What a shit year all around. My country is in the toilet. Depression kept me from writing as much as I wanted to. I tried a lot harder to listen to new music than I did in 2024, but new albums rarely stuck. I cobbled together four albums I liked well enough, plus one I loved, but it’s hard to say if these are true classics with lasting power. Let’s just say these are the 2025 albums I listened to most this year and leave it at that. Here’s to 2026, where new albums from Dry Cleaning, A$AP Rocky, Poppy, Ratboys, Gogol Bordello, and Gojira might scratch the itch.

Until then, listen to this shit:

#5 – Stereolab – Instant Holograms on Metal Film

This album is pretty good. Not stellar, but pretty good. Still though, it’s Stereolab’s first studio album in 15 years and I don’t want to be held accountable for excluding it from my list! And even though the woefully overplayed-by-Sirius-XM “Aerial Troubles” has been etched into my brain to the point where I’ll be sick of it for the rest of my life, it sure does sound like a Stereolab song! It’s like they picked up where they left off without missing a beat. In the end, isn’t that what we all want from our 35-year-old Anglo-French avant-pop bands?

#4 – Swans – Birthing

Whether or not you think Swans’ formula has been getting tired over the last 10 years, you’d at least have to admit that it’s been effective. It makes me wonder what direction they could possibly go from here, considering Birthing is reported to be their final “heavy sound” album. Will they return to the depressing folk rock of The Burning World? Perhaps the juvenile no wave noise rock of Greed? The goth rock of Children of God? Or maybe their start making K-Pop hits. In any case, I’m with them all the way.

#3 – Melvins – Thunderball

For my money, this is the best Melvins album in a few years. Everything is just so tight. You can that familiar chunky, sludgy riffage with areas of noisy experimentation and interesting musical ideas. You hear that section of “Victory of the Pyramids” where it sounds like Mike Dillard is slowly drumming on leaky water pipes? Awesome. With the last three tracks clocking in at an average of nine-and-a-half minutes, there’s plenty of room for songs to breath and evolve. King Buzzo is, like, 60 years old, man. He’s still got it.

#2 – Cardiacs – LSD

An album in the making since literally 1999, Cardiacs’ official sixth studio album can be treated as a bittersweet sendoff to the band. And Tim Smith in general, who suffered a stroke in 2008 and spent the next 12 years communicating compositions and lyrics with his family using his eyeballs and an alphabet board. Nevertheless, LSD exists and it sounds like everything you’ve been missing from the band in the last 25 years. At 80 minutes you can expect every musical idea ever thrown at the wall, with most of it sticking (and some not). However, it is an incredibly addictive listen, and since I love this band unconditionally it stands to reason that this gets the #2 spot on this list in spite of its flaws. Mazel tov!

#1 – Viagra Boys – Viagr Aboys

This is only 2025 album I truly loved. It got universal acclaim upon release and showed up on practically no year-end lists. Well guess what, fuckers. It shows up on my list: The Only List That Matters™. Whether you’re a man made of meat, or on the Internet looking at feet, Viagr Aboys delivers with its unique brand of eclectic punk and stupid sense of humor. I put “The Bog Body” on my top track of 2025. Who the fuck writes a song about a man accusing a woman of being jealous of a preserved body found buried under the ice? Swedish post-punk band Viagra Boys do, that’s who. Next time you’re depressed, give this album a listen. It won’t make you less depressed, but at least you’ll be hearing some kickass music.