Trial and Error Collective Presents: Our Favorite Releases of 2025

For the final collaborative blog of the year, members of the T&E collective share their favorite releases of 2025. Check out the post to read about the 60+ genre-spanning albums, EPs, reissues and compilations that we loved!

Parisa's Picks

​Per my annual year end tradition: here are some of my favorite albums of 2025, in no particular order, reviewed in a haiku. You can also read it in zine format here.

Album: Popol Vuh
Artist: Volahn
Favorite Song: “Dualidad Cósmica”

A Mayan temple
filled with ancestral knowledge
brimming in blast beats

Album: Malignant Worthlessness
Artist: Pissgrave
Favorite Song: “Dissident Amputator”

A grotesque display
of sonic putrefaction
and sheer repugnance
​​

Album: Scapulimancy
Artist: Hedonist 
Favorite Song: “Barbarian”

In ‘The Art of War’
Tsu says know your enemies
And bludgeon with riffs
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​Album: Sametou Sawtan
Artist: SANAM
Favorite Song: “Habibon”

Tradition roots and
experimentation flows
Moving towards pure form

Album: Worldwide
Artist: Snooper
Favorite Song: “Star 6 9”

They call it egg punk
I love it, but I’m vegan
Do I lose scene cred?
​​

Album: Musicial Chairs
Artist: Artificial Go
Favorite Song: “The World is My Runway”

Polka-dot whimsy
Like a dalmatian
wearing hot red boots

Album: Club Tounsi
Artist: AMMAR 808
Favorite Song: “Eddayem Allah”

Revolution is
only possible with strength,
love, and deep bass grooves

Read my interview with AMMAR 808 here.
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Album: Eau（オー）
Artist: aus（アウス）
Favorite Song: “Variation II”

Fragile movements
Inhaled organic matter
Synthesized exhale

Album: 2
Artist: Yalla Miku
Favorite Song: “Embeyto እምበይቶ” 

Fusion has no map
but the destination is
eccentricity
​​

Singles: Ego Shell/Rub 7”
Artist: Useless Eaters

Blasé attitude
brooding through a scuzzed out wall
of noise and reverb

Favorite reissues/archival releases: 

Sister Irene O’Connor - Fire of God’s Love ** for sure my most listened to album of this year!
Takeshi Terauchi - Let’s Go Eleki Bushi
Noah Creshevsky - Hyperrealist Music, 2011-2015 [10th Anniversary Edition]電脳的反抗と絶頂:
​Henry Kawahara - エッセンシャル・ヘンリー川原 Cybernetic Defiance and Orgasm: The Essential Henry Kawahara
Freh Khodja - Ken and Habib
Cheb Nacer - Maroc Électronique Vol. 1
Philippos Rountas - Songs and Dances from Free and Enslaved Epirus: Epirotika ca. Early 1960s
V/A - Sweet Rebels: The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Rai 1986-91 
V/A - 808 Xamar: Exiled Digital Somali Sounds from 1990s Saudi Arabia
V/A - All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985

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Zack's Picks
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Album: Fluid Crystal
Artist: Chelsey Lee Trejo 
Favorite Song: “convergent talk”
​
Chelsey is a good friend of mine and a collaborator on several projects, so her solo record is something I’d been looking forward to for a long time. Nothing is rushed and nothing is out of place, and the textures and soundscapes are gorgeous. It makes me feel like I’m waking up next to the grand canyon and pouring myself a cup of hot coffee in the cold desert. 
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Album: a little death
Artist: claire rousay
Favorite Song: “just (feat. m sage)”
​
I got to book and see claire play live this year and I absolutely enjoy everything she puts out and does, from her collabs to her more experimental collage work. “a little death” is everything I enjoy from her all wrapped up in a tight 8 track album. I wish I could make music half as good as this, I would be insufferable from how much I would put out. 

Album: Disniblud
Artist: Disniblud
Favorite Song: “Serpentine”

Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith combined to blow my mind with Disniblud. A twisting and thrilling mind blowing aural masterpiece. Incredible production with a number of collabs with artists like Cassandra Croft and Julianna Barwick. It’s hard to write about this album because it’s so dense and complex!

Album: Die In Love
Artist: Greet Death 
Favorite Song: “Country Girl”

Greet Death is probably my favorite “band” of the last few years. I was obsessed with New Hell and their last EP, New Low so Die In Love, was an instant classic to me. They place you in their shitty midwestern small town and make you feel like you grew up there with them. Country Girl is the same 2 riffs for 6 minutes and I wish it was twice as long. 

