Best Music 2025
In olden times, back on Google+ (RIP), I used to post my favorite music of 2025. I stopped doing that awhile ago, but I'm reviving the form. Some of these are albums, some are just songs, none of them are in any particular order.
YARD - YARD II
YARD does heavy beats inflected industrial rock with a hint of Author & Punisher. I discovered them last year on a KEXP liveset and instantly fell in love with the setup of two scrawny guys and a Zap Rowsdower lookalike screaming at me.
Baby Dave - San Pellegrino
I want to write something longer about Baby Dave but I want someone to pay me for it because I can score an interview that way. Also fronting Soft Play, I'll plant my flag on Isaac Holman being the poet of the decade, almost entirely due to his solo work as Baby Dave. He's funny, subtly observant of the stupid and weird in postmodern life, and self-deprecates as much as he needles. San Pellegrino, about the absurdities of domestic life: his girlfriend wants San Pellegrino, it annoys him, and also they love each other very much so he heads out to find San Pellegrino even though it's just sparkling water.
Ospiel & Schwefelgelb - Notion Compound
I won't admit to being too familiar with Ospiel's catalog but I love Schwefelgelb. This EP is four blistering club tracks of industrial-techno with a hint of classic 90s rave. The collabs with Schwefelgelb (two of the four) are the better half but only just.
Sleaford Mods w/ Gwendoline Christie & Big Special - The Good Life
Sleaford Mods are creeping up to more mediocre tracks/albums than good ones after what was a spectacular first half of their career. And that's fine, it happens to everyone if they stick around long enough, but Spare Ribs was half a decade ago and their Yaz cover was a definite turning point (the cover sucks). They can still drop something introspective, angry, and blood pumping, though. Their collab with Gwendoline Christie from their upcoming new album is one of those tracks. The best song about the isolation of depression and self-loathing released this year. Like everybody else alive, I think there’s only this pain in me.
Dancing Plague - Veins
Perfect, danceable darkwave from Portland with an equally perfect bassline. I also love the video, which is just him wandering around with a strobe light off-screen. Usually less is more.
Haute & Freddy - Shy Girl
I want to hate everything about this. Overdone production by two theater kids who would probably grate after 10 minutes of hanging out with them. But if you're going to do this sort of 80s worship you might as well nail it; they do. That second chorus when the full synths come in soars, and Michelle Buzz has a great voice. They haven't released a single non-banger and I'd put an album in this list but it's just singles so far.
Panic Shack - S/T
Sarcastic, feminist punks from Cardiff who seem like they're having a better time than anyone in the world. Their shot at the fashion industry's refusal to put pockets on women's clothing is the highlight (I've got change/I want change is a great chorus). They also do pub trivia over at The Lion Challenge, meaning they know internet legend Gar.
Buzz Kull - Just a Memory
I was a huge Buzz Kull skeptic until somewhat recently, when Marc Dwyer upped his game and dropped one of the best albums of 2022. Buzz Kull grooves in a way a lot of EBM bands don't. The latest track bounces.
BASTARDASH - Count Fabula (actually released 2022)
This track actually came out in 2022 but the guy behind BASTARDASH keeps pulling his tracks down then reuploading them, so I didn't know it existed until this year. I looked him up and he's apparently an electrician in Atlanta who makes industrial tracks with 200 listens in his spare time. And that's cool as hell. Obsessed with this since I stumbled upon it.
Nation of Language - Dance Called Memory
Nation of Language are just about perfect. I don't know anyone who does synthpop so well. They acknowledge and build upon their influences, everything they do is hooky (and Hooky, given their debt to New Order), and all three members are phenomenal musicians/composers. They also really like Chapel Hill, which is cool. Their latest album is no different from their previous work: dreamy, floaty, thoughtful, beautiful.
Fever Ray - I'm Not Done (Therapy Session)
I'm on record saying Karin Dreijer is one of the most important vocalists of Generation X. Their warbling, experimentation, and constantly poking at the technological limits of what vocals can do isn't just good but notable. Now, I'm also on record about preferring what my friend Jon calls forest sprite Fever Ray from the first album, but that's no slight on their later work: Fever Ray's first album is the best album of the 00s. So doing forest sprite Fever Ray in updated, beat heavy, club appropriate style merged a lot of stuff I like.
FUEDAL - Max Continuous Power
I'd love to tell you something about FUEDAL but I don't know anything about them except that they're from Los Angeles. They rip, though, and their new EP has been on repeat in my car lately: jagged synths, bouncy drums, and an appropriately bored sounding vocalist. Greater than the sum of its parts and builds on the work of Sextile.
Patriarchy - Manual For Dying
A bit poppier than previous work, but still great. I've been listening to Ashley Huizenga since she did her semi-viral Krampus Christmas video. Product of its time. But watching her go from a goofy YouTube musician to an industrial sex-poet with a dash of Rozz Williams theatrics has been one of the best stories in music the past 20 years. I just need a proper album cut of their Lady Shave cover.
Celldod - På Liv Och Död
Absolute scorcher of a track, pulling from DAF and Portion Control for its repetitive, bass-heavy sound.
NTRSN - The Final Collapse Report
Who even knows why this took so long. I'm not plugged in anymore. I Die:You Die pins it to constantly shifting lineups and I trust them. One of the most inventive EBM bands of the century.
Zanias - Cataclysm
I think Alison Lewis is the best. Juggling DJing, a host of projects, and constantly guesting on others' albums, I think she's one of the best electronic musicians and vocalists in the world. Every Zanias album is a reinvention and they come damn near every other year. No gaps here. And she reinvents herself again, moving further into a futurepop/house/big beat zone. She's the best.
Pablo Bozzi & Lexi L'acqua - Higher
And here's Lewis again, under the name Lexi L'acqua, collaborating with her buddy Pablo Bozzi. Bozzi is the leading exporter of what's tongue in cheek called Italo Body Music, blending Italo Disco and EBM, and basically does nothing but great dance tracks. This track moves in a housier direction than in the past but that's not a bad thing at all. Bozzi and Lewis both flex their range here.
Sextile - yes, please
Sextile veers from hardcore to techno to house to EBM on their latest album. They're having a ton of fun without ever losing their edge.
NORMANS - Bend the Branch (Hans Mix)
All I know is that NORMANS are also from Los Angeles and they're a self-described noise punk band. The track is in heavy rotation in my car. I mean that bassline.
PVA - Send
PVA were never going to hit the heights of their debut. It was the best album that year. But they get close here, reclaiming that particular mix of heavy beats, industrial, shrieking synths, and punk edge. It builds and builds, bored vocals growing slightly more frantic and pleading as the song wears on. Appropriately abrasive.
