OCTA New Music Weekly – Episode #353

Another year, another year new music weekly. I almost expanded the hiatus with another week, because the day job has been so hard that I haven’t really gotten any rest. Mostly just been trying to survive. But I think the release schedule will get heavier starting next week, so good to get this round-up out of the way. This was pretty quickly done. I haven’t paid much attention to new releases or really gone through any submissions. So I’m sure there’s stuff missing, but this tries to gather together at least some of the good music of the last month or so. There’s stuff from early December to brand new music from this Friday. Starting next episode I’ll get back to the weekly rhythm and try to read the submissions too. Platforms are still the same. I didn’t even have the time to think about what I’m going to do with that side of things, so Spotify still there as well. Some songs are not, because some artists haven taken their music off from Spotify. And rightfully so. We’ll see how it goes. It would nice to add Qobuz, but I don’t have the money to pick another subscription. Tidal / Qobuz combo might even make the most sense going forward and maybe could cover enough ground to make compiling this worth it.

New Beaucoup Dolores (aka Erin Chapin from Rainbow Girls) album can be the album of the week(s), because it just came out today and I’m enjoying it a lot. Other album releases from the past month came from Noble Hobo, Jeremy James Meyer, Nikki & The Phantom Callers (EP), Matt Kivel, Bill Janovitz (EP), Dan Darrah, Magnus Carlson & The Moon Ray Quintet, The Deslondes (well a reissue with a bonus track), Caleb Stine and Cole Kidwell. Some are from December and some from January.

Finnish part has a December 2025 album from Torrances and a whole lot of singles from both late 2025 and early 2026. There’s new singles gold from Teini-Pää, Musta Valo, Sisar, Krypta, Mummypowder, Felix Alexander Lybeck, Ylva Haru, Susanna Leppänen, Kurja Valentin, Mikko Juvosen Kanuuna, myrtsi, Tuomas Räisänen, Raivo Jackson, Icons of Elegance, Kissa and Litku Klemetti. Teini-Pää and Musta Valo are not on Spotify.

Finally some favorites from the international single category. Anna Tivel’s Animal Poem was my album of the year and there’s a b-sides EP coming up soon from the leftover material. These are equally wonderful and there’s two of those songs here now. Full EP coming later. Some other ones I’ve loved came from Turner Cody, Stripmall Ballads, Jackie West, The Reds, Pinks and Purples, Uni Boys, Bonnie Prince Billy, Charlie Whitten, Talise.. again just to name a few. I’ve listened far less than during ordinary weeks.

That’s all for now. Like, share, follow and all the usual promotional nonsese. It all matters. Starting next week back to ordinary weekly rhythm. Love.

