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Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2025

09 Friday Jan 2026

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Are singles just the equivalent of a musical snack for you? Need something a bit meatier, a bit more filling? Well, here’s the list for you. Twenty-five full length LPs gathered from throughout the year that was 2025. There’s rock, there’s pop, there’s jangle. There’s love, there’s despair, there’s political commentary. Dig in and pick out your own faves.

Without further delay, here is Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2025:

1. Absolute Losers In the Crowd
2. The Sonny Wilsons Maybe
3. Strange Neighbors People Pleasing People
4. The Cords The Cords
5. The Rockyts Parkwood Manor
6. Tamar Berk ocd
7. Banda AL9 The Ninth King
8. Tom Henry Songs to Sing and Dance To
9. The Jeanines How Long Can It Last
10. Jean Caffeine Generation Jean
11. Lone Striker Lone Striker
12. Eytan Mirsky All Over the Map
13. Atticus Roness Power Pop World Domination
14. Greg Pope The Roar of Silence
15. Jody and the Germs Love Descends
16. Chris Lund Surveillance
17. The Mayflies USA Kickless Kids
18. The Wellingtons Baby Moon
19. Richard Turgeon Shungite
20. Dropkick Primary Colours
21. Ryan Allen Living on a Prayer on the Edge
22. The Spindles Wavelength
23. Jonathan Personne Nouveau Monde
24. The Loft Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same
25. Tristan Armstrong The Lonely Avenue

My top five albums got a lot airplay from me this past year. PEI’s Absolute Losers wowed me with their sonic revamp, pretty well reinventing their sound. And it was pretty good to start with. The Sonny Wilsons album was so fresh, so straight up poprock goodness. What can I say about Strange Neighbors that I haven’t written already? They write great songs, they play in a great style. I won’t call out every LP on the list but make no mistake, I really like all that appear there. Each one had some special thing that set it apart. And breaking it down, old faves and new discoveries both appear here in roughly equal measure. You can check them out as they were featured in the original posts by clicking the hotlinks.

Now I don’t think it’s just because it’s my day job (political scientist), but the world seemed pretty intensely political in 2025. You couldn’t avoid it, it was all over social media, conventional media, and the water cooler. And that showed up in the music as well, even a genre as generally apolitical as power pop. So I’m singling out 3 albums as my top political poprock albums of 2025:

1. Dish Pit Violet Dish Pit Violet
2. No Jersey Mondo Cool
3. David Woodard Everything Belongs

Mersey is never far from my mind, as in the distinct chimes of Merseybeat. Every year I single out some record that really revives the spirit of its golden era while still making it their own. This year’s best riff on the Beatles recognition goes to:

Rad Venture Merseyside

My policy on legacy artists is that I cover them when they put out something that grabs me but I’m not going put them in the lists above. What would be the point? They’re already getting plenty of media oxygen, they don’t life support from this little blog. But I did spent some considerable time with a few of them in 2025. Kathleen Edwards put out a stellar record, Tristen never lets me down, and what a surprise with those two albums by the boys from Stranger Things. Here’s my legacy artist shout out of notable albums for me from 2025:

1. Kathleen Edwards Billionaire
2. Tristen Unpopular Music
3. Mae Martin I’m a TV (Welcome Distraction Version)
4. Jake Bugg A Modern Day Distraction
5. Wilderado Talker
6. Jesse Welles Middle
7. Finn Wolfhard Happy Birthday
8. Djo The Crux
9. Suzanne Vega Flying With Angels
10. OK Go And the Adjacent Possible

Does it seem like overkill to single out the same band twice for the same award? I’m gonna risk it because this band killed with their second double-album collection of covers. This year’s special award of awesome poprock merit goes to:

The Half-Cubes Found Pearls: Pop Treasures Volume 2

Thanks for dropping by this past year and digging all these great finds with me. Check out your faves on the lists above and don’t be afraid to buy an album or two to support these artists well into their musical dotage.

