2025 in retrospect/2025 albums of the year
i can't tell time for the life of me. the last week has been months. i am exhausted. i am fighting a losing battle to social media addiction when it is both necessary for promoting my art, and also fun for connecting with friends and general shitposting. my tumblr break did not last very long. i need distractions these days, as my motivation to do things has been kind of terrible. i've been depressed. i've been grieving. 2025 has been an extremely difficult year. needless to say, it was weird to pick my favorite albums from the year. when looking back, i was ready to put an album on the list from 2023 (vyva melinkolya's unbecoming) because my memory gets that hazy. i also fell in love for the first time, for real. now i am exploring new mediums of art, new projects, and new friends trying to fill the void the lack of that love has left me with. these past 3 months have been about 3 years in the world i live in. i've grown so much and fought so much in so little time. my band played our first 3 1/2 shows this year. it's been a wild ride that i am ready to get off of. i am starting work on a new short film, that will hopefully be more peaceful and joyful to shoot than my last one. i am getting very invested in the weird world of underground transgender mumblecore films. castration movie really birthed a new niche that everyone is exploring, just like i called in my letterboxd review. that's a very exciting space that i am very glad to be a part of in some way. i will be getting friends involved and hopefully getting weirder and more narrative.
now, it's the time you've all been waiting for.
2025 albums of the year
Perverts by Ethel Cain
This is not my favorite album that came out this year. it is not the one i listen to the most. however, i find it to be the biggest and most interesting leap for an artist to make. Hayden Annhedonia, aka Ethel Cain gained prominence for her southern drawl-laced pop tunes with elements of shoegaze, country, indie rock, and occasional soundcloud rap. on Preacher's Daughter, she expanded those textures to include dark ambient, guitar solos, and noise. she gained a serious cult following and comparisons to lana del ray. their audiences overlap a lot. this was, in many ways, a "fuck you" to the casuals. this was a challenging album. i remember listening to it driving through the january snow in Amelia, past abandoned silos and haunted looking farm houses at night on the way back from a friend's house. the 35 minute drive gave me time to experience about half the album in what felt like the entirely intended atmosphere. it is a transportantional album. the long, droning tracks are Haydens' way of paying tribute to Throbbing Gristle. it is a powerfully dark album. i called it as the AOTY when it dropped. it stayed there all year, blowing any chances of her second album of the year, Willhouby Tucker, I Will Always Love You even touching the bottom of this list.
Hornet Disaster by Weatherday
This is my favorite album of the year. I will go back to analysis of albums' artistic power in a moment but now i need to bask in the band that changed my life this year. that's Weatherday. I was introduced by my friend and bandmate Mira, through a live session they did on YouTube about 2 weeks after my breakup. for personal reasons, "Cooperative Calligraphy" is the only break-up song to exist as far as i'm concerned. the desparation in Sputnik's voice as they sing "i know you are suffering, i am too. i will do whatever you want. whatever you want. you made it easy to miss you." breaks me every time. it found me at the perfect time, in the perfect context. the production on both Weatherday albums are phenomenal. they are so melodic, noisy, and bright. the atmosphere is a wild controlled chaos that i cannot begin to wrap my head around. this is the kind of album i dream of making. i'm not sure whether i'm angry they beat me to it or grateful they showed me what the best emo album of the 2020s can look like.
Stardust by Danny Brown
Back to amazing artistic steps. I fell in love with Danny Brown through his album Attrocity Exhibition and his feature on a Femtanyl song. for this album, it has been joked a million times how he assembled the transfemme avengers, but it's true! we cannot let that overshadow how amazing an album this is just for trans jokes though. i say that as the queen of trans jokes. this album is an incredible suite of stylish hip hop, stories of overcoming personal battles, and coming out on top in the best way possible. it is so fun, so hopeful, and yet not afraid to get it's hands dirty. Danny said this album is best played with friends, out loud, on speakers. I did not do that. I listened in headphones while playing Smash Bros Project M. still, despite being unable to follow basic directions, this album rules and i would reccomend it to anyone who likes any of the typical tgirl stuff like femtanyl and underscores, and to anyone who wants some modern classic hip hop.
Goodbye Small Head by Ezra Furman
I had the pleasure of seeing Ezra Furman live while she tours for this album. what a life changing, cathartic experience. this album is incredible. Ezra's music and her collaboration with Lex Walton led me to a deep fandom for Lex's output, so it is very gratifying to see her influence all over this album. the use of sampling, vocal synths, and noise are gorgeous. this is such a deeply melancholic yet resiliant album. Ezra goes against the wisdom of her track "You Musn't Show Weakness" and shows her weak spots in between the medical beeps of a heart monitor during a song about electrolysis and BDSM, a frenzied song about wanting out of a runaway car, and the intense doubt present in "Veil Song". the latter features one of my favorite lyrics of all time: "i'm ready to get married like i'm ready to die. it's comforting to say it, but it's not true." there are many gems like that on this album. one of such is the chorus lyric the singular anthem on this album- A World of Love And Care: "who get's left out of your dreams of a good society? dream better! dream bigger!" the album ends with a cover of my personal favorite Lex Walton track and future tattoo on my body "I Need The Angel". the album is wall to wall emotion pouring out in every direction. i spent the show i attended stimming and sobbing. i had the privilege to meet Ezra and get a signed setlist on which she wrote "that was beautiful. - ezra". she's right. that WAS beautiful.
World's End Mourning by Dodomeki
I have the least to say about this album, but a shoutout is required. Dodomeki opened for my friend and drummer Walker's other band This Man May Die, and I was entranced. Dodomeki are phenomenal. Sully's vocals were almost completely burried by their guitar, the synthesizer, bass, and two drum kits, yet the bits i heard were so enticing. i needed to hear more. the album provided. i have went on to wear the band's shirt that i purchased at two of my own live shows and one live video. they are a world shattering band for me. go to your local shows and find bands that hit you like this in your scene. listen to Dysphoria by Dodomeki right now. do it. you have to. I will leave you with this message from the liner notes on the bandcamp page for the album. "This album is about grief. It's about fear in a collapsing world. It's about queerness in the shadow of Appalachia. It's about trauma, disparate memories, repression, and compulsion. We started writing these songs in late 2021. It's been a long time. Our lives have changed so much. There is so much pain but we're still here. Don't kill yourself. Stay alive to spite them. Fuck this country built on stolen land. Fuck every fascist politician, police officer, and colonizing force. Free Palestine, Free Sudan, Free The Congo. Queer Liberation."