Dave’s Albums of 2025

Here we go again. Another year’s nearly gone and I’ve pulled together some favourites of the hundreds of brilliant new albums that have passed my ears this year. As usual I’m putting up some mixes up on my Mixcloud account here too.
And… drum roll… we’re off.

100) Bruise Blood – You Run Through The World Like An Open Razor

Teeth of The Sea’s Mike Bourne really lets loose here with an exuberant electro-psych odyssey. It takes in odd spoken word, electroclash, techno, psych-rock and a grab-bag of other stuff and sequences them seamlessly with, you would imagine, demonic glee.

99) Blawan – SickElixir

Wildly inventive experimental productions from this Yorkshire prodigy. Despite a previous album and countless singles, he considers this his first definitive statement, and it bristles with so many ideas that you can understand why. Don’t get me wrong – this is fierce stuff, and I prefer to dip into it, but it holds some dark delights.

98) Michael Beach – Big Black Plume

This Australian artist writes great songs, with depth and far more thought than many of his contemporaries. He’s been around for a while, think this is his fifth album, but he deserves far wider recognition.

97) Tunde Adebimpe – Thee Black Boltz

Class solo work from this TV on The Radio member, which doesn’t stray far (and doesn’t need to) from that band’s sound.

96) All Seeing Dolls – Parallel

Old Anton Newcombe has been a bit quiet recently, by his standards at least. But this effective collaboration with Dot Allison is a characteristically accomplished collection of, what, torch-psych?

94) Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta – Mapambazuko

This nuts collaboration between Peruvian and Congolese musicians is joyous lightning-paced afro-latin mayhem.

93) YHWH Nailgun – 45 Pounds

Sparse, arid noise-rock, pared back to its very essence. Less is more.

92) Viagra Boys – viagr aboys

The funniest band around? I reckon so. Taking the piss out of themselves and everyone else, these rambunctious Swedes have also got a great ear for an indie-punk banger.

91) Immersion – WTF

The most appropriately-named record for 2025, I reckon. Immersion follow up their excellent Suss collaboration with a set that underlines their core sound of chugging motorik electronic earworms overlaid with questing, questioning spoken word, asking, basically WTF?

90) Trent Reznor – The Gorge (Soundtrack from the Apple Original Film)

The new NIN album left me cold, but for a few years now Reznor has done his best work in soundtracks. This one turned a decent movie into a pretty good one – and that’s what a soundtrack is supposed to do.

89) Ani Glass – Phantasmagoria

Gwenno’s sis comes up with a cracker here. Singing in English and Welsh her cut glass voice soars over delicate, subtly strange songs that draw you in.

88) Tony Allen – La Boa Meets Tony Allen

Allen’s poshumous work is poignant, of course, since he is such a loss. Here his peerless drumming perfectly complements the afrobeat sound of this Columbian band.

87) Throwing Muses – Moonlight Concessions

Still here, still experimenting, still sounding fresh and great; it’s Kristen Hersh and her wonderful Throwing Muses. Inventive, spiky Indie-rock done as well as anyone ever has.

86) The Bug – Burials-Mud, The Bug vs. Ghost Dubs – Implosion

More quality dub action from Kevin Richard Martin. He’s in super aggresive-mode on the fearsome Burials and Mud EPs, with his deeper, dubbier side coming to the fore on his classic battle-off with German dub producer Ghost Dubs.

85) The Beths – Straight Line Was Lie

Cracking indie power-pop that is more New Zealand than a kiwi fruit. Airy harmonies and catchy tunes.

84) Big Thief – Double Infinity

This feels like an in-between album for these modern folk experimentalists, but it still has great moments, and an overall happier vibe than some of their work. Laraaji’s guest appearance is a highlight.

83) Dub Syndicate – Obscured By Version

This isn’t a remix album, more a gentle rework of some beats and rhythms from the On-U Sound titans classic period of the mid-to-late 80s. A welcome reminder that this is one of the greatest dub outfits in music history.

82) Superchunk – Songs in the Key of Yikes

Even when bemoaning the ghastly state of the world Superchunk just can’t help sounding ecstatic. Their raucous but tuneful indie rock hasn’t aged at all, and long may they roll on.

95) Andy Bell – Pinball Wanderer

Another belter from the prolific Ride founder Mr. Bell. His reimagining of ‘I’m in Love With a German Filmstar’, featuring Dot Allison and the mighty Michael Rother (Neu) is inspired.

81) Sven Wunder – Daybreak

After several excursions into Anatolian, eastern, and other jazz sub-genres, Sven Wunder seems to have reached a point where he’s absorbed all of those influences into his own unmistakable cool jazz voice. This is an assured and deceptively complex set, that breezes by delightfully.

80) The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation

More stargazing psych joy from one of Canada’s best bands.

79) Fluxion – Haze

Mesmeric murmuring ambient techno dub cuts.

78) Gaupa – Fyr

Just an EP, but what a meaty, crunching collection of proper hard rock. Tough-arse Swedish stoner rock inspired by sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guinn’s work. Marmite, I guess, but I love marmite.

77) Population II – Maintenant Jamais

Inventive proggy psych from this promising Canadian outfit.

76) The Jaffa Kid – A Teq Approach By

Quality broken beat stuff that nods to the classic work of Aphex and Autechre as much as to jungle.

75) William Tyler – Time Indefinite

Old Bill Tyler gets more and more experimental, and on this slow-burner, his usually distinctive acoustic guitar sound is processed out of all shape, at times sounding like something William Basinski or The Caretaker might dust off. It’s thoughtful and reflective, and the final track pulls everything together brilliantly.

74) Derya Yildirim & Grup Simsek – Yarın Yoksa

This Turkish group make bright, joyous, Anatolian psych-funk. A real fun album.

73) Gnod & White Hills – Drop Out III

This dream collaboration between two experimental and psych-rock titans gets a much-deserved rework and extension to a mammoth two-and-a-half-hours. This is deep experimental psych rock. Tracks are long and hypnotic, and there’s as much brooding ambience as there is churning guitars. A classic.

72) Forest Drive West – Masking

An excellent EP from the highly talented Forest Drive West, veering from dub techno to beat-heavy experimentalism. Deep, throbbing, moody stuff.

71) DoVs – Psychic Geography

A lively and bright ambient collaboration between a Swiss and a Mexican producer. The brief, apparently, was to keep it beatless, but there’s still a wriggling energy and effervescence to everything.

70) Acopia – Blush Response

Melbourne’s Acopia make a hazy swirl of dream pop. It’s slick, expertly produced and splendidly chilled stuff; quite modern, although maybe it’s just me hearing some early Cocteau Twins in here?

69) Aesop Rock – Black Hole Superette, I Heard It’s a Mess There Too

The world’s most eloquent and articulate MC gifts us two records in a year. I think I prefer the second. The clean, simple production, and classic boom-bap beats leave plenty of space for Aes’s rich and elaborate wordplay.

68) urika’s bedroom – Big Smile, Black Mire

LA’s urika’s bedroom makes sparse singer-songwriter stuff warped by sharp, ultra-modern production with a gauzy sheen. It’s very cool.

67) Memotone – Pruning

Proper outsider stuff, this. At first you skip over the bits that sound like two songs played at the same time in passing lifts for the (few) bits of relative normality, but after a while it all comes into focus like one of those dot pictures. Definitely not for everyone, but singular, and brilliant.

66) Microcorps – Clear Vortex Chamber

Alexander Tucker’s weird and meticulous music would be the perfect soundtrack to a pagan ritual held in a data centre.

65) Payfone – Lunch

Hypnotically slow house bangers that make you wonder why anyone ever bothers pushing things past 100 bpm.

64) Nick Leon – A Tropical Entropy

This is a smeared and blurry collection of deconstructed-club tunes with a latin slant. Doubt you’ll be dancing to it, but it sounds ace.

63) Rose City Band – Sol Y Sombra

This gentle country-tinged psych is like having your shoulders rubbed in a warm bath while sipping a cup of cocoa.

62) France – Destino Scifosi

A relentless hour of psych-folk driven by repetitive guitar riffs, and droning hurdy gurdy, recorded live. Yeah, I know; but for the few of you not hiding behind the sofa – this is brilliant.

61) Black Moth Super Rainbow – Soft New Magic Dream

Still, no-one else sounds like this lot. Their scarily-sweet overblown synth lullabies continue to be a source of wonder.

60) The Cosmic Tones Research Trio – The Cosmic Tones Research Trio

With a name like that this couldn’t be anything else but spiritual jazz, and it turns out to be a gloriously light and airy confection. Accomplished musicians in ‘less is more’ mode, creating ethereal beauty.

