1/2/2026 Here we are, after a rather difficult January, I find myself breathing and living again today. It’s kind of always been ‘the plan’ for three weeks, but it’s been evolving. I thought I’d finalise this post last weekend or the weekend before, but then this week, finishing now much better (will it last?) has maybe been the toughest mentally….and physically, even when set against the dreadful first one of the month.
Sometime, during all this month, I remembered that, even near-ish the end of the main write-up, listening to the music that really touches me from purity ring and Wyldest, I wrote stuff like ‘this is threatening to make me feel again, make me believe and hope’. As if it were a bad thing. I guess it’s trauma for you. Too many times having felt so great before crashing into the void. Today, the first day of February, a weird external factor, though not maybe so real or at least not realistic, make me feel that maybe there IS hope and not all in my life is lost or gone. And yeah I should ALWAYS feel this way. I get discouraged but rarely totally give up. Yet, with time passing, I think the last few months, with slower steps to fully recover physically from the Achilles injury and setbacks, work situation, personal frustrations have hit me really hard. December had so many paradoxes, yet I should remember that I DID manage to make a lot more music, a bit more nice cooking too, and be happy and maybe even proud of it. But there was un undercurrent of not going anywhere, doom underneath, unresolved things, and I guess that blew over just after Christmas, gradually rather that all at once this time. So January had more of the, trying not to completely fall apart, a few very short glimpses of coming back to life in many ways, and well, here I am. But how much do I believe? Let’s hope I have a strong February. But some of what I am writing already today, is more of what I have in mind for a first part of the year 2026, January Musings, unless I elect to make a ‘blog’ post about January to get it all out, and separate the music bits.
Now I’m writing this paragraph before final edits (I did edit most of the music-related text a couple of weeks ago, while still debating what to do with the moody bits [though sure enough, now post edits, I still found a few typos of words repeated too close together for my taste even in the ‘music’ bits]), so in my own shitty style, will probably add a pre-preface [in the end, no, not really, the paragraphs above were written before this, and I only did a micro-amendment]. I have decided to leave most of the stuff in. It’s not ‘good writing’, but as this site, is, after all, mostly an auto-biography of sorts, aiming also to reflects the inner travails of my soul and mind, I will keep this page as a ‘realistic’ offering of how I went throught it. Of course, I could have TWO versions, one edulcorated (that could be publishable on any respectable website), one full, but in a way, I’d like to keep it interactive, even if currently no-one reads, never mind interacts. And I’m not even so minded on advertising it as my small ‘social media’ presence means it appears on few feeds, and the nature of the beast…well I’m not feeding my ‘profile’ with more presence, not feeding that beast. And so when I posted my personal music (unfortunately you can’t integrate just a sound on cuntbook), which felt important to me, reaction was so little, I might has well not bothered as I think the whole shit is hurting my self-esteem some more, that fluctuating thing I thought I’d grown more comfortable with, but the last month showed maybe that wasn’t completely true. Today I feel a little more confident and hopeful, but I might keep those bits for a dedicated January 2026 blog page, or what I am, in the view of the struggle below (follow me still?), intending to be the first part of the 2026 Music Musings, updated monthly – intention that I aim to fulfil today, I kind of have to [now I probably have to wait until tomorrow evening, no idea how I will feel though, but it’s my only free evening of the week]).
Anyway, as I said, I shall keep this page as one, and so, the choice on how to read it/go through it, will be yours. I will try to warn about the really ‘moody’ pieces with square brackets mentions, so you can skip them as unnecessary waffle that is just personal to me. If you’re interested in psychology and my mental make-up, it might be of some interest to you (though why would you be?), if not, just ignore, ignore, ignore. The point, as I always meant, was to SHARE the music I love, hoping you’d like some of it. So just read the music bits and check the videos. Or even, to go straight to the point, well skip EVERY text, and go to the videos/listen to the music only. Although I must warn you that if you do that, you will still miss hints to some other decent tracks, or even truly great tracks on a few occasions. Sharing great tunes is what matters, and it is, if I may so, a great selection of music from 2025, or in some cases, music from older years that helped me through the year, and in the latter case, quality is even more guaranteed.
[Just under is kind of the ‘initial’ preface, written just after, or a few days after the end of the original post, I think, judging by the words themselves. I knew I still had to make many edits and reconsider some aspects, though as you will have read above, in the end, I decided to keep it fairly raw, and so that this wouldn’t be a final ‘foreword’]
I’ll preface again: in typical me fashion, I run into the dark but you can only get an impression at the end, and I wrote the whole thing while not in my best mental state after a month that had so many positive things but also a lot of negative. In the end, music sometimes really soothes me, saves me, etc, and so near the end of the post, as I knew I was getting there, I felt a lot better. Technical issues played a big part in my mood for writing this post too. It’s 2025 and I think Google Chrome is still leaking memory like it’s going out of fashion, which caused a lot ofproblems. Anyway. Forget the drivel, really, and enjoy the tunes, that’s all that REALLY matters, the rest is my own problem.
[Below is the start of the post as it was initially written, with an introduction made before the Tunes part]
And so another year comes to a close. 2025 was a little odd, and I still don’t know what to think about it. It’s been a year of contrasts. I think I was mostly underwhelmed by the music released, but there were so many other factors. I had decided to be a little more selective on the gigs I was going to, and the music I was buying, and in the main, I think I managed that, skipping a lot of ‘oh I really like one or two songs’ gigs, or ‘this album seems to sound good, but I’ve heard it a thousand times before, and I don’t think it will really ‘do’ anything for me’ buys. Sure I’ve bought some duds, and not every gig was a stormer, but it was progress.
At the start of the year, I found myself once more attracted more to electronic/synthetic sounds, seems like all the good stuff was coming from that field. The end of the year was a little more back to my ‘usual’ fare if there’s any such thing, due to a few gigs, mostly. But when comes the time to make an end of year best albums/best gigs list, I find myself struggling. My top two albums are, I think, way above the rest (though a drunken Christmas listen convinced me to definitely switch number one and number two), but for the rest, there have been a number of excellent songs, some brilliant EPs, some solid albums, but not many that truly blew my mind. Maybe that mind is not there to be blown anymore [such a negative thing to say, as I see it now].
But anyway, it’s on a personal level that it has been a little different too. Ups and down as usual, with work in particular, but just as things seemed to pick up in an enjoyably busy February with work trips to Ipswich and Stockolm, as I was also regaining full fitness, a big injury struck. I ruptured my right Achilles, and the whole year became very different. I had to miss a lot of time at work (including the usual annual shindig, that was back in Vienna), everything came to a halt, I couldn’t go to gigs anymore (I somehow managed to go to the long-planned Benefits gig in London while still on a crutch), nearly had to cancel my attendance at my own special birthday celebration (in London too, while still in a boot and two crutches, somehow I found it easier in those days to go to London than to central Paris, an absurd thing to say as you have to go Central Paris to go to London, but that’s how my mind works, I even attended the Arseblog 5s (as a spectactor, obviously!) on my last weekend in the boot, though I didn’t go to the Stadium that day, and poor Neil actually did his Achilles also that day, you can’t make this up).
In the middle of all this, but most probably linked, I had my first (and last) proper faint (public, in a overheated pharmacy, while fetching stuff in what felt like a gargantuan effort in one of the first day in boot and crutches), and also about a month later, my first migraine with aura. Very weird and scary. Mind you, also the only one so far, so rather odd, as migraines (but maybe I’ve had one or more without the aura since, I don’t think so, I think maybe I would know, not entirely certain) seem to be recurring things, though the ophtalmologist seems not necessarily surprised that it was a first, so we’ll see if ever there are others.
But yeah, life took a while to restart, there were quite a few challenging situations, but somehow it’s a good humbling experience. Well, it would be, if the recovery wasn’t so long. Ten months on now, I can run, though I have stalled in the last month due to some knee/thigh issues on the left side (no doubt due in big part to overcompensation), and am still some way away from playing football. I haven’t been particularly productive during my couple of months off, but I’ll come back to the odd (non-) reason why in a bit. Coming back to work in May was a pain, I was there, but I wasn’t there, having to accommodate transport and days off until I could start driving, not really normally, sometime in June. Summer started with a great music festival. Also, I started buying music instruments again, a synth, a twelve-string Jazzmaster, a Telecaster, and somehow it helped motivate me to try and make music again. I mean I’d kind of restarted more than two years earlier, but I was so on and off, and it seemed like buying instruments helped me. So I managed to make a little in August, especially at the end of the month when I was finally back on holidays, but the return to work in September was soul-destroying, and I felt less and less part of the team, some activities here and there, but motivation was low. Returning ‘full-time’ to gig going was good for the mood though, and once I bought a bass, I was (once more) motivated to make music again, a bit more. October/November was another step forward, I felt a little more ready to live again, work got a bit better, hoping/expecting ‘things’ to happen, and then suddenly, in the middle of October, you could say a ‘ghost’ reappeared from nowhere, bowling me over briefly, but thankfully, the negative effect, even if bigger than I’d have wished was just a few days (helped by circumstances), and somehow it stirred back emotions and the desire to be stronger and alive again [looking back now on 1/2 through a few triggers, side-effects and non-resolved stuff, it had a few more negative consequences in the inner me]. But I still struggle to make music when I don’t find/take the space and time, even though I think I have more of that than I realise. Going to Arsenal matches happened less (no match for me in November AND December, a first in twenty years), which helped me have a little more time/focus, I bought yet another guitar and in Deecember, with work also picking up a little bit from the month before already, I started to really make more of an effort. But once more, it’s the end of year holidays that pushed me better, and in a way while ups and downs are still legion and I still often struggle (and absolutely dread the return to work, again, for all the consequences it may have [yep, after a brief improvement in the second week, it hit hard again and crushed me deep inside]), I feel I end up this year in a much better place again, maybe closer to being the person I want to be, albeit twenty or thirty years late [Well I was feeling quite well when I wrote these first words, truly, the improvement that took place for three days before I crashed back down around NYE].
I’m sure other thoughts would and will pop in about this year, and maybe comparing to last year’s musings, it will all sound a little more downcast (but then maybe the world keeps falling apart – hello Don, Vlad and others, I still feel I could/should do better for it, but I so have no direction on my own).
Anyway, music, music, because it’s all about the music, and I don’t yet know which shape this page will take. Driven as usual by dates of releases, personal events, gigs, and maybe some side-tracking, so expect the usual mess.
In fact I am not sure where to start, so I take my Excel file (that I never bothered alphabetically re-ordering), and it looks like the first album I bought this year was ALT BLK ERA’s Rave Immortal. As it is, not a bad start, it may even be in my top 10 albums for the year (still – maybe forever-undisclosed). Never got a chance to see them live, but I can imagine chaotic gigs judging by the mad energy coming from some of the tracks there. Sure, I couldn’t listen to this for days on end, but still. I love the opening Straight To Heart, but perhaps the choice should be the rather mental ‘My Drummer’s Girlfriend’.
The Veils’ new album was rather underwhelming so we’ll pass on that.
Mogwai were once more back with a new album, and it’s the usual ‘good with some excellent tracks’. Maybe nothing that is too much outside their normal fare, but there’s always at least one massive track and this one didn’t disappoint. Hi Chaos is fine and a fair classic, but the real treat here is the wonderfully titled ‘If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of The Others’.
A January discovery (for me) now, but actually released late-ish in 2024 (as usual it won’t all be 2025 releases) was Meryl Streek. Thanks to Jez for that, with a connection to Benefits (more on them later) with Kingsley guesting on a track on this album. Stand-out for me is ‘If This Is Life’. And yes, I am going to check this guy live in 2026, I suspect this will be a good and lively gig.
And now to what I was saying about more electronic vibes. My ‘buying music’ process these days mostly consists in sampling bits of tracks on iTunes before deciding what to opt for. It might depend on mood, time and so sometimes I put things aside and come back and try to assess ‘do I like it?’, ‘is it something that sounds new?’, ‘do I really need this?’ while in a more relaxed/serene frame of mind. For some reason or other, while I’d heard great things about the previous FKA Twigs album that had made lots of ‘best of’ lists, I don’t know, I just didn’t like what I had heard enough. But then maybe it is also end of year vs beginning of year? Either way, I liked the bits I sampled from this new one, EUSEXUA, and even relistening lately, I still think it will be in my top 10. Girls Feels Good is very very….good, but I think my favourite there is Striptease. Superb, maybe one of the most beautiful tracks released this year.
Back to more rock’n’roll, one of the most anticipated albums (by me) was Avalanche Party’s The Traum Uber Alles. Now, from experience, I knew that they were always truly excellent live but maybe less so on album, so while I said ‘most anticipated’, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As it is, with quite a few singles released just before the album, there was no huge surprise. I’m still not sure if it would be top 10, but the first half of the album certainly is a stormer. It tails off a bit near the end, but still an excellent album. Sadly, injury prevented me from seeing them live in April….and then they split so I will never see them again. What track shall I select? Tough choice, but I’ll go with No Neutral. Be prepared, after the track above, it will be quite a shock.
Another album eagerly awaited was Heartworms’ Glutton for Punishment, after an excellent EP and a couple of singles released over the previous few years. In a way, it disappointed a bit, while still being very good, not sure it will make my top 10. There’s still some excellent stuff in it and I have to go for Just Ask A Dance as the standout track. The final part in particular is superb.
As daughter officially released their Middle Farm session (consisting only of tracks from their last album, Stereo Mind Game), I went to investigate the album of theirs I’d strangely missed (maybe I had dismissed it as it was meant to be a video game soundtrack or something): Music from Before the Storm. And boy did I find gold again (officially now the band I most wish I’d seen live, though they have not officially disbanded anyway, as far as I know). Burn It Down is amazingly good, but the concluding A Hole in the Earth is just heavenly. It’s up there with their best for me, and I came back to it a lot during the year, at the start of the time injured, but later too, at every moment of emotion. So a track from 2017 that was one of my tracks of 2025.
[DOWN MOOD WRITING START warning: the year changed, and that’s where the struggle to write this really started and the mood kept swinging. I remember I struggled a bit between Christmas and the day after Boxing Day even if the first bit of writing around music above was very normal, but I was feeling better again through 28 to 30th of December, until I unexplainedly had a bad night again leading into NYE]
And here I am, two days later, 2nd of January 2026, after a proper day off everything, continuing this. Mood is up and down, flitting between hope and depression still. The last month, last two weeks, have seen so many ups and downs, it’s like I wrote above, I think there’s a sort of positive trend superimposing with a negative streak, a constant fight I’m not sure I know how to resolve, if I’m just losing everything and slowly getting Alzheimer, or if things have always been the same struggle. But I digress, and I know that listening back to all my significant/great tunes of 2025 will lift me up again, so let us carry on. Sure, at the start of these posts, I only wanted to share the music I love, but over the last three years I’ve been doing this site, I’ve realised practically no-one listens, and I can’t be that bothered trying to push this anywhere else, it doesn’t make much difference, I don’ feel part of this world sometimes, however much I want to, and I may be closer to giving up on finding what or who I need or want. I stopped earlier to get ready to go out for NYE, and it felt like a beautiful tune to finish with, but the reality is NYE was the same mixed bag as everything at the moment and I was struggling that day/evening anyway, though I could say it was a nice improvised evening with friends, because it was, and the way I personally felt shite is kind of irrelevant to it happening.
[END OF DOWN MOOD WRITING]
Not sure where to restart, it may not all be very chronological and we are getting near the ‘injury’ time which changed a lot of things. Perhaps first, all those electronic/dance-ish albums I mentioned above, the ones that first seemed to make the big difference. I went with FKA Twigs earlier, probably the best of the lot, that stood the test of time at the end of the year, but I think actual chronology and mental chronology are a bit different. Also due to the fact that sometimes I buy a fair amount of music and don’t listen to it for a while, as I feel not in a right enough mood, or too busy, the linearity of music ‘happening’ is debatable.
But these possibly truly WERE maybe just before the injury happened. Starting with Biig Piig, who, after a promising EP a couple of years earlier, released a rather good album this year, called 11:11. Pick of the bunch is Silhouette, though there’s a few other enjoyable tunes on that.
A bit more ‘in your face’ dance perhaps (though it has some sweet comedown moments) was Rose Gray’s aptly named ‘Louder Please’. Another maybe surprisingly enjoyable album for me, with plenty to choose from. I like Tectonic a lot, among others, but Wet & Wild gets my vote as favourite number there.
Moving away from the UK for more exoticism in your electronic sounds, Colombia more specifically, five years after her previous (don’t quote me on that, very very big chance I missed some releases from her – though I have just checked now, I didn’t…), Ela Minus came up with another excellent delivery, DIA. My choice there? The beautiful closer, COMBAT.
Going geographically full circle-ish, we end up with another electronic release I really liked at the start of the year, from France, with oklou (pronounced ‘OK-Lou’) and her critically acclaimed second album (well officially debut album, looks like the previous one is one of those that counts as ‘mixtape’ or something, despite reaching over the half-hour mark) choke enough. Tough decision to make between ‘family and friends’ and ‘blade bird’, I really can’t choose, so perhaps because blade bird is more famous, and you’re more likely to have heard it before, I’ll be contrary on this one and pick the former.
I’m not sure whether I should skip Circa Waves’ Death & Love, Pt.1′, I think it was just released at the wrong time, as it has tunes that would have worked if I were upbeat or if that had been released in the summer, or something. Besides, I was very pissed off when they released Part 2, that it seemed to be available only as a whole Pt.1+Pt.2 release, with absolutely no discount/’complementary only’ tariff if you’d got Pt.1 already, and I’m afraid that’s inexcusable. So fuck that, I didn’t buy Pt.2 even though I think it has some decent songs. This one goes into the ‘could have worked at the right time, in the right mood’, a bit frustrating, but it didn’t soundtrack any particularly happy or sad or significant moment. I’ll post one song just to combat my slightly depressive state today, because I don’t want to let the gloom overtake my musical judgment, and there are nearly a handful of decent tunes even in just Part 1.
And now we’re getting into a different world. The last concert I went to before the injury was Hak Baker at FGO Barbara, very good as it turned out, a Friday evening before going to Arsenal vs West Ham, four days before my Achilles snapped. There was no new release from Hak in 2025, but as he played a solo acoustic gig, there were a few older songs from a record I didn’t have, and one of the standouts for me, on the night and on that EP, Misfits, from 2017, was Quasar, so here it is. (Despite what the video says here, it is, indeed, spelt with an ‘a’, in real life as well as on the EP itself).
And now, everything becomes ‘after’. I don’t think I’ve posted the same song two years in a row (though I was tempted before), but I’ll make an exception here. Of course you’ll already be aware how much I loved The Cure’s Songs of The Lost World, and All I Ever Am in particular, but that morning when I woke up before going to hospital, that was the song in my head, and it took an even higher emotional resonance bringing me to tears once actually played. So here it is again (and no I won’t post a different version/live/remix, because in this particular case, it has to be the one I listened to once I was up).
From there on in, everything was different for a bit (and still is, to a large extent, as I still can’t run a half-marathon, never mind play football – yes, THAT is more demanding than running 21km), and mostly with all the gigs I missed.
So maybe I’ll go with that theme before returning to my file (not a character-swapping typo there). On the day I got operated on, 28th of February, I was meant to go to the Supersonic in the evening for a gig I was expecting to be great, from The Buoys, a little Australian band. I think it will remain the gig I am most gutted I missed, as the video of the whole gig, available on YT (see the gigs page, I posted it there) showed me how amazing it all was. Either way, I completed my discography from them, so again, not a tune from their latest here (I posted that last year), but from one of the EPs released beforehand. Lie To Me Again [but really no, please don’t, I don’t take these well….]. Linda, from an even earlier EP, was another candidate.
Of the gigs I missed afterwards, immediately in March and up to about May, some bands I had a chance to catch up with, mostly at Levitation festival (more on that later) where the line-up was incredibly lucky for me, after missing out on Heartworms, Hinds, and particularly bdrmm. A next significant gig I missed was Ride in April, but somehow while everything was still so uncertain, that put one of their songs in my mind, though I got a feeling I posted that if not last year, then the year before so bear with me, but that’s how good I think Lannoy Point is and how I enjoyed coming back to it a few times this year.
A week later should have seen me back at FGO Barbara for Miki Berenyi Trio, but I still wasn’t up for that. Disappointingly, MB3’s album let me down somehow. By very far the best track is still Vertigo and I absolutely love it, but I won’t post it two years in a row. The rest has a few OK songs, but nothing that can make my best of, even when lowering standards a bit. So while I will come back to a certain gig that DID happen for me in London (think I mentioned it already, how easier it felt for me to get there, when organised, rather than envisage going into a gig in Paris, especially, say, in the Trabendo as it involves much walking/hopping and stairs up and down), but there are a couple of gigs I didn’t want to miss near the end of May and I still felt unable to go to, despite being without crutches by that time. The first was The Raveonettes, but thankfully (see the gig reviews page), this one offered the possibility of an actually upgraded catch-up session in London before the end of the year.
The second one was Patrick Wolf (at said Trabendo, for some reason I thought the Raves was there too, which discouraged me, but it was at Petit Bain). I’d been meaning to see him live for a while, but never got the chance, so that’s one I was particularly gutted to miss. From the few videos I have seen, it sounded very good. The new album, Crying The Neck, has some very nice songs (like The Curfew Bell), but is possibly a bit of a mixed bag (while I saw live videos for unreleased songs that I like), but the highlight has to be Jupiter.
The final gig I missed (more or less), was weirdly not for fitness reasons. Although I was relatively apprehensive (it was going to be a quiet one though), Basia Bulat felt like a decent re-introduction to live music in Paris, in June. But somehow I mislaid my Navigo pass, and couldn’t get a quick replacement, and I was in a sort of mood, so I gave up and thought, sod it, gigs in Paris can wait until the end of the summer holidays (I mean, September). [Obviously I did find my Navigo back, once settled.]Her new album released this year was pretty good though. Very good in fact, a few lovely songs like Spirit, but the top song has to be Disco Polo (although it didn’t make my ‘Ultimate Tracks 2025’ list, but it’s not so far, and it’s to conclude a gigs-related section). In fact, I don’t think I’m going to do a ‘very good albums but for some reason and no stand-out tracks, I didn’t include a video’ section, otherwise it might have been in there, because the album in itself really is one worth your time. [In the end, maybe it is why there are – to my own suprise – even more songs in this year’s page as in any of the previous ones: I picked good but not brilliant songs from some excellent albums, at least that’s a possible reason]
And maybe now is the right time to come back to more chronological releases before hitting the Levitation festival that triggered revisits etc. I’m leaving bdrmm aside for that purpose then, but an album that definitely impressed on first listen (though maybe didn’t really last afterwards, a little bit like Basia Bulat above, except I hadn’t even planned to go to that particular gig for a reason or another), was Sharon van Etten & The Attachment Theory’s self-titled album. Ultimately though, none of the tracks made the final ‘top tunes’ cut, and no gig, so I will be a little bit more demanding and not post anything, but you could do worse than check Afterlife, Live Forever or Indio.
I was mostly unimpressed with HONESTY’s album (well on and off, but on relisten mostly), who were meant to support bdrmm for a gig I couldn’t go to, but ended up playing on the same bill at Levitation, but somehow I still think this track is worth an entry here.
Shoegaze is still or again a big thing, though most of the new stuff does not really impress me. In the absence of a new Slowdive album, there was a release from Drop Nineteens that caught my ears. In fact, I believe it’s some old stuff re-released, nothing new, but Daymom on 1991 is a good classic proper shoegaze dreamy tune, not a million miles away from Slowdive in fact.
[MOOD PIECE WARNING, but not that down, just fairly reflexive]
I’ll continue tomorrow because I don’t feel that well today, just frustrated as I know I’m running out of time before going back to work, and while I have been fairly active and busy during the holidays, I still haven’t done quite as much as I wish/could, and well, either way for a few reasons, but mostly not really controllable, I seem to still be a little on the depression side, despite waking up feeling much better than any other day this week. Sometimes, I still feel like I want to give up on everything and disappear from this planet, like I have completely failed and things are not going up even when they briefly seem to, they are just getting down and worse, I just have no faith. And technology’s repeated failures don’t help, like the saving on this page getting worse again, I was OK then couldn’t fucking save until it was ready, then it works then it doesn’t. It’s done that for a while and it really pisses me off today.
Back today [I am assuming that was the next day? Or did I feel better and braver and with the enormous amount of music to still go through, did I feel it unreasonable to stop already, yeah maybe the same day, it wouldn’t be the first time I give up then don’t]. Feeling slightly better? Possibly but all very up and down within the same day still, so we’ll see. I’ve lost the thread so time to restart. Sure, it’s all very stream of consciousness maybe even more than before (and I have to edit stuff above for the summary too, remembering some more key shit about my health that may be worrrying).
[END OF MOOD PIECE]
One album that I initially kind of dismissed apart from a couple of songs, and so decided to not consider the gig for, whether fit or not, was horsegirl’s Phonetics On and On. But on a recent relisten, I found it rather excellent, messing up my possible top 10 list again. I probably should listen to it again in full even when not feeling great to see. Either way, it is on a lot of people’s best of list, and now I kind of get why anyway. So here’s 2468 (that confusingly includes the lyrics ‘they walk in twos’ when the song preceding it is actually called ‘In Twos’).
Another album I very much liked a lot more on a recent second listen (though it was OK first time) was IDER’s Late To The World, so much that I decided to book the gig for the end of January (also just to have a gig in January – and a new venue – as Tortoise a couple of days earlier was an improvised booking not based on the music itself when talking to Ben in the pub – I haste to add I was still very sober, having barely started the first pint at this point). [Amusingly, I ended up missing BOTH these gigs for (physical) health reasons]. Yet, it’s also one that doesn’t quite have a ‘track that made my year’, so in fact, just like horsegirl above, I’m extending the criterion a little further to share good music, rather than songs that bowled me over. In fact I’m sure I won’t like the album that much if not in the right mood. Either way, have a bit of Attachment Theory.
Now, from an album that, on the other hand, was kind of so-so, came a track that I really lliked: Speed Freak, from Youth Lagoon’s Rarely Do I Dream.
Probably in the same vein, Cut Glass Kings’ From A Distant Place wasn’t such a great album, but produced a great opening track, Big Dreams.
I had heard of Chalk a lot on SOV, and finally decided to investigate a bit. From the Conditions EP released a couple of years earlier, Velodrome is worth your time, whether you’re cycling or not, but to keep the 2025 spirit, here’s an excellent single released early in the year: Afraid. Be warned, this is a big departure from the previously posted song, it belongs more to the Test Plan family. I’m looking forward to the gig in April, though now I’m not sure I will (be able to) mosh.
A rocking album I was looking forward to was HotWax’s Hot Shock. It didn’t set the planet alight, live (supporting Nova Twins) they were good, though again maybe not extraordinary, but the album has its fill of good tunes, my pick here being the easy on the ears Strange To Be Here.
I’m giving overpass’ dependent EP a miss, Take It Or Leave It is OK, but it’s a song we’ve heard a thousand times before. In fact, on listening again, I was wondering if it was basht.
And so, back to something more electronic. Not a ‘proper’ Lust For Youth album, as it is a collaboration with Croatian Amor (who, I believe, was in LFY at the start….). I can’t figure out if I’m disappointed with the album or not, it has enough good tunes, but Fleece really is the one I came back to quite a few times, well worth the inclusion here. [Edit: annoyingly, they have now announced they are playing in Paris, but it’s on the same evening as Coach Party to which I have already committed to go with many people]
You may remember (I’m writing this as if anyone actually reads this site, and chronologically at that, in the order I wrote it or something, as documented in the What’s New page) I raved about a French band called SURE who opened for I Like Trains (to this day one of my favourite live experiences of the last few years). Well, finally they released a new album this year, having signed on a new label (Frozen Records). It’s not all great, but Keep On Living is fantastic, and well, I like the idea, as that’s what I’m struggling to do at times, so yes, I love that song.
