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User
Reviews 30
Approval 99%
Soundoffs 262
News Articles 5
Band Edits + Tags 11
Album Edits 158
Album Ratings 2808
Objectivity 71%
Last Active 12-19-18 7:20 pm
Joined 06-11-12
Review Comments 2,984
| Top 25 of 2025
Plus 6 honorable mentions, because 'top 31 of 2025' just doesn't have the same ring to it | | 31 |  | Mike
Showbiz!
This kind of dreary mumbly monotone should be getting old, but MIKE still gets a pass. Maybe it’s the length and variety, but I actually prefer this over the brief enjoyment that the new Earl gave me. I think it’s in the production, really - 24 tracks allows for a lot more sonic switchups, even if MIKE is still doing his (very) one note vocal thing. Good stuff.
3.7 | | 30 |  | Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist
Alfredo II
Incredible flows with a really fun sound, but it does kind of meld together pretty quick. There are some standouts - Ensalada letting Anderson Paak chime in, and memorable, funny verses on tracks I Still Love H.E.R. and Lavish Habits make this worth a listen.
3.7 | | 29 |  | Tyler, the Creator
Don't Tap The Glass
Tyler’s most ‘hip-pop’ release. A bit short and sweet, but it’s a good time! Some of it feels throwback-ish, some of it’s for the club, but it all works great with the windows down. Makes me think he could pull off being the ringleader of a Brockhampton style group (well, I guess he was…)
3.7 | | 28 |  | YHWH Nailgun
45 Pounds
There’s something so invigorating about hearing a brand new style being created. Even if this record is a bit one note, the note it beats is so brightly demented, so full of energy and so primal that the experience of it just stuck in my head. Unforgettable, deserves a listen.
3.7 | | 27 |  | Weed420
Amor de encava
An assault on the ears. Haunting, cacophanous, the soundtrack to a dire state of things. Latin and reggaeton chopped, screwed, distorted and blended beyond recognition. Honk honk.
3.7 | | 26 |  | Ethel Cain
Perverts
A monolith that sheds hooks and chords for sheer dark ambience. While its atmosphere is often cloying, thick with a haunting malaise, it’s also…satisfying. Indulgent. Life-affirming. A necessary evil.
3.8 | | 25 |  | Ninajirachi
I Love My Computer
iPod Touch into fuck my computer has to me the most seamless transition of the year. I Love My Computer should feel a little familiar to anyone who spends a little too much time in front of the screen for friends around the globe you met over a mutual fandom of some niche music genre or obscure animated Japanese cartoon. It’s the kind of thing just left of what I listened to in the 00s and 10s exploring the information superhighway unaccompanied. EDM, pounding beats and tantalizing synths that kind of give eurodance. Shoutouts to Infohazard, a song about seeing, unwittingly or not, a snuff film at the age of 14! #relatable
3.8 | | 24 |  | Oklou
Choke Enough
Airy, ethereal, percussion often sparse or gone altogether. Choke Enough is minty fresh, cool synths and layered vocals coming together to evoke longing, halcyon days, and just a bit of bliss.
3.8 | | 23 |  | Saoirse Dream
Saoirse Dream
T-girl indie rock with multiple undertale samples. Really good hooks. Really fun stuff! Brooding and emo on tracks like bug and god knows I could tear us apart, but upbeat and spunky on tracks like initialize, catherine never broke again, something cool, etc,.
3.9 | | 22 |  | Miley Cyrus
Something Beautiful
Most fun I’ve had listening to Miley since her Dead Petz confirmed that she smokes pot and loves peace. Something Beautiful earns its namesake pretty quickly. The title tracks chorus crashes in like a wrecking ball, her voice soars on power ballads, and you can hear the swagger of everything on tracks like Easy Lover and Walk of Fame. Looking at the production credits for this, Miley Cyrus joins the ranks of famous people that know exactly who to put in the same room to make a project both incredible and accessible.
3.9 | | 21 |  | Whatever The Weather
Whatever The Weather II
A journey through heat and chill, hot and cold, sun and ice. Equal parts stuttering, glitchy IDM and haunting, ethereal ambience. Reminds me of Sweet Trip at times? Textures that fit well together. Great electronic stuff.
3.9 | | 20 |  | Cheem
Power Move
At their very best. Each track has its own signature - Power Move doesn’t concern itself with repeating tricks. Heavy riffs show up when they feel like, the percussion picks up when it feels like, the band throws in a rap verse when it feels like. Cheem has always done what they want, but where its often felt a little rushed or unpolished on previous records, here it feels nearly immaculate. So many little moving parts work together here in a way they were just shy of doing in the past. If you’ve heard this band in the past and brushed them off, I really recommend listening to this one in full. Awesome output.
