Best Albums of the Year so Far

I promised myself I wouldn't do 50 albums... I did 50 albums

It’s certainly been a year over here. I’ve listened to less music than ever since having started this letter, and I routinely take long breaks from both writing and listening. All that has coincided with the general sense of deflation from my coterie of music nerds, who feel this year hasn’t lived up to the exceptional offerings we got in 2024.

Now, I don’t think they’re wrong on the whole. However there’s still plenty to love from this year. Through the first half of 2025, here’s what caught my attention.

TIER 5

Julia Wolf - Pressure

Did I slot this album in here because the cover would scare away the normies? Maybe. But I do wholeheartedly endorse this. It’s what Avril might have made were she not killed and replaced with a clone.

Phi-Psonics - Expanding to One

I’m not the most well-versed in jazz, and even I can tell that Phi-Psonics created something special here. A soothing, inventive, album that balances complexity and sophistication with undeniable approachability.

Home is Where - hunting season

I’ve not listened to this record as much as I hope to, so it’s a probable riser for the year end list. For now, it’s a step closer to the country side of Home is Where, rather than my preferred emo-hardcore side. Still, their songwriting chops, and expert lyricism (specifically on “migration patterns”) are enough to keep me engaged even as the band moves away from my preferences.

Kevin Drumm - Sheer Hellish Miasma II

Noise fans know that getting new Kevin Drumm is a big deal. Fortunately, his sequel to one of the defining drone/noise albums lives up to expectations, even if it doesn’t quite reach the highs of its predecessor.

Superheaven - Superheaven

Miss the grungy shoegaze of the 90s? Now you don’t! Superheaven uses the blown out amplifiers and rippling wall of sound that defined so many bands of that era, and does so without falling into the traps of nostalgia bait.

2hollis - star

By all accounts I should loathe this album. It smashes together emo hip hop (which I generally dislike) with dance music (which I’ve only recently ogtten into) and somehow comes out all the better for it.

Fange - Purulences

I don’t know what it is about French death metal bands, but they have some sort of receiver hooked up to my brain. They’re all out there specialty crafting a bass heavy guitar tone so they can end up on my playlists. It’s heavy, catchy, and will swallow you whole, I love it.

Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea

While people are happily lamenting the state of pop metal thanks to the milquetoast efforts of utterly forgettable bands (read: Sleep Token), Spiritbox is out here making pop metal that cashes in on what pop metal is supposed to be. Not a metal fan? Good riffs and grabby hooks abound. Metal fan? There are enough breakdowns to make us ADTR fans throw away our canes and walkers. It has what you need, there’s no reason to resist the siren song.

Ayane Shino - River せせらぎ The Timbre Of Guitar #2

Ayane Shino is a hypnotist. Each track on this record, and especially “Joy” seems formulated to lull listeners into a deep trance. Sections repeat endlessly, and always with a slight enough variation, be it in pace, volume, or note selection, to keep you locked in and listening for the next minor shift. It’s well outside my typical tastes, and somehow utterly irresistible.

SOM - Let the Light In

Shoegaze-infected metal is so back. Between the return of Deftones earlier this month and albums like Let the Light In, we’re drowning in fuzzy amplifier wash. Here, SOM excels at crafting hooky, fuzzed out tracks that are just noisy enough to keep freaks like me listening for hours at a time.

TIER 4

2 Chainz, Larry June, The Alchemist - Life is Beautiful

One of the best producers in rap teams up with one of the funniest, most creative rappers (2 Chainz) and one of the smoothest rappers (Larry June). The album is exactly as good as you’d hope.

FKA Twigs - EUSEXUA

After a brief poppier detour on CAPRISONGS, FKA Twigs is back on that weird shit and all the better for it. The fruits of her creative return to form are glossy, lush, tinged with experimentation, and vocally stunning. It might not quite hit the highs of the LP1 through MAGDALENE run, but it’s more approachable than either and nearly as good. Hopefully this is her true blow up moment.

Whitechapel - Hymns in Dissonance

Whitechapel long existed in that realm of “this metal band is popular so I assume they’re mid.” After seeing some glowing reviews for this record, I gave it a shot and was pleasantly surprised. It’s viciously heavy, never too inclined toward pop sensibilities, and it only rarely indulges in metalcore theatrics. A good record to scare people with if you ever need to do that.

Sepulchural Curse - Crimson Moon Evocations

Absolutely top notch death metal. Some of the slickest, most addictive riffs this side of a Blood Incantation record float through this record and into your punished ears. The songwriting also showcases an excellent sensibility regarding dynamics, and escapes the death metal trap of playing at full blast 110% of the time.

