Album Roundup 2025

Hey, readers of (In)Sitze and music lovers! I made a list of my Top 10 favorite albums to come out in 2025, with listening links (YouTube or Bandcamp) for each one and brief writeups of my impressions. The format is similar to last year’s. There’s a broad variety of genres in here, so if you’re looking for something new to listen to, hopefully you find one you like!

Incidentally, both this year and last, I charted as my own top-played artist (f*** yeah)! Also, despite appearances, the featured thumbnail at the top of the post isn’t a screenshot from Spotify. Early in 2025, I canceled my Spotify subscription in favor of a custom Last.fm, Apple Music-infused approach to listening in the digital streaming era, detailed in my post, About My Roundabout Listening M.O.. Thankfully, someone made an online tool that lets you scrape a Last.fm profile for scrobbles and stylize it like a Spotify “Wrapped,” which is how I got my Top Tracks/Artists.

At the bottom, you’ll find a list of honorable mentions, as well as an inventory of cool albums I discovered this year that were made before 2025. Have you heard any of the albums from the Top 10? Drop a comment!

Top 10:

*clicking the cover art brings you to the album on either Bandcamp or Youtube.

1. Alex G: Headlights

Alex G’s LP Headlights is the right amount of weird. Brandishing unconventional chord progressions, enigmatic lyrics, and daring dissonances, Headlights shimmers in the strange glow of a memory of a late night drive, this nape of the woods. Initially, this record didn’t pique my interest. Yet over a few listens during the summer, I grew to appreciate its bittersweet quintessence, a drop of the saccharine past mixed with prickly notes poised in the present. It’s these proportions which instill a veritable balance between comfort and unease, like a venturous tight-rope walk above the album’s dreamscape. Upon entering the soothing summer strumming of Headlights, you might first dip your toes, then your torso, deeper into surreal reminiscence—the musk of a sleeping bag from camping trips gone by, the faded pages of a chronicle from your childhood journal, a lover you once knew—while in the background, you hear the tugs of chromatic haunts, ambient choruses, symphonic un-accompaniments. Are they there to coax you out, or lure you in? Coming at you, or leading you away? When you’re called to a quest of the mind, you’re in for the ride; just make sure to put your beams on.

2. Aesop Rock: I Heard It’s a Mess Out There Too

Earlier this year, Aesop dropped Black Hole Superette to stellar underground acclaim. Little did hip-hop heads know that the cat from May was only half out of the bag. Two days before Halloween, Aesop Rock shadow-dropped I Heard It’s a Mess There Too. This treat appeared out of the red, self-produced, in the nova left behind by BHS. And boy, these beats are SLEPT ON. Dare I say, it’s the better cut of the two. So, “That’s what’s up.” The beats are stripped down, yet not low-effort: snappy snare, basslines that state their case, spooky synth with occasional plinky piano. Don’t forget the bare bars, of course, which Aesop delivers with extra syllabalistic swagger and nothing to prove: all GOAT, no cheese. This is the kind of Hip Hop that’s made for the sake of Hip Hop. It doesn’t miss, even when it’s a mess out here.

3. Chaparelle: Western Pleasure

It’s usually rare for anything new from the country genre to cross my radar. Western Pleasure came around through my appreciation of Jesse Woods, a Texas indie/folk singer-songwriter whose atmospheric desert musings and starry-eyed balladry tend to strike a vein of poignancy you might elsewhere score on a Hope Scandoval record. Chaparelle is a collaborative project between Woods and Zella Day, another American singer-songwriter from the alternative/indie scene with a knack for evocative, Parton-inspired karaoke-esque vocals. I appreciate how Western Pleasure manages to fit within the boundaries of country music instrumentally, but owing to both artists’ background in unconventional styles and their individual personalities, it remains as accessible to fans of country as to those who, like me, typically shy away from it. Far from tired tropes, pet trucks, drunk dogs, that sort of thing, Western Pleasure‘s charm is to wrangle up the standard honky-tonk getup and swing it into an old-fashioned night on town, three whiskey shots down, and hun’, don’t stop spinning those 45s till the cows come home. You can’t help but be lassoed in by the romance, that cute to-and-fro interplay, you and yours tumbling together across pastures and wastelands, suede hat, spurs, and leather boots abound, not “giving one hella heck.” Even if you don’t usually listen to country, give it a shot! You might be dazzled.

