Welcome

Hello and welcome to The List 2025.

This is the countdown of my top 20 albums of the year, now in its twenty-sixth iteration. You can find links to all previous editions at the end of this one. To be eligible for the List a record has to be full-length and studio recorded.

A list of my top 10 films of the year can be found over on Letterboxd. Here, though, it’s all about the music. Let’s go!

20. The Sound of Animals Fighting – The Maiden

This year’s List kicks off with a genuine oddity. I had heard of The Sound of Animals Fighting before, but this – their fourth record and first in over 15 years – was my introduction to their work. I’ve seen them called a supergroup, but I think they’re better understood as a ‘collective’. The Sound of Animals Fighting features a cast that is both revolving and huge. I’m yet to revisit any of their earlier material from the 2000s, but with The Maiden, at least, all those cooks have served up one of the most diverse records I can think of. The plus side to this is that there are so many different things to enjoy here; the inevitable downside is that it doesn’t really hang together. Indeed, this feels more like a playlist than an album. But it’s a super fun playlist. To give a few examples: the title track is post-hardcore; ‘The Horror’ is hip-hop; ‘Pretty Like Cake’ is trip-hop; ‘Kanda’ is dancey electronica; and ‘Bangladesh’ mixes post-rock with something approaching nu metal (wait... come back!). A joyful, eclectic mess.

19. Fortitude Valley – Part of the Problem, Baby

This is Fortitude Valley’s second record and their second placing on this List. Just as with their self-titled debut (#11 in 2021), Part of the Problem, Baby is crammed full of none-more-catchy bubblegum pop rock. Fortitude Valley operate in the same territory as the likes of Pony, The Beths and Beach Bunny. Most years I fall for at least one record by those bands (or others like them), and this almost always happens over the summer months, when bouncy guitar pop feels most appropriate. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Part of the Problem, Baby makes this List having been released on 1 August. This is a luscious, sunny record of breezy fun. For the most part, anyway. Band leader Laura Kovic does throw the odd curveball, like the melancholic mellow grunge of the excellent ‘Into the Wild’: just enough to stop all that happiness from getting out of hand. The record’s best tracks are its catchiest ones, though (‘Totally’, ‘Red Sky’, et al.). Also, when am I getting the debut album by nathy sg (drummer for Fortitude Valley, but releaser of some awesome tracks as a solo artist over the last two years)?

18. Momma – Welcome to My Blue Sky

Momma obviously decided to keep things comparatively simple on record #4. After two concept albums in a row (2020’s Two of Me, which I still don’t fully understand but which has something to do with a metaphysical purgatory – #15 on this List; and 2022’s Household Name, which has a less confusing narrative about a rock star’s rise and fall and was critically adored but I never fell for – did not place...) this latest effort is a much more traditional collection of songs about love and loss. Musically, too, Welcome to My Blue Sky is a more straightforward and less abrasive affair than Momma’s previous records. Their signature languid lo-fi grunge sound is still present, but this album offers more hooks (see especially ‘I Want You (Fever)’, ‘Rodeo’ and ‘Bottle Blonde’) than spikes. Indeed, it’s ultimately more indie rock than anything else. It’s a record that still occasionally kicks (as on ‘Last Kiss’ – no mistaking the grunge influences there), but, overall, Welcome to My Blue Sky is Momma at their most accessible.

17. Deep Sea Diver – Billboard Heart

Billboard Heart was my introduction to Deep Sea Diver, meaning that – as well as being a great record in itself – it unlocked an excellent back catalogue for me too. I now feel like I’ve been a fan for years. This is extremely classy indie rock, with carefully layered instrumentation, some outstanding hooks, and glossy production. It has both sharp points and soft edges, which are nicely intermixed, and melds its indie core with various electronic influences in interesting ways. At its best, like on the propulsive double-header of ‘What Do I Know’ and ‘Emergency’, the New Romantic tinged ‘Shovel’, or the emotional closing ballad ‘Happiness is Not a Given’, this record is killer. It does have few dips, though: tracks like ‘Tiny Threads’ and ‘Be Sweet’ are perfectly good but don’t do it for me in quite the same way as this album’s best two thirds do. That occasional drop off is what ultimately stopped Billboard Heart from troubling the upper reaches of this List: had it been as good as its best moments throughout it would have been in the running for top spot.

