Boise Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their 2025 Top 10 Lists
The Bad Penny is rolling out its favorite albums of 2025 in five installments this year, with the first and second batches having already dropped. While the other three will plop down imminently, we’re smashing the self-indulgence and monotony by inviting some of our favorite Boise music-heads to share their own top 10s with us and, by extension, you.
We’re delighted by the picks that the participants received, as they run the genre gamut and include many albums of which The Bad Penny wasn’t even aware.
A boatload of thanks to Travis Abbott of Ealdor Bealu and Shadow & Claw, DJ Joe Black of Dayglow Drip and KRBX Radio Boise, Gus Marsden of Breathing Records, Catherine Merrick of The Record Exchange, Chad Remains of Ghorot, Tyler Squire of Onsetter, Shadrach Tuck of Chief Broom and Mishap Records, and Nathan Walker of Duck Club/ Treefort Music Fest/ MusicIdaho for participating in this team effort.
Without further ado, here are the lists of the top 10 albums released in 2025 that some of The Bad Penny‘s favorite Boise peeps (the kids still say that word, right?) graciously shared with us.
Travis Abbott from Ealdor Bealu and Shadow & Claw:
1. Messa – The Spin
2. Grails – Miracle Music
3. Dax Riggs – 7 Songs for Spiders
4. Hell – Submersus
5. Wyatt E. – zamāru ultu qereb ziqquratu Part 1
6. Blackbraid – III
7. Weald & Woe – Far From the Light of Heaven
8. Curtis Harding – Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt
9. Die Spitz – Something to Consume
10. Cult of Fire – The One, Who Is Made of Smoke
DJ Joe Black of Dayglow Drip and KRBX Radio Boise:
1. Tunde Adebimpe – Thee Black Boltz
This release hit me from out of nowhere. Very familiar with Adebimpe’s band TV ON THE RADIO, but once the single “Magnetic” landed on radio I was hooked. Digging into “Thee Black Boltz” was a very pleasant surprise full of synth goodies and fantastic vocals with interesting lyrical narratives!
2. The Velveteers – A Million Knives
Can’t say enough good things about this Mile-High trio. Catchy melodies, vocal hooks galore, and the best tandem-drumming-duo in the business. I got to catch their live set at Seattle’s FREAKOUT FEST and their performance at the Tractor Tavern did not disappoint. Catch this band soon as they are rapidly becoming a top tier draw!
3. Say She She – Cut and Rewind
Blending R&B girl group vocals with retro disco/funk SAY SHE SHE is truly a force of nature that is unsurprisingly landed on many hard rockers EOY lists. They are just that damn good that their style transcends their genre with plenty of cross appeal to fans looking for something fresh.
4. Ministry – The Squirrely Years Revisited
Ministry is my all time favorite band, especially from their mid-80s era forward into the new millenium. The backstory to this record is that Uncle Al’s current touring band was spinning some vintage Ministry (a la “With Sympathy”) and Al asked them what they were listening to. Famously, Al had disavowed his early work as being similar to Duran Duran and Depeche Mode. After hearing his own work again, he decided to update many of this track (and some from the “Early Singles” comp) with his current lineup and the results are spectacular.
5. Slaughterhouse – Sick and Tired EP
Hailing from the South Bay of Los Angeles, Slaughterhouse has been an underground phenomenon that I have followed for quite some time now (and to my pleasure hired me to work with them on promotions for their Winter tour last year). When the band assembled with new singer Meriel O’Connell, the resultant recordings are absolutely stunning. In my opinion there is no greater band in deathrock/hardcore currently. This release is a fast, dark and unrepentant lesson in punishing hardcore that is sure to leave your body bruised and your senses battered.
6. Model/Actriz – Pirouette
Catching this hard-to-describe danceable noise rock outfit at Treefort Music Fest a few years back, “Pirouette” was on my must listen list as soon as it was released this year. Carving out their own niche with unrecognizable guitar and bass lines that are deformed beyond recognition with strange effects and novel compositions, this band defines categorization. The vocalist also paints uncomfortable yet fully relatable narratives that take us out of our comfort zone and into harrowing mindspaces.
7. Thumpasaurus – The Appetizer’s Mixtape
Hailing from Los Angeles, this DIY troupe serves up a masterclass in bedroom recording and experimental compositions. For the uninitiated we highly recommend the music video for “And That’s Just The Appetizer…”. Funny and on-the-nose, this group’s outsider experimentation in danceable pop is definitely a collective to watch!
8. Gelli Haha – Switcheroo
Tracking her meteoric rise in the underground, Boise native Angel Abaya caught us all by surprise with her breakout release under the monike GELLI HAHA. Sporting a fun visual cohesion and trampolines at live shows, “Switcheroo” is a great exploration in underground pop and electronic!
