The Top 10 Electronic Albums of 2025

 

The Electronic albums list covers music that is less organic than what is on other lists, without being pop music. There is a little more button-pushing this year, but balanced out by songwriting rather than just cool sounds thrown together. Also, we have a little mix of synth wave, TRIP-HOP, and new wave projects leaning albums. These are not the coolest electronic albums, but the best, fuck what other blogs say. 

  After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 20 albums of 2025 The very fact that these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album; there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day, what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list, and I have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway, here are the top 10 Electronic albums of 2025.

10-SINthetik Messiah- "Beneath the Surface." 

This project is based in Louisiana and is the work of Bug Gigabyte. The first track is a dystopian soundscape that transcends his swampy roots. With electronic music, the challenge for artists can be to not get carried away by cool beats and sound but to tell a story. This is typically forsaken by dance music altogether. This project is geared to the dance floor, though it would take a great deal of Absinthe to get moving to the narcotic throb invoked here. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/sinthetik-messiah-beneath-surface.html

9-Tayne- "Love" 

Lighter androgynous vocals offset a noise-friendly battery of electronic sounds that still manage to stay song-focused, at times giving them a HEALTH-like sound without the industrial muscle. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/01/tayne-love.html

 8-No Joy- "Bugland' 

ust catching up with this album that came out in August from No Joy, the Canadian indie rock project helmed by Jasamine Gluz. She continues down a more experimental path that focuses tightly on songwriting, as things head in an electronic direction that reminds me of 90s dream pop. Her voice sounds great and is used almost more like an instrument in how she layers it.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/10/no-joy-bugland.html

7-Fix8 Sed8- "Octagram" 

Their new album, "Octagra,m" finds the German electro groovers dabbling in a dark landscape that is more atmospheric than Skippy Puppy's harsher, stark apocalypse of sound, but fans of Skinny Puppy should find this band easy to embrace. Goth Nite DJs should also pay heed, as these songs are sure to put motion on the dance floor with their seductive lure.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/fix8sed8-octagram.html

5-Palindrones- "'Chapter 2: The Slender Blade" 

British duo is crafting some emotive electro pop with call and response vocal lines that recall some of the more moody moments in 80s pop. They dabble in both new wave and atmospheric techno. The female vocals become more of the dominant narrative of the songs.  She shifts through a range of emotions in her presentation, to make this work . 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/03/palindrones-chapter-2-slender-blade.html

4-the Cure- "Mixes of a Lost World." 

I normally don't rank remix albums into these lists, but this double album gave a very comprehensive look at the British electronic scene, and they were remixing Cure songs so here it lands. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-cure-mixes-of-lost-world.html

 

 

3-Aesop Rock- "Black Hole Superette." 

The 10th album from New York's best rapper finds the rhymes flowing like malt liquor. Ten albums into your career, you are going to know how to write a song. He is quick to spit a collage of clever metaphors. The bar for hip-hop is held very high due to rappers like this. So, why accept inferior products being rolled off the assembly line of record labels looking to sedate people whose musical tastes reflect their low vibrational state? 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/aesop-rock-black-hole-superette.html

2-Perturbator-"Age of Aquarius." 

The new album from these French masters of dark synth wave features some interesting guest vocalists, with Kristoffer Rygg from Ulver being the first to step up to the mic .It sounds like an 80s-themed space roller coaster you expect from these guys. The grooves on their instrumentals always help carry the songs. The dynamic shift it takes into heavier intentions also helps keep my attention; the arrangements this time around have really been fine-tuned.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/10/gothtober-perturbator-age-of-aquarius.html

 

1-Patriarchy -"Manual for Dying." 

The steamiest batch of bumping grinders since the golden years of Lords of Acid, certainly, is enough to give this duo the number one spot. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/08/patriarchy-forcefully-rearranged.html

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No Joy "Bugland"

 Just catching up with this album that came out in August from No Joy, the Canadian indie rock project helmed by Jasamine Gluz. She continues down a more experimental path that focuses tightly on songwriting, as things head in an electronic direction that reminds me of 90s dream pop by the time we get to the title track. There is a guitar woven in that holds even more heft at times than we have heard from her in the past, when this project has more of an organic, almost post-punk feel. Her voice sounds great and is used almost more like an instrument in how she layers it.

There is a denser atmosphere that absorbs "Bits" until she opens things open to create more room, but these are some great Cure-inspired guitar tones on this one. "Save the Lobsters" wanders in the ambiance a bit. She plays with sound rather than hooking you in here. If you told me "My Crud Princess" was Grimes, I would believe you. It is more upbeat, even if the vocals sit back in the music; it feels pretty effective to me. "Bather in the Blood Cell" dances around the mood created by her interesting sound, and has a cool selection of beats, but with little hook, yet it works for electronic music. 

"I hate I forgot What You Look Like" is also carried away on the cloud of sound that uses the bpm to keep things moving in a manner that does not make it apparent that it's the motion in the ocean moving you more than a distinct melody.  She continues to lead you down this opaque yet fanciful flight of sound on the last song, which owes even less to songwriting and more to her experimenting with weaving the web of sounds. Granted, over the course of this almost eight-minute exploration, thatre are dynamics, some of them heavier than expected. I will give this album a 9, overall the progression of what she is doing here finds the experimentation well balanced, though since she is dabbling in sounds from an era I enjoy I might be bias in this regard. 

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the Top 10 Indie Rock Albums of the Decade

The decade began before this blog was started , I can not just rely on sorting through previous reviews. I am just embedding video clips to support the reasoning for these albums to be listed as such, since I already did a best of the year list for each sub-genre. I broke up what was the punk / harcore list and made them two seperate lists. What was the deciding factor here was what album had the  best songs that are  worth listening to again and again.  Maybe these are not the hippest albums of the decade when it comes to this genre, but what matters more is the fact these are the albums I listened to the most when it came to this sort of thing. ; Any ways here are the Top 10 Indie Rock  albums of the decade.




10- Whirr- "Sway" 2014 









9-No Joy - "More Faithful" 2015












8-Slothrust - "the Pact " 2018 












7-Ride - the Weather Diaries" 2017













6-Pianos Become Teeth -"Wait For Love" 2018 













5-Nothing - Guilty of Everything- "2014" 












4- the Drums -'s/t"  2010














3- the Twilight Sad- "Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants Leave" - 2014 













2 - The National - "Trouble Will Find Me"- 2013













1- Morrissey - "World Peace is None of Your Business"- 2014




 

the Top 10 Rock Albums of 2015

This year there is an eclectic mix ranging for folk rock to hard rock, some albums are darker than others. The inclusion of a pop category this year took anything to happy to rock with it. Most of these albums speak for themselves. A couple of these some lists have had as metal, but not every one knows what metal is...oh, well. Here are the Top 10 rocks albums of 2015.
 10 Cairo Pythian: "Touched"

 Cairo Pythian might have been the best kept secret of the Pacific North Wast. There have been enough post- punk band's worshipping Ian Curtis and friends so why no one at the alter of Love and Rockets. Often they weave a weird piece of dark wave that pulls out the rock n roll more than I anticipated. The synths are darker than the guitar solos that are more Brit pop. The singer can sing, on some songs he carries a seventies glam streak. But we are getting ahead of our selves because it starts of with a colder electro synth pop streak.The industrial elements are glamorized for the dance floor and not really for rivet heads throwing punches in latex. The genius in the production is the lo-fi indie rock distance the songs have to keep them from sounding like something on the oxymoron that is mainstream alternative radio.If you are tired of "cold wave" albums that sound like they were recorded on a four track in the bathroom and open to some genre defying drug crazed nonsense that is fun as all hell, do not waste another second of your life by not hearing this "band". I was able to just stop keeping score as I knew I was going to like each song.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/01/cairo-pythian-touched.html

