This is culturally inappropriate

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2025.

#20 : Hexed! - aya

A series of surreal vignettes confronting addiction, panic and the challenges of growing up queer, Aya Sinclair’s experimental electronic masterwork is a wind-whipped dash around the towns and moors of Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. From the rotor blade-whomp of Peach to the infernal pattering snares on Navel Gazer, her sound design hits you like a ton of feathers: a surreal, destabilising flurry of detail. And the lyrics, done as careful mutters or sarky sing-song, are world-class. Her poetry revels in multiple meanings – is she saying “Flemish” or “phlegmish”? – and in the plasticity of language, rhyme and even lived experience, whether retelling a toxic relationship (“Couple rows so we could pop our cysts / as though the pus’d bust right out of the tryst”) or evoking the feeling of being totally cut adrift: “Abseil away another day supine inside the bag.”

Well that's a prime slice of nonsense from The Guardian there, isn't it? "Her sound design hits you like a ton of feathers" - seriously?

Well, this is really quite something. It's certainly not an album of tunes as you'd recognise them - it's more a selection of sonic art installations. And I'd certainly agree with The Guardian that they suggest panic - I can't comment on the other subjects mentioned, but I'll bow to aya's greater experience in these matters (they don't sound fun, certainly). I'd say this is an impressive album because it obviously took a lot of work to pull together and it feels like she's making the noises she wants to make - but it's not in any way a pleasant listen (but I don't think that's what she was looking for). It has some great track titles though - "I am the pipe I hit myself with", "off to the ESSO" and "The Petard is my hoister" being the pick of the bunch. I've also made the somewhat unusual decision not to include the album artwork above because I'm not sure anyone really needs to see someone with a mouth full of earthworms - it's just really unpleasant and also, given it's the first album it would also be the artwork used for the blog post!

Somewhat surprisingly, we do have a minor chart placing to report - #46 on the Album Downloads chart (just for the one week). It doesn't have a Wikipedia entry, but she does and it tells us that she comes from Huddersfield and she looks like the quietest, most unassuming thing, yet Pitchfork described this as "one of the most unhinged albums of the year" - and coming from Pitchfork, that's really something (and having listened to it, I'm certainly not going to argue with them). It was quite the experience - and one you can very probably live without.

#19 : Let God Sort 'Em Out - Clipse

They may have been outdone by Oasis as 2025’s most anticipated fraternal comeback, but there was still considerable excitement around the return of Gene and Terrence Thornton, AKA Clipse’s Malice and Pusha T. After making two of the best albums in 00s rap, Malice found God and left Pusha to it. But on returning, Malice’s mic tone – which always had a sort of ancient, oaken majesty to it – felt rich with wisdom, while Pusha, who in the interim had beefed Drake to hugely entertaining effect, still had his nose for a scrap, this time with Travis Scott. Together, they advocated for their own brilliance and for what they see as a better class of rap, sometimes at the same time: “They content-create, I despise that / I create content then they tries that.”

The ninth album I've previously heard on the list which was met in passing as a new entry - when I listened to it, I was positively fulsome with my praise (for a rap album anyway) declaring there to be evidence of both humour and intelligence. Of course I don't remember the slightest thing about it now, so I'd better check it out again.

Yeah - it's not something I need but I really quite liked it. As I previously said, it reminded me of Kanye's earlier stuff and there's plenty of thought gone into it - one of the rap albums of the year for me (I bet they're made up by my decision).

This charted for TWO weeks - proper success, with it peaking at #16. It's also got (I believe) the biggest Wikipedia entry we've seen this year (489 milliPeppers) - it tells us it's their fourth album and plenty more besides, some of which was pretty interesting. The list of guest stars is pretty impressive - Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, The Creator, Pharrell Williams, Nas and Lenny Kravitz were the names I recognised. I was also somewhat surprised by the number of people who are credited on "So Be It", including 18 violin players, 6 viola players, 5 cellists, 4 French Horn players and many, many others. Critically, it was pretty well received, although there was some criticism that the production was a bit too boring and not as good as previous releases and commercially it did best here and in the US, where it got to #4. 

#18 : Double Infinity - Big Thief

After their bassist Max Oleartchik left the group, Big Thief pressed on as a trio but brought in a number of auxiliary musicians, resulting in an album that sounds like it could have been worked up around the campfire of a utopian off-grid commune. These are some of the American band’s best, biggest-hearted songs to date, with the type of easy facility with melody – and equally easy access to their emotions – that can’t be taught. Take Grandmother, in which frontperson Adrianne Lenker surveys our collapsing world and flawed humanity, and decides on the singalong chorus: “Gonna turn it all into rock’n’roll.” In many other hands this would be trite, but as with so much of Big Thief’s music, the purity of intention makes it life-affirming

The tenth album I've previously heard on the list which was again met in passing as a new entry - this one I declared to be acceptable, but if I listened to it again I could either love it or hate it. So let's see, shall we? 

Yeah - I think acceptable is pretty much where we are with this. I think I like the idea of it more than the execution - the songs are indie/Americana and they're the sort of thing I generally like, without any of them standing out as particularly loveable when I actually listen to them. It certainly wasn't hateful on this listen though - and I like the album cover.

This just managed the one week in the charts at #21, which feels like a pretty high placing. The Wikipedia entry tells us it's their sixth album and a whole load of other pretentious nonsense which I rolled my eyes at. Critically it's been well received with our old mate Robert Christgau (he's 83 now!) hailing it as "a triumph of shameless beauty" and The Economist declaring it one of their top 10 albums of the year (you know that's the accolade all the bands are looking out for). Commercially, it did surprisingly well across Europe but only got to #121 in the US. 

Three very different albums and there's a good argument that aya has made the most interesting one, but there's absolutely no danger of me making her the winner. And I just didn't engage enough with Big Thief to declare them victorious either, which leaves us in the surprising situation of giving Clipse the gold medal of the round.

#23-21 - Three from the ladies
#17-15 - Fine, without being exceptional