And so 2025 comes to an end, but at least along with seemingly everything in the world going south, we had some amazing music to enjoy along the way – tough, in fact, to get this down to just a top 20, but I hope you find something you enjoy among the list. 

 

In the tenth anniversary of Cities and Memory, this is in fact my 11th albums of the year list, so for posterity, here are the winners from previous years:

 

 

20. Snorri Halgrimsson – The Importance of Birds (Deutsche Grammofon)

Starting quiet this year, with seven moments of sublime sadness and calm from another of Iceland’s conveyor belt of wondrous wintery composers. Beautifully composed with plenty of open spaces to let the melancholy sink in, and all themed around our relationships with – and impact on – our feathered cousins. Really gorgeous stuff that could soundtrack a thousand poignant moments, in movies or indeed in life. 

Buy it here

 

 

19. Purelink – Faith (Peak Oil)

Balmy woozecore from Brooklyn redolent of a high-fashion version of Seefeel. Six tracks of dubby electronics that seem gossamer-thin on a first listen, but taken as a whole generate the kind of atmosphere I kept coming back for month after month. There’s warmth, depth and subtlety in the production, and pleasing nods to 90s vibes – as well as a couple of guest vocal slots that add to, rather than break the atmos.

 

 

18. The Black Dog – Loud Ambient (Dust Science)

 

Speaking of 90s vibes, Loud Ambient was a cracking end-of-year surprise from The Black Dog – the most upbeat, crispest release they’d put out in years. A strong tip for fans of classic Underworld and Warp output. Bonus points for the whole album being inspired by Rothko’s work too (not that any of the oppressive density of sense of the overwhelming necessarily translates). And of course, this album is tinged by great sadness at the news of Ken Downie’s passing last week – there was clearly still so much more wonderful work to come, too.

 

17. Brueder Selke & Midori Hirano – Split Scale (Thrill Jockey)

Unquestionably one of the most beautiful releases of 2025, this collaboration works its way through the notes of a western scale, using each as the starting point for a piece. Brueder Selke started half of the pieces, with Hirano starting the other half, and parts were traded back and forth, but the whole thing sounds seamless, polished and perfect, piano, cello and electronics intertwining to stunning effect. Here’s hoping this isn’t the last we hear from this collaboration.

 

 

16. Aesop Rock – Black Hole Superette (Rhymesayers)

Aesop Rock is always going to make into my end of year list, the only question being where. This is another strong outing, but not quite up there with Integrated Tech Solutions – now Aes can make you marvel at his articulacy and wordplay even as he balances the feat of occasionally making you laugh out loud, as in an improbable song about snails randomly appearing in a fishtank. Still incredibly productive, incredibly consistent and a pleasure every time.

 

 

15. Stereocilia – Phases (Echoic Memory)

Bristol’s one-man-Spacemen 3 (Spaceman 1?) does it again with Phases, an album it’s pretty tough to imagine one person pulling off, coming off as it does like a prime spacerock full four-piece band. Or in fact, two full bands, since the first half of the album is like a Tangerine Dream modular synth ambient workout, slowly building into the second half, in which the pads and arpeggiators take a back seat to face-melting guitar repetition. A fantastic synth album and a brilliant psych rock record rolled into one.

 

 

14. Anna von Hausswolff – Iconoclasts

The frankly unbelievable Dead Magic came in at number 2 on my end-of-year list back in 2018, so this was hotly anticipated. There’s a LOT to get your teeth into with this hugely ambitious album, including guest appearances all over the shop – Abul Mogard, Ethel Cain and most eye-catchingly Iggy Pop. But perhaps the most striking addition is Otis Sandsjö’s saxophone, which adds so much every time it makes an appearance. There are a few uncertain moments amid the adventure, but the peaks are devastatingly good, as in the nine overpowering minutes of “Struggle With The Beast”.

 

 

13. Sanam – Sametou Sawtan (Constellation)

There’s a reasonable chance this album lands worst artwork of the year, but we’re not here for that, thankfully. Lebanese singer Sandy Chamoun comes together with Radwan Ghazi Moumneh from the awesome Jerusalem In My Heart for this gem. Egyptian folk songs are reimagined, 12th-century poetry anchors tracks together, as Middle Eastern vibes, avant-rock and electronics to brilliant effect.

 

12. The Myrrors – Land Back (Radio Khiyaban)

This is an absolute riot. Take politically charged drone rock with strong Arabic influences and run the whole lot through a ton of distortion and tape delays and you have one of 2025’s most urgent-sounding releases, at a time when we need more music to be making statements like “no one is free until we’re all free”.