Photo courtesy Francois Fibotte Flikr collection.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2025

04 Sunday Jan 2026

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Another year, another slew of great singles made their appearance throughout our 73 posts of music coverage. If you’re an old school melodic rock and roll fan like me, the jangly, hooky, guitar-centric creativity was off the charts. Sadly, such the jangly, hooky, guitar-centric creativity was off the conventional music charts as well. That’s why we don’t rely on trade mags or corporate radio to tell us what’s top of the pops, we make up our own charts. Now, let me be clear, if I wrote about a song this past year I thought it was great, full stop. We’re an ‘all-positive, all-the-time’ kinda shop around here. So what you have in this post is recap of 50 songs that burned just little more deeply into my psyche this past year. Click on the hyperlinks to hear each of the songs and read the original write ups.

Enough stalling, here are Poprock Record’s top 50 should-be hit singles from 2025:

1. Keyside “Rock My Love”
2. Strange Neighbors “Beer at the Bar”
3. The What Four “Quarter to Midnight”
4. The Lemon Twigs “I’ve Got a Broken Heart”
5. The Sonny Wilsons “Maybe”
6. Pony “Superglue”
7. The Cords “Just Don’t Know (How to Find You)”
8. HOA “Don’t Be A Loser”
9. Tamar Berk “you ruined this city for me”
10. Banda AL9 “California”
11. Martin Luke Brown “To Be a Man”
12. Eytan Mirsky “Lost You in the Jetstream”
13. Grant Lindberg “In My Own Way”
14. Jaime Orr “Somebody Like You”
15. Force Model “How Can One Girl Be So Sad”
16. Log Flume “December’s Ending”
17. Rich Chance “Azelea Close”
18. The Bret Tobias Set “It Begins With Lean”
19. The Memories “Too Weak to be Strong”
20. Death By Unga Bunga “I’m Really Old”
21. Softjaw “I Need You”
22. The Spindles “Getaway”
23. Brett Newski and the Bad Inventions “Narrow Escapes”
24. Chris Church “She Looks Good in Black”
25. Japanese Breakfast “Magic Circuit”
26. Tristan Armstrong “The Lonely Avenue”
27. The Super True “Right Here”
28. The Needmores “Lookin’”
29. Oehl “I Love You”
30. Sally Spitz “Tag Your Sign”
31. Sorry Monks “I Know What’s On Your Mind”
32. The Mayflies USA “Calling the Bad Ones Home”
33. The Geezers “Modern Days”
34. Lolas “Work is the Blackmail of Survival”
35. Tom Henry “Close Your Eyes”
36. The Jeanines “What’s Done is Done” / “On and On”
37. The Tummies “Send Me A Picture”
38. Movie Movie “After Hours”
39. Tony Marsico and the Ugly Things “Goodbye to Lonely Town”
40. Chris Stamey “Anything is Possible”
41. Jim Trainor “Nothing”
42. Hidden Pictures “Wedding Singer (Going Through a Divorce)”
43. Liquid Mike “Selling Swords”
44. Zombies of the Stratosphere “If You’re Into It”
45. Daisy House “The Seducer”
46. The Invisible Rays “I Don’t Dream of You”
47. Nicky Koro “Dreamin’”
48. Pouts “Stay Awhile”
49. The Mommyheads “It’s Only Life”
50. The Berries “Lie in the Fire Again”

My top five this year were real head-turners. Liverpool’s Keyside show the city has still got the fab vibes. Strange Neighbors turned out killer tunes for the second year in a row. The first I heard of The What Four’s “Quarter to Midnight” I was hooked by its adrenaline-soaked beat. The Lemon Twigs have pretty reliably produced should-be hits over the past few years but there was something about “I’ve Got a Broken Heart” that just hit all poprock marks. And from way back early in 2025 I was struck by The Sonny Wilson’s unique sound. No maybe about it. I could go on about the other 45 songs here but you can get the dirt from the original posts by clicking the hyperlinks.