59) The Sick Man Of Europe – The Sick Man Of Europe

This Swedish artist’s snappy modern take on electro-pop is totally infectious. Devo’s ‘Whip It’ gives you a feel for what to expect, maybe with a bit of Joy Division fogging things up, and a tongue lodged firmly in cheek, I suspect.

58) Magic Fig – Valerian Tea

Proggy psych-pop with a distinct patchouli whiff of the 70s. Could they come from anywhere else but San Francisco? Cracking tunes that soon get their hooks in, this is lots of fun.

57) Anoushka Shankar – Chapter III, We Return to Light

Anoushka Shankar collaborates brilliantly with Saraty Khorwar and Alam Khan on this shimmering collection of Indian spiritual jazz.

56) Anika – Abyss

I don’t think Anika is very happy with the world. Understandable, really. She makes it a better place though, with this raw and involving collection of post-punk grumpiness. And she enunciates like Nico, which is nice.

55) Surprise Chef – Superb

This Australian band cook up an more-ish platter of cinematic soul-funk.

54) Sababa 5 – Nadir

An accomplished collection of jazzy instrumental funk with a middle-eastern tinge.

53) Ganavya – Nilam

Few voices in modern music have the beauty and emotional weight of NY native, Ganavya. Her Tamil roots are reflected in the low-key arrangements that accompany these sparse and powerful songs.

52) Water Damage – Instruments

Monolithic, brutal, single-minded repetition that builds and builds until reaching some kind of beleaguered epiphany. Marvellous.

51) James K – Friend

Sleek and smooth bedroom-soul, with warm production and quality tunes.

50) Jasss – Eager Buyers

Typically, my eyes glaze over when people start talking about sound design, but it’s impossible not to when describing this meticulously-assembled collection of experimental electronics. Spanish-born, Berlin-based artist JASSS, excels on her third album, creating a sultry, smoky, nebulous world all of her own.

49) Splitterzelle – Splitterzelle

Driving psych-rock, but made using mainly synths and a drum machine. Cracking.

48) Haress – Skylarks

Measured and subtle acoustic folk that slowly reels you in over four mesmeric tracks. The repeated chant on the last track is a brilliant payoff, and pulls the whole thing together with an air of Wicker-Man mystery.

47) Death and Vanilla – Whistle and I’ll Come to You

What a great idea. This Swedish psych band are the perfect folk to provide a soundtrack to one the all-time best ghost stories. It plays exactly like a movie soundtrack, and they should be given a lot more movie work off the back of this brilliantly-realised (and properly scary!) work.

46) 36 & zakè – Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel III

Sometimes I wonder why some ambient albums drift by pleasantly, but forgettably, and some, like this one, creep under your skin and become essential.

45) Pale Blue Eyes – New Place

Pale Blue Eyes make engaging indie-pop with superb harmonies and great tunes.

44) Oklou – choke enough

I’m a sucker for this modern take on art-pop. Hyper-produced and full of interesting sounds. Good tunes, too.

43) NYX – NYX

Excellent spooky folk with ethereal vocal harmonies, weird chants, and loads and loads of atmosphere. Great fun.

42) Adrian Sherwood- The Collapse of Everything

First up, this man deserves a knighthood for his services to British music as head of the utterly wonderful On-U Sound label. But I suppose they’ll give one to Ed f****** Sheeran instead. Now I’ve got that off my chest, this is a great reminder of Sherwood’s musical abilities in his own right. This is a deceptively low-key collection of modern dub, whose depth and inventiveness slowly emerges on repeated plays. And apparently he reckons he’s tone deaf! A master at work.

41) Rocket – R Is For Rocket

Classic grunge-y alt-rock from this LA band, who don’t look back too wistfully, and clear their own path with conviction.

40) ML BUCH – Suntub

Quality modern indie-electronica from this talented Danish songwriter.

39) Maria Somerville – Luster

Shimmering dream-pop from this Irish musician. A mild shoegaze scree keeps things from becoming too saccharrine, and provides a great foil for her powerful voice.

38) Apta – The Pool

No surprise at all to discover that this glowing collection of warm electronic ambience was based on a psychedelic experience, since it sounds like it was made during one.

37) Little Barrie – Electric War

Heliocentrics’ Malcolm Catto began to play with this band following the death of member Virgil Howe in 2017. His trademark arrangements and odd time signatures have worked a treat for their sound, taking them into an unusual area incorporating jazz, library and indie.

36) Other Lands – Star Jumps

Other Lands unique and very satisfying sound falles somewhere between mellow Balearics and experimental ambience.

