At the beginning of the year, I was invited to take on the daunting challenge of listening to a new album daily (or at least 365 albums throughout 2025). IF I can continue this challenge, which I doubt I will, I will share three of my favorite albums from each month.
In January, I listened to 35 of my 365, and here are three of my favorites:
CAT O’NINE TAILS – Cindy Lee
Unfortunately, two of the three albums are not available on streaming, and the first is Cindy Lee’s CAT O’NINE TAILS. The album alternates between Cindy’s signature hollow Americana sound and jarring synth instrumentals that land somewhere between space age and hymnal. The hauntingly beautiful, stress-inducing synth runs of the three title tracks will soundtrack your escape from an extraterrestrial as you dodge between church pews, and just as soon wash you up on the shore of “I Don’t Want to Fall in Love Again,” yet another example of Cindy’s ability to wrench unbelievable amounts of longing out of their guitar strings. Compared to the two-hour runtime of Diamond Jubilee, this 25-minute rollercoaster gives you its best bits on a much shorter ride.
Dakila – Dakila
Self-described as “rocklatinjazzpopfunkapino,” this thing fucking rocks from front to back. It’s prime less- Rock-more-Latin Santana if every instrument had a spotlight. I really have nothing else to say about this album other than it fucking slaps, please just go queue “Makibaka / Ikàlat” and you’ll understand.
Fôrça Bruta – Jorge Ben
One of the Brazilian GOATs makes a flawless MPB album (only available on YouTube 🙁 ). There’s not much else to it. This album is flawless inside and out and ends with the capitalization of the title track as a perfect finale. It takes off as if all of the energy built by the preceding tracks releases into a musical and emotional explosion, hitting you with the Fôrça Bruta of love.
Aight, until next time!
P.S.
(Each album is linked in its respective title)
<3