Best of 2025

 

Galactic and Irma Thomas Audience with the Queen. My #1. (The rest are in no particular order.). Irma Thomas continues to produce one late-career masterpiece after another. After The Rain 2006, Simply Grand 2008, Love Is The Foundation 2020, and now Audience with the Queen. Galactic shines with songs, arrangements and knockout playing.

Sloan Based On The Best Seller. Canadian pop-rockers continue a hot streak. 

Ricky Byrd NYC Made. Veteran rocker and long-time Blackheart makes a great record. It doesn't need to be complicated, it's rock 'n' roll.

Gyasi Here Comes The Good Part. Bowie/Bolan hybrid brings back the 1970s without stealing every riff. Great songs, solid musicianship, right attitude.

London Suede Antidepressants. Since their return in 2013, London Suede has made five well-received records. Glam is not dead. See Gyasi above.

Wet Leg Moisturizer. A big step forward from their solid debut, and a fine record all around.

Haim I Quit. Another big leap forward from their previous work, See Wet Leg above.

Van Morrison Remembering Now. Van returns to greatness. Shockingly good after several years of real junk. Remarkable recovery, and way unexpected.

Mavis Staples Sad and Beautiful World. Mavis never shies away from politics, protest or faith. A great song selection, lots of reverent guests, and Staples' magnificent, weathered voice. Revel in her very deep and spiritual soul.

Peter Holsapple The Face of 68. Holsapple has been a part of much great music. In the dBs, as a touring pro with REM and Hootie and the Blowfish, in the Continental Drifters, with Chris Stamey as a duo, and on his solo records, Out of My Way in 1997, and Game Day in 2018. He puts it all together on this new one.

Honorable Mention Just Part of the Whole Release: David Bowie Montreux Jazz Festival. This 2002 concert recording was broadcast on radio and unofficial versions have been around. Technically it isn't a new release of its own, but it is two of the CDs in the 13 CD I Can't Give Everything Away (2002-2016) box set. The tour was promoting Heathen, so eight of the twelve songs from Heathen are included, and the live versions beat the studio ones. Well chosen career highlights fill the rest. But wait, there's more, for the final encore, Bowie and the band play all of Low. It is a monster show. The set is available for streaming.

Honorable Mention Reissue/Compilation: Fleetwood Mac Like Crying: The Songs of Danny Kirwin. Every song Kirwin wrote for Fleetwood Mac and released on Then Play On, Kiln House, Future Games, and Bare Trees in chronological order. Kirwin's songwriting, guitar and singing during Fleetwood Mac's most oft-neglected period. Kirwin's songs were balanced with those of Christine McVie and Bob Welsh. Isolating Kirwin's songs is a lovely exercise. Digital only release, at least for now.

Gyasi Here Comes The Good Part 2025

 

Maybe you are someone who loved Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, or Mott The Hoople's Mott or T Rex's Electric Warrior, or anything by Slade, and you wish that the glam era wasn't so short-lived in the seventies. Well, Gyasi (pronounced Jah-See) is here for you.

The record kicks off with the pounding Sweet Thing, big buzzsaw guitars and hooky melodies. Lightening follows, another pounding rocker that's just fine. Snake City features a nice skronky lead break and a chorus made for arena sing-alongs. Solo bass starts off She Says, and then it kicks into high gear, driving fast and hard with big guitars and another catchy chorus. Street Life is riff rock of high caliber, and then American Dream is the big ballad that sounds like a Ziggy outtake (a good one), ending the first side in fine style.

Side two comes driving out of the gate with Cheap High, a fast and furious workout with a smoking lead guitar. Big crunching guitar announces Baby Blue, with another riff supporting a catchy melody and more wailing lead guitar. Bang Bang (Runaway) rocks hard, Star starts off like a lost Led Zeppelin track and then morphs into a Mott the Hoople song. Piano is featured on 23, and it's a mid-tempo number with an interesting rhythm and yet another searing lead break. The record ends with Grand Finale, a sweet Bowie-inspired ballad with synth strings and a sentimental lyric, that turns into a big arena ballad before it ends, and closes with a hot lead guitar.

Throughout the record, Gyasi sings in an affected nasal style that is a cross between Bowie and Marc Bolin, and also employs a strong Robert Plant falsetto for the high parts. Melodies are strong, lyrics are good, and the band is tight. 

What more could a glam rock fan ask for?