Spend much time on the New York City subways and you’ll eventually wander into one of those interminable passageways between tracks. They’re made of either white tile or uniform gray brick, and can stretch entire underground blocks without anything but arrows and numbers for visual aid.
Being alone in one of these tunnels is a tad spooky. The lights are dimmer, the sound dampened. The more difficult nooks haven’t been cleaned since the Truman administration. It’s the closest to purgatory that some of us will ever get.
Music discovery, at the end of the year 2025, can resemble one of these tunnels. There’s only one way to go, and you’re getting steered there like it or not – even if it’s drab and filled with dental service ads.
It’s been ten years since Spotify became the world’s dominant music streaming platform. The anniversary is a good time to poke our heads above water and ask a few questions. Am I discovering new music through the Spotify interface? Do I like this new music? Do I perhaps want to discover a different kind of music? Hang on, did someone piss in this subway tunnel?
Spotify retains a humongous, easily accessible streaming library. But the music is only “easily accessible” if you can get there in the first place. I’d argue that the service is failing consumers on the algorithmic end, forcing us onto overtrodden paths of least resistance.
Music is art. Art should broaden your horizons. Spotify does not seem to be doing this.
One solution? Talk to people, not computers, about music. Text an old friend and ask what they’ve been listening to. Swap CDs. Swap tapes. Swap flash drives of mp3s (if you have any). Instead of bringing up politics at the bar, bring up your favorite records. Read a print music magazine. Read some local concert listings. If you’ve made it this far, you could even read the rest of this article.
Herewith, this year’s choices for Top 25:
- Brad Mehldau – Ride into the Sun
There are cover songs, and there are cover albums, and then there’s whatever magic Mehldau cast this year, reinterpreting and then improvising over the catalog of Elliott Smith. Chris Thile, Daniel Rossen, and Seattleite Matt Chamberlain form the nucleus for another Mehldau record that will stand the test of time, a credit to him and Smith both.
- Alex G – Headlights
Speaking of Smith, is there any indie musician working today with as good an ear for hooks as Alex Giannascoli? Headlights is perhaps a slow burn compared to his last two efforts, but the payoff is there. “Afterlife” is one of his best tracks.
- Ball Park Music – Like Love
These young but accomplished Aussies came to my attention through the earworm “Please Don’t Move to Melbourne.” If only the song came out before I did just that back in 2013! For a bonus track, see their cover of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek,” performed live for Triple-J, Australia’s national KEXP analog.
- caroline – caroline 2
The eight-piece London mini-indie-orchestra struck gold with their audacious, aptly titled caroline 2. There are some wonderful quiet/loud moments here, rewarding repeated listens. Think early Broken Social Scene with more strings.
- Great Grandpa – Patience, Moonbeam
Seattle’s album of the year – easily – didn’t get nearly enough press on the homefront. National listeners seem to be picking up the slack. After a COVID-induced hiatus nearly did the band in, Great Grandpa reunited and brought their songwriting chops to a whole new level.
- Turnstile – NEVER ENOUGH
The Baltimore hardcore group was absolutely everywhere this year, crossing into the mainstream and provoking the question: if you star in a New Yorker profile, can you still be punk? Who cares. It’s the byproduct of a darn good album.
- Billy Woods – Golliwog
The prolific, somewhat mysterious New York MC gave us one of the darkest, densest rap albums in years. Not all is good in Woods’s world. Then again, is it anywhere? Check out the sludgy love story “Misery.”
- Black Country, New Roads – Forever Howlong
A month before caroline released their new opus, Black Country, New Roads, formed in Cambridge, remade their rock ‘n roll sound into a wonderfully eccentric art-pop release. Must be something in the water over there.
- Neko Case – Neon Grey Midnight Green
Joni Mitchell once said, “You don’t know what you got, till it’s gone.” No one sings like Neko Case. It’s great to have her back after seven years.
- Nels Cline – Consentrik Quartet
Neko and Nels finish nine and ten this year. Great names, different albums, entirely different musical styles, though Cline’s guitar did appear on Case’s 2009 Middle Cyclone. Cline is way out on a jazz limb with this one, not the most distant jazz limb (that’d be 2014’s Room, with Julian Lage), but a seriously inventive Blue Note special.
- Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow
Written in the aftermath of his divorce from longtime musical partner Amanda Shires, Isbell’s solo acoustic album is gut-wrenching stuff. “Good While It Lasted” might be one of his strongest tunes ever. And he’s got many.
