Some releases from 2025 that I thought were, in some way, remarkable and worth a listen.
The C Duncan record, It's Only a Love Song, is a major, major piece of work—lushly orchestrated chamber-pop with amazing chord sequences, arrangements, and vocal harmonies. It didn't make nearly as much of a splash as I thought it deserved; perhaps only people who are themselves musicians can really see the craft in it...?
Cate Le Bon’s Michelangelo Dying is astonishing and abstract in the way the Cocteau Twins’ 1985 EPs seemed to me; the production sounds as if the whole mix has been put through a chorus pedal (not the worst idea; I may have to try that...)
Deacon Blue—well, I won’t even call them a guilty pleasure anymore. They are one of the bands of my life and I'll defend them forever. Their latest album, The Great Western Road, the final one before keyboardist James Prime died this summer, shows some classic songwriting and contains two or three of Ricky Ross’s best songs, in my opinion.
So many bands tread the reunion circuit and only play the hits; Deacon Blue always have a new album ready to go, and pepper their setlists with obscurities and rarities that they may only play one night on tour. They're a deeper, more hardworking band than "Real Gone Kid" would suggest. But that's the subject for some more serious writing...
Goldmund’s Layers of Afternoon—made up of piano and violin—is beautiful, one of the best things Keith Kenniff has ever released in my opinion.
Roger Eno released Without Wind, Without Air. He continues to impress, much more than his brother’s recent work, in my eyes.
These New Puritans’ Crooked Wing has definite Talk Talk / The Blue Nile vibes, with spiky modern edges, which is no bad thing.
Men I Trust released two albums this year. Out of the two, Equus Caballus slightly edges it for me, although both are good. Hatchie's new album, Liquorice, was in a similar vein and was as gorgeous as her stuff always is.
The Men I Trust and Hatchie records were probably the only classic shoegaze/dream pop releases I really loved this year—largely because I made an effort to listen more widely this year. Blood Orange’s Essex Honey was a good example of that—it's not usually what I'd consider my thing, but it was my surprise of the year; I adore it.
The record of the year for me personally has got to be Tamino’s Every Dawn’s a Mountain—Arabic-influenced acoustic pop with occasional dream pop guitars, strings, and Buckley-adjacent vocals. An intoxicating mix I’ve returned to many times.