This photo does not represent my personal listening space.
Although, if there was one that existed in the space of my brain, maybe it would or could be something like this.
For me, my primary spaces for listening to and therefore, absorbing music are via walking around with my head phones (I detest earbuds) strapped firmly to my ears or within the confines of my car. While I do still possess my record player, purchased through funds from Summer employment adventures during my college years, my beloved, dearly departed and eternally missed cat Jada, bit through the speaker wires while as a teething kitten, leaving me with only one working speaker...so usage has dwindled dramatically on that front. All of that being said, every listening space for me firmly and forever represents the listening spaces I occupied while as a child as I was exposed to the beauty and mystery of the listening experience and the art of the album, where my synesthesia always lived and thrived, where so many emotions were stirred, formulated, nurtured, healed and thrived and where so many memories were birthed.
This life experience is never ending and in this truly traumatic year of 2025, music has existed as a crucially sacred space for my spirit as I am in a stage where I am actually receiving and consuming music at a greater rate than in my youth and having a radio home of ten years and still going with WVMO, is nothing less than an oasis for which my gratitude is bottomless. For where else could I find myself with any other sense of an outlet to share and even process what it means to live in 2025 without having my Savage Radio platform?
It has been quite some time since I have written anything of some significance regarding the music I am listening to regarding the releases of the year. So, I wish to try to do just that for you now as I recount the albums that struck me in the deepest places this year.
LUCY DACUS
Released March 28, 2025
When I first listen to an album, I typically do not focus entirely upon the lyrics or specific instruments, so to speak. I am just taking in the entire sound of the piece. With Lucy Dacus, both through her solo material and with her band boygenius, her lyrics and the storytelling contained within leap from the speakers and forge instantly into me. With her fourth solo album, after capturing my attention with her previous album "Home Video" (released June 25, 2021), again I was instantly captivated with this song cycle that largely details her romance with boygenius bandmate Julien Baker combined with an adult's eye view of complicated emotions and relationships via a compositional and production aesthetic that is succulently warm and enveloping. Dacus' storytelling remains so rich and here is where I feel I connected with this album so powerfully...it is via Dacus' singing voice.
In a time when singers raised and trained upon the stages of "American Idol" and "The Voice," where theatricality and deliberately showcasing one's range is key, we exist in a time when singers do not seem to understand that songs they are actually singing as they are chasing an effect, leading to a lack of pure emotion. Often times, the high note is not the high note. Lucy Dacus possesses a singing voice that sounds like honey, feels like a warm bath and presents itself as if she is not actually doing terribly much while standing in front of the microphone. On the contrary, the deceptive simplicity of her singing recalls Karen Carpenter or Christine McVie in my mind, as she conveys a universe of emotion through the connectivity she shares with her lyrics and the stories she is sharing with us...as well as herself.
For me, Lucy Dacus' " Forever Is A Feeling" succeeds so powerfully because every time I listen or even stumble upon one of her songs, it is as if we are hearing the thoughts inside of our heads when navigating the depth of our feeling and the experiences had while having those feelings. There is comfort in the shared empathy heard for all of us have been undone by our feelings, especially when harbored for another. That feeling is truly forever.
OLIVIA DEAN
Released September 26, 2025
Algorithms is simultaneously terrifying and shockingly correct when it comes to music suggestions for me. More and more, "suggestions" appear to me via You Tube or Instagram advertisements for musical artists that I just may enjoy and when I do take the plunge, this bizarre electronic entity has been proven correct. Olivia Dean, who is clearly having a moment right now as well as a triumphant appearance upon "Saturday Night Live" this year, was, again, "suggested" to me via Instagram ads with the pure summer breeze of a selection entitled "Nice To Each Other." I was captivated and not terribly long afterwards, I purchased the album in full and it quickly became one of the most repeatable albums I have heard this year.
As presented by the album's title, Olivia Dean's album is exactly as advertised, and like Lucy Dacus, it is a song cycle about the titular subject in all of its phases and faces. It is not an album that re-invents the wheel by any means. What is important is that it is an excellent 12 track journey fueled by top tier songwriting, instrumentation and production that again delivers and enveloping warmth and comfort in the pop and soul aesthetic contained therein that suggests a retro vibe (I particularly loved the Dionne Warwick/Burt Bacharach vibes in "So Easy (To Fall In Love)" and the slightly darker Marvin Gaye leanings on "Baby Steps") while keeping its feet firmly planted in the present day.
Also, and as with Dacus, Olivia Dean never over-sings a note, over-sells a moment, always ensuring the song itself is the star and the authenticity of the emotion shin es through. It is an exquisite album, one that could exist in the neighborhood of Sade's sensationally timeless "Love Deluxe" (released October 26, 1992). Olivia Dean's superbly classy "The Art Of Loving" is indeed that good.
"CUT & REWIND"
SAY SHE SHE
Released October 3, 2025
Another "suggestion" by the algorithms arrived with this group, the vocal trio whose self-described psychedelic disco mission is openly inspired by the legacy of Nile Rodgers and whose name is derived from, Rodgers' seminal art funk band Chic. I fell in love with the band's excellent second album, "Silver" (released September 29, 2023), further impressively, a double album.
Now, the triumvirate of vocalists/songwriters Nya Gazelle Brown, Sabrina Cunningham and Piya Malik have returned with a tight and beautifully recorded and performed third album on which they continue their infectiously danceable aesthetic with a profound and playful feminist edge. The messages of empowerment and solidarity, explicitly performed in the outstanding "She Who Dares," for instance, speaks directly to and perfectly encapsulates the precarious dance of joy and resistance in the face of fascism.
THE BLACK KEYS
Released August 8, 2025
This band has become so prolific that this release, their thirteenth album, came as a complete surprise to me as it is the fourth album the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have delivered in a mere four years. For me, and even with the solid quality of their previous three albums of this intensely creative period--"Delta Kream" (released May 14, 2021), "Dropout Boogie" (released May 21, 2022), and "Ohio Players" (released April 5, 2024)--this album is their very best regarding their recent material.
While the blues rock aesthetic remains the bedrock, with "No Rain, No Flowers," The Black Keys seemed to have made a legitimate pop album, perfectly strong songwriting just overflowing with hooks upon hooks from end to end, making for an enormously enjoyable listening experience like Olivia Dean's where every repeat listen is a full reward.
DJO
Released April 4, 2025/September 12, 2025
On first listen, it all felt to belike a travelogue through Joe Kerry's record collection. A Cars reference here, a McCartney reference there, odes to Brian Wilson and Lindsey Buckingham abound and so on. But, over time, "The Crux," the third album from Kerry whose recording alias of Djo (the "D" is silent) marked his full arrival as a music artist to watch closely, especially as his acting role as Steve Harrington in "Stranger Things" is reaching its conclusion and he has also returned to the confines of his bandmates in Post Animal (more on that later).
If there is a common theme in this particular posting regarding the albums I loved this year, it is always the actual songwriting and Djo has significantly amassed a deeply impressive collection that showcases the inner life of a young man growing up and navigating the dance of life with regards to the search for oneself, one's purpose and one's sense of integrity in a world where such qualities are of seemingly decreased value. It is this personal stance that elevates the songwriting and music from a simple "spot the reference" album into yet another release that reaches to the past yet is planted firmly in 2025.
Months after "The Crux," Djo surprised released another 12 songs with "The Crux Deluxe," which not only informed the first set beautifully but it actually contained even better songs as tracks like "Love Can't Break The Spell" and the early Todd Rundgren-esque "It's Over," for instance, were even more intimate and introspective while the glam rock "T. Rex Is Loud," the techno-styled "Mr. Mountebank," the alt--rock "Awake," and the pastoral spirituality of "Thich Nhat Hanh" showcased a fearless diversity that makes me excited to hear where he will go next.
But for now, Djo's releases--is it a double album or are they two interconnected yet separate albums--made for a gorgeously sprawling feast of music that, again, rewards with every repeat listen.
Part Two of this series will hopefully arrive relatively soon!
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