23. The Last Dinner Party – From the Pyre

Listen || Genre: Glam
TLDP’s debut was on my list last year, and it’s incredibly shocking to see their sophomore project eclipse that. From the Pyre taps into Bowie & Queen more than any other glam artist in the modern era, and if it was released in the 70s every old person we know would talk about it endlessly. A truly spectacular listen, it’s so uniquely queer & dramatic that on fervent listens I find myself in box seats at the theater.

Sophomore slumps are very, very real. I was fully anticipating that from TLDP. Instead, their follow up project should have them stand pretty comfortably at the forefront of the modern landscape. Arenas and amphitheaters might be an optimistic end for them, but that world might not be too far away.

17. smokedope2016 – THE PEAK
lil fitted cap – SLOW DOWN (ft. smokedope2016)

Listen || Genre: Cloud rap
Here’s your BOGO special. It’s been my barometer (ie. do I like this album more/less than smokedope2016?) since March. He’s in the middle an incredible trilogy where he raps about smoking cigarettes while doing random tasks, the technical difficulty of reproduction on water beds, fantasy football drafts, and other random stuff soundcloud rappers think about. He also says his name on the track all the time. The trilogy is called “THE COMEUP, THE PEAK, THE COMEDOWN.” We have yet to hear THE COMEDOWN but I am EAGERLY awaiting it. His producer, who has literally only ever produced for him, is lil fitted cap. From what I can tell, SLOW DOWN is the throwaways from this trilogy session and was released under lil fitted cap’s name rather than the smokedope2016 title. We got too hype during the come up, and I guess we gotta pump the brakes for a minute.

All of that aside, both of these tapes are awesome. It’s really easy to see the lil peep influence, but it’s even more fun to embrace this stuff as some of the silliest music soundcloud provided us. Lean into the “Yah” and “Mhhhhhmmmmm” adlibs, and the absolute mine of absurd bars. You really can pop either of these tapes on and just have a blast as the duo genuinely utilizes spacey production & autotune masterfully.

16. Zastava – Buildings

Listen || Genre: dance punk
I know there’s some really obscure stuff on this list, but Buildings might take the cake. Zastava’s a punk group out of Detroit with 800 monthly listeners, and they happened to put out one of my favorite debuts in 2025. If you need scratching guitars, spoken word, and garage rock-revival stuff, here you go. Zastava exists in a world where NYC’s dance-punk movement in the shadow of 9/11 never died. Instead, it spread to other cities vying for a rebirth, and within the anguish a new sound is born. The influences are blatant: Sonic Youth, The Strokes, early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and it’s all so refreshing I couldn’t help myself from revisiting throughout gloomier days. Detroit never dies baby!

Most Americans have borderline abandoned this sound. Zoomers seem bored by the concept of guitar-based punk, and Millennials are too boring to move around at shows so forgive me if I’m apprehensive about the future of art-punk. All of that to be said, there are songs on here I’ve longed to listen to for close to a decade. If Last Night by The Strokes or Honest Mistake by The Bravery has ever been on one of your party playlists, you should give this thing a whirl.

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15. Glaive – Y’all

Listen || Genre: tiktok eboy noises
On my first listen, I spent so much time thinking “wow I actually can’t believe Glaive sounds like this.” On my 5th listen, I spent less time thinking that, but instead reflecting how truly remarkable it is to see his growth as an artist. The journey from hyperpop to singer songwriter to digicore has been fun to watch, and it’s never been sharper than on Y’all. The 808s are turned down, the songs are more focused, and the melodies are continually changing. Some hooks on here are tight – We Don’t Leave the House – some beats are truly sick – Veni Vidi Vici – and every song is truly varied enough it’ll continue to capture your attention. While some might be a bit lacking, there’s always at least one component I find interesting. Spaced out digital rap isn’t a genre that’s necessarily lacking releases (see smokedope2016); finding one that can capture my attention for the entire release is far more exciting (even if the first half is far more fun than the second).

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14. The Callous Daoboys – I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven

Listen || Genre: Mathcore? Metalcore? Emo?
Probably my favorite album cover from the year. If you enjoy unclean vocals (screamed) or distorted metal guitars, you have to listen to this. The Callous Daoboys managed overcame irony-as-the-point by embracing the dramatic: radio broadcast introductions, random Bjork stuff, and clean vocals that rival Dallas Green or Tyler Carter. Maybe this is the future of the alternative soundscape, truly talented artists dancing around multiple genres while leveraging heavy distortion, breakdowns, and unclean vocals. Maybe it’s a one-off. No matter what it is, I’m stoked to have art like this.

