2025 :: The Rub
Welcome to the closing of the year, any and everyone.
The lengthy dissection of 2025’s musical output can finally abate, and at the very least I hope that the taking stock of such hasn’t taken such a long amount of time for you as it has for me.
A lot of that might have had to do with the fact that too much of the music world was consumed by harrowing legal dramas and corporate thievery; in a year where men in power repeatedly evaded consequences for their monstrous actions and legitimate protests against war and genocide were being met with draconian fascism to please a thuggishly outspoken minority, an insidiously insipid ballad about getting married becoming one of the longest-running number one single in UK chart history feels ironically appropriate.
However, if you looked hard enough, there was so much more to 2025 than what all of the political hot air than the headlines would have you believe; as objective proof of that, firstly please find yet another Best Of 2025 playlist, though as it’s curated by me you can certainly trust it:
At a tidy five-hours, it should have plenty of excellent content with which to soundtrack your reading of this tome of retrospective guff.
And if you are already subscribed to this platform, please give me a follow; one of my resolutions for 2026 is to get more in the sharing-tunes of it all, which will be even more fun if you wish to divert attention and revenue away from That Most Warmongering Of Streamers.
Without further ado though, please find some words I managed to find enough time to gather up in an overly-verbose splurge concerning some of the best releases of the year according to genre, format and that fabled list of good ones that everyone else managed to get done by mid-November, as recommended by Pitchfork‘s Out This Week feature and 8.0+ rated reviews section, reviews posted on both The Guardian and Resident Advisor, and the new release aggregate lists from both Metacritic and Album Of The Year.
So yeah, that’s at least 1300 albums…
Good luck!
Best Hip Hop/Rap
GOLLIWOG by billy woods
Looking past all of the beefs, legal mires and improbable political reinventions that dominated the conversation in terms of the tabloid press, 2025 will likely be remembered as both the first time in thirty-five years that a hip hop song was not featured in the US Billboard Hot 100 and when a new era of hip hop decadence appeared to breakthrough with the likes of Playboi Carti dealing in typical tropes of self-abuse, thuggery and moral decay via a dead-eyed dystopian prism (it’s all the “rage“, apparently).
Those casting their eyes towards more underground niches of alternative hip hop in particular though will have seen quite a few champions re-emerge into the conversation, of which underground rapper and poet billy woods claims the utmost garlands with his ninth solo album.
Named after the infamous racist caricature from the nineteenth century, the LP is a compendium of present-day horrors of the black experience observed, recounted and imagined, wherein the task of deciphering where those specific lines lay within each song proves to be one of its most formidable strengths.
No doubt inspired by its frontman’s initial concept, the production on each track is awash with chilling interpolations taken from movies, TV advertisements and news reports cutting through soundbeds of soulful morass of beats, brass and piano, all the more impressive considering the amount of collaborators both in front of and behind the mic including The Alchemist, Shabaka Hutchings and El-P.
And yet despite the innate deathiness of the project being on full display throughout, woods’ album never succumbs to the kind of relentless misery-porn to make it outright unlistenable, which is testament to its key progenitor’s deft storytelling verve and eloquence, allowing moments of lightness to perforate through that not only encourage the listener to stick with the journey, but also makes the more devastating moments hit that much harder.
There probably wasn’t any other album that was released this year that felt so much like a flashpoint of its time, for better and/or definitely worse.
Special Mentions
Don’t Look Down by Kojey Radical – Tidal / Apple
Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse – Tidal / Apple
Neighborhood Gods Unlimited by Open Mike Eagle – Tidal / Apple
Self Titled by Kae Tempest – Tidal / Apple
Best R&B/Soul
Sincerely, by Kali Uchis
Contemporary R&B has always been something of a multi-dimensional beast in terms of the breadth of sub-genres artists that have been incorporated into its wares, and 2025 proved pleasantly choppy for me in that respect, drawing up a roster where titles could feel just as much at home in either house, electronica, pop, jazz and folk as well as that of present-day soul, often on the same album.
In spite/Because of this enjoyably haphazard waywardness, artists who have done well to establish their particular oeuvre with little-to-no deviations in the name of chasing trends have become as rare as they have indispensable for any poor soul searching for something sustainable enough to hold onto whilst the sands of life perilously shift beneath them, which is where the indefatigable Kali Uchis sultrily steps into view.
With her fifth album, Karly-Marina Loaiza distinguishes herself further within the canon of present-day R&B with another truly fabulous collection of timeless R&B-pop, an enmeshing of nu-soul, psychedelia and doo-wop made all the more impressive in that it is her third LP to find the public in as many years, testament to both her work ethic and her compositional prowess.
