The 80 Best Albums of 2025

20. Laufey – A Matter of Time (Vingolf Recordings)

On Laufey’s third album, A Matter of Time, nostalgic styles converge with sharp observations about contemporary life. In “Snow White”, Laufey discusses body image: “Mirrors tell me lies, my mind just plays along.” The album modernizes classical and jazz instrumentation by layering them beneath pop hooks and scathing lyrics. “I should be the one you’re engaged to,” Laufey laments on “Too Little Too Late”. 

The modern signifiers throughout A Matter of Time serve to reinforce its 1940s references. In a 2025 interview with The Guardian, Laufey said, “I know if I had gone to a label six years ago and said, ‘I’m going to make music that’s a mix of jazz and classical, and I’m gonna play arenas,’ they would have said, ‘Bullshit’.” Laufey’s rise is a consequence of the diversification of taste that streaming has created. Record labels no longer rely on artists whose work appeals to a large audience. When Spotify houses every song in existence, music itself is accessible. 

Timing is a funny thing; the most random events can, under the right circumstances, feel predestined. In “Sabotage”, a cacophony of drums explodes as Laufey admits, “It’s a special of mine to cause disaster.” The track upends the record’s peaceful, jazz-inspired ambiance, reframing what came before as uneasy peace. By heavily committing to nostalgia, the record finds tension within that seemingly peaceful space. It was only a matter of time. – Matthew Dwyer

19. Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out (ROC Nation Distribution)

The dissolution of Clipse in 2010 had many causes, the combination of which could be called unique to these sibling rappers. A swirl of adjacent legal troubles, business pressures, and, in No Malice’s case, a religious/philosophical awakening meant that the also-unique musical blend (unapologetic, increasingly grim tales of drug dealing combined with oddball production choices from The Neptunes) came to a halt.

Fifteen years later, Let God Sort Em Out excavates the personal and musical history that has unfolded during the brothers’ (mostly) separate years on record. Let God Sort Em Out is produced entirely by Pharrell Williams. The reunion of all three artists on one album is the most exciting development out of the Clipse camp since 2013, when Pusha T released My Name Is My Name and No Malice released Hear Ye Him. Neither rapper has lost any skill, and though their early albums are rightfully considered classics, Let God Sort Em Out is, in a sense, more impressive for the total resistance of either brother to compromise who he is now. – Thomas Britt

18. Addison Rae – Addison (Columbia)

Has anyone ever wanted to be a pop star this badly and not seemed desperate, but almost immediately deserving? Did we even know how starved we were for debutantes until that sex-drenched key change on “Diet Pepsi”? How much we just wanted someone to give enough of a shit to be larger than life, and how did she do it after so many years of hitting the fucking nae nae?

Maybe it’s in the music. Addison isn’t an album about wanting something; it’s about being born for something and knowing it down to your bedazzled skeleton. Less fated hands would fumble the earnest wistfulness of “Headphones On”, or sound charmless and vapid on “Money Is Everything”. However, Addison’s the real deal. She’s sweet, feminine, breezy, but the sighs and wails over the pulsing, tectonic synths driving “High Fashion” are the volcanic sound of a star being born. Only the strong survive. – Nick Malone

17. Annie & the Caldwells – Can’t Lose My (Soul)

Can’t Lose My (Soul) has been described in the press as a debut album that took forty years to arrive, and the group’s bio states that it was “20 years in the making”. Regardless of how many decades one considers having fed into this very special release, the most consequential effect of time passing is that it allowed even more family members to join the band. Annie & the Caldwells, led by singer Annie Caldwell, also features her husband, daughters, sons, and a goddaughter. 

Can’t Lose My (Soul) might be classified as the product of a “disco-soul” group, but the title track seems equally influenced by gospel and even the blues. The backing singers repeat “My soul” dozens of times as Annie sings about being spiritually delivered. The other songs here alternate between up- and down-tempo tracks that cover plenty of troubles and blessings, and a final, prayerful song begins “40 years ago”, when this album started gestating. The lives experienced in the interim are evident on every second of the running time, but the concluding impression is that the soul is ageless. – Thomas Britt

16. Neko Case – Neon Grey Midnight Green (Anti-)

Neko Case’s latest album, Neon Grey Midnight Green, is her eighth full-length studio record since 1997. She still possesses the same bittersweet voice that boomerangs between a whisper, a barroom growl, and a Broadway belter. She wears her heart on her vocal cords. One feels her emotions more than absorbs them from the lyrics.

