First two months of 2025. There's been enough to talk about. Liked more than I thought I would.
- Ichiko Aoba (青葉市子) - Luminescent Creatures [Aoba-san is one of the greatest experiences among Japanese musicians I bore witness to in person. Here, she continues her delicately intimate journey from the vein of Windswept Adan and increases the natural environment sensory tenfold. My skin is clear, my pores exfoliated, and I am a changed man. She is one of the three women in music (Julia Holter and Liz Harris are the others) that I can turn to without fail to calm me down on any day without fail. She is one of the most gentle, soft-spoken, and kind humans I have interacted with in person and I am thankful for her music forever and always. Every album has been a gift]
- Ethel Cain - Perverts (EP) [symbolic of the current climate. Having listened to this several times, particularly at work, this has been a welcome pivot for Hayden. It drags me down further into the abyss, albeit leaving a faint light at the end of the experience. I don't think she can perform this music live with the typical behavior exhibited from her fans; the music would be damn near unlistenable. But as it stands listening in isolation, it provides me comfort that Hayden expresses my headspace in an equivalent sentiment now]
- Darkside - Nothing [nothing like I've heard from them before! Excellent series of opening tracks]
- Chihei Hatakeyama (畠山地平) - Lucid Dreams [hazy and ethereal. A live Japanese ambient experience of this record will be timely a week before flying out there this month!]
- Heartworms - Glutton For Punishment [gothic windmill scene is a vibe]
- Ocean Moon - Ways to the Deep Meadow [another winner to kick off the 2025 release schedule from MFM. Gorgeous. Very new age, almost like a modern Laraaji.]
- Oklou - choke enough [an ethereal cybernetic pocket of space with a unique atmosphere. It infiltrates an art pop sound while tapping into the gen-z underground. Think combining the ideas of Caroline Polachek, yeule, and Erika de Casier into one package, and you have choke enough. It will be played many times this year. LIST SPOILER: if this falls out of my top25 by year's end, then 2025 is my GOAT year for music this decade]
- Saor - Amidst the Ruins [Thanks 4 ur service, @musicjunkiegreg. A modern example of a masterclass black metal experience]
- Sharon Van Etten - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory [I've never heard Sharon's music like this before. I'm kind of stunned]
- The Weather Station - Humanhood [I've enjoyed Tamara's music in the past, Ignorance the most, but this was a further evolution of her contributions to baroque pop. Looking forward to the live performance in May!]
- Ambrose Akinmusire - honey from a winter stone [Remember, the field mouse is fast, but the "Owled" sees at night. HAHAHAHAHA! Kinda creepy, isn't it? Those talking segments were fairly annoying]
- Asian Glow - 11100011
- Rebecca Black - SALVATION [it does run out of steam for me about midway, but I can't deny that the singles are an explosive burst of LGBTQIA+ joy. If you don't like Charli XCX, you'll feel the same way here. She's come a long way from "Friday"
]
- Boldy James x Chuck Strangers - Token of Appreciation [he needs to continue with the drumless producers, because it is a simple proven formula that works]
- Eddie Chacon - Lay Low [always smooth, maybe even too smooth]
- DOVS - Psychic Geography [Balmat winner]
- Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On [sometimes you get indy rokt in an unideal fashion. Thankfully the opposite here. To be fair, I did enjoy their debut. This was betta and had enough interesting arrangements to keep me engaged throughout]
- Sophie Jamieson - I Still Want to Share [thanx, @musicjunkiegreg]
- Mereba - The Breeze Grew a Fire
- MIKE - Showbiz!
- Mac Miller - Balloonerism [comforting to see that Mac's estate is handling his posthumous, unreleased efforts with grace. Some of these songs are really quite beautiful ("Funny Papers," "Rick's Piano," and "5 Dollar Pony Rides" among them)]
- Ela Minus - DIA [more explosive production compared to her previous work]
- Nadia Reid - Enter Now Brightness [thanx for the recommendation, @wokeupnew]
- Anna B. Savage - You & i are Earth
- Squid - Cowards [certainly better than O Monolith, but still lacking the explosiveness and staying power of Bright Green Field. Bookended well but not without a few uninspiring tracks on the way to the finish line]
- venturing - Ghostholding [a little too gen-z-ish vox for me for the high tier, even if the instrumentals are crushingly gorgeous. I'm sure this will be played a few more times before year's end; I haven't particularly enjoyed a Jane Remover related project until now]
- James Brandon Lewis - Apple Cores [not a single track I'd revisit on here, even if it was on OK listen]
- Cryogeyser - Cryogeyser
- FKA twigs - EUSEXUA [a few quips to say about this, and it will probably upset a few. It is frontloaded to hell, and it had my guard down for a good ~15min. The inclusion of "Childlike Things" with Kanye's spawn is a choice, and not a very good one. I'd go as far to say it is the worst song that she has released in her career, completely out of place with the rest of the record. "Wanderlust," while interesting at first, ultimately goes nowhere and ends on a lame fadeout. I haven't enjoyed much of anything twigs has done since the turn of the decade and this is probably the most unenjoyable effort of them all]
- Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out [BIG MEH. Maybe has something to do with me being mild on Amyl and the Sniffers, hm?]
- Saya Gray - SAYA
- Tim Hecker - Shards [not among his best at all]
- Tate McRae - So Close to What [fun at times, cringey with dated production here and there, but I wanted it to end around track 10]
- Ada Rook - UNKILLABLE ANGEL
- The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow [this needs 4-7 tracks cut; maybe there's a "" album within]
- Boldy James x Rich Gains - Murder During Drug Traffic [uninspiring effort. What's up with the mixing on this?]
- Ringo Starr - Look Up [harmless, and fairly pointless. Rather funny that the guest features outperform him here. Sound like what a musician age 80+ would make when their prime was over five decades ago]
- Boldy James - Permanent Ink [this is half-assed. Boldy does not ride trap beats/production well at all. That half hour runtime still felt like an eternity]
EDIT: added Darkside
List of the Radar Variety