The Best of 2025
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.
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Anton Barbeau – Glitch Wizard – As is often the case with Anton, he was by far the most prolific musician I followed this year. He issued 3 full length albums, one so late in the year that I didn’t have time to absorb it. As for the other two, Glitch Wizard and Dig the Light, they sound much like his music of the past few years, a mix of psych, folk and some synth laden pop. He has some top drawer help this time around as well, like Dave Gregory (XTC), Donald Ross Skinner (Julian Cope), Andy Metcalfe (Robyn Hitchcock’s Egyptians, The Soft Boys) and Barry Melton (Country Joe & The Fish). Despite all that talent, Anton does most of the instruments and all of the vocals. I chose Glitch Wizard only because it had a couple of the best songs on it, but I could have easily chosen Dig the Light, which is just as good.
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Emma Swift – The Resurrection Game – Emma (AKA Mrs. Robyn Hitchcock) had only put out two albums prior to this, the first very country sounding. Her second was issued in the first pandemic year and was an exceptional album of Bob Dylan covers. This latest is a far cry from either, as it’s totally written by Emma and very heavily orchestrated. Her voice is beautiful and chill inducing while chronicling her past few years of emotional issues that led to a mental breakdown. Heavy stuff for sure, but her lyrics navigate the process with adult emotions and a light touch. What could have been a massive downer ends up being an uplifting triumph of both the music and Emma herself. If she were on a major label and a bit better known, this would easily be a massive mainstream album.
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James McMurtry – The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy – James is the son of novelist Larry McMurtry and that story telling gene is as strong in the son as in the father. Though James has chosen music to tell his stories, and stories are what most of his songs are, they come alive with compelling characters and narratives that most of us can relate to, not to mention being topped off with choruses that stay in your brain. By my count, this is album number twelve and I remain surprised that he is not better known. His music skirts country, folk and rock, which should provide him a large audience, but he still remains a cult act. This album is unlikely to change that, but you should really join the cult.
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Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow – I first encountered Jason as a member of Drive-By Truckers and a song he wrote called “Decoration Day”, which became the title track on the first album he made with the band. He left the band after two more albums and has become a well respected singer/songwriter. This album is a little different, in that it is just Jason and an acoustic guitar, a format I’m really not fond of (For the record, I hate Springsteen’s “Nebraska” for that very reason). The format does lend itself to making you pay attention to the lyrics and on this, Jason’s “divorce album”, it can make for some very uncomfortable listening. But uncomfortable can also translate into raw and compelling and that’s how I find a lot of these songs.
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Jim Jones All-Stars – Get Down, Get With It – Jones is the one-time leader of Thee Hypnotics, who enjoyed some fame in Britain in the early nineties. This live recording is as raw and exciting as some memorable concerts I’ve attended. When I first listened to it at the gym, I swear my headphones were sweating on their own accord. This is a red hot band at their live peak.
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Kathleen Edwards – Billionaire – I used to refer to Kathleen as “the Canadian Lucinda Williams”, but that’s not really accurate anymore, if it ever was. There are still references to hockey in some of her songs, but she lives in Florida now. Her songs involve blunt talk about modern romance and her viewpoint is more adult than the young 20-something on her amazing debut “Failure”, back in 2002. The albums since then have had their moments, but there was also a lot of less than amazing songs. This album, produced by Jason Isbell, sounds likes a confident middle age woman who has been around and knows a few things. Not unlike Lucinda Williams!
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Len Price 3 – Misty Medway Magick – The Len Price 3 have made my year end Top 10/20/30/whatever every year they have put out an album. There is no Len Price in this Medway power trio and their sound has been compared to the early Who, though they sound closer to The Jam on their first couple of albums. They have a powerful sound and every song feels like a punch in the face, but in a good way. They also write songs with memorable pop hooks that have you singing along in your head after one listen. They have never really evolved over the course of seven albums and I’m more than OK with that. Every one of them sounds great to me.
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M Ross Perkins – What’s the Matter, M Ross? – Perkins is a one man band who has recorded all three of his albums at his home studio. This album was my first encounter with his music and I have to say it’s a mixed bag. Part of the issue is that a lot of this particular album is taken up with four way-too-long spoken word interludes that are neither funny nor ironic. Take that away and you have a very good collection of power pop that some liken to The Byrds (I don’t hear it) or Emitt Rhodes. I personally hear middle period Beatles, around the time of the “Help” album. Those songs redeem the album.
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Nick Frater – Oh Contraire – This is Frater’s 12th album and, while I usually include a couple of his songs on my year end round-up, this is the first time that one of his albums has made the cut. This is yet another one man band, and he’s often compared to Paul McCartney, though I think he’s a little further down the pecking order, closer to Jeff Lynne. His songs are pure pop, usually piano based, and are pretty hook laden. His Thin Lizzy tribute here (“I Know You Know I Know”) is pure genius, right down to the harmonized twin guitar solo. It’s so good you hardly notice that the vocal sounds nothing like Phil Lynott. There’s lots of similar pure pop here for fans of the seventies variety and there are no real missteps.
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Novelty Island – Jigsaw Causeway – Novelty Island is the brainchild of Liverpool producer/artist Tom McConnell. I really liked his first album, 2021’s “How Are You Coping With This Century?”, with his wife providing harmonies and it coming off as sort of a Paul and Linda/Wings project, only better. The second album in 2023 was a real letdown, even though he got to record that one at Abbey Road! This new one finds Tom back in fighting form and it’s once again a fine collection of pop songs, although the McCartney influence is lessened and there’s a progressive lean to the collection. The whole thing is made to go with an art project that McConnell created, mainly from paper maché, but it also works strictly as music.
