Our June 2025 Albums of the Month!

With the first half of the year out of the way, 2025 has been on a downward slide. If you’ve been following our posts, you’ll remember the first few months of the year, our albums of the month posts were stuffed full of great music; we were positively feasting on a smorgasbord of great prog! But with unseasonable heat over Europe, the crops have wilted, production has faltered and we’re left with a dearth of anything to feast on. Perhaps I’m being too negative, but for me personally, 2025 so far is one of the worst years for new releases I’ve ever known. I guess I’ll just have to sit and patiently await the new Psychonaut for some respite from the tepidity. Fortunately, some of my colleagues are less world-weary and have found a few June gems to tide you over. Dave’s repping some hyperactive, avant-garde, musical mad science; Claire finally found a band that form a confluence of her two great loves, Thank You Scientist and hip-hop; and Ian bagged a term of endearment on his hunting trip. So open the windows wide, stick a couple of ice cubes in your drink, kick a fossil fuel executive, and get listening to our June playlist.

Cocojoey – Stars
Recommended for fans of: Sophie, iwrestledabearonce, Electric Callboy
Picked by: Dave

What do the genres bitpop, digital fusion, j-pop, hardcore breaks, and cybergrind all have in common? They all play a central role on STARS, the latest release by Chicago artist Cocojoey. To call STARS eclectic would be an understatement, but don’t mistake Cocojoey’s eclecticism for a lack of intention or focus: every song features compositional breadcrumbs to give direction among the chaos, hinting at central melodies in introductory moments and recontextualizing ideas in both the more melodic and intense settings. Additionally, STARS’ instrumentation intertwines with its utterly relatable lyricism. The end product is a glimpse into a chaotic internal world where unbridled technicolor glee is used as a tool to fight off a volcanic fury that builds inside when left to reflect on the injustices imposed on us. Alongside this, though, STARS is just fun: a lighthearted and optimistic streak often cuts through the heavy lyricism, particularly on tracks like “INFUSION BAbY”, whose chorus sounds like an unimaginably frenetic magical girl transformation, or “MIDNIGHT LICKING HOURS”, a song about Cocojoey’s cat that features a playful and dancey VGM beat. Overall, Cocojoey does an amazing job of synthesizing STARS’ ideas in a way that is hyperactive, maximalist, and compositionally brilliant.

Recommended tracks: TIME TO GO!, THE I LIKE SONG, hearth<3, COCOJOEY’S LACK OF REGRETS
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review

Glass Garden – Desperate Little Messages
Recommended for fans of: Thank You Scientist, daoud
Picked by: Claire

If you’ve ever listened to jazz pop and found yourself thinking “this is good, but it could really use a rapper’, then boy, do I have an album for you! Desperate Little Messages, a winsome sophomore effort from New Jersey’s Glass Garden, is clever and catchy, with a rapper/singer duo whose deliveries range from whimsical to intimate to tongue-in-cheek from one breath to the next. Thank You Scientist’s fingerprints are all over, too, with several of their members on Glass Garden’s roster. The playful bass lines, swinging brass, and piano-forward textures are irresistible, and these Desperate Little Messages are delivered in a package that’s as tightly assembled as it is gently unguarded.

Recommended tracks: Making Space; Sleepy, Hollow; Will-of-Whispers
Related links: Spotify | original review

The Dear Hunter – North American EP
Recommended for fans of: Coheed and Cambria, Closure in Moscow, The Reign of Kindo, Bear Ghost
Picked by: Ian

Plenty of bands can release good stuff when they’re trying their hardest – putting their absolute all into making something truly special. But you know a band is truly talented when even the throwaway collections of bits and bobs they toss out on a whim are genuinely excellent. This tie-in EP to The Dear Hunter‘s recently released “North American Tour” mockumentary is not their magnum opus, and it sure as hell isn’t trying to be. What it is is an absurdly fine-tuned, breezy collection of five standalone bops from one of the best bands in prog right now, freed from the burden of trying to make their usual grand, conceptual fare and let loose to make something just plain fun. From the tight, intricate grooves of “Classic Wrock” to the kickass horn-and-guitar breakdown of “Shlammin’ Salmon” to the dreamy, blissful “Burritokyo”, these songs are seriously great despite their silly titles, blending the tight “future funk” style of their previous record Antimai with a looser, more psychedelic vibe. If this is the quality The Dear Hunter can put out for a humble little EP, their upcoming proper full-length Sunya is set to be absolutely stellar.

Recommended tracks: Shlammin’ Salmon, Burritokyo
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review

Non-Subway Picks

McKinley Dixon – Magic, Alive! (jazz rap)
Combining excellent jazz beats with poignant lyricism and a great cast of guests, McKinley Dixon proves again he should be the face of jazz rap.
[picked by: Andy] 

Insania – The Great Apocalypse (power metal)
Classic EUPM that isn’t a self parody is increasingly rare these days, but Insania have hit the sweet spot. Cheesy singalong choruses and shreddy solos galore, these Swedes take bombastic fun to heights it hadn’t yet reached this year.
[picked by: Andy]