FAVORITES OF 2025!

1/6/26 ADDS
CURRENT
UPCOMING
RECENT
LIVE

ABOUT

@


🐯💣 & FRIENDS
FAVORITES OF 2025!


🎉 Happy New Year! And welcome the 10th edition of Tiger Bomb & Friends’ Favorites of the Year!

I started last year’s post by saying “2024 was a challenging year”, and I think it’s safe to say that 2025 was no different. Despite it all we were proud to see all of those in our community stick together and lift each other and those around them up. Eternally grateful to be going into 2026 knowing that our small slice of the music world is filled with people willing to stand up for what they believe in ❤️

As always: We would like to thank all of the radio stations, artists, labels, managers, publicists, booking agents, tour managers, venue staff, interns, talent buyers, music writers, distributors, record stores, fans, radio promoters, and everyone else who keeps working hard to propel music and art into the world.

The big news for 🐯💣 in 2026 was joining into a partnership with our friends at Terrorbird Radio! Makenzie and I got hard to work with Helen, Emily, Shannon, and Jess back in July, and the past six months have been incredible! Our roster is stronger than ever, and we’re feeling very proud of the quality of our work! Also big shout out to our intern Guilherme, and to Lauren at Terrorbird for helping make the partnership transition so smooth! And this coming year will mark our 10th anniversary, be sure to keep an eye out for the different ways we’ll be celebrating that milestone!

Our efforts yielded many highlights, including 4 albums reaching #1 on the NACC Top 200 Chart, and another 13 reaching #1 on the NACC Top Adds Chart:

#1 NACC Top 200 (14 weeks total):

Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) x6 weeks
The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie x3 weeks
Wednesday - Bleeds x3 weeks
Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE x2 weeks

#1 NACC Top Adds:

The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie
Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE
Destroyer - Dan's Boogie
Hatchie - Liquorice
Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)
Jay Som - Belong
Madeline Kenney - Kiss From The Balcony
The New Eves - The New Eve Is Rising
Pile - Sunshine And Balance Beams
Sharp Pins - Balloon Balloon Balloon
Teethe - Magic Of The Sale
True Blue - Star Witness
Wednesday - Bleeds

Now on to the lists! We’ll start things off with the Tiger Bomb x Terrorbird Radio Crew!


Shil K. Patel (Tiger Bomb owner and head of promotion)



my 25 favorite releases of 2025 that Tiger Bomb didn't promote:

Blood Orange - Essex Honey
caroline - caroline 2
Cassandra Jenkins - My Light, My Massage Parlor
Dijon - Baby
Flock of Dimes - The Life You Save
Florist - Jellywish
Free Range - Lost & Found
Gelli Haha - Switcheroo
Hannah Cohen - Earthstar Mountain
Hayden Pedigo - I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away
Helado Negro - The Last Sound on Earth
Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon
kitchen - Blue heeler in ugly snowlight, grey on gray on gray on white.
Living Hour - Internal Drone Infinity
Macie Stewart - When The Distance Is Blue
No Joy - Bugland
Perfume Genius - Glory
Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band - New Threats from the Soul
Shallowater - God’s Gonna Give You A Million Dollars
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Sword II - Electric Hour
they are gutting a body of water - LOTTO
Tortoise - Touch
Water From Your Eyes - It's a Beautiful Place
Winter - Adult Romantix
═════════════════════

Makenzie Creden (Tiger Bomb radio promotion coordinator)



My Top 10 records of 2025 that I did not promote:

Alex G - Headlights
Danny Brown - Stardust
Dijon - Baby
FKA Twigs - EUSEXUA
Frost Children - SISTER
Jane Remover - Revengeseekerz
Ninajirachi - I Love My Computer
Oklou - Choke Enough
they are gutting a body of water - LOTTO
Water From Your Eyes - It’s A Beautiful Place

10 records I went back to from my emo/pop punk days this year (because nostalgia is everything):

Neck Deep - Wishful Thinking
Paramore - Riot
A Day To Remember - Homesick
The Story So Far - What You Don’t See
Pierce The Veil - Selfish Machines
Bring Me The Horizon - Suicide Season
The Amity Affliction - Youngbloods
Title Fight - Hyperview
La Dispute - Wildlife
Citizen - Youth

═════════════════════

Jess Caragliano (Terrorbird Media)



Mal Blum - The Villain 
snuggle - Goodbyehouse
Pickle Darling - Bots
Greg Freeman - Burnover
Water From Your Eyes - It’s a Beautiful Place
Oklou - choke enough
Good Flying Birds - Talulah’s Tape
Lawn - God Made The Highway
Sharp Pins - Balloon Balloon Balloon 
Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
Mamalarky - Hex Key
Algernon Cadwallader - Trying Not to Have a Thought

═════════════════════

Helen Howard (Terrorbird radio promotion coordinator)



These are my favorite albums from this year that I didn't promote as either an intern at Tiger Bomb, or as a radio promoter at Terrorbird, as well as some other favorite albums I spent a lot of time with this year. It was such an excellent year to be a music lover once again! This list is unranked; they're all my favorite!

Jane Remover - Revengeseekerz
Eliana Glass - E
Oklou - Choke Enough
Hayden Pedigo - I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away
Perfume Genius - Glory
Ninajrachi - I Love My Computer
caroline - caroline 2
Eliza Niemi - Progress Bakery
Erika De Casier - Lifetime
kmoe - K1

Honorable Mentions:

Addison Rae - Addison
Sleeper's Bell - Clover
Smerz - Big city life
Winter - Adult Romantix
Frost Children - SISTER

Projects I spent a lot of time with this year:

Liam Benzvi - ...And His Splash Band
Rufus Wainwright - Poses
Land of Talk - Indistinct Conversations
Greg Freeman - I Looked Out
Caroline Loveglow - Strawberry
Nilüfer Yanya - PAINLESS
Cece Natalie - Miss Behaves
Colin Miller - Haw Creek
Greg Mendez - Cherry Hell
Kate Davis - Trophy

═════════════════════

Shannon Kurlander (Head of A&R @ Terrorbird)



top 10 lps of '25

1. oklou - choke enough
2. addison rae - addison
3. snuggle - goodbyehouse
4. thredd - it's lovely, come on in
5. sorry - cosplay
6. mark william lewis - mark william lewis'
7. saya grey - saya
8. smerz - big city life
9. olivia dean - the art of loving
10. avery tucker - paw

& s.o. to some contenders for favorite songs: true blue "i wanna believe" + elias rønnenfelt/dean blunt "tears on his rings and chains"

═════════════════════

Emily Teubner (Terrorbird creative marketing coordinator)



Top 10 Albums of 2025:
1. Racing Mount Pleasant - Racing Mount Pleasant
2. Wednesday - Bleeds
3. Leith Ross - I Can See The Future
4. Olivia Barton - For Myself and For You
5. Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
6. Dove Ellis - Blizzard
7. The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie
8. Afternoon Bike Ride - Running With Scissors
9. Lily Seabird - Trash Mountain
10. Sister Ray - Believer

+ my top 40 songs of the year here

═════════════════════

Guilherme C. Tinoco (Tiger Bomb x Terrorbird radio promotion intern)



Friendship - Caveman Wakes Up
Golden Apples - Shooting Star
Molly Nilsson - Amateur
Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On
Dutch Interior - Moneyball
PARKiNG - PORTRAiTS
The Taxidermists - 20247
Greg Freeman - Burnout
Jeff Tweedy - Twilight Override
Lily Seabird - Trash Mountain


FRIENDS OF TIGER BOMB 🐯💣


This is the 10th year in a row we've compiled lists from friends of Tiger Bomb and we've received 123 contributions this year! Thanks so much to everyone below who sent us their lists!

═════════════════════

Will Adams (Chrome Chasm, Alien Eyelid)



Wednesday Knudsen - Atrium
A Happy Return - Hamewith
Christina Carter - Like A Bayou To Its Gulf
Twisted Teens - Twisted Teens
Bill Orcutt - Another Perfect Day
Annie A - The Wind That Had Not Touched Land
Easy Sevens - Guitar Music
TORSO - Faces
FSX - VEGA Night
Tom Carter & Pat Murano - Songs Of Eliphas Levi Zahed

═════════════════════

Tyler Andere (Topshelf Records)



No rankings. Just some older music that didn’t come out in 2025 that I enjoyed this year :)

• Elis Regina and Tom Jobim - “Águas de março” (1972)

• Liz Story - “Forgiveness” (1988)

• Enya - “Anywhere Is” (1995)

• Esthero - “That Girl” (1998)

• Kasey Chambers - “Not Pretty Enough” (2001) 

═════════════════════

Jason Anderson



10 Books I Loved in 2025

Loved and Missed - Susie Boyt
Orbital - Samantha Harvey
Encampment - Maggie Helwig
Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
Stolen - Ann-Helén Laestadius 
Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson
Little Fish - Casey Plett
The Queen of Dirt Island - Donal Ryan
Roar - Shelley Thompson
Lost in September - Kathleen Winter

═════════════════════

Izzi Bavis (Evening host at 89.7 WTMD, former Tiger Bomb-er)



Favorite 2025 releases:

Bleeds - Wednesday
Choke Enough - Oklou
Dog Eared - Billie Marten
Essex Honey - Blood Orange
For Melancholy Brunettes (and sad women) - Japanese Breakfast
Getting Killed - Geese
NEVER ENOUGH - Turnstile
Man's Best Friend - Sabrina Carpenter
Snocaps - Snocaps
Sounds Like… - Florry

Favorite shows I saw in 2025:

Turnstile at Wyman Park Dell
Wednesday at 9:30 Club
Cameron Winter at 2640 Space
Japanese Breakfast at the Met in philly
Skallar at Holy Frijoles
Not a concert but Stavvy doing a pop up surprise show at Port Comedy Club
Waxahatchee at Merriweather 
Big Thief at The Anthem
Aunt Katrina at Songbyrd
Alex G at The Anthem

═════════════════════

Alec Hanley Bemis (AHB's Goodies mixtape delivery service, OTH Songs, Is Not Music, Brassland)



I posted a list of about 100 individual recordings I loved this year to my mixtape delivery service — 95 tracks to be precise.

It's available in playlist form on the more popular streaming platforms Apple Music, Spotify & YouTube. Here are some highlights...

  • Louis Michot: “Meche Perdu” — thanks to Mike Caulo for turning me on to him
  • Nourished By Time: “When the War Is Over”
  • Lady Gaga: “Abracadabra” — thanks to the Super Bowl commercial for turning me on to this
  • Carriers: “In My Head” — a Brassland release I still think is a slept-on total bop
  • Nemahsis: “coloured concrete”
  • YHWH Nailgun: “Sickle Walk”
  • Stephen Vitiello, Brendan Canty & Hahn Rowe: “Rhythmic Rhodes”
  • Jay Electronica: “Real Magic” (feat. Ronald Reagan) — G*d help us someone's going to sample Donald Trump in 2065 and somehow make me like it
  • Geese: “Cobra”
  • Bartees Strange: “Ain’t Nobody Making Me High”

Here are five albums I spent time with that I'd have a hard time isolating down to a single favorite track:

  • Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles — Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles
  • keiyaA — hooke’s law
  • Pino Palladino & Blake Mills — That Wasn’t A Dream
  • Rosalía — LUX
  • Saya Gray — SAYA

An older track I played on loop a lot this year:

  • Van Dyke Parks: “Occapella” — his cover of an Allen Toussaint original

The book I got most excited about in 2025 was Ray Padgett’s Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members. I can usually tell my ‘book of the year’ by how many copies I buy for other people—and I think I gifted copies of this to three or four different folks. (Note: it was actually published in 2023.)

Because I prefer looking forward rather than back, here are three new books I’m excited to dive into over the holiday break:

  • Curran Hatleberg — Lost Coast
  • Don Quaintance — Duchamp in California: Walter Hopps Curates a Retrospective
  • Ted Geltner — Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures: A Biography of Denis Johnson

Johnson is author of my favorite work of fiction, Jesus’ Son, and he is front of mind again thanks to Netflix’s Train Dreams adaptation which, to be honest, I didn't have strong feelings about, either negative or positive. I’m very intrigued to read about what made him tick tho…

Finally, yay to everyone building community around music, writing & art right now. At the moment, that feels underrated.

═════════════════════

Tori Benes (Polyvinyl Records)



i feel like im still digesting 2025 in music but the below (in no particular order) are obvious highlights for me <3

phoebe rings - aseurai 
great grandpa - patience, moonbeam 
oklou - choke enough 
rosalía - lux
thanya iyer - tide/tied
living hour - internal drone infinity
wombo - danger in fives 
water from your eyes - it’s a beautiful place 
wednesday - bleeds 
disiniblud - disiniblud 
joanne robertson - blurr
jenny hval - iris silver mist

═════════════════════

Ari Blut (Terrorbird Media)



james K - Friend
Snuggle - Goodbyehouse
Wombo - Danger in Fives
Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones
Sword II - Electric Hour
Just Mustard - WE WERE JUST HERE
Alien Boy - You Wanna Fade?
fantasy of a broken heart - Chaos Practitioner EP
Dean Blunt, Elias Rønnenfelt - lucre EP
Jawdropped - Just Fantasy EP

═════════════════════

Patrick Joseph Brick (Futo)



Here is my list:

1- Battlefield 6
2- Eating in caloric deficit
3- Tik tok edits of Roman Roy from Succession
4- I Love LA (the tv show)
5- Yahtzee
6- UGA Football
7- Looking at Facebook Marketplace, never buying anything
8- Using autocheck on the New York Time crossword 
9- Heavy Metal by Cameron Winter (still)
10- Overnight oats 

Thank you for your time and happy New Year. 

