Albums of Summer 2025 Part 2: Summer's Last Stand

Closing out summer with another double-sized episode of great albums! Including:

Cynic - Kindly Bent to Free Us (2014) Lawrence English - Even the Horizon Knows Its Bounds (2025) Julia Holter - Something In The Room She Moves (2024) David Longstreth, Dirty Projectors, and stargaze - Song of the Earth (2025) Madvillian - Madvilliany (2004) Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk (2024) Mac Millar - Balloonerism (2025) Parannoul - Sky Hundred (2025) Queen - Queen 1 (1973) Saga - Worlds Apart (1981) Sleep Token - Even in Arcadia (2025) Sobs - Air Guitar (2022)

Disc Course Results 2025: Tier 5, Week 2

This particular set of showdowns really brought into focus an often confusing distinction that arises when I am considering what album should proceed through the Disc Course: choosing an album I respect versus an album that I love. 

There are an awful lot of albums that I appreciate in terms of the way they “tickle my brain,” so to speak.  Perhaps they have concepts and constructions that make me think, for example, or maybe I appreciate the inherent virtuosity of their performances.  I like these albums – and they often do enjoy replays and get attached to experience. 

Conversely, there are others that just “speak” to me in an indescribably subjective way.  In these cases, they may not necessarily contain the same objective appeal, but they make my hairs stand on end, give me a knot in my gut, or a lump in my throat.  Ideally, the best albums fire on both cylinders, but this is relatively rare.

Virtually all the showdowns this week forced me to contemplate this balance.  Sometimes, depending on my overall state of being, I’ll lean one way or the other to help inform my choices.  This week just happened to be one in which I leaned towards the subjective, finding myself selecting albums that I “just liked” over ones that I find interesting or could talk about in an intellectual mode.

 

Teitur Magusson – Orna VS. Tinted Windows – Tinted Windows

Tinted Windows – Tinted Windows

Great example of this here.  I really, really like Orna and would gladly listen to it anytime.  He’s an interesting character and his music is breezy and beachy in the most carefree way.  I’m a sucker for well-crafted power pop, however, and I miss Adam Schlesinger something fierce.  Perhaps there are objectively better albums in the style than Tinted Windows, but it hits me where I live.  Can’t ignore that.

Misþyrming - Með hamri VS. Clutch – Blast Tyrant

Clutch – Blast Tyrant

This one was surprisingly close.  Anyone who has followed me know that I have a cautious acceptance of non-pitched vocals, and I really thought that Blast Tyrant’s gutbucket groovyness would totally shut Með hamri out.  While Clutch’s clever use of vernacular wordplay did win in the end, focused listens of Með hamri revealed compelling orchestrations and melodic depth hiding under the hood that ended up giving Blast Tyrant’s inarguable accessibility a startling run for its money.

Vök – In the Dark VS. Alan Sparhawk – White Roses, My God

Vök – In the Dark

Here’s a great example, because the context of White Roses, My God really provides the album with some gravity.  Its his first post-Low album since the death of Mimi Parker, and its robotic nature seems to be everything his previous band was not, seemingly intended as a place to hide from the stylistic affectations with which Alan Sparhawk would normally be associated.  In the end, however, I continued coming back to the consistently engaging funk-pop of In the Dark.  Ask me next week, and I might change my mind.

 

Hjatalin – Enter 4 VS. Sheena Ringo - Karuki Zahman Kuri No Hana

Hjatalin – Enter 4

Sheena Ringo is undeniably ingenious.  She packs a HUGE amount of thought into her music, with the sense that the full scope of Karuki Zahman Kuri No Hana will never unfold, but be subsumed within its endless detail.  The intimate, bleak melodicism of Enter 4 emerged to profoundly haunt me, however, inviting nearly endless repeats over the course of the week. 

 

Viewer’s Choice

Teitur Magusson – Orna VS. Tinted Windows – Tinted Windows

Teitur Magusson – Orna

Misþyrming - Með hamri VS. Clutch – Blast Tyrant

Clutch – Blast Tyrant

 

Vök – In the Dark VS. Alan Sparhawk – White Roses, My God

Vök – In the Dark

 

Hjatalin – Enter 4 VS. Sheena Ringo - Karuki Zahman Kuri No Hana

Sheena Ringo - Karuki Zahman Kuri No Hana

2025 Spin-Off Results: Tier 5, Week 1

And so it begins! We kick off Tier 5!

