New Music Sampler: June 2025
Although I deeply engaged with only a couple dozen albums in June, fully half of them really made me sit up and take notice
The New Music Sampler series is a monthly snapshot of new albums that grabbed my attention during the prior month . While there’s no guarantee that any of these releases will make my Album of the Year list come December, they all make a strong case for inclusion.
Every week I follow a fairly strict process for catching up with new music releases. My first port of call every Friday morning is a couple of Spotify new release playlists that I trawl through track-by-track. Whenever a song catches my ear, I’ll head over to the full album and sample every song. If most or all of the album is resonating with me, then one track from the album is added to my 2025 Music playlist on Spotify, which currently comprises 255 tracks. Albums from that playlist, which serves as a warehouse for “2025 releases I think I’m interested in”, slowly get categorized over the course of the month and year as I give each album at least a couple thorough listens. As the year progresses, deserving albums slowly progress up the AOTY leaderboard: from 2025 Possibles (currently at 33 albums) to 2025 Likely (currently at 26 albums) to 2025 Very Likely (currently at 11 albums) to the exalted 2025 Definites (currently at 10 albums).
I also maintain a spreadsheet to keep track of my album classifications, particularly those that have fallen out of AOTY contention but remain on the 2025 Music playlist. Although it may sound a bit unwieldy—or even extreme to some—it’s a process that’s been working well for me since 2019. Now that I’ve retired, I find I’m listening to more music than ever before: halfway through 2025 I’ve already listened to more albums than my annual average from the prior six years. It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that there are already sixty albums in my top three AOTY categories. I’m anticipating a devilish time later this year as I attempt to narrow down my AOTY list to 50 albums. Perhaps I’ll expand my list to 100 albums this year or compile a few AOTY lists by genre. Thankfully, worrying about what the final AOTY process looks like for 2025 can wait another four or five months.
In June, while I only added two dozen albums to the 2025 Music playlist, the “hit rate” was high: fully nine of them made it to one of my top three AOTY category playlists. I’ve rounded out the June music sampler with another three “possibles”, bringing the playlist up to an even dozen. As usual, this month’s selections are not ranked but instead are listed by release date order.
Hayden Pedigo - I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away
Genre: American Primitive Guitar, Ambient, Folk, Country
Release Date: June 6
Selected Track: Long Pond Lily
Little Simz - Lotus
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap, Jazz, Afrobeat, Soul
Release Date: June 6
Selected Track: Lion feat. Obongjayar
Loaded Honey - Love Made Trees
Genre: Smooth Soul, Neo-Soul, Funk
Release Date: June 6
Selected Track: Over
Mary Chapin Carpenter - Personal History
Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Americana, Folk
Release Date: June 6
Selected Track: Home Is A Song feat. Anais Mitchell
Pulp - More
Genre: Indie Rock, Art Rock/Pop, Britpop
Release Date: June 6
Selected Track: Got to Have Love
Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH
Genre: Alternative Rock, Post-Punk, Hardcore, Dream Pop
Release Date: June 6
Selected Track: NEVER ENOUGH
Annahstasia - Tether
Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Contemporary Folk, Chamber Folk
Release Date: June 13
Selected Track: Villain
Please feel free to share the Joy with anyone else you know that loves music! Because, after all, sharing is caring, right?
The Wants - Bastard
Genre: Electronic Post-Punk, Industrial, “No Wave / No Pop techno punk” (self-styled)
Release Date: June 13
Selected Track: Data Tumor
S.G. Goodman - Planting by the Signs
Genre: Folk, Country, Americana
Release Date: June 20
Selected Track: Satellite
U.S. Girls - Scratch It
Genre: Pop, Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Country
Release Date: June 20
Selected Track: Like James Said
Adrian Quesada - Boleros Psicodélicos II
Genre: Alternative Latin, Retro-Soul, Neo-Psychedelia
Release Date: June 27
Selected Track: Cuatro Vidas (with Mireya Ramos)
Durand Jones & The Indications - Flowers
Genre: Retro-Soul, Soul, R&B
Release Date: June 27
Selected Track: Really Wanna Be With You
If you’re new to Joy in the Journey and like what you’ve read, why not subscribe so that any future posts automagically make their way into your inbox?
As always, I’d love to hear what you think about these albums. When you’re finished reading, listening and watching, please hop into the comments.
Anything new for you here? Did you like it? Love it? Hate it?
Which of the tracks is your favorite?
Do you feel compelled to check out any of these albums?
What did I miss in June? Hit me up in the comments with some of your favorites from the last month!
What new releases are coming up in the next few months that I should be looking out for?
We’ve got some overlap with Hayden Pedigo, Little Simz, Annahatasia, and Adrian Quesada, though not all or many none of them will make my monthly or yearly favorites. I wanted to like Pulp (seemed to lack hooks and compelling lyrics) and Durand Jones more (I think the lyrics didn’t get me and neo-soul and contemporary jazz can be too acid/smooth for me). S.G. Goodman and US Girls disappointed me too but I don’t remember why as well. I’m going to revisit some of all of them. Mary Chapin Carpenter didn’t disappoint me but it didn’t move the needle either. I appreciate Turnstile’s innovations but they aren’t for me. I don’t know Loaded Honey or The Wants. I’ll check them out but worry about smoothness and techno-ness respectively.
I like your process. It’s similar to mine but you go further in how you categorize your maybes vs definites. I should do something like that because so linger on maybes in the same bucket with the definites too long and don’t focus enough. My system is a mess, especially lately as I try some different approaches.
oooooooooooohhhhh......... U.S Girls....... looking forward to that one!