MY YEAR IN MUSIC 2025: MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2025

 

And now, we reach the the top of my personal list of favorite 2025 releases, of which there are six in all.

"THE UNIVERSE SMILES UPON YOU ii"
KHRUANGBIN
Released November 6, 2025

I now that I should tread lightly with this but I do need to thank the algorithms for bringing Khruangbin into my life. 

It was as auspicious as anything else, because for quite a spell several years ago, while poking around videos on You tube, the algorithms suddenly placed a suggestion into my feed. At first, I didn't notice at all. Soon, I realized that this suggestion kept appearing, as if a gently persistent rem in der from a friend. Finally, late one night, after essentially tiring of seeing the suggestion, I clicked upon the link to see what this was all about and within moments...I was floored...and shortly afterwards, I never looked back. 

The semi-instrumental, hypnotically rhythmic music of the Houston, Texas based trio of guitarist Mark Speer, bassist Laura Lee and drummer Donald "DJ" Johnson Jr. feels exactly like the translation of the band's Thai moniker, which is "airplane." Certainly, the sensation of flight is apparent. But, what I think of is the emotional sensation that rests within travel, whether physical or spiritual, because essentially, we, as a species, are forever within the process of the journey. Ruminating over the past, contemplating the future, while attempting to gather sense of the present simultaneously. The destination, by contrast, is not essentially the point and here is where Khruangbin exists for me.

"The Universe Smiles Upon You ii" is a tribute to, and full recreation of, the band's debut album on its tenth anniversary and the result is as mesmerizing as everything we have experienced. Yet now, Khruangbin is in a period of simultaneous reflection and progression as they utilize their debut to ponder where they have been and where they exist in 2025 after five previous albums and two EPs with Leon Bridges. The album firmly exists as one of 2025's instantly repeatable albums as it could play upon a loop and you would be intoxicated for the entire duration. 

This is seductive, sometimes propulsive, genre defying, hallucinatory, transportive music that is their idiosyncratic signature. And then, smack in the middle of the album is the surprise..."Bin Bin ii"...less than two minutes and an explosive window into fully unexpected Hendrix-ian psychedelia. If this album is lacing a metaphorical period at the end of this ten year musical sentence, I am excited to see where the next sentence begins.

"THE OVERVIEW"
STEVEN WILSON
Released March 14, 2025

Discoveries...

I know nothing, absolutely nothing about Steven Wilson. He has not existed upon my musical radar whatsoever until this year as he released his eighth solo album, a conceptual work that dives directly into my progressive rock beating heart--a genre that I admittedly have not paid much grand attention towards in recent years.

"The Overview" is a two track album, with each selection divided into eight and six movements, running 23 and 18 minutes respectively, that embraces the cosmic concept of the overview effect, a shift in one's view of humanity and existence upon viewing Earth from space. Featuring some lyrical aid from none other than XTC's Andy Partridge, Steven Wilson, who handles vocals and the lion's share of the instrumentation, has fashioned a work which contains a dash of Pink Floyd here, splashes of Tangerine Dream there but it most widely reconnected me to both Yes' "Close  To The Edge" (released September 13, 1972) and Yes bassist/vocalist the late Chris Squire's solo effort "Fish Out Of Water" (released November 21, 1975).

As heady as the album is with its conflations of the mundane and the majestically existential, I would urge listeners to not find approaching this work as impenetrable as some of prog rock openly embraces. For me the warmth of the instrumentation, the vocals and the superb melodies drew me inwards and held me enraptured for the duration, all sticking to my brain powerfully. In so many ways, I have always found the finest of prog rock music to exist as music for introverts, as the crescendos and musical; dynamism abound represent what is happening to us internally. 

To paraphrase David Bowie's "Blackstar," we have eagles in our daydreams and diamonds in our eyes. Steven Wilson's "The Overview" took me through the wormhole and back again...over and again.

"SELF PORTRAIT"
RYAN ADAMS
Released December 1, 2025

I realize greatly that the topic of Ryan Adams may be a powder keg for some of you. I understand. Deeply. For me, the controversies that have existed around this figure for the entirety of his career--from his youthfully brash days as an alt-country/punk rock styled enfant terrible, to the more recent issues of sexual misconduct which all but fully derailed his career--have been profoundly troubling. And still...somehow, I wish to believe that the truth of him exists within his enormous musical body of work, songs and albums of such emotional fragility that always feel as if he is charting the map of the human heart one track at a time...often to heart aching degrees. 

With full disclosure, I will admit to taking a pause from Adams' discography after the news of that day fell, largely out of respect to what was being said as so little information was explicitly known. Since that time, only one article/interview was released during which it was revealed that charges against Adams had been fully dropped yet that information was not widely reported as he and his publicist of that time had parted ways. After reading, I chose for myself to wade back into the Ryan Adams waters as I wanted, again, to believe that the truth of the man rested within the music. I wanted to have hope for the humanity of the situation, the nuances within all of the behaviors as you have an especially gifted artist fueled with restless creativity clashing with issues with anger issues, depression, addiction, a public divorce, grief for the bandmates and family members lost over the years as well as debilitating Meniere's disease. 

Trust me, I am not making excuses for his often reprehensible behavior. But again, we are dealing with the war between the artist as a person and the art that we may love. As stated, I chose to return for myself and furthermore, if we are being honest, if we were to look into the human lives of all of the artists we each love, I am certain we would find a mountain of reprehensible human behaviors to reckon with. 

At any rate, I have kept up with Adams' frighteningly prolific releases these several years and his latest, a new 24 track double album, is emotionally shattering. Fueled through a more lo-fi approach, sprawling and a bit messy, "Self Portrait" is a raw, devastating listen for as always, there is almost nothing one could say about him that he is not already singing about himself in his songs, as well as within his stark cover versions of New Order's "Blue Monday," and R.E.M.'s " The One I Love." 

Yes, sometimes, it veers in and out of self pity but not one moment ever struck me as performative or false in its intent. In songs like "Saturday Night Forever," "Bye Bye Balloons," "I Am A Rollercoaster," "Thunderstorm Tears," "Try Again Tomorrow" and "Theo," a ballad to a beloved cat since passed on and more, the maw of loneliness and regret is palpable, the pain of mistakes made, emotional avenues closed and potentially lost forever exist as an existential howl of sorrow, making for exquisite music for a cold rainy day or the depths of an endless Winter.

As of this time, Ryan Adams has sought counseling and even achieved sobriety for a good two years before apparently falling out of it again, demons fully intact and ready to lash outwards. Simultaneously, he has announced that he is retired from touring and plotting three new studio albums. I genuinely hope for his health and healing above all else and if channeling into his art is at all helpful, then so be it. 

As it stands, I was profoundly affected by the living diary of "Self Portrait."          

"MORTAL PRIMETIME"
SUNFLOWER BEAN
Released April 25, 2025

Now, we're really reaching the top!

Just a mere seven months after releasing their roaring EP entitled "Shake" (released September 27, 2024), the trio Sunflower Bean unveiled their fourth and best album to date. "Mortal Primetime" opens with their trademark arena rock riffs merged with 1970's AM radio melodies but this album soon takes an enormous swan dive into their most emotionally vulnerable material yet.

Beginning with album's fourth track, "Look What You've Done To Me," Sunflower Bean takes the listener through a variety of colors and moods that just ache with yearning, longing, the stretch for connection and love and somehow not ever quite reaching it. Bassist/vocalist Julia Cumming, already an extremely gifted singer, really emerges as a star as she channels both Ann Wilson and Karen Carpenter while unearthing one heartbroken pang of the lovelorn with such robust sensitivity. Guitarist/vocalist Nick Kivlen is no slouch himself as the shimmering, stunning "Please Rewind" took my breath away. 

And man, by the shoegaze fuzz album farewell of "Sunshine" fades away, you will be drying your eyes.

"THE CLEARING"
WOLF ALICE
Released August 22, 2025

I really wish that I cold see Sunflower Bean on tour with this band, for they feel so evenly matched in approach, intent and emotional intensity. But, I'm telling you, on tis album, Wolf Alice has raised the stakes grandly.

Opening with thunderous applause, Wolf Alice's fourth album places vocalist/guitarist Ellie Rowsell front and center and what an extraordinary frontwoman she is! Her spectacular vocals skyrocket from one end of the album to the other, again with bombastic riffs and drums merged with outstanding 1970's AM radio melodies. 

Trust me, dear listeners, "The Clearing" just does...not...stop! Like Sunflower Bean, it is a work that shifts in a variety of colors and moods. "Bloom Baby Bloom" explodes in manifestation. "Bread Butter Tea Sugar" is a veritable ELO tribute. The ghostly "Midnight Song" exists proudly alongside the sunshine joyride of "Passenger Seat," the interior "Leaning Against The Wall," the elegiac gallop of "White Horses" and the defiantly absorbing finale of "The Sofa," demonstrates that Wolf Alice is a band that pop music desperately needs. To create ear catchers that demand your attention and vibrate with their powers. These are songs that stick to the brain and the heart rapturously,  

And my word! The downright phenomenal "Just Two Girls" to my ears, sounds like it could be their version of ABBA's "Dancing Queen"!  

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

"CABIN IN THE SKY"
DE LA SOUL
Released November 21, 2025 

 It's so difficult to explain but you always just know it when you hear it.

De La Soul, ever since its inception, has always felt to be a genre unto themselves. So much so, that it has truly taken me nearly the entire longevity of their career to truly catch up to them.  Their first three albums--the astounding debut "3 Feet High And Rising" (released February 6, 1989), the tremendous sophomore rabbit hole of "De La Soul Is Dead" (released May 14, 1991) and the searing jazz focused "Buhloone Mindstate" (released September 21, 1993), and all collaborations with Producer Prince Paul--are perfection and untouchable to the point it made it almost difficult to keep pushing ahead at the time of each subsequent album's new release. 

All of that being said, and completely falling head over heels for their previous album, "And The Anonymous Nobody" (released August 26, 2016), I have since caught up, largely due to the devastating passing of David Jude Jolicoeur (a.k.a. Plug Two or Trugoy The Dove or Dave) on February 12, 2023 at the age of just 54. 

De La Sol's "Cabin In The Sky" is their ninth album, their first in nine years and the first without David Jude Jolicoeur...sort of. The album serves as a tribute to Trugoy The Dove from his bandmates Kelvin Mercer a.k.a. Posdonus and Vincent Mason a.k.a. DJ Maseo as well as working in full collaboration with their fallen member, through material left behind as well as through his spirit which permeates the entire experience which is powerfully stirring from start to finish.

Over 20 tracks, "Cabin In The Sky" is a lush, expansive journey through memory, regret, grief, brotherhood, rumination, reflection, lessons learned and loves lost all the while placing one foot in front of the other to move forward without the one crucial figure who walked with you from the beginning. It is a work, while never some sort of hip-hop dirge, is one so deeply solemn and enveloping that I often could feel my molecules shifting with each lyrical passage, vocal inflections and production and instrumental flourish as every single moment served to cement the love between these three men in the art they created and which defines them in music history and its future.

De La Soul's "Cabin In The Sky" is the album, above all others, they had to get right. And I would like to believe that Dave is smiling from the hereafter in pride. Dear listeners, this album is the definition of a family affair and a blessing, from the three members to each other in life, death and beyond as well as to all of us who have been graced with the gift of De La Soul for decades. 

There you have it for 2025. I am hoping that the music of 2026 continues to be as purposeful and sustaining.

MY YEAR IN MUSIC 2025: PART FOUR-THE HONOR ROLL

 

Part Four of this series will take a slight detour before I reveal my top favorite albums of 2025. 

I wanted to spend some time with you about albums that clearly made an impression but were also the ones that did not immediately ascend but one day conceivably might due to just spending more time with them. The artistry on display is without question as these are all strong, richly presented, unquestionably layered works. Some of them might even be some of your favorite 2025 releases but for me, they are hovering just under the ones I loved even more.

"TWILIGHT OVERRIDE"
JEFF TWEEDY 
Released September 26, 2025

Already a 2025 critical and fan favorite, this 30 songs triple album is indeed one I need to spend more time with. Now, unlike so many listeners, I am one who adores the extended album experience as typically presented upon double albums. In fact, many of my most favorite albums are doubles. So, the prospect of a triple is not intimidating for me as a listener as I so often love the idea of being submerged in a world. All of that being said, my fervor for Jeff Tweedy's musical universe of solo material, and of course, Wilco, has softened a tad over the years but I remain a fan and this new album largely continues in Tweedy's more recent wheelhouse of no frills production, relaxed presentation and in-the-room aesthetics that feel as if the songs are being unveiled just 10 feet away. Tweedy has created an experience fully designed for you to luxuriate in, to take your time with in our frighteningly accelerated culture. And I plan to do just that.