16. Marta – Out the Way

Given that Marta’s debut record, When It’s Going Wrong, topped this List in 2023 and would be amongst my 5 favourite albums of the last decade, it’s hard not to view this follow up as something of a disappointment. Judged on its own merits, though, Out the Way is an excellent trip-hop record and, in flashes, is – once again – an exceptional one. The moments of genius include the title track’s insistent beat and bassline, the twisted ambience of ‘Leave the Lights’ (probably the only track here that could credibly try to camouflage itself on When It’s Going Wrong) and the darkwave of (appropriately titled) album closer ‘Last Song’. Not everything here entirely works, though. Credit to Marta, and her ever-present collaborator Tricky, for refusing to repeat the beats (literally) of the debut record. Out the Way treads its own path, and it is a far more ambitious path than was walked by its predecessor, with greater scale and more diverse influences. This surely stems, in part at least, from the fact that the record features a lot of additional collaborators, who bring freshness but also, for me, somewhat dilute the focus of the Marta/Tricky partnership. The result is that some tracks, like the 8-bit funk of ‘My Mighty’, feel a little out of place, while others, like ‘Sea Beams’, struggle to land at all. Despite its weaker elements, though, this record is still lightyears ahead of the majority of 2025 trip-hop (that said, shout out to Maddy Jay’s excellent debut album, which missed out on placing but only just). In the end, Out the Way still earned a spot on this List fairly comfortably.

15. Jacob Alon – In Limerence

The debut record by Scottish folk singer-songwriter Jacob Alon is a beautiful, fragile thing. When I first heard In Limerence, I wondered if it might be too slight to have much longevity; in fact, it’s precisely its delicacy that has kept me coming back to it. The record’s translucent melodies float around, untethered, while Alon’s otherworldly falsetto soars above them. Their finger picking is technically impressive but very restrained (almost unexpectedly so: on ‘Elijah’, for instance, I think most guitarists of this quality would feel compelled to show off). I also really like the occasional sections of simple, shifting percussion (see ‘Amber’; ‘I Couldn’t Feed Her’). Lyrically, while there are moments of deeper passion (as on ‘Confession’), for the most part Alon opts for a sort of tender, nymphy melancholy – which fits the music here perfectly. Overall, this is an impressive debut by a young artist, with signs of the potential for much more. In Limerence fully deserves its Mercury Music Prize nomination and – of course, far more prestigiously – its placing on this List.

14. Ben Kweller – Cover the Mirrors

I’ve been a fan of Ben Kweller since my friend and I pooled the tiny amount of money we had to buy a shared copy of Radish’s ‘Little Pink Stars’ single in April 1997 (when Kweller, my friend and I were all still 15) and all but one of the solo records he has put out since he left Radish at the end of the 90s have made this List (sorry Go Fly a Kite). He’s always seemed such a nice person, he’s less than a month older than me, and he grew up in basically the same place that my wife did: I feel a connection to him in a way I do few artists. All of which adds to Cover the Mirrors being such a gut punch. Working his way through the tragic death of his teenage son Dorian, this is a record full of pain in a way no breakup album could ever touch. For a long while I found it all a bit much, tugging away, as it does, on my own parental anxieties. Indeed, I thought it would miss out on this List despite it being brilliant musically (this is about as good as Kweller’s americana indie rock has ever been) simply because it was such a difficult listen. Hearing him talk about it on Zane Lowe’s podcast, though, finally unlocked the hope and strength that’s to be found in the record alongside all that pain: “don’t give in when your heart aches...”. Probably deserves to be placed a lot higher than 14th but – while I learnt to love it – Cover the Mirrors remains a record that is so uncomfortably real that I can only listen to it when I steel myself.

13. Alpha Male Tea Party – Reptilian Brain

Alpha Male Tea Party are a band I’ve liked for quite a while without ever before truly falling for. They’ve previously released four albums of mathy instrumental prog rock, all of which have their charms (especially 2017’s Health), but none of which have ever come close to troubling this List. Album #5 is a different beast. The tracks here are heavier, less technically complex, shorter, and feature... gulp... vocals. All of which has had a large chunk of AMTP’s proggy fan base up in arms. For me, though, this is the best they’ve ever been. There is a strong post-hardcore element added to the math-rock mix (reminding me of former List-toppers Press to MECO), which elevates and uncomplicates their sound. Reptilian Brain still has its progressive moments (closer ‘All Become One When the Sun Comes to Earth’, for example, could sit happily on one of their previous records). But for the most part this is an instance of a band letting go and rocking out. That ethos is showcased best on frantic lead single ‘Battle Crab’, which is one of my absolute favourite tracks of 2025. Overall, Reptilian Brain is a great example of less is more.

