The Respins: Summer 2025 in Review

Hello, and welcome to the summer review here at the Rinse. Before we get into the albums that stuck with me from July to September, I want to get into an annual tradition here at the Rinse for the year-end recaps: Errata.

So, two pieces of errata to address here. The first is that for last week’s list, I wanted to include Bruce Springsteen’s Tracks II. It is a compilation of phenomenal work from the 1990s, 2000s, qnd 2010s that he really should have released when he recorded it. If you would like to read more about this box set, please read this earlier dispatch where I get into all.

Second, I have to take you behind the creative process here. I’ve made no secret about my love of Boldy James in this newsletter. I think that he’s a phenomenal rapper, and more importantly, the man grinds. This year, he released nine albums. Here’s the other thing about him: the quality is super high. His bad albums are only good. His excellent albums are superb displays of rapping technique. I realized that there was a good album for each season of the year. So, my plan was to do a running bit with his albums across these recaps. However, I forgot to start this. Would I have been the only person entertained by this? Probably. Would it have encouraged you to listen to Boldy James? Maybe, but probably not.

With the errata addressed, let’s get into this season. You might be surprised to learn this, but I've been trying to keep these short. This week, I’m also aiming for brevity. We’ll see how close we get to that goal. As always, it’s in alphabetical order, and I skip “A” and “The” because I’m not a cretin.

Amaarae, BLACK STAR

In the pantheon of R&B ladies who went to the club this year, Amaarae went the hardest. Her album is full of searing beats appropriate for a Molly trip at 2 AM. Her lyrics are raw, sensual, and utterly compelling. This is a great album from a phenomenal talent. I will recommend listening to it after the sun goes down. It does have real club energy.

Automatic, Is It Now?

This trio operating out of Los Angeles plays a form of post-punk influenced by the seminal work of ESG and Liquid Liquid. They add some electro and new wave elements in, and the result is a fun, danceable listen peppered with dystopian lyrics. It’s very, very catchy. If you are interested in any of the bands I mentioned earlier, you will enjoy this.

Bitchin Bajas, Inland See

While this entire album is good, I put this here because of the 18-minute jam “Graut.” It’s an amazing kraut-inspired drift through the clouds. An absolute standout of a track that boost the other tracks on this release by its sheer presence.

Blood Orange, Essex Honey

Dev Hynes is back with another masterful suite of music. While this album was a bit more melancholy than previous releases (Hynes is working through coming up as a young Black kid who didn’t quite fit in his community), the musicality is still on display. Hynes’ vision is clear and aided by a variety of contributors such as Caroline Polachek and Vini Reilly (a/k/a The Durutti Column, someone I should write a long piece about). It’s a challenging listen, but it is absolutely amazing.

Case Oats, Last Missouri Exit

I long for easygoing Americana albums. The band is locked in, the storytelling is great, and the whole album glides by smoothly. This Case Oats album does all of this in spades. Casey Walker is a great writer with a casual delivery that can hide the difficulty of what she’s doing. With the help of a bunch of studio hammers, Walker’s debut is excellent and a sign of future greatness.

Cate Le Bon, Michelangelo Dying

Since Reward, Cate Le Bon has been on a tear, taking her music to stranger, more adventurous places. On Michelangelo Dying, Le Bon explores her breakup in dreamy, aqueous soundscapes that recall the oddest Kate Bush songs. In many ways, it’s an album that recalls the more recent work of Julia Holter in the sense that it is expressionistic rather than direct. If you trust Le Bon, she takes you on a trip through her feelings about this moment in her life. You don’t need to understand every word because you will understand every feeling she is presenting through the music in your body.

Chicago Underground Duo, Hyperglyph

If you read these lists and think to yourself, “Yea, these albums are fine, but where’s the weird shit?”, I give you this. Using drums, horns, percussion instruments, synthesizers, and studio tricks, Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor have produced an absolutely amazing avant-garde jazz album. The interplay between the two men is phenomenal, and it is a welcome blast of fresh air. If you give yourself up to the music, you will find yourself deeply impressed.

CMAT, EURO-COUNTRY

This album snuck up on me late in the year. I saw it on a variety of lists and wondered to myself what it was about. It had popped up during the year for me, but are you instinctively going to listen an album named that? I wasn’t. But, the joke is on me. This album is truly great. Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson (a/k/a CMAT) has a great voice and a excellent pen. She can write songs that are full of small details that can wreck you or make you laugh out loud (on this latter point, I direct you to “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station”). In addition, this album gets better and better on repeat listens.

The Cords, The Cords

The Cords are a sister duo from Scotland. They love C86 and indie pop, and they made their own album of it that is absolutely perfect. It is clearly influenced by the style, but the lyrics are modern, speaking to their personal concerns rather than whatever Amelia Fletcher was singing about in Heavenly. It’s danceable, fun, engaging, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. In short, it’s a truly great jangling pop album.

Dijon, Baby

While I admit that I struggled with this album when I first started listening to it, there was something that kept drawing me back to it. That attraction turned into enjoyment as I dug through the layers and layers of samples and instruments on this album. As you get closer to the lyrics and start to sort through all of the component parts, you begin to see how much of an achievement this album truly is. Dijon’s voice is pitch perfect, and the messiness of the album is, in reality, carefully controlled chaos. If you find yourself interested but not in love with it, let it keep working on you. You’ll feel it when it hits.

Earl Sweatshirt, Live Laugh Love

The hip-hop poet laureate drops another verbal bomb on our heads, and as usual, we are not ready. With his regularly claustrophobic production, Earl meditates on his life as a dad and where he is now as a rapper. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of wild turns of phrase and flexing on this album. The Earl you know is still there and rocking as hard as he ever has. We will all look back in 10 years and realize that Earl is an all-timer, but for now, let’s enjoy this imperial streak he is on right now.

Geese, Getting Killed

After making two albums of marginal post-punk-informed indie rock, Geese blew up the project and started over. The result, Getting Killed, is restless, moving from idea to idea rapidly and, at times, randomly. The oddly affecting croon of Cameron Winter provides the emotional core in this sonic maelstrom. Does the whole thing work together? Not particularly. That said, it sticks with you in a good way. The amount of times I’ve hummed “Taxes” to myself is probably well into the triple digits. It’s an album that crawls inside of your head and builds a little cabin to live in. If an album can do this, I would have to assume that it is actually very good. Yea, let’s run with that. It’s a very, very good album.

Kassa Overall, CREAM

In spite of my own personal wishes, I have to put this album here. If you pitched me a jazz album of hip-hop covers, I would have pulled a Logan Roy and told you to fuck off. Here’s the problem though: this thing absolutely works. The songs are still legible, and the vibe on the album is immaculate. I had fun listening to this, which is more than I can say for like 70% of the albums I listened to this year.

Kathleen Edwards, Billionaire

Edwards is back after a bit of a hiatus with Billionaire. A lot has changed in her life between this album and her previous one, the most primary of which is her divorce. I don’t feel bad for her ex, but he gets read for filth on this album. She’s absolutely brutal. Aside from the cutting lyrics, the songs are extremely well done, recalling other Americana greats like Lucinda Williams and Roseanne Cash. A great album from back to front.

Margo Price, Hard Headed Woman

I have long enjoyed the music of Margo Price. I think that she is just phenomenally talented. In any case, she went more Americana on her last two albums, bringing in a few more rock-and-roll elements to her sound. On Hard Headed Woman, she strips those elements out, serving up a piece of neo-traditionalist country that is absolutely stunning. Price’s writing revels in the details, which are what make the best country songs. Her players are absolute hammers, and the entire set is a display of why Price is one of the best working right now. If you are not familiar with her, this album serves a great introduction, showing you what she does best.