1. Beaucoup Dolores – Don’t You Try to Tell Me It’s Raining (I Don’t Want Any More Friends)
2. Noble Hobo – Washington (Sorry for the Mess)
3. Jeremy James Meyer – Funeral (Astoria, Pt.2, Oh Ship! Records)
4. Nikki & The Phantom Callers – Hardline (When I Die (You Better Say Nice Things About Me EP)
5. Matt Kivel – Robert Bedford (Escape from L.A, Scissor Tail Records)
6. Bill Janovitz – Way Back to the Dawn (Way Back to the Dawn EP, Janovitz Records)
7. Dan Darrah – Brendan’s Pretending (Vacationland, Sunday Drive Records)
8. Magnus Carlson & The Moon Ray Quintet – Milk and Honey (Shadows, We Jazz)
9. Anna Tivel – Swan Song (single, Fluff & Gravy Records)
10. The Deslondes – Old Cold Tater (Holy Cross Blues -reissue)
11. Cole Kidwell – Ballad of Esther May (This House Aint’ For Sale (World of Stone, Three Springs)
12. Caleb Stine – William Butler Baker (Nickel and Dimes)
13. Talise – Dog Haired Love (single, Run On Records)
14. Stripmall Ballads – Rabbits (single)
15. Leo Craft – Wading Through the Water (single, Pines & Mountains)
16. Turner Cody – Cigarettes Inside (single, Capitane Records / Modulor)
17. Bonnie Prince Billy – They Keep Trying to Find You (single, Domino Recording Co)
18. Charlie Whitten – Statement (single, Airloom)
19. Anna Tivel – Memphis (single, Fluff & Gravy Records)
20. Jackie West – Silent Century (single, Ruination Record Co)
21. Buck Meek – Gasoline (single, 4AD)
22. The Reds, Pinks and Purples – New Leaf (single, Fire Records)
23. Uni Boys – I Don’t Wanna Dream Anymore (single, Curation Records)
24. Daniel Romano’s Outfit – Autopoiet (single, You’ve Changed Records)
25. Gladie – Future Spring (single, Get Better Records)
26. Teini-Pää – Valssi #1 (single, Soit Se Silti)
27. Musta Valo – Jotain kaunista tapahtuu (single, Kaakao Records)
28. Sisar – Lohtu (single)
29. Kissa – Yö laskeutuu (single, Svart Records)
30. Krypta – Muuttuva labyrintti (single, Svart Records)
31. Torrances – Second Chance (Arachnophobic Spider)
32. Mummypowder – Stars in the Snow (single, All That Plazz)
33. Icons of Elegance – Silence (single, Dinner with Daisy Records)
34. Tuomas Räisänen – The Endless Ride (single, Punaiset levyt)
35. Raivo Jackson – Swimming Under Ice (single)
36. Kurja Valentin – Punaiset varjot (single)
37. myrtsi – Ajatuksen tasolla (single, Lördag)
38. Susanna Leppänen – Odotuksen aika (single, Humu Records)
39. Mikko Juvosen Kanuuna – Vegaanit pääsevät taivaaseen (single, Humu Records)
40. Felix Alexander Lybeck – tar vi aldrig slut (single, All That Plazz)
41. Litku Klemetti – Asperger (single, Lördag)
42. Ylva Haru – Onnenmaisemaan (single, Lotta Roots)
43. Kyle Cox – No One Seems to Care (single)
44. Hank Bee – 10:23 (single, Memorial Distincion)
45. Zachary Lucky – Everywhere a Man Can Be (single, Wroxton Recordings)
46. Avry Truex – Oh Codeine (single)
47. Vincent Neil Emerson – The Great Highway (single, La Honda Records)
48. Jeremy Ivey – Edge of Darkness (single, Soggy Anvil Records)
49. Caleb Caudle – I’ve Endured (single)
50. Emily Scott Robinson – Hymn for the Unholy (single, Oh Boy Records)
51. Tiffany Williams – Blue Kentucky Girl (single)
52. Melissa Carper & Theo Lawrence – Good Luck to Ya (single, Bee & El / Warner Records)
53. Ole Kirkeng – Roadside Flowers (single, Die With Your Boots On Records)
54. Juni Habel – Evergreen in Your Mind (single, Basin Rock)
55. Sam Blasucci – Who lives on these lands (single, Calico Discos / Doubleplay Records)
56. The Mellows – Waiting on the Rain (single)
57. Bory – By the Lake (single, Bleak Enterprise)
58. Guv – Chasin’ Luv (single, Run for Cover Records)
59. Heavenly – Excuse Me (single, Skep Wax Records)
60. The Young Fresh Fellows feat Neko Case – Destination (single, Yep Roc)
61. Butler, Blake & Grant – Lonely Night (single, 355 Recordings)
62. Joe Pernice – The Black and the Blue (single, New West Records)
63. Fazed on a Pony – The Perfect Swan (single, Meritorio Records)
64. Trevor Beld Jimenez – Riverside (single, Gertrude Street Records)
65. Fables – Enough (single, Home Alone)
66. Rachel Swain – Stay With Me (single, Magic City Recordings)
67. Jesper Lindell feat Phil Campbell – Drift Away (single, Brunsvik Sounds)
68. James McCann – Time Can Be Spent (single, Cloverdale Records)
69. John Craigie – Dry Land (single, Zabriskie Point Records)
70. Twilark – Foxheart (single)
71. Rod Smoth – Adding (single, Simp Records)
72. Logan Farmer – The Hunt (single, Western Vinyl)
73. Spencer Kilpatrick & The Sand Gators – West Virginia (single)
74. Tyler Austin Baker – The Year That Clayton Delaney Died (single)
75. Katie Mae & The Lubrication – Oval Room (single, Soggy Anvil Records

Spotify Playlist

Tidal Playlist

YouTube Playlist

A few Bandcamp cuts for the lovely non-streamers:





Oh and do buy the vinyl/cd/download. Spotify and other streaming services are perfect for these introductory purposes, but try to buy at least the music that matter the most to you

I’ll make the playlist on Spotify and then transfer it to other platforms. This means a few tracks might be missing from the from the other platforms, if they are not available there. Oh and there’s a bunch of older episodes on my Spotify profile, if you miss an episode or want to revisit.