═════════════════════

Josh Briggs (GM, Terrorbird Publishing)



Top 10 Albums I had Nothing to Do With, But Kept Sending to People:

Gelli Haha - Switcheroo (Stones Throw)
Prewn - System (s/r)
Sorry - COSPLAY (Domino)
Perfume Genius - Glory (Matador)
Alex G - Headlights (RCA)
Big Thief - Double Infinity (4AD)
PRESIDENT - King of Terrors (s/r)
Febuary - Run Like a Girl (s/r)
bloodsports - Anything Can Be a Hammer (Good English)
Thanya Iyer - TIDE/TIED (Topshelf)

═════════════════════

Diana Buchert (Howdy Gals / Nettwerk Music Group)



Top 15 favorite albums that I listened to in 2025 (that turned out to be a list of mostly 2025 albums with extras sprinkled in)
 
1. Gelli Haha - Switcheroo
2. Sharp Pins - Turtle Rock
3. Dead Gowns - It's Summer, I Love You, And I'm Surrounded by Snow
4. Addison Rae - Addison
5. Chanel Beads - Your Day Will Come
6. Humour - Learning Greek
7. Puma Blue - antichamber
8. Dutch Interior - Blinded by Fame
9. Maria Somerville - Luster
10. Geese - Getting Killed
11. Miya Folick - Erotica Veronica
12. Snuggle - Goodbyehouse
13. YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds
14. Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On
15. Fib - Heavy Lifting

═════════════════════

Shannon Lee Byrne (Adult Decisions Mgmt)



Here are some things I enjoyed spending time with this year; it is not a comprehensive list.

Music:

Alex G - Headlights 
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal (still)
Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying
Florry - Sounds Like...
Forty Feet Tall - Clean the Cage
Friendship - Caveman Wakes Up
Fust - Big Ugly
Gummy Fang - Gummy Fang
Geese - Getting Killed 
Improvement Movement - Slump (EP)
Mould - Almost Fells Like Purpose (EP)
Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones
Thor & Friends - Heathen Spirituals
Victoryland - “No Cameras” & “Fits” (singles) 
Watching Planes I Touch Myself - What o'Clock (EP)
Wombo - Danger In Fives

Podcasts:

Diabolical Lies
Talk Easy 

Movies (focusing on 2025 releases because there are too many):

Eddington
Hamnet
Magic Farm
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value 
Sinners 
Sorry, Baby 
Urchin
*I'm submitting this before seeing Marty Supreme or Bugonia

Books (these are just the ones I remember from 2025 off the top of my head, as most are packed up):

Cameron Crowe - The Uncool
Caroline O'Donoghue - The Rachel Incident
Carrie Rickey - A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda
Colette - Chéri and The End of Chéri
Colombe Schneck - The Paris Trilogy: A Life in Three Stories
Eve Babitz - Slow Days, Fast Company + Eve's Hollywood 
Lili Anolik - Didion & Babitz
Sheila Heiti - How Should a Person Be?

═════════════════════

Garrett T. Capps



mostly friends' stuff.

James McMurtry - The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
Little Mazarn - Mustang Island / Election Results EP
Sunjammer - Sunjammer
Spectral Geezers - Music for Ottis
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Bitchin' Bajas - Inland See
Dylan Earl - Level-Headed Even Smile
Jerry David DeCicca - Cardiac Country
Kathryn Legendre - Here's Your Honky Tonk
Juliet McConkey - Southern Front
Brennen Leigh - Don't You Ever Give Up On Love
Bonnie Prince Billy - The Purple Bird
Friendship - Caveman Wakes Up
Big Thief - Double Infinity
James Steinle - Heat of Morning

═════════════════════

Hannah Carlen (Nonesuch Records)



My Top 10 of 2025:

Singles and albums mixed together, conflicts of interest also included. It was a weird year ok?

Annahstasia Tether
Bon Iver SABLE, fABLE
Catherine Brookman "Mourning Dove"  
Cassandra Jenkins My Light, My Massage Parlor
Dijon Baby
Folk Bitch Trio Now Would Be a Good Time
Kpop Demon Hunters
Rosalia Lux
Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band New Threats from the Soul
They. Love Jones
Wilco "Feel Free"

═════════════════════

Mike Caulo (Sipsman)



buying backyard patio furniture
swimming laps
the boat parade on Lundi Gras

16.9oz Topo Chicos
the night at Pat's Pizza in Chicago
a persimmon on a farm in Floradia in Sicily
staff meal lima beans in coconut milk from a place I sometimes bartend at

Walt McClements @ Gasa Gasa
Cameron Winter on Kimmel

good songs

good albs:

Deradoorian Ready for Heaven
SML How You Been
Moontype I Let the Wind Push Down on Me
caroline caroline 2
Juana Molina Doga
Blood Orange Essex Honey
Lifeguard Ripped and Torn
Ava Luna Ava Luna
The Tubs Cotton Crown
Whip Appeal Cut Flowers



═════════════════════

Marika Che



10 songs that gave my 2025 more meaning (most from this year, a couple oldies):

1. “Water in a pond” - Snuggle 
2. “The Long Tunnel of Wanting You” - Vanessa Daou 
3. “Afterlife” - Alex G 
4. “Grown Woman” - Lorde 
5. “American Girl” by Tom Petty, specifically when it plays at the end of the film One Battle After Another 
6. “Heathcliff” - Snowcaps 
7. “Feel Free” - Jeff Tweedy 
8. “Little Big” - joe evil 
9. “A Love Supreme, Pt. I - Acknowledgement” - John Coltrane 
10. “2 kool 2 b 4-gotten” - Lucinda Williams (this year and every year)

═════════════════════

Jonas Chisolm (Talent Buyer at The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop)



New music has eluded me at times but these are the ten albums that stuck with me all year, in a somewhat particular order:

Baby - Dijon
Let God Sort ‘Em Out - Clipse
Big Ugly - Fust
Voodoo - D’Angelo
Diamond Grove - Weirs
GNX - Kendrick Lamar
Tailing The Ghost - Mo Lowda & The Humble
Grace - Jeff Buckley
Black Messiah - D’Angelo & The Vanguard
In Rainbows - Radiohead (forgive me)

═════════════════════

Ronda Chollock (Insubordinate Media)



1. The Belair Lip Bombs--Again
2. Wet Leg--Moisturizer
3. Palmyra--Restless
4. Corook--Committed to a Bit
5. The Swell Season--Forward
6. S.G. Goodman--Planting By The Signs
7. Olivia Ellen Lloyd--Do it Myself
8. Olivia Barton--For Myself and For You
9. Deep Sea Diver--Billboard Heart
10. The Beths--Straight Line Was a Lie

and then because I can't really narrow it down to 10:

Honorable mention:

CMAT--Euro-Country
Hannah Cohen--Earthstar Mountain
Samia--Bloodless
Hotline TNT--Raspberry Moon
Greg Freeman--Burnover
Turnstile--Never Enough
Die Spitz--Something to Consume
Momma--Welcome to My Blue Sky
Natalie Bergman--My Home is Not in This World
Carriers--Every Time I Feel Afraid

═════════════════════

Sydney Christensen (Kill Rock Stars)



25 for 25

some album and some artist (that i did not work on)

nala sinephro - smashing machine soundtrack (didn't see the film) panchiko - ginkgo, skunk anansie, LITTLE SIMZ, ROBYN, ashley jackson - take me to the water, BLOOD ORANGE, rosalía, björk, yves tumor, freddie gibbs, voices from the lake, lazarus - original series soundtrack, adrian quesada 

and some tracks

hiroshi yoshimura - “over the clover”, mick jenkins and EMIL - “coco gauff”, jenny hval - “lay down”, caroline polachek - “on the beach” from death stranding 2, yvette young - “outta sight outta mind”, sasami - “honeycrash”, jessie reyez - “**beggin 4 luv**”, slicr - “radio valley”, mavis staples - “beautiful strangers”, noah cyrus - “i saw the mountains”, leon bridges - “hold on, henry come on” - ldr, i listed blood orange already but “the field” featuring the durutti column, tariq al-sabir, caroline polachek, daniel caesar may just be this year's treasure 

tossing in one film, best movie perhaps of the century (this makes it 26)

all that's left of you - cherien dabis

roughly 50 honorable mentions i won't get into (like fka twigs and superchunk)

═════════════════════

Ray Colgan (The Crack Pipes / Peacock Hens / manager of Antone's Record Shop)



Here is my top ten list for 2025, as usual it's a mix of new new releases and old releases that I got turned on to this year. It is not in order of "best" I just list them as they come to me.

01. Twisted Teens - Twisted Teens
02. Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
03. Horsegirl - Phonetics On And On
04. Bert Jansch & John Renbourn - Bert and John
05. Billy Swan - I Can Help
06. Acapulco Lips - Now
07. Mekons - Fear and Whiskey
08. Grifters - One Sock Missing
09. Flamin' Groovies - Still Shakin
10. The Runaways - Queens of Noise

***bonus 7" shout outs ***

01. Cheap Fix - Re-Animator Blues / French Song
02. Cheap Fix - Soul Tune / Dead Mouth
03. Peacock Hens - Veda / Can't Tame Me

═════════════════════

Constant Smiles



1. Modern Nature - The Heat Warps 
2. Molly Nilsson - Amateur 
3. Not for Radio - Melt
4. Hannah Cohen - Earthstar Mountain
5. Hilary Woods - Night CRIÚ
6. Cassandra Jenkins - My Light, My Massage Parlor
7. Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus
8. Good Flying Birds - Talulah's Tape
9. Nourished by time - THE PASSIONATE ONES
10. The Field Index - We Had Everything But Time


artist self-portrait
═════════════════════

George Corona III (Co-Founder + Head of PR at Terrorbird Media)



Playlist Version

Top 10 Pieces of Media for 2025

1. The Blue Prince (Dogubomb/Raw Fury) - Nothing quite consumed me (and my wife, and even our kid a little bit) like The Blue Prince did earlier this year. A master puzzle game with a constantly unraveling mansion where you find deeper clues and more extensive puzzles that absolutely requires a notepad. I usually detest the rougelite genre as I really dislike having “to do the same thing over and over,” but permanent unlocks and meticulous notes can help unlock the perfect run and when it finally happens… it’s sublime. 

2. Weapons (New Line Cinema/Warner Bros.) - It has been a good while since I saw a movie more than once on the big screen, and when one of the repeat screenings was a last minute decision that landed me in the never comfortable front row, I knew the love was real. Abstract, shocking, debatable, scary, fun, it’s so many things.It’s a calling card about what happens when we continue to push Gen Alpha to the brink.

3. Nation of Language Dance Called Memory LP (Sub Pop) - The Brooklyn electronic pop outfit is 4 for 4 with albums as far as I’m concerned, and there hasn’t been anything in heavier rotation for me all year. It’s also produced, mixed, and recorded by Holy Ghost! member Nick Millhiser (who I’ve missed dearly), and it gives this new batch of songs a sheen that works perfectly.

4. Nick Leon A Tropical Entropy LP (TraTraTrax) - Absolute electronic music magic from the Miami DJ and producer. Compared to past releases, there’s some restraint shown here this go around but the music is all the better for it. It’s more sensual and the dancefloor tracks have depth; you can feel the heat from those Florida horizon lines where it came from.

5. Silent Hill f (NeoBards Entertainment/Konami): The best survival horror series of all time has come back in a big way these last couple years, and f is another definitive entry. With a female protagonist, it does not shy away from some very complex themes about gender, sexuality, body image, and parental abuse, but then again, the series always “went there” when others wouldn’t. The Washington Post sang its praises and so should everyone else.

6. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment) + OST & Original Score (Milan Records) - A perfect marriage of a complex & no-holds-barred narrative, amazing performances from real actors like Norman Reedus and Elle Fanning, addictive gameplay that rewards curiosity and creativity, and an incredible mix of music with both Ludvig Forsell’s score and original music from Woodkid and an incredible title track from Caroline Polachek.

7. Various Artists Kompakt Total 25 (Kompakt) -  Look I’m going to level with you. Shit is really heavy and dark right now for a lot of people. When I listen to the latest collection of dancefloor-centric tracks from the venerable German dance label, all of that goes away for a short amount of time. From mainstays like Reinhard Voigt and Robag Wruhme still creating techno gems to 90ASES’s “Call Coco” pre-dating the album’s release and becoming a 2025 summer anthem, let Kompakt 25 take you on an escape, at least for a little while.

8. Shelby Oaks (Neon) - A bit of an underrated horror gem that wears its influences on its sleeve but you know what?  That’s okay. Taking influence from The Blair Witch Project, Silent Hill 2, and Hereditary, Shelby Oaks is a mixed media feature film that goes all in on the atmosphere and dread of its world instead of mind-numbing jump scares, and the result is a horror film by and for the YouTube age that I think will be looked back on fondly by those who missed it the first go around.

9. GRDN. particles, coarse (Wandering Astray) - This one takes you to the outskirts of the edge of electronic music, and it’s best just to sit back and let it happen. It’s diverse in its styles but excels with each one, from the engulfing ambient landscapes to tracks that are more on the more upbeat and rhythmic side. Throughout the whole album though, it’s tactile as hell – you can almost feel the crunch and the textures. So in that respect, it’s quite a well-named album.

10. Obeka A World No More (YUKU) - An absolutely blistering debut album that pulls from Obeka’s own background of Afrofuturism, Dancehall, Afro-Tech, and Dub, but with a distinct political bent that makes this album feel very much of the moment. These bass-heavy tracks will push your system to the brink with decaying sonic structures about protest in today’s world, colonialism, etc. Welcome to 2025. 

═════════════════════

Scott Crane (The Storied Arts, Soundscape NW, Citizen Vinyl)



This is all the new and newish music that came out and stayed on repeat for me in 2025. Listed in ABC order as there’s no way to rank these. All excellent, all deep headphone listens.

