The Respins: Winter 2025 in Review

Hello all, and welcome back after a long break. I hope that you all had relaxing, fruitful Thanksgiving breaks with those that you either love or tolerate.

If you remember my last dispatch, I said that the month of December would start with a post about the year 2015. I seriously thought about doing this, but two things stopped me. The first was that I have already sort of written about 2015 when I did my examination of Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion. The second reason is that whenever I thought about 2015, I could only see the following image. (Trigger warning: It involves Trump.) Why would I want to go back to such a place? Sure, there were good albums like Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie and Lowell and Kendrick’s To Pimp A Butterfly, but the quality of those albums is blurred out by that fucking goon.

So, I decided to call an audible, especially as I remembered how long this process took me last year. My 2025 in review is going to slowly drip out to you over the next four dispatches. Each dispatch will cover a different season. Some of the albums should seem familiar to you because they will be from previous editions of the Spins. Others will be completely new. So, to start this tetralogy, we’ll start with the Winter. I was going to subtitle this “The Winter of Our Discontent,” but I didn’t want to be too on the nose.

As was the case last year, these lists will be in alphabetical order by first letter, and I’ll be disregarding “a” and “the” because I’m not a cretin. Let’s begin, shall we.

Andy Bell, pinball wanderer

The co-founder of Ride makes an album that is markedly better than about 90% of his landmark band’s actual output. The music fuses the more linear shoegaze of Ride with motorik and psych touches, resulting in an engaging album that does not overstay its welcome by any measure. I went in with extremely low expectations, and this album well exceeded them, which will earn you a spot on this list.

C Duncan, It’s Only A Love Song

A thoughtfully composed album of 70s-styled chamber pop. It is absolutely gorgeous and full of beautiful lyrics about love, rather than heartbreak. You can feel the hope in his voice, and it is moving. Just a really stunning album. I listened to it again to prep for this exercise, and I found myself getting wrapped up in it again.

Chihei Hatakeyama, Lucid Dreams

In a year full of truly great ambient albums, this really stands near the top. It is a transporting trip to a sea of tranquil beauty. Whenever I listen to this album, I can feel the world become slightly more peaceful. He does it with acoustic instruments and studio wizardry, but you don’t need to worry about that. Just enjoy the relaxation.

DARKSIDE, Nothing

Back when this album came out, I struggled to define it. I remember referencing an abstract painting. This description still holds. It has this downtempo, motorik vibe that recalls the dearly missed Swedish group Studio. At the same time, it turns on dimes into country interludes, strutting funk, girl group pop, and experimental pop interludes. And if that wasn’t enough, you can hear the weirdness of Nicolas Jaar’s solo music creeping into the mix. It makes me feel insane trying to explain them, but I don’t care. This album is excellent.

Delivery, Force Majeure

It’s always interesting to find out when a band will influence the next generation. Sometimes the gap is lengthy. Other times, the gap is short. For Parquet Courts, the gap is short. Delivery clearly took some cues from the hard-charging post-punk quartet, added some extra fury and humor, and created a fantastic album for Heavenly, their new label. A smaller album that will be worth your time.

Derya Yildirim & Grup Şimşek, Yarin Yoksa

I have listened to this album so many times this year. It’s an excellent psych album from back to front. The instrumentation is great, and Yildirim’s voice is fantastic. If you listen to enough psych music, the best albums are the ones that immediately grab you and lock you into their wavelength. They don’t care what your mood is or anything. For the next length of time, the band controls the journey and you’re just along for the ride. This is one of those albums.

Edith Frost, In Space

I have been thinking about this album since it came out at the end of February. It is absolutely beautiful. Frost’s voice is stunning, and she is accompanied by quiet, psychedelically tinged instrumentation. Her lyrics are insightful and poetic. For this to be her return after 20 years of no output is stunning. I recommended this album highly when it came out, and I only recommend it more having spent the year with it.

Eiko Ishibashi, Antigone

Working with Jim O’Rourke, Ishibashi has created a stunning album that encompasses modern composition, pop, and electronic experimentation. Ishibashi’s voice is a soothing presence, providing an anchor at times when things seem less settled. I found myself returning to this album during the year, and each time I listened, I knew that this was a special album.

FACS, Wish Defense

This was the last album engineered by Steve Albini, and it couldn’t have been for a band that could more benefit from his stark, crystalline style. FACS has been prolific, releasing excellent albums of spartan post-punk that menaces with hard-hitting drums, shattering guitars, and thumping bass. This album is a continuation of that sound, recalling earlier Chicago bands like 90 Day Men and artists on Touch and Go Records. It is one of those situations where if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And their machine is working beautifully.

