{"id":449058,"date":"2025-12-15T17:06:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/449058\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T17:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:06:13","slug":"the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-lists-his-favorite-albums-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/449058\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle lists his favorite albums of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we close in on the end of 2025, year end list season<\/a> is in full swing, and one person who\u2019s picks we always look forward to seeing is The Mountain Goats<\/strong> frontman John Darnielle<\/strong>. He\u2019s shared his favorite albums of 2025 on his Bluesky<\/a>, and as usual it\u2019s an eclectic list with some metal represented. See it below.<\/p>\n

The Mountain Goats released a new \u201cfull-on musical\u201d album featuring The Repacements\u2019 Tommy Stinson, harpist Mikaela Davis, and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan<\/a>, this year, which you can stream below. Darnielle also released an annotated lyric book, This Year: 365 Songs Annotated: A Book of Days<\/a>, earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan by the Mountain Goats<\/a><\/p>\n

JOHN DARNEILLE\u2019S FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blood Vulture \u2013 Die Close<\/strong>
visionary neo-grunge, perfect album<\/p>\n

Pool Kids \u2013 Easier Said Than Done<\/strong>
this is how it feels<\/p>\n

Vernon Reid \u2013 Hoodoo Telemetry<\/strong>
endlessly rewarding<\/p>\n

Coroner \u2013 Dissonance Theory<\/strong>
how do they still go this hard?<\/p>\n

Maybe Happy Ending \u2013 Original Broadway Cast Recording<\/strong>
dots all the i\u2019s<\/p>\n

Messa \u2013 The Spin<\/strong>
melodic goth metal long game<\/p>\n

Flock of Dimes \u2013 The Life You Save<\/strong>
how long will you underrate her<\/p>\n

Giant Claw \u2013 Decadent Stress Chamber<\/strong>
Ferraro with feeling & for the dance floor<\/p>\n

Auri \u2013 III \u2013 Candles and Beginnings<\/strong>
if she sings on a record then that record makes the list<\/p>\n

Gully Boys \u2013 s\/t<\/strong>
should be playing amphitheaters<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Darnielle says that Indigo De Souza<\/strong>\u2018s \u201cHeartthrob\u201d is his song of the year, and writes, \u201cI put together a ranked top 10 for 2025 because everybody\u2019s always like \u2018unranked, it\u2019s a big list\u2019 and I gotta go the other way,\u201d adding, \u201cIt was a great year for music! Music is the best!\u201d<\/p>\n

He also writes:<\/p>\n

\n

\nI listened to more jazz in 2025 than any other type of music, I suspect \u2014 that Miles Davis quartet in Paris got a lot of play in the car, I went on a Lester Young kick, I dug deep on Mingus, I play a lot of John Scofield & Manhattan Transfer<\/p>\n

I believe in phases, I love a good phase, I like to contemplate what phases the next year will bring \u2014 piano music? old new age tapes? my money for \u201926 + JD\u2019s listening habits is on early jazz, ever since reading Coming Through Slaughter I\u2019ve been wanting to wade into my neck<\/p>\n

anyway those are some year-end-list adjacent thoughts \/thread\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Mountain Goats recently announced a new 2026 tour, including a show at Woodstock, NY\u2019s Bearsville Theater on May 16<\/a>. See all dates below.<\/p>\n

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: 2026 TOUR DATES<\/strong>
Apr 11, 2026 Meow Nui Wellington, NZ
Apr 13, 2026 Metro Sydney, AU
Apr 14, 2026 The Princess Theatre Brisbane, AU
Apr 16, 2026 The Gov Adelaide, AU
Apr 17, 2026 The Forum Theatre Melbourne, AU
Apr 19, 2026 Freo.Social Perth, AU
Apr 21, 2026 Blue Note Hawaii Honolulu, HI (early show)
Apr 21, 2026 Blue Note Hawaii Honolulu, HI (late show)
May 1, 2026 \u2013 May 3, 2026 Sing Us Home Philadelphia, PA
May 15, 2026 The Fillmore Silver Spring Silver Spring, MD
May 16, 2026 Bearsville Theater Woodstock, NY
May 17, 2026 College Street Music Hall New Haven, CT
May 19, 2026 Citizens House of Blues Boston, MA
May 21, 2026 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH
May 22, 2026 Bell\u2019s Beer Garden Kalamazoo, MI
May 23, 2026 The Vogue Theatre Indianapolis, IN
May 24, 2026 Delmar Hall St. Louis, MO
May 26, 2026 Brooklyn Bowl Nashville Nashville, TN
May 28, 2026 Manchester Music Hall Lexington, KY
May 29, 2026 Neighborhood Theatre Charlotte, NC
May 30, 2026 40 Watt Club Athens, GA
Oct 5, 2026 Kuudes Linja Helsinki, FI *
Oct 7, 2026 Nalen Stockholm, SE *
Oct 8, 2026 Vulkan Arena Oslo, NO *
Oct 10, 2026 Pumpehuset Copenhagen, DK *
Oct 11, 2026 Metropol Berlin, DE
Oct 13, 2026 De Centrale Ghent, BE *
Oct 14, 2026 TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, NL *
Oct 16, 2026 Albert Hall Manchester, UK *
Oct 18, 2026 Vicar Street Dublin, IE *
Oct 19, 2026 Barrowland Ballroom Glasgow, UK *
Oct 21, 2026 Hackney Church London, UK *
Oct 22, 2026 Hackney Church London, UK *
Oct 23, 2026 Bristol Beacon Bristol, UK *<\/p>\n

* with Craig Finn & The Band of Forgiveness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we close in on the end of 2025, year end list season is in full swing, and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":449059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[206495,10802,206496,37555,171,206497,206498,206499,206500,206501,92807,206502,975,206503,206504,67,132,68,206505],"class_list":{"0":"post-449058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-auri","9":"tag-best-of-2025","10":"tag-blood-vulture","11":"tag-coroner","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-flock-of-dimes","14":"tag-giant-claw","15":"tag-gully-boys","16":"tag-indigo-de-souza","17":"tag-john-darnielle","18":"tag-maybe-happy-ending","19":"tag-messa","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-pool-kids","22":"tag-the-mountain-goats","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-vernon-reid"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115724680116590085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}