The Horrors’s new album, Night Life, was quite good, though it won’t make my best of list, I think, and it has just this odd thing that all, the, er, odd tracks were good, while the even ones were more forgettable. The Silence That Remains would have been a candidate, but I think LA Runaway, the album closer, has to get my vote for this page.
[SHORT DOWN-ISH MOODY BIT WARNING]
Is Japanese Breakfast’s Mega Circuit worth inclusion? I decide against, but you can look for it if you so wish, it’s a good song. It just doesn’t make the cut, such a weird year, maybe just disappointing, I don’t know, I feel better than yesterday (thanks in part to some sunshine), but listening to these songs, they don’t really transport me, both an indication of their insufficient wow factor and my own demanding mood at the moment.
There were a few good EPs I enjoyed this year, or rather tracks from them, with a couple of truly great ones to come further down, and so Zo Lief’s Hypnosis was very decent with the leading track, You (A Burden), my choice (and perhaps also easier to post after a short break, honestly this feels like the moodiest post ever, and I’m not so happy about it, very different from last year’s I think. [Edit, I had even originally forgotten to put that video in, so it twasn’t so much easier to post….]
[END OF MOODY BIT]
Sam Akpro’s album, Evenfall, was another left-field pleasant surprise, but again, it’s not like it was wow. Still perhaps, if I’m being in a better mood for sharing music, Death By Entertainment might interest, or in fact entertain, you.
In a similar(ish) line of music, I nearly got Master Peace’s album, last year I think, but when I heard this single, Harley, I really really liked it, so this year he makes it onto the list.
My opinion on SPELLING’s album, Portrait Of My Heart, has been fluctuating, like my mood, but there are definitely a few good songs there, and there’s no doubt that Love Ray Eyes is great.
Time for a live detour, that trip to London to see Benefits. Their second album, Constant Noise, as it happens, was my album of the year. The top two were far ahead of the rest for me, I’d have normally put this one in second, though I was torn about that, but a last drunken listen to the top two on Christmas Day (and I won’t dispute the fact the the orderin which I listened to them may have had an influence) told me this should be the one. I think one of the differences is that I really enjoy listening to this one as an album, end to end. I mean, I do with bdrmm’s Microtonic too (for this is the other one), but I could listen to any of the great tunes there any time, whereas this has a different progression. And Kingsley Hall’s amazing way with words. I posted Land Of The Tyrants last year as it was released then, so now it is difficult to pick another isolated track in this context, there are a few truly excellent ones, but, as it is one of my enduring memories of the gig at The Lexington (the gig at Petit Bain was as amazing or more, for me, but also more ‘normal’), Divide has to be the one you’ll hear (I just remember Shakk buzzing across the stage for this one, it was a visual feast as well as aural).
[WARNING : EXTREMELY DOWN MOOD BIT]
And now I feel my brain boiling again, and I have got to accept that somehow I am in the middle of or getting into yet another bout of atypical depression and there is only so much I can take. I’ll still do what I have/want to do, but it will take me more time, be done with less belief but yeah, there have been some suicidal thoughts along the way and the feeling of worthlessness. But nobody will read this, I certainly won’t advertise this page this year, and nobody cares anyway, and why should they? My problem to fix, but I’m tired of it.
[END OF PROPERLY DOWN MOOD BIT]
Right, another break, for physio exercices this time, and I’m good to (probably very briefly) go. The next entry here is very very worth it. Twice in fact. Their previous EP from a couple of years ago was very promising, but Prima Queen’s actual debut album, The Prize, takes, well, the prize. It’s far from perfect, there are a few skippable tracks, but a fair amount of good ones, and two amazing ones. Difficult to choose, and the interwoven guitar lines when they appear on Ugly are something I could listen to all day long, making for a truly exceptional chorus, yet in the end I chose the slightly more bittersweet-sounding Meryl Streep, right up my street, but please listen to both. Two of my very very favourite songs of the year, the kind this page is made for, far more than most of the songs in this year’s selection. Like a few songs on this album, they both start well, and end even better. Quality songwriting.
[FAIRLY ANGRY MOOD BIT – due to technical issues]
I have to say even when I feel Ok to post and continue writing, it’s once more the technology that really gets on my tits. Don’t think it’s the internet in itself, so either the ovh servers, or Chrome, Windows or whatever, but the time it takes sometimes is just infuriating and this post that was already going to take a a long time to post, is taking at least three times more because of it, probably a lot more in fact, you wouldn’t believe it if you saw it.
Anyway, after a reboot I expect it to work better for a bit but I’m not even sure.
[END OF FRUSTRATED MOOD]
The next album, Blondshell’s If You Asked For A Picture, will/would be in my top 10 I think. It maybe doesn’t have a ‘salad’ like the first did, but the overall quality I think is even better than that one, with plenty of tunes to choose from. The obvious choice would be 23’s A Baby and why not. But there are so many good ones, Man, Toy, Change, and I’ll choose Arms, because I do like the voice when it has backing on that one, simply superb on an already beautiful song.
The Raveonettes finally released a new album, oddly titled Pe’ahi II, after they released the first one eleven years earlier. Not sure what the filiation is, apart from the same sleeve design in a different colour. Either way, while it may not be my favourite, it’s still excellent, and in fact a grower, short but with a few excellent songs. Sounds very much like them, another one that is not so easy to choose from, but I’ll go with KILLER, where they reach perfect cruising speed in the middle of the album. It’s really good to have them back, as one of the last gigs of the year emphatically confirmed.
Peter Doherty’s new album had a twinge of French about it, naturally now he lives full time in Normandy (not Paris), I won’t include it, but if you are tempted, go listen to Stade Océan for instance (shouldn’t it be Océane though?).
Does YARD’s self-titled EP deserve a post? I don’t know, again, I can listen to it and think it’s fantastic, but I have had no personal connection with it. So let’s leave it aside, mention Trevor and Sunlight, both excellent, but keep our powder dry until we reach VLURE later, who produced a full album of stuff not too dissimilar to this. Yes, I’m being less extensive/expansive than usual [Edit on final re-read : ‘am I fuck?’ – I see I expressed that less succinctly just after], probably not a bad thing (and so far the restart has really helped, which in my state, makes a huge mental difference). [Edit, and yet when totting up, to my surprise, even if this time I still think the overall quality is lower, despite some absolute gems, I found I actually posted MORE tunes than ever, so what do I know?]
Shamir’s tenth (I think, called Ten) and final album disappointed, I find nothing worth posting in there I’m afraid, but he’s had a good run of great music.
I suprisingly quite liked Morcheeba’s new album, but once more, in an essentially barren year on the emotional front, no big connection remained, and no track is quite worth posting a video for here, even though Molten and a few more are quite nice.
Kathryn Joseph on the other hand, a Scottish artist signed to Mogwai’s Rock Action, produced an album which won’t make my ‘best of ‘ list but has some stunning and memorable moments of haunting beauty. HARBOUR. could have made it, but I will plump for HOLD.
More classic Indie music from Manchester, with some affiliation to New Order and others in terms of membership, I think, Sea Fever’s Surface Sound was an improvement on their previous and while not revolutionary, produced a couple of songs I’m very happy to hear. I’ll just go with the opener, Breaking Out.
Next up on my list is an exceptional EP, Dog Race’s Return The Day. Best EP released this year bar none (Carsick is second). Some tracks are better than others, but there is not a bad or even just average track in there, making the choice very very difficult. It has to be between It’s The Squeeze (go check it) and the title track, I’ll go for the latter after all. I enjoyed the luck of seeing them live in 2025 too.
MARINA’s new album wasn’t perhaps as good as her previous one, but it grew on me. In fact, it’s got a fair share of very good songs, but is partly ruined by the use of too many sound gimmicks/video game voices or such. I will go for METALLIC STALLION, that was most likely not written about the metal horse from the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but I like to think it was inspired by it; at least, thinking of it was my immediate reaction on seeing this title and hearing the song. Plenty of other songs to choose from otherwise, including the concluding FINAL BOSS. Honestly there are some very very good tunes there, shame they are somewhat spoilt by those affectations I mentioned. Thankfully, Metallic Stallion has no such artifice, just a beautiful highlight on this album.
Steve Queralt (off Ride) released his first solo album this year, and it has some very beautiful moments. Difficult to choose from. The collaboration with the vocalists are not the best here (though Lonely Town with Emma Anderson – she of Lush – is very good), but the instrumentals, long and spacious are great. I don’t know which to pick, let us say 1988, but High Teens, or A Porsche Shaped Hole would have done equally well.
An album from a band I’d never heard of that quietly impressed was Coming Up Roses’ How Did We Fall So Far? A discovery through SOV (I often try to check all the reviewed releases), it won’t make album of the year, but is actually packed with excellent tunes. The easy choice is Tired, that sounds not necessarily original, but you know, when you think of it, it’s pretty much on the level with anything SPRINTS have released.
And now we reach the last release before the Levitation festival, a turning point in my musical year with a big return to live music, catch up session and new things.
