My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): I struggled to find great records this year and kinda feel that in the end I included a lot of very good records. Such was 2025. As usual, many of the titles that made the cut, each in their own way, are throwbacks to past singers, earlier songwriters or lost songbooks. To badly paraphrase an old song, I sit and watch as years go by . . . and wound up listening mostly to the familiar and the time-tested.
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1 – MARTY STUART & HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES – Space Junk
Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives overflow with musicianship and just might be the best performing band ou there these days. Their setlists have always been full of surprises and are usually dotted with surf guitar and spag western instrumentals. This is their first all-instrumental album and it showcases the breadth of their influences. Marty Stuart and Co. might be one of those ‘file under country’ artists but that’s because it’s near impossible to figure out just where to file them.
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2 – ROBERT PLANT (with Suzi Dian) – Saving Grace
Plant continues his song-catching act, bringing his elder statesman vibe to a new collection of overlooked, little-known songs. It’s been a long time since he rock and ro-oollllled, but this wizened and weathered traveler has re-invented himself as a pretty good curator and interpreter of lost songbooks.
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3 – DROPKICK MURPHYS – For the People
I need records like this. It’s call-to-action music that I need right about now, especially when complacency might start to rear its grotesque head. Dropkick Murphys have always fought the good fight and they’ve supplanted the hooliganism of their earlier / punkier records with topical songs about human dignity, workers’ rights, class war, ICE and mobilizing in the Age of Stephen Miller. As a bonus, the last track “One Last Goodbye: Tribute to Shane” is a genuinely moving way to close out this record.
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4 – ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION – Arcadia
The opening track is called “It Looks Like the End of the Road” . . . and the bleakness is just gettin’ started. Krauss’s angelic voice and Dan Tyminski’s high and lonesome provide a diversion that belies the minor key underbelly of Americana captured by this record.
5 – VARIOUS ARTISTS (MOJO) – Songs from the County Hell
The common thread in this collection is the Pogues. It features artists that influenced them and artists influenced by them, both familiar and unfamiliar to me. The unfamiliar includes the Mary Wallopers whose tuneful, political and irresistible 2023 album “Irish Rock N Roll” spent more time spinning in my CD player this year than any other title. But the entire anthology was eye-opening and sent me down more than a few Celtic rabbit holes.
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6 – NIGHTMARES IN THE AFTERNOON – An Omen in Fancy Robes
These Toronto psych-sters have obviously seen Emily play, and they’ve have taken her to heart in this record that apparently escaped my notice in 2024.
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7 – ENVER IZMAYLOV – Live at Jetlag Festival 2024
This record is the closest I can get to re-living my surprise musical moment of the year. Enver Izmaylov is a virtuoso, acrobatic and amazing guitar magician who I saw open for the Klezmatics this year. He fingertaps the frets, playing his instrument like a keyboard, while providing percussion with whatever part of his hand is free at the moment. Alone on a stage with his electric guitar, the 70 year old Crimean wizard alternately re-created the sounds of a complete four piece combo, a full balalaika orchestra, Merle Travis, the Beatles and an entire Ukrainian village at daybreak. This whole Jetlag concert can be seen here, should you be curious (and you just might wanna be):
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8 – ROBBIE FULKS – Now Then
Calling this record Fulks’ most personal album would be enough to scare anybody away but he pulls it off by utterly avoiding the trap of anything maudlin or cloying and instead summoning both the wisdom and the subversive humor that age has bestowed upon him. “Sittin’ on a John Deere, Flippin’ through Shakespeare” captures Fulks’ country roots and his college smarts, both on full display here.
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9 – VAN MORRISON – Remember Now
I thought long and hard about whether to include this curmudgeon (at best) and anti-vax anti-Semite (at very worst) on my list. This is a good album, in the tradition of his best work, and he actually retains much of the vocal timber that he had when he was half a mile from the county fair. I reconcile my decision to include him here knowing that I “downstole” the entire thing and did not put one Euro cent in his bank account.
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10 – RUFUS WAINWRIGHT – I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Wainwright Does Weill
Rufus Wainwright has made a career of genre-jumping so tackling the broad genre-bending music of Kurt Weill is barely a challenge for him. Rufus effortlessly slides between cabaret, classical and operetta as well as German, French and English. Rufus the Knife.
11 – RINGO STARR – Look Up
This super low-key collection finds a very relaxed Ringo delivering a sweet set of country(-ish) music, assisted by the new royal guard of country music (B. Strings, M. Tuttle, etc.). Nothing momentous here . . . just an eminently satisfying record. And all he had to do was act naturally.
12 – VARIOUS ARTISTS – A Tribute to the King of Zydeco
Clifton Chenier’s legacy attracts a wide array of artists (the Stones, Steve Earle, Lucinda, Taj . . .) to revive the zydeco icon’s rhythm and swamp music. Nice to hear what Mick and the boys might sound like in a Louisiana roadhouse.
13 – PARLOR GREENS – In Green / We Dream
This 2024 record is a modern day update of the understated funk of the Josie-era Meters. The Parlor Greens create deep grooves with syncopated drum beats and bare bones guitar/organ interplay. Their 2025 single release of “Jolene” is a good a place to start discovering these guys.
14 – VARIOUS ARTISTS: Heart of Gold: The Music of Neil Young
There is no shortage of Neil Young tribute albums, for sure. This is one of the better ones, mostly focusing on Neil’s first decade. The one exception is the absolutely gorgeous rendition of “Philadelphia” rendered here by the everywhere-all-at-once Brandi Carlile.
HISTORICAL ISSUES OF NOTE:
VARIOUS ARTISTS: American Baroque: Chamber Pop and Beyond 1967-1971
Renee may have walked away but she left all this in her wake. Late 60’s baroque/chamber pop was marked by three minute songs with ornate melodies and intricate harmonies, all served over strings, woodwinds and harpsichords. Yes, the Merry-Go-Round and Nico show up but most of the songs here are pretty obscure. If it’s baroque, don’t fix it, or something like that. This was one of my favorite releases of 2025.
PATTI SMITH – Horses (50th Anniversary Edition)
The original album sounds at least as fresh today as it did in 1975 and the nine extra contemporaneous tracks only add to the story. The New York Times track-by-track analysis from November of 2025 adds invaluable insight and context to the entire story and is worth the read.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/11/07/arts/music/patti-smith-horses-anniversary.html (gift link)
Patti’s 2025 memoir “Bread of Angels” was good but “Just Kids” it wasn’t.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN –
Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition
Tracks II: The Lost Albums
This year I read Peter Ames Carlin’s masterful “Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born To Run” (highly recommended) and Warren Zanes’ “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska” (very good) so I was ripe for these two retro-releases. The “Nebraska” book (and the enjoyable movie) added immensely to my appreciation of the original album, a record I’d always liked but never loved. The additional tracks and the so-so electric version on the expanded “Nebraska” album further flesh out the story. While the first “Tracks” collection (1998) was revelatory, this year’s sequel comes off as inconsistent at best and a money-grab at worst. Two or three quality records out of a box of seven is not quite the “last chance power drive” I was hoping for.
LIVE MUSIC OF NOTE:
BIG STAR QUINTET at the Woodstock Playhouse, NY – so much better than I was ever expected them to be. Disappointingly small crowd on the first night.
DAKHABRAKHA at the Old Dutch Church, Kingston, NY – Experimental Ukrainian folk band with a modern twist performing in the perfect venue for this amazing group.
MARTY STUART & HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES – Tarrytown Music Hall, NY – see #1
TOUGH ONES THIS YEAR
Steve Cropper
Raul Malo
Brian Wilson