Nite Songs Top 75 Albums of 2025 - Part 2 (60-51)

 


Well, we're underway now so let's keep this thing moving! Welcome to Part 2 of the Nite Songs end of year rundown...

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60. SELF-ESTEEM - "A Complicated Woman"


Rebecca Lucy Taylor's third solo album continues the rich vein of form of its predecessors. Angry and defiant on the one hand but sated with tunes ready to drag you to the dancefloor on the other, the likes of Mother, I Do And I Don't Care and 69 brim with a mischievous sense of playfulness and a serious message in equal measure.


The Puncturists have been slogging it out on the West Yorkshire punk circuit for a few years now and in I'm Not Alright, they've come up with a debut album which puts their experience to good use. Sounding like a poppier version of Vice Squad, tunes such as Pissing Me Off, They Don't Pay Support Bands and recent single 55 mix an angry energy with some surprisingly catchy hooks to come up with a winning formula.


If, like your friendly writer here, you previously had Wolf Alice down as a bit of a style over substance band, The Clearing will come as a pleasant surprise. By some way this group's most accessible album, it sees them aiming for poppier waters not a million miles away from Kate Nash et al and they deserve commending for their ability to build on their sound and evolve well.


The idea of merging pop punk with C86 style jangle-indie isn't actually as far a stretch as it sounds and Leeds natives Nervous Twitch have done it to good effect on this debut album. Sounding like a midpoint band between the Buzzcocks and Johnny Marr, songs like Don't Get In Touch, My Mum's An Anarchist and The Day Job Gets In The Way mark this lot out as a band with an undeniable amount of promise.

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56. ALICE COOPER - "The Revenge of Alice Cooper"


The reunion of the classic Alice Cooper band line-up at least showed that there's signs of life in the old corpse-rocker after 2023's rather lacklustre The Road album. Remaining true to the classic early '70s Coop formula but putting a bit of a 21st century spin on it, the material varies from the sinister Kill The Flies and One Night Stand to the more humorous Crap That Gets In The Way Of Your Dreams and the touching closing tribute to late guitarist Glen Buxton See You On The Other Side. It may not be the best album Alice has put his name to since those halcyon days but there's certainly an argument that it's as good an album as we could have expected out of this particular reunion.


Songs For The Lonely is an intriguing beast - an album which tips its hat to classic '60s rock but chucks in a psychedelic twist to it to keep things interesting. Manchester's Winter Green may be veterans of the scene (this is their fifth album) but they're definitely a band with a knack for a tune that sticks in your head as evidenced by the likes of recent single Man On The Bench.

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54. THE CHARLATANS - "We Are Love"


First album in eight years from the Madchester/Britpop veterans and happy to report the tank shows no signs of running dry on this evidence. Built on the rock solid foundations that we've come to know this band for, you can see songs like For The Girls, You Can't Push The River and Glad You Grabbed Me becoming firm favourites in the live arena. It's good to still have them with us.


You certainly wouldn't guess upon listening to this album by Lincoln rockers It's Karma It's Cool that it was the work of a band on their debut album. Blending an accomplished musicianship with a deft ear for a catchy hook, you'll hear echoes of everyone from the Foo Fighters to Feeder here but in a much more down to earth setting with the title track and 21st Century Meds being particular standouts.


First album in almost a decade from St Albans psychobilly-punks the Zipheads and certainly a comeback that defied a lot of expectations. Barrelling through the likes of How Do You Like Me Now? and Top of the World with commendably reckless abandon, this might just be this group's strongest offering to date - hopefully we won't have to wait as long this time for its follow-up!


No less than the sixth album from Oxford power-poppers Los Pepes and rest assured they are very much still going strong. Still trading in the sort of naggingly insistent hooks that get in your brain and don't let go, songs like Molly Coddle and Future History are a good representation of what makes this band so good and why they've managed to prolong their career as well as they have.

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And now for a much needed breather! We'll pick things up here again tomorrow as we head into the Top 50. Till then...

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