Music 2025 (Andrew)

Pulp, Oasis then to finish 1996, sorry 2025, Radiohead.

I mentioned last year that I like to pick a band and then listen to all their albums in order. Even better if I can read a book about them at the same time. For R.E.M., another band I loved in 1996, I read ‘The Name of this Band is R.E.M.’ and it reminded me that I’d never actually listened to their last two albums. They just drifted away until I didn’t even know the names of their last albums, which is fair with Accelerate, a forgettable album, but their final album, which they knew would be their last when they recorded it, had some of their best material since, well, 1996 too. A pleasant surprise even if re-listening to all their albums just reminded me that Murmur is their best, Automatic for the People is too famous to judge, and Out of Time is mostly awful.

But then I started listening to Radiohead and, just as I was finishing my re-listen, they announced a tour and I embarked on a re-relisten and re-re-relisten and re-re-re-relisten in preparation.

Album of the year was an easy one this year: In Rainbows by Radiohead, closely followed by A Moon Shaped Pool, Kid A and Hail to the Thief. But for something newer nothing came close to Lux by Rosalia

Rosalia: Berghain