45 favorite albums of my 2025
A year of small numbers (doot doot)
At this time of year you mostly just want the list, so here’s my top 45—about the point at which ordinal preferences become stable—in self-indulgent descending order. (Substack links are weirdly memory-intensive, so some email readers will have to click through, but this is the one annual post I can get people to click through on.)
45. Joana Mallwitz & Konzerthausorchester Berlin: The Kurt Weill Album [6 plays]
I’ve grown to appreciate Weill’s skill and taste at melding classical and popular forms even more since I reviewed this in early November. Is this a subtweet? Probably.
44. BaianaSystem: O Mundo Dá Voltas [6 plays]
Inspirational auto-translate: “It’s not the Black-Faced Ox that takes the children, it’s the State… They deflected the ball and want to appeal for a goal kick.”
43. Bashy: Being Poor Is Expensive (2024) [8 plays]
Yes yes, theatre kid turned rapper turned actor turned rapper, but this has some of the most vivid storytelling of recent years, and plenty of attention to the actual music.
42. Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia [8 plays]
Only the second-most acclaimed album by an artist who turned 101 this year (fortunately for Allen, he also made the first.) I prefer this one despite no Neneh—there are any number of Big Avant Names to compensate.
41. DJ K: Radio Libertadora! [5 plays]
Non-feminist revolutionary funk. For three tracks, it’s as exhilarating as anything this year, and even after that it’s hard to look away.
40. BunnaB: Bunna Summa (Ice Cream Summer Deluxe) [7 plays]
ah da da DAAAAAAAAhhhh
39. ALT BLK ERA: Rave Immortal [7 plays]
Fast, British, catchy, danceable, not wub-averse—almost everything an aging alt-rocker should want out of a 2025 album, so I’m shocked they’re barely getting year-end action outside of the American proto-poptimist braintrust, of all people.
38. Sudan Archives: The BPM [7 plays]
“I’ve always been a tech girl, and I just think it will look really cool onstage to have all the wires exposed to show what happens behind the scenes of the music. My music has always been basically made with a lot of technology, a lot of little robots.”
<she gets cancelled on Bluesky>
37. Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On [6 plays]
The year in music crit would’ve been if the indie press had spent it explaining the difference between Horsegirl and horsegiirL instead of between Goose and Geese.
36. James McMurtry: The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy [7 plays]
Dear younger songwriters getting acclaim for lyrics mostly: you can tell stories! Stories are good!
35. Low Cut Connie: Connie Live (2024) [7 plays]
Naturally, the first recorded LCC I’ve really loved since 2012 is the one that Xgau gives *** to.
34. Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up River to Get Our Names Back [6 plays]
In my circles this didn’t get nearly as much attention as his last one, so I didn’t play it until late in the year. It’s not quite as good, but it’s nearly as good?
33. Djrum: Under Tangled Silence [8 plays]
This does take a while to escape electrohippiedom, but it gets more intriguing as it goes along, with beats that sound like he’s aware there’s life outside both England and the Internet.
32. Miguel Zenón Quartet: Vanguardia Subterránea [9 plays]
For once I voted in the Latin category of the Francis Davis poll (which Zenón perennially wins.) Because this is clearly Latin jazz! And should win!
31. Skaiwater: Gigi (2024) [8 plays]
I’m always late getting to the post-Soundcloud breakouts, and I didn’t get much out of the active Soundcloud era names this year, so here’s last year’s post-Soundcloud breakout (who has a Soundcloud.)
30. Dieuf-Dieul de Thìes (2024) [8 plays]
The pride of Thiès from 1979–83 reunites and, with the help of ringers including Senegal’s (alleged) only trombonist, find they might be the best band left at what they do.
29. Craig Finn: Always Been [9 plays]
I had this contending for number one at midyear but, though the writing is great, the music hasn’t repaid repeat plays—meaning that sadly, I must withdraw my praise for the War on Drugs. It hurts me more than it hurts you, guys.
28. The Kasambwe Brothers [6 plays]
Malawi guitar/drums/tree-branch bass trio fly to the Berkshires and get every opportunity to make a top record; they (and whoever the uncredited trumpeter is) aren’t going to waste Emily Lazar’s time.
27. Les Savy Fav: Oui, LSF (2024) [9 plays]
Comeback album so underrated it took me a year to get around to it. The band’s stayed sharp while doing their various day and/or night jobs, and singer Tim Harrington is as annoying and as heroic as ever.
26. Public Enemy: Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025 [8 plays]
Chuck’n’Flav have kept more vital than their Seniors Tour peers because they still feel like they have something to say. Even if it’s “ageism: shit is worse than racism.”
