Cover Collector – March Yellows

/

Design by Ryan Morrissey

I don’t know about you guys, but I love a good album collage. One of the first things I do every Friday is head over to tapmusic.net and render a 4x4 chart of the albums I listened to most over the past week. At the end of each month, I do the same thing with a 5x5 that recaps my previous 30 days of listening. By the time December rolls around, I look forward to recapping the last twelve months with a gigantic 10x10 grid in an unwieldy encapsulation of the 100 albums that defined my year. 

Is it a little self-aggrandizing? Sure, but it’s also a fun way to see a quick snapshot of what my last week, month, or year has sounded like. At its best, this practice has led to fun conversations and solid recommendations going back and forth with friends as we bond over specific albums. Sometimes it’s that shared love over a deep pull from years gone by, other times it’s just noticing trends with a recent fave that seems like an unshakable presence week in and week out. At the very least, I suppose it’s satisfying to see a bunch of records that I feel an affinity toward lined up and embodying a specific stretch of my life. 

At some point near the tail end of last year, I conceived of a more communal way to bring this love of album collage to life. Because, sure, getting a live readout of your listening history is cool, but this is also about album art, an essential part of the experience and something us nerds can fixate on just as much as the songs that sit beneath the cover. As such, I’m excited to welcome you to the third edition of Cover Collector: a monthly installation where the Swim Team discusses some of our favorite albums based on album color. For March, we’re writing about yell-worthy yellows. 

Marietta – As It Were

Near Mint

Look, I’m not gonna pretend As It Were is better than Summer Death, I’m just saying one could make the argument. There’s a reason that Marietta’s debut is as revered and lauded as it is; songs like “Cinco De Mayo Shit Show” have become scene staples for a reason. Summer Death is evocative of a very specific period of concentrated Emo Revivalism that was overflowing from Philly in the early 2010s, but how does one follow that up? As It Were posits an artistically fulfilling path forward, chartered by these four individuals we see on this cover set against a modest mellow yellow wall. Songs like “Pony Up!!” and “United Away” still explode with anxious, youthful emo energy, while others like “Ilai, Eli, A Lie” and “Brains” articulate a clear desire to be making a different style of music entirely. 

For years and years, Summer Death was all I listened to when it came to Marietta. That record soundtracked entire seasons of my life, and I kinda figured that nothing else could stack up. At some point in the last handful of years, a friend recommended that I wait until the first really warm day of spring, then go for a walk and listen to As It Were, and that’s exactly what I did. Blue sky above, sun on my skin, I went on a jubilant stroll around the park near my Denver apartment and let the energy of this record carry me forward. As we emerge from the great thaw of winter, I’d like to pass that same suggestion forward to you, the reader. If you’re only familiar with Summer Death, you’ll hear lots of comforting sounds in this record, but you’ll also hear a band evolving and stretching to be something even more fulfilling and complex.

– Taylor Grimes


Pile – A Hairshirt of Purpose

Exploding in Sound

Anyone who knows me in even the vaguest capacity knows that Pile is my favorite band. It’s only because I’m exercising self-control that I haven’t submitted a Pile album for every iteration of Color Collector (yet). But I couldn’t say no to writing about this wonderful yellow album: A Hairshirt of Purpose is special, from the beautifully melancholic cover art – a simple marker illustration of a figure in a bathtub – to the vast emotional depths plumbed by Rick Maguire’s haunting voice. 

The mood of the album fits the title perfectly, as a hairshirt was traditionally used as a means of religious penance. The discomfort caused by the coarse, uncomfortable garment was a way to “mortify,” or purify, the person of their shortcomings. This release is a meandering, soggy, melancholic walk through a swamp of emotions that range from morose to frenetic, suggesting that feeling of self-purification. The delicate “Making Eyes” is subdued and weary, while “Texas” is a galvanized, heady track that is a clear nod to noise-rock legends The Jesus Lizard. My favorite of the album, “Milkshake,” falls somewhere in between these two songs. It’s a gorgeous track with a sinister undercurrent: repetitive piano and guitar lend an eerie drive that could soundtrack a thriller. “You lay down and try to rest / Try to breathe deep with that foot on your chest,” Rick hums, before delivering my favorite line of the album. “An old light threatens through the blinds.”

– Britta Joseph


Modern Baseball – Sports

Lame-O Records

Listening to Modern Baseball always felt like the music equivalent of watching films like Napoleon Dynamite or Juno. This is especially true for their debut album, Sports, where, after several smaller releases, the band rolled up their sleeves and rocked out a full-length at the recording studio in Drexel University. Sports encapsulate the awkward, quirky transitional years from high school to college in the best way possible. The band, fresh out of high school and onto the rugged Philly streets, was still green enough to sing largely about girls and the emotional tumult that ensues with them at that age. 

Released in 2012 – the same year as my freshman year of high school – this album holds a special place in my heart, having soundtracked many of the highs and lows of those years. Long will the memories last of many fall semesters set to the tune of “Hours Outside in the Snow,” “I Think You Were in My Profile Picture Once,” and “Coals.”

What the band created with Sports felt truly distinct within the pop-punk/emo scene in sound and lyricism, so much so that I’d go as far as to coin it “meta-emo.” Dropping references to social media like Twitter on the track “@chl03k” at that time felt mind-blowing. The owner of the aforementioned Twitter handle even appears on the album’s bright yellow cover, flexing their impressive fishing skills. 

– Brandon Cortez


Hyakkei – Okurimono

Neiro

Weather systems are fascinating things. They are such massive forces of nature, with orders of magnitude that range from 10 yards to entire swaths of the planet. Yet it’s the convergence of such systems that has created some of the most incredible landscapes on Earth. By water, thunder, or heat, more is hewn and born of the marriage between different systems than simply one note of an atmospheric change on its own. With Okurimono, the marriage of post-rock and math rock finds its eye of the storm, the touchdown point of emo, post-rock, and math rock all converging in a serene swirl of precision and technicality, an enduring canyon carved into the bedrock of instrumental rock music. Hyakkei sadly never quite took off while active — a storm cell broken over the Cascades of bad timing. Still, Okurimono is a near-perfect album, calming and melancholic with brilliant, impressive melodies; a true testament to what an absolute force of natural beauty the band could be. 

– Elias Amini


Amanaz – Africa

Now-Again Records

Of the many micro-genre rabbit holes one can fall into, Zamrock is one of the coolest and most rewarding. Zamrock represents a brief yet powerful period in Zambia's history, with its peak lasting from 1964 to about 1978. Zambia, like almost all African countries, had been colonized by Europe in the late 1800’s—in this case, Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company (one of the most evil men in the history of the world, who is rotting in eternal torment now, god willing). In 1964, Zambia declared its independence and became a sovereign nation, led by President Kenneth Kauna (also a really bad guy, god damn these people cannot catch a break). Soon after, in an attempt to emphasize Zambian culture, Kauna decreed that 95% of all music played on the radio must be Zambian in origin. Kauna also negotiated control of the country’s copper mines, meaning Zambia would now benefit financially from its chief export. Basically, you have a nation with more time on its hands, more money, and huge record collections left behind by British Imperialists. Inspired by the music of Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, and Cream, Zamrock took hold as a potent blend of psychedelic rock and African beat music.

The liberation of music came at a time of great social and political unrest. The price of copper fell quickly after Zambian independence was achieved, causing Zambia’s economy to crash. The AIDS epidemic took hold. Zambia was in armed conflict with almost all of its neighbors. The mid-20th Century in Zambian history was a literal perfect storm for potent rock and roll music.