Budos Band – VII
Cosmic Tones Research Trio – The Cosmic Tones Research Trio
El Michels Affair – 24 Hr Sports
Erika De Casier – Lifetime
John Glacier – Like a Ribbon
Little Simz – Lotus
Melody’s Echo Chamber – Unclouded
Say She She – Cut & Rewind
Toro y Moi – Unerthed: Hole Erth Unplugged
Tortoise – Touch
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Curse

═════════════════════

Ian Cunningham (SpaceHeater Music, Rostrum Records)



Favorite 2025 Albums:

10. Dean Johnson - I Hope We Can Still Be Friends
09. Gelli Haha - Switcheroo
08. Headache (Vegyn) - Thank You For Almost Everything
07. Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones
06. mark william lewis - Mark William Lewis
05. Annahstasia - Tether
04. Eric Cannata - Holding Onto The Holy
03. Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
02. ROSALÍA - LUX
01. Horse Vision - Another Life

Favorite 2025 TV Series:

10. Death by Lightning (Netflix)
09. Magic City: An American Fantasy (Starz)
08. Department Q (Netflix)
07. The Eastern Gate (HBO Max)
06. Task (HBO Max)
05. Pluribus (Apple)
04. Adolescence (Netflix)
03. The Studio (Apple)
02. The Pitt (HBO Max)
01. Andor (Disney+)

Favorite Books I Read This Year:

10. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
09. And After All: A Fan History of Oasis by Melissa Locker
 08. Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
07. Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It by Cory Doctorow
06. Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper
05. King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
04. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
03. Recursion by Blake Crouch
02. Perfection by Vincent Latronico
01. My Friends by Fredrik Backman

═════════════════════

Pete D’Angelo (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)



Favorite albums of 2025 in alphabetical order:

Aesop Rock - I Heard It's A Mess There Too
AVTT/PTTN - AVTT/PTTN
BASIC - Dream City EP
Bonnie “Prince” Billy - The Purple Bird
HLLLYH - URUBURU
Horse Lords & Arnold Dreyblatt - FRKWYS Vol. 18: Extended Field
The Lemonheads - Love Chant
Los Pirañas - Una Oportunidad más de triunfar en la vida
Mogwai - The Bad Fire
Orcutt Shelley Miller - Orcutt Shelley Miller
Pulse Emitter - Tide Pools
Water Damage - Instruments

Singles:

"Talk To You" - Daughter Of Swords
"Dollar Store" - Ben Kweller

═════════════════════

Charlie Davey (Erased Tapes)



Favourite albums

U - Archenfield (Lex) 
Barker - Stochastic Drift (Smalltown Supersound)
Florian T M Zeisig - A New Life (Stroom)
Malibu - Vanities (YEAR0001)
Brian Eno, Beatie Wolf - Lateral (Opal)
Rafael Toral - Traveling Light (Drag City)
Emer - Fog (Short Span)
Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar (Century Media)
Megabasse - Flamenca (Efficient Space)
Sofie Birch, Antonina Nowaka - Hiraeth (Unsound) 
Erika de Casier - Lifetime (Indipendent Jeep Music)
Ethel Cain - Perverts (Daughters of Cain) 
Juana Molina - Doga (Sonamos)
Debit - Descaleradas (Modern Love) 
Derek Baron - The Holy Restaurant (Recital) 
Goon - Dream 3 (Born Losers)

═════════════════════

Natalie Dávila (Polyvinyl Records)



am I allowed to do two since it’s all I listened to and nothing else? 

1. Oklou - choke enough
2. Rosalía - LUX 

═════════════════════

John Davis (The Folk Implosion)



Meridian Brothers - live in Brooklyn and Richmond, VA
William Parker - Ellington in Mourning (live at Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park, Brooklyn)
iiisa - live at Pioneer works in Brooklyn
Peter Peter Hughes - Half-Staff Blues
The Bug vs Ghost Dubs - Implosion
Bad Bunny - Debi Tirar Mas Fotos
Fred Moten & Brandon Lopez - Revision
Daniel Bachman - As Time Draws Near / Moving Through Light / Untitled/Dreamweapon (3 way tie)
Fly Anakin - (The) Forever Dream

Best Books I Read in 2025:

Tip of the Spear by Orisanmi Burton
The Looking Glass: Essential Stories by Machado de Assis
Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States by Charisse Burden-Stelly
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's Open AI by Karen Hao

Best Podcast Series of 2025:

The Imperial '80's, from Millennials are Killing Capitalism The Electronic Intifada (for their daily reporting on Gaza)
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs by Andrew Hickey

═════════════════════

David DeKeyser (Spinitron, Public Media Reporter)



The Songs I Loved in 2025 (Even If They Didn’t Come out in 2025):

Jay Som - “Float”
I’s - "Happy Endroll"
Jimmy Eat World - “A Praise Chorus”
Midori - “Yukikosan’”
The Smashing Pumpkins - “Perfect”
Tokyo Incidents - “Senkou Shoujo”
The Get Up Kids - “Man of Conviction”
Nation of Language - “September Again”
This Is Lorelei - “Mouth Man”
Kurayamisaka - “Sunday Driver”


═════════════════════

Christian Smokey DeRoeck (Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, Little Gold) 



5 records I loved that came out in 2025:

Dari Bay Longest Day of the Year
Wednesday Bleeds
Julia Barfield Keep to Me
Grace Rogers Mad Dogs
Pen16 Magic Touch

5 best live sets I saw this year:

Takaat at Chess Club, ATX
Mesa Buoy at Reverb Lounge, Omaha
Tropical Fuck Storm at End of the Road 
Snocaps at Bowery Ballroom nyc 
Bingo Trappers at Paradiso, Amsterdam 

═════════════════════

Casey Dienel



I feel very behind this year on new releases, sadly, and feeling a bit like a piece of string cheese stretched thin. For instance, I finally heard Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal this week and really enjoyed it. But I haven’t had enough time with it to definitively say it was part what moved me this year.

I broke up with Spotify for good this year, meaning less streaming and more reading. Here are the top things I listened to and loved this year, new and old.

1. Laurie Anderson - Big Science
2. Perfume Genius - Glory
3. Cuddle Magic - Underwater
4. Meredith Monk - Tuttle Dreams
5. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing…
6. Hand Habits - Blue Reminder
7. Cécile McLorin Salvant - Oh Snap
8. Rachel & Vilray - West Broadway
9. Rosalía - LUX
10. Shygirl - Nymph_O
11. Landlady - Make Up Lost/Time

Lastly, the podcast I think everyone needs to listen to is Kim Krans’ Dolphins at Midnight.

═════════════════════

Dirt Dog Records



Alice Phoebe Lou Oblivion
Bratmobile The Real Janelle + The Peel Session
Charley Crockett Dollar A Day
Cisco Swank “Fade Away”
Cola “Mendicant”
Dylan Earl Level-Headed Even Smile
fantasy of a broken heart Chaos Practitioner
Geese Getting Killed
Hiding Places “Holy Roller”
Lola Young I’m Only Fucking Myself
Mamalarky Hex Key
Melody’s Echo Chamber Unclouded
Momma Welcome to My Blue Sky (Deluxe Edition)
MoonFuzz “Guts”
Native Sun Concrete Language
Oracle Sisters Divinations
Peel Dream Magazine Taurus
Slow Pulp Moveys (Deluxe Edition)
Stephan Nielsen “Not Human Tonite”
Twen Fate Euphoric
Water From Your Eyes It’s a Beautiful Place
Waylon Jennings Songbird
Wishy Planet Popstar
Wombo Danger in Fives

═════════════════════

Timm Donohue (Adult Decisions Mgmt)



25 x 25 / in order of release… sort of. Mostly! ---

1. Sam Amidon — Salt River — River Lea Recordings 
2. Ryan Sambol — Friend of the Show — Double Alligator 
3. Dead Gowns — It’s Summer, I Love You, and I’m Surrounded by Snow — Mtn Laurel Record Co. 
4. Fust — Big Ugly — Dear Life Records
5. Phil Cook — Appalachian Borealis — Psychic Hotline 
6. Daughter of Swords — Alex — Psychic Hotline 
7. Colin Miller — Losin’ — Mtn Laurel Recording Co. 
8. Friendship — Caveman Wakes Up — Merge Records 
9. Florry — Sounds Like… — Dear Life Records 
10. Thomas Dollbaum — Drive All Night — Dear Life Records 
11. Nona Invie — Self Soothing — Self-released via Boiled Records 
12. Alli Blois & The Orange County Shred Center — The Quest — Halloween on Raspberry Hill 
13. Floating Action — A Hand Carved Garden Tool — Heirloom 
14. Weirs - Diamond Grove - Dear life Records 
15. Michael Hurley — Broken Homes and Gardens — No Quarter Records 
16. Lou Hazel — Riot of the Red — SUPERBOCO 
17. Pino Palladino & Blake Mills — That Wasn’t a Dream — New Deal Records / Impulse! 
18. Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson & Sam Wilkes — Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes — International Anthem 
19. Flock of Dimes — The Life You Save — Sub Pop 
20. Dean Johnson — I Hope We Can Still Be Friends — Saddle Creek 
21. Hand Habits — Blue Reminder — Fat Possum Records 
22. Dijon — Baby — R&R/Warner Records 
23. Cate Le Bon — Michelangelo Dying — Mexican Summer 
24. SML — How You Been — International Anthem 
25. Sally Morgan — Second Circle the Horizon — Thrill Jockey Records

═════════════════════

Bucky Driedger (Birthday Cake Records)



10 non-Birthday Cake Albums I loved in 2025

How You Been - SML
From the Private Collection of - Saba and No ID
Chamber Music for Lawnmowers - Sage Martens
Sunshine and Balance Beams - Pile
Internal Drone Infinity - Living Hour
Live Laugh Love - Earl Sweatshirt
Ava Luna - Ava Luna
Let God Sort Em Out - Clipse
Perennial - Compost
Progress Bakery - Eliza Niemi

═════════════════════

Xander Duell (Pegg)



favorite crap this year: (2025) (Some didn’t come out this year)

1. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You - hands down my favorite movie of the year. A small but powerful film starring Rose Byrne. Also I’m on good personal terms with one of the stars of the film, the newborn baby (irl named Devon)

2. Oratorio for Living Things at the Signature Theater - Heather Christian created one of the most astounding shows I’ve ever attended. Something of a triumph of a theatricalized concert. 

3. Haha, You Clowns (Adult Swim) by Joe Cappa - could be part of a new fucked-up animation style which is basically 100% wholesome. Cappa could be a great new comedic voice for years to come. 

4. Eternal.tv - a monstrously well-curated archive of the tastiest video content. From the highbrow to the low, from all eras, all very well chosen. 

5. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - Egan is semi-seriously my pick for greatest living artist. She zooms back and forth from the universal view into small penetrating personal space like a light-speed space elevator. Poignant and prescient. 

6. The Candy House by Jennifer Egan - ok this might be cheating because it’s a sequel to the aforementioned. And upon my third reading of both (!) I’ve determined this is the lesser of the two. But that was a very hard conclusion to come to. 

7. Shell Game - a podcast by Evan Ratliff in which he explores a relevant undertaking: creating an entire corporation using only - and leaving the entire project to - AI agents. Wild and funny and scary and fascinating. 

8. Tony Zaret - a very “cool” and “with-it” guy who makes content of a sort. I adore this man. 

9. Wool undergarments including socks - a game changing layer. I despise the cold more profoundly with each passing year. It’s about time I fought back. 

10. I, Jonathan by Jonathan Richman. I raised myself on The Modern Lovers but I’d somehow been led to believe his solo stuff was mid and silly. Not so.

═════════════════════

Justin Ellis (Slow Teeth / To Be Heard Booking)



Here are my 2025 albums of note:

1. Ten Fé - Still In Love
2. Geese - Getting Killed
3. Dove Ellis - Blizzard
4. Foxwarren - 2
5. Anand Wilder - Psychic Lessons
6.  Wolf Alice - The Clearing
7.  Midlake - A Bridge To Far
8. Melody's Echo Chamber - Unclouded
9. My Morning Jacket - Is
10. Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE
11. Perfume Genius - Glory
12. Tame Impala - Deadbeat
13. Other Lives - Volume V

Honorable mention to Peel Dream Magazine's Rose Main Reading Room (2024).

