ANDY'S FAVES 2025
Our Andy Cairns lists his favourite records, books, plays, films and TV shows of 2025.
2025 has been a strange old year for me. The necessity for two full knee replacements, a result of wear & tear from three and a half decades gigging, meant that with twelve weeks post surgery recovery per knee, I spent six months out of action. I played the least number of shows ever since I started out in late 1989 and the discomfort meant that playing guitar wasn’t always a straightforward experience. I found myself listening, reading, watching and sleeping more than usual. Here is a list of some of my favourites from the year. I’ll have forgotten many that were in my column but I’ll also have added many that weren’t.
- Andy Cairns
Music
Jonesy - It’s Not How You Fall [soundcloud]
Knives - Glitter [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Turnstile - Never Enough [youtube]
Scowl - Are We All Angels [bandcamp]
Militarie Gun - God Save the Gun [bandcamp]
DJ Haram - Beside Myself [bandcamp]
Maruja - Pain to Power [youtube]
Burial - Coma Fields [bandcamp]
Believe in Nothing - Rot [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Hüsker Dü - 1985: The Miracle Year [bandcamp]
[slab] - Taut [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Chalk - Afraid [youtube]
Mala x Magugu - Militant Don [bandcamp]
Home Front - Watch it Die [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Plastics - Flesh Circuit [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Industry - Industry [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
No Violet - No Violet [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
An Slua - Sure Look It [bandcamp]
Wayne Adams - Survival EP [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Klämp - Totaal Techniek [bandcamp]
Light of Eternity - Distraction EP [bandcamp]
Lankum - Ghost Town [bandcamp]
Zero Again - Ever-Changing is the Art of Death [bandcamp]
Test & Deafkids - Sem Esperanças [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Big Tickle - Dulse & Gabbana [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Die Spitz - Something to Consume [bandcamp]
Benefits - Constant Noise [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Xeeland - Master Builder [bandcamp] / [the devil’s month]
Employed to Serve - Fallen Star [bandcamp]
The Sabres of Paradise - Sabresonic / Haunted Dancehall reissues [bandcamp] + [bandcamp]
Books
Dan Hancox - Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World [link]
John King - Peekaboo Bosh [link]
Daniel Rachel - This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich [link]
Mick Herron - Clown Town [link]
Wendy Erskine - The Benefactors [link]
Chris Voss - Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It [link]
Liz Pelly - Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist [link]
Larissa Wodtke - Dance-Punk [link]
Jon King - To Hell with Poverty!: A Class Act: Inside the Gang of Four [link]
Jonathan Kydd - Go Quicker Sound Slower [link]
Steve Diggle - Autonomy: Portrait of a Buzzcock [link]
Charlie Harper - An Anarchy of Demons [link]
Various Authors - Hardcore Horror [link]
[all links from Goodreads]
Theatre
Krapp’s Last Tale - York [link]
The Fifth Step - London [link]
Cinema
Weapons [link]
Bring Her Back [link]
Frankenstein [link]
A House of Dynamite [link]
[all links from IMDb]
TV
Trespasses [link]
Slow Horses [link]
Blue Lights [link]
Down Cemetery Road [link]
The Morning Show [link]
Pluribus [link]
Question Time [link]
[(almost) all links from Rotten Tomatoes)
Andy Cairns is the guitarist and vocalist of the legendary Northern Irish band Therapy?. They are currently writing their first album since 2023’s ‘Hard Cold Fire’ - it will be their 17th studio album since their formation in 1989.
You can follow all T? news on their official website, or by following them on Instagram and Facebook.
Andy contributes monthly to The Devil’s Mouth with his musical picks on the The Devil’s Month column.
We love him to bits.
Want to help us, our collaborators and the bands we cover keep the lights on, and get an exclusive tote bag to show for it? Become a paid subscriber of TDM and we’ll send you one, free postage worldwide. Also, never miss a post again (‘cause you’ll get ‘em in your inbox) and access our subscriber-only posts, namely the coveted Bandcamp Basement feature. You get a free trial if you want to test the waters first. And of course you can just be a free subscriber forever, sans bag or subscriber-only posts, but you’ll get the inbox action anyway. Your call. We love you all the same. Get on it: