Hi, I'm Hunter. When I'm not DJing Storm Surge of Reverb (the surf show) Mondays 4-6pm, I'm consuming media! Especially music! I round up my favorite surf records as The Gremmy Awards over at stormsurgeofreverb.com but here are my favorite records from 2025 that weren't surf music. In no particular order.
Alick Khata - Radio Lusaka
Look at that guy. You don't get cheeks like that without an awful lot of smiling. Listening to this album without any context, it feels like it comes from a time and place so free of worry, a potent mood-cleanser. However, any reading about his life ties him to Zambia's fight for freedom against British colonialism. So faced with conditions probably much worse than mine, making something like this only feels more powerful. But all feel-goods aside, there's a lot of surprising musical twists. Vocal harmonies that sound like nothing else I'd heard. Yodeling. Tiny beep boops in very analog sounding music. Never heard something quite like this record.
Romano - Güle Güle
If, like me, you loved the first 20 seconds of the album, then I think you're gonna love all 30 minutes. Absolutely gleeful dance music built around early vintage synthesizers with melodic influences beginning in Turkey but spanning WIDE. I hear Afrosound, Hailu Mergia, Stevie Wonder, the list can go on! "Monkey" is my current ringtone, and by the end the plucky "Aliza" had me laughing at an instrumental.
Monde UFO - Flamingo Tower
I've struggled to pin down what it is I like about this record, but I always end up listening to it the whole way through. The mumbled vocals aren't my favorite, but perhaps they cast a spell to give the impression that this actually quite densely arranged album is a low-key bedroomy deal. It's discordant, chatoric, jazzy, and strange, but has enough of a melodic heart to it to end up very listenable.
Loucey - Participation Trophy Wife
I remember when I was in high school and I really wanted to get into trip-hop, only to find that there just wasn't much of it. Loucey feels like the way-too-late commercially packageable band that could have blown it much wider, but even today it feels very appropriate for the changing room of H&M. That sounds reductive, but I really like this album! Amidst so many elements that feel like 90's nostalgia, there's a singer-songwriter element to it that brings depth.
Jeff Tweedy - Twlilight Override
Listen, Tweedy, I got a life to live. 30 Tracks is too many. But I expected this to be a bunch of scraps, and while this isn't exactly full of tightly written pop hits, just about every track feels like a fully fleshed out thought, and usually a good enough one to justify its inclusion. While there's plenty of variety to the instrumental forms the songs take, it's clear to me that Tweedy has gotten a pretty good grasp of where his voice excels and the mood he can conjure with it. I've occasionally checked back in on Wilco's more recent albums, but this is the most time I've spent with his work since YHF.
The Raveonettes - Pe'Ahi II
I had a sort of reckoning with myself that if I'm a "fan" of any band, it's the Raveonettes. While I won't say I like everything they've put out, they form an outsized proportion of my listening habits, and I still care deeply about them when so many have forgotten them. For instance, you probably didn't listen to the first Pe'Ahi, did you? You should, it's their best since Lust Lust Lust. The Raveonettes went on a hiatus of sorts for a bit, then came back with... not something I'd call a comeback record in last year's cover album Sing. But Pe'Ahi II is the Raveonettes I've missed, with noisy guitars, beautiful harmonized vocals, and a knack for ending songs. Pe'Ahi II is very similar in style to its supposed prequel, but there's plenty of new ideas going on. Rave on forever.
Lambrini Girls - Who Let the Dogs Out
I think this is the closest I've heard to a modern X-Ray Spex. Phoebe Lunny resembles Poly Styrene not just in accent and in her lung-depleting delivery (a comparison I don't make lightly, it's incredible), but in balancing rage with cheekiness and fun. Musically they're similar too, abrasive but giving instruments room to shine and maybe even allow for a little light-hearted partying, though no saxophone here. No, instead you get dirty disjointed bass scronks that make me think of DFA1979 or Death Grips. Absolute knock-out record.
3 AM Again - The Psychic's Letter
3AM Again balance a psychedelic melancholy with relaxing vocal harmonies and just-where-you-want-em acoustic guitar chord progressions into something that feels very right in a time that's uniquely wrong. Makes you want to crawl into a nook and stay there for a long time. Their Closer Each Time EP, also released this year, is also worthy.
