1st Dec so time for the annual Forum classic. This thread is for you to post your best new music discoveries of 2025. Please only name albums released this year and not re-releases etc (you can make your own thread for that if you wish).
If you can name one best (or at most a top 3) we can have some sort of count up in Jan.
The whole point of this thread is to help others find new music so any descriptions you can add may be helpful.
My top abum
Flock of Dimes: ‘The Life You Save’. Third solo album from Jenne Wasner (also of Wye Oak). It is a beautiful listen. Then you really engage the lyrics and it becomes something greater. Moving and honest.
The rest of my top 3
Jeff Tweedy: ‘Twilight Override’. 30 tracks. Just set it to shuffle and you’ll find something every time. Joy, melancholy, droll humour. Not really a solo album, just not quite the full Wilco.
Stereolab: ‘Instant Holograms on Metal Film’. Never heard a Stereolab album before. Now bought several!
Honourable mentions to
Matt Berninger ‘Get Sunk’ which I reckon is better than the last few The National albums and also his first solo one.
Kathleen Edwards ‘Billionaire’. Nothing revolutionary just a good country rock album.
Robert Plant ‘Saving Grace’. Beautifully produced country/folk/blues.
Do you mean “Get Sunk” Bruce or have I missed an album?
Also, are we allowed honourable mentions? This has been the best year for new music in quite a while and whilst my top three just about pick themselves it’s a close call with several other great albums.
Wolf Alice with The Clearing. My most played album of the year. Leans heavily on 1970’s Fleetwood Mac style AOR but done so well. Wonderful songwriting
Geese with Getting Killed. This was an easy choice. Addictive, original and reminded me of the thrill of my youth when I would wake up in the morning itching to play a new record. What a band. I would have mentioned Cameron Winter’s solo album Heavy Metal except it was released in December 2024. But I’ve just mentioned him any way
So, after much agonising, here’s mine. Really not much between these. They’re all easy to recommend so I’ve gone with what I think I’ve played the most. I may be wrong.
1 - Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles. Was there a more heartbreaking/breathtaking moment than that in Not Broken when the voice of his daughter breaks in and sounds uncannily like her late mother.
2 - Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal. I found the Geese album heavily over-rated and the wrong side of eclectic becoming a chaotic mess. Brilliant moments hidden by some stuff that was a mess. This though is coherent and an unexpected pleasure.
3 - Matt Berninger - Get Sunk. Like Bruce I have been under-whelmed by the output of The National for some time now. This more than makes up for it. A lovely record.
Rachel Chimouriri - Little Houses. This years latecomer for me. She has to be the most under-rated artist in the UK.
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Rebuilding (Original Soundtrack). Instrumental music and I don’t really mix that much but I could listen to Jake for hours and this is again just lovely.
CMAT - Euro-Country. Not as good as the last album but still contains at least half a dozen genuinely superb songs. She gets in by virtue of the number of plays those tracks got and also by virtue being the best live act I’ve seen this year and for giving me a big wave.
Roaslia - Lux. An album I feared would be easier to admire than love. It’s operatic in scope and sound. Not at all my thing… and yet… I keep coming back to this. I think I could make a case for it being the OK Computer of Flamenco.
The Lemonheads - Love Chant. Unexpected surprise of the year. It harks back to the raw sound of pre success Lemonheads and in a good way. It’s not their strongest album and it wasn’t ever going to be but there’s a surprising amount of genuinely memorable songs here.
Molly Tuttle - So Long Little Miss Sunshine. Seemed a bland letdown at first but it’s a grower. Lyrically it’s excellent but maybe suffers by that being hidden by the almost but not quite generic poppiness of the melodies. Took about half a dozen listens before I realised there was some superb writing and musicianship here.
Ken Pomeroy - Cruel Joke. A dark record but there’s something very real and quietly compelling here.
1 - It was released after last years thread was started and thus did not feature in the thread as no-one came to hear it that quickly. It would thus miss out on both years lists if we took a strictly chronological approach. I’m going to argue that anything released after the start of last years thread which did not feature because of proximity must surely be okay for this year.
2 - I was without music between June and November so have come to it very late this year.
Well @BruceW can arbitrate. I’m happy to pop any of my other 7 into 3rd place if needs be. It’s such an obviously great record I find it hard to believe it wouldn’t have got a mention if people had heard it in the period from the start to the end of the posts on your thread. It got no mentions at all, which suggests few if any here heard it in the less than a month after release.
It will of course be irrelevant once it’s been out voted by the usual old man stuff .
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