As always, we the various members of Allston Pudding each picked our favorite non-local music from the past year: we’re talking albums, songs, gigs, and then everyone makes up a category of their own. It’s fun!

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Andrew Mcnally

Album of the Year: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory – Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory

Sharon Van Etten’s voice is like a knife in my gut. She could be singing random words out of the dictionary and it would make me cry 100% of the time. Her seventh album sees her welcoming her backing band into the songwriting process for the first time, and the end result is a “rock” record. Really, it’s that the music plays as much of a role as Van Etten herself. She still shines through on every song, but the songwriting is fuller here, and the collaborative effort is genuinely noticeable. The acoustic guitars are largely ditched for synthesizers, itself a huge change-up for her catalog. There are refreshing new elements that only enhance the tried and tested, beautiful vocals. Get the tissues out.

Song of the Year: Model/Actriz – “Cinderella”

“Cinderella” is here for multiple reasons, one of which is Most Concerning Verse of 2025. You’ll know it when you hear it. Model/Actriz are a totally unique band, vaguely post-punk but with doses of both dance and industrial. Their second album was a lot less dense than their debut, focusing more on the dance elements, but the lyrics are no less emotionally raw. This is a hyper-intense song with some ominous music, yet it is hypnotically rhythmic and easy to groove to. Oh, and it focuses on the often-unexplored lyrical topic of childhood loneliness, in case you thought it was fun.

Live Show of the Year: MCR @ Fenway but that’s boring so Intac @ Zone 3 [this is my full answer]

Best Slipknot Needle Drop In A Major Motion Picture: “Wait And Bleed” in Friendship (2025)

“Goodbye Stranger” in Magnolia, “Street Fighting Man” in Mean Streets, the perfect needle drop can enhance any movie scene. And as an unabashed Slipknot fan, I’m delighted that “Wait and Bleed” powers up Friendship TWICE. It’s the obvious winner for this yearly award.

Ben Bonadies

Album of the Year: The Tubs – Cotton Crown

The Tubs make fast, jangly guitar pop the way only Brits can. The band grew out of the defunct Joanna Gruesome and kept that project’s love of exciting garage-y tunes central to their ethos. Their second album Cotton Crown improves on everything that made their debut Dead Meat so good—the vocals are clearer, the sonic pallette more varied, the melodies catchier, and the riffs on this thing would make Johnny Marr blush. There’s not one moment on Cotton Crown that hasn’t been stuck in my head at least once this year.

Song of the Year: Alex G – “Afterlife”

After years in the DIY trenches and yet more years as a beloved and influential indie rock fixture, Alex Giannascoli is now a major label recording artist. On “Afterlife,” his first single for RCA, Mr. G goes for a sound that’s as big and bright as the light at the end of the tunnel. Chiming mandolin, pan-flute synth, and driving, square-dance drums lift Giannascoli’s warbling melody beyond the clouds and up into heaven. The lyrics are classically (Sandy): poetic, rich with feeling, darkly warm. “We were clean like kerosene / candy and porno magazines.” More than just a comeback single, “Afterlife” sounds like the song Alex G has been waiting his whole career to write.

Live Show of the Year: Friendship / 2nd Grade / Jake McKelvie @ Deep Cuts

Cam Cavagnaro

Album of the Year: Deftones – Private Music

It’s hard to believe that Deftones would release their best album 25 years after the smashing success of White Pony. Every release has something special on it, but I’ve found that Private Music is special through-and-through; each song has at least one stand-out part that segues perfectly to the next moment. There were times spent listening to this album where I would tune out for a few minutes just for something new to catch my ear, even if it was the same part I’d heard fifty times before

Song of the Year: Charmer – “Medicine”

Charmer released their inaugural LP this year after signing with local legends Counter Intuitive Records, and it proved to be a massive step in the right direction. The band has never written a bad song, but it was pretty clear from the singles that they have hit their stride and are now have the support of CIRecs to make the music that they want. With that newfound confidence, Charmer casually dropped their stand-out track “Medicine,” which is snuck in right after the breath-catching “Swords Dance.” Hard-hitting and driving, “Medicine” is a serious testament to what the Michigan natives are capable of, and I’m looking forward to what comes next for them.

Live Show of the Year: Touche Amore at Wanna Hear It Record’s Fifth Anniversary, also Intac at Zone 3

Best use of an Elliot Smith song: The Chair Company – Episode 1

I gotta figure out how to make money on this – it’s simply too good.

Christine Varriale

Album of the Year: Jensen McRae – I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!

Jensen McRae is a self-proclaimed student of the Taylor Swift School of Thought, and her honest lyricism and wit is on full display throughout I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! She writes deeply personal and specific songs that still find a way to be universal; everyone can find something within them to resonate with even if it’s just the emotional depth. Highlights include “Massachusetts” of course, a song about a man from Massachusetts having a grip on you even years after a break up. I wonder if we’ll ever know which town he’s from. McRae stretches her vocal range masterfully in songs like “I Don’t Do Drugs” and “Daffodils” and even enters what I call her pop punk phase in “Let Me Be Wrong.” There’s a bit of every vibe throughout I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!, but every song feels undeniably soul crushing in the best way.

Song of the Year: Momma – “I Want You (Fever)”

Live Show of the Year: Wet Leg @ Roadrunner

Dan Moffat

Album of the Year: Gaspard Eden – Crooked Lines

Call it recency bias if you want, Gaspard Eden late-breaking, quietly released follow up to 2020’s Soft Power has topped my favorite albums of the year list. With eight tracks of boldly crafted Beatles meets Elliott Smith psychedelia, Crooked Lines starts off with the strawberry fields kissed “First Wave,” followed by the jangle poppy “A Brand New Color,” and it just gets more adventurous from there. The lead single “Alien” threw me for a loop initially, however in context with the rest of Crooked Lines, it integrates smoothly. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait so long for another album from the Quebec City singer-songwriter.

Song of the Year: The Backfires – “Never Seen You Before (live @ Diamond City)”

A true testament to a great song is when it works just as well stripped down as it does on the studio version. Oasis are to The Beatles as The Backfires are to Oasis, and Noel should be mashing his head against the wonderwall for not writing this banger. It’s almost impossible to sing like Liam (just ask Liam) but lead singer Alex Gomez has done it here, delivering a captivating vocal laid bare for maximum effect in this studio performance. I hope they give this unplugged version a proper release on streaming so I don’t have to jump into IG every time to listen to it.

Live Show of the Year: Father John Misty @ MGM

Best recent example of why your indie band doesn’t have to leave New England to become successful: Dari Bay – Longest Day of the Year (2025 rerelease on Double Double Whammy)

Hats off to one of the hardest touring bands in the biz, Dari Bay. 2025 saw the Burlington, Vermont indie rockers get a boost from their 2023 album, Longest Day of the Year, which got rereleased by the taste-making record label Double Double Whammy. New England indie bands take note, you don’t have to move to New York, LA, or Nashville to make it.

Dillon Riley

Album of the Year: Jim Legxacy – Black british music (2025)

Listening to UK rap phenom Jim Legxacy can be a dizzying experience. A deft producer capable of fitting what feels like the entire internet into a sub-3 minute blast of euphoria, Legxacy assigns raw materials (a twiddly emo guitar lick here, a blast of 2 step there, bass boosted funk somewhere else) like a puzzle master, ensuring his beats are always hyperactive, but never imbalanced. He’s equally deft behind the mic, skipping around the drums like a DJ slipping loops or turning from a wounded and note-perfectly tuneful croon to tough talk within seconds. The world of Black british music (2025) is one in which you hear about trapping to Mitski and think nothing of it because you’re too busy running back the movie trailer voice bloke cutting in with the funniest lines on the whole thing. Nostalgia is obviously part of Legxacy’s alchemical brew (see the hilariously faithful landfill indie era/FIFA soundtrack rip “’06 Wayne Rooney” and it’s perfectly rendered music video), but what Legxacy achieves here more than anything else is the supposed promise of post-internet culture. Unlimited access to (and absorption of) virtually everything online begetting something entirely new from what’s been forgotten.

Song of the Year: forty winks – “commie bf”

If 2025 was the year Pittsburgh started to challenge Philly for the mantle of the Keystone State’s indie rock (or at least shoegaze) epicenter, then one of the major players in the bid has to be forty winks. Their debut EP Love Is a Dog From Hell is a breathless, sub-12 minute blast of caustic guitar abuse and sparkly freight train melodicism that places equal emphasis on destruction and capital P pop hooks. The whole thing is a thrill ride, but it’s “commie bf” I keep running back over and over. Landing somewhere between like deep fried sassy post-hardcore and that end of the digicore/hyperpop spectrum that really fucks with VST guitar pedals, the song kicks off with hair metal-y pinch harmonics played at warp speed and just sorta never stop careening against the walls like a racecar that just blew out a tire. The chorus somehow feels both like it’s in halftime and like they’re outpacing each other at the same time while fronter Cilia Catello detonates a helium voice octave so high it would send that hellhound into fits. Just otherworldly stuff.

Live Show of the Year: Every show we threw this year at Zone 3 even the one when it rained and i had a panic attack

Best Radio Show: Malibu’s United in Flames on NTS

NTS Radio is a literal godsend for deep listening geeks like me: there are entire monthly shows dedicated to everything from turn of the (last) century jazz to private press post-punk oddities to furious rave (and likely every single thing in between). French ambient producer Malibu (who also made one of 2025’s very best LPs in the field with Vanities) programs my absolute favorite show called United In Flames. Moving between saucer-eyed trance, early aughts R&B and hip hop, contemporary club and ambient, pop music of every era, indie rock, and her own edits of all the above, Malibu also often bleeds field recordings, sound effects, and other digital ephemera into the mix to create an atmospheric slurry of sound that’s both oddly soothing and deliciously psychedelic. Which is to say it’s the perfect hour or so to just let your brain go anywhere else but work. It also feels like another distinct strain of the Malibu cinematic universe alongside her solo work and the nostalgia driven multimedia edits of belmont girl and dj lostboi. My favorite episode this year had the similarly-minded Australian techno DJ/producer JamesJamesJames aboard aboard as well, a perfect foil for one of the headiest things on the internet.

Emily Gardner

Album of the Year: Jane Remover – Revengeseekerz

Hannah Sender

Album of the Year: Audrey Hobert – Who’s The Clown?

Song of the Year: Hayley Williams – “Parachute”

Live Show of the Year: Magdalena Bay @ MGM

Best Platonic Soulmate Duo: Ashe and Finneas of The Favors

Kenneth Palacios

Album of the Year: Khruangbin – The Universe Smiles Upon You ii

Song of the Year: Cafuné & Riovaz – “Temporary Lover”

Live Show of the Year: Mac DeMarco @ Roadrunner

Best Response To A Bad Moment: hard life

Miguel Gonzales

Album of the Year: caroline – caroline 2

If you need the rundown on what makes the London octet’s follow-up to their debut album so special, it is a beautifully complex 39-minutes where their ambitious undertakings pay off. If you’re wildly engrossed like I am with caroline 2, you’re going to hear influences from the past take shape: the polyrhythmic patience of a Steve Reich composition, the dysfunctional Chicago School post-rock logic from the likes of Joan of Arc or a Storm & Stress album, conjoined with Phil Elverum’s low-fidelity intimacy and the euphoric indie big-band maximalism of Broken Social Scene. caroline’s enigmatic strides are unexpectedly weightless, offering songs that appear texturally gentle on the surface that unfold in many twists and turns. caroline is part of a new wave of outwardly experimental contemporaries in London – Mica Levi’s Good Sad Happy Bad, the anonymous neo-soul collective Sault, or the flickering math rock trio Still House Plants. caroline is the rare band where their explorative instincts demand your full attention. Their brand of sparse post-rock is soulful and hair-raising in its most intense moments. caroline 2 the rare, inventive post-rock album that scorches with a quiet radicalism that naturally mesmerizes you, feeling so rewarded and life-affirmed once it ends.

