2025 :: Q4
Yayyyy… we made it??
Another square punched out on the Gregorian calendar prompts another look back on everything you either got too obsessed with, missed out on or could not give two effluent flakes about, though the quotient of disillusionment this year is very high.
Moreso now than in previous years, it seems almost gruesomely churlish to try and put a positive spin on the last twelve months given the onslaught of traumatic life events that have perforated my personal experience, of which there will be plenty of spillage cascading into the new year and beyond.
Per example, I was not even able to get my annual Halloween or Christmas mixes out of the gate this year because everything has been so energy-consumingly fraught.
And there’s also the factor of The Entire Outside World Still Being Fucking Terrible Really, asfigures of influence continue to disappoint us with every lurch towards choices made at the behest of economic business and capital over social health and prosperity including climate, human trafficking, genocide and war…
Despite all of this though, the closing of a year has its own unique therapeuticity that will always hold a specific thrall for someone who constantly distracts themselves with as much stimuli as I do; baseline being, it offers a chance to talk about something with genuine affection, a brief respite from everything that prompts an actual smile.
For me, anyway…
In any event, let’s “crack on” with the last round up of the best stuff listened to specifically in the year of our denier, 2025.
(And yes, I am getting this done minus any December releases because life getting in the way and stuff so no @-me’s please?)
What We Missed In 2025 Q3…
Abstraction Is Deliverance by James Brandon Lewis Quartet
As much as it pains me to discover that I did not in fact listen to absolutely everything despite my best efforts, the advent of the Best Of **** Albums lists arriving as early as mid-November in some publications is that every so often they yield an artifact from a prominent artist or collective that I would have otherwise ignored.
The biggest surprise for me personally was discovering that one of today’s brightest jazz instrumentalists had released another album as band leader, boasting more original compositions and startling improvisations abetted by his trusted cohorts (pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones and percussionist Chad Taylor) that are filled to bursting with his typically galvanising flair and precision.
Special Non-Album Mentions For 2025 Q4
Off The Record by Makaya McCraven
In the not-album format, we continue in the vein of modern jazz mastery with a four-disc retrospective of extended-plays and live performances from percussionist Makaya McCraven, whose latest behemoth of beat-led jazz/hip hop fusions includes collaborations with the likes of other present-day stalwarts such as Jeff Parker, Ben Lamar Gay and Theon Cross.
Bite The Hand That Feeds You by Jasmín
And for those with enough room for a dusty little bon-mot, you would do far worse than Dutch-Argentinian DJ Jasmín’s debut EP, providing a nicely swervy mix of Latin rhythms and dubstep rumblings infused with industrial techno to give each track an appreciatively sweaty grit, enhanced further on two songs thanks to intonations from vocalist Older Brother.
And now, the last good quarterly tenfold of long-players to see the light of day in our most absolute bastard of a year, 2025…
10 Great Albums From 2025 Q4
A Rhythm Protects One by Call Super
Falling somewhere between an original album and an extended crate-dig within the outskirts of underground dance music, DJ/producer Joseph Seaton’s latest project is a unique conflagration of cutting edge electronica that infuses elements of deep house and techno with sensibilities as often indebted to jazz concerts as they are late-night raves, making for a truly beguiling listen.
Chin Up Buttercup by Austra
The fifth time appears to be the charm for synthpop singer/songwriter Katie Austra Stelmanis, what with her latest album’s dalliance with 90s dance-pop and Eurobeat homage summoning not just the best critical notices of her career but also some of the most direct and unabashedly shape-throwing work she has ever created.
Daughters by Jennifer Walton
After spending a good few years as a hired hand on various tours and projects in the alternative music for the likes of Kero Kero Bonito and Shovel Dance, Jennifer Walton is more than ready to take centre stage if her prodigiously assured debut album is anything to go by, it being an art-pop marvel that suggests a future filled with similarly bold, reckless and ultimately exciting gestures.
DOGA by Juana Molina
Taking sizable inspiration from a series of improvised concerts featuring just guitars and synths spanning as far back as 2019, Molina’s eighth album is one born from trepidation and restlessness, the ensuing years yielding over thirty hours’ worth of material that have improbably been hemmed down to a comfortably nervy fifty-six minutes of heady experimental prowess.
Don’t Look Down by Kojey Radical
Essaying the meteoric rise to fame and fortune is a well-trodden journey for many artists on their second album, though most artists aren’t nearly as shrewdly observant as London rapper Kojey, overcoming the sophomore slump with a collection of tunes that offers enough party-hardy bops and soulful redemption to strike an impressive throughline filled with character and verve.
ICONOCLASTS by Anna von Hausswolff
Swedish musician Anna von Hausswolff unleashes her inner power-balladeer for her sixth album, finding inspiration in figures as diverse as Chelsea Wolfe and Kendrick Lamar to deliver a bewitching set of gothic pop that finds the subsuming beauty one can often find when the world’s mask finally slips only for everything to come crashing down around you.
LUX by Rosalía
The epic vibes continue ever fiercer with the fourth album from Rosalía, cementing her status as the World’s Most Fearless Popstar with a body of work that brings together modern-day pop, trap-R&B and classical music into a holy communion via multiple languages and delivers something truly transcendent, providing an audio sanctuary where any and everyone is welcome.
Once Upon A Time… In Shropshire by Jerskin Fendrix
After enjoying notable success in the world of film score composition via his assignments for director Yorgos Lanthimos, Jerskin Fendrix clambers back into his experimental-pop niche with his second album of original material, a darkly amusing detour of bucolic escapism that sounds like someone going ever so pleasantly mad in the countryside.
Nested In Tangles by Hannah Frances
Conceived pretty much immediately after the completion and resultant success of its 2024 predecessor, Hannah Frances’ seventh album finds her music agreeably developing more in terms of breadth and scope, holding onto her unique brand of avant-folk whilst also exploring avenues more indebted to new-age healing and alternative post-rock.
Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never
And closing this sorry series out, we have the premier procurer of lost media samples that is Daniel Lopatin, this time using a since-deleted 1990s sample library from the Internet Archive as his soundbed to create beauteous soundscapes that could honestly be the closest to what it feels like to travel through time, as if you are falling through a wormhole soundtrack by Mega CD trailers.
But wait, there’s more… oh there is so very much more.
Join me amidst the holidays for some more words about things I have most definitely mentioned before, but in a more reverent “Oh This Was Actually Very Good” way.
Until then, be safe, well, and merry…
xxxo
