Nero’s Top 11 Albums of 2025
2025 continued on 2024’s strong year of Van Morrison Astral Weeks esc. departures from bands that created a wave of successful solo album endeavors. MJ Lenderman, Cameron Winter, and This is Lorelei were at the forefront of this unintended movement, showcasing to listeners that their favorite band members might be hiding a wealth of hidden projects.
In a year filled with contentious politics and complex social movements, these albums offered a needed diversion and distraction. This list is filled with expressive vocalists, intricate guitar compositions, and complete projects filled with end-to-end artistic messaging.
11. Dove Ellis - Blizzard
Dec 2025
Dove Ellis adds to the litany of artists coming from the UK’s Windmill scene with a melancholy debut comprised of angelic spacey vocals backed by strong instrumentation. On pure raw talent alone, Dove Ellis promises to grow into one of this generation’s most prolific songwriters.
Standout Tracks: Little Left Hope, When You Tie Your Hair Up, Pale Song
10. Elias Rønnenfelt - Speak Daggers
Oct 2025
Denmark’s and Iceage’s Elias Rønnenfelt has silently developed one of the more impressive solo catalogs within pop-influenced indie rock. Speak Daggers is his most mature and focused project yet and suggests he will become a mainstay in indie rock’s future.
Standout Tracks: USA Baby, Hollow Noon, Love How It Feels
9. Maruja - Pain to Power
Sept 2025
Manchester’s jazz-rock ensemble follows up their impressive previous work with another album that pinballs from cluttered hardcore rock to expressive free form jazz-rock that will almost guarantee tears.
Standout Tracks: Bloodsport, Reconcile, Born to Die
8. First Day Back - Forward
June 2025
First Day Back made a strong impression on me through their live performance belting in a library, offering a metaphor for their explosive debut Forward that calls upon the ghost of Cap’n Jazz.
Standout Tracks: Wait, Do You Hear That?, Paint, Gone On
7. They Are Gutting a Body of Water - LOTTO
Aug 2025
TAGABOW brings an explosive approach to shoe-gaze fundamentals, and taps into 90’s elements of math rock guitar — even emulating the spoken-word, haunting vocals of Brian McMahon from Slint on the first track the chase. This project continues to carve out TAGABOW’s unique space that blends many different guitar rock sub-genres.
Standout Tracks: the chase, sour diesel, slo acrostic
6. Racing Mount Pleasant - Racing Mount Pleasant
Aug 2025
Formerly Kingfisher, 7 piece Ann Arbor band Racing Mount Pleasant grows their sound with a project filled with tension and release.
Standout Tracks: Emily, You, Your New Place
5. Geese - Getting Killed
Sept 2025
Brooklyn’s finest delivers one of the most explosive albums of the 2020s, pushing past misguided “industry plant” accusations to ultimately showcase how a group’s sound can grow and evolve into something unique and singular.
Standout Tracks: Bow Down, Cobra, Islands of Men
4. Sharp Pins - Balloon Balloon Balloon
Nov 2025
Is Kai Slater the Deion Sanders of music? From Lifeguard to Sharp Pins to running music collective Hallogallo, Balloon Balloon Balloon’s 18 tracks feel familiar and referential, yet challenge the structures that often made 60s music dull.
Standout Tracks: I Don’t Have The Heart, (I Wanna) Be Your Girl, Fall in Love Again
3. Sharp Pins - Radio DDR
March 2025
If you couldn’t tell already, Sharp Pins had a prolific 2025, and Radio DDR holds another 14 songs that built the foundation for the breadth of wealth found on Balloon Balloon Balloon.
Standout Tracks: You Don’t Live Here Anymore, If I Was Ever Lonely, I Can’t Stop
2. Nourished By Time - The Passionate Ones
Aug 2025
Baltimore’s Marcus Brown follows up his punchy previous work with a cohesive and daring venture into a developed R&B sound.
Standout Tracks: It’s Time, Tossed Away, Max Potential
1. Shallowater - God’s Gonna Give You a Million Dollars
Sept 2025
West Texas' slow-core group Shallowater delivers its most intricate and heartbreaking album yet, expanding on their successful 2024 album There Is a Well, with a homely Texas feature from Amarillo’s finest Hayden Pedigo.
Standout Tracks: Highway, Ativan, Sadie