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13. Frost Children – SISTER

Listen || Genre: Emo Electro
I wanted to be a hater. I really really did. I can’t. I’ve come around to realize that I really love this album; while there are 5-6 songs that are 100% full blown skips, the other 8-9 songs are already in my brain chemistry forever. SISTER sounds as if Breathe Carolina and 3OH3! made good music. It’s so blatantly a love letter to the dance emo scene, yet at the same time it’s washed through millennial party culture. WHAT IS FOREVER FOR is unironically one of my favorite songs & choruses of the decade, and I’m a total sucker for this hyper-predictable song structure. A total surprise release for me, as I haven’t been the most keen the duo’s prior releases, I am officially all-in.

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12. Ray Vaughn – The Good The Bad The Dollar Menu

Listen || Genre: Rap
One of the newest Top Dawg artists, Ray Vaughn is officially on my map. I believe this is his first mixtape on a label, and it’s absolutely dripping with west coast tropes – voicemails, over the top comedic bangers, and artists that litter Kendrick credits. The Good The Bad The Dollar menu starts off strong, with both XXXL Tee and Dollar Menu having in-your-face trap beats that would rattle even the newest cars. There are a lot of bars on here about EBT and struggles with poverty, but when you start to feel like it’s getting a bit too conscious, Vaughn immediately flips back into the bangers. He’s already 29 and maybe this style is sooo 2018. However, I am still extremely interested in a formal album and if he can surround himself with others willing to push the genre further, or if we continue to get songs that long for a Baby Keem sequel.

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11. Ho99o9 – Tomorrow We Escape

Listen || Genre: ??
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I have been EAGERLY awaiting Ho99o9 (pronounced Horror) to realize & hone their sound like this for years. I’m not going to mince it: this is a black hardcore album riffing through politics that I describe as “Yeezus if it was nu-metal.” It’s vulgar, it’s tough, and every single tune on here RIPS. Having a blend of left-field genres like this is a really tall ask, but the industrial noise all comes together into one of the most interesting LPs of the year. I cannot imagine there will be another album that will feature Yung Skrrt and also Chelsea Wolfe unless Ho99o9 gets the gang back together.

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10. Skepta, Fred again.. – Skepta .. Fred – EP

Listen || Genre: dance rap
If you know me, you know I’m a certified Frederick John Philip Gibson, son of Charles Anthony Warneford Gibson, liniage of Huntindonshire gentry, 6th heir of the Dukes of Somerset, hater. I do not ever recommend anyone’s music that is anywhere remotely connected to the royal family, or has 14 hyperlinks in their family history on Wikipedia. So when I tell you… this Fred again & Skepta project isn’t just good… it’s sensational — that should matter for something! Skepta was in RARE form, and here’s a baker’s dozen bars that made me audibly lol:

1. Try diss me or my family tree, alright, we could go dad for a dad
2. You ain’t got straps, stop lyin’, you’re a nerd
3. Flow so sick, you might need a NyQuil
4. Spud a man like ‘Yo, wagwan, done know’
5. Could have been MAINS, could have been Burberry
6. Boyfriends wanna hurt me, I just smile like I just came back from Turkey
7. Gave money to the homeless man and I did it in private
8. It’s two in the morn’, I’m up studying science, Them boy there asleep like Biden
9. Why do I spend money so frivolously?
10. Suck whose mum? Now, why would you say that?
11. And I’m gone like Nicolas Cage
12. You won’t see me outside unless it’s a special occasion
13. Yeah, we sold out everything except humble pie

It’s like 15 minutes long, well worth your time. It’s probably minute-by-minute the best release in music this year. I will continue to not recommend Fred Again after this.

9. Jane Remover – ♡ – EP

Listen || Genre: pop
Imagine my surprise, my stupid self, sitting at my computer on a Friday morning excited to listen to music, and getting the notification ‘New Jane Remover.’ Oh? How? They’ve already put out so much this year! They just finished a tour with Turnstile!! How? ♡ – EP is my favorite crop of Jane Remover songs, by a significant margin. I loosely infer this is the tossed project Jane described as the ‘main pop girl album‘ they teased in an NME interview with the loosies we were drip fed in 2024. There’s really only two ‘new’ songs here, but all 6 are high enough quality to warrant its placement here.

