Tuesday Tunes Wally's Favorite Albums of 2025 Edition

Most people come out with their best of lists in December, but I'm not like most people. Here's my countdown from 8 to 1 of my favorite albums of 2025. 

8. Snocaps - Snocaps Katie Crutchfield has a musical reunion with her twin sister Allison with M.J. Lenderman and Brad Cook along for the ride. If you were a fan of Katie and Allison's old band P.S. Eliot this album is a must for you. I'm still waiting for the actual physical LP release which doesn't happen until April, but it was issued to streaming services on Halloween last year. What a surprise treat!

Snocaps - "Cherry Hard Candy"

7. Jeff Tweedy - Twilight Override A sprawling 3 LP's or CD's worth of solo material Jeff has been making over the last several years. Much of it is mediative, but never morose. It could have been cut down to a single LP, but I dig the vibe of extra one gets from this album that is a grower and not a shower. 

Jeff Tweedy - "Lou Reed Was My Babysitter"

6. Phoebe Rings - Aseurai It may be because I am a product of the Seventies, but while my first big love was of metal and punk (Kiss and Ramones were so formative for me) I'm still a massive mark for well crafted pop and New Zealander's Phoebe Rings is a delight. I got to see them open for The Beths in November and then was lucky enough to meet them and purchase their first full length record Aseurai which they autographed to me. Wish I had bought one of their lazy disco caps when I had the chance. 

Phoebe Rings - "Get Up"

5. Wednesday - Bleeds You might have thought Wednesday was taking a full fledged turn into country with the initial singe "Elderberry Wine" but Bleeds turned out to be perhaps the most eclectic of the band's career. Karly Hartzman follows her muse wherever it leads. Hardcore screaming punk...you got it. Countrygaze hum and throb...sure thing. Completely strange and weird "Phish Pepsi"...let's go. I'm down for all of it. 

Wednesday - "Townies"

4. Lemonheads - Love Chant 2025 went down as the year of Evan Dando's big comeback. First there was the excellent memoir Rumors of My Demise ghost written by Jim Ruland. It was quite an exhilarating read. The first new album of original Lemonheads material in 19 years came out in October. Love Chant was better than expected, a thrilling return to form for Evan. A successful U.S. tour happened in the fall and winter which was capped off with an appearance on the nationwide The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Then word came that a planed European tour was off. Then the news arrived that Evan was heading into rehab after sending lewd videos to a fan via Twitter/X direct message. It seems like Mr. Dando is really into self sabotage. I hope he finally gets free of the drugs and other demons. 

Lemonheads - "The Key of Victory"

3. Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On Chicago band Horsegirl's first album Versions of Modern Performance  from 2022 was a noisy classic paying homage to Sonic Youth that made me wonder how these young ladies had been exposed to such great music growing up. If you expected more of the same with the new record you might have been disappointed. They flipped the script on the new album. The noise was gone and we get an early Wire type minimalism on what I feel is an even better record. 

Horsegirl - "Switch Over"

1. The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie Oh, how I love The Beths let me count the ways. You might notice that I skipped number 2. That's because I'm only including my Top 8 and since the 2 albums at the top of my list are in a dead heat they both get number 1. The Beths just keep on putting out great records even with front woman Liz Stokes having some health issues and writer's block. Once again, I got to see them play live and meet with after the show. They are one of the greatest groups ever. 

The Beths - "Metal"

1. Liquid Mike - Hell Is An Airport My old pal D.D. Blank got me into Liquid Mike. Feels like the old days when we would always be sharing the gospel of music amongst ourselves. Liquid Mike hail from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and they are pure rock 'n roll! Short sweet songs with astute creative lyrics with raging guitars. If you are seeking some throwback Nineties crunch updated to today you need this album post haste. 

Liquid Mike - "Groucho Marx"

Tuesday Tunes is finally back!

It's been awhile I know. Never fear though, Wally's here once more to share what's happening in his music world. The latest thing is the younger folks have really embraced the Nineties. We're talking about grunge, indie/alternative, shoegaze, and jangle pop.....all of which really began in the Eighties, but didn't reach its full flowering until the next decade. The best of the new breed are not slavishly copying their elders, but they are taking the best parts and formulating their own spin which makes my tired old ears grin. 

