Blue lights, hexes and exes: Here are the best albums of 2025... So far
How many have you heard? And do you agree with our first-half of 2025 ranking?
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/06/27/blue-lights-hexes-and-exes-here-are-the-best-albums-of-2025-so-far
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00:00Hello and welcome to this week's Culture Review, where we're taking time, because we're approaching the middle of the year, to look at some of our best and favourite things.
00:08This week, David Morrican joins me to discuss music. Music matters, David. You've managed to get some of the enormous releases this year, down to 15. What's on the list?
00:19Well, in the 15, we had to whittle it down. It's already quite a tough ask to be able to do that. But we've got the new album by Haim, Barty Strange, Caliucci's as well, that we love at Euronews Culture.
00:32But basically, for the sake of brevity, we're focusing today on the top five albums this year, which have made our year at this midway point.
00:43So, without further ado, take us down, pop pickers from number five.
00:47Well, at number five, we've picked Pulp, their new album called More.
01:01Now, this is the new album by the figureheads, the reluctant figureheads of Britpop, Jarvis Cocker and his lot, who returned after 24 years of absence.
01:12And just in time for the 30th anniversary of perhaps their best known album, which is a different class in 1995.
01:20And this album is better than I ever could have expected.
01:26It won't convert any kind of new fans, I think.
01:29And it doesn't really reinvent the wheel.
01:31But what it does, it does in a really, really good way.
01:34It talks about ageing, about self-delusion, about sex, with their trademark kind of humour.
01:42But also, it really has this groovy, anthemic and humorous way of looking at these themes.
01:51And it is really a lot better than it had any right to be.
01:55So, hopefully, we won't have to wait another quarter of a century for the next album.
02:00But right now, More is everything that you could have wanted from a Pulp album.
02:06And more.
02:07OK, David, let's talk about number four, Jane Remover.
02:09Why has this made the chart?
02:11Well, this is their album, Revenge Seekers.
02:15Which is, I mean, Jane Remover is a 21-year-old, accomplished producer, multi-instrumentalist and rapper, 21.
02:27I mean, you know, to be able to do that at that age.
02:30And also, they have an uncanny ability to genre hop.
02:33So, their previous albums were very pop, very rock, and also in a genre called Daria Core.
02:41Daria Core, for people who don't know what that is, explain to us, please.
02:45Well, it's a micro-genre of hyper-pop, essentially, which references the animated series that was hugely popular in the late 90s and early 2000s.
02:56And it's a term coined by Jane Removers.
02:59And for this new album, Revenge Seekers, they dive straight into this blend of rap, of EDM, of video game glitches.
03:10It's really whiplash-inducing and very intense.
03:15But they managed to kind of master it in such an amazing way.
03:21And also with some really, really great collaborations.
03:24I'm thinking of the track Psycho Boost, which features Danny Brown.
03:28And here, it's almost like a really addictive soundtrack to a really wild night out.
03:35And it slaps hard.
03:41Sounds like something you'd want.
03:55It's especially coming up at the halfway point of the year.
03:57But this takes us neatly, perhaps, into the podium places, you know, the crucial podium places.
04:03What is number three on our charts?
04:05Number three is a recent discovery, which one of our colleagues, Theo, got me into, called Anastasia.
04:13And the album is called Tether.
04:15So it's not the Anastasia, the pop princess from the early 2000s.
04:19It's an American soul singer who has released this debut album this year.
04:24And many people may recognize her because she was in the video for Kendrick Lamar and Scissors' Luther, where she played the love interest.
04:33And here, this is this lush and gorgeous collection, and very taut as well, collection of folk soul songs.
04:43And it's almost chamber pop.
04:45But the thing that strikes the most with this album is her husky timbre.
04:52Now, an obvious reference point would be Tracy Chapman.
05:11But there's also a little bit of Sade in there, a little bit of almost Nina Simone.
05:15And what's worth celebrating about this album is that, like her British counterpart, Ray, she had a really tricky time getting it out because record execs and producers really wanted to mold her into something more commercial, more pop.
05:31And this album, Tether, just shows quite to what extent, well, you should have trusted her because it is glorious.
05:40High praise, indeed, on a lot of superlatives.
05:42I'm wondering if you can top that now.
05:44You know, I'm thinking, I know what number two is, Little Sims.
05:48Wow, amazing.
05:49What an album this year.
05:51I'm surprised it really didn't make number one.
05:53Yeah, I'm surprised as well.
05:55But yeah, Little Sims is our number two pick for her album Lotus, which is her sixth album.
06:02And her previous ones, like The Grey Area or sometimes I might be an introvert, kind of really established her as the reigning queen of hip hop in the UK and Europe in general.
06:13And Lotus really confirms it.
06:16It is this raw, honest, funny collection of songs, which really impresses.
06:36And it also features some wonderful collaborations from Youssef Days, Moses Sumney, Michael Kiwanuka as well, one of our favourites who's in there.
06:45And more than that, it had quite a troubled birth to the extent that Little Sims is currently in a legal battle with her producer and childhood friend Inflow.
06:58And this seems to have essentially stoked the flames of her creative fire.
07:04But beyond that, what I'll say as well is that the album cover, which is glorious, which is this blooming flower in darkness, really encapsulates the mood of the whole thing.
07:14And I can't recommend it enough.
07:16Wow.
07:16So what could be better than that, I'm wondering?
07:19Our number one spot is Kelala, In the Blue Light.
07:23This is a live album and it follows her 2023 album Raven, which I don't know if you remember, it was one of our favourite albums of last year.
07:34And it was this ambient dance record that plunged you back into the 90s club scene and it was really intoxicating.
07:45And now, two years later, you get this live album and the mood couldn't be more different.
07:51So it was recorded at the famous Blue Note Jazz Club in New York and the songs are stripped back.
08:16Gone are the electronics and they've been repurposed to almost suit the location.
08:23And it is stunning, absolutely stunning.
08:27And the best thing about this album is Kelala's vocal performance.
08:32I mean, it is just glorious.
08:34I lack the superlatives to say quite to what extent her voice has really like, you know, gone in leaps and bounds forward.
08:41And every time I listen to this record, like the hairs on my arms just stand up.
08:47It's just like more.
08:49So that is without a doubt our favourite album of the year so far.
08:53So far, it makes me want to look ahead to what else is coming up for the rest of this year.
08:59Can you give us any clips of what we should be listening out for?
09:01Yeah, there are some albums on the horizon that are definitely worth marking.
09:06There's the 13th album by The Divine Comedy, which is coming out soon.
09:10There's the new album by Kate Le Bon, who is just a genius.
09:15But also the return of Wet Leg, the Mercury Prize winning artists, and also War Phallus.
09:22I'm also going to make a special mention for Niloufar Yanya, who really impressed us last year with her album My Method Actor.
09:29And she's going to be releasing an EP of four songs this year called Dancing Shoes.
09:36And I really can't wait to hear what she's got in store for us next.
09:40Well, details of all of those choices are available right now on our website.