"TRON:ARES"
NINE INCH NAILS
Released September 19, 2025

One more reason to thank David Bowie while continuing to mourn his passing is to be thankful for whatever role he played in aiding Trent Reznor in his sobriety many years years ago. 

While I do not actively listen to Nine Inch Nails very much these days, I also cannot imagine a world where this fully idiosyncratic sound did not exist. During the alternative music boom of the 1990's my peaks were actually not Nirvana and Pearl Jam, while I love both bands. My preferences were The Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails. By the time Trent Reznor officially partnered with Atticus  Ross and they ventured into film scoring, the output has been so prolific and bountiful that I have to add it that it has been impossible for me to keep up with it all...and there has admittedly been much that I have missed. 

Even so, this film score to the third in the "Tron" series boats a complete score under the NIN moniker yet, true to form, it is a dense experience where we can hear how Reznor and Ross have fully mastered the art of film composition yet without watering down the very qualities that make them as unique as they are. 

And still, there are surprises in passages that feel akin to Walter Carlos' synthetics from Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) to hearing Reznor's growth as a singer with the propulsive "As Alive As You Need Me To Be" and the stunning duet with Judeline on "Who Wants To Live Forever?" 

"TOUCH"
TORTOISE
Released September 9, 2025

Another band that I would never had heard of if not for the late John Hughes. 

The Chicago based instrumental outfit first came to my attention through their inclusion in the soundtrack to one of Hughes' rarest, and one of his final films, "Reach The Rock" (1998)--a film scored by Tortoise drummer John McEntire. That film score propelled me into the band proper and they completely filled my wheelhouse of arcane, angular instrumental works as I had long built up a passion after digesting gallons of Tangerine Dream growing up.

The band's eighth album, and their first in nine years, continues their elastic post-rock path as element of prog, jazz, and the avant garde in fashions that feel so otherworldly while simultaneously warmly recognizable. 

Despite the scary album cover photo, Tortoise's music has always served as a source of engagement as they have never existed as an outfit that felt as if they were writing and performing above me, so to speak. They have consistently felt approachable, never prickly, forever inviting me to return and dive into their world for another luxurious stretch. 

Returning to David Bowie, album opener "Vexations" felt like an update of his "Speed Of Life." Mere seconds into "Elka," I was so in love with that Tangerine Dream-ish hypnosis. "Promenade a Deux" carries that Ennio Morricone sweep. I think you can understand where I am going with finding certain musical touchstones but trust me, and especially after all of their existence, Tortoise sounds like absolutely no one else.

"LULLABY FOR THE LOST"
DONNY McCASLIN
Released September 26, 2025

David Bowie is here to thank once again, for if he had not handpicked this musician for his final album, I never would know of him.

As I am certain with many of you, I was introduced to saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his bandmates through Bowie's final album "Blackstar" (released January 8, 2016). I was so amazed with what I had heard that I remained steadfast in following his output ever since. His latest album carries a more explicitly leaning edge towards a rock music aesthetic and rhythms while remaining as artfully incendiary and as inventive as ever. This album, very much like the ones already mentioned by Tortoise, Nine Inch Nails plus other albums to follow in this listing, is an experience which is purposefully immersive and by no means designed for passive listening. It is demanding of your fullest attention.

  

"HOODOO TELEMETRY'
VERNON REID
Released October 3, 2025

Case in point is the latest solo offering from Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, a figure I will follow anywhere ever since I was introduced to his musical world back in 1988 with his band's debut album.

I think out of his entire musical discography, I remain the most blown away by a solo release entitled "Mistaken Identity" (released June 1996) where he collaborated with legendary hip-hop producer Prince Paul. That album's audacious melding of art rock, hip-hop, funk, fusion, blues, soul and anything else Reid could think to incorporate blew my head apart in the best ways. 

"Hoodoo Telemetery" feels to continue in this vein as it is undeniably a schizophrenic album, also in the very best ways. Again, it is demanding your full attention as you hang onto the rapid rocket ride through the history of music--and therefore, Black music--with Reid's bottomless influences and interests alongside his restless creativity and stratospheric guitar heroics. 

"SON OF SPERGY"
DANIEL CAESAR
Released October 24, 2025

As unsettling as the algorithms are, it is striking with how correct they have been when they eerily arrive to suggest something new for me that I just may be interested in. Daniel Caesar was just one of several artists in 2025 I was pointed towards...and was subsequently entranced by.

He is an artist that I know nothing about and had not previously heard of but on my first few listens, he suggested something that could possibly exist within the same universe as late period Talk Talk and/or solo Mark Hollis and definitely, Frank Ocean's "Blonde" (released August 20, 2016).

There is a near weightless quality to the album, yet that is not to suggest that it is without substance. I am thinking in terms of the atmospherics of the work. It feel so ephemeral, ethereal as it poses a dialogue between Caesar and himself regarding questions of spirituality, masculinity, family, humility and existence.   

"UNCLOUDED"
MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER
Released December 5, 2025

Released right at the end of the year, I know that I haven't been able to yet give the album the complete attention it deserves to reach its greatest impact. But, that being said, the fourth album from psychedelic pop singer-songwriter-musician Melody Prochet did instantly tickle my synesthesia. 

Prochet has always possessed an impressive knack for finding the perfect artists to collaborate with in order to realize her vision, from Tame Impala's Kevin Parker to members of the band Dungen. This time, she is working with El Michels Affair and once again, the breathiness of her vocals, combined with the dazzling colors of her songwriting now merged with the hip-hop atmospherics makes for another hallucinatory joyride. 

"NEW LFE"
LIZ LONGLEY
Released March 21, 2025

Finding warmth in a world that is growing darker and colder by the day--if not the hour--it so difficult to come by. Yet, there was a reason that I played Liz Longley's "Can't Get Enough" as the final song of Savage Radio to conclude the year of 2025. It is a song of those seemingly simple things, moments and emotions that are large enough to sustain every single one of us, crucially in the worst of times, making for an especially crystalline grace note.

Liz Longley is yet another algorithm suggestion that paid off beautifully as her album, filled with tales of love, marriage, parenthood, lust, sorrow, renewal and wonderment, sits proudly in the bedrock of modern country music but is more than comfortable spiraling off into alt rock, acoustic pop, stark ballads and eve a dash of wat sounds like a French chanson tinged with a Spanish flourish.

And yet, it is her voice. As a writer, certainly. But...the sound, the warmth, the tenor and timbre...nothing but sighs here folks.

"BASED ON THE BEST SELLER"
SLOAN
Released September 26, 2025

I cannot express enough how incredible this band is!

Canada's very own Sloan, containing the superior talents of all four singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists--Andrew Scott, Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland, respectively--alongside unofficial fifth member Gregory Macdonald on keyboards, vocals and percussion continue to show no signs of slowing down in their 30 year history and now, upon their 14th album of bracing, expertly delivered power pop.

As I have often expressed, the band reminds me of a crossroads somewhere between late period Beatles and XTC combined with their great white north neighbors in The Pursuit Of Happiness as remarkably again the band have constructed a waterfall of melodies, harmony vocals, propulsive riffs and glam rock stomp drums. This is the perfect kind of ear candy...the kind that lasts and lasts and lasts! Man, do I LOVE this band!!! 

MY YEAR IN MUSIC 2025: PART THREE

 

By now, you all know that this is not my actual listening space! But, you also know that you have now officially reach the third part of my listening experiences of 20205. Here are more of the albums that made the greatest impressions and impacts upon me. 

"FROM THE PYRE"
THE LAST DINNER PARTY 
Released October 17, 2025

Operatic, flamboyant, theatrical, swaggering and filled end to end with all manner of vocal, instrumental and lyrical flourishes, The Last Dinner Party kind pf upended me when I first heard of them as they carried an aesthetic that reminded me a little bit of 1970's era Queen without ever really sounding like them at all. 

Arriving just one year after their startling, audacious debut "Prelude To Ecstasy" (released February 2, 2024), "From The Pyre" smooths out the jagged edge just a hair and ultimately presents a dynamic follow up that blows away any pre-conceived notions of any potential sophomore slump. Album openers "Angus Dei" and "Count The Ways" set the stage brilliantly with soaring choral vocals and swinging dark riffs, as if a curtain is being raised within a vast, ornate theater. The wrathful "This Is The Killer Speaking" and especially the stunning, chilling "Woman Is A Tree," feels like a sinister coven casting grim spells from around the cauldron.    

And still, the band possesses a terrific pop edge through tracks like "Second Best," "Inferno" and "The Scythe," showcasing they are as radio ready as anyone...should some adventurous radio programmers give this terrific album the proper attention it deserves. 

"DOUBLE INFINITY"
BIG THIEF
Released September 5, 2025

I could easily listen to this album upon a loop.

Feeling as if explicitly spun from the cosmic earthiness of the track "Spud Infinity" from their excellent previous release "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You" (released February 11, 2022)--my entry point into this band--the sixth album from Big Thief is especially liquid in its sonics, lyrics and the stream of consciousness flow from the album's beginning to its conclusion. 

It is a work that feels to pus further than past albums as I felt even more submerged in the folk psychedelia that took me on a luscious head trip throughout. From the sky lifting "Words" to the plaintive "All Night All Day," the spacey mantras of "No Fear" and the trilogy of embrace found in the album's closing section of "Grandmother," "Happy With You" and "How Could I Have Known," and more, Big Thief have constructed a campfire in the clouds and the result is hypnotic.

  

"IRON"
POST ANIMAL
Released July 25, 2025

Another album with an impeccable sense of flow was the fourth album from the Chicago based sextet--Joe Kerry a.k.a. Djo returned to the band for this project--which, like one of the album's song titles, feels as warm as a "Setting Sun."

Despite its mid-Summer release, "Iron" is a work tailor made for Autumn as you can clearly see and feel the falling leaves and the colors of the season in your mind's eye as you listen. Clean, clear vocals and instrumentation, combined with some occasional off kilter humor and sonics--as on the dark cautionary fable of "Dorien Kregg"--you gather the sense that this album was made by a group of people who genuinely enjoy each other. It is that sense of brotherhood that I think reached out and grabbed me beyond the warmth of the overall production the most. It's not an album that is going out of its way to jump in front of your face and demand attention from you and it is not polite background coffeehouse music either. Post Animal has created something designed to inspire you to lean in closer as you breathe in deeply. 

It feels like a beauteous pastoral day listening to the grass grow.

   

"TIMELESS WORLD FOREVER"
GRAHAM HUNT
Released June 13, 2025 

This is has a personal connection as this artist lives in my city, I have seen him perform several times and this album was created with the aid of 4/5 of my beloved band and friends in Disq. That being said, if I had no personal connection to any of the figures involved, it would still be one of the best albums I heard in 2025 and further, I feel it is Hunt's best album to date. 

Self described as an "imaginary magic realist version of Madison," Hunt's latest album caps a planned trilogy of releases strung together thematically as well as by the basement East side Madison studio location in which all three were recorded. For me, it is a swirling confection of songs that suggest an updated version of  '90s era Beck ("I Just Need Enough"), the hip hop, punk rock hybrid within the David Lynch-ian narrative of quintessentially East side Madison lore ("East Side Screamer"), a relaxed dream world ("Been There Done That"), romantic loneliness wrapped in an altered state invitation ("Movie Night"), post rock with a riff Queens Of The  Stone Age would kill for ("Cave Art") and more. 

Graham Hunt's "Timeless World Forever" is an always surprising, defiantly left of center, fully idiosyncratic power pop album that is more than deserving of your full attention and it yet another musical statement informing the outer world of the deep pockets of talent we have right here in Madison, WI. 

HE LED WITH HIS HEART: a review of "The Uncool" by Cameron Crowe

 

THE UNCOOL: A Memoir
CAMERON CROWE

Published by Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster
October 28, 2025
336 pages

"Seek out heroes and role models. Most will not disappoint you."

-Alice Crowe

Despite my own intense desires and vivid imagination, I am not entirely certain that I am one who fully ascribes to the adage of "never meeting one's heroes."

