This week, the New York Times published a piece titled, The Gen X Career Meltdown with the gut-wrenching subhead, “Just when they should be at their peak, experienced workers in creative fields find that their skills are all but obsolete.” I thought it was a fitting way to frame this very feature, one I’ve been drafting for the past few weeks.
As a Gen-Xer, and despite paying for several streaming accounts, I prefer to consume music the way I always have–with a bit of danger. I read about an act or an album on NME, Pitchfork, or Pause and Play, sample a few bits online, and then take the plunge, ordering the CD or hitting my local record store. There’s something visceral about throwing money down and taking a chance with a record that the artist has likely put a lot of time, money, heart and soul into creating. Like, we’re in this together, versus applying knee-jerk Tinder style swiping to my Spotify playlist.
The Gen X mindset also plays into the music I gravitate to. As much as the mainstream media gravitates to youth culture, there are still plenty of artists out there who now hold AARP cards (or the international equivalent if there is one), but are still producing incredible NEW music. This is very important, as it’s more common to just cash in on the nostalgia circuit and keep playing the old hits. In the past 15 or so years Duran Duran, Devo, the Ocean Blue, and OMD are among the acts delivering career best albums decades after their debuts. And in 2025, many more legacy acts will now join this Comeback Club.
Here are my picks for the best albums of the year so far.
Writer’s note: This posts contains zero affiliate links. I don’t get paid for these reviews and do this solely to help amazing artists find the fans who will adore them as much as I do. Meta has wiped out the ability for non-profit, ad-free blogs to find audience, so while there’s nothing to like or subscribe to here, your comments and shares are very welcome and appreciated! Did I miss one of your favorite new albums? Join the conversation.
#1: The Vapors • Wasp in a Jar
Oh I’m sure there are some pearl clutchers out there who feel The Vapors’ iconic ode to self pleasure, ‘Turning Japanese’, is no longer PC. I am NOT one of these people. I’ve spun that song a good 20+ times per year for a good 40+ years now and will never, ever tire of it. That’s why I’m absolutely kicking myself that I never thought to look beyond the dozen or so New Wave Hits of the 80’s collections where I own this track to explore the rest of The Vapors’ catalog. The band had put out two albums in their heyday, New Clear Sounds (1980) and Magnets (1981) before evaporating from the zeitgeist until a 2020 return (Together). And like many of the other 80’s acts we’re gonna dish about today, the Vapors’ return isn’t a look back, it’s a bold look forward, delivering some of the very best songs that will define our 2025 and beyond.
If you’re looking for the next ‘Turning Japanese’ on this album, you’ll be hard pressed to choose because every single song on this album is the one. ‘Hit the Ground Running’ was the last song written and the first released as a single, perfectly setting the stage for where the band is headed.
Earnest, heartfelt lyrics intertwine with massive hooks and earworm choruses throughout the track and the full LP. Three tracks in particular, ‘Forever & Ever’, whose chorus provides the album’s title, ‘Miss You Girl’, and ‘Carry On’, have been absolute lifesavers as I’ve dealt with the chaos of 2025, not by being emotionally-laden sob fests, but by being absolutely huge, uplifting, buoyant and soulful power pop songs.
But wait – there’s more! Cherry Red Records just announced The Vapors’ first two albums will be re-released in April as an expanded box set called Waiting for the Weekend. Richard Blade recently announced The Vapors will headline his latest flashback tour, featuring A Flock of Seagulls (read more on them below), Peter Godwin, Josie Cotton, China Crisis, and Big Country.
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#2: Lady Gaga • Mayhem
Whether Mayhem is either the 6th, 11th or 13th album by Ms. Germonatta depends on how you file her EPs, jazz duet albums, remixes, and soundtrack work into her discography. That said, props must be given to the fact that 17 years into her mainstream career she’s released one of her best albums to date, if not her very best. Madonna did the same thing in her 17th year with her masterpiece, Music. I became an instant and lifelong fan the moment Gaga veered off script in her first SNL appearance with an impromptu love letter song for NYC.
SNL was where Gaga recently staged perhaps two of the Top 10 most epic performances in that show’s history. Now legendary performances of ‘Abcadabra’ and ‘Killah’ featured her army of Lene Lovich clones, perhaps the fiercest dance routines I’ve ever seen on the show, which says a lot considering the high bar Tate McRae’s first song the week prior proved. I splurged on both deluxe editions, from her official store and Target, each with a must-hear bonus track. It’s insane that something this mainstream can feel so edgy and underground. Mayhem is the perfect next act after Charli XCX’s Brat Summer.