4. Ralph Castelli: Hope, Alaska

Hope, Alaska brings together some of Ralph Castelli’s best-sounding music, in my opinion. Castelli’s third LP was self-produced in his cabin at the base of the Kinai Mountains in the eponymous village: Hope, Alaska, a population of 28. It’s refreshing in a lot of ways. There’s the acoustic guitar plucking, a lively yet laid-back indie-pop beat, gentle homestead harmonies, but also Castelli’s audible sense of wonder and introspection, and once in a blue groove, an upland draft of air wafting through the brisk Alaskan altitude. What I like most about this album is how some tracks, like “You Resemble Everything” or “Used B**ch” spiral off the beaten path into a lofty panorama of sound, as if to pick a spot to suspend the view and behold some enchanting natural spectacle—The Aurora Borealis, one imagines, or a mama bear and her cubs drinking from an alpine stream. In an interview, Castelli describes Hope, Alaska as being a “destination album,” more about setting a scene than making a statement. At the same time, he notes being more vulnerable and transparent in his music than on previous work, enhancing the evergreen themes of renewal, casting an aura of aubade over the record. On balance, Hope, Alaska is like a heartfelt postcard from a distant friend, inspiring thoughts of travel and warm memories.

5. Turnstile: Never Enough

This record rips, man. The riot energy of Turnstile on Never Enough ought to set a new legal standard for mainstream rock, if it hasn’t already. It feels like scratching an itch, bearing eminent punk/hardcore/alternative influences like The Pixies, Tame Impala, Rage Against the Machine, The Strokes, and 311, to name a few, yet not without rousing its own style. What stands out to me is that for being considered “hardcore rock,” there are still tons of mellow, instrumental synthy parts that linger out (for example, the last minute or so of “SUNSHOWER”). Not to mention “LOOK OUT FOR ME,” a clashing rager that bends the rules by brushing shoulders with a DJ trance set partway through, and it slaps! I appreciate this sort of artistic risk-taking and choice, as much as the killer lead guitar solos, headbanging drum breaks, and Brendan Yates’ raucous pipes. A band like Turnstile is slightly prone to skirting on butt-rock; however, to me, this album feels true all the way through. My first listen was, oddly enough, in the backseat of my parents’ minivan while we were caught for literally an hour at the top of a parking garage, waiting torturously for the traffic to clear. Luckily, this sh*t had just dropped. Popped it into my earbuds and rode out Never Enough the whooollleeeee hour through. Thanks for helping manage the traffic, Turnstile 😉

6. Youth Lagoon: Rarely Do I Dream

For a minute in early 2025, I was trying out a “buy my favorite album from this month on Bandcamp” routine. It didn’t last very long, but Rarely Do I Dream was February’s pick. Youth Lagoon’s sound has changed considerably since their classic 2011 debut Year of Hibernation, but not in a bad way. The production on RDID is incredible, and it made for good company in the dryest, most wintery part of the year. A lot of the record can be experienced vicariously through Trevor Powers’ personal archival moments and reflections, where old VHS tapes are woven-in nostalgically track to track. In this way, it operates as much like a photo album as a musical one. Sentimentality reigns, and you can hear it in the euphony, at times outward and groove-laden, while at others, more textural, bruised, and impressionistic. Merrily, merrily, merrily, rarely do I dream.

7. Earl Sweatshirt: Live Laugh Love

Live Laugh Love is only 24 minutes in length, but Earl Sweatshirt busts out some time-stretching superpower of his that makes the experience feel more like 42. How does he do that? I don’t get it. Sometimes I feel like I do, but mostly, I don’t. Cool. Still, it ends up being a top 10. Within the lo-fi haze, it can be challenging to stick with the lyrics, but occassionally while listening, you’ll be rewarded with a jolt of “getting it”-ness. Maybe you scoop a touch of tongue-in-cheek humor, a little satire in the sound, a little f*ck-it-all attitude toward the creative process in general. Though maybe not as “quotable” as other popular rappers, you’ve got to hand it to Earl for tapping the rap culture and turning the game on its head in a interesting way. Live, laugh, love, all the way, baby.

8. Mei Semones: Animaru

It’s nice, and rare, to hear a contemporary jazz guitarist choose to embrace their idiosyncrasies and exercise them to their fullest extent. Mei Semones is the definition of sprezzatura, making complex runs and meter changes sound effortless and seamless on Animaru. It’s not Semones’ technical talent alone which makes this a fun record, but also the thoughtfulness spilling into the musicality. At any given moment, it can sound either lightweight or heavy: glamorous pop bossa novas mingling with indie-folk power ballads, orchestral prog rock morphing into jazz-fusion bangers. Throughout the album, you’ll hear Semones slip into some scatting, vocals tight on the heels of an acoustic melody, fluttering between Japanese and English in lyrical abandon. Nestled between the likes of Andrew Bird and math-rock groups like Elephant Gym, Animaru comes alive in the wildness of music and art.

9. Beirut: A Study of Losses

Study of Losses was written to accompany a Swedish circus act, Kompani Giraff, based on a book titled An Inventory of Losses by German author Judith Schalansky. Probably not an artistic concept you would glean just by passively hearing it over a pair of speakers. Though it’s classified as “indie,” this is a record that asks for intentional, disciplined listening. It’s embedded in context and higher-forms of art so as to address deeper philosophical themes—entropy, evanescence, and melancholia. Beirut’s music has always held worldly, vestigial qualities; Study of Losses utilizes these in an attempt to bring the listener nearer to a profound sense of beauty and abandonment. Movements on the record invite contemplation and affect, a trapeze of intrigue for the fleeting acrobatics of thought, memory, and emotion as they play out in the circus of the mind. I like this line from Kompani Giraff’s program notes: “We are asked the burning question: What have I lost and what am I afraid of losing?” Lush harmonies, downtempo hymnal passages, and existential lyrics on Study of Losses can serve as the vessel by which we begin examining these questions.