3.9 | | 19 |  | Sleigh Bells
Bunky Becky Birthday Boy
Ever evolving, Sleigh Bells’ six full length is another more than fine weird alt-pop-punk thang, with all of your standard Sleigh Bells features. Hooks for days, big riffs contrasted with twinkly synths, and curious lyrics. They tone down the heaviness a bit from Texis, but that allows them to explore some different sounds - particularly, their take on pop-punk is in full force and it’s an interesting one.
3.9 | | 18 |  | Viagra Boys
Viagr Aboys
Sebastian Murphy continues to embody the sound of a stumbling drunk man on the sidewalk in shambles. If everything is ridiculous, is anything really? Grimy punk whose topics range from the preservation of bogs to lowlifes, delusional thinking, wellness culture and more. It sounds scatterbrained, but it is all tied together by finding dry humor in the futility of things. Anyhoo- this band works better for me the better the hooks are, and they’re pretty damn good here (Man Made of Meat, The Bog Body, Dirty Boyz, etc,.). Elsewhere the schizophrenic ramblings of “Best in Show IV” are well crafted, and as an extra surprise, the softer songs on here (Medicine for Horses, River King) are very raw and touching.
3.9 | | 17 |  | Car Seat Headrest
The Scholars
My one problem with this album is those big giant epics, one after the other after the other, it just wears me out. I like Gethsemane a whole lot, but the other two I only remember pieces of! That aside every track under 10 minutes is in fact a banger. Although the overarching story of this thing is a muddled mess, the subject matter is interesting! The cancel culture criticism of Equals, Devereaux’s grappling with the identity of your family and the identity of yourself, trying to pinpoint the motivations of art (starting a band) on Catastrophe - those all stand on their two legs! The sound is good too, taking from classic rock acts in that very Will Toledo way, not aping but taking inspiration from acts like The Cars and Bob Dylan. It definitively adds prog rock to that list with tracks 6 through 8, but I still think those needed stronger hooks or segments to stand out. Regardless! Great album that feels like a big step up from MADLO.
3.9 | | 16 |  | Jenny Hval
Iris Silver Mist
With melodies invoking qualities both mystical and haunting, Iris Silver Mist concerns itself with performance, the immediate and shocking experience of engaging with the stage. The references to stageplays, the mention of speed bumps of the music industry on All Night Long - Jenny Hval wants nothing more than to be the performance, referencing herself as turning to little more than materials and inanimate matter or beastly on more than one occasion. Musically, it’s the pianos/synths/strings affair Hval is comfortable in with little in the way of surprise (although one shorter track gets surprise points for totally being playable in a nightclub). Music for those with a penchant for the post-modern.
4 | | 15 |  | f5ve
Sequence 01
Bloodpop puts on a P.C. music cap and straddles an A.G. Cook style sound with the Nakata/Perfume/Pamyu Pamyu sound that is synonymous with 00’s - 10’s J-pop. This sound is for 5 girls who sing and rap and dance with an effortless jubilance about them. Visually and audibly, F5ve is having the time of their lives, and Sequence 01 successfully extends that joy like a baton to the listener.
4 | | 14 |  | Windows96
Awkward Dance Music
A very cool combination of chillwave with vaporwave stylings - I feel like the word means very little nowadays but it’s in the breakbeats, in the MIDI, in the sampling both obscure and common. Some tracks have a d’n’b base where others go straight for chill/synthwave, but overall this is top-tier nice background noise to study/work/relax to.
4.1 | | 13 |  | Water Damage
Instruments
Vibey, droney, bluesy post rock. Awesome mood music if the mood is stalking a dingy backwater bar looking for a fight to pick
4.1 | | 12 |  | Rebecca Black
SALVATION
Mother cuntress is back at it again with a 7-track gag-a-thon that doesn’t waste a SINGLE minute. After several EPs and a well-done album that felt sophomoric (positive) in Let Her Burn, Salvation slays its way out of wise fool territory and into something much more certifiably Rebecca. Production has a big hand to play here. The team of Andersson and Lyon (both having floated around the alt-electro-pop sphere) as well as one ‘Nightfeelings’ whose two tracks are both absolute bangers make up the most exciting tracks you can find here. Check Sugar Water Cyanide, drowned in hooks, or the bombast of that sexy self-empowerment opener Salvation for a taste of what being saved by Miss Rebecca ‘Friday’ Black is like in 2025.