#3: Kim Wilde • Closer
When the 80’s crashed in, I was mainly an ABBA, ONJ, and Fleetwood Mac kid. ‘Kids in America’ b/w ‘You’ll Never Be So Wrong’ (a Kim Wilde 7-inch I still own and cherish), was the bridge that led me from mainstream pop into a lifetime of new wave and post punk that soon became the core of my listening. Closer, Kim’s 15th studio album, serves both as the first salvo in a bold new era and a much-deserved victory lap for the career that got her here.
Cherry Red Records has done a bang-up job in reissuing and expanding Wilde’s discography, from the edgier RAK Years sound to the smoothed out mainstream era where Wilde competed alongside Belinda Carlisle and Kylie Minogue for the crown of a genre I’ll coin as Mom pop. Closer’s first few tracks reignite the sinister magic of Wilde’s darker early albums, fitting since it shares the title of a landmark Joy Division LP. Early tracks include some lyrical easter eggs nodding to Kim’s past hits, before the production gets brighter and bigger with every subsequent track. This time around, the writing, production, and performance are urgent as hell, with plenty of grit left in the mix to give all the songs heft. Closer tips its hat to Kim Wilde’s 1988 album, Close, so one can only hope a decade or so from now, the trilogy will conclude with Closest. In the meantime, this disc is a must-own, as is the previous one, 2018’s Here Come the Aliens.
#4: A Flock of Seagulls • Some Dreams (Super Deluxe)
Around the same time I bought the aforementioned Kim Wilde vinyl single, I also snagged A Flock of Seagulls’ ‘Space Age Love Song’, a single that was backed with ‘Windows’, a heartbreaking song that quickly became one of my all-time favorites, and for me cemented the band as a multi-multi-hit wonder. From that moment forward, I’ve been all in, cherishing Seagulls deep cuts as much as the dozen or so massive radio hits the band has enjoyed over the years.
In the early 1990s, the band starred in one of the most emotionally rewarding, globe-trotting episodes of VH1’s Bands Reunited, and the gang has since reunited for a series of nostalgia exercises to satiate the hardcore fans like me. Two orchestral recordings, Ascension (2018) and String Theory (2021) were released as multi-disc box sets, while a harmless re-recording of their 12-inch singles, In Flight, came out in 2019. In terms of NEW music, 30 years have passed since Light at the End of the World. The biggest event in these gap years came with the 2011 Cherry Red reissue of 1986’s truly solid Dream Come True album that included some ace remixes of the absolute bop single ‘Who’s That Girl (She’s Got It)’ along with a stellar 12-minute bonus track, ‘(Cosmos) The Effect of the Sun’.
A year ago, the title track of Some Dreams was released on a pretty great August Day compilation, Orchestral Eighties, that rounded up re-recordings by the likes of Rick Springfield Wang Chung, and Berlin. As the year closed out, the full album of the same name was released after most year-end lists were published. Now that the field has cleared, Some Dreams has had much of my undivided attention. This time around, it’s just Mike Score, surrounded by studio ringers, but sonically and emotionally, Some Dreams ranks up there with the first two albums as a Seagulls’ discography best. Score’s voice has not aged, nor has his ability to write beautiful, dark, edgy yet pretty, visceral yet chill, new wave pop gems. And this time around, every track could be a single. The four-disc special edition allows these tracks room to bloom as they’re presented in a myriad of remixed and instrumental forms.
#5: Sorrows • Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
Sorrows, not to be confused with The Sorrows, was one of those bands that blew up soon after liftoff in the early 80’s, which was a common fate for bands of the era. The first album, Teenage Heartbreak, kicked in the door with a stack of earnest, edgy and accessible, pop-leaning, Beatles-tinged punk rock tracks – played to packed gigs at the likes of CBGBs. Their record label, as labels do, overpolished the sophomore album, Love too Late, with big bucks producer Shel Talmy. I get the gambit, as Talmy produced some of the biggest singles by The Kinks and The Who, but this album tanked, and the band was relegated to the discount bin of history.
