Dustsucker’s 100 Best Albums of 2025 - Part III: 1–35
- Nikolaj Bruus
- 25. feb.
- 8 min læsning
In this final round, I’m highlighting the 35 albums that stood out the most (from my humble, personal perspective - as always, plenty of wonderful records have surely slipped through the cracks).
1. Robbie Basho - Snow Beneath the Belly of a White Swan : The Lost Live Recordings (Tompkins Square, US)
Genre: American Primitivism
Rating: *****
A bit dull with an archival release as number one? Not when it’s Basho - and some of the finest recordings of him ever.
edit: just realized that this release actually came out in December 2024, but December releases rarely get much attention in the year they’ve released, especially in year-end lists, which is why the album is included here.
2. Nyxy Nyx - Cult Classics Vol. I (Julias War, US)
Genre: Sludge Pop / Dreampop / Shoegaze
Rating: ****½
Nyxy Nyxy is the best band in the world right now and nobody knows it (one of the perks of running a music blog/newsletter is that you get to make these stupid, overly assertive statements + you’re free to contradict yourself anytime).
3. César y su Jardín - Corre y suelta a los perros (self-released, MX)
Genre: Hispanic American Progressive Chamber Folk / Son Jarocho / Samba-Jazz
Rating: ****½
An incredibly poetic, heartwarming and free-spirited record, overflowing with compositional and performative brilliance. In case one has forgotten what music sounds like after getting lost in RYM-core and other endless rabbit holes of the internet.
4. The Tubs - Cotton Crown (Trouble in Mind, WLS)
Genre: Jangle Rock / Post-Punk / Folk
Rating: ****½
So I just wrote that Nyxy Nyxy is the best band in the world right now… But tbh, that might be The Tubs.
5. Joshua Burnside - Teeth of Time (Nettwerk Music Group, NIR)
Genre: Chamber-Folk / Singer-Songwriter/ Experimental
Rating: ****½
Among today’s songwriters balancing tradition and experimentation, Burnside stands firmly at the top of my list.
6. Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones (XL Recordings, US)
Genre: Bedroom Pop / Alternative R&B / Hypnagogic Pop
Rating: **** ½
A masterful piece of art-pop and quite possibly the finest pop record of the year.
7. Forankring - hjerte, løft din glædes vinger (Afvikling, DK)
Genre: Ambient / Experimental
Rating: ****½
My favourite “ambient” release - or whatever you want to call it - this year comes from Denmark’s own Jonas Torstensen, who runs the excellent micro-label Afvikling (and previously the equally great Kornmod).
Backxwash - Only Dust Remains (Ugly Hag, CA/ZM)
Genre: Experimental Hiphop
Rating: ****½
Without question my favorite hip-hop release of the year and one of the records I’ve returned to most often.
9. Mark Williams Lewis - Mark Williams Lewis (A24, UK)
Genre: Slowcore / Dreampop / Post-Rock
Rating: ****½
I only discovered Lewis this fall and wasn’t quite prepared to find a new hero. Who would’ve thought slowcore/post-rock with harmonica could be hip in 2025? I’m all in, of course.
10. Lucy Gooch - Desert Window (Fire, UK)
Genre: Ambient / Ethereal Folk
Rating: ****½
“Moving” feels like too small a word for this release. An incredible debut from an artist I’m genuinely excited to follow in the years to come.
11. Eli Winter - A Trick of the Light (Three Lobed Recordings, US)
Genre: Post-Rock / Folk
Rating: ****½
An album that’s really grown on me over the past few months, and now stands out as one of the year’s most powerful and emotionally resonant releases.
12. The New Eves - The New Eve is Rising (Transgressive Records, UK)
Genre: Art Punk / Avant-Folk
Rating: ****½
I’ve already gone on at length about this one - see the earlier Dustsucker write-up - and of course it belongs among the year’s absolute best.
13. Alan Sparhawk - With Trampled by Turtles (Sub Pop, US)
Genre: Americana / Alt-Country / Slowcore
Rating: ****½
I really liked Low’s last few records, but at times I felt the songwriting came across a little vague - at least compared to some of their earlier work - hidden behind that intense and wildly creative production (which brought them plenty of new fans).
