September Recap

The 30 New (To Me) Albums I Listened To In September and Which Ones Stuck Out!

This month contained the very first day where I thought I might have slipped and missed a day, but I realized that the day I thought I’d missed I actually spent in the car on a road trip with my dad, and while I did not seek out that day’s album myself, he did play an album start to finish that had been released the week before, so I was in the clear!

If you wanna follow along, below is the playlist of my favorite song off of each new album I listened to in the order that I listened to them.

*Slight disclaimer: January’s albums did not follow the brand new criteria so some of the first ~30 songs on this playlist weren’t new to me

Without further ado, here are the 30 albums I listened to in September, with the ones that stuck out in bold, and a little review of my top five.

September 1st - Wake Up Supa by D Smoke

September 2nd - Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe

September 3rd - Wishbone by Conan Gray

September 4th - The New Eve Is Rising by The New Eves

September 5th - It's a Beautiful Place by Water From Your Eyes

September 6th - Cold Fact by Rodriguez

September 7th - Double Infinity by Big Thief

September 8th - Kiss by Carly Rae Jepsen

September 9th - Life and Life Only by The Heavy Heavy

September 10th - Running Down the Road by Arlo Guthrie

September 11th - The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse

September 12th - Girl Violence by King Princess

September 13th - Adult Romantix by Winter

September 14th - Gemini Rights by Steve Lacy

September 15th - Don't Look Back by Boston

September 16th - Three Futures by TORRES

September 17th - On Fire by Galaxie 500

September 18th - NOVA by RL Grime

September 19th - The Clearing by Wolf Alice

September 20th - Arctic Moon by The Chameleons

September 21st - KE*A*H** (Psalm 69) by Ministry

September 22nd - Buckingham Nicks by Buckingham Nicks

September 23rd - Invisible Touch by Genesis

September 24th - The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest

September 25th - I Barely Know Her by Sombr

September 26th - Nothing’s Shocking by Jane’s Addiction

September 27th - Rock ‘n’ Roll by Motörhead

September 28th - Getting Killed by Geese

September 29th - The Art of Loving by Olivia Dean

September 30th - The W by Wu-Tang Clan

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I would like to preface that this month felt like there weren’t as many albums that I listened to and loved as some previous months. However, the albums that I did love, I fucking LOVED. It was honestly really difficult to rank these five in order, and it pained me to not include On Fire by Galaxie 500. I could have made this month a top six, but for the sake of consistency, unfortunately, a top five is still a top five, so here they are.

5. It’s a Beautiful Place by Water From Your Eyes

Upon finishing The New Eve Is Rising the day before, a song from It’s a Beautiful Place played as a recommended track from Spotify. I didn’t realize until about halfway through the song that the last album had ended, but I found myself really enjoying the song that came on, “Blood on the Dollar.” I enjoyed the song enough that I took a look at the rest of the album and added it to my library, deciding it would be my album for the following day. I had never heard of Water From Your Eyes, and I honestly still don’t really know the first thing about them aside from what exists on this 30-minute album. I haven’t yet, but this album has definitely inspired me to do a deep dive into the duo of Nate Amos and Rachel Brown.

This album is weird as shit. It has an almost primal sort of sound to it, with the intent of being an experimental album. Where many experimental albums sound like they were produced from a relatively unfamiliar place in an artist’s musicality, this album sounds completely intentional, and like they had already mastered the exact sound they were going for. Recently, I’ve been really into playlist curation, and in August, I was inspired to start three different playlists from songs off of the albums I listened to that month. This month, I just started one playlist, simply titled “Pure Chaos,” and that playlist was inspired by—and still consists solely of—two songs from this album: “Spaceship” and “Life Signs.” It’s a Beautiful Place is an absolute trip, and as their seventh album, I think this is the one that could, probably should, make them huge.

4. Adult Romantix by Winter

Adult Romantix is an album that completely put me in my place, and I’m very okay admitting that. I was reading a post from one of my favorite Substack newsletters, The Wax Museum, about 12 albums that blew writer Jared Smith away, and one of the albums was Adult Romantix by Winter. He mentioned the phrase ‘dream pop’ in his write up of this album, and I immediately swallowed my pride and added it to my list. See, this album had come up in my Spotify recommendations at least a half dozen times since its release on August 22nd, and I didn’t ever bother listening because I had misjudged it for a pop album, based pretty much entirely on the cover. When Jared gave it such a glowing recommendation, I decided to take a listen, and I wasn’t disappointed in anything but myself for judging the book by its cover.

I am a huge fan of dream pop, so much so that I’d even go as far to say that dream pop and shoegaze (I lump them together because it’s just easier, though I know they do have some important distinctions) are “one” of my absolute favorite genres of music. I don’t know that I’d necessarily refer to this album as dream pop, at least not how I understand the subgenre, though it definitely has some dream pop elements. It feels a tad more pop than dream, and typically I prefer more dream than pop, but this album is an exception. Coming in piping hot with the album opener “Just Like A Flower” (plus the intro beforehand), and continuing with beautifully ethereal yet still upbeat tracks like “Existentialism” and “Like Lovers Do,” this album far exceeded all of my expectations, not that they were low after Jared’s glowing review, but I was even further impressed still.

