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Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #32 :  Glory - Perfume Genius With typical grace and humour Mike Hadreas sends up his self-defeating tendencies on his seventh album, and wonders how old you have to be to escape those lifelong patterns: like the contradiction of struggling to face the world while also fantasising about violence and romanticising “all the poems I’ll get out” of it. It feels apt that Glory starts with the western twang of It’s a Mirror, suggesting a fixed, brawny masculine archetype – then breaks it down over the course of the record, a gothic, celestial voyage into the interior, and the latest addition to a uniquely beautiful American songbook. Our second visit with Perfume Genius and last time I described him as a "slightly less beepy Hot Chip" - so who knows what we're going to get here! Yeah, I liked this - it's somehow delicate and lush at the same time. I was reminded of Bright Eyes and early Paul Simon - it'...

Completing my trip back through the 1994 album charts. 02/01/94 : Both Sides -   Phil Collins Our fourth visit with Mr Collins and I'm not sure I was even aware this existed - you never quite know what you're going to get from Mr C, but I'm happy enough to find out. Yeah, I didn't mind this - I can see that some people would think it's a bit wet but I don't think Phil would argue too hard against such accusations. They're "nice"  songs, if maybe a bit too downbeat and a bit too long (all but one of them are over five minutes long) where the lyrics have a little bit of an edge to them, but not too much because we don't want to scare off the punters. I enjoyed "Both Sides Of The Story" and the rest of it just kinda slid by me without being offensive (I was reminded of Peter Gabriel in quite a few places) - I didn't need the two hour deluxe version though. Coincidentally, and somewhat bizarrely, this was the second album in a row whi...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #35 :  SABLE, fABLE - Bon Iver If, as Justin Vernon recently suggested, this is the last ever Bon Iver album, it’s a beautiful redemption arc: a loving send-up of his anxious, myopic sad-sack self blossoms into a radiant appreciation of possibility, sensuality, risk. Everything Is Peaceful Love has one of the year’s best refrains: “Damn if I’m not climbing up a tree right now!”, giddy with thrill and absolutely no idea of what to do when you get up there other than enjoy the view. And while there are gorgeously passionate songs here, it’s the ones about gracefully letting go of an unviable love that really underscore the admirable humility in Vernon’s bowing out. I always feel like I should enjoy Bon Iver albums more than I do - they feel like they have the ingredients I need but come across a bit detached and miserablist for me to actually want to revisit them - but The Guardian suggests there may be hope for this...

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts. 09/01/94 : Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell -   Meat Loaf Our third visit with Mr Loaf and it completes the trilogy - not only for the blog but also for me, because I've never listened to this. I think the reason for this is that I just don't feel it's going to beat the original and it somewhat smacks a bit of desperation - but maybe I'm wrong, so let's find out. Oh, it starts with "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" - I never knew this was on here. And unsurprisingly, the album version is even less understated than the single version - I'm not sure I really needed 12:01 of it. Let's give a shout out to Lorraine Crosby for her vocals - she's a club singer from the North East of England who was invited to provide guide vocals for Meat Loaf to perfect his part and in the end they just decided to use them on the final recording. But she didn't get any royalties and ...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #38 :  Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You - Ethel Cain It’s easy to see why US singer-songwriter Cain has become so adored. This album further sketches out the kind of storytelling universe that attracts footnote-writing fandoms: it’s a prequel to the events of her debut album Preacher’s Daughter, deepening the tale of Ethel and a cast of young peers as they fumble towards connection and understanding. Her moody, romantic slowcore is also perfect music for listening to on headphones as you walk around boring suburban streets wishing you could leave for bigger things. It’s also great for road trips: songs between five and 15 minutes that seem to make a long, slow blur of the pell-mell world outside. This isn't one we specifically wrote up, but I listened to it through choice, gave it another listen as a new entry  and then went to see the tour , so it's fair to say I'm not unfamiliar with it. And I still...