With the first few months of 2025 behind us, it’s not too early to look backward a bit at some of our favorite releases of the year so far.
Among those who have put out new albums were some veteran artists — Ringo Starr, Neil Young and Jethro Tull — plus albums from newer acts like Dirty Honey, the War and Treaty and Envy of None.
Below, UCR staff note the best album they’ve heard this year so far.
Allison Rapp: I’ve been a fan of Larkin Poe for years now, so usually I’m tuned in to their new releases, but somehow I completely missed their new album, Bloom, that came out in January. In February, I happened to turn on Sirius XM’s Tom Petty Radio station and heard “Easy Love Pt. 1.” The rest of the album is just as robust — Rebecca and Megan Lovell have only gotten sharper in the studio. (I must give an honorable mention to Ringo Starr’s new country album, Look Up, which coincidentally features Larkin Poe on a couple of tracks.)
Bryan Rolli: It’s rare these days to hear a live album that hasn’t been doctored into oblivion, but Dirty Honey proudly bucks that trend on Mayhem and Revelry with a raucous 16-song set that lives up to its name. Culled from the North American and European legs of their Can’t Find the Brakes tour, Mayhem captures the California quartet’s infectious blues-rock boogie, with Marc Labelle’s elastic vocals and John Notto’s razor-sharp guitar solos front and center. Notto proudly informed UCR that the band did no overdub sessions for the album, but it would be a disservice to describe Mayhem and Revelry as “warts and all.” That would imply flubs instead of the tasteful improvisation and ad-libbing on display here — evidence of Dirty Honey’s road-worn chemistry and seemingly inevitable path to world domination.
Nick DeRiso: Jason Isbell recorded Foxes in the Snow without his usual backing band, the 400 Unit, and outside of a marriage that turned into a muse. What’s to become of Isbell’s career without that spark? This is the sound of figuring that out. There’s introspection about what it all means, even what his own old songs now mean, but he’s also become angrier and more lyrically impulsive. Isbell has been stripped bare, and you hear it everywhere on this new album. He’s never had more main-character energy. The results are often cathartic, and sometimes a little jarring, but Foxes in the Snow is a grower. It draws us in more deeply with each spin.
Matthew Wilkening: For years now, new Melvins music has largely arrived in two different orbits. About once a year you’ll get a “proper” full-length album from the group, almost undoubtedly featuring an outside collaborator, a lineup change or some clever twist on the songwriting or recording process. (The upcoming and excellent Thunderball, arriving April 18, is a perfect example.)
Then, a few times a year you’ll be alerted to the opportunity to purchase a new Melvins EP, frequently created in collaboration with another band, on extremely limited edition vinyl or via $5 CD. These EPs fly under the radar and are not to be found on streaming services. The most recent finds the band teaming up with grindcore legends Napalm Death for the six-song Savage Imperial Death March EP.
Truth be told, Napalm Death’s a bit stronger brand of coffee than I’d seek out on my own, but this record rips your head off quite nicely, and the true collaborative nature of the project means fans of either band who aren’t as familiar with the other already have one foot in the door and a great chance to expand their musical horizons.
Matt Wardlaw: Dream Theater reunited with co-founder Mike Portnoy in 2023 and put out their first record with the drummer in more than a decade earlier this year. While that sentence is exciting enough, Parasomnia is also a really, really good album. Openly embracing nostalgia, the record stylistically draws from a little bit of everything in the Dream Theater trick bag, yet still feels collectively like a fresh step forward. In short, Parasomnia is proof that sometimes you can go home again. Fans of their classic work and albums like Images and Words and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence will enjoy this latest chapter.