As indicated by the title, the new longform finds Uchis in a more ruminative mood than her previous works, initially beginning as a concept album where the lyrics are presented as letters written to herself and others within her inner circle, offering advice and remonstration in equal measure to her subjects whilst working through the tangled woodland of her own feelings.
As fate bittersweetly would have it though, both the death of her mother and birth of her first child would end up altering the album’s conceit considerably, particularly in the latter half which offers some of 2025 music’s most uplifting moments, managing to sidestep moments of potential over-sharing cringe with enough earnestness and style to completely disarm the listener.
If ever I were to recommend an album that provides unencumbered sonic solace from all that was awful about this year, this would be it.
Special Mentions
Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd – Tidal / Apple
Tether by Annahstasia – Tidal / Apple
The Passionate Ones by Nourished By Time – Tidal / Apple
Through The Wall by Rochelle Jordan – Tidal / Apple
Best Jazz
Abstraction Is Deliverance by James Brandon Lewis Quartet
Be it a by-product of hyper-focused creativity from specific individuals or record label/streamer-dictated mandates to flood the charts with as many songs as possible to game the system with idle background-playing content rather than diligent compositions, this year saw quite a few artists come up with multiple longform releases (not including those “album repackaging” scams, obviously).
In the world of freestyle jazz and improvisation, an artist releasing multiple projects within a year is not so much a cunning strategy but rather a necessity to catalogue those fleeting moments of spiritual synchronicity from artists prolific enough to harness them, on which terms saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis had an especially good 2025.
Though his solo album Apple Cores appeared to make more of an initial splash with the music press when it came out in February, it was his fifth collaboration with his fabled quartet released in May that has figured more prominently in the Best Of The Year conversations, and though Cores arguably certainly has more adventurous moments there’s no denying the sheer excellence that abounds throughout the later collection.
With Lewis on saxophone alongside Aruán Ortiz on piano, Brad Jones on bass and Chad Taylor on percussion, Abstraction Is Deliverance finds the four players in mercurially sensitive form, the set consisting of eight original pieces from Lewis and a gorgeous rework of the late Mal Waldron‘s signature song “Left Alone”.
The album may credit James Brandon Lewis as its prime instigator, but that does a disservice to the generous energy each player gives to one another over the course of this set, each song played with a mournful yet effusive reverence for the masters to whom this cadre of musicians are indebted and to the events that have shaped their own personal existences, looking ahead to an uncertain future where whatever happens they will at least have each other.
Special Mentions
After The Last Sky by Anouar Brahem – Tidal / Apple
Mulatu Plays Mulatu by Mulatu Astatke – Tidal / Apple
Words Fall Short by Joshua Redman – Tidal / Apple
Best Alternative
Glory by Perfume Genius
There are some artists out there for whom the label “Alternative” seems to stick more naturally than most, not just with regards to the unclassifiable nature of their output but also the very persona with which they position themselves in the narrative of mainstream culture; with that in mind, you cannot get a music act more alternative to pop music norms than Mike Hadreas’ alter-ego.
Forging their own path as a purveyor of queer pop since the release of their debut album fifteen years ago, Hadreas’ work has been one that has bristled with itself in its exploration of identities imposed on us by others and ourselves, jumping on and off genre wagons with impish abandon and brutal honesty.
Having recently enjoyed some of his most quantifiable critical and commercial successes including his first Grammy nomination, Hadreas’ seventh album finds him consolidating his sound in collaboration with long-time work partner and producer Blake Mills as well as his real-life partner and musician Alan Wyffels to create what some have called an album about emotional burnout bore from reconciling personal tragedies with professional success.
Employing a more collaborative framework to the recording process that allows for instrumental tangents and solos in turn results in a more subtle and enveloping listen, meaning that whilst more punchy pop-friendly affairs that characterised the breakthrough moments of 2020’s Set My Heart On Fire Immediately are in rarer supply, there is still plenty of finely composed songcraft to get lost within.
After a blistering few years of press adulation, personal tragedies and a punishing tour schedule that nearly consumed him, Glory sounds like Hadreas’ belated victory lap, limping with wounds old and new but still trucking along against the world with his inimitable brand of avant-queer Americana.
