OG Brad's 25 Best of 2025 So Far

2025 has been many things, but one of the adjectives that sticks with me for the year so far is Loud. The intensity of politics, of world events, of the climate, of life itself has just felt…Loud. So as I reflected on the albums that have been in heavy rotation in 2025, I’m conscious that they are not nearly as Loud as I usually tend to. A few of them are even described best as “quiet,” but even if most of them are not quite quiet, they also are not Loud. I began the year crowing about Who Let the Dogs Out by Lambrini Girls, for example, and although I still enjoy it, once the year set in, I just haven’t had in me to go back to it that often, so it’s not even on this list.

What is on this list are 25 (as I tend to have a list of 55 at the end of the year, 25 seemed right for midway, not to mention it’s 2025) gorgeous albums from across several genres that I’ve gone back to over and over (even if some of them only came out recently). I purposely left off a couple (Prism Shores, especially) that Brian had on his list, but I just had to include Fust. What you’ll find is a lot of indie and post-punk (or at least adjacent) records from newer artists and a lot of hip-hop and music in other genres from veterans (that is not to say there isn’t great new hip-hop; it’s just hitting me where I am).

[NOTE: If you read this before July 13, you can hear the first of two radio shows that OG Marc and I will devote to the Best of 2025 on WOWD-LP in the archives here; and from July 13-27, you can find our second show at the same link.]

So for our 51st post, coming to you from what someday will actually be the 51st State (take a number, Greenland, Canada, Panama, or whoever else is put in line against their will by the Very Loud Guy who lives just a bit down 16th Street from me…), and in rough order of preference, here we go:

Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On — I wrote about this album here. There just hasn’t been another record I’ve wanted to go back to as much as this one. This is perfect catnip for me - the mix of indie rock, twee, post-punk and just super melodic and catchy tracks is impossible for me to put down. Many of these songs swing and rock, but as will be a theme throughout this post, they’re not loud or overwhelming. This trio of young women (they only recently graduated from college) from the thriving indie rock scene in Chicago (see below for another young indie band from Chicago featuring the younger brother of one of Horsegirl’s members) have clearly found their groove with each other and are having a blast exploring it; you will, too.

Fust - Big Ugly — Brian has written this up in a proper review and in his Best Of. I can’t add more other than to say “Spangled” is my favorite song of 2025 so far.

Mei Semones - Animaru - When this album struck me, I knew it was because I needed something that was “not loud,” though again, it still rocks plenty at times. Simply stated, I just have this sense that Mei Semones and her band should not be this good. But they are. It’s an incredible and truly unique mix of jazz — almost bossanova in style — as well as folk, pop, and indie rock, with lyrics that weave seamlessly back and forth between English and Japanese. That is quite a challenge to pull off, and they manage to make it sound, feel, and look easy. I was intrigued by her previous EPs and singles, but this debut full-length feels like a college student suddenly earning her PhD. The arrangements and instrumentation are remarkably complex, but they don’t feel math-y as much as airy and open. Especially live, where Mei and her band are performing at a level well beyond their years (Mei is 24 and a recent Berklee grad). If you can have this album on your headphones during a walk through a city at night (I was lucky enough to do so through Paris in May), it’ll grab an even deeper hold on you. The Pitchfork review complained that the album didn’t have any “standouts;” that, to me, is precisely why it works so well. It flows together so smoothly that the album almost melts into your soul as a complete whole without warning.

Yugen Blakrok - The Illusion of Being - How I’ve been counting down the days for this record since Yugen released Anima Mysterium in 2019, an album I return to often. To my mind, she’s the preeminent master in this century of what remains of trip-hop, and her vocal tone and flow is just otherworldly. Her writing and lyricism is characteristically dense and complex (the two album titles alone should tell you she’s not rapping about sex and partying), and rooted in the heart of resistance and rebellion. Whatever conventions exist about how MCs should deliver bars, Yugen Blakrok tosses them to the side and is using words and phrasing taken as much from the library as the street - but yet still feels hard and powerful. Her genius is that the lyrics never get in the way and more or less merge with the beats and instrumentation in a way that delivers on the psychedelic side of trip-hop but still keeps it feeling gritty. The Bandcamp liner notes declare “this project offers the listener a journey into the heart of uncertainty and the power of perseverance,” and it is the uncertainty that makes it remarkable. “Osiris Awakens” is the go-to track for me, but the album having a feature for DC’s own (though now based in in Atlanta) Sa-Roc, whose voice is the only comparison in music to Yugen’s, is what takes it to yet another level.

