Mid-Year 2025 Lists (Best of 2025 ... So Far)

Time to start thinking!

 

Yeah, I am counting Cameron Winter for this year and it’s gonna be my #1 because I’m a piece of shit. Deal with it.

 

I tried hard with that album but could not get into it.

 

I’ll make a real list by July, but things I’ve really enjoyed so far:
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
caroline - caroline 2
Friendship - Caveman, Wake Up
Cole Pulice - Land’s End Eternal
Bon Iver - Sable, Fable
Jasmine 4.t - You Are the Morning
Oklou - Choke Enough
lots of hands - into a pretty room
Mike - Showbiz!
Tobacco City - Horses
Fust - Big Ugly
Ruby Haunt - Blinking in the Wind
Home is Where - Hunting Season
The Casper Fight Scene - S/T
Maria Somerville - Luster
Key vs locket - I felt like a sketch
Season Two - EP 1
Anxious - Bambi
Venturing - Ghostholding
Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table
Weatherday - Hornet Disaster
More Eaze & Claire Rousay - No Floor
Frog - 1000 Variations of the Same Song
DJ Elmoe - Battle Zone
Eiko Ishibashi - Antigone
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Gift Songs
2hollis - star
Colin Miller - Losin’
Billy Woods - Golliwog
William Tyler - Time Indefinite

 

I tried with Geese and really did not like them, but his solo album hit me harder than just about anything I’ve heard in the 2020s. Got me to come around on Geese, too

 

here's the ones I put either +++ (loved on first listen and/or returned to several times) or ++* (didn't love on first listen but sort of fascinated by and want to keep returning to) next to on my spreadsheet.. Alphabetical obviously

Anouar Brahem, Anja Lechner, Django Bates & Dave Holland - After the Last Sky
Billy Woods - Golliwog
Callous Daoboys - I Don't Want to See You in Heaven
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal (also counting for 2025, who cares. It's also still a ++* for me but I'm giving it lots of time off the strength of Geese)
caroline - caroline 2
Danya Stephens - Hopium (feat. Aaron Parks, Ben Street & Gregory Hutchinson)
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Deerhoof - Noble and Godlike in Ruin
Emma-Jean Thackray - Weirdo
Femi Kuti - Journey Through Life
Hiromi - OUT THERE (feat. Sonicwonder)
James Brandon Lewis, Aruan Ortiz, Brad Jones & Chad Taylor - Abstraction Is Deliverance
lots of hands - into a pretty room
Marshall Allen - New Dawn
Mei Semones - Animaru
Natural Information Society - Totality
Sumac & Moor Mother - The Film
Waldo's Gift - Malcolm's Law
William Tyler - Time Indefinite
Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise In The Hold

Remasters/Compilations/Archival/Bootleg/Live releases:

Arthur Russell - Open Vocal Phrases Where Songs Come In And Out [Live/Archival, taped 1984 and 85]
Grateful Dead - Dave's Picks, Volume 54: Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, MD · 3/26/73 [Live/Archival. taped 1973]
Joe Henderson - Multiple [Remaster, released 1973]
Keith Jarrett - New Vienna [Live/Archival, taped 2016]
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Live in Lisbon '25 [Live/Official Bootleg as bootleg gizzard, taped 2025]
Phish - Live Bait Vol. 22 [Live/Archival/Compilation, taped 1989-2004]
Steely Dan - Katy Lied [Remaster, released 1975]
Yellow Magic Orchestra - YMO 1979 Trans Atlantic Tour Live Anthology [Live/Archival, taped 1979]

I will NOT be making a real list by July. May add things until then idk

 

Pup
The Callous Daoboys
Anxious
The Casper Fight Scene
Momma
Tiny Voices
Bon Iver
L.S. Dunes
Scowl
Superheaven
Great Grandpa
Jasmine.4t

 

Deafheaven
Anxious
PUP
Mogwai
Coheed and Cambria

Looking forward to Greet Death, King Gizzard, Turnstile, Moving Mountains(?), Petey, Pile, The Dirty Nil, La Dispute, and Holy Fawn the rest of the year.