Special Mentions
Constant Noise by Benefits – Tidal / Apple
DOGA by Juana Molina – Tidal / Apple
ICONOCLASTS by Anna von Hausswolff – Tidal / Apple
LSD by Cardiacs – Tidal / Apple
Once Upon A Time… In Shropshire by Jerskin Fendrix – Tidal / Apple
Best Country/Folk
Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams by Patterson Hood
Maybe one day I will be brave enough to separate the country and folk music genres rather than unfairly conflate them, especially given what little regard I appear to have for Contemporary Country music in particular with its broad-stroke twangs about drinking, drinking and calling on whatever deity they assign blame for existence to let people use their guns on whomever they want.
However, even with the rise of a particularly militant strain of Christian-endorsed fire and brimstone affecting some more high profile chart successes in the genre, there are still plenty of artists out there who still seem to be inspired by the kind of country, folk and blues music that steers the world into a more progressive direction rather than chase superficial adulation.
One case in point is Patterson Hood, singer/songwriter and frontman for alternative country-rock institution Drive-By Truckers who has always maintained a politically outspoken profile over his four-decade career, and whose first solo album in thirteen years is something of a slow-burn masterpiece.
Produced by The Decemberists‘ Chris Funk, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams is a deeply personal odyssey that starts with personal experiences as early as 1996 only to go further back thereafter, excavated in a post-lockdown scour of decades-old song ideas that Hood had pitched to his bandmates but for whatever reason couldn’t quite make work either live or in the studio.
The result is a spiritual sojourn that is equal amounts mournful and joyous, Hood and company combining alternative and art rock sensibilities with honky-tonk and bluesy moods and stylings to convey a moving journey through time as he revisits key moments in his life of growth and introspection with a benevolent melancholy that ultimately looks towards hope despite everything going to shit around him.
Special Mentions
Double Infinity by Big Thief – Tidal / Apple
Nested In Tangles by Hannah Frances – Tidal / Apple
OSMIUM by OSMIUM – Tidal / Apple
Songs For Other People’s Weddings by Jens Lekman – Tidal / Apple
Best Rock/Metal
private music by Deftones
Again with the genre conflation, I know… 😉
However, given popular rock music’s dissolution and fragmentation into specific sub-genre idioms both popular and niche since alternative radio basically went the way of the shitter in the late 2000s, it feels appropriate that metal is gaining enough ground to summon itself into a new heyday, shaking off the scars of grunge and nu-metal to herald some of today’s most blistering artists.
As much as I want to use this opportunity to herald a new act in particular for blasting something so righteously dark, it appears that my heart still belongs quite unshakably to Deftones, who after saving rock fans from themselves during the pandemic with 2020’s Ohms arrive back with the most consistently rocking release of the year.
Granted, my arriving later than most fans to the mosh pit in Deftones’ career might have coloured my appreciation for their tenth album in a more intense hue than most comparing it to either Around The Fur or White Pony, but even after having to contend with line-up changes and a longer recording process than normal, the quintet’s ability to tap into their particular brand of swoonsome pummelling has lost none of its edge.
It is a testament to the band’s hard work and integrity that thirty years after their debut that they still sound so engaged, as if they have mastered the trick of never getting old that almost-always eludes so many rock bands especially.
And if alternative nu-metal is due a resurgence in time for that fabled thirty-year nostalgia pendulum, it’s nice to know that one of the original bands who were around amidst its breakthrough into the mainstream are still creating music so forcefully and successfully regardless.
Special Mentions
Dissonance Theory by Coroner – Tidal / Apple
Lonely People With Power by Deafheaven – Tidal / Apple
Pain To Power by Maruja – Tidal / Apple
WE WERE JUST HERE by Just Mustard – Tidal / Apple
Best Pop
LUX by Rosalía
Despite the name of this blog, I ought to stress that I am not completely made of stone when it comes to mainstream charts and the inescapability of certain pop songs and artists; for instance, the continued success of KPop Demon Hunters and its soundtrack continues to tickle me especially given how many critics are wanting to disavow its evident charms and success.
However, when something as epic in scope like Rosalía’s fourth album enters the pop culture chat, resplendently daring and ravishing as it is, my art-pop nerdiness cannot help but get excited to the point of indecency.
Fusing trap-pop, R&B, flamenco, opera and classical music together into a rapturous concoction via performances sung in fourteen different languages, Rosalía’s labour of love earns its block-capital titling with an appropriately supernatural authority given how each song on this behemoth is dedicated to a female saint though its creator’s use of language forbids more formal recognition of any specific religion.
The effect the album has is like being invited to a distinctly modern communion, a place of worship that honours the classical tastes and motifs that have held court in religious cultures for thousands of years as it does playfully and ribaldly deconstruct them, much like how said institutions both simultaneously herald and admonish women.
