Wait, it’s July already? Damn. That was fast. I’d say time flies when you’re having fun, but I don’t know anybody who’s really having any. But even if the world is a dumpster fire being towed straight to hell by a clown car, at least we’ve got some decent music to hear while we plunge into the abyss. Here are some of my favourite albums from 2025’s first half, listed in alphabetical order. Will any of them make the cut six months from now? Who knows? Hell, who knows if any of us will be here six months from now? So carpe those diems, bitches. Enjoy.
Tunde Adebimpe | Thee Black Boltz
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For the last 24 years, Tunde Adebimpe has largely been known as co-founder, co-vocalist and principal songwriter for TV On The Radio.
Thee Black Boltz is not a TV On The Radio album. But in a lot of ways, the excitement of doing something on his own for the first time ignited a similar spark in him as the early TVOTR days. The songwriting process is the same, he says, but with his bandmates, Tunde knows he doesn’t always have to complete his ideas. “I’ve been doing this thing with this group of people for so long, that I can just have a vague sketch of a concept and I know Jaleel Bunton or Kyp Malone will have five brilliant ideas on where it can go. But for Thee Black Boltz, I didn’t have that scaffolding to hang on. That was both terrifying and exhilarating.”
At the heart of the album is its title, a nod to Tunde’s propensity to write and sing about the human condition, in all its forms, under all its stressors, both big and small. It is his response to the macro unease of a world careening towards violent authoritarianism and the personal grief that has come from loss in recent years, specifically the sudden passing of his younger sister while making this album. Thee Black Boltz is Tunde’s desperate grasping of small moments of joy amidst the dissonance and sadness, any way he can. Making this album, he says, was his way of processing everything. “It was my way of building a rock or a platform for myself in the middle of this fucking ocean.”
Julien Baker & Torres | Send A Prayer My Way
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Julien Baker & Torres’ Send A Prayer My Way was written and sung in the best outlaw tradition — defiant, subversive, working class, and determined to wrestle not only with addiction, and regret and bad decisions, but also with oppressive systems of power.
Mercifully, this is only the beginning of the stories Torres and Baker are determined to tell. Because these are also songs about radical empathy and second chances, and third chances, and while there’s plenty of struggle and regret in here, there’s also humor and defiance.
Send A Prayer My Way has been in the works for years. Imagine two young musicians playing their first show together at Lincoln Hall, a much-loved venue in Chicago. It’s Jan. 15, 2016, and bonechillingly cold outside, especially for a couple of southerners. When the show is over and they’re shooting the shit, one singer says to the other, “We should make a country album.”
Matt Berninger | Get Sunk
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In 2023, after 10 years of living in Los Angeles, Matt Berninger (along with his wife and teenage daughter) moved to Connecticut. This change of scene suited him; he began to spend his days outside, painting, reading, smoking weed and listening to music, much of it his own. He wrote lyrics all over old baseballs, and arranged dust-covered items in his barn into strange and surreal works of art. It felt good to be creating and to understand why he loves what he does.
Throughout his work with The National, Berninger is known for his contemplative narratives in which characters peer over the cliff’s edge. He has always been forthcoming about his own mental and emotional pitfalls. “Our hearts are like old wells filled with pennies and worms,” he explains. “I can’t resist going down to the bottom of mine to see what else is there. But sometimes you can get yourself stuck.” In 2020 he went through “a long period of writer’s block and self-disgust. I just got sick of of asking myself ‘Why am I like this?’ ” For him, identity is amorphous and ever-evolving, and stretches beyond individuality. This is the driving force of his second solo album Get Sunk. Under water, everything moves in slow motion and Berninger saw his creative voice slipping away. But sometimes we have to drown to remember how to breathe. Get Sunk is the inhale, bringing blurry memories to the surface.”
Blondshell | If You Asked For A Picture
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Blondshell’s second album, If You Asked For A Picture, expands on the visceral songwriting and wit that made her 2023 self-titled debut a critical sensation. Sabrina Teitelbaum explores themes of control, relationships, and self-reflection, gesturing towards an even deeper autobiographical story.
