@colekincart
As finals finally began to clear earlier this month, I’ve been taking some time to not just decompress from school, but also to unpack the year behind us, musically speaking. Hundreds of lists have rolled in from publications making their claims on the greatest albums of 2025, and while it’s been fun watching which albums get the end-of-year love and witnessing how quickly people online reach peak list fatigue, I wanted to focus on something that’s become increasingly important to me this year: music coming out of Chicago
If you’re a Chicago local like myself, you can read this and appreciate how much amazing music is coming out of our city, celebrate the artists finally getting their flowers, or discover new names worth supporting. If you’re not from Chicago, consider this list a love letter, or at least exhibit A for why I love this city so much. And honestly, as I began filing my year-end list, I was pretty surprised at how much of it was Chicago music. That says something, I think. It’s a testament to how deeply the city has impacted my life, how woven into my daily existence this music has become. Something I’m finally learning to appreciate instead of taking for granted.
Small Talk
Whitney
Darling. Damage. Dandelions. Just three of the eleven song titles from Whitney’s latest release Small Talk, that just from their titles alone, pretty accurately sum up the release from Chicago’s beloved mainstay indie band. I’ll admit I was pretty unfamiliar with Whitney’s music prior to this year and wasn’t sure what to expect, but since its release in November, the sun-bleached textures really grew on me. Emotionally, Small Talk feels like a glimmering reunion with an old friend, revealing layers you hadn’t fully appreciated before. Musically, it carries that same warmth, uncovering Whitney’s intricacies and subtle sounds with each listen. There’s a quiet confidence in Julien Ehrlich’s delivery, especially when he sings “fall back in love with Central Time” on “Dandelions,” capturing a central theme of the album: the rediscovery that comes in the wake of loss, those small epiphanies that surface as you piece yourself back together. It’s classic indie-isms of trying to grasp fleeting feelings through acoustic accompaniment, paired with musicianship that’s truly on full display.
Tomorrow Comes Crashing
Smut
Something I’ve always been intrigued by is the veil that separates recorded music from seeing that same music live, or even their companionship, because sometimes they need each other to exist. What I’ve come to appreciate about Smut’s latest album Tomorrow Comes Crashing is just how thin that veil feels. The moodiness and emotion, the crispness and intensity—there’s this DIY sense that everything just translates perfectly, collapsing the distance between the two. This does feel like a live recording, and while it’s been polished nicely, it maintains that raw energy.
In many ways, Tomorrow Comes Crashing is an ode to hyper 90s-isms: beautiful guitar sounds, shoegaze-y textures, and the overall bombastic intensity of live music. It’s easy to understand how this album would translate to a stage, and though I haven’t seen them perform these songs live yet, I just know what’s captured here is going to be something else entirely in person. The album brought on two new members, and lyricist Tay Roebuck feels like she’s at the top of her game here. It’s cathartic, capturing some really big emotions that feel both intense and powerful.
Lost & Found
Free Range
Free Range’s Lost & Found strikes a balance between my favorite bone-hurting juice: warmth and melancholy, intimacy and distance…and I’ll take a glass of that any day! Sofia Jensen’s voice threads through the record with a folky tenderness that recalls the early Wilco days, each lyric leaving a gentle, small confession. There’s this twinginess, this gentle intimacy that often feels lighthearted, even when it shouldn’t be, and there’s beauty in that contrast. The middle track “Big Star” feels particularly redeeming: “Can I leave my faith with you / I work with what I can” a push-and-pull that feels both vulnerable and familiar. Jensen’s folky sensibilities keep things feeling nearly timeless. It’s rare to hear an album move so seamlessly between apathy and emotional vulnerability without picking sides between either, but Lost & Found somehow makes that contradiction feel natural, even necessary
Balloon Balloon Balloon
Sharp Pins
Many Pitchfork readers might claim Sharp Pins’ Radio DDR, which “dropped” in Spring 2025 and earned better reviews, was a 2024 release, but true Chicagoans know the score. Either way, I’d argue that Balloon Balloon Balloon, released this fall, is the stronger album by just a smidge. There’s a sharp showcasing of personal talent here that highlights the growth happening in frontman Kai Slater, and the development within the larger scene. I want this album to be a placeholder for the amazing Hallogallo world of Lifeguard, TV Buddha, and the handful shows I’ve been to this year featuring that universe. The first two tracks are so tight and compact, they’re beautifully orchestrated pop songs, but then the album begins to open up as we get to “Queens of Globes and Mirrors.” What unravels is this lo-fi, youthful world that maintains some fuzzy affectionate love on tracks like “(I Wanna) Be Your Girl.” The album’s back end such as, “Maria Don’t” and “All the Shops and Stores Are Closing Now” gets gentle and beautiful. This album feels a bit deconstructed at times because you see some more polished ideas next to these raw sing-alongs, but that’s the beauty of it. Recorded on a four-track and mostly in his room, there’s this sense of independence that I think any Chicagoan would admire
How You Been
SML
This one might be a little out of place, but SML is a group of individuals who I’ve found very inspirational this year and who opened up a new lens for me to understand and listen to music. While the experimental jazz quintet is conventionally considered a Los Angeles group, How You Been makes a very good argument for SML to also be considered a Chicago jazz band. Four of the five members are Midwest transplants, and on top of that, a handful of the recordings on this album are actually from their sets at the Empty Bottle earlier this year. There’s a lot of Midwestern identity woven throughout this album that I’ve grown to love, and seeing it all come together especially how these five musicians weave in and out of each other, is really really fascinating.