All of which makes the album sound if not like a downer, then certainly a lofty exercise too bloated in its ambition to bother engaging with its audience, but Rosalía and her collaborators makes sure every word and movement is deeply felt, finding an emotionally rich common ground that transcends genre and language to deliver a heartfelt gesture that is all the more powerful for feeling so incongruous to the current pop landscape.
Be you heathen or heavenly, you are going to love this album.
Special Mentions
Chin Up Buttercup by Austra – Tidal / Apple
EUSEXUA by FKA twigs – Tidal / Apple
THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! by JADE – Tidal / Apple
Thee Black Boltz by Tunde Adebimpe – Tidal / Apple
Best Dance
WITH A VENGEANCE by SHERELLE
Speaking from my own personal experience of 2025, trying to dance in a world that compelled you not to every single day either by dreadful circumstance or eye-rolling cynicism was a monumental struggle.
Probably more than any other genre, the paradox presented by how the best dance music is able to transport the listener to another world much like this one but without the excessive real-world baggage gives its aspirations an undeniably ironic weight, its appeal for unadulterated good times openly contradicting the status quo and therefore becoming one of music’s most politically powerful statements.
So it makes sense that the best dance music to see the light of day beyond the illegal warehouse raves this year were those that towed a locked-in line that offered equal amounts escapism and reflection, none more so fitting the bill than DJ/producer SHERELLE’s excellent surprise debut album.
Having cultivated a meteoric rise in the underground scene via well-received mixing assignments for Boiler Room and Fabric that led to a weekly show on BBC Radio 6 Music, SHERELLE’s modus operandi is a propulsive mix of footwork and jungle that harkens back to the 1990s with a fiercely queer dynamic that gives its fervent homage a sweetly fresh edge.
Like much of the best dance music, it offers shape-throwing solace in an inclusive late-night realm of breakbeat chicanery where any and everything can seemingly happen and only casts judgement against those seeking to prohibit any single person from having as much fun as possible.
Special Mentions
A Rhythm Protects One by Call Super – Tidal / Apple
End Beginnings by Sandwell District – Tidal / Apple
I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi – Tidal / Apple
Music Can Hear Us by DJ Koze – Tidal / Apple
Best Electronic
Under Tangled Silence by DjRUM
With regards to character traits such as foolhardy diligence and an obsessive need things through to completion, some people are just built differently.
2025 music’s shiniest example must most certainly be that of DJ/producer Felix Manuel, whose third album was conceived over an emotionally tumultuous eight-year period punctuated by the potentially-cataclysmic event of his laptop’s motherboard melting away thereby losing everything he had composed this far and prompting him to effectively start the whole project again from scratch.
It is such a pleasure to announce then that Manuel’s efforts have not been in vain, as Under Tangled Silence is a masterpiece of present-day electronica, incorporating pieces composed for piano, harp and cello with lashings of dusty breakbeats and analog synths that evoke a more bucolic variation of sub-genres such as jungle, techno and future bass.
Produced entirely by himself, each track here is indebted to Manuel’s marvellous improvisational skills, playing each of the featured live instruments himself (bar the cello work which comes courtesy of frequent collaborator Zosia Jagodzinska) and turning them into freewheeling opuses that never remain less than restlessly inquisitive to their surroundings, exploring timeless themes concerning our relationships and interactions with the world and others.
Earning worthy comparisons to Richard D. James‘ similarly epic undertakings in juxtaposing IDM with contemporary classical music, Manuel’s work here demonstrates a spellbinding breadth of musical knowledge that despite their playfully deconstructive programming never alienates the listener with pretentiously avant-garde detours, perfect for morning-after rejuvenations.
It is a stunningly rendered work reminding us that despite any and everything the world may throw at us to suggest otherwise, there is worth and reward in keeping going, regardless of how uncertain the future may be.