═════════════════════

Ishaq Fahim



Dean Blunt x Elias Rønnenfelt - 4
Wishy - Over and Over
Panda Bear - Defense
Night Moves - Trying To Steal a Smile
Chanel Beads - The Coward Forgets His Name
Nourished By Time - 9 2 5
dottie - intention
Perfume Genius - It's a Mirror
Ghost Mountain x Olan Monk - Donkey-Boy
quickly, quickly - Enything
dwn bad - Try and Try Again
Djo - Awake

═════════════════════

Michael R. Fansler (Curls Ultra, Truth Zone Records)



Things I enjoyed this year: 

Music:

Los Thuthanaka by Los Thuthanaka
Wet Tuna (various Bandcamp releases)
A Tribute to Jack Johnson by Miles Davis
Death of a Ladies Man by Leonard Cohen
Anticipation by Carly Simon 
Hitchhiker by Neil Young
Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee 
Turbulence > Peace Dream: SJOD Live Formation One 2019-2022 by SJOD 
Inland Sea by Bitchin’ Bajas 
Instant Holograms on Metal Film by Stereolab 
Suntub by ML Buch 

Live Shows:

Phish
Maya Ongaku
Michael Rother 
Cindy Lee 
Neil Hamburger 
Bitchin Bajas 
Traysh 
Frank Hurricane 
Chris Coleslaw Band 
Aitis 
Brian Jonestown Massacre 

Movies (seen in theaters only):

Eddington
One Battle After Another 
Mishima 
El Topo 
Bugonia 
Ikiru
Reveries: The Mind Prison
Gummo 
In The Mouth Of Madness

TV:

The Chair Company
Smiling Friends 
The Rehearsal 
Northern Exposure 
Frank Hurricane’s Mystical & Musical Journey

Books:

V by Thomas Pynchon
Dog of the South by Charles Portis
Aberration in the Heartland of the Real by Wendy S. Painting
The Stench of Honolulu by Jack Handey

═════════════════════

Frances Farlee (Sooper Records + ROAM)



Here are some things that ruled in 2025. Happy New Year everyone <3 Excited to catch ya at a show in 2026:

• Pile - Sunshine and Balance Beams + the record release show in the round at Thalia Hall where they covered “Declare Indepence” by Björk
• Sinigang: Pompano Fish from Rubys Fast Food
• Sitting on my porch 
• The Pitt
• Godspeed at the cemetery 
• Fernet tiramisu from void 
• SANAM - Sametou Sawtan 
• Getting a grill 
• Daryl Johns at Martyrs’ 
• Los Thuthankaka - S/T
• Dirty martini w/ blue cheese olives from Club Lucky 
• Katagiri Japanese Grocery in New York
• Luke Titus - From What Was Will Grow A Flower

═════════════════════

Michelle Feghali (Sub Pop Records)



Favorite Non-Sub Pop Releases of 2025 (in no particular order):

-Rosalía, LUX
-Prewn, System
-Water From Your Eyes, Life Signs
-Perfume Genius, Glory
-Nourished By Time, The Passionate Ones
-Wednesday, Bleeds
-Tyler the Creator, CHROMAKOPIA
-Lady Gaga, Mayhem
-Gordi, Like Plasticine
-aya, hexed!
-Future Magics, For The Faint Of Heart
-Little Simz, Lotus
-Jay Som, Belong
-Cutouts, Snakeskin
-snuggle, Goodbyehouse
-OHYUNG, You Are Always On My Mind
-Men I Trust, Equus Caballus
-Blood Orange, Essex Honey
-Emily Yacina, Veilfall
-Saya Gray, SAYA
-Hank, Spiralic

═════════════════════

Fig (Um, Jennifer?)



singles:

“neverrr everrr” - villagerrr
“sumac” - coco smith 
“mega circuit” - japanese breakfast
“girl feels good” - fka twigs
“la mudanza” - bad bunny
“idiot” - estelle allen
“the field” - blood orange
“elderberry wine” - wednesday 
“horses” - yung lean
“crush” - grumpy
“you got time and i got money” - smerz

figs fav albums / eps:

featherweight at the pearly gate - D.A. Crimson
Stage Girl - Eli
It’s a Beautiful Place - Water From Your Eyes
Super Pedestrian - Annie Dirusso

═════════════════════

Florian (Morr Music/Promotion) 



some records I loved to listen to this year:

Joseph Kamaru: Heavy Combination 1966-2007 (Disciples)
Romeo Poirier: Off The Record (Faitiche)
U.e. und Ulla: Hometown Girl (28912)
Gajek: Cutting Together Apart (Storm)
The Alien Dub Orchestra: Plays The Breadminster Songbook (Alien Transistor)
GUU: GUU (Tax Free)
Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas: Totality (Drag City)
Sessa: Pequena Vertigem De Amor Colored (Mexican Summer)
Alien Trackers: Dubs From Vortex Beach (Jahtari)
Karen Willems: A Fool's Guide To Reality (Permanent Draft)

═════════════════════

Johnathon Ford (Unwed Sailor)



Vulture Feather - It Will Be Like Now
Damien Jurado - Private Hospital 
Ghost Dubs - Extended Damaged Versions 
The Orb - Buddhist Hipsters
Blawan - SickElixir
The Bug vs. Ghost Dubs - Implosion 
The Durutti Column - The Return of the Durutti Column (Reissue)
Tortoise - Touch
Purelink - Faith 
Dianogah - 1995-2008

═════════════════════

Katie Garcia (Bayonet Records)



Song I listened to the most this year (not a 2025 release):

"Perfect" by Wednesday x MJ Lenderman (Smashing Pumpkins cover)

Song I rediscovered this year:

"Pretty Quiet" by The Ropers. It was on the very first cassette mix I made for my husband and I had forgotten how great it is. 

2025 Best albums:

Wednesday -Bleeds
Oklou -Choke Enough
Johanne Robertson -Blurrr
Smerz -Big City Life
Winter -Adult Romantix
Rosalía -Lux
Nourished by Time -The Passionate Ones
Sharp Pins -Balloon Balloon Balloon
ear -The Most Dear and The Future
Sword II -Electric Hour
Addison Rae - Addison

2025 Best songs:

Chappell Roan -Subway
Water From Your Eyes -Playing Classics

═════════════════════

Daniel Gill (Force Field PR)



Top 25 Albums:

1. Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band - New Threats From The Soul
2. SML - How You Been
3. Wednesday - Bleeds
4. Panda Bear - Sinister Grift
5. Billy Woods - GOLLIWOG
6. Perfume Genius - Glory
7. Herbal Tea - Hear As The Mirror Echoes
8. Kieran Hebden & William Tyler - 41 Longfield Street Late 80s
9. Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
10. Water From Your Eyes - It’s a Beautiful Place
11. Cass McCombs - Interior Live Oak
12. Golomb - The Beat Goes On
13. Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying
14. No Peeling - No Peeling
15. Fust - Big Ugly
16. Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon
17. Momma - Welcome To My Blue Sky
18. Snocaps - Snocaps
19. Bouquet - Spellbreaker
20. Cloakroom - Last Leg of The Human Table
21. h. pruz - Red Sky At Morning
22. Rose City Band - Sol Y Sombra
23. They Are Gutting A Body Of Water - LOTTO
24. Blank For.ms - After The Town Was Swept Away
25. Pulp - More

Top Reissues / Archival:

1. Gnonnas Pedro and his Dadjes Band - Roi De L’Agbadja Moderne 1974 - 1983
2. Swell Maps - The John Peel Sessions
3. This Is Lorelei - Holo Boy
4. Joseph Kamaru - Heavy Combination 1966 - 2007
5. Hüsker Dü – 1985: The Miracle Year
6. Q Lazzarus – Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives Of Q Lazzarus (Music From The Motion Picture)
7. Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family – I’m Not Made Of Iron
8. Nick Drake - The Making of Five Leaves Left
9. Arthur Russell - Open Vocal Phrases Where Songs Come In and Out
10. Loveliescrushing - Bloweyelashwish

═════════════════════

Jeremy P. Goldstein (Goldstein United Management)



in alphabetical order:

ALT BLK ERA - Rave Immortal
Blondshell - If You Asked For A Picture
CIEL - Call Me Silent
CLIPPING. - Dead Channel Sky Plus
Dinosaur Pile-Up - I’ve Felt Better
Just Mustard - We Were Just Here
New Dad - Altar
Pastel - Souls In Motion
The Sherlocks - Everything Must Make Sense!
swim school - swim school

═════════════════════

Good English Records



Our favorites are as follows:

Nick: Holy Water by Hether
Kenzie: Shy at first by cootie catcher
Wesley: 45 Pounds by YHWH Nailgun
William: Sky Record by Dan English

═════════════════════

Mark Andrew Hamilton (Woodpigeon)



Here’s a few things that I really liked in 2025.

Laurie Torres’ Après coup: A record perfect to work to, relax with, or dive into. And once it ends, it’s so easy to just put it back on again. 

Elle Barbara’s Black Space's Word on the Street: A hugely satisfying masterpiece of sci-fi glam, pulsing rhythms, and even a sample of Montréal’s métro that kicks ‘Your Favourite Meal’ into high-gear, released by the influential K Records. This one’s definitely being slept on.

Justin Karas’ Flowers Wild Abound: A beautiful harp folk record that’s spruced up by rich orchestral arrangements and Karas’ beautiful vocals. A perfect fall record.

Naomi McCarroll-Butler and Jason Doell’s FOUR FORMER MYRRH FORMERS FORMED HER HORN FOR MURMURS: Naomi McCarroll-Butler can do anything and it’s sure to be magical, from her place as a mainstay in Beverly Glenn Copeland’s backing band to her sound explorations, including this one with Jason Doell. Headphones up!

═════════════════════

Jack Hedges (Transgressive / Canvasback Records)



10 Records I loved this year (in alphabetical order)

Chat Pile / Hayden Pedigo - In The Earth Again
Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services
Forty Winks - Love Is A Dog From Hell
Geese - Getting Killed
Greg Freeman - Burnover
Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon
Jawdropped - Just Fantasy
Liquid Mike - Hell Is An Airport
Rocket - R Is For Rocket
Shallowater - God’s Gonna Give You A Million Dollars

═════════════════════

Parker and Joseph Hernandez (Rite Field Records & Gneiss Sounds, Houston TX)



2025 list for Rite Field Records

• Futurina, Uncertain future
• james K, Friend
• some fear, some fear
• Shunkan, Kamikaze Girl
• my point of you, This is my first heist
• Glixen, Quiet Pleasures
• Blood Orange, Essex Honey
• Forth Wanderers, The Longer This Goes On
• Shubby, Thanks For Stopping By
• Trembler, World Doesn’t Want Me

═════════════════════

Madison Hetterly (Final Girl Records)



Favorite Singles:
1. “Bodycount” by Dirt Flirt
2. “Zombie” by YUNGBLUD
3. “Car Wash” by Um, Jennifer?
4. “Chains of Love” by Charli xcx
5. “23:42” by Rachel Chinouriri

Favorite Albums:
1. Um Comma Jennifer Question Mark by Um, Jennifer?
2. How To Be Human by Cat Burns
3. Idols by YUNGBLUD
4. Somewhere by Charlotte Lawrence
5. BITE ME by Renee Rapp

═════════════════════

Hannah Houser (HH Creative LLC)



This year’s faves and discoveries...

• Album: It’s a Beautiful Place by Water from Your Eyes and I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away by Hayden Pedigo (honorable mention to Addison by Addison Rae)
• Book: Didion and Babitz by Lila Anolik (pub. 2024)
• Concert: Anohni at Big Ears Festival
• Meal: scallion pancakes, pork dumplings in chili oil, and purple rice at Birds of a Feather
• Movie: Bugonia, plus first-time watches of Before Sunrise (1995) and After Hours (1985)
• Music Videos: “Beto’s Horns (Ezra Collective Remix)” by Fred Again, Ezra Collective, ca7riel, & Paco Amoroso, and “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga
• Songs: “Magazine” by Mandy, Indiana, “Dust Bowl” by Ethel Cain, “David” by Lorde, “thank you for recording” by Oklou, “Company Culture” by Lambrini Girls, and “Berghain” by Rosalía, Björk, and Yves Tumor
• TV: The Chair Company and The Pitt

═════════════════════

S. L. Houser



Here are my top ten! These are all 2025 releases! Here's a playlist with some runners up included as well. 

Madison Cunningham - Ace
Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
Lily Allen - West End Girl
Little Simz - Lotus
Rosalia - LUX
Viagra Boys - viagr aboys
Hannah Cohen - Earthstar Mountain 
Perfume Genius - Glory
Lucy Dacus - Forever is a Feeling
Tame Impala - Deadbeat

═════════════════════

Natalie Ingalls (Secretly Group)



Favorite albums released this year:
Fib Heavy Lifting
Starling Forgive Me,
Wet Leg moisturizer
Colin Miller Losin'
Wednesday Bleeds
shame Cutthroat
Stella Donnelly Love and Fortune
Winter Adult Romantix
Teethe Magic Of The Sale
Aunt Katrina This Heat is Slowly Killing Me
my body with blood Deer Screams Agony EP
Horsegirl Phonetics On and On
Lorde Virgin 

Favorite albums I discovered this year:

Andy Gibb After Dark
Mirah You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This
All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors
Autolux Future Perfect
The Blue Nile Over the Hillside
Unwound Leaves Turn Inside You
Telstar Drugs Sonatine

Best shows I saw this year:

Cindy Lee Thalia Hall
Fib, Feller, Good Flying Birds, Sharp Pins Empty Bottle
Folk Bitch Trio Schubas
Wednesday The Riviera
Good Flying Birds, Phoebe Rings, cootie catcher Empty Bottle
Half Gringa, Tenci, Sima Cunningham, Samuel Aaron Scubas
Mary Chicken Soup and Rice, The Matriarch, Quilli Fin Cafe Mustache
Durand Jones & The Indications Salt Shed
Grizzly Bear Salt Shed
Sharp Pins (solo), Starcharm, TV Buddha, Directrix Schoolhouse
Tombstone Poetry, Oldstar, Westhead, The Part Timers Color Club

═════════════════════

Jared Jones (Winspear)



Here are my 10 fav non-Winspear records from this past year:

Water From Your Eyes - It's A Beautiful Place
Greg Freeman - Burnover
Good Flying Birds - Talulah's Tape
Emily Hines - These Days
Sword II - Electric Hour
Momma - Welcome To My Blue Sky
Worthitpurchase - Worthitpurchase
Dutch Interior - Moneyball
Smerz - Big city life
Wednesday - Bleeds

═════════════════════

Caroline Keefe (Carpark Records)



here’s my top 10 :)

• The Passionate Ones - Nourished by Time
• Getting Killed - Geese
• Walking the trail near my house (10k steps a day!) 
• Different Talking - Frankie Cosmos
• The Pitt (HBO Max)
• Four Calendar Cafe - Cocteau Twins 
• Old movies at the movie theater (highlights were Rear Window, Barry Lyndon, All The President’s Men, & Night of the Living Dead)
• New movies at the movie theater (highlights were The Mastermind, One Battle After Another, Weapons, & It Was Just an Accident)
• Burnover - Greg Freeman
• Yuck - Yuck (wore this out after The Brutalist win at the Oscars this year) 

═════════════════════

Lucas Knapp



matt bachmann - compost karaoke
sweepers - sweepers
rafael toral - traveling light
gabriel adels - a rumbling of everything in spring
liz durette - well up
editrix - the big e
molly raben - in the kingdom of flowers
kitchen - blue heeler in ugly snowlight, grey on gray on gray on white
eliza niemi - progress bakery
nicole hale - some kind of longing
lina tullgren - decide which way the eyes are looking
cole pulice - land’s end eternal
frog eyes - the open up
deradoorian - ready for heaven
spring onion - seated figure
eiko ishibashi - antigone
macie stewart - when the distance is blue 
gloorp - gloorp ‘em up
paco cathcart - down on them
tvo - all aboard choo choo fuck you
cross record - crush me
ava luna - ava luna 
every dear life records release

═════════════════════

Lucie Lozinski (Ski Team)



My ten things—they're not all new. Some are new. They're also not in any particular order.

