Tag: Top 25 from 2025

The Power Popaholic Top 25 EPs of 2025

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Each year I need to explain that an EP to me is more than 2 songs and less than 10 songs. Many great EPs came out last year, and a late entry that literally “slipped under my radar” was Robert Harrison’s return as Future Clouds and Radar. As part of the memorable power pop juggernaut Cotton Mather, he has always been a special talent. He ranks high this year, and also of note; the band Shake Some Action appears in both my album and EP list.

    1. The Vibeke Saugestad Band “The Sun Sessions”
    2. Future Clouds and Radar “Big Weather”
    3. Peter Baldrachi “Nothing’s Promised”
    4. The Glad Machine “All the Pretty Things”
    5. Flutter “When You Love Somebody”
    6. Shake Some Action “Running Out of Places to Run”
    7. Autos “Autos”
    8. Hexham Heads “Hexham Heads”
    9. The Rallies “Rallies ’25 (The Singles EP)”
    10. Mikayla Geier “HOT POT”
    11. Friends of Cesar Romero “All Goodbyes Aren’t Bad Cause This Goodbye Is For Good”
    12. Randy Klaxon “Sunday’s Child”
    13. The Jacks “Box”
    14. Doublevee “Periscope at Midnight”
    15. The Photocopies “Treacherous”
    16. Geoff Palmer “Kodak Flash”
    17. Clean Lines “Nuisance”
    18. Corin Ashley “EP #1”
    19. Skeleton Staff “Hepto-Altruism”
    20. Svenssen “The Making of Art”
    21. Moonspin “When You’re Around”
    22. J. Fla “Moon Eater”
    23. The Needmores “Side X Side”
    24. King Hüsky “King Hüsky”
    25. Elena Rogers “Songs About Me”

 

The Power Popaholic Top 25 albums of 2025 + More

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Power pop in 2025 sits in a strange place. While power pop encourages exploration, streaming platforms prioritize familiarity. When you go beyond algorithms and follow authors, labels, live performances, and reliable listeners, you discover the best tunes. The music is still driven by short hooks, crisp melodies, and emotional clarity, but the voices seem more expansive than before.

This list exists to point you toward new bands, overlooked records, and albums you missed while relying on algorithms. You will disagree with the order, and you should. If you find one new artist you love, the list did its job.

The audience is also constantly evolving. Songs that recreate the excitement they had decades ago are what devoted listeners crave. New listeners want energy without excess and lyrics that feel human. Power pop meets both needs by staying focused on craft. A great chorus still matters. And as always… strong melody still wins.

This year I actually had to cut more albums out off my list to keep it at 75, and I did not want to expand it to 100 this year (that may change next year.) Anything I did not directly review that is on my list (a few) I will highlight in the next 2 weeks as part of the “albums I missed.” Overall, more music has been flooding my inbox and “separating the wheat from the chaff” becomes more important each year.

  1. Sloan “Based on The Best Seller”
  2. The Gnomes “Introducing… The Gnomes”
  3. Joe Giddings “Stories With Guitars”
  4. The High Frequencies “The High Frequencies”
  5. The Grip Weeds “Soul Bender”
  6. Chris Lund “Surveillance”
  7. The Toxhards “Your Neighborhood”
  8. Sharp Pins “Balloon Balloon Balloon”
  9. The Wellingtons “Baby Moon”
  10. Ricky Byrd “NYC Made” 
  11. Nick Frater “Oh Contraire!”
  12. Iain Hornal “Return to the Magic Kingdom”
  13. The Lolas “Big Hits and Freak Disasters”
  14. Sorrows “Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow”
  15. Eureka Machines “Everything”
  16. The Bablers “Like The First Time”
  17. Greg Pope “The Roar of Silence”
  18. The Prize “In The Red”
  19. The Jellybricks “Dreaming in Stereo”
  20. Bird Streets “The Escape Artist”
  21. Cheap Trick “All Washed Up”
  22. Davey Lane “Finally, A Party Record”
  23. Cody Piper “Revealed”
  24. Silk Cut “Corridors of Light”
  25. Beauty “I’d Do Almost Anything For You”
  26. The Modbeats “Ballad of a Starving Artist”
  27. Benny J. Ward “SUPER!”
  28. Enuff Z’nuff  “Xtra Cherries”
  29. The Peppermint Kicks “Pop Rocks In My Chewing Gum”
  30. The Honeydogs “Algebra for Broken Hearts”
  31. Eytan Mirsky “All Over the Map”
  32. Danny Ayala “Only Fools Love Again”
  33. The Goods “Don’t Spoil The Fun”
  34. Dom Mariani “Apple of Life”
  35. Humbug “Open Season”
  36. Ryan Allen “Livin’ On A Prayer On The Edge”
  37. 20/20 “Back to California”
  38. Small Yards “Small Yards”
  39. Willie Nile “The Great Yellow Light”
  40. Shake Some Action “Top Gear”
  41. Tom Henry “Songs to Sing and Dance To”
  42. Static Jacket “The Grape Lady Falls”
  43. Tristan Armstrong “The Lonely Avenue”
  44. Splitsville “Mobtown”
  45. The Webstirs “High Up In The Trees”
  46. The Nines “Echoes of Past Future”
  47. The Toms “Sound Bytes”
  48. The Minus Five “Oar On, Penelope!”
  49. Vanilla “Cookiewow”
  50. Icecream Hands “Giant Fox Pineapple Tree”
  51. Seth Timbs “Idle Hands”
  52. The Airport 77s “Don’t Let Go”
  53. Shortwaves “Mental Health in the Information Age”
  54. The Black Watch “For All the World”
  55. Dropkick “Primary Colours”
  56. Mary Strand “I Don’t Need Your Permission”
  57. Jim Trainor “Listening To Understand”
  58. Coke Belda “C8ke”
  59. The 1910 Chainsaw Company “Everything’s Better”
  60. Star Collector “Everything Must Go!”
  61. The Davenports “You Could’ve Just Said That”
  62. Fortitude Valley “Part Of The Problem, Baby”
  63. Chris Stamey “Anything Is Possible”
  64. Strange Neighbors “People Pleasers Pleasing People”
  65. Caper Clowns “Without A Safety Net”
  66. Tamar Berk “ocd”
  67. Ok Go “And the Adjacent Possible”
  68. The Campbell Apartment “(510)”
  69. The Dogmatics “Nowheresville”
  70. Vanity Mirror “Super Fluff Forever”
  71. Hidden Pictures “Well Hell”
  72. Rome 56 “Pony Tales”
  73. Glowbox “Bland Ambition”
  74. Them Elephants “Sugar”
  75. The Manic Standstill “Moving”

My favorite “Best of” compilations of 2025

Vegas with Randolph “Drops Of Gold: The Best of Vegas With Randolph”

Nelson Bragg “Mélodie de Nelson: A Pop Anthology”

Jeffrey Foskett “Something There – Remembering Jeffrey Foskett”

Brad Marino “On The Brink”

My favorite Tribute Albums

Various Artists “Play On: A Raspberries Tribute”

Various Artists “Second By Second By Minute By Minute: The Songs of Rick Springfield”

Michael Simmons “Fun Where You Can Find It”

The Well Wishers “Covered II”