Category Archives: favorite albums

Year End: Favorite releases, March & April 2025

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Spring 2025 was a bit of an odd season for me musically, as there were quite a few albums I was interested in hearing but only maybe a few I ended up truly enjoying. It’s not that the albums were bad, just that I never quite resonated with them for one reason or another. Still, I did find a few that I latched onto…

Bob Mould, Here We Go Crazy, released 7 March. I can always depend on Mould to come out with a well-written and contemplative album, no matter whether he’s in a loud or a soft mood.

Throwing Muses, Moonlight Concessions, released 14 March. I’ve been a fan for decades and I’m happy to see that Kristin Hersh is still going strong with her intelligent and quirky music.

Steven Wilson, The Overview, released 14 March. After a few electronic-based albums, Wilson returns to his original prog sound with an intriguing concept album about viewing Earth from space. I can always rely on his music for a good writing soundtrack!

Lucy Dacus, Forever Is a Feeling, released 28 March. Her new album is much more laid back and contemplative, but just as creative and lovely.

SPELLLING, Portrait of My Heart, released 28 March. This Oakland musician has been a local favorite for quite some time with her experimental hybrid sounds.

Miki Berenyi Trio, Tripla, released 4 April. The former Lush frontwoman finally releases her own solo debut and it was definitely worth the wait. It’s a wonderful dreampop album that expands on her former band’s style with a heavier and stronger sound.

OK Go, And the Adjacent Possible, released 11 April. While several of their previous albums had poppier and more radio-friendly songs alongside their always-captivating videos, this album feels a bit more experimental, but it works perfectly.

Tunde Adebimpe, Thee Black Boltz, released 18 April. The TV On the Radio lead singer’s full-length solo debut was a long time in coming (apparently he’s been doing voice acting all this time?) and it’s well worth the wait.

SAULT, 10, released 19 April. I’ve been fascinated by this curiously semi-anonymous band ever since KEXP introduced me to them, and each release is always captivating.

**

More to come…

Year End: Favorite releases, January & February 2025

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My plan for 2025, as you recall, was to get myself out of the collector/completist mindset (or at least tone it down considerably) so I could then connect with the music in my library on a more personal level. I’d like to think that this worked out for the most part, as I did find myself returning to a lot of albums and songs as the year went on. There are still some albums that aren’t getting as much play as I’d hoped, but I’d kind of expected that to happen.

Given that I was still finding steady ground in which to make this change, the first couple of months of 2025 did go by in a bit of a blur. Some albums I listened to occasionally, some I tried out after hearing a single on KEXP, but it took me a few listens to latch on until I got used to this change in listening habit.

So without further ado…

Franz Ferdinand, The Human Fear, released 10 January. Good to see this band still going strong after several years and a few member changes, and while they’ve mellowed a bit, they’re still enjoyable.

tunng, Love You All Over Again, released 24 January. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a release from this band, and it was a pleasant return. They’re not quite folk but not quite indie either, just kind of off in their own little quirky universe, and they’re always a fun listen.

Mogwai, The Bad Fire, released 24 January. I keep expecting this band to be blisteringly loud like, say, Caspian and other post-rock bands — and they do, occasionally — but for the most part they’ve embraced their mellower and more atmospheric sounds, which fits well with their movie score works.

J Mascis, “Breathe” single, released 30 January. I was quite excited by this one, considering one of my favorite formerly-local musicians (the Dinosaur Jr singer, still a Pioneer Valley local as far as I know) covering one of my favorite Cure b-sides.

above me, above me EP, released 31 January. Slumberland Records has been brilliant over the last few years in releasing wonderful albums by local Bay Area bands, many of them coming from my own neighborhood! This one in particular caught my attention with its video and its several locations I was familiar with. [For instance, that first shot is taken on Lake Street and turning onto 17th Avenue heading south to California. A and I would walk this bit all the time after work, especially during the pandemic.]

Heartworms, Glutton for Punishment, released 7 February. This is another good example of a band I forget that I like! I posted about them last month after hearing “Jacked” on KEXP and dug out her debut album to listen to again. I really love how she manages to perfectly channel the 80s-90s goth and post-punk I grew up listening to back in the day!

Inhaler, Open Wide, released 7 February. Elijah Hewson really does sound like his dad Bono these days, doesn’t he? And the band is sounding more like the 90s-era U2 but with decidedly less bombast. Still, I’ve grown to really like their stuff and still pop this one on now and again.

