You should be careful, do you catch my drift?

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

#29 : In Limerence - Jacob Alon

One of the star-making moments of the year was at the Mercury prize, as Scottish singer-songwriter Jacob Alon reduced the arena audience to a hush with just a voice and an acoustic guitar (though there were delighted whoops when a call of “free Palestine” was folded into their rendition of Fairy in a Bottle). It hopefully brought a broader audience to their debut album In Limerence, which has shades of Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Buckley and even Paul McCartney’s cadences to its unguarded indie-folk. It would have been easy to make this music blandly beautiful, but Alon and producer Dan Carey keep it rustling with life, as they reach for a burbling synth, trumpet improvisation or dusty-sounding drum kit.

The indie-folky guys have done well on the list so far - and here's another one!

Yeah, this is most definitely indie-folky. I'm not 100% down on their voice and I'd say that, with the exception of "Fairy In A Bottle" which I liked, I'd struggle to be able to pick one track from another. It's not horrible to listen to though particularly because of the nice guitar work - but it's not something I'd go out of my way to revisit. And that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter, other than that I'm intrigued by the cover art.

They can't have been too far off the proper charts because they managed two weeks in the Album Sales chart, peaking at #7. It's just nuts that things like this are kept out of the album chart by all the best-ofs - there are 24 of them in there this week including Linkin Park, Maroon5, Pitbull and 50 Cent. I've nothing against any of those artists (this is so not true, but that's not the point I'm making here) but there's no way that many people are either buying those albums or specifically choosing to listen to them in any given week - I know the algorithm tries to "time out" albums, but it just doesn't try hard enough imho. 

The album has a Wikipedia entry that tells me Jacob is a they rather than a he, so I've just had to re-edit this post - but unusually, they don't have an entry. The critics were very taken with the album, although interesting The Guardian initially only gave it three stars so they've obviously re-evaluated it. I also learned that limerence is the state of being infatuated with someone - I'm not infatuated with this album, but it was a nice enough listen.

#28 : Hooke's Law - KeiyaA

The title of the Chicago producer’s second album references the law of physics that reflects how stretch is proportional to load, how a spring always bounces back when tested within its elastic limit. The whistlestop Hooke’s Law expands and contracts accordingly as KeiyaA’s trifles with loss and romantic disappointment find their embodiment in racing breakbeats and collagist chaos one minute, gorgeous, soul-weary stillness – as with the liquid Stupid Prizes – the next. Listening can feel like being pleasurably blitzed with sensation, with each repeat revealing new details: an invitation to submit to KeiyaA’s masterful grip.

Bizarrely, I was actually talking about Hooke's Law yesterday - I imagine that's not something too many people can say (or, indeed, want to be able to). I'm intrigued as to how little idea The Guardian has managed to give me with their above description of this album though.

Hmmm. Well, having listened to it I can at least understand why they struggled so badly - I think the best I can do is "electronic burbling". I can imagine she put in a helluva lot of work to make these sounds, but I'm really not sure why she bothered. I feel like she was going for DJ Shadow kinda thing, but it doesn't have enough variety for me - it's not horrible, it's just a bit pointless. <shrugs>

It didn't trouble even the most minor chart over here and it doesn't have a Wikipedia entry - her entry tells us it's her second album. And that's pretty much your lot from the internet except that Google AI helpfully tells me that I shouldn't attempt to use this album if I want to know about Hooke's Law. Thanks Google AI.

#27 : moisturizer - Wet Leg

In 2022 they released one of the 21st century’s biggest indie debuts, which scored a UK No 1 and Grammy and Brit awards. The pressure was there for the follow-up, but not only did it top the charts again and earn another couple of Grammy noms, it had even more swagger and heart. “You wanna fuck me, I know, most people do,” Rhian Teasdale shrugs on Mangetout, and she actively intimidates a lustful bloke on Catch These Fists – but much of the album is given over to her wonderment at falling in love. “I’ll be your Davina, I’m coming to get you … I’ll be your Shakira, whenever, wherever”, she sings: great new vows for millennial weddings. 

The sixth album I've previously heard on the list and the third one I've already written up - when I met it, I said I thought it had a bit more variety than their debut but would need a few more listens for me to get a better idea about it. These further listens, of course, never happened - I gave it another go for this post but I don't really have anything to add above that. 

The album managed four weeks in the charts, including a debut at #1 which was impressive because it was at the height of Oasismania with them being at #2, #3 and #5 that week - it also got to #1 in Croatia and #45 in the US which seems like a decent effort. The Wikipedia entry provides some new interesting information, telling us it was produced by Dan Carey who also produced Jacob Alon's offering above and the album cover is one of the nominees for the inaugural Best Album Cover Grammy Award - as is Perfume Genius (and I'm sorry, but his cover is better).

I don't love Wet Leg's offering after the two whole listens it's had, but I still like it enough to declare it the winner - Jacob's offering is interesting but KeiyaA's is just odd.

#32-30 - Two decent albums. And another one.
#26-24 - Another interesting bunch.