It’s time to reflect on the year in music! This month, we’ll be highlighting Jam of Today’s favourite albums of 2025. Today, it’s time to reveal our number one. After going through all our favourite releases once again, there’s only one album left to share: Jam of Today’s Album of the Year, ‘Mend‘ by Eidola.

Yep, you got that right. My entire top 3 is consisting of swancore acts this year. Surprising, isn’t it? Even though I feel like I haven’t listened to this genre as much as I did in 2024, it remains one of my absolute favourite types of music out there and if three of the best in the business release new albums within the same year, I have no other choice than to fall in love with each and every one of them. Only one of those can claim the top spot though, and I simply can’t ignore the album I’ve played most this year as my absolute favourite: Eidola’s ‘Mend’.

My top 10 most streamed songs of 2025 kind of say it all: five of those hail off of ‘Mend’, with another one being an Eidola song off of ‘The Architect’ (2021) and an additional two being Dance Gavin Dance’s first singles ahead of ‘Pantheon’. I didn’t quite listen to as many different swancore acts as before and instead I focussed my lens on only a specific amount of bands. Eidola will forever hold a special place in my heart due to the impact their music has had on my year. No other act received as much playtime by me than them and especially albums ‘Mend’ and ‘The Architect’ have been played on repeat all year.

If you’ve read my review of my #3 album of this year – ‘Pantheon’ by Dance Gavin Dance – you’ve seen my spiel about Andrew Wells, guitarist-turned-vocalist of the band, and you might be familiar with Eidola, too. The acclaimed front man is properly excelling here, with their sixth perhaps not being a fan favourite but easily being mine. Slowly but steadily, pretty much each of the songs on this record became my most beloved song at some point during the year and by now, I basically know the entire thing like the back of my hand. Personal favourites ‘The Faustian Spirit’, ‘Restore Me’ (featuring the afterhour.), and the stunning ‘Renaissance’ can move me to tears each time I hear ‘em, but there’s more to this album. There’s more reasons as to why ‘Mend’ is my ultimate number one of 2025.

Over the course of the last 11,5 months, this album has started to mean a hell of a lot to me. I vividly remember falling in love with it. I found myself on one of my many solo trips through the depths of the UK, this time leading me to the Welsh town of Newport. Not the prettiest of places, many would probably agree with me, but it marked something significant in my life. See, over the last two years, I’ve notice myself changing a lot. Around the time I started this blog, I felt stuck in life. Without realising it, my days were rusted into one steady rhythm of waking up, working, dining, and going to bed again. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t unhappy or anything. Not at all. Hell, I didn’t even notice that change would have such an impact on my life, but I’m overjoyed it did. In 2024, I moved abroad, regained my spark and made sure to push myself out of my comfort zone day in, day out. It had a brilliant effect. I went from a quiet and introverted person to someone much more outgoing, travelling around the country on my own and meeting new people left, right and centre. Though still challenging, I continue to do this as much as I can. It made me realise the effects of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. In a way, it’s like going to the gym. You train your muscles to grow bigger each time, therefore being able to lift more weight. By pushing yourself out of your comfort zone just that little further each time, the ratio of your zone expands and you’ll be able to deal with way more things than you could before. 2025 marked another massive year for me personally and along this ride, Eidola’s ‘Mend’ has continuously proven itself to be the one and only soundtrack I needed. I’m sure, whenever I hear this album in the future, I will always think back of it as such and be grateful that it was there with me along my journey through this year in my life. Today, I end my final trip of 2025: a few days in my beloved Carlisle up north in England. I will be returning home this afternoon and I think I have a hunch what album I will be spinning during my travels. 2025 was a great year, let’s make sure 2026 will be one for the books, too.