Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older, but there seemed to be a lot fewer albums that grabbed my attention this past year. I started out with a batch of 215 albums in a folder, but only 56 made the cut to be considered best of the year. I boiled that down to the Top 20 you see here and another 36 good enough to pull selected tracks from for my overall pool of decent music from 2025. In no particular order, here are the 20 albums that gave me the most pleasure this year. // Anton Barbeau // Emma Swift // James McMurtry // Jason Isbell // Kathleen Edwards // Jim Jones All-Stars // M Ross Perkins // Nick Frater // Novelty Island // Peter Holsapple // Soft Hearted Scientists // The Chills // The Flower Machine // The On and Ons // The Penrose Web // Tom Henry // Vanity Mirror // Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill // Wreckless Eric //