Best of 2025 - Music

Today I am going to give you all my top five albums of 2025. I have gotten back to listening to more music lately. I still do podcasts for running and some house cleaning, but music is coming back in my life in a big way and I'm here for it. This is also the first year in a couple where I have five albums from this year. This isn't about experiencing old music for the first time or discovering some band or solo artist that came out recently. I have five albums from five separate acts that all came out this year.

Before I get into the list, I do want to shout out Taylor Swift's "Life of a Showgirl". It didn't make my top five but it was close. This is a very good pop album. Taylor Swift is doing a lot of great things, and this record shows she is a pop superstar, if she wasn't already. I really enjoy listening to this record and my daughter, who is the big Swiftie in our home, seems to really like it too. I just wanted to give her a little shine. Now onto the list.

At number 5 I have "Getting Killed" by Geese. A few years back I saw Geese open for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and they intrigued me. I'm not always a big fan of openers, but Geese stuck with me. I went home after the show and listened to some of their work and I was in. I didn't know that they had a new record until my buddy let me know. I listened to it that night and have been playing it a ton since. I like the sound, I like how each song blends into the next one, I enjoy the lead singer's voice and the guitar playing is top notch. Geese are a bunch of young kids too, so this feels like just the start. I am so excited to see where they go from here and I will be listening all along the way.

At number 4 I have "Cover the Mirrors" by Ben Kweller. This record is so good and so heartbreaking. For those that may not know, Kweller and his partner's son died in a car crash a few years back. This record is how Kweller has been dealing with that heartbreak. Kweller is such a good writer. He conveys all his feelings to a T. I also like how some of the songs are upbeat musically, but when you listen to the words they will crush your soul. He gets some help on the record from Waxahatchee, and the song they do together, "Dollar Store", is amazing. I have been a Kweller fan for about 20 years now and this record may be his best to date. Again, it is very sad, but damn is it good too.

At number 3 I have "Thee Black Boltz" by Tunde Adebimpe. Adebimpe is the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, TV on the Radio, but he decided to venture out and do a solo record. This album is upbeat and fun. It has a bit of a TV on the Radio feel, but this is all about Adebimpe. I like that he beatboxes on a song. I have always loved his voice as well. That was what first drew me to TV on the Radio, and that is what I truly dig about this solo record. The songs range from upbeat to pretty to almost hip hop. I like that he can do a bunch of different genres in one album and do them all pretty spot on. I don't know who is in the band that plays on the record but they do some solid work as well. I wish more people would go seek this record out because it is one of the better solo records i've heard in quite some time.

At number 2 I have "Don't Tap the Glass" by Tyler, the Creator. This album came from nowhere. I was looking at one of the streaming services I use and all of the sudden they kept talking about a new record from Tyler, the Creator. I couldn't believe it because he had just put out "Chromakpoia" about 6 months ago. And now we were going to get some brand new music after one of his best records of all time. "Don't Tap the Glass" is a throwback to the hip hop I listened to when I was a teenager, except Tyler, the Creator does it way better than most artists back then could ever dream of doing. This record comes and goes in less than half an hour, but damn does it pack a punch. Tyler, the Creator comes in hot and never stops, and I love that about his music and this record. I am loving all the content he is giving us and he is on the ride of a lifetime right now. He's one of the best in the business at the moment.

And at number 1 I have "Let God Sort Em Out" by Clipse. I love that Clipse is back and they seem better than ever. I was first aware of them when they released "Grindin" back in 01-02. That song was so awesome and made it on every mix cd I would make. They kind of disappeared after that. But Pusha T reappeared on the scene and he instantly became one of my favorite emcees. There was some news that he was going to get back with his cousin Malice and make a new record. I was hyped at this news. The two of them kept showing up at random things and it seemed like they were actually working on music. But it wasn't until I saw them do a tiny desk show on NPR that it all became real. This record and that performance were amazing. I was floored at this. It felt like "Grindin", but they had grown up and gotten better. This record is so great that they have done some amazing shows in places that people have never performed live. Pusha T has been at the forefront letting people know that Clipse is back and here to stay. They got so many excellent features on the record, but no one outshines the two of them. They clearly had written some excellent songs during their break and that shows tenfold on this new album. I hope they make another new record soon. But, for the time being, we have "Let God Sort Em Out" and I'm very, very happy about that.

That's it for albums. Come back tomorrow for my top five movies of 2025. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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