Marissa Nadler, New Radiations

Marissa Nadler is at the forefront of women making beguiling gothic folk. New Radiations is another entry into her catalog. This album felt a bit more spectral than previous releases, like there is a ghost haunting the proceedings. But, the familiar hallmarks of her music—the gentle guitar playing, the evocative lyrics, her dynamic voice—remain at the center. If the idea of gothic folk interests you, this album is one that you should consider listening to immediately.

Nation of Language, Dance Called Memory

While there are more live instruments on this album than past Nation of Language albums, there have been no changes to the emotional core of the band: the lyrics and voice of Ian Devaney. His meditative, searching lyrics and rich voice provide a perpetual anchor to this synth-heavy pop project, which did brighten up a little on this album. This is just another fantastic entry in a very strong catalog.

Night Moves, Double Lives

The Minneapolis-based Night Moves has been on my radar for a while because of The Current, the indie radio station run through MPR here. Back in 2016, they were heavily playing “Denise, Don’t Wanna See You Cry,” a heartland rock track that was covered in synths. It’s a truly great song, one that I think about a lot. That fusion of electronics and heartland rock comes to fruition on this album. Given that they have been working on how to fit the two components together for a while now, the album sounds natural. It’s got the sway of dance music mixed with the emotions of the best midwestern rock and roll. It’s been good to see them continue to advance their sound, and I hope they keep it up going forward.

Nourished by Time, The Passionate Ones

Marcus Brown, the man behind Nourished by Time, released Catching Chickens last year, which offered a blueprint for where this project would go in the future. We see the culmination of that EP on this album. Brown’s croon is paired with dance music, post-punk, funk, and R&B, all of the things he was working through on that brief EP. Through some alchemy, he makes these disparate elements work together harmoniously. It’s a beautiful album, bringing some hope to another wise bleak year.

Robin Kester, Dark Sky Reserve

An album that invokes several of my interests: David Lynch, PJ Harvey, and Jane Weaver. Kester’s sophomore album is full of driving rhythms that are tinged with psychedelic and film scores as well as dark lyrics, conjuring Twin Peaks or the empty roads of Lost Highway. Kester’s voice has a bit of Beth Gibbons in it, but it’s clearer, more assertive. I’ve listened to this album a lot, and it’s absolutely stunning. If I had to really choose a shortlist from the albums that I’m writing about, this one would absolutely make the cut.

Rochelle Jordan, Through The Wall

In preparation to write this, I listened to this album from front to back again, and it’s flawless. Jordan’s voice is perfect, and her lyrics about desire and self-worth hit so right. She does all of this using beats informed by house, trap, garage, and other club styles. Given that she got stuck in label hell for the better part of a decade, I hope that she’s got her house in order so that she can keep dropping absolute fire like this album. This is one of the best R&B albums that I’ve listened to this year, new or old—and I listened to D’Angelo’s discography. Just consider that.

Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, New Threats from the Soul

There might be a person in your life who tells you that this album is transcendent. By your sheer nature, you will resist that person because how good can this album really be. In 99 out of 100 situations, your instinct to not believe them is correct. This is the 1 out of 100. This album is an Americana album on steroids, throwing hip-hop breaks and other sonic flourishes in at seeming random. In addition, Davis is the best writer of anyone that I will talk about across these four recaps. If you want proof, my wife, Alison, pulled her five favorite quotes from the album (this was a weeks-long process) and explained why they are great:

1. "I left my wallet in El Segundo/I left my true love in a West Lafayette escape room" from "New Threats from the Soul" is a perfectly absurd couplet, juxtaposing a reference to A Tribe Called Quest with the heartbreak that fuels the album.
2. "I am scrambling to find Christ/in all the places I'm told he likes" from "New Threats from the Soul" paints a portrait of true desperation.
3. "I learned that time is not/my friend or foe, more like/one of the guys from work" from "The Simple Joy" speaks of the hard-earned lessons that come with aging.
4. "I'll start flipping through clippings of Modern Martyrdom Quarterly classifieds just to find me something to die for" from "Better If You Make Me" feels perfect for an age where everyone is searching for something and is all too willing to play the victim.
5. "We could make a business out of love/Celestial favors/Negotiated and paid for in/American cash" in the first verse becomes "For lately love has made/a business out of you and me/I'm skimming hundreds from the drawer/Just to spend it in the company store" in "Monte Carlo/No Limits," communicating the decline of a relationship as it goes from a feeling of abundance to scavenging for scrip.