Dead Gowns - It's Summer, I Love You, and I'm Surrounded by Snow — I wrote about this album just a few weeks ago, and it gets better with each listen; “Bad Habit” is a close second for my favorite song of the year to “Spangled.”

Annahstasia - Tether — Another album I was not expecting or aware I needed, but have had in heavy rotation ever since it came on my radar a few weeks ago. With a deeply soulful and captivating voice, Annahstasia worked on some of these songs for more than a decade, according to the Bandcamp liner notes, and you can feel it. The album begins softly, with stark and simple arrangements of her voice and, for the most part, acoustic guitar; somehow the depth and alternations of her voice provide more than enough instrumentation; the range and nuance of the vocals on “Take Care of Me” should stop you in your tracks. By the end, the arrangements are bigger and more complex (I do wish the album had been sequenced a bit differently, but that’s a minor quibble), and her voice simply rises to meet them. The anchor line of the opening track is “I deserve a better hand,” and I certainly hope this album gets her one.

Valerie June - Owls, Omens, and Oracles — It’s always amazing when a veteran artist makes an album going in a new direction that is actually exciting rather than just feeling like desperation. Now more than 12 years into her career, Valerie June turned to another veteran, indie rock musician and producer M. Ward, to transition from her recent records of big, soulful R&B vocals to an album that rocks. Her unique voice that blends together soul, R&B, country, and rock all in one feels boosted and energized by the bluesy indie rock underneath, rather than lost. The album opens with a track called “Joy, Joy!” that feels like a sequel and capstone to Lucinda Williams’ “Joy” from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Like the way Lucinda struggled to get Car Wheels made only to have it become the defining moment of her career, this album could well be Valerie June finding her path on the gravel road.

Los Piranas — Una Oportunidad más de triunfar en la vida — I wrote about this album here, and this psych-cumbia project from three veterans of the Bogota scene remains a transporting experience every time, even without (or rather, because it is without) a single lyric.

Sault - 10 — I tend to describe the mysterious British collective Sault as the best band in the world, and I continue to stand by that. Led by producer Inflo and consisting of a generally unknown cast of incredible musicians and vocalists, Sault has churned out an unimaginable amount of music in the last 7 years, across almost every genre possible besides hardcore punk. But they’ve now settled into a groove of a funk/soul/R&B/gospel blend that delivers every time. The lyrics and sentiments are deeply devotional and spiritual, and at a time when our country’s religious politics is Very Loud, this is the kind of Christian gospel I can get behind every time.

Lifeguard - Ripped and Torn — This is the young Chicago band featuring younger siblings of Horsegirl, and like their older sisters, Lifeguard make a glorious version of 90s indie rock, inspired especially by Guided by Voices, but making it feel young and exciting.

Home is Where - Hunting Season — When you see a band from Palm Coast, FL describe itself as Midwest Emo, you know you’re in for a mashup, and this record delivers everything from alt-country and indie folk to driving post-punk and everything in between. The instrumentation is varied enough that you might find yourself focused there, but then you see what the Bandcamp notes say the record is about: “…[each song details] the dying thoughts of an Elvis impersonator consumed by fumes and flames in a car wreck. To be clear, these songs are not all sung from the perspective of the same dying Elvis impersonator, but from 13 different Elvis impersonators, all dying in a thirteen-car pileup. An unlucky number of imitation Elvises, each grasping at their final scraps of life as they all burn—stuck in separate cars, but together in wreckage and in death. What could be more American than that?” How could you not listen to that over and over?

Billy Woods - Golliwog — To me, Billy Woods is the best MC in the game (fully acknowledging the limits of a 52 year-old white guy in DC opining on “the state of the rap game”) right now. I’ll admit this is not my favorite of his records; if we include Armand Hammer releases, I’m not even sure it’s in my top 5, if I’m honest (I wrote about what continues to be my favorite of his albums here). But Billy Woods delivers stories and meaning like few rappers have ever done because he’s mixing in a level of street reality with humor and grittiness told through the words of a writer whose talent would make him a canon-level novelist. Not because of the volume of words he uses but rather the economy and the way every bar adds together, providing a detail or insight you need somehow (even if the realization of it comes a few songs or albums later). When I listen to Billy Woods songs, I imagine he’s pulling together his words in the way that movies portray math geniuses; like he’s seeing words floating in the air and manipulating them to fit his purposes, with beats as raw as they come underneath just there to help his process (and the listener’s). In my piece about Hiding Places, I asked “what is underground” in the 2020s, where we all have access to all music all the time. In the end, this album shows Billy Woods remains Underground, no matter how well-known he gets. Also worth noting are the very memorable guests from the wildly under-appreciated Bruiser Wolf and his partner in Armand Hammer, ELUCID.