Leave it to Big Stir Records to give the band the opportunity to rewrite history by releasing a sonically remastered version of the intended mix of Love Too Late… the real album in 2021. And now, the label stirs things up again by rescuing the band’s third LP from the vault, the aptly titled Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow. Unlike posthumous releases like Amy Winehouse’s Lioness, Hidden Treasures or the dozen or so Tupac albums, the final Sorrows album plays like a truly cohesive sonic experience, perhaps the best of the three. It was recorded in a single night session with Teenage Heartbreak producer Mark Milchman back in 1981 and those tapes have sat in the vault ever since. This album absolutely crackles, with nods to everyone from The Kinks, The Beatles, and Cheap Trick, to Jeff Lynne, Duane Eddy, and Bo Diddley.
I tracked down Sorrows’ first two albums on Amazon and spent much of this young year experiencing their full catalog to bring myself up to speed. There is so much gold in them there hills, and thanks to the mixing work of lead singer Arthur Alexander, this new classic is ready to shine brightest of all. Most of the band’s sonic contemporaries like the Kinks, the Cars, Buzzcocks, the Exploding Hearts, and the Strokes are long gone, retired, or inactive. So if you love those bands and are eager to explore the true depth of Sorrows, begin here, at the end. A sad footnote, both Milchman and Talmy passed away in 2024 before this album could be released. Now available via the mighty Big Stir Records online store.
And now, three current acts whose spellbinding new albums evoke the heyday of New Wave.
#6: Waves Crashing • Effection
You’d be gobsmacked to learn this shoegaze, darkwave trio hails from Nirvana’s back yard versus the hometowns of Joy Division, Lush, or Primal Scream. Olympia, Washington’s Waves Crashing has been establishing a commanding live presence throughout the Pacific Northwest for a few years now. Primarily releasing EPs up to this point, the band is steadily bringing a wall of guitars and a myriad of pedal effects to the forefront of their sound, Effection blazes out of the gate with the wallop of Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream aimed at a new generation. Hints of Poster Children intertwine with vibes from the UK shoegaze and post punk movements. The resulting effect(ion) is a massive album with the propulsion to thrust the band from smoky regional clubs to festivals and theater stages worldwide. Check out their stellar discography on Bandcamp and their recent appearance on Band in Seattle.
#7: Coley Kennedy • Neptune Blue
Jackson, Michigan is a lovely, small town lunch stop for a nice day trip between Ann Arbor and Cereal City, so how on earth it birthed one of the year’s best synth pop albums is beyond me, Coley Kennedy’s day job is in photography, but he’s been involved with many bands over the years, including Welcome to Ashley and one of my new favorites, Black Vincent. His new solo project echoes the shadows and heartbreak of all great new wave club classics. ‘(We Are) Born to Lose’ is a massive single with a lovelorn vocal performance you just might swear is Richard Butler from the Psychedelic Furs, truly in line with the Gen X sentiment of the aforementioned New York Times piece. Echoes of Bauhaus solo projects from Daniel Ash, David J, and Peter Murphy inform much of this exquisite LP, as do traces of A Flock of Seagulls, Comsat Angels, Friends Again, B-Movie, China Crisis, and other college radio icons. Snap up Neptune Blue on Bandcamp.
#8: Korine • A Flame in the Dark
Remember when MGMT was fun? You know, before they became an insufferable, fame-loathing art project? Well, the magic spark that made 2007’s Octular Spectacular, well exactly that is back with a vengeance with Korine, a Philadelphia synth pop duo comprised of Morgy Ramone and Trey Frye. Big, wet, Peter Hook-style bass lines anchor jubilant synth pop opuses that evoke peak era OMD and Felix da Housecat while blazing a signature sound that’s truly their own. 2023’s Tear was my gateway into their world, and their debut album New Arrangements helped me keep the Korine buzz going til this new album dropped. Grab your guyliner and meet your favorite new band. Get Korine’s new album and their previous releases on Bandcamp.
#9: 20/20 • Back to California
Back in 1983, a mainstream FM station in Cleveland went new wave – but just for the summer. A brilliant celebration of what were otherwise college and fringe MTV singles of the day, presented by big sounding FM DJs and station ID bumpers as if they were American Top 40 hits. This is where I discovered Peter Godwin’s ‘Images of Heaven’, Heaven 17’s ‘Fascist Groove Thing’, Maurice & The Cliche’s ‘Soft Core’, and Burning Sensations’ ‘Belly of the Whale’. But one song that I taped off the radio all those years ago, ‘Nuclear Boy’, eluded me. I was obsessed with it for decades when I had a cassette deck in the car, and then forgot about it when the CD era emerged. When powerhouse power pop label Spyder Pop Records announced 80’s darlings 20/20 had reunited, I immediately connected this news to the band’s other big single, ‘Yellow Pills’, and only thereafter learned they were the band behind ‘Nuclear Boy’. This discovery led to a complete immersion in the band, as I listened to three of their albums (2 classic, 1 new) in heavy rotation for the past three months.