4.1 | | 11 |  | Lady Gaga
Mayhem
Gaga proves she’s a bonafide rockstar. Mayhem wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, as Gaga belts out hooks imbued with the funk and pizazz fashioned after your Princes and Bowies. She rocks out on tracks like Perfect Celebrity and evokes the best parts of a modern-day Swift song on How Bad Do U Want Me. It can’t be understated, though - this record is funky from front to…nearly back. The last three songs are all ballads, and while I appreciate The Beast and Blade of Grass, I could’ve done without the Bruno Mars duet that caps everything off (but maybe that’s just because I’d heard it so much). Very fun record that shows Gaga’s still got the spark.
4.1 | | 10 |  | Gingerbee
Apiary
Everyones saying brave little abacus but i don’t know them so - Crying mixed with fire-toolz mixed with glass beach mixed with these quirky instrumental sections that are giving shibuya-kei kind of? Like we got the violins and we got these samba/bossanova-y sections popping in now and then. What a concoction! And at a quick 22 minutes, it’s really only as repetitive as you make it.
4.1 | | 9 |  | Geese
Getting Killed
Cameron Winter puts in the work, let it be known. Getting Killed is funkier, shaggier, a bluesy groovy kind of spooky thing that should be playing in a dimly lit bar, or in the dark of some bayou, some place old and decrepit and ancient. Or New York City. Either one. It’s got an awful lot of tricks up its sleeves - repetition on taxes, Jpegmafia on trinidad, some real groovy breakdowns here and there, and an ending track that builds up to an incredible crescendo. Varied and exhilarating as ever.
4.2 | | 8 |  | FKA Twigs
Eusexua
This manages to imitate enough styles well that it never feels static, and Twigs’ pixie-style vocals lend enough originality to each track. Eusexua is unique - not entirely, but enough so. It’s also very fun! It’s taking from a selection of turn of the millennium sounds that your average club kid likely heard loads of. We get shuffling beats and syncopated notes on Perfect Stranger that remind me of a Kylie Minogue hit. Girl Feels Good sounds like it came off of Madonna’s Ray of Light. So does Room of Fools, though that’s a little bit heavier, a little more warehouse rave. No complaints here - I prefer the beat heavy side of this record. Drums of Death features a scary stomp-clap motif, Keep It Hold It might be the highlight of the album with how it builds up its vocal lines, piano chords, and engaging percussion. It’s just a fun album!
4.2 | | 7 |  | Honningbarna
Soft Spot
Violent and bright. Even if I didn’t understand the words on my first go around, the raw, unbridled aggression translated just fine. This is laser focused on its wall of sound - when Hvilke Splinter explodes, it rockets you roughly upwards with blistering vocals, a downpour of drums, the screeching ring of its guitars. When MP5 expresses concern for the unwell subject of its lyrics, vocals battling a loud buzzing synth, the emotion on display is dazzling. When Heute ist mein tag hits its chorus, the swagger about it should turn heads from across the block. So violent and bright, it’s impossible to ignore.
So when Jesus comes
Kill him again
I know our day will come
But not in heaven
Brother, today is my day
4.4 | | 6 |  | Ethel Cain
Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You
Dreamy rock more in the vein of Preacher’s Daughter. Perverts concerns itself entirely with an ethereal, hazy ambiance, and that is its own kind of wonder. But Willoughby Tucker goes back to catastrophically beautiful lyrics, massive crescendos of guitar fuzz, cymbal crashes and soaring vocals. The highlight for me is Fuck Me Eyes into Nettles. The former views a promiscuous girl through the eyes of our teenage protagonist, and how for all she butts heads with her, she can’t help but admire and understand the reasoning for her behavior. This is followed up with Nettles, a song steeped in the anxiety and worry of keeping your first boyfriend around forever because your life sucks and what else could possibly be out there for you?
The ending trifecta of Radio Towers-Tempest-Waco, Texas is just as good as the back-to-back I described above and the instrumentals here rival Perverts' best. If you liked Preachers Daughter, you'll love Willoughby Tucker.
4.5 | | 5 |  | The Armed
The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be...
