HARPER – 2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky by Fleshwater

I first heard Fleshwater’s debut album, We’re Not Here To Be Loved last year by the recommendation of a friend and instantly fell in love with it. When 2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky was first announced back in August, I was over the moon and WOW this record did not disappoint.

2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky is an incredibly solid sophomore release from the band, and it keeps getting better each time I hear it. My favorite moment of the album is the transition between “Green Street” and “Jetpack”, and my favorite track overall is “Sundown”. 

ALIVIA – Morbid Little Thing by Bone Shredder

Randy Moore’s first album of his solo career as Bone Shredder is a Vampy-Rock anthem that is built for the sentimentals. The album contains all originals besides his cover of “Baby’s In Black” written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. 

The album uses the focus of vampyrism to convey a message of toxic love. Songs like “Let me in” and “Pulling Teeth” beg for communication, while the songs “Stay Away” and “Wasted Days” convey a theme of regret for coming back to an individual over and over again—a common experience in a toxic relationship. Another example of this would be in the song, “Daylight”: 

“I never see you in the daylight, you always disappear. You know exactly what you’re doing; and when you’re hiding, I’ll be dying. . . to get a better look of all the time that you took. I try to take back the time that you took.” 

Overall, the theme of toxicity and the use of vampire theming, blended with the carefully crafted guitar parts, makes Morbid Little Thing by Bone Shredder my favorite of the year! 

VINNY – There Must Be Something Here by acloudyskye

I am once again astonished by the absolute art that this man Skye continues to put out project after project. This one in particular has to be the greatest celebration of his entire career. Skye blends his unworldly and magical melodic electronic vibes from previous records What Do You Want! and Blood Rushing Like Current Through A Powerline along with his more indie rock-based vibes from There Must Be Something Here and makes a classic for the books. I love this record so much.

CARSON – Getting Killed by  Geese

Well, one of us had to say it. We wouldn’t be able to call ourselves an alternative music publication staffed by a bunch of early 20’s college students if one of us didn’t start glazing this album. But really… It’s just good. Getting Killed by Geese has been my go-to car music since its release because it’s a crowd pleaser for any crowd that sits in my passenger seat. My friends and I were super involved in the lead-up to this album’s release, having listened to 3D Country to death over the summer, and it was so refreshing to feel on the cusp of something, with a group of others too. And now that Geese are blowing up, as they should, it feels nice to have that snobby I-was-there-before-it-was-cool lilt in my voice. It took a while for Getting Killed to sink in, but the first time I heard Long Island City Here I Come I knew it was everything I was waiting for.

SIO – Ornamental Gardens by Liar, Flower

While my actual album of the year was Vanisher, Horizon Scraper by Quadeca, a fuller review was already written by me on that masterpiece (feel free to check that out if you haven’t), so I wanted to highlight another phenomenal release from 2025 that is certainly worth your attention. 

Ornamental Gardens is the second album from artists Katie Jane Garside and Chris Whitting under the name Liar, Flower. However, both of these musicians have been making music for decades at this point, and that talent of both artists shines on this new album. Ornamental Gardens is a creative masterwork, highlighting Garside’s best work as an avant-garde folk singer-songwriter, with music that sounds like it’s from the bottom of an enchanted well, similar to her first masterpiece Lullabies in a Glass Wilderness. Yet still, the album contains multiple flat out alt-rock songs like “Monolithic Ego”, similar to their first album under Liar, Flower: Geiger Counter. 

Garside’s writing is cryptic and reminiscent of the ramblings of a psychopath that understands something no one else could ever fathom. She writes of love, nature and folklore in a beautifully unsettling manner that I’m convinced is nigh impossible to replicate. It’s astoundingly impressive and may be my favorite album of hers to date. Ornamental Gardens is a must listen for anyone who would be interested in some of the most ominously beautiful folk music ever put to wax.

NOAH B. – Vice City Magic by Mustard Service

In the summer of 2017, Mustard Service released their debut album Zest Pop. A genre of their own making, a blend of bossa nova, beach rock, and good ol’ pop. Oh yeah, they got the mojo. In the summer of 2025, they’ve perfected that sound in their graduation record Vice City Magic. A love letter to all the young folks out there with Miami in their hearts and pain in their lives. Vice City Magic is an album about the bright moments of night life in the city, of lost connection, and rebirth.

The lead-off track of Vice City Magic, “2AM”, opens on soft synths, setting a surreal atmosphere courtesy of Leo Katani on the keys. The drums and bass, played by Adam Perez and Augusto Di Catarinam, usher in the atmosphere of a slow dance at a homecoming. Gabriel Marinuchi joins in on his mournful guitar weeping the same sad tune sung by lead vocalist Marco Rivero Ochoa. The song is performed entirely in Spanish, much in the typical Mustard Service fashion, I was moved by the lyrics, so poetically written as to remind me of a time where I was once happy too. There’s a bittersweet beauty to those fleeting moments, and it’s here where Mustard Service thrives the most.

