Graham Reid | | 5 min read
It's the middle of the year and progress cards are being sent out. Here Elsewhere singles out excellence from the many dozens of albums we have written about so far this year.
But note, these are only chosen from what we have actually reviewed: we heard more but didn't write about them.
And we also didn't hear albums which are doubtless your favourites from the past six months. That's as it should be.
However we feel these albums – new ones, no reissues – are those we'll be returning to for many years to come. So have a look . . . and start writing that angry letter.
Anyway, here's what we believe to be among the best we've drawn attention to so far in 2025. In no particular order . . .
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Ratso: Fuck Ratso
We said: "Ratso came, played a lot, recorded in a studio and went out in blaze. Much as they had arrived."
Read the full review here
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Jenny Hval: Iris Silver Mist
We said: "there's a career to be discovered starting with this sometimes lush, entrancing and challenging collection."
Read the full review here
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Phoebe Rings: Aseurai
We said: "an unusual synthesis of international ingredients from smooth jazz, bossa nova, mainstream Korean pop, slightlydelic disco and more in a country where most pop and rock is distilled from limited and familiar ingredients."
Read the full review here
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Lucy Dacus: Forever is a Feeling
We said: "Dacus covers not just intense matters of the heart but couches her songs in such diverse settings that this is like an almanac of emotional seasons gathered over time."
Read the full review here
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Mary Chapin Carpenter: Personal History
We said: "This is not just a beautiful album but one which lightly carries the weight of experience and burdens of disappointments in a long and well-lived life."
Read the full review here
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Womb: One is Always Heading Somewhere
We said: "Their stately and unhurried dreamscape pop has a cloudy, effortless sense of melody which can be utterly beguiling
Read the full review here
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Van Morrison: Remembering Now
We said: "Against the odds, Van Morrison has delivered an album worthy of comparison with the best of those in the Nineties."
Read the full review here
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Japanese Breakfast: For Melancholy Brunettes
We said: "Exotic instruments (sarod, gamelan, celeste) sitting alongside synths and saxophone make for discrete songs which step past guitar-framed indie.rock to offer a considered, quieter and adult take on life."
Read the full review here
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Pulp: More
We said: "With subtle and quirky funk (Slow Jam), the sound of Peter Gabriel going sleazy (My Sex) and Cocker's heartfelt emotions (Hymn of the North) alongside more lacerating observations (A Sunset) Pulp are back and on top form, resurrecting the 1990s."
Read the full review here
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Circuit Des Yeux: Halo on the Inside
We said: "It's an uneasy journey getting there from the opener Megaloner where she sings, “all the things you might be are inside of me”.That might be a bit of a stretch, but there's something magnetic about Fohr's commanding, gender-denying operatic range.Beguiling, but not for the faint-hearted
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Read the full review here
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Arjuna Oakes: While I'm Distracted
We said: "There's an ease in how Oakes' compositions shift direction: No Joke goes from a soulful pastel-shades of folk through woozy then sweeping atmospheric ambience before cutting to a funky percussion and bass break which seem natural transitions."
Read the full review here
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Jason Isbell: Foxes in the Snow
We said: "Words of wisdom in song from someone whose been through it, heard a bar band play Kid Charlemagne with a fucked up solo (Open and Close) and is seeing his failings and the possibilities of the future with clarity. And who has crafted it all into a terrific album."
Read the full review here
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The Veils: Asphodels
We said: "As a sustained and refined exploration of mortality, mysticism and spirituality, Asphodels is thoughtful without resorting to maudlin sentimentality. Not a Veils album for those who prefer his more strenuous exertions and hellfire preacher moods, but Finn Andrews was always moving in this direction: inward.
Read the full review here
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Marlon Williams: Te Whare Tiwekaweka
We said: "These original waiata, with lyrics by Williams and Kommi Tamati-Elliffe, present music rooted in Māori concert parties, choral groups (Me Uaua kē), haka and the trickle-down of Dalvanius' vision of Maori pop (Kōrero Māori). There are country music influences (the deep spirituality of Whakameatia Mai), a piano ballad Ngā Ara Aroha and the lament Kāhore He Manu E with Lorde, all wrapped up by Williams' honey-smooth voice (the love song Ko Tena Uaand Pōkaia rā te Marama with lyrics by Julian Wilcox) or like a soul unleashed (on the surging, anthemic rock of Kuru Pounamu)."
Read the full review here
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Voom: Something Good is Happening
We said: "Something Good is Happening is a delight-filled, refreshing tonic of positive, local pop destined to be on many 2025 best of the year lists."
Read the full review here
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Unwind: Embers
We said: "There is calm and stillness here and the drummerless setting allow the melodies to float, almost untethered."
Read the full review here
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Reb Fountain: How Love Bends
We said: "Everywhere Fountain is poised, letting the lyrics and musical setting convey a sense of mystery or heightened emotion as, by her own account, she deals with the fog of the past and a new relationship."
Read the full review here
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Nadia Reid: Enter Now Brightness
We said: "Enter Now Brightness is an apposite title for this break with her previous work but she toyed with simply calling Nadia Reid, a signifier of her own rebirth. It could be a delicate tightrope walk between pulling her former followers with her but also growing to embrace other possibilities, however that doesn't seem to be her concern. She has places to go and someone else to be."
Read the full review here
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Suzanne Vega: Flying With Angels
We said: "If Vega has been off your radar she still has a voice, intelligent songs and the emotional reach to pull you back with this one."
Read the full review here
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Kim Paterson/Alex Venting: Conversations
We said: " Ventling and Paterson are separated by decades but also manage to find something to say in their conversations. We need to be able to eavesdrop more on such dialogues between fine players such as these."
Read the full review here
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Sharon Van Etten: Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory
We said: "This dramatic musical architecture suits themes of unease and uncertainty, and Van Etten peppers in typically powerful melodies, snappy synth-pop (Something Ain't Right) and quieter moments (the dreamy Trouble and weightless Fading Beauty)."
Read the full review here
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The Weather Station: Humanhood
We said: "Not an easy collection charting a healing journey from self-doubt to acceptance in the face of environmental disaster, but meticulously arranged and delivered with intense honesty. Courageously perhaps, Lindeman confronts the world and finds it – and sometimes her place within it -- wanting."
Read the full review here
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Peter Perrett: The Cleansing
We said: " The 72 year old Perrett might say “I got no voice, can't even scream” (Back in the Hole) but he addresses a troubled past and disturbing visions with deadpan clarity."
Read the full review here
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Bonnie Prince Billy: The Purple Bird
We said: "Understated arrangements for strings and pedal steel on subtle, lovely songs with moral clarity."
Read the full review here
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The Chills: Spring Board; The Early Unrecorded Songs
We said: "If there are any intimations of finality in Spring Board – a collection of previously unrecorded songs repolished by Phillipps, the Chills and others – it's swept aside by the sheer joy and energy across the 20 songs. It's a measure of Phillipps' gifts he could resurrect such material and, with tweaking, breathe new life into it."
Read the full review here
Derek - Jul 1, 2025
Can I suggest Marc Ribot's 'Map Of A Blue City', not 100% new but a thing of great beauty and poise, and - I believe - his first vocal offering. Throughout the guitar is so sensitive and subtle and, jeez, sorry, lost for words...
SaveAnd for something completely different there's a hardcore Tauranga band called Threat.Meet.Protocol (three piece with bass, drums, keys) who have recently released a self-titled album that is like an avalanche (in a good way). Serious stuff.
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