The 20 Best Albums of the First Half of 2025

A mid-year roundup of my favorite records released in the last six months

#20: Quade – The Foel Tower (AD 93)

This Bristol four-piece describes their music – half-jokingly but quite aptly – as “doomer sad boy, ambient-dub, folk, experimental post-rock”. Their sophomore album was recorded over ten days in rural Wales. The Foel Tower is a dark, brooding, introspective song cycle that makes Bark Psychosis or Laughing Stock-era Ta…