I haven’t done a music post since July, partly because I’ve been busy switching jobs and sorting out things around the house during the gap between jobs, and partly because no one reads them so there is no great rush to meet a demand that doesn’t exist. But Apple Music has changed how the monthly round up works. They are now offering the top 10 artists, songs and albums, but I don’t think I can write 30 half hearted paragraphs about all of that which no one will read. Luckily, they also have the handy Top 3 summary below so I can write about that and cherry pick some bits out of the top 10 to talk about. Does that work for you? Hello? Is anyone there?
The top 3 artists and the top 3 albums are intrinsically linked this month, making my job of writing this even easier! All 3 albums are also soundtracks – two for video games and one for a film I’m never going to see.
At number one, it’s the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025) soundtrack by Lorien Testard. This is a video game widely being touted as game of the year. It’s a great game by itself, but everyone is calling out the music as one of the highlights and I have to agree. The game itself is set in the Belle Époque period of France (look that up) and the music really fits the setting. Story wise, a god-like creature is painting a number that decreases every year, and everyone older than that number dies. They are down to 33 so they really need to stop her. Intriguing premise and great game.
At number 2 is another video game soundtrack – The Ascent (2021) by Pawel Blaszczak. This appears in my lists quite a bit because it was a great game and it had a great cypher-punk style soundtrack that I can easily listen to at any time. One of the tracks popped up on one of playlists and it made me dive into the album once again.
At number 3 is a film soundtrack – TRON: Ares (2025) by Nine Inch Nails. I have never seen, and probably never will see, a TRON film, but I absolutely love NIN so had to give it a listen. A bit more lively than their Ghosts instrumental soundtrack albums, I liked it, but not enough to watch the film.
Top 3 songs
I really like most of the Boy Harsher songs I’ve heard, and Morphine popped up up on playlist, and, as happens quite regularly in many of my monthly lists, I wanted to listen to some more of their stuff. Listening to their albums would’ve made me listen to Morphine again and here we are with this song at number one. Not the most exciting reason really.
Nice Guy Eddie by Sleep has snuck into the number two spot because I to see Sleeper at the beginning of the month and was listening to them quite a bit before and after the gig. They were still very good live.
I think Dark Void by MAGNAVOLT & BABYKATZE (their capitals, not mine) has made the listen from a combination of being in a playlist and the fact that I love the MAGNAVOLT album Seducer (2021) and listen to it as lot. This is very sleazy cyberpunk music. Try it out.
Top Artists
A couple of things to pick out of this chart. I said I was listening to Sleeper around seeing them live, and they almost made the top 3 artists! I would never have expected that if you had asked me before I knew they were touring, as I hadn’t listened to anything by them for years. Some things to pick out – as I said, still listening to sleep and they nearly made top 3
And at number 5 is Nuovo Testamento, which I have only started listening to recently. It is some great synth pop that sounds like it is straight out of the 80s. Highly recommended.
Top Songs
I don’t really have much to say about this list except that I didn’t recognise Love is a Dirty Word by Mindless Faith, so I just stuck it on again and it’s some great industrial from 2012 which somehow I hadn’t heard before and I’m not sure how I stumbled across it in 2025.
Top Albums
A few things I want to highlight. After Nine Inch Nails brought out a TRON soundtrack, some people were singing the praises of Daft Punk’s TRON Legacy soundtrack (2010) so I gave it a listen. It’s not my cup of tea.
Perturbator had a new album out and it’s more great dark synthwave stuff.
In more video game soundtrack news, I listened to Midnight Fight Express, Pt.1 (2022) again because I absolutely love it.
Finally, yes I did listen to two different Sleeper greatest hits albums.
Matt Hart 