Hello and welcome to the much anticipated Tilly awards! If you are new to my blog, the concept is that I award a couple handful of albums made up awards (usually 10 or so). I've been doing it this way for a couple years now and it's been pretty fun! These are generally albums that have stood out to me for one reason or another in 2025. I also just wanted to give a big thank-you to those that have taken the time to read this little part of my internet corner. It's be a little over 5 years of doing this blog now and I've greatly enjoyed it. If you have been thinking of doing one, I say just start it! Anyone can do one :) Cheers and here's to 2026!
The best August 22, 2025 album release award: The World Is A Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die - Dreams of Being Dust
So 2 albums were released on August 22, 2025 that I was equally excited for: Deftone's Private Music and The World Is's Dreams of Being Dust. Given the award you can read above, you could likely guess which won out. Although I do want to give the Deftones their props and say good solid record guys. However, Dreams of Being Dust just had more evolving dynamics and punch to the album. It has hardcore screams, metal breakdowns, and a tinge of the emo beginnings they started with. It's everything I didn't know I wanted with a new The World Is album.
The Back to the Future award: First Day Back - Forward
First Day Back looks, acts, and sounds like they took a DeLorean to the past, immersed themselves with the second wave emo scene of the 90s - self-releasing albums, playing in basements, recording everything live with no flourishes added- then traveled back to 2025 and created Forward. It's so endearing how they created this album and watching them preform live.
This comment from Reddit sums it up well:
My replacement for Gulfer award: Spite House - Desertion
*Please note this award is loosely based off 2 bands that are in the emo/post-hardcore scene, and are from Montreal. That it, that's their connection. I just miss Gulfer still ok (they disbanded).*
Throughout the year I like to throw full albums into a playlist and hit shuffle. It allows lesser known songs from an album to potentially start first, instead of say 6th, in the que and give them their moment to shine. Every time a song from Spite House came on, I would pause and check who the artist was. With that said, this album stayed in that playlist throughout the fall and winter and deserves the honorary award. I got to give a shout out to the album art as well, which apparently is visual art that was constructed, destroyed, then re-constructed and destroyed several more times. It ties into the albums themes of grieve and how it shapes you as an adult very nicely.
Best album title award: Moving Mountains - Pruning of the Lower Limbs
As someone who has made their career about trees, this is a biased opinion. The concept of pruning the limbs of a trees, as a metaphor to bettering yourself by getting rid of things weighing you down is intriguing. In dendrology terms, pruning limbs of a tree can allow it to put its resources into growing the remaining healthy ones. In a forest, trees do this naturally with their competition, putting their nutrition and energy into the limbs that have the best access to the sun, and not the lower ones that are generally within the shade of the competitors. I think this title also relates to the band tightening up their songs to have more traditional song structures (as described by lead singer Gregg Dune) and less instrumental parts. Overall a great project by a band that hasn't been in the scene for over 12 years.
Best album release award (redux): Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
To be honest, not sure if I am using the term redux right (it's my blog so lets say yes) but it's an award I gave last year to Jack White's album No Name, and I think it's worth giving out again to Hayley. So get this story, a batch of 17 songs were accessed on Hayley's 2000s looking website by getting a password from her hair dye product, Good Dye Young, which had a new yellow dye called 'ego'. From there, fans were told to make their own tracklist out of it and apparently some were even recruited to help make the official tracklist. How cool is that! I think Hayley is officially in her punk era, unrestrained from the cooperate hold of Atlanta Records, playing the music she wants to make, and not for the masses. Just listen to lyrics of "True Believer" or "Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party" and you will see what I mean. I love this era for her (and yes I am referring to 'era' because of Paramore opening for Taylor Swift's eras tour). Anyways there's more I want to say, and I do cover a Paramore album in this blogpost, but there's an excellent piece of writing that already summarizes everything so much better here.
The best love album award: Greet Death - Die In Love
What is love to most people? Likely something you've seen in a Romcom or I suppose Love is Blind? I've never seen Love is Blind but I always hear about it. How about the old couple that have been together 40+ years? There's blissful times but also the rough patches to navigate through. That's the type of love Greet Death tackle in this fabulous third album. The lead singers, Logan and Harper, should know this kind of love, as they've been friends since they were around 10. I've been with this band since New Hell and love them even more with Die In Love.
Best discovery from another AOTY list, award:
For this award I am pulling a Steven Hyden and making a list within my list, giving the award to 3 different music content creators:
- The Wax Museum for Shallowater - God's Gonna Give A Million Dollars
- Some absolutely fantastic dirtgaze (band's self described sound)
- Mic The Snare for Ninajirachi - I Love My Computer
- Australian electronic music that hasn't gotten me this excited since early Grimes. Not that I am that versed in electronic music. If anyone has suggestions I would love more like this!
- The album is discussed around the 51 min mark of the video
- BrooklynVegan for Snocaps - Snocaps
- A supergroup project that includes twin sisters Katie and Allison Crutchfield (P.S. Eliot, Waxahatchee, Swearin’), MJ Letterman (featured in my list last year), and Brad Cook. It combines many aspects of these bands that I like into one cohesive album and it works brilliantly.
The post-partum blues coping mechanism award: Charmer - Downpour
In the blogpost before this one I cover Charmer's album Downpour and how it clicked with me after having a kid. Since then I've been using it as a coping mechanism whenever the droning daily routine (of feeding, burping and changing) get too routine and I need to walk outside- in the dirt slushed snow residential sidewalks, backdropped with the lifeless grey sky- just to get a jolt of life back. Ya it sounds bleak but I actually do enjoy parenthood and love my kids dearly, it's just all consuming at times, and the members of Charmer get it.
I want it, fever award: Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky
I already did a blogpost on this album, so I will just add this album was my go to for the rest of this year. Whenever I didn't know what to play, it was Momma. Wanted to dance in the house? Momma. Wanted to get motivated while doing dishes? Momma. Have a driving song? Any song from this album. If I did do an actual ranked list, this would be the unequivocal number one. It really was a Momma fever for me this year (supported by my Spotify wrapped).
Best fictional band award: McGwyer Mortimer from The Ballad Of Wallis Island
I am combining one of my favorite movies of 2025, The Ballad of Wallis Island, with this award. One of the lead actors (Tom Basden) created these original songs and sings them in the movie, with co-star Carey Mulligan. There's this one scene towards the end of the movie, where Tom sings on a beach to an audience of just two people, and it genuinely moved me to having one of those moments when you get the chills, goosebumps run up your arms, and you know you will remember this scene for the rest of your life. I'm not going to link the scene because I think you need to watch the movie in whole for it to really do its magic. It was an example of the marvelous power cinema and music can have when in tender partnership.
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