My favorites of 2025 (that didn't come out in 2025)!

This one came in riiiiight at the end of the year for me, I only just listened to it for the first time the other day! But it left such an impression that I had to put it here - if I had more time to sit with it it'd probably be a bit higher up, honestly. But this is an insanely mind-bending piece of dark, moody electronica, and I adore it. It feels like my brain is melting, in the most positive way possible. EZRA, Sticky Drama and Mutant Standard are particularly great. I really dig it!

This is a record I stumbled across while shopping for CD's at a local shop, and two things stood out to me - the wild cover art, and the fact that it's produced by Will Yip, the producer who worked on my favorite album of all time, plastic death by glass beach. So unsurprisingly, this album sounds fucking awesome - the production lets the instrumentals really shine without taking away from some of the stunning, and occasionally abrasive vocal passages. Really like it!

Man this album is such a fucking blast!!! Paramore knows how to write hooky pop-rock verses that just worm into your brain, and so many of these songs stayed in my regular rotation this year. This is Why with it's infectious bassline and punchy chorus, the weary vocals on Running Out of Time, the little "na-na-na-na-na's" of C’est Comme Ça, it's just such a great, fun record.

I discovered this little album while exploring my old college CD collection, and it was simultaneously one of my favorite projects of this year, as well as one of the catalysts for getting me back into collecting physical CD's again! Infectiously fun electronic pop, the title track is one of my favorite tracks I heard this year.

This year saw me introduced to, and slowly becoming a huge issue about Vampire Weekend. I've heard their most famous singles, of course, but it took until stumbling upon this CD at a heavy discount to actually give one of their albums a try. The more I listened, the more I warmed up to it, and now it's easily one of my favorites of the year. So earwormy, with some phenomenal (and surprisingly abrasive at moments) production. Obvious Bicycle, Diane Young, and Hannah Hunt my beloved, god what a great album.

Citizen Sleeper is a game that a close friend initially recommended to me, and that I finished for a game club early this year. And the soundtrack stuck with me so much that I would be remiss to not include it in this list! What a stellar piece of electronic ambience - it straddles a perfect line for me of being both super fun to actively listen to, with all it's lush, melancholic soundscapes, and wonderful for throwing on in the background to focus on other work. I've done so much journaling and animating with this softly on in the distance, and I love it. Density, Yatagan, Matsutake, Sleeper and Possible Futures are some particular highlights for me, but it's all excellent. Highly recommend both the game and the soundtrack!

Only God Was Above Us was the album that turned my like of Vampire Weekend into love - for my money, this is one-upping Modern Vampires of the City in every way. The production is far more experimental, the songwriting is stunning, the instrumentals consistently blow me away, it's just amazing. And that's saying a lot considering that album also made this list! The string flourishes at the end of Ice Cream Piano, that show-stopping Sax solo in the backhalf of Classical, the chorus of Capricorn that becomes progressively more abrasive and noisy with huge synth swells, basically everything about The Surfer (those horn embellishments, oh MAN), I could go on and on. Incredible record.

This is a particularly special album to me - this was one I discovered from an album club I hosted for a few months, nominated by Yuki from the ITA Discord. And around the time that this was nominated and coming up for discussion, my roommates and I were getting prepared for, and actively making, a huge cross-country move out West. It was one of the most stressful, emotionally draining months of my life, but the comfort and catharsis this record brought during that time is immeasurable. There was so much to do and worry about, but having full listens of this as my me-time, soaking in the lush instrumentals and really picking apart the lyricism, gave me something to focus on that wasn't the impending stress of a life-altering move.

Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear, with it's angelic vocal harmonies and plucky guitars, F Delano's beautiful guitar solo and playful na-na-na's, A Song For You's tender piano and flute duet that exit the song, the hooky chorus of Angeline, and the grand strings punctuating the absolutely heartbreaking lyricism on Summer of '42. Despite covering heavier themes in a lot of it's lyrics, it does so with a deft touch, and I found this album to be a warm hug in one of the most turbulent points of my life. Amazing, and so special to me. Thanks to Yuki for recommending such a stellar project!

God what a fucking killer rock record. Car Seat Headrest is a band I started delving into properly last year with their 2018 rendition of Twin Fantasy, and I returned to this previous (sort of, I know Twin Fantasy is a remake but whatever) album after a close friend gifted me the CD printing of the album during Christmas. And I just have such fond memories of listening to this with them - huddled up, hiding from the brutal cold of New York, head-banging sadly to the breakdown of The Ballad of Costa Concordia on the floor of their old pre-war apartment. Despite the deeply depressing lyrics and general subject matter of the album, the memories of sharing it with my friend just make the entire thing such a comfort listen. Every single song is a winner on here.

Vincent, with it's slow-build intro that leads into driving guitar, killer horn passages, drum fills, and lyrics that hit like a truck, the little la-la-la's and that motherfucking cowbell on Destroyed by Hippie Powers, the intensely personal and vulnerable lyricism on Not What I Needed, those Xylophone Ribs on 1937 State Park, just everything about Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales (that breakdown near the end has made me cry more than once, so beautiful god), it's all just phenomenal, emotionally rich rock music. I love this album so dearly.

This is an album that's hard to talk about because the reasons I love it are so deeply personal, so I'll just indulge in that because most people already know how objectively stellar it is.

I discovered this band, again, through the friend that gifted me Teens of Denial last Christmas. We started listening to music together in August of last year, and one of the songs that they shared with me in those jam sessions was The Place We Inserted the Blade. It immediately became one of my absolute favorite songs that year - the heartbreakingly beautiful lyrics that detail a failing relationship, the slow-build of layering piano, guitar, flute and saxophone, all on equal footing with Isaac Wood's stunning vocal delivery - there's just nothing else like it. We listened to it together constantly.

But for a few months, that one song was the only piece of BC,NR we had listened to. And with just how head over heels I was about it, I eventually asked them to listen to the full record together. And it's an experience that's always stuck with me, not just because of the music specifically (like yeah it's amazing, of course), but the act of sharing it with someone so close to me.

Growing up, I always felt like I had to hide my passions and interests away from others, for fear of rejection, of bullying, of indifference, even. I never had an environment between home and school where I felt comfortable to excitedly talk about the things I loved, so I just got used to tucking them away, especially music. The things I liked were mine and mine alone for the most part.

It took several years to finally unpack a lot of that, and the experience of sharing music with this friend felt like a culmination of sorts. To be so vulnerable as to share my favorite music with them, and to make new musical discoveries together, was, and still is, so liberating.

This album is not just incredible for how it made me love music more, and find more passion in albums as an art form, but how it helped me be closer with the people I love. How it made me more willing to be vulnerable and share the things I love, and in turn be more open to indulging in other people's interests and passions. How it made me realize that music is even more beautiful when it's communal.

So yeah, I love this album a whole lot. Cannot wait for what next year has in store music-wise!