Our Top 10 Lists have been named in honor of late Blog Director and DJ Clarence Ewing, who pioneered and published this annual feature for nearly a decade.
Our next list is from Austin B. Harvey.
10. Whispers In the Speech Machine by The Laughing Chimes (Slumberland)
The Athens, Ohio musical project deftly glides from Cure-like ennui to a jangly twee to a headphone-filling wall of sound, the results are hypnotic and sublime.
Listen: Bandcamp
9. Blurrr by Joanne Robertson (AD 93)
For someone who considers himself to be extremely picky about his folk music, this echo-y, otherworldly British singer hit the mark this year, even if (or perhaps because) it's this spare and amorphic. A couple chords and a voice that could give color to a Chicago winter are sometimes all you need; that, and sounding like you're coming from the same radio station at the end of the universe where Cindy Lee made Diamond Jubilee.
Listen: Bandcamp
8. Attempted Martyr by Prostitute (self-relased/Mute)
The best heavy album of 2025 was courtesy of this Dearborn, Michigan band who counts The Armed among their many pals. These noisy post-punks incorporate Lebanese elements into a Chat Pile or Jesus Lizard-like crunch that hits like a ton of bricks. Bonus points for a PIL-esque disco-punk track that's an ode to a personal injury lawyer.
Listen: Bandcamp
7. Los Thuthanaka by Los Thuthanaka (self-released)
Programmer Chuquimamani-Condori and their brother Joshua Chuquimia Crampton combine for an unmastered, maximalist record of big guitars, bigger samples of Bolivian music, and a vision of native liberation that, at least for the hour of this wholly unique record, feels achievable.
Listen: Bandcamp
6. The BPM by Sudan Archives (Stones Throw)
Brittney Parks takes her violin virtuosity and singular marque of hip-hop/soul to the dancefloor. For an artist who's spent her career continually liberating herself, this is the freest she's sounded.
Listen: Bandcamp
5. Bugland by No Joy (Hand Drawn Dracula)
Montreal's Jasamine White-Gluz kicks a door wide open in the shoegaze genre with this exhilarating album produced by Chicago's own Fire-Toolz (Angel Marcloid). The death-metal vaporwave breakdown on closer "Jelly Meadow Bright" will make you feel like running through a brick wall.
Listen: Bandcamp
4. Antidepressants by (The London) Suede (BMG)
Suede's tenth album, fifth since their reunion, finds the band doing what they do best (anthemic choruses, huge guitars, belting vocals) more than any record of theirs this century. Brett Anderson & Co. deftly tackle aging, identity, and global uncertainty with a surprising flair.
Listen: Suede webstore
3. The Passionate Ones by Nourished By Time (XL)
Marcus Brown's distinctive brand of 80's-indebted R&B is undefeated. Greater production values haven't dulled the message, or the music, yet.
Listen: Bandcamp
2. Talulah's Tape by Good Flying Birds (Rotten Apple/Carpark/Smoking Room)
Here's some lo-fi, ramshackle, fuzzy, indie-pop from a delightful Indianapolis quintet who are as much Guided By Voices as they are Vaselines or Flying Nun. Always rewarding to find an album where you feel like you could pick close to 10 singles from it.
Listen: Bandcamp
1. Balloon Balloon Balloon by Sharp Pins (K/Perennial)
Like a time capsule from the 1960's unearthed and slapped directly into your earholes, Kai Slater's purported side project from Lifeguard went a long way toward taking over the planet in 2025. Armed with 12-string guitars, heart, and as many melodic ideas as you can imagine, Sharp Pins made their own Alien Lanes with Balloon (3x), using production and sheer will to gracefully leap from Beatles to Byrds to Zombies to Another Sunny Day. Astounding pop that, while avoiding the hypnagogic label, sounds vintage and classic.
Listen: Bandcamp
Honorable Mentions
aya - hexed! (Hyper dub)
Benjamin Booker - LOWER (Fire Next Time)
The Besnard Lakes -The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation (Full Time Hobby)
billy woods - GOLLIWOG (Backwoodz)
The Boojums - The Boojums (Having Fun)
caroline - caroline 2 (Rough Trade)
Cate Le Bon Michaelangelo Dying (Mexican Summer)
djrum - Under Tangled Silence (Houndstooth)
Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love (Tan Cressida/Warner)
FACS - Wish Defense (Trouble in Mind (RIP TiM Records))
Gelli Haha - Switcheroo (Innovative Leisure)
The Hidden Cameras - BRONTO (EvilEvil)
Hieroglyphic Being - Dance Music 4 Bad People (Smalltown Supersound)
james K - Friend (AD 93)
Jeff Tweedy - Twilight Override (dBpm)
Lifeguard - Ripped and Torn (Matador)
Pulp - More (Rough Trade)
Rochelle Jordan - Through the Wall (EMPIRE)
Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory - Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory (Jagjaguwar)
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film (Duophonic)
TDJ - TDJ (Collection Disques Durs)