1. SML, Small Medium Large
2. Arooj Aftab, Night Reign
3. Armando Trovajoli, Profumo Di Donna
4. Deron Johnson, Free to Dance
5. Brendan Eder, Therapy
6. Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stone Flower
7. Will Graefe, Compositions for Guitar, Vol. 2
8. Mason Lindahl, Kissing Rosy in the Rain
9. Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, Dylan Day, Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, Dylan Day
10. Lola Young, This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway

═════════════════════

Marissa Macias (Resound Presents)



✨ All are in no particular order ✨

TOP 5 FAV NEW RELEASES OF 2025:
  • Cancionera - Natalia Lafourcade
  • LUX - Rosalía
  • Mayhem - Lady Gaga
  • The Passionate Ones - Nourished by Time
  • The Art of Loving - Olivia Dean

TOP 5 REVISITS OF 2025:
  • True - Solange
  • Cupid Deluxe - Blood Orange
  • Wings At The Speed Of Sound - Wings
  • Autoamerican - Blondie
  • Boogie Nights Soundtrack

TOP 5 FAV AUSTIN BITES OF 2025:
  • Al Pastor and Alambre Tacos @ Taqueria el Trompo Mayor
  • BLT @ Casino El Camino 
  • Cesar Salad, Vodka Baby slice, and soft serve drizzled with olive oil, salt, chocolate, and pretzel crunch @ All Day Pizza 
  • Brisket Rice Bowl @ KGBBQ
  • Omakase @ Soto

TOP 5 FAV MOVIES OF 2025:
  • One Battle After Another directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Weapons directed by Zach Cregger
  • Superman directed by James Gunn
  • Bugonia directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
  • 28 Years Later directed by Danny Boyle

═════════════════════

Owen Mallon (Mataderos Projects)



15 Albums I Enjoyed This Year:

aya Hexed!
Quadeca Vanisher, Horizon Scraper
Pino Palladino That Wasn’t A Dream
Blawan SickElixir
Geese Getting Killed
Drain Is Your Friend
Algernon Cadwallader Trying Not To Have A Thought
Water From Your Eyes It’s A Beautiful Place
YHWH Nailgun 45 Pounds
Tamino Every Dawn’s A Mountain
Deftones Private Music
Saya Gray Saya
Agriculture That Spiritual Sound
Oneohtrix Point Never Tranquilizer
Model Actriz Pirouette

═════════════════════

Caroline Marchildon (Polyvinyl Records)



Five things I couldn't stop listening to this year (alphabetical):

Dean Blunt & Elias Rønnenfelt - lucre (WORLD MUSIC) 
Harmony Index - Winterbreaks - EP (Chance Encounters) 
Colin Miller - Losin' (Mtn Laurel Recording Co.) 
Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones (XL) 
Westerman - A Jackal's Wedding (Partisan Records) 

My personal five favorite episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (which I watched for the first time this year):

"The Dinner Party From Hell" Season 1 - Episode 9 
"Let the Games Begin" Season 2 - Episode 6 
"Malibu Beach Party From Hell" Season 2 - Episode 14 
"Life's a Witch" Season 4 - Episode 3 
"Horsing Around" Season 6 - Episode 3

═════════════════════

Andrew Marczak (Orillia)



10 albums I really loved this year:

I Love People by Cory Hanson
Impossible Songs by Future Crib
Ridin’ High by Jerry Jeff Walker
Horrible Occurrences by Advance Base
hemlock’s Audiotree Session
Ark by Lefty Parker
Level-Headed Even Smile by Dylan Earl
Revival by Gillian Welch
Little Songs by Colter Wall
The Beat Goes On by Golomb

═════════════════════

Kevin Marksson (Endearments)



Went on the hunt for vinyl less than usual this year, but still found some gems at home and abroad. Here are my top 10 used records I found while digging in the crates in 2025:

1. Ryuichi Sakamoto - B-2 Unit (1980 JP original press, found at Selva, Brooklyn) - "Riot in Lagos" is legendary
2. Ashra - Correlations (1979 UK original press, found at Tower Records, Tokyo) - still on the hunt for New Age of Earth
3. Devo - Freedom of Choice (1980 US original press, found at Brooklyn Vintage, Brooklyn) - whip it good
4. Eurythmics - Touch (1984 JP original press, found at Record Station, Tokyo) - "Here Comes the Rain Again" is a perfect opener
5. Anri - Timely!! (2023 JP reissue, found at Tacto, Tokyo) - couldn't leave Tokyo without some city pop
6. Poliça - Give You the Ghost (2012 FR original press, found at Librairie l'Échange, Montreal) - what a debut album this was
7. The Durutti Column - Vini Reilly (2024 UK limited reissue, found at Phonopolis, Montreal) - quintessential Durutti Column
8. Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (1975 JP reissue, found at Record Station, Tokyo) - hot take "Strode Rode" is better than "St. Thomas"
9. Genesis - Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974 CA original press, found at Aux 33 Tours, Montreal) - my fav of Peter Gabriel era Genesis
10. The Promise Ring - The Horse Latitudes (2019 US reissue, found at Librairie l'Échange, Montreal) - listened to this EP so much in college

═════════════════════

Drew Martin (Programmer at Large @ The Momentary + plenty more)



10 Favorite *New* Albums (no order):

Taper's Choice - Prog Hat
Flock of Dimes - The Life You Save
Frost Children - SISTER
House Band - Fortunes
Dijon - Baby
Geese - Getting Killed
Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones
Nilufer Yanya - Dancing Shoes EP
Dana and Alden - Speedo
Wednesday - Bleeds

Hon. Mentions:

TAGABOW - LOTTO
Snocaps - Snocaps
SML - How You Been

10 Favorite *Old* Albums (no order):

Eddie Hazel - Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs
Fats Waller - The Essential Fats Waller
FLIGHT - The Lead Riders
Gerry Mulligan - Night Lights
Masayoshi Takanaka - All of Me
The Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup
Atlas Sound - Bedroom Databank, Vols. 1 - 4
Missus Beastly - S/T #2
The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

10 Songs I Jammed A Lot In 2025:

"Flashlight (ft. Project Pat & Juicy J)" - Diplo
"Pacific Coast Party" - Smash Mouth
"Signs" - Five Man Electrical Band
"Mission in the Rain" - Jerry Garcia (any version)
"If You Don't Know Me By Now" - Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes ft. Teddy Pendergrass"Daniel" - Elton John
ARNOLD PALMER (I FEEL LIKE PIMP C) - Sha Crow
"Lucille" - Kenny Rogers
"To Be With You" - Mr. Big
"Jane Says" - Jane's Addiction

5 Live Music Moments of 2025:

Tom Constanten for Relix 50th at Brooklyn Bowl
Les Savy Fav at Hopscotch Music Festival
Mei Semones (Animaru Listening Party) at Funny Bar
Made of Oak at Sleepy Fest
William Tyler (Time Indefinite Listening Party) at Public Records

10 Favorite *things* of 2025:

Pittsford Farms Dairy Chocolate Milk
Lego Keychains
Lizards & Frogs
Pilates
Chicken King Ranch Casserole
Houseboats
Pimple Patches
Melons
Homemade Salsa
Chuy's Creamy Jalapeno Dip

═════════════════════

Eric Martinez (Secretly Group)



caroline - caroline 2
Touching Ice – I Just Remembered Everything Always Works Out For Me
Oklou - choke enough
Addison Rae - Addison 
Purelink – Faith
Joanne Robertson – Blurrr
Smerz - “You got time and I got money”
Ella Langley - “Choosin’ Texas”
Alex G - “Afterlife”
Chappell Roan - “The Giver"
The TAGABOW “american food" music video
Lorde @ the Forum
HARDY @ the Forum
Lucinda Williams @ the Troubadour
And Always Forever Fest in LA
TAGABOW @ First Unitarian Church

═════════════════════

Jenny Gillespie Mason (Sis and the Lower Wisdom)



Albums:

Whatever the Weather II - Whatever the Weather
Complete Recordings - Malefices
Almost an Island - Almost an Island
SABLE, fABLE - Bon Iver

Singles:

“Nausicaa” - Cameron Winter

Movies:

One Battle After Another
Passengers of the Night
I’m Still Here

Books:

Loved and Missed - Susie Boyt
Sorrows of an American - Siri Hustvedt
Essays on the Gita - Sri Aurobindo

Food:

Oken (Oakland)
Sfizio (Oakland)
Ebiko (Oakland)
The Station’s Hippie Bowls (Berkeley)

═════════════════════

Joey Massa (Space Agency Booking)



Here's my top 10 albums of the year:

1. El Michels Affair - 24 Hr Sports
2. Derya Yıldırım and Grup Şimşek - Yarın Yoksa
3. Dumbo Gets Mad - FIVE EGGS
4. Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Trash Classic
5. Surprise Chef - Superb
6. W.I.T.C.H. - SOGOLO
7. Desire - Games People Play
8. Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo 2
9. Babe Rainbow - Slipper imp and shakaerator
10. Viagra Boys - viagr aboys

═════════════════════

Josh Mills (It’s Alive! Media)



1. The Replacements - Let It Be (Deluxe Reissue) (Rhino)
2. Los Straightjackets - Somos Los Straitjackets (Yep Roc)
3. Fuzzyville - Population One (self released)
4. Julian Cope - Cope’s Notes: Citizen Cain’d (Head Heritage)
5. Hüsker Dü - 1985: The Miracle Year (Numero Group)
6. Kim Theory - Bitch Scene (self released)
7. The Rousers - The 1979 Sire Sessions (Left for Dead Records)
8. My Morning Jacket - Z (Deluxe Edition) (ATO)
9. The Well - V/A (IPR)
10. Kathleen Edwards - Billionaire (Dualtone)

═════════════════════

Andy Molholt (Speedy Ortiz)



1. Deerhoof - Noble and Godlike in Ruin
2. Prewn - System
3. Stereolab - Instant Holograms On Metal Film
4. Guerilla Toss - You’re Weird Now
5. Eliza Niemi - Progress Bakery
6. Ava Luna - Ava Luna
7. Maneka - bathes and listens
8. Spring Onion - Seated Figure
9. Editrix - The Big E
10. Yambi Sings - Optiques Dramatiques

═════════════════════

Karen Moran-Thomas (Dauntless Promotion)



Ten Unforgettable Books I Read In 2025:

Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates
Devil House - John Darnielle
The Acid Queen - Susannah Cahalan
Orange World - Karen Russell
The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri
The City and Its Uncertain Walls - Haruki Murakami
Water Moon - Samantha Sotto Yambao
Interview With The Vampire - Anne Rice
Big Sur - Jack Kerouac
The Tommyknockers - Stephen King

═════════════════════

Connor Murray (Crafted Sounds)



1. Prewn - System
2. Taurus Judge - A Thing Rolled Up [EP]
3. pôt-pot - Warsaw 480
4. Fib - Heavy Lifting
5. Winter - Adult Romantix
6. Club Night - Joy Coming Down
7. Shunk - Shunkland
8. Sword II - Electric Hour
9. Automatic - Is It Now?
10. The Scenic Vermont - Worse Further South


(Pictured on right - Jeff, canis lupus familiaris. Pictured in background, Antidotes by Foals)
═════════════════════

Pamela Nashel (Owner/Founder at Siren’s Call PR)



10 Favorite Albums Of The Year beyond all the rad albums I worked on in 2025. Big shout out to 14a Records (@14arecords) in Bayonne, NJ for helping me discover a lot of these new gems!