Honningbarna - Soft Spot

A top notch introduction to metal for just about anyone. Soft Spot showcases Honningbarna’s capability of writing infectious hooks and riffs, which they then combine with flourishes of noisy synth work to create a record that invites dancing nearly as much as it encourages headbanging.

Havukruunu - Tavastland

If you’re like me, and often find yourself turned off by the repetitive nature of most black metal, Havukruunu has a solution. The group combines the up-tuned guitars and vocal stylings of black metal with grabby heavy metal flourishes. It all adds up to something that satisfies my primal metalhead urges, but could also be slipped into a BBQ playlist without much fuss.

BRUIT ≤ - The Age of Ephemerality

BRUIT ≤ has once again crafted a post-rock masterwork. Like all the best artists in the genre, BRUIT ≤ capably weaves together pulse pounding, cinema-ready movements with sound-bite, modern life commentary. They way they integrate full string sections and metalcore guitars gives them a leg up on their heavier and lighter peers.

Viagra Boys - viagr aboys

The silly, manic stylings of Viagra Boys never fail to entertain, and that holds true on their playfully altered self-titled record. Lyrics are always tongue in cheek, and often delivered with a drug-addled indifference or a meaty snarl. Occasionally something profound sneaks through, but for the most part, it’s an exercise in silliness that just happens to contain some real musical genius.

Neptunian Maximalism - Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu

I was pleasantly surprised to see songs with reasonable runtimes when I pulled up Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu for the first time. Sure, some sneak into the double digits, but it’s nothing like the marathon of Solar Drone Ceremony. This more manageable approach toward track length has allowed Neptunian Maximalism to start delivering some beautifully varied material. Songs jump from the psychedelic to the overwhelming frequently, often laying these elements atop one another. Some tracks, like “At Dawn: Raag Bairagi: Sthayi & Antara Composition” even dip their toes into heavy metal and classic doom. It’s yet another mind bending journey from one of the most capable, and underappreciated bands in the psychedelic metal sphere.

billy woods - GOLLIWOG

Billy woods continues to deliver incisive lyrics, sparse beats, and off-kilter flows on his best record yet with GOLLIWOG. While it sounds similar to his previous efforts, there’s a greater cohesion to the work, both sonically and lyrically, that binds the whole albums together into a tightly knit piece. Outside of that sense of purpose, the album is further buoyed by excellent features from other notable “underground” rappers, who fall in line with woods’ vision while bringing their unique appeal to the project.

ゑでぃまぁこん (Eddie Marcon) - Carpet of Fallen Leaves

I never really imagined that the music missing from my life was Japanese acoustic guitar work, and yet, I have two albums from the mini-genre sitting on this list. Marcon, as you can guess, plays the guitar beautifully, and without an air of pretension that would make it needlessly complex. The notes always serve the vocals, and vice versa, creating one of the most harmonious and soothing listening experiences of the year.

Bad Bunny - DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS

This one’s another likely riser. Bad Bunny has never really hidden the fact that he’s a magnificent musician capable of crafting undeniable pop hits. He’s also made it clear that he can jam some real emotion into his albums when he feels like it. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS takes those skills and blends them together to create some real “crying in the club” hits. It’s easily his most emotionally evocative record to date, and that it does all that and still put in work as house painting and grilling background music for me this year is a real testament to its (and Bad Bunny’s) versatility.

TIER 3

Hell & מזמור [Mizmor] - Alluvion

As one might expect of a band named Hell, Alluvion is far from easy listening. And yet, there are so many moments of profound beauty seeping through this sonic tar pit. Take for instance the ninth minute of “Pandemonium’s Throat” where the blast beats fade and the guitars slow to a bassy earthquake hum. For a brief minute, you’re transported out of the nightmare this record presents, and guided to something that could be beautiful, which makes the sudden plunge into Tartarus all the more thrilling.

Tower - Let There Be Dark

Are you looking for a metal album you can share in polite company that won’t undersell your metalhead sensibilities? This one. Play this. It has all the joy, excitement, and kick-assedness of a classic heavy metal record, and none of the screaming madness that sends my BBQ party guests running for their cars.

Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE

After not being terribly enamored with his previous effort, SABLE, fABLE has pulled me right back in. It sits somewhere between the quality of his first three albums and i,i, which is to say that it’s better than 97% of music and not quite as good as he’s capable of. If this doesn’t show up in some EOY lists, I’m calling it a conspiracy.