Album: Lake Fire
Artist: Loscil
Favorite Song: “Bell Flame”
​
The ambient master. Every album is an adventure with Loscil and yet unmistakably him. Makes me feel like I’m on the cliffs of Dover and in the eye of Jupiter at the same time. 

​​Album: On a Painted Ocean
Artist: Walt McClements
Favorite Song: “On a Painted Ocean”

Beautiful textures and songwriting. Walt McClements takes the accordion and makes it the focal point of this incredible ambient/drone album. His live show is also up there with one of the best I saw all year. Easy to get to lost in this record. 

Album: Bleeds
Artist: Wednesday  
Favorite Song: “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)”

Another band that transports you to their small country town, this time in North Carolina. My favorite lyrics of the year are on Phish Pepsi “We watched a phish concert and human centipede/two things I now wish I had never seen”. I see people complain about the death of guitar music and “rock” bands, well you are dead wrong. Wednesday combine country, rock, and noise, and pair it all with genuinely funny and moving lyrics. 

Album: Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You
Artist: Ethel Cain 
Favorite Song: “Nettles”

I love Ethel Cain’s music so much. I’ve seen a lot of lists this year including her ambient/drone album Perverts, but I preferred the more gothic/americana vibes of Willoughby. Ethel Cain’s storytelling wraps you in her words and doesn’t let you go. If I was a real music writer this would be 10 paragraphs long that’s how much I listened to this album.

Album: Let God Sort Em Out
Artist: Clipse
Favorite Song: “Ace Trumpets”

Pusha T has been my favorite rapper the last 10 years, his last 2 solo albums were incredible so his return to Clipse with his brother Malice was bound to be special and it is! I love the production on this album, especially "So Be It" and the Middle East sample it utilizes. The synth and 808s on "Ace Trumpets" are nasty. Funny how much I love Pharrell’s production but hate his actual solo music. 

Album: Man’s Best Friend
Artist: Sabrina Carpenter 
Favorite Song: “My Man On Willpower”

Camp queen Sabrina Carpenter. I don’t think I need to say anything about this album except it’s REALLY fucking good. Highlights include the title track, "Tears", "My Man On Willpower", "House Tour" (obsessed with the 80s vibe), and "Goodbye". Pop music should be fun and that’s exactly what you get.

Honorable Mentions:
Beau Devereaux - Filling Our Hearts With Clouds
Blood Orange - Essex Honey
Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo - In The Earth Again
claire rousay & More Eaze - no floor
Eliana Glass - E
Georgia Maq - Gods Favourite
Joey Reyes - Spilling Open
Kieran Hebden & William Tyler = 41 Longfield Street Late ‘80s
Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas - Totality
POLICA - Dreams Go
Primitive Man - Observance
Skullcrusher - And Your Song Is Like A Circle
Taylor Deupree & The Humble Bee - Re: Case Studies 
Tim Hecker - Shards

Favorite live shows:
Rilo Kiley with Waxahatchee - San Diego at Gallagher Square in Petco Park 
Rilo Kiley has been one of my favorite bands since high school and I had never seen them (I have seen Jenny Lewis MANY times, always good), when they announced this tour we saw they had Waxahatchee, another one of my favorite bands as support so we decided to take an October vacation to San Diego and this show did not disappoint wow. Also shoutout to the sound system at Gallagher Park. 

42 way tie between every Desert Drone show I put on. Support local music!

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Andrej's Picks
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Album: From the Visceral Abyss
Artist: Teitanblood
Favorite Song: "Tomb Corpse Haruspex"

When one of my favorite bands releases what is arguably their magnum opus, there’s no way it isn’t my AOTY number one. From the Visceral Abyss is Teitanblood at their best: a perpetual stew of the most extreme darkness and evil, an unyielding maelstrom of death/black metal noise spewing lightspeed riffs and blasts, pausing only momentarily to burp up a few seconds of whammy bar abuse that would make Kerry King blush. Yet, what makes this album so good is the greater sense of order and control than with previous efforts, the small strays from the expected and the embracement of new ideas that meld perfectly with their established sound. Most obvious is the much cleaner production, which balances the instrumental chaos superbly, but beyond that it’s the greater dynamicism, more expansive songwriting, and creativity when deviating from their bread and butter. Teitanblood never disappoint, but From the Visceral Abyss exceeded my expectations in a massive way.

