I’m not going to dissect what brought me back to this album again and again. I just don’t have the vocabulary to analyze hip-hop the way I do with rock or classical music. But I know there was an emotional core to Let God Sort ‘Em Out that transcended the swagger intrinsic to hip-hop. Also, I just like hearing, “This is culturally inappropriate.”
Kendrick Lamar, GNX
Why is this album showing up on a 2025 list when it was released in late 2024? Because I had already locked up my 2024 list, and the physical release of the album happened in 2025. The bona fides of this album have already been well-established, and I have little to add to what’s already been said.
Amanda Shires, Nobody’s Girl
We heard both sides of the split between Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell this year, and as far as a listening experience is concerned, I throw my hat in with Shires. “The Details” is uncomfortably honest, and the determination that comes through these songs leaves an impression long after the album ends.
Tyler Childers, Snipe Hunter
I just love the range of subject matter Childers tackles on this album.
Parlando / Ian Niederhoffer, Censored Anthems
Dmitri Shostakovich is the marquee composer in this collection, but he takes the least amount of running time. Rather, the focus centers on Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Concertino for Violin and Edvard Mirzoyan’s Symphony for Strings. Paired with Shostakvoich’s Adagio from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Censored Anthems would make for a fine evening at the concert hall.
SYML, Nobody Lives Here
“The White Light of the Morning” is magical realism rendered in song, and it pretty much epitomizes the album’s ethos.
Turnstile, NEVER ENOUGH
Yeah, I’m still a sucker for a good new wave beat, but I wouldn’t call this hardcore.
Dijon, Baby
I don’t think my teen-aged self would believe you if you told him one day, R&B artists would sound skronkier and noiser than your favorite downtown New York jazz artist.
Kathleen Edwards, Billionaire
Jason Isbell and Gena Johnson produced this album, and Isbell contributes some beefy guitar solos. Edwards descends from a line of singer-songwriters originated by Lucinda Williams, and Johnson and Isbell coaxed out some of Edwards’ strongest writing and singing to date.
Henki Skidu, Spring Water
Henki Skidu is the alias of Henry Koperski, a frequent collaborator of Las Culturistas’ Matt Rogers. He takes on the mic on this set of rustic folk-pop tunes. Like GNX, it was release a week before the end of 2024, so it was just easier to put this album on the 2025 list.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
1990 has always felt more like 1989 v.2.0 than 1990 v.1.0. It was clearly the start of a pivot that wouldn’t really end till 1992, but the ’80s held its grip on that first year of the decade (if you’re using a 0-based system.)
Kronos Quartet, Black Angels
Robin Holcomb, Robin Holcomb
John Zorn / Naked City, Naked City
Midnight Oil, Blue Sky Mining
Sonic Youth, Goo
The Waitresses, Best of the Waitresses
Geinoh Yamashirogumi, Akira Original Soundtrack
Madonna, I’m Breathless
The Sundays, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic
Living Colour, Time’s Up
Other favorites from the year:
Duran Duran, Liberty
Depeche Mode, Violator
Deee-Lite, World Clique
Enigma, MCMXC a.D.
Meredith Monk, Book of Days
Joan Tower, Silver Ladders / Island Prelude / Music for Cello and Orchestra / Sequoia
Uncle Tupelo, No Depression
Jane’s Addiction, Ritual de lo Habitual
Fugazi, Repeater
Information Society, Hack
Björk, Gling-Gló
Wendy and Lisa, Eroica
Lisa Stansfield, Affection
Sinéad O’Connor, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
1990-me would have protested the inclusion of Uncle Tupelo on this list. 1995-me would have had to slap some sense into him.
1990-me would have also questioned the addition of Lisa Stansfield, and 2008-me would have had to confront him about how he secretly loved “All Around the World.”
1990-me would have also wondered why 2008-me didn’t include Jane’s Addiction the first time around. 2008-me would have shrugged.
I would like to think 2008-me relished introducing 1990-me to Fugazi. 1990-me would not have been prepared for them, however.
