Love Just For A Day Music Blog

Howdy howdy!! My name is Bradley and I'm just your typical 27 year old gay indie rock nerd. Here you'll find a collection of all my musical ramblings.

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #1

Fancy That - PinkPantheress

Main Genres: UK Garage, Dance Pop

A decent sampling of: 2-Step, Speed Garage, Drum and Bass, Bassline

Finally, I no longer have to feel like a dork for being that one gay that thought brat wasn't anything super special and omitting it from my 2024 year end list.

Cause while I never really bought into all the hype surrounding the club music zeitgeist phenomenon that was brat, I can safely say that, on the other hand, Fancy That is the greatest pop EDM record in basically forever. I want to eat, drink, sleep, and bathe in these beats. Holy fucking hell.

Okay, let's take a step back.

I was not an early adopter of PinkPantheress. I mean, I'm not on TikTok, so go figure. I was however aware of her and one or two of her songs before "Boys A Liar", so that's gotta count for something, right?

Victoria Beverley Walker a.k.a. PinkPantheress is a London-based singer/songwriter/producer of mixed English and Luo Kenyan descent, who got her start making beats on GarageBand and posting them on TikTok and SoundCloud with an elusive, secretive persona. She quickly grew a cult following on the short-form content app that exploded into modest mainstream success within the span of a year or two, thrusting her into the spotlight and making her one of the platforms earliest "alternative pop" breakout stars.

Since then, she's been nominated for the Brit Awards and the Grammys (😖), collaborated with other producers as well as pop legends like Kylie Minogue, become the subject of multiple internet memes, and generally just become kind of a cultural phenomenon. She's not Billie Eilish or Chappell Roan levels of famous yet, but she's definitely known and well-liked among those sorts of fandoms.

PinkPantheress has kinda developed the reputation for being (and I cringe at my own usage of this word) "relatable". She's very much a Gen Z kind of celebrity - she acts all hyper in interviews, embraces funny and bizarre fan-made edits of her, and regularly drops meme pop culture references (still gagged by the perfect "and you did it at my birthday dinner" in that one Pitchfork video).

I honestly try not to stan too hard on pop stars cuz a lot of them end up being terrible people, but I think its safe to say that Victoria also seems like kind of a genuine sweetheart. She's not overtly political, but she's indicated on occasion where she stands on things like ICE, Palestine, and AI, and she passes the vibe check, so let me stan just this once, mmmkay? I promise it's not parasocial.

Musically, Pink's sound is all about UK Garage and its derivative forms, mixed with a lot of sickly sugary pop elements that, unlike similar pop EDM artists, never ends up watering down just how hard the beats go with all intricacies.

She's definitely a real nerd for 90s and early 2000s EDM, particularly what was happening in London at the time, and in this regard she's way better versed than my Canadian ass. You can tell every reference and sample she uses is a genuine love letter to the artists she's borrowing from, which definitely isn't always the case in pop music.

She is an aggressively catchy songwriter and keeps her tracks short, which combined with the aforementioned detailed and layered production and mastering gives her music an insane degree of replay value. Like, I'm rarely a play a song twice-in-a-row kinda guy and I'm embarrassed to admit how often I hit replay on the best tracks off this record.

As a vocalist, Victoria is definitely a bit saccharine, but not overbearingly so. Her sweet-like-candy vocal textures are complimented by a sort of refined, fairy-tale cadence, and she tends to enunciate very clearly (if you speak Bri'ish) in a manner I imagine that the voice of a computer-program might.

She's clever and self-deprecating in an distinctly British way, with lyrics that often examine and dissect her own feelings of low self-esteem with a kind of knowing emotional maturity, and darkly humorous wit. There's constant tension in the roles that she plays in her songs between the vulnerable romantic and the rational cynic.

I must admit I was not overly enthusiastic when I listened to her debut full-length LP Heaven Knows back in 2023. The vibes were there, the beats were definitely there, but some of the songs fell flat, minus the aforementioned "Boys A Liar" and a few others. It was a best friend that got me to check this latest one out sooner than I otherwise might've.

Thank fuck that she did, because this album defined my whole damn 2025 summer in a way that all you brat-summer gays and girlies were clearly experiencing in the previous year.

And yes, I know I'm using the term "album" very liberally here. Its twenty minutes long, and PinkPantheress herself called it a "mixtape", but I don't really care at this point. It doesn't "feel" like a mixtape or even an EP when you listen to it. Yeah it's pretty dang short, but it's got enough individual tracks to be a full-length record, and the rollout and promotion for this project was certainly at the album-level. Plus it's also just a better, more complete album-listening experience than any other new record I heard from this year. So fuck it. In my book, Fancy That is an album.

And what a brilliant album it is. Fancy That is a wholly immersive and tightly-packed montage of club banger after club banger. All killer no filler. Put this on with good headphones and you'll be transported to the starry dimension of the impossibly slay, with clubs way too cool to exist in the real world (let alone your city), and the sheen of strawberry bubblegum lip-gloss coating every imaginable surface. You reach into your pockets to check your location on your smartphone, only to find its been substituted with a diamond encrusted flip phone. Congrats, you've just made it to Y2K heaven.

First of all, let's just appreciate that "My name is Pink and I'm really glad to meet you" is the most iconic opening line to a pop record ever. "Illegal" immediately puts you in the zone, a dazzling and disorienting 2-step track dripping with smooth, liquid euphoria. I've never been so tempted to have a fling with my non-existent drug dealer, if the vibes of this song are anything to go off of what the experience would feel like. This got meme'd to death on tiktok/reels and I don't even care. This isn't even my favourite cut but its just an objectively perfect song. Instant modern classic.

"Girl Like Me" begins with the sound of getting airlifted to the zenith of dancefloor perfection. Heavy speed garage beats bump and splatter all over this thing with pump-y claps and a mastering that sounds very live-at-a-house-party. And that sassy jazz piano line during the second verse's refrain? So cunt. That sped up "let it all go" Basement Jaxx sample chant is warped and utilized in the most delicious way. It's like the lyrics are being graffiti'd onto my brain. My favourite track on this fine ass record has already changed like four or five times, but this was my OG favourite upon first listen. Possibly the most hype song on the record.

Put simply, "Tonight" is bubbly bassline with cheeky soft girl sensuality. The song expertly captures the mind-melting adrenaline rush which is the nature of that rare encounter with true dancefloor chemistry and flirtation with a stranger. The kind that only gets more and more intense, never letting up for a goddamn second, culminating in that moment of sharing the "am I gonna kiss this person?" look in each others eyes. Pink just gets it, man. Best use of an 808 cowbell EVER and I will fucking die on this hill so help me god. It's super ear-candy for me when pop singers glide through entire stanzas like "IwaitedallthistimenowIguessit'stimeIcanholdya?", and Pink does it with such manic glee like she's inhaling helium from a balloon. And I can vividly picture the dramatic hair flips she's making when she huffs those little "it's like what?" and "c'mon, what?" ad-libs. It also goes equally hard at the gym when I'm doing my little tiny chest press reps. After literal countless listens, this has emerged as my definitive favourite track on the record.

That slick transition into “Stars” is aural-gasmic. This spunky house song feels like living inside your own personal fashion photo-shoot montage with neon lighting. Alternatively, its like riding with your headphones on a metro subway that’s moving through celestial cities at warp speed. It’s also giving that moment where you’re lowkey fucked up at the club and looking for your friends, but then that song you’ve been waiting for all night comes on, and you just throw up your hands and dance your ass off as all the lights on the dancefloor flash off and on with the beat.

The jungle / liquid drum and bass beat on "Noises" is sooo old school and sooo sexy. I feel like I just jumped into a psychedelic late 90s ad for the latest Nintendo game at E3, and I've transformed into a yassified low-poly avatar of myself. The sorta-maybe bad trip vibes and paranoid murmurings about a possible home invasion give this a much darker undertone than any other cut off the record. Still, I can easily put this on and be in a good mood anyway just because of how much it slaps.

"Nice To Know You" glows with a cool and melancholy mystique. The obscure Sugarbabes sample in the chorus goes ridiculously hard, as do the reworked strings that feel so out-of-body and otherworldly when combined with the shuffling 2-step beat (which liberally borrows from a Streets song). The breakdown verse after the first chorus contains some of my favourite lyrics Victoria has penned thus far. The whole thing is tear-stained with the nostalgic melodrama of a first breakup. I feel like this would go very hard in the late 00s as a nightcore AMV.

"Stateside" is the sound of PinkPantheress at her most confident. This is the purest pop song on the record, with a lower BPM than the other tracks, no ad-libs, and a heavier adherence to the verse-chorus-bridge structure. The hip hoppy breakbeats and crunchy synths are heavenly. The yearning chorus is instantly infectious the first time you hear it. But my favourite moment has to be when the beat cuts out for those electro-pop synths during the bridge, and then comes back in with the overhead airplane sound and those descending metallic-y click clacks. Absolutely stunning production moment. This one really does justice to its position as the penultimate track on the record.

Its kinda insane how "Romeo" already clocks in as the last track just around the eighteen minute mark of the record, because the whole listening experience of the album is so varied, vivid, and memorable that you could easily mistake it for being twice as long. This one's just a really cute song honestly. Great big bouncy drum and bass with silly crush vibes. Those string flourishes are everything, just so bombastic and heart-racing.

So yeah, in case it wasn't obvious, I love this frigging record. I haven't heard dance-pop that has felt this fresh and made me feel this good in YEARS. 2025 might've been high-key fucked up, but Fancy That was one of its saving graces. I have been fully converted to the PinkPantheress school of music. This is the pop music we all deserve.

Album of the year and its never felt so damn good to say that.

Okay, I've run out of clever / stupid things to say. Listen to this or else. See you in 2026 🙃

10 outta frigging 10

Highlights: "Tonight", "Girl Like Me", "Nice To Know You", "Illegal", "Stateside", "Romeo", "Stars", "Noises"

FOR FANS OF:

Frostbite by Kitty

Nymph by Shygirl

Ready for the World by Inoj

Azealia Banks before we knew just how batshit she was

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #2

Iconoclasts - Anna Von Hausswolff

Main Genres: Art Rock

A decent sampling of: Neoclassical Darkwave, Post-Rock, Drone, Dark Ambient, Art Pop

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the women who make massive sounding albums and sing with voices like raw forces of nature. And this woman is certainly no exception.

Anna Von Hausswolff is a Swedish singer/songwriter/producer and pipe organist. Yes, you read that right; the pipe organ, as in one of the most badass musical instruments ever invented, and a personal favourite of mine.

Anna possesses a soprano register that is bright, glaring, and bold. The sound of her voice often pierces through the looming arrangements of her music like cracks of moonlight in an otherwise completely darkened cathedral. One might even consider it slightly shrill, and I'm inclined to agree, though I think that is perfectly fine for the kind of music that she sets out to make.

Anna Von Hausswolff became one of the most celebrated contemporary names in the gothic music scene when she released Dead Magic in 2018, an LP of just 5 tracks that nevertheless felt like an perilous journey along old abandoned footpaths through the thickest and coldest midnight fog. The opening track "The Truth, The Glow, The Fall" is still one of my absolute favourite pieces of music that's longer than 10 minutes.

Alongside Lingua Ignota, Anna helped to revive interest in the niche genre of neoclassical darkwave among a new generation of listeners near the turn of the decade.

She's also had her fair share of controversy while touring in Europe, mostly because a bunch of prudish Jesus freaks got their panties in a knot that she was *gasp* performing secular music in churches with bad words and references to demons. I find this laughable because Anna Von Hausswolff is honestly so incredibly far from how disturbing and demonic-sounding gothic music can get. Like, have these people never listened to Diamanda Galas heave and screech into a mic for 17 minutes straight like she's one of the pitchfork-wielding imps of hell? Sheesh.

Anyhow, its been a while since Anna Von Hausswolff released a new album. Her previous one, 2020's All Thoughts Fly, was somewhat divisive for being a minimalist instrumental record that greatly departed from the more melodic goth fantasy realm of her previous work. I haven't listened to the whole thing, so I got nothing to say about it personally, but will say that I like many others was anticipating when we would get to hear her sing on a full album again.

This year, our patience was rewarded with Iconoclasts. On this new record, Anna returns to the mic and graces us not only with her voice at its most prominent, but with a new accompanying sound that is more soothing and welcoming than ever before, but no less frighteningly grandiose. The stricter goth elements have been dampened in order to give more breathing room to a wider array of emotions and aesthetic worlds. The record is also more rock-oriented, almost like an arena rock vibe, but instead of a traditional "arena" it's actually just a colossal cathedral with waves crashing inside of it.

Anna gets very showy and theatrical with the pipe organ this time around, and the record features a lot of woodwinds on top of its usual organ and rock instrumentation. In particular, the saxophone, courtesy of Otis Sandsjö, serves to be nearly as essential as the pipe organ on several tracks, and is even the star instrument on one or two songs. While the A-side is basically massive art rock ballads throughout the good majority of its run-time, the B-side of Iconoclasts contains several drone and ambient pieces that are more in line with the forlorn atmosphere of her previous work.

The title of the record refers to Anna Von Hausswolff having received inspiration from several figures she considered to be "iconoclasts" - people who go against the established order and challenge us to embrace new ways of thinking and doing. Literally, it also means someone who blasphemes, which I can't help but think is a petty wink to the adversity she has faced previously from her Christian fundamentalists haters which, lol 💅.

Lyrically, the album is concerned with strife and despair, the passage of time, and a desire to break free from old ways and the shackles of society. It's full of darkness and uncertainty, but it's also determined in its valiant quest to find answers, and more light in tone than any of her previous work that I've been exposed to.

"Facing Atlas" has to be the most stunning and purgative introduction to anything that I've heard this year, maybe this decade. Okay, this technically is the second track, but its the first on the album with vocals, and very much feels like the part where the gates of heaven are flung wide open. I can imagine this playing in the background as I'm surrounded by a blinding white glow, tears streaming in thick lines from my eyes as I stare eyes wide open at the most beautiful glimpse of the meaning of life. That chord progression is just...wow, that shit is overwhelming. Never have I heard something so crass as "The world is full of shit and full of evil" sound so utterly divine, especially as it's followed by Anna's heart-wrenching delivery of "...but there you stand", as if this is the penultimate moment of an entire lifetime of love and suffering.

Descending from heavenly grace, "The Iconoclast" casts the listener into the tempests of fiery passion. It's the longest track on the record, and certainly the most masterful in both its composition and execution. There's a sense of urgency, that the world has almost already ended. But among the wretched ashes lies a small ember of hope that must be protected at all costs. The organ lead and the vocal harmonies around the three and a half minute mark is perhaps my favourite moment on the record. The outro almost chokes me up - "seeking answers in all the wrong places, it's expensive to be alive" sums up how a lot of this past year felt, and it's refreshing to see an artist marry the gargantuan arrangements and whimsical symbolism with thoughts that are very candid and resonate deeply with the human experience. Truly astonishing, and another contender for SOTY.

The uptempo "Stardust" is the record's most ecstatic composition. A thundering romp of organ and drums that feels celebratory, cathartic, and somehow full of both unbridled joy and ritualistic wrath. Every time that whirling central motif comes crashing in, it's as if she's just knocked down another monument of a false idol and it's collapsing into hundreds of pieces. I just have to turn my headphones up on full blast whenever this shit comes on, eardrums be damned.

"Aging Young Woman" is perhaps the poppiest song in the Anna Von Hausswolff repertoire to date, but it is also one of her most divine melodies. She specifically wrote this song as a duet with Ethel Cain in mind, and I do think their voices pair beautifully together. Ethel Cain is someone I've been lukewarm about ever since listening to her debut LP, but I do really enjoy the deeper, softer earthiness her voice brings to this song as a contrast to Anna's more powerful and shimmering soprano. These two voices echo as different sonic shades of glowing purple, reverberating off of walls in a vast hall of dreams. The arrangement is also weirdly giving me Enya in the best way possible.

"Struggle With The Beast" revisits a saxophone motif introduced in the opening track, and builds on it with an increased tempo and intensity. This gives way to low horns that sound like they're meant to be heralding the arrival of the great ships of viking gods, followed by the record's greatest technical display of virtuosity and heavy rock fury. It takes nearly four minutes just for Anna's vocals to make their debut in the song, but when it does, holy hell. A masterclass in delayed gratification.

What follows is "An Ocean of Time", the most spellbinding and subdued piece on the record. I love an ambient/drone piece that manages to maintain its intrigue and engagement while still feeling like it could be endless if it really wanted to be. The encroaching stillness of this track is palpable - the sensation of particles beginning to slow down and settle in as a deep cold takes over. The way that the vocal climbs she performs get more elongated and complex every time she repeats the refrain is also just brilliant.

Having said all that, I do wanna talk one minute to discuss one major gripe I have with this record and make my stance very clear:

Iggy Pop's feature on the record. 🥴

I don't know how it is still possible in the year 2025 that artists like Iggy Pop, Anthony Kiedis, or Steven Tyler continue to face zero consequences, after having shown no remorse to this day, for hedonistically taking advantage of minors for their own perverse sexual conquest. I can separate the art from the artist to some extent, particularly if it is not their poor character being reflected in the lyrics itself, but I draw a hard fucking line at creepy aging nonces who clearly have not taken any accountability for their actions, regardless of how grossly normalized it was for hard rock sex icons to be bedding seriously underage girls in the 70s and 80s.

I want to give Anna the benefit of the doubt and say that she simply doesn't know Iggy's history, but come on - she couldn't have gotten Nick Cave or literally anyone else to be the baritone on this duet? Moreover, he doesn't sound that good at all, and it really drags down what would otherwise have been one of the best songs on the record with its enchanting atmosphere. Gives me squicky feelings every time I listen, and I might just have to start skipping it, even if the instrumental is gorgeous.

Unfortunate and underperforming collaborations aside, I still really love this record. I just had to warn you about that part before going in to it.

Overall though, Iconoclasts is easily the best longer album listening experience of 2025. This record is simply incredible in scope, and the sheer beauty and grace it manages to capture during its highest highs are among the greatest of the decade so far. Let Anna Von Hausswolff's world of thunder and glory wash all over you, and you will feel completely renewed.

9/10

Highlights: "The Iconoclast", "Stardust", "Facing Atlas", "Struggle With The Beast", "Aging Young Woman (feat. Ethel Cain)", "An Ocean of Time", "Rising Legends", "The Beast"

FOR FANS OF:

Ceremonials by Florence + The Machine

It'll End In Tears by This Mortal Coil

Remain by Them Are Us Too

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #3

Magic, Alive! - McKinley Dixon

Main Genres: Conscious Rap, Jazz Rap

A decent sampling of: Neo-Soul, Abstract Rap, Alternative Rap

So yeah, I'm a little late to the McKinley Dixon party.

I hadn't listened to the acclaimed Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? when it came out, though apparently I did listen to an album he featured on years ago. But for the most part, I really had no idea about the Chicago-based rapper or the hype that was building up around him until this year.

Likewise, I don't got a whole lot to say about his background or anything. But I will say this: damn, what took me so long?

When I first listened to Magic, Alive!, what really struck me was just how vivid and animated this record feels. Its a wildly colourful album listening experience, full of left-turns and curve balls in its flows, its production, and its song structures. Gorgeous jazz rap timbres with crisp mastering and some super tight live drumming. Its like leaving behind boring old reality and jumping into the pages of a urban landscape story book, breathing in the scents of crayon scribbles and the warm summer air in the city.

I've seen accusations of "try-hard" thrown at this record, to which I promptly respond - fuck you. I like it when artists try hard. Dixon gives his 200% and raps like he has creativity and aspiration shooting out of his finger tips like radical beams of light. And I think its his right, nay, his responsibility to harness his powers to their greatest potential for the good of all humanity.

Magic, Alive! actually follows a loose concept/narrative about a group of young guy friends who learn magic in order to resurrect an old friend from the dead, only to have him come back as somebody completely different. You could miss it entirely if you aren't reading too close into the lyrics. Or at least, I certainly missed it the first time, cuz I was too distracted by the behemoth production and the rapid flow delivery of his bars.

Very FMA-plot-adjacent concept if you ask me, which is entirely possible that it was an inspiration, seeing as how McKinley Dixon has been very open about his love of anime in interviews, and even said how it deserves to be taken seriously as an art form.

Following the angelic prelude of "Watch My Hands", the bombast of "Sugar Water" establishes the album's presence as a bold, jazzy, and supernatural force of energy. That saxophone lead, like Dixon is entering the ring and is about to school you. A fantastic display of bravado and heroism.

"Recitatif" starts out all curious and mystical, with its little flowery flute embellishments and its steady start-and-stop beat. That is, only until it switches gears and becomes the hardest beat on the record, with grinding guitars, anxious basslines, and a shuffling heavy rock drum kit, all still accented by mysterious flute melodies. Dixon and guest rapper Teller Bank$ both go hard as hell on this one. Feels like the track is transitioning from the naive newcomer dabbling in his first experiments with the magic arts, to the more sinister edge of the seasoned practitioner who has already mastered the dark art of necromancy.

"Run, Run, Run Pt. II" presses on with a sense of urgency and speed. Trumpets are trumpeting, doves are flying, the sun is setting, and Dixon is wielding the hero's blade. Whenever he slashes it forth, it creates beautiful soulful music. The bars in the chorus are brilliant, and I love how he holds those "o"s in all of the words that rhyme. Not to mention the flow of this track is really just something else. This alone makes Dixon one of the most formidable warriors on the mic of his generation.

I'm not sure words can fully describe the joy that "We're Outside, Rejoice!" gives me. I'm a huge sucker for these uplifting neo-soul hip hop tracks, and this might just be the greatest of its ilk. The sheer pleasure of hearing that refrain of "We outside, rejoice, rejoice" with its swing and its pure and humble triumph. I'm so vividly brought back to memories of my own adolescence when I hear him rap "I love layin' with you here in the grass" to the point that I can close my eyes and feel the individual strands between my fingers, and see the little rubbed-on green stains on the knees of my jeans. I love songs that make me just appreciate being alive, and this was probably the song that had that affect on me the greatest during this whole cursed year of bad news after bad news. How important is it ever to appreciate and to cherish the sun, the sky, the trees, and the love all around us? Insane 3 track run.

The title track "Magic, Alive!" descends from the heavens with a little jazz piano flourishing, before a record scratch leads to some of the sickest gospel rap I've ever heard. I'm not religious or anything, but this is still objectively inspiring and glorious in every sense of those words. I have to wonder how it feels to pen and then perform this kind of grandiose, sublime, life-affirming artistic statement, and then just go about your day afterwards.

I do think there are some tracks here that end a little too soon, teasing the listener, and burning out before they have the chance to shine their very brightest. I feel like that's really the only major thing holding back this record from being a 10 in my book, but then I also haven't had much time to sit with it, seeing as how I only listened for the first time maybe a month before I started writing this list.

