re only familiar with the studio versions of these songs. Leaving you to just sit and experience it all, to take it all in. You can’t take your eyes off him.

His performance at St. Matthias Church in London back in April is a wonderful showcase of this. The song “Drinking Age” stands as one of Winter’s crowning achievements thus far, and while the studio version is immaculate in its own right, his performance in this echoey venue lets the song crumble on top of you like a ton of bricks. Each line is given more than ample room to breathe between the sparse piano riffing, making the revelatory resolution to the verse that much more striking. Winter croons, “Today, I met who I’m gonna be from now on / And he’s a piece of shit.” He delivers it in this grand, dramatic way before yanking everything back down to Earth with the final line. It’s perhaps the most misanthropic lines he’s penned, along with the lines “I should burn in hell / But I don’t deserve this” from the new Geese single “Taxes.” Winter’s vocals sound a bit too weathered for a 22-year-old, but as a 22-year-old myself, I can’t help but find an extra layer of camaraderie in how haggard his voice sounds. I think of the lyric in Elton John’s and Bernie Taupin’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which is a much more chipper tune in comparison, which goes “This boy’s too young to be singing the blues.” This idea has permeated across generations, the idea that the younger folks haven’t experienced enough to be “singing the blues,” but then those youths end up becoming pillars of their respective generations.

The second verse of “Drinking Age” ends with the line “Everything is lying” before Winter repeats the devastating lines from earlier, along with more riffing and even some lip whuffling that gives this song some form of light-heartedness. I think the line, “Everything is lying,” speaks to his disillusionment with the world, which makes his means of exploring himself in his lyrics all the more fascinating. It feels defeatist. If everything around you is lying, if pop culture and rock stardom are all a bunch of smoke and mirrors, why do you seek to define yourself within it? Do you simply not have another choice? Winter’s desire to look outward to look inward is either a means of deflection or a last resort in the age of the internet, where everything is hard to ignore. You can slip into little pockets and subcultures, but you’re forced to be tapped into some degree. Cameron Winter is certainly online. If I see an unhinged, surreal video on Instagram Reels, 9 times out of 10 it’ll say “Liked by @mrcameron_winter.” It’s not like Winter is isolated from the world; even if he comes off as aloof on stage, he’s experiencing the same stuff the rest of my generation is. We’re all seeing and often feeling the same things. There’s a refreshing air of authenticity to Winter and Geese as a band.

There’s a growing contingent of young people who grew up on the internet, in all of its irony-poisoned glory, who are now adults looking for something more genuine. Something “true and beautiful” for lack of some better words. Gen Z is living through some serious, depressing times, despite what the older generations believe. For too long, we’ve been caught up in the internet’s sardonic sentiments, and we’ve been conditioned that nothing is serious and if you take something seriously, you’re making a grave mistake. These feelings are only amplified by the rise of AI slop that has infested every social space on the internet, lending more credence than ever to the “dead internet theory.” It’s hard to find hope in a sea of garbage. Despite 3D Country’s album cover, and less forgivably the single cover for the band’s one-off cover of Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” being sourced from AI images (granted 3D Country’s cover fell in the grey area where it was sort of an interesting avenue to explore surreal visuals, see also black midi’s Hellfire), there is something so real about Geese and Cameron Winter.

The band refers to itself with the tagline “A Real Band.” Something very blunt, but it’s effective as hell. Most bands couldn’t pull that off without garnering some air of pretension, but Geese don’t come off that way at all. They’re a group of lifelong friends here to play their songs; they’re “A Real Band.” Every once in a while, a band or an artist will come around that feels born out of necessity. Sure, there are other “real bands” out there in the world, there always have been and always will be, I don’t want to lend credence to some of Rick Beato’s “Where did all the bands go?” talking points, but Geese demand your attention. Everything the band does is sincere, not in a saccharine way, but in a way that just seems so simple.

Neither Geese nor Winter himself is interested in surrendering themselves to aesthetics. The attention economy of today’s musical landscape hinges on “aura” and “hype moments,” of which it seems the band has no interest in either. Aside from some artsy photoshoots, which are a necessity regardless, Winter and the band seem perfectly fine putting the focus on the music itself rather than the shallow artistic deception so many artists lean into when they want to seem cool and mysterious. Everyone wants to be mysterious. They want the mythos of an established artist, even though they’ve only just now entered the public consciousness. Perhaps the best way to garner those cool points is to stop the vague gesturing at tired aesthetics and just focus on the music. This strategy has worked wonders for Geese, making them the coolest up-and-coming band in America today. Winter’s solo ventures are markedly more stripped-down, but they’ve likewise captured the attention of many.

