Album Of The Year 2025!

Andy Bracken chooses his favourite new album of 2025...

My favourite new album of 2025, you ask? Just one, like always, to make it hard?

I usually give it to the one that, on receipt, I play the most. I genuinely thought it would be The Cords.

It was always likely to be something indie-pop, and a bit jangly, because that’s where my ears have been pointing for much of the year.

Ultimately, I have a soft spot for a girl-boy dynamic, with strong melodies and a slight quirkiness.

New York’s jeanines has that. They sound as if they should hail from somewhere closer to old York, such is the British influence.

Her vocal makes them different. Alicia Hyman is her name.

I think it edges The Cords album because it has more variety. It’s that simple. Plus, in ‘On And On’, it has the best song.

So, ‘How Long Can It Last’ is my pick.

Here’s a thing about jeanines. Three albums in, and each, for me, is better than its predecessor. Not many artists can claim that.

They don’t rush. Three years between albums is the gap. And it shows in the quality, I believe.

There’s nothing particularly new in any of it. But, there’s nothing particularly new in any music these days. It’s all been done before.

Having had an affection for this kind of thing for forty years, I’ve heard it all many times over. But not quite like this. And often with songs not as good as these.

Jedediah Smith plays a lot of the instruments you hear. He’s very talented. And they share the songwriting, Alicia and Jed.

Thirteen tracks set squarely in a 45rpm album. So, yeah, about two and a half minutes a pop. How it should be. Nothing here outstays its welcome.

Kick in, make your point, and get out, with a melodic bass line driving it all round the block.

‘Empty out my brain…’ the opening line urges me. ’I wanna lie in the grass with you…’ And then later, ‘are you happy…?’

I am when I listen to this.

Seems I’ll probably have to wait three years or so for another dose.

Curious? Go listen to ‘On and On’, ’What You Do’, ‘Satisfied’, ‘You Can’t Get It Back’. In fact, just buy the bloody record!

White vinyl from Slumberland Records.