The Best Albums of 2025

This is the latest I have ever shared my Top 10 albums. It took longer than I thought to sort through the options, and I’ve been working to avoid – as much as possible – later edits as I rethink my choices as I get to know these records from 2025 better (and discover new ones I missed earlier.

I found 113 albums I enjoyed enough to buy (or put on my purchase list) and I considered every one of them while making this list. 2025 was a good year for music, just like every other year. It is OK to take those old records off the shelf, but finding new ones is also worth your time.

As I’ve done previously, I’ve included a link to albums I previously reviewed that you can read more about it. I’ve also provided a youtube link to a song of note for each record in the Top 10.

10 The Doohickeys – All Hat, No Cattle

-          Yes, these old school throwback country songs can get a bit kitschy, but this record is fun without ever sacrificing clever. Music is supposed to be fun, right?  Here’s “This Town Sucks”

9 Nite – Cult of the Serpent Sun

-          Nite was one of my happier discoveries of 2025, with their old school metal vibe and creepy cultist vibe – these guys get better on every record. Here’s “Crow (Fear the Night)

8 CMAT – Euro-Country

-          In 2022, CMAT first landed on A Creative Maelstrom’s Top 10 list with an honourable mention, but in 2025 she takes the next step. Think Chappel Roan, with a bit more country and you’ll have an idea. Clever and vulnerable with lots to say, here’s an example with “Take a Sexy Picture of Me”

7 Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter

-          Every Tyler Childers album is different, as he routinely pushes the boundaries of the country genre. “Snipe Hunter” has a very traditional sound, with some sneaky and thoughtful songs nestled like Easter eggs amidst the plain brown packaging. Here’s Oneida

6 Panopticon – Laurentian Blue

-          Long-time Panopticon fans who have grown used to the band’s clever blending of bluegrass and black metal might feel left behind by this record, that doubles down on the bluegrass and leaves behind the double bass drumming and growling. Don’t be fooled, though, as this record has metal sensibility at its heart, and is as moody and black as anything they’ve done to date. My favourite is “An Argument With God” but I’m going to go with the also awesome (and more accessible) “Ever North” in a shameless attempt to get your attention

5 Craig Finn – Always Been

-          I’m a sucker for the hardscrabble stories that Craig Finn spins (he also made the Top 10 in 2022). This year we have a thoughtful collection of songs that once again peer deep and uncompromisingly into the human heart. Here’s The Man I’ve Always Been

4 Geese – Getting Killed

-          Along with CMAT, Geese is a band that this year will get more notice than for their previous releases. While I first encountered Geese through their 2021 album, “Projector” “Getting Killed” takes them to a whole other level. While not my usual scene, it is so innovative and amazing that it can’t be ignored Here’s Au Pays du Cocaine

3 Kora Feder – Some Kind of Truth

-          From my review: Kora Feder is a singer-songwriter with a young heart and an old soul. Listening to her records is like receiving a confessional from a close friend or curling up on the couch with a book of poetry for an afternoon of feeling the feels. Here’s the sad and thoughtful In a Young Person’s Body

2 Julien Baker and TORRES – Send a Prayer My Way

-          When I reviewed this last July I boldly claimed it would be making the Top 10, and here it is. I’ve always been a TORREs fan, and what she does in collaboration with Julien Baker is simply sublime – the whole better than the sum of the already amazing parts. Here’s Bottom of the Bottle

1 Ken Pomeroy – Cruel Joke

-          Ken Pomeroy straddles the line between folk and country, which is the perfect vehicle to deliver songs that are intensely personal, and grounded in natural space and place that puts substance and gravitas to her self-exploration. Like all great works of art, “Cruel Joke” taps into something that makes the personal into the universal. Here’s a live version of Coyote to show that all Pomeroy needs is her voice and a guitar to summon greatness

Honourable Mention – all great, but fell short because I could only pick a top 10. Here are 5 more in no particular order in the event you aren’t sated by the official winners:

• Annahstasia – Tether; Cory Hansen – I Love People; Wet Leg – moisturizer; Lommi – 667788; Master Spy – Maze Runner

