Rock & Roll Globe’s 40(ish) Best Albums of 2025

This year marked the first time in recent memory that hip-hop did not have a significant impact on the Billboard charts.

Quite telltale for sure, as the generation gap in rap continues to widen, with once-perceived evergreen acts like Clipse, Nas and Wu-Tang Clan appealing less and less to young fans enamored with the allure of drill, which is essentially the sonic id of gangsta rap diluted to nothing more than a bunch of yelling over amorphous beats. Don’t worry, though: There’s plenty of hip-hop worth checking out, as you will soon discover.

Yet, surprisingly, rock ‘n’ roll is on the upswing, with a slew of young bands emerging from the abyss to deliver fresh, new takes on old sounds. R&B is on the come-up, as well, with artists like Dijon and Sudan Archives making creative moves in the spirit of such forebearers as Teena Marie, Prince and the dearly departed D’Angelo, who we lost this year. 

And pop music, of course, continues to surprise with excellent new albums from Sabrina Carpenter, HAIM and Hayley Williams of Paramore continuing to push the envelope of evocative excellence. 

This year’s Top 40(ish) has heaping spoons full of all that made 2025 an exciting year in music. So get ready to dance and prance your way through our selections as we close out an otherwise trying 12 months in America. – Ron Hart

 

41. Geese

Getting Killed (Partisan Records)

Love them or hate them, Cameron Winter and company certainly got their wish and made everyone feel something. That’s rare for any 2020s rock band but I was flabbergasted by how young their crowd was at Philly’s Union Transfer considering Stereogum somewhat rightfully pigeonholed them as the “sound of Sticky Fingers giving way to Amnesiac.” Winter’s ululations have finally mastered a theater of the absurd that sounds more like the irreverent young Beck than Dylan. He won’t pay his taxes unless you nail him to a crucifix, you could stay with him and pretend he’s not there, and he’s getting killed by a pretty good life. Rather than strictly structured songs or jams loosely rolling the dice, his band sustained an unstable fusion of both worlds’ best in off-the-cuff exorcisms like whatever he does to Maria’s bones on “Bow Down” or the best Jagger impression in history on “Cobra.” The hooks were giant, lopsided phrases shouted in the air without asking, “is that anything?” Once they’re in your head, you’ll never get them out. “Nobody knows where they’re going except me,” Winter concludes with such authoritative, quavering sincerity that he might not be kidding when he shrieks that there’s a bomb in his car. – Dan Weiss

 

40. Sunflower Bean 

Mortal Primetime (Lucky Number) 

Since their debut as teens with 2016’s Human Ceremony, New York’s Sunflower Bean fully reach their potential on the brilliant Mortal Primetime, the group’s fourth studio album and most fully realized work to date. Mixed by Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg) and engineered by Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties, Boygenius), this is the Bean’s LA album, with songs like the Roger Joseph Manning Jr.-assisted “Waiting for the Rain,” “I Knew Love” and “Please Rewind” bringing a new level of shimmer and maturity to their sound. Julia Cumming calls Primetime “Belle and Sebastian meets Alice in Chains.” Makes perfect sense to me. – Ron

 

39. Robert Plant featuring Suzi Dian 

Saving Grace (Es Peranza/Nonesuch Records) 

For his 12th solo album and first with his current band Saving Grace, which features vocalist Suzi Dian (who gets co-headlining credit), drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley and cellist Barney Morse-Brown, Robert Plant trawls through 10 deep folk and blues songs that cuts closer to his roots in American music than anything he’s done since the days of Zep. Recorded between 2019 and 2025, Saving Grace ushered in the Golden God’s 77th year like a fine wine. – Ron

 

38. Blondeshell

If You Asked for a Picture (Partisan Records)

Titled after a Mary Oliver poem called “Dogfish,” the line finishes “…I would have to draw a smile under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin, which was rough as a thousand sharpened nails”. The subterranean pop Sabrina, the one who wears her weary familiarity with all the dogs’ old tricks like that rough smile, doesn’t simply set up kitschy scenarios where she comes out topping her aggressors. The roads this Blonde has traveled, on foot with only her guitar case over her shoulder it sounds like, are rougher than all that, and lead nowhere as secure as the one Carpenter took to pop success. They should be filled with an ocean of heart-scuffed followers, though — especially as she expands her spacey palette to include rootsy touches that might elicit an admiring smirk from Lucinda Williams, and finds the most poetic possible rendering of all the pain that’s crowded out her debut’s optimism. – Ryan Maffei

 

37. Pino Palladino and Blake Mills

That Wasn’t A Dream (Verve Records) 

On their second album together, two of music’s most in-demand session players continue the conversation they began in 2021 for Verve with Notes with Attachments. Only on That Wasn’t A Dream, Pino and Blake — working alongside such friends as Sam Gendel on treated saxophone and drummer Chris Dave — deliver a more intimate conversation focusing on the imaginative interplay between Mills’s fretless baritone guitar and Paladino’s bass that feels like a sonic stroll through a tree-lined path into tomorrow. -Ron

 

36. Lambrini Girls 

Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang) 

If not every band is turning the current shitshow in most countries to make great punk, leave it to this duo from Brighton to step up. This is an album full of righteous anger and a knowledge that letting that anger out can be a whole lot of fun. Make no mistake, this band is full of things the worst people hate: Women with autonomy, queer and queer- and trans-friendly, opposed to police brutality and the excesses of the filthy rich, gentrifiers and nepo spawn. The duo, sounding as if they grew up on post-punk as much as punk (and even ’90s alternative) rages through 11 songs.  Deserved targets abound — the murderous cops of “Bad Apple,” the corporate sleaze of “Company Culture” and the equally pervy dude who wants ally cookies in “Big Dick Energy.” But they’re just as likely to sing about living with an eating disorder (“Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels”), navigating neurodivergence (“Special Difference”) or the messiness of new queer attraction (“No Homo”). Vital as hell, a blast to play loud and a definite guidepost on announcing presence with authority – Kara Tucker

 

35. Panda Bear 

Sinister Grift (Domino Records) 

