So many great pieces of music came out this past year, and the WPRB Music Department would like to take a moment to honor the best of the best. Here are 30 of our favorite releases from 2025:
30.
Daniel Bachman — Moving Through Light (s/r)
What is seemingly the Virginian guitarist’s first major foray into electroacoustic and glitch music happens to hit the nail square on the head, taking meditative guitar pieces and stretching them into shimmering, gossamer soundscapes, then stretching them further until the atoms between notes are pulled taut.
-LLP
29.
Nas & DJ Premier — Light-Years (Mass Appeal)
An ode to hip hop through the years, giving props to the pioneers of golden age hip hop, alternative rap, and the very underappreciated ladies of hip hop. Nas’s lyricalism is a standout of this record, and DJ Premier’s work on production feels fresh and modern rather than an overly sentimental take on the 90s.
-LDP
28.
Lucy Bedroque — Unmusique (deadAir)
Unmusique is definitely crunchy, to say the least. Bedroque gives us a flood of hip-hop hyperpop noises, to the maximalist point that maybe it can be considered unmusic.
-MD
27.
Algernon Cadwallader — Trying Not to Have a Thought (Saddle Creek)
A comeback album from mathy-emo-revival band out of Yardley, PA, this album reflects perfectly the emo-revival-revival happening right now in many local scenes. Dancing guitars falling in between driven bass and drums to create a beautiful math rock record sounding just like their earlier stuff.
-ZB
26.
eden2001 — 爱来自河的南边/LUV FROM RIVERSOUTH (s/r)
This ridiculous mash of lofi, cloud-rap, ambient, and hyperpop deserves a spotlight just for its weirdness. This foggy weaving of sonic was birthed by aint, a Russian producer, and Eden2001 its singer/songwriter.The unique perspectives of both these artists are present in the delicate but fierce cacophony of each track.
-MD
25.
Antropoceno — Natureza Morta (Longinus)
Impassioned by the climate crisis and the ripples of colonialism, Lua Viana injects modern shoegaze aesthetics with Brazilian folk music alongside touches of metal to create as lush and dreamy as it is intense, heavy, and deeply moving.
-LLP
24.
Blood Orange — Essex Honey (RCA)
With his starstudded Essex Honey, Blood Orange reminisces on his complex childhood through deeply textured and melodic sounds. Gritty subject matters meet floating vocals and instrumentals, creating not only an album but an all-encompassing listening experience.
-JOL
23.
Frost Children — SISTER (True Panther / Dirty Hit)
The newest release from Brooklyn based sibling duo the Frost Children is a nostalgic exploration of the crunchy EDM of the 2010s. Intense, intoxicating beats mingle with wittily ironic lyrics, making it always feel like summer when you turn on Sister.
-JOL
22.
Brutus VIII — Do It For the Money (American Death)
Originally a star of the Los Angeles DIY scene, the alternative electroclash music of Brutus VII has infected more than just the Bay Area. The act of listening almost feels ritualistic- which makes sense considering that the live performances of Brutus are chaotic, and toe the line of performance art.
-MD
21.
Juneau — Juneau (s/r)
Another debut EP out of the Chicago scene, Juneau came out of nowhere to encompass the whole modern emo/metalcore sound, with early emo and hardcore influences. This double vocalist four-piece have rapidly become one of the most cohesive new screamo bands in the midwest pairing soft melodies with elbow-swinging breakdowns.
-ZB
20.
Oklou — choke enough (True Panther / Because)
Baroque, Y2K, and satisfyingly synthy, this debut album from the French artist Oklou could not be any better. The shifting rhythms throughout are dynamic and formally brilliant, reminiscent of a cyborg- both technical and humanistic.
-MD
19.
Model/Actriz — Pirouette (True Panther)
The sounds of the dance punk group Model/Actriz are bold, emotional,industrial, and, most importantly, unabashedly queer. Pirouette holds as a conscious and contemplative counterpart to the band’s first album, Dogsbody, which rolled into the music world in flames. Their second album is more methodical, understated, and reflexive, but nevertheless it is still groovy.
-MD
18.
rosacade — a horse wouldn’t have to deal with this (Elbow)
This is a long awaited debut EP in the Chicago emoviolence scene, capturing the energy and chaos rooted deep in the soul. Uhhh… Rosacade is pretty unserious throwing in harmonica and performing with a trumpeter and bright flashing colors, creating a banger mathgrind record. Shoutout Glorp.
-ZB
17.
caroline — caroline 2 (Rough Trade)
This London experimental folk rock octet manages to devolve into neither the childish thrash nor self-serious avant-drudgery that you might expect from an experimental folk rock octet, instead attaching remarkably mature experimentation in perfectly moderate proportion to bittersweet, hearty songwriting.
16.
james K — Friend (AD 93)
Slip through heaven while listening to the angelic electronics of James K. The tracks ebb and flow between ambiance, dreamy trip hop, and a touch of shoegaze.
-MD
15.
Ninajirachi — I Love My Computer (NLV / deadAir)
Blending the EDM genres of dubstep, hyperpop, and electro house, Ninajirachi pays homage to music technology from CSIRAC to the iPod. Beautifully abrasive and at times purposefully overstimulating, I Love My Computer evokes Ninajirachi’s identity as a young Australian and pokes fun at what it means to grow up as a “screenager.”
