Best New Records I Heard in June, 2025

Somehow we're halfway through the longest year we've had in a while

Olive Klug – Lost Dog. Klug has been releasing records for six years, and they got a big boost in recognition via Tik Tok during the pandemic lock down time. Their new album, though, is my introduction to the melodically inventive and low-key arrangements of their music. If you’re worried about the lost dog, don’t worry, it comes back. “Lost dog gets rescued once he’s been around the block a couple times / What the hell does he think he’s gonna find?” Klug tends to go around the block frequently, and contemplates what happens in the journey. “Think I loved you best that month / When you were feeling lost / But after that we stuck around / To avoid the sunken cost.” The ability to look honestly at life and to express it elegantly and musically is always something to be treasured.

Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Bees in the Bonnet. I don’t listen to much heavy metal, but I’ll always find time for Norwegian guitarist Hedvig Mollestad. Admittedly, she’s prone to playing jazz as well as metal, but even a record such as this one, which is decidedly heavy, is up my alley. For one thing, she doesn’t have a vocalist – no screeching or roaring or cookie monstering to distract from the solid wacks to the chest delivered by her overdriven guitar and the bass and drums that accompany her. For another thing, she combines a solid mastery of the groove presented by her riffs with completely wild off the charts soloing that can come after you’ve been hypnotized into forgetting she might do it at any time. This is thirty-five minutes of pure id.

Charlie Musselwhite – Look Out Highway. At 81 years of age, Charlie Musselwhite still pumps out powerful blues records the way he’s been doing since his debut album back in 1967. He remains one of the most effective inheritors of the Chicago harmonica traditions, and he leads a rock solid band. There is maybe a slight indication of age in his vocals, but the spirit and basic sound of this album conjures up images of tiny blues clubs in mid-sixties Chicago. With Kid Anderson on lead guitar, Musselwhite has an effective foil that makes for a highly entertaining record. There is no reinventing the wheel here; Musselwhite and company just know what they’ve liked for decades, and lay it down with passion and beauty.

The Mayflies USA – Kickless Kids. Here we have the first album in 23 years from a band I somehow missed hearing when they were around originally. I mean, their first two records (in 1997 and 99 respectively) were produced by Chris Stamey, which you’d think would have put them dead center on my radar. Oh, well, I’m finally on board, and these guys are distinctively melodic pop/rock songsters. They show there is still plenty of life left in the two guitars, bass, and drums model. They carry on the tradition of smart, catchy rock music from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Aesop Rock – Black Hole Superette. Over two and a half decades into his career, somebody quoted in Wikipedia did the math and declared Aesop Rock has used more different words than any other rapper. Which pretty much means he’s used more different words than pretty much anybody making records ever, considering that hip hop requires a lot more words than any other form of pop music. (I mean, maybe Bob Dylan or Elvis Costello could give him a run for the title, albeit with a lot more records in their catalogues.) But for me, it’s not quantity, it’s quality. And the quality here is high. Eighteen cuts with not a single weak beat to be heard, and our hero makes me laugh, makes me want to see When We Were Kings, and makes me contemplate the way memory works. I’m about ready to nominate “Snail Zero” as the funniest song of the year, and not just because we had an aquarium a few years back that demonstrated the truth of his experience with snail reproduction. There are only a few guest verses, but Armand Hammer, Open Mike Eagle, Homeboy Sandman, and Lupe Fiasco feel challenged to be even better than normal. And then there’s Hanni El Khatib stopping by to add very cool music on the final cut.

BEATrio – BEATrio. Assuming you haven’t yet heard this record but my high recommendation might make you give it a try, I’m going to solve a mystery for you that drove me batty the first time I played it. Obviously the trio includes Béla Fleck on banjo, Edmar Castañeda on harp, and Antonio Sánchez on drums. So who the heck is playing all those bass lines? There is no bassist credited. That’s because Castañeda has his harp set up so that the low strings sound like a bass, and he’s capable of playing fluid bass parts with one hand while doing completely distinctive melodies and chords with the other. Oh, sure, pianists do that sort of thing, but this is still a remarkable feat of mental and physical dexterity. I’ve followed Fleck for decades, and I pretty much love every left field turn he’s taken during that time. This is original jazz with instrumentation I don’t think I’ve ever heard before played by three guys who listen closely to each other at all times, and who drive each other to play even more exciting and inventive parts. I happen to think it’s great stuff.