Now, for the ones who have been heroes to me throughout my life, I do have to admit that the prospect of meeting any of them certainly would've tested that adage. If I were ever to have met Prince, for instance, I do not have any idea of what I could have possibly done or said to even be able to brake through a persona that felt impenetrable to the point of being alien. To that end, I wonder if John Hughes would've been dismissive or if Todd Rundgren would prove to be mercurial. 

However, there have been a few moments in my life, where I am more than thankful for the times when I found myself in positions where I was able to meet figures who have deeply influenced or enriched me. Molly Ringwald, for instance, I met while she was on a book tour stop promoting Getting The Pretty Back (2010), her self described "girlfriend's guide." Or the time, when I met musicians Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman of Prince's band The Revolution, behind the theater after a 2016 performance in commemoration of the then recent passing of their bandleader and collaborator. Or another when I met keyboardist Greg Hawkes of The Cars, right on the sidewalk outside of the venue where he had just performed as a member of Todd Rundgren's touring band. Or especially, and whole not face to face, the time in which I was able to conduct an extended interview with Moe Berg, leader of The Pursuit Of Happiness-one of my favorite bands-for my Savage Radio program on WVMO 98.7 FM (an experience in which I thought to myself, "I have to 'Cameron Crowe' this," so I don't waste Berg's valuable time).

In all three of those occasions, I was thankful to have encounters that were warmer and more engaging than they perhaps any right to be as I was just one face of many, hearing words that they have all heard variations of time and again. And still, they each found something to ensure the meeting was unique to me, creating a moment, while most likely not overtly memorable to themselves, but one that would be  everlasting for me. 

What else could I truly ask for? All I could wish for is just enough time to deliver a "thank you" as heartfelt as I could possibly elicit in a manner that did not exploit their time and energy as well as one where I didn't embarrass myself profusely. As I think about public figures-or better yet, a hero--whom I wish that I could meet, Cameron Crowe has long existed at a peak...and honestly, that desire has only elevated further.

Cameron Crowe has existed as an instrumental figure in my life, creative and otherwise for so long, it is actually a little difficult to think of a time when he was not a passionate influence. Granted, during his time as an adolescent writing music articles and interviews for Rolling Stone, I was too young (I am a little over 10 years his junior) to have experienced his work, despite our shared passion for music. Yet, by the time I was 13 years old and experienced Director Amy Heckerling's "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" (1982) for which he wrote the screenplay and the original novel from which the film was based, he became a fixture. It was the film I felt that officially began what I like to think of as the "Golden Age Of Teen Films" during the1980's and I watched it repeatedly, knowing full well the truth of what I was seeing, even as I was just a hair too young to have had the similar experiences of those as depicted within the film. It felt real and because of that, I would've followed Crowe anywhere,  

While not nearly as prolific as John Hughes, Cameron Crowe, like Hughes, had this uncanny ability to reveal a new project at precisely the perfect time in my life, at an exact point when I needed to experience it. 

I was a 20 year old college student when his directorial debut "Say Anything..." (1989) arrived in theaters, and for me, brought that aforementioned "Golden Age Of Teen Films" to its beautifully melancholic conclusion. I was exactly 23 years old, a college graduate, living with my then girlfriend now wife, just trying to figure out a life direction when his deliriously romantic cinematic short story collection "Singles" (1992) was released. By the time of his filmmaking artistic breakthrough of "Jerry Maguire" (1996), I was 27 years old and had experienced just enough of adulthood to receive that film as a work of spiritual deliverance so profound that I would need an entirely different essay to convey every moment that spoke to me as guidance, as truth, and as the wise words from a treasured older figure reminding me that integrity is not weakness, having empathy is not a fault and the act of just trying to be a good human being in an unforgiving world is an act of heroism. 

And of course, there is his magnum opus, "Almost Famous" (2000), a film to which I have expressed my towering love on this blogsite many times over, still contending it as existing as one of the finest films of the 21st century unquestionably, artistically and emotionally. 

I could continue through his creative life and my relationship with it, but I think you get the picture. And through everything over time, I still harbor my deepest hopes that I could one day meet Cameron Crowe, for if I could just have the chance, I would love to not only thank him, but to be able to have a conversation. His eloquence and loquaciousness precedes him and I would be forever grateful.

While the likelihood of such a meeting is highly unlikely, I am feeling that I have just experienced what has got to be the next best thing. The Uncool, Cameron Crowe's recently released memoir, is masterful. It accomplishes a tremendous feat of being simultaneously nostalgic and so very present as Crowe returns to the same conceptual territory of "Almost Famous" to weave a more extensive tale of his family and upbringing alongside his teenage experiences on the road writing about and interviewing rock stars, making for a work that informs the beloved feature film, grounding it in a more emotionally precarious context than maybe already felt. From end to end, Crowe's literary voice is elegantly warm with a meticulous sense of time and place firmly injecting the reader into periods and spaces, both external and internal, where emotional truths rise to the surface within every anecdote, adventure and aphorism, whether victorious or painful, ensuring every passage is felt purely and deeply.

And there are surprises to be felt as well. The memoir's opening section, during which Crowe recounts his own sense of mounting anxiety during rehearsals towards the opening of the stage version of "Almost Famous: The Musical," coupled with his relationship with Alice Crowe, his formidable Mother, who at this stage, was nearing the end of her life, I was instantly struck with the brave fragility of which Crowe revealed of himself upon the page. He pulled me in closer, as I was sensing that I was about to read something not dissimilar from the very best of his writing and filmmaking efforts. 

It is not easily achievable, to conjure the emotional liminal space of what Crowe celebrates as the "happy/sad," which to me is greater and deeper than mere bittersweetness. It is the existential space where hearts connect, ache, break and somehow find the strength to uplift, hope and rise again. Cameron Crowe's The Uncool accomplishes this feat consistently with honesty and grace, making for an enormously rewarding reading experience where the stories and the emotions linger in the air much like the afterglow of a treasured concert experience. 

As Cameron Crowe's The Uncool returns to the same conceptual ground as "Almost Famous," what has been delivered is no retread whatsoever. Our understanding of Crowe's life and the tender and tenuous relationships within his family is expanded to include his Father, James Crowe, and both of his older sisters Cathy and Cindy, who tragically ended her life when Cameron Crowe was a child, and with whom music served as a connective tissue and understanding even in a home where rock music was banned. 

