Nite Songs Top 75 Albums of 2025 - Part 6 (20-11)
Getting close to the top of the chart now as we head into the Top 20. Needless to say that anything in this bit you've missed, you really should investigate pronto...
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A genuine unexpected triumph of an album - Gulp's third album sounds like some sort of cross between the icy electronica of New Order and the laconic psychedelia of Mazzy Star with maybe a hint of All About Eve and Ooberman at their most melancholy. Featuring Super Furry Animals man Guto Pryce, this is another great album which seems to have undeservedly sailed under a lot of people's radars.
Honestly, I'm not sure if Benefits actually could have pulled the same trick twice following on from their debut album Nails last year. That record was so brutal and uncompromising, veering into pure white noise in places, that it really was the sort of thing you could only really listen to once. However, here's the rub, by adding a bit of finesse to their sound, they've made the step up from being a worthy band to a genuinely vital one. Sounding like Idles did in that all too brief period circa Ultra Mono where they genuinely felt like the future of punk, songs such as Constant Noise, Land of the Tyrants and Relentless see this new stealthy approach with the message allowed to bleed through the wall of sound, paying dividends to devastated effect. Looks like this band have well and truly arrived.
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18. SUEDE - "Antidepressants"
Possibly the biggest challenge that Antidepressants was going to face was just how good Suede's previous album Autofiction was and yes, truth be told, it wasn't quite as good as that one. But make no mistake, it's still a far superior album to what most bands of this vintage are coming out with nowadays and songs like Dancing With The Europeans, Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star and Broken Music For Broken People can easily stand toe to toe in this group's impressive back catalogue since their reformation over a decade ago.
Self Titled might just be Kae Tempest's strongest album to date. Recorded in the wake of his transition, it's a much more self-reflective album than the pure political anger of its predecessors but the overall message, despite the confusion, anger and despair which run through a lot of the tracks is one of hope, defiance and standing up to be yourself. The likes of Statue In The Square and the tender Sunshine on Catford show that Tempest is getting better all the time as a lyricist and he can congratulate himself on a job well done here.
Penfriend is one of those artists who is continuing to get better with every release and House of Stories represents some of her most fully realised work to date. Songs such as Emotional Tourist, Survival Information and the rueful closer Disco Loadout show Laura Kidd at her most observant and overall, there's a real connection to the music here which seems stronger than before. We look forward to seeing where she goes next.
Stripped back, raw and skeletal, Moonlight Concessions is the sound of Kristin Hersh at her most frank. Based around simple acoustic guitar and voice arrangements, there's a tenderness amid the rawness here which makes this a very engaging listen and songs such as Summer Of Love, Theremini and Drugstore Drastic reel you in with Hersh's natural ability as a storyteller. A great album from a band who are sounding genuinely revitalised at the moment.
It may only have been little over a year in between the Dead Pioneers' debut and this, their sophomore but it's safe to say that the state of things over in the US has gone from bad to worse quite rapidly in that time. Building on the basic template of that debut but expanding the sound without losing any of the righteous ferocity that made them a standout band to begin with, this is the sound of the Dead Pioneers well and truly announcing their arrival on the world stage and tunes such as My Spirit Animal Ate Your Spirit Animal and Caucasity show that they've lost none of the vital fury that got them there. With at least another three years of things looking likely to get worse before they get better, you suspect that the Dead Pioneers are going to be an essential band to help get us all through this.
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13. BEANS ON TOAST - "Kill Them With Kindness"
Beans on Toast continues to be as prolific a songwriter as he is a presence on our end of year best of lists and Kill Them With Kindness is another slam dunk from the guy. Following 2024's more stripped back Wild Goose Chasers, this sees Jay McAllister operating with a full band again and Kill Them With Kindness shifts between Billy Bragg style political polemic (Comfortable In The Counterculture, Gods, Children and Robots, The Fall Of The Establishment) and lighter more whimsical moments (Our Cat, The Glastonbury Oak, A Real Rock 'n' Roller). Yup, he may be a regular presence on these lists but there's no denying that it's good to have him here.
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Write the Darkness off at your peril. Following a couple of albums which felt slightly phoned in, a few of us were wondering if this band were now very much in law of diminishing returns territory but Dreams on Toast turned out to be their strongest effort for a good few years. Tapping into the trademark silliness that's informed a lot of their output (Hot On My Tail appears to be an ode to having an upset stomach pre-coitus) but keeping it on the right side of drifting into cringiness, the likes of Rock 'n' Roll Party Cowboy and Battle For Gadget Land will make you grin but also make you nod your head along to the undeniable riffs therein. This might just be their best album since Hot Cakes nearly a decade ago.
Sparks' elevation in recent years from cult band to global musical treasures has been heartening to see and Mad! clearly shows how well deserved it is. This is the sort of album that could really only be Sparks with the likes of Running Up A Tab At The Hotel For The Fab, A Little Bit Of Light Banter and the ode to driving the interstates that is I-405 Rules showing that the group's recent excellent run of form shows no signs of slowing down.
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It's the big one tomorrow - check back in to see which albums made our Top 10!
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