*In No Particular Order

Go Kurosawa - soft shakes
Anika - Abyss
The Circling Sun - Orbits
Cate LeBon - Michaelangelo Dying
Geese - Getting Killed
Horse Meat Disco Presents Disco & Boogie From Brazil, Vol 1.
Miisha Panfilov - To Blue From Grey in May
Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Panda Bear - Sinister Grift

═════════════════════

Julian Neel



Favorites of 2025:

Cornelia Murr - Run to the Center
Lefty Parker - Ark
Sabine McCalla - Don’t Call Me Baby
Hannah Cohen - Earthstar Mountain
Hayden Pedigo - I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away
Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying
Michael Hurley - Broken Homes & Gardens
Anna St. Louis - Home Recordings
Cactus Lee - Cactus Lee
Boomershack - Hangups (EP)

Not 2025 honorable mentions:

Grant Green - Idle Moments
Dailey Toliver - Earth Has No Sorrow
John Martyn - Glorious Fool
Floyd Cramer - Last Date
Lyle Mays - Lyle Mays
Cowboy - Reach for the Skies
Pat Metheny Group - Travels

═════════════════════

Calley Nelson (Star Card)



My favorite albums of 2025:

Bad Trips - Nothing But Trouble
Goon - Dream 3
Shadow Monster - Dog
Coma Cinema - Grand Delusion
My Wife's An Angel - Yeah, I Bet
Gum - The Second Gumming
Psychtooth - Party Patrick Doesn't Want to Party Anymore
Voicemail - Roof on Fire
Halloween - Shadow House
Case Oats - Last Missouri Exit
Golden Apples - Shooting Star
Lily Allen - West End Girl
Adam Guzman - Learn to Love You
Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying
Cloakroom - Last Leg of The Human Table

Favorite books from 2025:

American Thighs - Elizabeth Ellen
Mood Machine - Liz Pelly

Favorite EPs from 2025:

Sana Sana - Dear
swimteam VHS - Early Tapes

═════════════════════

New Strangers


2025 End of Year Top Tens: 

Kyle: 

Geese - Getting Killed
Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band - New Threats from the Soul
Guided by Voices - Thick Rich and Delicious 
Cass Mccombs - Interior Live Oak
Corey Hanson - I Love People
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
Possible Humans - Standing Around Alive
Leche - Miracle Whip It
Kitty Craft - Beats and Breaks from Flower Patch
Brian Eno and Harold Budd - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror

Benton:

Balloons Balloons Balloons - Sharp Pins
Getting Killed - Geese 
Bleeds - Wendsday 
Lotto - They Are Gutting a Body of Water
Muscial Attack: Communist + Anarchist Friendship - Chronophage
Phonetics On and On - Horsegirl
SWAG - Justin Bieber 
It's a Beutiful Place - Water from Your Eyes
Lux - Rosalía
Baby - Dijon 

Nick: 

Good Flying Birds - Talulah’s Tape 
Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying 
Sharp Pins- Balloon Balloon Balloon 
Guided By Voices- Thick Rich and Delicious 
Possible Humans- Standing Around Alive 
Ryan Davis - New Threats from the Soul 
Geese - Getting Killed 
Marshall Allen - New Dawn 
Jeff Tweedy - Twilight Override 
Chronophage - Musical Attack: Communist + Anarchist Friendship

═════════════════════

Isabel Olive (Half Gringa)



Favorite Songs 2025

1. Sudan Archives - “A BUG’S LIFE”
2. Jay Som - “Float”
3. Sunny War - “No One Calls Me Baby”
4. Wednesday - “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)”
5. Alex G - “Afterlife”
6. Lido Pimienta - “Busca La Luz”
7. hemlock ft. Babehoven - “In That Number”
8. Ava Luna - “Lasting Impression”
9. Geese - “Cobra”
10. The Ophelias - “Cicada”
11. Rosalía - “Dios Es Un Stalker”
12. Nona Invie - “An Island, An Arc”
13. Buscabulla - “Miraverahí”
14. Walt McClements - “A Painted Ship”
15. CMAT - ‘Lord, Let That Tesla Crash”
16. Cross Record - “Cutting a Cake”

═════════════════════

Queen Serene

Matt Galceran:



Primitive Man Observance
Geese Getting Killed
Good Flying Birds Talulah's Tape
Los Juanos La Llegada
Ariel Pink With You Every Night
Les Rallizes Denudes Jittoku '76
Water From Your Eyes It's a Beautiful Place
Snooper Worldwide
Leche Miracle Whip-It
Commercial Breaks Commercial Breaks

Sarah Ronan:



Snuggle Goodbyehouse
Stereolab Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Water From Your Eyes It's a Beautiful Place
Tortoise Touch
Good Flying Birds Talulah's Tape
Erika de Casier Lifetime
Unchained Frontalier
Water Damage Instruments
Paper Jam This and That
Hayden Pedigo I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away

Some favorite shows from both of us in 2025:

Cindy Lee at the Brooklyn Paramount (2 nights!)
Martin Rev at Stubbs for Levitation
Yo La Tengo & Kim Gordon at Far Out for Austin Psych Fest

═════════════════════

Domenic Paolo (Pirate! Promotions, DJ Nooch Show on WUNH)



Top ten pop songs I've only just become (or re-became) addicted to this year...

1) “TiK ToK” by Kesha
2) “Applause” by Lady Gaga
3) “California Girls” by Katy Perry
4) “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter
5) “Levitating” by Dua Lipa
6) “Into You” by Ariana Grande
7) “One More Night” by Maroon 5
8) “Fireflies” by Owl City
9) “Youngblood” by 5 Seconds of Summer
10) “Something Just Like This” by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay

═════════════════════

Chris Parham (Concord)



Songs:

Deloyd Elze - "Rite of Passage"
Gabriel Jacoby - "Be Careful" (A COLORS SHOW) 
Ken Pomeroy - "Wolf in Sheeps Clothes"
Fust - "Spangled"
Bon Iver, Dijon, Flock of Dimes - "Day One"
Dori Valentine - "She Has Her Days" 
Truman Sinclair - "Joel Roberts" 
The Bel Air Lip Bombs - "Back Of My Hand" 
Daffo - "Get A Life"
Wet Leg - "Mangetout"
Twen - "Godlike"
Olivia Dean - "Man I Need"
Broncho - "Imagination" 
Panda Bear - "Defense"
SG Goodman - "Fire Sign" 
Nilufer Yanya - "Kneel"
Boxtrod - "Red Bones"
Celine Dessberg - "Selenge" 
Elias Ronnenfelt, Dean Blunt - “tears on his rings and chains” 

Albums:

Fust - Big Ugly 
Ken Pomeroy - Cruel Joke
Folk Bitch Trio - Now Would Be A Good Time 
Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On
Saya Gray - SAYA 
Geese - Getting Killed 
Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE
Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band - New Threats From The Soul
Greg Freeman - Burnover
Tyler Childers - Snipe Hunter 
Wednesday - Bleeds 
Resavoir & Matt Gold - Horizon
Sharp Pins - Balloon Balloon Balloon 
The Belair Lip Bombs - Again
Olivia Dean - The Art of Loving 
Dana and Alden - Speedo 
Benjamin Booker - LOWER
Jeff Tweedy - Twilight Override 

═════════════════════

Ben Parrish (Jamboree Mgmt)



MUSIC MAKES YOU LOSE CONTROL b/w MUSIC IS THE HEALING FORCE OF THE UNIVERSE:

Natural Information Society - Perseverance Flow (Eremite/Aguirre) LP

WEIRDOS ONLY LP OF 2025:

Puppet Wipes - Live Inside (Siltbreeze) LP

GOD GAVE ROCK AND ROLL TO YOU:

Orcutt Shelley Miller live at Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR and on LP (Silver Current Records), Bill Orcutt live at Lodge Room, Portland, OR

BEST VELVET UNDERGROUND BOOTLEG:

Velvet Underground - Live at Paramount Theatre (Fan Club)

BEST VELVET UNDERGROUND BOOTLEG BY NON VU BAND:

Emily Robb - live performances on YouTube and Instagram

═════════════════════

Allison Parssi (co-sign)



Some Favorite Albums of 2025 - listed in alpha order:

• anaiis / Devotion & The Black Divine / Dream Sequence
• Bad Bunny / DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS / Rimas Entertainment
• caroline / caroline 2 / Rough Trade
• DJ Haram / Beside Myself / Hyperdub
• duendita / a strong desire to survive / 10K
• easygoingtech / easygoingtech / Mages Guild
• Ela Minus / DÍA / Domino
• Los Thuthanaka / Los Thuthanaka / self-released
• Macie Stewart / When the Distance is Blue / International Anthem
• Ninajirachi / I Love My Computer / NLV
• Pixel Grip / Percepticide: The Death of Reality / self-released
• Purelink / Faith / Peak Oil
• Rosalía / LUX / Columbia
• SANAM / Sametou Sawtan / Constellation
• Various Artists / Tehrangelese Vice / Discotchari
Full List Here

Some favorite 2025 shows - I attended 143 shows this year, a personal record. These are listed in date order. Artists in above albums list are not included. All shows are in Chicago unless otherwise noted:

• Jamie xx @ Aragon Ballroom
• Marie Davidson @ Sleeping Village
• Disclosure @ All of Us Fest
• Buscabulla @ Lincoln Hall
• Kokoroko @ Thalia Hall
• Nourished By Time / Zsela @ Lincoln Hall
• Mariam @ Because Beaubourg in Paris
• Christine and the Queens @ Because Beaubourg in Paris
• David Byrne @ The Auditorium
• ESG @ Empty Bottle
• Danny Brown / underscores @ The Vic
• Silvana Estrada / Bedouine @ Thalia Hall
• TRANSA Live @ Powerhouse Arts in NYC

Other 2025 media enjoyed - in alpha order:

• Caleb Hearon: Model Comedian (stand-up special)
• Dying for Sex (limited series)
• Hal & Harper (limited series)
• It Was Just An Accident (movie)
• Lovely Day (movie)
• Palestine 36 (movie)
• Sentimental Value (movie)
• Sorry, Baby (movie)
• Too Much (limited series)

═════════════════════

Alex Peterson (alexalone)



comics:

witch hat atelier - kamome shirahama (2016-ongoing)
the summer hikaru died - mokumokuren (2021-ongoing)
the guy she was interested in wasn't a guy at all - arai sumiko (2022-ongoing)
the girl from the other side - nagabe (2015-2021)
takopi’s original sin - taizan5 (2021-2022)
arakawa under the bridge - hikaru nakamura (2004-2015)
blood on the tracks - shūzō oshimi (2017-2023)*
look back - tatsuki fujimoto (2021)*
batman the long halloween - jeph loeb (1996-1997)*
planetes - makoto yukimura (1999-2004)*
vinland saga - makoto yukimura (2005-2025)#
to your eternity - toshitoki oima (2016-2025)#

reread*
finished publication#

music:

ylayali - birdhouse in conduit (2025)
clipse - let god sort em out (2025)
felt out - are you with me (2025)
jason calhoun - monarch (2025)
jay som - belong (2025)
agriculture - the spiritual sound (2025)
cross record - crush me (2025)
kassie krut - kassie krut (2025)
diiv - frog boiling in water (2024)
palm - rock island (2018)
d'angelo - black messiah (2015)
shirō sagisu & akira ifukube - shin godzilla ost (2016)
my chemical romance - the black parade (2006)
björk - homogenic (1997)
joe hisaishi - kiki's delivery service ost (1989)

movies:

sentimental value - joachim trier (2025)
chainsaw man the movie: reze arc - tatsuya yoshihara (2025)
shin godzilla - hideaki anno & shinji higuchi (2016)
tar - todd field (2022)


═════════════════════

W. Andrew Raposo



Top 10 Favorite Things of 2025

Track: "Close (No Cigar)" - Shit Robot

Album: Can't Lose My (Soul) - Annie and The Caldwells

Show: Flowers For The Dead opening for No Joy at Trans-Pecos in Ridgewood, NY on 9/4/25

New band: Cutouts

Party: Public Service hosted by DJs Mickey Perez and Toribio

Cheeseburger: Larry's in Marfa, TX

New bar: Rita Cantina, Amagansett, NY

New guitar pedal: Dead Air's "Chaos Drive"

Plug-in: UAD Studer A800

Dog treat: anything by Urban Tails Treats

═════════════════════

Tim Regan (Nine Mile)



Geese - Getting Killed
Greg Freeman - Burnover
Broncho - Natural Pleasure
The Point. - Maldito Animal (Deluxe Album)
Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying
Water From Your Eyes - It's A Beautiful Place
Carson McHone - Pentimento
Dean Johnson - I Hope We Can Still Be Friends
Big Thief - Double Infinity
Chris Staples - Don't Worry
TsuShiMaMiRe - Live In Tokyo
Tropical Fuck Storm - Fairyland Codex
The Tubs - Cotton Crown
Basketball - Basketball

═════════════════════

Shea Roney (the ugly hug)



These are my 10 favorite debut albums released in 2025 (no particular order):

1. Petsit by Petsit
2. The Answers To Which We Do Not Know the Questions by The Guppies
3. Martyr Without a Cause by 16 Psyche
4. Neighbors by Shoulderbird
5. Welcome to the Shower by Tanner York
6. Plays the Game by Copies
7. Sinking Stars by Sink
8. Hear as the Mirror Echoes by herbal tea
9. Fool's Errand by Sunflecks
10. With A Shared Memory by Floating Clouds

═════════════════════

Samuel Aaron (Chicago musician and graphic designer)



Had a hard time narrowing down all the great music that came out this year, so I decided to focus my list to local music... since Chicago is the only place that really matters!!!!