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Favorite Finnish EPs of 2025

A quick rundown of my favorite Finnish EPs of 2025. Again subjective and order is not important. Probably also forgot something. I’ll add a song from these to the end of the Finnish albums playlist, because it probably does not make sense to make separate playlist of half a dozen songs. Especially the top 2 were among my favorite Finnish releases this year and basicly could have shared the top spot. They are very different too and show the two sides of this blog. Una Harnett is beautiful and haunting folk music and Kismet is fast and sweet punk rock power pop blast. Love them both, but went with Una Harnett this time around.

Tidal playlist
Spotify playlist
YouTube playlist

6.Takay-Sin - Silmänkorkeudelta
(Minna Records)
5.Jere Ijäs - Jeremias 1 EP
(Texicalli Records)
4.Krypta - Lasipalatsi
(Svart Records)
3.Hamina - Laula huolet pois
(Luova Records)
2.Kismet - fast and sweet
(Kammio Records / Tobold Piipari Records)
1.Una Harnett - The Keeper
(Panama-levyt)
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Favorite EPs of 2025

Continuing the year-end routine. This time a quick rundown of my favorite EPs of 2025. Again numbers but pretty arbitrary. Entirely subjective too. I think a few would have been long enough to be considered as albums too, but I think I’ve seen them mostly referred as an EP. So they are here. It’s less crowded here anyway. Apologies if someone thinks they are on the wrong list. What really matters is that they are great. I hope I didn’t forget something important. I went through the old blog posts and searched stuff that I marked as an EP. But there was at least a couple that I hadn’t marked as an EP and those almost flew under my radar when compiling this. There might be more. But yeah, these often get overlooked a bit, but they shouldn’t. There were some really wonderful ones this year. A handful of these were on heavy rotation all year long.

There’s again Tidal, YouTube and Spotify list, if you want an easy way to listen to these.

Tidal playlist
Spotify playlist
YouTube playlist

FAVORITE EPS OF 2025

20.Whitney's Playland - Long Rehearsal
(Dandy Boy Records / Meritorio Records)
19.Swimming Bell - Somnia
(Perpetual Doom)
18.Spencer Kilpatrick & The Sand Gators - Adelman
17.Wil Cope - King of Nothin'
(Spooky Poncho)
16.Zach Thompson - Algebra Parable
(Breakfast Records)
15.Ryan Necci & The Buffalo Gospel - The Letting Go Part 1
14.Kim Ware & The Good Graces - Grand Epiphanies
(Fort Lowell Records)
13.Greazy Alice - Just Another One
(Loose Music)
12.Daudi Matsiko - Dead Bird Dream
(Real Good / Daudi Matsiko)
11.Beche - Like Dancers
(Beche Forever)
10.Bobby Tenderloin Universe - A Fistful of Metal
(Country Moon Records)
9.Katie Mae & The Lubrication - Object Impermanence
(Soggy Anvil Records)
8.The Innocence Mission - The Raindrop Cars
(Therese Records)
7.Anja Churchill - Children of the North
(Open Sound)
6.Logan Farmer - Butchers
(Western Vinyl)
5.Julie Arsenault & Aaron Comeau - How I Found You
(Son Canciones)
4.Coltt Winter Lepley - Coltt Winter Lepley
(Keystone Artist Connect)
3.54 Ultra - First Songs
2.Thomas Dollbaum - Drive All Night
(Dear Life Records)
1.Alex Amen - The Zorthian Tapes
(Country Worm Studios)

The Zorthian Tapes by Alex Amen is the EP of the year. Beautiful songs and seventies west coast type of sounds. Absolutely loved it. One of my favorite releases this year even if I include albums.

