Dennis

Music Year-End List || Dennis’ Favorite Singles and EPs of 2025

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Country & Folk, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych, Punk, Surf / Leave a Comment

Last week we posted the overviews of our favorite LPs of 2025 (here is Niek’s, there is mine), but this year also saw countless short-format releases that deserve to be listed. Below you can listen to the 50 singles and EPs that I enjoyed most last year (note: individual songs are excluded), in alphabetical order. Links point to Bandcamp or another sales outlet (the titles), and to previously posted reviews (in the body text).

While I traditionally prefer albums, if only because you don’t have to get up as often to turn the record over, but also because it literally gives you more time to immerse yourself in the artist’s world, I’m increasingly enjoying the pleasures of singles and EPs. They’re often explosions of positive energy packed with hooks, which immediately make for a good time, and that was certainly the case over the past 12 months. If this were the soundtrack to a night out, I’d return home exhausted but utterly delighted.

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New album: The Photocopies || Counterintuition

Heartfelt fuzz-pop melodies amid boredom, burnout, and backlash

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Just when you think Sean Turner is finally slowing down, new work from The Photocopies pops up in our mailbox. With Counterintuition, he adds ten new songs to his already impressive discography (plus eight equally enjoyable bonus tracks, for those still unconvinced by his unbridled productivity). It all seems so easy, but what lies behind all those sugar-rush melodies?

The lyrics here suggest a world where personal lives and public forces collide: love persists amid boredom, fear, and precarity, while hope flickers stubbornly against systems that seem designed to grind people down. It fits the DIY approach, born from a lack of any budget, as nicely reflected in the title track: “Got a world full of nothing and I’m losing my way // Happens to me every time.”

All things considered, we listeners benefit: this combination of warm melodrama and charming energy with jangly riffs and earworm choruses is simply so enjoyable that we can’t, and won’t, ignore it.



Counterintuition—written, performed, and recorded by Sean Turner—is out digitally, on cassette, CD, and 10″ vinyl, through Plastidisc / Subjangle. The digital en CD version have eight bonus tracks from recent digital-only releases.

Add to wantlist @ Bandcamp: Photocopies || Plastidisc || Subjangle

New single: The Lemon Drop Gang || Mind and Wine

A double dose of punked-up energy

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

The Lemon Drop Gang returns with a double A-side single that underlines our previously expressed enthusiasm. My Mind’s Got a Mind of Its Own and Wine Song basically blend 60s garage rock and 70s power pop—gritty and commanding in both instrumentation and vocals—but then they take it a step further with fiery punk-funk and cinematic rhythm & blues influences, respectively. The songs twist and turn, playing with confidence and urgency, hiding darker edges beneath the hooks. Unsettling, in the right way.

Mind and Wine, recorded by Matt Rendon, is out now digitally via Rum Bar Records. Featuring Steph O’Halloran (vocals), Johnny O’Halloran (guitars, saw), D. Walker (bass), and Matt Rendon (drums), with Jimmy Carr (piano) on Wine Song.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: The Roves || Pope & The Computer

Warm melodies hiding big questions about care and belonging

By / / Indie Pop, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

As the year draws to a close, the flood of new releases has calmed down, but luckily we can count on British indie pop stalwarts The Roves for a nice surprise. In mid-December 2022, they released the Needle Factory LP, which they now follow up with the mini-album Pope & The Computer—seven songs in 23 minutes—around the same time. It paints a nervous portrait of modern emotional life: people desperate to connect but never quite managing to say the right thing, or be heard at all.

On a bed of shimmering guitars and a solid sound, the lyrics circle insecurity, loneliness and quiet mental-health struggles, mixing self-blame, social comparison, and romantic jealousy with the dull grind of work, financial worries and days slipping by without resolution. Yet a gloomy phrase like “I’ve got money in my hand // But it never lasts forever, oh no” can easily turn into an infectious “Woah yeah” (in I Don’t Know Yet). The warm melodies, rich orchestration, and vibrant harmonies ensure an uplifting remembrance no matter what.



