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find meherin lies my belated list of favourite music from the year of 2025. The qualifications for this list is music released between November 2024 - November 2025 that I have had a profound effect on me, both in terms of technical skill and my favourite sounds and in terms of the memories I've formed with them (hence why it's November to November not Jan to Jan)
3rd - Private Music by Deftones
Despite being a return to the producer from Koi No Yokan, the album that most heavily relies on their shoegaze influence, and being a return to formula from Ohms, their last album which disappointed me, this album feels like a fresh take from the band. Private Music takes a more conceptual approach to their previous efforts with songs transitioning into eachother seamlessly and a narrative loosely running throughout. This album pulls on their shoegaze strings again but unlike their last effort with Raskulinecz it's in a different way. Koi No Yokan pulled on the recognisable qualities of the genre but was still an album you approach as a numetal album: you turn it up loud on some near blown speakers at the skate park while sipping the cheap vodka you pretend to stomach. Private Music is an album you approach as a shoegaze album despite sounding like a numetal album. This album is understated: you listen to it quietly with an attentive ear and just bob along and feel it at stupid o clock and drift into it's searing wave. fav track: Infinite Source, the song feels like a swan song to something you don't have control over losing but you know it's going
2nd - Perverts by Ethel Cain
Ethel Cain released two albums this year, One was a follow up to her acclaimed 2022 LP Preachers Daughter, the other was a shock to many that forced a reaction by her fans that can only be described as a metaironic component in the fabric and messaging of the album. To understand Perverts one must know of Ethel's previous output. Ethel's soft yet depressing vignettes made a sudden veer into the aggitating unapproachable black'nd pit of dark ambient with Perverts. The album doesn't give you anything to settle into or expect this other than the eerie visage of Ethel on the artwork. No the album starts with 'Nearer my god to thee ... Heaven has forsaken the masturbator.' That is the thesis of this album that simultaniously tries to grab at the hand of god like a musical recreation of The Creation Of Adam, yet also can't help but embrace degeneration. A song titled 'Onanist' (a word synonymous with masturbator for those who also had to back out the dictionary) is placed next to Pulldrone, a thesis on god with the declaration 'I want to know what he knows, and I WILL be with him.' As someone who frequents the avante-garde and wierd corners of music, I believe music after stripping off all the prose and pretense is simpily auditory tension and release. Perverts drags a build of tension from Housofpsychoticwomn right up toThatorchia where Amber Waves is the release. The pay off is exactly worth it for the pain to get there, I genuinely struggle to believe this is her first attempt at dark ambient, and you just get this pathetic yet overwhelming swell of catharsis across the closer. fav track: Pulldrone, This song is dense with meaning and has lead me down some crazy rabbit holes trying to understand it
hm - Strung Out Symphony by Aldn
This album is so good, it hit me so hard and I LOVE the direction. It just feels like it could've been slightly more fleshed out. There are a ton of ideas but they're fleeting without a connecting thread between them, hence why it just missed out on the 3rd spot fav track: icantbelieveiletyougetaway I never imagined I'd like a Weezer inspired anything
fav - DDAARRKK by EDEN
I've been listening to EDEN for about a decade now. His music was very much a catalyst for my current tastes. Needless to say anything he releases I anticipate eagerly. so when this album was hit with a massive delay due to label issues, it seemed like it would never arrive. Fast forwards and I'm on the roof of a car park in North Greenwitch with like 100 other people circling a red Mazda kitted out with an insane number of speakers. I crack open a bottle of soju I bought in Canary Wharf, London's little corner of Singapore, en route to this indestinct car park in the shaddow of the O2 Arena. This would be the first time I heard the album which would remain on repeat from its release abt a week later than these events. The glassy chops of still heralding one of the best albums I've heard. I plan to do a deep dive into this album at some point so I'll refrain from adding too much here to save you reading the same thing twice. fav track: quantuuuum
