#james k

I am once again joined by my bestie/DJ partner/roommate/fellow music industry colleague Jonah in compiling a list of our favorite music releases from 2025. In a year of quality over quantity, we slimmed down from last year's 30 selects to 21. Enjoy reading and listening!

EUSEXUA - FKA twigs - January 24

What even is EUSEXUA anymore? Impossible to pin down, constantly evolving, always out of reach. Glitchy & grimy yet clean & crystalline. And I’ll never stop chasing it. - Owen

Choke Enough - Oklou - February 7

Entirely ethereal. It’s cozy-childlike-understated. I’m swaddled in a fuzzy blanket but also swimming in the deep end. - Jonah

A butterfly’s flight path, a barrage of snow falling from an overloaded branch, a game of hopscotch. The perfect prance album. - Owen

lucre - Dean Blunt & Elias Rønnenfelt - February 7

Bare acoustics offset with uncanny ballads. Something is strange but sedative, and in the end enticing. - Jonah

Shy at first - cootie catcher - March 14

Jittery, buzzing, twitching in the finest sense. My first taste of laptop twee. Something for the springtime. - Jonah

emotional behaviour 2 - notinbed - March 31

This one jerks at the heartstrings. It builds a collage of digital sound and distant culture that amasses in waves of looping piano and synths soon receding. It’s earnest lyrical storytelling from the online forage, an outpouring fountain of reflection. - Jonah

E.M.O. (EVIL MOTION OVERLOAD) - Cortisa Star - April 11

HYPE FLOW STATE. Cortisa Star is doing it like no other. - Jonah

Fetish / Valley Serpent - ear - May 6

Fresh, simple ingredients make the best meals. There is a charming choreography to ear that radiates through their sonic world. Bits of stories, yearning and self-loathing. It makes you forget your woes, while unconsciously confronting them. - Jonah

Addison - Addison Rae - June 6

A true pop masterclass. I’m in constant awe of the concept, the theater, the intention. She is a shining star enriched with a deep connection to movement, style, fame, and fun. Lock in. - Jonah

Everything has led you to this moment, it’s been in you the whole time, you’re here and you’re now. You take a leap off the shoulders of giants and land with both feet firm on new ground. Nothing can wipe the smile off your face, not even the tears flooding it. - Owen

<Club Icarus> - ARTMS - June 13

This is no ordinary club. In fact, it’s more of an orchestra, flirting with the limits of K-pop, unafraid of flying too close to the sun. A triumphant ascent for a group that’s had to build its own wings on the way down. - Owen

“Midnight Sun” - Zara Larsson - June 13

Song. Of. The. Summer. If only it lasted as long as her vocal runs. - Owen

Spellbook, Vol. 1 - Crucify April - June 20

Possibly the most experimental of the bunch. A wildcard from the fakemink extended universe, this project is riddled with witchcraft, cyberpunk, and heroin-hipster proclivities. A nuanced understanding of what punk might mean in the digital age. - Jonah

The Velvet Underground & Rowan - Worldpeace DMT - July 10

A good ol’ stomp clap sweaty basement in Bed-stuy. Or was it a study abroad semester in Amsterdam? This album is studious, uplifting, and ironic. I’m not sure if it makes me feel better or worse to repeat the mantras of a degrading indie lifestyle, but I do it anyway. - Jonah

I Love My Computer - Ninajirachi - August 8

The musical manifesto of a generation. One that grew up hiding iPod touches under their pillows, obsessing over the perfect section of the perfect song to soundtrack the perfect thirst trap to put on their IG stories for their crushes, revealing more of themselves in their search history than their diaries. Doomscrolling and data-transfering sonified with the intricacies of navigating an online existence laid bare over top. I Really Do Love It. - Owen 

Wide Awake - Mechatok - August 8

The mastermind behind some of the buzziest tracks of the year (fakemink & Ecco2k's “MAKKA”; FKA twigs' "HARD") continues his streak of irresistibly catchy melodies and jubilant textures mashed with vocals that include reworking a few lines from f5ve’s “Lettuce” into an entirely new song, and Isabella Lovestory stripped back on a refreshingly chill jam. Its many instrumental moments are just as captivating as its features. Don’t sleep on it. - Owen

Lick the Lens - Pt. 1 - Oli XL - August 27

Electronic two steps and playful things to hum along. An intimate belt of uncertainty. - Jonah

Computer pop-ups but that actually give you the new iPhone, $5,000,000, and eternal sunshine that they promise. Springs, yo-yos, sticky slime hands that you fling at the wall, the childlike wonder of an iPad baby. Pixels in a blender, another glass (Pt. 2?) please! - Owen

Friend - james K - September 5

A soft embrace from someone you haven’t seen in years, Friend is warm, kind, and free of judgement. It excels at large by welcoming you with both a sense of insecurity and pride, let loose and airy. - Jonah

This is simply magic. A dream you don’t wanna wake up from. My best Friend. - Owen

Vanities - Malibu - October 3

A soundscape for the unsure; the pure of hearts. A pulsing stretch of solace, fear, ecstasy, and acceptance. Face pressed on the carpet floor. The tide, the sunrise, the airplane window. I’ve returned to this album in times of deep exhaustion and turmoil as it consistently provides new insight. - Jonah

Fancy Some More? - PinkPantheress - October 10

Pink at her most posh, polished and proper yet. A sleek mixtape tripled into a collection of both her eclectic influences and influencees, adding even more stripes to the samples and interpolations that comprise her perfect musical tartans. SEVENTEEN, Yves, Bladee, Zara Larsson, and Oklou all on the same album? That’s history. - Owen

SNOW ANGEL - JUSTB - November 7

They really, really, love 2hollis in Korea. In an industry where shamelessly ripping off the latest trends is common practice, JUSTB manage to dip into his nachos while adding their own spice, combining hollis’s signature frayed synths and punchy bass with 2nd gen boy group songwriting that make both feel even fresher. Worth noting that kimj produced their preceding comeback, and each member is directly involved in some aspect of their creative output. - Owen

SEQUENCE 01.5 (dreaming of the 2nd 1st impact - consequences of fate redux) - f5ve - November 14

After a long and windy rollout with many a single, f5ve finally made their debut with SEQUENCE 01, further cementing their status as the singular J-pop standout giving the K-pop girlies a run for their money. Merging the polished futurism of PC Music with the quirks and kitschiness that puts the “J” in “J-pop,” each song is conceptually tight but consistently f5ve. The added “.5” tacks on 3 new bops (“I Choose You” being one of their best) and countless remixes that breathe new life into each track. - Owen

♡ - Jane Remover - December 12

In a year that some would define with Revengeseekerz, Jane Remover cools down from whatever that was and reintroduces what could’ve been if she’d stuck a bit closer to her Dariacore roots. A great reminder of what “genre-bending” and “genreless” actually mean, as each of these concoctions shouldn’t work but somehow does, and boy do they work well. These lyrics too… #neededthat. - Owen

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Listen to everything here:

P.S. mini bonus from me: