A Few Of My Favorite Things 2025 Edition: The Albums

 By Henry Lipput

"The Lucky Thirteen."

That's what I'm calling my year-end list of my favorite albums of 2025, the ones I've most enjoyed listening to over the past twelve months. For each of them I've included a short description, my favorite song from the album, and a link to where you can find the album on Bandcamp (so that you can support these wonderful musicians and maybe bump into something else you can enjoy). 

David Mead, January, San Fernando (Bandcamp)

Since his debut album, The Luxury of Time, was released in 1999 David Mead has become one of the best American singer-songwriters we have. His new album, January, San Fernando, fits comfortably in his catalog especially next to albums like Indiana.

Favorite song: "Amelia"

Assistant, Certain Memories (Subjangle)

Certain Memories is a collection of sadly beautiful songs played by a band that makes a lovely, delicate jangly sound. The album is Assistant's first since 2022 and is a concept album of sorts dealing with the illness of a parent and how a family and friends get through it.

Favorite song: "Song for Jil"

Massage, Coaster (Bobo Integral Records)

Coaster is Massage's third album and the one where everything comes together. It's no coincidence that one of the members of this LA-based five piece was a co-founder of The Pains of Being Pure of Heart and you can hear this echoed in many of the songs on Coaster.

Favorite song: "When You Go"

The Bablers, Like the First Time (Big Stir Records)

Big Stir's release of Like the First Time was 25 years in the making as this album was only available in Japan and the band's native Finland in 2020. Full of power pop rave ups and ballads the album may have a different track listing but it's the way The Bablers want it heard now.

Favorite song: "You Are The One For Me"

Emma Swift, The Resurrection Game (Tiny Ghost Records)

If music has the power to heal, Swift has taken advantage of the opportunity to use the sounds of a swooning Nelson Riddle-like orchestra on her songs dealing with romance, desire, and a real-life nervous breakdown. And if the album is ever made into a musical the song "Catholic Girls Are Easy" would be a great Act 2 opener.

Favorite song: "Nothing and Forever"

Crossword Smiles, Consequences + Detours (Big Stir Records)

Consequences + Detours is the second album by the Michigan-based band led by Chip Saam, Tom Curless, and friends. The album is full of pop bliss and clever lyrics, a combination not usually found together but here found in spades.

Favorite song: "Millicent"

Tony Molina, On This Day (Slumberland Records)

Molina has been known for writing and recording songs that are less than two minutes long. None of these songs are throwaways or rough sketches.  Some like On This Day's "Faded Holiday" barely hit the one-minute mark but he puts everything in them which only makes you want to visit them again..

Favorite song: "Faded Holiday"

SUPER 8 featuring Lisa Mychols, UNFINISHED MONKEY BUSINESS (Bandcamp)

SUPER 8 and Lisa Mychols have been making music together from opposite sides of the world since their 2019 single "Timebomb." Their new collection consists of previous released singles and album tracks as well as songs that are new to me.

Favorite song: "Falling For You"

Sunny Intervals, Swept Away (Bandcamp)

 

The album is described on its Bandcamp page as a "late night whisper." Swept Away was written over the course of a decade and recorded by Andy Hudson mostly in his kitchen at night. The Janglepophub blog called it "pristine sunshine pop."

Favorite song: "Waiting For Sunshine" 

Shapes Like People, Ticking Haze (Jangleshop Records)

Ticking Haze is the debut album from the husband and wife team of Kat and Carl Mann. Following his work with The Shop Window it's not surprising that the songs are rich with melody as well as peopled with characters who yearn for love and a better life as well as an offering of hope and support to both lovers and friends.

Favorite song: "When The Radio Plays"

Tamar Berk, ocd, (Bandcamp)

Berk has described ocd, her fifth album in five years, as her most personal and intense.  She continues to add new musical ideas and instruments to her sound and she has found new ways to address both real and imagined conversations that can present roadblocks in relationships. 

Favorite song: "ocd"

Robert Forster, Strawberries (Tapete Records)

Since his time in The Go-Betweens and throughout his solo career Forster has mastered the writing of story songs. On Strawberries there are two: "Tell It Back To Me" and "Breakfast On The Train." "Train" is the one that has stuck with me because of its use of a novel storytelling device 

Favorite song: "Breakfast On The Train"

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires, Sounds Made By Humans (Skep Wax)

Brian Bilston is a poet and The Catenary Wires are a pop group and their unique collaboration  produced an album of "song-poems." Using Bilston's words, the band's Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey wrote the music for songs that are sung and performed by The Catenary Wires and others have Bilston fronting the band.

Favorite song: "Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You"

Split single, two A sides from Assistant and Goodbye Wudaokou

By Henry Lipput

 Assistant’s Certain Memories and Goodbye Wudaokou’s Anything Of Us have been two of the most well-received albums of 2025. So it’s not surprising these Subjangle label mates and supporters of each other’s music have decided to combine their talents to each release a brand-new song as part of a (very) limited edition vinyl split single (30 copies total!!) on Bandcamp.

Not many do bittersweet better than Assistant and on their newest song “Flowers” the lyrics of a lost relationship are set against a pop tune.  “When we meet should we choose somewhere neutral/It won’t be fruitful if the memories are brutal/And will we hug or just there, awkwardly?” 