A real beatdown. The armeds latest reminds me most of the wall of noise that was Ultrapop, mixed with just enough sonic side quests to keep you on your toes. When it's an assault though, best believe it's all out. Purity Drag, Broken Mirror, A More Perfect Design - tracks like these are pummeling, witty lyrical commentary just sneaking by, riding waves of feedback. Even on tracks that feel predictable and less chaotic (Sharp Teeth, I steal what I want) there's a palpable anxiety, a wide eyed wondering ‘how much of this can I take?’ In all this has probably the bands most beautiful track to date, Heathens, with it's clean vocals and incredible saxophone solo. There’s something for everyone here on The Future.
4.5 | | 4 |  | Cardiacs
LSD
What a beast. The forces of this world gave us Tim Smith for as long as it did, and while I wish he could’ve been around for this finished product the spirit of the team is strong enough that he might as well have been.
LSD is intended to rival Sing to God in scope and intensity, and the band here delivers. Mike Vennart, saddled with the daunting task of filling Tim Smith’s shoes, lives up to the mans delivery as best he can. The rest of the band, having most of the blueprint laid out before them, nail the style his compositions are known for. After an opening pair of tracks that invoke an ‘easing in’, the curtains part to reveal Gen as the real kick-off to this album: A psychy-proggy-punky-pop mess that puts exact genre categorization through the ringer. Rest in peace, Tim, and know they did you well.
4.5 | | 3 |  | The Callous Daoboys
I Don't Want to See You in Heaven
This is such a rollercoaster ride. The pacing here is awesome - when the pit is open it’s wide, raw shouting, punishing riffs and all. It knows just how far to pull back too, and does so in interesting/engaging ways. I’m thinking of the hooky sections on Full Moon Guidance, the quieter minute on Two Headed Trout, the drum breaks toward the end of Tears On Lambo Leather, and the, just straight up pop-punk of Lemon. All of these breaks make for a fun listen because when it is heavy it’s having so much fun! Schizophrenia Legacy, Idiot Temptation Force(UGGA UGGA BOO UGGA BOO BOO UGGA is certainly a musical moment of the year for me) and the massive Country Song In Reverse are great headbangers. An awesome hour of slightly-out-there metalcore.
4.6 | | 2 |  | Billy Woods
Golliwog
Scary, sad, bleak, raw, but honest in a way that feels purgatory. Cleansing, if only for a moment. Its instrumentals are harrowing and its lyrics confront traumatic situations head on with a voice thats hardly performing, speaking from experience. The imagery conjured up is clear, and it isn’t pretty. What it is is compelling. Hard to put down. All of the featured rappers here got the memo and contribute positively to this: a story about systemic oppression, generational trauma, poverty, and a society so violent and lonely that paranoia is just the default fucking state.
4.7 | | 1 |  | McKinley Dixon
Magic, Alive!
on the other hand… Magic, Alive! Concerns itself with the resurrection of a dead friend by a group of boys, and the meaning of magic in a world of loss, a world that seems devoid of any fantasy. It juggles a gordian knot of themes - storytelling, reanimation, family and the idea of a legacy as a sort of immortality - all while living with gang violence and poverty. The spice here, aside from an incredibly tight set of lyrics, is the instrumentals. Magic, Alive is jazz rap through and through, and there is some incredible playing going on in the background for this albums entire runtime. Memorable horn lines, pianos that add whole new dimensions to songs, and some completely nutty drumming now and then. Listen twice - once to let yourself be enamored with how it sounds, and twice to let the lyrics hit. You might be surprised at how much of a wallop they pack.
"To live forever's to tell the stories of who light up your eyes
We ran, we danced, survived, we fly, that's magic alive!"
4.9 | |
gryndstone
01.29.26 | I tried to upload this ten days ago but when I hit da submit button it just. didn't go through and erased everything and I didn't feel like copy-pasting 31 things all over again until now | Hawks
01.29.26 | NICE! | cylinder
01.29.26 | 25 and 24 hell yeah | WalrusTusk
01.29.26 | Our taste aligned a lot this year. Cardiacs and McKinley Dixon didn't get nearly enough love on this site. | gryndstone
01.29.26 | ohhh the immediate feature...thank you sputnik community...
Magic Alive absolutely took me aback when I heard it. I really had to stop listening to other music for a week and just let it sit. I know thats dramatic but its my TRUTH, that record is SUCH a tight work of art.
And yeah this years Oklou and Ninajirachi feel spiritually similar if that makes sense and I enjoyed them both equally. They could've swapped places and it wouldn't have really mattered
| bludngorevidal
01.29.26 | come for the feature, stay for the Mother cuntress is back at it again with a 7-track gag-a-thon |
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