Many of these bands only made one or two albums, some of them only a single and a B-side. They all have a similar sound with their own individual flair, but the signature sound of Zamrock—the fuzzed-out guitars, lo-fi drums and vocals, and baselines taking a walk—is unmistakable. Bands like WITCH (We Intend To Cause Havoc), the Ngozi Family, Ricky Danda, The Oscillations, and Amanaz carried the mantle of Zamrock and dedicated their artistry to putting their own spin on the Western music flooding into the country from South Africa and the colonizers.

In 2019 and 2020, Now-Again Records and Vinyl Me Please began repressing and distributing eight of the most prominent Zamrock albums from the 70’s. They also produced this really cool mini-documentary, that’s worth 15 minutes of your time.

My favorite album of this batch is Africa by Amanaz. It has the flavor of Zamrock, but it’s the dreamiest of the group. There’s a weightlessness and a headiness to Amanaz. Track 4, “Khala My Friend,” is the crowning achievement of the album. It’s a song I will never, ever get tired of. It’s a slower song than most Zamrock tracks. It has one of the coolest guitar solos I’ve ever heard. I have played it for all of my friends, and everyone comments how beautiful it is. It’s about friendship! How great is that? Friendship in the face of political unrest and economic uncertainty. We could learn something from Amanaz.

– Caleb Doyle


Le Tigre – Self-Titled

Mr. Lady Records

My love for Le Tigre is as bright and deep as its golden yellow cover. I’ll go to the ends of the earth to make sure everyone knows it. If Pitchfork ever decides to ask me for my Perfect 10, trust that Le Tigre’s self-titled is what I’ll be saying. The debut album from the grunge-electro-pop mega group is, to me, perfect. You can thrash and scream to “Deceptacon,” wallow and romanticize to “Eau D’ Bedroom Dancing,” and get real contemplative with it on “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” (misogynist? genius?). It’s frenetic, brash, and unapologetic; the poppy, almost airy counter to Kathleen Hanna’s thicker, darker Bikini Kill roots. The intensity is countered by the levity, making Le Tigre a celebration of what is had rather than a lament on what’s missing. On “Hot Topic,” they take the time to call out all the women who inspire them (among them: Angela Davis, Cibo Matto, Sleater-Kinney, Yoko Ono), but still make space to shit on Rudy Giuliani a few songs later with “My My Metrocard.” Hanna is not only on my musical Mount Rushmore, but also the Mount Rushmore of both grunge and riot grrrl as a whole. Revolution Girl Style Now!

– Cassidy Sollazzo


You Blew It! – Keep Doing What You’re Doing

Topshelf Records

Simply one of the best emo records of all time. Fourth wave crystallized with a punchy Florida stank on it. Sweaty, jumpy, high-energy shit you can scream along to while pressed up against at least three or four other people. Keep Doing What You’re Doing is an album with a real arc; everything ignites like a powder keg with the appropriately named “Match & Tinder,” then ends on one of the most sweeping, hopeful epics as its closer. Just a bunch of untouchable riffs and immaculate choruses stacked up one after the other. Cathartic, fun, and endlessly replayable, what more could you ask for in an album?

– Taylor Grimes


City And Colour – Sometimes

Dine Alone Records

When I think back to the music of my early high school years, I can’t think of another album that washes over me like a warm wave of nostalgia quite like City and Colour’s debut album, Sometimes. Having not been an Alexisonfire fan before hearing Dallas Green's solo work, it came as a shock to me when I learned that he was formerly a hardcore frontman, as his voice just fits so perfectly with a more stripped-down atmosphere. His register-shifting, buttery vocals, along with crisp guitar production, meld gorgeously into this stunning collection of early works, where almost every track feels iconic. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone of the millennial generation unfamiliar with singles “Comin’ Home” or “Hello, I’m in Delaware,” while tracks like “Save Your Scissors” and “Day Old Hate” reward the more avid listener. I’ve remained a consistent fan of Green’s in the years since finding this album, and there may be albums of his I rank higher than Sometimes, but this album will always hold a special place in my heart. 

– Ciara Rhiannon

For the previous iterations of Cover Collector, we took a break halfway through to pay respects to the color-coordinated excellence that is Weezer’s discography. Unfortunately, there is no such equivalent for yellow (unless you count the fan-made Piss mockup), so instead we’ll focus on an equivalent entity: SpongeBob. 

There are a few downright excellent SpongeBob albums. First, you’ve got SpongeBob SquarePants: Original Theme Highlights, a 7-song 9-minute collection from 2001 including Pantera’s “Pre-Hibernation” instrumental and Ween’s shoe-tying instructional “Loop De Loop.” Despite its short stature, I ran this CD into the ground as a kid. A few years later, in 2005, we got The Yellow Album, a more traditional-length collection of everything from “Sweet Victory” to “Gary’s Song” and the unparalleled 30-second masterpiece “Sweater Song.” Weezer, eat your heart out. 

One final shoutout must be made for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Music from the Movie and More… (official title) for bringing together Ween, Wilco, The Flaming Lips, and Motörhead all under one roof. Top that all off with “Goofy Goober Rock” and baby, you got a stew going. What a soundtrack. What a film. 


Baroness – Yellow & Green

Relapse

Is it yellow? Is it green? Is it both?? The answer here is an overarching yes, for Georgia metal institution Baroness’ third full-length album. After Weezer (whose only yellow-coded album, Raditude, I was lambasted from defending in this roundup), Baroness is certainly the next-most-notable band to name their albums after specific colors, beginning with Red Album in 2007. Frontman John Baizley is responsible for the gorgeous cover paintings for all of their color-coded albums, including a handful for other artists including Flight Of The Conchords and Gillian Welch. Yellow & Green is a sprawling double-disc collection that marks a stylistic shift for Baroness, with songs still rooted in their sludge and stoner metal background but now with a greater focus on hooks and melody. The “Yellow” disc features the riffy singles “Take My Bones Away” and “March To The Sea,” instant catalogue classics for the band, and its final track, “Eula,” is my favorite thing they’ve ever recorded. The “Green” disc follows with tracks like “Board Up The House” and “Stretchmarker” that help establish Baroness as one of the greatest melodic metal bands of the 2000s. Yellow & Green is not only my favorite Baroness album, but one of my favorite albums of all time since its release in 2012.

– Logan Archer Mounts


The Simpsons – The Yellow Album

Geffen Records

If you want to know how gigantic a cultural phenomenon The Simpsons was in the 90s, do yourself a favor and listen to The Yellow Album. This was the ultimate heat check, forty feet away from the basket. The Simpsons is my favorite animated show of all time. No one can touch them in my eyes, but no one in their right mind was asking for this album.

The Yellow Album was a cash grab so substantial even Krusty the Clown would blush. I imagine the corporate executives at Fox manically laughing while puffing cigars and lighting 100-dollar bills with a flamethrower when they decided to go ahead with this idea. Basically, they’re all Hank Scorpio. The Simpsons are known for their brilliant musical numbers, with standouts like “The Monorail Song” and Mr. Burns’ hilarious, non-PETA-compliant “See My Vest,” but everyone completely mailed in the ideas and performances on this record. Where were The Be Sharps? Where was Party Posse? Instead, we are left suffering with some of the worst-written songs this side of the Mississippi, coming mostly from a neutered Bart Simpson. Maybe if this were some kind of social experiment to see how far the company can thrust the Simpsons brand onto society, then I could see some method in the madness. Other than that, hunt down their best songs from the actual show on YouTube; I promise it’ll be better than the ten tracks on The Yellow Album. 

– David Williams


Bomb the Music Industry! – Vacation

Quote Unquote Records

It’s that hazy shade you only see at sunset in the middle of the summer. You only see it when you’re alone. You don’t really pay attention to the sunset when you’re with your friends, do you? This yellow, edged with pink, is the perfect color for Vacation, the final album by Jeff Rosenstock’s esteemed collective Bomb The Music Industry!, because Vacation is an album about mourning what isn’t even lost yet. Vacation is nostalgia for an occurrent past. Listening to Vacation is to be surrounded by everyone you love, and that loves you, and to be sad that these moments can’t last forever. Those moments that feel more like being in the real world than the daily grind, or as Rosenstock laments, “this vacation feels more like home.” Pay your rent tomorrow, grab your friends, and watch the sunset tonight. 

– Lillian Weber


Mil-Spec – Marathon

Lockin’ Out

You spend all winter waiting for the days to get longer again, then, all of a sudden, it’s still light out past 8 p.m., and the days just don’t end. That can be miserable too. Sometimes only a guitar solo can save you, at least that’s what Mil-Spec seems to prescribe. Marathon is an album full of agony and hope, of paralyzing grief and grasping at release. Not to be too earnest, but I can’t believe this album only came out in 2023. Three years and I am still moved by the question “could you trace the arc of the universe?” Three years and the “Belle Époque,” the almost six-minute synth monologue still makes me cry. The days, the days, the days don’t end.

– Caro Alt


The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore – The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore

Stroom

A fun fact about me is that I am awful at remembering the names of virtually anything or anyone, but I can probably tell you what color a given album cover is or what color shirt you were wearing that one nondescript night we spent at that shitty dive bar. So anytime a musical artist chooses to use a single color as the visual aspect of their work, it intrigues me. I’ve always thought that a pretty bold statement for an album, one that begs a very powerful question: how does this color specifically reflect the music within? The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore is a pretty good example. I, admittedly, know very little about this project. From what I can gather, The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore is not necessarily a band, in the traditional sense, but rather the project of artist Florian TM Zeisig and a whole crew of collaborators on various instruments and effects. It’s a nice little sonic-quilt of indie, jazz, ambient, Americana, shoegazey sounds, and autotuned vocals. I find myself drawn towards certain sounds depending on the context I’m listening in: the drum beats pulse with more weight in the car, the interlocking vocals and sparse guitars dance around each other more intimately on a late-night walk. Does it sound yellow? I think so. It reminds me of a hot day in the pool, sunlight bouncing off the water's surface, creating new shapes and shades as you look at it.  

– Nickolas Sackett


Metallica – 72 Seasons

Blackened Recordings

Coming almost 40 years to the date after their debut album, 72 Seasons showcases Metallica playing with more heart and purpose than they have in decades. Frontman James Hetfield described the concept as “The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences.” It’s this constant inward reflection that separates Hetfield from his 80s thrash metal contemporaries. Long gone are the days where the ferocious guitar riffs need to be paired with themes of despair, fear, and hopelessness. The ability to recognize this and focus on more personal, relatable themes makes 72 Seasons the band’s best effort in over 25 years. 

On the final track, “Inamorata,” totaling 11 minutes and 10 seconds, Hetfield opens the first verse with an invitation, “Welcome, won’t you come inside? Meet the ghosts where I reside.” The song eventually reaches an extended bridge, with Trujillo laying down a pensive, slow-moving bass line. On top of this, Hetfield plays the only clean guitar found on the entire album. I interpret this moment as a breakthrough of clarity that comes from a person facing their traumas. Eventually, the song builds back up, and Hetfield exclaims, “Misery, she needs me. Oooh, but I need her more.” The realization that, as much as we can try to run from our woes and problems, those experiences shaped us into who we are, and that it’s best to face them all head-on. 

– Ryan Morrissey


Barenaked Ladies – Stunt

Rhino Entertainment Company

The Canadian alt-rockers may be best known for the smash hit “One Week,” which opens Stunt, but I promise this band, and even this album, are better than that already admittedly incredible song. A tour-de-force of harmonies, traded vocals, little synth stings, and acoustic guitar parts that are weirdly more complex than you’d expect, Stunt feels like a vision of radio-rock optimism. A sign that BNL is better than the few songs that have surfaced to the top of the charts and are capable of songs about introspection, longing, parenthood, sleep deprivation, and even recovering from addiction. The combination of vocalists Ed Robertson and Steven Page has always resulted in fun interplay between two incredible performers, and Stunt is no exception. When you need an album that just feels like the summer of 1998, you’ll never do better than running to your local record store’s Barenaked Ladies section and grabbing the yellow one.

– Noëlle Midnight


Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold

Rough Trade

The debut album from Parquet Courts was a way of life for me during college because, well, I was stoned… and I was starving. Light Up Gold came out during my sophomore year, and I was a slacker in need of direction. This album gave me direction, but only led me further down the path of slackerdom. Why would I give a shit about my future when I could hang out with my friends and shout the endless one-liners gifted to us by Andrew Savage and Austin Brown? It’s been thirteen years since then, and any time I listen to this album, it instantly conjures the taste of canned High Lifes and the stench of sweat that only occurs when you cram too many undergrads into a small apartment on a Saturday night. I don’t know if you know this, but SOCRATES DIED IN THE FUCKING GUTTER.

– Connor Fitzpatrick


Honorable Mentions

Hey, we can’t write about every album with this color, so here’s a list of some more that we feel like we should mention.

  • Palette Knife - New Game+

  • Hotline TNT - Cartwheel

  • Turnstile - Time & Space

  • Talking Kind - It Did Bring Me Down

  • Tigers Jaw - Tigers Jaw

  • Lower Definition - The Greatest Of All Lost Arts

  • Oso Oso - Basking in the Glow

  • Coldplay - Parachutes

  • Man Overboard - Real Talk

  • Wilco - Being There

  • Subsonic Eye - Singapore Dreaming

  • Stress Fractures - Stress Fractures

  • Cloakroom - Dissolution Wave

  • Bully - Lucky For You

  • Owen - No Good For No One Now

  • Cap’n Jazz - Analphabetapolothology

  • Garret T. Capps - Life Is Strange

  • A Day To Remember - Common Courtsey

  • Adrianne Lenker - Live at Revolution Hall

  • R.E.M. - Green

  • Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

  • Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating as One

  • Yeesh - Confirmation Bias

  • The Sidekicks - Happiness Hours

  • Greg Mendez - Greg Mendez

  • Pretty Rude - Ripe

  • Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong with Love

  • Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030

Swim Into The Sound's Staff Favorites of 2025

/

It’s hard for me to talk about The Swim Team and not sound like a proud dad, but it’s true! I’m immensely proud of our writers because they’re the ones who make this site what it is. Sure, I’m the bozo editing stuff and hitting “post,” but they’re the ones doing the hard work pouring their hearts out onto the page. They’re the ones steering this site’s taste and dictating the culture of Swim Into The Sound. 

Through this multitude of perspectives, we’ve assembled what I believe to be the coolest and most talented bunch of music nerds this side of the internet. The wild part is this isn’t just a relationship cultivated through Google Docs, DMs, emails, and Discord. Throughout the year, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of meeting many of these people in real life, grabbing a beer or catching a show with them, and talking endlessly about the music that moves us. Surprising no one, they’re just as cool in real life as they are on the page. 

It’s a joy to know these folks, and I consider myself lucky as hell to have them as part of my life and part of this website. Their words, verve, and taste have helped me sharpen my own versions of those things. If that’s too lofty, the recommendations I’ve received from them have been enough to fill my playlists and music queue all year, and that alone is a gift. Today, I share that same gift with you in the form of our team’s favorite albums of the year. What follows are 20 recommendations from 20 different writers, all going to bat for their favorite record of 2025—a diverse spread of music straight from the heart, not the algorithm. As usual, I hope you discover something new and exciting to love; I know I definitely have.

