We’re halfway through the year and sharing our favorite albums of 2025 thus far!
Here’s Ava‘s list of favs:
Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong
Turnstile – Never Enough
quickly, quickly – I Heard That Noise
Snōōper – Unknown Caller EP
Greet Death – Die in Love
Visit our staff picks display across from the main counter or the staff picks page in our online shop to preview and purchase titles!
We’re halfway through the year and sharing our favorite albums of 2025 thus far!
Here’s Anika‘s list of favs:
Vision Video – Modern Horror
Christopher Young – A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Expanded
Gasoline Lollipops – Kill the Architect
Jeremy Soule – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Atmospheres
They Might Be Giants – The Spine Surfs Alone: Rarities 1998-2005
Visit our staff picks display across from the main counter or the staff picks page in our online shop to preview and purchase titles!
Artist: Lambrini Girls
Album: Who Let the Dogs Out
Reviewer: Jade Forrest
For the last few months, I have been noticing a big decline in motivation to do anything outside of doomscrolling on social media. Nothing new from what most people my age do, and it doesn’t help being met with waves upon waves of constant bad news and freezing in fear with every passing day – like watching car accidents, unable to look away. Kinda feels like I’m not alone in this, as car-crash compilation videos get a quarter-million views in two months of posting. Easing myself away from Meta-owned/tampered-with apps, I have started to spend more time searching keywords on Spotify and looking at all the user-made playlists with a particular word in the title: playlists with 125k saves, some with 35, all made with love and time from 1 of 675 million people. Like a window into someone else’s life, and a chance to connect through the love of music.
Through the power of the interwebs, I ended up finding this album after listening to three hours of Spotify radio/recommendations. Found amongst playlists filled with pop-punk revelations and political sentiments lies this little gem, Lambrini Girls’ debut album. Keeping in line with its genre, this fork-found-in-the-kitchen project plays into the tried-and-true method of fun, energetic punk and aces it to a tee.
The title of the album, Who Let the Dogs Out, made me assume that this was going to be a cheesy dance-pop album in honor of the great Baha Men. But it actually ended up swinging for the high-rise of Riot Grrrl anthems, with discussions of gender and class inequality, the rise of militarization in the police force and the dream of self-expression. With a mixture of fun instrumental breakdowns and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, Lambrini Girls blend in with artists like Be Your Own Pet or Snooper while still keeping things fresh – though Snooper, Amyl and the Sniffers and Be Your Own Pet have been around for several years before this, so it kinda feels a bit late to the party. However, the album still deserves its flowers as being some of the earliest projects from the group, as a sign of the bright future that Lambrini Girls have ahead of them.
Being met with constant existential dread for the future has made it a bit hard to be excited about anything, but I am thankful to have a light at the end of the tunnel. This album is that: a feeling that if things won’t get better, I can channel my anger into art and protests. I can just keep saying to myself, “People ain’t shit, I’m a bad bitch and I can make things better for me and everyone around me,” or at least in the words from Who Let the Dogs Out‘s final song, “Putting yourself first is cunty, respecting others is cunty, too.”
What’s a review without some recommendations?
If you like Lambrini Girls’ Who Let the Dogs Out, you would also like:
Midori – あらためまして、はじめまして、ミドリです (Once again, nice to meet you, I’m Midori)
Rico Nasty – Las Ruinas (or Lethal, which comes out in May)
The Gits – Frenching the Bully
Also, if you are going to Treefort Music Fest, add these to your itinerary and do some pre-concert homework:
Amyl and the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness
The Linda Lindas – No Obligation
Be Your Own Pet – Mommy
Dummy – Free Energy
Artist: Squid
Album: Cowards
Reviewer: Thomas Metzger
Squid’s music always seems to have a sense of unease, and I think that is one of their strong suits. And can you blame them? In the state of the world today, it’s no surprise that the music coming out of them is so carefully considered. On their newest album Cowards, they pull from real life feelings of anxiety and uncertainty about where our world is headed. A comparison can certainly be made to Radiohead, a band that Squid have cited as “one of the best to ever do it,” according to an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. Their new album definitely has moments akin to that of Hail to the Thief or In Rainbows, yet has a more modern feel and timeliness to it, lyrically as well as sonically.
Opener “Crispy Skin” is a tight krautrock drumbeat packed with angular and scratchy math-rock guitar sounds, combined with tinkling synth textures and driving bass lines. The rare drummer/singer Ollie Judge sings about an alternate world of normalized cannibalism, and whether one can resist to participate in a society of evil assimilated within itself. The texture within these tracks also emits a feeling of anxiety: dense, every part thoughtfully considered and well-fit that it’s easy to miss on the surface. Hints of jagged guitar throughout the album give a sort of twitchy feeling, like you feel like you’re being followed. The track “Blood on the Boulders” slowly builds from the quiet into a full-on freakout. Layered vocal lines and guitar parts toward the end of the track give it a heady, dizzying feel until it quickly cuts back to the quiet and unease, sucking you of your air supply in an instant.