Julien Baker & Torres - Send a Prayer My Way — Not much else to say besides two of the best indie rock songwriters come together to make a true country album, and their talent shines through. It’s not the best country album you’ll hear, nor is it the best album by either artist, but they’re both just so good and clearing having a blast together that it still works.

Jupiter & Okwess - Ekoya — I wrote about this album here and previously about my love of this band here. And just days before this was published, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda signed what could be a historic peace deal (or could just be another document that ends up unfulfilled in the dustbin of good intentions that has marked diplomacy in Central Africa since the 1990s, but alas, that’s for another Substack to tackle). Jupiter & Okwess have been singing about peace and reconciliation for many years, in the most energizing way possible, and I can only pray that the reality in the region finally rises up to meet the musical road to peace this band has been trying to pave.

Blu & August Fanon - Forty — The first of two midlife records for veteran MCs on my list, each track on this record has a single word title encapsulating an aspect of August Fanon’s life, e.g. “Bible,” “Worthy,” “Simple,” or “Joy.” The lyrics are incisive and introspective as you’d expect from an MC facing 40, but what takes this record to a different level for me is the production from Blu (who also produced one of my favorites of 2024 called “Out of the Blue”). The tracks mostly begin with samples of dusty-sounding soul and R&B records, and it gives the lyricism on midlife a depth and texture that only hits after a few listens.

I wrote about the next three albums here, and not sure there’s much more to say other than I keep going back to them and enjoying the odd mix they make - quirky indie pop, soulful 60s R&B with a Latin influence, and noise rock from Kyoto:

Caroline Rose - Year of the Slug

The Altons - Heartache in Room 14

Oddly - Swerve

Little Oso - How Lucky to Be Somebody — As I wrote about here, the second entry on the list from Portland, Maine (Dead Gowns being the other) is just a perfect indie rock album cut straight from the 90s.

Aesop Rock - Black Hole Superette — If anyone has an argument for being the best veteran MC besides Billy Woods, it could well be Aesop Rock (or maybe Black Thought, come to think of it). Aesop Rock has been churning out records since the late 1990s, but his output in the last decade - including his collaboration with Tobacco as Malibu Ken - stands up against anyone’s. The Bandcamp liner notes say it all: “It’s about the small, often overlooked moments—the everyday experiences that blur the lines between the real and the unreal, waking and sleeping. Aesop Rock’s signature gift for transforming the mundane into something dreamlike gives the album a surreal quality, leaving listeners questioning what’s truly real as they navigate its vivid, half-remembered imagery.” Aesop Rock records are, like Billy Woods’, ones that you need to go back to over and over again in order to pick out the details, the wordplay that doesn’t meet the ear the first ten times (and not for nothing, Billy Woods and ELUCID have the stand-out feature verse on this album).

Artificial Go - Musical Chairs — This is a young band from Cincinnati, which makes sense only in that the Queen City feels midway between Olympia and K Records on one hand, and London/Leeds on the other hand. The record is a catchier and spryer mix of the post-punk coming out of England these days (Dry Cleaning, Wet Leg, English Teacher, etc) combined with the joy and innocence that K Records has long been known for. Lots of bands like to describe themselves as “quirky,” but this would be the one record on my list that is deserving of that term.

The High Water Marks - Consult the Oracle — How many other bands do you know from Groa, Norway? Another veteran band — churning out records since the early 2000s - making what feels like some of its best work. This is a fascinating project involving one of the founders of the Elephant 6 collective and the band Apples in Stereo, and they churn out glimmering power pop songs that will guide you through the summer.

fib - Heavy Lifting — Philadelphia has long been one of the epicenters of indie rock of all subgenres, and the city has produced a bunch of great records this year that are hanging around just outside my list - Florry and Friendship being high among them - and keeping with the “f” bands from Philly, I’ve come back to this record from fib a bunch. Basically it’s the “I want to listen to Modest Mouse without listening to current/actual Modest Mouse” entry. Featuring everyone’s favorite music critic term - angular guitar - and also angular vocals. Super entertaining record.

Defcee & Parallel Thought - Other Blues — The other midlife rap record on the list. Defcee is a veteran Chicago MC who has been making records since the mid-2000s and is also a school teacher. The defining song on the album, “You Still Rap?”, is just a heartwarming and honest reflection, and that’s when Defcee is at his best.

Songhoy Blues - Heritage — I wrote about this album here. And as noted at the top, in a year in which I have sought albums that are not loud, this always delivers, even if I might prefer their older, louder records in a vacuum. But this year, it’s as if they knew what I would need.