Album: Draumsýnir eldsins
Artist: Martröð
Favorite Song: "Sköpunin"

Martröð’s debut album is one of many, many 2025 releases by prolific Skáphe mastermind A.P. But to my ears, it is far and away the best. Draumsýnir eldsins is another collaboration between A.P. and Wormlust’s H.V. Lyngdal, and while the otherworldly Icelandic black metal psychedelia we’ve come to expect from H.V. is heavily present, this record is less Kosmískur hryllingur and more Skáphe4. This is in huge part due to the inclusion of Skáphe³ drummer J.B. in a session role, his machine gun-esque playing simultaneously feral and virtuosic. Still, the bedrock of this album is in its dissonant, hallucinatory songwriting. Equal parts eerie ambiance and chaotic malevolence, Draumsýnir eldsins is a fever dream of the bone chilling, terrifying kind.

​Album: Diabolic Messiah of the New World Order
Artist: Omegavortex
Favorite Song: "Limitless Violence"

Omegavortex is the mastermind of Beyond guitarist R., and Diabolic Messiah of the New World Order is just as psychopathic, unhinged, and bloodthirsty as the legendary Fatal Power of Death. Incorporating a touch more black metal, most notably in the shriller leads, this is still unhinged, frantic, and wholly homicidal death metal. Everything going on sonically is launched at your ears with impossible speed and with no concern for your well-being. Listening to this record in one go is genuinely exhausting, and yet I keep doing it. Diabolic Messiah of the New World Order is the Rage virus put to music – put this on if you’re planning to tear your neighbors limb from limb with your bare hands.

​Album: Mar da Deriva
Artist: Vauruvã
Favorite Song: "Os Caçadores"

Vauruvã’s third record is an entrancing piece of progressive black metal that is as ethereal as it is otherworldly. Sonically and visually (this might be my favorite album cover this year), Mar da Deriva paints a picture of the unity of nature, the cosmos, and the mystical, embracing the transcendentality of the nonphysical realm and beauty of the natural world. The tone reflects these juxtapositions, weaving together black metal rasps, tremolo riffs, and blasts with dream-like, soaring melodic leads, softer clean vocals, flutes, and a plethora of ambient psychedelia. There’s a lot going on here, but emotionally this album never loses its thread. A mark of a good progressive album is that it uses its plethora of disparate ideas to form a meaningful whole, and with Mar da Deriva, Vauruvã have done exactly that.
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Album: Metagonism
Artist: Kakothanasy
Favorite Song: "The Hard Problem of Targeting an Irrefutable Endogenous Transmission in a Somatic Compound"
​
Metagonism is a relentless whirlwind of technical brutality that is as crushing as it is precise. The closest reference point is Defeated Sanity, and Kakothanasy absolutely nail the interplay of guitar, bass, and drums that their German peers excel in. There is simply an overwhelming number of ideas going on here, with hyperspeed guitar and bass riffs, effervescently brutal gutturals, and unyielding, but surprisingly varied, BDM drumming all masterfully synchronized like some terrifying super-intelligent hive mind. I knew this would be in my AOTY list after the first spin.

Album: Fentanyl
Artist: Morast
Favorite Song: "Aratron"
​
Fentanyl is a record built upon foundations of crushing misanthropy and disenchantment with modern life. Consisting of slow, monolithic and hypnotizing repetition, every second of this album is a downer. While based primarily in doom/death metal, there is a healthy dose of blackened sludge ratcheting up the disgust and disillusionment. Accordingly, the riffs are massive, the monstrous gutturals equally so, and the bass and drums combine for a suffocating, soul-crushing bottom end that never gives an inch. 

Album: Landkrieg
Artist: Scalpture
Favorite Song: "Den mörka nattens lejon"

Scalpture’s latest, Landkrieg, is deceptively simple: Bolt Thrower worship that starts and ends with wave after wave of pummeling, headbanging riffs overtop some German guy yelling about war. But there is so much going on within this particular set of meat and potatoes. The riffs themselves are phenomenal: huge, crushing, and just plain memorable and fun. But the production is what really elevates things – to say this album is bass-forward is an understatement. I’m not sure all metal albums would benefit from this kind of bass and drum mixing, but damn do I wish more did it. The combined low-end bludgeons you repeatedly in the grooviest way, leading to permanent stank face and an uncontrollable urge to headbang. Sometimes we yearn for comfort food, and Landkrieg really hits the spot.
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Album: Existentialismus
Artist: Abduction
Favorite Song: "Razors of Occam"
​
Melancholic, muscular, and aggressive, Abduction’s latest is a fantastic slab of modern black metal. Melding Mgła-esque tremolo-based riffs with a heavy, almost death metal like production, Existentialismus sounds phenomenal. That sound is fully explored by excellent songwriting, which is at times fast and vicious, and sorrowful and somber in its slower moments. Ultimately, there isn’t anything groundbreaking here, but the variety and quality of what is ostensibly a fairly small tool kit is impressive. Like some of my favorite UK bands, the focus here is on writing memorable, emotional music, and at that, Existentialismus excels.

​Album: Morbid Ataraxia
Artist: Putridity
Favorite Song: "Morbid Ataraxia"

Putridity’s first new record in 10 years is an absolute bulldozer of a record. Despite being signed to Willowtip, Morbid Ataraxia has a very New Standard Elite vibe. The production is fairly clear, but the rhythm guitars are downtuned and turbulent to such a degree that they meld with the bass into an indistinguishable wall of sound that is only punctuated by persistent pinch harmonic-y leads. The vocals and drums are truly intransigent and double down on the sonic opacity of the entire package. This album has been a long time coming, but it was well worth the wait.

Album: Haragma II
Artist: Exterior Palnet
Favorite Song: "Behind the Veil"

Croatia’s Exterior Palnet (not a typo) play a brand of dissonant and angular avant-garde black metal familiar to fans of Deathspell Omega and Krallice. Like DsO, Haragma II is fast, shrilly, and weird, but what sets them apart from many of their contemporaries is that they crank the riff count to uncomfortable levels. The record is only 35 minutes, but the riff density feels like a compressed version of an album twice that long. More importantly though, beyond the anxiety inducing incessance and frenetic energy, the instrumentation and songwriting are fundamentally interesting. Exterior Palnet fully lean into the weirdness this jagged style of riffing can lead to but never fall into the trap of boredom by way of pointless intricacy. The complexity and abnormality of this music isn’t for everyone, but I found it something I kept coming back to again and again.
 
Honorable Mentions
11. Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution
12. Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World
13. Coroner – Dissonance Theory
14. Elder – Liminality / Dream State Return
15. Floating – Hesitating Lights

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Ghazal's Picks
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Album: The Passionate ones
Artist: Nourished By Time
Favorite Song: "When the war is over"

There is always a place where you listen to new music, be it in your car, in your headphones at the park, blasting it in the shower or streaming it alone or with friends. Nourished By Time came to me as one of my sweet musician friends moved to Chicago. This album encapsulated my connection to time & space. Grieving & loving.

Album: Lifetime
Artist: Erika de Casier 
Favorite Song: "December"

Infusion of trip hop and R&B Erika de Casier gave us a secret release on youtube before her album dropped in may. An album that I have kept looping & rotating, sent to my favorite lesbians & experienced the vastness of my femininity too. 

Album: I remember I forgot
Artist: Yasmine Hamdan & Nicolas Jaar
Favorite Song: "Shmaali"

Stunning collaboration between Nicolas Jaar & Yasmine Hamdan from Soapkills
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Album: Portrait Of My Heart
Artist: SPELLLING
Favorite Song: "Waterfall"

Spellling always makes me soar & roar. Artists that pour their heart into their sound make the year unforgettable. This album is life changing! 

rusowsky · Johnny Glamour

Single: "Johnny Glamour" (ft. Las Ketchup)
Artist: Rusowsky

I discovered this single in October around my birthday. I watched the tiny desk performance of it and again it illuminated the beauty of sound & experimentation. 

Album: Beside myself
Artist: DJ Haram
Favorite Song: "Loneliness Epidemic"  

I bought the tape when it first dropped, when it arrived in the mail I listened to it front to back, examining the soundscape, tuning to the textures. This album for me highlighted the DIY culture & mixing middle easter/swana rhythms with contemporary punk-esque tunes. 

Album: A Block Away. Deluxe
Artist: REY & RND1 
Favorite Song: LM4M (feat. friendzoneshawty)

Tucson’s very own REY, blunt & sharp, a talented rapper, brother, friend, creative director, drops A Block Away Deluxe - a project between RND1 an immaculate beat maker, producer, creative. This track was the summer’s anthem; my favorite part about it was the timelessness of the beats congruent to Rey’s verses & flow. 