9-Nostalgist:"Of Loves and Days Ago"

 It's hard to argue against this Seattle band. The baritone vocals are like if the singer from Bellicose Minds sang for a shoegaze band. They have an incredible guitar tone and have combined an interesting array of elements, I can hear touches of everything from Hum and Failure to the more shoe-gazing side of black metal. Not that they go anywhere near a blast beat but they have a similar atmosphere. Being a product of the 90s I enjoy any band that can use samples as a narrative in the songs and they really contribute here. Luckily with a little clicking, I found the band's "name your price" as life currently has me too broke to pay the 8 bucks, though it would have been worth every penny and one of the few albums I would have put on my forced-to-buy list. Good Job kids. 


http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/07/nostalgist-of-loves-and-days-ago.html

8-King Dude:" Songs of Flesh & Blood -In the Key of Light"

 Being the Chelsea Wolfe that I am you would think I'd already be all over this considering he is one of the few artists she has collaborated with and midway into the first song I am not sure why I haven't been. It's more post- punk meets rockabilly than folk or the Johnny Cash singer-song writer thing I assumed it to be. There is more of a Rome like strum to "Deal With the Devil". The things I like about it that is remains dark. Sure Nick Cave is an obvious influence, but Cowgill doesn't get lost in the narrative and forget he is singing a song an not narrating a story. I prefer the fuller sounds and production on this album to some of his older work I heard a few years ago. If you are a long time fan then some of the more sparse and droning moments that didn't grab me off the bat will be more of you thing.
 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/07/king-dude-songs-of-flesh-blood-in-key.html

7- No Joy :"More Faithful"

   I was anticipating  this new full length from No Joy. Having liked the glimpses I got from this project in the past , but have never gotten a solid taste of what the band could really do  so now we get the big picture. The show you many side right from the first song which has the driving post-punk bass pumping under dreamy vocals. The guitar doesn't come into clearer focus until the second song, which conforms to more indie rock standards than the opener. The vocals smooth out and glide over their brand of dream pop, that comes across more vocal more in the forefront than their previous work. Not quite dancey and shaded with equal dabs of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth.Sure they can gleam like fragile crystal, but can also rock out when they feel like it.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/06/no-joy-more-faithful.html

6- The Decemberists: "What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World"

 What do I want from a new Decemberists album ? Why am I even asking that question aren't they out of place among the typical fare.You might not have guessed that I would be a huge fan of the Decemberists, having listened to the for over a decade and seen them four times live during that time. Their last album the "King is Dead" was a quaint stab at radio airplay, a gamble that paid off for them. So what do a think would be a perfect Decemberists album, well I would like to see the lyrics darken back up...of course and get back to the murder balladry of the past.  A cross between the Hazards of Love with Picaresque.I get this in doses, but not completely.Colin Meloy's voice has improved over the years.This can be heard in the tonal quality of it on "Lake Song". Strummed folk with a jazz like under current it works a familiar magic for the band. Other songs find bands classic sound minus and pirate shanty elements with "Till the Water is Gone". There are moments when You really get a good picture of how good of a guitarist Chris Funk. This is followed with "the Wrong Year" a pop song that is written in the classic world folk sound the band excels. It carries a hook with all the intention that they wrote the last album with, but draped in  sounds long time fans should feel more comfortable with.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-decemberists-what-terrible-world.html

5- Algiers: "S/T"

 Matador records is released this, but not doing much else to promote it. Good thing for the band they have a unique sound that should set them apart.  They formed in Atlanta, but like most other good music Atlanta doesn't know what to think of it so they relocated to varied parts of the world meeting up again in New York. They do take string synths that are slightly goth and set them as a backdrop to the gospel dirge. The singer's husky soulful voice has more rawness to it than I expected and it sits in a bizarre juxtaposition to the noisy industrial clanging that it emotes over. Sometimes it sounds like the rest of the band is going to go along with him and start busting out some 60s soul from within the din. fitting comparison to this band would be they fuse dark electronica to gospel in the same way Chelsea Wolfe has done it with folk. Lyrically I think any religious imagery is being used as a metaphor. If you have any inkling in regards to my spiritual path based on my writing for Cvlt Nation then it should be clear that if this was a christian band I would not give them the time of day. Without a doubt this is an excellent piece of work that was well worth the searching it took to hunt this down.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/06/algiers-st.html

4- Nadine Shah: "Fast Food"

 So many of these new post-punk revival bands are jacking from Siouxsie, but they are only latching onto one element of what  she does.  Nadine might be jacking from Siouxsie, but at least it's a different aspect of Siouxsie that is a path less travelled. The album opens up in a more straight forward manner than I suspected. It still has air-tight song writing.There is an interesting tone to album that juggles an androgynous longing in the lyrics and their delivery. I have no problem just keeping this album on and letting it play.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/04/nadine-shah-fast-food.html

3-Marriages: "Salome "

This trio spawned off of the Red Sparrows and have been killing the stage opening for the likes of Chelsea Wolfe after releasing the impressive "Kitsune". The first thing that grabs your attention this go around is their singer. Her singing gets the most improved award for the album. Not that she was a bad singer before, her vocals have really stepped up to the next level and given the space to be used as an instrument just as impressive as the guitar, bass or drums. She was a more purring alto, which she flexes into some vocal lines that are more aggressive that the guitar that has taken on an even more dreamy quality time time around. At times this gives them more in common with A Perfect Circle or Tori Amos then the Russian Circles post-rock they brewed before. Sure some of the melodies are more radio friendly, but this is a far cry from selling out. You can't blame a girl for wanting to sing. They deserve all the praise they might get for not being afraid to shed some of the pretense of post-rock and just focus on writing good vocal driven songs. Emma has stepped up to the mic with a vocal performance few albums are going to be able to beat this year.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/03/marriages-salome.html

2- Ryan Adams : "1989"

 This album served as the methadone for my Taylor Swift addiction. My wife doesn't like Taylor Swift, she is banned from being played in the car, but this album is totally acceptable. Ryan Adams who also must be a pretty big fan as well as a metal head...just look up his cover of "Holy Diver", made a bold move in covering Swift's "1989" in its entirety and the results are pretty great.He really makes these songs his own which is an impressive feat and colors them with more of a Bruce Springsteen feel.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/12/ryan-adams-989.html

1- Royal Thunder: " Crooked Doors"

 This band continues to evolve from the blues soaked stoner rock, they have put the Black Sabbath albums away and now have become more of an indie rock band that takes on a rough edged hard rock dynamic. On the opener "Time Machine" which the band premiered on Npr,  Parsonz puts some angry husk to her voice when the band begins to climax toward the end of the song. The band was never fully committed to being a metal band even they they had a fetish for playing with metal bands , but they have taken another step away from metal with this album. This is not a bad thing as the new direction lends it's self to a compelling array of sounds and emotive glimpses into who this band is.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/03/royal-thunder-crooked-doors.html

Top 10 Rock Albums of 2015...so far

Before we get into get lets get the shameless self promotion out of the way  and go "like" us on Facebook...https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns

It will make you feel good about your self. Now on to the rock

Rock is a broad word. There is only one album in here that straight up rocks it like AC/DC and even then there are some twists and turns. So here is where we are at so in 2015, when it comes to putting the foot up on the monitor.


10- Cairo Pythian - "Touched"

 This album came on strong when I first go it but turned out to be a little too weird for its own good. Glam rock from another dimension, the album is like a weird friend you can't invite to every party because they might wind up naked in the fish tank.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/01/cairo-pythian-touched.html

 9-the Refused- "Freedom"

 Haven't really listened to it much after the day I got it , but it is so well crafted that it needs to be on here. Nothing like "the Shape of Punk to Come' in case you were wondering.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-refused-freedom-review-dawkins.html

 8- King Dude- "Songs of Flesh and Blood In the Key of Light"

 Just got this today, but can tell I am going to get some pretty good mileage out of this album. It touches on many genres and could be argued that it should have been on the goth list since the Nick Cave leanings, but Nick Cave's last album wasn't on the goth list either so there.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/07/king-dude-songs-of-flesh-blood-in-key.html

7- No Joy- "More Faithful"

 Not as shoegaze this go around.There is more form and function. Need to give it a few more spins it has gotten lost in the shuffle.


 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/06/no-joy-more-faithful.html

 6-Strangeweather - s/t

 Almost metal, but not quiet. Like Agalloch if they were jamming with Rasputina and Fleetwood Mac and main lining dmt.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/03/strangeweather-st.html

 5- Brother / Ghost- "Buried"

Funny thing about this album when I first got it I thought one of the dudes who sings on it was a girl, so the band dropped me a message saying there are zero girls in the band. When I went back and listened to , I could hear it was dude with a whiny Death Cab for Cutie kind of voice. I still like this album despite these facts.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/06/brother-ghost-buried.html

4- Algiers- s/t

 These guys were originally from Atlanta, but they wised up and said to themselves " Hey, we want to make gospel post-punk, lets move to New York, because they will never get it in this city since they only understand music that is either part white trash or part punk rock and we are neither." Good move, next year hipsters in Atlanta will catch on since they are always a few years behind New York when it comes to music any way.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/06/algiers-st.html

 3-Nadine Shah- "Fast Food"

 Just enough balls to this album that it makes it on the list despite her Siouxsie influence.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/04/nadine-shah-fast-food.html

2- Marriages- Salome 

Tones the post-rock / math- rock down and let her focus more on singing and the results are pretty stunning.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/03/marriages-salome.html

1- Royal Thunder- Crooked Doors

 It was a pretty close race between these cats and Marriages, I have just gotten a tad more mileage out of this album than Marriages, in fact there was a good week or two where this was all I would listen to on my iPod when I left home.


 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/03/royal-thunder-crooked-doors.html

No Joy : " More Faithful"

 I have been anticipating  this new full length from No Joy. I have always liked the glimpses I have gotten of this project in the past , but have never gotten a solid taste of what the band could really do  so now we get the big picture. The show you many side right from the first song which has the driving post-punk bass pumping under dreamy vocals. The guitar doesn't come into clearer focus until the second song, which conforms to more indie rock standards than the opener. The vocals smooth out and glide over their brand of dream pop, that comes across with vocals more in the forefront than their previous work. They veer off into something more upbeat , but not quite dancey on "Hollywood Teeth" that feels like it shaded with equal dabs of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth.

From a production the guitars have a lot more varied sounds to work with. With this comes more expansive range of emotions conveyed. Sometimes these create a sound bordering on electronica on songs like" Burial In Twos" . This is juxtaposed against the almost punk "Corpo Daemon". It's there more introspective grooves like those of  "Bolas" that prove some of the albums more compelling moments. When something more rocking organically pours from those clouds it carries more of a punch. The distortion on "Chalk Snake" is pretty convincing. It's lethargy stumbled beneath the narcotic nature of the swirling vocal above it. Then they skip into jangly dream pop. Male float to the surface of the shoe gazed out "  I am an Eye Machine". This is one of the album's best song. The ethereal nature is balanced with soaring chords.

The close out the album on more of amped up Cocteau Twins drive. But with the bass and drums hammering under the verse at double time. The vocals of a drugged out angel circling the earth in a stoned bliss. Like I said I have always like what I have heard from this band and they have given me what I needed to hear from them. Sure they can gleam like fragile crystal, but can also rock out when they feel like it. I will round this one up to a 9.5 and see how it grows on me.