-JOL
14.
Stereolab — Instant Holograms on Metal Film (Warp / Duophonic)
Stereolab reunite after 15 Yr.s to play post-easy listening indie pop with the same sense of Constant and Uniform Movement that they’ve always had—a marvelously seamless return to form.
-LLP
13.
DJ小女孩 — 头7 (Far East Scala)
Ruthlessly made in 12 days, this album is supposed to imitate the cycle of death. With freaky, trippy hyperpop featuring traditional Chinese instruments and music samples seamlessly blended, seems like I’m already seeing the light. Put DJ GURL on my grave.
-MD
12.
Kassa Overall — CREAM (Warp)
Drummer, Rapper, and Producer Kassa Overall has put together what is essentially the inverse of acid jazz with C.R.E.A.M. The concept of the record: jazz covers of hip hop songs. But he doesn’t settle for simplicity: these covers are fresh takes, not line by line re-workings. Listen to everything, but in particular his take on Check the Rhime by Tribe and Rebirth of the Slick by Digable Planets.
-LDP
11.
total wife— come back down (Julia’s War)
A showstopper album created from the sleepy and frank musings of Tennessee based duo Total Wife, come back down embraces the experimental and unclear. Through unique practices in production–like the album exclusively sampling its own songs and a “Between the Bars” cover–and the integration of other genres–like breakbeats, noise, and ambient–Total Wife have successfully carved out a space for themselves in the bustling world of shoegaze.
-JOL
10.
Callous Daoboys — I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven (MNRK Heavy)
This mathcore band out of Atlanta, GA, highly regarded as the new face of modern metal pushed the boundaries of their sound with their fifth album, combining jazzy/electronic tracks with big hardcore breakdowns and heavy hitters. Think like if The Dillinger Escape Plan started in 2015 had a more snooty producer and a violinist.
-ZB
9.
Buddy Guy — Ain’t Done With the Blues (Silvertone)
Buddy Guy is 89 and still killing it: what are you doing? Ain’t Done With the Blues is an ode to classic Chicago blues. Blues stays on top: it’s the reason why all the music that exists today, exists. This album is a reminder of that: it incorporates bluesy riffs and themes into modern production styles that don’t try to strip away Buddy Guy’s characteristically mucky, mussy, classic styles.
-LDP
8.
Planning For Burial — It’s Closeness, It’s Easy (The Flenser)
A super solemn ambient x ‘gloomgaze’ solo project coming out of Wilkes Barre, PA. A very moving record with a coherent mix of long droning tracks and wailing guitars over a super thick bass. Like if ‘Have A Nice Life’ carried more of a rhythm.
-ZB
7.
Ho99o9 — Tomorrow We Escape (Last Gang)
Just plain awesome. After a three year long wait between now and their last album, the Trenton punk rap duo is back and full of anger, rage, and bangers, and most importantly: a knowledge of the gangsta rap royalty that came before them.
-LDP
6.
Water From Your Eyes — It’s A Beautiful Place (Matador)
Rachel Brown and Nate Amos channel neoclassicist indie-rock apathy with enough willpower to make pretty much all their experiments hit the bullseye, from twee-prog to kraut-house—and they had their back turned the whole time, with sunglasses.
-LLP
5.
find my friends — find my friends (bloody knuckles)
feeble little horse guitarist Sebastian Kinsler assembles a feeble (& joyous) little collection of incredibly promising, electronically-tinged slacker rock nuggets, like if Pinkpantheress grew up on Duster instead of Britney Spears.
-LLP
4.
they are gutting a body of water — LOTTO (Julia’s War / ATO / Smoking Room)
Although relatively stripped back in comparison to Philly based shoegaze band TAGABOW’s previous albums, LOTTO finds beauty and tension in its relative simplicity. Electronic elements add extra interest to the album, bringing together the best of TAGABOW’s deeply experimental songs with the best of their more conventional shoegaze and heavy alt rock.
-JOL
3.
Disiniblud — Disiniblud (Smugglers Way)
Their debut as a duo, Nina Keith and Rachika Nayar compose glistening chamber-glitch-pop ballads which swirl both inside and out, pieces falling and fluttering about before steadily rearranging into delicate yet grandiose pillars in a bittersweet movement which threatens to sweep up your heart with it like an angel atop a Christmas tree.
-LLP
2.
Little Simz — LOTUS (AWAL)
British Rapper Little Simz’s 6th studio album “Lotus” is honest, experimental, and emotionally exploratory. As she reflects on the tension between moving past betrayal and finding a new way to live, this album becomes an example of unbridled, unrestrained fusion: a meld of classic hip hop, jazz, rock, even bits of funk and punk.
-LDP
1.
Virtua dx — Guitarpop Forever (s/r)
Baltimore “shoegaze.org” proprietors Virtua dx meld ultra-carbonated guitar noise and syrupy electronica in a way which strikes a stunningly original and ambitious chord in the Gen-Z-guitar-noise landscape, constantly drifting between ecstasy and ether.
-LLP