Two things make this different from her previous releases. This is her first self-produced release, and she made it in collaboration with the 20-piece PlainsSong Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sara Parkinson and arranged by Tom Hagerman. The album was recorded live with the whole ensemble, featuring strings (violin, cello, viola, harp), woodwinds and horns (flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn), as well as the usual guitar, bass, piano, and drums. This is classical pop at its best, full of swirls, quiet moments, hooks, and in-your-face intimacy.

Case wrote or co-wrote all the material, which she has described as being “for and about musicians”. That’s literally true in the case of “Match-Lit”, a tribute to her late friend, Dallas Good, singer and guitarist of the Sadies, who died at 48, and thematically accurate in songs such as “Winchester Mansion of Sound” and “An Ice Age”. Other material, such as “Little Gears” and “Baby, I’m Not (A Werewolf)”, is more playful moral tales. The mix of the serious and the mischievous, like the combination of symphonic and rock instrumentation, presents a nuanced album full of beauty and charm. – Steve Horowitz

15. Deftones – Private Music (Reprise)

While such 1990s alt-metal peers as Slipknot, System of a Down, Korn, and Linkin Park have settled into the “legacy act” stage of their careers, Deftones have spent the past quarter-century restlessly searching for ways to expand their music. It’s resulted in a compelling post-millennial body of work that has morphed gracefully into a hybrid of metal, dreampop, shoegaze, and synthpop, somehow miraculously attracting the attention of a new generation of young listeners in recent years.

Sensing this new youth movement at their increasingly sold-out arena shows, the band responded in 2025 with Private Music, arguably their tightest and most fully realized album in 25 years. Nick Raskulinecz, who produced 2010’s Diamond Eyes and 2012’s Koi No Yokan, brings the magic of those two records back to the Deftones sound, creating a perfect tone that best captures Private Music’s hybrid of aggression, introspection, catharsis, and transcendence.

Singer Chino Moreno steps up both as a singer and a songwriter, leading his bandmates through tracks that are often shimmering and atmospheric, yet are always grounded by those gloriously heavy riffs cranked out by Stephen Carpenter. After decades of refusing to be boxed in by the constraints of metal, Deftones not only solidify their status as heavy metal visionaries but also do so while achieving a level of popularity in 2025 that few ever thought possible. – Adrien Begrand

14. Mavis Staples – Sad and Beautiful World (Anti-)

Mavis Staples’ Sad and Beautiful World was a late 2025 release, just arriving in November. Still, it instantly established itself as one of the best albums of the year, and yet another in a string of stellar records Staples has released over the last 25 years. The blistering guitar work of both Buddy Guy and Derek Trucks fuels the opening track, the urgent “Chicago”, a Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan cover. While nothing else on Sad and Beautiful World rocks as hard as “Chicago”, the album is filled with deeply soulful songs that often move touchingly on both the sadness and beauty of being a human being in 2025. 

Despite the serious nature of the record, it’s uplifting, most clearly in its closing track, a cover of Eddie Hinton’s “Everybody Needs Love”. Sad and Beautiful World isn’t merely a great album. It’s a state-of-the-world address. It is a profoundly spiritual and necessary work of art that also happens to be a beautiful listening experience. – Rich Wilhelm

13. Mourning [A] BLKstar – Flowers for the Living (Don Giovanni)

Mourning [A] BLKstar are an Afrofuturist collective from Cleveland, weaving a fascinating tapestry of jazz, soul, hip-hop, and experimental music to investigate the shifting shape of Black music and culture in the 21st century. Obviously, this will include far too much pain, hardship, injustice, and inequality. A lot of media reduces the Black experience to suffering, flattening the beauty, strength, and complexity into just more trauma porn.

They also give voice to Black joy and excellence on Flowers for the Living without succumbing to saccharine corniness. Lyrically, thematically, it’s incredibly positive, powerful, and uplifting. Musically, it’s got shadows as well as light, delivering a rich, nuanced album that lives and breathes, dancing and singing as well as shouting and occasionally throwing stones. – J. Simpson

12. Curtis Harding – Departures & Arrivals: The Adventures of Captain Curt (Anti-)

Over the course of three albums, Curtis Harding established himself as a music presence that refused to fit fully into any one category. Retro soul was clearly there from the start, but Harding also drew on indie rock and classic singer/songwriter sensibilities. With 2025’s Departures & Arrivals: The Adventures of Captain Curt, Harding pulled his influences together to create his most cohesive album yet. 