Song of the Year: Erika de Casier – “Delusional”

It seems like the Danish singer-songwriter’s gold streak will never come to an end, as “Delusional” feels like an instant classic. de Casier’s flirtatious and obsessive personality she airs out paired with this floating trip-hop instrumental recalls the silky sensuality of Love Deluxe-era Sade, the sexy radicalism of Voodoo-era D’Angelo and shining danceability of The Velvet Rope-era Janet Jackson. Recontextualized for the new generation’s sense of love and what it means to be devoted versus delusional is outstanding as a single from her latest album, Lifetime, released this year. It’s impossible to ignore de Casier’s swagger here, especially when that horse neigh sample from Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Brain” slips in and out in a song already so confident of itself.

Live Show of the Year: YHWH Nailgun @ The Middle East (Upstairs)

Best Haircut Trend: The Cameron Winter

A big year for Cameron, and for guys trying their best to pull off that greasy, shaggy bob of his.

Samantha Davidson

Album of the Year: Djo – The Crux Deluxe

To the delight of every listener, Djo, the musical project of Joe Keery, returned to The Crux for another bite, releasing 12 more stellar songs on The Crux Deluxe. These new tracks display an edgier, more self-assured tone through experimental sounds and punchy lyrical choices. Crunchy and jabby track “Mr.Mountebank” borrows from one of his inspirations and Laneway Festival touring partners, Charli xcx. It is his first time using autotune as an instrument and a plot device. Djo, a certified vocal chameleon, cleverly used it to express his feelings about the money-hungry industry’s response to his 2022 megahit “End of Beginning.” Album closer and 21st century standout track, “Awake” borrows from rock’s best. The contemplative, haunting first half edges toward a head-thrashing, cathartic release that leaves listeners buzzing. The Crux Deluxe is a 24-song album that is made to be savored and pairs perfectly with the standard edition.

Song of the Year: Post Animal – “Maybe You Have To”

Post Animal’s “Maybe You Have To” is an incontestable standout track of 2025. Elements ranging from an addictive walk-down bass pattern to resonant low vocals to haunting guitar melodies leave listeners ruminating on the track even hours later (not days, because to satisfy this craving, you must listen again immediately). It is a masterclass on how weaving humorous moments, such as a lyric delivered like a cockerel screech about midway through the track, into a deeply personal song creates an access point for the listener to find joy in sharing in that vulnerability and relating the subject to their own lives. Framing the song with a tear-jerking voicemail from drummer Wesley Toledo’s abuela at the beginning and end connects the listener to the message of living a life you find fulfilling and telling your loved ones how much they mean to you while you can.

Live Show of the Year: Twenty One Pilots @ Xfinity Theatre

Favorite New Alter Ego: Mr. Fantasy

It’s been a big year for singer and poster boy for whimsy, Mr. Fantasy. Along with sparkling pop tracks like “Mr.Fantasy” and “Catapult,” which are fast-acting earworms, the sense of childlike wonder Mr. Fantasy moves through the world with inspires others to follow suit. Everyone could use some more moments of unadulterated joy and encouragement to be unapologetically oneself, and his mission is just that. This persona, rumored to be actor KJ Apa, only launched this year, and he already has a brand partnership with Chipotle and Tinder, performed at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and galavanted around town with the world’s biggest celebrities.

Harry Gustafson

Album of the Year: Dijon – Baby

Song of the Year: Rosalía ft. Björk and Yves Tumor – “Berghain”

Live Show of the Year: Oasis @ Soldier’s Field (Chicago)