From here, The Uncool details his journey of self discovery and attaining a sense of belonging with the figures who would make up his chosen tribe of rock writers, including mentors like the inimitable Lester Bangs, and the musicians they each revered. In doing so, and like "Almost Famous," The Uncool allows the reader to live vicariously through Crowe's teenage rock journalist experiences making for us wheat feels to be a magic carpet ride through a crucial period of rock music history precisely when it was all happening. If that were all the book offered, it would still be compulsively readable but this is Cameron Crowe we're talking about and salacious, superficial tell-alls are the furthest thing from his mind when there are deeper emotional waters to plunge into.  

The Uncool firmly exists as a collection coming of age stories. First, there is Cameron Crowe himself, where he is exactly like the teens he chronicled in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High," as he willingly exposed himself to, and therefore experienced and endured, a life that was indeed too fast and he was clearly not developmentally ready for but was forced to adapt in order to achieve his dreams let alone survive.    

To that end, it is a coming of age story for the rock stars Crowe wrote about for so many of these larger than life figures were also relatively young people just trying to gain footing in an unpredictable, uncompromising world where art, business, creativity and fame often collided and clashed. 

In one vignette after another, Crowe elicits what could almost be lost songs from the individuals profiled. Interior moments, like ones of pensive sadness with Jim Croce, an 18 month chrysalis phase with the ever shape shifting David Bowie and especially, a brutally striking sequence of grief and sorrow starring Gregg Allman, succeed tremendously with humanizing those who have always been quite unknowable and have existed as out of reach legends. Now that many of whom have passed on, The Uncool graciously opens up windows reminding us that these same legends were also once kids with talents and dreams all trying to discover just how to navigate this thing called life. 

The book is also a coming of age story for a family, as we witness the respective odysseys of Crowe's parents, through their occupations, as marriage partners and as parents to three children navigating triumphs and tragedies. Wisely, we regard the process of  "coming of age" as not being limited to the young but as an ongoing, lifelong process where, if we truly allow ourselves, we are able to try, fail, try again, learn, discover, unlearn and re-discover all the while hopefully formulating precisely the person we wish to become in the lives we are blessed to have with the people, experiences and the music we love all playing essential puzzle pieces. And as the perfect bookend, Crowe returns to himself at the book's outset, at his present age, a myriad of life lessons learned while openly acknowledging that he is still learning. 

The Uncool often reminded me of Crowe's beautiful documentary "The Union" (2011)--now, extremely difficult to find as it is not available on physical media and is not streaming anywhere in the HBO archives, the format in which I saw the film--starring Elton John and Leon Russell and surrounding the creation of their duet album of the same name (released October 19, 2010). For me, it was a film that fully transcended the fly-on-the-wall making of aesthetics to become a work of supreme gratitude, from Elton to Leon certainly, but for everyone who wishes to reach back to the key individuals who first inspired you, championed you, who somehow noticed that inexplicable spark in you, to just say "Thank you." 

The Uncool accomplishes the same feat as every encounter led to another and then another, each one inspiring confidence to keep placing one foot in front of the other onto every stepping stone. I loved  how this book, much like how Writer/Director James L. Brooks' peerless "Broadcast News" (1987) meticulously captured the pinpoint when television news crossed the Rubicon from the ethics of  journalism into the heartless business of entertainment, Crowe offers a love letter to journalism, physical print media publications and passionate writers who once existed in a healthy fashion for readers desiring a window into an otherwise unattainable world. It is a love letter to every music journalist, like himself, who harbored a genuine, unassailable passion towards their favorite art form as well as for writers who simply harbored an equally genuine, unassailable passion for the art of writing. 

It should be noted that The Uncool is not necessarily a complete memoir Crowe takes the narrative largely up to his beginnings in the film industry. That being said, over and again, Crowe offers his gratitude to all who showed him, in gestures both large and seemingly throwaway (a tiny moment with Tom Petty, in particular, is seismic), a path forwards and in all honesty, and Crowe's thankfulness, we would not be holding this book in our hands without any of them. In turn, Crowe's memoir offers all of us reading an opportunity to think to those who aided us and how we can inspire those coming up alongside or behind us whatever our station in life happens to be.

Which of course, brings me to what might be the book's greatest love letter, from Cameron Crowe to his Mother--which then made me ponder my own relationship with my Mother, who is, like Alice Crowe, a formidable, force of nature of a woman. Even now, at her advance age, she remains seemingly unstoppable, forever busy and involved with one excursion or another, and unshakable in her beliefs and lifelong role as a leader, guide, mentor and teacher (which was indeed her profession--a Chicago public high school Science teacher). 

My Mother is the one who shaped my love of libraries. She was the one who read to me as we shared books together. She was the one who refused to allow me to fully slack off during Summers as it was expected that I continue with Math workbooks and other learning excursions to keep my brain operating as she saw fit. She ensured I had swimming lessons and was involved in church activities and alongside my equally formidable Father, she was uncompromising with my academic progress. And, also like Alice Crowe, she is forever armed with aphorisms. This, of course, led to considerable friction as the person she wanted me to be clashed with the person I already knew that I was. Even now, seven years after my Dad's passing, there is still something tenuous between us that rides directly with the love we share. For can we truly accept each other for who we each happen to be, especially now as the remaining time we have to share is lessening as we age both separately and together.

The final sections of The Uncool, which crosscut between Alice Crowe's last days on the eve of the musical's opening night free fall into the happy/sad majestically. If you allow me to set the scene for you...

I was reading these sections to the end of the book, two evenings after Christmas while listening to Ben  Watt's wintry album "Fever Dream" (released April 8, 2016). As I reached this portion of the book, the album coincidentally reached its finale, the plaintive, meditative track "New Year Of Grace," and within that combination, an emotional, ephemeral alchemy began to just...happen. The words on the page were augmented by the song, which I began to play on repeat so as to not lose the spell being weaved, and before long, my face was flushed with tears. Trust me, while films and songs can easily bring forth tears, I am able to count on one hand the books that unlocked that level of emotion and I firmly believe that The Uncool accomplished this not through any sense of unearned manipulation but for the purest thing...Cameron Crowe led the storytelling with his heart. 

Cameron Crowe's The Uncool is as warm and as personal as if he is right in the room with you speaking directly to you. Writing this book is one that he clearly wrote for himself as the pleasure of just writing is palpable. But...it also feels like a book he wrote directly to you, inspiring feelings and memories, creating a dialogue even though he is unable to hear our side of the conversation.