The new album, Back to California, landed on the charts right as the fires devastated much of the landscape they so lovingly sing about. It became an unintended soundtrack to what California once was, and will be again one day. Bright and sunny, lovely and lovelorn, California is a suite of sweet and elegant odes to canyon, mountain, and beachside living. Band co-founders Steve Allen and Ron Flynt both honor and update the classic Laurel Canyon sound for a new generation, while delivering the right dose of power and pop to thrill longtime fans. Available at Bandcamp.
#10: Wolfgang Flur • TIMES
A few years ago, this Kraftwerk alum landed on my year-end best albums list with Magazine 1, a hit packed LP that recruited Peter Hook (New Order), Claudia Brucken (Propaganda), and Midge Ure (Ultravox) to provide guest vocals and instrumentation akin to an electronic take on Santana’s Supernatural. And now, Wolfie is back, along with Hook and members of Daft Punk and Yellow for another go. Times is an engrossing album, one that marries the coldness of computers with truly cool lyrical phrasing; it leverages classic electropop with the aim to dominate modern European radio. Get it now at Cherry Red Records.
#11: The Loft • Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same
I have little doubt London’s The Loft was among the bands played in heavy rotation on the 1980s college radio stations in Cleveland and Tampa that pretty much shaped my entire music fan trajectory. But it wasn’t until 2015’s Cherry Red Records box set, Artifact: The Dawn of Creation Records, where I finally got a sampling of the band’s music, as their 12 tracks are scattered across four of the set’s five discs. When I say “their 12 tracks”, that’s about it – and most of those are live tracks and BBC sessions. After releasing a handful of studio singles on Alan McGee’s influential label (primarily known for The Jesus and Mary Chain, the Bodines, and Primal Scream), the Loft closed down. So color me shocked when here in 2025, they finally get around to releasing their debut album, this time on Hamburg’s Tapete Records.
The band appears to be in no rush, having buried the hatchet to gig again 20 years ago. But as this charming mini documentary attests, these are just a bunch of salty haired friends, enjoying full lives outside of the band, but eager to see where this new chapter might take them.
Cherry Red Records has minted a few dozen lavish box sets honoring “indie” bands of the day, so if you like the Woodentops, The June Brides, and other C-86 alumni, you’ll absolutely love checking into The Loft once more. A few copies available on Amazon, also available on the band’s Bandcamp.
12: Envy of None • Stygian Waves
Anyone hoping for Rush 2.0 from Alex Lifeson’s new project likely jumped ship with Envy of None’s self-titled debut in 2022. This band is very much of the now, courting fans of Garbage, Paramore, Monsters are Waiting, Joydrop, NewDad, West Indian Girl, and Veruca Salt with a polished, well-produced, clubby modern alternative sound that is both prog and dancefloor, rock, pop and and funk at any given turn. Maiah Wynne is the central focus, but guitarists Alf Annibalini and Andy Curran more than hold their own with Lifeson and a Murderer’s Row of drummers. Check out Planet LP Podcast host Ted Asregadoo’s take on the album in this week’s Popdose Single Play.
13: Chris Church • Obsolete Path
North Carolina’s Chris Church is a musician’s musician, wandering the Earth to play in countless bands, and master countless genres, from power pop, to prog and metal. It wasn’t until his last album, Radio Transient, that he finally met me where I was. It’s polished, upbeat, 80’s vibe fits perfectly in with the rest of the albums I speak about in this post, but his new one fills a greater need. Last year, Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe Armstrong, Counting Crows, Susanna Hoffs, and Ian Hunter were among the two dozen A-listers to pay tribute to ailing Jesse Malin on the 2CD Silver Patron Saints. While the former D-Generation singer has established quite the rep with a core fanbase, he has yet to break through to the Brandi Carlisle, Jason Isbell, or Jelly Roll level his music deserves. Chris Church, like Malin, is a pot ready to boil, with visceral and soulful music ripe and ready for a massive breakthrough. Throw a dart at the tracklist next time you’re streaming, and you’ll be rightfully rewarded. Crisp production sounds even better on CD or vinyl. Get it at Big Stir Records.
