The BEST Albums and EPs of 2025: Anti-Algorithm Edition
We hand-picked some of our FAVORITE albums and EPs of 2025.
Featuring Frog, Radderall & Muzzy Fossa, Coolgirl, Neggy Gemmy, Ambient2k, Bunny White, Alexei Shishkin, Silent Universe, Tapeworms & Suzie Ungerleider.
Some honorable mentions: Ethel Cain – Perverts / Aran Sheehy - Overseer / Tiberius - Troubadour
We hand-picked some of our FAVORITE albums and EPs of 2025 - please consider supporting these artists on Bandcamp if you can. Below you will find albums and EPS that answer the questions of;
What if Polly Pocket made 1990s house music? What would ‘being at the public library playing a Plasticine pink in-browser game in 2004’ sound like? Can you capture the incomprehensibly vast, cold plains of space in an ambient album? How would an adult movie scored by Boards of Canada sound? Can you write an album featuring an unknowable character who haunts NYC piano bars and bring them to life as much as a work of fiction can? What would a wonderland of abandoned toys and electronics sound like in the wind? And more!
THE COUNT - Frog
This is a strange and wonderful album; about a flickering, shadowy figure named The Count, who haunts NYC piano bars. This figure, assumed by Frog’s Daniel Bateman, exists halfway between this world and a void, resulting in a person who is ultimately, unknowable.
There is something so vivid about the character of The Count, in that you feel like he is a fully, fleshed out person that you are familiar with, similar to a character in a work of fiction - the mystery and intrigue of such a person not being dampened by the fact that this story is being told via lyrics and music (a difficult feat that is really only achieved by the very best of songwriters and musical artists; yet when, pulled off, appears effortless).
The opening track ‘BITTEN BY MY LOVE VAR. XI’ is mesmerizing, with a lush organ sound and a gentle, lofi drum machine puttering in the background, falsetto vocals soaring over instrumental, transcending into a chorus that at times feels like the singer is just singing to himself, on his own planet. ‘SAX-A-MA-PHONE VAR. XII’ features discordant, uneasy, piano chords, the mood shifting throughout, without disrupting the clear rhythm and groove, enticing you into this off-kilter world.
The chorus of ‘COME COME COME VAR. XIV’ fully has a 1990s/early ‘00s Hip-hop/R&B vibe, but by the time you reach the second chorus it has shifted into something slightly different, very much like The Count himself.
The rich, visual component running throughout this album makes you feel like you are inside an NYC piano bar in deep Winter, as the cold snow swirls outside, as you behold the richness and depth of the lives of those around us, and those you encounter in public spaces. THE COUNT is art at its best, it is meandering, strange, with its magic unfolding to you as you listen, transporting you somewhere else entirely, while also reminding you that life is rich and full - a hallmark of good art.
Connect with Frog: Bandcamp / X / Instagram / Facebook/ YouTube
Interim - Coolgirl
I am a lifelong fan of instrumental electronic music; however, due to the sheer volume of music released under this category, it can be very difficult to stand out (especially when releasing music within specific sub-genres). This, however, is not a problem that Dublin-based Coolgirl faces, as there is no other producer or composer who sounds quite like her (there are some elements that bring to mind the likes of Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin here and there, which I love). Her music stands on its own, as something unique and impenetrable. There is a dark and mysterious quality at the core of her sound, one that leaves you searching underneath the layers of fabric, only to be met with a mirage.
‘Interim’, released earlier this year, opens with ‘Porno’, which can only be described as what a porn movie soundtrack would sound like if Boards of Canada were commissioned to do the music. The fun sleaziness continues in ‘Tell Me the Truth’ which gets sucked into a black hole as time goes on, getting more uneasy and strange.
The rest of the EP is a dark delight, ‘Faces’ being glitchy, surreal, and slightly pagan – resulting in it sounding like tripping in a forest under an Indigo night sky.‘I Want To Watch You’ is a straight up 1980s science fiction nightmare, closing with the luxuriously dreamy ‘Ice Cream’.
This EP sets your imagination alight in the way only the very best electronic music can; the strangeness at the core of the music making it all the more alluring – this being a true testament to doing your own thing in art, and creating your own sound. Coolgirl’s music makes me feel like I am at the library at night-time reading a book from the X-Files series, and that is high praise indeed.
Connect with Coolgirl: Instagram / X
She Comes from Nowhere - Neggy Gemmy
A work of art is successful, in my opinion, when you can feel the imagination and inner workings of the artist shimmering throughout, a trait that is alive in all of Neggy Gemmy’s music. There is a ‘being at the public library playing a Plasticine pink in-browser game in 2004’ quality to this album, which I love.
We open with ‘High Fashion Slags’ which sounds like if Polly Pocket made 1990s house music, veering from this sonic world of shimmering glitter to mysterious alley cat territory with ‘I Don't Feel Like Dancing’; which sounds like it is the theme song from a short-lived animated MTV series that developed a cult following. The titular track ‘She Comes from Nowhere’ is from another time completely, existing in a 1960s Parisian world of silhouettes and mystery. We then go from dreamy shoegaze to a magical forest straight from True Blood to Trip-hop, the themes and genres shifting throughout the album with extraordinary depth and range, doing so effortlessly, still existing as a whole, cohesive work of art. ‘She Comes from Nowhere’ solidifies Neggy Gemmy as being one of the most interesting and creative artists operating in the music industry today.