12. Wet Leg – moisturizer

An excellent follow up to their excellent debut (also #12 in 2022). After their stint as #nextbigthing, Wet Leg return a headline act with much more expectation to live up to. moisturizer (no capital letters, thank you!) delivers on that expectation with a second helping of top-quality indie pop. The musical template of the debut record is largely retained, albeit with a sharper edge and a greater focus on dance influences. Indeed, my favourite tracks here are those that are of a propulsive, dance rock nature. ‘CPR’ and ‘catch these fists’ both remind me of Kasabian at their best, while ‘pillow talk’ verges on something almost like Death from Above 1979’s thundering bass driven dance rock. Lyrically, Wet Leg offer up more arch girl power, although this time of a slightly more abrasive nature (they are less playful on moisturizer than they were on their debut, for sure). I’m not convinced any of it – lyrics, music, presentation – is quite as subversive as Wet Leg seem to think it is, but that doesn’t really matter: they’re undeniably cool, and at least they’re trying to say something instead of churning out the usual vapidity. In 2022, I questioned whether Wet Leg had enough about them to deliver a successful sophomore album. Fair play, they certainly did. Let’s hope the same is true for album #3.

11. Tigerleech – Bicephalous

One might not normally associate the city of love with the filthy delights of sludge metal, but Paris’ Tigerleech are here to change all that. Offering some of the best progressive stoner rumblings (with post-hardcore undertones) this side of a Boss Keloid bongathon, this is grimy, dense stuff. At their most focused Tigerleech remind me of Red Fang or even some of Mastodon’s recent, doom-laden work. Some of the riffs here – like on album closer ‘The Last Light We Saw’ or the chugging ‘King of White Castle’ – are more than enough for a darn good time in themselves. What has given this album longevity for me, though, has been its exploratory aspects. The frantic ‘Late Regrets’ is a good example: technical, and full of befuddling time changes. Likewise, the conjoined tracks ‘Feeble…’ and ‘…Again’ wander all over the place, whilst always being sure to return back to a lovely extra-detuned (drop B, maybe???) guitar riff. Yummy. When a band gets the mix between prog and hook right it’s always likely to land well with me, and this chunky French beggar fits the bill nicely.

10. Benthic – Sanguine

It’s fitting that I’ve ended up ranking Tigerleech and Benthic next to each other, both because they share a fair amount of DNA, but also because doing so serves as a nice mini tour of 2025 underground heavy music from European capitals – shifting here from Paris to Berlin. As one might expect from a German band, Benthic lean more into post-hardcore than Tigerleech and their metal influences are a bit more groove (and, occasionally, almost metalcore) rather than sludge. The posty, riffy, shouty ballpark is the same, however. The record is bookended with two versions of its title track, both of which are fantastic. The album closer, ‘Sanguine, Pt. 2’, in particular, is an excellent example of how to do post-metal well – melodic and unexpected, without fully diving in at the deep end. There are elements of early Open Hand here, albeit slowed down. Benthic are also great when they speed things up and go full post-hardcore, like on my favourite track on Sanguine, ‘Murmur’: it’s a groovy delight, with a post-hardcore/metalcore riff to die for. Much like Tigerleech, Benthic get the balance between progression and catchiness (of a sort – you won’t be hearing this on Radio 1) spot on here. Hefty.

9. Kerala Dust – An Echo of Love

It’s been a period of upheaval for Kerala Dust, losing Harvey Grant on keys (who I referred to as their ‘MVP’ in my write up of their last record, Violet Drive – #7 in 2023). Grant’s departure left a big enough hole that they replaced him with not one but two new members. The reconfigured four piece then went out on a huge tour and so recorded An Echo of Love while on the road, studio hopping across the globe. The result is much more coherent and focused than one might expect. It’s subtly different to its predecessor but plays in the same sandpit. Kerala Dust here draw on a similar range of influences: krautrock, electronica, dance, indie, americana and blues. And Edmund Kelly’s distinctive drawl remains at the centre of everything. That said, An Echo of Love feels bolder, and larger in scope. It’s also rather more up-tempo. The driving force here is the beats: smoky basement blues dialled down, and shiny dance floor dialled up. This record took time to grow on me, but I found I kept coming back to it, and in the last few months of the year it climbed from the fringes of my List thinking to another top 10 placing. An impressive navigation through all that change.