– Taylor

David Williams | Hotline TNT – Raspberry Moon

Third Man Records

A couple of metrics for how I choose my record for the year: What’s the first album that pops to my mind when I recommend music? What album can I spin that instantly gives me that ever-elusive nostalgia fix? What can I listen to constantly without ever growing weary? Raspberry Moon by Hotline TNT checks all these boxes for me this year. Will Anderson has transformed his one-man show into a well-oiled, merciless rock machine by integrating a full band during the writing and recording process for the first time in the band’s history. Everything is grander in scale, from the anthem-level hooks in “Julia’s War” to the blown-out guitar riffs on “Where U Been?” I’ve seen Hotline TNT perform the album live on multiple occasions, and the collective unit plays the songs so muscularly that even Arnold Schwarzenegger would blush.

Raspberry Moon is a gigantic step taken with full force that feels like a band discovering their newfound powers. “The Scene” is a Scud missile of a jam that would fit in on the soundtrack to any Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game. “Candle” is a power-pop flame hit that will never extinguish. Every song on Raspberry Moon deserves to be played at the highest decibel possible, and when the cops start thunderously banging on your door, they’ll understand why once they hear what’s coming through your speakers.

David’s Other 2025 Favorites:

  • Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out

  • Wednesday - Bleeds

  • The Tubs - Cotton Crown

  • Water From Your Eyes - It’s A Beautiful Place

  • Total Wife - come back down


Caro Alt | Colin Miller – Losin’

Mtn Laurel Recording Co.

After years and years of homesickness, I finally moved back to the South over the summer. I made jokes about how I couldn’t take another winter in a place where it snowed, but I really just missed it here. I made my decision to finally return while walking around Georgia in the aftermath of the winter and listening to Losin’ by Colin Miller for the first time. (I also reviewed it here.) Since that day, I’ve spent the entire year listening to that soft, barely-there delivery of Miller’s, replaying his warped guitars, and feeling the phantom misery he writes about while in the driver’s seat of his car. Spinning his wheels, getting upset in a drive-thru, racing on the highway, picking you up from jail. Sputtering engines, rusting hoods, and watching for headlights. I love this album because it is full of songs about cars that are not actually about cars and songs not about cars that are actually about cars. If you give it a spin, do it while going home, I know I did.

Other Albums I Loved:


Ben Parker | Arm’s Length – There’s A Whole World Out There

Pure Noise Records

This has been a year of change for me. I have gotten back into shape, I traveled across the country, and I saw Arm’s Length three different times. Now, the biggest change awaits as I sit here, staring down a potential job change that will see me move out of Indiana for the first time to a city I have only been to once. In all of this, I find myself connecting to one line in “The Wound” by Arm’s Length where singer Allen Steinberg leads into the hook yelling out, “I’ve spent a lifetime longing to leave, how the fuck could I stay?”

Every single track on There’s A Whole World Out There features some lyric that translates to an actual thought, experience, or feeling that I have had. It makes me feel profoundly human, as I have spent my whole life giving myself to everyone and hardly ever asking for anything in return, beyond the slightest sliver of kindness. I hear the line “When you’re constantly talking sweet / I don’t trust the words / but I don’t really care cause none of them hurt,” and I can’t help but think of the moments I have shared with friends and lovers long past the lifespan of the relationship, when we just said things out of habit. 

Despite the strong, sad themes throughout Arm’s Length’s sophomore album, there is still something inherently hopeful about it. Their debut, 2022’s Never Before Seen, Never Again Found, showcased the ways that childhood trauma can affect someone for their entire life and create a cycle of violence. In contrast, There’s A Whole World Out There has the same sadness and pain woven into its DNA, but shows that, despite it all, you move forward. 

Every person on this planet will live a life, and in that time, we will experience the full breadth of human emotion, and at the end of it all, we will die the same. To some people, this creates a sense of hopelessness, knowing there is nothing you can do to change your fate, and maybe that’s true, but change comes, and it’s worth experiencing. With this album, I have looked my mortality in the eyes and shook its hand, knowing that, just as the final line of the album says, “On any day I may pass, in any way I am killed.”

Other Favorites of 2025:

  1. Infinity Guise - Summerbruise

  2. Reasons I Won’t Change - Tiny Voices

  3. I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven - The Callous Daoboys

  4. Pleaser - Pretty Bitter

  5. Blame It On the Weather - Kerosene Heights


Cassidy Sollazzo | Folk Bitch Trio – Now Would Be A Good Time

Jagjaguwar

“Am I lucky, or am I just sane?” Heide Peverelle asks on the opening track of Folk Bitch Trio’s debut album. I’ve been keyed into the Melbourne three-piece for a few years, surviving only off a few singles (“Analogue” is forever an all-timer) and the hope that an LP was in the works. In 2025, I got my wish. Now Would Be A Good Time is an evocative, stirring collection of songs written over the formative late-teens-to-early-20s years, yet delivered with a confidence and cohesion beyond their years. Peverelle, Jeanie Pilkington, and Gracie Sinclair are more locked-in than ever, each with their definitive voices, roles, and songwriting qualities. The album’s blunt and crass in some moments (“Had a filthy dream to the noise of the hotel TV” or the cutting “Say you wanna get sober, I say I’d like to see you try”), tear-jerking in others (“Moth Song” wrecks me, personally), always delivered with a Mitchellian chord progression and a knowing wink. I’ve seen the group twice since the album dropped in July, once during release week at Nightclub 101, then a few months later at Baby’s All Right on their North American tour (it should be a testament to my love for them that I set foot in Baby’s, my least favorite venue in all of Brooklyn). There is a literal magic that moves through the room during their sets, each of them captivating in their own way. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: not since Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young have we seen harmonies this crisp! Gives me chills!

I wrote more about the Trio and their album for Paste over the summer, if you are so inclined to go deeper on this group. We talked about their recording and songwriting processes, how their friendships play into their group dynamics, and how they’ve been taking to their newfound exposure. 2026 is looking big for them: Kilby Block Party, arena openings for Mumford & Sons, and King Gizzard’s Field of Vision II. Hopefully, you can say you heard it here first! 

Some more favs:

  1. The Rubber Teeth Talk - Daisy the Great

  2. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory - Sharon Van Etten

  3. In Space - Edith Frost

  4. Cuntry - Cleo Reed

  5. Melt - Not For Radio


Britta Joseph | Pile – Sunshine and Balance Beams

Sooper Records

During one of the many conversations about music I had with my friends this year, the question “Where are all the riffs?” was posed. My immediate answer was, “They’re all on the Pile album.” I stand firmly by my assertion, because Sunshine and Balance Beams is a rager of a release. It’s made for screaming along to: each track a torrent of righteous anger and ethereal beauty, every cutting lyric and brittle snare hit landing exactly where they’re intended to.

The band dissects the cult dynamics of hypercapitalism as though they’re performing vivisection, laying bare the sinister implications of the reality we inhabit. As someone who’s survived severe childhood trauma and spent several years in a religious cult, I cherish Pile’s bold confrontation and thunderous rage against evil in modern society. (If you want to read more about how this album ties into my childhood experiences, I reviewed it in full here.)

Not only is the album’s message necessary and impactful, but the sheer magnitude of the intensely beautiful arrangements, scintillating production, and dense instrumentation has to be experienced to be believed. Frontman Rick Maguire is at his very best, screaming one moment and crooning the next: every song feels like he’s singing it specifically to you. And you know what? Maybe he is.

