The 18,973 Best Albums of 2025

Geese's 'Getting Killed' is really a jazz album

Dec 14, 2025

Welcome in, all.

It’s the end of the year as we know it. Maybe this year will be better than the last.

I sure the fuck hope so.

So what we have here is my list of favorite albums from the ‘25. I’ve been making a list like this every year since December 2004, when Some Velvet Blog first launched - back in ye olde blog rock days. Dang. That was 21 years ago. You remember those blog rock years, right?

Among some of my faves in 2004: Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born, Fly or Die by N*E*R*D, Alphabetical by Phoenix, The Tipping Point by The Roots, Funeral by Arcade Fire, Hot Fuss by The Killers, Madvillainy and the Jay-Z/Fab 4 mashup classic by Danger Mouse, The Grey Album. American Idiot came out that year also. I’m still sort of in the minority of my trusted music fan friends crew who was not moved by it. Sorry not sorry.

2025. If it comes down to any one band, it’s The Year of Geese. Not Goose, a band that I like a lot and saw a couple times and whose modern take on classic rock appeals to my love of rock and guitar solos (and who released two albums this past year). But Geese. You know; the BK NYC band fronted by Cameron Winter.

This year, IMHO, many artists whose records would often wind up on my favorites/best ofs lists released albums that I would call “just okay.” Maybe that’s me being overly critical. Maybe not. But to my ears, it seems that increasingly there’s a big middle curve of releases where everything is a 5.0-7.0 on the scale of ten. I prefer 8s, 9s, 10s.

And then there’s Geese’s Getting Killed. It’s a smash hit #Brucefork 10. From start to finish, no record that came out this year has stood out - on so many musical levels - like it. During and after the first couple plays I had the same bells going off that I had after listening to Ok Computer (Radiohead) and Remain In Light (Talking Heads) for the first time. Words like “innovative” and “nostalgic” crossed my mind a number of times. I thought of the title to Cannonball Adderley’s classic, Somethin’ Else, not because it’s a jazz record (although it might as well be) but because it’s not just another middle of the road indie rock record - you know the kind; the ones we all freak out over for like a week but never listen to again - but really somethin’ else. Will Getting Killed endure years-long similar mythical importance as the two Heads’ classics? Hmmm. Maybe.

Irreverence, swagger, melody and chaos are at the heart of Getting Killed. It’s a rock record that could have fit into the more centrist side of late 70s New York No Wave era, where rejection of the trappings of musical traditions and many genres were celebrated. “100 Horses” is my undeniable song of the year, but seriously - “Taxes,” “Cobra,” “Long Island,” “Cocaine”….come on. It’s ridiculous.

The best description I’ve read about the album is by Amanda Petrusich in The New Yorker: “Getting Killed” is feral and disobedient, but also pretty, unguarded, gripping—art for an artless era.” Nailed it.

Ultimately my favorite music does two things for me: it grabs my attention by taking me to some kind of place I’ve not heard before or maybe vaguely familiar with (something I’ve talked to Bob Boilen a lot about over the years) and the songwriting and storytelling. Great albums and songs should make you look up, stop you from what you’re doing, and intentionally force you to ask the question “what the fuck is going on here.” It should be jarring or make you uncomfortable. Or it should embrace you like a warm fucking blanket in sub zero weather.

You’ll find a mix of these kinds of records on my list below. I numbered/highlighted six records below because looking back at the year these were some of the new full album releases I listened to the most. A favorite songs list is below.

#1 Geese - Getting Killed

“There is only dance music in times of war”

“All people/In times of war/Must go down to the circus”