On his eighth solo endeavor, Noah Lennox finally creates an album for those of us who’ve been trying to get into Animal Collective and its multiverse for the last 25 years but can’t seem to quite seal the deal. Working primarily alongside bandmate Joshua Caleb Dibb aka Deakin with input from Avey Tare and Geologist as well, Sinister Grift mines esoteric, vaguely familiar harmonies from obscure showtunes, cowboy singalongs and deep, deep Beach Boys cuts to articulate complex emotions on matters of the heart and reckoning with one’s past. This is by far the most accessible album to ever emerge from the Animal Collective camp while proving the pure pop genius of Panda Bear as one of his generation’s most prominent song auteurs. – Ron 

 

34. The Chills 

Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs (Fire Records)  

Martin Phillipps’ death last year was the sudden end to the most stable period of an often difficult life. This project started with a simple idea — going back to songs Phillips had started back in his youthful days, before such a thing as a Chills album existed, to record versions of songs that had been unreleased and, in most cases, unfinished. It grew into more of an undertaking, as Phillipps realized that he didn’t have the lyrical viewpoint he did four decades prior and that he wanted to utilize the stable current lineup of the band. A wise move, as it results in a showcase for what Phillipps brought to the table — the jangle, the atmosphere, the melancholy, the menace. If some of the lyrics, even with rewrites, betray the callowness of Phillipps’ youth, there are more than enough winners (“Dolphins,” “Juicy Creaming Soda,” “If This World Were Made For Me” “Watching Old Home Movies,” “Declaration”) to make it worth it. Spring Board is a bittersweet experience, even ending with a song whose chorus ends with “I don’t want to live forever/And I’m going to die alive.” It’s  a lovely final chapter for one of Dunedin’s most talented sons, a man who kept his knack for heavenly pop. – Kara 

 

33. Oneohtrix Point Never

Tranquilizer (Warp Records)

The abstract image on the cover of Daniel Lopatin’s latest headphone trip, from the Abner Hershberger painting Blue Interval, resists easy interpretation, but there’s something in it that reminds me of airplanes — rows of seats, or diagrams for model ones. And despite one of its titles, “Bumpy,” the ride over this soundscape is as smooth as ever. The tonal palette is from rescued and reconfigured sounds from deleted archives of 1990s sample libraries, which should give Tranquilizer more of an anachronistic flavor. Yet the shape of the music reminds us how forward the producer’s gaze is, how eccentric his hand. The album is only so aptly named; while I’ll offer expert conditions for the start of your meditation, Lopatin is always focused on taking you somewhere else — humid jungles, arid salt flats, icy tundra and through some well-planted patch or deft stroke, other planets or dimensions entirely. – Ryan

 

32. McKinley Dixon 

Magic, Alive! (City Slang) 

Already possessing a strong discography for someone who hasn’t turned 30 yet, Dixon remains unafraid to tackle big themes, befitting a rapper whose influences are as literary as they are musical. Ostensibly a concept album about three friends grieving the loss of a fourth and trying to bring them back, it’s as much about ideas and feeling as it is about plot. For us in the real world, the magic in keeping those we’ve lost is in the stories we tell, but if magic were involved there’d be complications . Dixon is unafraid of the big picture and, importantly, has the flow and musicality backed by a live band to help the ideas engage the brain and the body.  Loaded with standout tracks (“Sugar Water, “Recitatif,” “All The Loved Ones (What Would We Do???”), the album is utterly absorbing and. for an album that ends with the line “Oh my God, Oh my God, I just wanna jump off the roof,” it’s also hopeful. – Kara

 

AUDIO: Aesop Rock Black Hole Superette 

31. Aesop Rock 

Black Hole Superette/I Heard It’s A Mess There Too (Rhymesayers Entertainment) 

A quarter century after he blew minds in underground hip-hop with his second studio album Float, the man born Ian Bavitz approaches 50 with not one but two exceptional LPs in 2025 that find the Long Island-born rapper continuing to elevate his wordplay and unsung production skills to exciting new levels. Both Black Hole Superette and its immediate follow-up I Heard It’s A Mess There Too are throwbacks to that early era of Aesop Rock in terms of the way by which these albums play out more than anything he’s done in the last decade, while lyrically pondering the travails of an aging Gen Xer through a society less empathetic to its older population. – Ron

 

30. Melvins 1983 

Thunderball (Ipecac Recordings) 

We’ve all heard old tales of what happens when the immovable object meets the irresistible force, but what about when the immovable object is the irresistible force? That’s the story of the Melvins. For well over four decades, King Buzzo’s ear-canal assaulting, shape-shifting combo has shed and regrown skins but always displayed the same attitude — one of insistently iconoclastic confrontation. On Thunderball, the Melvins hark back to 2004’s Pigs of the Roman Empire, thanks to the contributions of i Maîtres and Void Manes from Atlanta, two experimental musicians that share their psychic space. The collaborators seem to have pushed the core trio to think big, pushing song lengths to 10 or 11 minutes (the lava-like ooze “Short Hair in a Wig”) and encouraging them to pack in as much bombast per stanza as possible (as on “Victory of the Pyramids”). Thunderball serves as a reminder that beauty can indeed be brutal. – Deborah Sprague

 

29. Earl Sweatshirt 

Live Laugh Love (Tan Cressida/Warner Records) 

In a genre that can get overstuffed with features and bloat, Earl takes a different tack. He crams in a lot, but finishes 11 tracks in under 25 minutes. Its density co-exists with a loose feel. Ten years after putting out an album titled I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, he’s living a life with much to like (getting married and becoming a father again) and having reasons to go outside. “Live” floats as if in a semi-awake state. “Tourmaline” is love carried by a sunny, sleepy groove of its own. “Gamma (need the <3)” lopes along as if it’s a 45 being played at 33 RPM. Throughout, the man pulls off the feat of making things sound tossed off when they’re anything but. There’s a lot of lines and beats that stick. An “old man” of the game at 31, Earl Sweatshirt seems to be enjoying some well-earned relaxation without coasting and not ignoring the past. Fatherhood and married life haven’t dampened his artistic ardor, leaving plenty for the listener to sink their teeth into and to look forward to. – Kara

 

VIDEO: PinkPantheress “Illegal”

28. PinkPantheress

Fancy That (Warner Records UK)

If 2021’s auspicious To Hell With It made its hay by plundering circa-1997 garage and d’n’b classics for TikTok-sized nuggets of recycled pop, it makes sense that her next great record would go circa-1999 big beat. A third of these nine tracks have Basement Jaxx samples, one borrows from the Streets’ debut, and another nips Estelle’s classic “American Boy,” but they collectively shake out to a perfect 20 minutes of punchy, maximalist house. Pink’s voice is still tiny, but she floats right through the pounding layers of exploding candy on bangers like “Tonight” or the surf-flamenco-”Toxic”-jungle of “Romeo” (which she rhymes with “portfolio” without strain). Looking forward to her releasing the best dubstep album in decades around 2035. – Dan

 

27. Deftones

Private Music (Warner Records)

We need more things than just Deftones to count on not getting worse, going into 2026. But the way this metallic warhorse gallops proudly through our changing rock landscape as its old formula just strengthens and gains dimension remains something to behold. The music still thrashes and coruscates, and Chino Moreno bellows through his dry-thicket throat with no loss in power. The lyrics are the battle cries of a band no closer to the resolution of any of its quests, but who’ve gained a greater sense of serenity in the face of the fiercest obstacles and steepest hills. Every time a lovely sweet moment flares out of the thick, hot-lava riffage, something settles inside your soul, whatever’s dragging you down or pulling you in all directions. The Deftones’ sheer survival is poignant — and artful — in and of itself. – Ryan

 

26. Dijon

Baby (R&R/Warner Records)

Yo, this album is thick with it, baby! It’s like if D’Angelo cut an album with Lou Barlow. Get with it! – Ron

 

25. Sabrina Carpenter 

Man’s Best Friend (Island Records) 

It’s not exactly toiling in the mines, but Carpenter had been trying to escape Former Disney Kid purgatory for a while. The viral success of her live staging of “Nonsense” off E-Mails I Can’t Send knocked on the door, which 2024’s Short n’ Sweet kicked open. Man’s Best Friend brings its predecessors’ cheeky sense of humor, as relationships and sexual choices are fodder for hooks and jokes. Get past the Helmut Newton-meets-Spinal Tap cover and it becomes clear Carpenter’s in on and creator of the joke. Complaining that her sexy pajamas no longer do the trick on “My Man on Willpower,” sarcastically claiming that a guy meeting the lowest of expectations makes “Tears” run down her thighs, knowingly making bad decisions in ‘Manchild” and “Go Go Juice.” If every line doesn’t land, the ratio is still solid. Just as importantly, the modern pop formula gets plenty of stylistic throwbacks — fizzy ’80s pop, a little older R&B, hints of Abba and country. It wraps up with the one-two punch of the clever come-ons of the catchy “House Tour” and the glorious kiss-off “Goodbye” (“But I’ll say, “Arrivederci, au revoir”/Forgive my French, but fuck you, ta-ta”). It’s a reminder that, unlike a certain other popstar album that came out in 2025 with its laughable attempts to draw beef and cringily comparing a Pro Bowler’s penis to a redwood, being sexy and clever ain’t easy and when managed right as Carpenter does it, it can be a whole lot of fun. – Kara

 

24. Viagra Boys

Viagr Aboys (Shrimptech Enterprises)

Like the title, the fourth installment in the Viagra Boys’ preoccupation with the state of the modern male (Swedish or otherwise) is a slight variation on previous deconstructions. Their choice to go deeper with 2022’s Cave World proved an unexpected peak; their latest is less of an enlightened descent and more a nervy survey from a higher plane. The band’s thorny, rickety sound is of a cerebral piece with post-post-post-post-punk acts like Parquet Courts, leaning into its own art long before it even thinks about starting a party. But increasingly, the lyrics speak more from direct human experience than trying to theorize from afar; the Boys know the problems they’re fascinated with are banging just as hard outside their door. They are, after all, no more than mere men made of meat. They’re as incisive as ever on “Pyramid of Health” and “Uno II,” but never sounded quite so devastating as they do on “River King.” – Ryan 

 

23. Orcutt Shelley Miller

Orcutt Shelley Miller (Silver Current Records)

We caught up with Ethan Miller to talk about how this 21st century power trio came to pass.

How did the three of you initially get together?

EM: Well, Bill and I played music for the first time at a Grateful Dead tribute show, and he doesn’t like the Dead so there you go, it was a perfect setting, ha ha. I’ve told that story many times so I’ll skip ahead to another important tribute show story that hasn’t been told yet from after we recorded our album but before it was released. Rewind to our first meet up ever as a trio: We went down to LA and did the 2 studio days and a Zebulon show, (Zebulon show became the album) and then we went our separate ways again for some months. I was kind of wondering if it ever really happened… like, ‘what was that crazy weekend?! 

And then we all ended up playing at a Skip Spence Oar tribute performance in SF (that I curated) and Steve and I were in the stage band and Bill was a guest that sat in with us on GREY/ AFRO. So we kind of ramble through the ‘songy’ part of the song and then it hits that wide open second half and we just sank effortlessly right back down into the Orcutt Shelley Miller ‘thing’ and I was like whoooosh, we’re a thing, the chemistry and unit expression is real!! That moment was a big rush for me among many that night, hearing that our ‘thing’ was on demand and waiting. We were playing Moby Grape songs with Jerry Miller that night just before he passed away, too — he was so on fire and in such an idiosyncratic style. It was really special. I’ve told the Dead tribute story a lot but haven’t ever told the OAR story before in OSM context, so there ya go. 

 

How did you decide upon the creative approach you took for the album?

EM: I guess through subtraction of strategy? Ha. We basically all showed up. At some point there were some minor discussions in the session about whether we were supposed to have pre-written music in preparation for the session, which we really didn’t (I had a few bass riffs and Bill threw down some guitar riffs) but mostly we just lit into the music and it happened. Thank God. We were all staying together at an Airbnb and had the Zebulon show the third night of recording so if it hadn’t gel’d it would have been a long 3 days of not working. 

 

How often did you guys get together before committing to tape?

EM: I picked them up from the airport in Burbank and we drove to the studio and plugged in and checked the mic volumes and all that and began recording. The first time all three of us had ever been in a room together let alone play music together. 

 

Your bass playing here is so fluid. It’s fantastic. What inspired your approach here?