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Peter Holsapple – The Face of 68 – Peter is best known as one of the two leaders of The Dbs, power pop legends since 1981. The title of this album refers to Peter’s age at the time he made the music, but is also a sly reference to Peter Frampton, who was named “The Face of 68” by Rave Magazine back in the sixties. This is a relatively heavy album for Holsapple, who usually stays on the lighter edge of power pop. The songwriting here is exceptional and sometimes pretty funny. Record nerds will eat up the lyrics to “That Kind of Guy”, which has insider record collector references that will excite them. And “My Idea #49” is hilarious, as it’s some guy claiming to have thought of every major invention in the world first. This album was a pleasant surprise.
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Soft Hearted Scientists – The Phantom of Canton – The Welsh band Soft Hearted Scientists started in 2007 in the back shed of one of the members and, for a while, took to calling themselves Nathan Hall & The Sinister Locals. Now they’re back to being scientists again. Either way, I pretty much always like what they put out, some of it sounding a bit like British folk, other parts living up to their psychedelic name.
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The Chills – Springboard – This New Zealand band, led by Martin Phillips, was very popular in the late eighties/early nineties, particularly on college radio. I was a big fan myself and had pretty much all their stuff. Though it seemed like everyone who lived in New Zealand played in the band with its personnel changing every few months, their sound remained pretty much the same with Phillips writing and singing all the songs. A couple of years ago, Phillips was diagnosed with a terminal disease and that’s when he decided to take the pile of early songs that he had written but not recorded, and turn it into an album, which is now “Springboard”. Phillips died in June of 2024 and various band mates and friends helped put the finishing touches on the project, the best set of songs the Chills have put out in some time. If you were a fan of The Chills back in the day, you really need to hear this.
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The Flower Machine – Waterloo Green – The band’s name and album title would place the group in Britain in 1968, which I’m sure was the intent. And they sound a lot like post-Syd/pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd. But they exist in our time and are not British, but work out of California. It’s a fun album to listen to and apparently is a concept album about space travel and dope and some other stuff, but I ignored all that and just enjoyed the songs, which are quite good.
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The On and Ons – Come On In – I have to admit that this Aussie band is completely new to me. Some members have done time in well loved Australian bands like The Hoodoo Gurus and The Stems, but their power pop sound seems to get their inspiration from The Beatles, Hollies and even The Raspberries. They have also been compared to later bands like The Plimsouls. Their songwriting is their secret weapon and while they contain echoes of previous bands, it’s quite original and the tunes will stick with you.
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The Penrose Web- The Least of Our Concerns – This British duo contains Allan Crockford of the Prisoners and Ian Button from Death in Vegas. The lyrics, which seem to be a critique of British society, echo Ray Davies and the music has elements of Merseybeat, garage, baroque, and all things British and sixties. It’s a grower.
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Tom Henry – Songs to Sing and Dance To – Tom Henry seems to be the music industry’s latest “enfant terrible”, this year’s Jack White. Music magazines are writing about him and his debut album like it’s the second coming. I don’t know about second coming, but it is a very good album, lo-fi in parts, and created in a home studio. It’s produced by Kai Slater of Sharp Pins, who is anotheryoung guy getting a lot of press, though The Sharp Pins material just doesn’t move me like Henry’s. Henry has been compared to The Byrds, The Raspberries and Big Star. While he has all of that in his music, he hasn’t reached the level of those three bands yet, but this is a promising start.
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Vanity Mirror – Super Fluff Forever – As if the title doesn’t give it away, this is lightweight pop music made by Brent Randall and Johnny Toomey from Electric Looking Glass. This is the second album for this side project, but from what I’ve seen this so-called side project is getting better press than their parent band. And speaking for myself, I think the music is better than the material by Electric Looking Glass (whose days may be numbered). Made in a home studio, which is betrayed by a couple of the less “professional” sounding songs, it’s a great collection of pop tunes, some baroque flavored, others a little more power pop and garage.
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Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill – Long after the Fire – This is an excellent album with an interesting background. Vicki (onetime Bangle) and John (yes, from that Cowsill family) have been married ten years and decided to make an album in memory of John’s deceased brothers Bill and Barry. Half the songs on the album were written by Bill, the other half by Barry. This is a very country sounding album and if that turns you off, you’ll be missing some great tunes if you skip this. The harmonies between Vicki and John are perfect and the songs by the two brothers are first rate. Don’t miss this one.
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Wreckless Eric – England Screaming – I’ve been a big fan of Wreckless Eric ever since I heard him as part of the beer swilling tribe of reprobates on Stiff Records. While his label mates Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello went on to fortune and fame, Eric has struggled all these in between years just to get heard. But I followed him at every step, even buying a couple of albums that were only issued in France. He has a unique and fun style of music that never lets me down. He’s had some less than stellar albums along the way, including one from 1985 which was issued under the group name Captains of Industry and entitled A Roomful of Monkeys. It was entirely written and sung by Eric and it got panned, with some really nasty reviews. Which brings us to his new album, which is a redo of that album. This time Eric is playing most of the instruments and helped on vocals by his wife Amy Rigby. The difference is like day and night. I A/B ed the songs and this is the album that should have come out in 1985. The songs are solid and Eric’s multiple overdubbed guitar changes the whole nature of the music. In an industry that never allows redos, Wreckless Eric gave himself that chance and it’s an artistic triumph.