ExComm’s Top Albums of 2025
Some ladies of ExComm teamed up to gift you with some of their picks for 2025’s top released albums!
☆EL’S RECS☆
“Blizzard” – Dove Ellis
Although this album came out in December, this definitely deserves a spot in my top albums of the year. Dove Ellis has such a beautiful expressive voice, with amazing indie folk backing. This album is an emotional journey, and feels like the soundtrack of a coming-of-age movie. It switches between fun and upbeat, to gut-punching sadness and moments of contemplative acoustics. Dove Ellis has been avoidant of the public view so far, so this album feels almost mysterious. In addition, this is the first full album the Irish artist has ever released, adding to the mystique. Overall, this album is delicious and deserves a listen! My favorite tracks are #1, #4, and #8.
“These Days” – Emily Hines
This is another amazing debut album! I am a big folk fan, and I think this album is a really lovely mix between almost shoegazey rock and the chill acoustics of folk. Emily Hines’ voice mixes very well with the percussion and guitar, and creates a psychedelic and emotional atmosphere. She grew up in rural Ohio before moving to Nashville, and recorded the base tracks of the album live on a cassette tape. This album feels like sitting on a big cozy couch and watching the rain fall with your favorite drink. This is a good soundtrack for contemplating this past year– the good and the bad. My favorite tracks are #1 and #2!
☆SARAH B.’S RECS☆
“Entrance Music” – Okonski
This album has been the soundtrack of my 2025. It has been my study music, dinner party score, and late night pondering musical accompaniment. The emotion it captures without relying on lyrics is truly something special and breathtaking. Okonski is a contemporary jazz trio centered by Steven Okonski, an unbelievably incredible jazz pianist, and their music harkens to jazz in its subtlety and simplicity but provides enough freshness and intrigue to capture listeners and draw them into their world. This is the world I have been living in this 2025 and it’s beautiful so check it out.
“Magic of the Sale” – Teethe
There is something entrancing and out-of-body about this Teethe’s spacey, aerial, atmospheric sound. They are best known for their slowcore sound though this album seamlessly moves from soft to heavy to soft again in a way that allows your mind to wander along with it. Teethe is from Texas and on this album they collaborated with artists such as Xandy Chelmis of Wednesday, Charlie Martin of Hovvdy, and cellist Emily Elkin, who has played with Japanese Breakfast. The result was an album that pushes the lines of the slowcore genre, is free-flowing yet cohesive, feels liminal and nostalgic, and is one of my favorite releases of the year.
☆AVERY M.’S RECS☆
“Caveman Wakes Up” – Friendship
When you hear Friendship frontman Dan Wriggins’ voice, you will stop and listen. His weary vocals are in the same vein as David Berman, Jason Molina, or Bill Callahan (comparisons I heard in the audience when I covered his act opening for MJ Lenderman + Wednesday in Ojai in 2023 for the KCSBlog). Wriggins’ songs are focused on the minutiae; he picks apart niche singular interactions to a point where it becomes relatable to any listener, a type of songwriting rarely done this well. With tracks that are almost frustratingly slow, it’s a great album to listen to on a meandering stroll, but not necessarily one to scream along to in a car (making it a sleeper AOTY). You’re not going to get bored at all though, with Friendship songs having creative instrumental arrangements, like the violin on Free Association.
☆LILY’S RECS☆
“Labyrinthine” – Faetooth
Three-piece “fairy doom” metal band from Los Angeles. Heavy yet ethereal…
“Faster Than Death” – Hirax
Hellishly high-powered old-school thrash from Cypress, CA. The opening track, “Drill Into The Brain” is epic. I’ve seen them live twice so far!
☆AVERY K.’S RECS☆
“Speedo” – Dana and Alden
NYC based brother jazz duo, this album is to me a masterpiece – both fun, youthful, and whimsical as well as melancholic and thought provoking.
I got the opportunity to see Laundry Day in concert recently, having never heard of them prior to receiving free tickets to their show, and yet I left the concert absolutely obsessed with them and their latest album. Another NYC based BFF boy collective, their songs are extremely catchy and upbeat – their music perfectly translates the fun it seems they are having creating and navigating life together.
☆MADDIE’S RECS☆
“This is my first heist” – my point of you
Texas based Tweemo!! This EP came out this June and was the soundtrack to my entire summer. I could not get enough of the beautiful joint vocals and energy this work has!!
☆SARAH N.’S RECS☆
“K1” – kmoe
The best indie and experimental electronic, or better said, “indietronica” album O.A.T.; it was released June 6th and I can confidently say it was the perfect summer LP and incessantly played. Kmoe is able to mix hyperpop-adjacent sounds with elements of shoegaze that compliment his soft, breathy vocal cracks and occasional unhinged yelling. There’s such a diverse collection of both hype tracks to dance around to as well as ‘sit in bed,’ mellow tracks to listen in on while reflecting or kicking back with friends; there are also songs that incorporate both vibes at the same time if you’re looking for an emotionally turbulent experience. With this album, it is clear that Kmoe has a keen ear for emotion-driven sounds that are both undeniably enjoyable and just ingenious.
Basspunk, experimental electronic goodness. This was my most listened to album of the year and it only came out in October. Maria Manow has such a perfectly unique voice that is complimented by her whimsical, yet blunt and careless, delivery. Alongside that, you’re also fed these heavily layered, beautifully-crafted, glitchy but melodic beats produced by the amazing Ike Clateman. This album is quite eclectic so the best way I can articulate that is by calling it a ‘kaleidoscope of just about all electronic influences.’ Some of the songs also carry a somewhat ‘nana-booboo’ rhythm in which refers to the childlike manner of teasing, but I believe it’s why this album is so exceptional—the nostalgia and carelessness of it all.