The 44th Best Album of 2025
Another artist that blew up (relatively at least) during my musical dark age, Ichiko Aoba. Her 2020 album Windswept Adan was critically loved, ranking at time of writing as the best album of that year and top 300 album of all time. Her 2025 release, Luminescent Creatures, is her first studio album since then, though she did release a live album and movie soundtrack in the meantime. Chamber folk is a genre i've struggled to really get into. I feel like it had a big moment in the 2010s, like Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes, Sufjan stuff. I don't know what it is but it's never really clicked until Sufjan released Javelin in 2023. That album ruled, but it felt more indie/electronic than other chamber folk albums i've listened to.
All of that is to say, I dug this album more than most chamber folk stuff I've heard, but it still isn't really my favorite genre. Maybe a few years from now i'll have a harp and make my own chamber freak folktronica album. Anything is possible.