The 23rd Best Album of 2025
Back to it with an artist I'd known about but never really explored until this year. Earl Sweatshirt's Live Laugh Love lands at #23 this year.
Earl has obviously been around for a long time, joining up with Odd Future back in 2009, when I was busy nyeh, rocking out to Coheed and Cambria and third wave Ska music. Never really followed the Odd Future guys much at all, and missed out on Earl's critically acclaimed 2018 album Some Rap Songs. So I really didn't have much to go on when I started this album and man it was smooooth. I think the production is the star here, the beats and samples create a dope atmosphere for Earl's verses to do their things. The delivery/lyricism is also good for sure, but nothing exemplary in my opinion. The only thing I wish could change would be the runtime. This is only 24 minutes with only 2 tracks topping 3 minutes and 5 under 2 minutes (and another exactly 2:00). It just feels like it ends too soon, but it does make a for a real nice quick listen on the way to or from work.