My favorite music releases of 2025
Is it a bit late to be talking about music releases from last year? Maybe. Will I share my favorite relases of 2025 with you anyway? You bet. Here we go.
Do It Later - Feeling Spent (punk, emo, math rock)
Wow, I just love this album. After Do It Later’s debut EP, I was really looking forward to more music from them. And their full-length album does not disappoint! Old-school emo rock combined with intricate guitar play and rhythms (they are originally a math rock band, after all).
Getdown Services - Primordial Slot Machine (electronic, art pop, spoken word)
Getdown Services are such a prolific duo. I might not enjoy all of their songs, but there’s so much great stuff among them that I keep going back to their releases and listen to all the “fillers” (for me) in big anticipation of the next upcoming banger (which usually isn’t far away!). In the case of “Primordial Slot Machine”, the songs “Chrysalis” and “Eat Quiche, Sleep, Repeat” really stand out to me. Aside from that, the humorous intro song, and “God Bless [M&S]” are really fun contributions to the release. After seeing some of their live sessions on YouTube, I’d love to see them play live! Ideally together with the next band I’m going to mention …
Home Counties - Humdrum (post-punk, synthwave)
Another year, another album from Home Counties! I’m glad they’re busy, and I’m definitely enjoying the album. Highlights include the title track, the interesting vocal rhythms in “New Best Thing”, and the crescendoing closing track “Like That”. That being said, their previous releases, the EP “In A Middle English Town” and full-length “Exactly As It Seems”, had a slightly higher banger ratio™ in my book.
Thumper - Middle Management (alternative, psychedelic rock)
Including this release is a bit of a cheat, since it’s a pre-release of the first 4 songs of their second album (which was released only now in 2026). But, I’ll include it here anyway, because streaming platforms are terrible at managing these pre-releases, and because these first songs are great.
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power (black metal, blackgaze, post-metal)
I honestly lost track of Deafheaven a bit after their famous Sunbather release in 2013. And I’m glad that people encouraged me to check out their newest release! A lot of good stuff on there, whereby “Magnolia”, Heathen” (both compact straightforward bangers) and “Amethyst” (more of a long-winded post-metal song) are my favorites.
P.S.: For some reason, Lonely People With Power is not available on Bandcamp (anymore?). 🤷
Gösta Berlings Saga - Forever Now (progressive rock, experimental)
Another strong release by Gösta Berlings Saga. Music that’s somewhere between a soundtrack to an imaginary epic sci-fi movie, a progressive rock band, and an orchestra. The intense climaxes of the longer songs are interspersed with much simpler quieter tracks that give you a little room to breathe. Also: Very cute cover art.
Elder - Liminality / Dream State Return (psychedelic rock, stoner rock)
Elder’s EP (or is it a single?) basically consists of one long song, and another song that could be interpreted as an expansive outro of the first song. What can I say? It’s Elder, it’s great. Repetitive-yet-interesting, smooth-yet-hard, simple-yet-complex.
Laura Lee & the Jettes - Tough Love Paradigm (indie rock, shoegaze)
A bit of a mixed bag for me, but the album definitely has some strong highlights thanks to the more shoegazy/psychedelic songs (“Grand Total Of Nothing”, “Unsolicited Advice”, and “Ordinary People”). And, I was lucky enough to see the fantastic album release concert in Berlin last year!