EM: Thank you! I don’t know. I mean, I love the sound of killer bass parts and players on records but other than obvious influences I do feel that I have this uninhibited thing about my creative approach to bass, in this context of OSM it seems like the rules and boundaries are so flexible. Tommy Stinson once joked on this podcast I heard, when asked ‘what’s wrong with guitar?’ And he said “too many strings.” And that’s funny but I also really relate to that. It’s like the 4 strings = infinity. 6 strings = complexity. I can get to the wide open free feeling with guitar but I feel like there are more ways for it to go wrong or get entrapped in complexity. Maybe that’s why Bill and Keith Richards took some of their strings off, they knew that it’s too many and some of them are almost always in the way. Bill (Orcutt) plays 4 strings on his guitar and always has. Permanently 4 strings, and as you can hear, it’s infinity. We have 8 strings total in OSM. Tommy Stinson take note! 

 

Are there any plans to get together again in the near future? Perhaps in a studio?

EM: Yeah, all that ‘band’ stuff is going on. We’re playing two dates with Tortoise in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall Feb 27 & 28. Then east coast tour down to Big Ears Festival in March. Europe tour in April. Studio stuff somewhere woven into 2026 so… – Ron

 

22. Amanda Shires 

Nobody’s Girl (ATO Records) 

The reasons for the breakup of Shires and Jason Isbell’s are theirs alone, but anyone who saw the 2023 HBO documentary Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed couldn’t be surprised. This year saw the two release their respective albums. Shires, a deservedly respected artist in her own right, had started work on the album before the divorce, but wound up ditching that material in favor of addressing the heartache and healing (“I could show you a real shattering/A bird flown into a glass window collapsing/But I’d rather you see me flying/Happily ever after the aftermath” as she sings on the opening “A Way It Goes.”  Shires delivers raw emotion in a series of ballads that cut deeper because of her crystalline voice. The understandable hurt comes through. It’s there in the matter-of-fact “The Details,” the slow waltz through formerly shared spaces dredging up memories in “Streetlights and Stars,” the futility of trying to save what couldn’t (and perhaps shouldn’t) be saved in “Friend Zone.” The uptempo moments are welcome — the anger of “Strange Dreams,” the defiant “Piece of Mind” and the switch into swirling ’70s album rock in “Lose It For A While.” If Shires doesn’t come across as a shiny, happy human by album’s end, it’s impossible not to feel her coming to terms with it all on “Can’t Hold Your Breath” (with bluesy vocals) and the restrained “Not Feeling Anything.” It may not have been an album she wanted to make, but Nobody’s Girl is as heartfelt and true as one could expect, where the raw hurt is unable to escape the creeping warmth and, yes, hope, at its edges – Kara

 

21. Sudan Archives

The BPM (Stones Throw Records)

Give Brittney Parks a MacArthur grant already. The ethnomusicologist/violinist is three LPs into a hell of an idiosyncratic R&B career, and they’re all indispensable. Her 2019 debut Athena played the sinuous edges and seasoned them with plucks of her singular instrument, while 2022’s Natural Brown Prom Queen centered its themes for an ambitious sum that outweighed its parts. This time, as per the title, she gestures ever more towards the dancefloor and sweatier tempos. Of course, the title track also refers to the heartbeat of a guy she’s hoping to fly to Costa Rica for a fling. Lyrically (the voracious “Ms. Pac Man”) and musically (the exhilarating high-speed chase “Dead”), this is her horniest effort and the furthest she’s strayed from a nevertheless extremely pleasurable compendium of musical academia. It’s also a juicy journey from “I really wanna please him” to “yeah I’m done with people pleasing, so I’m mean right now.” Which actually sounds like pretty universal R&B if you think about it. – Dan

 

20. Turnstile 

Never Enough (Roadrunner Records)

The Charli XCX with an omnivorous appetite for the shattered formal boundary is the one who waved her superstar hand in these sorta-hardcore survivors’ direction. Not that they ever choose one — Never Enough finds the revised band, neither all-white nor all — boy, in an ever more electrified pursuit of whatever just occurred to them. Righteous white-hot noise cooperatively coexists with rippling ambience, including bursts of tranquil flute as rousing as New Blue Sun’s was deadening. By the uplifting “Magic Man,” it’s clear both Minor Threat and Alphaville would’ve loved to end up where Turnstile has over the years. Through a brisk yet epic 45 minutes, Never Enough is like watching the gleam of their burning hearts blend into the glint off their corrugated-metal frontal assault; expect this band to keep shining on. – Ryan

 

19. Clipse 

Let God Sort ‘Em Out (Roc Nation) 

Scoring a rare perfect 10 from Anthony Fantano, the long-overdue fourth album from brothers Malice and Pusha T. was well worth the 15-year wait, buzz-sawing through the cacophony of brainless drill rap and sex-hop to remind heads what real hip-hop sounds like. With Pharrell Williams back in the production seat and guests that range from Kendrick, Tyler and Nas to Stevie Wonder, The Voices of Fire Choir and Lenny Kravitz, Let God Sort ‘Em Out is the crossroads where soulful spirituality meets street philosophy in a way we can only pray the next generation of young cats are paying attention. – Ron

 

18. The Tubs 

Cotton Crown (Trouble In Mind)

Owen Williams sounds like Richard Thompson, the now-departed George Nicholls makes like Johnny Marr, and together with their barnstorming rhythm section they comprise the most propulsive jangle pop warriors since Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, matching lyrics of heartbreaking tragedy with melodies of invincible cheer. The finale “Strange” gets as uncomfortably close to the suicide of Williams’ mother as the album art of her breastfeeding him in a cemetery. But all of it shimmers with melodic muscle, especially “Narcissist,” a Smiths-worthy hookup that could be about Morrissey himself. – Dan

 

17. Rosalía 

Lux (Columbia) 

Rosalía is not a woman afraid of artistic challenges or reinvention. If, as the saying of “Go big or go home” is true, she has no intention of going home anytime soon. To start with, Lux’s arrangements come honestly, as the London Symphony Orchestra appears on the whole album. It would be an easy critics’ shorthand to say the album answers the question “What if Björk were Spanish and grew up Catholic?” But it’s hard not to see the inspiration in Rosalía’s talent and desire to explore. The Icelandic legend herself makes a guest appearance. But explore Rosalía does, turning stories of saints and saint figures into songs exploring the divine and feminine. Global in scope (she sings in 13 different languages) and ambition (she throws in classical and operatic vocals), it could all be overwhelming, but Rosalía’s command, her voice and her ability to throw in elements that consistently make sense keep it from being anywhere near a pretentious drag. It’s classical, Latin pop reimagined and genres unto its own all in one. There are plenty of highlights (“La Perla,” “Dios Es Un Stalker,” “Berghain,” De Madruga,” “La Rumba Del Perdón”) but Lux is made for absorbing as a whole. Playing like a widescreen film in its approach (and its lengthy list of credits), Lux is unmistakably the work of the woman auteur in charge. Absolutely stunning and her best work which, coming off 2022’s Motomami, says a lot. Just like Rosalía. – Kara

