Only somewhat late and to give myself at least a little credit, September 2025 moderately exploded with high quality albums. This summer had some good stuff, but my personal life left me feeling dazed and zoomed out. By September I was locked in, resulting in this delivery of 15 albums as opposed to the usual 10.

Below you’ll find highly-anticipated follow-ups of blog favorites, some ambitious debuts, some surprise blow-ups and more. It’s starting to feel good again. Let’s see what you can dig into.

Automatic – Is It Now? [Stones Throw]
Riding your air boat through the flooded, irradiated streets of a major US city, feeling the uncomfortably warm night air pound at your pores, clogged with copper-scented dust.

Big Thief – Double Infinity [4AD]
Believing in the power of love enough lets you chat with forest animals for a day.

crushed – No Scope [Ghostly International]
A cyborg skates in a drained pool, executing sick, gravity-defying tricks backlit by a blazing green-tinted sunset and surrounded by their mutated, cybernetic friends.

Geese – Getting Killed [Partisan]
Letting yourself have an unchecked manic episode as a treat and writing and releasing 100 messages in bottles, all found by a castaway that goes on to write the next great American novel based on your bottled ramblings.

James K – Friend [AD 93]
You actually forgot to return a dvd boxset of an anime series from blockbuster in 2001. You find it buried at the bottom of a box in your closet, but it’s mutated into a series you don’t recognize. It comforts you and invites you to put it in your VCR.

Joan Shelley – Real Warmth [No Quarter]
A meadow slowly taking over your home, dragonflies whizz around your head as friendly field voles help sweep your constantly dusty floors.

Joanne Robertson – Blurr [AD 93]
Parting the covers on your bed to climb in and a dense cloud of fog billows out, revealing a chasm-like maze sinking into your mattress.

Lucrecia Dalt – A Danger To Ourselves [RVNG Intl.]
Slow-dancing with your partner in an apartment that’s falling apart, dishes falling from crumbling shelves above you onto your heads, as the world dissolves outside the window.

Purity Ring – Purity Ring [The Fellowship]
Two lovers meet in their favorite multiplayer online game to execute a ritual that would make them lovers in real life. They plug various cables into their flesh, letting their blood mingle with their advanced computer builds.

Rochelle Jordan – Through The Wall [EMPIRE]
Phasing through walls of the club to serve in every room on a constant basis.

Sam Prekop – Open Close [Thrill Jockey]
A swarm of krill undulates on and around your body, picking off any dry skin until you’re assimilated into the ocean floor.

Saint Etienne – International [Heavenly]
The emergency pilot embarks on one last flight, delivering a disco ball hanging from the plane’s cargo bay to a party in need.

Snuggle – Goodbyehouse [Escho]
Climbing out your bedroom window to lay on the roof of your suburban childhood home, watching plane sky writings of your suitors materialize overhead and the fire you set in the basement steadily climbing to reach you.

Titanic – Hagen [Unheard of Hope]
The karaoke night at a nondescript business conference taking place in a hotel chain’s ballroom quickly turns into rallying cries for revolution as charismatic middle managers discover the fire within themselves to make changes that benefit the world.

Verses GT – Verges GT [LuckyMe]
Night-blossoming flowers emit bioluminescent pollen, illuminating an abandoned corridor with blinking, gentle lights as vintage neon buzzes outside.

GR8 TRACKS OF 2025::

• Acopia – “Falter”
• Automatic – “Is It Now?”
• Automatic – “Mercury”
• Automatic – “Terminal”
• Big Thief – “Los Angeles”
• Big Thief – “Words”
• Crushed – “oneshot”
• Crushed – Silene
• Geese – “Au Pays du Cocaine”
• Geese – “Bow Down”
• Geese – “Taxes”
• Geese – “Trinidad”
• Geese – “100 Horses”
• James K – “Blinkmoth (July Mix)”
• James K – “Doom Bikini”
• James K – “Hypersoft Lovejinx Junkdream”
• James K – “Rider”
• Joan Shelley – “Ever Entwine”
• Joan Shelley – “New Anthem”
• Joan Shelley – “Who Do You Want Checking In On You”
• Joanne Robertson – “Exit Vendor”
• Joanne Robertson – “Ghost”
• Joanne Robertson – “Gown (feat. Oliver Coates)”
• Joanne Robertson – “Peaceful”
• Lucrecia Dalt – “divina”
• Lucrecia Dalt – “no death no danger”
• Mark William Lewis – “Skeletons Coupling”
• Mason Lindahl – “Long Prowl, Underwater”
• Mason Lindahl – “To Each His Own Remark”
• Piotr Kurek – “It Used To Be A Song”
• Purity Ring – “imanocean”
• Purity Ring – “memory ruins”
• Rochelle Jordan – “Bite the Bait”
• Rochelle Jordan – “Close 2 Me”
• Rochelle Jordan – “Doing It Too”
• Rochelle Jordan – “The Boy”
• Saint Etienne – “Brand New Me”
• Saint Etienne – “Glad”
• Sam Prekop – “Light Shadow”
• Sam Prekop – “Opera”
• Snuggle – “Dust”
• Snuggle – “Sun Tan”
• SPRINTS – “Better”
• SPRINTS – “Rage”
• Titanic – “Alzando el trofeo”
• Titanic – “Escarbo dimensiones”
• Verses GT – “Forever (feat. Kucka)”
• Verses GT – “Your Light (feat. George Riley)”
• Wednesday – “Candy Breath”
• Wednesday – Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)”