During the last year it feels like I’ve experienced a growing tidal wave of people putting out their own personal music reviews. Maybe nothing’s actually changed and it’s just a matter of the social media algorithms feeding me a new view of the world based on some adjustment in my type-cast. There’s obviously always been a lot of folks writing about music. But I have this gnawing impression some shift has occurred. Maybe a tipping point was reached with the dwindling of traditional music media outlets and now, as each remaining diehard professional music critic is fired, they release a cloud of spores into the meta-verse that spawns 1,000 new wannabe music critics on Instagram, Substack, Youtube, and any other social media channel you can think of.
Now I fully realize I could easily be inserted into that wannabe music critic “spore cloud,” so I’m not trying to throw stones at anyone – but the result has been a lot of procrastinating and false starts on this end-of-year music recap. Should I really bother? Things are feeling pretty saturated and it’s getting harder to write an album description that doesn’t sound cliche or formulaic to my ears.
That all being said, I know there are a few folks who are still interested in hearing music suggestions and I’ve always believed sharing good music with others is meaningful. So I’m plowing ahead – although with a different, more simplified (and far less wordy) approach. I’ll focus on letting the artists and their music speak for themselves and hope in the process you find some favorite new tunes.
So let’s get to the music! I’ll begin with my favorite albums of the year, broken into to parts – I’ll share my top jazz/instrumental album in the next post but get things started below with my album picks for everything else. I’ll then finish off my 2025 recap with a list of favorite songs. Cheers!
MY TWENTY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2025
1. Ken Pomeroy, Cruel Joke [Country / Americana with Wonderful Lyrical Imagery]
2. Geese, Getting Killed [Strange, off-kilter, and provocative Indie-Rock that still manages to be charming]
3. ROSALIA, LUX [Religious Awakening via Magisterial Art-Pop]
4. Ethel Cain, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You [Dark, Cinematic Indie Heartache]
5. Lambrini Girls, Who Let the Dogs Out [Raging UK Post-Punk]
6. Aesop Rock, I’ve Heard It’s a Mess There Too [Minimal Production, but Lyrically Dense Rap]
7. Jason Isbell, Foxes in the Snow [A great song writer and his guitar]
8. Armand Hammer, Mercy [Underground Rap Super-duo Hitting Peak Form]
9. Annahstasia, Tether [A Genre-transcending Voice]
10. Dean Johnson, I Hope We Can Still Be Friends [Like Roy Orbison went Country]
11. Garrett T. Capps, Life is Strange [Cosmic Country meets Tom Petty]
12. Horsegirl, Phonetics On and On [Bare-bones but playful Indie-Rock with twee charm]
13. Will Johnson, Diamond City [Aching, Bitter-sweet Indie-Rock]
14. Wednesday, Bleeds [Narrative Heavy Modern Slacker Rock]
15. Annie and the Caldwells, Can’t Lose My (Soul) [Soul / Gospel]
16. Folk Bitch Trio, Now Would Be a Good Time [Folk trio harmonies]
17. Fust, Big Ugly [Blue Collar Country Rock]
18. Billy Woods, GOLLIWOG [I know, more Billy Woods – but he’s just that good]
19. Tobacco City, Horses [Lush Country Harmonies]
20. Slow Motion Cowboys, Wolf of St Elmo [Dreamy, Laid-back Country]
Not More Music Crap? 