Same as it ever was: End of year review 2025
This end-of-year round-up comes from months of listening - in the shop, after hours, between deliveries and conversations - and, like always, it’s unranked and happily expansive. New records sit alongside reissues and rediscoveries, the past and present in constant conversation as the lines between folk, jazz, soul, punk, ambient, indie and those things in between continue to blur. It’s a long list, and deliberately so: we listen to a lot of music, and finding a lot to love feels like the whole point. These are the records that stayed close through 2025. Same as it ever was.
Modern Nature - The Heat Warps [BUY}
Their folk-jazz language loosens and warms, breathing a little deeper with each turn. Still exploratory, but now more earthbound and human, the music feels shaped by shared rooms and lived time rather than open-ended drift. Subtle, patient, and quietly rewarding - the sound of a band settling further into itself without losing its sense of motion.
Shrunken Elvis – Shrunken Elvis [BUY]
Kosmische jazz-ambient shaped by motion and instinct. Exploratory music that never feels forced.
Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band – New Threats From the Soul [BUY]
Cosmic country with frayed cuffs and a sympathetic grin. Davis writes songs that feel overheard rather than announced, carried on a steady lope of barroom piano, soft-focus guitars, and Rust Belt wisdom. Patient, funny, humane.
Blue Lake – The Animal [BUY]
Jason Dungan’s Blue Lake opens outward here, bringing a more communal feel into focus. Recorded in Copenhagen with strings, horns and percussion, the music balances ambient folk, kosmische drift and gentle jazz motion. Patient and organic, The Animal breathes with a quiet sense of interconnectedness.
Sven Wunder – Daybreak [BUY]
Library jazz with cinematic sweep. Orchestral colour, careful pacing, and dawn-to-dusk motion.
Nick Drake – The Making of Five Leaves Left [BUY]
Not revisionist history so much as slow revelation. These early takes catch Drake mid-becoming, songs still feeling their way into final form. The hush is already there, but so is the pressure - a quiet intensity gathering shape before the world closed in.
Mazzy Star – She Hangs Brightly / Among My Swan [BUY]
Time has only deepened their spell. Half-lit tempos, blurred edges, and Hope Sandoval sounding permanently just out of reach. Touchstones for night people.
memotone – smallest things [BUY]
Quietly immersive music built from textured electronics and jazz-informed movement. Subtle, unforced, and quietly devastating if you’re paying attention.
Various - Greg Belson's Divine Funk [BUY]
Sacred heat straight from the source. Gospel-funk rarities where transcendence and groove walk hand in hand, sweat intact.
Gastr Del Sol – Serpentine Similar [BUY]
An origin document full of fractures and ideas testing their shape. Experimental rock before the rulebook was written - or burned.
Galaxie 500 – CBGB 12.13.88 [BUY]
A band in full slow-burn flight. Hypnotic tempos, chiming guitars, and intimacy that somehow feels enormous.
Blood Orange – Essex Honey [BUY]
Dev Hynes folding memory and modernity together. Pop instinct intact, textured with restlessness and reflection.
Fantuzzi – An Open Heart [BUY]
Loose, sun-drunk psychedelic folk-funk. A private-press artifact that finally escaped obscurity.
Shabason / Krgovich / Tenniscoats – Wao [BUY]
Improvisation as conversation. Gentle melodies, human pacing, and the sound of musicians listening first, playing second.
Big Thief – Double Infinity [BUY]
Restless and wide open. Songs wander, stretch, double back. Grandeur and fragility sharing the same room.
Naoki Zushi – III / Paradise [BUY]
Two essential statements from Japanese guitarist and songwriter Naoki Zushi, finally back in circulation. Balancing intimacy with sky-scouring guitar, these records draw from ’70s psychedelia, acid folk and post-punk DIY spirit, rooted in the Kansai underground. Long out of print, III appears on vinyl for the first time, revealing a quietly powerful body of work.
Gwenifer Raymond – Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark [BUY]
Fingerstyle guitar pushed to the nerve. Raw, spectral, and unflinching - more incantation than song.
Various – Eccentric Spiritual Soul [BUY]
Gospel-soul lifted gently from obscurity. Voices of faith and doubt preserved without polish.
