Time to look back on another year of excellent local releases! This is the first of a few posts in my year in review series. Here are five essential Australian albums from 2025.
Ninajirachi – I Love My Computer
CENTRAL COAST—Ninajirachi’s debut album is one of the most consistent musical projects I’ve ever heard, with experimental noisy cuts (CSIRAC, All at Once) seamlessly integrating with cute, impeccably produced pop music (iPod Touch, Delete). As a child of the internet, this album that speaks to me like none other in 2025. The hype is well deserved.
Favourites: iPod Touch, All I Am, Infohazard, Battery Death, It’s You, All At Once
Egoism – And Go Nowhere
SYDNEY’S INNER WEST—A perfect encapsulation of the anxieties of Gen Z in the 2020s. Atop jangly, dreamy guitar pop for fans of The 1975, Egoism farewell good friends, curse the ones that hurt them, feel the rush of young love, wallow at Sydney housing prices, and reflect on the years passing by.
Favourites: Getting Older, So I Heard, Melbourne, Addison Road, If I Was A Girl
Spacey Jane – If That Makes Sense
FREMANTLE/WALYALUP—A sensational improvement on their previous album, marked by jangling, bright guitar lines that duck and weave but don’t leave the soundscape. New sounds are thrown in the mix constantly: strings are used throughout, the band uses piano and auto-tune for the first time, and Estimated Delivery would otherwise be a lowkey acoustic ballad if it weren’t for the breakbeat switch-up after the chorus. Three months spent in the recording studio mean it’s all impeccably produced. Read my full review…
Favourites: Through My Teeth, All the Noise, Whateverrrr, The More That It Hurts, August
The Belair Lip Bombs – Again
FRANKSTON/MONMAR—Listen to the Melbourne indie rock band’s tight second album, which features a fiddle in just the first 20 seconds of the opening track, and tell me you don’t think the Lip Bombs are Australia’s next big thing.
Favourites: Again and Again, Don’t Let Them Tell You (It’s Fair), Hey You, Smiling, Burning Up
Seaside – Desiderata
BYRON BAY/CAVANBAH—Consistently great pop rock energy on the band’s debut, with 2000s indie stylings. The lead singer provides sometimes understated (Big Sky, Sadie) but often grungy vocals for fans of Stand Atlantic (Sick, How You Feel), with interesting storytelling particularly in the centrepiece Family Gambling.
Favourites: Rebels, Said It (Unbothered), Family Gambling, Big Sky, How You Feel
