It’s nowhere near an album of the year for me but I do like much of The Beths album.
Just listening to The Geese album recommended by a few people. Enjoying it on first play.
Definitely will be playing it a few more times.
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I’ve listened to a lot of stuff this year including many recommended by our fab forum members (thanks all!). Lots of good albums and a few “over-hyped” ones to me (I’m looking at you, Geese - sorry!).
These two I enjoyed the most:-
Bottom one is Neko Case - Neon Grey Midnight Green.
Twist my arm and I’ll plump for Kathleen Edwards but it’s close.
Ah what do I know!
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Really wanted to like the former but found it a bit generic. Found the Neko rather knotty but have to say it’s really growing on me.
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Tis generic Mike but I keep going back to it - it’s just done very well.
Neko will take time to reveal itself fully but I can tell straight off that it is one of her best.
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Left field, late addition
Paradise Lost : Ascension. A fantastic album from these stalwarts of the melodeath/doom scene.
Probably won’t get more than a vote but damn it, its a great album
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It’ll be on my list when I post mine so it gets at least one more from me.
Here are some of my favourites from this year.
The Chapin Carpenter/ Fowlis / Polwart album is my No. 1. I still find it spellbinding despite playing it relentlessly since January. Seeing them play it live in March was icing on the cake.
Mary Chapin Carpenter/ Julie Fowlis / Karine Polwart - Looking for the Thread
John Scofield Dave Holland - Memories of Home
Geese - Getting Killed
Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow
The Delines - Mr Luck and Mrs Doom
Branford Marsalis Quartet - Belonging
Kathleen Edwards - Billionaire
Joan Shelley - Real Warmth
Julien Baker and Torres - Send a Prayer my Way
Joshua Redman - Words Fall Sort
Charles Lloyd - Figure in Blue
Honourable mentions also for a couple a late arrivals / discoveries;
*Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Forever, I’ve Been Being Born
*James Brandon Lewis Quartet - Abstraction is Deliverance
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That came so early in the year I sort of forgot it for this thread, but probably my most played album in 2025. Would have loved to hear them live. I hope it isn’t a one-off combination.
Bruce
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They were absolutely magical live - I got quite emotional 
…
Like you, I really hope they record some more stuff or a least tour this album again 
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Not sure this album meets the exact criteria of the thread?
‘More’ is Pulp’s first studio album in twenty-four years and is an excellent return from Jarvis and band.
Not only the album but a successful tour which included Sheffield Tramlines, Manchester & Glastonbury.
Is it classed as “new music”don’t know? It is however my album of the year.
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Glasgow Love Story from Tide Lines.
Album based on the lads memories etc coming to Glasgow for education and settling there. A great set of tunes from a talented band with Robert Robertson a former Mod winner who is the singer.
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Struggling to see why it wouldn’t qualify. It’s also a surprisingly good album.
I must say that having been minus amp for a fair few months I’ve a number of albums to go back to and had forgotten that Mary Chapin Carpenter/ Julie Fowlis / Karine Polwart - Looking for the Thread was amongst them.
I’ve found Isbell to be a diminishing return since the excellent Southeastern. Foxes In The Snow bucked that trend.
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Listened to the first track again last night and something clicked. Will come back to it and give it a proper listen all the way through.
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So glad I’ve come back to this. Part way through. It’s lovely and consistently excellent. Best thing Mary has been involved in for years.
Terrible cover though.
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Thanks Bruce, what a great recommendation -never would have been picked up on my radar, the joy of a community in the season of good will. Ronan
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To my surprise my heavy rotation Album these days is:
this: Brad Mehldau - Ride into the sun. After the genius „Mehliana“ with Mark Giuliana another great one from him (between a lot very good ones 
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My un-ordered list except for my top 3. Overall a pretty good year but not one where a single release stood unopposed among the rest.
Deathlike Dawn - Noc Czarna Czernią Otchłani
Häxkapell – Om Jordens Blod Och Urgravens Grepp
Cycle of Death - Deus Sabaoth
Satan’s Hammer - El Despertar de Satan
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Corpse Pile - In the Beginning… (an EP but I loved it so I’m including it)
Drofnosura - Ritual of Split Tongues
Gaahls WYRD - Braiding The Stories
Grima - Nightside
Rivers of Nihil - Rivers of Nihil
Paradise Lost - Ascension
Top 3 (in order):
This was really hard to narrow down. I nearly replaced Hooded Menace with Paradise Lost but ultimately sided with the former as it was unique enough to make the cut.
- Hooded Menace - Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration
2. Messa - The Spin
- Tentacult – Untamed Revulsion
All year I was convinced that The Spin by Messa was a lock for the number one spot. It’s polished, epic, filled with inventive song writing and just bristles with “pick me” energy. Yet Tentacult’s squalid Untamed Revulsion wouldn’t leave my consciousness, its putrid, phlem-speckled exterior hiding some outstanding and original approaches to extreme metal that in the end demanded to be acknowledged as the year’s best. Tentacult really don’t care about genre convention, happily throwing musical curve-balls where they see fit, lacing their music with nods to doom, punk, old-school death and several others in-between. They can be cheeky and deathly-serious from chord-to-chord, playful yet majestically epic. And my god do they know how to write a riff. If you’re not displacing a vertebrate from involuntary headbanging by the end of the song check your pulse, you may already be dead. Pure, unalloyed joy.
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I guess I need to try a few if these out and see if any float my boat. I like Paradise Lost, Gaahls WYRD and Haxkapell and I have heard of Blackbraid and Rivers of Nihil but the rest are new to me.
I will go out on a limb and guess these won’t be getting likes from my wife!!!
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