FKA twigs, EUSEXUA

To create a spoiler for myself, I am going to talk about the companion album in a later dispatch. For this season, I want to bring attention to this absolute monolith of an album. FKA twigs works through complex feelings about desire and her life as she sweats at dance clubs throughout Europe. The beats on this album are tactile and hit as hard as anything you would hear at Berghain. Her voice is as pitch perfect as it always is, and her struggles are real and palpable. Many critics are pushing Addison Rae’s album as the pop album of the year. They are wrong on a variety of levels. This is one of the true contenders to that title.

Hamilton Leithauser, This Side of the Island

The former Walkmen frontman’s album is an album of exploration and reflection, and it is amazing to listen to. His voice is as strong as ever, and the instrumentation is lively. It definitely grooves more than anything that The Walkmen did, and that’s to its benefit. It was great to hear this album live, and it’s been great listening to the recording. All of the power of that live set is still present and accented with some extra flourishes like background singers and extra effects. If this weren’t all enough, he does it all in a half hour. A true blessing if there ever was one.

Hannah Cohen, Earthstar Mountain

Cohen, on this album, takes on a 70s Laurel Canyon/AM rock vibe and creates an easy listen of an album, one that earns its replays. I listened to this album on my own and with my wife a few times, and it only gets richer the more you listen to it. You find new details in the instruments or the lyrics hit in a different way. In any case, it is an album that grew in my estimation the more that I heard it, which is always the sign of a very good album.

Horsegirl, Phonetics On and On

Horsegirl stormed onto the scene with Versions of Modern Performance, a showcase of thoughtful writing and C86/shoegaze-style guitar work. Working with Cate Le Bon (again, spoiler alert: this is not the last time I’ll discuss her in these dispatches), they abandon all of the noise and make an album that is markedly better than the previous one. They keep all of the excellent songwriting and bring the vocals forward. This change allows the unity of the band to shine through. Furthermore, its simplicity gives it a really timeless quality, putting it in conversation with classic bands like Beat Happening and Marine Girls, bands that spun absolute gold out of the simplest elements.

Japanese Breakfast, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)

Following the brightness of Jubilee, Michelle Zauner went gothic on this release, and subsequently released one of her most consistently engaging albums. The orchestrations are beautiful. Her lyrics are rich and thoughtful. It is a true stunner from back to front. Just put it in your headphones and wrap yourself in a sweater.

John Glacier, Like A Ribbon

In a year full of mumbling rap from dudes whose names are phone numbers or weird agglomerations of gang terms, John Glacier comes coolly sliding in from across the pond, styling her nonchalant flows over electronic beats. In a year full of either dense rap albums or Playboy Carti, it’s nice to have a relaxed rap album that is executed with grace and flair. She’s just like her name: cool as ice.

Joona Toivanen Trio, Gravity

This album is the result of three men who have played music together for a very long time being left to their own devices for a couple of days. With a break on their tour, the trio found themselves in a studio with no songs prepared. Using the instruments on hand, they created an album of deep sensitivity. The songs form naturally, each part building on the other. You can hear their familiarity with one another, how they can predict turns and when to sit back. It’s a magical listen that shows improvisation at its best.

The Limiñanas, Faded

The Limiñanas are masters of kitchen-sink psychedelica. Never beholden to the standard psych playbook of slavish devotion to 60s rock, their music takes that palette and adds 50s rock, synth-pop, Serge Gainsbourg, Suicide, garage rock, and whatever else sounds cool. Their albums, which flip between English and French lyrics, are like trips through some alternate universe where everyone is required to wear leather jackets and sunglasses at all times, especially at night. An absolutely cool album.

Lola Kirke, Trailblazer

I have been quite high on the work of Lola Kirke for a while now, and this album only continues to add to that belief. While she is a city slicker, she knows her country history well and plays with it skillfully, bringing plenty of herself into the mix. Her lyrics contain the fine details that differentiate the best songs from those that are just fine, and she found a bunch of excellent hands to help her create her sound. It’s another excellent country album from Ms. Kirke, proving that she’s got a music career to fall back on if this whole acting thing doesn’t work out for her.