And for those new to the Top Ten Experience, click on the year below to get the full from that year (I’ve proved #1 as a teaser):

Best of 2024 (#1 was Amyl and the Sniffers)

Best of 2023 (#1 was Boy Golden)

Best of 2022 (#1 was Grace Cummings)

Best of 2021 (#1 was Lucy Dacus)

Best of 2020 (#1 was Katie Pruitt)

CD Odyssey Disc 1850: Craig Finn

Welcome to the long weekend! Let’s get things kicked off with the second review of a 2025 release in the last three albums. It’s almost like I just keep buying new music, or something…

Disc 1850 is…Always Been

Artist: Craig Finn

Year of Release: 2025

What’s up with the Cover? I’m not sure you could be a rock star and look less like a rock star than Craig Finn.

Here he looks like a guy travelling to a regional meeting of chartered accountants, and getting his photo taken near his airport hotel on his way to the convention centre.

How I Came To Know It: Craig Finn is also the lead singer and creative force behind the band, “The Hold Steady”. My friend Chris got me into the Hold Steady with a birthday present one year (thanks, Chris!) and from there I followed the breadcrumbs to Finn’s solo career.

How It Stacks Up: I have two Craig Finn solo albums. I’m on the lookout for four more but the “how it stacks up” section strictly stacks against albums currently in-hand. Of the two that currently qualify I put “Always Been” in at #1. Which is saying something, considering the other album (“A Legacy of Rentals”) made my Top 10 list of 2022.

Ratings: 4 stars

Somewhere in between the troubadour taletelling of a country singer and the artsy phrasing of a spoken word performer likes the artistry of Craig Finn. The two genres aren’t as far apart as they may appear – you can catch both in a dive bar, both tell stories about characters that are down on their luck, and the main difference is the prevalence of guitar vs. piano, and whether people applaud of snap their fingers between numbers.

Finn walks this thin and dusty line, subsumed into his characters in a way that would rival a method actor. Listening to “Always Been” is to experience Finn disappearing into his stories so completely that you’ll feel like you’re in a virtual reality game (minus the sports and gunfights).

Finn has a warbling and angst-ridden tone that tells you something is being pinched when he sings – usually the conscience or emotional wellbeing of his characters.

Or for most of “Always Been” a single character, and facets and moments from his life. There is a bit of exploration of other folks but for the most part this record is a loose concept album about one man’s emotionally complex life. Finn lets you figure it out for yourself through specific images and moments, rather than a biography, so you have to piece things together.

Near as I can tell our fella is a fallen priest who struggles with his emotions, some PTSD and drugs. Somewhere near the end he gets born again, cleaned up, and watches others not as fortunate in navigating the dark night of the soul end of lost or dead.

You feel the wounds of our ordinary hero in real time. Wince alongside him at his wounds - some self-inflicted, some just the wear of moving through a harsh world – and emerge from the other end, glad to have survived and maybe a little sadder and wiser.

Along the way you will be treated to the mastery of the written and spoken word that is Craig Finn. Finn is a born poet, and he crafts lyrics that transport you with precise imagery and emotional precision, without ever feeling unnecessarily clever. Finn reminds us that there is another level to songwriting. Townes found it, Dylan found it, and Finn deserves his place in that same conversation.

Sometimes it is a small selection of lines that grab you, like these from “Bethany”:

“Drifted through the rituals
Prideful high and pitiful
Pissing off a petty vengeful god.”

Other times, it is the storyline of our character that draws us, as in “The Man I’ve Always Been”:

“There’s men that want to lead you into battle
There’s men that want to hold you down in bed
When I finally left Seattle
I was haunted by the needle
That city always held above my head”

That internal assonance, and delayed rhyme scheme is vintage Craig Finn, and you’ll get a lot of it on this record and, frankly, all his others. It lends itself to narrative tension and gut-punch lines at the end of each stanza.

There will be a lot of this, and a lot to pay attention to, but the payoff is worth the effort. You don’t read Nabokov just for the story, you read Nabokov to soak in the mastery of language, and that’s the same when listening to Craig Finn. If you don’t want to do that – if you prefer a “good banger” where what the singer is going on about is secondary to the melody – then you will not like this album as much as I do. You have been warned.