Sparks – MAD! “Saw the Pope, told him “Nope!” / Gonna do things my own way. / My guru, told him too / Gonna do things my own way.” There is only one band that could come up with lyrics that perfectly silly and sell them musically to make them seem profound. Sparks has been doing things like that for 55 years now, and never once have they settled for resting on their laurels. Ron and Russell Mael are great partners, writing songs unlike any others being written. Russell still has the vocal chops he had in his youth, and Ron remains the weird one on stage who plays keyboards and seems responsible for much of the music. This new record shares frustrations with waiting at a red light, celebrates the ability of long-term couples to maintain light banter, gives advice to anybody tempted to just be lazy on a project, and points out that “Everybody looks great at night / Ain’t no trick to look great at night.” All set to delightfully catchy and frequently surprising melodies.

Bruce Springsteen – Land of Hope and Dreams. I’m old enough to remember when a US President tried to win over young people by misunderstanding the lyrics of Springsteen’s song about the ways soldiers who fought in Vietnam were let down by their government. Now we have a US President who calls Springsteen a wrinkled prune. These four songs and two speeches do their best to give us some glimmer of hope, some beacon of humanity, some sense that “we will get through this.” I don’t know if we will or not. I know that the power of the E Street Band can at least convince me over the course of thirty minutes that there is still good in the world, and that is at least worth holding onto.

Julian Shore – Sub Rosa. This piano trio, featuring Shore accompanied by bassist Martin Nevin and drummer Allan Mednard, has been playing together for a few years now. The camaraderie shows – these guys can finish each other’s musical sentences. Shore wrote six of the ten compositions here. He’s got a particularly sharp way with a ballad, coming up with inventive and original ways to be beautiful. But he and the band can get hot when they feel like it – just check out the opening cut, “Messenger.” I happened to listen to this record just a few hours before I heard Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys passed away; the version of “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” is perhaps more poignant now, but it was exquisite enough before that news hit. There’s a great take on the Duke Ellington “Blues in Blueprint” that shows these guys know their way around an old school blues number, and their version of “All the Things You Are” shows they can go far away from the melody without ever losing the spirit of the original.

Sinsuke Fudieda Group – Fukushima. Five tracks by six musicians who live in Tokyo, Japan and obviously revere the late 60s early 70s spiritual and modal jazz material of America. Fujieda is the leader and composer – he plays tenor and soprano sax. Fumiko Takeshita adds violin for a fascinating tonal color that doesn’t show up on all the group’s old school inspirations. The rest of the band includes Shinichi Tsukamoto on piano, Shigeru Kato on bass, Kensaku Ohsumi on drums, and Daisuke Alkhaly on percussion. The first couple tunes especially harken back to the spiritual calm of that period’s music, while the rest dance a bit more with catchier melodies. Fujieda is the best soloist of the band, but everybody is very supportive of each other at all times,.

Ty Segall – Possession. You never know what you’re gonna get with a Ty Segall album but this one shows clearly why I keep on listening just in case. Every once in a while, he puts together the perfect combination of melodic interest and arrangement invention to make it clear that power pop can co-exist with shambolic indie rock. The looseness of the band playing does not hurt the tightness of the song construction. “Shoplifter,” “Possession,” and “Skirts of Heaven” are all songs that could have been performed, albeit differently, by the Beatles on the White Album. The other seven songs are pretty good, too. I wouldn’t complain if he stays in this direction for a while, but I imagine the next one could be completely amelodic.

James Brandon Lewis – Abstraction Is Deliverance. Tenor saxophonist Lewis will go wandering around playing with various people – notably the Messthetics in last year’s acclaimed album that I thought didn’t work as well as most of his records – but he always returns to his quartet. This is the fith time he’s been accompanied by pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones, and drummer Chad Taylor. He’s come up with eight challenging yet engaging compositions for the group and decided to throw in a Mal Waldron tune that I don’t remember hearing before. His playing is stately and well mannered, and the rhythm section presents all sorts of inventive challenges with the harmony and the beats. It’s another fantastic record from Lewis.

The Budos Band – VII. After trying out an album with a real name five years ago, the Budos Band go back to numbering their records in the grand tradition of Chicago. The only other thing they have in common with that band is a strong horn section. The Budos Band lay down deep funky tracks with pseudo-Middle Eastern melodies and modes. It’s all instrumental, all intensely danceable, and all short. There are eleven tracks here in 28 minutes, shaving four minutes off the length of Long in the Tooth which had the same number of cuts. But even though the 3:24 “The Strigoi” seems symphonic in form compared to the 1:51 “Sharkey’s Delight,” they are both packed with the same amount of energy and excitement. I can’t pick which of their albums is best, but this one is in the top seven, for sure.