Five selections from my list of favorites this year:

  • The Spiritual Sound - Agriculture

  • thank god for you - Melancholy Club

  • Don’t Trust Mirrors - Kelly Moran

  • this is my outside voice - satsuma 

  • Catcher - siichaq


Ben Sooy | Flock of Dimes – The Life You Save

Sub Pop

Jenn Wasner has lived large in my musical life for years. I have an instinctual longing to listen to her band Wye Oak (especially their third album, Civilian) every autumn when the air gets frosty and my body pushes me outside to walk, smoke cigarettes, and stare off into the distance. Look at that bird, the leaves are changing, isn’t life just one cycle of life and death dancing all with each other all the time?

Jenn Wasner’s solo project, Flock of Dimes, is having a big year. She had a vocal feature with Dijon on Bon Iver’s SABLE,fABLE (she’s buddies with Justin Vernon, who, a couple of years ago, invited her to be a member of the Bon Iver touring band). The Bon Iver song is great, but her 2025 solo record, The Life You Save, is better. 

Wasner wrote an album about trying to love people who struggle deeply with real shit: addiction, codependency, poverty, etc. Through the arc of the record, you see Wasner struggle to try and save others, but she realizes she’s incapable of even saving herself. There are depths there underneath some very catchy tunes, inspired production, and beautiful vocal performances!

Honorable Mentions:


Lillian Weber | Total Wife – come back down

Julia’s War Recordings

I am permanently in my head about everything. About what other people are thinking, about what I’ve done, about what comes next. My thoughts are a perpetual whirlpool that has no bottom, just a constant downward spiral. But come back down by Total Wife has been an anchor. When I have the record blaring in my headphones, I sink to the bottom of the ocean of my thoughts. I drift down through chopped beats, smeared guitars, and cooed laments to hopes and dreams unfulfilled. From the moment I hear the first notes of “in my head,” I am relieved. Every second after is a warm embrace of understanding. But relief isn’t the only thing this record makes me feel, because this record has “make it last,” and that song doesn’t make me feel relieved – it makes me ecstatic. “make it last” is the air in my lungs and leaves me washed up on a beach gasping for breath. Listening to “make it last,” the euphoric rush of that feedback-drenched chorus hitting my eardrums at full volume, is the best feeling in the world.

Honorable mentions:

  • Lotto by They Are Gutting A Body of Water 

  • Gaman by Star 99

  • Times Up by Bootcamp

  • The Spiritual Sound by Agriculture


David Gay | Sharon Van Etten – Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory 

Jagjaguwar

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of jam bands, from Phish (the best band) to others like Eggy, Goose, and Taper’s Choice. There’s something magical that happens when a group of people let the music take them to an unexpected place, somewhere they may not have gone to in an orchestrated piece. 

In mid-September, Sharon Van Etten and her band, the Attachment Theory, performed at the Hi-Fi Annex in Indianapolis. At one point between songs, she said, “I’m in my 40s, and I finally learned how to jam,” and I realized that I was seeing her grow musically with the help of others, a band. 

After first hearing the rolling bass lines that calls back to 80s bands like New Order on “Idiot Box” to the full-band groove that permeates “Afterlife” and “Somethin’ Ain’t Right,” I immediately knew that Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory was going to be one of my favorite albums of 2025 and that I was going to see Sharon Van Etten in a new way from now on. This is something that was affirmed during her live show, while I was in the midst of a full-blown outdoor dance party, including folks of all ages. 

While the Attachment Theory isn’t a jam band in the traditional sense, it embraces what is so great about that kind of music – the importance of going with the flow and being willing to collaborate with other talented musicians to find a new kind of sound, arriving at something that hasn’t been explored before. This is why it’s one of my favorite albums of the year. 

Other favorite things from 2025: 


Elias Amini | Marasme – Fel

Discos Macarras

There’s been some discussion within the Swim Team about the difference between a “Best of” list and a “Favorites” list. Try as we might, the objective and subjective can blur all too easily. One of my favorite albums of the year, however, sits quite comfortably in that blur. Marasme’s aural black metal groovefest Fel is the band’s latest work, the fourth album to be released in their almost 20-year existence as a group, and the experience shows. Six pummeling, winding, groovy, and at times avant-garde tracks all build and flow into a relentlessly excellent listening experience. I couldn’t tell you that this was my favorite project I’d heard all year. But I can tell you that I loved listening to it when I was between other albums. I imagine some time in the future I may smack my forehead and realize that this was in fact my favorite album of 2025. For now though, I don’t feel the need to lay some exalted crown on this album, only to tell you that it’s a great, enjoyable record and heavy music fans will definitely find themselves coming back to it for more.

Some other records I loved:

  • Massa Nera - The Emptiness of All Things

  • Ninajirachi - I Love My Computer

  • Chevalier - Un dolore a cui non so dare nome

  • Shlohmo - Repulsor

  • Blue Earth Sound - Cicero Nights


Kirby Kluth | Fust – Big Ugly

Dear Life Records

Fust’s Big Ugly feels like an inside joke or a perfect memory from childhood, the kind where you still feel the warm wind blowing against you while all of your favorite people are in sight right there before you. I wrote about Big Ugly in our Q1 roundup because it reminded me of all the ways you can find beauty in The South. A couple of weeks later, Fust played the best show I’ve ever been to at my local venue, the Pilot Light. That little one-two-punch solidified my allegiance, and I’ve been calling Fust “the best band in America” ever since. 

My daughter just turned one, and she has been mimicking my wife and I for some time now. I have gotten her to copy me whistling, and she pretty often catches the right spot to make a true tune. I've been whistling and humming “Sister,” “Bleached,” “What’s His Name,” and “Heart Song” around her for months now, and I hope that someday soon she’ll be whistling a Fust song right back to me. 

2025, according to Kirby:


Noëlle Midnight | Blackbraid – Blackbraid III

Self-released

It’s hard to write about a record when the main thing you want to say is that it’s got really good riffs, but that’s where I find myself with indigenous black metal band Blackbraid’s aptly titled third LP: Blackbraid III. Opening with the sounds of a fire in the woods, an acoustic guitar comes in, setting the scene as night falls, and you are transported into the image depicted on the album art. It’s soft and gentle. Safe.

And then the riffs come in. 

Massive blast beats paired with 16th note riffs immediately tell you what type of record you’re in for, as “Wardrums at Dawn on the Day of my Death” comes on and blasts your ass off. For the next 53 minutes, that’s what you’re in for: acoustic sweetness pulling you into the scene, alternating with black metal speed applied to thrash metal riffs, dragging you through lyrics that tell of a “warrior’s fate to ride the storm.” The album takes the established world and places characters in it, embedded in tales of war and honor, as they are “haunted by memories” in the light of the moon. The imagery is just badass. You feel like you’re watching an epic adventure film where anything could happen. Plus, the riffs are so sick.

Noëlle’s Other Favorites from 2025:

  • Lucy Dacus - Forever is a Feeling

  • Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH

  • Silverstein - Antibloom

  • Petey USA - The Yips

  • Sierra Hull - A Tip Toe High Wire


Nick Webber | Adrianne Lenker – Live at Revolution Hall

4AD

I’ve never been big on live albums, so I was surprised to come to the realization that Live at Revolution Hall is not just my favorite record of the year, but probably my favorite project in the Adrianne Lenker/Big Thief canon. Recorded over three nights on reel-to-reel and cassette tape by longtime friend of Lenker’s (and one of my favorite working producers) Andrew Sarlo, the experience is far from your standard glorified soundboard rip and might best be described as a cinematic sonic documentary. Selected performances across Lenker’s oeuvre were stitched together in editing via snippets of backstage takes, soundchecks, and field recordings in a sort of mad-scientist fashion, an approach perfectly suited for the songwriter’s singular balance of timelessness and ingenuity. Fans leave messages for Adrianne on a tape recorder, poetry is recited in the parking lot, a guy who can’t stop sneezing is blessed mid-song, one reel of tape runs out and the fidelity changes dramatically right as the next verse hits. The result has the captivating effect of an augmented reality personal concert, a masterfully curated interflow of play and reverence that could only come from deep trust and understanding.