Barker - Stochastic Drift

If this sounds insulting I’m sorry, that’s not my intent, Stochastic Drift is the sickest music ever produced for a science documentary. I can quite literally picture myself in the observatory, eyes locked on the ceiling, watching the planets crust form as the soft edges of an edible erase the exterior world. Now, there’s more than just vibes. There’s the unexpected start-stop silence of “Difference and Repetition,” the ASMR rattle jolt of “Positive Disintegration,” and dozens of other cohesive, ear tingling moments. Held together it’s a soothing, luscious record that’s well suited to guiding your next solo thinking session.

Skrillex - F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3

Probably the most fun I’ve had with any album this year. It’s essentially a DJ set committed to wax, which can be obnoxious, yet Skrillex manages to get the goofiest features to do their absolute best on this maddening record. If nothing else, listen for DJ Smokey’s tags.

Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH

I’ve heard tell that some folks are mad about this record, and for the life of me I don’t know why. Most complaints seem to center around this being “too poppy” compared to GLOW ON, a silly complaint given that GLOW ON was already this band’s turn toward pop, and it’s made all the sillier by NEVER ENOUGH’s constant unwillingness to sit still. If GLOW ON was the pop punk album filled with endless jams, NEVER ENOUGH is its weird cousin who started listening to too much dreamy ambient music. I find that the experimentation adds contemplative space to a genre that often lacks it, and which makes the gestures toward deep emotional truths all the easier to feel.

McKinley Dixon - Magic, Alive!

Now I know that Clipse has just put out an album, and had they not missed the cutoff, there’s a reasonable chance it would hold my top hip-hop album spot. For now though, that coveted title rests in the hands of McKinley Dixon, and I doubt anyone will easily pry it from his fingers. Each beat feels like something the producers left on the table because nobody could find the flow, Dixon does. And he does more than just find these flows, he glides on them, deftly dropping in well-crafted stories and clever wordplay that would be at home on 90s classics. Put together, it’s weird enough to capture the attention of a person like me, and approachable enough to become a classic for someone who likes a killer flow and a great beat.

Vildhjarta - + där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar +

Normally, the tech-death/prog releases I enjoy the most lack the pretentiousness that infects the rest of the genre. Vildhjarta is not that band. The album abounds with symbol-laden titles, and mind bending stop-start instrumentation. In the hands of lesser artists, it would feel like trying too hard. Here, it might not even prep the audience for the sheer brilliance on display. Vildhjarta has managed to craft the rare metal release that wows proficiency junkies with technical mastery and hooks casuals with catchy, urgent songwriting.

Aesop Rock - Black Hole Superette

As is tradition, the new Aesop Rock is a masterfully crafted display of flow and wordplay placed over unexpected beats. If you like your rappers especially verbose and willing to jump into a lake of silly subject matter, then this album is for you.

Swans - Birthing

There is a moment in this album where you think “this is where Swans finally lets me down.” Then “The Merge” starts to play and all doubt fades from your mind, swallowed into an ocean of pounding kick drums and static fuzz. Birthing excels at these sorts of moments, having mastered the peaks and valleys of harsh post-rock experimentation. It doesn’t quite have the energetic necessity of The Seer and To Be Kind but it’s not sitting far behind those records either.

Emptyset - Dissever

You know those cheap scalp massagers you can find at a Hudson News in the airport? Emptyset’s bass heavy compositions replicate the feeling of those tools in your ears. Each track feels custom designed for an action horror flick. Repetitive klaxon pluses flit back and forth, something is wrong on the ship, something wrong is on the ship. The tension grows and festers, but never for too long. That crunchy bass hit, a monster slamming its way into crew quarters, is sits just seconds away, terrifying to behold and too enticing to retreat from.

Vauruvã - Mar da Deriva

I haven’t received a new Kaatayra or Bríi album lately, but lucky for me the same guy is also in charge of Vauruvã. Of three bands, Vauruvã is the closest to a traditional atmospheric black metal act, but there are still plenty of gorgeous acoustic diversions and dreamy passages for those of us who seek a bit more than the hottest Deafheaven clone.

Richard Dawson - End of the Middle

This has to be Dawson’s least medieval album to date, which means it’s still closer to belonging in a weathered tavern than 99.9% of music produced in the last 100 years. It feels like the sort of thing you’d stumble across at a street fair, and, if you’re lucky to walk by during a particularly poignant lyrical passage, would stand to watch for the remainder of the day.

