2025 Top Charts

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We finally made it to the end of the year! It’s definitely been a wild ride, but this year has given us a slew of really good music. As per annual tradition, we will be going through the top of the charts on CJSW for 2025!

CJSW’s chartlists are specially curated by both our music department and our volunteers. A lot of work is put in to create a fresh rotating list of new music specifically focused on local releases, Canadian music, and more niche/underground digs that you wouldn’t hear elsewhere on the radio. The chartlists are then rotated through our on-air programming, where programmers can pull and play whatever catches their interest. All those plays are tracked and then formed into the top 10 lists for 7 genres, alongside CJSW’s Top 20 overall.

Without further ado, here are the top of the charts for 2025!

ELECTRONIC

  1. acrxxkedclwn** – Bossa Lola EP (Self-Released)
  2. Sun Atoms – Everything Forever (Little Cloud Records)
  3. New Chance* – A Rock Unsteady (We Are Time)
  4. Lahar* – Lahar Ep (Self-Released)
  5. Cutouts – Snakeskin (Self-Released)
  6. Mary Ocher – Your Guide to Revolution (Underground Institute)
  7. M83 – A Necessary Escape (Self-Released)
  8. Debby Friday* – The Starrr of the Queen of Life (Sub Pop)
  9. Marie Davidson* – City of Clowns (Because Music)
  10. Ashi Shonen* – Downtrends & Recovery (Self-Released)

*Canadian
**Local

EXPERIMENTAL / CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL

  1. N Nao* – Nouveau Langage (Mothland)
  2. POSTNAMERS* – Lives of the Saints (Self-Released)
  3. Ghost Cartridge* – Echo Chamber Made (30/30)
  4. Rebecca Foon & Aliayta Foon-Dancoes* – Reverie (Constellation)
  5. Ariel Ulysses** – there is no end (Lavender Dream)
  6. Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe – Luminal and Lateral (Verve Records)
  7. Dálava* – Understories (Pi Recordings)
  8. T. Gowdy* – Trill Scan (Contellation)
  9. Dirty Projectors, David Longstreth, stargaze – Song Of The Earth (Nonesuch / New Amsterdam)
  10. Nick Storring* – Mirante (We Are Busy Bodies)

*Canadian
**Local

FOLK / COUNTRY / BLUES

  1. Hermitess** – Death & The Fool (Self-Released)
  2. Carter Felker** – Loser (Department Store)
  3. Meadowsweet** – The Sound of Coming Home (Self-Released)
  4. The Dust Collectors** – Cold Feet (Self-Released)
  5. Rube & Rake* – Good Time After Bad (LHM)
  6. The Misery Mountain Boys* – Somebody Stole My Peaches (Self-Released)
  7. Leanne Lightfoot** – Still Knowing (Self-Released)
  8. Miranda Martini** – The Historian (Self-Released)
  9. The Sour Patch Men** – The Second Best Band In Bowness (Self-Released)
  10. Battle River** – Battle River EP (Self-Released)

*Canadian
**Local

HIP HOP / FUNK / SOUL / R&B

  1. Ricca Razor Sharp** – Gemini Jams (Self-Released)
  2. Aladean Kheroufi* – Studies In A Dying Love (We Are Busy Bodies)
  3. The Dirty Sample** – Love Always Wins If You Let It (Hand’Solo Records)
  4. Sargeant x Comrade** – Power Vol. 1 (Mo Gravy Records)
  5. Pierre Kwenders* – Tears On The Dancefloor (Moonshine)
  6. Tea Fannie** – It’s All Love (Self-Released)
  7. The Dirty Sample** – Beats To Murder Rappers 2 (Hand’Solo Records)
  8. Potatohead People & Slippery Elm* – Emerald Tablet (Mystery Box)
  9. Planet Giza* – The Sky Is Recording Me: 100 Years Later, Vol. 2 (Quiet Note)
  10. Wyzaker** – HYPNIC JERK! (City of Fire)