 

16. Kassa Overall

CREAM (Warp Records)

There aren’t a ton of drummers who also rap, besides Anderson .Paak or maybe if you get Questlove drunk and freestyling. So you can expect total virtuosity from this rhythmic Rambo on this all-instrumental, all-covers collection of golden-age rap classics remade as quartet jazz. The selections play themselves, whether it’s the loungey Isley sample from “Big Poppa” logically extended into bossa nova, or A Tribe Called Quest’s eternal “Check the Rhime” granted the straightforward swing its hook always begged for. The thematic outlier is Miles’ “Freedom Jazz Dance,” which opens the proceedings by alluding to Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.” And the sonic one is the completely unrecognizable closer: “Back That Azz Up.” – Dan

 

15. Rico Nasty

Lethal (Fueled by Ramen)

“Don’t call me your sis,” she growls in the opener “Who Want It”, no fake-ass here to make friends for clout. But the title of that track poses an open question — in a career brimming with rivetingly astringent verses, endlessly eclectic beats and the choicest collaborators around, people are still sleeping on how this artist is one of the most potent performers in the game. For 15 cuts in just a little over half and hour, she proves how many different ways she’s here to earn the crown, clearing the dancefloor of all her nastiest competition with “Eat Me!,” folding in dreamy atmospherics on “On the Low” and “Butterfly Kisses”, and even copping to an indie rock coda just to show she can do it as dreamily as Blondeshell. It just doesn’t stop, not even in a 10-minutes-fatter deluxe version — Lethal leaves the most ferocious competition old (Cardi B) and new (Doechii) sounding oddly anodyne beside her. -Ryan

 

14. Guerilla Toss

You’re Weird Now (Sub Pop)  

We linked up with Kassie Carlson about what makes this Malkmus-produced magnificence the best GT LP to date. 

 

The cover typography is out of this world! How did the idea come about?

The typography came from the artist Robert Beatty. We have wanted to work with him for so long and were happy to finally make a connection. Robert is an artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky, best known for his noise band Hair Police and more recently for his work designing album covers, some of those include Tame Impala’s Currents, Kesha’s Rainbow, and limited-edition artwork for The Weeknd’s Dawn FM.  

Hair Police were massive legends in our scene back in the day. We played with them once at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn in 2013. The bill was Hair Police, Chris Goudreau, White Suns, Guerilla Toss, Shiraishi & Buerhaus and Bob Bellerue.  Hair Police had this wicked darkness about them, a demonic wall of sound with tape manipulation, guitars and distorted screeching feedback. It was beautiful. 

He also did Arian Shafiee’s album cover for his solo album, A Scarlett Fail, which came out in 2018 on VDSQ and again for Engines in Unity released in 2023. Arian was kind of the one who gave the guts to ask Robert Beatty. Ever since Hair Police I had been shaken to core with uneasy unworthiness. Beatty was so easy to work with and hugely talented. It was such an honor to work with him.

 

What is the meaning behind the album title?

The album title for You’re Weird Now is a tongue in cheek realization that you’ve always been weird, it’s just time to accept and embrace it. I’ve lived a lot of life in this awkward place between synthesized self acceptance and tormented inferiority. I guess living that way gives you a lot to write about but it’s really not sustainable. You’re Weird Now, the album title, is about throwing all that out and being yourself as it comes and forgiving yourself for your faults or “shortcomings”, self imposed or not. oh yeah, also “You’re Weird Now” is a secret song that never made it on the album.

 

How did Stephen Malkmus get involved in this album?

We connected with Malkmus when he asked us over Twitter to tour with “his old band Pavement”. We thought it was a bot or something at first. It seemed insane that someone we held to such a high accord was messaging little Guerilla Toss. It was fun to get to know Pavement and Malkmus on the road. They were totally inviting, friendly, and brotherly. Down-to-earth is really an understatement for those Pavement guys and approachability is totally a 10 or 11. That being said, approaching Malkmus to help out with the album was quite nerve wracking.  We wanted to do some sort of fusion of a live album, with a sing-songy vibe that could be played acoustic if possible (insane idea I know). Primarily, we wanted to do something we hadn’t done before, typical GTOSS. Seeing Pavement perform live really shined a light on a type of music a lot of us had really loved in the past but had kind of grown apart from. Pavement and Stephen Malkmus’ solo songs are just so good and it lit up this kind of ~thing~ inside of us. For me, the melodies and choruses are catchy but they’re not simple. The lyrics are easy to remember, but not surface, they’re deep. The self deprecating slurs of self reflection struck a loud chord in me. 

Anyway, there’s a certain rock and roll lore that led to this quest to try and get Stephen Malkmus to produce this record we were working on. We had formed a connection with Trey Anastasio from Phish and had this hair-brained idea that Stephen Malkmus should produce the album at the Phish Barn with Trey. The Phish Barn, aka the Farmhouse, is a recording studio in Vermont that a lot of Phish’s albums were recorded at.  In addition to Phish, several other artists have recorded or performed at The Barn, including Béla Fleck, John Patitucci, DJ Logic, Toots & the Maytals, Tony Levin, Umphrey’s McGee, The Slip, John Medeski, Swampadelica, Jerry Douglas, Patti LaBelle, Leo Kottke, Jim Carrey, Addison Groove Project and Touchpants. Phish has used the Barn to record all of their studio albums since Farmhouse with the exception of Joy. Basically, it’s a legendary place with a legendary history, but ALSO there has always been some sort of mythical lore about whether or not Malkmus’ song “Jenny the Ess Dog,” which has a line about “a dog named Trey,” is about Trey Anastasio. Why does this matter? Anastasio has always credited Pavement as a major influence, stating their music was a big part of his life in the 1990s and that their lyrics and production ideas have influenced his own work. He also said the concert he saw in 1995 on the “Wowee Zowee” tour, and has called it “the best concert he’s ever seen.” Malkmus had never really reciprocated and it has kind of been this deep nerdy unrequited love story. 

