Editors Albums of 2025
Seasons greetings. No preamble from me. Lets launch straight into it. (With songs provided below.)
My Albums Of The Year, 2025.
10. Ben Holton – Flowers Made Of Light. – Wayside and Woodland.
Acoustic, folktronica, ambient.
Kicking off the top 10 with a personal one. Ben is one half of epic45, a prolific number of side projects as well as running the brilliant Wayside and Woodland label. This solo album is a low key affair written whilst Bens father was sadly nearing end of his life – that period when your own life becomes a blur of visits, waiting, reflection and emotion. Flowers Made Of Light is gentle, dignified and hopeful. I doubt I need to explain any of this.
A limited release. You might still be able to get one.
9. The Belair Lip Bombs – Again – Third Man Records
Indie
Australian indie-rockers second LP.
I love the title, Again. (Why that’s never been done before I’ll never know.)
Like their debut Lush Life this is often angular power pop (think Strokes) But I think they have a better grasp of choruses.
More to come from these pups.
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8. Immersion and SUSS – Nanocluster, Vol. 3
Electronica, ambient
Immersion is the project of husband and wife Colin Newman and Malka Spigel, best known of course for Wire and Minimal Compact. SUSS are an ambient country act from NYC. Don’t sleep on this one. The ‘Vol 3’ aspect may give the false impression of some kind of footnote to something but it is a very strong release in its own right.
Perhaps I’m biased about these two because I used to live in Brighton and eventually moved to Brussels. Malka and Colin did the opposite. Come to think of it Colin almost always does the opposite… to anything. He’s the arch contrarian after all.
7. Geese – Getting Killed. – Play It Again Sam
No wave, indie rock
Well, its Geese, isn’t it. Churlish not to include it. This is the one you’ll see in other lists. Probably every other list.
It’s Geese.
The consensus album of the year?
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6. Black Swan Lane – The Messenger – Wanderland
– post punk, Manchester, dreampop, shoegaze, 90s angst rock
Two things used to make Christmas for me, visiting home and a new Black Swan Lane album. We don’t get the latter every year but when we do it’s a great year.
BSL began life as a playful, collaborative project featuring members of The Chameleons and Trespassers William and has blossomed into the act we know today. Namely a serious alt-rock proposition. BSLs music changes colour over time in much the same way bruises do making those Chameleons comparisons a thing of the past.
Following line-up changes mainstay Jack Sobel remains the last man standing – a lone gunman, bloodied and outnumbered but still some ammo left in the chamber. He’s going down but he’ll take some of us with him. Old scars may have healed but they still show. That’s The Messenger in a nutshell really, a darkly defiant new record that somehow retains Sobels signature sense of dreamy yearning. One of his best efforts (and I’ve said that about a dozen times before.)
Buy it. Buy the whole back catalogue and tell your friends. Go on!
5. Water From Your Eyes – It’s a Beautiful Place – Matador Records
experimental alternative
This is the one to make you look cool at parties.
Matadors Chicago based indie darlings cast their net over several genres, experimental, art, dance punk, …..Maybe too many genres.
The songs themselves are minimal but the ideas are overflowing both for the performances and production.
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4. Blondshell If You Asked for a Picture. – Partisan
Another indie rock, singer songwriter and a wee slip of a girl to boot. But her lyrics are incredible. Which is why I’m going early on Blondshell and I’m going all in.
Play the song I embedded below and tell me I’m wrong. Or play T&A. Stardom awaits this young lady.
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3. Caroline – Caroline 2 – Rough Trade
folk-post rock, emo
I wrestled with this one a fair bit. Opening track and promotional single Total Euphoria has a ‘challenging’ sonic effect. Is this Emperors New Clothes? One of the big electronic stores over here (Belgium) used to, inexplicably, play two albums at the same time. I was once treated to Metallica overlayed with Depeche Mode, Live Spirits ….plus the inevitable alarm that goes off just by looking at a smartphone and no member of staff thinks to silence. Yeah, that sonic effect. Migraine inducing.
Not fully my bag, Total Euphoria, if I’m honest but the rest improves significantly. Particularly the amusingly titled Coldplay Cover. If you don’t have Caroline 2 to hand just stick Boo Radleys Giant Steps on as well as Bark Psychosis Codename Dustsucker and you’re practically there!
An almost album of the year.
2. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory – Jagjaguwar
Sharon Van Etten already conquered the singer songwriter world. Recently she has been dabbling more in synthpop and goth-leaning post punk. Thus where once I was drawn almost begrudgingly into her indie-folk world I see her now encroaching into mine.
How good is this woman, honestly! I’m sliding from admiration to adoration. She really is the OA.
An angel that finally beat her own demons? I think so. Either that or she has them working for her now, writing songs.
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1. Anna von Hausswolff – Iconoclasts – Year0001
Neoclassical singer songwriter.
Iconoclasts was always going to feature in my annual round up. Every day that I returned to my list it has climbed slowly but resolutely up my ten.
Iconoclasts is a truly remarkable record. It strikes that sweet spot of interesting and listenable and hits it dead center. This collection speaks to the heart and to the mind. For that alone it has to be the album of the year. Oh and she’s Swedish, so…. you know me and Swedish music!
Not won over by the duet with Iggy, mind you.
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Here are ten who bubbled under.
The Beths
Blood orange
Bon Iver
Horsegirl
Just Mustard
Matt Berninger
Nation of language
Nightbus
Robert Forester
Wednesday
And some songs to sway you.