Psych-rock’s greatest challenge is to not wander off and lose the listener; BLKE don’t hold your hand, but you know from start to finish on their Living Without Expectations EP that you are in good hands. Read my full review as part of my 13 Floor’s 10 Best Psychedelic Albums of 2025 for Treble here.
Members of Midwife, Knifeplay, a Sunny Day in Glasgow, Luna Honey and Sun Organ comprise to create an ensemble that warms the hearts of those partial to shoegazey folk-rock and whose band name makes Scrabble players drool. Go to Post-Trash to read my full review of Nyxy Nyx’s first studio effort, Cult Classics Vol. 1, for the outlet’s “Year in Review: The Best of 2025” roundup.
Don’t miss these two other roundups either:
• Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their Top 10 Lists of 2025 Best Albums
• Boise Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their 2025 Top 10 Lists
With their second record, Valerian Tea, Magic Fig incorporated mellotron, glockenspiel and percussion into a trippy affair, albeit one mitigated by thee band leaning and scratching deeper into the surfaces of soft rock and prog that they mostly traipsed over the last time around. Go to Post-Trash to read my full review of Valerian Tea for the outlet’s “Year in Review: The Best of 2025” roundup.
Don’t miss these two other roundups either:
• Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their Top 10 Lists of 2025 Best Albums
• Boise Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their 2025 Top 10 Lists
A lot of fucked-up up shit happened in the U.S. this year. Way, way too much of it. For many of us Americans who actually carry values in our hearts instead of bloviating about them or slapping bumper stickers on our monster trucks, it was almost too much to bear.
Fortunately, 2025 also saw the release of a staggering number of stellar records, which made the year a little more … well, bearable. Hence, for the first time ever, The Bad Penny is deviating from its usual annual tradition of limiting out favorite listens to just 10 and breaking them into a five-part series containing 10 records per installment.
What follows is the fourth batch. (Go here for The Bad Penny‘s favorite albums, #21 through #30; here for The Bad Penny‘s favorite albums, #31 through #40; and here for The Bad Penny‘s favorite albums, #41 through #50.)
11. Wode – Uncrossing the Keys (20 Buck Spin)
• Wode’s ‘Uncrossing the Keys’: Two Cent Review
12. Floating – Hesitating Lights (Transcending Obscurity)
13. Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow (Southeastern)
• Jason Isbell’s ‘Foxes in the Snow’: Two Cent Review for Treble’s Best Albums of 2025
Continue reading
The titular instruction of Liquid Cross’ 10-minute whiplash Don’t Think is worthy of a smirk, as the three-piece punk band – just formed this year – doesn’t even provide the listener with such an opportunity over the course of these five fiery yet fleeting tracks. Go to Post-Trash to read my full review of Don’t Think for the outlet’s “Year in Review: The Best of 2025” roundup.
Don’t miss these two other roundups either:
• Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their Top 10 Lists of 2025 Best Albums
• Boise Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their 2025 Top 10 Lists
Hedonist’s Scapulimancy debut terrorizds the innocent with a sound resembling a construction crew of demons using pile drivers to burrow deep, and then deeper, and then even deeper, into the earth. Go to Post-Trash to read my full review for the outlet’s “Year in Review: The Best of 2025” roundup.
Don’t miss these two other roundups either:
• Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their Top 10 Lists of 2025 Best Albums
• Boise Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their 2025 Top 10 Lists
A tip of the sombrero to Post-Trash for allowing me to write seven capsule reviews among the 50 presented in the esteemed website’s Year In Review: The Best of 2025. The first one I’m presenting on The Bad Penny is Degraved’s Spectral Realm of Ruin (Dark Descent / Me Saco Un Ojo),
Seattle’s death-metal dealers took a helluva long windup before finally pitching their first full-length, concentrating for five years after their formation to ensure their opening salvo landed smack-dab in the middle of the strike zone. Indeed, the band hit right on the money.
Go to Post-Trash to read my full review.
A lot of fucked-up up shit happened in the U.S. this year. Way, way too much of it. For many of us Americans who actually carry values in our hearts instead of bloviating about them or slapping bumper stickers on our monster trucks, it was almost too much to bear.
Fortunately, 2025 also saw the release of a staggering number of stellar records, which made the year a little more … well, bearable. Hence, for the first time ever, The Bad Penny is deviating from its usual annual tradition of limiting out favorite listens to just 10 and breaking them into a five-part series containing 10 records per installment.
What follows is the third batch. (Go here for The Bad Penny‘s favorite albums, #31 through #40 and here for The Bad Penny‘s favorite albums, #41 through #50.)
Continue readingFew living artists embody the word “integrity” more than Jason Isbell, who is on the fast track to receiving the universal respect that forebears Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson garnered. Isbell continues to bring together Americans in an age where cultural fragmentation is omnipotent, and he’s done it once again with Foxes in the Snow. Read my reflection on his LP as part of Treble‘s best albums of 2025 feature.
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