Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy has dropped his favorite albums of 2025 in a contribution to Mojo Magazine‘s January 2026 issue. He included several albums by some Wilco-aligned artists in terms of style, highlighting Sam and Louise Sullivan for their relatable influences. There were also some familiar favorites that have been appearing in many year-end music round-ups.
As is on-brand for Tweedy, his choices leaned a little toward folk, a little toward rock, a little toward a mix of both, and some stuff in between. He also stated that he’s been busy for the past several years working on his triple-album, Twilight Override, which dropped in September 2025. Because of this, he hasn’t had a lot of time for music discovery.
“Still, I’ve heard a lot of great stuff this year,” he wrote. “This is by no means a comprehensive list. I always feel terrible that I forgot somebody, but I will name a few records that I particularly enjoyed, both from this year and a few older records I’ve been listening to a lot.”
Wilco Frontman Shares Favorite Albums of 2025 Despite Not Having a Lot of Time for Music Discovery
Tweedy included a cool mix of genres and styles in his list, so clearly he’s been having a solid groove lately. He listed Cate Le Bon’s new album, Michelangelo Dying, released on September 26.
“Cate has never made a record that I didn’t love and didn’t inspire me,” he wrote. Le Bon’s album came from a place of deep emotion and heartache, described as becoming “a sort of exorcism.” The original process of her seventh album was completely overtaken by the repetitious chaos of Michelangelo Dying, which became, as Le Bon described it, “me meeting myself.”
Tweedy also shouted out Sam and Louise Sullivan for their album, Sweet Enough, released on August 21. He called it “a beautiful record, and right in my wheelhouse in terms of the influences and things that they’re drawing from, which they do in an unabashed way that I really love.”
The brother-sister duo has a cool, nostalgia-folk-pop style, drawing on influences like Fleetwood Mac and Motown. But, as sometimes happens with folk-pop of a certain style, their music is not an aesthetic or nostalgic exploitation. “We want to make what we love new again,” they told Under the Radar in May.
Meanwhile, Tweedy added the new Water From Your Eyes album, It’s A Beautiful Place, released on August 22. “It’s awesome to hear guitar being used in exciting new ways,” he wrote.
Jeff Tweedy is Also Into the Albums We’ve All Been Into This Year
Included on Jeff Tweedy’s list were several 2025 albums that have consistently shown up on year-end lists across the music journalism landscape. For example, I can’t even mindlessly scroll Instagram without getting jump-scared by Geese. Which, of course, happened once again while studying Tweedy’s favorites.
“I’m a huge huge fan of both Geese and [frontman] Cameron Winter,” Tweedy wrote of their album, Getting Killed, released on September 26. “I feel like Geese is exactly what a young band should sound like. So intense and unsettling and committed. Bold in a way that a lot of young bands don’t seem to be. I hear a lot of bands that seem to be trying to thread the needle between being cool and aloof or something. Stop it!”
Also included was People’s Princess Hayley Williams with her newest solo album, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Released on August 28, Williams began with a series of unconventional single drops protesting the typical album cycle process. Of the album, Tweedy said that it’s “really, really great. I love the attention she’s getting as a serious artist.”
To End the Year, Some Throwbacks
In addition to the great albums that came out in 2025, Jeff Tweedy shared the throwbacks he had on rotation. He first included Maggie and Terre Roche’s Seductive Reasoning from 1975. “It’s kind of under-appreciated,” he wrote. “It has a lot of amazing people on it and was recorded at Muscle Shoals.”
Next, Tweedy proved his earlier statement right: he is a Cameron Winter fan. He included Heavy Metal, Winter’s debut solo album from December 2024. Then, Live At Rockpalast 1978 by Robert Gordon and Link Wray, then Hill Country Piano by Dan Melchior from December 2024.
As for Tweedy’s final favorites that came out this year, he included Moonlight Concessions by Throwing Muses, released on March 14. Also, Orcutt Shelley Miller’s self-titled album from September 5, and last but not least, Radio DDR by Sharp Pins, released on March 21.
Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images for Blackbird Presents and Live Nation
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