herin 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
