Let’s not pretend that anybody cares about the intro. Go on. Just look at the list. I know you want to. I dare you to even read what it says about the music.
50
De La Soul Cabin In The Sky
Top Track: The Package
At 70 minutes, Cabin In The Sky is no doubt too long, but it’s also one of the year’s most poignant releases; a record balancing grief, celebration, and that unmistakable Daisy Age magic. The first De La Soul album in almost a decade, and more importantly, the first since the passing of Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur in 2023. That context hangs in the air, lending reflective weight without draining the warmth.
The intro sets the tone as Giancarlo Esposito conducts a personnel roll-call. The initial playful charm begins to overstay its welcome, before the silence greeting Dave’s name lands like a gut-punch. Musically, we’re in classic De La territory with jazzy boom-bap, soulful loops, and psychedelic flourishes. While it may feel sprawling, it’s always purposeful, reflecting that De La Soul still make an album feel like a journey; it’s not just a case of mourning Dave’s absence, but rather extending his legacy as they take stock, honour their brother, and reaffirm their identity.
49
NAHreally Secret Pancake
Top Track: Do Not Say Thanks
In contrast to the event-scale album is NAHreally’s brand of low-key introspection. A self-produced 23 minutes set to warped jazz loops, where the New Jersey-via-Massachussets MC drops bars like he’s shooting the shit with an old friend. Laid-back, self-aware, and unpretentious, but always sneakily thoughtful. Rather than chasing grand conclusions, the charm of Secret Pancake comes as NAHreally uses wry humour and subtle reflection to quietly set the world to rights. (Read more)
48
Le Volume Courbe Planet Ping Pong
Top Track: The Moon Song
The third album from Le Volume Courbe (aka Charlotte Marionneau) features well-known guest spots, including Noel Gallagher (those familiar with Gallagher bros lore may recall Marionneau as High Flying Birds’ scissor player). True to its title, Planet Ping Pong plays out as a perpetual back-and-forth of stylistic and emotional dissonance. Marionneau leads with childlike wonder and wide-eyed naïveté, ricocheting between free-jazz workouts, goofy off-kilter pop, and abrasive noise experiments. Amidst it all, emerge moments of disarming tenderness; Phil Spector rendered in cosmic ambience, delicately beautiful piano ballads, or the lullaby-like fragility of a Daniel Johnston cover. A strange, playful, and gently affecting record that fully earns the old weird and wonderful cliché.
47
Jordan Patterson The Hermit
Top Track: Hey Mama
LA-based songwriter, Jordan Patterson, has a love-it-or-hate-it kind of voice, but it sets her apart as one of modern folk-pop’s most distinctive young talents. Sitting somewhere between the soulful gravity of Joan Armatrading and the offbeat elegance of Joanna Newsom, her vocals alternately bend, float, and soar across loose acoustic arrangements threaded with subtle electro experimentation. With this impressive debut, Patterson unfolds themes of solitude and self-discovery through intimate balladry and moments of unconventional pop joy.
46
Lord Sko PIFF
Top Track: Understand
On his third album, Washington Heights up-and-comer, Lord Sko picks up the torch for New York rap. Sko’s gruff, laid-back braggadocio and smoked-out storytelling come laced with casually delivered hooks that quickly creep up on you. Nodding heavily to 90’s boom-bap classics, while drifting into the lo-fi haze of contemporaries like MAVI, who features here, the record bridges generations, with guests spanning legends like Del The Funky Homosapien, alongside underground favourites like Curren$y and Conway the Machine. Production ranges from established names like Statik Selektah and Harry Fraud, to Sko’s young right-hand man, Arlo Walker. PIFF is a salute to the past, present, and future of NYC rap.
45
Sækyi LOST IN AMERICA
Top Track: WITNESS
LOST IN AMERICA is a soulful rap meditation, weaving jazz grooves and gospel-rooted emotion. Ghanaian-American artist, Sækyi, examines the second-generation immigrants’ search for identity in America; grappling with faith, purpose, and belonging. Thoughtful lyricism and impressively layered production frame the uneasy tension between American dreams and American doubts.
