Best of 2025 – the first half

There is not an album on this list that blew me away, but there were several excellent albums that I have consumed in the first half of 2025. Here is my list of my favorites from the first half of 2025 in no particular order.

Rose City Band – Sol Y Sombra I have been a fan of the Rose City Band since thier debut. The new album is similar to their prior albums; the band is simply refining its craft.

Larkin Poe – Bloom. Although the Lovell sisters have been doing their thing for two decades now, I have only recently become aware of them. This album is excellent blues rock. My wife and I had the opportunity to see the band live at First Avenue in Minneapolis this spring, and they put on a great show. It is a wonderful juxtapositon: suburban soccer moms playing cock rock.

Wilco – Ghost Is Born Deluxe Vinyl (9xLP/4xCD) As a record collector, I’m a sucker for deluxe reissues. Wilco’s reissues are tremendous and this is one of thier best so far.

Brandi Carlile and Elton John – Who Believes in Angels? Although I enjoy this album, it is not a high-water mark for Brandi or Elton. It’s just friends having fun, and as a fan of both, it’s easy to get sucked into the hijinks. So enjoy it for what it is.

Lady Gaga – Mayhem Mayhem is a good Lady Gaga pop album (vs. an American Songbook album). I don’t need her to reinvent herself; I just need to make an album of songs I don’t want to skip – there are no skippers on Mayhem.

Wilco Live (Orange) The quality of the performances is excellent, but the recording quality is merely good. That being said, having this live Wilco document is great. It’s a great setlist, and a bonus is that I’ve been to three of the shows represented in this compilation. It is a lovely gift from the band to thier fans.

Wilco Live (Blue) is a more obscure playlist than Orange. Where Orange is kind of a greatest hits, Blue is deep cuts, mainly from the second half of Wilco’s catalog. I tend to undervalue some of the albums that Wilco features on this live playlist, such as Ode to Joy (2019), Schmilco (2016), and Star Wars (2015). This collection has encouraged me to revisit those albums from the second half of the 2010s.

Elvis Costello – The Kings Of America Live At Royal Albert Hall — 1987 (Record Store Day 2025 vinyl release). This is an excellent live recording, both sonically and in the performance. I am a fan of the King Of America album, and it’s great to have those songs live, but the real treat here is the covers. 

Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke: Tall Tales. I approached this album with curiosity but skepticism. The initial listen hooked me, and each subsequent listen drew me in even further. I enjoy this album as much as Yorke’s current band, The Smile. If you are a fan of Radiohead, especially Kid A and beyond, you will likely enjoy this album.

Craig Finn – Always Been A fantastic pairing of indie rock royalty: The Hold Steady’s frontman and singer-songwriter Craig Finn, produced by The War On Drugs’ frontman Adam Granduciel. The first time I heard this album, I was struck by the slickness, in a good way.

Goose – Everything Must Go. I really liked the band’s last album, Dripfield. Everything Must Go is not a departure from that sound but a perfection of that sound.

Turnstile – Never Enough. Turnstile’s pedigree lies in the hardcore punk scene; however, they have evolved into a pop-metal band in the grand tradition of Def Leppard and Van Halen, as well as pop-punk acts like Blink-182 and Green Day. The teaser single “Never Enough” is a lethal combination of Pat Metheny’s pop-jazz and Smashing Pumpkins.

Haim – I Quit is a band that gets better with each album. This is my favorite so far.

Van Morrison – Remembering Now I heard that the new Van Morrison album was good, so I gave it a listen, and it is indeed good! Many of Van’s recent albums have been cover albums, but Remembering Now is a return to original music. It seamlessly blends soul, jazz, blues, folk, and country. All the songs are good; there are no clunkers in the bunch.

Gary Louris – Dark Country Per Louris: “‘Dark Country’ is a love letter to my wife Steph, plain and simple,” Louris said in a statement. “It was written and recorded in my little studio in our home in the mountains of Quebec. Just my guitar and my voice, occasionally piano, and on two songs a bit of magic from my friends. It is the most intimate and straightforward record I have ever made. Just me in a room with my songs and you the listener. I am not typically an autobiographical lyricist but these songs are as literal as can be … all directed to my love.” Hard not to be in a good mood when living in Canada with your new wife.

Joni Mitchell & The L.A. Express: 1976 U.S. Tour (Record Store Day 2025) – This “first time on vinyl” is live music from the digital/CD Joni Mitchell Archive Vol 4. box set. Not one of my favorite trends that Record Store Day releases are merely vinyl presentations of recent digital releases, but I still bought it!

Bon Iver – SABLE, fABLE It has been a long time since we have had a Bon Iver album (2019), although there have been singles and EPs. This is a continuation of the Sable EP (2024). This is a more accessible Bon Iver with more natural vocals from Justin Vernon. This is a shining star in the Bon Iver catalog.

Bruce Springsteen – Tracks II: The Lost Albums – Like his peers, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, Springsteen has a shadow career of unreleased music that would be another artist’s whole career. This collection is for serious Bruce Springsteen fans. It is 83 tracks (nearly five and a half hours) of mostly previously unreleased music. Unlike Tracks I (1998), which was a collection of unreleased songs, this is a collection of seven unreleased albums. For a fan of Bruce, these lost albums are a true gift. None of this revises Bruce’s career arc, but they sure do fill in the blanks.

Looking forward to the second half of 2025. My guess is that some of these albums will increase in stature with time, while others will fade into memory.