25. Backxwash: Only Dust Remains [8 plays]
Guilt can be useful if it keeps you alive a little longer. As can video games.
24. Margo Price: Hard Headed Woman [7 plays]
The right album for the year—“Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” isn’t its only song about not letting the bastards get you down.
23. Lella Fadda: Magnün Deluxe [9 plays]
Arabic feminist songs… written/rapped/sung by someone who speaks Arabic! Will wonders never cease.
22. Jubal Lee Young: Squirrels [8 plays]
Inside of you there are two wolves… but what if you feed both the one who’s kind all the time and the one who’ll call an asshole an asshole?
21. PinkPantheress: Fancy That [8 plays]
The correct Fancy Some More? remixes to substitute are the Nia Archives “Illegal”, the Yves “Stars”, and the Zara Larrson “Stateside”. As an old person I appreciate the intergenerational solidarity gestures (Basement Jaxx! Sugababes!), but the kids are better left to their own devices.
20. The Ex: If Your Mirror Breaks [8 plays]
Wins this year’s award for Best Album by an Anarcho-Leftist Post-Punk Band That’s Been Around Since the Seventies by a nose. Better luck next time, Mekons.
19. Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton [9 plays]
Lehman-Iyer-Sorey’s Fieldwork’s reunion is gonna win all the jazz polls number fifteen below doesn’t. I prefer this Braxsploration because, I dunno, I hate pianos or something.
18. Skee Mask: Resort (2024) [10 plays]
A well-sequenced Serious Electronic Album that avoids the age-old “let’s finish with the boring ambient stuff” issue by putting the ambient stuff at the beginning. And it isn’t even that boring!
17. Wednesday: Bleeds [9 plays]
I’m as alienated from critical consensus as I was in 2009, except instead of GAPDY it’s now… GROWCH? Oh well, I’ll take the W.
16. Edna Martinez Presents Picó: Sound System Culture From The Colombian Caribbean [9 plays]
Highly danceable forms from across the Caribbean and Africa, made by (get this) musicians experienced and accomplished within those forms! <okay, enough subtweeting—eds.>
15. Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts [9 plays]
I’ve finally seen in concert America’s best satorially mismatched jazz group whose leader still drives them around in the tour van. The title presumably references the mysteries they solve en route from Lexington to Bloomington.
14. أحمد [Ahmed]: Giant Beauty (2024) [2–8 plays]
I singled out African Bossa Nova for review, but the totality of the five discs comprises perhaps the premier achievement in improvised music last year (that I put off getting to, because five discs.)
13. Danny Brown: Stardust [8 plays]
Danny played for time
Jiving us that we were voodoo
The kids were just crass
He was the nazz
With God-given ass
He took it all too far
But boy, could he spit a bar
12. Jazzwrld & Thukuthela: The Most Wanted [9 plays]
Runaway singles artist of the year, which makes it hard to choose which track to pick for polls: “uValo” ft. Thukzin? Well-sung “Uma Wengane”? Something that isn’t even on here, like “Isaka (6 am)”? The obvious solution to this Gordian knot is to just vote for the album.
11. CMAT: Euro-Country [9 plays]
Her best, inasmuch as it let me put phrases like “visual culture’s pedo impulse” and “the namechecked-earlier Dorian Gray” into the review to sound clever, even though I was mostly browsing Kerry Katona tabloid coverage when I wrote it.
10. Maria Muldaur: One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey [9 plays]
Do you want to hear 83-year-old Muldaur repeatedly sing the word “griiiiiind”? Yes. Yes you do.
9. Dlala Thukzin: 031 Studio Camp 2.0 [9 plays]
I'm not beating the accusations that I'm in the tank for Thukzin, as this overtook The Most Wanted during listmaking season. I think I don’t like last month’s Mayvis as much (12 songs in 76 minutes doesn’t suit him) but decent odds I’ll change my mind on that too.
8. Thalin/Cravinhos/VCR Slim/iloveyoulangelo/Pirlo: Maria Esmeralda (2024) [9 plays]
Narrative-heavy theatrical rap album that I admitted to guys was kind of Hamiltony, and many of you still loved it!
7. Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, William Parker: The Ancients [9 plays]
Top of my jazz poll ballot was this live collection by musos who turned 27, 78, and 73 in 2025. There are lifetimes of skill on display. There’s an Aztec death whistle.
6. Hüsker Dü: 1985: The Miracle Year [9 plays]
My rock album of the year, marking my final descent into old fogeydom. If you want me, I’ll be in the garage with my Maximum Rocknroll back issues.