SO we presented an open idea to Malkmus, with open hearts: Come with us to see Phish in Seattle and see if you like it… and he did! And I think he liked it! That night however we popped the question about producing the record at the Phish barn. He seemed down. After many months of ironing it all out.. It happened!

 

What do you feel about Malk’s skills as a producer?

Malkmus is awesome. We had a lot of fun working with him as a producer. He was pretty laid back and chill but had deep sentences and ideas that always shook us up. It was fun to talk about music and have him draw throughlines to music that no one has ever compared us to… that we have always wanted people to. Malkmus infused this kind of confidence in the music that hadn’t been there before. He’s big on trusting yourself as an artist and not getting too much in your head, especially in the recording studio.

 

How did you end up recording at The Barn in VT and what was it like working on music at Trey Anastasio’s studio?

The Barn is literally a big beautiful barn that sits on top of a mountain overlooking the whole Northeast Kingdom. It’s not really a fancy barn, it’s humble in the way that it was a hippie named Trey’s first big purchase as a successful musician. There’s no fancy bathroom or marble countertops and the seating is like furniture you find at any old house. The beams in The Barn are truly beautiful and every piece of wood has a story to tell. The entirety of the ceiling is braced by massive, full, very straight trees that peak at the very top. A steel bridge and rickety stage elevator takes you from the second floor up to the cupula that has windows with a 360 degree view. I slept on the second floor with those trunks just a few feet from my face, the memory of abandoned insect highways drew squiggly lines in every solid trunk in the barn. Each tree supporting it is unique with an ancient entomological history.  The abundance of wood makes it warm and rich to record in. The vibes were strong.

Recording at The Barn was a total whirlwind. I feel like I had invited all my closest friends, my chosen family there and we were just brimming with unbridled excitement. Not only did I have the band, Malkmus and Trey, but also Jonny Kosmo, Ben Katzman, Willie Dantzler and a whole other barrage of people that are so special to me. Behind the boards were Ben Collette and Bryce Goggin. Bryce has worked with Malkmus on a number of records including Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Brighten the Corners, making their sarcastic banter top notch inspirational material. At one point Bryce stated: “Everything doesn’t need to be a seven layer cake”, referencing GT’s innate desire to have as many tracks as possible smashed ontop of eachother forever and ever. He also said “If I had to choose music now or music later, I’d choose music now”, kind of a dig at our super powered ADHD energy moving like a freight train from one idea to another. 

The whole project was inspiring in the way that we were working with people who had been, in a way, in our shoes before. I feel like it lessened that energy of rumination and trying to fit into something. It amplified the energy of existing in a nest you meticulously made for yourself.

 

Who is the Phish fan in the band? What is it about them that you dig?

Peter Negroponte is the OG Phish fan. A number of years ago he brought me my first Phish show and I was very skeptical. I was into noise and dark heavy music at the time, or some downer psychedelic folk. For many years Phish felt too silly to me. I felt like I didn’t “get it” unless I took drugs or something. That concept felt kind of wrong to me. I think I really started to “get” Phish when I stopped doing drugs eight years ago this fall. The clarity and musicianship when you really start to listen is top tier. Some of the songs are really still very silly, but the way that Phish meanders in between all of their songs and draws this unimaginable energy out of the people watching them is pretty demonic and beautiful. I can’t say that I 100% relate to Phish fans but I think Phish is one of the truest bands to themselves that has ever existed. I think the music is so out there, and getting to know the musicians within Phish just reinforces this idea that their music is really coming from this twisted place within them. A lot of the time I think music lovers equate unknowingly how much a particular band aligns with a particular genre. Phish is kind of without genre. I listen to “jam bands” and wonder how jam bands could think they are parallel to Phish. A lot of jam band music feels showy to me.

My favorite parts of Phish are the “gags” when they put on these huge Broadway-like performances and the “jamming” of course.  The “gags” are kind of something I’ve always wanted Guerilla Toss to be able to pull off. Being the vocalist has always been pretty performative and theatrical for me, I’d love to expand on that. The jamming Phish does is more than improvising, it feels more like a conversation. Even the most seasoned jazz musicians cannot pull off what Phish does. I don’t know if it’s that they have known each other so long,  or have been through so much together, but all I know is that it’s a conversational elaborate routine that people will drop weeks of their life for and that… is punk rock.

 

I hear some heavy Le Tigre vibes on this album, but that’s just me.  Did that early ’00s dance-punk sound play a role at all in this album’s creation? I’d love to know more about that direction if possible.

I was never a super Le Tigre fan, but Bikini Kill was big for me. Other big femme influences for me have been The Slits, The Raincoats, ESG, Suburban Lawns, Polystyrene, X-Ray Spex, L7, The Breeders and a lot more. Early GT was very influenced by Crass, Dystopia, Minor Threat and EyeHateGod. I also drew big influences from my older brother’s bands Only Living Witness, Miltown and RawRadarWar.  I guess the dance punk influence has always been a thing. I had been getting really into Calvin Johnson from K Record’s mixtapes when I was writing this, also doing a public radio show called Rare Pear Radio on WJFF Radio Catskill that focused on this femme driven dance punk style. One of the Calvin Johnson mixtapes that really stuck with me was called: “We Will Bury You, Female New Wave Punk from 1977-1982” featuring these killer dance pop punk chicks like Jane Aire and the Belvederes, Pylon, The Bags, Westside Lockers and a bunch more. I guess this was all a big influence at the time and continues to be. 

 

What do you think is the most exciting thing happening in music right now and why?

The most exciting thing happening in music right now is the ease and accessibility of affordable self recording and production. 

 

How has the tour been going so far? Any interesting road stories to share?

Tour was so awesome. I feel like the band has reached a new locked-in level of performing. We feel like a severe unit that really moves together. I love. it.

 

How did making this album help you all during these times?