Michael Hurley – Broken Homes and Gardens [BUY]
A final chapter entirely his own. Crooked melodies, warmth, and a wry sense of humour to the very end.
Max Romeo & The Upsetters – War Ina Babylon [BUY]
Black Ark fire still burning. Protest, prophecy, and deep rhythm locked in echo and heat.
Kieran Hebden & William Tyler – 41 Longfield Street Late ’80s [BUY]
Folk guitar and soft electronics refracted through nostalgia and experiment.
Wednesday – Bleeds [BUY]
Noise-scarred Southern rock sharpened by literary detail. Messy, self-aware, fully formed.
Wilder Maker – The Streets Like Beds Still Warm [BUY]
A nocturnal drift through jazz, poetry, and ambient haze. Music that rewards surrender.
Wipers – Is This Real? [BUY]
Still hits like a wire brush. Punk reduced to urgency, tension, and nerve.
Bitchin Bajas – Inland See [BUY]
Flow-state music captured live to tape. Synths, woodwinds, patience, and discovery intertwined.
Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu Plays Mulatu [BUY]
Ethio-jazz revisited with grace and clarity. Tradition evolving, not fossilised.
Ashra – New Age of Earth [BUY]
A kosmische cornerstone. Glacial electronics and celestial guitar stretching time itself.
Tortoise – Touch [BUY]
A patient return. Jazz ambience, motorik pulse, and analog curiosity in perfect balance.
Terry Callier – The New Folk Sound [BUY]
An early masterpiece restored. Folk, jazz, and soul braided with intimacy and insight.
Pulp – Different Class (30th Anniversary) [BUY]
Britpop’s sharpest social document. Wit, urgency, and communal electricity undimmed.
Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition [BUY]
The loneliest rooms in Springsteen’s catalogue feel even starker here. Demos and session material deepen the sense of isolation, showing how deliberate the restraint always was. No bombast, no release - just ghosts, tape hiss, and hard truths.
Tyler, The Creator – Chromakopia [BUY]
A maximalist self-portrait rendered with total control. Tyler folds chaos and clarity together, moving effortlessly from confession to spectacle. Slick one moment, unguarded the next - a reminder that ambition and vulnerability can occupy the same space.
Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo – In The Earth Again [BUY]
An unlikely collision of dread and beauty. Noise and ambience sinking into rural unease.
Bill Fay – Bill Fay / Time of the Last Persecution [BUY]
Two quietly monumental records that still sit outside of time. Fay’s voice is fragile but unshakeable, his songs spiritual without being didactic. Music that questions power, faith, and survival with immense restraint - and lasting force.
Various - Bob Stanley Presents: Safe In My Garden - American Pop In The Shadows 1967-1972 [BUY]
Sunshine pop viewed through clouded glass. Stanley traces late-’60s American optimism as it begins to wobble - melody carrying both hope and hesitation. A beautifully sequenced drift through idealism, doubt, and soft harmonies.
Prostitute – Attempted Martyr [BUY]
Post-punk stripped of safety rails. Industrial throb, political urgency, and confrontation without distance. Music that refuses comfort or polish - sharp-edged, uncompromising, and made to unsettle.
Hüsker Dü – 1985: The Miracle Year [BUY]
A band caught mid-eruption. Hardcore speed collides with melody and emotional urgency as Hüsker Dü push past genre limits in real time. Raw, volatile, and galvanising - history documented at full throttle.
The Clientele – The Violet Hour [BUY]
Nocturnal indie pop perfection. Romantic distance rendered in soft focus.
Stella Donnelly – Love and Fortune [BUY]
Grounded songwriting shaped by reflection rather than release. Donnelly pares things back, letting warmth and calm authority lead the way. Songs about loss and renewal delivered without theatrics - steady, resolute, and quietly strong.
Molly Nilsson – Amateur [BUY]
Synth-pop as personal manifesto. Nilsson balances humour, defiance, and vulnerability with total confidence, turning desire and curiosity into acts of resistance. Direct, openhearted, and gloriously self-possessed.
The Bug & Ghost Dubs – Implosion [BUY]
Dub reduced to pressure and space. Bass moves slowly, atmospherics closing in like fog. It’s sound-system minimalism turned inward - heavy, isolating, and hypnotic enough to pull you under.
