By Scott
Emperor and Wolves In The Throne Room, live in New York City.
WITTR were very good but seeing Emperor play all of In the Nightside Eclipse and a heaping of Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk was a god damn treat.
Colter Wall, Memories and Empties (2025).
An excellent follow-up to his last album, which I liked a lot; his singing just gets better and better.
Leatherface, “Monkfish.”
Thanks to SoDak for the recommendation. Something about this song just hit me the right way in 2025 and got me listening to Leatherface quite a bit.
When We Were Good: The Folk Revival, by Robert Cantwell (1997).
This is not quite a history but an idiosyncratic study of the cultural forces that prepared the way for the 1960s folk revival. The writing in places is astoundingly good, and the chapter on Pete Seeger—an intriguing, challenging portrait—is worth the price of the book alone.
A Complete Unknown (2024).
This is an often ridiculous Hollywoodization of the Dylan story, but pretty enjoyable if you accept it as that. During the famous electric Newport Folk Festival performance, when Pete Seeger, played by Edward Norton, blurts out, “I’m sorry, Odetta!,” I laughed out loud.
The Tubs, Cotton Crown (2025).
The second album by one of my favorite bands to appear in recent years is as good as their first: catchy, rich, lively, and moving. I love’em. https://thetubs.bandcamp.com/album/cotton-crown
Black Sabbath et al., “Back to the Beginning” concert (2025).
I watched this over the course of a weekend. There were highs and lows, and everyone was probably thinking about the bands they would have added or kicked off the bill, but it was still a pretty remarkable thing to behold. Imagine telling a 17-year-old Ozzy Osbourne that, someday, you’d be back in Birmingham with a stadium of people essentially worshipping you for a day, joined by who knows how many thousands of others all around the world. Unreal. And then that motherfucker went and died! That was hard to believe—still is hard to believe—but what a tribute.
3:19 into “At Peace” by Propagandhi, from At Peace (2025).
When I first listened to this song and realized he was quoting Bruce Cockburn, it gave me a chill and just about brought a tear to my eye. Like Cockburn, Propagandhi writes songs about the struggle to stay human in a time of ascendent fascist barbarism—songs I wish we didn’t need, but we sure as fuck do.
“Death Valley Nights” and “I Love the Night,” Blue Oyster Cult, Spectres (1977).
I was on a BOC kick this summer and for whatever reason, these two songs jumped out to me, as a pair—obviously because of the “night” thing, but something about the mood of them just worked together, too. “Death Valley” is a little more upbeat with a twinge of sadness, and “I Love the Night” is, uhh, about becoming a vampire? But it has some of Buck Dharma's finest guitar playing, I’d say.
“Old Tom Bombadil” by Bear McCreary, vocals by Rufus Wainwright (2024).
I’m not the biggest Lord of the Rings nerd by any stretch (although I do remember Old T. B. from the books, because he isn’t in the Peter Jackson movies) but damn, I love this song. Why? Who the hell knows. The TV show it’s from was just OK. I also listened to Rufus Wainwright’s album Folkocracy (2023) a lot this year, which is very good if a little slick. I should mention here that I saw Meshuggah with Cannibal Corpse and Carcass in 2025, a fantastic concert, and the singer for Meshuggah also contributed a song to this LOTR TV show—which is a funny coincidence, sorta. And yet I chose for this year’s list “Old Tom Bombadil” and listened to it probably dozens of times, which I am not ashamed to admit. In fact, I think I’ll play it again right now!
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