Like any other year, 2025 was another great one for music. And even though it's a lot more about tracks and finding your band du jour than really listening to albums these days, here are a few that will accompany us far beyond the turn of the year.

JONAH BRODY : Brotherhood : IL Records
Deep, weird, cathartic, arty, heartbreaking, cosmic, reference-heavy - and certainly one of this year’s most shamefully overlooked and overall idiosyncratic records.

 

JADU HEART : Post Heaven : VLF Records
Days are usually numbered when two core members of a band split up. In this particular case it resulted in their strongest album to date.

 

LIFEGUARD : Ripped And Torn : Matador
2025 was another decent year for post-punk, but it was the debut by Chicago-based Lifeguard that really stood out. Hard to believe that an album this intense was done by a trio in their early twenties.

 

DJ KOZE : Music Can Hear Us : Pampa Records
Kozalla’s latest delivers another proof that even after all these years, he simply can’t get tired of exploring sound and genres with childlike wonder.

 

SNUGGLE : Goodbyehouse : Escho
Musically, the Danish duo has no intentions of reinventing the wheel at all. So, why does this album feel so fresh and essential? “Water in a Pond“ is even one of the songs of the year.

 

PURELINK : Faith : Peak Oil
Many artists these days sink their teeth into ambient, not too many, though, do so as a band. The payoff for the listener is a highly generous one.

 

CRIMEWAVE : Scenes : Fool’s Gold
Yes, the Manchester-based one-man band sounds as if Tom Jenkinson fell in love with shoegaze. But it also sounds lonely and hardly like anything else out there. All this is meant to be a compliment.

 

EERA : I’ll Stop When I’m Done : Test Card Recordings
Everything is in its exact right place, yet nothing seems to be forced or calculated but deeply felt. It’s impossible to not fall in love with this album. 

 

POPULATION II : Maintenant Jamais : Bonsound
Montreal’s most explosive psych-freakout delivers the goods once again: it’s proggy, pop (for their standards) and raw, turbulent and, as expected, a bit borderline cuckoo.

 

HELEN ISLAND : Silence Is Priceless/Extended : Knekelhuis
Under the Helen Island moniker, the never-not-recording Léopold Collin spins a lo-fi web of dream pop and electronica that you just love to get caught in.