Top 10 Albums of 2025: Alex Lauria

Record of the Year: Seeking Darkness by Huremic (Parannoul)

This past year, the ever prolific and elusive Parannoul took up a small residency with NTS, releasing four brand new records on their shows in a matter of months. In March, they announced the first of these releases that was to be under the alias Huremic, promising a darker and more post punk sound than their previous projects. On the appropriately named Seeking Darkness, they take us on a five part journey into the deepest parts of the psyche, sampling music from the post punk movements of the 80s and 90s, and while descending into these shadows, never losing their knack for cathartic compositions that, no matter the situation, can always find something to illuminate within the heart. The record is a master class in musical arrangement and emotional release where Parannoul builds a whole new world for the listener to completely immerse themselves in. It’s a project that stands in contrast to the artist’s bright and blinding 2023 release After The Magic, suggesting a more complicated relationship between darkness and light, where both struggle within us and may even be the essential catalyst to expound on the other.

Other standouts from this year include the stunningly soft and textured Blurr by Joanne Robertson that explores the powers of intimacy and solitude, Kelela’s nostalgic live record In The Blue Light that completely reimagines many of her electronic R&B recordings with jazz rearrangements as she returns to the famous venue she used to attend as a young adult, The Weather Station’s poignant and grounded Humanhood that demands a very genuine reprieve and understanding of the self in today’s political upheaval, and the extraordinary 申 (Mousu) from ju sei that dissects childhood innocence and memory through intense experimental methods. All this year, I’ve been consistently impressed by the output from so many different artists and making this list was no easy feat. I’m looking forward to the great lineup of releases coming in 2026 and digging into even more records from this past year as well.