Music
This year has been a lot to process and that includes my musical consumption too; forgive me for not ranking any of my choices in the categories below. I’m not sure there’s necessarily a connective tissue for the 2025 releases I liked other than the one for all my favorite things in general: an intelligence and idiosyncrasy of approach, a grand ambition that manifests even when the skill level can’t quite match it, some kind of punk/jazz/artskool/conservatory brat/amphetamine-Dylan framework. Or just plain old beauty let loose on the floor for like an hour of enrichment time. I take none of it for granted.
Pop girlies not accounted for here because I didn’t make a singles list, but Chappell, Charli, Sabrina, Gaga did fun stuff.
RIP D’Angelo, RIP Dave Ball, RIP Joe Byrd, RIP Marty DiBergi. And thank you.
LPs
Bouquet – Spellbreaker
Cate Le Bon – Michelangelo Dying
Cécile McLorin Salvant – Oh Snap
Deradoorian – Ready for Heaven
Editrix – The Big E
Flock of Dimes – The Life You Save
Fortunato Durutti Marinetti – Bitter Sweet, Sweet Bitter
Horsegirl – Phonetics On and On
Lucrecia Dalt – A Danger to Ourselves
Melody’s Echo Chamber – Unclouded
Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas – Totality
NYX – NYX
Peter Cat – Starchamber
Stuart Moxham – Winter Sun
The New Eves – The New Eve Is Rising
Honorable Mention / Still Getting to Know
Alabaster DePlume – A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole
Brad Mehldau – Ride Into the Sun
Circuit des Yeux – Halo on the Inside
Deerhoof – Noble and Godlike in Ruin
Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie
Heinali – Hildergard
Kieran Hebden & William Tyler – 41 Longfield Street Late ’80s
Kisu Min – Rudolf Steiner House
Marshall Allen – New Dawn
Macie Stewart – When the Distance Is Blue
Sir Richard Bishop – Hillbilly Ragas
Spellling – Portrait of My Heart
Travis LaPlante & JACK Quartet – String Quartets
Tune-Yards – Better Dreaming
Vernon Reid – Hoodoo Telemetry
EPs / 7-Inches
Bitchin Bajas – Inland See
Horse Lords & Arnold Dreyblatt – FRKWYS Vol. 18: Extended Field
No Peeling – No Peeling
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp x Frànçois and the Atlas Mountains – Revenant Du Nord / Siilent
Steve Jansen – My Winter
Tune-Yards – Tell The Future With Your Body
Comps, Reissues, Remixes, Live Albums
English Teacher – This Could Be a Remix Album
EXEK – Live at RRR
Fiery Furnaces – Blueberry Boat reissue
Kate NV – Room for the Moon Live
Madonna – Veronica Electronica
Various Artists – Strata-East: The Legacy Begins
My Year in Gigs
January 4 – David Grubbs and Loren Connors w/ White Out, Chuck Bettis at Public Records
March 16 – Alabaster DePlume w/ Patrick Shiroishi at Le Poisson Rouge
March 23 – Ida w/ Tsunami at Crystal Ballroom in Somerville, Mass.
March 27–30 – Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn.
April 14 – Dark Circuits Suitcase Quartet w/ Chuck Bettis, Jerry Lim, Erin Rogers at Striped Light
April 19 – Circuit des Yeux w/ LEYA, Vorhees at Public Records
April 26 – Peter Stampfel and The Atomic Meta Pagans at The Owl Music Parlor
May 2–4 – Long Play Festival in Brooklyn, New York
May 10 – Joy Guidry, SCRAAATCH, MAYSUN in Quartet at New Ear Inc.
June 28 – Deerhoof w/ Body Meat, iiisa at Pioneer Works
July 9 – Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp w/ Combo Daguerre at TV Eye
July 10 – Eleanor Friedberger w/ Ornament, Plastic Palms at Union Pool
August 17 – The Hard Quartet w/ Rat Henry, DJ Fantasy Man at Union Pool
August 28 – Lloyd Cole at City Winery
August 31 – Scrawl w/ The Chris Brokaw Rock Band, Tsunami at Union Pool
September 11 – Pulp w/ Hamilton Leithauser at Forest Hills Stadium
September 21 – Lightning Bolt w/ Kill Alters at Knockdown Center (The Ruins)
October 4 – Weird Magazines EP Release with My Favorite, Good Cry, Big Bliss at Stone Circle Theatre
October 25 – The Fiery Furnaces w/ Jonathan Schenke at National Sawdust
October 31 – Gabriel Kahane & Friends at 92NY
November 5 – Lucrecia Dalt & Aaron Dilloway improv set at Giorno Poetry Systems
November 22 – Martha Wainwright Sings Laura Nyro at Joe’s Pub
December 10 – Bitchin Bajas w/ Nuke Watch at Union Pool
