Garage bands on GarageBand and theatre nerds on acid: Album Of The Year 2025

This week: it’s Album Of The Year time. Doc and Beeso count down each of our five favourite albums of 2025, and talk near-misses, disappointments and trends from the year just gone. Also: Dead week revisited, yes-no-maybe, accepting your flaws, best releases vs best albums, immediately failed predictions, albums you neither enjoy nor recommend, NYC real estate, early mover advantage, Mrs Beeso Reads Bios, the Venn diagram of Mike Skinner, Amy Taylor and Barry the Baptist, wholesome punk, fuzzy everything, the fine line between stupid and clever, Chubs and Crockett, Tate modern, judicious skipping, hipster cred, bringing back 2015 pod energy, Will Pharrell, mind the gap, a dangerous day to forget your 2024 #1, near-misses and disappointments, it’s Martin/Molloy’s fault, whither Australia, more 2024 #1 erasure, live at KEXP, sniper risks, remembering some albums, imperfect censuses, the new Kingsmills, consensus AOTYs, other people’s AOTYs, more teaches from Peaches, Swift backlash and Woodford vs reality.12:11  Our number fives16:19  Beeso’s #421:40  Doc’s #425:17  Beeso’s #333:11  Doc’s #339:22  Beeso’s #246:27  Doc’s #255:57  Beeso’s #161:51  Doc’s #166:17  Honorable (or otherwise) mentions80:35  1996 albums redraft preview90:45  2026 albums we’re looking forward to94:09  After Dark (production, Woodford, 1996, trolling)Next week: for tripping balls/BALLS After Dark (i.e. the music show) episode 450, it’s our now-traditional 30-years-on best albums re-draft for the year 1996, guest-starring the Godfather of Grime, Adamhfoto. There will be sniping and there will be griping.Spotify playlists: 2025 review archive | Doc and Beeso’s 2025 mixtapes | All our playlistsThe list: Our previous review albums and year-end top fivesFind us on: Spotify Podcasts | Apple Podcasts | RSS feed for other appsSocials: Beeso on Bluesky | Doc on BlueSky | Pod Facebook | Pod email