As it stands, I'm still beyond impressed. Magic, Alive! is my definitive rap album of the year, and one of the best feel-good hip hop albums of the 2020s in general. Maybe sorcerers really do walk among us, because the immaculate wonder and superhuman creativity of this album really does make the case for it.

9/10

Highlights: "We're Outside, Rejoice!", "Run, Run, Run Pt. II", "Recitatif", "Magic, Alive!", "Sugar Water", "All The Loved Ones (What Would We Do?)", "Could've Been Different", "Watch My Hands"

FOR FANS OF:

Sometimes I Might Be Introvert by Little Simz

Samurai by Lupe Fiasco

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #4

Lower - Benjamin Booker

Main Genres: Art Rock, Indie Rock

A decent sampling of: Noise Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Noise Pop, Experimental Rock, Slowcore, Garage Rock

Benjamin Booker is officially my favourite discovery of 2025. The New Orleans artist is yet another one of my RYM finds. God, I love that site no matter how crazy it drives me sometimes.

Technically, I had already heard him at least once as one of the guest features on my 2023 hip hop record of the year Maps, but made no connection at the time when listening to this that it was the same guy.

Benjamin has a really peculiar way of singing that is definitely not for everybody, but personally its right up my alley. His raspy, brittle whispers and wails are like a weirdly satisfying massage on the ears. He kinda reminds me of Kim Gordon as a male vocalist in that regard.

Musically, from what I've read about his other work (and checked out little snippets), he got his start making garage rock blues which I guess puts him in a kinda similar vein as the White Stripes. Given some of the song titles on his records, and a few other elements here and there that I'll get into later, the dudes got a bit of a thing for the morbid and the macabre that might even border on "edgy" for some.

Apparently this was his first record in over seven years, so I guess it makes sense he wasn't on my radar until now. Looks like there was some label troubles, so he went out and started his own thing which, mad respect when any indie artist decides to put their foot down and break ties with the old ball and chain.

So how would I describe Lower? It's...interesting. It's not very much like anything I've heard before. It's harsh and noisy, but tender and fragile all the same. It's an uncomfortable listen at certain points, and yet holistically it makes for a very comforting journey, if only for how it often feels like a shoulder to cry on (though in reality you might be the shoulder that Booker is crying on). Familiar gloom in a cold dark world, like seeing and feeling the warmth of your own breath while walking down the side of an urban highway on a winter night.

It is a record dominated by timbres of dry distortion, structural deconstructions, and darkly comedic artsy musings, often taking appealing melodies and corrupting their pleasant nature through atmosphere and context.

Lyrically, songs focus on themes of solitude, disgust, ostracism, prejudice and racial persecution, framing these issues through the lens of gruesome and imaginative scenarios and self-loathing characters. At its core, the record Lower is about sinking lower and lower into the worst of human tendencies and the most random and cruelest of violence, while searching for the human heart in it all.

"BLACK OPPS" opens the record with false comforts and creeping paranoia. The sound of a lullaby in the dust storm of a city up in scorching flames. A great big gratifying noise pop opener in all of its cold, hollow, and fuzzy glory.

The hilariously titled "REBECCA LATIMER FELTON TAKES A BBC" is a twisted art rock serenade that starts out all breezy before getting really twisted with some creaky violins. Lyrically, the song is a suggestive, incisive, and damning psychoanalysis of the white supremacist psyche with regards to the racial fetishization of black men, and the barbaric horror of lynching, told through the lens of America's first female senator who also just so happened to be a massive fucking racist bigoted piece of shit and former slave owner. True art, and every bit as clever as what it is describing is deeply sick.

What immediately follows is quite the tonal whiplash. "NEW WORLD" is the prettiest, dreamiest, and easily most upbeat cut off the record. Infectious drum machine and glistening indie rock riffs with a vivid cool summer nights vibe. This is the happiest the record is gonna let you feel, but its honestly more like the sensation of safe refuge, like being in an old friends car after seeing them for the first time in a real long while and all those depression thoughts just instantly disappear between the catching up and the familiar fondness. I almost feel kind of silly calling this my favourite track on the record given how much depth there is in so many of the darker songs on the album, but idk man this is just truly fucking immaculate and beautiful.

"SAME KIND OF LONELY" would be the big anthemic pop song on the record, but there's something sick at its core. Beyond the hideously catchy earworm melody and big sing-along chorus are lyrics that are down right miserable, aching to feel anything like you used to be able to. It's a catatonic depression anthem with a bit of euphoria sprinkled in, like a brief drunken retreat into your wildest fantasies, while in reality you've been hitting the worst rock bottom of your entire life for some time now. And then there's that sample...

Yeah here comes the part where I say plainly that I don't know how to feel about the ethics of sampling something so traumatic. Reminds me of that sample in Geek The Girl that put me off listening to the entire record. Apparently Benjamin Booker had his own run in with death years ago with an active shooter in New Orleans, so it's not like he doesn't have any connection to the experience, but I also don't think if I were one of the survivors that I would be totally okay with Benjamin sampling such a traumatic event, though I do respect the artistic point itself being made. It's a morally grey decision I guess.

"HEAVY ON MY MIND" is pure exhausting yearning. A gentle acoustic ballad with big ambient booms, like cannons off in the distance, perhaps even bombs in a war-zone, as Booker soothes himself with the plight for "more than a dream" in a cold and uncaring world, believing that whatever exists on the other side could be something better, even "a universe of love".

So yeah, this was a sort of grotesquely sublime record for the most part. It's a tiny bit back-loaded, but the best moments represent some of the most powerful rock songwriting of the decade so far, that manages to be both immediate and punchy while hiding layers of depth, not to mention some of the most immersive and distinctive atmosphere I've heard in an indie rock record in quite some time. This isn't some generically super dark really really dark alternative record - Lower has a very intentional, well-crafted, and cohesive world of gloom built around its uncanny production choices and its forlorn lyrics seeking hope in an earnest but pessimistic way.

9/10

Highlights: "NEW WORLD", "SAME KIND OF LONELY", "HEAVY ON MY MIND", "BLACK OPPS", "REBECCA LATIMER FELTON TAKES A BBC", "LWA IN THE TRAILER PARK", "HOPE FOR THE NIGHT TIME"

FOR FANS OF:

All Born Screaming by St. Vincent

Sister by Sonic Youth

Rid of Me by PJ Harvey

Spiderland by Slint

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #5

Euphoria - NTsKi

Main Genres: Electronic Dance Music

A decent sampling of: Hardcore EDM, Art Pop, Glitch Pop, Alternative R&B

I love when I get to write a review just screaming praise into the void about some random artist from another country that has a minuscule English speaking following.

NTsKi has been one of my favourite underrated artists of the 2020s. The Kyoto and sometimes London-based Japanese art pop / alt. r&b / electronica diva and producer should have long been christened by the gays™ at this point as one of the greatest working in her medium today. Criminally slept on if you ask me.

Through her artistry, NTsKi generates sonic worlds that are glitchy, abstract, and serene, and that feel wholly organismic and alive in themselves. In both visual aesthetic and sonic timbres, she seems to have an elemental affinity towards water, air, and light - the most crucial and rudimentary ingredients for nearly all lifeforms.

Vocally, NTsKi usually possesses a gentle, dare I say almost motherly tone, or perhaps better described as a lullaby register. This might pair oddly for some listeners with some of the more high bpm avant-electro wackiness in her repertoire, but I personally enjoy the way she is able to make even the most restless studio sorcery sound quite soothing.

NTsKi is also an artist that I would say has been on a steady upwards trajectory in quality and artistic maturity since her first record Orca which was already a very solid project to begin with. She followed it up in 2023 with a record I've since come to love even more than when I intially reviewed it, which was the surreal and sublime Calla (gave it an 8 at the time, bumped it to a 9 this past year).

Then in 2025 we were given Euphoria, an evolution of her sound that moves away from the sparse and gradual tendencies of her previous LP to instead embrace immediacy and force. This record channels NTsKi's love of all things nature and weird into a glorious bio-luminescent rave of hardcore EDM and other techno/trance/house adjacent styles, with plenty of reverb, echo, and nature sound recordings like its coming from a dense forest inside of a deep sinkhole.

If we consider her records so far as a three part series where Orca was principally of air element, and Calla of water, then this is definitely her light record; blinding, stimulating, and ethereal. Essentially, this is the most spot on cover art in her discography to date, because what you see is exactly what you're getting.

The acid tech/trance track "Blackberry" is a full body wave of adrenaline and hallucinations, that probably came from accidentally ingesting the bright-coloured mushroom spore clouds in a fairy forest. It's the sound of mind, nature, and technology melding all at once. The way NTsKi's whispers and prominent guest collaborator Yem Gel's vocals overlap at different frequencies and tempos feels like the latter is the voice of rational process, and the former is the voice of pure instinct and sensation, both competing for full control over the overstimulating trip that has just only begun.

"Hikari", fitting to its name, feels like being held in a cradle of light, with its glimmering little bells and rapid hollow synths. The lyrics express (in Japanese) a desire for communication and simple physical touch. Very much a song for when you want to feel as close as possible to your love in the metaphysical sense, and blur the lines between where "you" and "I" begin and end.

The dancehall-infused glitch-art pop of "246", featuring reed woodwinds and flickering percussion, feels like some kind of ritualistic dance in a glowing green swamp that heals your sores and clears the mind (yes, I am fully aware that I am running out of light adjectives, thank you for telling me). The main melody resonates as the emotional part of the trip, wherein you can access those core emotions in their rawest form.

"Journey 2 Euphoria" easily could've made its way on to the soundtrack of the Satoshi Kon (R.I.P.) film that never was. Musically, it begins as a hushed new age serenade - featuring traditional Japanese instrumentation, and warm reverberated synths and vocal harmonies - before going all hardcore gabber rave with one of the most intense track buildups I've heard this year, though the buildup itself is only like twenty seconds. This is followed by one of the very best codas of the decade I've heard thus far. The track also features her strongest and most touching English lyrics to date - a warm, teary-eyed ode to the sensation of being in the mere presence of the person you love. In many ways, it feels like a complimentary piece to Calla's "Sayonara", a sad and tender send off to her mother's passing. It is also, along with the aforementioned, one of my two favourite NTsKi tracks to date, and yet another track on my shortlist for SOTY.

The record closes on a final burst of sheer euphoria (see what I did there?) with the festival-oriented hardcore EDM of "2co1" featuring hardcore breaks and an immaculate sped up vocal melody that really seals the deal, all before vanishing into the soft sounds of grasshoppers in the night. A very fitting choice.

I gotta say, the A-Side, though featuring major highlight "Blackberry", ultimately kinda pales in comparison to the B-Side. In particular, "ESC" feels like a pretty good fashion runway house track on its own that 100% doesn't belong with everything else here.

That being said, I'm pretty confident saying that this is my favourite NTsKi record, and her most consistently engaging and powerful project yet. The whole second half of this LP is frigging rapturous. If you like EDM in any capacity, you will likely go absolutely bonkers while listening to Euphoria. If only every rave was this stunningly enchanted with love and life in all of its natural forms.

9/10

Highlights: "Journey 2 Euphoria", "Blackberry", "246", "Hikari", "2co1", "Id"

FOR FANS OF:

Homogenic by Björk

Kyuusai No Gihou by Susumu Hirasawa

Angelic Conversation II by Dream Dolphin

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #6

Face Down in the Garden - Tennis

Main Genres: Indie Pop, Dream Pop

A decent sampling of: Soft Rock, Psychedelic Pop

It's no secret on this blog that I've been a big Tennis fan for a long time now.