Tier 5 consists of Spin-Off challenges between eliminated Tier 1 albums and new music from this Summer.  In my opinion, the Summer albums have a disadvantage here due to general familiarity and momentum from this earlier exposure.  These new albums, however do have the benefit of novelty and immediacy. 

Samaris – Samaris VS. London Grammar – The Greatest Love

London Grammar – The Greatest Love

In terms of mood, this Spin-Off is a dead heat.  Certainly, fans of London Grammar’s twilight urban landscapes will find a lot of common ground with Samaris’ glacial somnambulism.  London Grammar only wins out due to their expanded dynamic and sonic palate.

 

Lucy in Blue – Lucy in Blue VS. Amythyst Kiah – Still + Bright

Amythyst Kiah – Still + Bright

My initial impression of Lucy in Blue was that it was a very solid tribute project to Pink Floyd and that Amythyst Kiah’s kinetic crossbreeding of blues, folk, and indie rock would easily shut it down.  Lucy in Blue, however, revealed itself to be much more than a mere Floyd clone and almost caused a major upset out of the gate.  It was only a couple of minor production quibbles that ended up giving Still + Bright the edge.

 

Heilung – Lifa VS. Magma – Udu Wudu

Magma – Udu Wudu

Magma is inarguably an acquired taste, and there are certainly justifications for critique of their material despite the obvious musicianship and craft that they invested in their work.  Lifa definitely had a path to advance.  I have, however, acquired the taste and find their work fascinating.  Add to that the fact that Heilung is best conceived of as an interdisciplinary project that includes drama and stagecraft and that Lifa doesn’t express these aspects of the overall concept in full, and I think a picture forms that puts Udu Wudu in the lead.

 

Taugadeildin - Þegar dauðir rísa upp VS. Clarence Clarity – Vanishing Act II

Taugadeildin - Þegar dauðir rísa upp

Vanishing Act II starts out incredibly strong.  Its melodic, funky, disorienting, and fun, and superficially it would seem to easily unseat Þegar dauðir rísa upp.  The issue is that the album’s intensity holds at an incredibly high level throughout, to the point where songs begin to blend into one another and become interchangeable, rather like propping one’s eyelids open and staring into a strobe light for 45 minutes.  Taugadeildein instead relies on straightforward, stripped-down, energetic songwriting that seems to transcend the inevitable language barrier.

 

Viewer’s Choice

Samaris – Samaris VS. London Grammar – The Greatest Love

London Grammar – The Greatest Love

Lucy in Blue – Lucy in Blue VS. Amythyst Kiah – Still + Bright

Lucy in Blue – Lucy in Blue

 

Heiling – Lifa VS. Magma – Udu Wudu

Magma – Udu Wudu

 

Taugadeildin - Þegar dauðir rísa upp VS. Clarence Clarity – Vanishing Act II

Clarence Clarity – Vanishing Act II

Albums of Summer 2025: Part 1 - Return to "Icelandicness"

 A hearty, double-sized post that examines a wide variety of current Icelandic artists, including work from:

Hjaltalín - Enter 4 (2012) Eldberg - Þar Er Heimur Hugans (2018) Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson - Börn Náttúrunnar - Children of Nature (2011) Kiasmos - II (2024) Lay Low - Brostinn Strengur (2011) Lucy in Blue - Lucy in Blue (2016) Teitur Magnússon - Orna (2018) Misþyrming - Með hamri (2022) Samaris - Samaris (2013) Taugadeildin - Þegar dauðir rísa upp (2024) Vök - In The Dark (2019) Heilung - Lifa (2017)

Plus, new music to expand that ever-expanding playlist...

