I got caught compiling my own news

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 one.

And yeah, I think they're right - there's just more warmth and hope here. I'm lacking in specifics but I just got the feeling of a sunrise gradually spreading some light and warmth through the music - I liked it. And that's pretty much all I have to say on first listen - this feels like it would benefit from further listens, even if it's unlike to get them.

Ah, it turns out this wasn't my first listen because it got to #4 back in April so it got a listen as a new entry - I complained about his voice back then, but I didn't mind it so much on my second listen. It's got quite a chunky Wikipedia entry which tells us there's some reasonably well known names on there with Danielle Haim, mk gee and Jacob Collier being names I recognised and Flock Of Dimes, Dijon and Kacy Hill also having their own Wikipedia entries. The critics were very taken with it and it also did well commercially, getting to the top five in quite a few countries but did crack the top spot anywhere, getting to #2 in Austria and Denmark - it also got to #11 in the US.

#34 : Snocaps - Snocaps 

Katie Crutchfield’s full-throated transformation into country doyenne on her last couple of albums as Waxahatchee almost makes it easy to forget her indie-rock origins. Fourteen years since she and twin sister Allison wound down their teen band PS Eliot, the DIY stalwarts got back together – with a little help from MJ Lenderman and producer Brad Cook – and went back to brass tacks for their surprise album as Snocaps. What a treat it was: full of punchy indignation – “I could never just … coast!” they exclaim on Coast – crunchy ruminations and sing-songy contemplations of what it means to depend on and grow alongside one another. You’d follow them anywhere.

I love Katie in her Waxahatchee incarnation (and she's the second artist on the list I've seen live this year) but I wasn't aware this was out there - I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Yeah, this is OK. It's kinda indie-lite Waxahatchee. They sound more like the outlines for songs, as opposed to the fully formed versions - but that's absolutely fine if that's what they were in the mood for. Having said that, I still liked "Wasteland" the best which isn't a million miles away from a Waxahatchee track.

This has managed three weeks on the Download albums chart, peaking at #17 and it's got a Wikipedia entry, which amusingly pretty much says "we made this album because we wanted to" - fair play to the Crutchfield sisters. It has quite a "this is what we wanted to do" vibe - I didn't love it, but it was diverting enough.

#33 : Black Star - Amaarae

We all need an Amaarae in our lives: the person who, when you weakly protest that you’re a bit tired to go out, will soon have you holding a bottle of decanted rum in the back of an Uber, while alongside you she looks quizzically at a series of resealable plastic bags. “Ketamine, coke and molly,” she chants on Starkilla; “I spiked this drink so please open your mouth,” she tells her lover on Fineshyt. And this club-ready album from the irrepressible Ghanaian-American pop star ends up being a sensual body high, as she chases sex and glamour into the ends of the night.

Our second visit with Amaarae and last time my overriding opinion was "huh?" - so who knows what I'm going to think of this.

Yeah, I didn't mind this - I was reminded of Charli XCX and MIA, but not quite as energetic and she really does love a vocoder. It's not something I have any particular place for in my life (I'm sure the kids could explain it to me eventually, but I think we've all got better things to do with our time) but it's nicely quirky and I really liked "Starkilla". It's a clever album title and cover though, with her being the "black star" on the Ghanaian flag.

This hasn't charted in even the most minor chart but it does have a WIkipedia entry which tells us its her third album, and it explores "her identity as a woman and as an artist" (don't they all, dahling?) And the critics liked it, saying it was a load of fun and a celebration of the good life. 

Three albums I didn't mind at all, without any of them being exactly loveable or what I expected. Bon Iver's was warmer than I was expecting, Snocaps was rougher than I was expecting and Amaarae was more fun than I was expecting. So, in an unexpected turn of events, I think I'm going to give it to Bon Iver and Amaarae - I like Katie's voice, but it wasn't quite enough to convince me.

#38-36 - Three albums that weren't what I was expecting