As predictable/feared, The Cure did not release a new album in 2025, instead milking the previous one to death, with the release of the video from the Troxy, but before that, also with Mixes of The Lost World, a 3CD-collection of remixes from the album (and you can add to that a version of A Fragile Thing remixed by historical Cure mixer Mark Saunders, which wasn’t bad either). So yeah, three times the album, it’s not all great, but the quality of the mixes is actually truly impressive overall. Plenty to choose from, and I listened to this an enormous lot, in the days leading to Levitation and in fact during Levitation, waiting in my room, and after, although artists from the festival also took over as you will read later. So do I pick only one song there? Very very tough. I could pick one per disk, I suppose, it’s still The Cure.
[REFLECTIVE BUT RATHER POSITIVE MOOD BIT]
I’ll listen and decide a little later as Arsenal match time approaches. I’ve made decent progress today though we’re just about reaching the middle of the year, but I have to admit it was all made a lot easier after the laptop restart, and finally took me off depression for at least a couple more hours. Now the technical issues seem to be resurfacing anyway, so it’s as good a time as any to leave this page again.
[END OF MOOD BIT]
OK, I can’t overdo it, so will just post two remixes and point you to a few others. Disc 1 has less pleasures maybe despite some good mixes, Warsong (Daybreakers Remix) would be my very worthy choice. Disc 2 and 3 have the best stuff, so I’ll give you A Fragile Thing (Sally C Remix) from Disc Two.
I very much like the 65daysofstatic remix of All I Ever Am on Disc Three, there are a few other good ones too, but it’s difficult to ignore the absolutely monumental Mogwai Remix of Endsong that concludes the collection. You’ll come out of it wondering on what planet you were during those ten minutes. Out of This World. The bands remixing the songs on the third disc manage to appropriate the tunes in their own very recognisable way, and this is an extraordinarily powerful example.
And so to Levitation, I won’t put things in the order of the gigs, as for instance, a catch-up with Heartworms happened on the first day, and I have already posted from her.
No, straight back to bdrmm’s Microtonic. That album was released a few months earlier, and unlike the preceding LP that left me unsure (I have revisited it since, found it great then not so good again), I was bowled over by it straight away. I had not booked the gig in Paris straight away when it was announced as my experience from the previous album told me I’d wanted to wait for the release. But since the injury happened in the meantime, I couldn’t go anyway, so they were one of the reasons for me not to hesitate in booking that festival. I had three catch-up bands with them, Heartworms and Hinds, as well as a band I was happy to see again for only the second time (both in a festival), Blonde Redhead, and another I really wanted to see and had never seen before, Boy Harsher. But I’ve written extensively about this festival in the gigs reviews page, so you can have a look there. The focus here is back on bdrmm, which was fighting to get the number one album spot for me all year long, in fact I thought it would get it until the very end. There was a gig that I thoroughly enjoyed, what with the great weather and location on top of the music. Shame I was on my own, but perhaps those were my favourite couple of days in 2025 really. Just being back with live music, drinking a bit and enjoying sunshine. Very very difficult to pick a top song here, in fact, even harder than with Benefits. All of the songs were played over and over, on the iPad or in my mind for the days and weeks following the festival. John on the Ceiling? Infinity Peaking? Snares? Sat In The Heat? The Noose? Sort of paradoxically, I will pick one they didn’t play live that day despite all I wrote before. But it’s just that I like the second part of it so much. Here’s Clarkycat (note that it’s probably best listened to with its introductory instrumental companion piece, Microtonic, like on the album, as the transition is perfect).
A band I heard a fair amount about (and also about their live performances) was DITZ, and as they were playing the first day at Levitation, I was also curious to see them. They’re not going to be my new favourite band on record, or live for that matter, but I can still see the appeal and the gig was in fact excellent. So while it may not quite be one of the track of the years, Taxi Man from their 2025 album Never Exhale [Wow, I initially typed ‘Inhaled’, which is both funny and scary], fits the bill perfectly in this page as a soundtrack to the year. They opened with it, and it was one of the defining moments of the weekend in fact, with the singer starting with crowdsurfing already.
Rounding off those two days of musical goodness was an old (not so old) favourite electronic duo I missed out on last time they played in Paris. A perfect way to conclude the weekend, were Boy Harsher. No new release, but I listened to them a lot afterwards, and naturally, Fate is the tune that was played the most in speakers, headphones or simply in my head for a while. I even decided (as for bdrmm’s Microtonic) to buy coloured vinyle versions of both Careful and The Runner. But for a change, as I already posted Fate in 2019 (well, OK in 2023, but you know, the 2019 post), and it looks like I oddly didn’t post anything from The Runner despite mentioning it in 2023, and instead of Give Me A Reason (check it out too), I’ll give you the very danceable Machina.
[EXTREMELY SHORT BUT POSITIVE MOOD BIT]
New day, hopefully the last one, otherwise I’ll have failed, despite so much still to do/write. Difficult start but running in the freezing sunshine did me good.
[END OF GOOD MOOD – well the writing, maybe the good mood lasted a few more moments]
Let’s start with a somewhat more mainstream artist, Lorde, who released a pretty good new album this year, Virgin. Best song in there in my opinion, the superb Shapeshifter.
Bleach Lab’s new EP, Close To The Flame, was pretty good with some good tracks but doesn’t quite make the cut, let’s wait for another album.
Moving on, an old (definitely not old) favourite, Indigo de Souza, had a new album out in the summer. Bit of a mixed bag, to be honest, but with two absolute top tunes, Heartthrob and Pass It By. Both really worth your time and ears. I gave the gig at the Pitchfork festival a miss despite a decent bill that day, but sometimes it feels like too much, although experience suggests going would have been good, but unfortunately I’m still wavering at times. I could be so much better. [see later though, in the end there was a good reason I didn’t go, though you could argue I might not have gone in my very initial plan]. Anyway, tough to choose between the two, I’ll go for Pass It By, just. Or on relisten, not just, as we go from excellent song I like to excellent song I like that actually does something to my heart and soul, one that makes me feel alive.
One more before I eat and restart this fucking shit that is failing again [technical]. Anyway….I didn’t post much of the usual whatever it is called post-rock this year, maybe it was less a year for that, or there’s only so much I like about it, as it will talk to me sometimes but it never is beautiful music. But maybe another BIG SPECIAL offering is worth a mention, as they surprisingly released another album, NATIONAL AVERAGE, which contains this very good song (that sounds very much like Yard Act to my ears, and maybe therein lies the problem with the genre).
Actually one last one to finish the sequence, something inhabitual in these pages, a French band (oh there are others, see SURE above) who sing in French. Probably if I was listening to French music more, I’d be a fan of Superbus. I’d heard of them but never listened to them, but on the occasion of their new release ‘OK KO’, I thought I’d sample and try, and I liked what I heard. The album is packed with good basic French indie-pop tunes, and I’ll go for Lola, featuring an older familiar acquaintance from Indochine. [As I found out only a few days later, this is actually a new version of a much older song]
Another more recent artist I’d heard of but not investigated (the previous album had good reviews, I thought ‘maybe’ but for a reason or another I didn’t pursue) is Kae Tempest. I’m confused sometimes with ‘transitioning’ artists, or non-binary, but I think this one went from woman to man? Either way, they (easier) produced a great album in 2025. I listened a bit and thought ‘yes!’. And when I got the album and listened, I was like ‘erm, yeah, I think this is going to be one of the best albums of the year’. It’s kind of more rap/spoken but not really, the flow is good but the music is richer. Plenty to choose from, Bless The Bold Future is beautiful, Diagnoses may have a shout for best song there, but I’ll still go with the opener I Stand On The Line. An excellent way to start, and for me some impact not unlike the first seconds from The Streets’ Original Pirate Material: it sets the scene for music I hadn’t heard before. And the whole album impressed.
A relatively barren August only really brought the new Black Honey album, but after loving the previous one so much, it just disappointed me. Maybe it got a little better after a few listens, it’s not bad, maybe if I’d seen them live or listened to the album in different circumstances but nothing really got me going there. Opener Insulin is short and good though not brilliant, but I don’t know. Yeah, I think sometimes it is really just about circumstances, I don’t think it’s as bad an album as I thought when first listening to it. Soak, the song, just sounds like NewDad. OK, they were there before but in 2025 that’s what it makes me think of.
Catching up, everyone is now sounding like Sprints? Take Panic Shack, not bad, I had put Lazy down as a possible for the ‘best of’ 2025 list ( it was never going to make the ‘ultimate’ list), it’s fine but really so many bands/songs sound the same these days. Sure, live would be great, but you know….saturation.
So we’ll travel forwards but also back in time with the next song. September was the proper return of live music for me, starting with a little intimate gig with Ruth Radelet. She hasn’t released many songs, but I quickly checked some of her output I missed before the gig, and this beautiful single, from 2023, that she also played on the day, stood out.
Royel Otis’ new album, hickey, was actually released in August, but with my weird listening patterns, I think I only listened to it later, especially as after last time I was not going to see them live again (Olympia it was then, not Zenith as I had incorrectly predicted last year). As usual with them, mixed bag, but overall not so bad, and really with a couple of bangers: say something is the obvious single and brilliant (easily one of the tunes of the year as far as I’m concerned), but I’ll go with the opener, i hate this tune, that promised so much more from the overall album, once more it’s a song that has the best bits just before the final chorus, always something that works well in my world. And yes I LOVE this tune and so they have TWO tracks of the year in there, like Prima Queen did.
Basht.’s new EP, Bitter and Twisted, was like their previous essentially. One brilliant number and some good but forgettable ones. The fact they didn’t play that song, the title track, during the little gig at Le PopUp, is borderline criminal, because it is excellent, one of their best two.
