No matter the context, it’s hard not to look back at 2025 as the year that orange asshole returned to the presidency and started making everything awful. We can only hope that he will eventually be made to answer for the atrocities we all know he has committed. In the meantime, music has been more important than ever as a place of solace and as a conduit for escaping from the daily shitshow that is life in the United States. While there certainly were more than just 10 albums worth of music that did that for me, these are the ones I returned to again and again this past year to find catharsis, joy, or tranquility as needed.

#10
Doves
Constellations for the Lonely
EMI North

Doves’ second album since reuniting in 2019 after a nine-year hiatus, Constellations for the Lonely was made while bassist and singer Jimi Goodwin was struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues that also saw the band touring without him to support it. As a result, the record is decidedly darker thematically and feels more insular sonically than past albums, but is nevertheless as strong as any in the band’s catalog of stellar records. Even with all three members of the band taking turns on vocals, it’s a cohesive effort, and songs like “In the Butterfly House” and “Strange Weather” exhibit a mix of intricate guitar detailing paired to sweeping atmospherics. Constellations shows that there’s still beauty to be found even when the world seems to be crumbling down around you.

#9
Bill Fox
Resonance
Eleventh Hour Recoding Company

Like a musical JD Salinger, Bill Fox has been something of a reclusive cult figure for the past 30 years. After breaking up notable Cleveland power-pop band The Mice in the ‘80s, he resurfaced in the ‘90s with a pair of solo albums recorded primarily on four-track that gained acclaim for their songs of aching lyrical poignancy and pop-inflected folk. Despite the recognition, he dropped off the radar, only to pop up again with another wonderful record in 2012 and again this year with Resonance. This past year even saw him play some shows! With about half of the record culled from material recorded on four-track during the ’90s and the other half being more recent recordings of greater fidelity, Fox again shows his knack for both poignant folk simplicity, as well as exquisite pop, and that every fleeting glimpse of his innate talent is to be treasured.

#8
Bar Italia
Some Like It Hot
Matador Records

After releasing two excellent records in 2023, London’s Bar Italia returned this year with one record to eclipse them both. Some Like It Hot ups the pop quotient in their mix of post-punk and post-grunge influences. This is immediately noticeable in leadoff cut “Fundraiser,” with a slinky bassline and snappy beats paired to the back-and-forth of singers Nina Crisante and Sam Fenton. Elsewhere, the sultry “Plastered” shows noir tones replacing the jagged rhythms and jittery riffs, revealing the band to be equally adept at being languid as animated. But where such sonically divergent paths made past records feel disjointed, here Bar Italia seem more sure-footed and confident, lending an overriding aesthetic and cohesion to the album.

#7
Chime Oblivion
Chime Oblivion
Deathgod Records

As one of Adam’s original Ants and drummer in Bow Wow Wow, David Barbarossa was responsible for the tribal beats that were intrinsic to both bands’ sounds and overarching aesthetics. In the intervening years, he played in Beats International with Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim), Republica, and The Hangovers with Gina Birch (of The Raincoats), among others, but it’s been a minute since his name has appeared on a record. (He’s also a novelist.) So it was something of a surprise when it was announced that he had teamed up with the Osees’ John Dwyer for this album. Fortunately, it’s everything you might hope it would be. With Barabrossa’s signature rhythms paired with HL Nelly’s Ari Up–esque vocals and Weasel Walter’s jagged guitar lines, it’s a thrillingly frenetic mix of post-punk touchpoints that hits all the right notes.

#6
The Tubs
Cotton Crown
Trouble in Mind Records

After debuting with Dead Meat, one of our favorites of 2023, The Tubs returned with an equally enthralling follow-up in Cotton Crown this year. Like its predecessor, the record hints at latter-day Hüsker Dü while also displaying a penchant for guitar jangle worthy of the Flying Nun label. Throughout the album, principal songwriter Owen Williams explores the duplicitous, neurotic nature of his romances. On “Narcissist,” he goes searching for self-destruction, repeatedly pleading to the subject of the song, “You should do it to me.” The song features guest vocals from Lan McArdle, who, along with Williams and bassist Max Warren, was in Joanna Gruesome, the Welsh quintet that had one of our favorite albums of 2013. It’s hard to resist the song’s inherent sweetness, even after realizing such sentiments are being directed at someone who’s likely a sociopath. But like the rest of the album, that’s its greatest strength: being so much more than you initially suspect.