44
elijah jamal asani ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,,
Top Track: one ear to the land ,,, the other to each whisper of a cloud
This ambient piece from Portland experimental artist, elijah jamal asani, builds slow-moving, immersive soundscapes from field recordings captured at the Grand Canyon. It’s spacious, absorbing, and quietly beautiful; like a spiritual quest to reconnect with nature. Now, the tag line of this site is “taking the pretension out of music reviews”, and I believe it has been proven that you cannot write about ambient music without sounding like a tedious drip (seriously, try reading the description on Bandcamp). So let’s keep it simple: I mainly put on ambient music to help relax or focus, and this is really good for both.
43
Olivia Ellen Lloyd Do it Myself
Top Track: You
A hidden gem of powerful Americana from West Virginia-via-Brooklyn songwriter, Olivia Ellen Lloyd. Do It Myself explores themes of independence and resilience, alongside some timeless tales of heartache; balancing gentle melancholia, with bold, open-hearted choruses. Lloyd’s warm, expressive voice carries both vulnerability and resolve, anchoring a self-assured album rooted in classic country songcraft.
42
Brògeal Tuesday Paper Club
Top Track: Tuesday Paper Club
Drawing on the raucous spirit of The Pogues, Brògeal arrive with a debut album that drives punk fire through folk tradition. The Falkirk band craft songs that feel deeply personal yet collective; like old stories inherited and reimagined for today. Moving between expansive ballads, melodic jangle pop, and rousing, rough-edged anthems, Brògeal treat folk heritage not as nostalgia, but as a living force to be shared and renewed, which they gladly do with urgency, heart, and grit.
41
Red Rum Club BUCK
Top Track: Crush, TX
Despite a growing live reputation and an impressive back catalogue already behind them, Liverpool’s Red Rum Club still feel criminally under-recognised. Blending cinematic psych and brass-flecked soul, they craft bold, hook-packed indie-pop of stadium-sized proportions. On fifth album, BUCK, they beef up their sound with an injection of heavy rock muscle without losing their melodic charm. Another swaggering statement from one of the UK’s best-kept secrets.
40
Cameron Scott Minack
Top Track: Solider of Love
“The saddest album you’ve never heard” says North-East songwriter, Cameron Scott. Minack channels the raw intimacy of Bon Iver’s debut; a stripped-back breakup record full of bittersweet beauty. Aptly described as ‘coastal-folk’, gorgeous melodies drift as if caught in an ocean breeze. Rose-tinted nostalgia and quiet devastation meet as heartache slowly softens into acceptance. With poetic flair and an eye for vivid detail, Scott’s stark vulnerability shines; his voice often reduced to a fragile whisper. But as the closing track’s refrain of “I stand alone in my room without you” blooms into a lush harmony, a soothing reassurance rises from the sorrow.
39
DJ Koze Music Can Hear Us
Top Track: Wie schön du bist
Music Can Hear Us drifts like a lucid dream; soft-focus, strange, and totally alive. The veteran German producer steers a voyage through mellow electro-psychedelia. Guests, like Damon Albarn and Sofia Kourtesis, slip into the mix adding warmth and whimsy to woozy, weightless atmospheres. Koze’s cosmic concoction bubbles away gently, never quite resting as the next curveball awaits, whether it takes the form of pulsing electro-beats or warped samples of classic German pop. An idyllic yet unpredictable trip.
38
Gabe ‘Nandez & Preservation Sortilège
Top Track: Nom De Guerre
Already boasting a deep catalogue, New York rapper, Gabe ‘Nandez stakes his claim as a true underground standout on his first release with billy woods’ Backwoodz Studioz. Over Preservation’s cinematic, eastern-tinged psych soundscapes, ’Nandez delivers razor-sharp, literary bars, simmering with stoic menace, and punctuated by blunt-force quotables that hit like sucker-punches; a meeting of esoteric symbolism and streetwise realism.
37
HORSEBATH Another Farewell
Top Track: In The Shade
The debut from Montreal roots rockers, HORSEBATH, is an unapologetic throwback; like the last 50 years of music never happened. Their inspirations could probably be narrowed down to The Byrds and their alumni, yet their sound still spans wide. From radio-ready jangle-pop, through the cosmic country of Gram Parsons, to the psych-tinged folk that David Crosby explored with CSN. There’s always a risk that such overt retro-ism devolves into pastiche, but the songwriting here leans more timeless than dated. The tales of loneliness, longing, and lost love just as fitting for rambling cowboys of the old West as rambling touring musicians of today. An accomplished collection of heart-on-sleeve ballads and sing-along boogies that play like lost classics.