An excellent album that hit me more on second and subsequent listens was The Beths’ Straight Line Was a Lie’. Unfortunately, they played live before that was released or before I really listened to the album (first listen I was ‘meh’) and so I didn’t go on the middling strength of their previous one. Lots to choose from there, although I think it’s nearly in the category of ‘such a good album with no outstanding track’. But a quick scan through reminds me that, yes, Til My Heart Stops is well worth inclusion here truly as one of the top tunes of the year. Lovely soft, nearly twee, American indie music. Roundabout, among others, is not half-bad either, reminds me in parts of some sounds that could feature on Labrador Records from Sweden.
The new CMAT album got high praise in general, but somehow either I’m getting tired of her shtick or simply it’s not as good as the previous one, too country? I don’t know, it didn’t hit home with me, but I’ll be generous and give you Tree Six Foive, maybe in a happy place I’d have loved it more, it’s a borderline inclusion here, but undoubtedly a pleasant/easy listen.
[SLIGHTLY REFLEXIVE BIT though not quite moody – INCLUDES MUSIC REFERENCES]
Think I’m getting tired again so might skip some good tunes/albums, just mention them, but to be fair, they didn’t completely soundtrack my year, there was so much emptiness. I won’t deny though that James Yorkston’s Songs for Nina and Johanna is rather pleasant, with vocals contribution from Nina Persson (from the Cardigans, whether they are still a going concern or not, I don’t know) and Johanna Söderberg (from First Aid Kit), my pick here being Love/Luck featuring the latter. But the only thing it soundtracked was work, as towards the end of the year, I started catching up on music a lot when working in the lab, to cover the noise of the machines, as I couldn’t stand it anymore, but I’m afraid it also made me more distant from everything. I guess I felt that way anyway, more than any other year I have been working on my own this year, I think.
[END OF THAT BIT]
Ava Max is always a sure bet when it comes to pop music in my world now, and so her new album, Don’t Click Play, was no disappointment. Won’t make album of the year of course, not sure any track really hit for long, again, circumstances maybe, nothing happening and life escaping me, but I would still enjoy it any time. It’s very mainstream for sure, but you know, Skin in the Game, World’s Smallest Violin, they kind of hit easy. And Know Somebody has something so I’ll put it here. Of course, it is also the kind of artist I’d never go see live unless invited or with someone special. I may have been burnt by Rina Sawayama (for various reasons but still), not exactly my world for live music anyway.
Next Up (if I look at release dates, I’ve long lost the thread, I’m just mostly going by excel file, that’s pretty chronological in terms of buying, but the listening didn’t necessarily always follow the same order), another EP that really impressed me, though it may be like an 85% good one rather than Dog Race’s 100%.
Either way, Carsick’s Tough Luck features Violence, a fantastic song, one of the best this year, kind of reminds me of a more, er, violent, sped-up, Jamie T. Top work. The pogos to that must be spectacular too.
Saint Etienne released their final album, International, it’s OK, got its fair share of decent/half-decent tunes, but somehow again, not that great, or not timely. In another time/world/planet, maybe Dancing Heart would have made more of an impression. Might be worth putting your dancing shoes on for though, to be honest.
The next song is gig-related as I really enjoyed seeing Francis Of Delirium again, opening for Blondshell this time. They released a new single (which was the first song they played that night), Little Black Dress, very good and worth inclusion, to be honest, yet I’ll leave it aside before a possible new EP or album next year as seems to be the plan. But this gave me a chance to spot that I’d failed to get the release, late last year, of ‘The Soft Versions’, five songs from their debut album in acoustic version. And so here’s a chance to hear a little stripped down version of the gorgeous Real Love. Obviously, the ‘new’ version of my favourite Something’s Changed is also more than worth your time/its weight in beauty/gold.
Sometimes I discover bands a little randomly on landing on the front page of the NME Website. Not even a review, just an article on a band and I am interested in what I hear about their sound. And so I was made aware of The Itch, only a couple of singles to their name, one last year, and a double A-side this year. I like this very much and it’s not even easy to choose the best from just three fairly different tracks. But a choice I must make, so let’s say the long debut single from 2024, Ursula, covers a lot of bases in its different phases. Yes, it’s a fantastic effort, and then if you like it, you may want to check the 2025 The Influencer/Co-Conspirator release.
After the release of a not-insignificant chunk of it via an EP earlier this year, NewDad finally released their new album, Altar, near the end of September. Not an unmitigated triumph, but a more than solid enough effort with plenty of enjoyable tunes, that will likely make top 10 this year. The gig was too short, though a real moment of musical happiness on stage and off stage, and as such one of the most enjoyable this year. Yep, plenty of good tracks, Roobosh would probably get most people’s vote, but as often, I am on a slightly sweeter side, and Vertigo gets mine.
One release I was eagerly awaiting was purity ring’s (eponymous) new album. I’m still absolutely gutted they cancelled their gig a few years ago and have never played in Paris since for all this time. And the new album is a beauty. I think I’ve not had yet enough time to enjoy it, and also I probably listened to it just a few weeks off when it would have hit the most (see below), but now I can enjoy it and escape from the world to it. Still dreamer’s music, perfect for me though sometimes I wish it joined reality. Which track shall I spoil you with? Another difficult choice. place of my own? Fantastic. The pre-album single many lives? Could have been in compared to a lot of other tracks in this page, but not compared with others on this album. The short piano instrumental mj odyssey is beautiful, but I’ll leave the piano for Kelly Moran later. imanocean will be my choice, another moment of pure beauty, I so much love these guys.
Actually fuck it, they may be only number 3 in my list (just decided they’d be there), but any other year/different circumstances or timing or release, they may have been number one. I mean, it’s the kind of music that transports me somewhere else, reminds me why I love music, and ‘threatens’ to make me love life again and feel full of hope. So yeah, have place of my own as well as it’s such a gorgeous track.
Changing style completely with Coach Party next. I enjoyed them live in that winter pre-half marathon where I could find myself enjoying moshing while completely sober; their gig at Café de La Danse was a particular highlight. And now I seem to have convinced a lot of people to see them with me in February, but I guess that’s mostly because it’s a free evening at Supersonic, which I’m really looking forward to, though my experience of being with too many people [that is ‘too many people I know’] at a gig is not great (that’s the introvert speaking). The album is not all enjoyable, though it gets better with every listen, again, maybe the mood first time I listen is too influential at times, especially with this whole listening at work thing, but it sounds like a lot of fun, that’s going to be a riot at Supersonic no doubt. And it has one of the tunes of the year too in Georgina, a proper banger!
And then, mid-October is when a ghost reappeared from nearly three years ago. It threw me off a bit, I’ve spoken about it here and there (well gig reviews), vaguely, but it certainly triggered a few days of intense introspection, many emotions, often conflicting, hope/despair, and a few different tunes I felt the need to listen to. Like daughter’s Be On Your Way, which therefore makes a reappearance (I could use the Middle Farm Sessions version, mind, I listened to it too, yeah I’ll do that). In the end, both by luck mentioned in a gig review (though I remain unconvinced by the someone’s intellectual honesty –not the right word, I think, just readiness to openness and sincerity– with third parties or maybe even with themselves), and because I can’t keep facing depression all the time, you know, I don’t want to trigger anything, and no circumstance led to scene reconstruction, we didn’t repeat this evening, so no meeting on another planet, no plan or (absence of) plans changed, but I still love that song very much and it was good to listen to it again, in fact, it is always good. Musical bottomline, they are a superb band, I’m gutted I missed them before and so never saw live, as there may be no other chance, the music is beautiful and Elena Tonra, on top of her emotional voice, truly is a superb lyricist who often finds words that completely touch me (and I naturally listened to Dandelion again too, and maybe other tunes, but I can’t post everything, though listening again, Dandelion too gives me goosebumps. If only I could truly share these emotions the actual way they touch me).
Carrying on briefly, very much with the original ‘soundtrack of my year’ idea, even if only for a few days, Metric’s Eclipse (I’m All Yours) was big in these few days, even feeling it at work (but my mind was not at work), another song that brought me back a few years ago and that most amazing of acoustic gigs, another band I love (but have seen live), and another singer whose voice I love, Emily Haines. Yeah, I know, I’m posting songs that I only posted not many years ago, but I guess that just tells you how much I love these ones, and how they are a big part to the soundtrack of my life.
[MOODY RANT ABOUT TECHNOLOGY, AND TIME]
And I have to restart this laptop/browser one more time, always when I feel the best and start to really enjoy the music again. Fuck the illusion technology sells us when it’s getting worse and worse as we get more demanding and less is delivered. And tomorrow I have to work again, though I will do remotely and I can’t face it. I’ve not been too idle these past two weeks, and yet I am missing a week of time or something. Very frustrating.
We’re slowly getting towards the end of the year, yet there’s still so many tracks to post, and a few listens to finalise this (and lists I probably won’t have time to make now), so this technological shite is really getting to me. I don’t have the time, I don’t have enough time, sure I didn’t manage it so well, but what is this fucking shit I need to restart and then works for a few posts. Clearly it’s a software issue, memory leaks and all that, fuck off. Now I’m reduced to typing this shite while youtube is trying to be embedded on these pages. So I was back on track, enjoying music, and now I hate everything again, because I need to wait for this to finish so that I can at least save the current state (I make regular saves thankfully too) before I can reboot.
I suppose I can continue the text while the video is ‘loading’ (it’s not even loading, it’s just a bloody embed with a link FFS, so shouldn’t take that long or that much ‘memory’ surely?).
