Arsenio Orteza, Senior Editor
Everything’s Better, The 1910 Chainsaw Company
The band’s name is a riff on the 1910 Fruitgum Company, a late-’60s bubblegum act that scored three Top Fives, none of which are as catchy or diverse as any of these 10 songs. While “sunshine pop” might do as an umbrella, it doesn’t encompass the Everly Brothers homage “Hitchin’ a Ride,” the mad garage-rock stomp “Band Aid,” or the way that “Baby Blue” slowly then rapidly unspools to bring the album to a loose and very rambunctious end.
Dark Country, Gary Louris
It’s hard to believe that Louris was nearly 70 when he recorded these songs. True, they draw on sounds that have been in the air since Graham Nash’s “Our House,” the acoustic parts of the Beatles’ White Album, and Harry Nilsson’s “Perfect Day (a shimmer-for-shimmer recreation of which closes the album out). But fresh breezes blow through the textures, and Louris hardly sounds a day over whatever age he was when he last recorded with the Jayhawks.
Against the Grain, Lance Cowan
Last year, Lance Cowan proved that a veteran Americana PR man could make an album on par with those of his clients. This year, he proved that he could beat the sophomore slump. The mid-’70s country-rock instrumentation and vocal harmonies remain, but they’re at the service of sharper hooks, hooks that would’ve embedded themselves in the Top 40 back when millions were checking into the Hotel California.
Charles Moss, Associate Editor
Fade Away Blue, Pete Droge
From seemingly out of nowhere, ’90s alt-rocker Pete Droge released his first solo album in 19 years. And it was worth the wait. Fade Away Blue is an insanely personal and intimate record that delves into the artist’s bouts with depression, addiction, anxiety, and abandonment issues, not to mention the search he undertook at the age of 40 to find his birth mother. While these 10 folk-tinged tracks (six of them co-written by his wife, Elaine Summers, who also served as executive producer) had the potential to stray into, quoting High Fidelity, “sad bastard music.” Droge infuses the album with an overwhelming sense of hope and gratitude that seems to be on rare display in 2025.
Horror, Bartees Strange
SPIN writer Brendan Hay turned me onto Bartees Strange’s third album, Horror, earlier this year with his fantastic interview featuring the Washington, D.C.-based singer-songwriter. In his piece, Hay says the artist’s intention for this record was “to feel like a horror movie,” which sold me right away. The lead track, “Too Much,” about feeling overwhelmed by life’s pressures, sets the tone for the rest of the album, which tackles the very relatable idea of overcoming the insecurities and loneliness we all feel at times. In another standout track, “Sober,” Strange tackles the complexities of relationships and the coping mechanisms we employ to soothe the pain that come with them. But the hard-driving “Wants Needs” may be my favorite; a song about balancing what we want with what we need from others. Horror is the perfect self-help album that forces us to look inside ourselves to overcome our worst fears and tendencies.
Liza Lentini, Executive Editor
West End Girl, Lily Allen
I’m not sure any 2025 release caused the reaction of Lily Allen’s fifth studio album—and boy, did it strike a nerve. Every major outlet dissected/analyzed/interpreted the album as though it was an ancient linguistic text unearthed from a crypt. Written in 10 days during the devastating end of her marriage to actor David Harbour, Allen combines her signature treacle-soaked method of lethal musical laser beams (think of her singles “Smile,” and “Fuck You”) with a semi-autobiographical story that made just about everyone prick up their ears, and even hum the lyrics to the record’s 7th track, “Pussy Palace,” whether they wanted to or not. The word “authentic” is diabolically overused, but I believe it’s the core explanation for how and why this album sparked the conversation it did, proving that raw, inspired art is what the world needs now.
For the People, Dropkick Murphys
No one does a revolution like Bostonians, and no one makes protest anthems a rollicking good time like Dropkick Murphys. Released on July 4, DKM’s 13th studio album is empowering, sometimes fun, and sometimes sentimental, showing us that music reflective of turbulent times can not only be peaceful, but also make you want to jump and sing. There’s something comforting about a band who is exactly who they say they are, exactly who they’ve always been, and, as the album title states, always there for us.
Read my interview with DKM frontman Ken Casey for the album’s release here.
Rise Up, Cha Wa
If there was an award for most underrated album of the year, it would go to Rise Up, a powerful, joyful, intoxicating creation from the New Orleans-based Afro-Indigenous funk collective Cha Wa, who are easily one of the most underrated bands making music today. The opening track, “Here We Come,” with its heavy beats and background chants, signals a good-time battle cry for the ages. The album’s fifth track, “Freedom of the City,” aligns Cha Wa with any of the greatest of funk masters. This is the album you didn’t know you needed.
Read our interview with the band here.
The Music of Tori and the Muses, Tori Amos
In March, Tori Amos released a gorgeous children’s book (with incredible illustrations by Demelsa Houghton) telling the fantastical, kid-friendly version of her childhood as a prodigy and the muses that guided her. (For an adult version of her life’s story, I highly recommend her 2020 untraditional memoir Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage.) The accompanying album to Tori and the Muses is beautiful, playful, and wonderful in every sense, inspiring anyone of any age to reclaim their specialness and recognize the inspiration in the every day. If you’re saying to yourself, “Why would I want to listen to a children’s album?”— it’s not just for kids, it’s for everyone. And it’s Tori Amos.
Read my interview with Tori about the book and album here.
Matthew Thompson, Senior Editor
Fleshwork, Pupil Slicer
Powerviolence metal is here delivered with sufficient purity and potency to get you evicted from most rental premises. But so what. The final party, in which you dial this album to thermobaric and devastate entire apartment blocks, shredding the sanity of neighbors while bouncing yourself off walls and through beds, will be legendary. And for those who prefer their sonic war woke, this woman-throated London trio embrace “trans inclusive radical hatred.” Armageddon, bitches.
Black Letter Day, Sean Power & The Main Street Band
“Australiana” tends to be a kitsch genre about long drives and farming, so let’s call this beautifully crafted Aussie work of country rock and blues something else. How about Strayan dirt music with a dash of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club? Melodic when necessary, and piercingly guitared at other times, Black Letter Day is the first album from Brisbane-based Sean Power & The Main Street Band. A strong debut from this new cast of old hands. Get a dog up ya and crank it.
Alive, Maksatik
One surprisingly effective if morally complicated way to wind down for sleep is watching the latest snuffaganda vids from the Ukraine-Russia war. Plus, as it turns out, it’s a nifty way to find new music, often from Eastern Europe. A recent vid of an enormous “hedgehog” tank on the prowl, wildly draped and camouflaged in anti-drone chains and branches—looking if anything like a fabled beast from a medieval tapestry—was set to a juicy piece of drift phonk by Maksatik. A mysterious producer believed to be from Russia, where drift phonk infuses revhead culture, Maksatik has a new album this year, Alive, which works almost as well seething from my V8 as it would scoring the horror on the Eastern Front.
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