Special Mentions
Carving The Stone by For Those I Love – Tidal / Apple
Daughters by Jennifer Walton – Tidal / Apple
Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never – Tidal / Apple
Best Not-Albums Of The Year
A quick shout-out to the compilations, live albums, remix compendiums or any other longform format that didn’t quite qualify in terms of typical album criteria…
In The Blue Light by Kelela – Tidal / Apple
Fantalogia Vol. 1 by Various Artists – Tidal / Apple
Off The Record by Makaya McCraven – Tidal
True Electric by Röyksopp – Tidal / Apple
Tectonic Sound by Various Artists – Tidal / Apple
Best Extended-Plays Of The Year
And another five-strong roster of notices for those who made up for the lack of quantity in their 2025 assignments with some fierce amuse-bouches instead…
001 / 002 by ex_libris – Tidal
Degrees Of Freedom by Phase Space – Tidal / Apple
i was put on this earth by DJ Python – Tidal / Apple
Volver by Sofia Kourtesis – Tidal / Apple
Best Debut Album Of The Year
THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! by JADE
As mentioned previously, 2025 was portrayed by many critics as a disastrous one for pop music due to being bereft of anything resembling a movement nearly as big as last year’s “brat summer” or a hit song that defined the summer outside of a tie-in with the biggest movie of the year, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying if the listening audience endeavoured to hear hard enough.
One such sleeper success was the continued evolution of Jade Thirlwall, a singer/songwriter formerly of The X Factor UK‘s girl group phenomenon Little Mix who struck out on her own last year with a sizable debut solo hit single “Angel Of My Dreams” and followed through with its parent album last September.
Having already proved themselves as a hardworkingly winsome performer thanks to the stripe earned via her prolifically gruelling career with her former bandmates, the now-mononymous JADE steps into the spotlight with a free-spirited edge and genre-fluid sound on her first LP as the sole marquee star, her voice on irrefutably display whether it’s traversing disco, hyperpop or electroclash.
The most impressive aspect of the whole affair though is how much of a convincingly mature stride forward JADE has taken from her previous work, dealing with more revealing subject matter than before with self-effacing lyrics that manage the trick of establishing her as a breakaway star carving her own leftfield niche in the pop sphere whilst still maintaining the affable relatability that helped make her previously project so successful.
So for any and everyone lamenting that pop music itself seems to have had a bit of an off-year, you obviously haven’t been listening to the good stuff, have you?
Special Mentions
Daughters by Jennifer Walton
I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi
Switcheroo by Gelli Haha
WITH A VENGEANCE by SHERELLE
And with all that out of the way, the final trawl through the last twelve months…
Top 50 Albums Of 2025
50. OSMIUM by OSMIUM
49. I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi
48. i remember i forget by Yasmine Hamdan
47. Rhythm Immortal by Carrier
46. Antigone by Eiko Ishibashi
45. Birthing by Swans
44. Pain To Power by Maruja
43. Lonely People With Power by Deafheaven
42. Los Thuthanaka by Los Thuthanka
41. Endling by Qasim Naqvi
40. Do It Afraid by Yaya Bey
39. Music Can Hear Us by DJ Koze
38. Mulatu Plays Mulatu by Mulatu Astatke
37. Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse
36. Tomorrow We Escape by ho99o9
35. Joseph, What Have You Done? by Rainy Miller
34. Thee Black Boltz by Tunde Adebimpe
33. After The Last Sky by Anouar Brahem
32. EUSEXUA by FKA twigs
31. Tether by Annahstasia
30. Don’t Look Down by Kojey Radical
29. Songs For Other People’s Weddings by Jens Lekman
28. Double Infinity by Big Thief
27. All Living Things by Park Jiha
26. Abstraction Is Deliverance by James Brandon Lewis Quartet
25. LSD by Cardiacs
24. Nested In Tangles by Hannah Frances
23. Neighborhood Gods Unlimited by Open Mike Eagle
22. Daughters by Jennifer Walton
21. Constant Noise by Benefits
20. Carving The Stone by For Those I Love
19. A Rhythm Protects One by Call Super
18. ICONOCLASTS by Anna von Hausswolff
17. The Passionate Ones by Nourished By Time
16. Through The Wall by Rochelle Jordan
15. WITH A VENGEANCE by SHERELLE
14. THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! by JADE
13. Exploding Trees And Airplane Screams by Patterson Hood
12. DOGA by Juana Molina
11. Chin Up Buttercup by Austra
10. Once Upon A Time… In Shropshire by Jerskin Fendrix
9. Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never
8. Glory by Perfume Genius
7. private music by Deftones
6. GUT by Baths
5. Under Tangled Silence by DjRUM
4. Self Titled by Kae Tempest
3. Sincerely, by Kali Uchis
2. GOLLIWOG by billy woods
1. LUX by Rosalia
And that is the proverbial that for the Year of Our Desolate Misery that was 2025.
As with the ending of everything, it’s a rather anti-climactic actually, but hey I hope you enjoyed the journey anyway.
Here’s hoping that the downward trend of controversy doesn’t continue into 2026, and maybe I will see you there… until then.
xxxo
