Five years of Add To Wantlist, and the underground music scene is still fighting the algorithm with the only weapon that matters: better music. Look, 2025 had plenty of reasons to spiral: A.I.-generated music clogging up the web like malware, streaming services paying artists in pennies while investing in war machines, shipping costs that make you weep, and indie labels on shoestring budgets battling tariffs and trade barriers. And yet—and yet!—the real music kept showing up like it had something to prove.
Because 2025? It was stacked with the good stuff. Tiny labels dropping masterpieces from basements. Bands recording in bedrooms, kitchens, storage units, sheds—somehow crafting songs with more soul than anything focus-grouped into existence. Punk bands running on spite and failing systems. Garage weirdos alchemizing chaos into pure joy. LGBTQ+ musicians turning their most vulnerable moments into anthems that hit like freight trains. Jangle-pop obsessives writing hooks so good they feel like they’ve existed forever. For those paying attention, it was a year full of human fingerprints on every beat, and it was everything.
And here’s the wildest part: people still give a damn. Scenes are rebuilding from the ground up. The daily release count keeps climbing. Bands are back on the road in whatever form of transport their budget allows. I witnessed a legendary pop punk label throw an anniversary show that sold out to a room full of believers who actually showed up and loved every second of it. I stood with 5,000 people losing their minds as the hottest band around redefined what a hardcore band can be. Every week brought a new obsession—some scrappy little record punching way above its weight class. And our blog grew this year, which means more of you beautiful weirdos have joined us in the crates. Welcome aboard!
So yeah, the world’s a mess. The internet’s a dumpster fire. But independent guitar music? Still kicking, still vital, still the best argument for why we started this blog in the first place: community, curiosity, and that unbeatable high of stumbling onto a band that sounds like everything you’ve been looking for.
Here are the 50 albums (plus 50 more) that, for me, made this year worth it. As Dennis wrote in his eclectic and amazing AOTY list this Tuesday—our overlap is minimal, so dig in—rankings are just taste. What matters is the joy, the discovery, that moment when a song connects and suddenly your day is better. My ranking criteria? Simple: which records did I love spending time with the most…
You’ll find all of them below. Enjoy reading, enjoy listening, and if something grabs you, the links go straight to Bandcamp or Discogs—and to earlier reviews when we wrote about them in depth. Check out our favorite short format releases of 2025 next week! Oh, and here is a playlist with 91% of my picks (FYI: pretty sure this time next year we’ll be on a different streaming service).
1. Lùlù || Lùlù
Give me a high-energy, super catchy tune with a strong beat and a bit of flair, and I’m fully recharged. This debut LP is packed with exactly those type of tunes. the joy is infectious, the hooks hypeworthy, the energy sincere. No other record brought me as much good vibes as this one, making it my favorite of the year.
2. The Telephone Numbers || Scarecrow II
If you’d ask me to explain the appeal of this one, I’d say all of it. The ridiculously gifted Thomas Rubenstein makes you fall in love with music again with this humble victory lap for a band that never stopped believing in the perfect (jangle) pop song.
3. Liquid Mike || Hell Is An Airport
Liquid Mike proves once again that nobody distills big-hearted indie rock into bite-sized bangers quite like this Marquette crew. Hell Is An Airport has everything that made me fall in love with the band in the first place, and while it’s exciting to see them receiving the hype they deserve, I love how consistently they remain true to their roots and ethos.
4. The Unknowns || Looking From The Outside
Punk rock is best when it’s raw, loud, and leaves no room to breathe—and Brisbane’s The Unknowns do exactly that here. This record contains one of punk’s finest stretches of the year with the knockout Hold My Shadow, I Know That You Know, Psychotic, and Tongue Tied.
5. The Tubs || Cotton Crown
The Tubs are a unique band in today’s musical landscape with all of their contradicting qualities. They are a rowdy and chaotic live band, yet their songs are full of tenderness, darkness, and melody. Cotton Crown is brimming with mesmerizing songs that claw underneath your skin and linger after you finally manage to stop listening to them.
6. Galore || Dirt
Galore’s multiple songwriters and singers give Dirt the feeling of getting four bands for the price of one. They effortlessly shift from scrappy garage pop to jangle charm to minimalistic fuzz pop to quirky post punk. I adore this record.
7. Ryan Allen || Livin’ On A Prayer On The Edge
On his seventh solo album, Ryan Allen fully leans into his love for crunchy guitars and alt-pop hooks while writing close to the heart. A personal record, yes, but it plays like a love letter to all of us—kids of all ages who still care deeply about guitar-driven pop music with heart and soul. BTW, don’t miss out on the other solo album he casually dropped in our laps this year.