Next up, Poprock Record’s most inventive covers from 2025:

1. The Half Cubes “Whenever You’re On My Mind”
2. Sofa City Sweetheart “Waltz #2 (XO)”
3. Marshall Crenshaw “Never To Be Forgotten”
4. Mike Browning “Lost In Conversation”
5. Chaparelle “I Want to Dance with Somebody”

The Half Cubes put out another amazing album of covers and really outdid themselves but nowhere more strongly than on their cover of an early Marshall Crenshaw classic. Sofa City Sweetheart teased us this past year with an impressive rendering of Elliott Smith’s “Waltz #2.” Not an easy tune to take up. Marshall Crenshaw pulled together a host of songs for a new album, including a cover of a Bobby Fuller Four gem. And then we have Mike Browning covering an obscure Canadian track and Chaparelle countryfying a song everybody knows.

Well, there you have it, some great songs that deserve another shot across your attention span. Click the links for the original posts and revisit just how good 2025 was to us on the single file.

Photo courtesy Carbon Arc Flikr collection.

Along the river Mersey

18 Sunday May 2025

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Merseybeat is the gift that keeps on giving. Whether full-blown homage or just an inflection there’s no mistaking that distinctive beat group influence. Here’s a crew of artists that all channel a bit of John, Paul, George and Ringo in their own creative ways.

It seems fitting to kick things off with Rad Venture’s aptly named long-player Merseyside. Owing more to the non-Fab acts in the roster (e.g. Gerry and the Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Big Three, etc.), what makes this record special is its expert replication of both the song styles of the period and its sonic hue. There’s something gritty, a bit pinched, and live-sounding to the recordings like “Please” and “Don’t Call Me.” “It Could Be You” nail the harmony vocals of the era. And check out the snappy lead guitar opening “Too Late Tomorrow.” Closer “Fog on the Mersey” casts a perfect 1963 instrumental mood. The Pale Lights lean more toward The Searchers on their recent self-titled LP,  particularly on “You and I.” But there’s a touch of Roddy Frame and Lloyd Cole there too in the vocals. So many tunes here sound like a later period of poppy beat group material, perhaps circa 1966, but the Mersey vibe infuses it too, particularly on tracks like “Girl on a Bridge” and “Golden Times.”

In listening to Cherrystone I kept thinking ‘man, these guys remind me of someone.’ Ok, The Beatles, obviously. But with a bit of digging I discovered the band is the precursor group to Cupid’s Carnival. This iteration of the band only put out one LP (entitled Our Life) but what a corker. Title track “Our Life” is Lennon spooky good while “Girl” anticipates the unique Cupid’s Carnival sound to come. But my faves are “I’m In Love” and “I Need Her” where the vocals veer strongly into Glenn Tilbrook territory. I’m not saying the Sorry Monks is always on the road to Liverpool’s Pier Head on his new album Perfect Hour but there are some strong indications he’s been there at some point. “I Can’t Make It” has a spot on Lennon 1965 vibe going while “I Know What’s On Your Mind” harkens back a bit further to that more sweet and innocent 1963 feel. “(It’s Just The) End of the Year” should get a honourable mention too.

Cherrystone – I’m In Love

Brazilian Banda AL9 have got an eerie Beatles sound-alike thing going on. So far they’ve got an EP and two albums out, the latter recorded in both Portuguese and English versions. The EP Isso E has got a bit of Brazilian jazzy flair which is pretty special but the most recent album The Ninth King (or O Nono Rei in Portuguese) hews more to the Merseybeaten track. “California” is so damn catchy, the lead guitar line and The Romantics worthy clapping demand an instant replay. “The Only One” sounds very early Fabs. “Movie Star” is more rocking, with a bass line that is positively addictive and a strong nod to “Drive My Car.” “My Love” hits the Help! era sweet spot. “You Called Me Up” is the single-along hit single. Clearly these guys love the Beatles but they are no slouches in the songwriting department. It’s one thing to ape the masters, it’s quote another to use their influence to drive your a unique contribution like these guys do.