♡ is a dispatch of love for so many styles of pop. There so many melodies that will earworm your coming of age movie, even if you are coming of age in your 20s, 30s, or 40s. Guitars are crawling through sludge or sound stripped from a Lil Peep demo. Jane manipulates autotune like it’s a natural part of her voice. They’re crippled by love, paralyzed by a crush, and the melodies plunge through palpability of a first glance. Production changes from yearning for a club bathroom to a cry-ready heated garage. Let ♡ soundtrack your next drunk cigarette, and let the bumping Jersey club bass remind your heart still beats for love and friendship. Roll the windows down and fall in love with life again.

8. Rochelle Jordan – Through the Wall

Listen || Genre: deep house
Oh, you wanna throw hip? Maybe wiggle a little? You like house music? Here’s your chance to prove it. You’re going to sit down and listen to Rochelle Jordan repeat the same bar 8 times, and each time you better not show an ounce of boredom. House DJs fear nobody, except the deep house nerd casually nodding their head to synth transitions.

Through the Wall was made for lovers of house & the history of it, and it seamlessly provides a sensational addition to the catalogue. This ain’t no tech, it’s certainly not UKG. When, not if, you press play I hope you enjoy hearing producers going buck wild for the sake of it. Some examples:
–Red King: Randomly the beat goes to a 1/16th 6x in a row, it never does that again
–Sum: In the interlude, a single bass note goes from an extremely low to an extremely high register once. It never happens again.
–I’m Your Muse: On the 16th song, they put a full on dub tech outro on here!!!
–Doing It Too: Masterclass in using one synth but modifying it like 20x instead of adding any other new synths

7. Clipse – Let God Sort ‘Em Out

Listen || Genre: hip hop
Clipse exists in a world where the last rap song released as a single is No Church in the Wild — they never heard anything after that. Pharrell finally stopped being addicted to Minions Money™, collaborating with Hanz Zimmer, and decided to make real beats. With their forces combined, the album’s final form is a defining hip hop project for the decade that I can only hope casts a shadow over every other rapper. Stop rapping about going to the club or being outside for the night, start making music FOR the club while rapping about stacking money and eating entry-level pasta dishes. Pusha T has numerous bars on this that make the acceptable feel extravagant — like dawg I’ve bought wifi on planes, I know people that own Gucci, and old BMWs like… aren’t… that expensive? Doesn’t matter, the album’s still genuinely hilarious and has endless replay-ability. None of that even touches the first song, The Birds Don’t Sing, which is one of the most raw reflection and reminder of death I’ve heard.

Some day soon, we™ need to have a discussion about Pusha T’s discography and also re-evaluate his influence on the G.O.O.D MUSIC era of Ka**e W**t. I will not be doing it, but someone™ should. At least today, I can easily say this is the best hip hop album of the year and I will be fairly upset when publications somehow do not agree.

6. Greg Freeman – Burnover

Listen || Genre: Alt-country, new-americana?
When I was an insurance salesman, I had a coworker we’re going to name Ty. Ty would have a crock-pot going all day while we took phone calls, and frequently offer me whatever he was whipping up in the middle of the day. I’d come in on Sundays and the whole building would smell of pork rub and A1. On more than one occasion, he’d say while on the phone, “Let me look into that for you…” put them on hold to shake a chicken thigh ’til it fell off the bone. Frequently, he told me about what he would do on his days off: selling glass jars to strangers, modifying bumpers on his & his brother’s Honda Civics (plural), trying to catch wild foxes and teach them to deliver beer, working out in a chipotle parking lot, setting bingo up at a Golden Corral, and that’s just the ones I remember. The thing about Ty, he was so emphatic you couldn’t help but listen to every word. Every Greg Freeman song tells a story about someone like Ty.

I adored Greg Freeman’s debut, I Looked Out, and titled it The Best Country Album You’ve Never Heard. It’s still one of my favorite albums in this space, and think it’s a full on must listen for fans of any of the new odd-duck bands. Burnover leans far more into Freeman’s storytelling than his ability to manipulate a guitar. If you’re into odd guys singing with odd voices about odd stories, you’ll eat this right up. When he wants to, he’ll go buckwild with instruments you didn’t anticipate — Gulch — or he’ll namedrop random celebrities — Gone. I adore songs with random instrumentation that change on the drop of a hat. Every song on here does. It’s a truly special recording, and I can’t wait to see him perform at a venue I’ve never heard of in Boston.