My favorite song off this album has to go to “How Come”, which brings on fellow indie darling JW Francis. Two of my favorite artists collaborating? It was a dream come true, one I never even knew I wanted to have, JW Francis’ folk roots shines through this unexpected genre fusion, and his infectious positivity just bleeds through the track, His signature dream-like riffs seamlessly blend into the hedonistic zest pop that is Vice City Magic.

On “Billy Bob”, the methodic somewhat hypnotic drum beat left me entranced, but its in the emotional substance of the lyrics in this album where these songs really stick with you, This track in particular, it left me wondering if this Billy Bob is the protagonist of this album’s underlying love story. “Let Me Call You Baby“ is a bait and switch, it starts deceptively as a light relaxing beach tune, but beneath the Miami veil, we uncover Billy Bob’s intense feelings of wanderlust, failure, and self-destruction. As this track progresses, the song falls apart into a slow march, mirroring Billy’s crumbling romantic delusions.

The album opens on a burgeoning romance misinterpreted. Then the album explores Billy Bob’s 10 stages of grief, falling in and out with the idea of love, The final track, “There We Go Again”, is a bright track that lyrically ends the record on a solemn note. Billy remains broken, and there is no resolution. He unlocks no renewed determination to throw himself back out there, it just ends. He stares at the flames of his dead romance, and it remains the brightest thing he’s ever seen. And that is the essence of Vice City Magic. Yet another 10/10 entry into the Zest Pop genre, and a must listen for all college students, radio jockeys, and anyone who’s ever loved and lost under the bright glow of city lights.  

GALLOWAY – Big Roller by Blake Ruby

My favorite album of the year is Big Roller by Blake Ruby. I don’t really get emotional when it comes to music very often, so when someone such as Blake Ruby is able to portray such deep emotion into his songs is has to be mentioned. Blake Ruby is an exceptional guitarist and lyricist, with songs such as “Table for Two” featuring perfectly hit harmonics and “Supernova” portraying lyrics resembling deep loss, such as “I didn’t have the heart to turn off your CD’s, So I tried to sing along but it damn sure wasn’t any fun.” The way his guitar melody, voicing, and chord choices perfectly complement the melody he puts over it puts him as number one in my mind. If you are going to listen to just one song off this album listen to “Supernova” and let me know if it made you want to never take someone in your life for granted ever again.

JAIDEN – Sinners (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

I don’t know how to start this review other than saying this: Sinners is one of the best films of the year, if not the decade. Sure, people have their gripes with it, from the questionable pacing choices and similarities to From Dusk to Dawn. But I can’t find myself to dislike it in the slightest. When going into the film, I expected to watch a fun little horror film that was set in the Delta Blues South. By the end of it, I left with my head hurting due to the number of times my body ascended from the theater seats. One of the reasons why I absolutely love this film is the unusual soundtrack. I say unusual because I’ve not seen a soundtrack with this number of great songs, without previously being a Broadway musical, or including a nostalgic hit. I forgot where I first read it, but I recall someone saying that the music was a character in itself, and that’s the perfect way to describe it. The soundtrack does have its shortcomings, but overall, it is an incredibly beautiful piece. Even if you haven’t watched Sinners, you can still appreciate its music. The soundtrack is a love letter to music as a whole, and it shows. 

Although I can spend twenty paragraphs dissecting every song, I’m only going to touch on the highlights. To start off, the album is an amalgamation of different styles of music. It’s hard to classify this soundtrack as only one genre. You hear blends of folk, blues, rock, hip-hop, and EDM (to an extent). In any different context, that would sound like someone’s egregiously long Spotify playlist, but in this instance, the blending feels fairly normal. There is a slight bumpiness to it, but overall it blends well. “I Lied to You” is one of the best examples of the merging sound, as it includes all of the aforementioned genres minus the EDM. One would never think that all of these genres would come together so well, but as I regularly say, composer Ludwig Gorranson always finds a way. 

Another thing I appreciate is how the soundtrack breaks current notions of blues and folk/traditional music. We often portray the two genres more as artifacts than musical history that are still alive. A prime example of this is our approach to classical music. It is an iconic genre that we can all recognize when we hear it. Despite people having some basic understanding of the genre, we often aren’t aware of its current prominence. We know and talk about Beethoven and Mozart, but what about modern and contemporary composers like Shaw and Richter? Although the genre is used to signal the past, we often forget that it’s still thriving in the present. 

