2025 :: Q2
So this isn’t directed at you in the slightest dear reader… but, ugh.
Firstly, apologies that this entry has arrived much later than intended; between intense moments of personal tumult as well as the frantic pace with which the world seems to want to hurry itself towards a cataclysmic end-game, trying to piece together something even borderline readable concerning new music to listen to whilst the rest of humanity screams in terror at its own capability for cruelty feels at best inconsequential and at worst fucking tone-deaf.
It’s almost as if all that dystopian satire and literature cultivated decades ago that you loved wasn’t so much ignored by those it was commenting on, but rather being used as blueprints to construct more insidiously awful ways to strip rights and resources away from innocent people, plumbing new depths with such ridiculously plain-faced vigour that even first-hand accounts and evidence cannot provide enough ground to have those responsible punished.
It’s gotten to the point now when the CEO of The Worst Streaming Service has started investing in military weapons technology, everyone; if you had that on your Orwellian Bingo Card, then… well done I guess??
Still, until I can find a truer calling that rewards others and myself with something infinitely more resonant than thought-splooges about work from people who will never read this and who you have likely already listened to, this will have to do for the time being.
And what a supreme being this particular time was during Q2 2025, featuring plenty of opportunities with which one’s ears could get dirty with in time for this most bleachingly-hot of summers and everyone’s favourite corporate portfolio diversifier, Pride Month; speaking of the which, my Pride mix for this year was made in particular tribute to all my trans siblings and just so happens to contain some of my favourite pop moments of 2025 so far, so please give it a listen below:
And now that we are appropriate riled-up, let’s take a dip into what my lead-up to this most cruel of summers sounded like, shall we?
What We Missed In 2025 Q1…
Glory by Perfume Genius
Michael Hadreas continues to forge their path as one of alternative rock’s most fiercely unvarnished stars with their seventh album, though this time the queer icon takes a more collaborative approach to proceedings alongside producer Blake Mills and their long-time professional and personal partner, Alan Wyffels.
Working more as a contemplative follow-up to 2020’s iconic Set My Heart On Fire Immediately than 2022’s sort-of soundtrack assignment Ugly Season, Glory finds Hadreas taking rueful stock in their surroundings and their friends, thereby opening themselves up to more ruminative musings and playful arrangements that start subtly enough only to open out into more beguiling forms.
It may feel like more of a curiously-mounted stepping stone in their oeuvre especially when compared to the playful genre-smashing nature that gave Immediately its reputation as The Lockdown Album That Saved A Lot Queer People’s Lives, but there is still a wealth of feeling and majesty to get subsumed by here.
Special Not-Album Mentions For Q2
Seh by Flower Storm
For the best extended-play-of-2025-Q2, the third in a series of experimental tech-house releases from this London-by-way-of-Iran duo should do you very nicely, especially if you are into Middle Eastern rhythms and textures being diced and sequenced through slippery basslines and dusty breakbeats.
True Electric by Röyksopp
And for the live/remix album pick of the crop, we have this behemoth from Messrs Berge and Brundtland, which works as both a lovely reminder of the propulsive DJ sets that the Norwegian duo have played for their fans over the past few years and a handy remix compilation featuring joyously sweaty, back-breaking versions of their biggest releases.
10 Great Albums from Q1
But yeah, the good stuff I was able to listen to by my end-of-June deadline…
Crooked Wing by These New Puritans
Twin brothers Jack and George Barnett return to the realms of classically-influenced alternative pop with their uniquely gothic sensibilities more galvanised than ever on their fifth album, leaning into more fervently-composed idioms of choirs and bells for at-times saintly paeans only to crash into the more sinister drum marches and stage whispers that characterise their earlier work that give way to moments of incredible beauty.
Endling by Qasim Naqvi
An unintentional throughline concerning darker soundscapes eliciting moments of awe continues with the latest work from Pakistani-English composer Naqvi, a longform companion to a previous orchestral piece written for the BBC that essays the loneliness of the last human being alive scouring the world for any and everything/one they can find which is as much full of soothing calm as it is nervous portent and gloom but never less arresting on either end of the spectrum.