10. Lola Young: I’m Only F***ing Myself

The title I’m Only F***ing Myself could be read in a few ways: 1) literally, as solitary self-pleasuring, 2) idiomatically, as a way of saying, “damn, displacing my negative feelings on the world is having a backfiring effect” and 3) implicitly, as an affirmation which states, “I’m uncompromisingly being myself.” The tracks on this record play on the vocabulary of a difficult breakup in order to address larger, relevant issues like loneliness, disconnection, and misery in the modern world. I get a kick out of some of the production choices, like dog barking samples being part of the beat in “F**K EVERYONE,” or the wacky oscillator on “Not Like That Anymore,” techniques which are a little more ‘out there’ than on typical pop albums. I appreciate an artist like Lola being so overtly explicit, punk, self-destructive, and vulnerable, at a scale and era in the music industry that tends to favor the fake. I’m Only F***ing Myself belongs as a 2025 standout, a glittering relic of how utterly confusing yet immensely gratifying it feels to be only f***ing oneself in such turbulent times.

Honorable Mentions:

Mac Miller: Balloonerism
MIKE: Showbiz!
Peter Hair: Weathering Den
Oracle Sisters: Divinations
Blockhead: It’s Only a Midlife Crisis if Your Life is Mid
moonweather: fall in the void
Capyac: Songs From Celestial City
Darkside: Nothing
flipturn: Burnout Days
Ruby Haunt: Blinking in the Wind
Everything is Recorded: Richard Russell is Temporary
Saba: From the Private Collection of Saba and No ID
Bon Iver: Sable Fable
Car Seat Headrest: The Scholars
Dope Lemon: Golden Wolf
Kota: No Rap on Sunday
Japanese Breakfast: For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)
BRONCO: Natural Pleasure
Salami Rose Joe Louis: Lorings
Gringo Star: Sweethearts
Andre 3000: 7 Piano Sketches
Mei Simmons: Animaru
Neu Blume: Let it Win
Jeff Parker: The New Breed
Aesop Rock: Black Hole Superette
Lorde: Virgin
Drop Nineteens: 1991
Dirty Art Club: The Silver Suite
Florry: Sounds Like…
Black Moth Super Rainbow: Soft New Magic Dream
Frankie Cosmos: Different Talking
Sam Prekop: Open Close
Wet Leg: moisturizer
Clipse: Let God Sort Em Out
Natalie Bergman: My Home is Not in This World
Lord Huron: The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
Tyler the Creator: Don’t Tap the Glass
Kurt Vile: Classic Love (ep)
Big Thief: Double Infiinity
Anamanaguchi: Anyway
Chance the Rapper: STAR LINE
Cass McCombs: Interior Live Oak
Dominik Fike: Rocket
Mac Demarco: Guitar
Kid Cudi: Free
Ghostface Killah: Supreme Clientele 2
Atmosphere: Jestures
Water From Your Eyes: It’s a Beautiful Place
Babe Rainbow: Slipper imp and shakaerator
Whitney: Small Talk
Michael Hurley: Broken Homes and Gardens
Toro y Moi: Unerthed
Emily Sprague: Cloud Time
David Byrne: Who is the Sky?
Will Paquin: hahaha
Tame Impala: Deadbeat
Haley Heyndrickx: What of Our Nature
No Lonesome: Am I What I’m Not EP
Headache: Thank You For Almost Everything
Bahamas: My second last album
Damien Jurado: The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania
Anti Lilly: All Good Things
Friendship: Caveman Wakes Up
Melody’s Echo Chamber: Unclouded
AKAI Solo: No Control, No Glory
Stereolab: Instant Holograms on Instant Film
Sabine McCalla: Don’t Call Me Baby
This is Lorelei: Holo Boy

Best Albums Discovered 2025:

*means it’s a fav.

*Headache: Mission Impossible III
Port O’Brien: The Wind and the Swell
*Neu Blume: Softer Vessel
The Smile: Cutouts
*Das Racist: Sit Down, Man
Jackson C. Frank (1965)
*Broken Social Scene: Old, Dead, Young
The Uncluded: Hokey Fright
slimdan: Second Dinner
ssingssing: EP
Any Day Now: Garage Sale
A Hand Carved Garden Tool: Floating Action
Goodnight Summerland: Helena Deland
The Cat’s Miaow: Skipping Stones
Berlin Serengitti: Radio Citizen
*Hinterland: Aim
*The Point!: Harry Nilsson
*Emilíana Torrini: Me and Armini
Blood Sun Moon Run: Tim Hill

Thanks for reading!