2025 Mid-Year Favorites: Roundtable Album Review

Welcome to our mid-year Top 12 Roundtable, an extended length podcast-type video where we dive into discussion about the Viewer’s Choice curated list:

Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac Count Basie and Quincy Jones – Basie One More Time Lisa Bella Donna – Electronic Voyages The Cure – Songs of a Lost World Dream Theater – Parasomnia Noah Kahan – Stick Season Meer -Wheels Within Wheels Missing Persons – Spring Session M Prince – Controversy Soft Machine – Bundles Timecop1983 – Night Drive XTC – Black Sea

Grab some coffee and give it a listen.

The Disc Course 2025: 12 Favorite Albums - Viewer's Choice

 The viewer-curated list for 2025!

And a representative playlist.

The Disc Course 2025: 12 Mid-Year Favorites

Recorded on location on vacation in San Antonio! The results of my Spring spin-off! 12 meticulously curated albums from as far back as 1978 to add to your playlists.

This playlist has representative tracks from all these albums, with the exception of 88Kasyo Junrei. Check them out below.

2025 Album Showdown Results: Tier 4, Part 1

Many other music critics pride themselves on the sheer amount of music that they go through.  As a voracious, possibly pathological consumer of music, I can see the appeal.  I also, however, am a person who uses music as a soundtrack to life.  This requires “living with” an album for a period of time to allow it to attach to experience.  If you look back through this blog, you can see that for a long time, I struggled with balancing my hunger for new music with the potential for creating future nostalgia, a situation which led to this convoluted showdown bracket structure that you’ve chosen to follow along with.

It's my goal to provide every album I listen to with the opportunity to become my favorite, but the system is imperfect.  For example, in the Summer, I have to acquaint myself with a whole lot of new music very quickly in order to set up the brackets for the Fall.  If these albums get eliminated, they really don’t have much of a chance to speak.  Similarly, I like to continue to listen to new albums in December, but realistically, this music doesn’t really have the chance to take root  within its given calendar year.  Putting them into consideration for Album of the Year seems unreasonable.

This is the reason for Tier 4.  By this point, it's pretty much a given that any album from this year that makes it this far is quality, but pulling albums from these two resources as a final check before finalizing the mid-year Top 12 inevitably results in some upsets - as you will see below.

This also results in some very divergent showdowns in the viewer’s bracket, as both last year’s Tier 5 and surviving finals titles may not be the same as the prime.  Also, style matching is a ballpark estimation, and is sometimes impossible given the surviving titles.  

88Kasyo Junrei - Genma Taisai VS. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up Here

88Kasyo Junrei - Genma Taisai

I’ve been trying for a while with Black Country, New Road, and although I like (perhaps, at times, even love) them, the melodrama sometimes takes a toll.  88Kasyo Junrei leaps over the language barrier with catchy tunes and a quirky identity.

clipping. - Dead Channel Sky VS. Master Boot Record - Personal Computer

clipping. - Dead Channel Sky

Do not, under any circumstances, sleep on Master Boot Record.  Personal Computer is an impossibly great and consistent album, but one in which the focus is so narrow as to squash variety.  The songs are pretty interchangeable, but they are all great.  Dead Channel Sky is a full-album experience, and while I have made a lot of fuss about Dahveed Diggs’ incomparable vocal talents, the more experimental and avant-garde moments on the album keep its overall narrative fresh.

Opeth -  The Last Will and Testament VS. Blood Incantation - Elsewhere

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

This is a huge, huge upset that I did not expect.  I’ve been a staunch advocate of The Last Will and Testament all season, and I absolutely maintain that it is a brilliantly conceived and executed album.  If not one of Opeth’s finest, certainly a big step forward in their progression.  Absolute Elsewhere, however, made a similar impression on me last December, and I have been sleeping on it ever since.  In many ways, it is at the very least the technical and conceptual equal to The Last Will and Testament.  Absolute Elsewhere gets the edge with me personally, however, from its cosmic space-rock tone and unhinged performances.

Monika Roscher Bigband - Witchy Activities and the Maple Death VS. Cate le Bon - Pompeii

Monika Roscher Bigband - Witchy Activities and the Maple Death

I know that a lot of critics love this Cate le Bon album, but its pervasive mid-tempo pacing challenges my interest.  Conversely, Witchy Activities and the Maple Death is a serious contender for my Album of the Year.  Shutout.

