Sneaking in at the last possible moment, it's the No Tags best of 2025 show! As is tradition, we’re joined by Henry Bruce-Jones to look back on the year in tunes and spotlight some lesser-feted records that you need to hear.
We tried to avoid going over the same releases that we covered on the Best Music of 2025 So Far episode from July, so if you’re wondering where the love is for Smerz, aya, Jim Legxacy or numerous other albums from the first half of the year, we probably talked about them back then.
Scroll down for a time-stamped rundown of the episode – the full version is available on Substack, along with our personal Best of 2025 lists. But we want to hear your highlights as well! Tell us your most loved (and hated) releases, films or trends of the year, and let us know if we missed anything crucial via the comments.
In case you forgot, our second book is out now.
We’ve been running No Tags for over two years now. We do it around other jobs, we have no corporate backing, no sponsorship and we don’t even run ads on the podcast. If you’d like to show your thanks, it really helps if you leave us a positive review over at Apple Podcasts. You can also like or share this post on Substack, which makes a big difference – and if you really love the pod, you can subscribe to our paid tier for £5 per month.
Happy new year!
Running order:
People Making Music In A Room: feeo, The Necks, Water From Your Eyes, Kelela, Shell Company & Older Brother, Rat Heart, Blawan, DJ Travella, Dijon, Alex G
Dance Corner (33:16): Slikback - 'Data', Beatrice M - ‘Midnight Swim’, Facta - ‘Jets’, K-Lone - ‘Someone Else’, Anthony Naples - ‘Compact’, Efdemin - ‘Signal to Noise’, Car Culture - ‘Nothingburger’, Jump Source - ‘On’ (ft. Martyn Bootyspoon), Minor Science - ‘Mortals’, Ploy - ‘It’s Later Than You Think’, Hodge - ‘Tom’s Tweaks’, Nikki Nair - ‘Sheeps’, Slikback and Skrillex - ‘Kixa’, Debba - ‘Electrolyte’ (Wordcolour Remix)
Rap Corner (1:09:18): EsDeeKid, Jawnino & Surf Gang, Rooster
Pop Corner (1:31:44) Lily Allen, Addison Rae, Underscores
No Rules! (1:42:12) Los Thuthanaka, Coldsteel, Camille Keller, ear, weed420, d.silvestre, Oli XL, Jennifer Walton
Ambient afters (2:00:03) Oneohtrix Point Never, Klein, 7038634357, Begena Songs from Ethiopia.
Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe