Here we are at the top ten albums I reviewed last year. The choices get tougher as the numbers get lower. Let’s get to it.
#10: The Limiñanas – Faded
A salute to forgotten models, actresses, singers, and to lost friends, Faded is another solid album from the French psych-rock duo. It has all the elements you want from The Limiñanas – wild guitars, heartbeat drums, smoky vocals, and a sense that they’re re-creating something you’ve forgotten.
#9: Blackwater Holylight – If You Only Knew
It was great to get a new recording from Blackwater Holylight last year (and a new full-length album is already on the way), and If You Only Knew marked a turn toward shoegaze for them. I’m all for it. The heavy guitars and deep, often sad lyrics are still there. Perhaps doom-gaze is a better description of it. Then again, why bother describing it? Just let overwhelm you.
#8: Frankie and The Witch Fingers – Live at KEXP
I’ve been waiting for a live Frankie and The Witch Fingers album for a little while, and this recording of a raw, raucous show for KEXP didn’t disappoint. It’s difficult to capture their live show energy, but they did it. The fact that they open the show with “Brain Telephone” (an oldie) makes it even better.
#7: Roi Turbo – Bazooka EP
This, simply put, is the best house music record I heard all last year. It makes you crave a longer record. These guys are having a lot of fun and thankfully they invited us to the party.
#6: Joe Alterman & Mocean Worker – Keep the Line Open
This jazz-funk-trip-hop record is a delight from start to finish as pianist Joe Alterman and producer / DJ Mocean Worker pay tribute to funky legend Les McCann. Every song is highly danceable and will brighten any time of day.
Up next, the top five, which includes two welcome returns, another legend, electro upstarts, and brash post-punks!
Coming back with their first new music since 1999, Lowsunday bring you a lot of heavy shoegaze riffs, post-punk bass, and psychedelic reverb on their Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP.
“Nevver” (Or is it “Newer?”) has lead vocalist Shane Sahene musing over how apathy has overcome him (“I used to care too much. Now I can’t care less.”) while Bobby Spell‘s near-disco bass line rumbles around him. “Call Silence” is a slick track of gothic shoegaze about missing a loved one after a breakup or a death when you realize they’re no longer going to answer your call.
On “Soft Capture,” Sahene realizes he’s the problem with lyrics like “I wish I believed you and I weren’t sick of me.” The Joy Division influence on the track is evident with its thick bass, spacey guitars, and distant vocals. “You Lost Yourself” reminds me a bit of early stuff from A Place to Bury Strangers, and has sharp lyrics about games played in relationships like “Some pretend to love while others love to pretend.” The bass and drums work especially well together on this track, too.
The EP closes with the sharp yet heavy “Love Language.” It could be a new darkwave smash. The wall of sound it creates is impressive and a bit intimidating, and Sahene’s hope that learning to love someone will at least slow down the pain inside him resonates with anyone who’s been lonely (AKA all of us).
It’s a good return for these chaps, and an EP that will help you drift into a different headspace for a little while.
Keep your mind open.
[You’ll be speaking my love language if you subscribe.]
Kicking off the new year, Puscifer release “ImpetuoUs,” a third and final preview of the band’s highly-anticipated album, Normal Isn’t, arriving Feb. 6 via Puscifer Entertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG.
“I’m looking forward to hearing where this song takes people,” Maynard James Keenan says. “As the writers, we forget that in a way, we are carpenters and that we’ve been with this song since it was a pile of lumber. Our Perspective may differ from the final occupant of this space we’ve constructed. Shelter, Bridge or Gallows, Coffin? Curious to find out.”
The accompanying visualizer offers a first look at the Puscifer comic book series, “Tales From The Pusciverse.” The debut issue spotlights the character Bellendia Black, originally introduced in the “Pendulum” video. Additional details about the series, launching in tandem with Normal Isn’t, will be announced soon.
Puscifer has previously released two tracks from the 11-song album: “Self Evident,” a song that Stereogum called “gnarly” while noting Keenan and Carina Round “operatically growl” on the four-minute outing, and “Pendulum,”a nod to the post-punk underground of the 1980s that Consequence said sounds like the “lovechild of Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy.”
Written and recorded across Arizona, Los Angeles, and on the road during last year’s Sessanta tour, the albumblends the dark electronics and sharp humor Puscifer is known for with a more spontaneous creative process. “From the outset, we had discussed an element of rawness and edge, which guitar brings,” shares Mat Mitchell, who co-produced the album. “We got rid of the guard rails and made the music more aggressive.”
