On repeat
What's been in my ears this year
There are ‘Best of’ lists everywhere at this time of the year and as dusk fell yesterday I decided I would pile on in. Here are my Top Ten albums for 2025. Very few of them were actually released this year, and if my list has any coherence it’s perhaps to do with it being chock-full of ‘discoveries’ that everyone else presumably knows all about?!
‘Blue Abstraction: Prepared Piano Project 1985-1987’ by Jessica Williams
A very late entry and at no. 10 only because of that — I came across this album a few days ago. Haunting honky-tonk.
‘You Must be Certain of the Devil’ by Diamanda Galas (1986)
I don’t know why it took me so long to get to Diamanda Galas. Raw, unfettered, unholy vocality.
‘Maxinquaye’ (Deluxe Edition) by Tricky (1995)
Pure nostalgia. The soundtrack to my last year at school, to my dancing alone in the dark.
‘birdtalking’ by Ute Wassermann (2022)
I just find this so joyful! Humans have imitated birdsong for ever, but in the voice of Ute it becomes something else entirely.
‘Hejira’ by Joni Mitchell (1976)
An oldie, and another goodie that I had somehow overlooked until this year.
‘Hemlocks, Peacocks’ by Will Mason Quartet (2025)
I probably discovered this one through Peter Margasak. I’d never heard of this quartet, but its microtonal shimmering is just my sort of jazz.
‘Plaisir d’amour’ by Le Poème Harmonique (2004)
Classical music! But I suppose it isn’t really: French folk songs sung delectably by champions of the French baroque.
‘Trifle’ by Lone Taxidermist (2017)
Any album with a song called ‘Knicker Elastic’ has to be a winner. An old release by Cumbrian musician Natalie Sharp that has cheered up many a long train journey.
‘Josquin: The Undead’ by Graindelavoix (2021)
Just how Josquin should be sung, surely. So very unBritish.
‘A Year from Easter’ by Christian Wallumrød (2005)
I have returned to this album again and again, especially track 2, ‘Eliasong’. Apple Music says it’s jazz but I think it’s hygge.
‘On repeat’ used to be a quarterly round-up, and I’ve been writing it since 2023, when I first joined Substack. The best thing is hearing back from readers about the albums that they have been listening to—do leave a comment with one of your top ten!
I’ve written less here this year. The second half of 2025 felt a little bit out of control, work-wise, and I guess I just didn’t have the breathing space to cogitate and then put finger to keyboard… And it’s been odd to watch Substack become flooded with social-media-style posts. That’s not my jam: I love this platform for its longer-form writing. But there is still plenty of that and there are brilliant writers joining all the time and I’m still amazed that I have a readership at all! Thank you to everyone who has engaged in any way, and I send you all the very best vibrations for 2026.