I keep going back to videos of Winter’s performance in St. Matthias Church. In most of the videos, you can’t see the crowd, but their silence during the songs speaks volumes. They’re entranced. I’m sure many people can plaster their own experiences on his songs, I certainly can, but the way he embodies these songs is so unique to him. There is no definitive version of the songs on Heavy Metal besides whichever one is flowing through Winter’s head at that exact moment. The reason Winter has become so beloved among my generation isn’t the relatability of his songs, but rather the legitimacy of it all. The easiest comparison I can draw is the rise of MJ Lenderman last summer, leading up to his Manning Fireworks album. While their songwriting styles differ in many areas, one thing that draws Winter and Lenderman together is how earnest their songs are. They are some of Gen Z’s most emblematic artists while avoiding the prophetic lyricism that typically lends itself to artists of generational standing, at least on the surface. My generation isn’t looking for prophets, at least the ones in my circle aren’t; we’re looking for a voice, for an outlet. For something to latch onto, something real. Sure, many of us are concerned with the illusions and deceptions of cool aesthetics, but just as many of us are demanding something more palpable from our songwriters. Hearing Cameron Winter lumber his way through songs in a church with unorthodox precision as the crowd looks on, enraptured, is exactly what many of us are looking for.

Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal is available for purchase through Partisan Records and Bandcamp

Geese’s new album Getting Killed is available for purchase through Partisan Records and Bandcamp

all words written by me
no generative AI was used in the process of making this article

find me elsewhere on the internet through my linktree
also here’s my ko-fi if u would like to support me financially, throw me some carrots if u will :D

thanks for reading!!
peace and love,
caleb 𓃹𓃒

EUSEXUA— FKA twigs

FKA twigs’ third studio album is conceptually her most ambitious to date. Through her unique practice, which this album is named for, she explores the human condition in all of its euphoric, sexual, and life-affirming nuances.

Very few artists, if any, are able to capture the sheer — oftentimes excruciating — depth of human emotion quite like FKA twigs. Where some might take the feelings of love, happiness, and self-acceptance on their face, Twigs breaks beyond the surface to confront something deeper. Love can be as euphoric as it is grueling, happiness as serene as a bad omen, and self-acceptance a mantra where it can just as soon feel like a farce. EUSEXUA, her third studio album, offers some of the most nuanced and powerful explorations of those feelings yet. As lofty as it may sound, Twigs tries to discern what it means to be a human being among a dynamic array of electronic dance music.

Everything about this era has been bold, from the visuals to the creative process that inspired this record. The album’s central theme is that of its title, EUSEXUA, a portmanteau she concocted from the words “euphoria” and “sexual.” In the album’s announcement last September, Twigs stated that “EUSEXUA is a practice, EUSEXUA is a state of being, EUSEXUA is the pinnacle of human experience.” This practice is what has driven Twigs over the creation of this album. As opposed to other practices of this nature, there’s not much pretense. She states that the concept of EUSEXUA “was birthed in chicken scratch” and “written on the back of [her] hand in a toilet at a rave in Prague.” A lot of albums exploring what it means to be a human, to simply exist, love, and thrive in this ever-changing world, come from a place of snooty studying. Trying to find the answers in centuries-old philosophy and the works of esteemed writers, yet Twigs finds these answers in the dancefloors packed full of sweaty people feeling the moment together. What better representation of humanity is there than, as she describes it, “[making] love to the booming thud of culture?” This isn’t an anti-intellectual argument, rather, why shouldn’t raves, the dancefloors in a dingy club, and bumping up against other damp bodies not be included in the intellectual lexicon? EUSEXUA proves they most certainly should be.

We’re introduced to this practice through the plodding fury of the title track. It’s so serene, Twigs’ vocals are patient and reserved, yet something is burgeoning under the surface. A feeling that just worms its way into your subconscious, what is it? EUSEXUA? “Words cannot describe, baby / This feeling deep inside,” she sings. Words may not be able to describe it, but it’s certainly something that you feel on some abnormal level. That’s always been true of Twigs’ words, even as she digs into something more abstract here. My mind immediately goes to “Hours” from LP1, where Twigs sings “I could kiss you for hours” over some strange drum patterns. The way it’s delivered just strikes something internal. It’s sexy, it’s painful, it’s rapturous — if anyone can effectively express these subconscious feelings in their music, it’s her.

The characteristics of this practice Twigs is preaching about feel almost ubiquitous, but it’s transcendental nonetheless. It’s liberating, and that liberation is something she explores and encourages as the EUSEXUA experience continues. On the breakbeats of “Girl Feels Good,” she confronts toxic masculinity and how it prevents men from forming genuine connections with the women they wish to fall in love with — never chastising them, rather gently reaffirming them and trying to steer them in the proper direction. It’s very graceful. She flings herself into bouncy rhythms and the mysteries of love with “Perfect Stranger,” feeling the moment with someone and not worrying about any of the extra baggage surrounding them. This serves as a celebration of “love at first sight,” but this reveling in the no-strings-attached approach to romance could be brought about by past aches and pains — I mean, see songs like “cellophane” for example. Twigs’ mantras and beliefs that inform EUSEXUA are not just simple reaffirmations that life is worth living; they’re much more nuanced than that.