35) No Joy – Bugland

Deliriously hooky and messy indie rock with trappings of grunge and shoegaze. It’s positively stacked with great tunes and I had it on repeat for months.

34) Black Market Karma – Mellowmaker

This prolific psych-rock band have produced a huge body of work in what seems like no time, but they don’t compromise on quality as this sun-kissed hazy collection shows. They stand out from their peers by their inventive use of programmed beats to underpin their songs.

33) Florist – Jellywish

Quality folky singer-songwriting; emotive and involving.

32) Modern Nature – The Heat Warps

There’s something that sets this distinctive band apart from pretty much everyone else. It’s a kind of calm, measured, almost polite approach. And that sounds awful, reading it back; but it really isn’t. Instead their restraint speaks to their confidence in their songwriting and musicianship. When you’re this good you don’t need to shout it from the rooftops. Their subtle music builds and builds, until you’re surrounded by it. Then it’s got you.

31) Coral Grief – Air Between Us

This Seattle band describe themselves as dream pop, but their sound here drops into a lovely zone somewhere between Stereolab and Super Furry Animals. Joyful pop hooks aplenty in one of the years best feel-good albums.

30) Lael Neale – Altogether Stranger

Lael Neale is a most distinctive singer-songwriter with an unusual approach to song composition that means her chugging tunes seem ready to head off on the autobahn. Her idosyncratic vocals match her music perfectly, and she can’t half write an earworm.

29) Steven R. Smith – Turning/Triecade

Another great 2025 discovery was this incredibly prolific psych-guitar oddball, who has been making copious music under his own name and a number of aliases (Hala Strana, Ulaan Khol, Ulaan Passerine, Ulaan Markho etc.) since the mid-90s. He’s a brilliant guitarist and composer, and I’ll be following everything he does from now on.

28) Ty Segall – Possession

Ty Segall is also incredibly prolific, but I’m frankly not a fan of a lot of his stuff. But every so often he throws out something brilliant, like this. I guess he’d consider himself to be going straight here, with a shedload of hook-laden guitar-pop gems. It’s a good look on him – and there’s plenty of treasure to be found here.

27) µ-Ziq – 1979

Veteran musician Mike Paradinhas releases the companion piece to last year’s excellent ‘1979’, and once again he looks back to youthful visits to Spain with nostalgic ambience. There’s some lovely nods to his classic braindance days, too.

26) Klangkollektor – Dubtapes Volume 2

Delightfully dubby downtempo from Lars Fischer, a German producer and film musician.

25) John Glacier – Like A Ribbon

John Glacier’s debut is a compelling piece of experimental hip-hop. Her deadpan spoken-word style, floats inscrutably over an inventive collage of styles.

24) Sam Prekop – Open Close

Hypnotic modular synth magic from this founder member of The Sea and Cake.

23) Momma – Welcome to My Blue Sky

What’s your favourite junk food? I think mine is this. Not that it’s junk of course, just super-assured 90s-influenced alt-rock, heavy with hooks, mega-repeatable and done with conviction and enough innovation to avoid pastiche. It’s probably about 2,000 calories, but I don’t care.

22) Immersion & Suss – Nanocluster, Vol. 3

An unusual but totally natural-sounding marriage of sparse ambient Americana and experimental electronics.

21) James Holden & Vaclaw Zimpel – The Universe Will Take Care of You

James Holden’s gleefully burbling synths provide the perfect base for Polish prodigy Vaclaw Zimpel’s joyful instrumental improvisations.

20) Walt McClements – On a Painted Ocean

A moving, watery collection of accordian-based ambient drone that I keep coming back to.

19) Mandrake Handshake – Earth-Sized Worlds

Their bandcamp description says “Welcome to the Spacebeach – the new era of the Mandrake.” Fair enough really, and a decent introduction to their joyful retro-modern psych-pop. Tons of fun.

18) Floral Image – Gone Down Meadowland

These Norfolk debutantes also strike into a rich vein of slightly retro psych-pop, rebranding that classic west-coast sound with a distinctly English pastoral tinge.

17) Light-Space Modulator – The Rising Wave

Madcap collaborator Shackleton has found his perfect musical partner with Gnod-member and singer-songwriter Marlene Ribeiro. This hazy, dreamlike album sounds like nothing and no-one else.

16) Erika de Casier – Lifetime

I love it when an artist you like kicks up a gear and really nails it. Not that her previous work wasn’t classy and fully realised, but you feel like Erika De Cassier has found her perfect sound here. Her trademark silky, slo-mo R&B gets a noirish dash of trip-hop, and off she soars.

