The 25 Best Electronic Albums of 2025

25. TOKiMONSTA – Eternal Reverie (Young Art)

“Lucky U” typifies the overall soundscape of TOKiMONSTA’s Eternal Reverie: lushly synthesized house and pop hybrids that have the flourish and sheen of contemporary electronic music while subtly harkening back to dance music’s forebearers. Lune Rouge and 2020’s Oasis Nocturno contain mostly uncluttered, conventionally structured pop songs. These albums skirted any studio indulgence that didn’t bolster the guest vocals. 

Eternal Reverie keeps the same format – pop songs with guest vocalists – but differs in decisions, blending TOKiMONSTA’s penchant for pop jams with the eccentric touch of her early beats. If there’s any disappointment to be felt, it’s from wanting more of a good thing. There are no duds on Eternal Reverie. – Kyle Cochrun

24. Ninajirachi – I Love My Computer (NLV)

Niajirachi’s I Love My Computer is a fitting love letter to technology from a generation that spends ten times as much time with their devices as they do with other humans. It’s as chirrupy and relentless as any hyperpop, which means it might put you in a sugar coma if you’re over 25, but it’s saved from becoming a gimmick by rock-solid beats and some genuine heart in the helium vocals. This is dance music for those who know how to surf the vaporwave. – J Simpson

23. DJ Koze – Music Can Hear Us (Pampa)

What’s that you hear? A dental drill? Is that Vocaloid Damon Albarn giggling? Is this vibe heading towards “Woody Woodpecker” or an “ayahuasca retreat?” But most often, you’ll ask: Have I heard this sample before? Maybe you have, perhaps you haven’t, but that’s beside the point. DJ Koze thrives on a sense of déjà vu, reshaping sound fragments, reversing melodies, warping tempos, and layering unexpected textures to create something new.

Across 64 minutes, he challenges every preconception about what should sound good. Think nu-metal is dumb? Then why is “Brushcutter” (featuring Marley Waters) so fun in all its gritty, neon-colored glory? Do you think “Chipmunk Soul” is played out? Then why do the spiraling, sped-up vocal swirls of “Wie schön du bist” (featuring Arnim Teutoburg-Weiss and the Düsseldorf Düsterboys) hit so close to the heart? – Emily Votaw

22. Bicep – Chroma 000 (Chroma)

For the last two years, Belfast’s Bicep have been releasing a series of high-concept, high-style singles that beautifully illustrate their unique blend of crisp, precise breakbeats, thudding techno, and sci-fi futurism. Chroma 000 collects them all in one beautiful, lavishly designed package, offering an opportunity to hear the variety and creativity contained across these ten releases. Simply put, Bicep are some of the most striking talents working in drum ‘n bass today. – J Simpson

21. Clark – Steep Stims (Throttle)

Steep Stims is a return to form for Chris Clark. After numerous fascinating detours into art pop, arty IDM, and soundtrack work, Clark synthesizes all he’s learned into an album of taut, tight dancefloor epiphanies that bristle with energy and imagination. It’s so tight and seamless it could be a DJ mix, producing the rarest gem: a cohesive electronic album that’s also chock full of singles, equally at home on headphones or the dancefloor. – J Simpson

20. Headache – Thank You For Almost Everything (PLZ Make It Ruins)

Despite so many aspects of the decade coming back in style, the 1990s feel like an unreachable continent. It’s difficult to conjure the euphoric sense of optimism, the loving embrace of technology, the anything-goes mentality, or the inevitable sense that we’re tilting towards a fairer, more just world. British producers Headache resurrect this sunny, shadowy, inexplicable world with an album of slice-of-life spoken word vignettes over downtempo beats and lush, progressive synth pads. It’s like the Orb scoring a concept album for the Sleaford Mods on an up day. – J Simpson

19. Mark Pritchard – Tall Tales (Warp)

On Tall Tales, Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke obliquely navigate a fragile world constantly on the edge of collapse. From opener “A Fake in a Faker’s World”, they create an aural collage of existential dread using sparse electronics augmented by Yorke’s unmistakable falsetto. Beginning as a collaboration at the height of COVID, you can sense the uncertainty, detachment, and isolation of that period throughout the tracks. As a result, it’s an often unsettling collection but one that soon becomes wholly immersive.

Tracks like “Bugging Out Again” and “The White Cliffs” feel devoid of time and space as they pull you into their orbit. Incredibly, the pair have crafted an elusive, abstract world in which sounds and words merge like indistinct reflections in a deep pool. Even the more glitch pop of “Gangsters” exists in its own indeterminable world. There are also moments of almost devastating beauty. The standout, “This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice”, rides stuttering, syncopated beats as Yorke stands alone contemplating his own alienation.