 A stroll along the river Mersey. That would need music, yes? We’ve rounded up some pretty Merseylicious options here. Click on the links and fill your own ‘ferry across the Mersey’ playlist.

Photo: Tom Wood ‘Woodside Ferry Terminal 1986’ courtesy The Guardian, “Ferry across the memories: all aboard the Mersey crossing – in pictures,” January 24, 2018.

Babylon Beatles

12 Thursday Dec 2024

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The Beatles influence is like its own musical language, infusing a broad body of genres over the decades. All it takes is a particular guitar part, vocal harmony, or lyrical turn to evoke a distinct period of the band’s musical development. It’s impressive how people take those influences and make them their own in so many ways, despite differences in language and musical style. Today we feature acts with qualities that might be dubbed Beatlesque from around the world.

The most obvious triumph of Beatles influence is how it can transcend language. Beatles songs sung in other languages can retain the magic of the originals. Uruguay’s Los Shakers do a Spanish-language version of “Ticket to Ride” (retitled “Boleto para viajar”) that bristles with pure Merseybeat energy. They were the first among many sixties acts from Latin America covering the Beatles in English, Spanish and Portugese (see Blog de Rock en Mexico for many more). A more recent example is Argentina’s Los Ratones whose 2013 album Beatles En Espanol includes 14 early to mid-career moptop faves including a nicely restrained take on “I Feel Fine.” More recently UK retro power popper Super 8 offered up a version of “I Need You” in a language from the other side of the Pacific – Japanese.

Los Shakers “Boleto para viajar” (“Ticket to Ride”)

There are covers and then there are covers. Erk don’t just cover “It Won’t Be Long” on their LP Erk Plays the Beatles they add a kind of crazed manic energy to it. At other points on the album they change things up completely, for instance, reinventing “Blackbird” as a piano tune. Or for something even more ‘out there’ there’s the laser focus of The Boobles. On their The Pink Album they manage to refocus every Beatles cover on the same particular part of female anatomy, for a good cause. “Milk” is definitely “Help” but with a new lyrical purpose, this time in aid of breast cancer research. Other bands strive to really sound like the Fabs but with their own material. For example A see The Poppermost on their recent Merseylicious “I Don’t Want To Know” single. The Dodos UK go in a very different direction. The band is the creative brainchild of Tolly Gipson who uses AI like some kind of bionic mellotron to craft tunes that are spot-on sixties recreations, all the while producing an amazing parallel universe back-story for his would-be moptops. “Now You Don’t See” alleges to come from the band’s soundtrack to their film Danger! Stylistically it definitely falls into a Help! register, with a touch of The Hollies too.

Another kind of influence is a bit more distant from the originals, simply borrowing the broader musical milieu or sonic palate of the band for creative purposes. Adrian Gerard embodies this approach. His work screams Beatles but his songs are his own. I’m really digging his Sounds Like … Volume 2 album, particularly cuts like “Just Don’t Care” and “For You.” Korean group HOA were working a soft rock seam until they released their I Don’t Know Why EP earlier this year and suddenly were reborn as a full-blown Mersybeat group. The four tracks subtly mine a Beatles ambience here and there but also harken back to Dutch groups like Sunday Sun, particularly on selections like “All My Days” and “Sunday Girl.” More recent singles like “Push Man” step on Fabs pedal a bit harder, conjuring “Taxman” like guitar hooks. Brazilian band Banda AL9 have material that riffs on the mellow side of the Beatles street, vibing numbers like “Do You Want to Know a Secret” and “If I Fell.” But “Eu Quero Navegar” from their 2019 EP Isso É AL9 dials down the Beatle-isms to let their own original pop tune shine on. By contrast, this past year’s stand-alone single “She Calls Me Love” / “Chama de Amor” is pretty earnestly going with the Mersey flow.

Banda AL9 “Eu Quero Navegar”

Great music can break through a host of barriers, be they language or culture or style. No tower of Babel aftermath is going to stop Beatlemaniacs making those links.

Photo courtesy BBDO Düsseldorf, D&AD Awards Winners 2011.