#5
Optic Sink
Lucky Number
Feek It Records

The third album from Memphis’ Optic Sink finds the band expertly fusing together their influences into something that echoes post-punk’s ‘80s heyday without sounding derivative. Vocalist Natalie Hoffman (formerly of NOTS, who had one of our favorite records of 2014) sounds not unlike Siouxsie Sioux in her younger years, especially on the sharp-edged “How Can I Help You?” while it’s hard not to hear Peter Hook’s calling card in the melodic bass leads on cuts like the leadoff “Laughing Backwards.” Yet Optic Sink sounds like neither the Banshees nor New Order. Instead, Lucky Number is a thorough reconceptualization of those elements that, while scratching the same itches, is wonderfully unique in its own way.

#4
Just Mustard
We Were Just Here
Partisan Records

After releasing one of our favorite albums of 2022, the band’s sophomore album, Heart Under, Just Mustard finally returned in 2025 with an album every bit as impressive as its predecessor, if not more so. Like Heart Under, We Were Just Here occupies the kind of heightened sonic realm first divined by My Bloody Valentine, with clamorous guitars caught up in a vortex of whirling effects while singer Katie Ball’s girlish vocals float overtop the cacophony. The cumulative soundscape is absolutely mesmerizing, with songs like the title track and lead single “Pollyanna” being at once equally ethereal and cathartic.

#3
Ty Segall
Possession
Drag City Records

Compared to some years where he’s released a ridiculous number of records, 2025 was fairly quiet for Ty Segall, with just this album and a collaboration with Corey Madden under the name Freckle. Perhaps the focus has done him good, as Possession is his strongest solo effort in more than a decade. Largely eschewing the psych and garage sounds on which he’s long hung his proverbial hat, on Possession, Segall seems to have honed in on creating a classic pop record in the tradition of the masters. Leadoff cut “Shoplifter” is more reminiscent of Harry Nilsson than Wooden Shjips, while the title track is a superb mix of chooglin’ guitar licks and orchestrated pop tones. There’s something of a ‘70s LA vibe at play here, but Segall has the smarts to make it sound completely fresh and invigorated.

#2
Wet Leg
Moisturizer
Domino Recordings

When Wet Leg splashed down in 2021 with the seemingly nonsensical manic pop thrill of “Chaise Lounge,” they could have easily just been a flash in the pan. Fortunately, it turned out to be just a drop in the bucket, as evidenced by the band’s self-titled debut full-length, and even more so, by this year’s follow-up, Moisturizer. A definitive answer to any lingering questions about Wet Leg’s long-term legitimacy, the record explores desire from both sides of the equation, with singer Rhian Teasdale one minute positing, “You wanna fuck me, I know most people do,” on “Mangetout,” and the next admitting, “Every night I fuck my pillow, I wish I was fucking you,” on “Pillow Talk.” Fortunately, the record is as catchy as it is provocative and proves Wet Leg is deserving of the highest praise.

#1
Sharp Pins
Radio DDR
K Records

Lifeguard’s Kai Slater released another album under his Sharp Pins guise this year, Balloons, Balloons, Balloons, but released at the beginning of 2025, Radio DDR is the one that dominated my turntable more than any other. Live, you can tell that he’s definitely channelling a ‘60s mod infatuation. That comes through here too, especially on cuts like “Lorelei” where he uses multiple tracks to create vocal harmonies. Nonetheless, with the album’s apparent recording limitations, that British Invasion predilection is filtered through a lo-fi aesthetic that recalls Guided By Voices or Elliott Smith, depending on the particular song’s cadence. Throughout, his blend of sweetly sung refrains and irresistible guitar hooks amounts to an album that’s endlessly charming.