5. Ethel Cain – Perverts

Listen || Genre: drone, y͙͎̒o̝͈̬̍ͬ̅ͩ̚͟͝u̸̟̮̤͉͈ͫ͆͛͒ͣ͢ͅ 𝔪u҉𝔰t҉𝑙⃫𝑖⃫𝑠⃫𝑡⃫𝑒⃫𝑛⃫ ṯ̴̶̛͕̯͎͍̺̼̭͎̰̲̻̓̀͒͒̇͛̓͒̌̌̽ͥ̐̎̓̕͜͢͡ͅớ̶̶̧̡̛͉͉̺̪͚̥̞̼̇͆̋̇̔̑ͫ̆̀̆͘̕͘͞ a̛͚̯͉̩̦͇̠̲͖̫̳̪̱̳͚͖̟̿͛̃̆ͣ̑͛͊̃ͤ͑̇̽̊ͮ͢͜͠͝l̴̵̢̖̝͔̳͇͆ͭͣͦͦ̏̿̐̓̽̉͘l͚͖͍̎̚ o҉𝔣 ₮ⱧɆ₥
Look at the album art. Look at the title. Read the genre. Look at the song names. Does any of this interest you? Is your interest remotely piqued? Do you see how high I’ve ranked this? Look at its immediate neighbors. Is your brain captured by a desire of novelty? Are you haunted by words you can’t remember? Does the sunrise scare you? Does the sunset scare you? Has the darkness provided you safety? Why? It can be comforting. What comforts you? Has anyone? Anything? What scares you? Who scares you? Do you scare yourself? Can you comfort yourself? Is there comfort within words? Instruments you can’t recognize? Spaces you’ve never been? Sounds you’ve never heard? Sounds that scare you? Are you scared because you enjoyed it? It’s okay. It can be comforting. It’s happening to e༙྇v༙྇e༙྇r༙྇y༙྇b༙྇o༙྇d༙྇y༙྇.

4. PinkPantheress – Fancy That

Listen || Genre: Dance pop
MY NAME’S PINK AND I’M REALLY GLAD TO MEET YOU MY NAME’S PINK AND I’M REALLY GLAD TO MEET YOU MY NAME’S PINK AND I’M REALLY GLAD TO MEET YOU MY NAME’S PINK AND I’M REALLY GLAD TO MEET YOU it’s nice to meet you too pink MY NAME’S PINK AND I’M REALLY GLAD TO MEET YOU MY NAME’S PINK AND I’M REALLY GLAD TO MEET YOU

I’ll also take this time to recommend Fancy Some More? the deluxe remix edition of this. “Oh! Brat‘s influence!” yeah yeah yeah but the deluxe has:
1. Completely reworked production on songs with new features (many of these are incredible), including a Oklou feature, who also put out a sensational album this year and is on an incredible upswing.
2. An entire dedicated disc to just remixes, including Nia Archives, Kaytranada, Basement Jaxx, and Mochakk.

3. Arm’s Length – There’s a Whole World Out There

Listen || Genre: emo
I don’t know how many people I recommended this album to. I don’t know how many people I’ve recommended Arm’s Length to. I DO know how immensely rare it is to hear an emo or pop-punk band care this much about the music they’re putting out, and take their own innate ability seriously. We’re dealing with some of the densest, intense, and absolutely gutting lyrics on a modern album. If you enjoy emotionally torturing yourself, yearning into the early hours of the morning, or forgetting to take your medically prescribed SSRI, There’s a Whole World Out There will absolutely destroy you. Between this and their 2022 debut, Never Before Seen, Never Again Found, Arm’s Length’s the most exciting young band in the emo/pop-punk space. Hop on the band wagon now before their shows cost $150 to get in and before the lead singer needs vocal surgery. I still get chills thinking about how good this album is.

The World is one of the most gut-wrenching songs I’ve heard. The following lyrics are so astronomically insane they borderline juxtapose the entire album:

“was I selfish for keeping you close, when there’s a whole world out there and you would have never known?”

2. Ninajirachi – I Love My Computer

Listen || Genre: girl EDM
I couldn’t FATHOM liking a Y2K revival album more than the PinkPantheress mixtape. I couldn’t dream of it, so much so I wrote and contributed to a magazine earlier in the year yapping about how good Pink was. Yet, here’s Ninajirachi releasing the best dance project of the decade. I cannot grasp this thing’s existence. We’re so far into the future the new generation are doing like, Skrillex-revivalism but throwing it in the blender with nightcore and Kelly Clarkson. Once again, Australia delivers.

There was a ton of discourse on twitter this year saying “there’s no song of the summer!11!!!!” — they were all wrong. It was iPod Touch, a song I have wanted to hear my entire life, and my favorite single from 2025. I’m so overjoyed to live in a world where an album like this can exist. It’s the possibility and potential of growth, and the possibility and potential of how much grander electronic music can be. If you want to read more about how much I love this album, please enjoy my pseudo-review: I Love My Computer, and Ninajirachi. To the many of you that have told me you listened to that album because of my relentless recommendation, thank you!!! I also recommend you listen to Girl EDM 🙂

1. Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power

Listen || Genre: Black Metal (blackgaze if you wanna be a nerd)

Thirteen years ago, Sunbather released. It’s hard to remember that world, but I do remember 4chan (odd to think it used to be a great place for music discussion) being just… overrun by people posting the cover. I had never seen so much posting about one album, to the point I thought it was being astroturfed. It might have been, but who cares, it’s one of the best albums I’d heard. Any new Deafheaven release eclipsing that is hard to imagine, yet Lonely People With Power does. Our worlds are so fragmented it won’t break into the subcultures the way Sunbather did. It doesn’t matter.

Lonely People With Power is a landmark album in American music. Few bands have ever been as talented as Deafheaven, and after a decade into their career we have finally seen the climax of their potential. The riffs are blistering, heavy, and gorgeous all at the same time. The vocals are crushing and also show the extreme ranges George Clarke possesses. Just when you’re about to get overwhelmed by the sheer noise, Deafheaven will slow it down and enchant you with rippling chords. It is on the apex of the metal genre, and lives as one of the crowning achievements of modern American metal.

thank you for reading 🙂

if you care about dance music as much as I do, here’s your treat. For the sickos, every dance song i pressed “Favorite” on this year, presented with no order:

ROZ, Yng Lvcas – ROZ || ARTBAT – Closer || COBRAH – Record Deal || Riordan – While the Record Spins || Bedoin – Better Than This || ZULAN – Campeon || Adriatique – Like A Dream || Arodes – Alma || Arodes – Too Young ||Prospa – This Rhythm || Ninajirachi – Ninacamina ||Ela Minus – QQQQ (Nick Leon Mix) ||Ela Minus – QQQQ (Club Edit) ||Sebastian Ingrosso & Celine Dion – A New Day || ZULAN – Forever || Skepta & Fred again… – Last 1s Left || Skepta & Fred again… – Victory Lap ||Boris Way – Uber on Call || kawauso – feel better || Queen of Japan – I Was Made for Loving You || pookiebear – can we go back? (1999) || Snow Strippers – So What If I’m a Freak ||Barry Cant Swim – How It Feels || FKA Twigs – Perfectly ||Of the Trees – Everglade March || 33below & RL Grime – LOOK4MYLOVE || Tape B – Over Saturated
Domenick Dollar – girl$ || TWINSICK – Chase the Sunlight || Richard Gray – Give it to Me || Sammy Virji – Cops & Robbers || Max Styler – Touch || Indira Paganotto – Legend ||Prospa – Love Songs || Nikita, the Wicked – Look || Devault – Belgium || Wax Motif – Gimme That Money || DJ_Dave – Airglow
The Chainsmokers – White Wine & Adderall
Andrew Lux – Music Sounds Better W/ You Gianni Romano – It’s Not Right (&friends Remake)
Dragonette – Pick Up the Phone (arithmatix remix)
Soft Cell – Tainted Love (OLAK Remix)
kesha – your love is my drug (xxtrisanxo remix)
Gigi Perez – Sailor Song (TWINSICK & Chainsmokers Remix)
Tiesto – Kids x Too Sweet Mashup
ANOTR – Rest my Eyes (Tiesto Remix)
Julian – Chasing Highs (Remix)
Tame Impala – Dracula (Devoe Remix)
Yeat – Breathe (Whethan Remix)
Pitbull – Hey Baby (JOEYMING remix)
Dryden – MANEATER remix
Eli & Fur – Love Again (Simon Doty Remix)