Year in review: blank mood 2025

38 features, 30 songs, four episodes, and 1 AI interview

Should I mention that I also did a shoegaze presentation to a small group of travel industry professionals this year? Totally out of context. Maybe even rogue. Bewilderment. A few Cocteau Twins fans hiding among them. Curious about the new generation of shoegazers (Whitelands, they’re ready for your next album).

In 2025, blank mood published four episodes that included a total of 30 songs. On the blog, close to 40 artists or works were featured. The Copperplate interview has been unpublished, but judging by the traffic it generated, I should auction it off on eBay. But really, “Lauren”, if you’re out there and you want to talk about AI music and all this hoo-haa, you’ve got my email.

Thank you to anyone who reads or listens to blank mood. I appreciate that some of you take the time to let me know you’ve discovered or read something you like. The people that I would like to thank this year are listed below, mostly in the order that we exchanged this year. If I don’t know your name, I hope my description of what you did suffices. Ya’ll are dolls.

Also, my list of favourite releases this year, in absolutely no order or ranking at all, except that I start off with remixes because 2025 seemed a good year for them.

Wishing you shoegaze glimmers for the rest of the dark days this year - make sure to turn it up to 11 in 2026.

Wendy

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2025 blank mood favourites

Remixes

• “Alone” by The Cure (Ex-Easter Island Head Remix)

• “Ghosts” by Cloud Studies (Auburn Lull Remix)

• “Holy Water” by Three Quarter Skies feat. Rachael Swinton (Graham Sutton Remix)

• “The Moth” by deary (Pump Remix)

Shoegaze and indie pop albums

• Another One Making Clouds by Everything Else

• Gemini by Slow Salvation

• Luster by Maria Somerville

• Bowerbirds and Blue Things by Jetstream Pony

Concept album

• In the Depths by Silver Y

Mini albums

• Taurus by Peel Dream Magazine

• Year Without Spring by Somesurprises

Unexpected collab

• Parallel by All Seeing Dolls (Dot Allison and Anton Newcombe)

Demos with wicked wah wah

• White House Demos by Chapterhouse

Ambient electronica

• Cloud Time by Emily A. Sprague

• Animistic Resonance by Leslie Garcia

• The Glass Curtain by Billow Observatory

Various / compilations

• Gazed and Bemused: Hazy Sounds from the Meanjin Underground by 4000 Records

• Paradigms II by PFR Records

Late discovery

• breathless, shorn by naemi

Music video

• “Glance” by Whitelands, video by Cameron Perry

Album opener and closer

• “Love Comes” and “Love Goes” on Haunted Woodland Volume 5 by Karen Vogt feat. Hamish Mackintosh

• “Mission Creep” and “Motor Boats” on Swallow by Steve Queralt

Re-issue

• Antarctica: Bliss Out Vol. 2 by Windy & Carl

Looking forward to in 2026

• Whitelands Sunlight Echoes

• Mary Lattimore and Julianna Barwick Tragic Magic

• This Can’t Be Today: A Trip Through the US Psychedelic Underground 1977-1988

• ALCATUNE Re-entry Guidance for a Crash

Thank you

• Strange Fruit

• Benedict Pardede at Gentle Tuesday Recordings

• Southpacific

• All the people who stopped using Spotify

• White Flowers

• Glisten Trick

• Julien Demoulin and Frederic Dufourd

• The dude at the Shoegaze Alldayer who asked me to spell Mondaze

• Andrea Parra - Hazelene

• Nori de Groot at Paradiso

• Annie Bingley - Ghost Mutt

• John Russell at 4000 Records

• All the people who wore earbuds or headphones in public

• Keychange

• Andy Power - So, Reverie

• All the curious listeners at my shoegaze presentation

• Marisa da Anunciação

• David Lopes - ALCATUNE

• Pete Pom - Dramamine

• HOLY SPRINGS

• Nicole Davis

• All the tall people who cleared a view for me at a concert

• Jim Rao - Orange Cake Mix

• Thelma’s Dream

• Stefan Baranowski at Noon Records

• The Burning Paris

• Karen Vogt

• Lauren Green and Marissa Macias - Tan Cologne

• All the people who used my name when sending me their music

• TJ Perrin at PFR Records

• Gorden Spangardt - Interlaken Tapes

• Travis Trevisan and Christina Hernandez - Slow Salvation

• My parents for accepting various CDs and LPs in the US

• Caroline Bailey - Eloise Chamber

• Steve Queralt

• Nat Cramp at Sonic Cathedral

• Slow Country

• Jason Kolb and Jonas Munk - Billow Observatory

• Marc Wheeler - A Deeper Heaven

• Annika Henderson - Anika

• The person who ordered a blank mood t-shirt

• Lauren Andino - Tremours

• Laura Caviglia - Silver Y

• James Parrish at Prescription PR

• bdrmm

• Anyone who supported college or community radio

• Gene Teysse - DJ Dragnet

• Empereur