B&V’s Best of 2025 (Part 1) – Best New Albums Of ’25 – The Good New Stuff

When I was young and reading Rolling Stone and whatever rock n roll magazine I could get my hands on, I was always annoyed when their “best of” columns dropped in late December. They were usually written in early November and often great albums that were released late in the year were ignored. The Eagles’ Hotel California and Queen’s A Day At The Races both came out in December (of ’76) as just one example.

But, here I am in early mid-December and I’m doing my “Part 1” list of best new albums. Later this month I’ll post my “best of, Part 2” that will be our list of favorite vault/live releases from ’25. Sadly, at this stage of the game I doubt there are any new rock n roll albums being released through the end of the year. I don’t think we’ll see another album until 2026 is upon us… I’m hearing Lindsey Buckingham and Social Distortion will have stuff coming at us early in the new year but I’m not as prone to trusting rumors these days.

I have to tell you, despite the wonderfulness of my daughter getting married, ’25 was a tough year. I had a series of sports injuries that kept me sidelined from the gym and that makes me crazy. After decades of serving my corporate masters faithfully, I was laid off this year… victim of the soft economy and bleak outlook. That’s okay, I welcomed the blade. Now I’m like the Hiram Roth character in Godfather 2, “I’m a retired investor, living on a pension…” I’ll have more time for B&V!

Due to the big wedding, I curtailed my concert going this year. I only hit two shows this year, which is something I’ll be remedying in the new year. I started off ’25 by finally catching Jack White solo on the No Name tour. It’s like my friend once said to me, “Jack White is like seeing Hendrix.” I did wrap up the year, in mid November down in Wichita, with my old college roommate Drew for Joe Walsh’s all-star show for Vets Aid. Good music for a good cause. Vince Gill, and Tedeschi Trucks were both on the bill. I’m now a Tedeschi Trucks fan, Derek is a maestro of guitar. Hell, Jimmy Webb who wrote “Wichita Lineman,” showed up and he and Joe sang that great song at the end. Any great nation takes care of their veterans.

There was so much great music this year. I will say, I think the vault releases and live stuff that came out this year were incredibly strong, more on that in a later post. We also got some great new stuff from older artists, which is why I write this stuff in the first place. Here is our list of our favorite new albums of 2025 with the link to our review (in no particular order):

• Ringo Star, Look Up – I must admit, I’ve never owned a Ringo album before – sure I have a few of his hit tunes downloaded – but this T Bone Burnett, country-rock album was sensational. I love to see Ringo do something this fabulous. Yee haw! Billy Strings on guitar is the secret weapon.
• Various Artists, Heart Of Gold: The Songs Of Neil  Young, Vol 1 – Another first for us down at B&V, the inclusion of a tribute album on our “best of” list. This great collection of songs, to benefit Neil’s charity, the Bridge School, turned out to be a surprise gem for me. These things are usually a bit disjointed, but most of the artists here stuck to Neil’s acoustic side so the album is actually pretty cohesive. Fiona Apple’s “Heart Of Gold,” and Eddie Vedder’s “Needle And The Damage Done” are the shining stars of a lot of highlights.
• Van Morrison, Remembering Now – Van kinda lost his mind during COVID and was doing bad topical tracks like, “Why Are You Still On Facebook?” Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I don’t wanna hear. But he came roaring back with this late career gem. A lot of great songs but I was happy he included “Ode To Joy” from the movie Belfast here.
• Neil  Young & The Chrome Hearts, Talkin’ To The Trees – At his age, with a new backing band, this is a better album than any of us expected. I wish “Big Crime,” his new protest song, had made the album.
• Alice Cooper, The Revenge Of Alice Cooper – An album 50 years in the making. The original line up, sans lead guitar Glen Buxton who we tragically lost in ’97, reunite and kick out an album like no time had passed at all. Great, great record. I hope they do more! I’ve always liked Alice Cooper the band, more than Alice Cooper the solo artist/singer.
•  Black Keys, No Rain No Flowers – The Keys lean a little more toward their pop side, but the back half of this album is still Keys blues rock. I was thrilled they put out an album roughly 1 year after Ohio Players. It’s like they think it’s the 70s.
• David Byrne, Who Is The Sky – Another great, accessible group of songs from the former Talking Heads front man. This follows the wonderful American Utopia. He’s touring in ’26…I might go but it’ll be a hard sell to the Rock Chick.
• Robert Plant & Saving Grace, Saving Grace – Plant comes roaring back with a folky album, new backing band and new female vocal foil Suzi Dian. I know many would rather see him get Zeppelin back together, but short of that, I’ll take this wonderful album.
• Chrissie Hynde, Duets Special – Another first for us, I typically shy away from duets albums as quickly as I do Xmas albums but I should have known Chrissie Hynde, the Countess of Cool, would kill a project like this. It’s not the usual punk rock fare, but I dug her stretching out here.
• Cheap Trick, All Washed Up – That title is clearly tongue-in-cheek as these guys are far from washed up. I will say the ballads are over the top cheesy, but the album as a whole works for me. The first single “Twelve Gates” is still my favorite track. It’s always good to get a blast of rock n roll from these guys.

Those are our favorites among this year’s crop of new records. Did I miss one that was on your favorites list? Drop it in the comments, I’m always looking for something I might have missed. We’ll be back later in December with our list of our favorite Vault/Live releases, from the Black Crowes to Neil Young there was a lot to love from the vaults this year!

Happy Holidays to all of you for whatever holiday you celebrate. I’m trying to shake off a bad case of the “Bah-Humbugs” this year. But then that’s every year for me!

Cheers!