“Normal Isn’t reflects this time we are living in,” Keenan adds. “As storytellers and artists, our job is to observe, interpret, and report. We take in our environment and share what we see, and what we see around us does not appear normal. Not by a long shot.”
Album guests include Greg Edwards (bass), Gunnar Olsen (drums), and Sarah Jones (drums) with guests Tony Levin (bass on “Normal Isn’t” and “Seven One”), Danny Carey (drums on “Seven One”) and Mr. Ian Ross (father of Atticus Ross, who narrates “Seven One”).
Normal Isn’t is available now for pre-order and pre-saves (https://Puscifer.lnk.to/NormalIsnt), including multiple limited-edition vinyl variants: standard black, indie retail orange swirl, a Zia Records tan smoke exclusive, and a Puscifer.com-only black ice and clear with black splatter. The album is also available on CD, cassette, and digitally.
DEDSTRANGE’S NEWEST ADDITION TO THE DEDSTRANGE FAMILY, MEXICO’S NOISE ROCK TRIO, SUNSET IMAGES
RELEASES THEIR SECOND SINGLE, “EL TIEMPO OSCILA Y MUEREAL INCIO (TOMMY)”,OFF OF THEIR UPCOMING ALBUM ‘OSCILADOR’AND IT’S OUT NOW EVERYWHERE!!!
Sunset Images‘ “El Tiempo Oscila y Muere Al Inicio (Tommy)” is a sprawling, motorik dirge that explores humanity’s self-destruction. A bruised and distorted bassline throbs like a wounded soul, as hypnotic guitars swirl & feedback in the distance, conjuring visions of a world ravaged by toxic masculinity and patriarchy. This is a song about the abyss that awaits, how we cannot escape the passage of time & how it will ultimately consume us.
‘Oscilador’ is a sound reflection of the perpetual cycle that rules our world’s history: birth, decay, chaos and resolution. Fueled by the collision of fractured synths, pulsating vocals, primitive drum beats and feedback-drenched guitars, creating an aural landscape that’s both disorienting and irresistible. Get ready to be consumed by Mexico City’s Sunset Images’ latest pursuit of sonic resistance. An album that’s brutal, raw and honest, yet accessible, chaotic and beautiful, like the world itself.
“Oscilador” will be out January 23rd 2026 on Dedstrange, record label owned by the visionary mind of the band “A Place to Bury Strangers” and FX pedal company “Death By Audio”
Pre-Order the Limited Edition Pink Vinyl now at your favorite local record store.
Blackwater Holylight have forged a heavy presence in the Los Angeles underground, following a move from Portland, Oregon. On January 30, 2026, the dreamy hard rock trio will share the full-length Not Here Not Gonevia Suicide Squeeze Records. On the second single, “Involuntary Haze,” menacing riffs provide the bedrock to beguiling melodies; dense walls of shoegaze guitars pair with lighter-than-air synths; and heavy subject matter is delivered by siren song vocals.
On the track, lead-guitarist Mikayla Mayhew shares:“This song holds up a mirror to empty promises. Pretending there’s room for someone when your heart’s already full. It’s the moment you realize you’ve been fooled, not by anyone else, but by your own excuses.”
When the women of Blackwater Holylight left their hometown of Portland, OR three years ago, their mission was to escape the gloom of the Pacific Northwest and the placating comfort of familiarity. Aiming for the sunnier climes of LA, the band found themselves not only in a warmer environment, but in a blank slate landscape—one without jobs, longtime friend groups, and the easy retreat of old habits. And it was here, unencumbered by the contentment of security, that Blackwater Holylight began diligently working on their fourth full-length album,Not Here Not Gone.
As with their previous work, Not Here Not Gone explores the duality of light and dark—menacing riffs provide the bedrock to beguiling melodies; dense walls of shoegaze guitars pair with lighter-than-air synths; and heavy subject matter is delivered by siren song vocals. Across their work, the listener gets a sense of empowerment at one turn, vulnerability the next. As drummer Eliese Dorsay describes it, “some songs we’re the predator, and some songs we’re the prey.” The juxtaposition of confidence and uncertainty is never in as such stark relief as when one makes a life changing decision, which may explain how the band’s relocation intensified their study in contrasts to intoxicating new heights on Not Here Not Gone.
