As we hit the halfway point of 2025, here's 20 of the best albums we've heard - released between January 1 and June 30.
As we hit the halfway point of 2025, here’s 20 of the best albums we’ve heard – released between January 1 and June 30.
This list is chronological, beginning with The Weather Station‘s Humanhood – which was released on January 17 – and ending with Van Morrison‘s Remember Now, which was released on June 13.
Plenty of great stuff here – from familiar faces to newcomers and, we hope, a few surprises…
The Weather Station
Humanhood
[Fat Possum]
What we said: “Tamara Lindeman’s stunning seventh album is the work of a songwriter at the peak of her powers, possessing fierce honesty and outstanding creative instincts as she addresses anxieties both personal and global…“
Chris Eckman
The Land We Knew The Best
[Glitterhouse]
What we said: “… a collection of interior monologues, essays in contrition, apology, enough regret to flood a valley. ‘Somehow I missed the memo that said when you reach breaking point, you just say stop…’ Eckman sings on the confessional ‘Haunted Nights’, an attempt to explain ruinous behaviour…“
Richard Dawson
End Of The Middle
[Domino]
What we said: “After The Ruby Cord, an 80-minute album set in a hallucinatory VR future, Richard Dawson is concentrating on smaller things here: namely, the mundane trauma of family units. Yet his songwriting is as powerful and moving as ever…“
Yazz Ahmed
A Paradise In The Hold
[Night Time Stories]
What we said: “Trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Yazz Ahmed has created her most exquisite song world yet on A Paradise In The Hold, 10 tracks of magnetic, boundry-transcending jazz that intricately blend influences from her British-Bahraini heritage…“
The Tubs
Cotton Crown
[Trouble In Mind]
What we said: “… the addictive jangle of the music, the sheen of darkness beyond the melody and the lyrical concision of Owen Williams, who writes a song that is exorcism, confession and accusation all at once…“
The Delines
Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom
[Decor Records and El Cortez Records]
What we said: “In a little over 40 minutes, [Willy] Vlautin, [Amy] Boone and the boys take you on a road trip across the great divide, from the casinos of Biloxi, right up on to the rodeos of Utah and somehow chart an entire continent of cruelty, desperation and clear-eyed determination.”
Edwin Collins
Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation
[AED]
What we said: “Working with his regular collaborators -co-producers Jake Hutton and Sean Read, musicians James Walbourne and Carwyn Ellis, and son Will (on bass) – Collins collates his influences into a carnival of understatement.”
Destroyer
Dan’s Boogie
[Merge]
What we said: “... these songs insinuate with a vaguely vintage sound that recalls Jonathan Donahue’s spangled dreaminess and the (s)weary brio of Father John Misty…“
Eiko Ishibashi
Antigone
[Drag City]
What we said: “With Antigone, Ishibashi’s music has reached an astonishing level of maturity – at the level of tone, texture and text. The creative partnership she has achieved with the mercurial Jim O’Rourke, since they met over 15 years ago, continues to pay wonderful dividends.”
Dean Wareham
That’s the Price of Loving Me
[Carpark]
What we said: “It says everything about Wareham’s distinctive way around a guitar that he can take a Nico cover – in this case, ‘Reich De Träume’ – and shape it into something warm and languorous, in keeping with the rest of this great solo album.“
Brown Horse
All the Right Weaknesses
[Loose Music]
What we said: “Brown Horse have taken the live momentum of the new songs directly into the studio, keeping their raw charge intact which accentuating their dynamics and fine-tuning their arrangements.”
The Waterboys
Life, Death And Dennis Hopper
[Sun Records]
What we said: “Conceptually, it’s closer to Songs For Drella or Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois than it is Rick Wakeman. Hopper is a device, an operatic metaphor concerning pop’s golden age, where artists had the freedom to explore themselves and make mistakes.”
Salif Keita
In So Kono
[NØ FØRMAT!]
What we said: “His guitar playing takes centre stage, hypnotic, complex, repetitive patterns played clawhammer style, plucked with the flesh at the tips of his fingers like a medieval lute player, usually with a capo high on the fretboard…“
William Tyler
Time Indefinite
[Psychic Hotline]
What we said: “While his previous records examined the pathway to modern America, Time Indefinite seems to stare into the heart of what the country is now, in all its fragmented polarised turmoil; the state of the nation in perfect sync with Tyler’s own troubled state of mind.”
Kassi Valazza
From Newman Street
[Loose Music]
What we said: “From Newman Street is an album full of chapters closing and new ones opening, created by a singer-songwriter who embellishes her folky observations with psychedelic flourishes and knowing nods to the past.”
Robert Forster
Strawberries
[Tapete Records]
What we said: “On his ninth solo album, Forster once again knits together the ordinary and the remarkable, furring the edges with a craftsman’s dexterity.”
Stereolab
Instant Holograms On Metal Film
[Duophonic UHF Disks and Warp Records]
What we said: “At a time when neo-facism is on the rise across the world and even a Labour government is slashing welfare budgets to boost defence spending, Instant Holograms… pushes back forcefully against this grim tide with a vital blast of agit-pop.“
Alan Sparhawk
With Trampled By Turtles
[Sub Pop]
What we said: “Sparhawk’s relationship with progressive bluegrass/country folk types Trampled By Turtles stretches back to their early days when they were mentees and mates in Duluth, Minnesota. When he was fathomed deep in grief, the sextet invited him to ride along for some tour dates and occasionally he joined them onstage…“
Pulp
More
[Rough Trade]
What we said: “Over almost half a century they’ve been an object lesson in a band slowly discovering their strengths, honing their craft, taking their time. They’ve matured – not like a fine wine, but maybe like a magnificently ripe Wensleydale.“
Van Morrison
Remembering Now
[Exile Productions and Virgin Records]
What we said: “The title refers not only to the recurring lyrical theme of a man in his 80th year simultaneously inhabiting both his past and present, but the rich sense of musical retrieval, too.”
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