Nathan’s Top Albums of 2025
I could wax, poetically, about the meaning of year-end lists and how they turn us onto great tunes to create our playlists, but instead, I feel like this is my sort of last gasp post of the year, in what seems like a last gasp moment for blogs. I instilled some silly rules on myself in crafting this list…but if I disclose that, it could ruin your fun of jamming to all these records. So here’s a list…put whatever meaning into it you can, and just remember, I love to do this…even when its tough to string words together…so please keep coming back and we’ll keep doing this.
I might have cut last week short by taking off Friday in its entirety, as I was hanging in New Orleans with my wife and kids…but I’m pretty sure we packed a fair amount of jams into a short four day work week here. It was good to see my old friends in Other Lives back at it with new music, and offering up an orchestral pop number that’s focused and brief. We featured a couple of great premieres from Forever Star and Dancer, so you can circle back and get hitched onto those two bonkers tunes. Plus, good to see Quin Galavis hitting peak form with a new Living Set tune, so dabble all over and you’ll be able to love a little of it all.
Monday nights can be such a drag, but Chess Club is giving you the perfect opportunity to get out of your house and enjoy a sweet little rock n’ roll show. Cincinnati outfit 
If you just look at last week’s collection in our Album Streams post, you can see it was certainly a busy week out there; there were no fewer than six albums that I adored, whether it was new Gotobeds or High Water Marks or Artificial Go, there was plenty to browse through. But, that was just the albums, and didn’t even cover the great music that popped up on the single side of things. I mean, there was new Jeanines, Ryli, Lightheaded and Whitneys Playland...all of which should have you cranking up your speakers. Some good Austin (and adjacent love) for acts like Little Mazarn, San Gabriel, Gustave Ochoa and Adrian Quesada, so doing our part on the local scene. There’s just too much good stuff out there, thus, you’re required to press play and space out for an hour.
There’s really so much great music out today that it’s impossible to bounce between all and so you’re going to have to dig into the mixture below and really figure out what you love the most. Since it’s raining great records, I put some word below so that maybe you can get a feel of what you might find if you press play. Jump below to hear my thoughts, and remember to support the artists and labels behind these great releases.
Last week was a rather busy one on our end, and I remember Wednesday giving me headaches in terms of what all we could cover. Alas, we had to start this week’s jams coverage off with the latest from Allo Darlin‘, who announced their first LP in some time. There was definitely some post-punk vibes cooking with acts like Artificial Go and Teethe dropping super cool new tunes that I couldn’t stop playing around our little house in the burbs. Had some old regulars pop up too, like Strawberry Whiplash and Welcome Strawberry; it was a strawberry themed week I supposed. You’ll also find some super cool oddball tunes too from the likes of Kilynn Lunsford and Vov Vov! Get it all below:
Not sure what is up with the water in Cinncinati, but the music scene there is ridiculously rich at the moment, and you can add 
A fairly busy week as we got a little more back on routine writing last week, and we were especially excited for all the pop fans out there. New stuff from Jeanines, the Perfect English Weather, Lightheaded, and Lost Film had what cures the ills, and man, were there some special tracks mentioned above. Circled around to hear some Austin, and Austin adjacent stuff with Little Marzarn, BS and former ATX resident Lauren Green and Tan Cologne. Plus, M. Maly gave us a peek at what’s in store for Pscyh Fest, throwing in some coverage with King Hannah being highlighted on the playlist. Plus, great new albums from the Convenience and Mythical Motors rounded the week out properly. What was your fave?