Sparhawk has, of course, gone through an enormous and almost incomprehensible personal tragedy with the loss of Mimi. And while, like many others, I never fully understood - nor perhaps needed to understand - his first solo release, this one hits straight home.
14. Michael Beach - Big Black Plume (Goner, AU)
Genre: Indie Rock / Post-Rock / Singer-Songwriter
Rating: ****½
One of the coolest and most ambitious rock albums of the year (with some seriously killer electric guitar work). Outstanding songwriting and performances throughout.
15. L.F - Treat me like your own (Afvikling, DK)
Genre: Ambient / Experimental
Rating: ****½
When it comes to ambient, this has truly been Jonas Torstensen’s year - at least if you ask the representative of Dustsucker. There are traces of kraut (think early “ambient” Cluster), grand dreampop and shoegaze-like atmospheres, Morr Music-style melodic IDM fragments, and fragile, Loren Connors-esque slowcore guitar moments in here - as well as those bright, airy, warm sensations you get when listening to Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock.
16. The Necks - Disquiet (Northern Spy, AU)
Genre: Jazz / Free Improv / Post-Minimalism
Rating: ****½
The Necks have long been crème de la crème - a guarantee of the highest quality - but this one is a major peak, a centerpiece in their already outstanding career.
17. Big Thief - Double Infinity (4AD, US/UK)
Genre: Singer-Songwriter / Folk / Indie Rock
Rating: ****½
A natural “hipster” tendency (if anyone still uses that word) is to start getting skeptical when your old indie heroes begin to grow big. Really big (like The National after Boxer). And I’ve done my duty, honestly - I’ve tried to be somewhat skeptical, to quietly convince myself that I prefer Big Thief’s early releases over their newer material, but that’s just bullshit, really, because if they’re not getting better and better, then at the very least they remain every bit as good as they’ve always been, and this latest release, well… this one’s truly a PEAK. Lenker is a contemporary cultural icon, a hero of our time.
18. Širom - In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper (tak:til, SI)
Genre: Avant-Folk / Post-Minimalism / Drone
Rating: ****½
This isn’t easy listening, exactly, but given time and attention, it reveals one of the most deeply rewarding musical experiences of the year.
19. Caroline - Caroline 2 (Rough Trade, UK)
Genre: Post-Rock / Avant-Folk / Midwest Emo
Rating: ****½
When it comes to contemporary torchbearers of post-rock, Caroline are right at the front: an incredibly fresh take on indie rock, drawing on elements of modern classical, emo, slowcore, free improvisation, and more.
20. Sun Ra - Nuits de la Fondation Maeght (Strut, US)
Genre: Free Jazz / Spiritual Jazz
Rating: ****
We’re very lucky to get this unique historical document, capturing Sun Ra in one of his most inspired eras.
21. Ferries - Eye Flutter (NL, Bergpolder)
Genre: Experimental Rock / Kraut / Synthpop
Rating: ****
Possibly the most obscure, mysterious and bizarre - yet strangely captivating and seductive - release of the year.
22. Jim Ghedi - Wasteland (Basin Rock, UK)
Genre: Progressive Folk / Avant-Folk
Rating: ****
A truly impressive record from Ghedi and unmistakably a centerpiece in his body of work.
23. Far Caspian - Autofiction (Tiny Library, UK)
Genre: Indie Pop / Dream Pop
Rating: ****
This album has really grown on me too. There’s a very distinct light, fragile and hopeful kind of melancholy tied to certain indie pop releases on Far Caspian’s own label, Tiny Library (I’m thinking of 22º Halo’s Lily of the Valley) - and I absolutely love it.
24. Maruja - Pain to Power (Music for Nations, UK)
Genre: Jazz / Post-Punk / Post-Rock
Rating: ****
Maybe not quite the masterpiece it could have been - I’m still not sure - but Maruja are clearly onto great things, and this is their most ambitious project yet. A track like “Look Down on Us” shows exactly what heavyweight category we’re dealing with here.