The title is the perfect description of the band’s adjustment. “It’s one foot in, one foot out,” vocalist and guitarist/bassist Sunny Faris explains. “It’s about how you can lose people in your life but still have their presence and energy around you.” And indeed, listening to Not Here Not Gone, you get the distinct sense that Blackwater Holylight dragged some of the Northwest gloom down into Southern California. The opening chords of “How Will You Feel” are drenched in the muddy weight of perpetually overcast skies. But a Jacob’s Ladder of light shines through the scuzzy guitars in the form of Faris’ lilting vocals and Sarah McKenna’s blissed-out ambient synth work, guiding the listener out of the mire and into the garden.
Even in their heaviest moments, like the sludgy psychedelia of “Bodies” and “Spades,” Blackwater Holylight masterfully sculpt the thunder and grime into something that feels transcendental. Lead single “Heavy, Why?” is perhaps the apex of the band’s masterful duality and an appropriately titled examination of the ensemble’s methods. Mikayla Mayhew’s low, dirge-like riff and Dorsay’s propulsive drums could easily find a home in the catalog of an amp-worshipping Roadburn act, but Faris’ fragile vocals transform the composition into a question, a pointed and probing examination that uses beauty and grace to offset the threatening instrumentation.
In one of the biggest stylistic shifts of the album, the instrumental track “Giraffe” churns out a hallucinatory blend of woozy keyboards and pulsating bass over a beat provided by David Andrew Sitek (TV on the Radio, Run the Jewels, Solange). The song serves as a dividing line of sorts, as Not Here Not Gone shifts gears into even more nuanced territories. The band asserts that the primary change to their music has been the addition of time. On previous albums, youthful urgency yielded material that felt immediate and direct. But on Not Here Not Gone, Blackwater Holylight deliberately slowed their creative pace. “If there were to be a theme to the album, it would be patience,” says Faris. “Some of these songs we’ve been working on for three years, just giving the songs time to breath and develop while we were exploring a new place and new lives.” It’s especially evident on the latter half of the album, where tracks like “Void to Be,” “Fade,” and “Mourning After” deliberately eschew the big riff in favor of fever dream melodies and layered instrumentation. But forever savoring the paradox, the album’s final track was composed just days before the band entered the studio. “Poppyfields” is a harrowing account of a friend losing their home in an LA wildfire, set against a backdrop of blast beats, double kick drum, symphonic synths, and black metal-inspired guitars. In what feels like a counterweight to the album’s general tilt towards less tormented territories, “Poppyfields” serves as a stark reminder that no paradise is permanent, and everything will be reborn through ashes.
Not Here Not Gone was recorded at Sonic Ranch outside of El Paso TX by Sonny Diperri (Narrow Head, DIIV, Emma Ruth Rundle), allowing the band to once again step outside of their comfort zone and isolate themselves in a place where they could focus exclusively on their art. The result is the crown jewel of Blackwater Holylight’s catalog—a rich and immersive study in tonal chiaroscuro, where light finds its way out of the shadows. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to release Blackwater Holylight’s Not Here Not Gone to the world on Limited Edition Deluxe LP, standard LP, and CD on January 30, 2026.
UPCOMING 2026 LIVE DATES
2/13 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah 2/14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit 2/15 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister 2/17- Austin, TX @ Radio/East 2/18 – Houston, TX @ White Oak 2/19- New Orleans, LA @ No Dice 2/20 – Pensacola, FL @ Handlebar 2/21 – Atlanta, GA @ Siberia 2/22 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy 2/24- Charlottesville, VA @ Southern Cafe 2/25 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro 2/26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s 2/27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Meadows 2/28 – Braintree, MA @ Widowmaker Brewing 3/02 – Youngstown, OH @ Westside Bowl 3/03 – Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle 3/04 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 3/06- Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive 3/07 – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive 3/08 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High 3/10 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos 3/11 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater 3/12 – Sacremento, CA @ Starlet 3/13 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel 3/14 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley 3/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Pacific Electric 4/18 – Tilburg, NL @ Roadburn Fest 5/06 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique 5/07 – Hamburdg, DE @ MS Stubnitz 5/08 – Copenhagen, DK @ A Colossal Weekend Fest 5/09 – Oslo, NO @ Desertfest 5/10 – Gothenburg, SE @ Monument 5/12 – Poznań, PL @ Pod Minoga 5/13 – Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz 5/14 – Berlin, DE @ Desertfest 5/15 – Nuenkirchen, DE @ Stummsche Reithalle 5/16 – Brussel, BE @ Obsidian Dust Fest 5/17 – London, UK @ Desertfest 5/18 – Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny 5/19 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo 5/20 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute 5/22 – Helsinki, FIN @ Sonic Rites Fest
More great live shows for you from last year! Who’s in the top half of the list?