Pope & The Computer—produced by Dom Monks—is out now digitally and on 12″ vinyl through Discotif / The State51 Conspiracy.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Jay Millar || Peppermint Shake

"Boogie to the left, boogie to the right"

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

We’ve come to know Frankston, Australia-based singer-songwriter/guitarist Jay Millar—still in his teens—as the brain behind The Gnomes, whose self-titled debut LP made it into the top 20 of my year-end list, but there’s plenty more where that came from. At home in his bedroom, he writes and records one banger after another—not intimate bedroom pop, but cheerful garage beat—and here we hear some great examples of that.

This new solo album, Peppermint Shake, is a wonderful and telling release—the artist aptly describes it as “five originals and five covers, all in mono, nothing serious, just a bit of fun”—that perfectly captures what the prodigy stands for and where his heart lies. In terms of style, theme, and quality, the originals easily rival the well-chosen covers—Love Potion No. 9 (The Clovers) is probably the most famous cut here—as everything here is equally exciting and danceable, before closing track Goodbye lets you recover.



Peppermint Shake is out now digitally via Goblin Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Music Year-End List || Dennis’ Favorite Albums of 2025

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Country & Folk, Funk & Soul, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych, Punk / 3 Comments

“When the universe looks right at you // You’d be wise to hold its gaze // Averted, missed opportunities // A crisis on its way” (from Universe Blues by Moon Orchids).

“What once was pure through your childish eyes is complicated by the truth // What once was pure as a shot so sure has you longing for a time // When you could stand judging right and wrong through tight drawn blinds // At safe distance” (from At Safe Distance by Patterson Hood).

We live in uncertain times, but music still knows how to meet us wherever we are, whether by giving voice to our feelings, offering an empathetic hug, or simply providing a much-needed distraction. The journeys songwriters take—often more compelling than any destination—lead us through personal and family reconciliation, anxiety and imagination, nostalgia and escapism, emotions and vulnerability, holding on and giving up. Bridging past and present, my favorite musicians and new discoveries shape their messages and sounds with equal parts mind and heart (usually with a guitar in hand, but that goes without saying). Throughout last year, there was plenty to appreciate, if not get completely lost in.

In 2025, I checked out 2,600+ new albums—it’s far from possible to listen to everything that came out—which ultimately led to a diverse longlist of 130 wantlist-worthy releases (the ones I was able to buy are shown in the photo above). Let’s dive in. The 50 records I liked and played the most—is there any accounting for taste?—are listed below, each with a standout song embedded (it’s all about the music after all). Links point to Discogs or Bandcamp (the headings), and where available to our previously posted, more extensive reviews (in the body text). As always: add to your wantlist—or even better: your collection—whatever you like!

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New album: Swansea Sound || All Is Calm

The soundtrack for a sad, angry, strangely joyful Christmas

By / / Indie Pop, Indie Rock / Leave a Comment

A fixture at this time of year since 2021, and yes, here they are again. Swansea Sound brightens your bleak midwinter with All Is Calm, a mini-album collecting six previously released Christmas songs (including the fantastic glam-rock-tinged earworm (I Wanna Wear A) Mirrored Hat Like Slade from 2024, and a rollicking cover of Cheap Trick’s Merry Christmas Darlings from 2022), supplemented with two brand-new tracks.

As ever, the British supergroup turns festive cheer into sharp-eyed satire: Not My Order spirals into the panic of last-minute online shopping (“Don’t expect too much this year // Cos I made an online purchase”), while Click It And Pay (Walking In The Air) reimagines a cut from 2023’s Twentieth Century LP as as a duet between frantic consumer Hue Williams and overworked warehouse picker Amelia Fletcher. This is what real indie rock must be.