I first got into the lovers-in-any-lifetime-turned-music-duo with their 2017 LP Yours Conditionally and subsequent EP We Can Die Happy. "I Miss That Feeling" was a song that helped get me through my first few real anxiety attacks which were happening in my life around that time.

Since then, they were the band that topped my 2020 year end list with Swimmer, a shimmering and soulful reflection on love and death that I still often revisit. And they also made my honourable mentions list in 2023 with the more mellow and psychedelic Pollen. Their virtual "Live In The Void" show was the only "concert" I attended back in those quarantine days of 2020, and I can still remember how weirdly magical and surreal it felt during that time.

Suffice to say, Tennis is a band I hold close to my heart. Alaina and Patrick are kind of like my para-social musical fairy godparents at this point.

So when news broke that this would be their last record, I got a little emotional. I feel like this band's music has been with me through thick and thin. I spent many a nights walking around my old childhood suburbs, listening to their timeless nostalgia-tinged arrangements and Alaina's elegant voice. They've accompanied me on long road trips, and flights halfway across the world. Tennis has been a formative part of basically my entire 20s.

All of this makes Face Down In The Garden a very special record for me, and I'd like to believe for many other fans of the band. True to its cover art, this sounds and feels like a precious keepsake meant to be cherished and held dear.

Alaina and Patrick have refined their sound yet again, achieving the platonic ideal of what it means to be "Tennis (the band)". The golden moonlight piano chords and glowy slide guitars are all here, and this time the dream pop influences take the forefront. Really, this is the dreamiest and purest the band has ever sounded. If you wanted Tennis without any of the charming kitsch (first of all, how dare you) then this is the closest you're going to get.

"At The Apartment" opens the record with possibly the most beautiful harmonizing I've heard all year, before dipping its toes into a warm wading pool of love. This song feels truly removed from everything in the world that could ever be bad. A little fleeting trip into paradise that's all too brief.

"Through The Mirror" is a frolic down memory lane that I never want to end. This should be playing out of the most ornate little music box with the little spiny ballerina figurine. The combination of those retro organ staccato chords with the crisp acoustic guitar glides and all of this glorious reverb just absolutely melts my heart.

"I Can Only Describe You", like the distinct sensation of taking in a radiant sunset at the beach, wrapped in your lovers arms and a big warm blanket on a cool spring evening, with the sea breeze blowing through your hair and tickling your face. Just breathing in the air alone makes you feel incredibly high. Exhilarating and comforting all at the same time.

The penultimate "12 Blown Tires" is the band's swan song proper, a stand-still guitar lament that drifts off into the night. I imagine that this would be a most fitting soundtrack for leaving behind a town you spent years of your life cherishing, only to find heartbreak in the end. There's nothing left for you here any more, and so the time has come to move on. The early morning, nearly-empty outbound train ride leaves you in a deep solitude, reminiscing on better days, as the trees, rocks, mountains and lakes whoosh by the passenger car window in a seamless, endless blur. Serious competitor with "Late Night" for the all-time greatest Tennis song, and my melancholy anthem of the year.

I've always said it, but it can be easy to write off Tennis as a vibes-only band, and forget that even with her beautiful voice, the real ace up Alaina's sleeve is her thoughtful lyricism, including her seeming preoccupation with the many doubts in life, how delicate everything can be, and the very morbid thoughts we all grapple with even during the best of times (she did study philosophy, after all). I highly encourage the new listener, or anyone revisiting Tennis for that matter, to read along because I think it often goes missed just how good her lyrics stand on their own, even without accompaniment, perhaps best exemplified by the aforementioned "12 Blown Tires" in particular.

I do wish they chose to close with that one, or even just fleshed out the closing track they decided to go with a little more, but that's mostly a nitpick.

I'm hopeful that we'll still get to hear something from the couple again in the next few years. The band has stated specifically that this would be their last work "in this configuration" and that they were "ready to pursue other creative projects".

In the meantime, I'm very content with what we as fans have gotten over the years, and Face Down In The Garden is a very powerful note to end on. Thank you, Tennis, for everything.

9/10

Highlights: "12 Blown Tires", "At The Apartment", "I Can Only Describe You", "Through The Mirror", "Weight of Desire", "At The Wedding"

FOR FANS OF:

Once Twice Melody by Beach House

Keepsake by Hatchie

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #7

The Passionate Ones - Nourished by Time

Main Genres: Indie Pop, Alternative R&B

A decent sampling of: Chillwave, Neo-Psych, Synth Pop, Indietronica, Sophisti-Pop, Hip Hop

Nourished by Time (cool name btw) is the project of Baltimore native and producer/singer/musician Marcus Elliot Brown. He got his start by making music entirely self-produced out of his parents basement while working odd jobs.

Going off of interviews, the dude is a very chill, down-to-earth sorta regular guy, and definitely not down with capitalism which, same.

Marcus's lyrics and ethos resonated with me right off the bat. His vocals, however, I'll admit were somewhat of an acquired taste for me. He's got a peculiar register, very breathy and kind of under-enunciate-y, but it eventually grew on me and I now truly appreciate its uniqueness.

In fact, this whole album had to grow on me. I think I gave it a 7 originally, but then I found a few of its melodies kept getting stuck in my head, which drew me back to the whole project about a month later. It was then that I noticed all sorts of intricacies in the timbres and production that really set this thing apart.

The Passionate Ones has a very timeless, almost lost media sort of feel to it. Marcus definitely pays tribute to the classics of R&B and synth pop on this record, while also carving out his own sound aesthetic that feels familiar and comforting, but also haunting and surreal, not unlike when you unlock a long buried memory that nevertheless shaped the person that you would become.

The record also fills a similar sort of niche as one of my favourites from last year, which was Micah by Micah Dailey White. Kind of a déjà vu moment even just writing this review. I gotta say, I'm a big fan of this whole chillwave-y retro videogame-esque R&B tinged bandcamp pop sound that seems to be a thing right now. That said, this is still definitely an original project that stands on its own, much more steeped in R&B rhythms and stylings, and a little more on the experimental side.

A big dumb smile washes over me with "Idiot In The Park". Being young and naive, your own version of the world so small and seemingly inconsequential, but full of laughter and friendships that would hopefully last until the end of time. Just a really feel-good, bouncy little indie pop song.

Meanwhile "It's Time" is such a structurally fascinating track, like deconstructing a classic sophisti-pop song, what with all of its little moments where the beat drops out, or when there's almost complete silence altogether. The lead melody has this very resolute drive, like its pressing onward, aided by Marcus' own foreboding incantations in the chorus. Kinda miraculous that this still manages to sound as funky as it does, even with its marching beat and quirky choppy editing.

But the real showstopper is"BABY BABY", just abso-fucking-lutely jaw dropping. Nothing else this year sounded quite so futuristic and elevated beyond comparison. Marcus gets very political here and drops some insane bars so nonchalantly. The dudes not even a rapper on any of the other tracks, and it's honestly weird hearing his register sound so different here, but he completely knocks it out of the park. The way the chorus just feels like its pushing you to greater and greater heights, like you're crowdsurfing the whole damn global population all at once, and everyone's pushing you up into the heavens so you can meet god or some shit. The way Marcus sings that chorus, like he's almost laughing to himself with sheer ecstasy, like he's just seen the nature of truth itself. So occult, so glorious, so strange and beautiful. BGM for the greatest final level ever in a badass indie action/adventure 2D game. If it weren't for my #1 album this year already having so many strong contenders then this would be my definitive SOTY.

Having said that, "Tossed Away" comes seriously close to its chronological predecessor as the best track on the record. Another sublime chorus, one of the best of the decade so far I might even say. Has that 80s/early 90s R&B boy group sincerity that some might call "cheesy" but I am all for it. Makes me so warm and fuzzy inside with the magic of what Christmas felt like when I was a little kid. Those euphoric bell synths trickle down like little slow-motion snowflakes and glitter when that first verse kicks in. The beauty and the heartbreak of first loves and bittersweet goodbyes. Some real "don't cry because its over; smile because it happened" type stuff.

"When The War Is Over" is a sad and earnest little piano ballad tune, backed by some crunchy hip hop drum machine goodness that really just puts you out in the cold and all alone. Tugs at the heart strings and hurts in all the right ways, especially with those echoing wails towards the end.

There are maybe a few songs here that feel a little under-cooked. That said, a big part of this record's appeal is how humble and passionate its inception clearly was. And even with how rough around the edges it may be at certain moments, the album more than makes up for it by being so jam-packed with creative production choices, powerful vibes, and melodies that leave a lasting impression.

Honestly, and I know I've said this about a few records already on 2025 the year end list, but I really expect this guy to mature and grow this sound even further on the next big release. Nourished by Time is a already project full of so many good ideas, and The Passionate Ones is a fulfilling and emotionally rewarding album experience that's sure to give you new soundtracks to old fond memories.

9/10

Highlights: “BABY BABY", "Tossed Away", "When The War Is Over", "It's Time", "Idiot In The Park", "The Passionate Ones", "925"

FOR FANS OF:

Micah. by Micah Dailey White

Slide by George Clanton

Devotion by Planet 1999

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #8

Only Dust Remains - Backxwash

Main Genres: Alternative Rap, Conscious Rap

A decent sampling of: Political Rap, Industrial Rap, Experimental Rap, Hardcore Rap, Rap Rock, Emo Rap

TW: If you weren't in the mood to feel shitty about the state of the world, don't listen to this record and probably don't read this review. Next one isn't so heavy I promise.

Have I mentioned that 2025 was a shitty year for headlines? Who am I kidding - anyone reading this would know that.

Never had I felt so strongly like we were living in a dystopia til this past year. Even with the knowledge for years now of how evil are the ongoing forces of capitalism and imperialism that dominate world politics, this year felt especially heinous.

The "liberal democracies" of the global north have just blatantly dropped the act and started saying all the quiet parts loud. AI is ruining everything and most governments are doing fuck all to stop or at least regulate it. The US has begun threatening even other countries in the global north and everyone I know here in Canada is at least slightly nervous about the situation.

And of course, those who aren't doing everything they can to look away are being constantly reminded of the many genocides and wars of aggression happening in the world right now (Palestine, Congo, Sudan, and Ukraine being the most prominent). We're more connected internationally than ever with social media, and yet it feels like this doesn't translate at all to being able to enact meaningful change towards any of these situations.

When all of this was weighing on me the most, this record was one of my primary coping mechanisms.

So uhh anyways Backxwash.

Ashanti Mutinta a.k.a. Backxwash is a rapper I've covered a few times on this blog over the years. She's won a few awards here in Canada, kind of a critic darling, but also not everyone's cup of tea. Her lyrics tend to be very raw and unfiltered, and heavy on the themes of trauma, addiction, and anguish.

She's been an outspoken voice against neo-colonialism and transphobia since the very beginning of her career, and is generally a beacon of progressivism and a breath of fresh air in the very male-dominated spaces of conscious and political hip hop for some time now.

Musically, up til now Backxwash mostly dabbled in experimental industrial horrorcore rap that included some elements of screamo and metal. By her standards, the label "alternative rap" actually conveys that this record is more grounded in standard hip hop conventions than her previous records.

Only Dust Remains is about as musically accessible as Backxwash has gotten, having shifted focus to dramatic, theatrical and big production-heavy conscious rap ballads with influences of alternative rock and emo that really pulls together all of the angst. Don't get me wrong, this is still all kinds of mind-boggling, but it's not as abrasive as any of her previous work, though it certainly has its moments.

Lyrically, however, this is probably her most challenging record to date, and His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering already went to some very dark places. Rather, I feel it is so challenging because I think this captures, more than any other record I heard this year, the pain of what it feels like to be someone who gives a shit about whats happening globally, who can't take your mind off of it, while also feeling pretty much powerless.

The opening sample of "Wake Up" is just a brilliant way of setting the stage for the record - a true plea for some sanity. In the context of the record, it feels like a rallying call for people to give a shit about the world, though in the context of the track, Backxwash is desperately trying to awaken from her own nightmare of suicidal thoughts and bedrot. Incredibly dark stuff, but I also have to give credit to just how hard this beat goes, particularly with those angular chords during the chorus, and the morose gospel outro is nothing short of glorious.

"9th Heaven" sounds perverse and divine all at once. Insanely obscure and bizarre sample; Ligiana's voice sounds like an angel that's been cast into hell thanks to the track's production. A lot of hard-hitting bars with vivid, gruesome biblical-tinged imagery, and the fact that it turns into a drum and bass track near the end is also really cool.

"Dissociation" looks inward and revisits the topic of addiction. Production-wise, this is essentially a post-rock emo song with rapping on top of it. Encapsulates the whole idea of retreating to your safe place, even if its drugs, as you watch your world crumble around you. This song is the exact feeling of coping to survive. "Everything on the planet is just speeding right past me" is one of the most powerful and relatable lyrics I've heard all year. I think I'm doing better than most, but I gotta say that I still felt this song deep in my gut. Perfect title as well, as it really makes me want to lay down on the floor and just dissociate from everything. Maybe my new favourite Backxwash song.

Surprisingly, the record offers a glimmer of hope with the closing track "Only Dust Remains". After all of the anguish and turmoil of the previous nine tracks, its a nice palette cleanser that turns the whole record into this really raw fucking catharsis. Its not entirely optimistic, but its got a very pragmatic and honest sentiment. Mutinta's final lines on the record are very sobering and chilling:

"And I know I don't know god in his presence He never tried to call my bluff when I went there But if I'm in a bad place going to a backspace Happy that I met you all, as I meant it"

I do find this record to be a bit taxing to get through. There's a lot to process here beyond just Backxwash's uncompromisingly harsh voice and lyrics, as the production is so grandiose at times that I get a little lost in everything. This is a BIG record, and it leaves little space to come up for any air besides at the very end.

But for the most part, I applaud the ambition and execution of this incredibly dark record. Only Dust Remains is raw fucking art, and Backxwash is one of the realest artists alive in the world today.

9/10

Highlights: "Dissociation (feat. Chloe Hotline)", "Wake Up", "9th Heaven", "Only Dust Remains (feat.Pet Wife, MAGELLA, Fernie, Morgan-Paige)", "History of Violence", "9th Gate"

FOR FANS OF:

Impossible Light by Uboa

Atrocity Exhibition by Danny Brown

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #9

LOOP:GLAMOUR - loopcinema

Main Genres: Indietronica, Psychedelic Pop, Disco

A decent sampling of: Nu-Disco, Glitch Pop, Progressive Pop, Funk Brasiliero, Disco Rap, Sampledelia, Boogie

Brazilian singer/producer Sabrina Garcia a.k.a. loopcinema is kind of an enigma. I had never heard of her until this year, and she doesn't have a lot of information about herself out there on the internet, despite having a very online aesthetic.

She's apparently only 21 years old which, excuse me but what the fuck? I still can't believe I'm old enough now that there's people seven years my junior making goddamn fantastic music like they were seasoned veterans of the medium.

Anyhow, I'm not gonna lie - I just discovered this record while I was browsing for music similar to Magdalena Bay. It's kind of an easy comparison to make, which others have done, but in no way do I mean it reductively. If anything, beyond her vocal register, loopcinema reminds me of Magdalena Bay because of how unique and completely bonkers her sound is as an indie-electronic-pop artist.

Her latest offering LOOP:GLAMOUR is kind of disorienting, and perhaps even headache inducing if you aren't in the right place for it. And I don't really mean that as a negative; on the contrary, this is a great example of pop music being the most it can be, listener's sensibilities be damned. Loopcinema has filled this beast to the brim with funky grooves, eclectic samples, tempo changes and beat switchups, and a whole fucking lot of sugar. This is indietronic disco on every kind of stimulant you could possibly think of, and then some.

Garcia possesses some real manic creativity, and is aided by a cast of Brazilian guest rappers and other oddball featured artists that all help to really tie the whole experience together into one great big over-stimulating, glowing neon, acid rainbow-coloured package.

The record swallows you up in a vortex of mayhem almost immediately with "CINEMA", which does a damn fine job establishing the overall tone of the record: non-stop energy. Just look at the cover art and you'll get a pretty good idea of what this record has in store from the get-go.

"DISCO: Lada" seamlessly blends a bossa nova sample with disco and hip hop into some really avant-garde party music. It would fit perfectly on the Katamari Damacy soundtrack (not least because Shibuya-kei owes a lot of influence to Brazilian genres like samba and bossa nova). This track just keeps changing gears while somehow never losing any of its momentum. Spot on execution of hyperactive production choices that only ever adds and never subtracts from the total song experience.

But the biggest highlight has got to be "LOUCAS-NO-BEAT", a song straight out of the wackiest 90s cartoon that never happened because it was 30 years ahead of its time. I am vaguely familiar with funk brasiliero music, but none of what I've heard sounds anything quite like it. The slap bass groove and the little intermission with the jazzy glokenspiel are probably my favourite production choices here, but I could probably list another dozen brilliant ideas in this track. I wish I could snort this song.

"MERCÚRIO" has a lot of glitzy glam in that old school disco sensibility, neon city lights and all, except maybe the city is also being destroyed by some giant laser-firing kaiju, but then also no one really cares and is just kinda vibing anyway? Idk I think I screwed up this description, my brain is just too damn overstimulated from the last 11 tracks.

Yeah, about the headache thing I said earlier - one or two of these tracks do kind of overstay their welcome, and the album definitely is unrelenting in the way that it flows. I guess there's usually gotta be a crash after a sugar rush, after all.

But overall, this is a stroke of musical genius, if indicative of a sound that has yet to be fully harnessed. I imagine that loopcinema's particular brand of musical witchcraft will age like a fine wine with time. In the meantime, LOOP:GLAMOUR is still a really fucking cool record and I implore all my fellow music nerds and ADHDers alike to check it out.

8/10

Highlights: "LOUCAS-NO-BEAT (feat. Julio Maravilha)", "DISCO: Lada (feat. chard la plaga)", "CINEMA", "MERCÚRIO", "LO44", "Complexo De Socialite" (feat. Suzy #SORTUDO)

FOR FANS OF:

Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay

I Love You Jennifer B by Jockstrap

Halcali Bacon by Halcali

How I'm Feeling Now by Charli XCX

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - #10

Melt - Not for Radio

Main Genres: Dream Pop

A decent sampling of: Downtempo, Soft Rock, Indie Pop, Slowcore, Sophisti-Pop

I must admit I was familiar with the Marías, but never really checked out any of their music beyond hearing a song or two once. I think I compartmentalized them in the category of bands like xx and warpaint - vaguely moody and relaxing, but not really my kind of dream pop. Too snoozy.

Anyhow, this is all to say that, in 2026, I really gotta stop letting what I think an artist is gonna sound like put me off of giving them a proper listen. I saw the cover art of this one (goes hard), saw the genre tags, and decided it was up my alley and hence worth checking out. I had no idea that Not for Radio was frontwoman María Zardoya's solo project.

Goddamn is this one cozy record. Melt is the good kind of sleepy dream pop - one that doesn't put you to sleep because its dull or whatever, but because the timbres are just so tender and rich, and the sonic world it nestles into is so welcoming, like a little cocoon.

María has such a soothing voice, the kind that can make hairs stand on end and give you chills. But despite the general comfort of her presence and the easy-going, soft rock-leaning melodies, the record also possesses a very isolated and cold sensation at times, lending itself to introspection. Zardoya explained that much of the record was written while staying at a cabin in the woods and going on long nature walks, and yeah I can definitely feel that when I listen to this.

The opener "Puddles" is on the shortlist for my SOTY. A deep plunge into icy black waters that nevertheless feels so warm and pure, just as its depths are mysterious and unknowable yet greatly enticing. That instrumental bridge is orgasmic; just layers of thick viscous submersion. The constant repetition of "puddles and puddles" and that arpeggio, like I'm falling forever, deeper and deeper into a series of never ending pools. Taps into something very instinctual.

The catatonic longing of "Back To You" is one of the tracks that got me in the heart the most this year. As someone who knows what its like to miss someone terribly, I can safely say that goddamn does this song ever seize the very essence of that curse. It's the sound of being awake and alone at 2:00 am, when you really should be in bed, when everything in the world is still, the entire events of the day that has passed becoming mere background noise, as you're revisited by the familiar, intrusive memories of that which is no longer present in your life and probably never will be again. A sad phantom song.

"Vueltas" is a requiem sung in Spanish for a lost and wandering soul, mourning the lover forced to leave. It's as gently moving as it is gently moving (see what I did there?), with its folk guitar and hand drums that pitter patter like little rain drops rolling down a fogged up window.

The penultimate track "Water On Your Nose" stands out for its bright piano motif, peeking through the hazy mist that is typical of the record's sound palate. María daydreams with bittersweetness for a love she cannot be open with, but the daydream is so pleasant itself that its easy to miss the loneliness in her words.

I do wish the record was a bit longer, and had more tracks that really took it to the same depths as "Puddles" and "Back To You". It feels like she's only scratching the surface of where this very elusive, aqueous sound could go.

That being said, Melt is really great on its own as a record to just lay down in your bed and reflect upon. This has been a late-night favourite of mine this year; a friendly companion that holds me through my melancholy and anxious obsessiveness in a year that felt very tumultuous in an existential kind of way.

8/10

Highlights: "Puddles", "Back To You", "Veltas", "Water On Your Nose"

FOR FANS OF:

Among My Swan by Mazzy Star

Depression Cherry by Beach House

When A Thought Grows Wings by Luna Li

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - Most Honourable Mention

City of Clowns - Marie Davidson

Main Genres: EBM, Electroclash

A decent sampling of: New Beat, Futurepop, Acid Techno

Marie Davidson is one of the most idiosyncratic voices in Canadian alternative music, and a personal favourite among the lesser-known Canadian artists that I follow. The Quebecois producer/performer is, in short, what you'd get when you blend anti-capitalist edgelord shitposting with sleazy underground EDM. If that puts you off, just hear me out.

Sure, her thick French Canadian accent, propensity for inserting absurdist skit comedy into her techno songs, and lyrics that are quite crass and overtly frank means she's probably an acquired taste for many casual listeners who are not accustomed to this sort of thing. But I already knew pretty much immediately that I was going to love this crazy mf the first time I ever heard "Work It". Marie is exactly the kind of person I'd like to have a beer with do shots and get fucking shitfaced at the club with.

As a producer and beat maker, Marie belongs to the school of simple and effective abrasiveness. Working mostly in the genre mediums of minimal wave, EBM, and electroclash, her soundscapes are often barren and even desolate at times, while structurally tight and methodical. You'd probably imagine, then, that her music would be overly glum, but in fact much of her work is bursting with colourful personality, largely thanks to the larger-than-life presence of Marie herself.

I wrote a review a few years ago about her 2018 record Working Class Woman, a project built around subversive minimal techno, with lyrics and aesthetics involving a whole lot of satire mostly taking aim at girlbosses, corporate hustle culture, self-help and mindfulness culture, and general industry phoniness.

