My top 10 albums of 2025

Haven't done this for a while. But here we go.

Thanks to Joe Gardner and Brady Jones for the inspiration and reminder that this is a thing I used to do.

1. The Last Dinner Party - From The Pyre

I'm a sucker for something that can sound both classic and fresh at the same time, especially when it makes something that sounds truly unique. And while it's fun to say this sounds like Kate Bush fronting some kind of mashup of Queen and Fleetwood Mac, it's so much more than that - maybe PJ Harvey & The Bad Seeds? The first half of this record is as good as any in recent years, while the last half holds the late night growers. Filled with radiant harmonies and spicy riffs in amongst the baroque melodrama, this is as good as their debut from last year.

2. Merpire - Milk Pool

Remember being at parties and wondering if you could ever pluck up the courage to talk to some guy/girl? All those awkward anxieties fill Milk Pool, Merpire's second album, but in a good way - here they're like a nostalgic soundtrack filled with the coolest 'melodies and beautiful '90s-era scuzzy guitars. Merpire writes damned good songs that are just effective when she plays them solo on an electric guitar as they are on this dreamily produced album with a backing band.

3. Mclusky - The World Is Still Here and So Are We

Who said reunion albums have to suck? More than two decades on from the brilliant The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire, mclusky return with plenty of absurdist vitriol and demented angst to make this feel like a very vital part of their legacy. The down-and-dirty riffs of Chekhov's Guns and The Digger You Deep are worth the price of admission alone.

4. Paul Dempsey - Shotgun Karaoke Vol II

Cover albums have no right to be this good. No one has the right to be this talented. Who the hell can sing Cher and Don Henley alongside Bright Eyes and Sugar with equal power and emotion? Truly the sign of someone who has made a deal with The Devil. 

5. Geese - Getting Killed

I'm still trying to figure out what this album is. All I know is I love it. The band fuses experimental  arrangements with beautiful rock songs, and Cameron Winter sounds like a crappy Thom Yorke and its amazing.

6. Deftones - Private Music

I haven't properly listened to Deftones for a while, but the first thing I heard of Private Music (Milk Of The Madonna) made me leap into it and I wasn't disappointed. This one is heavy yet beautiful, like the best vintage Deftones. Every song had me captivated.

7. Floodlights - Underneath

Euphoric and anthemic, this Melbourne band pull plenty of surprises in between their massive singalong hooks. The trumpet is a beautiful touch to the big rock numbers that sit somewhere between Gang Of Youths and Echo & The Bunnymen.

8. Bring Me The Horizon - Lo-files

All my favourite Bring Me The Horizon songs turned into lo-fi muzak is exactly the album I didn't know I needed, but here it is and I love it. It's super chill and super simple, but fantastic.

9. The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie

So many great melodies and so much to love in the fourth album from NZ's finest. It's all there in the sweet pop of Til My Heart Stops, the jangle-pop of Metal, the fuzzy rock of the title track, and the punk pop of No Joy. So many great songs.

10. Viagra Boys - viagr aboys

Funny, funny shit, but also cool. Punk is at its best when its killer riffs are used to have a bit of fun or tear apart society, and somehow this is both those things. Like Butthole Surfers but with better hooks.

Honourable mentions: 

Bleak Squad - Strange Love

Pulp - More

Ball Park Music - Like Love

Ben Kweller - Cover The Mirrors