If You Asked For A Picture borrows its title from Dogfish, a 1986 poem by the cherished American writer Mary Oliver. In her work, Oliver grapples with the idea of telling one’s own story: How much to share, how much to keep for oneself — all questions Teitelbaum asked herself while writing the forthcoming LP. “There’s a part of the poem that says: ‘I don’t need to tell you everything I’ve been through. It’s just another story of somebody trying to survive,’” Teitelbaum says. “Something I love about songs is that you’re showing a snapshot of a person or a relationship, and showing a glimpse into a story can be just as important as trying to capture the entire thing. Sometimes it’s even truer to the entire picture than if you tried to write everything down.”
Chime Oblivion | Chime Oblivion
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chime Oblivion is the new project from Osees mastermind John Dwyer, featuring Dave Barbarossa (Adam & The Ants, Bow Wow Wow, Fine Young Cannibals), Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers, Lydia Lunch’s Retrovirus), Tom Dolas (Osees, Mr Elevator), H.L. Nelly (Naked Lights, FKA Smiley) and Brad Caulkins (Bent Arcana, With Egg).
Chime Oblivion began out of the blue. Barbarossa reached out to Dwyer, saying he was a fan of Osees. He was invited to a show. The two hung out and hit it off. “Then I rabbitholed on Bow Wow Wow too,” Dwyer recalls. “I reached out to David and suggested that we try and write some songs together… I flew David out, we met at my studio and spent five days writing ideas.” The two got to know each other and had a lot of laughs.
Dwyer then brought in Weasel Walter, knowing that he would be perfect “to add all that legitimate old-school, weird proto-punk no-wave guitar scratch to it, which of course he did masterfully.” Next came Dolas to play fuzzy marimba, and the fabulous Nelly, “as I knew her from a record I’d put out back in the day for a band called Naked Lights from Oakland. I knew that she could pull off the vocal style I had in mind.” Together, the group created their debut self-titled album, which Dwyer rightly claims is tailor-made “for fans of Adam & The Ants, Bow Wow Wow, Crass, The Slits and any other wierdo punk we fell in love with as youths.”
Charley Crockett | Lonesome Drifter
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Lonesome Drifter is the new album from Grammy-nominated artist Charley Crockett.
Crockett co-produced the album alongside Grammy-winning musician and producer Shooter Jennings. Over the course of just 10 days, they cut 12 tracks live at the legendary Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. Crockett’s Island Records debut is a culmination of all that has come before, with the same unapologetic spirit, diehard work ethic and no-nonsense honesty that has driven his artistry across his 14 previous studio albums. In the end, Lonesome Drifter takes stock of Charley’s road in the rearview as it paves a path into the future.”
Lucy Dacus | Forever Is A Feeling
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Lucy Dacus’s last album Home Video explored the world of childhood and adolescence. But Forever Is A Feeling is decidedly adult. The lushness of the album’s sound is matched by a new frankness in Dacus’s approach to sexuality and romance. “So bite me on the shoulder, pull my hair,” Dacus sings on Ankles. “Pull me by the ankles to the edge of the bed, and take me like you do in your dreams.”
Most of the songs on Forever Is A Feeling were written between fall 2022 and summer 2024. “I got kicked in the head with emotions,” says Dacus. “Falling in love, falling out of love.” She had to make peace with the price of the love she wanted. “You have to destroy things in order to create things. And I did destroy a really beautiful life.”
Forever is a feeling — and maybe only a feeling. But that’s not to say it’s nothing. On the cover painting, the album’s title appears tattooed across Dacus’s chest. Tattoos are permanent marks, we think, but they can only last as long as the flesh they’re written on. “You can’t actually capture forever,” Dacus says. “But I think we feel forever in moments. I don’t know how much time I’ve spent in forever, but I know I’ve visited.”