#14: Kneecap • Music from the Motion Picture
Why they didn’t time the soundtrack to the truly epic biopic’s theatrical run or Netflix debut is beyond me, but most of the film’s essential rap tracks appear on the band’s landmark 2024 album, Fine Art. If you’re looking for a spectacular follow-up to Netflix smash Adolescence, Kneecap the movie is an entirely different beast, but it packs the same visceral punch. There’s nothing quite like it in cinema, and the musicians/rappers/acting leads and the film director are all first timers yet master their crafts like seasoned pros if not infinitely better. The proper soundtrack is a coke-addled rocket ride much like the movie, with Fontanes DC, Orbital, and composer Michael “Mikey J” Asante adding to the madness. I can barely understand most English-speaking artists, from Manfred Mann to Nirvana, so Kneecap’s rapping, mostly in Gaelic, adds to the thrills and charms of the entire experience.
15: Lucy Dacus • Forever is a Feeling
While Phoebe Bridgers was huge before forming supergroup boygenius, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker quickly escalated from indie darlings to bankable mainstream stars soon after. Each of them has new music out, with Baker partnering with TORRES for a new album and Dacus flying solo. Baker and Dacus recently came out as a couple, and blossoming love is certainly a central theme of Forever is a Feeling. Both new projects, along with whatever Bridgers cooks up next, are sure to appeal to fans of the trio.
16: Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco • I Said I Love You First
17: Tate McCrae • So Close to What
18: Sabrina Carpenter • Short n’ Sweet (Deluxe Edition)
19: Ariana Grande • Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead
2024 was such an epic year for mainstream pop with masterclass releases led by Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande (solo and with Wicked), and Madison Beer– so many iconic albums and singles that I was wondering if 2025 could raise the bar. So far, so great, with Emmy and Oscar nominated Gomez, who just happens to be a self-made billionaire business tycoon, further upping her Grammy nomination game (2 and counting). Even with her fiancee’s name on the project, Selena is front and center with a very intimate songbook that travels through love’s many stages from Springtime to Winter. As with Taylor Swift, these are diary entries set to music more than songs, but still the collection has its charms.
And now, one of the best dance sequences I have ever seen on SNL…
I really didn’t get the appeal of McCrae until her media blitz to promote this album – and while her style is a bit over-produced compared to what I normally go for, her three records (I now own them all) are quite enjoyable. Sabrina, the absolute Queen of 2024, takes a victory lap, bringing Dolly Parton along for the ride. My only complaint about the deluxe was it left off her best song of the album cycle, a digital-only b-side called ‘Needless to Say’. This week, Ms. Grande doubled the size of her Eternal Sunshine album. Absolutely one of the most exquisite voices in all of pop proves she can be just as cinematic in sound as she is on screen. Well worth the upgrade.
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#20: Jason Isbell • Foxes in the Snow
A few years ago, cameras were rolling as Jason Isbell’s marriage to Amanda Shires was falling apart, The resulting documentary, packaged into HBO’s Music Box series, achieved its primary goal, of showing how former Drive By Trucker, Isbell, creates his fantastic records in collaboration with the 400 Unit (which at the time included Shires). So it’s fitting post divorce, that Isbell goes this one truly alone – just him and a guitar, for his most intimate affair to date. I’ve been digesting these diary entries alongside live songs and demos Shires has been posting to Instagram in the middle of the night – often before deleting them within hours (5 spectacular works in progress posted to date). Isbell’s work here might not be big in the rhythm and chorus department, nary an earworm to be found within, but he is a masterful storyteller, so if you give him your undivided attention, he delivers.
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#21: Robert Forster • Strawberries
Google “Robert Forster” and you’re likely going to see the face of the late legendary actor, best known to me from Tarantino’s Jackie Brown and Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. But I’ve actually known Australian MUSICIAN Robert Forster’s music for much longer, as albums from his band, The Go-Betweens, dominated much of my late 80’s, MTV 120 Minutes era listening. ‘Spring Rain’, from 1986’s Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, and ‘Streets of Your Town’ from 1988’s 16 Lovers Lane, are among my favorite songs of all time, along with ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’, the 1991 solo offering by former Go-Between Grand McClennan, who left this world way too early in 2006.
