2025 :: Q3
Oh, boy/girl/whomever…
Trying to motivate myself to write these things has been pretty tough this year.
Firstly, in spite of the loquaciously cringy tone of everything I write, I’ve always felt a little bit “imposter-ey” in terms of the why’s and how’s of why my music tastes align themselves the way that they do; where other opinion-havers whose viewpoints I take onboard seem to evoke their arguments with succinct wit, authority and conviction, be they professional or personal in nature, I too often find myself floundering to try and have something relevant to say.
And then with the world outside collapsing in on itself with increasingly fearful promises of all-out war, images of death and suffering being beamed onto every screen I see and the general nature of a society making everyday comforts and sustenance that much more expensive and aspirational, the nail of apathy drives further into my spirit compounded by the worry of sounding like an inappropriately delusional twerp.
Basically, apologies for the downness of my writing lately; suffice to say I am working through some things that go beyond my general feelings of inadequacy and my particularly intensive rituals of listening to music currently feel like the only real way I can offer something remotely close to a temporary salve for someone or anyone else that is having a tough time.
Music can be a great healer after all, be it succour or catharsis or anything between and beyond those points, so with that in mind, let’s crack on shall we?
What Mercury Missed From The Past 12 Months
Firstly, the annual Mercury Prize nominees for 2025 have since been announced!
For those not in the know, the Mercury Prize is an award gifted to an album of particularly high standard created by an act of British or Irish citizenship as decided by a discreetly knowledgeable panel of industry professionals and tastemakers.
As with most awards ceremonies reaching for a loftier ring of pretension than most, there is always debate as to whether or not the final picks tend to become footnotes of of-the-moment trends or timeless moments of iconoclasm, but at the very least it helps shine a light on many acts who up until their nomination were not very much courted by the mainstream music press to begin with, even in terms of all this new media gubbins.
So, in terms of 2025 nominees we have:
CMAT – EURO-COUNTRY
Emma-Jean Thackray – Weirdo
FKA twigs – EUSEXUA
Fontaines D.C. – Romance
Jacob Alon – In Limerence
Joe Webb – Hamstrings & Hurricanes
Martin Carthy – Transform Me Then Into A Fish
Pa Salieu – Afrikan Alien
PinkPantheress – Fancy That
Pulp – More
Sam Fender – People Watching
Wolf Alice – The Clearing
So of this motley crew, my vote would go to FKA twigs, whose fourth album I have already offered nice words to earlier this year for its mercurial mix of slithery shape-throwing naughtiness and affirmative sexuality, finding an irresistible balance between raunch and empowerment made all the more remarkable given the personal turmoil they have suffered over the past few years.
And not to take anything away from their artistry, but if FKA twigs is going to win any music prize, it’s got to be the Mercury; no other awards body strives to strike the line between pop and high art quite as hard as this one does, and they would do well to give it to someone who actually manages this feat every time they release something.
Given the September-September deadline and my own headlong dive into trying to listen to absolutely everything over the past twelve months though, would she still have managed it when taking into account all of my personal rankings?
Well, you’ll need to find out at the end of my regularly scheduled album-stacks for this dastardly quarter before I can divulge…
So, here we go.
What We Missed In 2025 Q2…
Tether by Annahstasia
Not quite getting around to listen to Annahstasia’s startling debut album was the biggest miss in terms of my album roster for Q2, it being the beautifully lush showcase for both her deftly-direct songwriting and huskily-arresting vocal prowess that it is.
Having languished in contractual purgatory for over a decade via the sadly typical tactic of grifting hucksters exploiting talented dreamers with wild promises, the power-folk artist channels whatever remorse and ire she may have carried into her songcraft with a bittersweet wariness that is never less than soul-quenchingly gorgeous.
Special Not-Album Mentions For Q3
Volver by Sofia Kourtesis
Keeping it short-and-incredibly sweet on the extended-play front, we have Peruvian DJ/producer Sofia Kourtesis’ tribute to the LGBTQIA+ community with her first EP of winsomely-bubbly house music for the label Ninja Tune, which also features a collaboration with Dan Snaith under their dancier-than-normal ‘Daphni’ moniker.
Fantalogía I by Various Artists
And on the flipside of the not-album coin for this entry, we have another electronic effort hailing from Latin America, this time from Ecuadorian label +ambién compiling a serene melee of transportive ambience from a roster of emerging producers who share a formidable respect as much indebted to the natural splendour and heritage of the region as it is futuristic, state-of-the-art sound-scaping.
10 Great Albums from Q3
Carving The Stone by For Those I Love
Musician David Andrew Balfe returns with his electronica/spoken word project For Those I Love five years after its debut work won them the Choice Music Prize (like the Mercury Prize, but an award that exclusively promotes talent in its Irish homeland) and much like the world around him things have only grown darker since, with album two presenting emotionally-fraught inner monologues soundtracked by club-ready beats that tow the line between national pride and shame, simultaneously revelling in degradation whilst also screaming into the void.