Grouper – Way Their Crept (20th Anniversary) [BUY]
The earliest glimpse of a singular voice taking shape. Hazy melodies, room tone, and emotional closeness blur together in slow motion. Less an origin story than a mood — one that still lingers long after.
Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night (50th Anniversary) [BUY]
Grief still bleeding through the tape. Expanded context only sharpens its power.
The Durutti Column – The Return of The Durutti Column [BUY]
Soft-spoken but deeply felt. Vini Reilly’s guitar lines remain weightless and precise, full of melancholy that never announces itself. Fragile music with an enduring emotional gravity.
J Dilla – Donuts (20th Anniversary) [BUY]
Still miraculous. Every edit, every micro-gesture locked into instinctive perfection. A record that continues to teach listeners how rhythm, memory, and emotion can coexist inside a single beat.
Daisy Rickman – Howl [BUY]
Lo-fi psych-folk recorded close to the nerve. Emotion comes first, polish last. Rickman’s songs feel unfiltered and immediate - strange, intimate, and impossible to mistake for anything else.
Sharp Pins – Fall in Love Again (Balloon Balloon Balloon)
Kai Slater comes in with a jangling, sugar-rush vision of guitar pop - Big Star harmonies, Pollard-ian brevity, and a nervy, youthful swing that feels stolen from an imaginary golden era. A love letter to the canon, but also a reminder that devotion and instinct can still push this stuff somewhere new.
Marva Whitney – It’s My Thing [BUY]
Authority from the opening bar. Backed by the full muscle of the JB’s, Whitney commands every groove with fire and precision. Funk as declaration - fierce, grounded, and unstoppable.
Geese - Getting Killed [BUY]
Getting Killed is a knotty, high-wire record that pulls from post-punk tension, art-rock abrasion, and classic downtown skronk without settling into any one lane. Songs lurch, pivot, and unravel mid-flight, driven by sharp instincts rather than restraint.
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio – S/T
The Portland trio sinks deeper into their slow-burn spiritual zone, weaving flute, cello, sax and hand percussion into a patient, glowing trance. Pieces drift - never hurried, always intentional. Post-jazz minimalism bent toward the meditative, where groove becomes mantra and sound becomes a quiet devotion.
Stereolab – Instant Holograms of Metal Film [BUY]
A shimmering, machine-tooled suite that bends lounge, motorik, and library funk into a retro-future postcard.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – The Purple Bird [BUY]
A tender hymnbook of mystical Americana. Will Oldham sings in parables with a hush of banjo and birdsong.
Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas – Totality [BUY]
Cosmic minimalism stretched to the horizon. Harmonic bliss that moves in circles, slowly and with purpose.
Bennie Maupin – The Jewel In The Lotus
A deep listening classic. Maupin’s 1974 spiritual jazz flows with mystery and grace.
Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie [BUY]
Ironic funk and woozy groove. Bejar leans into a sleazy lounge feel with sly conviction.
Pulp – More [BUY]
William Tyler – Time Indefinite [BUY]
Guitar instrumentals that drift between Appalachian folk and kosmische textures. Quietly expansive.
Dean Wareham – That’s The Price Of Loving Me [BUY]
A laconic, gently twanging set. Wareham delivers velvet melancholy with ease.
Arthur Russell – Open Vocal Phrases Where Songs Come In And Out [BUY]
More fragments from the archive. Russell’s voice and cello rise from tape hiss like ghosts in the machine.
Hayden Pedigo – I’ll Be Waving As You Dive Away [BUY]
Melancholy and playful guitar pieces with a strong sense of space and storytelling.
Joe Henderson – Multiple [BUY]
A lesser-known gem from the jazz legend. Restless, sharp, and exploratory.
Horsegirl – Phonetics On And On [BUY]
Spoken fragments and fuzzy textures collide with a restless, teenage urgency that never quite settles. The band lean into repetition and abrasion, letting songs circle rather than resolve, drawing as much from art-rock and post-punk as indie tradition. Still raw, but more assured, it feels like a genuine step forward — curious, tense, and full of forward motion.
David Grubbs – Whistle From Above [BUY]
Minimalist sketches full of poetry and space. Grubbs at his most introspective.
Eiko Ishibashi – Antigone [BUY]
Haunting and theatrical, Antigone unfolds with a strong sense of narrative and mood. Ishibashi weaves voice, piano, electronics and orchestral colour into something quietly dramatic and deeply felt. Experimental in form but emotionally direct, it’s music that lingers long after the final movement fades.
Eddie Chacon – Lay Low [BUY]
Silky soul that glows with confidence and restraint. Smooth and low-lit.
Okonski – Entrance Music [BUY]
Spiritual jazz grounded in patience and touch. Piano-led themes unfold slowly, joined by subtle rhythm and collective intuition as the music rises without forcing its ascent. Gently building and deeply focused, it finds transcendence through restraint rather than excess.
Dr. Feelgood – Down By The Jetty [BUY]
Sharp, no-frills R&B. Still punches hard with wiry energy.
Lifeguard – Ripped and Torn [BUY]
Youthful and noisy in the best sense, Ripped and Torn barrels forward on pure momentum. Jagged guitars, snapped rhythms and restless songwriting give the record its volatile charge, drawing from post-hardcore without ever settling into comfort. A quick, bracing listen that thrives on forward motion.
Rose City Band – Sol Y Sombra [BUY]
Cosmic country with a soft psychedelic haze. Ripley Johnson at his most melodic.
Allen Toussaint – Toussaint [BUY]
Funky, warm, and elegant. A reminder of how much he shaped New Orleans soul.
Death & Vanilla – Whistle and I’ll Come [BUY]
Baroque psych-pop with a spectral feel. Like a ghost tuning into a late-night broadcast.
JJULIUS – Vol. 3 [BUY]
Loose and dub-smeared post-punk that thrives on abrasion and restraint. Bass-heavy grooves lurch forward while guitars and vocals hang back in the echo, giving the record its raw, unpolished feel. Strange, slightly unhinged, and quietly compelling - the kind of weirdness that reveals more with each play.
Rick Cuevas – Symbolism [BUY]
A private-press gem blending soft psych and synth-folk textures. The drum machine pulses gently beneath dreamy melodies.
Seefeel – Quique [BUY]
Shoegaze and ambient techno blur into one. A record that still sounds futuristic.
Scratch Acid – EP [BUY]
Noisy and unhinged. A short, chaotic blast of early American post-hardcore.
The American Analog Set – The Fun of Watching Fireworks [BUY]
Hypnotic slowcore and looping repetition. A record to fall into.
The Tumbledryer Babies – My Dinner With Andrew [BUY]
Lo-fi indie pop with humour and bite. Strange in all the right ways.
The Invaders – Spacing Out [BUY]
Cosmic soul with raw production. Every track a time capsule of groove.
Various – Great Lakes Gospel: Cleveland [BUY]
Regional gospel recordings packed with heart, grit, and real devotion.
Various – More Loving on the Flipside [BUY]
Obscure deep soul that hits hard. A crate-digger’s dream made real.
Vazz – Your Lungs and Your Tongues [BUY]
Minimalist Scottish post-punk with ambient leanings. Melancholy and magnetic.
Wilson Tanner – Legends [BUY]
Television – Television [BUY]
Often overshadowed by Marquee Moon, the band’s third album reveals a quieter kind of confidence. The guitar interplay remains sharp and conversational, but the mood is more reflective, the songs less outward-looking. Thoughtful, elliptical rock that rewards patience rather than spectacle.
Holden & Zimpel – The Universe Will Take Care of You [BUY]
Spacious organ lines and gently pulsing electronics unfold with quiet assurance. The music moves patiently, guided by repetition and subtle variation rather than climax, creating a deeply meditative flow. Spiritual without grand statements, it feels like an inward journey shaped by trust and restraint.
Rindert Lammers – Thank You Kirin Kiki [BUY]
Ambient sketches that feel personal and fleeting, like memories half-remembered.
These New Puritans – Crooked Wing [BUY]
Still experimental and resolutely serious-minded, Crooked Wing leans into atmosphere and tension rather than release. Stark arrangements and austere mood give the record its emotional weight, balancing melancholy with controlled unease. A slow-burn listen that rewards attention and restraint.