My wife and I caught Lenker on tour when she came through Denver, for a seated show, and the most spellbound, pin-drop-quiet crowd I’ve been part of since seeing Julien Baker in 2017. Lenker was firing on all cylinders, equal parts commanding and meek, her fingerstyle guitar prowess and emotional directness undeniable, somehow making a sold-out room of nearly 4,000 feel intimate. Captured from various perspectives in Live at Revolution Hall, the audience functioned like an instrument of its own, participating at appropriate moments in ways that were hearteningly human and bracingly normal (a 2025 live music miracle). I think this album is as close as anyone’s come to bottling that rare collective effervescence, the feeling of existing in time and space at a once-in-a-lifetime show and realizing that you’re a part of something special: a true feat, and one that might cement this album as the definitive portrait of a generational talent’s career just over a decade in.

Also loved:

  • Florist - Jellywish 

  • Great Grandpa - Patience Moonbeam

  • Seer Believer - Make a Wish

  • Kitchen - Blue heeler in ugly snowlight, grey on gray on grey on white.

  • Ólafur Arnalds and Talos - A Dawning


Caleb Doyle | Samia – Bloodless

Grand Jury Music

Samia Finnerty cannot make a bad song.

From moments of minimalism that grow into genuine sonic excess, to melodic and impressionistic lyrics, Bloodless is cohesive and surprising, and begs multiple immediate relistens.

The lead single “Bovine Excision” and the title of the album refer to a creepy, decades-old conspiracy theory about livestock being mysteriously drained of their blood and relieved of their organs. Here, Samia’s reference is in yearning—a wish to be weightless, bloodless, and unattainable. Unflappable and unshakeable, although maybe also lifeless. The kinds of lyrics that leave a pit in one’s stomach, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg on Bloodless. 

The entire album is an exercise in dynamics, and the music mirrors the themes with growing and shrinking, waxing and waning. A song about something as mundane as a pair of pants spins up into a profound introspective moment—laying bare womanhood and society’s expectations, carried by a repeated refrain, “Wanna see what’s under these Levi’s? I got nothin’ under these Levi’s.” Just like the lyrics, the music swells and dissipates, over and over, throughout the whole record. It’s like the whole thing is breathing, sometimes slowly and measured, other times laboring under duress.

With Jake Luppen of Hippo Campus at the helm on production, the sounds of this record are both tight and exploratory. From more traditional Saddest Factory-coded indie ballads like “Fair Game,” to the big distorted Snail Mail-esque guitars on “North Poles” and “Carousel,” Bloodless feels right at home with today’s indie pop landscape, but what sets it apart is Samia’s genius songwriting and her breathy soprano voice that is more powerful than expected.

The songs are just beautiful. The music is a tapestry, and Samia’s melodies feel completely timeless. There’s a certain eeriness that runs throughout the album—from the interstitial radio static to Samia’s sometimes-haunting voice, and that eeriness sets Bloodless apart from Samia’s peers. You might get away with playing this over the speakers of your bespoke dress shop, but someone is going to get caught staring out of a window for too long.

Bloodless solidifies Samia as an artist who can pull away from the pack and create an album that walks the tightrope of haunting and gorgeous, as unsettling as it is reassuring.

The rest of my Top 5:
2. Tobacco City - Horses
3. Racing Mount Pleasant - S/T
4. Hannah Cohen - Earthstar Mountain
5. Annie DiRusso - Super Pedestrian


Jason Sloan | Real Lies – We Will Annihilate Our Enemies

TONAL Recordings

Let’s set the scene. You’re six drinks deep at the club, hands in the air, lover by your side, drugs about to kick in, when suddenly your phone receives a push notification heralding the imminent end of the world. Do you fall into a deep despair, or do you simply have to laugh at the absurdity? Real Lies’ scintillating We Will Annihilate Our Enemies is the sound of the decision to leave it all on the dance floor while the world crumbles around you.

As our devices moderate increasing swaths of modern life, art must contend with the uncanny valley. How does one expound upon an existence ever more fenced in by the digital boxes in our pockets? Real Lies wring surprising pathos out of their Extremely Online tales of E-Girls and Twitter fascists, of billboard ads and Strava stats. The world would be less lonely if we could just agree to boogie through the horrors together. 

The other album I considered here: Elm - Elm EP


Logan Archer Mounts | The Mountain Goats – Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan

Cadmean Dawn

No surprises, no teases, no left-field underground international death metal, this is just me talking about my favorite band (other than KISS and a few others, depending on the day) who put out the best hour of music that 2025 had to offer. 

The Mountain Goats changed my life after I saw them for the first time in 2009, and ever since then, a new album of theirs usually finds itself in my top ten at the end of the year — but never number one, until now. With Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan, their first album on their own label and first since the departure of longtime bassist Peter Hughes, bandleader John Darnielle’s storytelling and composition reach a creative peak that echoes the Goats’ more grandiose albums like Goths or In League With Dragons, but delivered with even more advanced theatrics. That’s literal theatrics too, with vocal contributions from, no kidding, Lin-Manuel Miranda. It feels like the project Darnielle has been working towards his entire career, the closest to his fabled Riversend musical that has appeared in portions on previous albums. …Peter Balkan is a defining moment for The Mountain Goats, genuine and gorgeous, and a perfect start to the band’s next chapter.

Further recommended audio from God’s strongest survivors of the hellscape:
•Craig Finn, Always Been – my other favorite songwriter
•Guided By Voices, Thick Rich And Delicious – my other, other favorite songwriter
•Bodybox, 3 – my new favorite pro-meth slam metal band


Ciara Rhiannon | Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow

Southeastern Records

My album of the year might seem like a no-brainer to those who know how many of my favorite bands had stellar releases across 2025, yet one record managed to sneak past the front-runners and stick with me throughout the entire year. Jason Isbell’s Foxes in the Snow is a heartwrenching and intimate first-person account of his recent divorce, his journey of introspection, and, ultimately, of finding love again without even looking for it. 

Foxes in the Snow was recorded over five days at Electric Lady Studios in New York, just one man and an almost-century-old acoustic guitar. I suppose therein lies the magic that drew me to this album – there’s no hiding in any of it. The lyrical context of the record is so raw, so gutting, so honest, I can’t imagine any other way of delivering such an experience. When you listen to this record with headphones (which I highly recommend, especially on the first listen), you can even more intensely absorb Isbell’s guitar pick scraping along the strings of the old Martin guitar, every subtle movement, every little blemish of the recording process amplifying the cold, harsh nature of heartache and the unwritten forever mapped out track-by-track. 

Something I’ve touched on from time to time in my writing is my intimate familiarity with the demise of a long-term relationship I believed to last forever, as well as its resulting existential aftermath. Trying to wade through every difficult emotion while also attempting to salvage yourself and move on is no easy task. Structurally, Foxes in the Snow takes the listener through the events and effects of Isbell’s divorce in almost chronological order. Tracks like “Gravelweed” move through his reconciliation with himself, while the title track celebrates his current relationship. I feel intrinsically linked to this record, not only because of my own complicated emotions and experiences, but also through this intimate illusion of sitting in the room with Isbell as he performs it, with every pained, aching emotion he sends through the sound waves echoing my own. 