Misha Panfilov - To Blue from Grey in May
It's usually not whether a Misha record will be on this list, it's which. This album sways and breathes, looping comfortably and slowly introducing new sounds in a way that makes you wonder if they were already there and you just didn't notice them. It feels warm and safe, but also adventurous and full of wonder.
Gold Dust - In the Shade of the Living Light
This is a band that always felt like 80% of the way to being great, and I think they found that 20%. Bright and bursting acoustic guitars with vocals that feel convey the the weight of our times but with a dash of determination. Much like the 3AM Again record, it's full of warmth and chords progressions that land right where you want them to, but a bit more strident.
Grupo Amigos - Paloma Mensajera
I don't know what it is about late 60's-70's Peru but I just eat it up. The psychedelic surf of Los Beking's and Los Jaguar's, the wild garage beat of Los Saicos, not to mention, ya know, tons of cumbia and chicha music. I hadn't heard about these guys, but it seems to be sprinkled in the same fairy dust. They sit nicely next to the more mellow psychedelic bands like Traffic Sound and We All Together, frequently employing acoustic guitar and tambourine. But they're also quite light-hearted, as you might expect from a band with such a simple, friendly name. It's a really nice record that'll put a smile on your face. Favorite track: "Everybody is Free".
The Prize - In the Red
The Prize are on In the Red Records, and play power-pop with stated influence from Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, The Nerves, etc. There's a good chance for some of y'all, you already have a decent idea of what that sounds like. They do it very well though, and with three guitars they've got a little extra venom than most. There are tons of bands like this, but I think these guys are better than most, and it had me rolling down the windows of my ugly 2017 Rav4, blasting it, and feeling really cool listening to my completely-out-of-the-zeitgeist rock&roll. Put it on, queue up some King Louie records for after.
Lifeguard - Ripped and Torn
When you say Dischord Records you think Minor Threat, Nation of Ulysses, Rites of Spring etc. The label had built up enough of a reputation in the 80's and early 90's that even as I listened to their 2000's output, I didn't think of it as its own moment. While I see no instance of Lifeguard citing Q and Not U, Faraquet, Black Eyes, or even Fugazi as explicit influences, it sure makes me nostalgic for them. Instead they reference Wipers, and Buzzcocks... but if I'm going that vintage I'm hearing Mission of Burma. Whatever the case may be, these kids have studied, and crucially they're tangibly still kids; still fresh, energetic, and probably as pretentious as appropriate for now. And having a guy from No Age produce it is perfecto. This is great. They seem like the sort of band that will feel like they need to evolve, and I'm kind of dreading how they'll do that, but I suppose if they can this convincingly make an album that feels ripped from another time, they might be able to figure it out.
King Khan - Ragas for the Revelation
Before I actually talk about this, I heard King Khan & BBQ playing alongside pop hits at the thrift store this year thanks to their song inexplicably showing up in TikTok videos. Truly weird, and from an interview I saw somewhere, King Khan is as perplexed by his nearly-two-decades-delayed success as anybody.
Ragas for Revolution is basically an experiment for him, explaining in the bandcamp notes that this is the result of his first foray into sitar, a move motivated by a desire to get closer to his heritage. That said, he kept his experiment experimental, and the result is something with a lot more to do with John Carpenter and krautrock than actual ragas. I say "experimental", but yeah, sitar in krautrock isn't exactly mind-blowing, I'm just impressed at how good of a listen this is especially considering the leap from his rock & soul wheelhouse. He did do another sitar record that's actually more experimental, but admittedly I haven't given it enough time.
The Counterfeit - Live at Fight Night Records Vol. 2
As somebody that follows spaghetti western music about as closely as anybody, The Counterfeit are about as legit as they come. What's changed here is that they've added a lot more vocals with the addition of Freya Josephine Hollick AND they have an original song! I became so fascinated with this group that I reached out and did a big ol interview with them.
Art Longo - Echowah Island
I feel like I'm in a Lucasarts adventure game talking to alien fish in their underwater bar. Spaced-out dream-dub with hints of psychedelic soca that generally just feels like it stumbled into our dimension while drunk.
Public Enemy - Black Sky over the Projects
The opening track of this album sounds shaky as hell, Chuck D and Flav sounding out of sync. But song-by-song it gets better, and while I think nobody would hold this next to Fear of a Black Planet, the enthusiasm is there, and it feels like an album that very much wanted to be made. And how many rap tracks have you heard addressing ageism?
