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"

The Unpredictable Mr. Ryan

By Henry Lipput

With his new album, Retro Metro (Think Like A Key Music), Scotland’s SUPER 8 -- aka Trip aka Paul Ryan -- continues to delight and surprise us, as he’s been doing for the last six years, and he keeps us guessing about what he has up his musical sleeve.

In 2018 he released his first album T-T-T-Technicolor Melodies and as someone at the time wrote for CoolDad Music the album: “has the charm of a home-made, one-man-in-a-studio production like Paul McCartney and Emitt Rhodes.” And that was that because we were used to waiting at least another year or two for a musician’s next album.

But SUPER 8 began his unpredictable ways as he released that same year not one but two albums of completely new material with each one (Turn Around Or… and HI/LO) being better than the one before. (I just want to point out that as far as I know – and you can let me know if I’m wrong – no one since The Beatles in 1964 and 1965 produced three albums in a year.)

Soon after this musical hat trick SUPER 8 began a collaboration with California-based power popper Lisa Mychols with the groovy single “Timebomb.” They never sat in the same room working on music and lyrics but instead traded files across multiple time zones, a practice which is something done by a lot of folks now but seemed to be very new at the time. Trip and Mychols also put out a self-titled album in 2020 and continue to work together as LMS8 – their latest single is the recent “Love Connection.”

SUPER 8’s Raindrops On Roses album contained a lot of covers which had already been on his albums but also included, as he surprised all of us, his version of a 1970’s Lennon demo that – at the time – The Twotles had yet to release. Legends – A Tribute to Astrud was another unpredictable album as SUPER 8’s tribute to his band of the 1990’s that toured the UK with these songs but never got into a studio to record them.

On the brand new album Retro Metro he does it again. He opens it with an instrumental theme song – when was the last time anyone did that? And at the end of 2023 a retro-60’s band The Plus 4 released a few tracks. But it wasn’t long before the cat was out of the hat and the word was that The Plus 4 was really SUPER 8. He’s own up to it and it’s not only now part of his canon but now the songs are on Retro Metro and everyone can hear how cool they are!

Back around the time T-T-T-Technicolor Melodies came out there were some early SUPER 8 videos on YouTube. One of them was for a lovely song about a female friend but it didn’t appear of this first album. It did, however, show up on Turn Around Or … and was one of my favorite tracks. So it was a big surprise to find “Mary Jane,” dusted off and performed anew, on Retro Metro – sort of like a full circle for the song.

Girl-group inspired new single from LMS8

Henry Lipput

LMS8 has just released “Love Connection,” a groovy new single on Bandcamp. Who, you may be wondering, exactly is this LMS8 you speak of?

You may know the folks behind LMS8 as the very much missed power pop duo Lisa Mychols and SUPER 8. The pair’s first trans-Atlantic collaboration was the fabulous single “Time Bomb” and culminated in 2020’s Trip & Ellie’s self-titled summer blast (Mychols also contributed to SUPER 8’s out-of-this-world Universal Journey in 2022).

Back together again for the first time since then, the duo has just given us “Love Connection.” It’s a girl-group inspired romp with Mychols, after taking some time for herself, is ready to “move on to a Love Connection” but without the games she’s had to deal with in the past. And SUPER 8? It’s all his hands on deck as he once again is playing all the instruments and providing some cool deep-voiced background vocals as well.  

And there’s a video too.

Trip to the stars

 By Henry Lipput

Here’s my question: Did SUPER 8 aka Trip aka Paul Ryan get an advance look at the pictures the Webb telescope had taken? It sure seems that way because his new album, Universal Journey (Bandcamp), is an out-of-this-world delight.

I’ve been enjoying and reviewing SUPER 8’s music since 2018, the year of his hat trick of three albums that are still a marvel of musical invention (start with the last one, HI/LO, and work your way backwards). He never fails to bring the tunes and arrangements and Universal Journey is no exception.

His new album is the first since 2020’s wonderful collaboration with Lisa Mychols which resulted in the Lisa Mychols and SUPER 8 album (Mychols provides guest vocals on many of Universal Journey’s songs). There have also been three singles in between these releases including “For My Friends” which has a lovely video made up of photos of his friends.

“California Road Trip,” a pop gem fronted by Mychols, opens with a terrific piano vamp lifted by Trip no doubt from a Goffin-King song and is just as good as “Timebomb” their first musical outing. The trip (pun intended) continues on the glorious “Rocky Road” with its lovely vocal from Mychols and, as always, a wonderful arrangement from Trip.

Trip takes over on the Dylan-esque “Cracks in The Pavement” bringing along his acoustic and his harmonica as well as some of The Bob’s wordplay: “I’ve got a friend who’s a poet/Drew me a picture of a boat/Friend who's a poet/Drew me a picture of a boat/But after reading through his poems/I wish he’d painted me a goat.” “On The Radio” is rocking little number with Trip in top-form musically and lyrically as he presents an ode about hearing new music (something we can all relate to).

