As I noted in my Consumer Guidance post, my instinct when I look at any ranked album list is to turn it into a checklist. I note the records I’ve heard, and flag those I haven’t. Then I can go off and try them. From roughly 1995-2005, this process was physical work. I had a file I called my “shopping list,” which came to about 20 pages of small print (among much more, I listed every 3.5/4-star record from The Penguin Guide). I took it to used CD shops as far afield as Boston and Los Angeles, searching out rare finds and bargains. I did less of that after I started reviewing, less still after I started streaming, and gave up as most of my favorite haunts went out of business (and I aged out of traveling). But most of the unrated albums in my database (still called “shopping lists”) date from this period, when I built up a fairly large collection of record guides — relics of that particular period, as nobody seems to be publishing new ones anymore — and spent many hours pouring over them. I only gave up on my Penguin Guide files when my eyes couldn’t hack it anymore.
Robert Christgau’s Dean’s Lists don’t really work for me as checklists: I follow his Consumer Guides, and can stream nearly everything I find there, so there’s often nothing left to check off. But after perusing his 2025 Dean’s List, it occurred to me that I offer you a supplemental checklist based on the albums in my The Best Non-Jazz Albums of 2025 that weren’t on his list. My own list numbered 108 A/A− albums, vs. 61 albums on his list, so I had more to offer, even before looking at the misalignments (10 albums on his list were released before 2025, one as far back as 2018) and disagreements (most minor, but some not, like Peter Stampfel and Skrillex).
This was another idea that I wound up sitting on, partly because I procrastinated updating his database, and I needed it up-to-date to make sure I tracked all of his files. With that done last week, I figured it was now or never, so here’s now. Some reviews have been edited a bit, but I’m mostly going with whatever I wrote at the time. My first thought was to skip anything that Christgau had reviewed, and also to skip anything that was widely reviewed elsewhere — something I could figure out by consulting my 2025 Metacritic/EOY Aggregate file. I thought I might pick an arbitrary cutoff there, perhaps as high as 500, or as low as 100. But when I looked at the reviews, I decided to go with the best reviews I had, especially for albums I rated highly: Maria Muldaur is 1 on my list, 453 on metacritic, and the only full A below; Saba is 4 on my list, and its 113 is the highest metacritic ranking I used. (For the records I considered but skipped, scroll to the list at the end of the reviews.)
I should note that I also included two albums from my The Best Jazz Albums of 2025 list: both were by spoken word poets, Anthony Joseph and Moor Mother, the former with jazz, the latter with a metal band (Sumac). I wound up with 16 album reviews below, covering a pretty wide range of music (whether the fit genres or not). I don’t like generalizing about years, but 2025 seems to have been an exceptional one for underground hip-hop, good for alt-country, and further expands the global pop network — even though I didn’t much care for the Rosalía and FKA Twigs albums that finished in the top-five of my aggregate. (Not did I like Geese, but it’s probably something else.)
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Apathy: Mom & Dad (Dirty Version/Coalmine)
Underground rapper Chad Bromley, from Connecticut, 20 albums since 2004, Nancy & Ronald Reagan on the cover, looking sunny and care free, which is not how he remembers their era. “Grew up in the ‘80s with a welfare budget.” Old style turntablism, dazzling wordplay, political smarts, bearing the full weight of history.
Clipping.: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)
Hip-hop group from Los Angeles, fifth album since 2014, Daveed Diggs is the rapper (he has a couple solo albums, as well as an acting career, but is probably best known as Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton). Guitar and drums, as well as electronics, amp up the noise level, which sounds terrific as the words fly by.
Marie Davidson: City of Clowns (Deewee)
Canadian electronica producer, from Montreal, half dozen albums since 2014. Mostly spoken vocals over sharp beats with synth frills, gaining momentum as you go.
Dead Pioneers: Po$t American (Hassle)
Indigenous punk rock band from Denver, second album, spoken word, so no compromising he messages by searching for rhymes. The music is as pointed as the critique of settler colonialism, with lines like “the audacity (no the caucasity),” “there will always be another settler to take your place,” and an Indian name I can’t transcribe which means “white person who talks too much, presumes too much, and has no boundaries, which is a mouthful.”