Life contains moments of thunderous, exhilarating lust like on the Koreless-produced “Drums of Death” and “Striptease.” Moments of sobering realization like on the closer “Wanderlust,” which sees Twigs in one of the most intimate lights we’ve ever seen her, talking bluntly and overly descriptive, it feels like the morning after an insane rave party. It can also have moments of blissful immaturity like on the polarizing “Childlike Things,” featuring North West. It sticks out like a sore thumb in the album’s tracklist. Some write it off entirely, but I find it a fascinating inclusion and a pretty enjoyable track, a representation of pure invincible joy — even with West’s contributions.

The human condition is messy as all hell, and finding stability without acknowledging that is nearly impossible. On this album, Twigs finds herself above all the noise, trying to act as a guiding light for herself and others, yet even she seems unable to separate herself from life’s many tribulations. Maybe you aren’t supposed to. She’s tackling life from all angles, it feels almost like a healing process in a sense, both for herself and anyone who might feel lost in the world. Be in the moment. Accept yourself. Immerse yourself in the noise, immerse yourself in “the booming thud of culture.”

EUSEXUA is another bold, emphatic release from FKA twigs. The songs are as strong as ever, tied together by her most ambitious concept yet. The sounds here may be more palatable than on her previous records, but that unique edge she brings to her art is absolutely resilient. The best aspects of Twigs’ music are present here, just expanded to broader horizons. What we have is the most confident album in her catalog thus far. Maybe not everyone can follow the practices of EUSEXUA the way Twigs lays them out, but she certainly did. She’s in the moment, she feels everything. That’s what makes these songs so potent — she’s experiencing all of this. There’s no ironic detachment on EUSEXUA, it’s earnest, sometimes to an agonizing degree. This has been the case with all of Twigs’ music thus far, it’s one of the biggest reasons she stands out as one of the most singular artists of our generation.

FKA Twigs’ EUSEXUA is available on all streaming services. Buy the album through Young and the FKA twigs webstore

NOTE: some instances of EUSEXUA are in italics and some are not, this is to differentiate from the album title (italics) and the practice (not in italics). this was confusing for me too lol

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caleb 𓃹𓃒

GNX — Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar seeks to create a watershed moment for West Coast hip-hop while continuing to wrestle with his distinction as hip-hop’s prophet on his abrupt new album.

In recent memory, 2024 has been one of the most eventful years for music — particularly for Kendrick Lamar. The typically elusive West Coast rapper was embroiled in a bowling-shoe ugly feud with Drake, surely music’s most exciting and, in the aftermath, perhaps most depressing event all year. I don’t want to use this review to rehash the feud, but it’s impossible to intertwine analysis of it with GNX. This feud saw Lamar in the limelight a lot, he kept his calculated edge, but we heard from him quite a bit. Lamar released numerous incisive diss tracks, most infamously “Not Like Us” a ratchet banger about the Toronto rapper’s alleged sexual deviancy that he played five consecutive times at his Pop-Out show in Los Angeles, a real “dance on your grave” type moment. It’s well understood — unless you’re DJ Akademiks or someone else who has gone off the deep end — that Lamar won the feud pretty decisively. However, contrary to the celebratory nature of The Pop-Out show, Kendrick himself doesn’t seem at peace with this win. His proverbial epilogue to the feud, “Watch the Party Die,” turned the focus away from Drake and to the culture at large. He criticized the hip-hop industry, calling it a circus, wanting to burn it down and start anew. One might ask, after the events of this year, what gives Kendrick Lamar the authority to bring about this change?

During the feud, I was firmly on Lamar’s side cheering him on almost uncritically. Watching it unfold like I was watching a pro wrestling match. Perhaps I was a contributing factor to this circus, but at the same time maybe Lamar enabled said circus in the process. As all of this clarity and nuance arrived as the dust was settling, Lamar released GNX out of thin air — an album that is perplexing by Lamar’s usual standards. The usual high-concept of his previous albums is nowhere to be found, except in his pen game, of course. Especially after the conceptually dense Mr. Morale, this album is his most stripped-back since, like, Section.80. I would presume that this is Lamar’s idea of “watching the party die,” which is tearing everything down to build a better foundation for the future of hip hop. Essentially, what we get with GNX is a celebration of the legacy of West Coast hip hop, providing space for classic sounds while Lamar parades around with many up-and-coming names from the scene.