All Is Calm is out now digitally and on limited 12″ vinyl—a hand-stamped LP with balloons, a paper hat, cracker jokes about other bands, and a signed greetings card.—through Skep Wax Records. Featuring Hue Williams (vocal), Amelia Fletcher (vocal), Bob Collins (guitar), Rob Pursey (guitar, bass), and Ian Button (drums).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Rough Trade || Skep Wax

New EP: The Gunshy || Hurricane Umbrellas

Like spending time with a friend who works hard at his craft because he loves it, and so do you

By / / Alternative Rock, Country & Folk, Indie Pop / 1 Comment

“I’m barely a guitar player, I can’t sing worth a damn, and I put too many words in my songs, but I really love making music.” Matt Arbogast of The Gunshy knows his limitations, yet he delivers a full-lengther that’s more than worth your time. Hurricane Umbrellas not only has a beautiful title, but also beautiful music and lyrics. You’ll hear twelve warm, quietly devastating folk-rock tracks—late-night, word-heavy stories—built from thousands of satisfying hours in his Chicago home studio, and it shows in the best way.

This may be the seventh Gunshy album, but it feels more like a debut from someone who’s already lived several lifetimes. After two decades of gut-punch songwriting, Arbogast has rebuilt himself: sober and cleaned up, he created his most welcoming, lived-in album yet, full of honest details, softened edges, and contributions from a dream team of players who know exactly how to serve a song.

It may be a bit wobbly, but even more so it’s charming and fascinating—an intimate portrait of an artist rediscovering purpose and presence, where hard-won wisdom and comforting arrangements shape a stunning reinvention. For fans of the work of David Berman (Silver Jews, Purple Mountains), Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co.).




Hurricane Umbrellas—produced by Sean Bonnette—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Sleep Recordings. Also featuring Sean Bonnette (AJJ), Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner (Magnolia Electric Company, Wild Pink), Mark Glick (AJJ), Kara Eubanks, Ben Grigg (Babe Report), and Max Stern (Signals Midwest).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || The Gunshy 

New EP: Manduria || Bite Me

A raw, loop-driven jolt built for late-night basement thrash

By / / Garage Rock, Punk / Leave a Comment

It’s been quite a while, but I can still vividly recall seeing Thee Oh Sees perform for the first time, perhaps best compared to a steaming tornado where you’re not quite sure what’s happening, but are utterly blissful afterwards. That sensation is quite close to the feeling when pressing play on Manduria’s electrifying debut EP Bite Me.

We’re talking about the loop ‘n’ roll project of Alessandro Maderna, a worthy representative of Milan’s ROK underground. The six tracks here are built on fuzzed-out riffs and hypnotic loops, raw beats and relentless noise, gritty swagger and pure snarl. This is primal garage punk built for losing yourself on the dancefloor, alongside a pack of sweaty, like-minded misfits. Breathtaking.


The Bite Me EP—with six songs in 23+ minutes you could also call it an album, whatever you want—is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Wild Honey Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Jacuzzi Boys || Too Cold To Tango

No polish, all spirit

By / / Garage Rock / Leave a Comment

A word of caution: anyone claiming December brings no notable drops, is about to be corrected.

Miami-based garage rock trio Jacuzzi Boys return with Too Cold To Tango, their first full-length since 2016. Yet it doesn’t feel like such a long hiatus, as their music was never far away—particularly their first two LPs, No Seasons (2009) and Glazin’ (2011), can still be heard regularly at Add To Wantlist HQ. Anyway, chasing the ragged charm of their favorite records, Danny Gonzalez, Gabriel Alcala, and Diego Monasterios packed up and headed to Memphis, to cut these nine new songs—live, in just two days, warts and all—in the nearly untouched Sam Phillips Recording studio, as pictured in the cover art.

The result is a true snapshot from the heart of rock ’n’ roll, that captures the band in motion: energetic and loose, raw and pure, and wonderfully unvarnished. What really grabs me are the catchy sing-along hooks—irresistible now, and sure to endure.



Too Cold To Tango—produced by Jacuzzi Boys and Bill Skibbe—is out now digitally and on vinyl LP (self-released).

Add to want list: Bandcamp

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