Cuneiform Tabs – Age [BUY]
Electronics and percussion fold into one another like shifting puzzle pieces, locking and unlocking as the album moves forward. Rhythms feel hand-built rather than programmed, giving the music its oblique, human pull. Absorbing and off-centre, it rewards curious, patient listening.
Robert Forster – Strawberries [BUY]
Literate and warm. Forster keeps finding grace in the everyday.
Makaya McCraven – In the Moment [BUY]
Built from live improvisations, then carefully reshaped in the studio, In the Moment captures jazz in motion. Beats, edits, and ensemble interplay blur the line between performance and composition, giving the music its forward-looking pulse. Rooted in tradition but unmistakably modern, it’s a jazz record made for now.
The Feelies – Only Life [BUY]
Chiming guitars and steady, patient builds define this quietly powerful record. The Feelies let repetition and subtle shifts do the heavy lifting, creating tension through restraint rather than release. A masterclass in pacing and melodic control, endlessly rewarding in its details.
Index For Working Musik – Which Direction Goes the Beam [BUY]
Motorik rhythms and a dry delivery. Cool and philosophical in its repetition.
Walt McClements – On A Painted Ocean [BUY]
Ambient accordion explorations with a strong visual pull. Like floating through fog.
Nightingales – The Awful Truth [BUY]
Still jagged and funny after all these years. Punk spirit with art-rock smarts.
Pink Floyd – At Pompeii [BUY]
Stripped-down, heavy-lidded psychedelia performed in an ancient ruin. A live album like no other.
Jimi Tenor & Cold Diamond & Mink – July Blue Skies [BUY]
Easygoing soul grooves delivered with a wink and an ear for the strange. Warm horns, laid-back rhythms and a gentle sense of eccentricity give the record its easy charm. It moves with classic confidence while leaving room for surprise — a set that feels both fresh and comfortably timeless.
Maria Somerville – Luster [BUY]
Minimalist and intimate, Luster moves in slow, nocturnal currents. Somerville’s voice drifts through hazy guitars and muted electronics like fog through neon-lit streets, never quite settling. Dream-pop pared back to its emotional core, it’s a record that feels private, weightless, and quietly immersive.
Daily Toll – A Profound Non-Event [BUY]
Sparse, echoing post-rock that unfolds at its own deliberate pace. Guitars ring out into open space, rhythms barely nudging things forward, leaving room for silence to do some of the work. It feels less like a statement than a sustained gaze - patient, reflective, and quietly absorbing.
Surprise Chef – Superb [BUY]
Tight, groove-heavy instrumentals that sit somewhere between jazz-funk and library music.
Lightheaded – Thinking Dreaming Scheming [BUY]
Sweet, jangly indie pop that’s direct and instantly likeable.
Durand Jones & The Indications – Flowers [BUY]
Soulful and lush. Their most delicate and romantic record yet.
The Reds, Pinks and Purples – The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed [BUY]
Glenn Donaldson returns with another set of melancholic, jangling pop songs that wear their feelings lightly. Melodies sparkle while the lyrics linger on regret, longing and missed connections, giving each track its quiet sting. Small, intimate heartbreaks rendered with remarkable consistency and care.
Frank Black – Teenager of the Year [BUY]
A sprawling solo effort that mixes sharp wit with massive hooks. Creative, catchy, and off-kilter.
Studio – West Coast [BUY]
Balearic post-punk with a dubby pulse. Effortlessly cool and endlessly replayable.
The Lemonheads – Car Button Cloth [BUY]
Melodic and frayed. Evan Dando’s charm and sadness shine through the haze.
Kendrick Lamar – GNX [BUY]
Dense, introspective, and unflinchingly modern. Another bold chapter from one of the greats.
The Tubs – Cotton Crown [BUY]
Sharp, jangling indie rock driven by nervous energy and melodic instinct. The band balance wiry guitars with direct, emotionally charged songwriting, landing in a space somewhere between The Clean’s clipped snap and The Jam’s urgency. Bright, restless, and full of heart.
Sonic Youth – Hold That Tiger [BUY]
A raw, live blast from their noisiest, nerviest era. Pure energy captured on tape.