For me, however, this stuff is pure gold. I listened to “Always Been” a good four times in a row this week, and the stories just got more and more compelling with each iteration. Will this be good enough to land on 2025’s top 10? Too soon to tell, but it’s a contender.

Best tracks: Bethany, Crumbs, The Man I’ve Always Been, A Man Needs a Vocation, I Walk With a Cane, Clayton

The Best Albums of 2022

I often load my best of albums list into the introduction to a regular review, but I’m going to break with tradition this year and give it an entry all its own. This year will also have the excitement of links to songs so you can have an immediate sampling of just what I’m so damned excited about.

If you like it, please check out the artist’s entire record, and if you like that, please buy it. That’s how artists get paid. Or stream it a whole bunch of times. That also works.

I listened to an untold number of records released in 2022 and found 80 of them worth buying. Of those I have successfully bought 66 (still searching for the rest) and gotten rid of 4 (errors). Still on the hunt for 14 more, some of which made the list regardless.

After considerable soul searching, here is the best of the best. I reserve the right to change my mind as I dig into each of these (and others) deeper, but for now, this is it. For those records I’ve already reviewed, I’ve embedded a link:

10 Ghost – Impera (reviewed at Disc 1592)

• Hard rock/metal from Sweden, Ghost has long enjoyed pretending they really love Satan, but don’t be concerned. It is just pretend.Here’s a track about their favourite subject called “Call Me Little Sunshine”. 

9 Julia Jacklin – Pre Pleasure

• Jacklin just keeps getting better. 2019’s Crushing was good, but I think this is even better. For the sake of balance with the previous record, let’s go with “Lydia Wears a Cross”.  

8 The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field

• More great music from the Beths. Here’s the title track as a sampler: 

7 Danger Mouse and Black Thoughts – Cheat Codes

• I find Danger Mouse hit and miss but combining him with hip hop mastery of Black Thoughts and the many guest stars on this record is inspiring. Here’s one called "Strangers" with some Run the Jewels guest starring.

6 Craig Finn – A Legacy of Rentals

• If you like the band The Hold Steady you’ll already know its lead singer Craig Finn. If you like that, I think you’ll like this just as much. I liked it even more, but you have to be OK with listening to the lyrics, because Finn tells a hell of a story, but you gotta pay attention. Here’s "The Amarillo Kid". 

5 Dropkick Murphys – This Machine Still Kills Fascists

• Woody Guthrie lyrics have been set to music by Wilco and Billy Bragg previously, and the latest collaboration is with the Dropkick Murphys. I think it may be the best yet. Here’s “The Last One”. 

4 Kevin Morby – This is a Photograph

• Just an all-around great record that is half chill, half-anxiety, all awesome. All the tracks are good, but I’m picking this one because I like the tone of the banjo and it features Erin Rae, who I also discovered this year. Her 2022 album is Lighten Up and it is good, even though it didn’t make this list. Here’s “Bittersweet”.

3 Mattiel – Georgia Gothic

• Mattiel’s 2019 album Satis Factory is one of my favourite records of all time. Georgia Gothic is good enough for #3 in 2022. Here’s “On the Run”.

2 Ezra Furman – All of Us Flames

• Brilliant, anthemic, and emotionally overwhelming, Furman is a wave you want to both catch and have crash over you. Here’s “Forever in Sunset".

1 Grace Cummings – Storm Queen (reviewed at Disc 1573)

• Listening to Grace Cummings is like being transfixed by the keening of a ghost as she warbles her fell and beautiful secrets to you from the underworld. Here’s “Up in Flames”:  I also strongly recommend “Heaven” if for no other reason than the arresting quality of Cummings eyes as she stares right at you in the video.

Honourable Mention – all great, but I could only pick 10. Here are 5 more in no particular order in the event you want even more great music to choose from 2022:

• Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway – Crooked Tree; CMAT – If My Wife New I’d Be Dead; Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter; Wet Leg – Self-Titled; Angel Olsen – Big Time