Judy Blank - Big Mood
Reviews I saw of this talk about Judy's ability to switch genres and influences around with ease. To be honest, I barely noticed, and that's probably because her strength is just writing really digestible pop hooks, with lyrical cadence that slides around in such a fun way. I mean "I got Dragonball Z on DVD" would sound great on a rap track, but absolutely slays in a folk song by a Dutch woman. She doesn't take herself too seriously, but she also makes songwriting seem so easy. I'm probably going to buy this for my mom for Christmas.
Fawn - Paper Thin
Fawn reinvent nothing about shoegaze, it's just noisy in the ways I like, with vocals mumbly to the degree I like. This would never be the first shoegaze record I'd recommend to somebody (I'd recommend, you know, the three), but I listen to enough that I can appreciate some good genre comfort food. "Fleeting Sun" in particular is where it comes together nicely.
Prefaces - Acqua Marina
Charif Megarbane shows up on my list about as much as Misha Panfilov (collaboration wen?) and though I enjoyed his new album on the Habibi Funk label (especially his wild take on spaghetti western) this album that he was involved in was what I ended up listening to the most, probably because it leans a little more in a surf direction sometimes. Generally though, very pleasant guitar-oriented library music.
La Banda Chuska - Basic Bichos
Brooklyn-based cumbia group with some surf-guitar flair, an extra bit of grit, and always some playfulness. I hear a lot of the pop sensibilities of the B-52's, and a lot of what I loved from the first Los Bitchos record. Hope some of my NYC friends have seen them because they sound like they'd be fun live.
Sons of Sevilla - Street Light Moon
Silky sweet vocal duo with a very vintage sounding flavor of psych-pop. Despite the vocal focus, I feel like the deeply reverbed instrumentals will speak to Khruangbin fans, and maybe a bit of Daptone, though really the biggest touchstones are probably along the lines of The Everly Brothers and The Beatles.
Slow Motion Cowboys - Wolf of St. Elmo
They've been around for a while, but I only just discovered them at the WTUL Hootenanny, then followed it up when this popped up on bandcamp, now I need to see them again now I'm more familiar with these songs. Great country with nice, but not showy, guitar and a tempo that's true to their name. Bits of Neil Young poke through, which always works for me.
Destroyer - Dan's Boogie
I tend to like Destroyer despite seemingly everything about it being not my deal. I'm not one for lyrics, it's just not what I'm absorbing when I hear music, and so all of Dan's seemingly very meaningful prose feels more like the sort of goofy psychobabble of The Pixies to me. And I like that. Dan's voice is so affected, the arrangements so dramatic and maximalist, it ends up being beautiful and pretty silly at the same time, and that works for me.
The Violet Mindfield - Distorted Portrait
I had one complaint about this band's previous LP California Burning, and that was that it was a bit too blown-out. Their follow-up turned it down by like 1db and now it's where it needed to be! Still boisterous, but also with maybe a smidge more 60's psychedelia. They draw so heavily on the garage-psych greats that one song straight up lifts guitar parts from The Seeds, but that works fine for me, and I found this pretty enjoyable the whole way through.
Total Wife - Come Back Down
I'm grateful of the gen-Z shoegaze boom, but it's hard for me to sift through when I'm not so much of a fan of the grunge influence. This has enough old shoegaze with new twists that work for me. There's a lot of My Bloody Valentine emulation, and pulled off well, but the addition of glitch and dnb elements work well enough that I can imagine Kevin Shields listening and feeling a pang of regret for not thinking of it first.
The Cyclist Conspiracy - Back to Hermetics and Martial Arts Vol. 1
I came across this band a while ago due to surf ties, but they've been pushing outward into a lot of the fringes that surf fans frequently find themselves drawn to. You've got elements of raga psychedelia, giallo, spaghetti western, doom metal, and of course throat singing. It's a wild, experimental and expansive record that's always trying to find another new thing to show you.
Yoo Doo Right, Population II & Nola Potter - Yoo II avec Nolan Potter
Band whose name is a Can reference teams up with band whose name is a Randy Holden reference (and Nolan Potter) and the result is indeed some pretty slammin' psych with a lot of krautrock elements to it. Some decent range too, with some tracks kinda funky, one with Amon Duul II vibes, and two that chug along like a freight train.