Grab a Q-tip and clean your ears as you step inside The Wax Museum, where today’s exhibit is a loud and clear reminder that 2025 has been stacked with incredible new music.
If you’ve fallen behind, don’t sweat it — start with my 33 Best Albums of 2025 list from July. Then check out recent album spotlights on Greet Death, Blush, and Racing Mount Pleasant.
But now? Now it’s time to feast. I’ve got 12 knockout new albums that deserve your full attention. All these records are spinning on the Album of the Year Leaderboard, updated frequently and streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.
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Liquid Mike - Hell Is An Airport
Get Vinyl: Black
Let’s begin with an album that dropped today from Marquette’s Liquid Mike. After last year’s Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot (which landed #14 on our 2024 leaderboard) nailed the sweet spot between prime Blink-182 energy and Fountains of Wayne wit, frontman Mike Maple quit his day job as a USPS mail carrier to go all-in. Now a fully locked-in five-piece, the band returns with Hell is an Airport, cramming 14 fuzzed-out, hook-stuffed songs in a frantic 27 minutes. It’s one of the tightest, most exhilarating power pop records in recent memory.
Blood Orange - Essex Honey
Get Vinyl: Marble | Crystal Orange | Black
Oh my goodness, we have a new #1 on the Album of the Year Leaderboard: Essex Honey, the first Blood Orange record in six years, and one born from the depths of Devonté Hynes’ grief after the death of his mother. Its spark came from divine algorithmic intervention: Hynes hearing Sufjan Stevens’ “Fourth of July” for the first time, a song about Sufjan’s own mother’s death, which reignited his belief in music’s power to heal.
That spirit fuels every second of Essex Honey, processing loss through a tapestry of musical memory from Hynes’ childhood, weaving in tributes to The Replacements and Elliott Smith and featuring a stunning cameo from The Durutti Column legend Vini Reilly on “The Field.”
Essex Honey is lifted by a who’s-who of collaborators including Caroline Polachek (with three features!), Lorde, novelist Zadie Smith, Turnstile's Brendan Yates, and Mabe Fratti (more on her in a minute). The result is a breathtaking, genre-fluid listen that merges R&B, soul, indie-pop, and left-field hip-hop into something cerebral and euphoric. It gets better with each listen.
Titanic - HAGEN
Get Vinyl: Cream | Black
I’ve been singing the praises of Mexico City–based, Guatemalan multi-hyphenate Mabe Fratti for a while now, calling her one of the most exciting musicians on the scene, and she proves me right once again with HAGEN. Trust me: this is the most spellbinding half hour of music you’ll hear all year.
Teaming up with her partner, guitarist and producer Héctor Tosta, under their Titanic moniker, the duo sharpen their genre-agnostic approach, balancing chaotic bursts of noise with gorgeous pop shimmer. One moment they’re channeling the soft funk of Sade, the next they’re wrangling heavy metal blast beats beneath Fratti’s soaring falsetto. It’s an endlessly surprising album that cements her as one of this generation’s rising stars.
Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band - New Threats From The Soul
Get Vinyl: Black
If you're looking for a frontrunner for the best country album of the year — or at least the most lyrically astonishing — look no further than Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band’s New Threats From The Soul.
This is no straightforward alt-country record; it’s a sprawling, 57-minute journey that seamlessly weaves in psych-prog and subtle electronica. Comparisons to MJ Lenderman make sense, but Davis’ storytelling and scope recall Okkervil River’s Will Sheff at his finest. The seven long, winding songs unfold like a great movie you never want to end, each listen revealing new punchlines and harmonic shifts. It’s a prime example of an artist stretching the boundaries of what country music can be, and an album that demands to be played again and again.
La Dispute - No One Was Driving The Car
Get Vinyl: Green Smoke | Tri-Color | Eco Mix | Black
Paul Schrader's environmental horror film First Reformed sits in my Letterboxd Top 4 for its harrowingly accurate portrayal of living in these potential end times, so my expectations were raised upon hearing La Dispute’s first album in six years was directly inspired by it. I’m happy to report No One Was Driving The Car not only meets expectations but stands as the post-hardcore band's best work since 2011's Wildlife.
Taking its title from a report on a lethal self-driving Tesla crash, the album is a fourteen-track cinematic reckoning with greed, technological malaise, and the looming apocalypse. Channeling their rage into ambitious, sharp compositions and dark, poetic writing, La Dispute stares into the void of and creates a work of art from the despair.