 

 

11. Andrea Cichecki – Drawn Into The Edge Effect (Castles in Space)

Some of the year’s loveliest production is on this blissed out voyage into synthesiser outer space from Andrea Cichecki, who creates an intricate sound world of her own, neatly blending bucolic influences with retro-futurism, and lending an emotional edge to her explorations of synthesis. A warming envelope of sonic bliss.

 

 

10. Swans – Birthing (Young God)

Swans’ final tour in their current incarnation was one of the finest live shows of the year, a truly transcendent experience. The final album from this iteration of the band doesn’t live up to that, or indeed to The Beggar, but it remains an undeniably powerful monument of sound with some incredible peaks in The Healers and I Am A Tower. A fitting conclusion to an unmatched run of life-changing albums from a peerless group of musicians.

 

 

9. Rival Consoles – Landscape From Memory (Erased Tapes)

Landscape From Memory is perhaps the most open, loosest and most relaxed that Rival Consoles has sounded in years, and all the better for it. The production is obviously top drawer, but the compositions feel more expansive and exploratory than ever before. There’s so much fine detail in the sound, but always serving a purpose – all focus, no “look at me” trickery. Possibly his finest work.

 

 

8. Filip Leyman – Soft Light (Pomperipossa)

One of the year’s unexpected electronic highlights, from Swedish producer and Anna von Hausswolff collaborator Filip Leyman, whose ability to layer emotion upon emotion into his productions took my breath away at times. Beautifully, delicately composed, it’s like listening to a log fire in a mountain lodge late at night.

 

 

7. Tortoise – Touch (International Anthem)

I have to confess to being a little nervous about a new Tortoise release, having worshipped the first four albums, then been a little disappointed with the last couple. Thankfully Touch is more than enough to have me fall in love with them all over again, offering simultaneously more of that classic comforting Tortoise sound, but also new ways into that sound, from the Dinger-beat krautrock propulsion of Axial Seamount to the 70s soundtrack vibes of A Title Comes.

 

 

6. Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werliin – Ghosted III (Drag City)

Oren, Johan and Andreas keep putting out these extraordinary collections of super-tight exploratory improv, and they’ll keep getting into my top ten every time. They lock into a splendid groove, adding the finest of filigree touches and subtle progressions, leaving you slack-jawed at the musicianship and soul on display, then they do it another six times. I honestly can’t recommend all three Ghosted releases enough – this is a truly special collaboration.

 

 

5. Seabuckthorn – A Path Within A Path (LAAPS)

A special album from Cities and Memory contributor Andy Cartwright in his usual Seabuckthorn guise, this is an absolute masterclass in atmosphere. Shades of Barn Owl at their most contemplative with something of the flavour of Popol Vuh’s soundtrack work – those two comparisons alone should tell you that you’re in for a treat when you tune into this one.

 

 

4. Hyloxolos – s/t (Dead Currencies)

This psych-rock supergroup featuring none other than Dylan Carlson came out of nowhere to melt my face at the tail end of the year. Apparently written and recorded in 48 hours, that must have been quite some weekend to witness. The band seems to start off a song with no idea what direction it’s going to go in, other than to absolutely shred your face off. Like Sleep if they’d just drunk 15 cans of Monster each.

 

 

3. Emily A. Sprague – Cloud Time (RVNG Intl.)

A modern day slice of kankyo ongaku-style environmental music for 2025, this heavenly dose of ambient was edited down from live improvisations made on a Japanese tour. It’s gossamer-thin, delicate music, and it’s incredibly difficult to make music like this land successfully, without drifting aimlessly or losing one’s attention. Cloud Time seems slight at first, but the more time you spend with it, the more rewarding it becomes – which for me is one of the hallmarks of truly great music.

 

 

2. Haress – Skylarks (Wrong Speed Records)

Ghosts was pretty amazing, but Haress keep getting better and better in their quiet corner of weird old merry England. Music for dark forests, weird walks and pagan rituals, like a cursed version of The For Carnation banged full of magic mushrooms. It works beautifully as one seamless listen, the three instrumental tracks building on top of one another, until the massed choir singalong of the closing title track lifts the whole experience to another level.

 

 

1. Brìghde Chaimbeul – Sunwise (Glitterbeat)

And so to the album of the year – listening back, the top six albums on this list all build upon one another’s exploratory qualities, each taking a journey to the outer reaches in its own way, and they all build up to this year’s first placed album. The first two tracks of Sunwise in particular take you to a different place, using the bagpipes (and some choice effects) to call in elements of Kali Malone, Sarah Davachi, Eliane Radigue and Laurie Spiegel to build a temple to the Eternal Drone. Notes are held in the ether until they become experiences into themselves, with songs that tell us so much about the place in which they were born. Folklore and tradition combined, then, but in one of the most forward looking and adventurous albums of the year. Transcendental. Here’s the album of the year emoji 🏆