All of us are still wondering how I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got manages to stay on the list.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
The 2014 list has already gone through one revision, and this version expands it slightly.
D’Angelo and the Vanguard, Black Messiah
John Luther Adams, Become Ocean
Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds of Country Music
Royal Wood, The Burning Bright
The Bad Plus, The Rite of Spring
Meredith Monk, Piano Songs
Inventions, Inventions
MONO, Rays of Darkness
Shiina Ringo, Gyakuyunyuu ~Kouwankyoku~
BADBADNOTGOOD, III
Other favorites from the year:
Juanes, Loco de Amor
The Drums, Encyclopedia
Cocco, Plan C
Shaprece, Molting EP
Huck Hodge, Life Is Endless Like Our Field of Vision
Taylor Swift, 1989
Sam Amidon, Lily-O
U2, Songs of Innocence
The year started with Juanes topping the list. He’s now been bumped off the Favorite 10 in favor of BADBADNOTGOOD. Despite that change, the Favorite 10 is pretty solid. The remaining list, however, has expanded to include The Drums and Taylor Swift.
You read that right.
I’ve been curious about 1989 for a while, but I felt no desire to stream it. Yet, a thrift store copy selling for $2 was more incentive to check it out. I wonder why that is? I ended up liking it more than I thought I would.
The Drums’ Encyclopedia didn’t start out as a favorite, but when I stopped expecting it to be a carbon copy of the self-titled debut, its strengths became apparent. That said, it’s really a strange album.
The last addition to the list is an album by Huck Hodge, a University of Washington music composition professor from whom I took a number of classes. I actually heard most of this album in class, so it made sense to own a copy of it.
It’s bound to happen that some albums from the previous year don’t get air time on the personal playlist till the following year, and as a result, they alter how the Favorite Edition list should have been compiled.
This time, two albums fell off the 2014 list — Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour, and Wayne Horvitz’s 55: Music and Dance in Concrete. I mentioned that Smith’s album could have been more adventurous, so that vulnerability led to his ouster. 55 is still some of Horvitz’s most adventurous music, but the gloom of MONO’s Rays of Darkness won out in the end.
In their place are albums by D’Angelo and Sturgill Simpson.
Something I didn’t anticipate when I moved from Austin to Seattle in 2012 was a classical music scene with an audience receptive to modern works.
Seattle Symphony Orchestra includes a number of commissions throughout its season, and a chamber series focusing on modern works turns the lobby of Benaroya Hall into an informal setting. I got to hear Steve Reich’s Different Trains as part of a chamber music festival, and Town Hall has brought in the likes of Alarm Will Sound, Roomful of Teeth and NOW Ensemble.
So the year-end Favorite Edition for 2014 reflects my rekindled interest in new music. It’s easier to indulge when even the record shops make it a point to separate modern music from the common era.
![[Clipse - Let God Sort 'Em Out]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ClipseLetGodSortEmOut354041_f.jpg)
![[Meredith Monk - Cellular Songs]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/MeredithMonkCellularSongs361796_f.jpg)
![[Meredith Monk - The Recordings]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/MeredithMonkTheRecordings305493TKTQ_f.jpg)
![[Nas - God's Son]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NasGodsSon2002263398_f.jpg)
![[Cocco - Star Shank]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CoccoStarShank-300x296.jpg)
![[Uncle Tupelo - No Depression]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/UncleTupeloNoDepression32798_f-300x297.jpg)
![[Huck Hodge - Life Is Endless Like Our Field of Vision]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/HuckHodgeLifeIsEndlessL191855G0EF_f.jpg)
![[The Godfathers - Birth School Life Death]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TheGodfathersBirthSchool160835_f-300x300.jpeg)
![[DAngelo - Black Messiah]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DAngeloBlackMessiah2014123701_f-300x300.jpg)
![[John Luther Adams - Become Ocean]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/JohnLutherAdamsBecomeOce122056_f-300x300.jpg)