3. The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest

I’ve been listening to more hip-hop and old school rap in the last seven or eight months than I ever have in my life, with N.W.A. topping the list of rap artists I spend the most time listening to. A Tribe Called Quest wasn’t really even on my radar; I know they have a huge following and are right up there with N.W.A. and Wu-Tang Clan, but for whatever reason I was just never drawn to them the way I was with other rap groups. In one of our recent editorial meetings at Screen Rant, one of the other writers on my team was talking about an article he was rolling out on the anniversary of The Low End Theory. So I added it to the list, and if I’m being totally honest, this album will likely be responsible for A Tribe Called Quest surpassing Wu-Tang Clan on the list of rap groups in my still-growing semi-regular rotation.

Rap as a genre has been a slow-burn for me. Up until very recently, I wasn’t really a fan of the genre, but during Black History Month, my daily albums were by exclusively Black artists, so I listened to a fair amount of rap, and started slowly introducing myself to the genre. By now, I would call myself a casual fan, but this album truly blew me away. The rhythm of the music and the words is intoxicating. I first listened to this album while working out, and even the slower tempo tracks were perfectly energizing. I’ve since listened to this album just one other time, but given that I listened to it just one week ago as of this recap, I could easily see myself listening to this album on a near-weekly basis for the foreseeable future.

2. Getting Killed by Geese

My family and I went to see King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on their 2024 tour last summer, and opening for them was a band called Geese. I was initially confused, because one of my best friends is absolutely obsessed with the current biggest jam band in the country, Goose. At the time, I wasn’t very familiar with either Goose or Geese, so I didn’t exactly register that the two bands weren’t really even remotely similar. Geese had released their second album, 3D Country the summer prior, and while I remember very much enjoying their set, when I listened to the album after the fact, I wasn’t nearly as impressed. I had heard they came out with a third album, Getting Killed, and I wasn’t planning on not listening to it, but I wasn’t exactly eager to get it on the list either. After literally two days of glowing reviews on pretty much every single outlet I keep track of, including a couple Substack newsletters, I gave in and threw it on.

I was hooked after the first two songs. I couldn’t believe this was the same band I had previously seen live and essentially dismissed; I don’t think I could adequately describe how rare it is for me to see a new artist live and not subsequently fall in love with their music—if I am introduced to a band via a live performance, I almost always find something to love in their music after the fact. After listening to Getting Killed, the only negative feelings I have left about Geese is that I am upset I saw them before this album was conceived. This album truly blew me away. With the exception of one or two songs, I think this album is a perfect showing of the band’s talent and range. If myself, as well as all the other journalist and music writers who are completely and utterly bowing down to this album, haven’t yet convinced you, take a listen to “Cobra,” “Husbands,” and/or “Taxes,” and let the music speak for itself.

1. The Clearing by Wolf Alice

Back in July, I listened to Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice, and it wasn’t my favorite. My dad has been a big Wolf Alice fan for a couple years now, and it is INCREDIBLY rare that he and I differ on our opinions about 21st century indie alternative queer-coded artists (he’s the one who introduced me to King Princess, if that tells you anything). So at his recommendation, and after a vague memory of giving them a chance a couple years ago when he first started listening to them, I gave Wolf Alice a solid chance with Blue Weekend, and with a tinge of déjà vu, I was disappointed. Fast forward two months, and everyone and their mother is talking about The Clearing. My dad and I took a road trip out to Nebraska, and he put The Clearing on in the car, effectively deciding for me that this was to be my album of the day on September 19th, and I am so glad he did.

Each song on Wolf Alice’s 2025 album continually exceeded my expectations more than the last. I promptly added “Play It Out” to my Holy Shit Songs playlist of songs that have quite literally stopped me dead in my tracks upon hearing them for the first time, and that song did exactly that. Every day when I am listening to my album of that day, I am always sure to keep track of the song(s) I like best so that I can add them to the playlist upon finishing the album. On average, there are usually 2-3 songs that I end up having to choose from. On rare occasions, typically on longer albums, I’ll have four songs to choose from. Hardly ever are there five, and I don’t think there have ever been six. On an album of 11 songs, I noted “Bloom Baby Bloom,” “Just Two Girls,” “Passenger Seat,” “Play It Out,” “White Horses,” and “The Sofa” as possible contenders for my favorite. I’ve already listened to this album two more times in the week and a half since my first listen, and needless to say, once I’ve digested it a bit more, I’ll be giving Wolf Alice a third chance, with much higher hopes this time. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

If you have any thoughts about any of the above albums, want to recommend some albums for my October, or just wanna say hi, let me know! Thanks for making it this far, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of the music I love with you in the future!