15) Ela Minus – Dia

This is a big step up for Ela Minus, who threads a set of searchingly introspective lyrics though a series of wicked latin dance belters.

14) T. Gowdy – Trill Scan

Another producer at the forefront of sound design and electronic experimentalism. That sounds dreadfully pretentious on a readback – but don’t let that put you off, because the technical rigour doesn’t detract from the sheer fun of listening to this.

13) Ivan the Tolerable – Nocturnes/House of the Hidden Light/Atoms in the Void

My artist find of the year has been the brilliant and wildly prolific experimentalist Oli Hefferman. His work takes in cinematic and library influences, jazz, instrumental hip-hop, ambient techno and a bunch of other stuff. It defies belief that someone can release so much music at such a high level of imagination and quality.

12) Djrum – Under Tangled Silence

Djrum is a producer whose work sounds utterly unique. There’s classical chops there, excellent use of space, and some mesmerising beat programming. Absorbing and extremely fun music.

11) The Sorcerers – Other Worlds And Habitats

Formed out of a love of Ethio-jazz, this English band are absolute naturals. Here, as the title suggests, they broaden their sound, rocketing off into the kind of mysterious territory where you’ll find the likes of the Heliocentrics.

10) AMMAR 808 – Club Tounsi

And this is, of course, all about the 808. Sofyann Ben Youssef conjures some absolutely evil bass grooves out of the old classic tech, and these lay the foundations for some proper hip-shaking Tunisian club goodness.

9) Henry Badowski – Life is a grand…

I don’t often put reissues on here, but look, this is a slice of forgotten brilliance from 1981 that everyone should hear. Why Henry Badowski didn’t make it big off the back of this much talent is a total mystery. These Eno-esque adventures into electro-pop are timeless, and quite wonderful. I doubt I’ll never snorkel again without the magnificent ‘Swimming with the fish in the sea’ playing in my mind.

8) Golden Bug – Piscolabis II

This gem from this offbeat French producer is full of compellingly odd tunes crafted for an eclectic selection of guest vocalists. ‘Autobahn’ nods to the German classics, while highlight, ‘Hi No Tori’ is simply angelic.

7) Pneumatic Fields – Runner’s High

This was launched to very little notice, but I like it much more than the latest from Jessie Chandler’s day job, Midlake. It’s a sprawling double album of largely ambient meditations on running. I know. But it’s a proper grower, and the livelier moments that pulse with a motorik throb, are highlights.

6) Deradoorian – Ready For Heaven

Ex-Dirty Projector Angel Deradoorian has produced an art-pop masterclass here.

5 ) Geese – Getting Killed

Wow, confident or what? The hellfire-precher growling and crooning of Cameron Winter put me in mind of Jon Spencer’s gutter blues, but there’s so much more going on here. New York’s best new band really find their feet here, and it’s a proper rollercoaster of an album. Do believe the hype!

4) Populous – Isla diferente

This Italian producer makes an addictive blend of precussion-heavy Cumbia and ambient electronics. Ethereal, propulsive, and catchy as hell.

3) Juana Molina – Doga

First album in far, far too long from Argentina’s greatest treasure. But she hasn’t lost her knack for spellbinding off-kilter pop. The cover’s a great lead-in to the contents, since it takes a few looks to notice that the dog on there isn’t actually a dog, and it takes a few plays for the special magic of Juana’s unique sound world to reel you in. But when it does, you can’t get enough.

2) Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film

And just like that, Stereolab bounce back like they were never away. In many ways, this is an absolutely trademark Stereolab album. The songs have kooky titles like “Vermona F Transistor”, and “Flashes from Everywhere.” Laetitia Sadier’s aloof mystique is intact, and contrasts perfectly with the positively gleeful retro cool of the music. But they continue to evolve and experiment with different sounds and styles. Everyone imitates them, nobody surpasses them.

1) Smerz – Big city life

This Norwegian duo, now based in Copenhagen, find themselves at the forefront of a scene with this nonchalant-seeming collection of sleek, arch alternative pop. Modern city social life is diarised with a knowing eye. If the songs weren’t brilliant, it might play as a little too clever for it’s own good. But they are.

…and that’ll have to do. I could easily stick another 50 albums up here, and that’s before combing through all the best-best-of-year lists, but all this is eating up valuable listening time. So, happy Christmas!