{"id":117472,"date":"2026-01-02T15:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/117472\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T15:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:49:13","slug":"best-2025-albums-were-ai-free-thanks-to-mavis-staples-robert-plant-geese-and-more-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/117472\/","title":{"rendered":"Best 2025 albums were AI-free, thanks to Mavis Staples, Robert Plant, Geese and more \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

People would have laughed and rolled their eyes if the 1977 movie smash \u201cStar Wars\u201d had even suggested that \u2014 one day in the future, in a galaxy far, far away \u2014 hit records would be created entirely by artificial intelligence. More laughter would have ensued at the mere intimation that algorithms would choose much of the music you listened to, relegating your ears and aesthetic preferences to near-bystander status.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s laughing now?<\/p>\n

In September, the independent record label Hallwood Media signed a multimillion-dollar contract with Xania Monet, an AI-generated singer and image.<\/p>\n

Monet\u2019s \u201cLet Go, Let God\u201d and the possibly apocryphally titled \u201cHow Was I Supposed To Know?\u201d scored on Billboard\u2019s Hot Gospel Songs and Adult R&B Airplay charts, respectively. Hallwood has signed deals with at least five other \u201cAI artists,\u201d specifically, Bleeding Verse, China Styles, Lone Star Lyric House, Drew Meadows and David Sven. It remains to be seen how much competition Monet may encounter from A.I. Christian artist Solomon Ray<\/p>\n

In October, the first single by \u201cA.I.-native pop artist\u201d TaTa Taktumi \u2014 \u201cGlitch x Pulse\u201d was released who scored a hit album on iTunes with the apparently irony-free titled \u201cFaithful Soul.\u201d In a not-irony-free twist, the video for \u201cGlitch x Pulse\u201d features a real-life human performer playing the role of TaTa.<\/p>\n

With any luck, I am one of the few people to recall the 1991 album \u201cThe Look\u201d by \u2014 ahem! \u2014 Barbie (as in the plastic Mattel doll). Alas, a promised concert tour by \u201cBarbie and Ken\u201d never materialized.<\/p>\n

In November, \u201cWalk My Walk\u201d by Breaking Rust topped Billboard\u2019s Country Digital Song Sales chart, despite \u2014 or perhaps because \u2014 the song and the performer are both entirely AI-generated. Given how synthetic-sounding too much \u201creal\u201d country music has become, it\u2019s become increasingly difficult to determine what is or isn\u2019t AI-generated.<\/p>\n

Not to be outdone, the AI rock band Velvet Sundown rapidly released three albums. Its most popular song, the Southern-rock-influenced \u201cDust On The Wind,\u201d has more than 2 million streams. Never mind that Velvet Sundown\u2019s updated social media pages describe it as a \u201csynthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming next, perhaps: \u201clive\u201d AI \u201cconcerts,\u201d performed for AI \u201caudiences\u201d and \u201creviewed\u201d by AI \u201cmusic critics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue is not technology, which has long been an invaluable tool for creative artists. Rather, it\u2019s the misuse of technology by talent-free poseurs and greedy opportunists. That might be \u2014 at least for someone even more cynical than me \u2014 an apt description of an outsized chunk of pop music since the 1950s heyday of such photogenic, talent-challenged teen-pop stars as Fabian and Bobby Rydell.<\/p>\n

The day when recordings are labelled \u201d AI Generated,\u201d \u201cAI Assisted\u201d or \u201cAI-Free\u201d may soon be looming.<\/p>\n

But as genre-leaping music icon Herbie Hancock put it in our 2024 San Diego Union-Tribune interview, AI may be a manifestation of a far more daunting challenge: \u201cWe have to learn to become better human beings,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause the real problem is people, not AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music legend Herbie Hancock dives into AI while his all-star album with Kendrick Lamar is revamped<\/a><\/p>\n

In the meantime, here are my favorite albums of the year.<\/p>\n

So far as I can tell \u2014 and assuming my avatar isn\u2019t writing this article \u2014 all of these albums were made the old-fashioned way by, you know, actual people.<\/p>\n

Mavis Staples, \u201cSad and Beautiful World\u201d<\/p>\n

Still touring at 86, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Mavis Staples could easily rest on her laurels. Instead, the tireless gospel-music legend this year made one of the most stirring and rewarding albums of her storied career. Its title perfectly captures her ability to chronicle in song frustration and hope, despondency and transcendence, with soulful grace and grit.<\/p>\n

\"RobertThe vocal pairing of Robert Plant and Suzi Dian in his latest band, Saving Grace, creates some magical musical moments on record and in concert. (Axel Koester)
\nRobert Plant & Saving Grace, featuring Suzi Dian, \u201cSaving Grace\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Mavis Staples, former Led Zeppelin singer and veteran solo star Robert Plant seemingly has nothing left to prove. But his first album with the newest of his many post-Zep bands is a mesmerizing work that makes gospel, Celtic folk, Americana, psychedelia, blues and North African music sound like interlocking parts of one wondrous musical whole.<\/p>\n

Theo Bleckmann, \u201cLove and Anger\u201d<\/p>\n

An extraordinarily gifted singer, Theo Bleckmann has a wonderfully expressive and flexible voice. The reverence and daring with which he salutes and reimagines songs on \u201cLove and Anger\u201d by everyone from Kate Bush, The Beatles and Frank Ocean to Massive Attack, Henry Purcell and Labi Siffre is nothing sort of remarkable. And when he delivers a cascade of angelic vocal harmonies that suggest the apex of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, you may get goosebumps.<\/p>\n

Geese, \u201cGetting Killed\u201d<\/p>\n

Witty and wry, apprehensive and inviting, accomplished and proudly off-kilter, the fourth album by the young New York rock quartet Geese is delivered with a wink, a nod, and the triumphant sound of a rising, compromise-free young band taking off like never before.<\/p>\n

Ches Smith, \u201cChes Smith Clone Row\u201d<\/p>\n

San Diego-born drummer and percussionist Ches Smith excels at way left-of-center rock, cutting-edge jazz,\u00a0 electronica, funk, experimental music and more. He expertly draws from all of them on \u201cClone Row\u201d to create a wonderfully kinetic synthesis that at times suggests latter-day King Crimson at its thorniest, by way of avant-guitar shredder Sonny Sharrock. Better yet, on Smith\u2019s first album with his superb Clone Row band, he showcases two of the most audaciously inventive guitarists currently playing, Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman.<\/p>\n

\"GrammyGrammy Award-winning vocal wizard Cecile McLorin-Salvant soars anew on her latest album, \u201cOh Snap.\u201d (Karolis Kaminskas)
\nC\u00e9cile McLorin Salvant, \u201cOh Snap\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years in the making, \u201cOh Snap\u201d at times finds acclaimed young jazz singer C\u00e9cile McLorin Salvant channeling her inner Bjork and Kate Bush on 11 original songs and an ebullient take on The Commodores\u2019 classic \u201cBrick House.\u201d No matter the style, Salvant is a one-off, as she demonstrated here with her absolutely stunning a cappella encore of Bush\u2019s \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d at the 2025 edition of SummerFest in La Jolla.<\/p>\n

Clipse, \u201cLet God Sort \u2018Em Out\u201d<\/p>\n

On its first album since 2009, this Bay Area hip-hop duo returns with a renewed sense of purpose and passion, plus enough crafty wordplay to make all but the most gifted rap wordsmiths turn pea green with envy.<\/p>\n

\"BadBad Bunny\u2019s Grammy-nominated \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos\u201d is a musical valentine to his Puerto Rican homeland. (Rimas Entertainment)
\nBad Bunny, \u201cDeb\u00ec Tirar M\u00e0s Foto\u201d<\/p>\n

A musical valentine to his beloved Puerto Rican homeland and its rich musical traditions, Bad Bunny\u2019s most ambitious album is also his most personal and affecting. You can expect to hear at least a few songs from it when he headlines the Super Bowl halftime show telecast on Feb. 8.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m With Her, \u201cWild and Clear and Blue\u201d<\/p>\n

When she\u2019s not making solo albums or working with her longtime band, Nickel Creek, San Diego-bred singer, violinist, cellist and organist Sara Watkins teams up with fellow troubadours Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O\u2019Donovan in I\u2019m With Her. The trio\u2019s second album is a gem of incandescent vocal harmonies and finely calibrated songs that draw from folk, chamber-pop and bluegrass that sound both earthy and elegant.<\/p>\n

Hayden Pedigo, \u201cI\u2019ll Be Waving As Your Drive Away\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas-bred acoustic guitarist Hayden Pedigo excels at crafting gently chiming six-string reveries that intimately evoke the expansive, largely uninhabited prairies of his home state.<\/p>\n

Also recommended<\/p>\n

Trio Da Kali, \u201cBagola\u201d; Brandi Carlile, \u201cReturning To Myself\u201d; Annie and The Caldwells, \u201cCan\u2019t Lose My (Soul)\u201d; Turnstile, \u201cNever Enough\u201d; Cynthia Erivo, \u201cI Forgive You\u201d; Bon Iver, \u201cFABLE, Sable\u201d; Sudan Archives, \u201cThe BPM\u201d; Cate le Bon, \u201cMichelangelo Dying\u201d; Lucy Dacus, \u201cForever is a Feeling\u201d; Viagra Boys, \u201cVagr Aboys\u201d; Wet Leg, \u201cMoisturizer\u201d; Van Morrison, \u201cRemembering Now\u201d; and Horsegirl, \u201cPhonetics On and On.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People would have laughed and rolled their eyes if the 1977 movie smash \u201cStar Wars\u201d had even suggested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29160,62468,29965,62467,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-117472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-bad-bunny","tag-best-albums-of-2025","tag-mavis-staples","tag-robert-plant","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}