Meer - Wheels Within Wheels VS. All Traps on Earth - A Drop of Light

Meer - Wheels Within Wheels

This showdown rests largely on how experimental and challenging you like your progressive rock.  While technical, avant-garde prog certainly resonates with me, I have always leaned towards projects that employ the progressive rock paradigm to expand on accessible song structures.  A Drop of Light is electrifying and complex - certainly worthy of respect! Its pervasive twists and turns, however, require significant attention from the listener.  There is inarguably a payoff from that investment, but Meer’s reimagined neo-prog approach puts singability, and therefore this showdown’s win, within reach.

Basie and Quincy Jones - Basie One More Time VS. Glass Beams - Mahal

Count Basie and Quincy Jones - Basie One More Time

The temptation here is to say “well, its Basie” and give One More Time the win on its own recognizance.  It would be a mistake, however, to dismiss Mahal.  It’s “Wallpaper funk goes to Persia” tone and androgynous anonymity carry a lot of weight that shouldn’t be ignored.  It is, however, clearly an EP, and it finishes way before it feels like it is done saying what it needs to say.   Besides - its Basie!

Viewer’s Choice Results

Soft Machine - Bundles VS. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up Here

Soft Machine - Bundles

Missing Persons - Spring Session M VS. Master Boot Record - Personal Computer

Missing Persons - Spring Session M

Dream Theater - Parasomnia VS. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

Dream Theater - Parasomnia

Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac VS. Cate le Bon - Pompeii

Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

Meer - Wheels Within Wheels VS. All Traps on Earth - A Drop of Light

Meer - Wheels Within Wheels

Count Basie and Quincy Jones - Basie One More Time VS. Kofi Flexxx - Flowers in the Dark

Count Basie and Quincy Jones - Basie One More Time

Peter Gabriel's I/O: The Power of the Dark Side

An extended discussion with musician and producer Dave Randolph comparing and contrasting the features of the two commercially released mixes of Peter Gabriel's 2023 album I/O.

Expect some science

.

2025 Album Showdown Results: Tier 3, Part 2

This post documents the final set of Tier 3 showdowns!  At this point, we have narrowed down over 120 albums to just 12, with the final list revealing, but not finalizing, itself.  There is one more round of refinement to address in the coming weeks. Prepare for Tier 4!

Tier 4 could be considered the “sudden death” round.  Here, we will reintroduce a few previous albums that, due to their timing, may have not gotten a fair shake.  Half of this tier is composed of all the new music that was introduced at the end of November but did not make last year’s Top 20.  Often, great albums get lost in the shuffle as attention is focused on the finals during the last month of the year.  They are given a second chance in Tier 4.

Also, the top rated albums that were introduced in last year’s Tier 5 will fill out the Tier 4 bracket.  As you will see in the coming months, there is a “speed-dating” aspect to Tier 5.  Over the course of a couple of weeks, we will need to familiarize ourselves with 24 new albums that will go up against the 24 eliminated albums from Tier 1, with January’s music having the clear advantage of familiarity and momentum.  New music that needs time and investment often doesn’t have the luxury of either, and the inclusion of these albums in this year’s Tier 4 is intended to open up some space for this music to reveal itself.

But I am getting ahead.  Here’s Tier 3:

Todd Rundgren - 2nd Wind VS. XTC - Black Sea

XTC - Black Sea

Some interesting juxtapositions arise when comparing these albums. Whereas  Black Sea documents the distinctive live chemistry that XTC had in their early years before submitting to the potentials of the studio-as-instrument, 2nd Wind shows Todd Rundgren trying to capture a similar liveness by recording in front of a live audience in a setting intended to maintain the clarity of studio recording.  While one might argue that Rundgren’s songs are more compositionally advanced, XTC’s songwriting was definitely coming into its own on Black Sea,  but with lightning-in-a-bottle energy that is largely flattened out on 2nd Wind

Karate - Make it Fit VS. The Marvelous 3 - The Hey! Album

Karate - Make it Fit

Although The Hey! Album is a pristine example of late 90’s power pop, its cookie-cutter stylistic boundaries and production work against it in comparison to Make it Fit.  At their best, Karate has always been unflinchingly sincere and subtly virtuosic, and this most recent release succinctly captures that dynamic.