Opening with “There She Goes”, which would have sounded on the 1970s-era Isley Brothers album of your choice, Departures & Arrivals works its way through many moods and styles, as the songs collectively tell a story of travel, romance, responsibility, and empowerment. The music ranges from bittersweet balladry to dancefloor bangers, resulting in an album that fans of both retro and current soul, as well as adventurous pop, ought to love. – Rich Wilhelm  

11. Yeule – Evangelic Girl Is a Gun (Ninja Tune)

With their latest album, Evangelic Girl Is a Gun, Yuele has both feet on the sidewalk. Flirtations, rejections, bipolar leanings, crushes, heartbreaks, all the boons and fallouts of craving and impermanence are present. Lyrically, they may still be trying to reconcile any number of impulses, terrestrial and extraterrestrial, but they’re garbed and psyched for pop primetime.

With Evangelic Girl, Ćmiel completes a trilogy: “orbit” (Glitch Princess), “atmospheric entry” (softscars), and, now, “assimilation”. That said, you can remove the princess from outer space, but you can’t remove outer space from the princess. Yuele has come a long way from their early years traveling distant galaxies. Now a committed earthling, they’ll hopefully never forget where they came from. – John Amen

10. Hayley Williams – Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party (Post Atlantic)

Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is a big ol’ mess, but then again Hayley Williams has been feeling like a big ol’mess lately. In the public eye since the age of 15, the fiery singer-songwriter endured so much drama, both in her band Paramore and in her personal life, that more than two decades later, she finds herself looking back on it all, examining her present-day self, and wondering, “Am I the drama?”

Comprised of 20 vividly diaristic songs whose scatterbrained variety reflects Williams’s own mental state, she is unflinching in her soul-searching, yet, rather than coming across as overly self-indulgent, her eloquence, articulacy, and sly humor make Ego Death so endearing. Whether serenading her bottle of antidepressants (the Veruca Salt-esque “Mirtazapine”), alluding to former bandmates (“Brotherly Hate”), contemplating intergenerational trauma (“Kill Me”), or calling out her own arrogance (“I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar”), Williams never fails to hold the listener’s attention.

She saves her best for “True Believer”, in which she confronts the hypocrisy of her Southern evangelical upbringing, while “Good ol’ Days” has her looking back on Paramore’s After Laughter era and admitting to missing the chaos of intra-band romance. 21 years after the first Paramore record, Williams finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads, but whatever path she chooses next will be fascinating to follow. – Adrien Begrand

9. Wet Leg – Moisturizer (Domino)

Following up a smash debut album with a record that sustains that initial momentum is an extremely tall order, but in the case of Wet Leg, co-founders Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers made a gamble that paid off big in 2025. First, Wet Leg are no longer a duo, as touring musicians Ellis Durand, Henry Holmes, and Joshua Mobaraki were officially made permanent band members. Not only did that Wet Leg expansion take some of the spotlight off the two women, but it also compelled Wet Leg to focus on being a leaner, meaner, and more confrontational band than on their 2002 debut.

Consequently, Moisturizer is a giddy, brash album that finds the band expanding their sound while churning out some of the nastiest post-punk grooves since Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party 20 years ago. Wet Leg’s growth also coincides with Teasdale’s maturation as a frontwoman. Having embraced her new life as a queer person, Teasdale seems liberated as she celebrates her newfound love and lust on such ripping tracks as “CPR”, “Mangetout”, and “Pillow Talk”.

Meanwhile, the hummable “Davina McCall” is a huge creative step forward, and “U and Me at Home” is as smitten with domestic bliss as much of the album is with raw sex. This is the sound of a band finding its own identity in real time, and if the triumphant North American tour was any indication, young audiences are embracing it. – Adrien Begrand

8. FKA Twigs – Eusexua (Young and Atlantic)

FKA Twigs’ third album, EURSEXUA, can justifiably lay claim to being the sexiest album on this list. Every single song drips with the sweat of desire as she explores her most carnal urges. At the heart of it is a pervading sense of sexual freedom from the pleasure-seeking “Girl Feels Good” to the uncomplicated coupling on “Perfect Stranger”. Twigs achieves that rare feat of making songs about sex sound actually sexy. Inspired by the club scene of central Europe, the record began life as a celebration of the dancefloor before becoming much more personal.