Squid - Cowards

Squid, for the uninformed, is part of the same movement that blessed us with Black Midi and Black Country, New Road. They’re also the only one of those three bands to retain their original lineup. So while it took them slightly longer to explode, they’ve had plenty of time to tinker with how they want to split the atom. That tempering has led us to Cowards, an album that understands when to deploy its mania, and knows how to build toward one hell of a crescendo. It also doesn’t succumb to the pressure to make every track a statement piece, which allows the big ones plenty of room to breathe, and the audience enough time to relax and recharge in between shimmering peaks.

TIER 2

Model/Actriz - Pirouette

If you’ve ever been so nervous you felt the urge to scream and move, Pirouette might just be to your taste. The record boasts a deadly anxiety, it constantly builds toward drops and dance beats that are just a smidge terrifying. At the same time, the anxiety is just a sound. The lyrics, the face and presentation are all confidence. It’s a killer representation of insecurity personified, or at least catalogued. Most importantly, the skittering, crackly beats absolutely whip, and will be the perfect accompaniment to warehouse parties hosted by people cooler than I’ve ever been.

Locsil - Lake Fire

Lately, I’ve found great pleasure in ambient music, and Locsil is among the very best in the genre. Lake Fire is a patient, beautiful album that invites you to find pleasure in apprehension. There’s a clear air of mystery here, tucked beneath heavy bass pulses and resonant woodwinds. As the album cover implies, listening to the record isn’t dissimilar from meandering through a misty forest, where each clearing can bring something new, even if new isn’t always good.

Bleed - Bleed

DEFTONES DAWG IT’S DEFTONES! Well, mostly. Bleed, both the band and the album, are plainly inspired by every critic’s favorite nü-metal band, but it’s equally inspired by Loathe and Senses Fail, among others. Inspired, of course, is the key word. While anyone my age will recognize the bits and pieces, the completed mosaic is a masterwork all its own. Washed out vocals, bouncy guitars that flutter into shimmering passages, and plenty of groovy drum patterns to get your head bobbing. It’s one more in a growing set of nü-metal revival groups, and easily among the very best.

Huremic - Seeking Darkness

I’m an absolute sucker for drone music and this is easily among the best work in the genre this year. It flits between post-rock and drone, and sometimes outright noise, in a manner that is both energizing and soothing. How it pulls this off is particularly clever. The band layers the repetition and sound wall qualities of drone, then snap into blistering post rock sections, trading out drone’s low hum for Mogwai-tier crescendos. I should have expected something so brilliant from the man behind Parannoul.

YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds

I’m fairly confident the people in YHWH Nailgun have taken Adderall at some point. The whole album drips with a sense of “I had this idea and I need to do it right now!” Lucky for us, the ideas are good, and pretty odd. Cigarette-blasted out screams scrape along beds of rusty-hinge synths and strange (often cowbell-y) percussion choices. Maddening chaos gives way to gorgeous moments, like transitioning straight from a car crash to passing through the gates of heaven. It’s really much more pretty and thought provoking than I’d ever expect from a band with a name like that, it’s all part of the appeal.

Courting - Lust for Life, Or: How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story

I concede that much of the upper end of my list is populated with music that some might call “challenging.” This is my concession for those who would make that claim. Courting has, despite labeling it with one of the more obnoxious album titles in recent memory, made a real modern day Brit-rock masterwork. The hooks are catchy, the riffs sticky, the drums mostly out of the way, but not boring. Now, they don’t just stick to jamming out, tracks like “Stealth Rollback” slip in some percussive heavy bass and electronic elements. It’s Brit rock from a post-Woodkid world. I’m on board.

Darkside - Nothing

Darkside has been one of the most pleasantly consistent dance acts of the modern era, and this might be their most fun work yet. It’s bouncy, groovy, and even a bit twangy. More than a few songs would fit well into the very coolest bars in a big city. Now, that doesn’t mean they’ve lost the penchant for getting out there. Even the most approachable songs, such as “S.N.C.” collapse to bits in their conclusion, falling into a mess of reverberating, unsettling strings that keep the weirdos, like myself, more than engaged.

Lawrence English - Even the Horizon Knows Its Bounds

It’s fitting to conclude this section with Lawrence English, considering I started it with Locsil. I discovered both artists on their collaborative album Chroma, which I consider one of the modern ambient greats. Here, English, along with several collaborators, create a sparse, stunning piece of ambient electronic and piano music. It often feels like a softer version of Tim Hecker’s Ravedeath, 1972, just without all the intensity and menace. Instead silence and awe take their place. The changes throughout the record happen so quickly and naturally that you may not perceive them until the record finishes and you’ve seen how far you’ve come, at which point you’ll undoubtedly wish to retrace your steps from the beginning.