36
Blu & August Fanon Forty
Top Track: Happy
Forty is a grown-ass rap record. The reflections of an acclaimed underground stalwart as he reaches early middle-age. It traces a loose autobiographical narrative from early rap origins and brushes with stardom, to the dawning realisation that elder-statesman status has quietly arrived. Jam-packed with veteran cameos, including Asher Roth, Homeboy Sandman, and R.A.P. Ferreira; the album achieves the rare feat of turning introspection into celebration. Albeit a celebration that’s entirely befitting of the subject manner; a breezy chillout powered by August Fanon’s no-nonsense production of sweet soul loops, as Blu reflects and finds contentment in what he’s built.
35
Bruiser Wolf & Harry Fraud MADE BY DOPE
Top Track: Boss Up
On his first two albums, Detroit’s Bruiser Wolf emerged as one of rap’s most unique voices (quite literally), pairing street storytelling with flashes of unguarded vulnerability. As his profile has grown, that storytelling has become looser as he leans harder into the Bruiser Wolf character. But what a character it is. MADE BY DOPE is the stronger of his two 2025 albums, with Harry Fraud’s smoky, soul-soaked production tailor-made for Bruiser’s unmistakable cadence. A relentless punchline machine with unexpected depth, as new layers of wordplay are revealed with each listen; Bruiser Wolf is quickly making the case for himself as one of rap’s sharpest lyricists.
34
Hamilton Leithauser This Side of the Island
Top Track: Knockin’ Heart
Hamilton Leithauser may be the greatest ‘bad’ singer of his generation, with a voice that’s shrill, piercing, yet always fantastic. As he straddles the tightrope between tortured and triumphant with explosions of unrestrained emotion, you can’t help but feel that shit. That duality is mirrored in his songwriting, as he alternates between downcast realist and hopeless romantic on a charmingly ragged collection that injects his baroque pop crooning with a little jazz, a little funk, and some noisy nods to his indie rock roots. It’s imperfect, and Leithauser is a master of imperfection. (Read more)
33
Matt Berninger Get Sunk
Top Track: Bonnet Of Pins
On Get Sunk, it feels like the old spark of one of this century’s great songwriters is slowly re-igniting. After a decade of middling releases with The National and across various projects, this solo effort glows with his staple slow-burning beauty; vivid vignettes of doomed lovers, tortured souls, and lovable losers. From the aching melancholia of Little By Little to one of the sweetest melodies of his career on Junk. And that old electricity really crackles on Bonnet Of Pins; Berninger somehow both the saddest and smuggest man in the room as tension spills over into bursts of glorious controlled chaos.
32
Labrador My Version Of Desire
Top Track: Dry Out In June
Philly trio, Labrador, deliver their self-styled ‘Maximum Alt-Country’ with a gleeful blend of early-80’s power-pop, mid-60’s mod-rock, plus the occasional gospel song about fucking. My Version Of Desire finds songwriter, Pat King, confronting himself and emerging with a record that feels like a call-to-arms for life’s downbeat dreamers, for those that are down but still striving not to be out, an album for the restless and the hopeful; maybe even a straight-up love letter to the power of rock & roll. The fact that this hasn’t made bigger waves is a sad indictment of whoever’s in charge of today’s indie rock landscape.
31
Nourished by Time The Passionate Ones
Top Track: 9 2 5
Nourished by Time (aka Baltimore singer/producer, Marcus Brown) has won acclaim in recent years for his DIY R&B. Realistically, Brown’s voice is probably far too weird to be a bonafide R&B star, but his production and melodic instincts are impossible to ignore. His second album melds lo-fi grooves, fractured synths, and elastic basslines into a murky yet luminous, funk-pop ambience. Best of all is uncrowned sound of the summer, 9 2 5; an instant classic. If Brown isn’t producing for pop’s biggest names soon then we’re doing it wrong.
No Frills Reviews 
Leave a comment