In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on December 5, 2025:
Melody’s Echo Chamber, Unclouded
“You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good. Pledge yourself to neither side.” That’s the Hayao Miyazaki quote that gives the latest Melody’s Echo Chamber album its name, and that sense of equilibrium translates to some of Melody Prochet’s most clear-eyed and translucent arrangements, though the music remains as ethereal as ever. “The music I create unusually inhabits the liminal zone between realism and fables,” Prochet remarked. “But the more experience I have of living, the deeper I love life and the less I need to escape. If my heart still belongs to the blue hour, it also feels like I’ve gathered up all the pieces of myself that were scattered everywhere and glued them together with gold like Japanese kintsugi.” The record was previewed by the singles ‘Daisy’, ‘In the Stars’, and ‘The House That Doesn’t Exist’.
Dove Ellis, Blizzard
Having recently opened for Geese on their US tour dates, Dove Ellis has released his debut album, Blizzard. Little is known about the Irish singer-songwriter, though the record’s release during the first week of December – like Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal – makes one wonder if we’ll end up hearing a lot more about him this time next year. But this auspicious, sensitive, and self-produced debut also feels timely, the kind of indie record you can play on repeat around the holidays. “I’ll be gone by Christmas,” he sings on ‘It Is a Blizzard’. Yet you get the sense that Blizzard will stay with you quite a while longer, especially as it ends with the breathtaking ‘Away You Stride’.
Joanna, Hello Flower
In the late 1980s, Joanna – vocalist Neil Holliday, bassist Terry Lloyd, guitarist Tyrone Holt, and drummer Carl Alty – were on the cusp of superstardom. In 1990, NME called them “the most popular band without a record out.” But a record deal never fully materialized, and recordings behind their debut album, Hello Flower, were left to gather dust. Upon coming across the long-forgotten ¼-inch reel tapes from their album sessions in a Manchester loft, the band “realised we were actually as good as we remembered,” Alty said in press materials, leading to a renewed effort to get it out into the world. Hello Flower is out today via New Feelings, and it’s a fascinating time capsule.
Voices From the Lake, II
Over a decade after the release of their self-titled debut, Voices From the Lake have returned with their second LP. Since launching as a one-off live performance at Japan’s Labyrinth festival in 2011, the project has released a handful of EPs, worked on installations, and formed record labels; II is out on their own Spazio Disponibile. “The project was never meant to become what it did,” Voices From the Lake explained. “At one point, we even paused it. Only to later embrace it in all its forms. II is both a continuation and a reinvention.”
Other albums out today:
TEED, Always With Me; Ólöf Arnalds, Spíral; Caution, Peripheral Vision; Anna of the North, Girl in a Bottle; Roddy Ricch, The Navy Album; Retail Drugs, Factory Reset; Isobel Waller-Bridge, Objects; Tutafarel, Monte Casanova; Tom Smith, There Is Nothing In The Dark That Isn’t There in the Light; Black Rain, Obliteration Bliss.
