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 #18: ‘Vital Signs‘ by OVERSIZE.

Of course, looking back at it I very well know I should’ve just stuck around to watch OVERSIZE perform at 2000trees this year. Instead, I chose (an attempt at) taking a nap in my 400 degrees celsius tent in Cheltenham’s blazing summer heat over seeing one of the weekend’s greatest bands, or so my mate told me excitingly later that day. All that was left for me was the Salisbury band’s debut album ‘Vital Signs’ which I spun upon arriving back home. I then quickly realised missing out on this band was a missed opportunity.

It’s been a hot mess of rising talent in the metal scene over the last few years, Many have made it onto Jam of Today, too. Think of Split Chain, Bodyweb, Black Coast, Love Is Noise, or Profiler: the list goes on and on! OVERSIZE is one of my more recent additions to this pool of upcoming bands and by releasing their debut album in February, they’ve proven themselves to be amongst the better ones in that pool. With their fusion of shoegaze and emo, OVERSIZE are in line with many of this year’s Jams and it didn’t come as a surprise that I took a liking to this band. Songs like ‘Are You With Me?’, ‘Fall Apart’, and ‘Something Clean’ sound like staple 2025 songs to me, right in line with my personal listening habits of this year. I wonder if, in 5 years time, this genre revival will sound as dated as 2010s indie music does to me now but for now, I’m happy to say this heavy loaded emotional sound featuring dark and gloomy grunge is right up my alley.

I’ve been finding lots of comfort in listening to this type of music this year, even though it’s not the newest of sounds out there. I suppose a lot of it also boils down to being at the right place at the right time. For me, ‘Vital Signs’ distinguishes itself from the other albums within this realm by being one that consistently hits hard, no matter how many times you play it. For example, on several occasions, I found myself playing this record on repeat without even noticing it had finished already. If you’re digging this well documented 90s rock and metal revival, be sure to check out OVERSIZE’s ‘Vital Signs’, in my opinion definitely one of the better debut albums of the entire year.