Perhaps this book really was my way to meet a lifelong hero...even so, I still wish for a day when I can have that chance to say "Thank you." And for someone who has always been uncool, that is possibly them most uncool wish to have. 

SAVAGE RADIO PLAYLISTS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025

 

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #501

"WELCOME NOVEMBER 2025"

NOVEMBER 5, 2025

1. "Twelve Gates" performed by Cheap Trick

2. "Capitol Cooler" performed by Sloan

3. "Possibilities" performed by Say She She

4. "Caution To The Wind" performed by Everything But The Girl

5. "On Repeat" performed by The Black Keys

6. "Tower Of Babel" performed by Elton John

7. "Love Can't Break The Spell" performed by Djo

8. "Is This Love?" performed by Corinne Bailey Rae

9. "Oval Stones" performed by Temples

10."Twilight Override" performed by Jeff Tweedy

11."Baby Steps" performed by Olivia Dean 12. "White Horses" performed by Wolf Alice

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #502

"HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY TO SAVAGE RADIO"

NOVEMBER 12, 2025

1. "The Spirit Of Radio" performed by Rush

2. "The Fly" performed by U2

3. "Stay (Live Nassau Coliseum 1976)" performed by David Bowie

4. "Good Morning, Britain" performed by Aztec Camera ft. Mick Jones

5."Overture: Mountaintop and Sunrise/Communion With The Sun" performed by Utopia

6."Saviour" performed by Prince

7. "Milk & Honey" performed by Beck

8. "What She Said" performed by TV Eyes

9. "Happy Home" performed by Garbage

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #503

NOVEMBER 19, 2025

1. "Fractured Mirror" performed by Ace Frehley

2. "Door Of No Return" performed by Vernon Reid

3. "Count The Ways" performed by The Last Dinner Party

4. "Alien Nation" performed by Arcade Fire

5. "No Reply" performed by Tame Impala

6. "Vines" performed by Alita Moses

7. "Birds" performed by Rachael Yamagata

8. "Automatic" performed by Nate Smith ft. Lalah Hathaway

9. "Appels + Oranjes" performed by The Smashing Pumpkins

10."Read Between The Lines" performed by The Fixx

11."Drifting" performed by Jimi Hendrix

12."Another Life" performed by D'Angelo and the Vanguard

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #504

"HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2025"

NOVEMBER 26, 2025

1. "Give A Little Bit" performed by Supertramp

2. "Happy With You" performed by Big Thief

3. "I Got Your Back" performed by Todd Rundgren ft. KK Watson and DAM Funk

4. "Take Your Time" performed by Aly & AJ

5. "Friends" performed by The Beach Boys

6. "Love's In Need Of Love Today" performed by Stevie Wonder

7. "Thinking Of You" performed by Lenny Kravitz

8. "Gratitude" performed by Paul McCartney

9. "Miss You In My Life" performed by The Belle Brigade

10."Brother" performed by The Kinks

11."Icicles" performed by Badfinger

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #505

"JOHN & GEORGE"

DECEMBER 3, 2025

1. "Free As A Bird (2025 mix)" performed by The Beatles

2. "This Is Love" performed by George Harrison

3. "Well Well Well" performed by John Lennon

4. "I'm The Greatest" performed by Ringo Starr

5. "All Those Years Ago" performed by George Harrison

6. "Watching The Wheels" (acoustic) performed by John Lennon

7. "Marwa Blues" performed by George Harrison

8. "Bring On The Lucie (Freda People)" performed by John Lennon

9. "Here Today" performed by Paul McCartney

10."Oh Yoko!" performed by John Lennon

11. "Far East Man" performed by George Harrison

12. "A Day In The Life" performed by The Beatles

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #506

"FOR MY DAD 7TH ANNIVERSARY: MUSIC FROM MY DAD'S RECORD COLLECTION"

DECEMBER 10, 2025

1. "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)" performed by The Delfonics

2. "Tutu" performed by Miles Davis

3. "Black Talk!" performed by Charles Earland

4. "Back Stabbers" performed by The O'Jays

5. "I Want You" performed by Marvin Gaye

6. "Opportunity, Please Knock" performed by Oscar Brown Jr.

7. "Ain't No Justice" performed by The Temptations

8. "Let Them Work It Out" performed by The Stylistics

9. "All About Love (First Impression)" performed by Earth Wind & Fire

10. "I Wanna Thank You" performed by Maze ft. Frankie Beverly

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #507

"FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2025"

DECEMBER 17, 2025

1. "I Just Need Enough" performed by Graham Hunt

2. "So Far Down" performed by Sloan

3. "Bloom Baby Bloom" performed by Wolf Alice

4. "Second Best" performed by The Last Dinner Party

5. "Make You Mine" performed by The Black Keys

6. "Lady Lady" performed by Olivia Dean

7. "Make Haste" performed by Midlake

8. "Why Do We Keep On Dying?" performed by Fishbone

9. "Palm Of HIs Hands" performed by De La Soul

10."Whats A Good Life" performed by Post Animal

11."Golden Line" performed by Djo

12."Shooting Star" performed by Sunflower Bean

13."Sisyphus" performed by Garbage

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #508

"CHRISTMAS JAMS 2025"

DECEMBER 24, 2025

1. "Someday At Christmas" performed by The Jackson 5

2. "Thanks For Christmas" performed by XTC as The Three Wise Men

3. "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day" performed by The Monkees

4. "Christmas Is Coming" performed by The Vince Guaraldi Trio

5. "If I Were A Bell" performed by The Manhattan Jazz All Stars

6. "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" performed by Emmaline

7. "Wonderful Christmastime" performed by Paul McCartney

8. "Christmas Is The Time To Say 'I Love You'" performed by Billy Squier

9. "Santa! Don't Pass Me By" performed by jimmy Donley

10."2000 Miles" performed by Pretenders

11."Please Come Home For Christmas" performed by Eagles

12."A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn't So)" performed by The Flaming Lips

13. "Santa Is Definitely Here To Stay" performed by JAMES BROWN

14. "This Christmas" performed by Donny Hathaway

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #509

"GOODBYE 2025"

DECEMBER 31, 2025

1. "Highway To Hell" performed by AC/DC

2. "Church & State" performed by Brandi Carlile

3. "Time Is Running Out" performed by Steve Winwood

4. "She Who Dares" performed by Say She She

5. "Our Prayer" performed by The Beach Boys

6. "Who's Sorry Now?" performed by Todd Rundgren

7. "Under Pressure" performed by Queen & David Bowie

8. "Time" performed by Sly and the Family Stone

9. "Unshaken" performed by D'Angelo

10."Last December" performed by Prince

11."Can't Get Enough" performed by Liz Longley

MY YEAR OF MUSIC 2025-PART TWO

 

Again, not my listening space but where I go in my head when I am listening.

And now, I continue with my favorite album releases of 2025.

"CHUCK D. PRESENTS ENEMY RADIO: RADIO ARMAGEDDON"
CHUCK D.
Released May 16, 2025

If only this man was at the forefront of the pop cultural zeitgeist right now, for how much we still need him.

This album, the first of a proposed trilogy of releases from what Chuck D.'s liner notes refer to as him existing in his "Wings" era or "Foo Fighters" era, a la both Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl's musical projects after The Beatles and Nirvana, respectively, fulfills exactly what I have been needing to hear. While Chuck D.'s flagship of Public Enemy still exists, this specific side project is another 2025 release that reaches back while remaining firmly in the present, meeting the moment heroically.

Public Enemy's "Fear Of A Black Planet" (released April 10, 1990) remains one of the best albums I have ever heard, regardless of genre. Its cacophonous assault, its blitzkrieg of sound all surrounding the God Of Thunder vocals of Chuck D. is an unmatched experience...even through the vehemently urgent continuing discography of PE. That is, until now. 

"Chuck D. Presents Enemy Radio: Radio Armageddon" uses the sonic barrage aesthetic to grand effect propelling Chuck D.'s voluminous voice and peerless lyrics and wordplay to grand effect over its ever shape shifting bedrock of sound during the furious briskness of the album's running time. This album not only inspires immediate re-listenings, it creates tremendous anticipation for the next two installments.  

"STOCKHOLM SYNDROME"
FISHBONE
Released June 27, 2025

I am just going to say it and leave it right here, after creating two of the best releases of the 1980's with the "Fishbone" debut EP (released September 21, 1985) and the tremendous "Truth And Soul" (released September 13, 1988), plus three of the best albums of the 1990's with "The Reality Of My Surroundings" (released April 23, 1991), "Give A Monkey A Brain And He'll Swear He's The Center Of The Universe" (released May 23, 1993) and the incendiary "Chim Chim's Badass Revenge" (released May 21, 1996), it still amazes me to no end that the untouchable Fishbone never broke through to scale the height of heights. 

Certainly, race has a large portion of this travesty as this all Black band possessed the audacity to create a musical amalgamation of funk, punk rock. soul, jazz, metal and whatever else they threw into their musical stew. Additionally, interpersonal tensions have caused the band to nearly implode several times over their 40 year history. But, after a period during which nearly all of the OG members of the band reunited, implosions occurred again, leaving the band with only two OG members--the titanic Angelo Moore (vocals, saxophone, theremin) and Christopher Dowd (vocals, trombone, keyboards) and shockingly without the fraternal founders of the band Norwood Fisher (bass, vocals) and Phillip "Fish" Fisher (drums, percussion).

As difficult it is to imagine a Fishbone without one of the members who created the band, it is miraculous that Moore, Dowd and their new bandmates have crafted a new Fishbone album at all-the  first in19 years-but that is is an excellent one, e that easily stands as tall as their classic 90's trilogy. "Stockholm Syndrome" finds Fishbone sounding precisely, exactingly like themselves despite the band lineup changes. The requisite musical amalgamation of punk, funk, rock, metal, reggae, soul, jazz and whatever else they can think to include remains as paramount and as explosive as ever and provides the perfect soundscape for their crucially politically charged and deeply poignant lyrics tinged with their  trademark Doberman Pincher's satirical bite.

Opening with "Last Call In America" and continuing onwards with "Secret Police," "Racist Piece Of Shit," 'Why Do We Keep On Dying?," "Dog Eat Dog," "My God Is Better Than Your God," and "Living In The Upside Down," plus more, Fishbone meets the moment in 21st century America with the same fearless urgency as their best work but now fueled with a staring at the edge of a cliff intensity which does indeed match how it feels to be alive in 2025. And even with the apocalypse looming, there is still space for the utopian ballad "Love Is Love" because really...it is all we really have left. 

 

"LET ALL THAT WE IMAGINE BE THE LIGHT"
GARBAGE
Released May 30, 2025

As I always say on Savage Radio concerning this band, they are worldwide, but they will always belong to us right here in Madison, WI.!

The 8th album from Madison's very own is sparkling, sprawling, dynamic, booming, luxurious, snarling and again, devastating in its poignancy. It is also their finest release in many years, quite possibly since "Not Your Kind Of People" (2012). Like Fishbone, Garbage's album spirals from their previous album "No Gods No Masters" (2021) by speaking directly to what it means to live at this point in time as evidenced by tracks like "There's No Future In Optimism," "Chinese Fire Horse," and the dream state of "Sisyphus." 

For me, where the album skyrockets are in two of frontwoman Shirley Manson's finest vocal performances and lyric writing: the ominous, enveloping warmth that houses the album's finale "The Day That I Met God" (if for some chance--hopefully not--this is the band's final album, what a way to go out) and the Hell hath no fury scorched Earth of "Have We Met (The Void)." 

"PINK ELEPHANT"
ARCADE FIRE 
Released May 9, 2025

It's odd but when this band existed as the critic's darling band, I was a little soft on them. Now, that they have seemingly fallen out of favor, I have embraced them more closely with the first half of their double album "Reflektor" (released October 28, 2013) grabbing my attention much greater than their then previous three albums, and the, I feel, unfairly maligned "Everything Now" (released July 28, 2017) and the gorgeous "We" (released May 6, 2022) plunging reverent emotional depths while providing deeply immersive listening experiences, of which this new album reaches further. 

Where "Year Of The Snake," "Circle Of Trust" and the speaker shaking "Alien Nation" make for a stunning early album tryptic, they are surrounded by the eerie yet romantically atmospheric soundscapes of "I Love Her Shadow," "Ride Or Die," the jittery "Stuck In My Head" and the David Lynch-ian "Open Your Heart Or Die Trying," a perfect sentiment for life in 2025.