The Indigo Elephant Newsletter

One more blog post for 2025! We just recapped our last 12 months, but we weren’t the only artists who can say they released a banger album this year. Let’s show some well-deserved love to the countless other projects that we kept on repeat in 2025.

Within the band, it’s a tradition to make these lists because nothing brings us closer than judging and arguing (kidding). It’s nice to see where all our individual tastes grew throughout the year, as well as get a primer in genres we may not be as well-versed in. No one can listen to everything, so it pays off that our collective music taste isn’t a monoculture. Our own music wouldn’t sound the way it does if we listened to the same handful of bands!

I asked Levi, Cliff, and Brenden to name 16 of their top releases this year, mainly because 4×4 creates a nice little grid. I pitched doing a 5×5, but not all of us had the time to properly build a top 25 project list. All releases are supposed to be from 2025, but we give Levi a pass to make whatever 4×4 he wanted to because it’s his first year in the band 🙂 Also, we weren’t so judicious as to assign a rank to each project, so each of our lists are in no particular order.

Levi

• Vulfpeck - Clarity of Cal

• Clairo - Charm

• The Fearless Flyers - The Fearless Flyers V

• Mac Miller - Balloonerism

• Darksoft - Rationalism

• Mac Demarco - Guitar

• Dayglow - Dayglow (Superbloom)

• Olivia Dean - The Art of Loving

• Men I Trust - Equus Caballus

• Shelly - Shelly 2

• Daniel Caesar - Rearrange My World / There’s a Field (That’s Only Yours)

• Vulfmon - Dot

• Tyler Childers - Snipe Hunter

• Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)

• Sabrina Carpenter - Man’s Best Friend

• Tyler, The Creator - DON’T TAP THE GLASS

Cliff

• Water From Your Eyes - It’s a Beautiful Place

• Turnstile - Never Enough

• Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky

• Fleshwater - 2000: In Search of the Endless Sky

• Deftones - Private Music

• The Callous Daoboys - I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven

• The Armed - The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed

• Men I Trust - Equus Caballus

• After - After EP 2

• Saya Gray - SAYA

• Mare - Dear Luna, Love Mare

• YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds

• Pinkpantheress - Fancy That

• Wednesday - Bleeds

• Unflirt - Fleeting

• Emma Aibara - u:phobia

Brenden

• Flipturn - Burnout Days

• indigo la End - MOLTING AND DANCING

• Vulfpeck - Clarity of Cal

• Djo - The Crux

• Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE

• Lorien Testard - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Soundtrack)

• The Fearless Flyers - The Fearless Flyers V

• KPop Demon Hunters - KPop Demon Hunters (Soundtrack)

• Arc De Soleil - Lumin Rain

• Mare - Dear Luna, Love Mare

• Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party

• Sabrina Carpenter - Man’s Best Friend

• Parcels - Loved

• Charlie Burg - Back To Earth

• Olivia Dean - The Art of Loving

• Mini Trees - Slow It Down

Julius

• Ninajirachi - I Love My Computer

• IV Of Spades - Andalucia

• CHAEYOUNG - LIL FANTASY vol.1

• Flipturn - Burnout Days

• Men I Trust - Equus Caballus

• Haru Nemuri - ekkolaptómenos

• YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds

• Danny Brown - Stardust

• Anamanaguchi - Anyway

• Spacey Jane - If That Makes Sense

• Sudan Archives - THE BPM

• SPELLLING - Portrait of My Heart

• Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky

• Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo 2

• Turnstile - Never Enough

• PinkPantheress - Fancy That

Some observations from my actual data analyst job brain (spoken in 3rd person):

• Overall, tastes this year leaned majority indie and alternative music, a good dose of pop & R&B, and a small dose of heavy, experimental, and funk

• Equus Caballus was the only project shared across 3 members

• The two clear overlap axes are Cliff + Julius and Levi + Brenden, with 5 albums shared between each pair¹

• Levi’s list feels the most friendly, lots of groove and nice sounds

• Brenden’s list feels the most calm overall, and he’s also a gamer²

• Cliff’s list is definitely the most aggressive

• Julius’ list seems to have the broadest tastes genre-wise

And those are our favorite projects of 2025! There’s a lot of blue album covers across our lists - that makes it even more interesting that The Art of Erosion didn’t make the cut on any of our lists…curious…

If I had the space to add more albums, I personally would give a shoutout to a few releases because I can say whatever I want:

• pictoria vark - Nothing Sticks

• Bad Suns - Accelerator

• Jay Som - Belong

• Jane Remover - Revengeseekerz

• Star 99 - Gaman

• NMIXX - Blue Valentine

I hope these lists give you some more music to check out as the year draws to a close. Maybe you’ll pick out some influences for The Art of Erosion, or find them influencing whatever we cook up in our next project.

Do any of these records make it on your own list of top albums? Does The Art of Erosion rank on any of your top albums of 2025? Let us know, happy holidays and see you next year!

Until next time,