LISTENING LIST - 2025
Some Well-Thumbed Albums
FOR FREQUENT READERS OF THIS SUBSTACK, it should really come as no surprise that I am not a music streamer. I have written about ditching my iPhone, the empty sentiments of A.I. advertising, the empty musical sentiments of A.I. generated songs, and, I’m sure in the next year, the nostalgic wonders of the butter churn.
I don’t subscribe to Spotify or Apple Music, companies—musical cartels really—which shake a listener down every month so that they can retain a musical catalogue. I have also seen in my college students what happens when algorithms are the deciding factor in what to listen to next: a listener’s musical diet becomes an inch wide and a mile deep. Listeners will know all there is to know about a narrow sub-genre, without ever branching out into new, uncharted territory. Sure the record stores of yesteryear were divided by genre, but the idea of music recommendations coming out of left field, mostly by friends and their mix-tapes, is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Additionally, the paradox of choice—namely, everything that has ever been recorded—has made the act of musical exploration stultifying. Spotify and Apple Music have far too much money riding on the hopes that you will continue to tune in to their curated selections to ever recommend, for instance, Bulgarian folk music after listening to Bad Bunny.
All that being said, here are a few of my favorite albums from this past year, as well as some oldie-but-goodie books I picked up in 2025:
Chris Thile - Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Volume 2 (Nonesuch)
A joyous romp through Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin, played here in what sounds like effortless virtuosity on the mandolin. The album was recorded in multiple locations, including New York’s Tompkins Square Park, where you can hear children playing, dogs barking, and passers by gawking while Thile enthusiastically blends the Baroque master with Bill Monroe. It brings to the forefront the pure fun of playing and listening to Bach.
Raphaël Pichon & Pygmalion - Bach: Mass in B Minor (Harmonia Mundi)
A new interpretation of a Bach masterwork which, if we are being honest, I have always had issues with. I could never get into the B minor Mass in the same way I could get into the two Passion oratorios. This recording, however, combines the hefty interpretations of the mid-twentieth century (Karl Ricther) with the transparency of the period instrument movement.
Linda May Han Oh, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Tyshawn Sorey - Strange Heavens (Biophilia Records)
With a trio made up of trumpet, double bass, and drums, one would expect Akinmusire’s trumpet to rein supreme while the other two vamp along. But this is a trio of three musical equals interested in creating long musical lines. The bass (Oh) and drums (the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Sorey) sing as much as the trumpet (Akinmusire).
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson - Handel Arias (Avie - 2025 remastered edition)
I understand full well that this is cheating. But any excuse I have to discuss this album is an opportunity I will take!
This album is, without hesitation, the most emotionally vibrant album of arias I have ever listened to. Originally released in 2004, this recording of Handel arias from two oratorios—Theodora and Serse—and a cantata—La Lucrezia—showcases the late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s ability to sing great Baroque arias like folk tunes, naturally and with profound intimacy. Her performance of “As With Rosy Steps The Morn” is one of the closest things to a secular religious experience. It’s just the best! There is nothing better!
A READING LIST (some of what I read this year, worthy of recommendation):
Richard Beck - Homeland: The War On Terror In American Life
Morris Dickstein - Dancing In The Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression
Abraham Joshua Heschel - The Sabbath
Benjamin Park: American Zion: A New History of Mormonism
Wallace Stevens - The Collected Poems of Wallace Steven
Thanks! I will add those to my listening and reading list!
Good info, thanks!