Concerts:
I must confess that this exercise becomes less and less interesting, for a very simple reason. Every March I travel to London to see the Hold Steady, usually for multiple nights. Since Steve Albini left us and Shellac stopped touring, there isn’t a better live band in the world, and there isn’t a better community to share those shows with. So why bother? Well, perhaps because I have no other way of letting you know that their Sunday evening show at the legendary 100 Club, where they performed Separation Sunday in its entirety for the occasion of its 20th anniversary, was the best rock show I’ve seen in my life. Here’s the rest of the top ten:
- The Hold Steady (100 Club / Electric Ballroom, London)
- MJ Lenderman (two nights at Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam; Primavera Sound, Barcelona; Festival Vodafone Paredes de Coura)
- Wilco (Openluchttheater Rivierenhof, Antwerp)
- Les Savy Fav (Left of the Dial festival, Rotterdam)
- Ichiko Aoba (TivoliVredenburg Grote Zaal, Utrecht)
- Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band (three (!) nights at Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam, two of them opening for Lenderman)
- envy performing A Dead Sinking Story (Roadburn festival, Tilburg)
- Spiritualized performing Pure Phase (Primavera Sound, Barcelona)
- Chat Pile (Primavera Sound, Barcelona; Roadburn festival, Tilburg)
- Water Damage (OCCII, Amsterdam)
Honorable mentions: Vampire Weekend‘s headlining show at Paredes de Coura, and Cass McCombs‘ barebones secret show on the first day of the festival; Destroyer‘s band in fine form both at Primavera Sound’s side programme and as a surprise band at Le Guess Who?; Prewn‘s solo shows at Left of the Dial festival (what an amazing showcase festival, by the way); The Fiery Furnaces‘ reunion set at LGW; pg.99 and MAQUINA. tearing down the Koepelhal and the Engine Room at Roadburn (the latter also at Utrecht’s ACU); Wendy Eisenberg‘s band’s mesmerizing set at The Hague’s Rewire festival; a beautiful Karate set at the same venue on a nice summer evening; Sturgill Simpson playing a three hour set at Paradiso; Blood Incantation and their obelisk at TivoliVredenburg’s Ronda; Ratboys previewing their forthcoming album in the basement of the venue where the Take Root festival takes place in Groningen, right before another beautiful The Weather Station show; high voltage rock sets by Momma, High Vis, Gouge Away, The Jesus Lizard, and Turnstile at Primavera Sound, and an ecstatic closing set by Danny L Harle. An atypical year (at least for me) where most of my highlights came from festivals as opposed to club shows, and a testament to how much better festival productions and audiences have become. Or I was just lucky enough to attend some of the best festivals the continent has to offer in 2025: in cronological order, Rewire, Roadburn, Primavera Sound, Paredes de Coura, Left of the Dial, Take Root, Le Guess Who?. Hoping to repeat most of them in 2026.
Records:
1. Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band New Threats from the Soul
Six albums later — four of them with the excellent State Champion — Ryan Davis finally gets the recognition he deserves with the superlative New Threats from the Soul. Seven sprawling tracks that can only be among the top of the crop of 2025, especially if you’re the kind of person who enjoys 1) great melodies 2) better lyricism 3) non-chorusy song structures 4) americana-infused indie rock 5) indie rock-infused americana 6) an unexpected goddamn breakbeat 7) going “Oh, that’s Will Oldham’s/Catherine Irwin’s/Myriam Gendron’s voice in the background!”, and more. New Threats from the Soul is not only my favorite album of 2025, it’s probably my favorite of the decade so far.
2. Craig Finn Always Been
There might be a problem with me whenever anything Craig Finn releases, either solo or with the Hold Steady, does not end up near the top of that year’s list. Although it’s not my favorite solo album by him — his mid-to-late 2010s trilogy is an insane run — Always Been only misses the top position to an absolute masterpiece. Usual producer Josh Kaufman gets to have a well-deserved break as Finn puts the War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel in charge, and the result is 1) as Springsteenian as you’d expect in a few songs, but also 2) still distinctly Finnian, his storytelling getting better and better with time.
3. Wednesday Bleeds
To be completely honest, after being burned out by the few lackluster live shows I’ve seen in the past couple of years, I was not expecting Wednesday’s new album to feature this high on this list. But there’s no denying: there are very few people writing as well as Hartzman these days, at least in genres I care about. The world’s #1 Drive-By Truckers tribute band has been outdoing their masters for three straight albums now, and that’s no small feat. Plus, “Elderberry Wine” was my favorite song of 2025. Can’t wait to be slightly disappointed by another slew of live shows, then forgiving everything the next time I put any of their records on.
4. Oklou choke enough
There’s always an odd one out on my guitar-heavy choices, and discovering Oklou’s work has been a highlight of my year. I was oblivious to the French musician’s existence until I came across Danny L Harle’s remix of “Harvest Sky”, and I’m very glad I did. Marylou Mayniel’s classical training shines through every single track off choke enough, a minimalist electronic pop album that ends up having some of my favorite melodies of 2025.
5. Superchunk Songs in the Key of Yikes
Not sure if “return to form” is the right expression here — when have Superchunk not been in form? But Songs in the Key of Yikes feels like an achievement a couple of notches above their merely “good” recent albums, and definitely their catchiest since 2010’s Majesty Shredding (which is probably the best album Superchunk has put out in the last 30 years, if you don’t mind the hot take). And what a treat to hear Rosali featuring on highlight “Bruised Lung”.
- Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band New Threats From the Soul
- Craig Finn Always Been
- Wednesday Bleeds
- Oklou choke enough
- Superchunk Songs in the Key of Yikes
- Pile Sunshine and Balance Beams
- Tyler Childers Snipe Hunter
- The Beths Straight Line Was a Lie
- Greet Death Die In Love
- Ichiko Aoba Luminescent Creatures
- The Mars Volta Lucro sucio; los ojos del vacío
- Destroyer Dan’s Boogie
- Water Damage Instruments
- Jerry David DeCicca Cardiac Country
- YHWH Nailgun 45 Pounds
- FACS Wish Defense
- Prewn System
- Geese Getting Killed
- Sam Amidon Salt River
- Turnstile Never Enough
- PUP Who Will Look After the Dogs?
- Greg Freeman Burnover
- Circuit Des Yeux Halo On the Inside
- Pulp More
- Carson McHone Pentimento
And, with no particular order, here’s the rest of the top 50:
Alan Sparhawk With Trampled By Turtles
Bad Bunny DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
Bonnie “Prince” Billy The Purple Bird
caroline caroline 2
Cass McCombs Interior Live Oak
Charif Megarbane Hawalat
Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo In the Earth Again
Dean Johnson I Hope We Can Still Be Friends
Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek Yarın Yoksa
Dutch Interior Moneyball
Esther Rose Want
Florry Sounds Like…
Friendship Caveman Wakes Up
Hannah Cohen Earthstar Mountain
Hayden Pedigo I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away
Hetta Acetate
Horsegirl Phonetics On and On
Immen Nimmen
Jonathan Richman Only Frozen Sky Anyway
Kassi Valazza From Newman Street
Leon Majcen Making a Livin’ (Not a Killin’)
Maruja Pain to Power
Shallowater God’s Gonna Give You A Million Dollars
Snocaps Snocaps
The Weather Station Humanhood
BONUS: a hundred honorable mentions (and I bet I’m missing some enjoyable records here, too):
ada lea, when i paint my masterpiece
Adeline Hotel, Watch the Sunflowers
Al Nicol, Only Hoping
Anna Tivel, Animal Poem
bar italia, Some Like It Hot
Basia Bulat, Basia’s Palace
bdrmm, Microtonic
Bedridden, Moths Strapped To Each Other’s Backs
Big Thief, Double Infinity
Black Country, New Road, Forever Howlong
Brown Horse, All the Right Weaknesses
Candelabro, Deseo, Carne y Voluntad
Cate Le Bon, Michelangelo Dying
CMAT, Euro-Country
Colter Wall, Memories and Empties
Conan Osiris, XENONEXO
David Byrne, Who Is the Sky?
Eiko Ishibashi, Antigone
Ela Minus, DÍA
Emily Hines, These Days
Emily Yacina, Veilfall
Erin Durant, Firetrail
Forth Wanderers, The Longer This Goes On
Frog Eyes, The Open Up
Fruit Bats, Baby Man
Fust, Big Ugly
Gelli Haha, Switcheroo
Grace Rogers, Mad Dogs
Graham Hunt, Timeless World Forever
Great Grandpa, Patience, Moonbeam
Gwenifer Raymond, Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark
Hand Habits, Blue Reminder
Heartworms, Glutton for Punishment
Hotline TNT, Raspberry Moon
Hypothetics, The Crossing
I Am Oak, Time Drifts
James Elkington, Pastel de Nada
Japanese Breakfast, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)
Jason Isbell, Foxes in the Snow
Jeff Tweedy, Twilight Override
Jenny Hval, Iris Silver Mist
Jim Ghedi, Wasteland
Julianna Riolino, Echo in the Dust
Karol G, Tropicoqueta
Kathleen Edwards, Billionaire
Lael Neale, Altogether Stranger
Laura Stevenson, Late Great
Lilly Hiatt, Forever
Little Mazarn, Mustang Island
Living Hour, Internal Drone Infinity
lots of hands, into a pretty room
Marissa Nadler, New Radiations
Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts
Mazozma, Bathing in the Stone
Mess Esque, Take Me To Your Infinite Garden
Model/Actriz, Pirouette
Modern Nature, The Heat Warps
Momma, Welcome To My Blue Sky
Montanha, Alvorada
My Morning Jacket, is
Nadia Reid, Enter Now Brightness
Nihilistic Easyrider, Deluxe Edition
Pale Blue Eyes, New Place
Patterson Hood, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams
pôt-pôt, Warsaw 480km
Pygmy Lush, TOTEM
Rats on Rafts, Deep Below
Richard Dawson, End of the Middle
Rosalía, LUX
Rose City Band, Sol y Sombra
S.G. Goodman, Planting By The Signs
Sababa 5, Nadir
Sarathy Korwar, There Is Beauty, There Already
Scott Hirsch, Lost Padres
Sharon van Etten, Sharon van Etten & The Attachment Theory
Spite House, Desertion
Squid, Cowards
Steve Gunn, Daylight Daylight
Sven Wunder, Daybreak
Tarah Kikuchi, punctum
Terzij de Horde, Our Breath Is Not Ours Alone
The Antlers, Blight
The Barr Brothers, Let It Hiss
The Deep Dark Woods, The Circle Remains
The Delines, Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom
The Devil Makes Three, Spirits
The Mountain Goats, Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
The Pink Stones, Thank Lord… it’s The Pink Stones
The Tubs, Cotton Crown
This Is Lorelei, Holo Boy
Titanic, HAGEN
Todd Day Wait, Letters from the Road
TOPS, Bury the Key
Tortoise, Touch
U.S. Girls, Scratch It
Vandoliers, Life Behind Bars
Will Stratton, Points of Origin
Willi Carlisle, Winged Victory
Yazz Ahmed, A Paradise In the Hold
Σtella, Adagio