The album features heavy experimentation and improvisation, captured by taking live performances raw and twisting them in post-production. One of my favorite tracks is “Taking Out the Trash,” where you can hear how each member takes their ideas and meshes them together seamlessly. This album has taught me so much about communication and collaboration, knowing what’s expected of you, how to show up for yourself and those around you. Anna Butterss plays amazing bass lines alongside Jeremiah Chiu’s droning and dancing synths, while Booker Stardrum’s drumming, nuanced enough to slip into the back of your head, holds everything together. Gregory Uhlmann feels like a technician on guitar cooking something up in the lab, and Josh Johnson creates these compelling, enticing narratives with his saxophone while multitasking with his pedalboard and keyboard. Some people might find this album a bit jarring, but they’re all chasing the same idea, and it puts you into a beautiful trance. While I can only half pretend to know what they’re doing with my limited music knowledge, and I still can’t fully wrap my head around it, seeing them live, or any of the members’ other projects for that matter, helped me understand it just a little bit more.
Horizon
Resavoir & Matt Gold
There’s a particular warmth to Chicago summers, and particularly to the sounds of Chicago summer, that feels so quintessential to the city’s emotional architecture. I’m thinking Summer 2016 with Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book and Noname’s Telefone, albums that brought this idea of what summer could be (in Chicago) to life. It was something I had been searching for ever since. Being in Chicago during Resavoir and Matt Gold’s latest collaboration, Horizon, did exactly that for me. In layman’s terms, this album builds upon the warmth and feeling of a true Chicago Summer. Meditative and featuring soulful-inspried-jazz jazz, the ideas on this album feel like they’re coming straight from Chicago landscapes—whether it’s the bustling streetscapes of a summer afternoon, the stillness of concrete beaches, or the essence of our wonderful parks and street fests in the summer. There’s this stillness where, just for a moment, everything is warm, and summer feels longer than what it actually is on the calendar. Seeing them perform with a backing orchestra this summer at Millennium Park totally encapsulated all those ideas, a celebration of Chicago’s sounds and the city’s thriving music scene. And if you know anything about summers here, you know they’re addicting. Horizon reminds you exactly why you hold onto them so tightly.
Sad and Beautiful World
Mavis Staples
I would be lying if I said part of the reason I did this write-up wasn’t so I could talk about Mavis Staples’ latest album, Sad and Beautiful World. The 86-year-old musician and lead singer of the classic Staples Singers, of which she is the last living member, has crafted something that feels essential, not just to this year, but to this city. This album is Chicago. It highlights everything I love about the city and its people, and it’s filled with community in a way that feels increasingly rare.
Dare I start by mentioning the opening title track “Chicago,” written before the context of this fall and summer’s political dialogue, where Mavis declares “maybe things will be better in Chicago.” There’s a pride to this album that I love, but also a realism, a hope held carefully in the face of everything else. And I couldn’t talk about this album without bringing up the amazing support here, support that isn’t flattery or decoration, but treated as intentional backing to carry Mavis and her ideas forward. Amazing contributions from the y’allternative cinematic universe (MJ Lenderman himself, Waxahatchee, Patterson Hood, and production from the unstoppable Brad Cook), Hozier, Amy Ray, Bonnie Raitt, and even new Chicago faces like Colin Croom, Kara Jackson, Will Miller, and Spencer Tweedy.
It would go against everything I love about this city to not talk about this album. It’s meant so much to me. The covers, and there are many, feel essential rather than nostalgic. Sometimes the things that need to be said have already been said, and it’s just a matter of retelling that story. Sad and Beautiful World stays true to finding home in the darkness, and I love how this album has taken on new meaning with the changing context of our world. That’s the power of music like this: it connects us, reminds us we’re not alone, and helps us hold out hope.
Leave a Reply