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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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The Mountain Goats: Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan
New album: An evocative musical journey of a concept album by the indie-folk band from Claremont, California, fronted by singer-songwriter John Darnielle, based on a dream of his in 2023 about a voyage to a fictional island by the titular captain, charting adventure, wonder and tragedy
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The Last Dinner Party: From The Pyre
New album: This fairly speedy follow-up to the London quintet’s Mercury-nominated debut album Prelude to Ecstasy of flamboyant, theatrical, baroque and art-rock-pop, continues in a similar rich, elaborate vein, with another strong set of swaggering numbers with influences from Abba to Kate Bush, Sparks, Lee Hazlewood to Leonard Cohen, with a sprinkling of darker undercurrents and deathly themes
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The Divine Comedy: Rainy Sunday Afternoon
New album: Sumptuously charming, filled with melancholy, wit, gorgeous melodies and songwriting, Neil Hannon and co bring a 13th LP of particularly tender, moving and humorous chamber pop with a vaudevillian feel, and running theme of time passing and mutability, all performed with classic panache
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Jens Lekman: Songs For Other People's Weddings
New album: Borne from a 2020 novel-with-music side project idea with writer David Levithan, the Swedish singer-songwriter charts his 20 years’ experience of being an occasional and accidental wedding musician in this witty, profound double LP that among other issues and emotions, examines the role of love songs in our live
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Laufey: A Matter of Time
New album: Witty, classy, and with oodles of charm, humour and her exquisitely pure delivery with sublime vocal control, the Icelandic-Chinese singer-songwriter Lín Bing Jónsdóttir turns back the clock with timeless, gorgeous brand new numbers that capture a bygone era of smooth sophisticated jazz, and sumptuously scored musicals all about matters of the heart
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The New Eves: The New Eve Is Rising
New album: Experimental, eclectic psych-folk influenced in part by Cale-era Velvet Underground, Raincoats and Slits proto-feminist post-punk a dash of the village fete arts-and-crafts Midsommar look all conjure up in this exciting, passionate, theatrically entertaining debut by the Brighton quartet
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Geordie Greep: The New Sound
New album: The former Black Midi frontman’s debut LP is a brilliant swirl of guitar rock, jazz, prog, funk, pop and a big dash of Latin, channelling Frank Zappa, a dramatic Scott Walker delivery, Broadway musicals, cello, a punchy horn section, his distinctive voice, clever, humorous, soliloquy-style lyrics
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Walt Disco: The Warping
New album: After 2022’s Unlearning debut LP, the Glasgow band return with another fabulously stylish fusion of glam-pop and art-rock, channelling Scary Monsters-era Bowie and The Associates in a theatrical, energised album of glittering panache
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The Miserable Rich: Overcome
New album: The likeable Brighton string-led collective return with their first studio LP in nearly 13 years, a wordplay-rich, drily humorous, catchy, poignant collection of vivid storytelling via chamber pop and indie folk
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Erotic Secrets of Pompeii: Mondo Maleficum
New album: Gloriously theatrical, witty, panache-filled, this is a lavishly swaggering, swirling cauldron of excess, rock-pop, post-punk, prog, baroque indie, and classical, a debut whirlwind LP of history-spanning reference and energy, from Greek myth to Shakespeare and the apocalypse
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Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
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The Bloodstreams: How To Be A God
New album: With oodles of swagger, theatricality and panache, a wonderful debut by the seasoned Deptford quartet, with witty, black-humoured 60s garage rock and stylish echoes of Siouxsie, Birthday Party-era Nick Cave, Stones, the Doors and the Kramps
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Father John Misty: Chloë and the Next 20th Century
New album: Lavishly orchestrated, marrying the ironic and the romantic, filled with stories and profound lines, Josh Tillman’s theatrical fifth LP is perhaps his finest yet, a fusion of the cinematic, jazz, swing, country, and folk-pop
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It’s definitely in the bag, but where next for Black Country, New Road after Ants From Up There?
New album: Second LP by the London young experimental, baroque-pop theatrical troupe, and many ways far stronger than their much applauded, arguably over-hyped 2021 debut, ironically now having greater intensity as frontman and singer Isaac Wood quits on release date
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Take your pick. Are your favourites here? Also check out Part 2 coming soon.
Favourite albums of 2021, part 1: Another difficult year for everyone, but from soul and jazz, electro-pop the experimental and avant-garde, an outstanding one for music releases, perhaps in part because out of diversity comes great art. Also feel free to explore Part 2, which is now available to view here.
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Queens of the Summer Hotel is Aimee Mann’s 10th studio album
New album: Filled with grace, charm, sharp lyrics and killer, heartbreaking melancholy, these beautiful songs by the American artist were inspired Girl, Interrupted, the 1993 memoir by Susanna Kaysen about experiences in a 1960s psychiatric hospital
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