2025 AOTY #8, Spiritbox – “Tsunami Sea”

I’ve enjoyed Spiritbox since their breakout 2022 album “Eternal Blue,” but they’ve never quite reached “top 10” status for me, until this album. Some of these songs were some of my most-played of the year, namely “Ride the Wave,” “Deep End,” and “Black Rainbow.” I love the ocean motif used throughout. A lot of the songs are intended to invoke what it was like for Courtney growing up on Vancouver Island (kind of a remote haven largely disconnected from the world). The music similarly invokes kind of an eerie, watery vibe. I love when music and lyrics work in tandem to put the listener in a specific time and place. It’s almost a concept album, though I don’t know if I’d fully classify it as that.

Several of these songs (the ones already mentioned) are some of my favorites of the year, but there are a couple that are kind of skippable to me (the title track and “Keep Sweet”). That’s what brings this one down to #8 for me. Otherwise, this is a fantastic album that I listened to all year, due to it releasing way back in March.