Her latest offering City of Clowns tackles a similar world of phonies, only this time she seems to have slightly shifted focus to punching up at the Silicon Valley grifters and tech bros that have contributed the most to the current hellscape of data theft and ruthless monopolization and hegemony that is the internet in 2025. This is accented by an undercurrent of steamy, throbbing EBM and a generally perverse, lusty atmosphere that seems to eroticize power as much as it is simultaneously critiquing it.

The second track "Demolition" is as good an introduction as any to Marie Davidson's sound - nasty, sardonic, and BDSM-dungeony. Meanwhile "Sexy Clown" has maybe the best opening line of the year with "Am I full of shit / or maybe, halfway full?".

"Contrarian" is an acid techno romp that would be perfect to soundtrack an escape some sort of cyber mega prison complex before it explodes, metroid-style. The jerky hyperventilating lead synth/alarm sound or whatever the fuck it is really pulls the whole thing together. The constant refrain of "contrarian" repeating like some sort of "intruder alert" woman voiceover is sooo 90s techno and I love that.

The record closes with a remix of the lead single "Y.A.A.M." (featuring veteran electroclash producer Soulwax) that feels very much not like a bonus track, but rather a crucial component of the record experience that helps tie it all together. Mostly because this beast of a track just slams you into the ground with a diving leg drop when that chorus hits. Hearing electroclash this frigging spectacular in 2025 is a real treat.

Truthfully, all of my favourite tracks are shoved to either end of this LP. The midsection is good, and probably goes incredibly hard at the club (if there were any in my city actually cool enough to play this kind of music), but all of the sit-down-and-listen-with-headphones type memorable stuff feels like it happens in the beginning and the end.

Still, this shit slaps. Hard, and probably right on someone's ass. City of Clowns is filthy in all of the right ways, and it knows how to push my buttons both consciously with my mind and subconsciously with my body. Check it out.

8/10

Highlights: "Contrarian", "Y.A.A.M. (Soulwax Version)", "Demolition", "Sexy Clown", "Validations Weight"

FOR FANS OF:

Product by Sophie

Witching Hour by Ladytron

El Diablo En El Cuerpo by Álex Anwandter

Those bizarrely hilarious club tracks using Grace from Facade

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - Even More Honourable Mention

Cancionera - Natalia Lafourcade

Main Genres: Mexican Folk Music

A decent sampling of: Bolero, Chamber Jazz, Son Jarocho

Natalia Lafourcade has all the sophisticated qualities and command of a classic torch singer, capable of belting with an aching expressiveness, and then lamenting with delicate sighs, all in the span of a single verse. It's no wonder that she makes the kind of music she does, because she is the perfect chanteuse to serenade along to such moving accompaniments, with a voice that could bring even marble statues to tears.

Her previous record, De Todas Las Flores, was a critic favourite that expanded her notoriety outside of Latin America (me included) as a leading voice in the singer/songwriter medium. I personally really enjoyed the album, and it fell just shy of landing a spot on my personal 2022 year end list.

Her latest record, Cancionera, is a similar undertaking to the last album - a collection of folk songs and ballads, accompanied by a charming and intimate ensemble, with a crisp and warm sound that matches quite nicely the aesthetic qualities of a solitary evening spent lounging in the living room with a cup of black coffee. Some of these pieces are quite joyous, though others are dramatically sombre. Nevertheless, every song is lyrically indicative of a life lived passionately and to its fullest.

The splendid, playful cumbia of "Cocos En La Playa" celebrates the simple life; a night on the beach, feet in the sand, away from stupid phones, and boy oh boy is that really something I could really use over these last few months. Moreover, a song like this on an album that is at times so melancholy really demonstrates her artistic range as a performer.

In the nocturnal bolero song "Carañito de Acapulco", Lafourcade places words like sweet little cinnamon kisses in the listener's ears, meanwhile the extended outro, featuring a wondrous concoction of piano, strings, muted trumpet, and congas, sends two lovers off into the night on a small boat along the gentle current of a lazy river.

The piano instrumental closer "Lágrimas Cancioneras" is of the old-fashioned and refined sort of miserable gloom. I can imagine perfectly the image of a woman, who has just received the terrible news via letter of her recent widowing after the death of her lover while abroad, dressed in a mourning gown with her hair slicked back, cigarette in hand as she stares bitterly out of her barely-illuminating window, off into the distance and away from her darkened room, wrapped in the dim moonlight of a cruel and relentless world. A very chilling piece.

Admittedly, some of the mid-section tracks feel more like background music compared to some of the other compositions on the record, and it's a bit of a longer tracklisting for music that is mostly so steady and calm. At the same time, I can imagine putting this on and having a really pleasant evening without having to pay much attention to what stood out the most. I'd say it's more of a holistic record experience.

Either way, I think this woman is doing the kind of work that she was born to do. Cancioneras feels delicately crafted, and almost effortless at the same time. Definitely worth taking the time to just kick back, pour something nice, and float off into sensation with this precious little record.

8/10

Highlights: "Carañito de Acapulco", "Lagrimas Cancioneras", "Cocos En La Playa","Cancionera", "Luna Creciente", "El Palomo y La Negra"

FOR FANS OF:

Buena Vista Social Club by Buena Vista Social Club

Tales of Us by Goldfrapp

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - Very Very Honourable Mention

Instant Holograms On Metal Film - Stereolab

Main Genres: Art Rock, Indietronica

A decent sampling of: Art Pop, Progressive Pop, Krautrock, Psychedelic Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Space Age Pop, Sunshine Pop

The groop is so back, you guys.

Stereolab, for the uninitiated, was and is one of the coolest bands ever. Simple as that. Artsy French and English indie kids and socialist iconoclasts, who decided that pop and rock music would be the best medium to promote their philosophy on society and the meaning of life, all while playing with retrofuturist sound and visual aesthetics and early synthesizer instruments to create music that feels effectively timeless and almost utopian. They've taken inspiration from the lounge and space age pop of the 50s and 60s, krautrock and early electronic bands like The United States of America, and the noise pop and neo-psychedlia movements of the 90s that were contemporaneous with when the band first came on to the scene.

And Laetitia Sadier is one of my all-time favourite lyricists. She can be sad and sentimental in the way that many great poets are, but she can also be cheeky and playful to match the very wacky timbres of her band. Her speaking English as a second language seems to liberate her from many cliches, and she has a distinctive and peculiar way she places stress on words in the context of melodies. She also has a knack for taking hefty academic concepts and breaking them down to their fundamentals, and its clear that "music for the masses that educates the masses" is a part of her ethos.

If you haven't already, do yourself a favour and listen to "Cybele's Reverie" right now. It is one of just a few songs I might utter if you put a gun to my head and told me I had to choose my one favourite song of all time. The lyrics are in French, but they ring universal and poignant about the human condition - childhood is bliss, and the world loses some of its colour when you learn how it really works. Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops are also two of my all time favourite records.

After a long hiatus at the end of the 2000s, the band got back together in 2019 for some shows, and have now finally released their first new record in over 15 years. Instant Holograms On Metal Film seems to pick up right where they left off - leaning more into the electronic components of their sound as many of their 2000s output did. I'd say the closest comparison is 2004's Margarine Eclipse, specifically the way that it feels more mechanical and loop driven.

Honestly, I wouldn't say Stereolab has revolutionized their sound or anything - its just that its been so long since they released anything, and their distinct musical palette is as refreshing and singular as it has always been. The entirety of Instant Holograms is bouncing off of rainbows and clouds in some kind of wondrous year 3000 floating metropolis, where the sun is always shining and the sky is a technicolor mix of pastel blues, pinks, oranges, and yellows.

"Melodie Is A Wound" is a prime specimen of the Stereolab raison d'etre - a song that sets out to stimulate the mind, and make you groove, while also leading you to question who holds the monopoly over public discourse, and how information is disseminated to the masses. It also seems upon first listen that every time you think the track has reached its conclusion, another even more thrilling iteration of its central motif is introduced, sonically recreating the feeling of ideas that lead to other, better ideas. Deeply invigorating stuff.

Then there's "Immortal Hands" with its flickering synth-bells, stretchy filtered guitar timbres and structural-rhythmic oddities, all which are treasured features of the Stereolab signature. But the biggest highlight for me is "Electrified Teenybop!", an exhilarating indietronica instrumental piece that arpeggiates and flashes into infinity, like riding a speeding bullet through an endless field of dandelions with the wind rushing through your hair.

Similar to some of the other later Stereolab LPs, the record occasionally suffers from the "really unique sound that's repeated over long track run-times and long total album length" effect where everything is beautiful and peculiar, but not all of it is highly memorable. I felt myself having to revisit tracks a lot while writing this review, just to remember which ones were which.

I'd say overall that this places just above Transient Random-Noise Bursts in my personal ranking of Stereolab - not their very best, but far from their weakest. And I mean, let's be honest: a Stereolab album that is just very solid by their standards is already well above many other band's peak moments, and that alone makes this LP worthy of an honourable mention in my year end list.

Listen to Instant Holograms On Metal Film, and then please go check out the rest of their discography, because Stereolab seriously has like five or six really fantastic records, and a room full of fans of the groop will pretty much never reach a consensus as to which album is their best.

8/10

Highlights: "Electrified Teenybob!", "Melodie Is A Wound", "Immortal Hands", "Transmuted Matter", "Aerial Troubles"

FOR FANS OF:

Bon Voyage by Melody's Echo Chamber

TNT by Tortoise

going...going...GONE! by Hemlocke Springs

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - Very Honourable Mention

Cult Subterranea - Celestaphone & Dealers of God

Main Genres: Abstract Rap, Political Rap, Experimental Rap

A decent sampling of: Neo-Psychedelia, Nerdcore, Psychedelic Rock, Conscious Rap

Oh, hey there little green guy. You look........menacing.

I'm just gonna say it - Celestaphone is so slept on. This guy is one of the most wonderfully bizarre hip hop artists out there right now, and it seems like only the dorkiest of the dorks like me ever talk about it. His delivery as a rapper is just the right mix of cartoonish and deadpan, and his lyrics are chalk-full of thought-provoking absurdist humour and wit. 2023's Paper Cut From the Obit was brilliant, easily one of the funnest listening experiences of the decade so far.

So when I learned he had teamed up with a psychedelic cloud rap producer to make a full-blown concept album, I was nerd gushing. Admittedly, however, I had already gotten about halfway through a Dealers of God album once before (probably on a work night around 1:00 am) when I decided I didn't really "get it" and went to sleep. Luckily, I had forgotten the artists name and had no idea it was the same guy going into this project, cause I might've put off listening to this little gem.

The overarching sound of Cult Subterranea is best described as lovecraftian tin foil hat alien conspiracy rap, with meta-commentary on late stage capitalism, techno-feudalism, the disinformation era, and cultural mass psychosis, playing over some really freaky ass psychedelic rock and hip hop beats. This is not something I knew I needed in my life, but after living through the surreal headlines of 2025 and near losing my goddamn mind in the process of it, I think it was the perfect year for this sort of record. And the bandcamp write up for this LP is, incidentally, fucking hilarious.

Cult Subterranea takes general inspiration (including the cover art) from a 90s CD ROM point-and-click game called Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages. Basically, its some Ancient Aliens alt history shit made by a man who was probably batshit insane and definitely most likely committed murder suicide. Sad and dark, but also weird and fascinating.