As usual music distracts me from the endless doom scroll of current existence. Performing and writing forces me to exist in the now, rather than being ever consumed in what was and what could be. It’s meditative and helps me work out a lot of things I don’t think I could otherwise. – Ron 

 

13. Marshall Allen 

New Dawn (Week-End/Mexican Summer) 

The standard Marshall Allen conversation starts and ends with the fact that he remains a driving force at the age of 101. Yes, that’s impressive, but his work on New Dawn would be mesmerizing if he were one-third that age.  The saxophonist, who plays with both power and precision, knows how to lead an ensemble — something he mastered after taking the reins from the Sun Ra Arkestra after the legendary founder’s passing — and on this set, he shows a learned flair for managing space (no, not the kind Sun Ra spoke of). The album’s tracks are impressively diverse, with an embrace — make that a bear hug — of full-on freak flag flying (the Afro-beat tinged “Boma”) as well as hypnotic gentleness (“African Sunset”). Allen also mixes things up by stepping back and letting others take the lead here and there — notably the title track, which features the vocals of Neneh Cherry, who previously showed her free-jazz chops in bands like Rip Rig and Panic. New Dawn is a wonder in its own right, but Allen doesn’t seem likely to slow down anytime soon, since he also sent the concert set Live in Philadelphia into the wilds of 2025 a few months later. – Deborah

 

12. Fishbone 

Stockholm Syndrome (Consigliere) 

In the 32 years since Fishbone released their last masterpiece — Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe — the Los Angeles ska-soul-punk legends have undergone several transformations with varied results. But with founding trombonist/keyboardist Chris Dowd returning to the fold for the first time since 1994, Stockholm Syndrome sounds like a band who’s rediscovered its groove in a way they haven’t delivered since The Reality of My Surroundings, returning to ground zero not to party but to protest, taking on inflation (“Last Call in America”), ICE (“Secret Police”) and right-wing trolls (“Racist Piece of Shit”) with an urgency we can only expect from a band like Fishbone. -Ron

 

11. Pulp 

More (Rough Trade) 

More often than not, bands that do reunion tours after many years leave it at that. That was Pulp’s intent in 2022, as they’d done it before. But then the band added a song lead singer Jarvis Cocker had co-written for a play a few years earlier to the setlist. Creating that band arrangement opened the path up to creating together again. 24 years since their last album, they pick up where they left. Cocker’s lyrics never felt the strain of him trying to act young, so he’s pretty much aged into the mindset he always had. The album’s full of beautiful orchestration, wit and sharp observations familiar to longtime fans, filtered through age. With plenty of songs that would have fit right in the band’s 90s heyday — the longing “Tina”, the anthemic “Spike Island”, the self-critical dance of “Got to Have Love,” “Grown Ups” (where the chuckles cut) and the amusing  closer “A Sunset.” Whether More is a coda or the start of another act, it’s a welcome return – Kara

 

10. Maria Somerville

Luster (4AD)

Maria Somerville undoubtedly understood the assignment when she signed to 4AD. For her second album, the multi-talented Irish musician encapsulates the shimmering history of her new label with a gliding gossamer of graceful sounds that you will immediately recognize as 4AD canon — electronic ambience, minimal percussion, crystalline guitar passages, vocals that seem to float above you like ghostly whispers from beyond. It’s all executed with an assuredness that makes you believe this is an album from 1987, hitting your listening palate like a new friend. Her name is alive. – Ron

 

9. Billy Woods

Golliwog (Backwoodz Studioz)

If there’s been a more important hip-hop artist of the 2020s, they’re even further underground than this masked avenger, the only rapper in history who’s believably “still living hand to mouth” on his ninth solo LP, which is one of his best, though you could mount an argument for almost anything he’s done since and including 2019’s incredulous Kenny Segal daydream Hiding Places. In 2023, his most celebrated work ever was another Segal team-up, Maps, the lightest he’s ever put to tape. This literal horror show is closer sonically and spiritually to 2022’s album-of-the-decade candidate Aethiopes, with creeping audio verité around every corner like the sobbing woman he loops for “Waterproof Mascara.” In one of the more literal state-of-fame rap songs, he goes home with his “number-one fan” and she’s a literal vampire (that has a girlfriend, mind you: “She’s not a fan of me / I get it”). He’s still extremely amusing as an indie-rap Robin Hood wrench in the works: “Landlord tryna empty the building so he can make it flip / I’m the only one left, they mad I’m stoppin’ the grift.” And he compares himself to Miles Davis because his 2019-2025 is sure looking a lot like the jazz deity’s 1969-1975. – Dan

 

8. Jeff Tweedy

Twilight Override (dBPM Records)

“The Randy Newman of maximalism”, mused Elizabeth Nelson for Pitchfork, perhaps more thoughtfully than this mellow triple-set was itself crafted. For ages of not exactly abridging himself, the ever-ingratiating Tweedy, who’s better than most writers at capturing the hint of sunlight welling in the corners of your eyes, has come on with a mix of intentional aesthetic obfuscation and a forthrightness so uncommon it’s disarming. Thus, a simple black-and-white portrait of the artist, unshaven behind bedhead and bifocals, gives no clue about the contents behind the cover, and even repeated plays don’t feel like they answer questions. So you live in what’s at once the least shapely and most definitive Jeff Tweedy album, made with a little help from his sons and over half a century of lovingly careful record-cutting and -collecting. Private as it can feel, Twilight Override isn’t just the most vulnerable he’s ever been — it’s the most open-armed, and at best its acoustic textures are a healing reprieve. -Ryan

 

7. Water From Your Eyes

It’s a Beautiful Place (Matador Records)

Nate Amos’ linear bedroom pop as This Is Lorelei felt cordoned off from his description-resisting project with Rachel Brown, and they still sound nothing alike. But the success of both has clearly pumped his enthusiasm as the duo’s sound designer, because the jumble of styles here takes on a multicolored hue, often within the same song. This kaleidoscopic pile of appealing textures revolves around two monster singles: “Life Signs,” which evokes both L7 and Stereolab and also “Secret Agent Man,” and “Playing Classics,” a wondrous club jam that sounds cheap and state-of-the-art at the same time. In between they just shed skins and shapeshift right in your ear canal, always landing on the right noise you need next. It’s a beautiful place, sure, and it’s fucking loud, too. – Dan

 

6. Little Barrie and Malcolm Catto

Electric War (Easy Eye Sound) 

For their second album with Heliocentrics drummer Malcolm Catto, singer/guitarist Barrie Cadogan and bassist Lewis Wharton delve even further down the funky psych-rock rabbit hole with this octet of out-there grooves that feel like they jumped out of a classic Madlib mixtape. “Malcolm brought different sides out of us, and also brought some input with arrangement and things like that,” Barrie told Rock & Roll Globe earlier this year. “Quite a lot of interesting ideas. And he helped push me and Lewis into a new direction we hadn’t been in before. There’s not many producers that I trust and would be willing to do that. But with Malcolm, I totally do, ’cause a lot of his ideas have just been really good for the music and made the music better.” No doubt. – Ron