These immediately identifiable moments give the album its heart. At the same time, there are plenty of examples of Yorke’s sardonic take on the world, such as the oompah-band stomp of “Happy Days”, which incongruously frames his bleak refrain of “Death and Takes”. Overall, Tall Tales is the sound of two artists inspired by each other’s willingness to guide themselves into unexplored sonic territory. – Paul Carr

18. Modeselektor – DJ-Kicks: Modeselektor (!K7)

Modeselektor’s contribution to !K7’s DJ-Kicks series is not a flashy record. This is no big room Essential Mix for peaktime Saturday Night. It’s an absolutely all-killer/no-filler DJ mix that’s as elegant as it is energetic, as eclectic as it is cohesive. No matter how many times you listen, it remains a thing of mystery how Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary manage to mix the South American bounce of KITSCHSELECTOR’s “Permit Riddim” into the steely forward-thrusting futurism of their own “MEGA MEGA MEGA.” It’s a refreshing throwback to a time when DJ mixes were about more than exclusive edits and celebrity remixes. DJ-KICKS: Modeselektor is rooted in classic DJ culture while still sounding fresh and now. – J Simpson

17. Death in Vegas – Death Mask (Drone)

Death In Vegas made his reputation out of blending the pop charts and the dancefloor, which is a big part of what makes Death Mask so legitimately surprising. Instead of chasing the Big Beat highs of Fatboy Slim or the Chemical Brothers, Richard Fearless turns in nine tracks of genuinely unhinged industrial techno – as streamlined as a V2 missile and twice as deadly. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a world on fire. – J Simpson

16. Harvey Sutherland – Debt (Clarity Recordings)

On Debt, Australian DJ and Producer fine-tunes his sound on a vibrant groove-infested second album. Taking minimal house as the blueprint, he adds in layers of funk-infused bass and disco synths. From the outside, “Chop Chop Movie Boy” delights with breezy beats and funky keyboard runs while “Cigarette” playfully toys with strutting acid techno. “Flash!” ramps up the funk with layers of clapping percussion and a synth bass line that could electrify any dancefloor.

It’s a joyously colourful blend of styles showcasing his ability to deliver dopamine hit after dopamine hit.  Elsewhere, he calls on collaborators to take the sound to somewhere new. In “Remember”, Vicky Farewell adds lilting, affecting melodies to a shimmering slice of minimal house, while Julian Hamilton filters in cool vibes on the slinky electropop of “Body Language”.

However, it’s the stunning “Running House” that deserves to be the breakout tune as Florida hip-hop duo They Hate Change spit rhymes over fresh beats and twinkling pianos. Debt is a fun, giddy record that rides the rainbow to take the listener to a delightfully colourful place. – Paul Carr

15. Nourished by Time – The Passionate Ones (XL)

R&B is often unfairly left out of conversations about electronic music, which feels unfair given that artists like Prince, Janet Jackson, and Whitney Houston helped familiarize multiple generations with the sounds of drum machines and synthesizers. It also creates a false dichotomy: music can either be romantic and sensual or linear and cerebral, which makes everything feel more boring.

On Nourished By Time’s highly-anticipated follow-up to 2023’s Erotic Probiotic 2, Baltimore’s Marcus Brown drags us into his truly singular soundworld, broadcasting bizarre bedroom pop into the ether like some long-lost late-night radio program. It’s raw, ragged, and rough-around-the-edges in all the best ways, made by an unfettered imagination and a pure heart. – J Simpson

14. Marie Davidson – City of Clowns (DEEWEE)

City of Clowns found Marie Davidson going back to her electronic roots after the more pop-oriented experimentation of 2020’s Renegade Breakdown. Sonically, it’s a natural progression from the sound of her 2018 album Working Class Woman, as she pulls in everything from Italo disco to electroclash, all with plenty of European techno thrown in. However, while Working Class Woman was a more personal, reflective album, City of Clowns sees her focus her attention on external targets.

One of the main issues is technology and its penetrating influence on every aspect of our lives. From the outset, she questions whether technology will gradually erase our collective sense of humanity (“Validations Weight”). In largely instrumental “Statistical Modelling”, the chilly, techno textures encapsulate the theme of our reliance on technology to boil the future down to cold, processable numbers. That’s not to say she doesn’t cast her sardonic eye on herself entirely. 

Glorious first single, “Sexy Clown”, is a rollicking, minimal synth-disco number that sees her break down what it means to be a female working mainly at night in the music industry. The phenomenal “Contrarian” takes all the best bits of 1990s electronic music and mixes them in a cavernous, techno pot. It’s the kind of tune that will quicken the step on any morning commute.

The thundering “Y.A.A.M” is a giddy mix of all the things that make her great. The bassline that writhes, serpent like, through the whole thing, the layers of elastic beats, all framing her clever jabs at modern culture (‘”Fake positivity is as cringe as it gets / You wanna suck me? / Screw your fucking brand,”) Lyrically, the album is full of these caustic couplets to match the acid techno that she delivers in her own delightfully deadpan way. City of Clowns may deal with some big, heavy themes, but it’s all delivered in such a unique way by an artist who has lost none of her ability to enthral. – Paul Carr

13. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – GUSH (Nettwerk)

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s music lies at the intersection of new age, pop, ambient, and everything in between. Her body of work is defined less by genre than by a common theme—the musical resonance of the body. On GUSH, her latest LP, Smith‘s music is more body-centered than ever. That is evident from the album’s promo photos, which depict Smith stretching and contorting her body into various poses on a motorcycle. GUSH is her dance record, to be exact, but it embraces pop hooks without eschewing any of her characteristic weirdness. It’s full of electronically-treated vocals, stop-and-start polyrhythms, and hypnotic modular grooves. The Buchla music easel—her trademark—is back in complete form here. – Parker Desautell