For the Record: January 2, 2026.
25 recordings that made 2025 a better place to be, plus more shortlists of outstanding records issued last year.
Four minutes and 10 seconds into “Unknown Door,” the 22-minute song that opens Dominion, there’s a key change that took my breath away the first time I heard it. Being entirely honest, I’ve spent more hours listening to that album – the 12th full-length studio release by IQ, a British “neo-prog” rock band that formed in 1981 – than any other record released in 2025. And that key change still makes my heart jump… I envy the fans who’ll be the first to hear the song played live, whenever and wherever that happens.
But this newsletter isn’t about my rock music fandom or proggy inclinations, which is why you won’t find Dominion on this list of the 25 contemporary concert and creative music releases just under this preamble. (You’ll find it on a brief Rock & pop list further down.)
As usual, I’m not calling this list a “Best of 2025” tally: no one can hear everything released in any given year, though Thurston Moore might make you think otherwise. Rather, this is a personal selection of 25 outstanding recordings that arrived in 2025 and stuck with me for weeks and months, helping to make a challenging year a better place to be. The list easily could have been twice this long. And yeah, I counted this year’s three miraculous Tim Barnes records as a single pick… really, who could choose?
In each of the following lists I’ve ranked one album at No. 1, citing everything else alphabetically. For the Rock & pop, Classical music & opera, and Reissues & archival lists, the top spot was claimed easily and definitively. There were several strong contenders for the top spot on the main list, however, and only through diligent repeat listening in recent weeks did Hannah Kendall claim the top spot with a towering declaration of arrival, vocabulary, and mission.
25 for ’25.
✭ Hannah Kendall - shouting forever into the receiver - Ensemble Modern/Vimbayi Kaziboni, Anne Denholm-Blair, Loadbang, Jonathan Morton, The Hallé/Jonathan Bloxham, Louise McMonagle, Wavefield Ensemble (NMC)
Ambrose Akinmusire - honey from a winter stone (Nonesuch)
Tim Barnes - Inside Energy (Island House) + Lost Words (Thrill Jockey) + Noumena (Thrill Jockey)
Christopher Cerrone - Don’t Look Down - Elspeth Davis, Conor Hanick, Sandbox Percussion (Pentatone)
Raven Chacon - Voiceless Mass - Present Music (New World)
Francisco del Pino/Charlotte Mundy - The Sea (Notice Recordings)
Natacha Diels - Somewhere Beautiful (Carrier)
Nick Dunston - Reverse Broadcast - Wet Ink Ensemble (Carrier)
Jacob Garchik - Ye Olde II: At the End of Time (Yestereve)
Mary Halvorson - About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
Sarah Hennies - SOVT - Richard Valitutto (elsewhere)
Wednesday Knudsen - Atrium (SPINSTER)
Lex Korten - Canopy (Sounderscore)
Timothy McCormack - mine but for its sublimation (Another Timbre)
more eaze & claire rousay - no floor (Thrill Jockey)
James Opstad - Drift - GBSR Duo, Apartment House, Heather Roche (Another Timbre)
Kory Reeder - Homestead - Apartment House (Another Timbre)
Vanessa Rossetto - Pictures of the Warm South (Erstwhile)
claire rousay - a little death (Thrill Jockey)
Patrick Shiroishi - Forgetting Is Violent (American Dreams)
Linda Catlin Smith - The Complete Piano Solos (1989-2023) Vol. 1 - The Plains - Cheryl Duvall (Redshift Music)
Pat Thomas - HIKMAH (Tao Forms)
Henry Threadgill - Listen Ship (Pi Recordings)
Tropos - Switches (Endectomorph)
John Zorn - The Complete String Quartets - JACK Quartet (Tzadik)
10 Rock & pop highlights.
✭ IQ - Dominion (Giant Electric Pea)
Castle Rat - The Bestiary (King Volume)
CMAT - Euro-Country (Awal)
Demon Sluice - Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire (Negative Wingspan)
Hedonist - Scapulimancy (Southern Lord)
Natalia Lafourcade - Cancionera (Sony Music México)
Oromet - The Sinking Isle (Transylvanian Recordings)
Ritual Mass - Cascading Misery (20 Buck Spin)
Rosalía - Lux (Columbia)
Xordox - Terraform (Ectopic Ents.)
10 Classical music & opera highlights.
✭ Michael Tippett - New Year - Rhian Lois, Ross Ramgobin, Susan Bickley, Roland Wood, Robert Murray, Rachel Nicholls, Alan Oke, BBC Singers, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins (NMC Recordings)
Johann Sebastian Bach – Mass in B minor – Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon (Harmonia Mundi)
Ludwig van Beethoven - The Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2 - Ariel Quartet (Orchid Classics)
Claude Debussy – String Quartet in G minor; Karol Szymanowski – String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 – Belcea Quartet (Alpha)
Philip Glass/Robert Wilson – Einstein on the Beach – Suzanne Vega, Collegium Vocale Gent, Ictus/Tom De Cock (vlek)
Patricia Kopatchinskaja – Exile – Thomas Kaufmann, Camerata Bern/Patricia Kopatchinskaja; compositions by Alfred Schnittke, Andrzej Panufnik, Franz Schubert, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Eugène Ysaÿe, and anonymous (Alpha)
György Ligeti - String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2; Béla Bartók - String Quartet No. 4 - Marmen Quartet (Bis)
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3 in D minor – Catriona Morison, Pueri gaudentes, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Czech Philharmonic/Semyon Bychkov (Pentatone)
Telegraph Quartet - Edge of the Storm - compositions by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg (Azica)
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9 - London Symphony Orchestra/Antonio Pappano (LSO Live)
10 Reissues and archival highlights.
✭ Derek Bailey & John Stevens - The Duke of Wellington (Confront)
Tim Berne’s Snakeoil - SNAKEOIL OK (Screwgun)
The Dream Syndicate - Medicine Show: I Know What You Like (Down There)
Hüsker Dü - 1985: The Miracle Year (Numero Group)
Evan Parker/Paul Rogers/Louis Moholo - Tebugo (Jazz in Britain)
Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley - Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance)
Charles Tyler Ensemble - Voyage from Jericho (Fredericksburg)
Various artists - The Alien Territory Archives: A Collection of Radical, Experimental and Irrelevant Music from 1970’s San Diego - compositions and performances by Pauline Oliveros, Harry Partch, Diamanda Galas, Warren Burt, David Dunn, Robert Turman, Joji Yuasa, KIVA, Ernie Morgan, Peter Gordon, Kathy Acker, Alexina Louie, Kenneth Gaburo, and more (Nyahh)
Various artists - The Bottle Tapes (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Andrew Weathers Ensemble - Fuck Everybody, You Can Do Anything (Debacle)
New and upcoming releases will return next Friday, January 9. Happy New Year, everyone, and thanks for joining me in this continuing adventure.
Photo credits for “25 for ’25” collage:
Hannah Kendall: Emily Denny; claire rousay & more eaze: courtesy Bandcamp; Nick Dunston: Gaya; Charlotte Mundy & Francisco del Pino: Justin Wright; Christopher Cerrone: Jacob Blickenstaff; Linda Catlin Smith: Claire Harvie; Patrick Shiroishi: courtesy of the artist; Tim Barnes: Megan Bean; John Zorn: courtesy of John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Raven Chacon: Adam Conte; Sarah Hennies: Rob Davidson for Miller Theatre at Columbia University; Pat Thomas: Dawid Laskowski
I somehow missed the Hannah Kendall, so thanks! As you say, no one can listen to everything.
Sweet to be included here, Steve! I look forward to following along with some of these that are outside my bubble. Many thanks.