8. Home Is Where || Hunting Season
The third LP by this Florida-rooted, country-scarred emo outfit plays like a concept album ghostwritten by George Saunders during a fever dream. It is a little Dylan, a little Gram Parsons, a little unhinged Florida punk, and all heart.
9. Faulty Cognitions || They Promised Us Heaven
Faulty Cognitions reach higher without losing the fire of their spectacular debut—punk rock songs that invoke both fists in the air and tears in the eyes.
10. Angel Face || Out In The Street
Angel Face are that rare thing: a supergroup that actually lives up to the idea. They play with the shared conviction of people who know exactly what kind of band they want to be — a late-’70s punk outfit with enough melody to hook the power pop kids and enough chaos to make you forget about The Replacements for a minute.
11. The Prize || In The Red
This highly anticipated release is power pop for Thin Lizzy devotees. The Prize’s triple-guitar setup is a weapon, not a gimmick, the interplay feeling like a friendly competition, each guitarist throwing down lines too good to cut, resulting in skyscrapers of riffs stacked beneath soaring hooks.
12. The Goods || Don’t Spoil the Fun
The Goods’ debut LP breathes, glows, and lingers. It has that timeless guitar-pop warmth where melody reigns supreme. It’s familiar by design, flawless in execution, and irresistibly easy to fall for.
13. Sharp Pins || Balloon Balloon Balloon
Kai Slater is a spectacular talent operating in our beloved lo-fi, left-of-the-dial guitar-pop trenches. Balloon Balloon Balloon feels like his most fully realized work yet.
14. Aweful Kanawful || Endless Pleasure
Glorious crash-pop chaos from rock ’n’ roll stuntman Austin Lake (Televisionaries), who pulls from surf, rockabilly, classic rock ’n’ roll, protopunk, and power pop. This is one talented dude who can truly play, sing, and scream beautifully.
15. Good Luck || Big Dreams, Mister
In a certain corner of the indie universe, Good Luck are legends, and this comeback record—full of their trademark mix of heart, grit, and joy—further builds their legacy.
16. Joel Cusumano || Waxworld
Waxworld is the sound of someone who loves pop music too much to play it straight, a truth you hear immediately in its inventive, fully realized ideas. It is an extremely rewarding album whose best moments exceed the power pop or indie rock tag, delivering more than a few would-be college radio hits.
17. Tony Molina || On This Day
Tony Molina offers a masterclass in writing timeless guitar-pop melodies for attention spans too short to sit through a three-minute song. Every note counts on this record and by the time you realize how good a song is, it’s already over and the next one is punching you in the heart.
18. Exploding Flowers || Watermelon/Peacock
Exploding Flowers masterfully blend jangle pop, power pop, and psych influences. Every time I play this record, I am blown away by how good it is. This band should be huge.
19. Ryli || Come and Get Me
A beautifully crafted indie pop record made by people who truly get it. It’s classic indie pop in the best way—warm, melodic, a little sad, and deeply comforting.
20. Evening Standards || Prairie Vida
Evening Standards write about ordinary lives with extraordinary care, chronicling how love, friendship, and music can keep the darkness at bay. What sets this band’s basement pop apart is the spirit—heart, grit, integrity—and the dual vocals that make every line feel communal and true.
21. Loose Lips || Last Laugh
Front to back, Last Laugh is pure, unfiltered rock ’n’ roll—the kind of record that makes you take the long way home, just to squeeze in another spin behind the wheel. Having to rank this one alongside LPs from The Prize and The Unknowns was the best kind of problem.
22. The Cords || The Cords
A spectacular indie pop debut from a Scottish sister duo who take the barest setup—guitar, drums, voices—and make it sound like a revelation. All sweetness on the surface, with a punk heartbeat and restless energy underneath.
23. Turnstile || Never Enough
Turnstile was the hottest band of 2025, and if there’s one rabbit hole I don’t mind falling into, it’s watching footage from their shows in parks, under bridges, on Tiny Desks—wherever. Did I like Mystery more than Never Enough? Sure. But I love how the band keeps taking hardcore to interesting new places, and their Amsterdam gig was my favorite of the year, their sense of style and cool unmatched.
24. Radioactivity || Time Won’t Bring Me Down
Radioactivity sound as fierce and urgent as ever. These songs burn with the precision and power that define Jeff Burke’s work—minimal chords, maximum emotion. He wrings every drop of feeling out of a single note, then detonates it in a rush of hooks. His voice still carries that perfect storm of angst, melancholy, and defiance.