Omid Walizadeh · Barge Sabz

​Mix: Barge Sabz
Artist: Omid Walizadeh

My favorite DJ mix of the year! The most perfect cultural soundscape of the middle east/swana region. What makes this mix perfect to me is the fact that Omid is able to combine historical music with his own style making it the most rare hybrid contemporary mix! 

Album: Pleasure, Peace and Pain
Artist: A.Billi Free x Lasso
Favorite Song: "Never Fold"

This electric duo always inspires the deepest fire inside! This project especially is special to me because of Lasso’s synth wave production of beats & rhythms and the way A.Billi Free glides on each track! This is ultimately the best way to introduce yourself to their work! I love when you think your favorite artists are not going to drop then BOOM!

THEM&i · killing the h8 [prod. DJQ]

Single: "Killing the h8" (prod.DJQ)
Artist: THEM&i

La Tusa’s multifaceted artist THEM&i, covering the counterculture of the southwest through astute sound mixture & puncturing lyricism. This track opens up like a storybook of endless struggle between imaginary fights  & what conjures out of our anger. Through the verse you can hear THEM&i’s insight on Arizona’s political climate.They cover a lot in a condensed amount of time. 

Honorable mention:
​Blood Orange - Essex Honey changed my life! The collaboration with Mabe Fratti & every other artist on this album!

Alex's Picks
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Album: Tsunami Sea
Artist: Spiritbox
Favorite Song: “Perfect Soul”
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After a string of singles and EPs, Spiritbox is back with their first full length since 2021 and this fucker is HEAVY. Lead vocalist Courtney LaPlante sings like an angel and screams like a demon often in the same song. The rest of the band has cooked up some of their most punishing riffs to date that balance out her soaring vocals and slam the listener back down to earth. Also, the addition of ex-As I Lay Dying bassist/backup singer Josh Gilbert brings a sublime new layer of counterpoint through his backup vocals contributions. Spiritbox’s meteoric rise in the metal scene has been a lot of fun to watch, and Tsunami Sea shows why they deserve their success so far.

Album: Volver EP
Artist: Sofia Kourtesis
Favorite Song: “Canela Pura”

Sofia Kourtesis describes this EP as a tribute to the LGBT+ community and the bravery of the trans women that she’s met in the last few years, both in her home country of Peru and her adopted home of Berlin. And in appropriate fashion, this is a short and sweet collection of six heartfelt, yet spicy dance floor BANGERS. This is one of those releases where it’s kind of hard to write about what it’s like - you just need to take about half an hour to throw it on and let it happen to you.
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Album: Foxes in the Snow
Artist: Jason Isbell 
Favorite Song: “Ride to Robert’s”
​
I started dating a girl who loves country music this year. She doesn’t listen to Jason Isbell, though, and I can’t remember exactly how I discovered this album when it came out earlier this past March, but it still stuck with me throughout the year. This album has that calm, folky quality that tickles the same part of my brain as the likes of Noah Kahan and Kacey Musgraves. Foxes in the Snow is an album that only needed one guitar and a journal to make (or it at least sounds like it), and Jason Isbell shows that he knows what he’s doing with both and can use them to make something beautiful. This album feels cozy and also makes me want to get out in nature and unplug for a little while.

Album: Blackbraid III
Artist: Blackbraid 
Favorite Song: “The Dying Breath of a Sacred Stag”
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Blackbraid has become a name in the black metal scene that has captured my attention over the last three years, and his third full length album is another solid addition to his already impressive discography. His brilliant incorporation of Native American imagery and seamless weaving in and out of quieter passages makes for an epic and ethereal listen. My favorite black metal has always been the type that can feel relaxing at its heaviest, and Blackbraid’s ability to do just that through his indigenous twist on the genre continues to make him one of the best names in the scene today.

Album: Debí Tirar Más Fotos
Artist: Bad Bunny
Favorite Song: “Baile Inolvidable”

If you couldn’t tell, I tried to avoid writing about big releases this year and instead decided to spotlight artists that actually have their music for sale on Bandcamp. I’m going to make one exception for Bad Bunny, though, because what an album! Debí Tirar Más Fotos was an early front runner for my album of the year when I first heard it all the way back in January, and it stayed at my #1 for the whole year. Benito’s love letter to his home of Puerto Rico is a captivating sonic journey spanning an impressive number of contemporary and traditional Latino genres of music that is best listened to from start to finish. Bad Bunny had plenty of accolades in the global mainstream spotlight this year, and the quality of this album shows that he deserves it.

