Honorable Mentions: Clipse – Let God Sort ‘Em Out, Kassa Overall – CREAM, Billy Woods – Golliwog, Momma – Welcome to My Blue Sky, JID – God Does Like Ugly
5. Bad Bunny – Debi Tirar Mas Fotos
Sounds like: A Party w Cool Older Relatives
Fav Track: Baile Inolvidable
Mr. Super Bowl himself has such a synthetic ear, and this is him showing it off better than any previous album, and better than just about anyone else who makes pop music (Maybe tied with Post Malone?). There are so many genres squeezed together; rapping is mushed into dance beats fade into lovely ballads cut into really-nicely-tracked horn sessions. I read a comment online that went “If you’re not from Puerto Rico, this is an 8. If you are, it’s a 10.” Sorta Jealous; my monolingual ass (I did Spanish 2 three times, that’s my ceiling) can only pick out little phrases, and I don’t know anything about Puerto Rican culture, and I still love it. I cried to Baile Inolvidable at 5pm on a Thursday in February on the downtown Denver public tram because it stirred so many emotions…
4. YHWH Nailgun – 45 Pounds
Sounds like: Man Birthing a Drumline
Fav Track: Tear Pusher
This album challenged me. Usually I prefer something more maximalist, like every other album on this list. On this album, all YHWH Nailgun bring to the party are (is?) three ingredients: 1) anguished moaning 2) rototommy drums 3) a synthesizer that is running out batteries. But one night, I went to bed, and a couple songs (tear pusher and penetrator) were stuck in my head, and as I dreamed with tunes in noggin, I found some tonality underlying it all. This is “listen to it a few times before you give up on it” kind of music. Unless you really hate it. That’s okay too. We can like different music!
3. Takkak Takkak – Takkak Takkak
Sounds like: Seance in an Unfinished Basement
Fav track: Garang
I’m unsure what foul action I took online pinged this into my youtube recommendation queue, because a few months later and the track linked up there only has a few thousand views. But it’s one of the most intensely disturbing musical experiences I’ve ever had. [in the Wikipedia Foundation donation asking voice]: Please. I need you to do one thing for me. Watch that video, loud… See, hearing is believing. This is music that rubs its belly slowly, fixed with a forty-yard stare as you sprout hair all over your palms. You can’t move towards it – your legs won’t work. It’s music that makes you want to reject the scientific method for other ways of knowing that are more transcendent. I love driving to the grocery store with this on and then morphing back into a human when I exit the car.
2. Viagra Boys – Viagr Aboys
Sounds like: Hooting and hollering you can dance to
Fav track: Pyramid of Health
A winning recipe, forever, is a sandwich. A thick bassline that could chug forever (bread) and shredding guitar (cheese) topped with sax chirps, flute twirls, little synth bloops and bleeps (I guess these are the veggies and condiments). Almost everyone could eat sandwiches every day and they wouldn’t complain. (note that this is also a dig at singer-songwriters, they’re like lettuce wraps. I need the bass bread and some more sonic calories). But this sandwich is also the best satirists of modern times. Good satire is hard, because bad satire SUCKS. You know, one of those onion articles that is too on the nose, or the entirety of the babylon bee, or the second knives out movie… when the point becomes the message and winking REALLY BIG, not having fun with it. You gotta lean into the things to satirize them, inhabit them a little. These songs tell stories about outsiders trying to find their way in society, but they’re penned by a man who is himself an outsider. After a handful of listens, the album starts to morph from silly to serious — many lyrics come from a place of addiction-inspired fear: for one’s health, for letting others down, for making others uncomfortable and avoiding tough conversations about one’s own mortality. If you want to hear more of my blabbin’, we podcasted about this one.
1. Wednesday – Bleeds
Sounds like: Creek Rock (their words)
Top Track: Townies
The first few songs of this album give me the stank face, with a concoction of fuzz and atonality around catchy songwriting. Music doesn’t get any better than the chorus of Townies or the guitar squeals of Reality TV Argument Bleeds. That’s like, the whole point of what we’re here on earth to experience, art-wise. Perfect mix of accessible and challenging to put me in the aesthetic appreciation sweet spot. Initially, I was disappointed by how the second half of the album got quieter – but then I saw the band live, where it wasn’t quieter, and my fellow concertgoer Mark helped me to the obvious-in-hindsight realization that if you just play the songs louder you hear a lot more scuzz and chaos on this back half; there isn’t anything missing from these quieter songs. (Listen to Candy Breath with ear pods on half volume versus blasting on car speakers. It’s two different songs.) Also, Karly Hartzmann can really wield a pen. My overall theme of good music in 2025, as rap stagnated, was rock music where genius was channeled through brevity and arrangement, rather than instrumental virtuosity (think Nirvana, not Yes). Bleeds isn’t a great album because the band is playing notes you can’t, it’s a great album because the band is playing notes you wouldn’t ever think to put together, while telling stories you can imagine as vividly as your own memories. If you want to hear more of our musings about the album, check out our podcast episode about it. I am revising my rating of the album from a 7 all the way up to a 9!
Thanks for reading my albums of the year list please send me your top 5 or top 3 or top 1!
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