The underground was extremely hyped about this album, and their excitement, for one of the few times ever, was extremely warranted.

Saint Etienne, International

If the long-running institution Saint Etienne is shutting it down after this album, they went out on an absolute high. Sarah Cracknell sounds great and her lyrics are excellent. The album is a fusion of the dance-pop that they were making in the early 90s with the melancholy pop of their later catalog. If you are a fan of the band, you’ll be deeply pleased with this departure. If you are a casual, this is just an amazing album. I also hope that it will lead you to dive into their discography, which has no flops at all; every album is very good and some are all-timers (e.g., Tiger Bay, Foxbase Alpha).

TOPS, Bury The Key

The Montreal-based quartet comes back with a new album that is a bit of a reboot. Their previous AM-pop sound had reached its logical endpoint on I Feel Alive, so they took some time away to come up with a new approach. This album is the result. Their music still retains the dreamy poppiness of their earlier sound but infuses it with disco and 80s new wave. The result is something that feels a bit more energetic and engaging. Jane Penny’s lyrics still hit hard, but they are neon-lit rather than sepia-toned. A lovely return from a personal favorite.

Total Wife, come back down

If you took My Bloody Valentine at their prime and added more drum machines, you would be in the ballpark of Total Wife. While that sounds like it is just homage, the band does enough to make the sound their own, to give it their own eviscerating edge. If you do not find yourself interested in the cutting edge of shoegaze, you should probably skip this album. If you are interested in some truly fearless music, this record is very much for you.

Water From Your Eyes, It’s A Beautiful Place

Every once in a while, I wonder about the young people. Are they alright? Have they all just become about being brands? If you ask Water From Your Eyes, the answer is a hard no. It’s A Beautiful Place is another album full of experimental rock that slams from style to style with ease and speed. While this might seem academic, the result is extremely engaging and fascinating. They maintain your interest from second to second, which is a true accomplishment for these kitchen-sink-style bands.

Wednesday, Bleeds

I have openly stated that I was not a huge Wednesday fan in the past. I thought that Raw Saw God was fine, but I would have rather listened to Eleventh Dream Day, a band that was working with a similar palette but doing it better in my opinion. With Bleeds, Wednesday sold me on their project. The crossing of country and shoegaze as well as the dark, sometimes morbid lyrics of Karly Hartzman worked much better for me this time around. I understood their project, and more importantly, they sounded like themselves. They won me over, and I hope they continue to do so in the future.

Winter, Adult Romantix

If you are interested in shoegaze that is dreamier, this album is directly in your wheelhouse. Samira Winter is one of the top practitioners of this lighter form of shoegaze, and this new album is her best one yet. Working with Joo Joo Ashworth from Froth (another shoegaze band worth checking out), she makes songs that swoon, swell, and swirl in equal measure. This is an album that stands a chance of winning over the shoegaze agnostic, and as someone who lives this life, I don’t say this lightly.

Yasmine Hamdan, I remember I forget

I would imagine that it is hard being as cool as Yasmine Hamdan. As soon as you put this album on and hear her beautiful voice merging with electronic instrumentation informed by Middle Eastern folk traditions, you know you’re in safe hands and that those hands belong to one of the coolest ladies on the planet. This album is absolutely skillful. Just a great listen.

If you have gotten this far, thank you for reading. I will not be here next week because of the holidays. Enjoy your Kwanzaa, Festivus, Christmas, or whatever you do or don't celebrate. I'll be back at the beginning of 2026 to finish off this series of recaps. As always, take care of yourselves and each other.