For the last few years my buddy Bob Cosmo asked me for a list of my years’ top ten albums (here’s his), and every year I either bunted or ignored him outright. But this year I’m going to try, in my own limited way, to celebrate my favorite music released this year.
Some caveats: I only listen to music I pay for. And I mostly pay for to guitar rock.
Apologies to this years’ returning heroes Clipse and Earl Sweatshirt, the ascendant Dijon and Rosalía, and Pitchfork’s righteously un-streamable Album of the Year recipients Los Thuthanaka. I’ll have to catch up with your records in 2026.
WELCOME BACK: This, the quarter point of our new century, brought a slew of artist comebacks after long hiatuses. Listeners often look askance at rockers returning to the studio after a long gap, but these albums below prove that as long as they have something to say and they haven’t let their skills atrophy, they can pick up right where they left off. There are no Jordan-on-the-Wizards albums below.
MY FAVORITE: An infant may have grown to drinking age in the time between MCLUSKY’S The Difference Between Me and You Is That I’m Not on Fire and this year’s THE WORLD IS HERE AND SO ARE WE, but you couldn’t tell from its bile- and spittle-flecked noise rock tunes. Mclusky is every bit as funny, savage, surreal, and righteous as they were on their first go-round. They may even be more moral than ever before. “A lot of people like to be wise after the event,” Andrew Falkous snarls on “People Person”, “Exploding kids can kill the mood.” In a couple years I think a lot of people are going to be running away from the opinions they held in 2025.
RUNNERS UP: Welcome back STEREOLAB, whose INSTANT HOLOGRAMS ON METAL FILM is their first since 2004’s Margarine Eclipse. They haven’t lost a step. And, LES SAVY FAV, whose OUI, LSF is their first since 2010’s Root of Ruin. Musicians get better and better at their craft as they age, but it may take a little longer for their well to refill.
WHO NEEDS A BREAK? That said, some artists don’t need to refill at all. Some of their wells are seemingly endless, like PILE’s, whose ninth album SUNSHINE AND BALANCE BEAMS is a late career high point.
LEVEL UP: The “sophomore slump” typically ensares artists following their first flush of fame, but these artists have sidestepped it entirely by following up their breakthroughs with solid, refined records that enrich their sound rather than challenge it. I won’t argue any of these albums are better than their bands’ breakthroughs (although they might be considered so in time), but they’re padding for their future legacies, continuations of their hot streaks.
The charming Isle of Wight indie rock band WET LEG, who’re presumably named after the side effect of a creampie on-the-go, broadened and deepened their sound on MOISTURIZER. Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale still don’t have time for your dumb bro bullshit, but they’re more open to love – than just sex – than they were on their self-titled debut. They also still have the funniest asides in rock & roll. Try out “Catch These Fists” if you want a new “Chaise Lounge.” Level up, indeed.
Two years after MODEL-ACTRIZ released their noisy/dance-y Dogsbody, they returned with PIROUETTE, which, honestly, sounds an awful lot like Dogsbody. No problem there. For such a musically adventurous genre, post-punk can be very sexually conservative, and singer Cole Haden’s welcomingly queers it up. I’ve always hated that some punkers have taken Johnny Rotten’s “sex is boring” catholicism seriously. Thankfully we’ve Model/Actriz and Wet Leg to disabuse those scolds.
TURNSTILE will never replicate the critical revelry that followed 2021’s Glow On, but NEVER ENOUGH’s tight rock songs should earn them staying power on whatever theatres, clubs, and festival stages they play. As they move further from their hardcore origins, their immaculate guitar and synth attack will draw larger and larger audiences. Nic told me he feels inspired by Never Enough’s crisp production — which is good for them, but not right for us — so I’m sure we’ll have some arguments when it comes time to record our next album.
While former WEDNESDAY member, and former Karly Hartzman beau, MJ Lenderman may be the one who eventually plays Super Bowl Sunday’s Halftime Show, I’ll take Hartzman’s Wednesday and her country grunge every day of the week. This year’s BLEEDS may not replace 2023’s Rat Saw God in my heart, but just about nothing will. It’s one of the best albums of the decade. The internet may argue that Hartzman’s lyrics are a bit much – “a Pitbull puppy pissing off a balcony” sure has a lot of assonance – but they should shut the fuck up. No one was complaining when Li’l Wayne was doing it. Critic Steven Hyden calls Wednesday the defining band of 2020s indie rock, and he thinks about that kind’ve stuff more than anyone else in the world, so I agree with him: Lake Beach Shoegaze is the indie sound of the 2020s.
I’ll never turn down a tasty serving of fuzzy power pop, and HOTLINE TNT give us a thirty-some minute slab of it with RASPBERRY MOON. “Julia’s War” is the catchiest, most joyful thing they’ve written. I hope it becomes a perennial song of the summer.
Bedroom composers WATER FROM YOUR EYES’ followed their lauded sixth album 2023’s Everyone’s Crushed with this year’s IT’S A BEAUTIFUL PLACE. They like weird time signatures, playful monotone vocals, and unexpected choices – those strings with that plodding rhythm on “Spaceship!” It’s a Beautiful Place does a really hard thing by being both weird and catchy at the same time. No one else makes music that sounds like Water From Your Eyes.
METALHEADS: I spent less time in the heavy metal mines this year than in years past (was listening to all that industrial music) but I still loved AGRICULTURE’S THE SPIRITUAL SOUND, and Treble’s favorite metal album of the year, MESSA’S psychedelic THE SPIN.
BELIEVE THE HYPE: GEESE’S GETTING KILLED is funky, arty, groovy, and weird. Singer Cameron Winter is very good, but he has the confidence to sound really bad. As a band, Geese handle like a muscle car with a few loose bolts. They can coast, cruise, and drop the hammer, but they feel like they could come apart at any moment. They’ve been compared to everyone from Talking Heads to Radiohead, but I feel they’re 2020’s Faces. They’ve a charismatic singer and a seemingly sloppy band who’re actually perfect. That’s Rod and the boys. When a rock band blows up like Geese, there’s always skepticism. “Who Astroturfed these NYC pretty boys into existence, and why are they shoving them down our throats?” I get it, but I think they’re actually deserving of the attention. And, besides, isn’t it fun to have a rock band – instead of, say, Taylor Swift or Kanye West – to argue about for a change?
PLEASE also check out my friends’ music, which is better than all the shit I listed above. Oh, and our album, which isn’t, but is pretty good.