I can only hope that one day I will reach his level of self-understanding and feel the warmth of newfound love again, but in the meantime, I have this eloquently written, perfectly executed, and exquisitely paced 40-minute recording to come back to and cherish forever. 

And I’m sure time will change me some.

Honorable Mentions:

  • Coheed and Cambria - The Father of Make Believe 

  • Cheem - Power Move

  • Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky

  • Motion City Soundtrack - The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World

  • This Is Lorelai - Box for Buddy, Box for Star (Deluxe)


Katie Hayes | Hayley Williams – Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party

Post Atlantic

You wake up from a dream. 

In this dream, you were fourteen, and you were in a band playing a birthday party with your best friends. Then your parents were standing over you in an Atlantic Records meeting room. Determined and frazzled, you were trying to explain to your parents and the men in suits that you’re in a band, that it shouldn’t just be your name on that line to sign. Then you were on a stage, a huge stage in New York City, then London, then Jakarta, then an exclusive cruise just for fans of your band. A million voices across the world and years, echoing yours. Then it was 2017 in the dream. Two of your friends are gone, one is back, and one has been there the whole time. That one always seems like he’s on the verge of telling you something whenever your old bald boyfriend leaves the room. Then you’re in that Nashville studio with your friend again, but this time he’s hugging your waist. Five years pass in the dream, and you’re standing next to him and your other friend, the one from the fourteen-year-old birthday party, except this time it’s not a birthday party, it’s Taylor Swift’s tour, the biggest stage on earth. Then the song is over. You hold hands with your band, and you take a bow.

And then you wake up from the dream. And you write an album about it.

Other 2025 Favorites:

  • Greg Freeman - Burnover

  • Jay Som - Belong

  • Jensen McRae - I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!

  • Samia - Bloodless

  • Wednesday - Bleeds


Josh Ejnes | Greg Freeman – Burnover

Transgressive Records

For me, 2025 has been a year filled with more old music than new, which is a roundabout way of saying that I spent an inadvisable amount of time listening to NRBQ and Faces. What makes both of these bands so compelling is the way that they pair expert songwriting with the feeling that the wheels are about to come off, something NRBQ executes by being coy and off-kilter, and Faces execute by being drunk. The end result of this is studio recordings that feel live and live recordings that feel insane. Greg Freeman's Burnover is cut from this same cloth, pairing expert songcraft with a band going into hyperdrive and coming out as my album of the year with a bullet. The second the harmonica hit on “Point and Shoot,” I knew that this was the record for me. I'd been jumping from new release to new release, finding things I liked but didn't love, unable to put my finger on what exactly I was looking for, then I put on Burnover and bam, total bliss. The whole thing just rocks, from the masterclass in escalation “Gulch” to the tender and contemplative “Sawmill,” it’s hit after hit after hit. If you haven't heard this, you need to listen to it. If you have listened to it, listen to it again. It gets better every time. 

Other 2025 Favorites:

  • Saba and No I.D. - From the Private Collection of Saba and No I.D.

  • Marble Teeth - there was a huge crowd of people gathered in the streets

  • Jay Som - Belong

  • lots of hands - into a pretty room

  • MyVeronica/Friend’s House - Farewell Skylines


Parker White | Water From Your Eyes – It’s a Beautiful Place

Matador Records

Since black midi’s disbandment last year, I’ve been chasing the dragon. I never knew what exactly to expect when I hit play on a new black midi track, but I knew I’d hear something brilliant, daring, and spine-tingling. After It’s a Beautiful Place, Water From Your Eyes might have taken the experimental indie rock mantle. From the moment I heard lead single “Life Signs,” WFYE’s new album immediately topped my most anticipated albums of the year, and it did not disappoint. In what has become typical fashion, this record never stays in the same place for more than a few measures. Song-to-song, verse-to-verse, things are constantly shifting while remaining miraculously consistent. You’ll hear a lot of things that sound like songs you’ve heard before until those familiar ideas are sliced in half with buzzsaw guitar or drowned out by a breakbeat. No one is quite as willing to color outside the lines as Water From Your Eyes, and I’m waiting with bated breath to see what they do next.

Other 2025 Favorites:

  • Ribbon Skirt - Bite Down

  • Greg Freeman - Burnover

  • Mac Demarco - Guitar

  • Black Country, New Road - Forever, Howlong

  • Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band - New Threats From The Soul



Connor Fitzpatrick | Cory Hanson – I Love People

Drag City Inc.

Dear reader, 

I’ve been listening to Cory Hanson’s I Love People fairly religiously since it came out this summer. Sadly, I tend to treat a lot of albums like single-use plastics, checking them out to see what’s up, then tossing them aside without the fair chance of a second or third listen. This is a me problem, and maybe I’ll make it a resolution to focus on the reuse element of the three main tenets of recycling next year. So why do I keep returning to I Love People with such regularity? Well, because it has the songs, man. The album is a shining collection of eleven nuggets each with their own unique embellishments. Opener “Bird On a Swing” is a breathtaking country-rock ode to the highs and lows of personal freedom. One of the things I really love about this album is how Hanson leans into his sardonic side. “Joker” and the title track “I Love People” are both swaggering horn-laden jams that create a sense of intrigue where you can’t tell if Hanson is being sincere or if he’s fucking with you. The saccharine Christmas carol “Santa Claus Is Coming Back to Town” reads like a lost Denis Johnson short story that details the lonely existence of an Afghanistan war veteran. In the past, I’ve loved Hanson’s work, both solo and with his band Wand, for his approach to psychedelic, guitar-driven rock, but I Love People is a stark departure as he flaunts his skills as a concise singer-songwriter. I hope you give this album a listen.

Much love,
Connor

P.S. Here are a few other albums I loved this year.

  • Brian Dunne, Clams Casino

  • Greet Death, Die In Love

  • Maria Somerville, Luster

  • Die Spitz, Something to Consume

  • Addison Rae, Addison

Pile – Sunshine and Balance Beams | Album Review

/

Sooper Records

Content Warning: This article discusses religious trauma, sexual abuse, and cults.

I dug my fists into my thighs as my eyes stung with tears. I was once again the center of attention in our tiny church, congregants looking askance at me as one of them muttered, “Women should be seen and not heard.” I knew he wanted me to hear, wanted me to cry. I had spoken up during the sermon, feeling brave enough to answer a question posed to the audience. It was not the first time I had done so, nor was it the first time I had received frowns. 

But it felt different this time. 

From then on, I was silent. I rarely spoke to anyone in church after that, preferring to stand quietly in groups, shoulder blades pressed against the cool safety of the sepulchral white walls. I began to dress in longer, baggier clothes, willing myself to disappear as I navigated each week in what I would later understand to be a religious cult. I was suffocating, controlled by viciously patriarchal leadership. This was unfortunately nothing new to me, having been the victim of sexual abuse by church leadership when I was seven and subjected to abusive power dynamics, bullying, and exclusion in the name of religion throughout the rest of my youth.

My family left the cult when I was freshly eighteen. As horrible as my existence within it was, it was also all I knew - so my world crumbled to dust as I frantically grasped with trembling hands to take what I could from the past several years. Though there was little to save, I was able to heal and rebuild. Doing so has taken well over a decade, and truthfully, my healing is still ongoing. 

A massive aspect of my healing has been diving intensely into music exploration. Though I studied music through the graduate level, it wasn’t until after I completed my M.A. that I began to really dig into the underground scene. I discovered bands and artists that spoke of the things I had endured and made music that I not only found beautiful, but that I also related to. Pile has always been such a group to me, holding the title of my favorite band for years now. I’ve cried to “Fidget,” repeated “Thanks.” until every millisecond of the song was burned into my brain, and eagerly gushed about “Mr. Fish” during a radio hour. I had the privilege of seeing the band in concert during their 2023 tour, and it remains one of my favorite shows to this day. 