This might be Lamar’s first album that is mixed for cars. This isn’t something he wants you to pontificate upon with headphones in front of your stereo system, this is music made for casual listening with more heart than what it calls for. It’s a full-album retort to one of the most braindead critiques of Lamar’s art, that it’s just tryhard activism, or as Drake explained in his own horrible way “Always rappin’ like you ‘bout to get the slaves freed.” This opinion Drake and his many cohorts espouse is problematic and anti-intellectual by nature, but Lamar seems to have taken it as a challenge — if “Not Like Us” and GNX are any proof. The difficult part would be trying to balance his messaging, which he certainly doesn’t sacrifice, with the more laid-back style. The beats have more punch to them, the way the bass thumps just calls for you to hear it out of someone’s car while walking down the street, and Lamar cuts up here more than any of his records before. The songs on GNX are almost secondary, in my opinion, Lamar sought to create a watershed moment for the West Coast. In the short run, I’d say it was a success, but really only time will tell.

That said, these songs are all pretty killer. On GNX, he moves with a certain kind of finesse and personality that he rarely gets to tap into. We saw it in his features on his cousin Baby Keem’s tracks over the last few years, but rarely in a full record. He’s not afraid to get a little silly with it like the readymade club banger “squabble up” — a celebratory track with a bit of grit to it. He’s not afraid to get a bit lowkey either. Take a song like “luther” for example, a sultry trap soul cut that puts Kendrick in rather unfamiliar territory. Despite this, he absolutely shines, along with SZA of course. His lush verses imagine a world free from all its cruelties. Or “dodger blue” with his subdued bars making way for the other West Coast up-and-comers to take the spotlight. The scope of this project is a lot smaller, but I think it’s impossible to limit his ambition. Everything sounds lowkey compared to the dynamic concept records he’s become known for. The beats sound less “grand,” for lack of a better descriptor. He’s simultaneously wearing his influences on his sleeves and blending into the sounds around him. He no longer feels above the music, as captivating as that was, he’s now a part of it.

Unlike previous records, Lamar seeks to finally position himself less as a “savior” and simply as one of the best in the game — of all time, really. To connect with the culture on the ground level. Which, in a way, contradicts what I interpret to be his overarching goal with this project. To lead hip-hop to something greater. His aspirations are laid out through “Watch the Party Die” or across this record with more serious tracks like “man at the garden” or “reincarnation” where he continues to examine the state of hip hop as well as his place within it. It’s also evident in how he props up so many promising West Coast rappers, ones that have never gotten this spotlight before. Names like Dody6, Lefty Gunplay, Wallie the Sensei, and Hitta J3, among many others are likely unfamiliar to many up until this album. GNX is not a record without a purpose, it’s clear Lamar still has a mission. His desire to plant new seeds for a better hip-hop community and culture is admirable, but this brings me back to my initial question before GNX dropped, is Lamar really the best artist to bring about this change? He’s spent the better part of this year engaging in a nasty, mud-slinging feud with Drake. Everything from petty grievances to disturbing allegations was delivered through song and eaten up by the same hip-hop culture he despises. I would argue that he contributed to this vicious cycle as well. He’s not infallible, but he never claims to be. Contradictions are present within all of us, therefore they’re present within art. I’m not here to stand bewildered in the face of Kendrick’s art, although I cherish a great deal of it, I want to take a more critical examination of it. However, in the short term, I’d say this album succeeded at being a watershed moment for West Coast hip hop, maybe even for Lamar himself.

The artists often lauded as “prophets” never embrace that term. Bob Dylan once stated that he “never wanted to be a prophet or savior,” a sentiment echoed by Kendrick Lamar on his previous record. This distinction does not come at the artist’s behest, it’s attributed to them against their will. What’s interesting to me is how the art shifts in response to this desire to, in a way, lower yourself from the pedestal the audience puts you upon. I never get caught up in calling artists prophets, even those whose work I admire like Lamar’s and Dylan’s. They know about as much as we do, they can only provide keen insight into the worlds they’re privy to and we all perceive those things differently. They’re imperfect, no one is a prophet in the purest sense. No one artist can usher change, but I think Lamar recognizes that. Even as he loathes the distinction of a prophet, people still look to him for answers. How do you balance the desire to work towards something better with your disdain for being propped up as the one with all the answers? GNX, on a broader level, is trying to accomplish exactly that. It’s sure to be divisive, but even with this shift, Lamar remains one of the most compelling artists of my generation.

Kendrick Lamar’s GNX is available on all streaming services. Buy the album on pglang

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Mahashmashana— Father John Misty

Josh Tillman’s existential new album is his eccentric attempt to grapple with his own identity through baroque psychedelia.

Few artists have proven to be as divisive as Father John Misty. Some view him as the last pariah of a certain dying “Pitchfork Best New Music” era of indie folk, the kind that seems like it was made for people who believed they were much smarter than you could ever be. Others find him genuinely insightful, his pompous wordplay revealing all kinds of ugly truths about himself and the universe. I believe Mr. Tillman operates under neither characterization — he blurs the lines between both. Does he fit the bill for either viewpoint on a surface level, I would say so, but the cracks start to form once you start taking Tillman’s self-serious doomsday prose not so seriously. The way I think it was supposed to be intended. There’s a necessary suspension of disbelief when engaging with his music. It’s excess in ways that can easily be a turn-off, but that’s what makes it so intriguing to me. It’s like a stageplay for an audience of the worst people you know — those who are blissfully unaware that what’s unfolding on stage is poking fun at them. All the while, we see the genuine fears and emotions of the artist bubbling up to the surface alongside the sardonic wit. This is the polarizing case of Josh Tillman.

Mahashmashana is interesting, in part, because Tillman is at his most excessive. Yet, this record is probably his most personal to date. This record sounds like Tillman and the Father John Misty “persona” having a spiritual awakening. Using the delightfully dated sounds of early 70s singer-songwriter and soft rock music — à la George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass — blended with some far-out baroque psychedelia, Tillman makes for one of his most tantalizing albums yet. Looking back at his last album, Chloë and the Next 20th Century, it feels like Tillman was reaching a crossroads with his music. His stark commentary on modern love and failed romances juxtaposed with the jazz and swing sounds of years gone by tested the patience of many, but I saw his vision. Looking closer at that record makes Mahashmashana look like the only path forward. This is the sound of Tillman in his element as he stumbles through the world around him, occasionally scribbling something insightful on his way.

The title track emphatically opens the record and sounds almost like a worship song. Tillman’s battle with existentialism reaches a fever pitch as he projects the concept of humanity onto the relationship between this unnamed man and woman. He croons that life itself, “Is a scheme to enrich assholes / What the godhead had in mind / When he hid here such revelations / As only singers could describe?” This bleeds into the chorus which sounds euphoric, a hopeful cry to something beyond that we can break our cycles, but there’s the underlying notion that we have to be the ones to do it ourselves — that is if we even have a chance. Even when making something so spiritual, it’s never blind worship to a higher power, it’s skeptical as all hell. How could you not be? After all, art is the best place to explore this skepticism.

The “better than you” poet is gone, he’s now just one of us — maybe he was all along. “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose” has him tripping on psychedelics while a woman plays Astral Weeks, playfully calling it jazz, and proceeding to get into political arguments with others in the room. As she reveals that “They’re tacit fascists without knowing it,” Tillman quietly loses his mind. Each revelation seeps into some deeper universal truth as the sharp strings swoop down like vultures. It’s surreal, but at the same time, it’s one of many moments on the album where Tillman reveals himself. It fits into his signature songwriting style, how he portrays those around him in such razor-sharp ways that you can immediately attribute those characteristics to someone you know personally, but, even on an album like Pure Comedy, Tillman rarely ever has shows this kind of worldliness. The existentialism has been slowly, but surely catching up to him, culminating at this moment. The question is whether to revel in all of life’s abstractions, numb yourself to the chaos, or find a way to somehow rise above it.

Tillman himself doesn’t even have the answer to this, he’s spending the whole album tackling the intricacies and pitfalls of life, but he barely has a hold on himself. He explained at a concert before performing the song “Being You,” that he entered a “bit of a five-year fugue state” where he “found it basically impossible to relate to human beings or my mind self.” This not only informs that song in particular but Mahashmashana in general. It’s the sound of Tillman trying to define himself with the backdrop of the world at large. So, for those who have had trouble discerning Father John Misty over the years, no worries, he’s struggled all the same. How much you get from his art is up to you. I just happen to find his unorthodox and often unfriendly art quite charming.

Father John Misty’s Mahashmashana is available on all streaming services. Buy the album on Bandcamp or Sub-Pop

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867 — This Is the Glasshouse

A passion project in every sense of the term, This Is the Glasshouse’s third album sounds like it was born out of necessity. It also provides an emotional roadmap of Canada’s Yukon territory.

After a great sophomore release last year, This Is the Glasshouse has firmly solidified itself as one of the most exciting projects in not just the furry music scene, but beyond it as well. The kind of musicianship on display across their short, but fruitful catalog is nothing short of impressive. Multi-instrumentalist Ezekiel Dukart helms the project, acting as the nucleus for these often expansive and emotionally intensive songs. As Small As Ants was rife with brass, woodwinds, and various other unexpected instruments that supplied so much warmth to the autumn-tinged sound. Over a year later and after a very enjoyable EP of cover songs — that features an ingenious version of Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music” which trades the original composition’s hand-clapping for chopped-up field recordings, removing all of the humanity from a deeply human piece of music* — Dukart and an even tighter group of musicians, namely Cole Buchinski who co-writes the even-numbered tracks on the record, reconvene for a new album that refines every aspect of their sound in the most captivating ways possible.

Dukart’s lyricism is as important to the This Is the Glasshouse sound as the instrumentation. Most of the songs here contain references specific to Canada’s Yukon territory — 867 is the area code for Yukon. The way these landmarks and fun facts, for lack of a better term, are portrayed in these songs is so vivid. The lyrics make everything feel fabled, he projects his meditations and feelings onto these places as much as they reflect onto him, it’s cyclical. I’ve never been to this one specific cabin in Yukon with a faux moose atop it or Mount Lorne where a plane once crashed in the 1950s, but these songs make me feel like they’re places I’ve known my whole life. These songs make the mundane become a monument and the natural become the stuff of legend.

867 is vast in scope, but it’s all anchored by the palpable emotions Dukart brings to the table. He sounds so connected to these songs. Yeah, these songs are informed by his feelings and experiences, but there’s an extra level of dedication here that is just so enthralling. Every word, every melody, every piece of instrumentation has so much conviction behind it. This is what makes 867 such an amazing album, but also one that’s admittedly hard to dissect without rambling on and on and on.

The songs on 867 are dense, to say the very least. The concepts have gotten even more ambitious as has the instrumentation, as well as the sheer passion running through these songs. It’s not only a refinement of the ideas present on their sophomore release, it’s a whole different beast entirely. This was made glaringly apparent by the lead single “Before Machinery” — check out Teague’s excellent review of this track for indieAnthro — which features Dukart’s cathartic ranting and raving about a world before technology as we know it over a noisy, abrasive soundscape. The sonic palette of this record is, by design, eclectic and even a little jarring, especially across the more sprawling tracks that can stretch up to 10 minutes or so.

An incredible grasp of arrangements and savvy musicianship is one of This Is the Glasshouse’s hallmarks at this point. Still, I never could’ve anticipated a song as dynamic as “January” for example — a striking, nervous exploration of self-worth and yearning with jerking rhythms and scorching guitars. “Two-Headed Calf” is a jazzy math rock track built around a poem by Laura Gilpin, it’s also represented on the album’s cover art. The zany third-stream, Latin rock blend on the title track is another mind-blowing moment, made even more impactful by how it cascades into the ramshackle uneasiness of “Old George.” The instrumentation on this album continues to blow me away after multiple listens. You manage to pick up new details whenever you dive back in, it’s so rewarding in that regard. It feels like such a passion project, a labor of love in every minute detail.

The highest praise I can grant to 867 is that it feels like a record born out of necessity. Dukart said in the Bandcamp description of the album that “this record nearly killed [his] love for making music” before detailing the intense creative process that went into these songs. You can hear it, that’s for certain. That obsession, while unhealthy, comes through in the music tenfold. Often very obsessive passion projects have a hard time connecting with an audience, but thankfully, 867 has no such problem. Every bit of this record is undeniably personal, yet the way Dukart writes about Yukon, the 867 area, and their experiences within it paints such an evocative picture that you can’t help but be engrossed by it all.

This Is the Glasshouse’s 867 is available on all streaming services. Buy the album digitally and physically on cassette, via trickyStoop, on Bandcamp

*me and my partner (@dumbdogdisco on twt) kept trying to dissect how this song was arranged and idk if we figured it out, but i wanted to give them some partial credit :3

also be on the lookout for the review of this album coming up on indieAnthro, the furry/queer music blog i contribute to sometimes! when it is posted I will add the link here!!

find me elsewhere on the internet through my linktree
also here’s my ko-fi if u would like to support me financially, throw me some carrots if u will :D

thanks for reading!!
peace and love,
caleb 𓃹𓃒

Songs of a Lost World — The Cure

The Cure’s first album in sixteen years sees the goth icons meditating on time and mortality, rekindling what made their music undeniably spellbinding in the process.

The Cure’s legacy is pretty much bulletproof. The band’s output after their commercial apex in the late 80s and early 90s with smash successes like Disintegration and Wish has been notoriously inconsistent. Every one of those albums has at least one or two great tracks, I’d even say Bloodflowers is a pretty solid album overall, but it felt like The Cure’s best days were long behind them. That didn’t really change the narrative of the band’s legacy, after all, a lot of older bands wind down their studio careers on albums that couldn’t dare reach the heights of their best material from years prior. That was certainly the case with The Cure. Their heights were undeniable, their influence running through every nook and cranny of alternative music. Records like Pornography and Disintegration, among others, have stood the test of time.

This is in part, because Robert Smith has been infatuated with the concept of time over the years, it’s what makes Disintegration especially feel so masterful. The idea of running out of time before you can say all you need to say. Before you can make your masterpiece. No matter how cruel it is, time waits for no one. This is what fuels Songs of a Lost World as well, a record years and years in the making. Smith’s notorious perfectionism as well as the state of the world around us has kept their first album in 16 years in a state of limbo since around 2019. His obsession with time is paradoxical in a sense. One, because of that belabored “control freak” nature, and two, because one of the band’s hallmarks is long, drawn-out instrumental passages that build strong atmospheres better than most bands could ever hope to do. Smith and the band are incredibly patient, they don’t take time for granted although it’s always a looming threat. Those same sensibilities inform Songs of a Lost World, maybe more than ever before.

As soon as you press play, you’re submerged in the saturated tones of “Alone.” The layered synths, booming drums, heavy bass riffs, and subtle bits of guitar and piano all dance along one another for over three minutes. Just building anticipation while also allowing you to get lost in the sound. By the time Smith’s verses come in, you’re already in too deep, drawn into the gloomy sonic landscape they so effortlessly create. This is what makes The Cure so great. The way this album is produced makes everything feel very claustrophobic and while I have seen plenty of quibbling about the mixing, I think it suits the album perfectly. Every bit of instrumentation is drenched in passion. You hang on to every single drum beat or bass line like it’s the last you will ever hear, the band is playing these songs with that same patient urgency. Every song on this record succeeds in being arresting. “Warsong” slowly builds with these scorching, echoey guitars and, again, thunderous drums making you feel like you’re regretfully following a warpath — matching Smith’s sentiments of “For we are born to war” at the ending of the song’s chorus. “I Can Never Say Goodbye” is driven by a somber piano melody that becomes drowned out by a deafening rhythm section — the bass on this album is almost sludgy and again, the drums on this album are always LOUD — it all comes together in such a mesmerizing way. The Cure’s best records have detailed, oppressive soundscapes and Songs of a Lost World has absolutely no shortage of them whatsoever.

Robert Smith is the beating heart at the center of it all, everyone in the band is playing their parts perfectly, but they’re simply tasked with bringing Smith’s wistful musings to life. This record is the first Cure album since 1985’s The Head on the Door to be comprised of solely Smith-penned songs, make no mistake, he is the anchor of this album. No one can write a twisting and turning melancholic song like Smith. He follows his usual tropes here, which is perfectly fine, that’s a big part of why we love the band, but the added layer of all these years going by and the knowledge that time is finite is what makes his songwriting here so much more potent. The running throughline of this album is the concept of the end, Smith muses on “The end of every song” as he does the end of life itself. In “And Nothing is Forever” he sings of promising to be beside someone while they’re on their deathbed, not much more is given, but that’s all we need to understand why Smith had to write about this in song. The lines that impacted me the most come in “All I Ever Am” where Smith puts the spotlight firmly on himself, disregarding a lot of the literary pretense he’s incorporated into his songwriting over the years, and sings “My weary dance with age / And resignation moves me slow / Toward a dark and empty stage / Where I can sing of all I know.” Music means so much to Robert Smith, he wants to live in these songs. His voice still sounds as it did all those years ago, but his words are weathered with age. He still has so much to say, but time doesn’t stop. Every song must end at some point.

This all culminates in the fabled “Endsong,” one of the songs from this record that the band played throughout their extensive Shows of a Lost World tour from last year. A ten-minute epic that serves as not just the perfect album closer, but one of the highlights of the band’s entire career. Smith reminisces further on his life, he sings “It’s all gone, it’s all gone / Nothing left of all I loved” in the song’s chorus. Nothing lasts forever, he knows this all too well. As the band rages on behind him, it sounds like he’s getting lost in the music. His words aren’t as pointed, they’re buried by the cold synths and weighty instrumentation. All that manages to come through crystal clear is Smith proclaiming “I will lose myself in time” and the repeated chants of “Left alone with nothing / The end of every song.”

Songs of a Lost World is so much more than a return to form for one of the greatest bands of all time. It’s a moving example of an artist grappling with time, age, and mortality. These are concepts Smith has touched on many times before, but as the years continue to pass him by their shadow looms ever larger. So, he handles them the only way he knows how, through music. Things have changed drastically from over 50 years ago when the band, going by the name Malice, played David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix covers in those stuffy church halls in England, but despite all the time that has passed, they continue to be undeniable after all these years. The Cure is immortal.

The Cure’s Songs of a Lost World is available on all streaming services. Buy the album on The Cure’s Official Store

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Night Palace — Mount Eerie

Phil Elverum’s amazing new album is a beautifully distorted odyssey that mythologizes the world around us. It’s even more proof that he’s one of the best songwriters we have.

Phil Elverum is one of the most distinct songwriters of all time. His discography, whether it be under The Microphones or Mount Eerie banners, is about as fruitful a catalog as an artist could hope for. What sets Elverum’s work apart from his contemporaries is how his songs are never really over. “There’s no end” is a recurring line that shows up in his art, it defines what makes his work so special. The door is never closed completely. Ideas from decades past can be dug up and explored once more. It never feels like fan service when he does this. Whenever Elverum digs up and re-examines those old ideas he does so with fresh new eyes, he’s going back to it for a reason. He’s learning and growing all the time, few artists reflect that so well in their art.