Double Infinity by Big Thief
Embracing a more openly-collaborative session process with multiple musicians after the mutually respectful departure of founding bass player Max Oleartchik, folk-rockers Big Thief seem to have triumphed against the odds to deliver what might be their most accessibly swoonsome set yet by dallying with some less-conventional genre-flecked esoterica, which includes a collaboration with fabled new-age composer Laraaji.
Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse
Occupying the “Well, I Still Really I Liked It” pedestal for this quarter is the Virgina rap duo of Malice and Pusha T, whose first album to see release in over fifteen years arrived amidst a morass of beef-fuelled headlines and label-based furore that may have ultimately undermined the breadth of sterling work that finally got the wordsmiths out of hiatus, full of lyrical vigour and decimating delivery bolstered by Pharrell Williams‘ exemplary production, which has honestly not sounded this excellent in a long time.
LSD by Cardiacs
A somewhat-undersung prodigy in the realm of art-punk-rock who nevertheless counts the likes of Mike Patton and Devin Townsend as ardent fans, Tim Smith’s legacy continues five years after his physical passing via the release of the sixth album from his Cardiacs project, thanks to his brother and co-founding bandmate Jim painstakingly bringing this colossal gem together with the help of myriad friends and twelve-years-worth of notes and recorded sketches from Tim himself, resulting in one of 2025’s more poignantly joyous behemoths.
Neighborhood Gods Unlimited by Open Mike Eagle
Rapper and comedian Michael Eagle II would have gotten a pass on this list simply for making a YouTube video called “kendrick and playboi carti collabed and im too old“, thereby creating the most relatable piece of content of 2025; and then mere months later he releases his tenth album which turns out to be observant, witty, playful and moving enough all on its own to rep a mention amongst the best hip hop albums of the year so far anyway, so please wrap your ears around it as soon as you can.
Private Music by Deftones
Emerging from their longest gap between campaigns after keeping us all headbanging during lockdown with 2020’s Ohms, the alternative-metal five-piece’s return to the fray is one of 2025’s heaviest pieces of tormented joy, with the band sounding like they have finally mastered that fabled trick of sounding forever young, pretty and reckless that eludes so many other rock bands before, during and after their time.
Self Titled by Kae Tempest
Poet, novelist, playwright, rapper; Kae Tempest continues to fly in the face of anyone who dares to pigeonhole them beyond anything other than one of the UK’s most important and illuminating voices, and despite the fierce protestations and emotionally turbulent subject matter found here on his fifth album, the most enduring aftertaste this new campaign has is that he sounds more blisteringly confident than ever before, thus making those hard-won moments of elation hit that much harder.
Songs For Other People’s Weddings by Jens Lekman
Swedish folk-pop singer/songwriter Jens Lekman’s seventh album is quite the conceptual behemoth, a collaboration that not only yielded an 80-minute-plus collection of Lekman’s typical mix of darkly amusing whimsy and quietly devastating observation, but also an accompanying novel hashed into shape with the help of his writer and friend David Levithan, both of which detail a tumultuous relationship between a wedding singer and his partner as they travel the world together.
THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! by JADE
Following through on one of the most bracingly wonderful heel turns in music last year with their debut everything-and-the-kitchen-sink solo hit “Angel Of My Dreams“, former Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall continues to carve a niche for herself as one of the most iconoclastic starlets of the current era, her debut album clearing the bar as the most delightful pop release of the year so far with forward-thinking flair and mellifluous vocal authority.
The Passionate Ones by Nourished By Time
If you like your post-punk rich with Prince-style funk, or maybe the other way around, then you need to give Marcus Elliot Brown’s second album a spin immediately, his first longform release with the prolific XL Recordings being a mightily impressive paean to sexified lovelorn torment and (fingers-crossed) a calling card for even bigger notices and opportunities.
And now that we can take these new additions into consideration, here would be my personal nominees for The My Curry Prize of 2025, the winner of which would be bestowed a lifetime supply of onion bhajis:
Benefits – Constant Noise
Djrum – Under Tangled Silence
FKA twigs – EUSEXUA
Floating Points – Cascade
For Those I Love – Carving The Stone
Kae Tempest – Self Titled
Midland – Fragments Of Us
Nubya Garcia – Odyssey
Rainy Miller – Joseph, What Have You Done?
Sherelle – With A Vengeance
The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
These New Puritans – Crooked Wing
So yeah, one out of twelve in terms of mirroring nominations isn’t bad, I guess… 😉
Meanwhile, the end of the year looms ever closer, and I’ve still got so much to listen to, rate, re-listen to and write about, so if you would kindly let me leave it at that for Q3, because these things do tend to take up quite a lot of time, especially when you are not using AI to write everything for you!
Until the next one, take care.
xxxo
