It’s time to reflect on the year in music! This month, we’ll be highlighting Jam of Today’s favourite albums of 2025. Working our way up to the #1 album, which will be revealed on the 31st of December, we’ll go one by one past this year’s favourites. Today, our #24: ‘The Light We Chase‘ by Bloom.

While crafting my shortlist of favourite albums of this year, I stumbled upon quite some artists that were present in last year’s longlist, too. Groups such as Twenty One Pilots and Home Counties featured in my Top 31 of 2024 while this year, they fall short. Mainly because I think their albums weren’t that impressive and impactful on my year, but perhaps the fact I had already put the spotlight on their works 12 months ago weighed in a bit, too. Therefore, the only returning artist in this year’s endlist is Bloom. Rightfully so, if you ask me.

In 3 days time, it will have been exactly one year since I shared Bloom’s debut album ‘Maybe In Another Life’ on the blog. I ended that specific review with the words “I want more. More of this”. Almost as if the Australians had read this review, they treated me to a brand new album this year: ‘The Light We Chase’, released on the 31st of October. From what I remember, their previous album was much up to my liking but did feature some moments where – in retrospect – I feel like it wasn’t quite as poignant as could possibly be. With the release of their second, Bloom tosses away all insecurities and hesitance by releasing a metalcore album that easily blows you away at times.

One day before the release of ‘The Light We Chase’, I had the opportunity of seeing Bloom live for the first time in my life. If only it wasn’t for the Dutch train network causing so much delay to my journey that I sadly missed out on their set in Utrecht. Bummer. If I did make it in time, I would’ve been treated to some of this album’s best songs in ‘Keep You’, ‘Life Moves On Without You’, ‘Out of Reach’, and ‘Withered’. All four of these songs make Bloom sound like a completely different band than they were one year ago; it’s truly amazing how quickly this group has evolved into one of the best metalcore acts of the moment. Further highlights ‘Glen Street’ and ‘Act II’ (featuring Void of Vision’s Jack Bergin) add such a powerful touch to this album that it’s weird to think some songs felt a bit unconfident on their previous album. Or so it feels now with the addition of these borderline hardcore songs to this record.

To top it off, Bloom has added another layer of emo to the mix which is clearly put to the forefront on the songs near the end of this album. ‘Only Sky’ and ‘Tongue Tied’ (featuring Yours Truly vocalist Mikaila Delgado) are drenched in sadness with the latter being a bit of an outlier on the album by basically just being a sad kids pop punk tune. Either way, it makes for a good warm up towards album ender and personal favourite in ‘Show Me Who I Am’, in my opinion the ultimate way of ending this record. This song has basically got everything that makes Bloom such a great band packed into a mere three minutes and eighteen seconds. I’m truly impressed by Bloom’s second album and I’m sure if it wasn’t for so many other great releases this year, it would’ve ended up way higher in this End of Year list.