I dream big for you - I'll vanish when it's due

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 couldn't tell you if I loved it, but it's certainly an interesting listen.

It obviously charted, getting to a decent #12 but was only there for a single week - interestingly it managed five weeks on the physical albums chart which suggests word of mouth and the tour did her a decent bit of business. It's also got a very decent sized Wikipedia entry, but by far the most interesting thing is Ethel's real name - Hayden Silas Anhedönia. It's also interesting that Willoughby Tucker is a real person - I imagine someone had an interesting conversation with their wife when it came out. 

#37 : The Art Of Loving - Olivia Dean

The British breakthrough of the year, as Dean – already doing decent business with her pleasant but rather neat debut Messy – reached a completely new level of songcraft. Bossa nova, folk and soul (classic and neo) are warmed together with beautiful production, evaporating any sense of pastiche to make a sound that’s both easy on the ear but distinctly Dean’s. Every song has a superb top line, Dean stretching them into loose jazzy shapes (Let Alone the One You Love, Lady Lady) or tightening them into brisk pop (Man I Need, Something Inbetween). But it’s the lyrics that make these songs so red-blooded: every stage of love, from the first flutter of flirtation to the adrenal shock of rejection, is made so true to life.

Whereas this is one we gave a proper write-up - and I declared it to be very nice but very forgettable and so, despite it being #1 as a new entry, didn't see it doing an awful lot.

And yet, obviously, it's had eleven weeks in the chart, has never been out of the top five and got back to #1 in its tenth week - what do I know, eh?!? (spoiler alert - very little).  And so, just to check I hadn't missed anything, I gave it another listen - and I can confirm it's really very nice. But I still don't see quite what's so special about it - if I was being generous I'd say it's the Sade of its time, but it just didn't click with me. Wikipedia doesn't have a load on it, but a recent update does tell us that a load of people have included it on their "best of 2025" lists. 

#36 : Iconoclasts - Anna von Hausswolff

Anna von Hausswolff is no stranger to a monumental statement: her primary instrument is the pipe organ, a towering edifice of tin and arsenic that offers her an ever-renewing sense of awe. But the Swedish composer’s sixth album goes bigger than ever, grappling with mortality, transcendence and evil in a series of stormy epics that also lash a little pop structure to her prow. “Oh, I’m breaking up with language / Oh, in search of something bigger than this,” she screams on Stardust, an exhilarating co-pilot on the path to absolution.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, I've not visited a Swedish pipe organ (lol @ "a towering edifice of tin and arsenic") player's offering previously - but I'm kinda intrigued to see what we've got here.

Hmmm - yeah, it's intriguing. There is pipe organ on it, but there's an awful lot of other instruments on it as well - I'll be intrigued to see if Wikipedia gives us any further information. She's got an interesting voice as well and she uses some interesting recording effects on it - I suspect there have been a lot of takes recorded on some tracks. And a lot of the music is interesting as well with there being some really nice sections on this - I was reminded of St Vincent, but with some more baroque instruments (and some very baroque voices amongst the duets). I didn't love it on first listen, but I was intrigued by it and I feel multiple listens would be rewarding. It's quite a creepy album cover though...

This did manage to chart in the sales, downloads and physical albums charts, which feels like a win for the lass - I suspect she wasn't expecting the UK to go wild for her. Wikipedia tells us that Anna cites Kendrick Lamar as an influence and I can actually see that (despite it sounding nothing like Kendrick) because it has a weird dark mood to it without sounding all that dark. It also gives us info on the guest vocalists - Ethel Cain (again!), Iggy Pop (I'd never have guessed him), Maria von Hausswolff (her sister) and Abul Mogard (who?!?). I've no idea who Abul is, but you really need to listen to "An Ocean Of Time" because he's got quite the voice (it makes Anna's sound boring). I didn't give us any particularly weird instruments but it's string heavy, with sax and clarinet also featuring - and the critics LOVED it (who knew?!?). 

So - another three quiet, retiring, untalented ladies (that genre is doing well this year). And I have an interesting decision to make because I didn't love any of them and none of them have had loads of listens either - so I'm going to go for a three way tie because they're all well put together and there are good reasons to listen to all of them. However, I would say they all hang together well as albums though, which hasn't been true for all the offerings this year, so maybe check them out if you've not heard them.

#41-39 - An interesting "winner"
#35-33 - Three interesting albums