#15: Johnny Jewel – September 25, 2025 – Levitation Austin, Austin, TX
Mr. Jewel opened for his own band, Desire, and, for my money, put on the best show of the night at the first day of Levitation Austin last year. It was a showcase of his film scores and covers of other film music ranging from his score to Drive to a David Lynch tribute and giallo-horror tracks.
#14: The Black Angels – September 28, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
The Black Angels always play Levitation. It’s their festival, after all. They help curate it. It was another fine set from them that included many tracks they don’t play often – one of the advantages of not having to promote a new album.
These Dutch funk-rockers played their first gig in the U.S. ever at Levitation Austin last year and had the entire place jumping by the end of it. This was easily the grooviest show of the entire weekend, and everyone was buzzing the rest of the day afterwards.
#12: DITZ – June 27, 2025 – Levitation France – Angers, FR
This was blistering post-punk in a heat wave that had gripped almost the entire county. You can see the dust being kicked up from the mosh pit in that photo due to the arid conditions of the park in Angers where Levitation France took place last year. The lead singer had run off-stage, into the nearby lake, and returned covered in seaweed by the end.
#11: A Place to Bury Strangers – September 28, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
The Palmer Event Center in downtown Austin, where Levitation Austin took place last year, is a big venue…and it still wasn’t big enough to keep the volume of APTBS from flattening you as soon as you entered the place. Lead singer and guitarist Oliver Ackermann used the high ceiling to his delight by tossing his now-famous “half-guitar” sky high multiple times. Two friends who’d never seen them until now were left stunned by the end. “That’s like an assault,” my friend Wes said, wide-eyed and not knowing how else to describe it.
We’re now halfway through my list of favorite albums from last year. Who’s here? Read on!
#15: Lammping – Never Never
Take a trip-hop duo (Lammping) and combine them with a Canadian rockabilly one-man-band who was described by John Waters as “Roy Orbison with a head injury” (Bloodshot Bill), and you get the neat Never Never EP. It sounds like something you’d find in a dusty record bin among “2000s Music – Misc.”, and is well-worth seeking out. It’s the first of four EPs from Lammping, so they’re off to a good start.
#14: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island
Would it be a “best of” year list without a King Gizz album by now, since they release at least one album a year? Phantom Island combines the Aussie psych-rock / thrash metal / rave music giants with an orchestra because…why not? It’s a lush album with as much mystery as its cover.
#13: pôt-pot – Warsaw 480km
Here’s a post-punk band that emerged from seemingly nowhere to knock me back into my chair. “Damn, that’s good,” was my first thought after hearing it. I’m delighted that so many good post-punk bands are still appearing, and this is one of them.
#12: John Also Bennett – Ston Elaióna
This is a lovely ambient record mostly made of synths and field recordings John Also Bennett made around Greece. One song is inspired by the oldest known written song found on a stone pillar.
#11: Paddang – Lost in Lizardland
It’s a French psych-rock concept album about a future world dominated by evil lizard people and a lone heroine in the wasteland trying to defeat them. What more do you need to know?
There were a lot of great shows for me in 2025, and we’re now into the top half of the ones I saw last year — and all of this batch were at the Levitation Music Festvial in Austin, Texas.
#20: The Sword – September 26, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
Austin heroes The Sword are enjoying their return to touring and this set almost leveled the Palmer Event Center in Austin. The crowd was bonkers for this one and had been digesting a full menu of metal all day before they came out and provided another massive entrée.
Pixel Grip played one of the late night shows on the first day of the festival, and they did it a man down at that. No one minded, however, because they still sounded great and had a loving crowd packed into the Elysium nightclub who were all in the mood to dance and make out, and PG’s live sets are perfect for both.
#`18: Model / Actriz – September 27, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
“Come on, Austin, we’re all hot!” was the opening call by Model / Actriz’s lead singer, Cole Haden at their Levitation set. They played a hot set of post-punk that had the crowd roaring by the end and made a lot of new fans.
#17: Boy Harsher – September 25, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX
Speaking of bands with roaring crowds, Boy Harsher packed people into the Stubb’s outdoor stage area on the opening night of the Levitation festival. It was a sexy, fun set that was a good one for the first night of headliners.
While we’re on the subject of sexy fun, Desire brought plenty of it at Elysium when they played a late-night set at Levitation. Black leather and latex, love songs, lust songs, and cat-like grace across the stage.
Who makes it into the top fifteen? Come back tomorrow!
