The end of the previous year and the beginning of the next can be deemed a slow month for new releases, but 2025 began so strong. I found there to be so many new albums from artists both familiar and new to me to celebrate. As we glide through the rest of February, here's a few highlights from last month I keep coming back to.
Camille Schmidt - Nude # 9
Six Castle Road
January 10, 2025
The songwriting of Brooklyn-based artist Camille Schmidt is both unnervingly tactical and blunt, but also raw and hopeful. With tracks that detail the sometimes ugly and uncomfortable parts of hook-ups and dating losers, and others with self-image and the insular feelings surrounding it, Schmidt always sounds self-aware and knowledgable about how these experiences altered her worldview. She may be recounting experiences of a young woman "figuring it out," but there's always a sense of perspective that allows you to feel what she's expressing as she did in those moments. We relieve her personal memories with her with more wisdom, but it's easy to place ourselves in our own versions of these situations. Maybe we're at a bit of a birds eye view as we listen to her recount her experience at the OBGYN or sitting in bed with a man who vapes after sex, but we've all had our own version of that. The sound of the album teeters between traditional indie-rock sonic palettes to sparse drum machine tracks with autotuned vocals, to simplistic acoustic pieces, but all leave Schmidt's vocals in the spotlight, high in the mix with her writing in focus. Tracks like "Fish Pills," and "Heaven" are two of the albums highlights. In the later, she recounts several formative near death experiences in a way that feels purely poetic, as she muses, "Heaven's always realer than you think, and lately, it seems pretty real to me."
Favorite Tracks: Cult in Denver, Fish Pills, Nude # 9, Heaven
Ela Minus - DÍA
Domino Recording Co.
January 17, 2025
On Ela Minus' sophomore album, DÍA, the Colombian electronic producer, songwriter, and performer perfects what it sounds like to create and build. Created with only hardware synthesizers, Minus' creations feel like otherworldly and danceable pop compositions, but remain experimental. As Minus crafted the album, she continued to write, re-write, and change aspects of the songs, showcasing that ever-evolving process of growth. These songs contain bolstering energy and call for movement while they ruminate on Minus' introspective feelings. On, "I WANT TO BE BETTER," she almost bellows the repeated chorus of, "I thought I was better, but I keep on acting like a little kid." In ways, her vocal stylings remind me of pop performers like Icona Pop or very early Charli XCX, in ways where depth and volume do hammer their passion and ideas forward. The record culminates to the zen-like final track, "COMBAT," with lyrics that call for freedom, utilizing the symbolism of a bird in a cage. In Spanish, she states, "The closer the wall gets, the desire to knock them down is stronger." If we are unable to change and grow, the urge to do so will only become more pressing and unable to be ignored. Minus' embracing that growth is her biggest strength.
Favorite Tracks: ABRIR MONTE, BROKEN, I WANT TO BE BETTER, QQQQ
lots of hands - into a pretty room
Fire Talk
January 17, 2025
Embracing and building upon their low-fi sound, Leeds-based band lots of hands has crafted some of their best work on their latest album, into a pretty room. It's an entrancing record, filled with sputtering electronic sounds and organic instrumentation, featuring steel guitar and banjos that allow the music to swell with depth. Listening to this album conjures up feelings that left me feeling light, but incredibly grounded. If some albums have a sense of darkness that makes them whole and complete, this record feels like it's opposite. Sometimes a sense of lightness allows emotions to be accessed in a way that not every musician can access or master. There's a sense of ease and peace to these tracks, even when Billy Woodhouse and Elliot Dryden are lyrically documenting their lowest moments. On "run your mouth," Woodhouse slowly croons, "Why'd I tell you if you were just gonna run your mouth? It's not too much to think about." There's a sense of acceptance of the way life has shaken out throughout the album, but these fleeting moments of pondering can exist all at the same time. I've seen connections be drawn between lots of hands and artists like Alex G, but I feel as though lots of hands harnesses their soundscapes to create atmospheric tracks that couldn't be created by anyone else.
Favorite Tracks: barnyard, masquerade, into a pretty room, run your mouth
Rose Gray - Louder, Please
Play It Again Sam
January 17, 2025
As the origin story of many pop icons goes, getting the breakthrough album released is oftentimes an uphill battle. After a failed label deal, losing over 100 written songs, and a stint writing for other artists, Rose Gray's debut album finally landed this year. The songs on Louder, Please are sometimes sticky sweet pop tracks, and in those moments, they are pulsating examples of dance music and how timeless it can be. These pop tracks are love letters to the club scene, to the people Gray has met, but also melancholy at times, showcasing an awareness of nightlife's fleeting bliss and how momentary the adrenaline truly is. This is most notable on tracks like "Party People" and "Everything Changes (But I Won''t.)" Sometimes this escapism is sought after and sometimes it's not, but the thrills Gray documents are all felt intensely, and we are thrust into them headfirst. With production from electronic producer royalty like Sega Bodega and Uffie, Gray truthfully picked a winning team in my eyes. The range Gray displays in terms of songwriting, emotion, and sonic palette give us a well-rounded look into her playbook, what she can do, and will do, next.
Favorite Tracks: Party People, Switch, Everything Changes (But I Won't), First
Baba Stiltz & Okay Kaya - Blurb
Recorded Matters
January 24, 2025
With only a 17-minute runtime, first time collaborators, Baba Stiltz and Okay Kaya give us a well-rounded EP, that I hope is only the first of many collaborative efforts. Despite no song being longer than three minutes, the duo give us a lot to chew on through their sparse arrangements, mostly made of guitars, the duo's call-and-response style vocals, and soft, light percussion. Stiltz's vocals remind me a bit of Lou Reed. Perhaps it's his low bass tone and nonchalance, but it perfectly balances Okay Kaya's sincere, quiet, yet sometimes sardonic, sense of tone in her writing. Even then, these tracks read as quite sincere, especially on songs like "I Believe In Love," which serves as a sort of climax to the EP's story, coming in at track five out of seven. It's the track with the biggest dynamics, building to a fuzzy, hazy outro with crescendoed vocals that harmonize with the track's electric guitar. As the duo repeat, "I believe in love, I believe it to be true if you go for it." Though many lyrics from this project seem to be stated in a casual tone with a shrugged shoulder, it's hard to deny the pure sincerity that's present here.
Favorite Tracks: Bedside, Tough Luck, I Believe In Love, Boys In The Girl's Room
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