“Building 650” sings about being an outsider in an unknown space, undercut by eerie dual-guitar lines and brass horns.“ The character Frank is an evil guy that the protagonist can’t seem to part ways with. “Cro-Magnon Man” has an underlying anger and tenseness to it, like one wrong move and you will awaken the beast within. The title is in reference to the first early humans to settle in Europe after the Ice Age and the idea of the caves they lived in. Bassist Laurie Nankivell says, “Caves are always referred to and explored by psychologists as being representative of our mind, what we repress and what we can’t deal with.”
“Fieldworks I” and “Fieldworks II” are almost a refreshing breath of air in the middle of the bleak reality that Squid have created on this album. A light harpsichord line repeats throughout as Judge sings about being free from “twisted bones.” Once Part II kicks in, we get a taste of somewhat tribal percussion before Judge’s gentle voice serenades over a beautiful guitar melody.
The later half of the album I would describe as more dramatic than the first. “Cowards” starts off with a mesmerizing collage of airy synth tones and brass horn, very Animal Collective-esque. Once the rest of the band kicks in, the scene shifts from what feels like an open field of fresh air, to all of a sudden a sort of slow-motion-style movie death, as the group introduces a light yet dramatic touch of brass horns and strings; very beautiful, and I feel it is the climax of the album. It makes sense reading that this was the first song they wrote for this album, as not only is it the title track, but I feel like the track that best represents the album.
“Showtime!” wakes us back up from the dramatic end to the title track. Jagged slap-back guitar grooves over a hypnotic drum groove, as the band slowly crescendos to an electronic middle section, as the synth arpeggio slowly ramps up in speed, guitar patterns circling around a “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”-style drum pattern, until we eventually reach the last track “Well Met (Fingers Through the Fence).” If “Cowards” and “Showtime!” were the dramatic peaks of the album, “Well Met” is the closing act, painting an auditory collage over rattling percussion and slinky vocal melodies, almost sung with a childlike whimsy, featuring additional female vocalists. They sing about the mundane repeating cycle of housing and urban development, longing for the “grass between their toes.” It is a satisfying ending to the dramatic montage of sound that Squid delivers on this album.
Overall, Cowards paints a bleak picture of a future where morality is questioned, and we become overwhelmed to the point of hopelessness. I’m not sure if you can call Squid one of the more underrated post-punk bands out right now, but they have certainly become one of my favorites with each passing release. Through their dramatic instrumentation and lyricism, each album seems to expand further into a feeling of general restlessness and suspense, unsure of where society is headed, and Cowards seems to be a well-crafted next chapter in the story.
Favorite tracks: “Crispy Skin,” “Building 650,” “Cro-Magnon Man,” “Cowards”
RIYL: Krautrock, Radiohead, angular guitars, math rock
Artist: Inhaler
Album: Open Wide
Reviewer: Nick Whitley
Inhaler’s newest album Open Wide is an earnest exploration of love, loss and looking back at your life as if to ask, “How did I get here?”
First coming onto the scene in the mid 2010s, Inhaler’s first few releases seem to be weighed down with a sort of nervous apprehension, as though they themselves are unsure about what it is they are trying to say with their music. While trying to shake the legacy of frontman Elijah Hewson’s father Bono, the band simultaneously attempt to carve their own name into the annals of pop rock however they can.
The sweet and polished vocals of Hewson guide you from bright introductions (“Eddie in the Darkness”) to glam-rock-infused gospel choirs (“Your House”) to punchy pop-rock angst (“X-Ray”). You can almost find yourself getting lost in the world that’s crafted within each word. If every song is a story, even the silence between each verse seems to hold a thousand things left unsaid.
Even as a fan of Inhaler’s early work, I can admit that at times it can feel a little unpolished and overambitious. Yet, slowly but surely through each release, the band seems to shed some of that nervous weight they have been carrying on their shoulders. With their signature guitar anthems sounding smoother, and their writing coming into its own, it feels like now with Open Wide the band are finally where they ought to be: confident and strong, with a finely honed sense of identity.
With this evolution of the band in mind, I want to say how in many ways this album seems to be haunted by its past. With lyrics consistently drawing back to childhood and vocals that seem almost yearning for something simpler, it almost begs the question: What does it mean to grow and change? It’s often painful and messy and embarrassing, especially from a perspective where your past is readily available to the masses, warts and all.
Yet it pushes through. It utilizes that feeling and engulfs the record in a warm haze of synth and fond nostalgia. Maybe in a few years this album will be in itself a messier version of what was to come – a well-intentioned blip on their discography –yet it seems comfortable with that, at peace with the knowledge that this is who they are. Songs like “Still Young” and “Little Things” seem to consolidate this idea, with lyrics that ask for little but reassurance, and patience as they come into their own.
At face value, Open Wide is another pop-rock installment from Inhaler’s growing discography. With songs about broken hearts and long nights, hazy guitars and the faintest hints of an Irish accent poking through carefully clear vocals. But at its core, it marks the start of a new beginning for the band: a final look back at their past, before marching into what lies ahead.
Favorite songs: “Eddie in the Darkness,” “Your House,” “X-Ray”