Madi Diaz: Fatal Optimist (Anti-)
Singer-songwriter, half-dozen albums since 2007, plays guitar, piano (her original instrument) on one track. Minimally folkie, something I’m rarely attracted to, but this one feels right. Title song is especially strong.
Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up River to Get Our Names Back (Heavenly Sweetness)
British poet and novelist, originally from Trinidad, started recording spoken word jazz albums with the Spasm Band in 2007. His 2021 album is a favorite, not only for its title (The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives). This was less immediately appealing, but the bounty of words has few peers, and in the end that’s also true for the music.
Karol G: Tropicoqueta (Bichota/Interscope)
Colombian singer-songwriter Carolina Giraldo Navarro, fifth album since 2017, all high on the US Latin charts. Technically a mix of styles, proudly “Latina Foreva,” but those details, like the language, are lost on me. The beats break through first, but much more follows. The guest track for Manu Chao stands out, but by them I’m already sold.
KRS-One: Temple of Hip Hop Global Awareness (R.A.M.P. Ent Agency)
Another old-timer, but just 60, still able to summon up the anger and the sound (”boom bap back to the basics”) of his prime, which like Public Enemy and Wu-Tang sounds especially great right now. Of course, he’s even more self-conscious and didactic than his peers, but that’s always been his thing.
Maria Muldaur: One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey (Nola Blue)
She started in a 1960s jug band, had a sexy pop hit in the 1970s, then settled into a long career of recycling the blues, finding her calling reviving the classic female blues singers: Memphis Minnie, Blue Lu Barker, and here Spivey, whose 1926-36 singles provide the juiciest of these 12 songs, many salacious but enging with the grim “T.B. Blues.” Spivey made a comeback in the early 1960s, so there’s a personal connection. Smart moves include looking to Jim Dapogny and Tuba Skinny for backing, and Elvis Bishop and Taj Mahal for duets.
Gasper Nali: Chule Chule Iwe (Spare Dog)
From Malawi, has a couple previous albums, plays a babatoni (”a 3 meter, one-stringed home-made bass guitar — with an empty bottle and a stick”), although there’s more to the band, and vocals. One reviewer I’ve seen calls it unique, but for me it’s reminiscent of the classic township jive that spread in exile to Zimbabwe and Zambia — I’m thinking especially of Mzwakhe Mbuli.
Recognize Ali & Tragedy Khadafi: The Past the Present and the Future (Greenfield Music)
Producer started as Percy Chapman, then MC Percy, then Intelligent Hoodlum (for a 1993 album), then adopted his current moniker around 2000, working with Killah Priest and Capone-N-Noriega. Old style turntablism, underground, Muslim, political, encyclopedic. Some helpful advice: “love ‘em, pray for ‘em, but fuck ‘em.”
Saba & No I.D.: From the Private Collection of Saba and No I.D. (From the Private Collection)
Chicago rapper Tahj Malik Chandler, four albums 2014-22, working with Chicago producer Ernest Wilson, who started in 1992 with Common Sense, moving on to Nas, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and stray cuts with Ghostface Killah, Rihanna, and Beyoncé. Title is very offhand, suggesting there’s so much more behind it they can’t bother with real titles. Beats are super, flow is terrific, lots of ideas.
Moonchild Sanelly: Full Moon (Transgressive)
South African (Xhosa) dance-pop singer, touches kwaito and amapiano but in her long list of genres — her own preference seems to be “future ghetto funk” — reminds me most of dancehall. I ascribe no import to her “trademark teal hair” or garish makeup, but as dance pop this is pretty otherworldly.
Greentea Peng: Tell Dem It’s Sunny (AWAL)
British neo-soul singer-songwriter Aria Wells, second studio album (first in 2021), closer to trip-hop here, but the singer is the focus, not just atmosphere.
Sam Stoane: Tales of the Dark West (Cloverdale)
Cowgirl from rural California, first album, thoughtful originals plus signature covers of Gene Autry (”Back in the Saddle Again”) and Rodney Crowell (”Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”).
Sumac and Moor Mother: The Film (Thrill Jockey)
Canadian-American metal band, five albums on their own since 2015, also have three collaborations with Keiji Haino before this one with jazz rapper Camae Ayewa. (This was preceded by a Moor Mother remix of a Sumac track on a 2024 EP.) She adds weight a message that they probably already considered, while they provide the gravity. Just “don’t look away.”
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Other 2025 non-jazz albums, rated A−, not reviewed by Christgau. Ordered by metacritic file ranking, in brackets (* indicates an artist whose other albums were reviewed by Christgau; ** indicates albums under a different artist name):
YHWH Nailgun: 45 Pounds (AD 93) [62]
Dave: The Boy Who Played the Harp (Neighbourhood) [74*]
Snocaps: Snocaps (Anti-) [76**]
Rochelle Jordan: Through the Wall (Empire) [79]
Open Mike Eagle: Neighborhood Gods Unlimited (Auto Reverse) [94*]
Mavis Staples: Sad and Beautiful World (Anti-) [115*]
Annie & the Caldwells: Can’t Lose My (Soul) (Luaka Bop) [136]
James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel: The Universe Will Take Care of You (Border Community) [201]
Garbage: Let All That We Imagine Be the Light (Infectious Music/Stunvolume/BMG) [215*]
Hailey Whitters: Corn Queen (Pigasus/Big Loud) [242]
Bar Italia: Some Like It Hot (Matador) [244*]
Joy Crookes: Juniper (Insanity) [248]
Kae Tempest: Self Titled (Island) [263**]
The Chills: Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs (Fire) [297*]
Kesha: . [Period] (Kesha) [366*]
Dean Wareham: That’s the Price of Loving Me (Carpark) [392*]
Bryan Ferry/Amelia Barratt: Loose Talk (Dene Jesmond) [357*]
Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up River to Get Our Names Back (Heavenly Sweetness) [365]
The Ex: If Your Mirror Breaks (Ex) [400*]
ALT BLK ERA: Rave Immortal (Earache) [429]
The Mountain Goats: Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan (Thirty Tigers) [515*]
Sunny Sweeney: Rhinestone Requiem (Aunt Daddy) [594*]
Wu-Tang X Mathematics: Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman (36 Chambers/DNA Music) [604*]
Robert Finley: Hallelujah! Don’t Let the Devil Fool You (Easy Eye) [628*]
Cam Pierce: A Thousand Lonely Horses (self-released) [669]
Atmosphere: Jestures (Rhymesayers Entertainment) [700*]
Jon Batiste: Big Money (Verve/Interscope) [706*]
Kin’Gongolo Kiniata: Kiniata (Helico Music) [764]
Big K.R.I.T.: Dedicated to Cadalee Biarritz Vol. 1 (Multi Alumni/ONErpm) [855*]
Blueprint: Vessel (Weightless) [860*]
Apollo Brown & Bronze Nazareth: Funeral for a Dream (Escapism) [865*]
DJ Love/DJ Danz/DJ Ericnem: Budots World: 3-Hit Combo! (Eastern Margins) [883]
MindsOne: Stages (Fort Lowell) [962]
Vinnie Paz: God Sent Vengeance (Iron Tusk Music) [978]
Queen Herawin: Awaken the Sleeping Giant (Matic) [988]
Six Sex: X-Sex (Dale Play, EP) [1016]
David Amram: Honors Guthrie and Ochs: Old Souls (Guthrie Legacy) [1073]
David Greenberger & the Hi-Ho Barbers: Ginger Ale (Pel Pel) [1168*]
Dylan Hicks & Small Screens: Avian Field Recordings (Soft Launch) [1181*]
Split System: Live in Stockholm 2023 (Legless) [1311]
Jesse Welles: Under the Powerlines (April ‘24-September ‘24) (self-relesed) [1339]