Yep. I can definitely see how the vocals would be the barrier for some but yeah if that description did it for you, worth checking out. Twine - New Old Horse from last year is kinda bunched together with it in my mind, its more like noisy posthardcore with twang.
I know a lot of people love Perverts but I just don't really care for ambient/drone music that much so I doubt I'll really go back to it as a whole. Punish and Amber Waves are both wonderful songs though.
both of them will be on my list, i just don't know in which order yet. i love the swing she too with Perverts (even though it's a punishing listen), but Willoughby has some of her best songs
May I suggest revisiting just the ahem... songs once and seeing if that clicks more with you rather than the whole album, haha 1. Punish 2. Vacillator 3. Onanist 4. Etienne 5. Amber Waves 41 minutes
I've listened to the whole thing about 15 times just because I love her so much and wanted to give it a chance to grow on me. I really like Onanist, Thatorchia and Etienne as well as the two I mentioned. Even my least favourites on there aren't bad, just way too long and monotonous for me. I mainly just listen to albums though so I'm not sure how often I'll revisit any of it outside of Punish every now and then. I'm definitely glad we got Willoughby this year too otherwise I'd feel a lot more disappointed with Perverts.
I like all of Perverts. with the drone tracks, it's enveloping and almost suffocating in a great way. the scattered tracklisting heightens the traditional songs to feel more luminous and like brief respites from the darkness
unrelated, but this conversation had me throw on Inbred for the first time in a bit. lots of great stuff on that one, and the bonus tracks are also cool.
Yeah, that's maybe my favourite of the decade so far. I love that EP. Michelle Pfeiffer, God's Country and Inbred are all exceptional.
Spent a lot of time trying to narrow this down and get it in an order that felt right. 2025 - TOP 40 01. LAUFEY - A MATTER OF TIME 02. Arm's Length - There's A Whole World Out There 03. Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party 04. Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH 05. Ghost - Skeleta 06. The Last Dinner Party - From The Pyre 07. The Acacia Strain - You Are Safe From God Here 08. Algernon Cadwallader - Trying Not To Have A Thought 09. Bad Beat - LP 2025 10. End It - Wrong Side of Heaven 11. Drain - ...Is Your Friend 12. Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend 13. Gridiron - Poetry From Pain 14. Model/Actriz - Pirouette 15. Asunojokei - Think of You 16. Combust - Belly of The Beast 17. Hot Mulligan - The Sound A Body Makes When Its Still 18. Lady Gaga - MAYHEM 19. ONE OK ROCK - Detox 20. Age of Apocalypse - In Oblivion 21. SCARAB - Burn After Listening 22. Tribal Gaze - Inveighing Brilliance 23. Fleshwater - 2000: In Search of The Endless Sky 24. Glitterer - erer 25. Fools Game - Something For The Pain 26. Terminator - Identity 27. Restraining Order - Future Fortune 28. Dying Wish - Flesh Stays Together 29. Sanguisugabogg - Hideous Aftermath 30. Miliatrie Gun - God Save The Gun 31. Saturdays At Your Place - These Things Happen 32. Anxious - Bambi 33. SCOWL - Are We All Angels 34. Gates To Hell - Death Comes To Us All 35. Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound 36. The Starting Line - Eternal Youth 37. AFI - Silver Bleeds The Black Sun... 38. Coheed & Cambria - Vaxis Act III - The Father of Make Believe 39. David Byrne - Who Is The Sky? 40. Creeper - Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death Top EPs 01. Missing Link - Miracle Smile 02. Big Boy - Love Songs EP 03. Mongrel - Baptized In The Gutter 04. Cosmic Joke - Forced Perspective 05. Stolen Gun - Demo 2025 06. Method of Doubt - Total Soul Ignition 07. Bad Onez - Bad Onez EP 08. Final Resting Place - Bound by Affliction 09. Crush Your Soul - Living Gracious 10. Balmora - Prologue
Top Albums/EPs 2025 Clipse- Let God Sort ‘Em Out Deafheaven- Lonely People With Power Rosalia- LUX Turnstile- Never Enough AFI- Silver Bleeds the Black Sun Lady Gaga- Mayhem Playboi Carti- Music Gates To Hell- Death Comes To All Earl Sweatshirt- Live Laugh Love Billy Woods- Golliwog FKA Twigs- Eusexua Age of Apocalypse- In Oblivion The Weeknd- Hurry Up Tomorrow Ghost- Skeletá Mongrel- Baptized In The Gutter The Callous Daoboys- I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven Scarab- Burn After Listening Ethel Cain- Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You End It- Wrong Side of Heaven Fleshwater- 2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky Tribal Gaze- Inveighing Brilliance Boldy James- Conversational Piece Dijon- Baby Freddie Gibbs- Alfredo 2 Cosmic Joke- Forced Porspective
Top 15 albums Massa Nera - The Emptiness Of All Things For Your Health - This Bitter Garden Fading Signal - Only An Echo La Dispute - No One Was Driving the Car Callous Daoboys - I Don't Want To See You In Heaven Drought - Souvenir Coheed and Cambria - Vaxus III Raccoon City - Fugue Lastima - A Pain Bloomed From My Lungs Joris Voon - Serotonin The Devil Wears Prada - Flowers Dance Gavin Dance - Pantheon Emma Goldman - All You Are Is We Silverstein - Antimoon/Pinkbloom Deafheaven - Lonely People with Power Top 5 songs (couldn't decide on one, or even a top 3) For Your Health - Clementine Massa Nera - The Best Is Over Fading Signal - Have No Heroes Drought - We're The Flora We're the Flora, by Drought Coheed and Cambria - Tethered Together https://youtu.be/pBXjNvxIEOs?si=GHdQIVRXZjZGV87_
Anamanaguchi - Anyway Algernon Cadwallader - Trying Not to Have a Thought The Antlers - Blight Aren't We Amphibians - Parade! Parade! Arm's Length - There's a Whole World Out There The Armed - The Future is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed Daniel Avery - Tremor Bannered Mare - He's Only Sleeping Bartees Strange - Horror Brutalligators - Still Here Biffy Clyro - Futique Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power Deftones - private music The Dirty Nil - The Lash Stella Donnelly - Love & Fortune Drain - ...Is Your Friend Ghost - Skeletá Greet Death - Die in Love Greyhaven - Keep It Quiet Gully Boys - S/T HEALTH - CONFLICT DLC Home is Where - Hunting Season Hot Mulligan - The Sound a Body Makes When It's Still Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon La Dispute - No One Was Driving the Car Lakes - Slow Fade Kerosene Heights - Blame It on the Weather Jay Som - Belong The Maple State - Don't Take Forever Michael Cera Palin - We Could Be Brave Modern Life is War - Life on the Moon Mogwai - The Bad Fire Moving Mountains - Pruning of the Lower Limbs The Murder Capital - Blindness Pelican - Flickering Resonance Petey USA - The Yips Pile - Sunshine and Balance Beams Pool Kids - Easier Said Than Done PUP - Who Will Look After the Dogs? Raccoon City - FUGUE Saba & No ID - From the Private Collection of... Saturdays at Your Place - these things happen Sprints - All That Is Over Fox Stevenson - Sunk Cost Fallacy Tape Trash - Eden Thrice - Horizons/West Turnstile - Never Enough We Are Scientists - Qualifying Miles Viagra Boys - viagr aboys Youth Lagoon - Rarely Do I Dream Top 50 for the year, not ranking them because fuck that but Anamanaguchi made my favourite album of 2025.