8. Jadu Heart – POST HEAVEN

This is easily Jadu Heart’s best record yet. As with Kerala Dust’s An Echo of Love, it took me a while to dial in to POST HEAVEN – it is a big shift from the shoegazy indie of Derealised (#19 in 2023). This is a beat-driven mix of glitchy synth electronica, atmospheric dreamscapes and lo-fi guitar. And it asks a lot of you: the duo have never been anywhere near this experimental before. Since its release in April, though, I kept on coming back to it and kept unlocking more from it musically each time. Then there’s the added spice of the fact that the pair – previously a couple and now separated – made the decision to continue to work together post split and so effectively created their angsty breakup album... together. Lyrically, therefore, POST HEAVEN is full of melancholy and pain, and it all feels raw and real (albeit still falling some way short of Cover the Mirrors levels of heartbreak, of course). Utilising the implosion of their personal relationship to fuel their (shared) art must have taken some act of will, but it has led to a fantastic record. Combine that jagged emotional core with the range and quality of the music on show here, and it adds up to Jadu Heart taking a confident and significant step forward.

7. Pelican – Flickering Resonance

Back to the heavier stuff... Chicago’s kings of instrumental post-metal finally return after a lengthy break (stemming, as has been the case for many artists, from the mess made by Covid). Pelican are a band I’ve liked for 20+ years, and over that time they have been fairly regular – if not guaranteed – placers on this List. Flickering Resonance is their seventh record and their fourth List entry. It’s also their best release since City of Echoes, way back in 2007 (which likewise came in at #7 that year). Flickering Resonance is heavy, but less heavy than much of Pelican’s previous work, especially its immediate predecessor, 2019’s beefy Nighttime Stories. There are still some colossal riffs here (‘Indelible’, for instance, sure gets the blood pumping), but Flickering Resonance takes Pelican much closer to the post-rock/post-metal borderlands than they ever have strayed before. Tracks like ‘Pining for Ever’ and album best ‘Wandering Mind’ veer into much mellower territory, with plucky guitars and dreamlike sections. Overall, while it still retains Pelican’s metal roots, Flickering Resonance is rather more We Lost the Sea than Russian Circles. And this shift suits them. A triumphant return.

6. Blondshell – If You Asked for a Picture

One of my favourite artists to emerge in recent years, Sabrina Teitelbaum – aka Blondshell – has followed up her excellent self-titled debut record (#11 on this List in 2023) with an even stronger collection of indie rock songs. If You Asked for a Picture doesn’t ever quite match the very best tracks from its predecessor (there’s no ‘Salad’ here, unfortunately), but it is a considerably more consistent affair. Every track on show is excellent. Teitelbaum’s appeal for me, first and foremost, is in her knack for writing extremely catchy indie rock: this whole record now lives permanently in my head. Nothing here is wildly original musically, but If You Asked for a Picture is a perfect example of how to write deceptively simple indie songs of the highest quality. Teitelbaum’s other great skill – and where she really does carve her own path – is that she nails the lyrical content here (again, even more so than she did on her debut as Blondshell). Her words are personal yet universal, uncomplicated but unexpected, and socially conscious but never value-signalling. The result is a record of power and vulnerability, propelled by an impressive ear for a tune. More please.

5. Great Grandpa – Patience, Moonbeam

After a six-year break since their truly exceptional sophomore record, Four of Arrows (#2 on this List in 2019, losing only to Tool – which doesn’t really count as losing), it’s wonderful to have Great Grandpa back. Al Menne came out as trans in the interim, making him an icon for female to male trans music fans. He’s embraced the responsibility of that – which I’m sure he didn’t want – with strength and dignity. And there’s no question that Patience, Moonbeam is inherently intertwined with Menne’s transition, even though it also stretches out well beyond it. Lyrically, a number of songs engage with the trans experience directly (‘Ephemera’ being perhaps the most explicit example). On top of that the album was recorded when Menne was in the early stages of taking testosterone, and he impressively turns the consequent changes to his voice into a huge positive. He always had a unique voice but his range here is crazy, and whenever his voice cracks he ensures a whole load of emotion spills out. Musically, Patience, Moonbeam is Great Grandpa’s most ambitious record, keeping the folk-indie heart of Four of Arrows but adding scale and allowing space for more progressive segments, including greater use of strings, vocoders, and keys. I think I ultimately still prefer Four of Arrows. That record is pretty hard to top. This is an exceptionally well-pitched follow up, though: different in various ways but not a radical departure. About as good as could possibly have been hoped for.