Favorite Chicago records of 2025:

Astrachan - Signs
Disaster Kid - Rare Bird EP
evangelina - frequency illusion EP
Gerfety - Fight Songs
Glass-Beagle - Early Riser
Liska - Acting Above Your Station
Lucky Cloud - Foreground
No Lonesome - Am I What I'm Not?
Orillia - FIRE-WEED
Petsit - Petsit
Shoulderbird - Neighbors
Smushie - Cicero Pizza Anthology
This House is Creaking - I Want to Feel at Home Here

═════════════════════

Mike Sansevere (Bar/None Records)



22° Halo - Lily of the Valley [technically released 11/8/24, but close enough :D]
Alex G - Headlights
cootie catcher - Shy at first
Good Flying Birds - Talulah's Tape
Greg Freeman - Burnover
Hudson Freeman - Is a Folk Artist
MIKE - Showbiz!
Oklou - choke enough
They Are Gutting a Body of Water - LOTTO
Wednesday - Bleeds
YL, Subjxct 5 - RRR & 2oo4 Presents...Only Ones Taxin'

═════════════════════

Jake Saunders (Ramp Local, Joyful Noise Recordings)



TOPS OF 2025:

  • All 4 of the the Jim Hall / Bill Evans records 
  • Bugonia
  • Big Ears
  • Free associating 
  • Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Gift Songs
  • SML - How You Been
  • Rimworld  
  • Balatro
  • Pluribus 
  • Being friends with people for 30 years 
  • Athens, Greece 
  • mezcal negronis at Tubby’s 
  • 3am train rides home 
  • Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
  • The guy on WAMC who reports famous people’s public apologies of the week 
  • Making things and then breaking them
  • Dominant #5 chords 
  • Tapping unrealized potential 
  • Learning Charlie Parker tunes 
  • Craigslist 
  • First year not going to SXSW in a while
  • Structural change 
  • Carving lil guys into my desk 

═════════════════════

Rebecca Schiffman


Songs I listened to on repeat in 2025:

“A Promise” - Meernaa
“A Little Honey” - “Meernaa
“Damage” - Chris Cohen
“C’est Novembre” - Fantastic Mister Zguy
“Hollywood” - Loren Kramar
“Dancing on the Moon” - Qai Qai

═════════════════════

Michael Schulman (Slumberland Records)



Mike Slumberland’s Fave Listens of 2025

New Music:

Yazz Ahmed - Paradise In The Hold (Night Time Stories)
Burial - Comafields (Hyperdub)
Cousin - Wake The Town (Moonshoe)
Galore - Dirt (Speakeasy Studios)
Idle Ray - Even In Spring (Life Like)
Makaya McCraven - Off The Record (International Anthem)
Mitch Murder X Pizza Hotline - Anti Gravity Tournament (WRWTFWW)
Natural Information Society - Perseverance Flow (Eremite)
Paper Jam - This And That (self-released)
The Pennys - The Pennys (Mt St Mtn)
Saint Etienne - International (Heavenly)
Sault - 10 (Forever Living Originals)
Sharp Pins - Balloon Balloon Balloon (K)
Satoshi Tomiie & Tuccillo - Delta Dubs (20:20 Vision)
Viola Klein - New Chapter (Meakusma)

Reissues:

The Chills - Springboard (Fire)
Nathan Davis - Happy Girl (MPS)
Dead Famous People - Wild Young Ways (Tiny Global Productions)
Life Without Buildings - Love Trinity (Errol's Hot Wax/Heavenly Creature)
Gnonnas Pedro & His Dadjes Band - Roi De L'Agbadja Moderne (Analog Africa)
The Royal Jesters - We Go Together (Pecos)
Seefeel - Quique (Redux) (Too Pure)
World of Pooh - Tight And Loose (Bulbous Monocle)

═════════════════════

Andrew Sellers (Charm School)



Top 10 records I really dug into this year:

1. Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
2. Section 25 - Always Now
3. Sextile - yes, please. (& Push)
4. DAF - Ein Produkt der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Freundschaft
5. Einstuzende Neubauten - Kollaps
6. Pixel Grip - Arena
7. Fruit LoOops - You’re Somebody’s World
8. Ryan Davis - New Threats to the Soul & Dancing On The Edge
9. Ma2m - gr0wing pain$
10. David Bowie - Outside (The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper Cycle)

Top 10 singles I loved in 2025: 

1. Marie Davidson - “Adieu Au Dancefloor”
2. Donzii - “On The Inside”
3. Fruit LoOops - “Stick”
4. David Bowie - “I’m Deranged”
5. Solid Space - “Tenth Planet”
6. Max Richter, Daniel Hope - “Spring 1 - 2012”
7.  The Sound - “Winning”
8. Deux - “Game and Performance”
9. Father John Misty - “Being You”
10. Oneohtrix Point Never - “Bell Scanner”

This year’s been pretty dark in terms of current events obviously so I was more grateful than usual for the rare lovely art surprise — and there were a cpl that really gave me something to chew on and think about and hang out with in my mind.  

I didn’t know anything abt Cameron Winter and had never heard of Geese and then that record showed up and it did that important thing for me (BTGOG ;) that happens every once in awhile — it reminded me that weird af great art is still possible no matter how bad everything else is going…  

On a similar tip — I saw Worst Person in the World and I liked it but I wasn’t prepared for how great and deep and nostalgia-conjuring Sentimental Value would be.  It was kind of the filmic equivalent of the Cameron Winter record for me this year — I had given up on the notion that films that good could be made nowadays and it renewed my faith…  

Lastly, I discovered the writer Clarice Lispector recently and her writing has been another surprise gem in my otherwise overwhelmed-by-current-history brain.  “The Hour of the Star” is one of the coolest and most interesting takes on a novel I’ve encountered in a long time…  
-Andrew

═════════════════════

Michael Seman, PhD (Arts Management @ CSU / Shiny Around the Edges)



The Top Ten of my life in 2025 in no particular order…

1. TV Show: “Father Brown” | I am completely obsessed with this BBC show. It’s surprisingly progressive considering the protagonist is a Catholic priest in a cozy, unassuming town north of London.

2. Film: Secret Mall Apartment | The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is a fantastic institution of higher education and their students are incredibly smart and aesthetically savvy (see Lightning Bolt, Talking Heads, Shepard Fairey, etc.) This film starts at “Wouldn’t it be cool if we sort of lived secretly in a mall?” to a cultural critique of “Why is there such a big mall where we can go unnoticed for four years in the first place?” I hope it gets an Oscar.

3. Album: Garbage Time by Dust Congress | For well over a decade, we’ve shared stages, labels, band members, and green room deli trays with Dust Congress and this album is an amazing step forward in their artistic output. It is definitely the best album I’ve heard all year. Broken down folk jaggedly exploring the human condition where a marimba solo can transport you to another plane of thought and emotion.

4. Book: The Shining by Stephen King | I live a 30-minute drive from the Stanley Hotel where this book takes place. Until reading it, I didn’t know it was about alcoholism and the incredible impact the disease has on people and their families. The movie, while interesting and an artistic achievement, does NOT do the book justice.

5. Store: Colorado Cherry Company | On the short trip from Loveland to Estes Park where the Stanley Hotel is located there is a legendary Colorado store that offers amazing cherry and apple pies along with a number of cherry-related foods. Sooooo good and you can order to ship!

6. Concert: Dwight Yoakam and The Mavericks on the “Cosmic Roundup & Rodeo Tour” | A co-headlining event that was truly equal in weight between the headliners with stellar performances. Unbeknownst to everyone, it was also a great farewell to Raul Malo, an immense talent who will be missed.

7. Radio: Grateful Dead SiriusXM Channel | Probably what I’ve listened to the most in 2025. It’s always great to take a deep dive into a band and this channel in particular lowers my blood pressure. I’ve heard some amazing sets from 1978 and 1979 while commuting. All of this being said, why isn’t there a Sonic Youth channel?!?!?!

8. Book: Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich | A dystopian slow burn told through an Ojibwe lens wherein evolution starts to reverse course. I knew nothing about the premise of the book, but upon strong recommendation from Jenny Seman, started to read it… and could not put it down. I’ve never read another book like it and look at our current world in a different way after finishing it.

9. Album: Runner’s High by Pneumatic Tubes | Jesse Chandler who plays in Mercury Rev, Midlake, and Maddie Cunningham’s band amongst others is truly a musical genius and Pneumatic Tubes is his solo project. His debut album got me through the pandemic and his follow-up is no less amazing. Think late-1970s science fiction film soundtrack meets a young Apple Computer employee jogging through Northern California redwood trees day-dreaming of creating the Apple IIe.

10. Cassette/CD: Activate the Rainbow by Shiny Around the Edges | Okay… this was also on my 2024 list, but it still totally rips. Something to listen to until we finish and release our new album in 2026.


═════════════════════

Wes Simms (mgmt: Stalefish, former Tiger Bomb-er)


Alex G - Headlights
Amelia's Best Friend - Amelia's Best Friend
Amelia's Best Friend - You'll Have To Carry Me Back
Astrachan - Signs
Boomershack - Hangups
Darling Farm - Darling Farm
Dorio - Super Love 3
Dress Warm - If I Could I'd Take You There
Duncan Fellows - Two Stamps
Finn Wolfhard - Happy Birthday
Happen Twice - Happen Twice Vol. 1
Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On
Lefty Parker - Ark
Maggie FM - Candy, Lights, Orchids
Mamalarky - Hex Key
Mid-Range Jumper - Present Tense
Post Animal - Iron
Quiet Light - Pure Hearts
Sam Cooper - Town & Country
Samuel Aaron - Rambler
Sleep Well. - Pray, Tell
Smushie - Cicero Pizza Anthology
Stalefish - New Pop Experiments Vol. 1
The Opera - I Want This To Last
Twin Truth - Cordelia
Wednesday - Bleeds

═════════════════════

Jonah Paul Smith (Closebye)



Favorite Songs of 2025 Playlist

Addison Rae - “Diet Pepsi”
Alex G - “Afterlife”
Juana Molina - “desinhumano”
Margaux - “Guitar Song”
Greg Freeman - “Point and Shoot”
Model/Actriz - “Diva”
Clipse - “M.T.B.T.T.F.”
Safe Mind - “6' Pole”
Chanel Beads - “The Coward Forgets His Nightmare”
Dari Bay - “The Joke”
Robber Robber - “Talkback”
Léna Bartels - “Give Myself A Way”
Perfume Genius - “It's a Mirror”
Lily Seabird - “Arrow”
The Convenience - “I Got Exactly What I Wanted”
Water From Your Eyes - “Playing Classics”
Youth Lagoon - “Speed Freak”
Panda Bear - “Anywhere but Here”
Dutch Interior - “Canada”

═════════════════════

Tyler Steinley (Sleeping Jesus)



Favorite albums:

Earthstar Mountain - Hannah Cohen
Dog Eared - Billie Marten
Snipe Hunter - Tyler Childers
Salt River - Sam Amidon
Pilot Light - Liam Kazar 

Favorite movies/TV:

One Battle After Another
Bugonia
Eddington
Haha, You Clowns
Severance 

Books read:

The God of the Woods - Liz Moore
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones
Our Share of Night - Mariana Enriquez
The Emperor of Gladness - Ocean Vuong
Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar

═════════════════════

Trevor Stovall (Snake Charmer Inc.)



A collection of songs that resonated with me this year : )

Favorite Songs of 2025
~ The American Analog Set - "Aaron & Maria"
~ BRONCHO - "Think I Pass"
~ Armlock - "Strobe"
~ Four Tet - "Three Drums"
~ Good Morning - "Baby Steps"
~ Broadcast - "Pendulum"
~ Bluetile Lounge - "The Weight (and the Sea)"
~ Blood Orange - "Thinking Clean"
~ The Sundays - "My Finest Hour"
~ Silver Jews - "Dallas"



═════════════════════

Team Trust



Here is our super list of super favorites listed in no particular order:

It’s a Beautiful Place - Water from Your Eyes
Thank You for Almost Everything - Headache + Vegyn
LOTTO - They Are Gutting a Body of Water
The New Eve is Rising - The New Eves
Loosing Teeth Dream - haha Laughing
Viagr Aboys - Viagra Boys
Basspunk 2 - bassvictim
Danger in Fives - Wombo
ghayoom - nabeel
Worldwide - Snooper

═════════════════════

Billy Dean Thomas



These artists kept me afloat in 2025. Below are some tracks that lived rent free in my head all year. 

1. “Baggage Claim” - Laza
2. “oblivious” - qu, Malaya 
3. “LITTLE TOO LATE” - Mysie 
4. “all the girls’ - kwn
5. “THAT’ - Malaya 
6. “Sprinter” - Dave, Central Cee 
7. “Ready Set Goku’ - Smino 
8. “Praise Latifah” - Billy Dean Thomas 
9. “Ndisize”- Caiiro, Ami Faku 
10. “WHY” - Sasha Keable 

═════════════════════

Jake Tittle (Anxiety Blanket Records)



This year I didn’t listen to much music outside the label so I’ve got a lot of ABR releases in my favorites this year. In no particular order this is want I’ve been listening to the most this year. 

David Robert Pollock - Under the Stone
This is Lorelei - Box for Buddy, Box for Star
Coral Grief - Air Between Us 
Goon - Dream 3 
The Lentils - takin’ it easy the hard way
Mini Trees - Slow it Down
Flock of Dimes - The Life You Save

═════════════════════

Jeff Tobias (Strategy of Tension)



1. Rafael Toral - Traveling Light
2. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - “The Milky Sea”
3. One Battle After Another (film)
4. Natural Information Society & Bitchin’ Bajas - “Always 9 Seconds Away”
5. Common Side Effects (TV show)
6. Vulture Feather - “Blood Knot”
7. Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer - Different Rooms
8. Sun & Rain - Waterfall
9. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - Mercy
10. Beak>>> live at Elsewhere (Brooklyn NY)
11. The Myrrors - “Land Back”

═════════════════════

Tomás PM (The Sympathies)



Top 10 albums/singles/EPs this year include:

Unflirt - “Something Familiar” (single)
This is Lorelei - “Holo Boy” (single)  
Fermín - “Ese Adiós” (single)
Tarta Relena - Mille Risposte (EP)
Austin Manuel - Conception (album)
Nick Shoulders - Refugia Blues (album)
Moses Sumney & Hayley Williams - “I Like It I Like It” (single)
Bug Club - Very Human Features (album)
Petite Amie - Hay Veces (album)
Kevin Kaarl - Ultra Sodade (album)

So many good discoveries for me this year that I had to include two honorable mentions for my own peace of mind. 