Each album of Pile’s is unique and equally beautiful, addressing various aspects of the human experience. The band’s sound defies categorization, never quite fitting into any one genre, scene, or descriptor. Albums can shift from brittle, belligerent noise rock to warm and melodic folk guitar, often within the space of one track. Other releases lean ambient, such as the mesmerizing and haunting Songs Known Together, Alone (2021), or in a more noisy direction, like Green and Gray (2019). I treasure the variety of their releases, captivated by frontman Rick Maguire’s knack for experimental arrangements and style. No matter what Pile attempts, it is executed with grace and the bizarre charm for which they are renowned.

Photo by Britta Joseph

When Sooper Records graciously sent Sunshine and Balance Beams over in April of this year, you can imagine the overwhelming joy I felt the moment I hit play. I sat on the floor of my office with the lights off, hands squeezing my headphones into my ears, eyes closed as Rick’s familiar voice rang through my skull like some kind of gritty prophet. I was captivated. Pulling my knees to my chest, I felt the familiar sensation of my shoulder blades digging into the wall behind me as the lyrics began racing through my head. Rick spoke of futile sacrifices, seemingly endless endeavors, and blind faith, painting on the walls of my mind palace like the Sistine Chapel. 

In the second track of the album (and first on streaming), “An Opening,” Maguire urgently delivers the lyrics “Held between a ceiling of teeth / Above and a floor of the same beneath / A hydraulic rescue tool answering prayers / Once we’re out of the woods we can get some air.” This is one of my favorite moments on Sunshine, with Rick’s voice rising to a fevered shriek on specific words, adding further impact to the already gutting lyricism. I was reminded of the deep fear I experienced in the cult - always striving to achieve some idealized version of myself, yet perpetually falling short, my adolescent body breaking as it was held to an ever-higher standard. I have lived between teeth and have the scars to prove it. 

I felt a thickness in my throat as the album continued to spin through my ears. Each song hung like a vivid and ominous tapestry as the lyrics wove a beautifully sinister picture of hope and despair. The viciously tight instrumentals snapped and raged, driven by Kris Kuss’ brilliant drumming and fully realized by guitarist Matt Connery and bassist Alex Molini. I’ve always been drawn to the group’s affinity for pentatonic melodies and the use of a particular secondary dominant chord (V/vi), so I was delighted to hear both stylistic hallmarks throughout Sunshine. String arrangements are also woven into multiple tracks, with the band citing influences like Chopin, Herrmann, and Vaughn Williams. Pile brought on cellist Eden Rayz to bring their artistic vision to life. As a classical music aficionado, I savored the melancholically ethereal atmosphere that the strings created, reminded of works like Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” or Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances.” 

A heavy aspect of this album is the overt references to nature, both in the lyricism and in details such as the field recordings in the closing track “Carrion Song.” The juxtaposition of natural beauty against cruelly wielded power was not lost on me - the theme of Man versus Nature is one of several conflict types observed in literature. Even the title of the album is an allusion to this concept - “Sunshine” being a clear reference to nature, and “Balance Beams” representing the delicate and often-challenging work of existing on the path that society has deemed correct for humanity. In the song “Deep Clay,” Rick sings, “Labor is bound by growth / The vines slowly crawl up the walls / A monument to be swallowed whole.” No matter the effort, no matter the scale, nature will lay claim to human endeavors. This thought is continued in “Meanwhile Outside” where the lyrics lay out, “Death comes / in all shapes / You get dissolved / In space / And finally you can relate.” This leaves the listener with this question: Is it worth it? What will truly become of my labor? Has this all been for naught? Pile forces us to look capitalism and the cult of corporate greed in its snarling, violent maw and answer that question honestly. 

The promise kept of a home built with my hands
Nobody lives there, but that’s where I store plans
And all my will
And all my hope
But what was it you had in mind?
So what was it you had of mine?

Now four tracks into the record, I hadn’t opened my eyes at all since I started listening. But as track five began to hum through my headphones, I felt tears burning in the infinite void of my eyelids, my skin prickling with an emotion I couldn’t identify. As achingly dissonant strings and Rick’s earnest vocals layered over urgent drumming and driving guitars, I felt as though I was standing beneath Niagara Falls, mouth open for a drop, but instead choking on the entire waterfall. Hot tears streamed into my lap as my head bent under the weight of the words: 

Is it giving up
Or my right to refuse?
Perfectly obstructed from view
Thought no one lived there, but maybe I do

I built that house with only bones
Shelters those dreams for which I’ve atoned
A balcony to bask in the glow
And furnished with things I control

I used to stay up late into the night as a teenager, sitting cross-legged on my bed, my sole companions a cheap CD player and assorted recordings that were considered “approved listening.” I would listen over and over to Daniel Barenboim’s interpretation of Chopin’s nocturnes (still my favorite recording of them, by the way), dreaming of when I was old enough to strike out on my own and create a life for myself. I imagined my future home, filled with music and golden light, a safe haven for my battered and broken heart. Édith Piaf soundtracked these daydreams too, along with Yo-Yo Ma and a compilation of various Pixar songs. I was terribly lonely, but I found solace in these artists. I felt that same sense of comfort in this track, transporting me back to those solitary evenings in my room. When I finally opened my bleary, tear-filled eyes, I learned that the song was called “Bouncing in Blue.” It healed a small part of me and cemented my opinion that it is one of the greatest songs Pile has ever written. 

The album continues its haunting and beautiful journey with the unsettling track “Born at Night.” I hold the view that it is the sequel to “Making Eyes,” a song from Pile’s 2017 release A Hairshirt of Purpose. “Making Eyes” describes an albatross that is circling the speaker’s home, though no one else can see it: “They seem to see the sky just fine / But the bird and I are making eyes.” An albatross is historically symbolic of bad fortune, as notably illustrated in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In “Born at Night,” Pile has once again drawn a literary throughline, exploring the theme of Man versus Nature as Rick describes a bird with eyes “bouncing off the moon / Says if there’s no room for cowards now / Then who the fuck are you?” I like to think that this is the same albatross from “Making Eyes,” an ever-watchful omen that acts as both a warning and a companion.

An eerie black and white music video released alongside the track drives the cult metaphor home, starring a sinister gathering of cloaked individuals hell-bent on accomplishing evil at any cost. The gentle riff opening the song quickly accelerates, driving it into a heightened frenzy until the chaos suddenly stops and the riff returns, only to build again through the end. 

As the lead single of Sunshine and Balance Beams, “Born at Night” brilliantly portrays the driving theme of the album, leaving the listener wondering about the open-ended lyrics and the similarly open-ended final scene of the music video. This, I believe, was intentional - the way we react to the systems of power we are under dictates our futures. We may be crushed by a velvet-gloved fist, but we can escape its weight.

I’ve forgiven my past and the people in it now. Though I wish that I had had a childhood that I wanted to mostly remember instead of mostly forget, I know that I am resilient, compassionate, and gentle because of it. I am incredibly grateful for bands like Pile who impact the lives of their listeners so profoundly, and I will forever champion music that heals, music that moves, and music that confronts those in power.

With eyes closed and arms open to the sun, I will let my soul rush forward into the blue as years crash around me. I am out of the woods, lifting my chin to the sky as I run towards a future that promises its only constant shall be change. But I welcome it: I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free.

Britta Joseph is a musician and visual artist based in northern California. When she isn’t listening to records or deep-diving emo archives on the internet, she enjoys writing poetry, reading existential literature, and a good iced matcha. You can find her on Instagram and Bluesky @brittajoes.