Dig Me Out’s 2025 Thankful Episode: 50+ Releases Worth Your Time

Another year spinning down. Another Thanksgiving approaching. And once again, we gathered some members of the DMO Union to celebrate the new music that mattered. What stuck. What brought joy in a year that kept flooding our feeds with more music than any human could reasonably absorb.

Because here’s the thing: we’re all drowning in releases, chasing that next discovery, trying to give proper attention to records that deserve it while life keeps demanding we show up for other things too.

So instead of ranking, instead of declaring winners, we spent an hour doing what we do best—talking like music fans over beers, sharing what resonated, what surprised us, what made this chaotic year feel a little more human.

The Unexpected Flood

Remember 2021? 2022? Those post-COVID years when release schedules felt thin, when bands couldn’t tour, couldn’t get into studios the way they wanted? That’s over. 2025 brought an avalanche. The Hives dropped another album—The Hives Forever Forever The Hives—barely a year after The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons. Shiner released their second record in five years, BELIEVEYOUME. And somehow, impossibly, we got a new Pulp album, More.

But that abundance comes with a cost. As Keith Miller admitted about the Manic Street Preachers’ album Critical Thinking: “It was so good, and I don’t remember anything about it now”. One spin when it drops, a mental note to return, and then… life happens. The next release arrives. The memory fades.

The Independent Spirit

Keith Miller’s picks leaned into artists operating outside the major-label machine. Mark Knight (Bang Tango) released an Americana tribute to his late daughter—raw, personal, devastating. Brain Dead by Sunday, a father-daughter duo from Pennsylvania, crafted gothic modern metal with just the two of them. These weren’t albums engineered for playlist placement or algorithm gaming. They were human documents, created because they had to be.

Ian McIvor went deep into his industrial wheelhouse. Reese Fulber dropped Memory Impulse Autonomy, showcasing the versatility that’s kept him relevant for decades. Bill Leeb contributed a remix album, Machine Vision. And Front Line Assembly released Mechviruses, a fascinating experiment where instrumental tracks from their 2018 soundtrack WarMech were transformed by various artists adding lyrics—released as singles over two years before being collected as an album. A perfect example of how music distribution has fragmented in 2025.

“It’s definitely a sign of the times,” Ian noted. Bands release songs piecemeal throughout the year, building momentum track by track, then collect them into albums months later. The album as artistic statement? Still important to some. But increasingly, it’s a compilation of singles that already exist in the world.

The Power Pop Underground

Jim Kopany came loaded. Chicago trio The Kickback released The Hit Piece, their long-awaited third album mixing rock and electronics with ambition that deserves far more attention. Sadlands out of Brooklyn channeled Josie and the Pussycats energy with rougher edges on Try to Have a Little Fun. And Ryan Allen—how does Ryan Allen keep releasing this much music?—dropped two albums this year, Living on a Prayer on the Edge and One Week Off, both entirely self-recorded and consistently brilliant.

From Canada, Sloan continued their absurd run of never releasing a bad album with Based on the Best Seller. Nearly 30 years into their career, they remain one of rock’s most reliable acts. Telethon from Wisconsin unexpectedly dropped Suburban Electric. And OK Cool, a Chicago duo, delivered Chit Chat, an album that “blew me away,” Jim said with the enthusiasm of someone still genuinely surprised by new music.

Then there’s Deep Sea Diver. Jim had forgotten about them until his girlfriend dragged him to an Empty Bottle show. “Billboard Heart is high, high up on my list,” he said, the convert’s zeal unmistakable. Sometimes the best discoveries come from being forced out of your comfort zone.

The Swedish Connection

J kept it focused: Ghost and Hellacopters. Both Swedish. Both delivering exactly what he needed from them.

Ghost’s Skeletá felt like an event—teasers, videos, singles dropped strategically, the whole theatrical rollout that makes following the band fun. “It’s like an event,” Jay said. “They’re an escapist band for me”. In a year that demanded constant attention to real-world chaos, Ghost offered a portal into something deliberately ridiculous and joyously committed to its bit.

Hellacopters surprised him by still existing at this level of consistency. Overdriver mixed the high-energy punk of their classic Paying the Dues era with songwriting peaks like “(I Don’t Wanna Be) Just a Memory”—proof that decades in, they can still write hooks as sharp as anyone.

The Singles Problem

Big Wreck illustrated a new tension. They released singles throughout 2024 and into 2025—songs that Tim heard, loved, absorbed completely. Then The Rest of the Story appeared as a full album in October, collecting those singles… and Tim struggled to engage with it.

“These bands are trying to figure out how to release music in 2025,” he said. Release singles to maintain visibility and feed the algorithm. But when the album finally drops, fans already know half of it. The novelty’s gone. The anticipation’s been spent in increments.

Some bands handle it deliberately—announce the album, release strategic singles as promotion. Others just drop tracks into the void, and suddenly an album appears months later collecting songs nobody realized were part of a larger project.

Either way, it changes how we experience music. The album as cohesive listening experience—that thing we grew up valuing—is being dismantled in real time.

Hayley Williams from Paramore dropped 17 singles in July. Out of nowhere. No explanation. J treated them as an album, building a playlist, experiencing them as a cohesive work. Weeks later, Williams officially collected them as the album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party and eventually released 20 tracks total. Release strategy has to work for streaming metrics and chart gaming. Release singles, accumulate streams, then release the album—every previous stream counts toward album-equivalent plays. It juices the numbers, improves chart positioning, maximizes algorithmic exposure.

We can’t blame artists for playing the game. But it’s changing what albums are.

Gratitude in the Margins

Patron Whitney Beehler’s list surprised everyone by putting Mudhoney’s The World is Still Here and So Are We at number one—not exactly expected from the resident power pop expert. Darren Leach praised Red Lorry Yellow Lorry’s Strange Kind of Paradise, Chameleons’ Arctic Moon, and The Living End’s I Only Trust Rock and Roll. Richard Waterman championed Shiner’s BELIEVEYOUME, Electric Kettle Gods by Sponge, and Satanic Rites by The WildHearts.

“Rock and roll isn’t dead,” Jim said. “Anytime I think it is, I realize how absolutely wrong I am. 2025 has been a year of embarrassing riches”.

The Books, The Docs, The Ephemera

Music fandom in 2025 isn’t just about albums. Serena came on the podcast to discuss her Pearl Jam Live book. The Iron Maiden book landed.

Chris DeVille

dropped a 33⅓ edition. Holly Brickley’s Deep Cuts captured what it’s like to write music criticism and co-write songs in the late 90s/early 2000s scene—a rare fiction book that actually gets it.

Bill Janowitz wrote about The Cars. Depeche Mode released the M documentary. The Cure dropped Show of the Lost World concert film. The Failure documentary blew everyone away.

Bands aren’t just releasing albums—they’re creating ecosystems. Books, films, remasters, live recordings, behind-the-scenes content. For superfans, there’s more material than ever. For casual listeners, it’s overwhelming.

Nobody listened to everything in 2025. Nobody could. But that’s not the point.

The point is finding what resonates. Giving it proper attention. Sharing it with people who get it. Building communities around the music that matters—even if it only matters to a few dozen people in a Discord channel or a Patreon comment thread.

“We don’t say what was the best of the year,” Tim said at the top of the episode. “We say what we’re thankful for. I think that’s a better way to do it”.

Songs in this Episode

• Intro - Critical Thinking by Manic Street Preachers

• Outro - Disintegrate by Suede

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