i listened to 50 albums

been having a nightmare three weeks of personal life eruptions and professional life stalemates, where it feels as though the only thing I’ve actually achieved recently is this: listening to the 50 album’s on NME’s best of 2025 list. the majority i didn’t care about, and there were a few already in rotation including addison rae and ethel cain and oklou, but a bunch of stuff i’d never got round to / never heard of that i’ll share below

top of that being esdeekid. i will say, the worst thing about this album is when people beside him rap. i dont wanna hear a london accent? i only care what he has to say. maybe i will minus another point for how much the ‘okay’ sound is used in different songs? but i’m interested. paying attention

and then, maybe this is the Julia Jacklin fan inside me, or i’m missing a bit of boygenius, but i got on well with this album from folk bitch trio. the pace, the twangy guitars barely touched, the seriousness.

and finally, i dont think i knew who deftones were. like, i know it was a band. i would have bet they sounded like the stereophonics or something? like white uncle music if that makes any sense? and i thought they were english but they are screamy americans, kicking down doors, okay, okay. an easy add to library

no, this is finally: this is actually the album ive listened to most in this run of 50. i ignored it when it came out, because i havent got on with solo Hayley stuff in the past but this is great. this is about lots of things i’m thinking about at this time in life. she’s so good! maybe i’ll go back to the other solo stuff now and hear it differently. i hope so

it’s been a funny year hammering music because ive spent so much time in the gym, but i recently hit a wall with the bands i like and ended up doing this list as a refresher, and it’s worked.

do you think there’s anyone in the world who likes and dislikes the exact same cultural things you do. i know ive said this before on the website but i still think about it. like, if I made a list of my top 50 albums do you think it would match exactly and in order someone else’s list? is it possible at all?