4. Saya Gray – SAYA

Oddball art pop of the highest calibre from Japanese-Canadian multi-everything Saya Gray. This is a record I fell in love with in February and which has stayed in my regular rotation ever since. SAYA is a very precise record, but also a very fractured one. Gray is here both serious and silly, with lyrics about emotional abuse and betrayal juxtaposed with a range of almost childlike noise nuggets (samples, vocal ticks, guitar licks). Under all the creative bells and whistles, though, is some serious singer-songwriter heft. Tracks like lead single ‘SHELL (OF A MAN)’, the playful ‘..THUS IS WHY (I DON’T SPRING 4 LOVE)’, and the beautiful ‘10 WAYS (TO LOSE A CROWN)’ all feel unique while, at their core, being catchy earworms. Gray’s production is impeccable and her meticulous, constructed approach feels way more alive than it has any right to. Is SAYA a pretentious record? You’d better believe it. Sometimes annoyingly so. I mean, who wouldn’t hate those self-satisfied, misspelled, capitalised Gen Z song titles? If you’re making pop music this fantastic, though, you get to dictate the terms.

3. Greyhaven – Keep It Quiet

The prog mathy-metalcore maestros from Kentucky return with another sensational record. 2022’s This Bright and Beautiful World came second on this List (sandwiched between Ithaca’s They Fear Us and Metric’s Formentera – which is some company). For me, Keep It Quiet doesn’t quite match This Bright and Beautiful World but it comes pretty darn close, and has kept growing in my estimation after a slow start when it was released in early October – ultimately forcing itself all the way into the top 3. After their heavier, more simplistic early releases, Greyhaven have now evolved into something fairly unique. They combine intricate, technically proficient passages (especially on the guitar – Nick Spencer is simply on fire here), with catchy choruses, all while retaining plenty of skull-mushing riffage. Brent Mills certainly does his fair share of screaming on Keep It Quiet (see, e.g., the album’s opening track ‘Prelude: Evening Star’ – the only weak link here, weird choice to start with it...). But, actually, his default setting on this record is something closer to soaring power ballad. And, more generally, while there’s nothing as overtly radio friendly as ‘All Candy’ this time around, as a whole Keep It Quiet is a more accessible album than This Bright and Beautiful World. At its most metalcore it’ll still be far too much for Jo Indie, but by rights it should open Greyhaven up to a larger audience. Add to that the fact that album-closer ‘Cemetery Sun’ is my favourite track of 2025 bar none, and you get the first truly essential record on this year’s List.

2. Arcade Fire – Pink Elephant

It might have received widespread negative reviews, but I think Pink Elephant is my favourite Arcade Fire record since Neon Bible in 2007 and perhaps even since their astonishing debut record, Funeral, in 2005. I know that I said something similar in 2017 in relation to Everything Now (also #2 that year), which is a record I still really like but that has dipped somewhat in my estimation over the 8 years since. So I guess we’ll see how this one fares longer term. The List can only ever be a snapshot, though, and, as it stands, Pink Elephant has ended 2025 a whisker away from taking top spot (NB: there was no runaway winner this year…).

My sense is that people disliked Pink Elephant for two main reasons: first, because it is quite simplistic musically, as compared to their previous work; secondly, because people are angry at Win Butler and don’t like how this record engages with the allegations made against him.

On the first of those, it’s true that the music is massively scaled back here. There are no bombastic, theatrical works of multi-instrumental chaos à la Funeral. Indeed, tracks like ‘Ride or Die’ aim for the other extreme: minimalism writ small. Even with Pink Elephant’s more ambitious tracks, like my album favourite, ‘I Love Her Shadow’, the beats are simple and the refrains are notably easy on the ear. But by stripping right back and focusing on melody and subtlety, Arcade Fire have produced something better than they’ve managed in years. Recognisably them, but different: catchier, more focused, more immediate.

