A Garden for Orpheus

The Top Ten Albums Of 2025...So Far

Hello from boring Los Angeles, California. Where nothing exciting ever happens. I guess we have the occasional protest or skirmish that results in completely overblown media attention, but other than that life goes on, same as ever.

The first quarter of 2025 was relatively uneventful for me, but things are about to rapidly pick up as summer creeps in. The second half of the year will provide way more travel than the first half has. Pretty soon we have to fly back East to check in on family, all of whom are currently experiencing health-related issues. Yay! We have travel plans in July, August, September, October, and November. One trip is as short as two nights, the longest will be a two week jaunt through Italy.

You know what I haven’t done much of this year? Seen live music. We saw Mogwai recently, which you’d know if you read this Substack with any regularity. Last week I was dragged against my will to a Brand New show at the Shrine. It was not nearly as blog-worthy as Mogwai was. We have no tickets to upcoming shows, but I’m sure that will change. I missed Billy Woods playing down the street last weekend due to a scheduling conflict. I’m going to miss Spiritualized playing Pure Phase and Grandaddy playing The Sophtware Slump later this year due to travel plans. I’m incredibly pissed about those.

That said, most of my favorite artists are still plugging along, making records and performing around the globe. I currently have 34 albums on my running list of “favorites” from this year, which is pretty solid compared to the same time last year. Ideally, enough great music will arrive between now and the last week of December to change this top ten drastically. As annoying as it might seem, I actually enjoy having to make cuts to the final list. Trimming the fat makes me have to listen again and really parse what I like most about an album.

Naturally, it is always my hope that you — dear reader — are presented with a top ten in December that is vastly different from my top ten in June. Because I know how much you adore my verbose blurbs.

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Now is a good time to start looking back at the year so far because, well…it’s literally halfway between January and December. I wasn’t there in 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was instituted. I don’t make the rules. What I do know is, midpoints make good opportunities to engage in nostalgia, even if you’re only being sentimental about the previous 160-180 days.

Which means now is the perfect time to look at all the new music we’ve been blessed with so far in 2025, and assess which records I have enjoyed the most. Without further ado here are the top ten albums of the year…so far.

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The Top Ten Albums Of 2025 So Far

Honorable Mention:

Mogwai - The Bad Fire (Rock Action)
Maria Somerville - Luster (4AD)
Fennesz - The Last Days Of May (Longform Editions)

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10. Gryphon Rue - I Keep My Diamond Necklace in a Pond of Sparkling Water (Self-Released) - Remember back in the early aughts when I used to go crazy over Mystery Sea CDr’s? They pretty much set me on my path to exploring drone artists, from Aidan Baker to Dale Lloyd, Celer, Troum, and others. Gryphon Rue — and more specifically I Keep My Diamond Necklace in a Pond Of Sparkling Water — would be perfectly at home on the Mystery Sea label. Their raison d'être was described as, "Immersive soundmantras/night ocean drones." It's a bit reductive, I suppose, but juxtapose to a clay flute and Ulster County, NY wildlife and you've basically described …Diamond Necklace…. It's one that offers something new each successive listen, which is not something I can say about many new releases these days. There are no "bop"s, no hooks, I don't even think there are any words until the sample on the last track...and yet it manages to demand your complete attention. What a marvelous, wild record. [Listen on Bandcamp]