 

5. Sharp Pins 

Balloon Balloon Balloon (Perennial/K) 

As niche as it might be, power pop finds adherents, even amongst the young. And make no mistake, Kai Slater is young in genre terms. At 21, young enough to be Brendan Benson’s son, Robert Pollard’s grandson or Ray Davies’ great-grandson. He’s also a busy guy, fronting Lifeguard, who released Ripped and Torn, full of engaging noisy alt-rock that could easily have made this list. But we are here to talk about Slater’s side project made flesh. He re-released 2024’s stellar Radio DDR with additional spit and polish, then cranked out this one, which is more of the same, only more sprawling and lo-fi. The game of Spot the Influence would take longer than the album, fueled by hours of digging over time at a record store near where Slater’s father worked as a University of Chicago Poli-Sci professor. Slater goes through 21 songs and snippets in under 44 minutes. You know the aesthetic two songs in — the ’70s power pop revivalist jangle of “Popafangout” and the ’60s source stomp-and-jangle of “I Don’t Have the Heart.” As easy as it might be to roll one’s eyes, especially in the moments where some might want to yell at Slater, “You’re from Chicago! You’re not British!” The reality is that Slater’s similarity to what’s come before is in mentality as much as music. Like the purveyors of musical touchstones here, Slater has found a music he likes and wants to make his own version of it. If not as polished as its predecessor (and polish is a very relative term), it’s an album full of moments that stick until, seemingly too soon, it ends. With Balloon Balloon Balloon, Slater ingratiates himself with a series of hooks and the sheer joy of creating his own version of what he loves. – Kara

 

4. Stereolab

Instant Holograms on Metal Film (Warp Records) 

While the mystique of Stereolab sometimes threatens to obscure the band’s very real brilliance, this album, their first in 15 years, reaffirms that the group isn’t just a shadowy ghost of innovation past. Instant Holograms on Metal Film bears many of the hallmarks of Stereolab’s trademark sound — Laetitia Sadier’s hypnotic vocals, Tim Gane’s motorik guitar — but this time around, the founders festoon their core with some intriguing outside elements. Brass instruments play hide-and-seek on several tracks, and take pivotal roles on some others, particularly “If You Remember I Forgot How to Dream Part 1,” where Sadier’s most political lyrics bob and weave between sharp cornet lines. Sadier even cedes room for some male voices (like Xavi Muñoz and keyboard player Joe Watson), which adds a warmth to songs like “Aerial Troubles,” “Le Coeur et la Force,” and “Esemplastic Creeping Eruption.” On occasion, they hark back to the days of Dots and Loops here and there (most notably on the marimba-driven “Immortal Hands”), but this is no exercise in nostalgia. Stereolab remains just slightly out of step, delivering one skittering slide into the stars just when it’s needed. – Deborah 

 

3. Hayley Williams 

Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party (Post Atlantic)

The Paramore leader is finally free of the contract she signed with Warner/Atlantic when she wasn’t even old enough to have a driver’s license, a deal that let Atlantic stick its fingers deep into pretty much every revenue pie. Or, as she puts it in the opening “Ice in My OJ,” ” A lot of dumb motherfuckers that I made rich.” Her first independent statement was to form Paramore in the first place, when the label thought it was signing a teen pop singer. While the band is now on hiatus, Williams makes her first post-major statement as a solo artist, not having to stick to a Paramore sound and letting out ideas and emotions that bubbled up as the band was finishing its last album cycle opening on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. There’s the shoegaze bendy note on “Mirtazapine,” the criticism of gentrification and posing Christianity mixed with a desire for greater humanity in her hometown of Nashville on “True Believer,” the truthful anguish of “Parachute,” the bright singer-songwriter hope of “Whim,” relationship drama turned deadpan, complete with credited Bloodhound Gang hook, on “Discovery Channel,” the soft-spoken navigation of identity on “Negative Self Talk,” the sing-song turned punchy on “Brotherly Hate,” the R&B dark humor of the title track (and, yes, the “racist country singer” is, per the ever-honest Williams, is Morgan Wallen). Juggling one’s sense of self, relationships and what to do with a newer sense of broader freedom could make for a slog, but Williams deftly displays the vocal and songwriting chops to turn the explorations into a showcase for styles that never feel like trying on costumes. Whatever the state of Williams’ ego at the end of 2025, her sense of self has never felt stronger. – Kara 

 

2. HAIM

I quit (Columbia Records) 

The HAIM sisters have been kissing off worthless men for a dozen years now, ever since the classic “The Wire” tripped the light fantastic across our radio waves. But if you steal a glance at the arc gender politics have taken in the time since, you can only blame LA for how chill the band have been in not missing steps along the way. Their joyous fourth album has the feel of something they’ve been waiting to say, or even realize, this whole time. Liberated from old preconceptions and a production partnership with Ariel Rechtshaid — Danielle’s ex — HAIM have never sounded more unbound. The supple, mellow poptones in their collective head are rougher and freer than ever, and the lyrics pull no punches where they’d mostly bobbed and weaved. I quit sports some of the best writing ever about “Relationships”, set to an array of healing bops. HAIM are gonna do whatever they want – you can’t make them disappear. -Ryan 

 

1. Wednesday 

Bleeds (Dead Oceans)

There isn’t a better band. That notion was on the table when they rolled out 2023’s monolithic Rat Saw God, but here they sledgehammer the wood into splinters. Karly Hartzman sheds the shoegaze drones, shreds the grunge, croons the country, and sells bold new product on Drive-By Truckers’ turf. Her tall tales are stacking up like Ghostface Killah’s, from the dead guy who shared her nudes on “Townies” to the 33-year-old with false teeth in the baseball bat fight “Gary’s II.” Country brings the narrative color (“Elderberry Wine”), grunge cranks the volume (“Wasp”), and the choruses never stop (“Wound Up Here [By Holdin On]”). And hidden between the cracks is Hartzman’s inter-band breakup with MJ Lenderman, quietly and beautifully (and devastatingly) refracted through Lefty Frizzell’s “The Way Love Goes.” Proceed directly to Wussy’s Funeral Dress 20 years ago if you think you can handle more. – Dan