2025: The Unquiet Year

So as much as I was dreading 2025, it was actually a pretty good year for me. On a personal note, I ticked off some big projects that had been on the 'to do' list for two to three years. Early in the year I bought a new car (after owning my last one for 17 years!), then had some long overdue and expensive roof repairs carried out, and enjoyed climbing onto the scaffold to do a spot of painting myself. In summer I went to California to do the San Diego to San Francisco drive that I had wanted to do for a few years, and met up with some good friends on the trip. After we got home, we had a new patio laid in the back garden, which ended up being a pretty major project, and then the year closed out with trips to Barcelona, Malaga and Texas. I was constantly busy, and unsurprisingly it turned out to be quite an expensive year(!), and for this reason I intentionally slowed down on my record buying habit for most of the second half of the year.

I also went to three really cool and important live shows. In May I went to see Jonah Onelinedrawing play in a small venue about 5 miles from my house, which was a perfect and beautiful show, and led me to obsess over his music for a few weeks afterwards. Then in late June I went to the Big Frank Harrison memorial show in Orange County, California and I got to see Farside play for the first time in my life and, despite them only playing 5 songs, it was an amazing and memorable experience. I felt so lucky to be there, and it made me so happy to have found such a great scene. And then in September I drove up to Leeds to see Cave In play 'Jupiter' in its entirety to celebrate its 25th anniversary, which was every bit as incredible as I had hoped.

I also continued to do 100 push ups a day, which I have managed to carry on for 2.5 years. I only mention it here as I have done so the past two years.

Anyway, on with the lists...

MY FAVOURITE 2025 RELEASES

Without a doubt, 2025 was a great year for new releases. In fact, there were so many (mainly in the second half of the year) that I literally could not keep up. I generally like to only listen to something once I have the vinyl, and for various reasons it seems difficult for me to buy records quickly these days. So I have broken my list into different sections. First up, a photo of my favourite new releases for which I did manage to buy a physical copy:

Shown in the photo are:

Diaz Brothers 'The World Is Yours' LP
Higher Power 'There's Love In This World If You Want It' LP
Onelinedrawing 'Alien Wondering' LP
Propagandhi 'At Peace' LP
Restraining Order 'Future Fortune' LP
Scowl 'Are We All Angels?' LP
Turnstile 'Never Enough' LP
Ursula 'I Don't Like Anything' LP

I have nothing to say about these that I haven't already said in the posts (linked above). But I loe them all.

Next up, there were actually four new releases that I did listen to even though not getting the vinyl yet. Despite what I said earlier, now and again (but very rarely) I will check out a record before getting the vinyl, either because I am too excited to wait, or because I want to decide whether it is really worth investing money in to get a copy to file away on a shelf and never look at. I listened to these four quite a bit, and will hopefully pick up vinyl copies at some point very soon.

The above records are:

By A Thread 'Mirrored Life' LP - This band seems to crank out a record roughly every 12 years, so it's a rare event. I just could not wait to listen to this.
Miltown 'Tales Of Never Letting Go' - I loved this band in the late 90s, and somehow their unreleased LP appeared out of nowhere with no warning this year. An amazing surprise.
Speedway 'A Life's Refrain' - I just had to check this out because there was such a buzz about it, and deservedly so.
Suzzallo 'The Quiet Year' LP - I had to check this to see if it would be something I might like. Without doubt, it is one of the most beautiful records I have ever heard, and it absolutely broke my heart.

If I absolutely had to pick a favourite record for the year it would come down to a choice between Turnstile and Suzzallo. I didn't think 'Never Enough' was that good when I first got it, but I have found that I keep going back to it and it just does not get old. It's also cool to see the band still continue to grow in popularity, and I back them 100%. The Suzzallo record is a totally different type of record, and I really wish it didn't exist, but it is a truly beautiful work of art and I rarely get this invested in a record emotionally these days. It is truly special and needs to be heard, but you need to understand the backstory to fully appreciate it.