Tracy Bonham – Sky Too Wide. Like many at the time, I was intrigued 29 years back by Tracy Bonham’s debut album The Burdens of Being Upright, with its catchy and angry single “Mother Mother.” I remember seeing her in a small club and enjoying it quite a bit. Then I completely lost track of her until a couple weeks back when I learned she’s been recording all along and has just released this new album. This is not the aggressive alternative rock she was playing back in the day. Instead, she writes and sings complex and beautifully memorable melodies with lyrics that take big metaphorical swings and make love seem a constant act of creation. The arrangements include strings, acoustic bass and drums, and lots of piano, and come across as a combination of jazz, theatrical music, and bits of rock just to remind us where we first heard her. Each time I play it, my enthusiasm grows as it reveals new riches.

Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation – This Time. I haven’t spent nearly enough time enjoying the work of St. Louis native Marty Ehrlich. When I came across this new release by this particular one of his several trios, I realized I could begin to change that. Ehrlich plays alto sax (tenor on one cut) and is joined by bassist John Hébert and drummer Nasheet Waits. The three of them had played together in a sextet led by Andrew Hill, whose tune “Dusk” is I think the only non-Ehrlich composed piece on the album. While Ehrlich is clearly the focus of much of this record, the trio works beautifully together, with Hébert in particular playing many melodic foils against and occasionally in front of the saxophone. Most of the time, Ehrlich displays a smooth and rich tone, though he doesn’t mind wailing when a particular number calls for it. Now, I imagine there are dozens more Ehrlich albums for me to catch up on – there’s always so much music in the world.

Webb Wilder – Hillbilly Speedball. Able to call Vince Gill to play guitar on his latest record, not to mention Fats Kaplin to add fiddle and pedal steel, Webb Wilder is clearly a beloved figure in Nashville circles. And while he sings at the end of this album “I’m never gonna be a star,” he’s made a career for almost forty years singing some damn fine rootsy rock’n’roll. This time around, he mixes in covers along with originals, though the only ones I know right away are Chuck Berry’s “Beautiful Delilah” and the McCoys “Sorrow” (which, yeah, I know better by David Bowie). He’s still in great voice, and he and the musicians involved sound relaxed and invigorated at the same time. I’ve never been let down by a Webb Wilder live performance or record. This one just might be his best.

Buck 65 – Keep Moving. “If you need a dope beat to rhyme / I got you covered / If you need a dope rhyme to blow your mind / I got you covered.” That’s as good as a manifesto for this Canadian rapper /DJ who has been as consistently great as anybody these past few years since he’s returned to at least the critic’s eye if not the public’s. Also – what is the intersection of people like me who love to read old Gasoline Alley comic strips on Facebook every day and those who listen to hip hop? “Hanging in Gasoline Alley like Skeezix / I rise from the ashes like penix.” Skeezix was the foundling adopted by Walt Wallet in 1920 or thereabouts who, like all the characters in that comic strip, grew old as the years went by. Buck 65’s beats are capable of hanging with all the greats of the early 90s before sampling became too expensive, and his rhymes are exquisite, fast-paced, and funny. “I grew fat so my memory foam mattress forgot me.”

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island. So far, I haven’t met a KG&THLW album I haven’t enjoyed. I think I joined in the fun with about their fourth record, and they’ve put out around 20 since then. This time around, the typical over the top exuberance that gets parodied because of the frequent loud high-pitched “woooh” cries is held mostly in check. The blueprint is 70s rock, mostly of the mellower variety. But, these guys never could follow a blueprint. They work their own melodic magic, their insistent guitar parts, their pumping basslines, their syncopated drumming. The vibe is a cool good time. As always, I have no idea what they are singing about, just enjoy the way it gives them something to focus on while they make music so dang entertaining.

Annahstasia – Tether. Well, obviously the first thing people are gonna say is she reminds us of Nina Simone. There’s no question that she has the lush alto voice and a similar though less frequent vibrato than Simone. There are many differences, though, not the least of which is the kind of songs she writes which fit into some modern folk / ancient spirit sort of thing that’s hard to find a good comparison for. Occasionally, I think of Astral Weeks with less jazz. But mostly I think of Annahstasia, and that’s a very good thing. This debut album is filled with beautiful songs, lovely acoustic guitar picking, and unwinding arrangements that eventually reveal her ability to control her power and her passion. She’s a Nigerian-American who grew up in Los Angeles but if you’d told me she was British, I’d have believed you in a second.