5. Champeta with Edna Martinez: Diblo Dibala Special (2024) [10 plays]
So good that we got Xgau to review a Soundcloud upload.
4. Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter [10 plays]
The people who hated this, mostly but not all traditionalists, really hated it. Me, I thought it was country’s best male singer singing songs by country’s best male songwriter, but what do I know, I don’t even know how Kurukshetra is pronounced. Okay, fine, I do.
3. Jeffrey Lewis: The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis [11 plays]
The most depressing break-up album maybe ever because the principals aren’t just blowing idiot wind—their character flaws are no greater than existential despair (join the club) and not being able to stay awake during movies, and it still didn’t work. Ow, fuck, that hurt.
2. Los Thuthanaka [10 plays]
It came down to the album I played the most vs. the album that was the most monumental achievement, and it’s no shame to lose on points. So kudos to Joshua Minsoo Kim for talking Pitchfork into a 9.3, kudos to Pitchfork for sticking to their guns like our leading formerly independent music publication should, and kudos to Chuquimamani-Condori and their brother Josh for working at their style until they had something impervious to slings and arrows and indifference. It feels like it’s always been there, and will be there whenever you look out.
1. Mahotella Queens: Buya Buya: Come Back [12 plays]
Making the final decision, I found that Los Thuthanaka was a huge improvement over Chuquimamani-Condori’s DJ E album, while Buya Buya was only slightly better than Paris–Soweto… wait, better than Paris–Soweto? Clear choice, then. With Mahlathini and the OG Makgona Tshole Band unforgotten, Hilda and her new school summarize her career and decades of South African progress by showing the music they love best endures. If not for the collective identity, Hilda might have stolen a title from Sonny Rollins: this is what I do.
There are a few scenes I’m behind on: Brazil for sure, as I still haven’t found a new workflow after Brazil Beat Blog’s retirement, plus no one’s pushing me to get to young person rap in a timely manner. The major remaining unknowns are in Asia: K-pop notwithstanding, I still don’t have any grasp of the breadth of albums from the continent (well, it is most of the world.) A November push yielded Beachside Talks and not much else, though the One OK Rock album might be funny enough for me to bother writing up a B plus. Japan is the most known of the remaining unknowns, but I should at least commit to getting one more country under control next year.
It was a flat year at the top for me, with only six albums hitting double figure playcounts compared to thirteen last year. To compensate, there was breadth: my A-list length is 92, easily my longest ever. The rest of it, in highly approximate descending order, is below.
Ibex Band: Stereo Instrumental Music (1976/2025)
Serengeti: Kenny Dennis IV (2024)
Monaleo: Who Did the Body
Margaret Glaspy: The Sun Doesn’t Think EP (2024)
SilkMoney: Who Waters the Wilting Giving Tree…
James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores
Tsapiky! Modern Music from Southwest Madagascar
Morgan Wade: The Party Is Over (Recovered)
Kurious: Mystery Mixtape (2024)
Crypt Sermon: The Stygian Rose (2024)
Luke Stewart Silt Remembrance Ensemble: The Order
Mellow & Sleazy and Tman Xpress: Midnight in Diepkloof
Avril Lavigne: Greatest Hits (2024)
Rodrigo Amado The Bridge: Further Beyond
Tarbaby: You Think This America (2024)
Rochelle Jordan: Through the Wall
Carsie Blanton: After the Revolution (2024)
Zanzibara 11: Congo in Dar: Dance No Sweat 1982-1986 (2024)
Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow
Titanic: Hagen
Tropical Fuck Storm: Fairyland Codex
Dalia Stasevska/BBC Symphony Orchestra: Dalia’s Mixtape (2024)
Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (2024)
Noura Mint Seymali: Yenbett
Eric Church: Evangeline vs. the Machine
Music for a Revolution Vol. 1: Guinea’s Syliphone Recording Label (1967-1973)
The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It
Woo hoo! Went out with a top tenned album. Timed retirement perfectly. (I am lazily picking through melhores discos lists, and might message you a few recommendations sometime this winter/spring.)
As someone who's closer to the critical consensus than you (based on The Spreadsheet), I think Bleeds is overrated (I think we already comment-corresponded about this?), and I did really enjoy the Mahotella Queens, Maria Esmeralda, and Edna Martinez albums! I've accepted that I'll never dive deep on any of the scenes they belong to; it's like how I don't get The Secret Agent even though I love Bacurau, or how I will never understand Husker Du or their child Hotline TNT but I love the Sugar records...
I know I'm going to spend some of January trying to figure out Stardust, Snipe Hunter, and Les Savy Fav. I listened to all of them once and then forgot about them.