I added 2,209 songs to my Apple Music library in 2025. More than half were released in prior years. The oldest song I added was Bill Haley’s “Shake, Rattle, & Roll” (1948), while the newest songs were from Lettuce’s album, Cook (released on December 3, 2025).
For this year-end list of my favorite albums, I’ve limited myself to only those released in 2025. With that being said, I will tell you my favorite album added in 2025 from any year was Marquee Moon, by Television (1977). The title track showed up in an AI-curated playlist I prompted to trace the evolution of post-punk music from Patti Smith to Tropical Fuck Storm, and I’ve been addicted to the band ever since. When I asked a friend if he’d ever listened to them, he said no, but that they have a reputation for being the Grateful Dead of the CBGB set. I can’t recommend them enough.
But enough about the ghosts of musical pasts. Of the 103 albums I added that actually came out this year, here are my ten favorite.
NUMBER 10
A Bridge To Far
Midlake
Midlake recorded one of my favorite albums of the last 25 years, The Trials of Van Occupanther. I’ve enjoyed their many follow-ups, but none as much as this year’s A Bridge To Far, a beauty of mid-tempo adult-contemporary indie-rock (which is absolutely a mood). I enjoyed all of the songs, but “The Ghouls” comes closest to the magic of Van Occupanther.
NUMBER 09
Opening Time
Greg Fort,
Jihad Darwish,
& Moses Boyd
Moses Boyd is a British jazz drummer I’ve been following for a bit, so when I saw his name on this album, I was in. Greg Foat is a pianist, and Jihad Darwish, a multi-instrumentalist, plays standup bass, with compositions by Foat. Opening Time is a classically beautiful jazz piano album that saw a lot of Sunday morning playtime as my wife and I read on the couch.
NUMBER 08
What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow
Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson
If Rhiannon Giddens is involved, I’m there. On What Did The Blackbird Say to the Crow, she rejoins her fiddling bandmate from the Carolina Chocolate Drops to put out an album of instrumentals and vocal tunes mostly recorded live and outdoors. This is perhaps the most American album released this year.
NUMBER 07
Alma’s Cove & Mt. Sava (2 EPs)
Yuuf
Late one night, sitting on my couch, listening to Khruangbin, I started following the links for “You Might Also Like…” and found my way to these two EPs from 2025. Yuuf is a quartet of dudes from four different countries, playing an enrapturing version of whatever genre we’re calling this generation’s Thai-influenced, surf-saturated, downtempo, amnbient, instrumental psychedelic rock.
NUMBER 06
Chain Yer Dragon
Goose
Goose — a.ka. the most Trey-sounding of the Phish-influenced jam bands — released two solid albums this year, but Chain Yer Dragon had the stronger jams and the catchier melodies, and I found myself listening to it more than the other. My favorite tune of the bunch might be “Dr. Darkness,” a thoroughly familiar song structure played to perfection.
NUMBER 05
Twilight Override
Jeff Tweedy
Tweedy released this three-disc solo album by going live on YouTube and driving around while the album played. He didn’t look at or talk to the camera; just kept his eye on the road while you watched his face from the passenger seat. Maybe that’s why Twilight Override became a favorite on my evening commutes.
NUMBER 04
EVERYDAY
Takuya Kuroda
A Japanese-born, Berkeley-College-of-Music-educated post-bop trumpeteer invigorating the NYC jazz scene. Kuroda creates on EVERYDAY a fusion of jazz, funk, and neo-soul whose title track grabs you by the shoulders and demands you shake your butt. This is not a dance album from start to finish, but it is an album where every tune has body to it, and where every line from the trumpet will take your breath away.
NUMBER 03
Everybody Scream
Florence & The Machine
Florence Welch is the most powerful rock goddess since Stevie Nicks, but her power is not just in her voice. She is a Fury of a songwriter, as raw with her words as Grace Slick was with her voice. Every song on Everybody Scream is a force of nature. “One of the Greats” might be my favorite song of the year (which was inspired by Buff The Vampire Slayer, apparently).
NUMBER 02
Mulatu Plays Mulatu
Mulatu Astatke
The father of Ethio-jazz is back, this time playing new renditions of songs from his expansive catalog supported by his current backing band. There is simply no musician alive whose music makes me feel more like myself.
MY FAVORITE ALBUM FROM 2025
Arboresque
Artemis
Artemis is an all-woman jazz collective out of New York City that play tight, traditional jazz with a virtuosity that is impossible to ignore (the drum solo at the end of “The Smile of the Snake” impresses me each time). Released in February, Arboresque, the quintet’s third album, supplied the music for so much of my life in 2025 — countless meals cooked, countless pages read, countless words written, countless mile driven — that when I think back on 2025, I will hear Artemis.
Those were my ten favorite albums released in 2025. If there’s a throughline, maybe it’s the kind of music that leaves room: room for a drive, a thought, a memory, a second cup of coffee. These albums shaped the contours of my year. I found them while chasing algorithms at work, driving through the night mountains, or just stumbling around the edges of the musical map late at night. If you’re looking for something new that also feels like it’s always been there, I encourage you to give these ten a listen.