Doves, Constellations for the Lonely, released 28 February. This here is probably the first Favorite Album of the Year for me. I mean, I’ve always loved this band, even though their releases have been rather sporadic over the last several years (partly due to lead singer Jimi Goodwin’s health), but this second return since 2020’s The Universal Want hit it out of the park. It’s got the atmospheric moodiness of their first two records Lost Souls and The Last Broadcast, and starting the record with the breathtaking “Renegade” captured my attention immediately. And yes, it became quite the favorite writing session soundtrack for me. I highly recommend this one!

Andy Bell, pinball wanderer, released 28 February. The Ride lead singer’s latest record was not what I expected at all, to be honest, and that’s a good thing. Quite unlike the stronger and noisier sounds of his main band, this solo work sounds surprisingly like he’d chosen to be inspired by unexpected bands like Boards of Canada. It’s more sedate and heavier on the electronics, even while retaining his signature melodic style. This was another frequent writing session soundtrack this year.

**

Coming up: Favorites from March and April!

I wish I was as cool as Calvin

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I was introduced to Too Much Joy by my friend Chris back in 1990 when the major label reissue of their second album Son of Sam I Am dropped, and I was immediately hooked. At that point in time I was still listening to far more doom and gloom music than I really should have been listening to, and TMJ was refreshing, noisy and funny but without being too absurdist or corny. I put this cassette in my Walkman quite a lot near the start of my sophomore year when I needed a pick-me-up. Later on in the summer of ’91 I would see them live at the Hatch Shell, where I very nearly got hit by flying glass. Whee!

It’s not a brilliant album by any means, and they’re firmly entrenched in the ‘punk band that definitely doesn’t take itself seriously at all’ genre, but instead of going the meathead drunk-and-partying route, they took the intellectual Gen-X ennui-and-irony route, which caught the attention of several kids my own age. While it never got enough major airplay, they were a firm favorite on alternative radio and retained a loyal fanbase. Years later in 2020/2021 they reunited and have released two new albums since then.

The album ran the gamut between the ‘bad karma thing to do’ action of making fun of bums, to being traumatized by clowns…

…to singing about reincarnation (a song I still know all the words to!)…

…and not just a cover of an LL Cool J song….

…but a cover of the weird-yet-catchy classic by Terry Jacks.

So why a major reissue of an album from 1988 and reissued in 1990? Simple: after thirty-five years, the rights to their breakthrough album finally reverted back to them. They’d gotten the quite-aged masters back and got them cleaned up, and they sound fresh and vibrant once more.

Pure silliness, but I highly recommend this album because it’s just that much fun.

Catching up on music with…

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…a number of things lately! As always, my primary listening time has been during my writing sessions, and considering my current project is a space opera with an ensemble cast, I need a lot of mood music to keep me going. To wit…

Bob Moses’ latest album BLINK is excellent, but pretty much anything they do is something that fits perfectly with my work on writing science fiction. Moody, groovy and full of atmosphere.

The self-titled album by Packaging came to my attention via KEXP (as most things do these days), but I’m intrigued that this was a band that actually decided to describe itself as motorik — that almost-forgotten German electronic style of single-chord groove that feels like high speed driving (see bands like NEU! for the genre’s history, you won’t be let down). “Running Through the Airport” is not only perfect mood music, it’s surprisingly catchy.

I’ll admit that I thought Unbelievable Truth was a Bernard Sumner side project, as I thought it was him singing the track “You’ve Got It”, but it didn’t sound like New Order or Electronic. Come to find out, it’s actually the brother of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, which makes a lot more sense as the music definitely has that King of Limbs tension.

Crushed is an interesting band in that they’re like Curve but not as heavy; they’re Phantogram but not as noisy; they’re shoegazey but not as…reverb-y. The album no scope has grown on me over the last month and I find myself returning to it quite often.

Then there’s Nation of Language, which I’ve been a fan of for quite a few years now. They’ve fully embraced that indietronica sound that is more about sitting back and listening instead of dancing. Another album I find myself returning to.

…and an album that just dropped in physical format that I’m looking forward to listening to: Touch by Tortoise. It’s their first new album in nine years, and I had no idea it existed until I was looking at the new release list last Friday! [Yes, that still happens to me, and I love it every time.] They’re one of those interesting experimental rock bands from the late 90s and early 00s, with their style heavily inspired by jazz.

Catching up on music with… Automatic

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This band has been around for a bit now and gotten some play on KEXP (some years ago they did a great cover of Delta 5’s “Mind Your Own Business”), but it’s their new release Is It Now? that’s been getting a lot of play here in the office.

They’ve definitely got that early-eighties post-punk vibe going on with their stark production and twitchy beats, kind of coming across like a mix between Joy Division at their perkiest and Tones On Tail at their goofiest. [I recently learned that there’s an actual connection with the latter — drummer Lola Dompé is actually the daughter of Kevin Haskins, who was in ToT, Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. Their style is very similar in places.]