Unlike the Assistant song which imagines an eventual meeting of lovers, the Goodbye Wudaokou track “Sky Lantern” has no such thoughts and makes clear the two sides of the same coin these bands share. The Bandcamp page describes the song as “Intimate, mournful” and I  couldn’t say it better myself. “You only exist in the memory of a kiss/You only exist in the sun-whitened photographs/The ones I still cannot bear to see.”

A Second Look, A Second Listen

By Henry Lipput

Certain Memories (Subjangle) by the UK band Assistant is their first album since The World Could Be So Much Fun in 2022 (there were three albums before that one all of which are also available from Subjangle).

The band for Certain Memories is made up of three members who have been onboard for all four albums: Jonathan Shipley (vocals and guitars), Peter Simmons (vocals and guitars), and Anne Sophie-Marsh (keyboards and vocals). Together this threesome makes a lovely, delicate, jangly sound that belies the darkness of some of the lyrics. It’s best described as a small group of friends recording in a small room making sure they don’t bother the elderly couple in the bedsit next door (except for the burst of fuzz guitar at the end of “My Phone Began To Ring”).

Certain Memories isn’t really a concept album but the major themes are the illness and death of a parent (Shipley’s mother) and how one gets through it. The album begins with “My Phone Began To Ring” with the lyrics relating a diagnosis no one wants to hear: “They said you couldn’t treat it with anything/That’s just life, that’s just death.”

“Song For Jill” fits in between “My Phone Began To Ring” and the following song “Jill Is Fading.” After a stint in the hospital, Shipley tells his mother “Mum, I know you’re on the mend/I hope you’re feeling better.” But on “Jill Is Fading” the joy of Shipley's recent nuptials knocks heads with the death of his mother: “This was supposed to be our year/And she’s fading, there’s no explaining/it’s amazing, Jill is fading/And the pain is appalling/No amount of warning/Can prepare.” Helen McCookerybook, a friend of the band, provides vocals and plays melodica to, as the album notes say, “lend warmth and joy to a devastating topic.” (The mix on the Certain Memories is by McCookerybook and another mix of the song by Tom O’Leary, another friend of the band, is available on the Assistant Bandcamp page.)

Sophie-Marsh takes the lead on three songs that are dotted throughout the album: “Overwhelming,” “Before And After You,” and “Tread.” “Before And After You” has an acoustic guitar, a treated French vocal, and a beat that recalls Massive Attack. “Tread” may be about someone missing in her life, another tenant in her building, or a ghostly visitor who leaves “A print in the dust/At the edge of my mirror.”

But it’s “Overwhelming” that provides a connection to the rest of the album as it’s a different take on a partner’s loss and their attempt to get through the day, day by day. Sophie-Marsh sings most of the lyrics but Shipley joins in for “I don’t know what I’m going to do/But I’m glad I have you.”

Simmons sings “Raking Leaves” about the joys (and perhaps boredom and frustration) of gardening and seasonal duties. “I’ve been raking leaves/Ever since November/Just raking leaves/Goes on forever.” But when he sings “I don’t know what I’m doing it for/Is it just a metaphor/Or just a chore” it’s hard not to think of the line from “My Phone Began To Ring:” “You get so sick of tests and trials/When no one says anything good.”

“I’m So Much Better” is in the middle of the album but might have fit better to close it as the song provides a positive look at where Shipley might be as time goes on. Dreaming of an earlier time in his life, “at the edge of waking up/I felt the earth beneath/I had to smile and stick around a while.” Throughout the song he repeats the line “Won’t you come and hang around with me?” which can be seen as an invitation to his family but also to the listener.

Why is this post called A Second Look, A Second Listen? A few days after Certain Memories was announced back in December with a release date of January  (and as with most Subjangle releases the entire track listing was available) I wrote a short appreciation of the album (called Sadly Beautiful after the Replacements song) and said it was “an early entry for one of the best albums of 2025.” Well here it is April 2025 and as far as I’m concerned it is officially one of the best albums of 2025.

Sadly Beautiful

By Henry Lipput

I usually don’t write about albums that have been made available for pre-order because there are always a bunch of other releases waiting for me to listen to and write about. But I feel it’s a special case with the brilliant new collection Certain Memories (Subjangle) by the UK band Assistant. So I’ve decided to do a quick take on the album with a full review next year after it’s been officially released.

According to the album's Bandcamp page there’s going to be a very limited run of lathe-cut vinyl (50 but as of yesterday morning a quarter had already been purchased) and 125 CDs (Subjangle occasionally does a second run based on demand but I wouldn’t wait for that).

One of my favorite Replacement songs is “Sadly Beautiful” from the All Shook Down album. The song sounds just as you think it would be based on the title. It’s also the feel you get listening to Certain Memories with its songs full of sadness and loneliness. Certain Memories is the first new album by Assistant since their fourth album 2022’s This World Could Be So Much Fun (all four albums have been reissued by Subjangle in double CD sets and you can check them out here). And if you’re asking what the band has been doing since This World Could Be So Much Fun? It’s obvious they’ve been living and dealing with everything that came their way to produce what very much looks like an early entry for one of the best albums of 2025.