Deafheaven | Lonely People With Power
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Deafheaven’s new album Lonely People With Power follows their 2021 studio album Infinite Granite, which saw the Grammy-nominated band charting new ground and expanding their stylistic boundaries.
On Lonely People With Power, Deafheaven again confound expectations, piling element on element, and towering towards the sky with their most ambitious release yet. Tracked at EastWest Studios with with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (St. Vincent, M83), Lonely People With Power includes additional vocal contributions from Jae Matthews of Boy Harsher and Paul Banks of Interpol.”
Joe Ely | Love And Freedom
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With nearly 25 albums under his belt, prolific Texas singer-songwriter Joe Ely returns with a timely collection of songs — some written by him, and others penned by musical heroes like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Woody Guthrie. “I’m really appreciative of everyone’s help in putting this album together,” shares Ely. “To me, Love And Freedom is a reminder of the times we’re living in right now, and I hope it resonates with whoever takes the time to listen.”
Co-produced with frequent collaborator Lloyd Maines (Miranda Lambert, Kris Kristofferson), Love And Freedom unveils songs from Ely’s recording vault, spanning several decades of sessions at Spur Studios, his home studio outside Austin. Ely recorded these tracks during time off the road, resulting in poignant renditions of classics like the Ryan Bingham-featured take on Guthrie’s protest anthem Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) and the heartfelt Clark cut Magdalene. Love And Freedom follows Ely’s 2024 road album Driven to Drive, which received widespread acclaim.”
Craig Finn | Always Been
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Always Been is the sixth solo album from Craig Finn. The album was produced by Finn’s longtime friend Adam Granduciel, the principal of The War on Drugs. Always Been is direct in both music and title. As Finn says, “I’ve always been Craig Finn.”
From the opener Bethany, a moody piano-driven portrait with a distinctive Granduciel guitar solo, to the propulsion of the first single People of Substance, to the vivid storytelling and character development that has marked Finn’s career, this record feels at once familiar and fresh.
Recorded throughout 2024 at One Cue Studio in Burbank, Always Been features a host of musicians, including many of Granduciel’s bandmates in The War on Drugs. Kathleen Edwards and Sam Fender provide guest vocals. The musical result is distinctive, purposeful, and commanding.
This is perhaps Finn’s most narrative record yet. It tells the story of a man who becomes a clergyman despite a lack of faith. The songs detail his rise, fall, and eventual redemption, while also shining a light to sharply reveal the other characters that populate the world he moves through.”
Frankie & The Witch Fingers | Trash Classic
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With hooks so infectious they rot on impact, Trash Classic captures a feral mutation for Frankie And The Witch Fingers — a record that snarls with proto-punk venom, angular melodies, and electronic textures that cough and sputter like dying neon lights under a poisoned sky.
This LP pushes The Witch Fingers’ sound to a razor’s edge. Wiry and twitching, it bends into synth-punk and fractured new wave, with fragments of industrial grime caked under its nails. Guitars detonate and slice like cinder blocks through glass, while gnashing basslines slither through the sludge, alive and seething. Buzzy synths take the forefront, driving relentless rhythms that crack and pop, drenched in a chemically saturated sheen — part bug-eyed speed-freak pogo, part dance-floor delirium. The vocals cut through like static-laced transmissions — balancing both smirk and sneer — layering playful unease over themes of escapism, decay, and overindulgence.”
Franz Ferdinand | The Human Fear
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Produced with Mark Ralph, who previously worked with Franz Ferdinand on their 2013 album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, The Human Fear showcases the band at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming, unashamedly going for the jugular in classic Franz style. Recorded at AYR studios in Scotland, the 11 songs all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives.
“Making this record was one of the most life-affirming experiences I’ve had, but it’s called The Human Fear,” frontman Alex Kapranos explains. “Fear reminds you that you’re alive. I think we all are addicted in some way to the buzz it can give us. How we respond to it shows how we are human. So here’s a bunch of songs searching for the thrill of being human via fears. Not that you’d necessarily notice on first listen.”