 

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
The Callous Daoboys - I Don't Want to See You in Heaven
Superheaven - Superheaven
Snooze - I Know How You Will Die
Crochet - Cherish
Camelia - Insieme
Awfully Pretty - A Spot Between
Morningviews - Anedonia
Caustic Wound - Grinding Mechanism of Torment

 

Favorites so far, but there are a bunch I haven't heard or need to revisit.

Suzzallo - The Quiet Year
Arm’s Length - There’s a Whole World Out There
Lambrini Girls - Who Let the Dogs Out
Coheed and Cambria - Vaxis III: The Father of Make Believe
The Callous Daoboys - I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven
Telethon - Suburban Electric

Plus a few albums coming out in the last week of June will definitely be contenders (Laura Stevenson, Lorde, Streetlight).

 

The Callous Daoboys have such a dumb name that I have never checked them out. I like the cover of this new one, so maybe I will

 

Same lol but I’ve heard nothing but good things about their new album, I really ought to check it out

 

They are not for me

 

Alien Boy (my AOTY so far)
PUP
Colin Miller
Bon Iver
Great Grandpa
Frog
Tobacco City
Fust
The Casper Fight Scene
Cloakroom
Bartees Strange

 

Now Frog is a band I’m going to check out strictly based on their name

 

Tier 1 is stuff that I cannot imagine not winding up somewhere on my year end list. Tier 2 is stuff I really like that will probably also be in contention, but I either haven’t gone back to in a while or need to spend some more time with

Cloakroom - Last Leg Of The Human Table
Men I Trust - Equus Caballus
Ruby Haunt - Blinking In The Wind
Hannah Cohen - Earthstar Mountain
Bon Iver - Sable, fable
MIKE - Showbiz!
Charmer - Downpour
Oversize - Vital Signs
Great Grandpa - Patience, Moonbeam
Superheaven - Superheaven
Aminé - 13 Months Of Sunshine
Foxwarren - 2
Momma - Welcome To My Blue Sky
Ovrkast - While The Iron Is Hot
Pure Hex - Spilling / Five Of Tears
Athletics - What Makes You Think This Is How It All Ends?
Glare - Sunset Funeral
Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes & Sad Women
Dirty Art Club - The Silver Suite
SOM - Let The Light In

Bedridden - Moths Strapped To Each Other’s Backs
Speedway - A Life’s Refrain
Lots Of Hands - Into A Pretty Room
Glyss - Eternal Return
Slowly Slowly - Forgiving Spree
Deadharrie - Blue Coffin
Florry - Sounds Like…
Shura - I Got Too Sad For My Friends
The Queen of Carrot Flowers - Who’s Gonna Stay A While?
Bartees Strange - Horror
Press Club - To All The Ones I Love
Soft Blue Shimmer - They Will Leave Us With Nothing
Fly Anakin - TheForever Dream
Gloomjoy- Gloomjoy
Chain - No Spirit

Records I’m currently anticipating: McKinley Dixon, Turnstile, PUSH, Moving Mountains(?), Hotline TNT, Maxo, Greet Death, Burna Boy, Petey, Dream Ivory, Far Caspian, Bleary Eyed, Jet Fuel Soda, Pool Kids, Winter, Slow Crush, Runnner, and The Starting Line

 

Didn’t realize SOM had a new record out, excited to check it out tomorrow

 

It’s really really good man! I like their other stuff, but this one has become my favorite I think. Hope you dig it too!

 

I’m a big fan of their last one and they were excellent when I saw them open for Caspian a few years back. Excited to give it a listen!

 

Are you guys not counting Cam Winter or have you not heard it

 

I haven’t heard it! Didn’t know what you meant by counting it, but yeah now I see it’s a 2024 release. Won’t be on my list, but I’ll check it out

 

Roughly in order

Deafheaven
Callous Daoboys
Doomsday
Age of Apocalypse
Combust
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Mongrel
Anxious
Your Spirit Dies
Gridiron
billy woods
Pup
Superheaven

 

I’m not familiar with Cam Winter but I’ll add it to the list! Got a 7 hour train ride Friday so any and all recommendations are welcome.

 

I’ve tried several times and it is not for me.

 

He’s been my go-to “it’s too late to finish the movie, let me throw on youtube performances” guy after an old fashioned or two