PERSONAL
RECS 2025

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My favourites so far.
These are some of my most-played albums from 2025, in no real order.

I’ve focused on records I’d listen to start to finish, across a mix of genres. If you’re more into individual songs, the playlists might be more your pace.

I’ve also included the mid-year list sources in case if you want to explore their other picks.

Access the full Google Sheet here

01 Luster
Maria Somerville
Dream Pop, Ambient Pop, Shoegaze
[06] AllMusic
Resident Advisor
Pitchfork
Stereogum
The Quietus
Triple R

Luster is Maria Somerville’s first for 4AD, building on the mood of her early-morning NTS show. Made in her childhood home in West Ireland, it blends shoegaze, ambient electronics, and post-punk into something soft and haunted. Think Cocteau Twins or Mazzy Star, but more weather-worn. It’s full of foggy textures that tow the line between folk and dream-pop. Feels like sea air and quiet rooms.

02In The Blue Light
Kelela
R&B, Ambient Pop, Electro-acoustic
[03] Pitchfork
Resident Advisor
Vulture

In the Blue Light captures Kelela’s intimate live set at the iconic Blue Note lounge in New York. It feels like the best set you could stumble into at a jazz bar: loose, glowing, and just the right kind of raw. With harp, voice, and space doing the heavy lifting, it’s an hour-long drift through the emotional core of her sound. Good for slow Friday nights or quiet Sunday mornings. Think Joni or Janet in a sensory tank.

03Faith
Purelink Experimental, Dub, Electronic, Ambient
[01]Futurism Restated

Faith is a looser, warmer take on ambient dub. Built with live instruments and guest vocals, it smooths the edges without losing the haze. There are nods to Basic Channel and late-’90s minimalism, but the Brooklyn trio stay focused on mood and movement. A slow, textural drift of glitch, ambience and low-end that floats, then quietly pulls you along.

04Land’s End Eternal
Cole Pulice
Jazz, Ambient, New Age
[03]Aquarium Drunkard
Futurism Restated
Margeaux Labat

Land’s End Eternal is meditative and slightly otherworldly. Built from processed sax, modular synths and intuitive improv, it floats between ambient jazz, spiritual drone and a fourth world dream-states. It’s less a set of songs than a sustained mood, calling to mind Jon Hassell at his softest. Like wind through glass.

05Tether
Annahstasia Soul, Alternative, Singer-Songwriter
[02]Aquarium Drunkard
Pitchfork

Tether lets Annahstasia’s voice do most of the heavy lifting. The LA singer’s debut is mostly guitar and vocals, but it never feels hollow. Tracy Chapman or Nina Simone are the easy (lazy?) comparisons, but she makes the sound her own. The songs build slow and steady, shifting from soft folk into flashes of rock and blues that feel raw in all the right ways.

06Lifetime
Erika De Casier Trip-Hop, Downtempo, Alt-Pop
[05]Billboard
FADER
Margeaux Labat
Stereogum
Slant
The Guardian

Lifetime captures all the warmth of Erika de Casier's debut, but it feels a little more open. This is soft-focus R&B with a knowing wink, towing the line between nostalgic trip-hop and crisp, understated pop. Everything feels slightly airbrushed, in the best way, like a '90s magazine spread come to life. It's subtly catchy, but never obvious.

07Emo Regulation – EP
RIP Swirl, Ydegirl Indie, Alt-Rock, Shoegaze
[01]Margeaux Labat

I don’t think i’m the intended audience for Emo Regulation, but that's part of why it stuck. RIP Swirl and Ydegirl tap into a nostalgia for adolescence I never lived. It's full of fragile vocals, glittery synths, and feelings worn openly. Like someone whispering into their bedroom mic past midnight. It's got a sad, emo edge, but it's never dramatic. This is pop through a blurry lens. Melancholic, but strangely comforting.

08Pirouette
Model/Actriz
Dance-Punk, Experimental-Pop

[07]Bandcamp
CoS
Needle Drop
Paste
Rolling Stone
Stereogum
Treble Zine

Pirouette caught me off guard. It’s raw and loud, but weirdly precise. It might feel too clean if you’re used to hardcore, or too intense if you favour polished electro-pop, but for me it sits perfectly in the middle. It’s the second from New York’s Model/Actriz, and it’s full of blown-out drums, industrial crunch, and vocals that swing from a whisper to a bark. It’s seductive, wired, and always just on the edge of spiralling out.

09Perverts
Ethel Cain
Dark-Ambient, Slowcore
[05]CoS
Resident Advisor
Stereogum
The Quietus
Vulture

Perverts is heavier than it first lets on. The noise is thick, almost ugly at times, but there’s a strange calm buried under it. I wouldn’t usually go for something this scorched, but something kept me there. It’s doomcore, yes, but it’s also grief and control and sex and shame, all tangled up and echoing out. Not exactly easy listening, but weirdly cathartic.

10A Deeper Life
Chaos in the CBD Deep House, Jazz House

Deeper Life has been a default lately. An easy, satisfying listen from start to finish. It treads familiar ground, but it's hard to imagine someone not enjoying it. Think Wamdue Kids or early Larry Heard, but with more modern polish. The NZ duo (based in London) sit right in that sweet house-meets-jazz pocket, and this one feels especially dialled in. Expect brushed snares, dusty chords, and woozy sax. It's perfect for warm nights, long walks, or living rooms at 2AM.

11Supurb
Surprise Chef
Soul, Funk, Instrumental

Surprise Chef's Superb is full of groove and atmosphere. The Melbourne group build lush, instrumental tracks that blend soul, funk, and jazz with a cinematic edge. Picture 70s soundtrack music, but slowed down and slightly roughed up. It’s tight but never stiff, with every track carrying a sense of purpose. This time they’re moving with a bit more spring. Superb is slightly looser and more playful than what’s come before. Less for staring out the train window and more for walking the streets once you’ve stepped off.

12New World, Lonely Ride
Michael Grigoni and Pan•American
Ambient, New Age, Ambient-Americana
[01]Aquarium Drunkard

New World, Lonely Ride is a slow and spacious album where Michael Grigoni and Pan•American craft gentle instrumentals using lap steel and soft textures. It's ambient with a distinct country tint. The music suits those quiet, in-between moments: late nights, early mornings, or aimless afternoons. It feels like the soundtrack to a film you only vaguely remember.

13HEAL
Lucas Dupuy & Pavel Milyakov
Experimental, Electronic, Ambient, New-Age, Field-Recording
[01] Futurism Restated

HEAL is a collaboration between ambient producer Pavel Milyakov (Buttechno) and abstract artist Lucas Dupuy. It’s built on soft synths, distant textures, and subtle field recordings. You can hear the influence of ’90s chillout rooms and Japanese environment music, but it doesn’t feel nostalgic. Just calm, and a little ghostly. Raw in parts, but carefully put together, and easy to get lost in.

14Soothsayers
Monoparts
Trip-Hop, Electronic, Ambient
While trip-hop has seen a polished revival in recent pop, Soothsayers feels more like its golden age. Think Tricky, Massive Attack, and Portishead. The album is a 'long-lost' collaboration between Polish artists Olga Wojciechowska and Tomasz Walkiewicz, working as Monoparts. This project nearly never saw the light of day. It's raw, intricate, and worth the wait.

15Hometown Girl
U.E Ambient, Drone, Jazz

Hometown Girl is the latest from Ulla Straus, now going by U.e. It’s quiet and loosely structured, mostly acoustic, but still full of atmosphere. Guitars, woodwinds, and creaky piano stitched together with a lo-fi feel. Some tracks drift into ambience, others feel like tape sketches left untouched. It feels like a diary you weren’t meant to read (in the best way).

OHALL25