9.Aesop Rock – Black Hole Superette
Aesop is one of the hardest working MC’s with the largest vocabulary in the underground hip-hop space. A wordsmith by trade, this release explores mayb thoughts and current events with a sick backing track of hook filled beats and R&B groove. Not very much of the language was safe for airplay, so the instrumental version saw a lot of traction on my radio show this year! Not on this album, but Aesop’s track “Roadwork Rappin'” was my summertime anthem and I dedicated it on-air to our local ACHD (Ada County Highway Department).
10. Kassa Overall – CREAM
Kassa Overall is a brilliant percussionist that also understands the effect of proper application of his style into the framework of the foundations of traditional jazz. Then Overall put some of his favorite hip-hop and classic R&B tracks through that lens, smoothed it all together into a blender and delivered the masterpiece called CREAM. This release reworks many tracks into barely recognizable yet utterly compelling masterworks of smooth jazz that are completely irresistible. Highly recommend this album when nothing else seems to satisfy, Kassa Overall will fill your senses with the satisfyingly unpredictable work he does so well. Can’t wait to catch his set at this spring’s Treefort Music Festival!
Gus Marsden of Breathing Records:
1. Beirut – A Study of Losses
2. Gelli Ha Ha – Switcheroo
3. Water From Your Eyes – It’s a Beautiful Place
4. Touching Ice – I Just Remembered Everything Always Works Out for Me
5. ear – The Most Dear and the Future
6. Pictureplane – Sex Distortion
7. Rooster – Rooster Slipped
8. Camille Keller – Lack of G-LIP
9. Malibu – Vanities
10. Omar Hound – OLDWORLD
Catherine Merrick of The Record Exchange:
1. Cate Le Bon – Michelangelo Dying
2. Lael Neale – Altogether Stranger
3. Buntspecht – Konstruct 5
4. Jonathan Richman – Only Frozen Sky Anyway
5. Panda Bear – Sinister Grift
6. Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter – Forever, I’ve Been Being Born
7. Emma Jean Thackery – Weirdo
8. Youth Lagoon – Rarely Do I Dream
9. Deep Heaven – in:
10. The Last Dinner Party – From the Pyre
Chad Remains of Ghorot:
1. Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World
2. Bell Witch + Aerial Ruin – Stygian Bough Volume II
3. Big || Brave – OST
4. Messa – The Spin
5. Mares of Thrace – The Loss
6. Gaahl’s Wyrd – Braiding the Stories
7. Evoken – Mendacium
8. Wolvennest – Procession
9. Rome – Civitas Solis
10. (tie) Faetooth – Labyrinthine
10. (tie) Cult of Fire – The One, Who Is Made of Smoke
Tyler Squire of Onsetter:
1. Sanguisugabogg – Hideous Aftermath
2. The Acacia Strain – You Are Safe From God Here
3. Crippling Alcoholism – Camgirl
4. Deftones – Private Music
5. Psycho Frame – Salvation Laughs in the Face of a Grieving Mother
6. Second Death – Cruel Bones
7. AFI – Silver Bleeds the Black Sun
8. Dijon – Baby
9. Pains – Blistering Wrath
10. Excide – Bastard Hymns
Shadrach Tuck of Chief Broom and Mishap Records:
1. Father – Patricide
2. Club Night – Joy Coming Down
3. Jehnny Beth – You Heartbreaker, You
4. Shiner – BELIEVEYOUME
5. Water From Your Eyes – It’s a Beautiful Place
6. Slow Mass – Low on Foot
7. Deerhoof – Noble and Godlike in Ruin
8. Honningbarna – Soft Spot
9. FACS – Wish Defense
10. Pile – Sunshine and Balance Beams
Nathan Walker of Duck Club/ Treefort Music Fest/ MusicIdaho:
1. Cloakroom – Last Leg of the Human Table
2. Flock of Dimes – The Life you Save
3. Forty Feet Tall – Clean the Cage
4. Panda Bear – Sinister
5. The Berries – s/t
6. Deep Sea Diver – Billboard Heart
7. Foxwarren – 2
8. Andy Bell – Pinball Wanderer
9. Slow Crush – Thirst
10. Public Body – Finger Food
The Bad Penny‘s friends outside Boise also shared their top 10 lists with us. Check ’em out right here. Also, check out our popular series On Tyranny and Pet Sounds, and subscribe to The Bad Penny by entering your email address in the widget on the right side of the homepage. Yeah, yeah, we understand it’s not 1996 anymore. But Luddites are a protected class under the First Amendment of the Constitution … we think).
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