Finally narrowed down my list to the twenty albums I actually loved. The top 5 can easily be swapped around on any given day. Love these records so much: Thrice - Horizons/West The Starting Line - Eternal Youth Moving Mountains - Pruning of the Lower Limbs Deftones - Private Music The Callous Daoboys - I Don't Want to See You in Heaven The rest are all great but I'm fully over ranking things: LS Dunes - Violet Anxious - Bambi Runaway Brother - Want You Need Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea Arm's Length - There's a Whole World Out There Charmer - Downpour Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH Kerosene Heights - Blame It On the Weather Pool Kids - Easier Said Than Done Hot Mulligan - The Sound a Body Makes When It's Still La Dispute - No One Was Driving the Car Motion City Soundtrack - The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World Greyhaven - Keep It Quiet Militarie Gun - God Save the Gun AFI - Silver Bleeds the Black Sun I will say I'm a bit disappointed in myself that I stayed so much in my comfort zone this year. Things have been rough for me and I'm not faulting myself for staying in my lane so much, but hopefully next year I can get a lil wacky with it, yaknow?
I've just put together my top five and wrote a little bit about my AOTY. 1. Nmesh - The Molokai Compendium The promo spiel for this album attributes its inital kindling to a night in 2019 when Alex Koenig, the man behind the Nmesh moniker, stumbled upon an 80s Andy Sidaris B-movie called 'Hard Ticket to Hawaii' whilst channel-surfing in a hotel room after an Aphex Twin gig. If resorting to summary, nothing can better encapsulate The Molokai Compendium than the combination of details that formed its moment of conception. Nevertheless, great music is great art and great art must unveil itself in all its minute detail for its own sake, not to be pithily summarised. Nmesh is most closely associated with vaporwave -- Dream Sequins is considered one of the benchmarks of that scene -- but he prefers to consider his music as simply 'electronic' and for good reason. No narrower label truly sticks. It's in the details: the sheer vividness of his music, the brilliant, iridescent patchwork of spoken samples from film, TV, radio, adverts, and other media, often from the 80s and early 90s, which always seem to possess a stark expressiveness and percussiveness, and which he appropriates with a degree of both irony and warmth. And over repeated listens, a warped piece of hammy dialogue from an Andy Sidaris movie or from Saved by the Bell becomes a hook in and of itself. The journey from its first track -- a patchwork of helicopter-based media samples 'taking' one to Molokai, Hawaii -- to its return suggests an underlying meaning. But it mostly veers from that categorisation too. When you think some deeper point is being offered, a new musical idea or sample bounds in and subverts it. 'Ain't life grand?' 'As a matter of fact, it ain't.' 'It's not so bad...none of us eat eggs for breakfast anyway.' The album flows uncannily yet soothingly between these gaudy colours and a dark, eerie yet strangely warm abyss. He makes more use of beats -- which seem to always be subtly changing -- than he is generally known for but in the last third or so, the album sinks deeper into its lulling synth ambience. Again, this description is nowhere near as neatly bordered as this; more a case of proportion. And even its pummelling moments are mixed with a great space. I have a deep love for dense records that somehow leave room, and this beautifully capacious piece of work always leaves room underneath the surface; sonically, emotionally. After the album came out in July, Nmesh published a playlist of its inspirations, the opening track of which also opens the movie he saw on the aforementioned night in his hotel room. Its chorus lyrics read: It's a hard ticket to Hawaii It's not paradise all the time It's a hard ticket to Hawaii Although it's like a dream, it's not what it seems My album of the year by a mile. The rest of my top five: 2. Skimp - Very Much So and How 3. Deftones - private music 4. miffle - goodbye, world! 5. Blawan - SickElixir And here are a few more categories while I'm being self-indulgent... Pre-2025 albums I've turned to the most this year: The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 18 Carat Affair - Body Double Harold Budd - La Bella Vista Gig of the year: My Bloody Valentine @ Wembley Arena Film of the year: Hard Truths
I forgot I was going to check out Great Grandpa. The only song of theirs I heard was "Kid" in music league and that song was great