Honorable Mentions:
Turnstile - Never Enough
BLOND:ISH - Shout It Out
Addison Rae - Addison
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Deftones - Private Music
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Cylus' Picks
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Album: Disquiet
Artist: The Necks
Favorite Song: "Ghost Net" 

An arduous and worthwhile listen, this album clocks in at just over three hours in length and each track (especially the first two, since they’re over an hour long) feels like an undertaking. I had to spread my listening out over three days with this album, and it was totally worth it. I love this group’s focus on improvisation and repetition. “Rapid Eye Movement” reminded me a lot of “Shh / Peaceful” by Miles Davis, so I was sold on this album immediately. The intentionally near-broken rhythm of “Ghost Net” and the band’s musical tenacity throughout its hour and fifteen minute length are what made that track my fave. 

Album: The Big E
Artist: Editrix 
Favorite Song: "What’s Wrong"

Honestly this is my top album of 2025. This band has it all for me - they’re from New England, queer-fronted, heavily influenced by jazz, complex, and noisy as hell. Wendy Eisenberg is frankly one of the greatest guitarists I’ve heard in a while, and their ability to pitch-match and rhythm-match with their own super complex riffs is incredible. The whole band is just bonkers, incredibly tight, and super adventurous. I enjoy “What’s Wrong” because I feel it really embodies all of these facets I’ve laid out here, and the drum groove is wild. 
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Album: Hostile Design EP
Artist: Black Eyes
Favorite Song: "TomTom"

Frankly, Black Eyes could release a hot, steaming pile of garbage and it would make it on this list. I wouldn’t say that any of the tracks on this EP affected me like any of their early work did (I mean, should it? It’s been over 20 years!), but the fact that they’re back together, still super noisy and incredibly groovy is what really matters to me! Truly one of my favorite bands ever, and one of the greatest Dischord bands of the early 2000’s. “TomTom” feels like a perfect synthesis of early Black Eyes and Mi Ami’s crushing grooves, which I like a lot. 
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Album: Motherfucker I am Both: “Amen” and “Hallelujah” …
Artist: Shearling 
Favorite Track: It’s one hour-long track (lol)

When I heard Sprain’s third and final album, I fell in love with what the group was doing and was dismayed to find out that the band had broken up immediately after its release. The long-form, slightly (super?) pretentious noise rock/hardcore songs the band created were right up my alley. Imagine my joy when I found out that their spiritual successor existed and released an even more long-form, and even MORE pretentious song that functioned as their whole album! I had just seen The Holy Mountain for the first time and the frenetic, often spooky energy of this album/song felt awfully similar to what I had experienced watching the film, and I find that that’s the best way I can convey why I dig it. Super noisy, unburdened by convention, and emotionally driven - I love it! 
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Album: Musical Chairs 
Artist: Artificial Go
Favorite Song: "The World is my Runway" 

I first heard this album when I stopped into Wooden Tooth and it was popped onto the turntable, and was immediately sold on this band. I love how incredibly fun this album is all the way through, Angie’s highly stylized vocals that sound straight out of NYC in the 60’s, the tight rhythm section, and diverse range of influences that can be heard throughout. Seeing them live a few weeks after first hearing them and getting to chat a little with the band frankly sold me even more on this LP. Great stuff! 
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Single: "Poke"
Artist: Blue Bendy

This song is insanely groovy, silly, and yet emotional! I love the drum groove especially, and the synths remind me a bunch of Everyone Asked About You’s work. Arthur Nolan’s vocal performance is super compelling as well.  Just a really fun, catchy and beautiful song! 

Single: "Hit My Head All Day"
Artist: Dry Cleaning 

Not only am I 99% sure that I saw this song’s live debut at Detroit’s Russell Industrial Center in September, but I’m 100% sure that this song totally rips both live and in studio. 

Album: Birthing
Artist: Swans
Favorite Song: "Birthing"

This album feels to me like a return to form for Swans, particularly in relation to what I consider to be the best three albums of the “big sound” iteration of the band: 2012’s “The Seer”, 2014’s “To Be Kind”, and 2016’s “The Glowing Man”. I found the albums following TGM weren’t anything super special, so I was really happy to hear that “Birthing” absolutely crushes. Seeing them live while touring this album was absolutely incredible as well.

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​Thank you for reading! We'd love to hear about your favorite albums of the year. Feel free to leave a comment below. 

xoxo, 
T&E Collective
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