The Top 10 Austin Albums of 2025

10) Magic Rockers of Texas, Gorging on American Fare

On their sophomore release, Magic Rockers of Texas are settling into their sound – without losing any garage sensibilities. The Nineties-impacted outfit is still rasping, drawling with self-deprecating humor, but they’re not so afraid to turn down the distortion a little and say it to your face. On power-pop anthem “Houston,” leader Jim Campo buzzes through smirking verses about band-on-band fighting and the turbulence of trying to make it, while friendzone ballad “Tarmac Honey” strips down his cantankerous defenses, laying bare something like sweetness. Quick-moving tempo changes and choral experimentation keep every moment of this album interesting. – Caroline Drew

9) Will Johnson, Diamond City 

From the first tambourine hit to the final notes of pedal steel, this earnest collection of wind-worn moments soothes the rock-affected ear with ominous imagery and haunting hooks. Johnson’s storytelling meanders down a long highway, traveling through ragged-yet-yielding, barren-yet-beautiful landscapes held together by rural legends. Surrounding his words on all sides are straightforward, hardworking melodies and a hearth-warmed, dust-tinted ambience as far as the eye can see. – C.D.

8) Égaux Sells, I HATE FIGHTING!! EP

The movie’s almost over. The coming-of-age scenes that came before are reflecting off the disco ball, swirling around this underground bar with tear-swelling dizziness. That’s where I HATE FIGHTING!!, a buzzy neon portal of an EP, transports you. Over New Wave tremors and pulsing dance beats, sultry whispers swirl around delicate arpeggios and entrancing synth hums, lulling you “to live, to love, to die with ease.” Before you even know it, you’re in an Eighties-meets-indie-sleaze heaven, trapped in a mystical dance floor somewhere between Twin Peaks’ Roadhouse and Buffy’s Bronze with no desire to come back to the life you knew before. – C.D.

7) Gummy Fang, S/T

Endearingly sweet and deliciously lo-fi, Gummy Fang’s self-titled debut plays like a lost K Records release. From the jump, opener “Hands” conjures a warm twee paradise, where Willow Braun’s airy vocals dance with mononymic bassist Fructose’s not-so-low end and Nicky Christmas’ drums thrum on a pillowy, faraway landing. “Harbinger” and “Lovesick Thing” tumble at a sprightly clip, but Braun’s naked cry in confessional centerpiece “A Woman, a Clown” will break your heart. Simple yet undoubtedly intentionally crafted, you’ll want to whistle these tunes like the three-eyed creature doodled on Gummy Fang’s album cover. – Carys Anderson

6) JaRon Marshall, The Return of Slick 

JaRon Marshall’s second full-length album is dedicated to his late father, Joseph “Slick” Ricky Marshall Sr. He writes: “[A]lthough I had the stereotypical voicemails and narration ready to go, I realized the best thing I could do is make something I can see him jamming in his car with the windows up.” The Black Pumas keyboardist achieves this feat – crafting an engrossing psych-soul-hip-hop universe – in a brisk 26 minutes. Guest vocals from Ric Wilson, Jermaine Holmes, James Robinson, and Claudia Isaki add depth to “The Realest,” “Deep Shadows,” and other highlights, but Marshall’s keys remain the star, bending smoky, pensive, and cinematic at the bandleader’s will. – C.A. 

5) Little Mazarn, Mustang Island

Ethereal vocals and minimalistic arrangements reign in the freak folk fairytale land of Mustang Island. The invocation of such an otherworldly, Texas-infused isle in the album’s title track anchors the mirage of Little Mazarn’s music conceptually and thematically, whether intentional or not. Softly layered experiments are augmented by nature-mimicking whines and whistles that blend Jeff Johnston’s material exploration and Lindsey Verrill’s patient vocal expression in the style now-emblematic of this delicately composed project. On the group’s third full-length release, however, occasionally climactic drum beats and rock-reminiscent riffs draw on a dramatic relish to show that these shimmery compositions are strong enough to bear the weight of louder emotions. – C.D.

4) Big Bill, Sick Myth 

After 13-odd years, you can rely on Big Bill. You can count on Eric Braden to speak-sing cartoonish-yet-beleaguered lyrics, on Jeffrey Olson and Alan Lauer to snap spry rhythms, on Alex Riegelman to scratch barbed wire guitar. Yet the quartet’s consistent, quickly growing discography continues to skirt the worst tropes of its genre. Sick Myth rejects the apathetic slackerdom of other bare-bones art-rock, espousing biting, direct political protest without preaching or throwing up its proverbial hands. “I don’t really think they care at all,” Braden sighs in the title track. Against all odds, Big Bill still does. – C.A. 

3) Nuclear Daisies, First Taste of Heaven

Rob Glynn, Alex Gehring, and Robby Williams are the preternaturally gifted action movie trio you can believe in. They dance from the depths of a Middle-earth dungeon – in the space between real and artificial, frantic and tranquil(ized), life and death. It’s a realm where a blistering chorus of Prodigy breakbeats, synthesizer squall, and angel-devil harmonizations can pull the world from its smoldering demise. “Honey in the Wound” freaks; “Infinite Joy” cries; “333” accepts. If heaven sounds like this, the angels must have seen some shit. – C.A./C.D. 

2) Virginia Creeper, GOBLN7 EP

Genevieve Poist loves sports, amusement parks, and the pronoun “you.” Her ragingly specific serenades immortalize sun-baked moments of misplaced catharsis, like when “you got soaked and the Celtics won” or “dropped your retainer on the gas station floor.” Storming beneath Poist’s morose vocals, distortion-adoring guitarist Aaron Arguello and prowling bassist Michelle Ayoubi meet Kyle Dugger’s thundering drums in a torrential wave of sludge-ridden eulogy. GOBLN7 is only a four-track EP, and we know each second of its walloping riffs and uniquely Southern imagery well. – C.A./C.D.

1) Die Spitz, Something to Consume

No sellouts here. Die Spitz growls louder, riffs heavier, and wades further into sonic experimentation on the Will Yip-produced, Jack White-released Something to Consume. Sharing songwriting duties as well as instruments, Eleanor Livingston, Ava Schrobilgen, and Chloe De St. Aubin hone their rock & roll roles – Livingston the audacious metalhead (“Throw Yourself to the Sword”), Schrobilgen the tortured punk (“Pop Punk Anthem”), De St. Aubin the alt-rock femme fatale (“Punishers”) – while wild-eyed Kate Halter holds it down on bass and violin. The precocious young Austinites have Coachella and a date with Foo Fighters on the books for 2026; as Livingston taunts on “Throw Yourself,” “What’s it like knowing none of you bitches can compete?” – C.A. 

Caroline’s Favorite Non-Local Albums

1) Greg Freeman, Burnover 

2) Wednesday, Bleeds 

3) Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, New Threats From the Soul 

4) Friendship, Caveman Wakes Up 

5) Benjamin Booker, LOWER 

6) Snocaps, Snocaps 

7) Florry, Sounds Like…

8) Fust, Big Ugly 

9) The Macks, Bonanza 

10) Geese, Getting Killed  

Carys’ Favorite Non-Local Albums

1) Hayley Williams, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party 

2) Addison Rae, Addison 

3) Wednesday, Bleeds

4) They Are Gutting a Body of Water, LOTTO

5) Water From Your Eyes, It’s a Beautiful Place 

6) Wet Leg, Moisturizer 

7) Momma, Welcome to My Blue Sky 

8) Garbage, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light 

9) The Lemonheads, Love Chant 

10) Shallowater, God’s Gonna Give You a Million Dollars