The 2025 Music Roundup
My favorite records and songs of 2025!
You know what time it is. The end of the year rapidly approaches. It’s the moment to look back and reflect on the previous twelve months. And let’s be real, it’s been a pretty awful year! The world is, by most metrics, a worse place than it was last December. With all the horror and suffering happening here and abroad, it almost feels bad or selfish to find moments of joy and happiness. But those moments are even more important in light of everything around us. All the more, we need to create, to strengthen community bonds, to do whatever we can to protect our mental and emotional health.
That was a pretty heavy intro to a bunch of records, huh?
Albums
20. Glitterer - erer
All these years later, there are still people clamoring for a Title Fight reunion, or lamenting never having seen them. Meanwhile, Glitterer continues to carry on and show us what that band would have sounded like if it kept down the path it explored on Hyperview.
19. Home Front - Watch It Die
There is some great post-punk happening these days, and I think Home Front is one of the best out there. This makes me want to go out to a dance night.
18. Suzie True - How I Learned to Love What’s Gone
This trio really captures some of the best elements of pop-punk and a dash of ‘90s alt rock, and mixed with some great, searing lyrics and gorgeous melodies. They’ve gotten better and better with each release, and this is pretty close to pop-punk perfection.
17. Rochelle Jordan - Through the Wall
There’s so much going on in this album. Elements of R&B, house, soul, D&B, and more swirl through the DNA of the record, all mashing together into a heady, intoxicating mix that’s hard to get out of your head once you hear it. And at the center, Rochelle’s smooth, gorgeous vocals.
16. Radioactivity - Time Won’t Bring Me Down
Anything Marked Men related will get my interest. Radioactivity dropped their first new album in a decade more or less out of nowhere, and they have not lost a step since Silent Kill back in 2015. Their frantic garage punk is catchy and full of energy.
15. Lambrini Girls - Who Let the Dogs In?
Talk about starting the year with a bang! This band built a lot of hype for this record with singles like “God’s Country” and “Company Culture.” They did not disappoint in the slightest. The attitude, the riffs, the message, check check check. Plus there’s a remix of “Cuntology 101” by the almighty Peaches. I mean come on. Get into it.
14. Bobby O - Energizer of Purpose
The godfather of Hi-HRG returns with his first full-length in nearly a decade, and it sounds like it was transported directly from the mid-’80s. Bobby Orlando has a clear vision and he executes it like the professional he is.
13. Broken Record - Routine
This band keeps getting better. 2023’s Nothing Moves Me was a fantastic, captivating record of, as they say it, stadium emo, and this record delivers another round of great lyrics and big, crunchy guitars.
12. Scowl - Are We All Angels?
Scowl was a fun hardcore band, but for my money, they’re even better as their sound has broadened to include more alt-rock and other influences. I miss Kat’s screams, for sure, but it can be exciting when a hardcore band evolves, and this is definitely pointing to a compelling direction for them.
11. Little Low - Sunshine Guilt
I’ve loved the music Christine has made since I first encountered her in the band Save Ends, some homies I would see all over Boston. I’m so glad to see her continuing to make music with Little Low, and Sunshine Guilt is filled with catchy-as-hell power-pop-punk songs with lyrics that demand to be sung along with while giving you Feelings.
10. Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH
Look, Turnstile rules. The Wyman Park show will live in legend. And NEVER ENOUGH is a good album! If anything, it suffers from natural comparisons to GLOW ON, which was a more focused mix of hardcore and their more experimental explorations. Here, some of the digressions don’t quite land, or just go on a bit too long. But the highs highlight everything you love about Turnstile.
09. Nuvolascura - how this all ends
Is screamo having a moment? I ask mainly due to all the old bands reactivating themselves of late, and what seems like more and more bands popping up in the space. LA skramz revivalists Nuvolascura have been pretty quiet since their last album in 2020, but the wait was worth it for this record. Filled with twisting riffs and intense vocals, the songs are short, fast, and cathartic, all building up to an epic 6-minute closer.
08. Spiritual Cramp - RUDE
Spiritual Cramp caught me by surprise with their self-titled album, which quickly became an obsession, and while less surprising, they lodged in my brain once again with this excellent follow-up. Big, muscular, dancy riffs drive through the record, making you bounce to such self-deprecating jams as “At My Funeral.”
07. Sabrina Carpenter - Man’s Best Friend
This is probably my favorite thing Sabrina has done so far. The synthy music along with Sabrina’s twang and winking, comically sexually-charged lyrics has given us an irresistibly charming set of pop songs. Sabrina Carpenter may be the most charismatic pop star we’ve had in a long time, and it fully comes through on this album. Just surrender to it.
06. Debby Friday - The Starrr of the Queen of Life
Debby Friday does it again. The Toronto-based musician evokes house, futurepop, darkwave, and so much in her unique take on electronic music.
05. Lady Gaga - MAYHEM
Praise be for Mother Monster’s return. While I’m sad that the whole album didn’t follow the template laid out in “Abracadabra,” Gaga is here doing what she does best, giving us dancefloor anthems with a singular vision and voice. Not quite as cohesive as Chromatica, and honestly brought down by the tacked-on (but weirdly successful?) Bruno Mars collab, this is nonetheless a strong effort from one of the modern great pop artists.
04. Maura Weaver - Strange Devotion
Maura has been making excellent music since her days in the pop-punk band Mixtapes, and she keeps getting better and better. I loved I Was Due For a Heartbreak, but was not prepared for the evolution on Strange Devotion. Learning that the Twin Peaks score was an influence makes sense; there’s so much atmosphere on this record, while still being so very catchy, and the lyrics are on point as always.
03. Murder By Death - Egg & Dart
I’d love this album even if it didn’t have the added emotional weight of being the band’s swan song, at least as a touring act. Murder by Death is consistent, having honed their dark Americana over the years and building a devoted cult of a fanbase, and their farewell tour was a beautiful celebration of their catalog and the community. And if you’re going to go out, this is how you do it. Beautiful, often haunting music paired with the somber lyrics Adam writes so well.
02. End It - Wrong Side of Heaven
The best hardcore record out of Baltimore isn’t Turnstile, it’s the long-awaited full-length from the beloved Baltimore City hate crew End It. The band’s attack hasn’t changed from their EPs; if the furious “New Wage Slavery” or “The Comeback” didn’t make you mosh on sight, this isn’t gonna do it for you. Maybe the biggest surprise here, if you’ve never seen the band or checked out a video of them live, is Akil’s singing on the Maximum Penalty cover “Could You Love Me?” He’s got pipes!
01. AFI - Silver Bleeds the Black Sun
AFI has been around for a long time, and their sound has evolved in big ways over the years. Their love of goth and post-punk was never a secret; they covered The Cure and other spooky classics since early on. But they’ve never leaned as fully into those influences as they did here. Love & Rockets, The Church, Sisters of Mercy, Death in June, and more all swirl through the DNA of this album, while still remaining distinctly AFI, giving us my favorite set of songs from them since 2013’s Burials. Every new album of theirs is divisive, and this is no different, but it’s refreshing to see this step for them, and exciting to imagine where they go from here.
EPs/Singles
10. Grand Scheme - EP
09. Shygirl - Club Shy Room 2
08. life - …and still it flutters
07. Slayyyter - “BEAT UP CHANEL$”
06. Kesha - “ATTENTION!”
05. Jazzy - High In The Moment
04. Speed - All My Angels
03. Dove Cameron - “French Girls”/”Too Much”
02. Spaced - No Escape
01. Rolo Tomassi - In the Echoes of All Dreams
There we go! My favorite records of the year. Some surprising stuff didn’t make it. The new Militarie Gun is good, but didn’t really grab me like the previous album did. Ava Max’s LP really lived up to its title, Don’t Click Play; just all around underwhelming and forgettable.
You need tunes? We got tunes! Playlist incoming:
Stay tuned for a more general recap of the year in the life.