[END OF RANT]
So, back to gigs influence, with the Boo Radleys next. No, I still don’t think their new releases are worth a lot of time (I was briefly tempted to check the new one I didn’t have, but a cursory listen was inconclusive, and of course, the gig being exclusively made of old songs, they couldn’t really ‘sell’ me it until next year, when I probably won’t bother anyway – not a moody reaction, I already said that in the gig review), but I enjoyed hearing some of the old songs, including a couple that may have come by relatively unnoticed previously. Sometimes that’s what gigs are good for: rediscovering hidden gems. Like The Finest Kiss from Learning To Walk, that was a real treat live.
Waiting for a new Art School Girlfriend album in 2026, she collaborated with a few artists this year, but also released a single, that will be part of that album. Either way, back after a restart (for how long? I might not last, so no finalised list of anything before tonight which was meant to be my deadline, looks like my complete day off on 1/1 did not work out as well as hoped), that single is still worth a listen even if again it’s a bit of a borderline inclusion, so I could have waited for the new album as I am likely to post something from her next year.
OK, a little ‘cheating’ here as I am chronologically writing this after the HW part further below, but while I could/should probably rewrite/reorder a lot of things, sometimes the association calls for a re-timing. So I will treat you now to a single released a little later in the year, (a proper one-off this time, I don’t think at this stage that there is talk of a new album it would be from), as somehow, whether it’s the voice or sounds, I often associate, in feeling, Art School Girlfriend with Romy. Kind of similar vibes really, and Romy released another single, and funnily enough there is a commonality in the song title too. So, without further ado, here’s another one that’s kind of emotionally easy for me to connect with. Love Who You Love.
While October saw my record number of gigs for the year (among a series of ‘a gig every Wednesday’ for a few weeks, though that includes a Comedy Club evening, not chronicled here, and in fact, as I remember now, if that hadn’t happened, I was going to go and see Indigo De Souza, so it’s not like I completely deliberated didn’t go see her), November was the start of a cool down in terms of releases (December was dead, but I had a lot of catching up to do with all I had bought and not listened to yet), it still saw a few gigs. One I was looking forward to was Jadu Heart’s, in La Bellevilloise, a first for me both in terms of bands (unfortunately I missed a sold out gig a couple of years earlier) and venue (Hinds should have been my first time there, but then injury struck). Unfortunately, their new album was one of the most disappointing of the year for me (the gig however was very good). Still, it had one track that, if not quite up with their best, had some kind of repetitive quality that made it lodge inside your head and stay there, so is worth its spot here.
I’ll stay with the gig theme with the next two November tunes. The first one comes from Jade Bird. Her new album did not completely convince me, but I liked the previous one, and decided it would be worth checking her live. The review will show you it nearly didn’t happen and was still enjoyable. But so, rather than post something from the new album, I’ll put an old song I didn’t have, from her first (I think) EP, a track that impressed me live and is very good on record too: Cathedral.
The last one to be gig-driven came from the next gig with Pip Blom. In fact, you’ll have two tracks.
The first from the opening band that night, one to watch, they probably will never be gig, but definitely are interesting and enjoyable. So here’s Roshâni’s Donya Do Roozeh.
Pip Blom (somehow another catch-up gig, but from over a year and a half earlier this time, nothing to do with injuries, just work) were very enjoyable and showcased some of their new electronic sounds/songs from the EP they released this year, Grip. Upside Down is the choice cut. Someday is very impressive too.
After that, I wish it would be over, but I had some serious catching up to do with some releases from previous weeks/months on top of a few more from the end of the year.
Actually, there was also another absolutely massive track for me, from a little earlier and I think I listened to it on the way back from London, either after a match (though there has been none since the end of October) or when back from the HoTS gig. From an album I didn’t bother buying (as it seemed so-so overall). I was fairly tempted to go to the gig for that single track, but it was sold out so the option was (thankfully?) taken off me by then. But yeah, Night Tapes’ helix is one of my tracks of the year, I absolutely love it and could listen to it on an endless loop (hang on, it’s aptly titled then!).
[CONTEXT MORE THAN MOOD BIT]
Trying to combine work and listening to music as I am a day late now. After a bad night when depression really hit. I know there’s at least one essential tune left.
[END OF THAT VERY VERY SHORT BIT]
But it doesn’t come from the SPRINTS album. Still overhyped. I delayed listening to it, thinking I’d need to be in a correct frame of mind. I mean originally, not today as I am relistening. It didn’t soundtrack anything but also even when I listened to it, I thought maybe it showed some promise, but really isn’t a big step forward from the first, more of the same, some good, some shit, and a voice that ends up grating after all. Truly I tried, and no, they’re not really for me. I mean, Descartes is a great single, but it’s not different from the best of their first album, and since I’m not feeling great and it wasn’t significant in my year, you can search for it, but I’m not leading you directly to it. If there’s one song I would pick though, after all, it would be Coming Alive, it’s a little different, and I don’t find it irritating at all.
Now for something completely different, that I immediately liked. It may be a little bit too much for me today (as in 5/1/2026, not in a general ‘these days’ meaning), but it’s got some impressive Prodigy-like quality. Might not be what you’d go for if you’re looking for peace and melody but VLURE’s Escalate is a no brainer for my top 10 of the year. Picking a song is not so easy, It’s a toss up between the fantastic rave anthemTha Gaol Agam Ort and Feel Like Heaven. And for a Second, with some of the synth lines mimicking the bass line from A Forest, is not bad either, it is kind of filled with optimism. Music speaks louder than words.
A new Idlewild album? While still never back to the level they were at for The Remote Part, that was still possibly one of their best, plenty of good tunes, and they, once more, managed to put a truly excellent track in there, this time the closer and appropriately named End With Sunrise, one of the best songs this year.
A definite top 10 album that impressed me, sounding maybe like a much better version of HONESTY, but much more consistent with quality tunes, was Nightbus’ Passenger.
Top track there? Probably Angles Mortz.
A couple of singles next. First, KNEECAP. Sure they created a lot of headlines in 2025, and it distracted from the music. I have to say that shockingly I haven’t even listened to their debut album (was it last year?), but this tune, a collaboration with Paul Hartnoll from Orbital, really appeals to me. Some kind of rap/electro hybrid..
While this track was a one-off, the next one, from Ladytron, is from a forthcoming 2026 album. While I must admit I have not been completely convinced by the other ones from there that are already available, I See Red just bowled me over as one of their best tunes. It just has something, one of my absolute favourites this year.
Something very different from anything else here now. A random discovery from a Pitchfork review: Kelly Moran. I liked the description, modern pianist, etc, with an electronic twinge. But in fact, that was the review of this year’s Don’t Trust Mirrors, that is, I believe, revisiting some of her preceding album in a slightly more electronic fashion indeed. But as I liked it and decided to check her previous stuff, I stumbled across her offering from the year before, Moves In The Field. And in fact, I bought that first, a bit by mistake I must say. And I actually preferred it, a lot more like classic piano music. Maybe touch of Debussy at times, so modern enough (hang on he is not modern anymore), and while I must admit I never investigated Ludovico Einaudi after all beyond enjoying the soundtrack to Intouchables, this reminded me how much I do love ‘simple’ piano work like that, having always loved Debussy in particular (playing it badly, but listening to his stuff mostly). There is a lot to love there, but I have to go for the truly wonderful Sodalis (II), one of my ‘tracks of the year’, though I’m not sure how a piano piece qualifies in the middle of all the other music. But yeah, if you want a peaceful time with music, I very heartily recommend Kelly Moran’s Moves in the Field. I’m sure a LE fan would love it, maybe she is known in those circles, I have no idea to be honest, I just hope so in fact.
[SHORT SIDE REFLECTION I am keeping below, despite editing out an initial above]
Too many thoughts coming back again, and some factors means maybe it wasn’t just a few days of inner trouble for me, despite all I have done since and the hopes of December.
[END OF]
The revisit from this year, Don’t Trust Mirrors, sounds completely different, is interesting too, but for me, really this is all about beautiful pure piano music.
Next up is an album I really really enjoyed from a band that had some promising tunes on previous EPs, CIEL. Still very much sounding like the more recent Blood Red Shoes stuff to a large extent, but I love that sound, good bass and rhythms. Shame I couldn’t see them live in the intimate Supersonic Records venue, but unfortunately I was otherwise engaged that evening. The opening three tracks are possibly my favourite opening three tracks of an album all year, just music I like, easy on the ear, nothing extravagant, not necessarily super innovative, but I’m just enjoying these three. The rest isn’t bad either, though there are a few inferior tracks. Should be in my top 10 (I did one for SOV but completely botched it as the deadline was yesterday so didn’t have time to complete my relistens, and there were nearly 20 albums fighting for room there, well the top 3 were probably not in doubt). So I shall pick the second track on the album here, ‘Won’t Obey’.
The Twilight Tad released a new single, their first new song in a long time, presumably ahead of a new album if I believe their claim that they have something big in for next year. And yes WAITING FOR THE PHONE CALL sounds very very good, and I have booked the April 2026 gig already.
Low Girl’s ‘Is It Too Late To Freak Out?’ was yet another nice random SOV-induced discovery. Maybe not completely outstanding, but enjoyable and fairly consistent all throughout. Ctrl maybe should be the top tune, though the end of it is unnecessary, but as I am watching some very light snow fall now, the nostalgic-sounding Driveway is the choice. Handbrake’s not bad either, and on relisten, I confirm it’s a pretty good album, with an excellent final song too, something which is never to be sniffed at.
