The Guardian has many faults but is still by far the best of a bad bunch IMHO, speaking as a middle-aged woolly liberal. But I’ve long wondered who on earth they think is the target audience for their music coverage.
I reckon this list would imply they’re after the, no doubt rather niche, Quietus demographic. Can’t imagine it crosses over to much of the readership of the rest of the paper.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/jun/10/the-best-albums-of-2025-so-far
Maybe the url will work here…
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/jun/10/the-best-albums-of-2025-so-far
Anyone got the email address for the Eye’s venerable Pseud’s Corner?
Probably buy a couple of these with my newly reinstated winter fuel allowance
With all that jetty wood to burn, you certainly won’t need it for purchasing fuel.
@Vulpes-Vulpes
Indeed.
Still five weeks to go before they have to get the JCBs in. Not holding my breath. Will drop you guys a longer line soon.
Anything happening on your proposed move over to Galway? Do give me a yell a couple of days ahead of your arrival if you are heading over so we can sort something out if you have time
@Jaygee
We’re staying here for the foreseeable, though the longer term idea is to leave this country. In the meantime, there’s a strong possibility of my making another short solo expedition out to Ballyconneely just for the craic of it – probably either late this year or early next. Will deffo let you know when any proper plans are laid in that respect.
I was in France a couple of weeks ago and wondered why we don’t just move there.
Do you mean just you and Vulpes, or all of us? Cos I’d rather stay where I am, to be honest.
We are all, in fact, sat in the same nursing home and the pretty Italian coastal villages, frightening Australian wildlife sanctuaries or smelly Dublin suburbs we experience are just virtual reality scenarios pumped into our addled brains by the AI overlord.. (The clue was there in plain sight in the name fauxgeordie..)
I’ve been enjoying quite of few of those (Djrum, Horsegirl, DJ Koze, Venturing, Perfume Genius, Bad Bunny), but the one I’ve been looking for an excuse to post on here for a while is YHWH Nailgun. Absolutely brilliant record.
Big omissions from where I’m sat are Pulp, Matt Maltese, Wednesday, Deafheaven, clipping., Dutch Interior, Lady Gaga, Sleep Token, Antony Szmierek and Lucy Dacus. There are also a bunch of interesting looking records coming out in the next few weeks.
Clearly it’s aimed at you! 🙂
You could have made up all bar two of those and I’d be none the wiser. I’m not trying to revel in my ignorance, so I will give them a listen if they’re on Tidal unless I completely forget, which is definitely a possibility.
It’s good to see the Jefre Cantu-Ledesma album in there.
That’s a nice record.
I notice a mention for Time Indefinite – probably my most disappointing purchase of the year to date. The promise of earlier work all apparently dissipated.
Yeah … “Time Indefinite” is a damp squib.
Not your album of the year, then? 😣
Hmm, only familiar with the names of Perfume Genius, Bon Iver and William Tyler. The last mentioned’s recent had more kicks than kudos from here, so I looked no further. I have an early Perfumed Genius and decided he(?) wasn’t and as for bloody Bon Iver, he was ghastly enough in his high pitched squeaking troubadour mode, but abjectly appalling when he went electro shock. (See also Low, who were, at least, a decent band before embracing studio chicanery to disguise a lack of material.)
I remember that first Bon Iver album because the Word seemed crazy about it. I couldn’t remove it from my ipod quickly enough. Interesting to hear he got even worse… I’ll stear clear of this one then.
It was the sound of a cat having its whiskers pulled out without the benefit of anaesthetic.
Horses for courses, but ’22, A Million’ is up there with the best releases of the last decade for me.
My first thought was ‘has The Graun turned into The Quietus’?
I’ve only heard one of those – and it’s one that I actually bought, the Yazz Ahmed album. Having said that, I’m clearly not the demographic for that list: I only recognised about 15% of the artists.
I also bought the Yazz Ahmed on the strength of a track I heard on 6Music. It is very good.
Not heard any of the rest and lost interest in Bon Iver a long time ago.
Thing is I really like Alexis Patredis as a critic. I always read his album of the week review even if I’ve not much interest in the album as it’s more of a opinion column – they’re informed and informative, well-written and entertaining. He seems pretty broad-minded. And he clearly likes and knows his music – he recently did a Top 20 for Teenage Fanclub, who I could nerd on about professionally, and I couldn’t really fault him, so I tend to trust his judgement.
