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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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Jay Som: Belong
New album: Los Angeles artist Melina Duterte returns with a first LP for six years, an absorbing fusion of indie, electronica, shoegaze and multi-textured dream pop, all about self-healing and truth-facing, expanding from a past DIY methodology to collaboration with various with guests including Jimmy Eat World's Jim Adkins and Paramore’s Hayley Williams
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Jessica Winter: My First Album
New album: After a series of acclaimed singles, EPs and collaborations, the south London sweetly high-voiced singer-songwriter’s debut LP is fabulously sparkling, humorous, witty indie-dance-pop, packed with classy, clever tunes, touching moments of reflection, self-love and personal acceptance
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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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Dream Wife: Social Lubrication
New album: Punchy, whip-smart, witty, menacing, fierce but also explosively and mischievously fun, the London post-punk band fronted by return with a perhaps their best yet - a pulsating set of sharp, feminist songs about relationships, society and more
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HMLTD …
New album: Apocalypse: The Musical? This highly entertaining second LP by the British art-rockers could be thus described, but the concept is “an anachronistic version of medieval England” and features a 16-piece string orchestra and gospel choir
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Stylish, strutting, studied performance: Walt Disco
New album: Dramatic, declamatory, stylised and immensely fun, this witty dandy post-punk pop debut with thrumming bass lines and shimmering synths by the Glasgow six-piece with echoes of the 1980s from Associates, Bowie, Human League, Rocky Horror Picture Show to Sparks
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Bachelor’s debut album Doomin’ Sun
Album review: Melina Duterte of Jay Som and Ellen Kempner of Palehound join forces in an excellent, symbiotic debut album of intelligent lo-fi indie of light and shade, joy and melancholy, dark humour, wiry guitars and lovely melody
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This week’s magic nine new albums
This week includes a mellow one from the modfather, innovative electronica from The Irrepressibles, gorgeous piano-based work by A.A. Williams and Hani Rani, African and Coldcut collective Kelekelta, and kickass pop-punks Dream Wife
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HMLTD
The latest roundup includes a wealth of funk, disco, pop, soul and electronica, from the theatrical delivery of HMLTD to the funk of La Roux, complex experimentalism of Beatrice Dillon to the emotional voice of Isobel Campbell
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Natalie Mering aka Weyes Blood
Exquisite vocals and electronica and female vocalists decorate this weeks list, from Weyes Blood to Jess Ribeiro and Shana Cleveland, plus sharp postpunk from Pozi, beautiful songs by Ratso with Nick Cave, and rare, early Bowie
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Dawn Richard - spreading her musical wings
From an experimental album by New Orleans artist DAWN to a collaboration between Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers, as well as a return by 90s shoegazers Swervedriver, this week’s roundup has plenty of surprises
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Jack White returns with his third solo album
The White Stripes man returns with his third solo effort, plus big-voiced pop folk star George Ezra, New York rockers Sunflower Bean, synth experimenters Cavern Of Anti-Matter, postpunkers Preoccupations and a reissue of a classic Led Zep live album
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