“Listen Out” December 2025 Music Reviews
- by Jason Drewry
Music Critic
Madonna – Bedtime Stories – The Untold Chapter / Confessions On A Dance Floor (Twenty Years Edition)
The Queen of Pop continues her recent stream of legacy work ahead of a new album next year.
Hot on the heels of the long-rumored Ray of Light remix EP Veronica Electronica, Madonna has released the surprise digital Confessions refresh to commemorate the album’s 20th anniversary, alongside an odds-and-ends EP shedding new light on her oft-underrated but excellent 1994 album Bedtime Stories – a record dripping with Babyface’s sultry, sophisticated R&B and notably containing an early divulgence into electronica via the title track, written by Björk and produced by her frequent collaborator Nellee Hooper.
COADF 20YE features a continuous mix of the original album as well as three B-sides, Fighting Spirit, Super Pop, and History, that expand and broaden the album’s tone, and remixes of the album’s biggest hits. BS-TUC features remixes and demo versions of hits like Survival, Secret, Human Nature, and Don’t Stop, as well as original demos and B-sides like single Right On Time, Let Down Your Guard, and Love Won’t Wait.
Allie X – Happiness Is Going to Get You
The Canadian art pop chameleon returns with a surgically precise new collection that echoes the arty edges of the 90s and early aughts.
Hot on the heels of last year’s Eurythmics-core Girl With No Face, Allie X’s fourth album feels like a 90s shadow cast by Girl’s 80s-homage production. Written mostly on piano, centered around the character The Infant Marie, Allie’s alter ego and protagonist of the story.
Traces abound of artists as diverse as Janet Jackson, Fiona Apple, The Verve, Massive Attack, and others that meld Allie’s left-of-center approach to pop sensibilities with a sort of liminal nostalgia that only a decade thrice-removed can provide. The production is airy, often glittering, and full of reverb, rather than the spiky, pleather-clad cold synths of Girl. The result is a much more relaxed set this time ‘round. Less intense and claustrophobic, Happiness can tend to luxuriate a bit too much at times, when it may have behooved her to be a tad more on the offense.
Twin Shadow – Cadet
The Dominican-American indie favorite dusts off his drum machine once again.
Following the more low-key, introspective Georgie, released in March of this year to commemorate his late father, Cadet deliberately pivots from acoustic sounds back toward his signature style: punchy drum machines, warm, buttery synths, and kinetic jams.
The album explores familiar themes of devotion, distance, and vulnerability. The single “Half Asleep” specifically details idealized memories of a former relationship and was inspired by the band The Blue Nile. The album was produced by Twin Shadow and longtime collaborator Blackpaw, as well as Little Coyote and Ray Brady. The artist has stated that he views Cadet as a “modification” (rather than a remix) that treats his past self as a collaborator to create more energetic, carefree work, and this new direction was showcased on the promotional singles Dominoes and Awkward Backward.
Kylie Minogue - Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped)
The Aussie pop sensation drops an expanded reissue just in time for Christmas.
A 10th anniversary refresh of her thirteenth studio album, the Fully Wrapped edition includes an entirely new track list, removing some tracks and replacing them with new yuletide tunes: Hot In December, This Time of Year, Office Party, and XMAS (an Amazon Music original). The latter, pronounced X-M-A-S, is also available as a stocking stuffer on CD, 7” gold vinyl, and 12” zoetrope vinyl from her official store.
Though not the first reissue of this collection (that would be 2016’s Snow Queen Edition), this version should still make for an excellent gift for fans and is itself available in multiple colored vinyl formats – including some Amazon exclusives. Fans can also catch the pop legend in a guest spot on PinkPantheress’s all-star remix project of her Fancy That mixtape.
The Gayly online. 122/10/2025 @ 11:48 a.m. CST.