While I do enjoy the title track, it’s “Mercury” that’s been getting stuck in my head lately, which also gets a lot of play on KEXP.

Definitely worth checking out if you’re into that classic post-punk sound.

It’s the next best thing to be

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Well, this just popped up on the internets today, and it’s exactly what I was hoping would happen with this song when “Now and Then” dropped in 2023. I’d always preferred “Free As a Bird” over “Real Love” as it’s a more dynamic and fascinating song and the more (ahem) Beatlesque of the two. I get that in 1995-96, you could only do so much with a lo-fi cassette source tape, so I accepted that the vocals would be a bit funky. I figured that with the MAL software making John’s voice in “Now and Then” crisp and clear, they’d finally do the same for the other two.

From what I’ve been seeing, the box set (which drops this November, just like all the other previous super deluxe editions) remasters the original three volumes, with an additional fourth volume containing mostly tracks that had shown up in said box sets, with about a dozen previously unreleased tracks. This would include the “2025 mixes” of the two 1995-96 songs. In addition to that, Disney+ comes through again by rereleasing the Anthology miniseries, expanding to nine episodes. I’m also going to assume that this would include the three videos for the new songs, as well as the several vignettes, outtakes and extras that came with the original Anthology dvd set. Perhaps there might be more unreleased footage? Who knows?

Mind you, I’m not going to be one of those musos complaining that it’s missing long-sought after tracks (looking at you, “Carnival of Light”) or that the additional new tracks aren’t properly inserted into the original three to preserve chronology, or that it might not be in 5.1 surround, or that *gasp!* it’s available digitally. Me? I’m just going to preorder it and enjoy it, because that’s what proper Beatle fans do!

Catching up on music with… Doves

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The new Doves record Constellations for the Lonely has been on heavy rotation here at the New Digs, especially during writing sessions. They’ve always been a favorite of mine, and this new record was well worth the wait. Opening the album with dark and gloomy (and heavily reverbed) piano chords on “Renegade” definitely evokes that feeling of an oncoming rainstorm. Perfect mood music to inspire me.

Recently I’ve started listening to the recent Deluxe Edition version, which features the album in instrumental form. Not that I dislike Jimi Goodwin’s voice — his tone reminds me of Guy Garvey from Elbow, strong without having to exert power behind it — but it’s great to hear just how brilliant and slightly psychedelic this trio’s sound can be.

Catching up on music…with Steve Queralt

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Who, you say? He’s the extremely underrated bassist for the band Ride, who you may well remember because I often mention via their brilliant 1992 song “Leave Them Far Behind” or their recent reactivation over the last five years. While the two vocalist/guitarists from the band (Andy Bell and Mark Gardener) have both had impressive solo careers, Queralt remained in the background, only resurfacing a few years back with fellow bandmate, drummer Loz Colbert, on an instrumental side project called ID. He’s just dropped his first solo album, Swallow, in mid-June.

I admit I wasn’t sure what I was expecting with this record, but I was definitely not expecting what sounds frighteningly like a Lush album! Part of it of course is that Lush’s Emma Anderson — someone who’s also recently resurfaced with a solo project — joins on vocals for a handful of songs. The record definitely has that reverb-heavy feel to it, but interestingly has moments of Radiohead influence as well, such as the strange ambience of “Mission Creep” or the rattling noise of “Messengers”.

I’ve been returning to this one a lot lately, quickly earning a spot as a writing soundtrack!

Catching up on music…with Preoccupations

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I can’t decide if this band is trying to be Comsat Angels, early Cocteau Twins, The Chameleons UK, or all of them and more. Not that I’m complaining, because this is fast becoming one of my favorite recent acquisitions!

What I mean to say is that this new album is definitely hitting all the right buttons for me: echoey 80s post-punk retro goodness that sounds like something you’d hear on some college radio station just about coming in on your boombox in your bedroom. Melodic basslines, vocals alternating between slithery and shouty, jangly guitar riffs, and adventurous melodies that resonate perfectly for me. I highly recommend this one.

Catching up on music…

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Considering I’ve spent the last month or so focusing on moving house and day job stuff, I’ve fallen behind on my listening habits! So I’m going to spend a few days just going through some of the new releases and get my head around them.

Such as the new Peter Murphy album, Silver Shade, which came out on 9 May. I have to admit I really love it mainly because it feels like a true return to his classic form. His last couple of albums were good but very ponderous, but this one brings him back to the style he did best back in the late 80s and early 90s. It really does sound like a mix of the best parts of Love Hysteria and Deep, but with the added bonus of some heavy NIN influence.

Definitely an album I’ll be listening to during writing sessions.

More to come!