Kokoroko - Tuff Times Don’t Last
Get Vinyl: Purple | Black
Sheesh, after La Dispute, we’re in desperate need of some happy joints and luckily, London’s Kokoroko has the perfect antidote with Tuff Times Never Last. This album is groove after groove, effortlessly cool as the other side of the pillow. Transmitting Afrobeat of the highest order through a pristine, summery lens, the record serves as an optimistic and vibrant reminder to embrace life’s many dualities. Start with “Sweetie,” a certified Wax Museum Song of the Summer.
OK Cool - Chit Chat
Get Vinyl: Orange
And while we're handing out Song of the Summer accolades, let's make room for the super catchy "Waawooweewaa" by Chicago duo OK Cool.
OK Cool’s long-awaited debut album, Chit Chat, delivers ten melodic guitar-pop songs that capture genuine passion and a self-aware sense of humor. Bonus points for including one of my favorite Tim Robinson skits on “Ruined.”
Their sound feels like a perfect bridge between the indie rock of Chicago forbearers like Sarge and the modern folk rock of Moontype. Chit Chat is a confident debut from a band with a classic somewhere in their future — and this record feels like the first step toward it.
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Laura Stevenson - Late Great
Get Vinyl: Clear with Red, Black, Beige Splatter
Laura Stevenson’s Late Great is her most vulnerable collection yet, chronicling the blow-up of a 17-year relationship with her husband, co-parent, and bandmate. Released on Jeff Rosenstock’s Really Records (including Rosenstock himself on multiple instruments), the album finds Stevenson’s singular voice floating above a kaleidoscope of sounds — alt-rock grit, subtle country twang, and lush arrangements. It’s a record about rebuilding yourself from the wreckage, and it creeps up on you and then never leaves, destined for heavy rotation.
Shallowater - God’s Gonna Give You a Million Dollars
Get Vinyl: Black
Self-proclaimed “West Texas dirtgaze” trio Shallowater have returned with their striking second album, God’s Gonna Give You a Million Dollars. Self-released and produced by Wax Museum hall of famer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Hotline TNT), the record balances slowcore patience with sudden walls of distortion, folding in shades of alt-country and Americana along the way. This gives the songs an intimacy that makes the quiet moments tender and the heavy ones devastating. It’s a confident album that pushes slowcore into fresh territory.
Winter - Adult Romantix
Get Vinyl: Red and White Smash | Cherry Kiss | Blue and Red Nova | Black
Friends, I listen to a lot of new dreampop and shoegaze, which means I wade through plenty of forgettable efforts, so believe me when I say that Samira Winter’s Adult Romantix is the real deal. Her Winspear debut, inspired by Mary Shelley novels and 90s rom-coms, is a perfect blend of swirling guitars and smoky vocals. Nostalgic, woozy, and moving, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Adult Romantix mentioned among the great modern shoegaze albums in the years to come.
Go Kurosawa - soft shakes
Get Vinyl: Green
Go Kurosawa, best known as the drummer and vocalist of Kikagaku Moyo, steps out on his own with soft shakes, his first solo album. Created during dark, rainy days in his Rotterdam studio, the album was born from a process of unstructured jamming, with Go picking up whatever instrument was around and following the sound without plan or pressure. I’m talking tambourines, woodblocks, bongos, and cowbells, to name a few. The result is eclectic, rhythmic, and delightfully unexpected, exactly what you want from a deeply personal jam session.
The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie
Get Vinyl: Blue Sky | Sapphire | Sherbet | Black
Last but certainly not least, everyone’s favorite New Zealand indie pop quartet The Beths go four-for-four with Straight Line Was a Lie, another brilliant entry in their spotless catalog.
Following frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes’ battle with Graves’ Disease-induced writer’s block, the band returns with their most introspective album to date. While still packed with their signature catchy hooks and big guitar riffs, the melancholy that always lingered at the edges now takes center stage. It may have been their most difficult record to make, but it’s another reminder that The Beths remain one of the most consistently great bands of the last decade.
Hey friends, thanks for tuning in! I’d love to hear what new stuff you’re currently spinning; drop your favs in the comments or reply to this email.
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We’ll catch you here next week with a fall refresh of the Patio Grooves Playlist!
The Ryan Davis album has knocked my socks off. I also hear John Prine and Van Morrison in the DNA
The new Big Thief record is incredible...I still haven't been able to find my socks yet