Marie Davidson, City of Clowns

Please know the following about me: If I am ever provided an opportunity, I will encourage you to listen to Marie Davidson. I think that she is one of the smartest, most interesting artists working in the dark electronic space. This album is another strong outing from Ms. Davidson, who writes an entire album based around the book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, an idea that basically revolves around the commodification of your information. (The explanation is a bit more complex, but this is a newsletter about music, not media criticism. If you are interested, I would encourage you to read the book; it’s quite good.) The beats on the album are driving and skeletal. Her deadpan sing-speaking is as incisive and damning as it has ever been. She’s always worth your time.

Matt Berry, Heard Noises

If you are wondering to yourself “Is it that Matt Berry?”, the answer is yes, it is that Mat Berry, the one who plays Laszlo on the recently ended What We Do In The Shadows and Steven Toast on Toast of London. Yes, the comedic genius Matt Berry also has a music career. Furthermore, it’s really fucking good. He’s a really good musician, and his music is phenomenal. Heard Noises is a psychedelic trip, full of swirling guitars, cool keyboards, and the vocal stylings of Natasha Lyonne. Berry hits on lyrics of searching throughout, his voice displaying the confusion evident in his words. If you have not listened to the music of Matt Berry before, this is as good a place as any to start.

Monde UFO, Flamingo Tower

With the help of a coterie of musicians, Ray Monde records weird experimental pop as Monde UFO. My love for this album comes from its energy and thoughtfulness. It also comes from the fact that it feels like this album could fall apart at any possible time. There are ideas packed on ideas packed on ideas. For example, “Samba 9” has a samba rhythm, but there are also synth fills, swelling strings, free jazz interludes, guitar runs, and vocals that sound like they are sung through inches of cotton. Songs swing from point to point at seeming random, but the whole always works. I should be clear: this album grooves. It’s not just a theoretical exercise; it’s an album that you can listen to and actively enjoy.

Muriel Grossman, MGQ live im King Georg, Köln

I have come back to this live set many times throughout the year. Grossman and her band are really locked in, and in our turbulent times, it’s nothing better than listening to “Clarity,” the first track of this set, as they just lock you in before taking you on a set full of mind expansion and joy. It’s a set that reminds you of the power of jazz when it’s being done at an extremely high level.

Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet

Cline and his band rifle through a set of electric jazz that is as dynamic as one would expect from a guitarist of Cline’s talent. If you think you’re going to get a straightforward jazz set, you don’t know Cline. There are post-punk lines, no wave skronk, and some heavy sonics thrown in to keep the listener off balance. An album that is for the jazz heads and the rock fans in equal measure.

Oklou, choke enough

A phenomenal pop album. Her featherlight vocals contrast well with the textural electronic rhythms. She has been getting plaudits on year end lists such as this one for this album, and they are duly deserved. This is a sparkling album that will open her up to a larger audience.

Saba and No I.D., From the Private Collection of Saba and No ID

A strong collaboration between MC Saba and producer No I.D. that feels natural and sounds great. Saba’s lyrics are rooted to the world and intricately written. No I.D.’s beats thump. They maintain some of that old-school boom-bap, but they sound modern and crisp, not just like revivalism. If you want to listen to something thoughtful that also isn’t as dense as some of the other stuff on the underground, you should put this album on immediately.

The Weather Station, Humanhood

Tamara Lindeman has been producing beautiful music as the Weather Station since 2011, and each of her albums has been defined by her thoughful lyricism and beautiful voice. She had been quiet since 2022’s How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars. She returned at the beginning of 2025 with an album full of beautiful lyrics that sound like it took a few sonic cues from 2010s Destroyer. This album is, by strokes, dark, light, complex, and crystal clear. So far, every Weather Station has been something to stop and listen to. This one is the same.

Whatever The Weather, Whatever The Weather II

Loraine James explores her ambient side in this side project, and the results are as effective as her more dancefloor-oriented material. She’s tapping into glitches, ambient drift, and field recordings to make some of the strongest ambient work to come out this year. She’s one of the best producers working right now, regardless of whether she is making you dance or getting you to think about the world. Put this on and just vibe out.

Yazz Ahmed, A Paradise in the Hold

Much like when I first heard it, this album is absolutely magical. Recalling modern jazz paradigms while integrating them with Middle Eastern folk styles, Ahmed and her crew make an album that is richly atmospheric and deeply engaging. Every time I listen to this album, I am more impressed with what she is doing here. Even if you are jazz agnostic, there is quite a lot here to enjoy and get into.