As a result, these songs play out like a bold sonic statement from an artist boldly straddling the apex of personal and musical liberation. Throughout, FKA Twigs uses dance music as a balm employing techno, trip hop, and house to ameliorate the soul. In “Keep It, Hold It”, she unpacks a past relationship but refuses to let it define her, while “Striptease” sees her letting go of her inhibitions and embracing her vulnerability. EURSEXUA is an exhilarating testament to the healing power of music while surrendering to the joys of intimacy. – Paul Carr

7. Billy Woods – Golliwog (BackwoodzStudioz)

Billy Woods’ Golliwog is more of a short horror story collection than a hip-hop album. Every track has bodies hidden in the underbrush, crows on the telephone wires, sirens slicing the airwaves like eyeballs. Lyrically, Woods lays out the reality of being a Black man in America, making their way through front yards full of junked-out toys into ruinous homes where daddy longlegs stroll like Cecil Rhodes. It would be challenging to listen to if it didn’t sound so damn good. Instead, you’ll find yourself falling under Woods’ spell over and over and over again, wading deeper and deeper into the woods on the album cover. Never has terror and anxiety sounded so irresistible. – J Simpson

6. Barry Can’t Swim – Loner (Ninja Tune)

For British electronic artist Barry Cant Swim, the stakes could not have been higher. After a stunning debut, When Will We Land? saw him shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize and garnered critical acclaim across the music press; any follow-up had to cement his place as an artist in it for the long haul. Consequently, Loner is a snapshot of what happens when an artist suddenly gets shot into the stratosphere.

It finds an artist taking stock of where they are and where they want to be. Thankfully, it’s also full of grade A bangers. “Different” is a whirling mix of quick-fire beats and ambient breaks. The pumping acid techno of “About to Begin” should be the dance soundtrack for Gen Z, while uber-confident “Still Riding” is the kind of anthem that a host of his peers would kill for.

However, there is also plenty of diversity on show. The twinkling piano breaks, the perfectly chosen vocal samples, and the warm, evocative synths of “Kimpton” take it to somewhere wondrous. Similarly, “The Person You’d Like to Be” is a bold artistic statement that frames Scottish Poet Seamus’s abstract poetry over blaring, car alarm synths. Despite the pressure, Loner reaches the highest heights without any artistic compromises. In turn, it cemented him as one of the most exciting new talents in dance music. – Paul Carr

5. Wednesday – Bleeds (Dead Oceans)

Wednesday’s Rat Saw God is easily one of the best records of the decade, but if the band felt pressure following it up, it’s not apparent at all. Bleeds builds on what made their earlier records so compelling, delivering an ideal balance of leaning into strengths and taking creative risks that pay off. Early single “Elderberry Wine” suggested that Wednesday might be going softer, but the explosive opener “Reality TV Argument Bleeds” puts that to rest instantly, quickly building to its massive riff and lurching verses.

From there, Bleeds takes more risks than its predecessors, from the jaunty folk of “Gary’s II” and the loose, light “Phish Pepsi” to the raging near hardcore of “Wasp”. Karly Hartzmann’s knack for wry phrases and her gift for show-don’t-tell are in fine form as always on songs like “Wound Up Here (By Holdin’ On)”, “Bitter Everyday”, and “Pick Up that Knife”, but what stands out most in her lyrics this time is the vulnerability on songs like “Elderberry Wine” and “The Way Love Goes”.

Frequently, her words are quietly, effortlessly devastating across these tracks, exploring how things that start as sweet can turn sour if not cared for. Bleeds is another essential release from a band operating at the peak of their power. – Brian Stout

4. Geese – Getting Killed (Partisan)

On their third album, the buzzworthy Brooklyn band, led by Cameron Winter (who released an impressive solo album earlier in the year), finally made the splash everyone had been waiting for. Since they hit the scene, Geese’s music zigzagged from brilliant to unlistenable and back to brilliant again. Often regarded as too clever for their own good, they lead with abrasive elements that tend to alienate listeners, no doubt convincing some pretty hip people they are just too old to give them a go.