*Canadian
**Local

JAZZ

  1. Heavyweights Brass Band* – Knockout (Heavyweights Brass Band Productions)
  2. Charles Kynard – Woga (Wewantsounds)
  3. George Crotty Trio* – Heart Music (Self-Released)
  4. Joel Jeschke* – Time & Place (Self-Released)
  5. Hot 8 Brass Band – Big Tuba (Tru Thoughts)
  6. Carson Tworow and David Lavoie** – Teardown (Self-Released)
  7. Tipula – Greening (Raw Tapes Records)
  8. David Zucchi – Mandi (people | places | records)
  9. Paul Hanson and Raze the Maze – Calliope (Manzanita Ranch Music)
  10. Mary Halvorson – About Ghosts (Nonesuch Records)

*Canadian
**Local

LOUD

  1. Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang)
  2. Private Lives* – Salt of the Earth (Feel It Records)
  3. Amyl & The Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness (B2B)
  4. schoolyard* – welcome to the club (Self-Released)
  5. NECHT** – The Inevitable Suffering (Unsigned / Independent)
  6. Alien Nosejob – Q1 (Agitated Records)
  7. Cult Crime* – Cult Crime (Ugly Pop Records)
  8. Reduction Plan – Patmos (Self-Released)
  9. Centuries of Decay* – A Monument to Oblivion (Self-Released)
  10. Teen Mortgage – Devil Ultrasonic Dream (Roadrunner)

*Canadian
**Local

REGIONAL / REGGAE

*NOTE*: The order of the chart is reversed for this episode, but you can still tune in to hear a little bit about the albums, plus a song from them.

  1. Montuno West** – Raices (Bent River Records)
  2. Cassie Anne MacDonald & Maggie Jane MacDonald* – Gold And Coal (Self-Released)
  3. Manu Dibango – Dibango ’82 (Wewantsounds)
  4. Songhoy Blues – Heritage (Transgressive / PIAS)
  5. Farnaz Ohadi* – Breath (AIR Music Entertainment S.L./Mashregh Music Productions)
  6. Femi Kuti – Journey Through Life (Partisan Records)
  7. SANAM – Sametou Sawtan (Constellation Records)
  8. Ladom Ensemble* – Sofreh Tisch (Lulaworld)
  9. Alsarah & The Nubatones – Seasons of the Road (Self-Released)
  10. Lido Pimienta* – La Belleza (ANTI-)

*Canadian
**Local

TOP 20

  1. Hermitess** – Death & The Fool (Self-Released)
  2. Stucco** – LP1 (Self-Released)
  3. N Nao* – Nouveau Langage (Mothland)
  4. Carter Felker** – Loser (Department Store)
  5. Jolie Laide** – Creatures (Victory Pool)
  6. Meadowsweet** – The Sound of Coming Home (Self-Released)
  7. The Harpoonist* – Did We Come Here To Dance (Tonic Records)
  8. Wayne Patrick Garrett** – Marine Life (Self-Released)
  9. POSTNAMERS** – Lives of the Saints (Self-Released)
  10. Eye of Newt** – Work Perks (Self-Released)
  11. The Dust Collectors** – Cold Feet (Self-Released)
  12. Rube & Rake* – Good Time After Bad (LHM)
  13. Marlaena Moore* – Because You Love Everything (Session)
  14. Ricca Razor Sharp** – Gemini Jams (Self-Released)
  15. Brock Geiger** – Some Nights (Self-Released)
  16. Montuno West** – Raices (Bent River Records)
  17. The Misery Mountain Boys* – Somebody Stole My Peaches (Self-Released)
  18. MALLED** – Eye Heards (Self-Released)
  19. Aladean Kheroufi* – Studies In A Dying Love (We Are Busy Bodies)
  20. Various Artists** – Calgary Calling (Sketchy Records)

*Canadian
**Local