As for the lyrics, and the controversy, Pink Elephant is an invitation to have a view on it all because the album very deliberately focuses on it. But I just don’t feel I know enough to have a view: the allegations against Butler are so serious but he denies them and nothing has been proven. So the lyrics here are, I guess, either shameless or courageous, and it’s unlikely ever to be clear which. Taking it at face value, the writing feels bold and artistic, if a little solipsistic.

Anyway, I know I’m in a minority on this, but I think Pink Elephant is awesome (please don’t cancel me). After 2022’s very mediocre WE – the only one of Arcade Fire’s previous records not to make this List – it is a pretty great return. I knew it was going to be in the running for my record of the year from about halfway through my first play of it. In the end, it missed out by about as close a margin as is possible.

1. Amplifier – Gargantuan

And so, Amplifier become only the second artist to top this List more than once, across its 26 iterations. While Bloc Party achieved the feat in 3 years (2005, 2008), the gap this time is an amazing 21 years. Amplifier have consistently been one of my favourite bands throughout that period, but the fact that they have delivered a record this strong now is a major surprise given their recent history. The pandemic nearly ended them, with Sel Balamir suffering from long and severe COVID, his band effectively breaking up around him while he was ill, and then – once well enough – him initially deciding to release solo material.

Thankfully Amplifier eventually re-emerged from the ashes, but now as a two piece: the band’s two core, original members deciding to go it alone. What should have been their triumphant return, though – 2023’s Hologram – was a huge disappointment. Like Arcade Fire’s WE, it is their only record not to make this List, but, unlike Arcade Fire, it is also their only record not to place somewhere in the top 6. It was a drop off so notable that I thought they might be done. I’m delighted to have been wrong about that.

The first thing to say about the record itself is that it’s very well named. Gargantuan is just that: vast in scope. Indeed, its scale is cosmic. Amplifier have always incorporated a large dollop of space rock into their sound, but Gargantuan sees them voyaging further out into the galaxy than they ever have before. Both ‘Invader’ and ‘Blackhole’, for example, combine a wall of psychedelic guitar effects with unselfconscious spacefaring lyrics in ways that evoke some of the best parts of 2011’s The Octopus. ‘Blackhole’, in particular, is interdimensional: it’s a duet between Balamir and guest vocalist Jennifer Gira where every line is sung by both of them, meaning that the whole track has this ghostly, alien echo. Super cool.

The tracks on Gargantuan also benefit from featuring multiple layered guitars, making the record sound truly epic. I was concerned that the move to a two piece might mean the band felt small, and there were moments of that on Hologram. But here, with Balamir already layering guitars in the absence of other bandmates, he doubles down. Why stop at 3 guitars when you can have 5? The result is a sound that’s rich, nuanced, and, most of all, huge. NB: I did wonder how this would work live but seeing them perform as a two piece for the first time in May was something special. Balamir looping his playing and layering all the elements of these songs in real time is a feat of technical proficiency that’s well beyond my comprehension.

In retrospect, I now read Hologram less as a failure and more as a necessary step to allow this new iteration of Amplifier to find itself. One of the most notable course corrections from Hologram on Gargantuan is a return to some killer riffs, of the sort that helped make their 2004 debut a masterpiece. Gargantuan might be Amplifier’s most spacey record but it’s not their most progressive one. There is plenty of focus to its journeying, and there are always some chunky-riff gravity boots around to hold us down. How the two interact – trippy space rock and colossal riffs – are where the greatest joy is to be found here. And it doesn’t get any better than on the bridging track ‘Entity’. It flows directly from the riff at the end of ‘Pyramid’ into a knotty, swirling mass of sound, which then wriggles and twists and riffs into the thunderous opening of ‘Guilty Pleasure’. Those 5 minutes or so, spread across 3 tracks, are by far the best thing Amplifier have done since 2004.

Ultimately, while Gargantuan is certainly not as good as their debut – still one of the best records ever made – the fact that Amplifier have somehow delivered a second List-topping record 21 years on has underlined something that had already been fairly clear for the last two decades: they are one of the true greats. All hail.

Spotify Wrapped 2025

The only definitive account of my year in music is this List, of course, but here are my key stats from Spotify Wrapped for 2025 as a bonus.

Albums*

*I think that the absence of Amplifier’s Gargantuan on Spotify’s list of my most played albums of 2025 is likely to be due to the fact that it wasn’t available on Spotify for at least the first 3 months after its initial release (a period during which I listened to it incessantly, just on MP3s that I ripped from the physical CD release...).

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