Fear not, because while their latest record hits with the same intensity as previous works, the band have finally come into their own. The offering features horns, tribal beats, and funky grooves, while being palatable enough for late-night TV and mass consumption. They incorporate soothing moments (“Au Pays Du Cocaine”) to counterbalance the unbridled fervor for which they have become known (“100 Horses”). Finally, their abstract leanings have coalesced into a singular vision. Not since Can has a band sounded so ahead of their time and yet indebted to the styles that came before, making Getting Killed a key contribution to the zeitgeist. – Patrick Gill

3. PinkPantheress – Fancy That (300 Entertainment)

After kicking off 2023 with what felt like a fluke crossover hit with “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2”, Victoria Walker quickly saw the fame cycle in real time: fawning attention, intense pressure over her live performances, all the ups and downs of being a hot new commodity on the hitmaking market. Yet under PinkPantheress’ moniker, with the world as her oyster, she decided to pivot and instead get lost in early 2000s Big Beat dance music, specifically the works of all-timer UK duo Basement Jaxx. 

Fancy That, her second mixtape proper, is an end-to-end burner, a stunning piece of techno-flavored dance-pop that is flirty, quirky, and unapologetic. “Illegal” became the viral meme song, but lead single “Tonight” remains one of her best-ever tracks, and the thundering “Girl Like Me” twists, turns, and bangs across a variety of styles (Latin piano break, anyone?) in a way that still feels unified.

Much like Charli XCX in the wake of the success of Brat, Walker later in the dropped an all-out remix album that featured the mixtape’s nine tracks blown up into 22 new iterations, featuring everyone from K-pop idols like Seventeen and Yves to UK pop legends like the Sugababes, upcoming talent like Jade, certified divas like Kylie Minogue, and a bevy of producers like Groove Armada, Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, Kaytranada, and Basement Jaxx themselves.

Yet none of those superstar detours would’ve been possible if that original mixtape wasn’t that close to pop perfection in the first place. Fancy that, indeed. – Evan Sawdey

2. Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)

There’s little debating that this has been Bad Bunny’s year. Although the Puerto Rican rapper/producer’s feud with the American government over his scheduled performance at Super Bowl LX may have generated the most headlines, Bad Bunny’s 2025 deserves to be remembered for giving us his best album so far. While other artists might have followed the smash success of 2023’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana with an evening glitzier, glossier grab for the brass ring, Bad Bunny did the exact opposite.

Instead, he returned to his native Puerto Rico to capture the island’s incredibly diverse musical styles, which he then stitched together with his usual diamond-sharp reggaeton and tropical house beats. The result sounds raw, personal, and incredibly polished. It’s a staggering achievement from a career that just keeps climbing. – J Simpson

1. Rosalia – LUX (Columbia)

The phrase “Music is my religion” often appears on bumper stickers. However, on her fourth album LUX, the Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalia turns that statement into a literal profession of spirituality. The record’s operatic high notes, orchestral arrangements, and use of 13 languages prove that the statement “Music is my religion” need not be hyperbole. 

In “My Christ Cries Diamonds”, a title that appears in Italian on the album’s track listing, a quiet confession of love builds to a crescendo as an orchestra replaces acoustic piano. “Berghain”, the next song, increases the tension established by its predecessor, as strings from the London Symphony Orchestra and vocals from a Catalan choir combine for an ominous effect. The choir says, “His rage is my rage / His love is my love,” but the identity of the “he” remains unclear. Is it God or a lover? 

The title “My Christ Cries Diamonds” captures the essence of LUX. Pictured on the album’s cover in a nun’s habit, Rosalia portrays a deity who luxuriates in pain. Like many religious texts, LUX connects suffering to an existential epiphany. However, contemporary references revise this idea to argue that, despite God’s offer of eternal salvation, suffering should be rewarded with Earthly pleasures as well. 

In “Magnolias”, Rosalia says, “God descends, and I ascend / We meet in the middle,” a statement that goes beyond the spiritual journey of LUX’s narrator and captures the record’s place in the current music market. During the 2020s, pop diversified its sound to accommodate the variety of tastes streaming platforms can cater to. The 2025 albums by Demi Lovato and Kesha are inventive and playful, aware of their place in pop as a genre, regardless of their “popularity”. However, LUX proves pop can be more than self-aware; it can be transcendent. – Matthew Dwyer