Kinky Friedman | Poet Of Motel 6
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The storied Echo Hill Ranch, where Kinky Friedman lived for over 40 years, is now the birthplace of his final masterpiece, Poet Of Motel 6. This posthumous album showcases the wit, heart, and unflinching humanity that defined Friedman as one of America’s most-iconic storytellers.
Poet Of Motel 6 was written at the ranch, a 400-acre property that Kinky called home. Surrounded by the tranquility of Texas Hill Country, the ranch served as both inspiration and sanctuary. This album is not merely a collection of songs; it is Kinky’s heartfelt goodbye, a reflection of his singular life and enduring legacy. Produced by David Mansfield, a longtime collaborator dating back to Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, the album captures Kinky at his most intimate. Written in the spring of 2023, the recording process was an emotional journey. Mansfield recalls the sessions as deeply personal, with Kinky’s voice embodying both vulnerability and resilience.
The album features ten original tracks, penned and performed by Friedman. The title track stands out as a poignant elegy, inspired by the passing of his friend Billy Joe Shaver. “Kinky was very upset when Billy Joe Shaver died,” explains Jesse Dayton. “Kinky idolized Billy Joe. I hear that sense of loss.” Mansfield experienced it firsthand. “Those songs he wrote about people he cared about that had passed on, they were quite elegiac,” says the producer. “He sang beautifully, and at the end he was in tears. He was very emotionally connected when he was doing these vocals.”
Grateful Dead | Enjoying The Ride
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Grateful Dead celebrate their 60th anniversary with Enjoying The Ride, a sweeping 60-CD collection that maps an epic cross-country road trip along the “Heady Highway” with stops at storied venues where the music, the moment, and the magic of the band reliably converged.
Spanning 25 years of legendary live performances, this expansive collection spotlights defining shows from 1969 to 1994 at 20 venues that consistently inspired the band to new heights — Winterland, Frost Amphitheatre, Madison Square Garden and Hampton Coliseum among them. Whether playing the intimate confines of Fillmore West or beneath the open skies at Red Rocks, Grateful Dead never played the same show twice. Enjoying The Ride is a thrilling testament to that adventurous spirit.
With the exception of a few tracks from earlier releases, virtually all of the music on Enjoying The Ride is previously unreleased, spanning more than 450 tracks and over 60 hours of music. Of the 20 shows in the collection, 17 are presented in full, with some featuring additional material from the same venue. The remaining three — Fillmore West, Fillmore East and Boston Music Hall — are curated from multiple performances at each venue, capturing key moments on those legendary stages.
Guided by Voices | Universe Room
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Universe Room is the 18th Guided By Voices album in 10 years, and packs a vast mix of energy levels and sounds into 17 diverse tracks that last less than 40 minutes. The new record ventures into truly surprising territory, where barely any song segments and choruses are revisited and fidelity daringly shifts between lo-fi and hi-fi.
“I wanted to create, hopefully, an experience, kind of a wild ride, where the listener would want to hear it multiple times in order to grasp all the sections and fields of sound to discover something new with each listen,” says singer, songwriter, chief cook and bottle washer Robert Pollard. “I trimmed down the songs so that there wasn’t a lot of repetition, so you get a lot of sections that happen only once or twice.”
Universe Room embodies a realm of new horizons for Guided By Voices, who continue to redefine and expand as they blast off to unpredictable sonic and lyrical worlds.”
Haim | I Quit
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Haim are back in business with I Quit, the fourth album from the California sibling trio. The 15-track LP was produced by Rostam Batmanglij and Danielle Haim, and radiates the energy of seasoned performers whose deep reverence for classic rock shapes songs built for the stage.
The band introduced the album with the first single and video Relationships. “What’s all this talk about relationships?” is among the questions explored by the sister trio of Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, who navigate the whirlwind of unexplainable feelings brought on by the evolution of relationships. The song features the band’s familiar mix of genres, offering a contrast to the album’s rock sound.