But then they come up with a list that for 95% of people may as well have been made-up (with apologies to Bingo Little and duco01), and doesn’t seem to include anything I’ve seen reviewed. So maybe Laura Snapes and Ben Beaumont-Thomas are the hipper than thou hipsters and the obscurism of the list is on them?
Think it’s just younger critics coming in. Alexis Petridis is well into his 50s by now, whereas I’d imagine the other two are probably a generation younger.
I don’t massively get on with the writings of Petridis, and my first thought on seeing the list is that it’s clear he’s only responsible for a third of it. You need to ask some 20-somethings to figure out whether that’s obscurism – young person’s game, innit.
That’s a fair point. But I imagine the average age of a Grauniad reader skews older so maybe it’s a case of them trying to educate the squares. Or of them missing their target market.
Either way with the Quietus and Pitchfork already covering the funny named and lettered artists it seems an odd route for a daily newspaper to be going down.
Laura Snapes is a MASSIVE Swiftie, so not entirely hipper-than-thou. Although BBT could well be, judging by the general air of condescension discernable in his writing.
The thing with The Guardian ( that I know you know) is that they have that US team whose writers go straight onto the website: is it them? ( There was a lifestyle item once about after-work drinks that mentioned having dirty martinis in a bar, and course it was about Manhattan)
Djrum album is great but that’s about all I agree with on that list.
Annie And The Caldwells are superb. Irma Thomas and Galactic are a similar ilk. I’m surprised Moonchild Sanelly isn’t in the list; I expect The Guardian to love sultry hip hop. Best Jazz in a so-far disappointing year – Xhosa Cole.
The DJ Koze album is excellent, and I’m really enjoying the Bon Iver – his best for a few years. But I did like his debut so might be in the minority here. I’m also interested in the Djrum album and Japanese Breakfast. I don’t think there’s any harm in a list of more obscure stuff, and have got some great recommendations from this list in previous years.
And I agree with Bingo that the new Pulp album belongs on here.
Thirded
some of my faves of the year so far
Andrea : Living Room
Djrum : Under Tangled Silence
Perila : The Air Outside Feels Crazy Right Now
Myriad Myriads : All The Hits
Various : PMP Volume 4
Voice Actor, Squu : Lust (1)
Legowelt : A Field Guide To The Void
Zaumne : Only Good Dreams For Me
the closer we are to dying : bleakness + beauty in north wales
Blimey this thread is making me feel out of touch! I’m going to to do my now traditional thing of waiting for the Afterword poll and investigating the wilder reaches of 2025 from there.
Two more for consideration:
Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking
Sam Fender – People Watching
Nah, waaaaaaay too mainstream.
I’ve heard two of them. The Yazz Ahmed is ok and the Djrum album is good. My interests lie elsewhere nowadays.
Here’s Mojo’s slightly more AW friendly selection, most of which I’ve actually heard of, and three of which I’ve bought.
https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/new-music/the-best-albums-of-2025-so-far/
Seems I’m more in the Mojo camp than The Guardian – I own 4 (but not convinced (yet) by the Billy Nomates offering), and have listened to a further 2 (and a half – never got all the way through Doves)
Doves latest is indeed a bit of a let down isn’t it. And this from someone who’s a big fan.
They’re dead right about Stereolab and Panda Bear. My two favourites so far this year.
Suzanne Vega – Flying with Angels should be on the list as well…
just heard that played on Radio Caroline at work, sounded good
Heard and like Yazz Ahmed’s album. Not heard any of the others.
I may give them a listen but then again I may not.
I like that the Spotify playlist included with the article has 3 tracks from each selected album. That allows you to judge whether the quality/likeability of the album is likely to be consistent, but when you like the first track of the three but not the others, it helps you to avoid a potential purchasing mistake.
My favourite so far, by a mile, is classical: Yunchan Lim with the Fort Worth Orchestra and Rachmaninoff’s 3rd piano concerto. I have a thing about pianos but this is something else. It’s the performance that won him young musician of the year a couple years ago. It’s wondrous!
