Tiffany Poon takes a geographical turn focusing on French composers for her second album, Nature. The care she brought to Diaries Schumann shows up here as well.
Hooverphonic, The Magnificent Tree
For the longest time, I thought the only thing I needed from Hooverphonic was their cover of “Shake the Disease” on the tribute album For the Masses. I was wrong.
Miguel, CAOS
The title of this album is an apt description for the songs therein, but they don’t get too out of hand to lose focus.
Rosalía, LUX
The orchestrations on this album are phenomenal, but I think Rosalía could study Shiina Ringo’s Karuki Zaamen Kuri no Hana for a lesson on how to keep ambitions in check. This album would be more impactful with a short running time.
Black Country, New Road, Forever Howlong Geese, Getting Killed National of Language, Dance Called Memory
I’ll admit I had to do some fourth quarter catch-up on these albums, so they’re indelibly tied in mind due to context-switching. In the case of Forever Howlong and Getting Killed, these albums flex ambition that wouldn’t sound out of place next to a Shiina Ringo or Naked City album, just a bit tempered. Dance Called Memory, meanwhile, evokes an age familiar to anyone who grew up in the Reagan years.
As much as I liked these albums, I didn’t discover them early enough in the year to dislodge the favorites I’ve already ranked. I was also listening to Dijon’s Baby, which did manage to break into the year-end list. Getting Killed garnered a lot of acclaim, but I perceive it as a less-fun version of Parquet Court’s Wide Awake!
Tortoise, Touch
I bet this album might have also ranked higher on the Favorite Edition 2025 list if it had just come out slightly earlier in the year.
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.
![[Geese - Getting Killed]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GeeseGettingKilled2025363250_f.jpg)
![[Clipse - Let God Sort 'Em Out]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ClipseLetGodSortEmOut354041_f.jpg)
![[Kaji Meiko - Yadokari]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025363350_f.jpg)