25. Pigeon Pit || Crazy Arms // Leash Aggression
Pigeon Pit’s unique blend of punk, country, bluegrass, and emo may sound semi-acoustic on paper, but it’s nothing short of electrifying in execution. The communal energy and raw passion behind every strum, beat, and scream are downright infectious, the line between joy and goosebumps razor thin. This year, the band released two albums, and I may be cheating by including them both, but they are both worth this spot.
26. The Cowboys || Captain Easy’s Downfall
No two Cowboys records are the same, but you always get quirky, catchy melodies that run the gamut from punk to classic rock ’n’ roll. Behind the playful exterior is sharp, masterful songwriting, and with its 19 tracks of variety and hooks, this might be my favorite Cowboys record yet.
27. Lone Striker || Lone Striker
Tom Brown (Teenage Tom Petties, Rural France) caught me off guard in the best way possible with this new solo project. Driven by his love for warped Americana acts like Silver Jews and Sparklehorse, Lone Striker sounds intimate, unpredictable and awesome.
28. Nära Döden || Villkorslöst
Drawing from ’70s post-punk and the 2000s Swedish punk and indie scene, the band somehow sounds like Marked Men and Alvvays joining forces. Villkorslöst is an essential indie punk listen—dark, infectious, and impossible to shake.
29. Dumbells || Up Late With
This all-star Australian line-up have access to the same chords and notes as everyone else, yet they always seem to choose the right ones, placing them in the most exciting order. The result is a raw, psych-infused indie rock ‘n’ roll sound that transcends genre boundaries.
30. Transistors || Everything Will Never Happen Again
A bloody awesome punky power pop album New Zealand style, which may or may not have been recorded and finished a decade ago. The high energy makes the hooks hit even harder, and if you’d ask me what kind of music I’m into, I’d push this record forward and let hits like Consolation Prize and Ogden City Mall do the talking.
31. Sekunderna || Hits
The single-word version of any review of the new Sekunderna LP is right there in the title: Hits. The band continues to channel their Jeff Burke worship into something unmistakably their own—now with even more fervor, variety, and harmony.
32. Melvic Centre || Trawler
One of my favorite discoveries of the year. Heart, soul, and tuneful melodies by a band that can flat out play. RIYL: Big Drill Car, Shades Apart, Farside, Lemonheads.
33. K9 || Thrills
Thrills is a fast, fun, and dynamic record full of scrappy, melodic, full-of-heart tunes. Draw a Venn diagram with power pop, jangle, punk rock, alt rock, alt pop, and college rock, and smack dab in the middle you’ll find K9.
34. Dark Thoughts || Highway To The End
11 songs in 16 minutes, each one buzzing with relentless energy and zero filler. If there’s a tighter, faster, dirtier Ramonescore band on the planet, introduce me, because Dark Thoughts are playing like they’ve strapped rockets to their guitars
35. The Wind-Ups || Confection
This is pop music with the subtlety of a sledgehammer through a storefront window, but underneath the hiss and noise Jake Sprecher writes lo-fi pop punk bubblegum music that would make Joey Ramone and Brian Wilson smile in approval.
36. Now || Now Does The Trick
Lo-fi collage pop from the Bay Area underground (members of Cindy, Thunder Boys and Violent Change), a wildly entertaining pop record that lands four or five decades late yet right on time.
37. Elvis 2 || Thank You Very Much
There are so many fun and dirty riffs here that I quickly lost count. But honestly, trying to keep score misses the point. Thank You Very Much is built for a full-body, below-the-neck experience. Unhinged and hyperactive.
38. Star 99 || Gaman
This is the kind of alt-pop that indie punks will appreciate, and vice versa. Or as Star 99 calls it: hard twee. You want something sweet? Something sour? Something bittersweet, perhaps? You’ll find all of that here.
39. Cruelster || Make Them Wonder Why
30 minutes of punk chaos out of Cleveland. Cruelster sound like the kind of people who’d steal your car, then show up at your house two hours later with tacos and a great story. It’s unpredictable, but not without charm. I mean, look at this video, how can you not love these guys!
40. Prism Shores || Out From Underneath
Despite hailing from Canada, Prism Shores pull influences from all corners, blending UK indie and Britpop with Aussie/NZ jangle and Bay Area fog pop. When I wrote my review, I described this as an ambitious and rewarding record, but I have since grown even fonder of it.
41. Vanity Mirror || Super Fluff Forever
If you’re up for 35 minutes of ‘60s psych-pop excellence, give this one a spin. Around every corner, another irresistible melody is waiting to win you over. As do surprising sonic turns.