[MOOD BIT, FAIRLY POSITIVE, REFLECTIVE IN A PEACEFUL MOMENT]
We’re nearly there, and I think I am feeling better today after all despite the shit night, sometimes I ‘recover’ a lot more during the day than at night and I can’t help it. Also knowing I had kind of set myself today as a ‘restart’, even though I’ve not wasted the previous ones, maybe I can get a mental grip [If only I had known then how badly most of the rest of the month would go from a mental perspective]. Or maybe I am kidding myself, does it just depend on me? [OK I see, doubts were already there anyway]. The snow is falling hard now, so it looks like tomorrow I shall be working from home too, not that I have done a lot of work today, apart from on myself, for peace. I love this, sort of beautiful emotional weather, but it doesn’t make me less alone, so there’s always a bittersweetness to it, and the longing for beauty, peace and love.
[END OF QUIETLY REFLECTIVE MOOD BIT]
Music helps, as I am listening to one of the last beautiful albums, Swim School’s self-titled debut. Weirdly, this was available as a bonus version with double the number of tracks for the same money as the regular album, and the ‘second album’ I think is just as good. And all that for a very very cheap price, significantly cheaper than 90% of most normal albums, so no doubt this is the best ‘value for money’ release all year, while also pure value as it is excellent. With so much choice, picking a single tune is very hard I must admit. On & On is very good, but once more I’ll go a little more quiet. Don’t leave me behind, from the second disc is tempting, I could easily have gone for it (The Sundays, anyone?) but I’ll plump for Green Eyes (Want It All) – maybe she did?- because of the little guitar work that sounds very much in spirit like a few things I recorded now that I think of it. I missed them live, incredibly a free gig at Supersonic Club no less, they were on the same night as CIEL next door, but unfortunately, that wasn’t my other engagement (no mystery there, check the gigs review if you want the not very big reveal).
Less than a handful of significant albums to go through, but first, an absolute banger of a track from better joy. I could easily have posted ‘quiet thing’ from heading into blue, her first EP of the year, but when I first heard steamroller from the at dusk EP, I thought ‘oh wow, yes, track of the year or something’. Again, I wish I had something more significant to associate it with, but it’s still one of the best songs you’ll hear all year (well the year just gone anyway, but any other one will do too). It might not seem so at the start, but wait until you hit the chorus (and also pay attention to that guitar at the back of it, which then gets the main role before the last chorus). I hope she plays live in Paris soon.
Finally (as in, ‘at last’, this is not the final song though we are getting very near now), Sorry released their new album. You’ll have to remember what I said when I reviewed the last gig I went to see them. And well, that holds, as they did indeed produce something very interesting. Mind you, last year’s Waxwing also had me raving about it, and it’s on the album. Once more, it is an album that is very difficult to classify, charming at times, disconcerting, a lot, very much like nothing else, that somehow should be top ten and yet I’m not entirely sure of it. Definitely a grower you need to immerse yourself in for sure. The best song may still be Waxwing, but the opener, Echoes, just has something special to it. Whichever way, they are definitely still one of the most interesting/original bands around. I remember listening to the album long after I got it, for the first time, while walking about the London Eye and around, that day I bumped into Surrey Gooner, it was a kind of magical time really, those couple of days, reminding me how much I love London sometimes and that part of town in particular. So yes, that is the song I have to post. And yes, I’ll see them again in 2026, and am definitely much looking forward to that gig. Weird to think now that the last one, in February 2023 was the last moment of feeling great for a bit while depression was already eating me, hitting harder a few days/weeks later.
Hayley Williams’ new release came about in a little surprising way if I recall, announcement of a new track (Mirtazapine, I’m sure I mentioned Mirtazapine somewhere on this website? Either way, it was what I was given, two pills for two days, by the emergency psychiatrist at Béclère in 2014, before I returned to get myself checked in) then suddenly twenty or so to download, before finally being released maybe a few months later as a single, long piece. And well, I know it’s got great reviews and figures in a lot of ‘best of 2025’ lists, but for me, it really is hit and miss, overlong, when there were just enough good songs to make a truly memorable and quality single album. So yes, there are plenty of good tracks on ‘Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party’, and my choice of a standout is the wonderful Parachute.
I very much liked Stella Donnelly’s album on second listen, a good quiet time at some point maybe? So much I decided to book her gig at Hasard Ludique in 2006, this implying two nights in a row in that godforsaken place (only talking about the location for the qualification there). It is a very pleasant album, her best yet, I’d say, although again it didn’t soundtrack anything (a sad theme this year, really?), and nothing stands out enough for inclusion, so it’s that odd old category I mentioned once or twice above, that I am not putting at the bottom this time. Lost of lovely tunes though, do check this album. And don’t be entirely surprised if next year after the gig there is a track from this one or one of her older albums that tempts me enough to post, whether I keep the same timing as this year for the post, or try something else (but how? monthly? It’s hard enough as I am finding this year to reflect on the whole year, and possibly it’s the first time it’s been mostly a struggle, though I feel it a little easier again today). Actually, fuck it, maybe Year Of Trouble feels like an appropriate title to recap 2025. Though I’m not sure entirely what the whole trouble has been for me. But yeah OK, currently listening to it, it’s worth a link in this page. See, it’s a very dynamic, live post, real-time writing. And yes, this song even gets better as it progresses [once more, some songs start well and grow into better, that’s a theme with the best tunes posted here this year], it’s a no-brainer for here, and I can see why I booked the gig, all is well in the world sometimes, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Music. It saves. I missed out on so much, these lists are a chance to partially make up.
The next entry here surprised me, if I may say. I hadn’t particularly listened to luvcat, but I’d heard of her and her stuff a lot, she supported some band or other, there were stuff that seemed to appeal to me as a concept (beyond the name obviously reminding me of Lovecats), I’d seen videos of her gigs for that reason, and yet somehow I thought I wouldn’t like her album from the little I’d heard of the songs, months before. Still, it got a good review or two, I thought I’d lend it an ear, and quickly figured I might enjoy it. Now, even if I’m being more selective these days, or trying, I still buy a fair amount of stuff that feels needless and leaves me feeling ‘meh, why did I bother?’. But Vicious Delicious wasn’t one. There’s about a handful of good tracks, and I very much like it. Maybe nothing that really stands out as a ‘wow’ track, but fairly consistent quality, worth a mention here. Yeah maybe I do include more of these ‘good album, nothing great’ now I’m nearing the end of the list, and I’d say nothing touches like Stella D’s track above, but there’s good music there. I’ll spare you the more popular He’s My Man, however good it is and go for the more-my-type of song in many ways Blushing. Matador would be my second choice, very good in fact, difficult to choose between these two, I may even have chosen the wrong song, they are so different, sometimes it’s just about the order you listen to songs in, so please check it too. In fact, after a further relisten of both, I think Matador is a better song overall, but Blushing has, yet again, that little thing, moment, pre-last chorus, when it sounds more poignant, intense and gets me and is the reason I pick it. The title song is also pretty good, though slightly behind these two in my ears/soul. Contrary to a lot of artists on this page though, I still don’t think I’d go see her live on my own.
There’s only one album left really, though there’s a couple more that were bought as afterthoughts and I need to give a listen to, to see if anything would fit but I doubt it. So yeah, Wyldest’s The Universe Is Loading. I really haven’t had/taken the time to listen to it enough, because I know I really like it, so absolutely no idea which song to put there, I will listen to it now, which will take a bit of time then, over 30 minutes, but I have no doubt, if only from memory that there were a few tracks that made me want to come back over and over again and will largely deserve inclusion in this page. Yep, After The Ending is one of my favourite songs of the year, if only it’d been released earlier, or if, yeah, yeah, what a frustrating year despite still some beautiful music. And the catching up over the last few days reflects that, some excruciating forcing myself to listen to a lot of things, not all that touches me, but that one is up there with the best. And now, Tongue Tied, oh my word, this is just heavenly, two of the best songs of the year, not sure which I prefer, so as I am reaching the end, I think you deserve both. It’s not all been lovely music, but the stuff I really really love and makes me feel alive and hopeful (despite it still being an illusion really), it’s there in these two tracks. And there’s plenty more goodness in there if you fancy it (like Enough For Me). [After more listens, I think Tongue Tied has the edge, ‘something’ maybe sonically more touching or original/less obvious there]
Honestly, after that, while I will listen to the last couple of albums out of duty, I feel it would be criminal to add music.
But then, Iona Zajac’s Bang, despite a slow start, really picks up in its central part, with good tracks like Summer, the excellent Anton, and, in the middle of them, a song I can’t resist putting here to conclude, because of its perfectly apt title (though it’s very good too, a perfectly legitimate choice for inclusion and a soft, sweet tune to finish): End Of The Year. This coincidence cheers me up no end, as so many times in my life, it’s when I just don’t try too hard, the story writes itself, things fall into place, and it seems destined to be there. If only those impressions/lucky moments were not all fleeting and I knew how to make them last or reoccur again and again instead of constantly fucking up my own mindset [The Altered Hours album is decent, but at this stage, I can’t let it spoil the conclusion, and it’s not amazing enough to warrant an inclusion here, it has some truly very good tunes, but this year it will forever remain in the ‘good album’ list, no more, however circumstancial it is due to the above ending(s)].