Amber Mark, “Pretty Idea” (2025) – Swirling vintage and cutting edge R&B together like chocolate and peanut butter, Amber’s streak of deserving to be mainstream-huge continues
Deru, “rhythm tapes” (2025) – Bangers that simply cannot be counted; I don’t know what combination of polyrhythms, generative sequencing, and just weirdness caused this, but I love it
De La Soul, “Cabin In The Sky” (2025) – A transmission from the heart of a better world we could be living in, if we got it together. Classic and futuristic at once
Deftones, “private music” (2025) – Some called it “their best since (whatever),” but I just call it superlative. There’s an immediacy and experimental edge that maybe wasn’t on “Gore” or “Ohms” (great records!), but ultimately it’s just that no one else goes this hard in this way
Stik Figa, “A Small Fortune” w DJ Sean P (2025) – In which Stik advances his mission to make saying the realest things possible sound as cool as possible. A gentleman, a scholar, a lover, a survivor
Daniel Glascock, “She Will Knock Three Times… Before You Die!” (2025) – While Daniel is a friend, and while I mastered this project, his and his collaborators’ loving work on this tribute to Italian giallo film soundtracks absolutely earned a spot among the best things I heard all year
Del the Funky Homosapien, “Presents Manik Mondaze” (2025) – The YouTube algo surfaced some Manik Mondaze videos for me back in July. From there I discovered Del & crew’s Substack and, I don’t know, eight or ten albums* worth of cool beats and oddball, golden-era shit talk
* Just this year!
Aesop Rock, “Black Hole Superette” (2025) – “It’s interesting what the memory cherry picks and what it pardons / We’re nothing if not silver linings stuffed into compartments / Like some printer’s tray repurposed for shelving your tiny tinctures / That each remind you of a specific time you were injured / Interacting with the living, those shifting lines of scrimmage / Always situated just behind some hypnotizing visage…”
Suzannah Johannes, “Kansas City: Hanz Bronze Boulevard” (2025) – Beneath the indie rock surface, Suzannah is a singular and disarmingly frank lyricist. I’m not a lyrics-first listener, but between her writing and the band’s understated-but-fantastic performances, you ought to take a drive down the HBB. (EDIT: Suzannah tells me that the lyrics are primarily by Hanz Bronze, with revisions by her!)
The Boojums, “The Boojums” (2025) – Power-pop AOTY with real muscle in both the performances and the mix
Stik Figa, “Jewell Ave John 3” (2025) – You know what, I kind of looked for reasons to not put Stik on this list twice, and I couldn’t find any. JAJ3 stands independently as one of the best albums I heard this year
remst8, “Harmonia v2024.08.26” (2025) – A perfect distillation of everything I love about remst8. Nice to have a concentrated one, given what I know is in the hopper :ninja:
Approach, “It’s Yours” (TBD) – This is a placeholder for the LP Approach promises, *promises* will be out by mid-December as I type on 12/13 <3 <3 <3 Currently scheduled for 12/19 release. I’ve heard enough to put it here <3
Sandwell District, “fabric 69” (2013) – I have lost track of which website or post directed me to this minimal techno mix, but its dry, dusty, ADD-motions were irresistible
Dessa, “Bury The Lede” (2023) – A late summer, old-school road trip to – finally! – see Dessa in a city park in small-town Iowa brought me on board to the multi-hyphenate’s latest LP a couple years behind the curve, and I’ve been banging it ever since
Spectral Fields, “Spectral Fields” and “Spectral Fields II” (2020) – Shoutout to Drew who played this for me in a very cosmically receptive moment. The vibiest of vibes
Here are more records I loved:
Nao, “Jupiter”
Dirty Talker, “Dirty Talker”
Howling Giant, “Crucible & Ruin”
Silvana Estrada, “Vendrán Suaves lluvias”
Tim Hecker, “Shards”
Jeff Tweedy, “Twilight Override”
Night Mode, “Mystic Places”
Jim Legxacy, “black british music (2025)”
After Nations, “Surface | Essence”
Sines of Exquisite Pleasure, “The Institute of Divine Electricity: Uncollected Works 1991-2000”
Bruce Springsteen, “Tracks II: Streets of Philadelphia Sessions (Disc 2)”
Bruce Springsteen, “Tracks II: LA Garage Sessions ’83 (Disc 1)”
The Weather Station, “Humanhood”
Purelink, “Faith”
Knower, “some thingies”
Tunde Adebimpe, “Thee Black Boltz”
Night Mode, “Earth Energies”
Aesop Rock, “I Heard It’s A Mess There Too”
Wet Leg, “Moisturizer”
Blanket Swimming, “Even Of Life”
Neko Case, “Neon Grey Midnight Green”
Princess Nokia, “GIRLS”
Bruce Springsteen, “Nebraska ’82”
james K, “Friend”
Archetype, “Unfolding” (2008, reissued 2025)
Approach, “Ultra Proteus (20th Anniversary Edition)” (2024)
M Tate, “2024 Recordings” (2024)
SML, “Small Medium Large” (2024)
Plastikman, “Musik (30th Anniversary)” (2024)
Luomo, “Vocalcity” (2000)
Personal favorites I loved just as much as the records above, but am less certain if you will; your mileage may vary!
MPU101, “MPU106”
Curren$y & Harry Fraud, “Never Catch Us”
ruffiankick, “Cassette Soup 3”
Pallbearer, “Live at Reggies”
Tems, “Love Is A Kingdom”
Jerry Chapman, “west”
Til Willis & Erratic Cowboy, “Glass Cactus”
The JV Allstars, “H Street – 2009 Demos”
Louiz Rip, “Us”
Richard Quirk, “Strega Shapes”
Left E Grove, “Hear Me”
Shiner, “BELIVEYOUME”
The Twilight Singers, “Live In New York” (2011)
Mamman Sani, “Taaritt” (1988)