Coming on the heels of Relationships, second single Everybody’s Trying To Figure Me Out displays a driving rock influence, featuring a powerful percussive intro and steady guitar build — while being a contemplative exploration about feeling misunderstood. Finally, the third single Down To Be Wrong us a confident ode to self-preservation and prioritizing yourself. “Don’t need you to understand, don’t know if you can,” is the song’s final message, defiantly ending with “Red Lights are up ahead, but I keep walking.”
Patterson Hood | Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I’m releasing my fourth solo album, the first in over 12 1/2 years, called Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams,” says singer-guitarist Patterson Hood, best known as the frontman of Drive-By Truckers. “It was recorded last year during an ice storm, no less, which is befitting for an album that starts out with a similar meteorological condition. My buddy Chris Funk produced and played a bunch of cool vintage analogue synthesizers (among other things) on it.
“The songs take a backwards journey through time — from the ice storm that wrecked my hometown just before my 30th birthday and move to Athens, GA, all the way back to my early childhood in North Alabama in the ’70s. It’s a very different album than anything I’ve ever done, yet somehow feels steeped in the universe our other albums seem to inhabit.”
Horsegirl | Phonetics On And On
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “There is something about the bitter cold in Chicago that unites the city every January — and the two weeks in 2024 that Horsegirl spent recording Phonetics On and On were some of the coldest days in Chicago that year.
With the heating off in Wilco’s home-base studio The Loft to avoid sound interference, the band was bundled in multiple sweaters and sitting on their hands between takes. Working closely with musician/producer Cate Le Bon (Deerhunter, Kurt Vile, Wilco), Horsegirl found focus and intimacy in the studio that can only arise when it’s simply too cold to step outside. Abandoning the heavy saturation and character studies of Versions of Modern Performance, Le Bon leads them into new, bright, clear, sonic territories that highlight the inventive nature of these new songs.
After playing together for four years, Horsegirl explore the limits of the trio configuration within Phonetics On and On — what if instead of filling out songs with distortion, they utilized the expanse the three of them didn’t occupy? This question seems to be the motivating force behind the record, and the songs are a testament to experimenting with space and texture while maintaining a pop song at the core. New tools help bring this world to life; violins, synths, and gamelan tiles are all woven into the record with complete effect.”
Jason Isbell | Foxes In The Snow
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Foxes In The Snow is the first entirely solo acoustic album from singer-songwriter Jason Isbell. It was recorded over five days in New York City at the famed Electric Lady Studios in October, 2024.
Foxes In The Snow was performed entirely on the same all-mahogany 1940 Martin 0-17 acoustic guitar. The album captures Isbells at the peak of his powers. The virtuosic guitar playing and commanding vocal delivery on this collection is some of the most impressive of an already remarkable recording career. Isbell is one of the most highly lauded songwriters of his generation, and this stripped back, bare-bones format puts his immense talent for evocative storytelling and the complete mastery of his craft on full display.”
Juanita & Juan | Jungle Cruise
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Juanita & Juan are a dynamic musical duo formed by Alice Bag and Kid Congo Powers, two influential figures in the punk and alternative music scenes who first crossed paths in 1977 during the early days of the Hollywood punk movement. Their friendship, rooted in a shared passion for raw, boundary-pushing music, has led to a new creative partnership that transcends genres and defies labels, although the two refer to their sound as “Loud Lounge.”
Together, Juanita & Juan blend their influences — Bag’s fiery vocals and penchant for dark melody with Powers’ atmospheric, reverb-laden guitar tones — creating a musical landscape that is both nostalgic and fresh-sounding. Their collaboration captures the adventurous spirit of their punk roots while embracing new sonic territory. The duo’s chemistry is undeniable, with their musical partnership serving as both a testament to their enduring friendship and the spirit of musical exploration that began for the pair in 1976, proving that punk is not just a genre, but a lasting, ever-evolving attitude.”