Connect with Neggy Gemmy: Instagram / Facebook / YouTube
Connect with 100% Electronica: Instagram / Facebook / X
The Club Is Open - Radderall & Muzzy Fossa
Another concept album, this one by two artists involved in Cleveland’s DIY music scene, in which two characters search for The Club, “a mythical venue embodying indulgence, escape, and ego” [via Bandcamp].
Opening with the song ‘Duplicity Life’ which has a glamorous, seedy undercurrent (like a shag carpet in a dimly lit, diamante-encrusted night club), seducing you into this deliciously strange nighttime underworld. The accompanying music videos are bizarre and hypnotizing, in that special way that something you stumbled across while channel surfing at 4am would be (I could imagine these really taking off in the mid ‘00s internet). ‘Baseball’ is cloud-like and dreamy – laced with longing, all of the songs possessing this underlying quality. ‘The Club Is Open’ has a dreamy analog quality to it, almost feeling like it could be from another time, without obviously trying to be. I can imagine this working really well in some of NEON or A24’s more experimental movies.
Connect with Radderall: Instagram / Facebook / YouTube
Connect with Muzzy Fossa: Instagram / X
The Higher the Hair, the Closer to God - Bunny White
‘The Higher the Hair, the Closer to God’ was a Bandcamp discovery from earlier on this year; an album that will take you down the dusty, wallpapered halls of a 1960s memory of suburban Americana; one that vibrates with old Hollywood glamour, all with an undercurrent of loss, and longing.
This opens with lush, heavenly strings straight from Hollywood’s Golden Age, before a down-home country Americana vibe comes in, this effect being made all the more saturated by the vocals, resulting in a song that is irresistibly seductive and haunting (it kind of feels like this song floats to your ears from a faded pastel hotel lounge).
The second song ‘The Game’ introduces an 1980s style electronic element, with the swirling sounds bringing to mind the artificial allure of Las Vegas; while maintaining the slightly eerie feeling of the previous song, a trait that runs throughout the album, serving as a testament to how high-quality the production and artistry behind the album is. I can guarantee you, that you have not heard anything quite like this.
Connect with Bunny White: Instagram / X
Merger - Silent Universe
I came across this while I was working on the first installment of our new ambient music-focused series ‘Dreamhouse by the Ocean’.
This is not an album to listen to if you have any touch of Astrophobia, as it sounds like the all-consuming terror and wonder of the incomprehensibly vast, cold plains of space. This is also one of the scariest ambient albums I have ever listened to, en par with an ominous first contact movie set in deep space, as it generates the feeling of seeing something ancient and alien moving towards you, something you cannot even begin to fathom. The compositional techniques and sound design in this manage to capture something we barely understand – an astronomical feat, if you will.
This was released via label Cryo Chamber.
Connect with Cryo Chamber: Instagram / Facebook / X
Good Times - Alexei Shishkin
This is the second time US artist Alexei Shishkin has appeared on our end-of-year list (I highly recommend ‘Greenwich Mean EP’); ‘Good Times’ contains one of my all-time favorite releases from this year; ‘Ode To Carl Dennis’. The opening lines “At home when the phone rings I don’t answer/At home when the phone rings I don’t answer/ I’m damn sure / They’re not calling for me” was a balm to my soul, as it can feel like you have to jump to immediate availability the second someone emails/texts you (over something that does not have high stakes), and simply allow it to float on by, as you relax into the evening.
There is an inherent Winter quality to this album, some of the instruments feeling like icicles (e.g., ‘Magpie’), and also in ‘I Like To Sit In The Cold’, which has the feeling of wearing a winter coat and walking past wooden houses sticking out of the snow. The closing song, "Good Times’ has the overwhelming feeling of a beloved chapter coming to a close, like the last call in the bar of the closing scene of your favorite sitcom.
Connect with Alexei Shishkin: Instagram / Facebook
Ambient1k - Ambient2k
I first came across this artist during the summer, via a video called peace, which served as an oasis to float on while looking out the window at the endless blue sky and green plant life outside. Opening with ‘Webscape’, the fabric of which shimmers and swells with aquamarine-like wonder, sweeping into its oceanic world. The whole album is healing, in parts you feel like you can almost hear the sunlight gleaming on the ocean’s waves - I feel a wave of calm washing over me every time I listen to it, and so will you.
Connect with Ambient2k: Instagram / YouTube
Among the Evergreens - Suzie Ungerleider
I remember listening to the song ‘Real Estate’ from this album on a rainy Friday afternoon here in Ireland; and being bathed in the warmth that emanated from its core. This whole album feels like sitting in the orange glow of the porch on a beautiful evening, it feels like a walk through the forest after it rains, and, like the very best folk music, it invites you to relish in the beauty of the world around you, and of everyday life.
Connect with Suzie Ungerleider: Website / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube
Grand Voyage - Tapeworms
This was another Bandcamp discovery; the opening to this album will make you feel like you are sitting at an iMac G3 (e.g the computer that Chloe Sullivan uses throughout Smallville), booting up a blue-skied PC game in 2004.
I love how the sound effects melt over the dreamy, tape-saturated pads and synths, creating a wonderland for your ears. Although this feels nostalgic, it doesn’t specifically sound like anything else; it exists in the blue skies of a memory, in a dreamworld, in a magical realm where toys and unused electronics sing in the wind. This is a treat for your ears and for your mind - a grand voyage indeed.
Connect with Tapeworms: Bandcamp / Instagram / X
About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
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