JEFF TWEEDY

Twilight Override

Jeff Tweedy’s Twilight Override is a 30-track, two-hour beacon in troubled times. The triple album’s sprawling scale is deliberately at odds with the rapid-fire culture it reflects, and the three chapters represent the story of the past, present and future, with some lifelike bleed between them. While Tweedy has long walked the line between rock and its crossings with Americana, those influences are exceptionally strong on his fifth solo studio release, providing a firm foundation for candid rumination that subtly slips from orthodoxy as the blanket of guitar, percussion, strings and pedal steel knots around itself.

GREENSKY BLUEGRASS

XXV

On Halloween night in 2000, an impromptu ensemble of quick-pickers came together in Kalamazoo to form Greensky Bluegrass. In the 25 years since, the band of mandolinist Paul Hoffman, bassist Mike Devol, guitarist Dave Bruzza and banjo and dobro pro Anders Beck have not only thrived as a live outfit, but also released records that have reshaped the sound of traditional string music at large. XXV honors that legacy with fresh takes on some of their most memorable tracks, featuring a star-studded guest list including Billy Strings, Sam Bush, Aoife O’Donovan and Nathaniel Rateliff.

60 Years of The Grateful Dead Experience

Curated by Relix Editor-in-Chief Dean Budnick and Ricki Blakesberg, this special edition features 100+ never-before-published photographs from 40 of the world's most renowned music photographers, including Rosie McGee, Ron Rakow, Herb Greene, Jay Blakesberg, and Chloe Weir. For over 50 years, Relix has been chronicling the live music experience that the Grateful Dead pioneered. This special edition honors not just the band, but the community, the culture, and the enduring spirit that continues to inspire fans around the world.

BIG THIEF

Double Infinity

Big Thief’s sixth studio album, Double Infinity, is a testament to the band’s versatility and sustained pursuit of new perspectives on both their music and the world that informs it. For the follow-up to 2022’s Grammy-nominated Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek and James Krivchenia welcomed a vast field of friends and peers to capture the energy of spur-of-the-moment collaboration. Together, the collective engaged an overarching theme of subtle wonders, communicated in wide-eyed songwriting and compositions that evoke mysticism through deep-rooted folk rock with new-age accents.

25 Albums We Couldn't Stop Spinning In 2025

Discover the 25 best albums of 2025 according to Relix staff and community. From jam bands to indie rock, these are the records that defined our year in music.

MAVIS STAPLES

Sad and Beautiful World

Mavis Staples’ 15th solo studio album, Sad and Beautiful World, once again sets the gospel legend’s talents on redressing the problems of the present, this time through a collection of covers (including songs by Tom Waits, Curtis Mayfield, Leonard Cohen and Frank Ocean) and originals that stretch seven decades into the past. Taken together, Staples’ treatments wield the power of song to steel her listeners against disillusionment and ignite a fiery faith in change. She finds support in this mission in collaborators like Derek Trucks, Bonnie Raitt, Katie Crutchfield, MJ Lenderman and Jeff Tweedy, who reflect the musical community she’s assembled through decades of advancing activist music with passion, warmth and resolve.

GEESE

Getting Killed

In 2025, Geese transformed from the cutting edge’s best-kept secret to the inescapable face of the alternative’s new guard. That ascent is due in large part to their fourth studio album, Getting Killed, which landed in September as an earth-shaking rock overhaul that has since earned the top spot on countless Best of 2025 lists. The early-20s quartet’s esteem is well-earned: Cameron Winter’s hypnagogic warble, Emily Green’s commanding and angular guitar, Dominic DiGesu’s thumping basslines and Max Bassin’s scattered, frenetic percussion combine to a loose, jangly and cathartic sound that can’t be held down.

BOB DYLAN

Through The Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol. 18

Bob Dylan has opened up his vault again with Through the Open Window, the 18th edition of his Bootleg Series. Dylan’s latest archival dispatch is the rarest yet, pulling together eight discs of material tracked from 1956 to 1963. The collection sheds light on the icon’s emergence as a singer and songwriter as he set out on his career, gradually learning to channel his interests in traditional American music and prescient storytelling into a style that fueled a folk revolution. The previously unreleased material includes Columbia Records outtakes, early club appearances and intimate tapes from gatherings at his friends’ houses.

EL MICHELS AFFAIR

24 Hr Sports

24 Hr Sports, Leon Michels’ eighth album with the El Michels Affair ensemble, builds on the booked and busy producer and multi-instrumentalist’s catalog of lush retro R&B to stake out a sound all his own. Michels’ step beyond his previous faithful interpretations of golden-age hip hop and cinematic soul influences is supported by a star-studded team of guests: Clairo, Norah Jones, Shintaro Sakamoto, Florence Adooni, Rôge, Dave Guy and the late legendary avant-garde saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Kirk’s contribution is a solo, reverently centered in glorious gospel harmonies and stadium drum fills. When the Relix intramural kickball team is resurrected, it’s a lock for our walk-out song.

KHRUANGBIN

The Universe Smiles Upon You ii

In November, Khruangbin celebrated the 10th anniversary of their first studio album with the re-recorded The Universe Smiles Upon You ii. Surprise-released a decade to the day after the pioneering psych-funk trio shared its groundbreaking debut, the revisited version documents the crystallization of its eclectic musical tastes into a singular, genre-defying sound and style. With subtle changes throughout, the band expressed their current perspective, reflecting on their origins to chart a course forward.