I remember reading an interview a while back with Buddy Guy, a blues musician who also made a brief appearance in the film. In an interview with Variety, he stated,

“There are very few radio stations, other than satellite, that play blues now. And the older people I learned from are no longer with us. But when I was coming up, on the AM stations, everybody’s records were being played… But nowadays, man, if you don’t tell ’em, they don’t know it. They’re like, ‘Who is that? Who’s Muddy Waters?’ My grandkids don’t know anything about the blues until they hit 21 and come up in the club while I’m there, and they say, ‘Granddad, I didn’t know you could do that!’”

I’ve had that interview in the back of my mind ever since I first read it. Blues set the foundation for everything in American music, point blank. One would have a harder time attempting to find a genre that is not in some way linked to blues. The same can be said for Folk/traditional music. However, other countries have a much stronger connection to folk than the United States. Many people consider country music to be the traditional music of the United States, which is historically inaccurate. By most means, country is actually a fairly new genre. If we trace everything as far back as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, it links back to folk music. A.P. Carter traveled the mountains along with Lesley Riddle and documented folk music from the Appalachians. While Jimmie Rodgers grew up surrounded by folk and even blues musicians of his era. Yet, these facts are often forgotten. 

I mention these things because, despite the misconceptions, the soundtrack showcases how relevant and powerful these genres still are. “I Lied to You” is also a good example of showing its prominence, but I want to direct you to the lesser-known songs off the album, such as “Wang Dang Doodle”, “Juke”, “Old Corn Liquor”, and “Can’t Win for Losin’”. These songs are not only original but are also performed by contemporary blues musicians. Although the songs only play pretty briefly within the film itself, they not only emulate the world in which the characters live, but also emphasize how alive and well the genre is today. 

It’s harder to create folk music, especially since we’re currently seeing a decline in monoculture due to the rise of the internet, along with other widespread cultural changes. Yet, in the midst of change, some people are attempting to revive folk music and keep it alive in people’s spirits and minds; it’s a relatable and still significant art form. The nice thing about the genre is also how creative you can be with it. If David Guetta can do an EDM remix of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, then what’s stopping you from performing a rock version of “Yankee Doodle”?  That’s why Sinners’ version of “Rocky Road to Dublin” is such a classic to me. Every version of the song sounds great; however, this version reminds me of a siren call. In the context of the movie, it technically is one, but it’s especially apparent if you listen to the song on its own. The same can be said about “Will Ye Go, Lassie Go?”, which is a truly haunting take on the ballad. 

The last aspect I want to touch on is how it incorporates the score into the soundtrack itself and divides it into pretty notable tracks. These songs didn’t play in the movie, but that honestly just turns them into deep cuts, little treats for the fans.  My favorite example of this is with the song “In Moonlight”, which uses the score composition “Hole Up ‘Til Sunrise”. It’s honestly a sleeper hit, and I wish it got the same amount of attention as some other songs have gotten. The same can be said with Seance performed by James Blake, who I believe is one of the more underrated singer-songwriters in the music industry at the moment.

As amazing as this album is, unfortunately, nothing is perfect. My only grievance regards three tracks. The worst song by far is “Flames of Fortune” by Don Toliver. I can see what this song was trying to be, but Don Toliver does not fit here at all. The fact that the soundtrack does not use fully noticeable autotune, compared to Don Toliver’s music styles, makes everything seem jarring. I will say it isn’t the worst soundtrack feature Don Toliver was a part of in 2025, but it was close. The second song is Rod Wave’s song “Sinners”. It’s not a bad-sounding song per se, but it’s also not a good song. I was personally surprised that this song got nominated for more awards compared to songs like “Pale, Pale Moon”, or “In Moonlight”. The last song is “Dangerous” by Hailee Steinfeld. I feel like Steinfeld’s musical abilities were a bit underused. If they were going to have her perform a song related to the movie, why not have her do something in relation to it, like singing with the vampires, or having her own Pearline moment? Instead, we get a pretty decent club hit. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not in line with the film or the rest of the soundtrack. Regardless of my dislike for these songs, I do still appreciate them in their own unique way.

In short, this album is something special. It’s truly an underappreciated gem compared to a lot of the other soundtracks that’ve come out this year. It isn’t perfect, but it is highly enjoyable.  I think as years go on, this soundtrack will be considered a modern-day classic, but the future is honestly so far. However, in the meantime, I’m gonna put on my boots, a nice little hat, and do a little Irish jig across campus.

NOAH M. – Massive Shoe by Way Dynamic

It’s just a really good time all the way through. Or bad time. Depends how you’re feeling.