Best New Music of 2025
An exclusive AudioToxicity.com wrap up
It’s a unique feeling to be a Gen-Xer in 2025. For a long time, we were the generation that just kept our heads down and our headphones on, but it seems, the “everything old is new again” cycle has swung back around in the most satisfying way possible.
In a year where everything feels like it’s being generated by an algorithm, 2025 was saved by the artists who actually know how to plug in a guitar amp (or modeler, maybe). I spent most of the year alternating between the high-fidelity nostalgia of 90s and 00s reissues—bless whoever finally cleared those rights—and the new releases from the legends who refused to fade away with a few new “legends in training” sprinkled in as well. It turns out, the ‘alternative’ spirit didn’t die; it just got more refined and their chops got better. Here is my definitive wrap-up of the music that actually moved the needle this year, from the veterans still showing us how it’s done to the reissues that reminded me why I fell in love with music in the first place.
Sorry… no links on this one. SubStack always creates the embed for Spotify links and that would make the post waaaay too long, so you’ll just have to copy and paste into your streaming service of choice.
Best New Studio Releases
Alpha Male Tea Party - Reptilian Brain
Big Wreck - The Rest of the Story
Danko Jones - Leo Rising
Deftones - Private Music
Deep Water - Cosmic Cathedral
Dream Theater - Parasomnia
Fishbone Stockholm Syndrome
Goose - Everything Must Go
Goose - Chain Yer Dragon
Grandson - Inertia
Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate - The Uncertainty Principle
Hedvig Mollestad Trio - Bees in the Bonnet
Howling Giant - Crucible & Ruin
IHLO - Legacy
Mammoth - The End
Moron Police - Pachinko
Shmulikraut - Guts Voyage
Spock’s Beard - The Archaeoptimist
Squeaky Feet - Overview Effect
Strawberry Girls - French Girls [2025 Redux]
Steven Wilson - The Overview
Tom McGuire & The Brassholes - A Name For Everything I Will Ever Be
Totorro - Sofa So Good
Umlaut - DESOLE
Wild Wild Wets - Time Mutations
Best New Live Albums
Beat - Neon Heat Disease [Live]
Dream Theater - Quarantieme [Live in Paris]
Goose - Live at Madison Square Garden
Haken - Liveforms: An Evening with Haken
Ibrahim Maalouf - Kalthoum [10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]
Leprous - An Evening of Atonement
The Roots - The Roots Come Alive Too (DYWM30 Live at the Blue Note NYC)
Soul Coughing - Live 2024
Steve Hackett - Fly on a Windshield [Live in London 2024]
They Might Be Giants - Flood Live in America
Best Jazz/Jazz Fusion
Ai Kuwabara - Flying?
Brad Mehldau - Ride Into the Sun
Gard Nilsson Acoustic Unity - Great Intentions
GoGo Penguin - Necessary Fictions
Harrison / Johnston - Early Mercy
Krokofant - 6
Riot Jazz Brass Band - Ginja
Sean Imboden - Communal Heart
Sebastian Rochford - Finding Ways
Silke Eberhard Trio - Being-A-Ning
Best Reissues / Remasters
The Black Crowes - amorica. [2025 Deluxe Edition]
Everclear - Sparkle and Fade [30th Anniversary Edition]
Grateful Dead - Blues for Allah [2025 Steven Wilson Remix]
Pink Floyd - Wish You were Here [50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]
And in case you missed it, here is the playlist of music reviewed in 2025: