The Best Album To Cook To (and ten more superlatives from 2025)
We often reminisce about where we were and what we were doing when we heard something truly special. The best music has a time and a place tied to it, here's eleven of mine from this year.
Best Album To Cook To
The Passionate Ones by Nourished By Time
Nourished By Time is one of my favorite discoveries of the year. His XL Recordings debut is a compelling, infectious, groovy collection of pop and r&b made for the kitchen.
Don't believe me? Throw this bad boy on next time you're whipping up a stir fry, and it will taste better, guaranteed.
Best Album To Commiserate Over Seeing Things on the Internet That You Shouldn't Have Seen So Young
I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi
It feels like this one was made for me. It's a geeky, nostalgic blend of dance music that you'll likely get a lot out of if you're in the age group that just barely remembers getting pulled out of school and not quite understanding why your parents were sobbing over a pair of smoking buildings on the TV.
Best Album Cover
Saya by Saya Gray
I really just wanted to bring more attention to this one. It's a thoughtful left-of-center pop record that matches its stellar album cover.
The Best Record to Recommend To Your Mom
The Clearing by Wolf Alice
There's nothing experimental or wacky about this one. It's just a really well-written, sung, and produced rock record.
The Most Interesting Record That May Also Fill You With Existential Dread
Fairyland Codex by Tropical Fuck Storm
I just kept going back to this one over and over, even though I knew it was hurting me. Worth It.
The Best Album With A Song About Two Cranes Falling In Love
Crooked Wing by These New Puritans
You are in a cave for some reason and you have glimpsed a flicker of post-humanity Earth. There are enormous testaments to our proficiency as engineers and apparently two of these colossi are in love and one of them is Caroline Polachek.
That's what I think it's about. I don't know. Just go give it a try for yourself.
The Best Record To Be Listening To While Yelling "I'm walkin' here!" (and contemplating the capitalist hell-scape in which we all participate)
Goldstar by Imperial Triumphant
Dissonant avant-garde death metal was not on my bingo card, but here we are. It's an incredibly well produced and performed concept record that totally kicks ass.
The Best Record To Get Your Punk-ass Out Of Bed And Get To Work
Revengeseekers by Jane Remover
It's a maximalist, brash, exhilarating hyperpop statement that incorporates rage for a barrage of sound that will leave you breathless.
I listened to this on the way to work every day for like two months straight. It's been in my rotation since April. Favorite album of 2025.
The Best Record to Pull Your Drone To
Perverts by Ethel Cain
If you didn't have a crush on the girl who would kick you in the shins at the lunch table, this album may not be for you.
Ethel fully embraces the darkness with an unexpected experimental drone record. It's a haunting mélange of the slowcore we've come to know and love (Punish is an excellent single), interspersed with deftly crafted dark ambient tracks that may occasionally make you want to throw your headphones off.
And yet, you keep listening.
The Best Album To Get Some Serious Work Done
Disquiet by The Necks
If you're ignoring work to read this article, thank you. Now throw this record on and get back to it!