42. Dauber || Falling Down
Dauber might be a trio, but they make a glorious racket carving out a gritty little niche for themselves—part ’80s American underground, part hyperactive basement show energy—with just the right mix of melody and menace.
43. Algernon Cadwallader || Trying Not to Have a Thought
Algernon Cadwallader return in original lineup with sparks still flying. More than a “nice to have” addition to the band’s discography, Trying Not to Have a Thought feels essential. This is Algernon Cadwallader at their best: raw, inventive.
44. Personality Cult || Dilated
I love discovering new bands, but rediscovering an old favorite through certified fresh material? That remains a special kind of thrill. These ten tracks are classic Personality Cult: sharp, hooky, and high-energy.
45. Leatherman || Turn You On
Leatherman are part of a new wave of female-fronted rock’n’roll bands (Romero, Sheer Mag, R.A.B.B.I.T, A Giant Dog) that channel Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest while clearly growing up on punk. And let me tell you, Turn You On is one hard rockin’ debut. Play loud!
46. Hormones || Hot for Hormones
What a year for Beth Seymour, who also released two stellar records as Beth & The Lizzies, but this ramonescore hit fest was my favorite. Instead of singing about happy families or not wanting to go down to basements, the Hormones write about coming out of the closet, and telling your parents they don’t have a son. Clearly, it’s not a Hormones revolution if you can’t bounce and scream along to it.
47. Teenage Tom Petties || Rally The Tropes
Rally The Tropes is scrappy, catchy indie rock at its best. Recorded in just two days, it makes life sound a little better, one perfectly ragged two-minute song at a time.
48. La-goons || Answering Machine
This solo project by Timothy Evett has some serious late ’00s Dirtnap vibes but with unexpected twists. It’s one of those under the radar records that I’m sure I will love for years to come.
49. The States || Gimme Joy
The 7-song mini-album lives up to the promise of its pedigree (members of The Prize, Mr Teenage, Tuffy and Delivery). The States play with swagger, packing their songs with old-school guitar riffs, thick bass lines, pounding beats, and kickass, powerhouse vocal performances.
50. Lone Wolf || Dark Thoughts
Lone Wolf is a tight pack that clearly enjoys each other’s company, and that chemistry punches through your speakers and demands attention. Their fourth LP is as angsty as it is excellent. This is indie punk as emotional armor, and it fits like a battle-worn leather jacket.
Find more of the good good stuff below (#51-100 in alphabetical order)
Autocamper || What Do You Do All Day?
Autumn Rhythm || Let It Be
Beth Seymour & The Lizzies || You Wouldn’t Like It Inside My Head // Outside, You’d Love Me To Death
Citric Dummies || Split with Turnstile
The Covids || Pay No Mind
Creative Writing || Baby Did This
Cult Crime || Cult Crime
The Dogmatics || Nowheresville
Dropkick || Primary Colours
Dumb Things || Self Help
Fast Kids || Fast Kids Forever
Feedbacks || Bring Back The Light
Flathead || Flathead
Friends of Cesar Romero || Spider Dreamer Sweet Tooth
Ghoulies || Shafted By The Algorithm
Golden Shitters || Brutal Planet
Good Flying Birds || Tallulah’s Tape
Heavy Möther II || Heavy Möther II
Michael Horrible || Horrible Songs…
Hunx and His Punx || Walk Out On This World
I Wanna Be A Truck Driver || While No One’s Looking
Jeanines || How Long Can It Last
Josie || A Life on Sweets Alone
Keddies Resort || A Killer Goodbye & American Spirit
Laxisme || Laxisme
Lutheran Heat || Hi Again
Brad Marino || On The Brink
Massage || Coaster
Monnone Alone || Here Comes the Afternoon
N.E. Vains || Running Down Pylons
Pavid Vermin || The Life of a Showgirl
Pedico || Beach Justice
Prise Rapide || Trop Plein
Private Lives || Salt of the Earth
Psychic Pigs || Psychic Pigs
Ricky Rochelle || Second Layer
The Sino Hearts || Mondo Paradiso
The Situations || Winning Home and Away
Small Yards || Small Yards
Smug Brothers || Stuck On Beta
Snakeheads || Belconnen Highs
So Cow || Rebel Bishop
STERÖID || CHAINMAIL COMMANDOS
Suzzallo || The Quiet Year
Sweet Nobody || Driving Off to Nowhere
Vista Blue || Clear Eyes, Full Hearts
Water Machine || God Park
Wisconsin Anger Team || Beyond The Everest Crater III
Xray Xeroxx || Nevermind, Whatever
Yuasa-Exide || Hyper at the Gates of Dawn
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