RIB's 2025 Album of the Year:
Says Gray -- SAYA
My Album of the Year has never been about landing on an objective “best” record. Even at my most snobbish, it’s always been the record that meant the most to me in any given year. Some years, I’m apt to argue my pick is indeed the “best” — and such considerations have broken a few ties, to be sure — but that’s become less frequent as I’ve gotten older.
One of my four 2025 Album of the Year nominees — Geese’s “Getting Killed” — has shown up at the top (or near the top) of many year-end best-of lists. It’s nice to believe that I still might be hip, but this nominee is not, in fact, my Album of the Year.
Another of my nominees — Alex G’s “Headlights” — hasn’t shown up nearly as much, but has gotten its fair share of accolades from critics this year. It, too, is not my pick.
The other two nominees — Jason Isbell’s “Foxes in the Snow” and Saya Gray’s “SAYA” — well, I’ve seen them sneak onto a year-end list here or there, typically at the very back end, but neither seems to have made a real dent. That might or might not be a shame, but still, these two records make up my top 2 of 2025, and of course one of them is my winner.
So which one? My wife, who I like to have guess each year, to mixed results, absolutely nailed this year’s thought process.
I’m paraphrasing, but this is what she said: “It’s either Jason Isbell or Saya Gray. It depends on whether you’re feeling more like an aging white guy in a mid-life crisis — and Isbell is speaking to you — or more like the dad driving around Arches National Park with Saya Gray playing and Peter singing along to the ‘yups’ from the backseat.”
Well, dear, you described it perfectly. And the answer is the latter.
On the family trip to Moab earlier this year, I played both “Foxes in the Snow” and “SAYA” as we drove through the mountains of Utah. “Foxes” went over well enough for me to include it on a mix of songs I added to Jacob’s mp3 player for his first summer of sleepaway camp. But it was “SAYA” that kept getting requested — mostly by Peter, who asked for the record, repeatedly, by calling it his “favorite band.” Singing along to the “yups” (on “PUDDLE ( OF ME )”) was part of it, as was him singing along enthusiastically to “..THUS IS WHY ( I DON’T SPRING FOR LOVE )" or requesting “SHELL ( OF A MAN )” by asking me to play “paper house” — clearly a lyric snippet that stuck with him. It was also cool when Jacob and Peter agreed that “LINE BACK 22” sounded like music you’d hear in a shrine in Tears of the Kingdom and started referring to it as such.
And, yes, as we drove through Arches, the experience and the album became intertwined for me. The trip has stayed with me all year, and I haven’t stopped listening to “SAYA” either — finding new reasons to like it along the way.
That’s not to say Isbell’s record didn’t almost beat it through the sheer power of its lyrics, which were the strongest among the four finalists. But as much of an old fart as I am, this year wasn’t about bars of steel, boys, or bars to sing, or bars with swinging doors for all the time between. No, I put on “SAYA” and instead I’m back driving the rental car that keeps telling me I need to stop for coffee — to raucous laughter from the passengers — on our way across a stunning landscape, singing along as the sun begins to set, then shutting off the gas, hopping onto the trail, and sitting under the stars.
Past winners:
1993: Counting Crows -- August and Everything After
1994: R.E.M. -- Monster
1995: The Innocence Mission -- Glow
1996: Dave Matthews Band -- Crash
1997: U2 -- Pop
1998: R.E.M. -- Up
1999: John Linnell -- State Songs
2000: Radiohead -- Kid A
2001: Bjork -- Vespertine
2002: Wilco -- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2003: Bonnie "Prince" Billy -- Master and Everyone
2004: Wilco -- A Ghost is Born
2005: Sufjan Stevens -- Illinois
2006: The Decemberists -- The Crane Wife
2007: Radiohead -- In Rainbows
2008: Shearwater -- Rook
2009: Animal Collective -- Merriweather Post Pavilion
2010: Laura Veirs -- July Flame
2011: PJ Harvey -- Let England Shake
2012: Animal Collective -- Centipede Hz
2013: Mogwai -- Les Revenants
2014: Sun Kil Moon -- Benji
2015: The Tallest Man On Earth -- Dark Bird is Home
2016: Bon Iver -- 22, A Million
2017: Bjork -- Utopia
2018: Caamp -- Boys
2019: The Lumineers -- III
2020: Phoebe Bridgers -- Punisher
2021: Bo Burnham -- Inside (The Songs)
2022: Sylvan Esso -- No Rules Sandy
2023: Lana Del Rey -- Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
2024: Loma -- How Will I Live Without a Body?