EP_ALbums
STE The Beautiful Martyr 1st Attempt by Bladee
A title such as STE the beautiful martyr first attempt, an artwork with 'Saint George' written 6 times, and 'Insister of Righteous Aim' written next to Bladee's name. One would think that this is some kind of pulp fiction. That wouldn't be far from the truth. What's in a title like that? the perplexing thing to me was the first word 'ste' which apparently is a feminine form of st. (shorthand for saint) in english. Given both Bladee and st. George are men so would be referred to with st. not ste. I tried to check if this was different in Bladee's native tounge of sweedish but I am yet to find any leads on this short of buying an english-sweedish dictionary. So either this is a sweedish word or Bladee was feeling a bit fruity when naming this EP. 'The Beautiful Martyr' is the easiest to understand part of the title. A martyr being someone who's death for a cause inspires the masses that follow that cause, beautiful tying back to 5 Star Crest (4 Vattenrum) where Bladee proclaims that all death is beautiful, a proclaimation likely from the immaterial focus in Abrahamic religious texts. '1st Attempt' reads to me like a double entendre. On one hand it could be reffering to the meta aspect. 'This took me only one take to record.' Rap music has a tendency to celebrate rappers who are seen as a natural in the craft with freestyles and such. On the otherhand This album reads as someone aspiring and modelling themselves after St. George to attain the same qualities he has. This is Bladee's 1st attempt to martyr himself as a saint bringing an almost tragic quality to the declaration. This is probably Bladee's finest attempt at the extended play format, extremely dense in meaning and further proof that Bladee is improving everytime he's in the studio. fav track: One In A Million Bladee examind his martyr complex through a different lens from his previous efforts on this topic.
SINGLES_SOngs
3rd - Expression On Your Face by Mechatok, Bladee, & Ecco2k
Super addictive, super fun and mixed tightly instead of compressing the master. Mechatok caught a bit of a bad rep with D9 fans after a mixed reception to 2021's collab tape with bladee. this and MAKKA with Ecco2k, & fakemink on vocals were enough to restore good will in mechatok, and chosing which one to place here was a real struggle. This one won out bc it's paired with a rare example of a music video I actually like.
2nd - Tequila Coma by Yeule, Mura Massa, & Kin Leonn
The opener to Yeule's newest trip hop inspired effort, this song is like a little sweet. The mixing is super tight for the first half. Then you get this guitar riff come in that cuts over everything like the donut filling bleeding into your mouth. this song is such a treat ^u^
hm - Bird Brain by Jamie Paige, Kasane Teto, & OK GLASS
oh god this song is so good oh my penis AAARRRRGGHHHHHGHGHGH (the quality review you came here for zhora stamp of approval best review i will ever commit to ok ty goodbi)
1st - Quantuuuum by EDEN
Potentially a contender for one of my all time favourite songs, quantuuuum is a postmodern crash of duster style bass driven slowcore & shoegaze. Flowing perfectly from the previous track on the album 'Pocket (Montreal)' owing to them sharing a drum pattern and instrument makeup. This is significant on an album that goes out its way to avoid smooth song transitions. My favourite song from last year and this song do clash tho, just lyrically not instrumentally. Pocket places great emphasis on the words left unsaid, the silent moments where our mental walls stop us accepting the reality in front of us. Quantuuuum IS the reality blinding, seering, and desolate, yet still we try to refute it, hiding behind a veil of meaninglessness "it don't matter" yet we still dwell on it "it's like you dwell between the time, between the minutes" we become a smokeshow to our own story. Until ultimately we feel and care about nothing "this aint working out, I can't tell what's real" caring has become optional. When choosing to care you feel the bliss of a kiss but also the pain of being killed. This song sounds like an after thought that exists just because it can, especially after the sonically similar pocket, it presents itself as nothing, despite being a declaration of everything. This song hit me on a deep level when it released and forced me to self evaluate in a way that pulled me out of my struggles and issues at the midpoint of this year.