Also as a disclaimer: I am not a conspiracy nut, nor do I think Celestaphone is, but it makes for an interesting narrative device to frame and analyze the actual North American political landscape and reality-as-we-know-it in 2025, what with the cult of MAGA and qAnon, people literally worshipping AI and every Silicon Valley huckster shmuck, and a litany of other awful shit.

"Moscovium" is peak abstract hip hop, more of a rhythmic and maddened rambling set to bleepy-bloopy laser arpeggios. "Ayys Hello" is macabre, hilarious, and really fucking weird all at once, playing like a classic alien abduction exploitation B-movie with some S-tier hip hop storytelling courtesy of featured rappers Blu and Quelle Chris. The production choice of including the little abduction ray sound effects is simply chef's kiss.

"Seismic Sounding" takes the cake as his most WTF track yet, like something deep out of the early no wave scene with its dissonant piano and moans on top of a dead sounding funk bass and a militant percussive march. An absolute trip from start to finish, probably of the nightmarish sort that you'd have while taking datura or some other random deliriating forest plants.

Admittedly, and this was somewhat of a problem with the last Celestaphone record - I wish the rapping was higher in the mix on a lot of tracks here. A lot of good lyrics get lost in the production sludge of chaotic sound miasma. I also think that overall this is a shorter, tighter, and more ambitious-ideas-per-track project compared to his last record, but it doesn't contain quite as many standout moments per its length as did Paper Cut From the Obit, which was greatly consistent even on the tracks that were more just instrumentals and interludes.

Still, I'm very weak for this kind of stuff. I love dorky concept rap records made with love, and Cult Subterranea is definitely no exception. I highly encourage all fellow weirdos to give this one a try; just don't listen to it while you're taking shrooms and playing LSD Simulator or you might experience your own abduction and subsequent lobotomy by aliens.

8/10

Highlights: “Seismic Sounding”, “Ayys Hello (feat. Quelle Chris and Blu)”, “Moscovium", “Deep Underground"

For fans of:

Revelator by Elucid

Psychotrovas and Mantis by Headed

The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox

[lovejustforaday]

2025 Year End List - Honourable Mention

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS - Bad Bunny

Main Genres: Caribbean Hispanic Music, Reggaetón

A decent sampling of: Salsa, Bomba, Plena, Jibaro

Okay yeah you can all make fun of me now. Mr. Big Hipster Guy put an artist who was the most streamed worldwide for several consecutive years on his little indie music blog's year end list.

For what its worth, Bad Bunny is 100% a more consistently interesting artist with much more depth than his fellow streaming giant peers Drake and Taylor Swift, both of whom are perfectly happy to retreat into mediocrity and disgustingly blatant self-obsession for the rest of their sad, very rich lives.

And then there's Benito. Yeah, the guy definitely hypes himself up a lot, has a clear excess of self-love, and definitely knows just how seriously hot he is by constantly teasing his goodies on social media (your welcome). But in interviews, he honestly comes off as surprisingly humble and down-to-earth at least for someone with his degree of fame, especially as an artist working in the hedonistic genres of trap, reggaeton, and club EDM music.

Sure, Bad Bunny got his start being oft compared as the latin trap version of Drake - but unlike Drake, he's only gotten more interesting and versatile over the last few years (ignore that previous record), with the seriously bloated but nevertheless colourful, chill and introspective summer pop-reggaetón of 2022's Un Verano Sin Ti, and now in 2025 when he dropped DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS smack dab at the beginning of the year, to his greatest critical acclaim yet.

Benito has also gotten much more political and socially conscious than his megastar peers in the last little while, at least if this album, what it stands for, and its promotion is anything to go off of. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, when its not being an album about ass-shaking baddies and fuckboys and grinding at the club, is otherwise mostly a bittersweet and proud love letter to his homeland of Puerto Rico, a lament for bad romances (many unsympathetic) and things lost to the sands of time, and a commentary on the disenfranchisement and exploitation of PR by the United States.

Musically, there's little nuggets of dance and folk genres across the Caribbean including PR but also from Cuba and the Dominican, with his most eclectic collection of styles yet, many filtered through warm EDM synths.

"BAILE INoLVIDABLE" is his greatest career standout thus far. It's a deliciously solemn salsa requiem dedicated to unforgettable lost love, and the song is every bit as lyrically miserable as it is musically fiery and grand. Stylish tragedy at its finest, and Benito's voice has never sounded so swooning and sophisticated as it does here.

The penultimate "DtMF" is a major standout as the emotional centrepiece of the record, with poignant lyrics meant to be drunkingly sobbed along to. The record also ends on a high point with the defiant and life-affirming self-triumph and PR anthem "LA MuDANZA" with its excellent closing refrain of "yo soy de P' fucking R'".

I must admit I still have a low tolerance for fuckboy-ism in lyrics (and rightfully so), so there are still moments that make me wince on this record, albeit my Spanish is still at the beginner level so that's mostly only when I'm reading along. Moreover, at least BB seems like an alright dude IRL, so I'm half-willing to let that slide. And while this still suffers from bloat in the mid-section, the inconsistency and dragged out length is not nearly as apparent as on his previous two records. There's enough standouts this time around, the dance tracks do what they need to do, and the artistic vision as a whole is strong, so it evens out to be a fine record all the way through. You just gotta stop thinking and grind your hips for a couple of songs.

Overall, a lot of this sticks, and what does stick here is honestly his very best work to date. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS really did move me in a way (emotionally, as well as moving my feet and my ass) that not many records did this year. I can confidently say going off of this record that his upcoming Superbowl performance is going to be one of greatest ever, including and especially because of all the racists he's going to piss off. Good Bunny.

8/10

Highlights: “BAILE InoLVIDABLE", "LA MuDANZA", "DtMF", "CAFE CON RON (feat. Los Pleneros de la Cresta)", "NUEVAYoL", "EL CLúB", "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii"

For fans of:

idk enough Reggaeton/Caribbean Music to make a good recommendation tbh

For fans of dancing and fucking

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

[lovejustforaday]

2025 YEAR END LIST ✨introduction✨

*AHEM*

Wow okay, so it looks like I haven't dusted off the old music blog since last year's frigging list. My bad, got busy. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

2025 has been, well, not a fantastic year, what with the sudden exponential growth of LLM AI bullshit being literally fucking everywhere and polluting all platforms (*cough* Pinterest *cough* YouTube), the utter complete enshitification of basically every major social media platform on the internet in favour of shoving reels, general slop, and ads where they shouldn't be (Did you know Reddit started hiding ads as comments on popular posts now? 🙃), and the resurgence of fascist bullshit across North America once again and the election of the most blatant corporate lobbyist puppet in my country since, well, the guy before the last guy.

Honestly, Tumblr kinda feels like one of the last half-decent websites of its kind on the internet. I got my criticisms, but it's a far cry from the miserable state of the functionally unusable Facebook, or YouTube and its functionally worthless search engine that force feeds you roughly 50 AI shorts for every actual goddamn video.

While things in my personal life have been pretty good - new apartment, new neighborhood, spent more time with my friends this year - I am also quite often plagued by anxious thoughts regarding where the world is going to be in the next two years, and that includes my growing concerns about the status of music both as an artistic medium, as well as a commercial industry.

With that in mind, I'm starting this year's list off a little bit differently. I'm gonna scream into the void about five things we should all be doing to keep our precious alternative music scenes alive, and for protecting the art form in general from bad corporate actors.

1. Boycott Spotify 🖕

Seriously, FUCK Spotify. Not only is it the worst paying for artists of all the major streaming platforms, but Spotify is also directly funding a genocide, and giving shit tons of money to stupid goddamn fucking Joe Rogan who is arguably the biggest pipeline for young men to the shitty, toxic, misogynistic, fascistic, medical-grifting manosphere. I've been using Deezer over the past year and found it half-decent, though it is buggy as hell at times, and you can't turn off the automatic queue creator whenever you search for a random song and play it. Still, better than Spotify.

Honestly though, streaming services are not that great in general and mostly serve as more of a necessary evil for discovering artists, which is why I implore you to-

2. Buy physical media and support artists on Bandcamp 💿

Any digital platform that allows you to digitally purchase and download albums directly from the artists is best. I understand that if you're like me, you can't afford to purchase digital copies of every single album you listen to and enjoy, so try to prioritize the albums that you really enjoy, and by the artists who are not major names. For example, if Beach House and Otay:Onii both made a record you really like, and you can only purchase one, go for the Otay:Onii record.

And physical media is amazing, and we all need to stop being so reliant on digital platforms that could always go south and end up withholding media itself. This is a huge issue in gaming in particular, but I think it could also apply to music. Not to mention that artists make more off of record sales and CD sales vs. digital purchases, and records are frankly the highest quality way to enjoyall of your favourite albums.

3. Go to shows and buy merch 🎤

Pretty self-explanatory. Ticket sales for many artists is their biggest source of income. You can buy merch to support them as well, though I am weary of conspicuous consumption and personally try to only buy stuff that isn't cheap plastic crap I don't need.

4. DO NOT USE ANY LLM GenAI BULLSHIT TO MAKE MUSIC 🚫

It's plagiarism, plain and simple. Report and block accounts you suspect of making AI music on any platforms you can, and maybe even let smaller artists know on social media if there are any of those stupid fucking asshat accounts that make AI cover versions of other songs using a particular artist's likeness.

Of course, this does not apply to the people who make tribute songs using their own goddamn actual voice and instrumentals/studio software to make covers or new songs in the style of other artists. It also doesn't apply to artists using real samples of other artists, nor does it apply to those artists making mashups either, but all of this should be obvious. AI and plagiarism are the problems.

5. Word of mouth is sooooo important 🗣️

Over the years, I have gotten friends and colleagues to check out and become fans of smaller artists like Otay:Onii, Lingua Nada, Micah., Say Sue Me, Ntski, etc. thanks to simply gushing over these artists in conversation. Never underestimate how important is the simple act of talking with other people about the cool artists you discovered. This is what helps keep a lot of artists motivated and afloat.

Moreover, share those artists on social media if you are still an active user of any of those shittastic platforms, so they can at least do something positive for goddamn once. It's also peak aura-farming to take pretty pictures and videos of nature or urban landscapes and then accompanying it with your favourite obscure band that no one's ever heard of.

Phew. Now with that out of the way, this year in music: Not my absolute favourite year, and truthfully I only listened to 67 new albums from this year. Frankly, I fell off a little bit with checking lots of new stuff out - I've been down a lot of bad internet rabbit holes during my down time which is a bad habit I'm trying to kick.

What I will say - there are more promising artists in the mainstream making relatively interesting and ambitious music over the last year compared to any of the other years I've covered previously. Two of those bigger artists managed to nab a spot on this list; I'll let you guess who those artists are based off the graphic I made for this year.

I'm also imposing a self-limit in order to make this non-overwhelming year end list, as I've already been plenty overwhelmed this year as is.

The list itself will include five short honourable mention mini-reviews, and then just ten main proper ranked entries with fuller reviews.

I will be (trying to) write 8 paragraphs maximum per honourable mention, and 14 paragraphs maximum per regular entry on the list, though I reserve the right to be as long-winded as I want about my personal AOTY.

Anyhow, stay tuned for unhinged ramblings.

[lovejustforaday]

2024 Year End List - #1

Imaginal Disk - Magdalena Bay

Main Genres: Indietronica, Progressive Pop

A decent sampling of: Synth Pop, Art Pop, Psychedelic Pop, Synth Funk, Alternative Dance, Disco, Chillwave

This really might be my most predictable AOTY so far.

If you were in the right circles this past year, then 2024 was really more the year of Imaginal Disk Autumn than it was about Brat Summer. Doesn't really roll off the tongue quite the same way, but regardless - this was a huge moment for indie nerds.

