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Plantoid: FLARE
New album: The nimbly inventive, experimental prog trio from Brighton return following their debut LP Terrapath, with an evolved, often catchier style of oddball riffs, licks, clever tempo changes, unusual rhythms, and unconventional chord progressions with a stirring of jazz inflections, dream pop, psych rock and shoegaze
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Tessa Rose Jackson: The Lighthouse
New album: Beautiful, intricate, understated, poetic and intelligent, this warm, inviting experimental folk by the Dutch-British singer-songwriter is the first LP under her own name, having previously released three as the artist Someone
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Clothesline From Hell: Slather On The Honey
New album: His moniker mischievously named after a wrestling move, a highly impressive, independently-created experimental, psychedelic rock debut the the Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Adam LaFramboise
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PVA: No More Like This
New album: Inventive, alluring, sensual, mysterious, minimalistic electronica, trip-hop and experimental pop by the London trio of Ella Harris, Joshua Baxter and Louis Satchell, in this second album following 2022’s Blush, boosted by the creativity of producer and instrumentalist Kwake Bass
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Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore: Tragic Magic
New album: Delicate, beautiful, ethereal, meditative new work by the two American experimental composers in their first collaborative LP, with gentle understated vocals, classic synth sounds, and rare harps chosen from from the Paris Musée de la Musique Collection
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SAULT: Chapter 1
New album: As ever, released suddenly without fanfare or any publicity, the prolific experimental soul, jazz, gospel, funk, psychedelia and disco collective of Cleo Sol, Info (aka Dean Josiah Cover) and co return with a stylish, mysterious LP
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Dry Cleaning: Secret Love
New album: This third LP by the London experimental post-punk quartet with the distinctive, spoken, droll delivery of Florence Shaw, is packed with striking, vivid, often non seqitur lyrics capturing life’s surreal mundanities and neuroses with a sound coloured and polished by Cate Le Bon as producer
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Various Artists: ICELOCK CONTINUUM
New album: An inspiring, evocative, sensual and sonically tactile experimental compilation from the fabulously named underground French label Camembert Électrique, with range of international electronic artists capturing cold winter weather’s many textures - cracking, delicate crunchy ice, snow, electric fog, and frost in many fierce and fragile forms across 98 adventurous tracks
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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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De La Soul: Cabin In The Sky
New album: The hip-hop veterans return with their first without, yet including the voice of, and a tribute to, founding member Trugoy the Dove, AKA Dave Jolicoeur who passed away in 2023, alongside many hip-hop luminary guests, with trademark playful skits, and all themed around the afterlife
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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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Tortoise: Touch
New album: A welcome return with a cinematic and mesmeric groove-filled first studio LP in nine years, and the eighth over all by the eclectic Chicago post-rock/jazz/krautrock multi-instrumentalists Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker
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Oneohtrix Point Never: Tranquilizer
New album: Ambient, otherworldly, cinematic, mesmeric, and at times very odd, the Brooklyn-based electronic artist and producer Daniel Lopatin returns with a new nostalgia-based concept – constructing tracks from lost-then-refound Y2K CDs of 1990s and early 2000s royalty-free sample electronic sounds
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Stella Donnelly: Love and Fortune
New album: Finely crafted, stripped back musical simplicity combined with complex melancholic emotions mark out this beautiful, poetic, and deeply personal third folk-pop LP by the Australian singer-songwriter reflecting on the past and present
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FKA Twigs: EUSEXUA Afterglow
New album: Springing from her much lauded third LP Eusexua, out in January this year, and following a hugely successful and spectacular tour, the innovative British experimental pop artist, dancer and producer extends her palette of ethereal, otherworldly and sensual creations in this new, more carnal, harder, beat-filled parallel release
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Clark: Steep Stims
New album: The prolific British experimental electronica artist, Christopher Stephen Clark, who works on film and games music as well as albums, returns with a collection capturing the sprit of making music on old samplers and equipment, whipping up the rising, whooshing wave and piano styles of 90s dance music as well as more intricate sounds
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Danny Brown: Stardust
New album: The seventh album by the Detroit experimental, eclectic hip-hop and hyper-pop artist pushes the envelope with some extraordinary, dynamic sounds, dance music with warp-speed, slick rapping and multiple guests through an invented “90s-era pop star” persona called Dusty Star
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Hatchie: Liquorice
New album: With distinct echoes of Cocteau Twins and The Sundays, the third album from Australian indie pop singer-songwriter Harriette Pilbeam is beautifully awash with dream pop guitar effects and her high, sensual breathy vocals, largely co-written with her partner Joe Agius and produced by Jay Som
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Sorry: COSPLAY
New album: Consistently excellent singles before and heralding this brilliantly odd, clever third album by the London indie band all cement their reputation for a truly original sound filled with a variety of styles, captured in the experimental title of their third LP following 2022’s Anywhere But Here
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