GOLLIWOG by billy woods
Underground rapper billy woods’ ninth album for many will play as the most sonically-attuned album to our current times, a fearsome tome filled with frightening missives, stories and monologues that challenges the listener with its relentless imagery of a world in foul decay that nevertheless rewards them with one of 2025’s most consistently vivid works concerning the black experience and cements woods’ reputation as one of rap music’s most inventive and literate wordsmiths.
Joseph, What Have You Done? by Rainy Miller
On the other side of the Atlantic, more everyday-dystopia vibes of a more Mancunian flavour play loud and clear on producer Rainy Miller’s third album, soliciting guest spots from MCs and vocalists local to his hometown of Preston to essay queasily existential songs that marry grime, soul and experimental electronica to deliver stirringly rendered moments of wounded fragility and emotional displacement, all testament to the care and compassion Miller utilises throughout.
Music Can Hear Us by DJ Koze
Something more reassuringly soothing now courtesy of DJ and producer Stefan Kozalla, whose reputation as one of the more unadulteratedly joyous purveyors of blissed-out vibes is further ratified with his fourth solo album, which finds him combining his patented forms of enveloping house beats and twinkling electronica with a more wide-ranging internationally-inspired palette of instrumentation and guest vocalists, including Damon Albarn and Sofia Kourtesis.
Scanners by Anthony Naples
Keeping the sweetly percolative feelings going via a more nightly affair, the next LP I’d like to earmark is US DJ and producer Anthony Naples’ sixth album, a tribute to the nightlife of New York that arrives ten years after his debut and provides more proof that the beatmaker’s take on ambient house and techno sounds as invitingly fresh as ever.
Sincerely, by Kali Uchis
For many, releasing three full-length projects in as many years would encourage the kind of creative burnout that would only end up alienating their listeners, however Kali Uchis is clearly built different; drawing thematically from a period in her life in which she endured her biggest tragedy and her joyful moment, her fifth album of sensuous throwback R&B-infused torch-pop is a triumph from start to finish, full of her signature swoonsomeness that surely solidifies her status as one of current music’s greatest stars.
Thee Black Boltz by Tunde Adebimpe
Releasing his debut solo effort after having spent over twenty years working as an actor, illustrator and frontman for one of the coolest bands ever, only those unfamiliar with how mercurially talented Tunde Adebimpe is would assume that his latest project would perhaps be burdened with expectant pretension and artiness; however, as those fully aware of his charms and powers will tell you, the album itself is an exultant, bracing, timely conflagration of genre-hopping alt-pop that could have only emerged from such a progenitor.
Under Tangled Silence by Djrum
Despite having baited listeners with new material just last year via an EP signifying a more bucolic direction he was likely to take with his third album, nothing on that still-rather-good release hinted at the breath-takingly transportive nature that permeates throughout this latest project, frequently marrying pastoral passages of piano and woodwind with jazzily industrial breaks and basslines to produce some of the most encouragingly squelchy IDM reminiscent of Richard D. James‘ eponymous album.
WITH A VENGEANCE by SHERELLE
Alas, we must brace ourselves back into the real world, and what better soundtrack to do just that than with the surprise debut album of DJ/producer SHERELLE, a mainstay in the world of UK footwork, hardcore and jungle who has enjoyed residencies on both BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music and whose first collection of original material works both as a fervent throwback to the warehouse raves from decades ago and a rousing tribute to the revolutionary power that can only be summoned through dancing the night away.
And there we have it, some sweet confirmations of goodness according to stuff you have likely already listened to if you have an ounce of good taste, apparently.
If I can try to leave things on an even-more positive note though, in response to the UK Supreme Court’s recent decision to cast the rights of trans people into a darkly nebulous legal portent thereby prompting companies large and fucking-huge to do away with their DEI obligations that help protect minorities in the workplace, 100,000+ trans people and allies took to the streets of London to make themselves known and heard in what became the largest such demonstration the world has yet seen in this field.
Despite any and all hostility in the political sphere and online rhetoric, the atmosphere was peaceful, even if the circumstances in which everyone was attending was still soul-curdlingly terrible… and nary a word was mentioned in the mainstream media or news, much like every single protest for the poor souls in Palestine, but it’s still proof there are enough people out there who can hear and see what is going on.
Keep well, keep smart, and keep safe everyone; or at the very least, make sure you have an awesome album to listen to.
xxxo