It's almost all newer stuff this time around. I did decide that 2026 should be the year of metal so I have included one metal adjacent song. Heavy metal and punk rock were what got me through high school (perhaps even saved my life as I went through some dark days) and I will never lose my love of it. 

First up is a very new band from the UK who call themselves Tooth. There are several bands with that moniker so I wish them luck with the name. Their tune "Age of Innocence" has a good beat with some driving bright guitars, fitting for a crew that features one of them pulling out Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque album out of a record store bin. "I wonder if it will always be like this...."

Tooth - "Age of Innocence"

Next up is Seko from South Pasadena, California. "Barrel Connector" is a dream-pop jewel of a song with an incredibly cool video. All 3 of their videos available on YouTube were directed by band member Justice Vaughn Ott who is quite the filmmaker to go along with music creation. Lots of Eighties and Nineties musical reference abound in the videos themselves with Dinosaur Jr., The Swirlies, Ride, and Velocity Girl among others featured in their videos. This band has a bright future!

Seko - "Barrel Connector"

Joe Glass provides us with a video he co-directed with Owen Vaughan: "Dust on Your Halo/New Pose." He only has 86 subscribers as of the day I am writing this post so do yourself a favor and go, like, and subscribe at this lo-fi Chicago artist's video! It's really fun. 

Joe Glass - "Dust on Your Halo/New Pose"

Liquid Mike, hailing from the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan is my favorite band in America. I believe Mike Maple wouldn't mind if I referred to him as an acolyte of Guided by Voices. He's almost as prolific as Robert Pollard and he certainly has a brilliant knack for writing memorable melodies. He had shown that with previous band We Should Be Laughing, but he's shortened the tunes with Liquid Mike (you rarely hit the 3 minute mark), yet packs in even catchier and heavier arrangements. They are coming to Nashville to play Jorts Fest in May. I really hope I get a chance to go see them. I'll have more from them next week as I finally get around to posting my Top Eight Albums from last year. 

Liquid Mike - "AT&T"

Here's some new music from an old artist: Steve Diggle's second Buzzcocks album, Attitude Adjustment, post the passing of Pete Shelley came out recently and it's not bad. I was one of those cynical folks thinking he should have stopped using the Buzzcocks name, but I've come around. Give the new album a chance. You might just end up humming the songs all day in your head afterwards which definitely seems apropos considering Diggle was the man who wrote "Harmony in My Head."

Buzzcocks - "Queen of the Scene"

Snail Mail is back with a new song and an album to follow in March. I got to see Snail Mail open for Dinosaur Jr. last summer and I was not disappointed. Lindsey Jordan and band were just fabulous. My takeaways that night: boy, is she tiny in person. Brilliant guitarist and ace song writer too. Most surprising to me was how much fun she had on stage. I've been a fan since the algo on YouTube sent "Thinning" my way 9 years ago and I'm so looking forward to the new album Ricochet which comes out March 27th.

Snail Mail - "Dead End"

Premiering almost at the same time as Snail Mail was a new one from Courtney Barnett called "Site Unseen" featuring another Wally favorite Katie Crutchfield AKA Waxahatchee! It's a teaser for a new album titled Creature of Habit which also comes out on March 27. Courtney is coming to the Ryman on May 5th. I wish I could see her there, but I went to so many concerts last year I'm a bit skint at this point. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will send a ticket my way haha. 

Courtney Barnett ft. Waxahatchee - "Site Unseen"

We wrap up this installment of Tuesday tunes with an oldie, but goodie from Blue Öyster Cult. "Burnin' for You" was the lead single off of Fire of Unknown Origin which was released in June 1981. It hit number 1 on the mainstream rock chart and also peaked at number 40 on the pop chart. It contains the immortal lyric "time to play B sides" which was most likely written by rock critic Richard Meltzer who co-wrote the tune with Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser. I really dig the song and the video. Come back next week and I'll share songs from my Top 8 albums of 2025. 

Blue Öyster Cult "Burnin' for You"