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Favorite Finnish Albums of 2025

Next up my favorite Finnish albums of 2025. Same as before. There’s numbers but they are mostly arbitrary. Music is love, not a competition. I changed them like a million times, so could have a gone with alphabetical list too. Again entirely subjective list of things I loved in 2025. For example Aili Järvelä is a glaring absence, because if I tried to make an objective list I would probably consider VUORI as the album of the year. It’s really spectacular on its own way, but it’s not really in my wheelhouse. For example Rättö & Lehtisalo, Tinyhawk & Bizzarro, Oiro Pena and Lyyti kind of fall into the same bracket. Impressive albums and while I do like them, they are still not the closest thing to my heart. And other way around, it’s probably borderline mad that ITE EEROLA is really high, because it’s an album made in three days, has six songs and three of them are not that special. But Reetta is my favorite songwriter and I love the other three songs probably more than anything else on this list. Also Juovat is a really short blast of 21 minutes, but I love most of those minutes so it made the cut. It was super crowded at the tail end of this list though and there are several others that were on various versions of this list. I’ll probably add a large bubbling under section to the playlist at some point.

If your own favorite didn’t make the cut, make your own list. I’d love to read them and it’s kind of sad that there’s not a whole lot of Finnish music aoty lists available anymore. I know these are somewhat silly and pointless, but still a good way to find things I’ve missed. I’m just one man who looks at things from his narrow perspective plus I have giant holes in my knowledge all over the field. So more lists the merrier.

I won’t add embeds here, because too many of them will make the page load forever or even crash on mobile devices. Below you’ll find a Tidal, Spotify and YouTube playlist, if you want an easy way to listen. ITE EEROLA is only on the Tidal version, because they’ve done what we all probably should and have left Spotify. It didn’t seem to be on youtube either.

Tidal playlist
Spotify playlist
YouTube playlist

FAVORITE FINNISH ALBUMS OF 2025

30.Rebekka Holi - Vyöry
(Booa Music / Vallila Music House)
29.Longing Louisa - Waterphile
(Soliti)
28.Poni - Poni LP
(Minna Records)
27.Janne Laurila Double Denim - Janne Laurila Double Denim
(Stupido Records)
26.The Snake - Always Bites Back
(Svart Records)
25.Leipä - Auttaa jaksamaan
(Tulli-levyt)
24.Jean Ramsay - Between the Briar and the Rose
(Ora & Labora Recordings 2025)
23.The Moontwins - Night Times
(Playground)
22.Rock Siltanen Group - Systeemi
(Rockia ja sporttia)
21.Joni Ekman - Joko saa laulaa?
(Svart Records)
20.Juovat - Joo joo joo
(Alakulttuuritalo)
19.Lauri Kallio - Turtles, Cats and Other Creatures
(Mustik Motel)
18.Paha Lucia - Paha Lucia
(Minna Records)
17.Neiti Olga - Nuku vain yön yli
(Humu Records)
16.Ville Vuorenmaa - Päivä jolloin minusta tuli tipu
(Salaluukku Records)
15.Ullalintulampi - Kannattelen
(Panama-levyt)
14.Janne Westerlund - Sisar
(If Society)
13.Slack Bird - Jos emme saa tanssia
(Harava Records)
12.Jukka Nousiainen Trio - Jukka Nousiainen Trio
(Jukan Musiikki)
11.A.Reikko & Kaupungin Ääni - Hulluus, Rakkaus ja Maailmanloppu
(Karhuvaltio Records)
10.Topi Saha - Öitä
(Soit Se Silti)
9.Ne Lintuizet - Uusi huone
(Texicalli Records)
8.Lala Salama - Miltähän me näytettäis yhdessä
(All That Plazz)
7.Modem - Interface
(Modem Age Records)
6.Sonja Selene - Pimeä pää
(Helmi Levyt)
5.ITE EEROLA - Kolmen Päivän Levy IV
(Panama-levyt)
4. Rosettes - Lifestyles
(Timmion Records)
3.Jolly Jumpers - Rural Slang
(If Society)
2.Sur-rur - Härveli
(If Society / Salatut Elämät / Roku Records)
1.Kristiina - Muistatko kuka on Kristiina?
(Humu Records / Hillotehdas)

That was hardly a surprise to anyone who has followed this blog. The Finnish album of the year is Muistatko kuka on Kristiina? by Kristiina. I guess I do have my favorites, because Anna Tivel on the international part was also a repeat offender. It just has been nothing but love since I heard the first single Hai few years ago. Such a special band and the new record is again wonderful.

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