This is his first solo record under the Mount Eerie name since the emotional gut punches of A Crow Looked at Me and Now Only, two records that explored his grief following the tragic loss of his wife and his readjustment to becoming a single parent. In the years following Elverum has taken a more reflective turn in his work. He returned to the Microphones name for Microphones in 2020 which was sort of like a musical biography, a 44-minute song detailing his life and career up to that point. That reflectiveness can only last so long, there’s only so much you can walk back over before you begin walking in circles. This leads us to Night Palace, an album that feels like the beginning of a new chapter. That grief and all the things he’s learned over the years are still with him, but he’s ready to keep moving forward. Keep learning and growing. Perhaps you can never fully heal in the aftermath of unfathomable loss, but instead of using that grief to endlessly explore his own personal feelings, Elverum decides to use it to better understand the world around him.

This makes Night Palace one of the most layered works in Elverum’s catalog. Every emotion he explores here is connected to something in nature, something inhuman, but very much alive. He manages to poignantly explore the dynamics of nature and how they inform our own sensibilities across the record. The environment has always informed Elverum’s work, but he dissects it most directly here. He mythologizes waves, birds, the wind, and even a fish that may or may not be The Dude from The Big Lebowski. He does this both lyrically and musically. He sings of a fire burning at his back on “Huge Fire” and to depict that he throws the listener into a scorching, razor-sharp pit of guitar feedback. The way he portrays the wind through walls of distorted noise on tracks like “(soft air)” and “Wind & Fog” is mesmerizing. The former ushers in this wall with a bit-crushed “Whoooooooo.” “I Saw Another Bird” has Phil meeting a raven that starts to speak to him, he implements vocal harmonizing and a wall of noisy guitars to represent his spaced-out stupor in response. For such an amazing lyricist, he sure knows when to let the music do the talking. It’s like they’re concepts that are beyond us, they’re dream-like. We can never fully understand them, but we should never be cruel to them. We should try to understand them. It’s his most spiritual work to date in that regard, but it never comes off as preachy. This all comes from a genuine curiosity. After all, he is only “a fool on the ground below them.” His ability to explore these ideas not just with words, but also with instrumentation is one of the album’s biggest strengths.

It’s not all bewildered musings, in the album’s later half Elverum explores how humans have brutalized the land around them and even each other. He sings in “Non-Metaphorical Decolonization” that “We live in the wreckage of a colonizing force” and says that we’re “So scared of a moment of discomfort now.” He challenges the unwillingness to examine the harm we have wrought upon the world over centuries. We can never truly learn from them if we don’t. “This America, the old idea, I want it to die” he sings. I never thought I would hear Phil Elverum tackle broad concepts like these, but I’m blown away by how poignant it is. Then again, why would I ever doubt Elverum in the first place?

Night Palace was teased in its press release as a return to “the beloved deep analog fuzz world of the Microphones’ the Glow pt. 2,” and while this is certainly true, the record is so much more than just a simple return musically. It feels like a culmination of every sound he’s ever ventured into and then some. I’m sure even fans of records like White Stag or Post-Human Ideas would be pleased — namely with the brief lines on “I Spoke With A Fish” that contain autotune vocals and 808 drums. Perhaps those who are drawn to Phil’s music for the soft-spoken, heart-crushing indie folk might be in for a surprise. Those moments are here in bursts, like the sweet ode to his daughter “My Canopy,” but sonically Night Palace is characterized by atmospheric, often arresting, post-rock passages and heaps of distortion. A lot of these songs feel like spiritual successors to records like Wind’s Poem or Clear Moon with how oppressive the atmosphere can get. There’s no sense of complacency in this record, it’s not just a case of Phil simply retreating back to familiar sounds. Even as he retreads some old sonic ground, he’s planting new seeds on the same soil.

He has this unique ability to polish all of the sounds he’s dabbled in over the last three decades while still making everything feel cobbled together and intimate. After all these years, there’s still an unshakable DIY element to his art. Even on tracks with a more full sound, like “Huge Fire” which sounds like it was recorded with a full band, these songs never lose that intimacy. That feeling of every song being the product of one man sat in his weathered analog reel-to-reel studio meditating on the world around him and searching for the perfect sounds to match his thoughts. One man exploring concepts through words and music. One of the simplest forms of expression, but Elverum continues to make it seem revolutionary.

As a longtime admirer of Elverum’s work, I firmly believe Night Palace stands as one of his strongest records to date. It’s a chill-inducing, tear-jerking, beautifully distorted odyssey. The sound of a prolific songwriter refusing to slip into comfortable patterns and ride the wave to the end. There is no sense of urgency to this record. He’s ruminating on concepts even he doesn’t understand yet, some he may never come to understand. The music captures that thought process in such a powerful way. It serves as a reminder that we should never become incurious about the world around us or our history — no matter how horrible it may be. These are things to be explored, not ignored. His music is so human in that regard. Every song feels living and breathing, incredibly natural. The effectiveness of Elverum’s art continues to be unmatched. We’re all incredibly lucky to live at the same time as an artist like Phil Elverum.

Phil Elverum’s Night Palace is available on all streaming services. Buy the album on Bandcamp or P.W. Elverum & Sun

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