The opening and closing tracks on Universal Journey (“Universe,” “Galactic 9,” “Feel,” and “The World Is Happening”) make up a soundtrack to a viewing of the incredible Webb telescope photos. “Galactic 9,” with vocals from Mychols, is the sexy sound of space travel with visions of a ship full of mile-high-and -a-half members.

“Feel,” which could be thought of as the album’s alternate title, is a woozy, psychedelic track and reflects the look of the cover painting: “We're floating through the sky on a flimsy wicker basket/The earth is just a ball suspended in the sky/Now here we find ourselves just learning how to fly.” There’s the repeated line “feel the air” and the song closes with “just keep me in your memory” as if the wonders of space travel might let you forget where you’re from and who you may be missing.

“The World Is Happening” wraps up the voyage. There’s a callback to the opening track with a repeated “The world is happening for you” and its used as part of a message of hope. If the stars shine in your eyes, it can make you stronger “when you feel the rhythm in your soul.” The song builds as it goes on and by the end with its chorus of backing vocals and a repeated refrain of the song’s title, you get an almost “Hey Jude” rush and wouldn’t mind if the song went on for a while longer.

Trip & Ellie are throwing a party and it's going to last all summer long

By Henry Lipput

In late May 1967 The Beatles released a concept album in what Paul McCartney called a “golden summer,” and the album was played around the world all season. And despite our current problems and concerns, Lisa Mychols and SUPER 8 have just released a wonderful album that can turn, to paraphrase Mr. Shakespeare, our summer of discontent into our very own golden summer and can brighten our lives all season long. 

LISA MYCHOLS & SUPER 8 (US: Lisa Mychols, Bandcamp / Canada: The Beautiful Music label / UK: SUPER 8, Bandcamp) is also a concept album (it even has a theme song and a joke with a reference to Sgt. Pepper!) about summer loves. It’s a glorious sun-baked boardwalk stroll down memory lane for some and a perhaps a soundtrack for a future romance for others.

LISA MYCHOLS & SUPER 8 is a meeting of musical minds and a true collaboration with both of them writing lyrics and music. As she sings in the joyous “Trip & Ellie’s Music Factory” they were “changing words to make better sense”  and turning up the tunes a few degrees to create the perfect mix.

After their first musical partnership (the fantastic single “Timebomb“ which is featured on the new album), singer/songwriter/“Queen of Power Pop” and Californian Lisa 'Ellie' Mychols and UK-based singer/songwriter/mad-scientist-in-his-home-studio Paul “Trip” Ryan decided to just keep going. They wrote and recorded an entire album using every trans-Atlantic means possible to send each other ideas, music, lyrics, and even videos. 

Lisa is the cool girl who’s not your girlfriend but your friend. She whispers secrets in your ear and giggles when you say funny things. You’d be really mad at her boyfriend but it’s your best friend Trip and you think this couple is perfect especially because you’re spending the summer hanging out with them and they‘re singing terrific songs.

These terrific songs include the opening track, the psychedelic “What Will Be?,” the album’s overture and, with its brief lyrical passages, it sets up the idea of songwriting as a way of finding the right recipe. There’s also a monster bass line and fuzzed-up guitar from Trip. Following is the theme song “Trip & Ellie’s Music Factory” which is a give-and-take between the two as they cook up their musical partnership. A vocal give-and-take is also part of “Honey Bee,” another pre-album single and a pop treasure that will find you dancing around your living room all summer to this tune. 

“You & Me, Me & You” is another pop delight and showcases Lisa‘s ability to express what being in love sounds like.  In many ways it’s about the mysteries of love: You can see someone at a school yard as kids and barely notice them but years later you fall in love with the person.  

“Flying Close To The Sun” compares falling in love with Icarus’ attempt to reach that far-away star; as a result you will either connect with a true soul mate or come crashing down to earth. It’s another gorgeous vocal turn by Lisa and an understated accompaniment from Trip with strummed guitar and just the right amount of Mellotron fills. On the flip side of love, the up-beat, short, and sweet “Laguna Nights To Remember” and the bossa nova-inflected “Your Summer Theme” describe what happens when everything goes right in a relationship.

Trip takes the lead on the cover of the late, great Kenny Rankin’s “Peaceful.” As an addition to an album of mostly summer love songs it fits perfectly as it reflects the feeling you have after a day spent with your loved one.

By the way, if you buy the CD of LISA MYCHOLS & SUPER 8  you’ll get a secret track that’s not available anywhere else.

Next time: This tugboat captain is pulling a brilliant pop tune