2025 RELEASES I DIDN'T GET AROUND TO CHECKING OUT YET

So here's an image of the 2025 releases that I didn't get around to buying or checking out yet, despite wanting to. Most of these came out in the second half of the year, at which point I was doing my best to conserve money. But also, as Ralf mentioned, buying new releases these days can be difficult. Often there are preorders with lots of different colour options, and what I have learnt is that often the mock up pictures of the records turn out to be nothing like the finished product. You order the one that looks the best from a mock up, and it turns out to look nothing like you expected when it arrives. So what I generally do now is wait until I have seen photos of the actual records, and decide which colour I want then, and half the time that means that the one I end up wanting has sold out. Some records are so ugly that picking the nicest looking one means more than ever before, and sometimes it takes a while. Anyway, I will get these eventually. It's just a question of time.

The image shows the covers of these records:

Casket Lottery 'Feel The Teeth' LP
Deadguy 'Near Death Travel Services' LP (Relapse Records)
Drain 'Is Your Friend' LP (Epitaph Records)
Mirrorless 'S/T' 12" (Equal Vision Records)
Planet On A Chain 'Ritual Routine' LP (Revelation Records)
Soulblind 'Red Sky Mourning' LP (Closed Casket Activities)
Spaced 'No Escape' 12" (Pure Noise Records)

I haven't listened to any of these at all, but I figured I would leave this here as a reference point for my record shopping in the next few weeks. I will do my best to pick these up as early as possible in 2026.

MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS

When it comes to picking up cool or rare items, there aren't too many that I could throw up on here this year for various reasons, but I did manage to pick up and post a few cool items. As ever, I dug out my favourites for a photo:

The photos shows these:

Bent Blue 'So Much Seething' LP Test press - a gift from Dave at Indecision, and I just love the front cover art.
Ceremony 'In The Spirit World Now' LP on clear vinyl - I was totally obsessed by this at the start of the year, and was happy to pick up the nicest (and rarest) colour.
Dag Nasty 'Field Day' LP Test press - Nico grabbed this for me and hand delievered it. I used to hate this record but have grown to really like it as I have got older.
Soundgarden 'Ultramega OK' LP on blue vinyl - this band was last year's obsession, but some of their records are now really hard to find. I was stoked to add this one to my collection, especially as it is in perfect shape.
Living Memories Test Presses of both 12"s - one of my favourite current bands, and I was happy to be able to grab these tests.
Power Alone 'Rather Be Alone' LP Test Press - I love this record and was happy to be able to buy a test press, and even more stoked to have the singer, Eva, fix the creased sleeve with some custom artwork.
Nirvana 'Sliver' 7" first press - I don't collect Nirvana records, but this 7" is the exception. Picking up copies of this was a focus in 2023 and 2024, but it took longer to find a good condition first press at a good price.
97A 'Better Off Dead' 7" on red vinyl - I was so stoked to get this after having it on the want list of well over two decades.

OTHER STUFF I LISTENED TO A LOT

I almost didn't include this section this year, but when I glanced back through the blog history it turns out that I have included this bit every year since 2013 (despite me thinking I'd added it about three years ago). So anyway, tradition dictates I list this stuff, which is records that I spent a bit of time with despite them not being released in 2025.

Shown in alphabetical order are:

- Glassjaw 'Don Fury Sessions' - never listened to this band before, but this is incredible.
- Government Issue 'Crash' - I bought a few GI records, and listened to this one most, but the whole catalog is great.
- Heiress 'Nowhere Nearer' - this is so incredibly poweeful that I just kept going back to it.
- Journeyman 'Newidolson' - released by Redemption Records in 1993, and I only just found out this exists this year. Awesome 90s post hardcore featuring members of Release.
- Metallica 'Hardwired... To Self Destruct' - the next step in me working my way through the Metallica catalog over a 35 year timeline. I still haven't got to either 'Load' or 'Reload' yet though.
- Mil-Spec 'Marathon' LP - only a couple of years late to this one once a reasonably priced colour copy appeared.
- No Use For A Name 'Leche Con Carne' - Never heard this before and I get the feeling this may be their most popular record.
- Soulside 'A Brief Moment In The Sun' - probably my favourite record by them, an absolutely great record, especially the song '

AND FINALLY...

I still have a bit of a backlog of records to post from the last few weeks, so January will probably be a busy month on here. But I want to keep this blog going in 2026 so hopefully I will start as I mean to go on and get have a productive January.

I have a couple of plans in the pipeline for 2026, both in terms of records and general life activity. So hopefully 2026 will be as good to me as 2025 was.

As ever, thanks to those who carry on reading, commenting, and sending emails. Music brings people together like nothing else, even if like me you spend 99% of your time enjoying it alone. Happy 2026!