TIER 1

For Your Health - This Bitter Garden

For Your Health makes music for anyone who still yearns for 2000s post-hardcore. Everything the band crafts screams “I grew up listening to The Fall of Troy.” Of course, remaking a genre I like doesn’t get you to tier 1. Taking that genre and making it scarier, meaner, and altogether more chaotic is what lands you a spot near the top. This Bitter Garden does all that and then some. Think the wild guitar chops of Will Swan combined with the brutal breakdowns of Knocked Loose and just a dash of early-Coheed songwriting. That they can pull these influences together and make them gel in an approachable manner while still pushing the envelope stands as testament to their remarkable skill.

Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky

Welcome to My Blue Sky fills the listener with a powerful nostalgia. Everything about the album, from the lyrics regarding one’s home town, first crush, and perfect summers, to the Lacuna Coil-esque wall of guitar wash feels like taking a step back in time. Hell, “Fever” makes me wish I was still in film production in high school so I could make a music video. Yet, while the album traffics in nostalgia, Momma does more than tug at the heartstrings yearning for yesteryear. The album builds on those past experiences and exhibits how they’ve shaped the Momma of today. It also doesn’t hurt that these expert themes spring forth from a catchy, grungy, flat-out riot of a record.

Aya - hexed!

Here’s the pick for my weirdos. hexed! sits on the noisier side of rock experimentation. You can view it as something of a sound poem, flip flopping between whispers and shouts. It rattles and clanks and sputters over its modest runtime. What I like most is the soundscape that it presents. There are ever present static fizzles, manic dance bits, and collapses into sheer insanity. I’m also half certain the opening track’s title is a reference to Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent, and that’s pretty sick if I’m right.

PUP - Who Will Look After the Dogs

Meet pop punk’s final form. Ages removed from t-shirts adorned with rifles, far beyond the need for defense. PUP has long been a force within the youthful genre, and with this they become its leader. As you’d expect from an album in the genre, it fulfills all the promises of pop and punk, dripping with sick riffs and ear grabbing hooks. More than perhaps anything else, it brings back the snide, dry, prodding humor that first drew me to the genre. Take for example “Best Revenge” whose chorus proclaims “the best revenge is living well” before taking a short, perfect comic pause and diving back in with “I’ve been living like shit.” It never fails to make me laugh, and holler right along with it.

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

After eschewing expectations with the decidedly soft and shoegazey Infinite Granite a few years back, Deafheaven has returned to raw, vicious form on Lonely People With Power. In fact, I think this albums sits just a mote behind Sunbather and New Bermuda (my personal favorite) and “Winona” might be the best song they’ve ever released (though I’ll still argue for “Brought to Water”). What propels this record to such heights is, in fact, the bits and pieces they’ve cobbled together from Infinite Granite and a series of loosies, including the face-melting “Black Brick.” By combining these elements back together, as they once did with Sunbather, they’ve recontextualized their own take on the blackgaze style. Now, it’s something fiercer, more urgent, and less concerned with daunting concepts and expansive tracks. That’s still there in the DNA of course, it’s just tempered with a shade of immediacy that I’ve never before heard from the band.

The Callous Daoboys - I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven

In a world of mass consumption, The Callous Daoboys have mastered the art of making music for the ADHD addled masses — provided those masses can handle unhinged metal. Songs don’t just start, they detonate. Then, as soon as the rubble clears, it throws a brick at your head, hands you a teddy bear, and lets off another bomb. You cannot sit still during this record, it’ll brain you if you do. Each track feels like a snippet of 47 songs jammed together, or it would if I could see the seams. It’s miraculously harmonious for something so bracing. Take for instance “Two Headed Trout,” which spends the first two minutes being a dyed-in-the-wool pop-metal hit. The hook is killer (pun intended), the riffs slick, and the bass groove utterly undeniable. Then, just for kicks, the second chorus rips apart into chaotic screams and mile a minute guitar work. The whole record is like this to some degree, and were it not for the fact that the hooks are punchy and the riffs are sticky, then this would just be another record that flew too close to the sun. Thankfully, The Callous Daoboys did put in all the work to write great songs, and then shoved in 100% of themselves right in after all that well-crafted work.