(Honorable Mention) Obongjayar - Paradise Now & Forever (album)
(Honorable Mention) - King Hannah - “This Hotel Room” (single)

═════════════════════

Sarah Tudzin (illuminati hotties)



Here are my top 10 albums of 2025, in alphabetical order by title (just kidding it's 15 because I got carried away):
crazy arms by Pigeon Pit
Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams
Essex Honey by Blood Orange
Fingers Crossed by Ren Martinez
Headlights by Alex G
I Heard That Noise by quickly, quickly
Live Laugh Love by Earl Sweatshirt
LUX by ROSALÍA
Pirouette by Model/Actriz
SAYA by Saya Gray
Sinister Grift by Panda Bear
SWAG (& SWAG II) by Justin Bieber
THE BPM by Sudan Archives
The Spiritual Sound by Agriculture
Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never

═════════════════════

Mike Turner (HHBTM Records / Wax Galaxy Record Shop)



Top picks for 2025
1. Pink Lady Monster - Plonk
2. Stereolab - Instant Holograms On Metal Film
3. Flying Vipers - World Inversion
4. Cowtown - Fear Of...
5. Supreme Joy - 410,757,864,530 Dead Carps
6. Superchunk - Songs In the Key of Yikes
7. Hot Chip - Joy In Repetition
8. Giant Day - Alarm
9. Kendrick Lamar - GNX
10. Ex-Easter Island Head - Norther

Best moments of 2025
- Opening a record store in Milledgeville, Georgia. 
- The King of the Hill reboot 
- John Oliver's new season

═════════════════════

Marie A. Uhler (Wax Galaxy Records, Eureka California)



11 Favorite Records I Played In My Record Store in 2025 (in no particular order):

1. Pink Lady Monster - Ponk
2. Grace Jones - Inside Story
3. Suburban Lawns - Baby
4. The Sugarcubes - Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!
5. Betty Davis - The Columbia Years
6. Fela Kuti - Open & Close
7. Cowtown - Fear Of...
8. Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda
9. The Sundays - Static & Silence
10. Tunabunny - Minima Moralia
11. Stereolab - Instant Holograms On Metal Film

Special mention bonus track:

Cristina - "Don't Mutilate My Mink"

═════════════════════

Maria Vanderslice



My favorite albums this year are:

Steep Stims – Clark
COSPLAY – Sorry
Getting Killed – Geese
SickElixir - Blawan

My favorite songs are:

"ADDY" – JIALING, Third Self, Honey B, Rose Kourts
"Dip" – Wallie the Sensei, Ty Dolla $ign, Blxst
"Good Morning" – Tatyana Jane
"MEGA MEGA MEGA" – Modeselektor
"Rabbit Hole" – Blawan, Monstera Black
"Ugly" – Jjaro, 645AR, Machinedrum, JIMMY EDGAR
"can you hear me?" – Two Shell
"LOVE & POP" – Oil XL, Chanel Beads
"Alise" – Jawnino, SURF GANG
"Pleaseyou" – 2muchmotion
"Silver Plate" – BADSISTA
"Puta" – Arca
"Eat That Pussy" – Khadija Al Hanafi (fun fact: this was played at my wedding reception!)

Best read this year:

Lavinia – Ursula K. Le Guin

*For those not watching, I want people to notice how often 645AR makes new music and how often his collabs are with artists that have less than 100 listeners. It's pretty cool, in my opinion.

═════════════════════

Lindsey Verrill (Little Mazarn)



1. Caveman Wakes Up - Friendship
2. Firetrail - Erin Durant
3. Horrible Occurrences - Advance Base (late 2024 but came on my radar in 2025)
4. Progress Bakery - Eliza Niemi
5. On a Painted Ocean - Walt McClements
6. Counterclockwise - Faun Fables
7. Wooden Heart/the Big Beast - Magnolia Johnson Electric Co.
8. Life is Strange - Garrett T. Capps
9. Chevy/Why/Spring Ephemera - Free Body Estimate
10. Old Time Fantasies - Joseph Allred

═════════════════════

Cody Wade (Soft Self Portraits)



here's my list of year-end favorite things:
 
#1. Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band - New Threats from the Soul
#2. Tacos al Pastor from a roadside stand in Green River, UT
#3. Josaleigh Pollett, Crowd Shy - “Radio Player”
#4. Tomo Nakayama - Ocean
#5. Samantha Crain - Gumshoe
#6. Seeing jackrabbits run free during a stay at Schellraiser Campground in McGill, NV
#7. Equipment Pointed Ankh - Eggs a Little Late
#8. Deep Sea Diver - Billboard Heart
#9. YONLAPA - Velvet Petals
#10. Spending Halloween eating chili with my grandmother in her house, fulfilling those childhood memories

═════════════════════

Ainsley Wagoner (Silverware)



Here's my faves of 2025:

Read:

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person by Paul Moorhouse
Everyone who is gone is here by Jonathan Blitzer

Watched:

Too Much (Netflix)
The Chair Company (HBO)
Hacks (HBO)
I Love LA (HBO)
Sentimental Value (2025) by Joachim Trier
Water Lilies (2007) by Céline Sciamma
Casper (1995) by Brad Silbering
High and Low (1963) by Akira Kurosawa
The Last Picture Show (1971) by Peter Bogdanovich
Eddington (2025) by Ari Aster
Wicked Little Letters (2023) by Thea Sharrock

Listened To:

Sade - Lovers Rock (2000)
Sade - Stronger than Pride (1988)
Marc Jonson - 12 in a Room (2008)
Sam Gendel, Nate Mercereau - digi-squires (2025)
Worthitpurchase - Worthitpurchase (2025)
Radiohead - The Bends (1995)
Roman GianArthur - OK Lady (2017) 

═════════════════════

Adam Wayton (Indecent Artistry, Telemarket, The Pink Stones)



2025 Favorites (in no order):

• Water from Your Eyes - It's a Beautiful Place
• Sharp Pins - Radio DDR
• Florry - Sounds Like...
• Golomb - The Beat Goes On
• Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love
• YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds 
• Ryan Jennings - Whisperin' Ry
• 21 Savage - WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STREETS?
• Nightout - Temper EP (Athens, GA)
• Rubber Udder - Laryngeal Bacterium Foamage up the Spitwad Crux of the Post-Nasular Region (Athens, GA)

Favorites that I worked with in some capacity:

• Penny Loafer - Daily Deal EP
• HARDTACK - WE GOT THIS 2025 ATHENS GA PUNK COMP
• Honeypuppy - Dirty TV
• 20Cats - 20Cats
• Johnny Falloon - Tell Hell I'm Not Coming
• Merciless Accelerating Rhythms - Artists United for a Free Palestine Vol II Comp

Favorites I listened to a ton this year even though they've existed in the world for awhile and I'm probably late to the party:

• My Bloody Valentine - MBV
• Being Dead - EELS
• Sam Evian - You, Forever 
• Wings - Band on the Run
• Robert Lester Folsom - Music and Dreams
• Evan Wright - Sound From Out The Window
• Dutch Interior - Kindergarten 
• Starcleaner Reunion - Cafe Life 
• Velvet Underground - S/T

═════════════════════

Sam Weisenthal (Bayonet Records)



Pink Must’s self titled album:
My favorite record of the year. I shan’t spoil it for you - just listen! 

David Gray - White Ladder:
Feels nostalgic while still giving me something new on each listen. 10/10 record.

Sex and The City wintertime watch:
The beauty of watching Sex and the City is that it’s the only show that makes me want to get up off the couch and into the real world. I use a single episode (less than 30 mins!) to hype me up for a drink out with friends / going to a show / anything outside of my house.

50/50 martini with three olives:
A 50/50 martini is the perfect drink. It’s less alcoholic than a typical martini, comes with a little snack, and it still makes me feel what one should feel when drinking out of a fancy glass - fabulous.

An even mix of adventure quests and pure relaxation vacations:
It’s important to take a moment away from email and life’s daily ins & outs. I’ve learned that an even mix of adventure related travel and relaxing related travel is important for the soul.

Organizing vinyl by the events / times of days you typically listen:
Dividing my vinyl by breakfast listening / hosting listening / reading listening etc. has changed the way I engage with physical media versus streaming on a speaker. I am so much more likely now to throw on a record, which is always the goal for me!

Non-music related hobbies to talk about at the gig:
I will continue talking about my knitting circle and yoga class at the gig because even music people need hobbies.

Doing chores as a friend time activity:
I want my friends to come over and fold laundry with me, then hop on the train to go grocery shopping. We can each get individual fun little treats such as Annie's gummy bears or a pack of prosciutto. Menial tasks are made much better with a buddy.

Finding new third spaces:
I think about this a lot: where can I go that won’t cost me $20. Looking for free places to hang out has been a wonderful way of exploring NYC. I’m sure we can all find creepy little free things to do wherever we live.

Soulseek… but for audiobooks:
Instead of having an audible subscription - have you considered ripping audio books from the internet? In case you were curious - all 7 Harry Potter books, narrated by Stephen Fry, are available on Soulseek. A wonderful alternative to lining Bezos' pockets.

═════════════════════

Nate Welker (Saddle Creek)



Hayley Williams (especially her performance of "True Believer" on Jimmy Fallon)
Whitmer Thomas
Death Stranding 2
Weapons
Dropout TV
CBB World
We're Here to Help
Nine Inch Nails - Peel it Back Tour
Sabrina Carpenter - "Manchild"
Rilo Kiley reunion

═════════════════════

Jasamine White-Gluz (No Joy)


Instead of music, here are my favorite pieces of clothing of the year. some I got to wear and others I just got to dream about :)

1- My custom-made upcycled stage outfit by Tishanna Carnevale: Fully realizing my clown-core moment.

2- Tristan Rehel's "Overwatered Flowers Never Dry": This complete look that I wear in the “Bugland” music video is truly a magical piece of art. I was honored to wear it.

3- Inner Relm surf and swimsuits: I'm in the water alot. Like, alot.

4- Crocs with socks. Any kind! Personally I love the Fisherman Croc or any Stomp sandal.

5- Collina Strada - Mariposa sunglasses: Best part of looking at bugs is also looking like a bug while you do it.

6- Fashion Brand Company bug dress: I mean.....

7-All-In-Studio/August Barron Pillow crop top: We filmed the “Bits” video really quickly and without a plan. I borrowed this for the video from my friend and makeup artist Ashley Diabo. Wearable pillow? Yes please.

8- Tyler McGillivary Ribbon Corset: So pretty!!!

9- Random gigantic knit beach top (blanket?) I got at a garage sale. Not sure if its a blanket or a top but I also wore it in the Bits video. It's comically large.

10- Bike shorts with pockets! Forever and ever! The best for stage. They keep my Inner-Ear monitors and guitar pics safe. I don't use them for bike rides though.

═════════════════════

Rob Wilcox (Polyvinyl Record Co.)



10 Songs That Helped Me Feel Alive in 2025:

Algernon Cadwallader - "Attn MOVE"
Anamanaguchi - "Rage (Kitchen Sink)"
Cut Copy - "Belong To You" feat. Kate Bollinger
Dear Boy - "After All"
Dijon - "Yamaha"
Drook - "Sprinter"
Jay Som - "Drop A"
Momma - "Stay All Summer"
Steve Winwood - "The Finer Things"
Wire - "Kidney Bingos"

<333

═════════════════════

Peter Wiley (Fat Possum Records)



Here's my Top (non-FP) 13 songs from 2025:

1. Damien Jurado "Take Your Time"
2. Nourished By Time "Max Potential"
3. Larry June, 2 Chainz, The Alchemist "LLC"
4. Water From Your Eyes "Playing Classics"
5. Dijon "Yamaha"
6. Wednesday "Elderberry Wine"
7. Geese "Getting Killed"
8. Armand Hammer, The Alchemist "Scandinavia"
9. Blood Orange "The Field"
10. Clipse "So Be It"
11. Men I Trust "I Come With Mud"
12. Panda Bear "Ends Meet"
13. Pulp "Spike Island"

═════════════════════

Brian Willey (The Black Drumset)



Some things I enjoyed during 2025 (mostly stuff from earlier years that I just came across):

1. Lydia Millet’s trilogy of novels: How the Dead Dream, Ghost Lights, Magnificence
2. Gliff (novel) by Ali Smith
3. Perfect Days (movie) by Wim Wenders
4. The Only Girl in the Orchestra (documentary) on Orin O’Brien
5. Beyond the Visible (documentary) on artist Hilma af Klint
6. Rather (documentary) on Dan Rather
7. Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado (album, 2024) by Ana Lua Caiano
8. Horizontes (weekly radio show) DJ’d by Alex Marrero on KUTX (Latin America focus)
9. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Live on KEXP (video from May 2023). KEXP’s live shows are pretty incredible across the board.
10. “You Let My Tyres Down” (song) - video of Tropical Fuck Storm’s live performance of the song at Le Guess Who 2024 (last song of the set)

═════════════════════

Andi Wilson (Terrorbird Media)



Andi’s Top 13 Albums of 2025
(that I didn’t work on, and couldn’t narrow down to 10)

Annahstasia - Tether
Aske Zidore - Game Mechanics for Voices: The Place of Landscape
Cole Pulice - Land’s End Eternal
Florist - Jellywish
Lust for Youth & Croatian Amor - All Worlds
Maria Somerville - Luster
Oklou - choke enough
Perfume Genius - Glory
Rosalía - LUX
Smerz - Big city life
TOPS - Bury The Key
Yasmine Hamdan - I remember I forget بنسى وبتذكر

═════════════════════

Stuart Wolferman (Unfinished Side)



In no particular order:

Steve Gunn – Music for Writers
S.G. Goodman – Planting by the Signs
The Westerlies – Paradise
William Tyler – Time Indefinite
Owls – Rare Birds
Jeffrey Lewis – The Even More Freewheelin' Jeffrey Lewis
Jonny Greenwood – One Battle After Another (Soundtrack)
Clarice Jensen – In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness
Hildur Guðnadóttir – Where to From
Liam Kazar – Pilot Light

═════════════════════