Best of 2025 | Albums | Guestlists | Irish Albums | Irish songs |
A music enthusiast at heart, Ben’s journey in the music industry began on the cowboy side, as a journalist and roadie for acts in his local scene. This all changed when he established New Champion Management in late 2019 (Joshua Burnside, Chalk, Lemonade Shoelace), setting up a home and infrastructure for the artists and sounds that he loved.
Ben has served as a creative consultant for UNESCO, Belfast City Council, and has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences and artist development programmes across Ireland and the UK.
Currently, he heads up the creative, logistic and business strategy for New Champion Management from its HQ in Belfast, NI.
10.
Colin Miller – Cadillac
It seems like every album I fell in love with this year, there’s some tangible link to MJ Lenderman. Consider me an apostle at this point. So I wasn’t surprised to read that Miller drums in his live band, and that MJ played a production role in this record. This track is the standout for me. I love everything in the Y’allternative scene thats exploding right now, but the understated nature of this track leans hard into lo-fi and indie also.
9.
Charli XCX – House featuring John Cale
This blew me away. I first heard it while watching the video on a plasma screen TV in Seattle, which was jacked into a hi-fi system. The crescendo nearly blew the windows out of the place. Its a really unexpected and exciting direction for Charli. It’s almost Lankum-esque in its drone, dread and explosiveness.
8.
YARD – Trevor
I had the pleasure of working on a tour that featured YARD earlier this year, and went straight from their shows to their recorded music. Theres so much great electronic, alternative and punk-influenced dance music right now, and I think YARD are right at the forefront of that. Theres lots of great stuff on the new EPs they released this year, but this track has been my favourite.
7.
venturing – Play my guitar
Jane Remover has become one of my favourite artists over the last year or so, and this side project might be my favourite output of theirs. Its everything I hoped the MK Gee record would/should have been – really gorgeous, off-kilter melodies, interesting production, fantastic and futuristic shoegazey guitar. All the songs are expansive and delicate at the same time, but this one is the strongest from the record.
6.
Penny and Sparrow – Mattering Ram
I made it a personal crusade this year to listen to far more music in 2025 from artists I wasn’t familiar with. This record was the first one I feel in love with this year. The way the melody doesn’t change, and instead there’s this gradual build up of instrumentation around these really delicate vocals, is so beautiful and haunting to me. The entire album is sprawling, and really subverts what you think a folk record is capable of, but the quiet moment on this single is really special.
5.
Ethel Cain – Fuck Me Eyes
One of the records I was most excited for. Ethel Cain gave me one of the only truly perfect record of my lifetime with her debut Preacher’s Daughter. Her follow up is equally spectacular. The mix of folk, rock, ambient and shoegaze present on this song, delivered with such a terrifyingly sublime set of vocals, is one of the most beautiful and haunting songs of the yeat,
4.
Wednesday – Elderberry Wine
Another band with distinct links to Lenderman (he’s the guitarist on this record, but has formally left the band’s live setup), Wednesday gave me one of the last songs to make me cry on their debut (It was “Chosen To Deserve” on Rat Saw God, if you’re wondering). This new song came close. Oddly, universally familiar and yet geographically and culturally specific, singer and principal songwriter Karly Hartzman is a generational talent. The comfort and lilt of this song are a trap, as when you delve into the lyrics you see its actually as jagged and bleak as it can get.
3.
The Horrors – The Silence That Remains
This was such a welcome return for The Horrors, who still do all the simple things so correctly. This isn’t a particularly dense track, just propulsive drums, gothic acoustics and delivery and some really stellar, stunning electronic and production work from Yves Rothman. It has all the elements you want and need from a goth rock/post-punk act, and its just executed so perfectly. Harrowing, isolating, tremendous stuff.
2.
Viagra Boys – Man Made of Meat
A song so committed to the slacker scumbag lifestyle, so at the antithesis of late-stage capitalism, that its essentially an anti-fascist anthem. It’s the Bella Ciao of the 21st century. Viagra Boys are like Shakespeare, they’re best seen and heard, not explained. So just crack it up to 10 and let this one rock.
1.
MJ Lenderman – Dancing In The Club
We had to have seen this one coming. MJ Lenderman has been on a tear of being the coolest musician in the world since the release of ‘Wristwatch’. His reimagining of this ‘This Is Lorelei’ track is nothing short of essential listening. From the creaky drawl, to the utterly magnetic guitar and deceptively dense arrangement, it’s really as good as recorded music got this year for me. It’s akin to Cash’s Hurt or Buckley Hallelujah personally, in how he has utterly made this song his own over the last year.
Best of 2025 | Albums | Guestlists | Irish Albums | Irish songs |
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
