Best of Newly Heard in 2025

I have no memory of how I first heard this song by Australian band Floodlights, but it's certainly one of those that made me stop and just listen. I don't know if ‘rousing emo’ is a genre, but if it is, this album would be exhibit A in the investigation to find out. The album Underneath seems to extend the standard emo guitar band with trumpet, synth and keys, as well as having mixed male/female backing vocals that nicely contrast the deeper lead vocal.

The addition of these extra instruments and their different timbres really adds depth to the sound of the songs, and makes things like the twinkly guitars sparkle even more. Together they really build to a rousing peak that sweeps you away. All the songs are good, but “The Light Won't Shine Forever” wrapped me up in the moment and really nails the ‘rousing’ part.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, you can also watch them performing the whole album [YouTube]​ as well.

If you grew up in the UK anytime after the mid 60s, then Paul McCartney is an artist you cannot have missed. Of all the former Beatles he's been the most prolific and active, but I'd never really bothered to listen to any of his music before; the few things I did know like “Hey Jude”, didn't really want to make to explore more. However Ben Daubney pointed me in the direction of the album Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, McCartney’s 2005 album produced by Nigel Godrich, and gave me an encouraging nudge.

While I probably wouldn't call the album a masterpiece, it is delightful. Pretty simple without sounding too sparse, it's fourteen superbly put together songs, that have made me better understand why people like McCartney so much. The songs aren't complicated, they're often catchy and simple to grasp, but always have something extra just below the surface, that isn't trying to be overly clever, but gives each its own character and interest.

“Jenny Wren” is my favourite of the album, that also nicely illustrates this type of song. It's a catchy finger picked song, but with the intrigue of the solo - that is somewhere between a breathy voice and an oboe. I learnt later that this instrument is a duduk, being played by Pedro Eustache, and it adds this fascinating different sound that I'd never heard of, but also seems nicely placed just right, and not treated as some kind of exotic extra only added for the novelty effect.

Speaking if being put together just right, that seems like a good way of describing Future Ghosts first album In Progress. I want to categorise it somehow, even though I'm not sure that's very useful. You could probably start with ‘emo’, and then move from there into more pop? It's also alive with light touches of different instruments; “This” has a swelling bass synth weaving through it, that give definite The Postal Service vibes, and then a lonesome harmonica at the three minute mark.

My pick from this album is “Hindsight”, which replays an internal argument between the narrator past, and present, dealing with their guilt about their past actions and opinions.

I couldn't find much about the band, other than what's written on their own website, and only learnt of them via Keenan on Mastodon, but another example, if anyone needed one, that the quality of music has nothing to do with the amount of publicity a band has.

Pelican was one of the heavier post-rock/metal bands, along with Caspian, Explosions in The Sky, This Will Destroy You and Mono, that I fell into in the mid 2000s. I haven't paid much attention to that scene in the last decade or so, and so was caught by pleasant surprise when they released the album Flickering Resonance this year, their first in six years.

I've listened to this album a lot this year, and remembered why I liked them so much. On the album “Specific Resonance” feels like the best track, alternating between galloping sections, like the opening, and longer sparser passages, acting a bit like an overture for the whole album.

Probably the most modern and current name on this year's list CMAT's Euro Country is a fantastic album, and I can see why it's been widely praised. The wry observations on the every day, and personal, impact of wider economic and political changes, along with quality pop song writing make for a good mix.

While I really like the funny mix of annoyance at marketing and globalisation, as well as the self-checking of opinion in “Jamie Oliver Petrol Station”, the best track is probably still “Euro-Country”, if for no other reason than for the super catchy riff that I will randomly start humming without warning.

“Irjala”, the opening track on Dödsrit's 2024 album Nocturnal Will, is awesome, and the best possible start to an excellent melodic black metal album. It feels like this everything I'd want from an album in this genre; wall of noise, melodies, open passages that act like the icy scene painted on the front of the album's cover, and then switching back to the band roaring on all cylinders.

This year has been quite light on metal, mostly because of the large amounts of re-listening to bands and artists from a pretty non-metal phase of my life, but this album I kept coming back to.

As ever the line between the top six and other music is vague and arbitrary, so here are some others that were in the running, and I think are worth your time giving a listen to.

While I've not listed to much metal, I did make time for one of my favourite metal bands, The Deftones, who released the album “private music” this year, which feels like an instant classic, coming five years after their previous release. My favourite track is “milk of the madonna”.

Also on the heavier side are Dunes, an excellent stoner rock band from Newcastle Upon Tyne, which is a great release from early in the year, my favourite track is the shorter and more up-tempo “Riding the Low”.

Franz Ferdinand is one of the bands I've spent this year catching up with. One of the best indie disco bands in the mid 2000's (“Take Me Out”, “Darts of Pleasure” etc.), I spend some of my second hand CD collecting on buying their albums, which I'd missed when they first came out because of other priorities. They also released a new album this year, The Human Fear, which then meshed nicely with my new found crush. The snappiest track there is “The Doctor”, which makes my feet twitch and contemplate buying dancing shoes.

Sticking with Indie Disco for a moment, I've also enjoyed Yard Act this year - “Dead Horse” being a good example of their self-knowing spoken word texts over grooving base, opening into a catchy chorus. It’s a much more cynical form of Indie disco than twenty years ago, but perhaps that’s a sign of the times.

Idlewild released a decent album this year, of which moments I really loved, noticeably on tracks like “It's Not The First Time”, “Writers Of The Present Time” and “End With Sunrise”.

Amyl and The Sniffers are a punk band from Australia, and while not all the tracks are as rude and crude as the opener “Jerkin' ”, for its loud wake up call it’s my pick, but “Big Dreams” and “U Should Not Be Doing That” are also excellent.

While I remember Charlotte Hatherley leaving the band Ash in 2006, I wasn't into either enough to pay attention to what happened next, but it turns out Hatherley released two rather nice indie-rock albums, Grey Will Fade (2004) and The Deep Blue (2007). The track “Bastardo” (with video directed by Edgar Wright) is certainly the best song about a guitar stealing Lothario you will ever hear.

“When We Were Young” by Irish band Whipping Boy somehow crossed my ears, and is a great alt-rock track, somewhat reminiscent of the above Floodlights (that comparison should be the other way around).

Another band where I did some catching up this year includes Phoenix, who I really only knew from the Lost In Translation soundtrack. While some of it I've possibly heard before, I'm certain that “Love Like a Sunset” (Parts I and II) are new to me, and they're so good. Generally if you've not spent and time with Phoenix, it's worth your time, especially the album 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'.

• The Light Won't Shine Forever - Floodlights
• Jenny Wren - Paul McCartney
• Hindsight - Future Ghosts
• Specific Resonance - Pelican
• Euro-Country - CMAT
• Irjala - Dödsrit
• milk of the madonna - Deftones
• Riding the Low - Dunes
• The Doctor - Franz Ferdinand
• Dead Horse - Yard Act
• It's Not The First Time - Idlewild
• Jerkin’ - Amyl and the Sniffers
• Bastardo - Charlotte Hatherley
• When We Were You - Whipping Boy
• Love Like a Sunset (Parts I and II) - Phoenix