Quarter Two New Albums
Beautiful chaos
Talking about music has felt more like dancing about architecture for a lot of this quarter, so I’ve refrained from doing it. I’m not sure if it’s been a good year for new music or not, but the top seven or so albums here along with the top five or so from the first quarter that were from 2025 wouldn’t be a bad collection.
Revengeseekerz, Jane Remover (2025)
It’s addictive even in its abrasiveness. It’s a horror album in an entirely different way than Golliwog: Jane is relentless in her approach, lighting the sonic environment on fire, dropping earworms from time to time to keep me interested but punishing me over and over again with brutal noise. The album’s braggadocio feels deserved; who else is making music that sounds this good and this bad?
Golliwog, Billy Woods (2025)
The best moments on this album make me sure that it’s the greatest thing that I’ve heard all year. It’s a Black horror rap concept album that uses a minstrel doll as the symbol for structural racism and poverty and somehow isn’t totally labored over (I didn’t necessarily understand the whole concept the first time). The only reason this one doesn’t quite rise to the level of the Jane Remover album is that it feels slightly less cohesive—there’s more of a first half and second half, and the peak comes in the middle with “Maquiladoras,” “A Doll Fulla Pins,” and “Golgatha.” It drags just slightly in the final half after those songs, especially because ELUCID is involved, and I just don’t think he’s ever been up to woods’ level (I’d be happy if woods never made another Armand Hammer album).
Caveman Wakes Up, Friendship (2025)
I’m not sure why this one worked so much more magic on me than the other Friendship albums, but it did. The melancholy here feels much more pervasive and cuts through the carefully constructed images that are a trademark of Friendship’s sound. There’s a ton of textural variety in the music here even if it’s mostly just a power trio.
Big Ugly, Fust (2025)
I might actually enjoy this one more than the three albums above, but it’s less inventive: mostly indie rock in a country vein. However, the lyrics are extremely funny and weird and inventive. It’s definitely no surprise that their lead singer is getting a Literature PhD and that he’s friends with Wednesday. I can see their next album ending up as top five in any year that doesn’t have a Wednesday or Wild Pink album in it, because this is exactly what I want out of indie rock.
You Wanna Fade?, Alien Boy (2025)
Immensely satisfying. Is it pop punk? Emo? Alternative rock? Sure. It’s a wall of sound that I first heard on an extremely hot day while eating some fast food. Put the windows down and crank it up.
Caroline 2, Caroline (2025)
Zoomer Arcade Fire? Revengeseekerz made by a rock band? This is keeping me young.
Sable, Fable, Bon Iver (2025)
This one dropped a little bit as the quarter went on; back in March I was sure it was going to be one of my favorites but I never returned to it like I did to the Jane Remover and billy woods records. It’s a great direction for Bon Iver: I didn’t care about any of their records after the self-titled one and this one brings me right back on board. It’s loose (but not as loose as the Turnstile record).
Never Enough, Turnstile (2025)
This might be music for small children (my three-year old loves it). Glow On is definitely more interesting, and I’m more excited to see the openers on their new tour (Jane Remover, Mannequin Pussy) than I am to see them. Still, the album flows together as a whole much better than I thought it would from the early singles. “Sunshowers” is still kinda dumb, but the house breakdown on “Look Out for Me” actually works!
It’s Closeness, It’s Easy, Planning for Burial (2025)
This isn’t not “gym music,” but it’s not quite gym music, since there’s long sections of ambient synths and noise that aren’t great for lifting heavy shit. On the other hand, I’ve been doing a new self-guided program that involves watching youtube clips of weird exercises and attempting to do them and so the ambient sections of this album didn’t really get me out of my flow since I didn’t have a flow going anyway, and as this played in the background, I was thinking, huh, yeah, there’s a feeling I’m getting here, a space that’s maybe somewhere between the Caroline and Turnstile records if they were both a little more metal. Listening to it at home I enjoyed it even more as background music for like, shelling peas. It’s well-sequenced and incredibly mopey—it all sort of sounds the same, but there’s a moment in the second to last track where he repeats the title phrase a few times and I enjoyed it. The irony doesn’t feel blank: he’s experienced some sort of profound loss over the first seven tracks (a loss that I felt more from the sounds than from the lyrics) and yet he’s sure there’s some way to repair his connection with people.
No Separation, MSPAINT (2025)
These guys still got it after the excellent Post American (2023). This is only an EP so it’s not exactly competing at the same level as the albums above, but it’s a perfect EP, so it’s better than the ones below.
Boo Boo, Boo Boo Spoiler (2024)
Really great 90’s-style hard rock! Perfect 15 minutes!
Ink and Oil, Storefront Church (2024)
I love the absolutely insane amount of ambition here. Not all of it works, but at least the first 7 songs do. The lyrics are actually good—a tableau of imagery that feels more indebted to Beat poetry than typical songwriting. Radiohead vibes! It just doesn’t rise to the level of the top 10 because the last few tracks are kind of boring.
#RichAxxHaitian, Mach-Hommy (2024)
Utterly bizarre, but in an extremely low-key, pleasant way. It’s got more to do with jazz and (obviously, given the title) Caribbean music than modern trends in rap music, even if Hommy is mostly rapping.
Black Hole Superette, Aesop Rock (2025)
There’s something about Aesop Rock that always made me like him more than his Anticon labelmates. Maybe it was his sense of humor, or maybe it’s how Labor Days (2001) actually carried through on its concept album promise but didn’t overdo it; every song was about rap as labor, but sometimes the connection was somewhat oblique. I’m not sure the concept works here, but at least the majority of the (18! too many) songs are fun or smart.
Mr Beat the Road, BossMan Dlow (2024)
Dlow sounds actually evil on most of the album. Evil in a casual way: he seems to be barely trying, yet he’s got insane talent.
Cardiac Country, Jerry David DeCicca (2025)
Kind of straightforwardly silly at times, but sometimes also very affecting. The level of musicianship is extremely high.
Close Your Eyes, Blue Ranger (2024)
The first four songs are just about perfect. They’ve got Wilco circa Being There vibes, which is a very good thing, and the vocalist has a little more range and a more pleasant voice than Jeff Tweedy. On the back half of the album, the songs get a little same-y, but they’re still extremely competent. This is very good stuff.
Papaholic, Vol.1, Papa2004 & Subjxct 5 (2025)
This one and the next one make me wonder if I was just seduced by their earlier work and tired of it, or if I respect their earlier work because it’s in a tighter package? Not sure either way.
Dlow Curry, BossMan Dlow (2024)
Mostly forgettable!
Dan’s Boogie, Destroyer (2025)
I am a Destroyer fan, mostly of the work from Kaputt back to Streethawk, which I think is nearly all great to incredibly great. When I relistened to some of the stuff from the last decade or so (after Kaputt) I enjoyed most of it, too. But this one didn’t stick with me at all, not even after three listens. It just sounds…random. I know that’s kind of part of the Destroyer thing: you know, what does “a sick priest learns to last forever” really mean, anyway? But it at least sounds memorable, whereas none of this sticks to me at all, excepting the interesting duet “Bologna,” which reminds me how good the songs he made with The New Pornographers were.