Since the end of the band, Forster has been steadily releasing majestic solo records on Beggars Banquet, Capitol, and now Tapete Records, home to this one, his 9th. Peter Moren of Peter, Bjorn and John, produces this elegant affair, one that plays like a soundtrack to an imaginary BBC romance set in a small and charming coastal village. It’s a breezy affair for the most part, until they end the album with a bang, as the final track ‘Diamonds’ starts off as an ode to ‘For What it’s Worth’ by Buffalo Springfield (the “stop, children, what’s that sound” song), before careening way off the rails with an avant pop sax solo and Forster going falsetto. Old dog, new tricks. And we’re all better for it. Look for this album at the end of May.
22: The Weeknd: Hurry Up Tomorrow
I was never a huge fan of Abel Tesfaye’s abbreviated alter ego, but then he went and released 2022’s Dawn FM – with eloquent wee hour FM DJ ramblings by Jim Carrey and a poignant spoken word story by the late Quincy Jones. The music was absolutely spectacular and should hold its own to become one of the best albums of this decade. But then came his HBO flop of a series and then, this new album. I’m keeping it here at #22 as a placeholder for the year-end countdown to see if it grows a bit. Much like the lovely new Tate McRae album, we have yet to see if these albums lose flavor like JuicyFruit or hold on for a while like Hubba Bubba.
Rumor has Abel is going to hang up the moniker for a while which is a good thing. Why not try something new? I hear there’s a movie that goes with this album, starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan (Saltburn), so let’s hope it pops a bit more than the album does out of the gate.
23: Night Crickets • How it Ends?
In 2022, Omnivore Records released the quite charming, oddball debut from what I assumed would be a one-off supergroup, Night Crickets, featuring David J. (Love and Rockets, Bauhaus), Victor DeLorenzo (Violent Femmes) and multi-instrumentalist Darwin Meiners. Careers leading up to that release were a mixed bag of really out there artistry with bonafide classics, one could honestly never know what was coming next, even within the brand umbrellas of their iconic bands. So it was a pleasant surprise that their first album, A Free Society, was so accessible. It landed high on my 2022 best albums list.
Without me hearing a word, they quietly ghost-released a follow-up, How it Ends(?), on a different label, Label 51 Recordings, and it is a much different album. More avant garde and left field, but still pleasantly intriguing. Actor Willem Dafoe guests on one vocal (‘The World I See Is Not The World I Want’), and the late Harry Dean Stanton appears within a movie dialogue sample on ‘The Story of War’. David J has already announced his next venture, spoken word poetry set to soundscapes, so I guess this album is a nice transition from the Crickets’ indie rock debut into edgier fare.
24: The Bolshoi Brothers
The Bolshoi is another one of those bands I played the daylights out of on my Kent State college radio show, but never dug deep into beyond crowdpleasers like ‘Away’ and ‘Happy Boy’. A few years ago, I splurged on their Complete Albums Series box that collects the studio albums and rarities, each in cardboard slip sleeves that mimic the original album art. And now, they’re back as The Bolshoi Brothers, which one can guess is a legal workaround, similar to which Ashton brother owns the name Gene Loves Jezebel in the US or the UK.
This new album isn’t as immediately gratifying as the others on this list, more akin to Violent Femmes who followed their hit-packed, self-titled pop set, with the darker Hallowed Ground album. Co-founder Trevor Tanner said at the album’s announcement, “This is not an exercise in nostalgia however, it is a brand new project with obvious nods to our respective past, but a distinctive and sincere approach, resulting in a unique if slightly skewed musical identity, which I think is very relevant in these present days”. We’ll see if this album lands in my year-end Top 25 of 2025 list, but regardless, it’s nice to have welcomed the boys back to town, and art is meant to expand one’s horizons versus rein them in.
#25: Everything Yet to Come
So, what’s next? Considering the rate of big big new releases, the next three months will likely see another 25 to 50 big new albums for us to savor. One of my favorites, The Chameleons, keep promising to release Arctic Moon, which would be their 5th album and first in a quarter century. Lana Del Rey will drop her first post-marriage album, so it will be interesting to see if Bayou vibes have set in.
Plus, there are the new bands well worth watching. Some of my favorites: Haute & Freddy, THEM, Sunday (1994), Courting, Doechii. and Divorce.
And beyond that, heaven knows. See you back here later in the year. Until then, keep supporting the artists you love as best you can.
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