Brendan Byrnes - Transfigured Earth pts. I & II VS. Mount Eerie - Night Palace

Brendan Byrnes - Transfigured Earth pts. I & II

Night Palace is great, and an album that clearly reveals itself upon multiple listens.  It's thought-provoking and intimate, and is probably better appreciated when “lived with” rather than “listened to.”  Brendan Byrne’s wide-eyed and enthusiastic experimentation with microtonality, however, is impossible to ignore.  Most microtonal artists showcase the disorienting oddness of their work over its actual content, but Byrnes sets the comprehensibility of the music first, using unique flavors to infuse his music with deeper emotional potential.  

Bill Rieflin, Trey Gunn, & Robert Fripp - The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior VS. Death’s Dynamic Shroud - Midnight Tangerine

Death’s Dynamic Shroud - Midnight Tangerine

King Crimson, and by association, its many side ProjeKCts, is the prototypical “progressive rock” band.  They are distinguished from many of their contemporaries, however, by their avant-garde aspects.  The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior predicts the 2000 iteration of King Crimson as a set of improvised b-roll tracks that came out of the sessions for Bill Rieflin’s solo album, Birth of a Giant, and leans very hard into abstractions.  The high level of musicianship is a given, but what is far more impressive is the level of instinctive interaction between the three of them.  It's like listening to a musical discussion between Foucault, Chomsky, and Merleau-Ponty.  Its experimental scope, however, does result in some meandering that requires significant focus.  Midnight Tangerine is not without its own adventurousness, but its emphasis on somnambulistic melancholy is much more engaging and accessible.  Interestingly, this liminal tone is shared by The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior to an extent, leading me to imagine what would happen if Rieflin, Gunn, and Fripp collaborated with Death’s Dynamic Shroud, adding their distinctive instrumental voice to Midnight Tangerine’s introspective atmospheres.

Steven Wilson - The Overview VS. David Gilmour - Luck and Strange

Steven Wilson - The Overview

At this stage in his career, David Gimour owes us nothing.  As a guy who took part in some of the most musically creative rock albums in the style’s history, one could hardly blame him for simply enjoying a simpler life in his retirement.  With this in mind, Luck and Strange could arguably be seen as lacking ambition.  Gilmour doesn’t tread much new ground here - the songs border on the predictable and his voice shows wear.  His guitar playing, however, is simply phenomenal, and is easily worth the price of admission.  Steven Wilson, on the other hand, can in no way be accused of having a lack of ambition.  The Overview is his most progressive outing in decades, and he realizes the huge scope of the album with almost otherworldly ease.

Ghost - Skeleta VS. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

Ghost - Skeleta

This one was easily the most problematic choice of this entire tier - maybe of the whole season.  Although there are dedicated fans of The Cure who have expressed disappointment with Songs of a Lost World, its atmospheric, sensual reinterpretation of the band’s gothic roots, I have no such association.  I absolutely love its meditative tone and abrasive edges, and I have since its introduction in January. Allowing Ghost to advance in its stead is a huge upset, but kicking and screaming, Skeleta has won me over with its pervasive melodicism and songcraft.  There is not a moment on the album that is bereft of a memorable hook, and as a fan of 80s AOR, I probably have more of a nostalgic connection with its “Bo Burnham meets Asia” approach than I do to The Cure’s somber tone.  

Viewer’s Choice Results

Field Music - Limits of Language VS. XTC - Black Sea

XTC - Black Sea

Elvis Costello - This Year’s Model VS. Squid - Cowards

Elvis Costello - This Year’s Model

Noah Kahan - Stick Season VS. Mount Eerie - Night Palace

Noah Kahan - Stick Season

Bill Rieflin, Trey Gunn, & Robert Fripp - The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior VS. Timecop 1983 - Night Drive

Timecop1983 - Night Drive

Steven Wilson - The Overview VS. Prince - Controversy

Prince - Controversy

System of a Down - Toxicity VS. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

The Cure - Songs of a Lost World