I love it when youngsters give old stuff a good going over. 😉
One of a few classical releases from this year I keep going back to is The Nash Ensemble release of them playing the Debussy string quartet along with violin, viola, flute and harp sonatas. It’s exquisite.
I can’t hear the words flute and harp without thinking of my brother-in-law saying, “I’m playing Mozart’s Hoot and Flarp Concerto tonight.”
A firm favourite and a near unforgettable experience. Especially the fabulously fiddly flarping fortissimos.
“…ultra-compressed glitchcore-trap that felt like being hosed down with jagged pixels…”
Pure filth. Keep going.
I didn’t know that there was a new Yes album out…
I’ve only heard two of them – the Yazz Ahmed and Annie and the Caldwell. Have to admit I was underwhelmed with both. I wouldn’t have expected to see, for example, Allison Krauss, Valerie June or The Delines on the Guardian’s list, but might have thought Lucy Dacus and Black Country New Road would have made the cut….
I’d need a stiff drink and a long lie down if anything I like appeared in the Graun’s best of the year list, but here’s my 6 of the best of 2025 so far:
Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow
Suzanne Vega – Flying With Angels
Mary Chapin Carpenter – Personal History
Chris Eckman – The Land We Knew the Best
Kassi Valazza – From Newman Street
Alison Krauss & Union Station – Arcadia
Its all about individual preferences isnt it?? So here is my Top 15 so far……
Butler Blake & Grant – Butler Blake & Grant
Mad! – Sparks
Forever Is A Feeling – Lucy Dacus
Cover The Mirrors – Ben Kweller
Dancing At The Edge of the World – Brooke Combe
Lay Low – Eddie Chacon
Loose Talk – bryan Ferry & Amelia Barratt
Flying With Angels – Suzanne Vega
Mr Luck & Ms Doom – Delines
Streets Of Your Town – Josh Rouse
Constellations For The Lonely – Doves
Look Up – Ringo Starr (surprise of the year!!)
The Human Fear – Franz Ferdinand
Critical Thinking – Manic Street Preachers
Nation Will Speak Unto Nation – Edwyn Collins
still to be ranked Pulp, Foxwarren and Little Simz
Good call on the Ferry/Barratt.
I would offer a shout-out for The Waterboys’ opus Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Also fine albums by avant-pop princesses Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus.
He’s never going to appear in a Guardian best-of, especially after recent headlines, but Marilyn Manson’s latest, One Assassination Under God, is my recent fave. It’s a stormer, pop kids!
Upon double-checking, I’m shocked to discover it came out in November – *where* has that time gone, I ask you?! – but I haven’t heard anything better in 2025.
In second place: Pathways by The Birthday Massacre, closely followed by Blutengel’s Dämonen:Sturm.
I have high hopes for upcoming albums from Mono Inc. and Lord of the Lost – both of them German goth rock at its finest – and a live album from Visions of Atlantis (pirate metal – yes, that is a real thing).
You may not be surprised to discover that I haven’t heard any of the albums on the Guardian list.
Weird thing about ‘obscurism’ (is that actually a word?)… don’t you have to know stuff about the big stuff before you can engage in the outlying stuff?
Rarity in pop music fascinates me.
Most, no, not most, a ‘reasonable number of people’ could name the four Beatles, then name a Beatles L.P. (maybe, wouldn’t put a tenner on it), but if you were to say ‘three songs off that L.P. now’… 95% out the game, no chance, not a scooby!
So the notion of obscure / rarity etc. is completely redundant. Most people who were born from 1935 to 1948 wouldn’t be able to give you anything meaningful on the biggest act of all time (The Beatles)… why covet obscurity?
The Beatles ‘are’ obscure… and they’re the biggest act of time! Watch ‘Pointless’ – I quote: “People know nothing about pop music!”
Shouldn’t those who think stuff that no one will ever hear is obscure be told that no one knows about The Beatles, they really don’t.
It would be a valuable learning curve, and also save them so much time… just buy (cheaply on CD, not on vinly) “A Hard Day’s Night”.
Everyone Says Hi (self-titled) has been my favourite so far.
Though the Pulp record has been on heavy rotation for the past week.
I’m sure they’re all great but life is too short and I really can’t be arsed.
Thumbs up from me!