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.
If I were honest, I don’t think Nobody Lives Here is as cohesive as the albums preceding it, but the first half of 2025 was scant on albums that provided a dopamine hit on each listen. And I fully expect the album to have a spot on the year-end list, if not on the strength of “White Light of the Morning” alone.
Parlando / Ian Niederhoffer, Censored Anthems
Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Edvard Mirzoyan take up most of the playing time on this album of composers working under the Soviet regime. Dmitri Shostakovich is on there too with an overture. These works are hidden gems that deserve programming by more orchestras.
Kendrick Lamar, GNX
My flimsy excuse for including a late-2024 album on a mid-2025 overview is the fact the physical release of the album didn’t happen till February. So I didn’t really start living with this album till I could make my own rip of the CD. I needn’t tell you how good this album is at this point.
Henki Skidu, Spring Water
A collaborator with comedian Matt Rogers, Henry Koperski goes in an indie-folk direction as Henki Skidu, and Spring Water offers a set of earnest songs that hint at a more ambitious orchestral sound lurking beneath. I also like album cover.
Cynthia Erivo, I Forgive You
I’m never going to finish watching Wicked because the score is just not appropriate to the darkness of the story. I Forgive You is a better showcase for Cynthia Erivo’s vocal skills anyway. But are there longer versions of the covers she hints at on the album?
Reissues
Robert Palmer, Live at the Apollo
This live show recorded in 1988 features Palmer at the height of his fame, but it also serves as a retrospective of his varied career, which included funk and new wave. Even the big hits of the era don’t feel out of place.
U2, How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb
This alternate version of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was released as part of a massive boxed set, then separately as a Record Store Day Black Friday exclusive in 2024. I’m almost inclined to say it’s a better album than the one the band would eventually release.
Steve Reich, Collected Works
Nonesuch reached out to other labels to gather the most comprehensive collection of Steve Reich’s recorded works to date.
Catalog
Little Anthony and the Imperials, Goin’ Out of My Mind
If you grew up on Linda Ronstadt’s version of “Hurt So Bad,” you should give the original by Little Anthony and the Imperials a chance. Then listen to this album in its entirety.
These Trails, These Trails
This album serves as a blueprint for how experimental music can work within the context of Hawaiian music. Hawaiian music tend to play it safe when infusing Hawaiian music with other genres.
DO AS INFINITY, EIGHT
I liked this album when it was first release, but I never bought a physical copy. Hearing it again made me realize it needs a permanent spot in my collection.
Little Anthony and the Imperials, Goin’ Out of My Head
The title track and “Hurt So Bad” are the most recognizable tracks on this album, which at the time didn’t conceive the notion of an album as a singular work with a unified feel. The Beach Boys and The Beatles would pioneer that idea shortly afterward. “Hurt So Bad” has more of a bittersweet vibe than Linda Ronstadt’s cover nearly two decades later.
Cherrelle, High Priority
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were on a hot streak with new jack swing, and this album joins Alexander O’Neal’s Hearsay and Janet Jackson’s Control in a string of production successes.
Henki Skidu, Spring Water
Spring Water hints that Henry Koperski, going by Henki Skidu, could have a grander album with a bigger budget, but I rather prefer the low-key feel.
Kendrick Lamar, GMX
I was traveling around the time the digital version of this album was released, so I didn’t really listen to it fully till its physical release in February. It should have been included in the Favorite Edition 2024 list, but I had already locked up the list. Will it show up on the 2025 list?
w.o.d., Ai
BLEACH Thousand Year Blood War was my pop culture Roman Empire of 2024, and w.o.d.’s “Stars” didn’t wear out with repeat viewings of the third coeur. The band’s major label debut also endured multiple spins on the playback device.
Ian Niederhoffer / Parlando, Censored Anthems
I would love to see the pieces on this album performed as a concert program. Although Dmitri Shostakovich is the marquee name, Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Edvard Mirzoyan take up the most playing time with a pair of pieces that deserve more exposure.
These Trails, These Trails
This album is the closest we’ll get to Hawaiian music with a bona fide freak flag.
Painkiller, The Equinox
The original members of John Zorn’s Painkiller trio return, with drummer Mick Harris replacing himself with drum machines. It doesn’t make the music any less frenetic.
U2, How to Reassemble An Atomic Bomb
At the very least, this album of outtakes from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb offers a tantalizing glimpse of what mid-200s U2 could have been. Part of me suspects this alternate album is better than what was officially released.
![[Clipse - Let God Sort 'Em Out]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ClipseLetGodSortEmOut354041_f.jpg)
![[Henki Skidu - Spring Water]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/HenkiSkiduSpringWater203449613LZ7_f.jpg)
![[Cherrelle - High Priority]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/CherrelleHighPriority198342474LBYJ_f.jpg)
![[Bob Mould - Distortion: 1996-2007]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/BobMouldDistortion19963446356I2C_f.jpg)