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Part Two favourite albums of 2025 collage
Welcome to the second part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There is also a first part and a third part this week. There is no countdown nor describing these necessarily as “best” albums of the year, but they are chosen by their quality, originality and reader popularity
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First selection of 25 favourite albums in no particular order …
Welcome to the first part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There will also be a second and third part this week. There is no countdown nor describing these necessarily as “best” albums of the year, but they are chosen by their quality, originality and reader popularity
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Poptones: Pure
New album: Dynamic, mysterious, dark, stormy, whispered and explosive, a truly striking, mercurial, rich sonic soundscape of the angular, beautiful and dissonant and thematic perceptions of reality distorted by the experimental rock band from Copenhagen
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Geese: Getting Killed
New album: Dramatic and swaggeringly different - a crazed cauldron of anger, tenderness, the strangely eccentric, surreal and psychedelic, the Brooklyn band’s latest is an experimental odyssey of garage riffs to Ukrainian choir samples, frenzied drumming and prog riffing, with lullabies to explosive mayhem topped by wonderfully weird, wailing and yearning vocals of Cameron Winter
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Maruja - Pain To Power
New album: A impressively intense, emotional, passionate, energised, dark, philosophical-political cross-genre cosmic jazz-prog-punk-hip-hop-hardcore generational debut LP by the Manchester quartet with with lyrics spanning love, death, social issues, world affairs and mental health
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Titanic: HAGEN
New album: Following their 2023 debut Vidrio, the Mexico City-based partners Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti and guitarist Hector Tosta return with another mesmeric, exciting and highly eclectic experimental album, moving here from jazz into more pop and classic rock in combinations yet unheard
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Water From Your Eyes: It's A Beautiful Place
New album: Indie Brooklyn-based duo Nate Amos and Rachel Brown unleash a highly original fusion of experimental art-rock, pop, and shoegaze, mixing musical dynamism with the vocally deadpan abstract through thematic portal of otherworldly science fiction
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Fever Ray: The Year of The Radical Romantics
New album: Disturbing, striking and brilliant, this is a mix of old kindled magically into new from the innovative Swedish artist Karin Dreijer, with live-to-tape studio highlights from her acclaimed third album, 2023’s Radical Romantics, plus new iterations from 2017’s Plunge and early classics, performed with her tour musicians
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Disiniblud’s debut album
New album: Truly mesmeric, exquisitely beautiful, original, intimate, eclectic sounds are summoned up and simmer in this debut collaborative album project by the Brooklyn composers, producers and multi-instrumentalists Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith
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WITCH: SOGOLO
New album: Zambia’s zamrock pioneers with (with the acronym ‘We Intend To Cause Mischief’) and still fronted by original member Emanuel "Jagari" Chanda, return with their special fusion of infectious psychedelic, 60s garage-inspired funk rock and and afrobeat, with a meaty, melodious, selection of catchy new numbers
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Caroline 2
New album: The London eight-piece experimental group return three years after their self-titled debut, with a stop-start, meandering, sometimes challenging but also magical album of interweaving vocals and analogue instruments – guitars, trombone, violins and more, but also electronica – and a guest appearance from Caroline Polachek
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Mamalarky: Hex Key
New album: Defying definition other than the label of experimental psych-rock four-piece – the Los Angeles band’s album is an eccentric, quirky set of songs that can’t easily be unlocked with this tool or any other, but still pull you into their enjoyably agile mystery
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UMMA, the fourth album by Ecuador’s Don Bolo
New album: Striking, otherworldly, ghostly, evocatively cinematic and powerful experimental instrumentals by the band from Quito, Ecuador, this fourth LP is inspired by the work of Dune author George Herbert as well as the dark, dystopian events of modern times
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Black Country, New Road: Forever Howlong
New album: With a musical reset after the sudden departure of frontman Isaac Wood just at the release of their previous studio album, the Cambridge-formed sextet return with a rich, clever mix of whimsical folk, prog, baroque pop and musical theatre with lead vocals now shared between the three female band members
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DARKSIDE: Nothing
New album: Filled with infectious, mystifying oddball but at times brilliant grooves across a range of styles – krautrock, funk, Latin, indie, psyche, prog rock, warped pop, contemporary classical and jazz among others, this third LP by New York’s Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington sees an expansion of their eclectic experimentation now joined by drummer and instrument designer Tlacael Esparza
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Squid: Cowards
New album: Fabulously strange, inventive and and cleverly unsettling third album by the Brighton experimental post-punk, alt-rock quintet with a series of first-person narratives and inner monologues by fictional, disturbing characters - from cult leaders, serial killers, cannibals, sociopaths and arsonists
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Matt Berry: Heard Noises
New album: The British comic actor, known now for 20 years, from Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place to Toast of London to What We Do In The Shadows, returns with his other great indulgent passion, as eccentric multi-instrumentalist and singer of 60s and 70s-inspired psychedelic rock and pop on this impressive 11th studio album
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The second part of our favourite albums of 2024
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 2. Part 1 can be found here. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but please dig into this rich seam of originality and quality, and even suggest more of your own
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This year’s selections include some returning veterans at the top of their game as well as some fabulous newcomers
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 1. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but rich seams of originality and quality are certainly here to be enjoyed. Peruse away …
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White Denim: 12
New album: Austin, Texas’s brilliantly inventive proggy experimentalists James Petralli and co return with an appropriately named 12th LP, one which, created in the lockdown restrictions of 2020-21, needed a different, more DIY approach, but weaves a fabulous mix of rootsy swing, jazz and influences from Scritti Politti to Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Nick Lowe to Jonathan Richman.
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