The Brown Note Top 20 Albums of 2025

My internittent series on albums that have over (usually) a long period of time continued to be outstanding. Canada's fabulous Broken Social Scene's second album is a fair contender for greatest indie guitar album in history, certainly in North America.

Finally a review of the Table Tennis movie. The two things that stand out, this is one Safdie brother going solo on this film after the mighty one-two of Good Times and Uncut Gems, and I've not been kind to the "Marlon Brando" of our age, Timothy "Baby-Cham" Chamalet. He does actually give a very good performance here, and it's a fine film - but it's not in the same league as Uncut Gems and could easily have been an hour shorter. The Ron Howard of Safdie movies.

My now fairly frequent series on (usually) albums that were either denied classic status on release or have been forgotten about since. Witch House pioneers Salem near qualify for both, back in 2010 their debut album caused a lot of fuss but only mild praise, unlike me giving it album of the year. That rare album that has wielded strong influence since yet nothing else really sounds like it. A shoegaze album amongst its many invented genres.

The Danny Boyle/Alex Garland Zombie train keeps running and in pretty fine style. Wildly over-violent at times but with great work from a demonic Jack O'Connell and a soulful Ralph Fiennes. At its best when expanding both the human and zombie world's and with a truly gonzo final third.

My intermittent feature on (usually) albums that were either denied classic status on release or have been forgotten about since. I'm not sure the long delayed, much maligned second and final album by The Stone Roses quite qualifies but it's far, far better than the car crash disaster it's remembered as.

Where the industry led push for Timothy "Baby-cham" Chamalet to win continues and a good but not great film breaks the record for most nominations ever in a pretty average year for movies.

There's no doubt Pitchfork is the most important music criticism magazine this century, once the epicenter of the music world. The last decade or more has seen them slide further away from both their implied mission statement and success. Now a pay wall has gone up and that will likely be the end of many ends. But Vale Pitchfork.

In the worst year of movies I've actually watched since I started doing these reviews. The year in which mediocrity reigned supreme. Featuring Superman, One Battle After Another, Warcraft, Sinners, Weapons and many more.

Exactly what it says it is, in a terrific year for album length releases.

Director Zach Cregger, follows his (overrated) "IT" horror, Barbarian, with a film that is better in near every way than its messy predecessor. Though good rather than great and far more cohesive film-making, its still guilty of throwing ideas up in the air without delving any deeper.