- Kassa Overall – CREAM
I covered Overall for Seattle Times, Seattle Met, and Earshot Jazz this year, and was happy to triple dip based on the strength of his new record, a cover album translating hip-hop standards into vibey, high-level jazz. Overall told me this was an “evergreen album,” meaning it’ll stick around. I think he’s right.
- saoirse dream – saoirse dream
Portlander Catherine Egbert strung together about 200 hooks on her new project’s self-titled debut. A little bit electronic, a little bit emo, a lot hyperpop, this album has it all. Hoping for a follow-up and more Seattle shows next year.
- Terri Lynne Carrington – We Insist 2025!
Carrington’s latest in a reimagining of drummer Max Roach’s 1960 album We Insist!, a landmark jazz record molded around the Civil Rights Movement. Legendary Seattle trombonist Julian Priester appeared on the original and makes a guest spot here, 65 years later, on “Tears for Johannesburg.” He’s a piece of living history – catch him at the Seattle Jazz Fellowship. Matthew Stevens makes for a welcome addition on guitar.
- Antibalas – Hourglass
I try to reward bands for reinvention, and Antibalas did a swell job of it with Hourglass. They’ve removed their vocals (not permanently, I’d imagine) in place of a jazzier, more stretchy sound, reinserting themselves at the top of an Afrobeat genre that, based on Khruangbin-friendly Spotify algorithms, should be flourishing.
- deafheaven – Lonely People with Power
When we last heard from deafheaven, in 2021, the group had left their back metal origins behind in favor of clean vocals and shoegaze on Infinite Granite. That album was splendid, though some of the band’s original fans disagreed. deafheaven returned to their roots this year, albeit holding onto some of their genre exploration. Daniel Tracy is one of the best drummers in rock.
- Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
Am I into reggaeton now? This question kept popping up as Bad Bunny’s new album wormed into my 2025 listening habits. Granted, there’s a lot more than reggaeton going on here, including the best synthesizer sounds money can buy. Will “BAILE INoLVIDABLE” make the Super Bowl setlist? Vegas probably has odds.
- Kathleen Edwards – Billionaire
It’s not quite on the level of 2020’s Total Freedom, but Edwards’s Billionaire is another sterling effort from one of today’s most underrated singer-songwriters. Jason Isbell produced the album – how’s that for a vote of artistic confidence?
- Dream Theater – Parasomnia
The prog metal stalwarts haven’t technically been on hiatus, but without Mike Portnoy on the kit (he was replaced, ably, by Mike Mangini), something felt off in the songwriting. Portnoy’s back, and the boys haven’t missed a beat. “Midnight Messiah” sounds right off Octivarium.
- Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie
The album title Dan’s Boogie makes this release sound like a minor work from a major artist. Au contraire! This is up there with Dan Bejar’s best. When you’ve release 14 albums, you start to run out of names.
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island
Gizz topped the inaugural version of this list two years ago with PetroDragonic Apocalypse. They remain one of the best live acts in the business, but when their studio work isn’t hellbent on a specific genre, the songwriting can wander. Phantom Island is still an enjoyable outing, with big band elements that point to some interesting possibilities should they keep arranging.
- Stereolab – Instant Holograms on Metal Film
The snozzberries still taste like snozzberries, and Stereolab, after 15 years away from the game, still sounds like Stereolab. Their mix of analog synths and guitar effects is indelible.
- Mobb Deep – The Infinite
It’s more than simple nostalgia, I think, that puts the legendary Queens group on this list. This is the first album since founding member Prodigy passed away in 2017, but The Infinite includes some of his unreleased material. And it must be the only recent album to include Nas, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, H.E.R., and The Alchemist.
- Wednesday – Bleeds
Bleeds didn’t dig its hooks in right away, like 2023’s Rat Saw God (#7 that year). But the songwriting remains strong, and the guitar swells can build to where it sounds as if someone – MJ Lenderman, I guess – has thrown their rig down a stairwell. “Townies” is an early album MVP.
- Viagra Boys – viagr aboys
The year’s final spot goes to ironic Swedish rockers Viagra Boys, with an album title only half as satirical as the content therein. Lucky for them, the whole world has gone to satire. I’ll sign off with the chorus from “Man Made of Meat.” See you next year!
I don’t wanna pay for anything / Clothes and food and drugs for free / If it was 1970 / I’d have a job at a factory / I am a man that’s made of meat / And you’re on the internet looking at feet / I hate almost everything that I see / And I just wanna disappear
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