It’s that time of year agin, with the all the best of year lists beginning to drop out of the myriad periodicals. The time for AWista’s to gleefully share how few of the current year’s crop are infiltrating the collective taste. Where even the glossy populars can only produce a handful of worthies, ahead waiting for the usual nul points from the Quietus et al. AW preferences tend less to the zeitgeist, more to a zeitghost.
BUT, he said, looking at all these lists can often produce bangers amongst the banal. Earlier this year I raved, a little, about a band from Wales, entitled the Tubs. This was largely down to their uninhibited rush of chiming guitars and the very distinctive vocal of singer, Owen Williams, given he has a distinct flavour of a young Richard Thompson about his timbre. Add in some cred points by he being the son of deceased cult folkie, Charlotte Greig. Maybe some of you even investigated then the album, Cotton Crown. (And if not then, maybe now, with a song in the second comment I will attach)
HOWEVER, via the year end list in UNSHOD/BOHO (as in one of them, the Ant and Dec of music mags), I gather Williams has also a second band, Ex-Void, and their album, In Love Again, is even better, having he trade vocals with Lan McArdle. Whilst I wouldn’t quite go the “Linda to his Richard” that one review has said, it is certainly a good blend of voices over just as spunky a beat as the Tubs. A link to one of their songs wil follow.
Enjoy!
End Of Year Homework
by 22 Comments
In Love Again by Ex-Void
Freak Mode by the Tubs
@retropath2 listened to the album and answers the question as to what The La’s would sound like fronted by Richard Thompson. So not too shabby then, but I think not quite enough to get into my top 20 of the year.
I like your working……
They’ll both be in mine.
(Sad news, the always late to the party r2 discovers Ex-Void are no more, having played their last 25/10/25. Still a blimmin’ good album. I think the Tubs are stil going.)
Tubs da iawn bach.
I’m running with the OP title – new bands this year that you may have missed and can catch up on just before the end-of-year AW lists start in a fortnight. For your consideration Sharp Pins and their mega-catchy album DDR Radio, which this is from:
This apparently is a solo project from Lifeguard (who?)’s Kai Slater.
I’m looking forward to the end of year lists from the AW and elsewhere for inspiration. I used to buy about three CDs a month but have only bought three this year in total. One was a compilation (Chip Shop Pop) that I gave up on about halfway through the first, and only, listen; one was a dull reworking of existing songs (Rumer) that I listened to about three times and the other one was Sam Fender’s latest which is really good.
It’s probably an age thing.
About March 2023 I started putting out a weekly playlist, with brief commentary, every Wednesday of only seven songs – one for each day – of music that had crossed my path/mind in the previous week. New stuff, old stuff, old stuff that was new to me, etc. The reasons for doing this were both specific and vague. Anyways, here’s an Apple Music playlist collating all the 2025 seven song playlists (to date!).
http://tiny.cc/7songs2025
And I agree with Mojo – album of the year was More by Pulp.
@moseleymoles : yes, you are right, in that I was hoping for pointers from others, just as much to draw focus to The Tubs and Ex-Void.
I like that Sharp Pins. Very Teenage Fanclub-by.
It seems there is a thin red line of new(?) power poppers around and about. Here’s another set of them, Glaswegians The Morning Early, who have reformed after umpteen years:
That you, of all people, “Retro” (if that is your real name), should be asking for some new in this, of all years…
2025: the year the glossies put records by Pulp and Suede at, or near, the top of their pile and showered praise upon surprise releases by Stereolab and Saint Etienne; the first time, after 20 odd years of post-NUTS magazine clarity, otherwise sensible people had good things to say about Oasis; and The Prodigy (The Frickin’ Prodigy!!!) provide the soundtrack for the Late Late Toy Show promo (if you know, you know)… The Nineties are back, baby!!!
I can’t get too excited about comebacks like Pulp and Suede. I am sure the music is decent but they are associated with a certain period in my mind that is over.
A song that sticks out for me is Subway by Chappel Roan. Every time it comes on the radio I stop in my tracks and wonder what it is, it has a kind of timeless beauty.
Wet leg have made a really good follow up to their debut. Davina McCall is one I like very much. Songs with a celeb name as title do it for me. They are very much now.
Wet Leg really delivered the goods this year, live and in studio. They came together as a five piece band instead of a duo. Lots of energy, humour and shoegaze guitars.
I think the year belongs to CMAT, though. When she sings (or speaks), I just believe in her. There is a depth to what she does. I find it very moving at times.
The Mars Volta is my personal favourite, it’s just personal fandom speaking. But I swear the album is nothing like any other music I know.
Finally: Glastonbury on the TV. So much fun. It felt like a party at the end of the world, everyone seemed to try that little bit harder.
I’ll probably do my usual end of year best of post next month, to the regulation tidal wave of acclaim and applause, but in the mean time I have a bunch of other tracks that came out in 2025 that I think might be more amenable to the Afterword than my usual stuff and which it might be worth sharing here.
1. Facing Atlas – Anna von Hausswolff
Released an absolutely superb album last month, and this is one of my absolute favourite tracks of the year, because I’m a sucker for atmospheric synths and soaring voices. She’s fantastic.
2. Time Waited – My Morning Jacket
Had lost track of MMJ, who have always had a lovely way with a tune. This has brightened many an evening since it released.
3. With A Girl Like Mine – Sharp Pins
Sounds self-consciously like something from the 60s, is only two minutes long, and even the video is in black and white. None more Afterword! The album it comes from is pretty great too.
4. Elderberry Wine – Wednesday
Americana-tinged gorgeousness from a band I keep expecting to see get a shout on here. Beautiful bit of pedal steel.
5. Cross The Street – Junior Varsity
Post-punk pogo party. The live version is the most fun.
More in a similar vein…
I’m impressed with your #2, 3 & 4 choices Bingo. #1 too poppy for me, #5 too alike many more of it’s ilk but that’s me OOAA
I didn’t check out your playlist
Cheers, dude – glad you enjoyed 2, 3 and 4. I’ll take that hit rate.
A couple more Afterword friendly singles:
Alabama Shakes – Another Life
Robyn – Dopamine
Thanks for those alternatives to all the power pop [cough indie landfill] above. I particularly like Von Hausswolff, new to me. Wiki’s description ticks many boxes.
gothic-style music described as “art pop, drone, and post-metal”, with “a juxtaposition of dark and bright”… Her vocals are similar to Nico, Diamanda Galás, Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac, and are compared to Kate Bush and A Kiss In The Dreamhouse-era Siouxsie Sioux. Her music is associated with the Krautrock genre with odes to Einstürzende Neubauten and Swans
I can see myself exploring more of her music.
Junior Varsity have an energy and a life force I see in my daughters but I can only aspire to – I need to go to dancersize classes (maybe).
No worries mate. The Von Hausswolff is very possibly my favourite album of the year, and has at least one song on it that is even better than the above, but which I’m sneakily holding back for my end of year list proper. It’s well worth a listen.
Of the other clips posted there’s only Sharp Pins I’ll be investigating both M.M. & B.L. nominating tracks
Here’s a nice big list to pick the bones out of.
The RIAA/NEA Songs of the 20th Century list.
Reproduced here:
https://davesmusicdatabase.blogspot.com/2012/03/riaaneas-top-365-songs-of-20th-century.html
The list was created “to promote a better understanding of America’s musical and cultural heritage in our schools.”
Strangely, a handful of albums were included. These have rightly been omitted here.
It is, of course, a very USA-centric list, though not exclusively.
The readers comments from the blog are worth a look too. Mostly for chuckles.