Magdalena Bay have pretty much been a hipster-beloved act since the duo's inception. Matt Lewin and Mica Tenanbaum are two Miami-based, Jewish-Argentinian-American pop afficianados and former prog rockers with a knack for music that is endlessly fun, slick as all hell, and seemingly effortless. They began putting out singles in the mid-2010s and quickly garnered a loyal online cult following.

Their debut LP Mercurial World was a much anticipated record that delivered on many fronts and established them as formidable underdogs in the world of alternative pop music. It was also my 2021 AOTY, so I guess this year's number one isn't all that shocking.

In fact, with how monumental this year's Mag Bay release felt, you probably woulda thought that the band had been well-established indie darling veterans for the entirety of the last decade at least. Imaginal Disk's drop felt like it might as well have been a new Tame Impala or Beach House record for how the online indie nerds (myself included) gleefully reacted to this. And it isn't hard to see why.

In one word, Imaginal Disk is ambitious. Just a ridiculously ambitious record. An album that seeks to be as much as it can possibly be all at once. The record is built from pure imagination, and sets not the sky as the limit, but rather the edges of the known universe.

The debut Mercurial World was incredibly polished, arrived almost fully formed, as though Matt and Mica had been making pop records for years, but if the debut had any considerable flaws, it would have to be the moments where it played it safe, sounded too much like what you expected it to be (yes, this is me nitpicking the hell out of what is still a brilliant record).

But Imaginal Disk subverts all expectations. While I would still describe it as mainly being an electronic pop record with a lot of prog on it, there's actually so much going on here that it was quite hard to come up with the genre tags that I normally always put on these reviews. It's also an apparent product of meticulous perfectionism - Mica describes in one interview about going through dozens and dozens of vocal takes just to recreate the way she sounded on one of the demos for "Killing Time".

True to the band's prog roots, the record has a "loose" concept wherein it explores, and in some ways, cheekily parodies ideas surrounding trans-humanism. The story involves exactly what you get on the admittedly garish cover art - a protagonist who is made to undergo a sort of trans-humanist experiment by higher beings via a disk insertion. It makes a lot of sense with context; Mica and Matt are very much denizens of the internet, and clearly fascinated and enamored with the uncanny aesthetics of false utopian futurism that are present in internet movements like the vaporwave genre. Mag Bay has also never been above giving a wink and a nod to their own online-ness - after all, this is the band that officially released their own "slowed+reverb" version of one of their most successful early singles.

I could also interpret Imaginal Disk as a timely commentary on all of this "A.I." a.k.a. machine learning snake-oil bullshit, but then I'm not entirely sure that its meant to be referencing that particular venture capitalist dystopian phenomenon, so much as it is generally just playing around with and poking fun at the concept of web 3.0, and a merger between the internet and reality, technology and humans.

There's also a bit of an overarching narrative of being up-ended and thrown into an unfamiliar world. This theme could be pulling its inspiration from a few different sources - a recounting the band's Jewish ancestors that fled Nazi Germany for Argentina, then emigrated to the U.S., or reflecting on the way that Matt and Mica took on the risk of sailing into uncharted territories as self-produced, unconventional independent pop artists after years spent playing in a rock band. It could also be related back to the aforementioned themes of trans-humanism and rapid technological growth, and the mutual sensation of being thrust into the generally tumultuous, rapid-pace, and anxiety-inducing scary new world that is the state of news, pop culture, social media and the internet in the 2020s era.

Idk, there's a lot of layers here, and they all certainly enrich the experience of the record. But what's kind of crazy is that you could pretty much just ignore all of the deeper layers of meaning, tune out all the tongue-in-cheek references to tech-obsession and new age-y spiritualism, and this would still be one of the very most bold, unique, and uncompromising pop records of the last ten or twenty years. The concept is cool and all, but the music alone already speaks for itself and leaves a lasting impression unlike any other pop record of the last few years.

Also, some quick credit where it's due - a huge part of what elevates a decent couple of these tracks is the usage of live drums, and those can be credited to the duo's former Tabula Rasa bandmate Nick Villa.

And now, perhaps my most needlessly long rundown of individual tracks on a record to date 🥴:

"True Blue Interlude" is kind of like a skit with its one minute and fifty seconds runtime, but it's also very much a piece that stands on its own, and actually made its way into my top 3 heaviest rotation of the tracks off this record. You've closed your eyes, seemingly attained nirvana, and now reawaken to find yourself transported to some gorgeous, windswept desert island oasis. The only catch is that you've also somehow found yourself in the middle of a commercial for a prescription drug; or at least it certainly feels like that, except the medicine in this case is the titular disk, applied directly to the forehead. This track makes me weirdly nostalgic for my childhood playing games like Wii Sports and MapleStory, that had these kinda cheesy but very nonetheless endearing, cushy, leisurely and altogether highly pleasant new age soundscapes for BGM. Very early PC music as well, as I'm tempted to describe the lyrics as a little bit "post-ironic".

"Image" is the most immediate cut from the record. It's this all-in-your-face propulsive synth pop spectacle that dives deeper and deeper down a futurstic, funhouse rave rabbit hole as it goes on. The track promotes the ideas of an updated self; a complete makeover into a seemingly perfect version of the you that you've always wanted to be. To me, there's an element of commentary here on the irresistible allure of being noticed and perceived in our hyper-stimulative age of social media and influencer mania. More specficially, the glitz of the production and the overpromising lyrics manage to capture this perverse desire to essentially commodify and compartmentalize the presentation of the self in this sort of unattainable way. And the beat on this thing? Fucking stellar m8.

"Death & Romance" is sort of an Act I climax for the first few tracks of the record. This glorious airshow of an alternative dance song manages to grow wings and learns how to fly, with verses that ebb and flow with changing winds on a majestic cumulonimbus cloud bed of live percussion and glowing piano chords, and the most insanely infectious melody of the entire year. Mica harnesses the power of love and becomes a soaring angel, using her divine aerial powers to make it physically rain good vibes all over the entire surface of the Earth. This track oozes pure awesomeness, kicks every single ass in existence, and makes me fall in love with the very idea of music itself all over again. SOTY contender and it still might not even be my favourite track on the record.

Things wind down a little bit for "Watching T.V.", a song that feels like its floating around those little gloopy blobs inside of a lava lamp, except its an entire sea of the stuff. Mica's delivery is so chill and zen; I love the little way she intonates the "hello, how are you?" in the pre-chorus. Vibraphone is a very nice touch too, I've always considered it a very psychedelic instrument. By the way, is it too much of a cliché or faux-pas at this point to say an electronic pop song incorporating simple wave synths sounds "like a video game"? Whatever, this track is a nice little head massage, at least before it turns into a blindingly bright, technicolor cacophony eruption at the end.

This directly transitions into the beginning of "Tunnel Vision", another one of the record's highest highs. Eerie strings hearken to B-movie horror as the previous track's outro would have seemed to have opened up an eldritch schism in the Earth's crust, except for what emerges from the opening is the soft plinkety sounds of a friendly alien. The rest of this track is just pure geeky prog pop fanservice for nerds who get HORNY at the idea of tempo shifts and 70s homage big band breakdowns in the middle of their cutesy electronic pop song (it's me, I'm the nerd). Plus the absolutely out-of-this-world lift off of an outro with all of the wiry spaceship synth sounds and virtuosic rock drum solo bravado. By the end of it, I'm not entirely sure if I just reached light speed, reached clim😳x, or both simultaneously.

"That's My Floor" is a cartoonish psychedelic pop rock trip that I imagine would immediately follow the melting of crayons with play-doh and then drinking the resulting thick, unicorn-coloured solution (y'know, at least before your stomach rejected it and your kidneys exploded). The electric guitar on this is right crunchy and thunderous. I'm not even entirely sure where this fits in the rest of the album's supposed narrative, it's kind of a wild card, but to be honest I'm really just too busy soaking up all the radioactive fluorescent juices of this certified banger.

The record reaches yet another tremendous climax with "Cry for Me", a heavenly and stratospheric indietronic-disco-prog magnum opus that embraces pop maximalism as though it were a religion. I feel taller than sky scrapers listening to this, with my head up in the cosmos, and shooting stars passing by my ears, meanwhile the universe is my own personal illuminated dancefloor covered in a thick dreamy fog. Mica weaves the story of a sullen person demanding tears and pity for her having supposedly been wronged. After a couple of short verses, the song has its metaphorical head dunked completely underwater for a brief intermission, before coming up gasping for air. It's after this moment that everything really kicks in, and something fundamental about the song shifts as the voice of Mica echos a forlorn "fate, lead me astray".

From here on, I would describe the listening experience as akin to having the most glamorous, cathartic, and theatrical mental breakdown of your life, falling to your knees in the middle of the spotlight of an empty auditorium, begging and pleading to your only witness, the highest power, while being completely at the mercy of an uncaring universe. "Shared a little kiss and that's forever / think of love when you remember me" is my favourite lyric in any pop song of the last few years - its such a deliciously simple and bittersweet sentiment. Mica's practically kicking and screaming for acknowledgement by the fading of the outro. This track brings a whole new, much more literal meaning to the term "pity party", and I have definitely listened to this during some of my most stressful moments over the past year, and have felt immense release because of it. At the very moment of writing this review, I will say that this is my favourite off the record, and my definitive song of the year.

The penultimate "Angel On A Satellite" is a tender piano ballad complete with gentle pitter-patter hand drums and a cozy acoustic guitar. Chorus is absolutely killer, especially thanks to the little key change, and that recurring refrain hits me right in the sweet spot, even if its basically an interpretation of the standard major scale on piano. I could very much see this not being someone else's thing - it might be a little too sincere for the cynical, but I'd be a damn liar if I didn't admit that this makes me choke up a little bit inside. Sure, it's a fair bit simpler as far as what we've come to normally expect from Magdalena Bay, but it's also soooooooooooo incredibly effective.

"The Ballad of Matt & Mica" ends the record on the most fell-good, triumphant note, like a victory lap or a sigh of relief, and it puts a big ol' grin on my face every time I listen to it. The melody and lyrics interpolate those of the opening track, offering a moment to reflect on the journey that both the band and listener just completed, and just that aspect of the song alone gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. It's really as if you just scaled a mountain, and now you're looking back, thinking to yourself like "yeah, I actually did that". The little shots on the "bang! bang! and a happy ending" really seals the deal. Matt and Mica sound damn happy and proud of what they made here and yeah, they really should be. You just gotta root for these two.

This is a landmark record in pop music. So rare is it that a record of any genre comes across feeling so complete, so much what it was always meant to be. In a very meta-way, Imaginal Disk really delivers on its inter-textual promises on tracks like "Image" and "True Blue Interlude" of an experience that feels elevated, hyper-real even.

For the love of god, just listen to the masterpiece record already. It's 11:00 pm on a Friday, on the last day of February and my fingers are officially done typing. Happy 2025, folks (all three or four of you), sorry it took this long.

10/10

Highlights: "Cry for Me", "Death & Romance", "Tunnel Vision", "Angel On A Satellite", "Image", "True Blue Interlude", "That's My Floor", "Watching T.V.", "The Ballad of Matt & Mica", "Killing Time", "Love Is Everywhere", "Fear, Sex"

FOR FANS OF:

Impossible Princess by Kylie Minogue

Merriweather Post-Pavilion by Animal Collective

Djinn by Lingua Nada

Head First by Goldfrapp

Shoso Strip by Sheena Ringo

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You by Caroline Polachek