25. Mount Shrine - The Mount Hibiki Tapes (Cryo Chamber, BR)
Genre: Ambient / Drone
Rating: ****
One of the finest ambient releases I’ve heard in quite some time - a future classic, I would say - and definitely also my most-played sleep record of the year…
26. The Apartments - That’s What the Music is For (Talitres, AU)
Genre: Chamber-Pop / Sophisti-Pop
Rating: ****
I’ve got a soft spot for anything that leans toward The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout or early Deacon Blue - that is, melancholic sophisti-pop with a touch of dreaminess. And this is the release of the year in that very specific category.
27. SY/N - Life Anew (A Flooded Need, IT)
Genre: Ambient / Noise / Progressive Electronic
Rating: ****
One of the absolute strongest electronic releases of the year. I’m deeply, deeply impressed by this artist.
28. Cosimo Querci - Rimane (Quindi, IT)
Genre: Space Rock / Kraut Rock / Canzone d’autore
Rating: ****
A late surprise! There’s something truly unique going on here - in some ways, it feels straight out of the early ’70s.
29. Jonas Torstensen - Viser og Countryrock på Fynsk (Afvikling, DK)
Genre: Slowcore / Ambient / Lo-Fi
Rating: ****
Is it allowed to include three albums by the same artist on a year-end list like this? If someone is in a peak period of releasing incredible records the way Jonas Torstensen is right now, it really does feel inevitable….
30. Quelza - Pensa Poetico (Dekmantel, DE/FR)
Genre: Minimal Techno / Glitch / IDM
Rating: ****
Another electronic highlight: gentle, poetic and beautifully intelligent music that feels driven by personality, need and imagination, rather than expectation, hype or habit.
31. Josh Halper - Schlemiel (US, Glamour Gowns)
Genre: Indie Folk / Experimental Rock / Slacker Rock
Rating: ****
A truly outstanding debut. So effortlessly put-together it’s almost annoying.
32. Yumiko Morioka & Takashi Kokubo - Gaiaphilia (Métron, JP)
Genre: Ambient / Neoclassical New Age
Rating: ****
One of the best new age-y Japanese ambient records I’ve ever heard. And as most nerds have probably noticed by now, this whole scene is in a league of its own…
33. Molly Nilsson - Certe Notti (Night School, SE/DE)
Genre: Synth-Pop / Minimal Synth / Italo Disco
Rating: ****
This was my first introduction to Molly Nilsson (yeah, wtf, she’s been putting out records for years), and I was completely blown away. The description was basically just, “yeah, I recorded these songs while having a great time,” and the songs themselves are exactly that - just fun, lovely and irresistible.
I later found out that this lo-fi, euphoric, semi-nostalgic kind of hyper-melodic pop has become her signature sound, and that she’s released plenty of tracks in this vein, but these two songs hit me especially hard….
34. Philippos Rountas with Lazos Harisiadis, L. Batzis & ensemble - Songs and Dances from Free and Enslaved Epirus: Epirotika ca. Early 1960s (Canary, GR)
Genre: Dimotika
Rating: ****
I consider Canary Records one of the most important labels around today - and of the past fifteen years, or however long it’s been running. Brilliantly curated, Nagoski’s steady stream of high-quality releases focuses mainly on non-English archival recordings from across the world.
Canary describe their own catalogue as “masterpieces,” and I have to admit I own a good handful of releases from the label that I’d confidently call just that. This one might be the most beautiful and moving release I’ve heard from the label this year.
35. Almost an Island - Almost an Island (Past Inside the Present, US)
Genre: Ambient / Dream Pop
Rating: ****
Past Inside the Present have maintained a remarkably steady flow of releases, always with a consistently high level of quality and a strong sense of aesthetic focus. It’s what’s made them a true darling label among collectors. I’m particularly drawn to this release for its subtle post-rock, shoegaze and dreampop elements. A deeply beautiful and cohesive ambient record.
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