The 25 Best Pop Albums of 2025

12. Lady Gaga – Mayhem (Interscope)

In her work, Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, analyzes the concept of a “perfect celebrity”, or someone who embodies contradictions seamlessly. In a track called “Perfect Celebrity” from Gaga’s seventh studio album Mayhem, the singer suggests such a role is impossible to inhabit successfully. Sandwiched between electropop tracks indicative of Gaga’s usual style, “Perfect Celebrity” is a brash rock anthem. “Sit in the front row, watch the princess die,” the provocateur says. 

While making a point about fame, “Perfect Celebrity” also upholds Gaga’s reputation as a sonic chameleon. Elsewhere on Mayhem, 1980s disco bangers “Zombieboy” and “Shadow of a Man” recall the shiny club pop of Gaga’s 2010 hit “Judas”. Elsewhere, the narrative of “How Bad Do U Want Me” channels Taylor Swift’s structure while serving as a platform for Gaga to play a surreal character. In a spoken-word interlude, she asks, “That girl in your head ain’t real / How bad do you want me for real?” 

In a 2025 interview with Rolling Stone, Gaga used the phrase “rehearsal of self” to describe preparing for the Mayhem tour. However, if the singer’s performance is rooted in caricature, how can it be a rehearsal of “self”? Where is the line between Lady Gaga and Stefani Germanotta?

In many ways, Mayhem is a return to form. The lead single “Abracadabra” showcases Gaga’s blend of camp and supernatural mystique. The chorus combines spell-casting with improvised gibberish: “Abrakadabra-abra-ooh-na-naa / Abrakadabra-morta-ooh-gaga.” For all of the production value beneath her spectacle, the maintenance of Lady Gaga is not an exact science. – Matthew Dwyer

11. Doja Cat – Vie (RCA)

Doja Cat’s fifth album, Vie, French for “live”, is an about-face from its predecessor, 2023’s Scarlet. On that record, Doja sought to prove herself as a rapper. In response, Scarlet crusaded for rap dominance, but critics said it lost the charm of Doja’s pop-infused early hits. This criticism became the jumping-off point for Vie, which rejects the notion that a need for rap credentials is the singer’s primary motive and establishes Doja as the type of star whose credibility as an artist does not rely on album-by-album critiques. Mixing 1980s pop and R&B on Vie, Doja remains an elusive, genre-bending savant. 

Pop culture is like an arena where celebrities utilize various creative media to further their self-expression. As a title, Vie lacks a clear thematic connection to the album’s contents. Is it meant to imply that Doja Cat is living her best life? Given the star’s inscrutable persona, pulling off an extravagant album is a remarkable accomplishment. No matter what criticism she is responding to, Doja Cat lands on all fours. – Matthew Dwyer

10. Lily Allen – West End Girl (BMG)

As if a (second) messy tabloid divorce wasn’t enough, Lily Allen in 2025 also faced a listening public that seemed to think she’d lost her touch. After the lukewarm reception of the limp Sheezus and the near lack of reception to its follow-up, No Shame, the Britpop enfant terrible faced a make-or-break career fork: the path of the pop luminary with 20 years of public fascination under her belt, or that of the snarky mid-tier podcaster. Luckily for us, Lily has always favored the road less traveled.

Though West End Girl boasts the same soapy, salacious, high-concept breakup drama that rebranded Beyonce as an auteur, its greatest success lies in Allen’s trademark wit properly landing for the first time in 15 years. It’s a reminder of what made her so transfixing in the aughts: her breezy and aloof delivery, giddy pubescent shock tactics, her ability to slice her targets to ribbons and cut herself down to size in the same breath. It doesn’t hurt that it’s catchier than anything since “The Fear”, overflowing with melodies lovely and delicate enough to swaddle an infant in, carrying stories of butt plugs and 4chan threads.

Though the album doesn’t sport the radio-ready hits of her early days, it’s a mature career step achieved through the utmost immaturity – the most Lily Allen way to begin a new chapter imaginable. We’ll get back to wondering what’s next for her soon, but until then: Who the fuck is Madeline? – Nick Malone

9. CMAT – Euro-Country (CMATBABY)

Dublin artist CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) has mastered the art of being self-centered and universal at the same time. The songs on her third album, Euro-Country, address her personal peeves and disgust with late-stage capitalism in big, shiny letters. The songs are musically infectious and lyrically clever, simultaneously deep and superficial.

She draws from diverse cultural traditions, Irish folk, Americana, arena-friendly pop, singer-songwriter confessionals, and girl group sounds to humblebrag about the flattening of individual traditions and celebrate our universal commonalities. Her songs are not mashups. They reflect the times we live in. Who, reading this, does not have eclectic tastes and listen to music from multiple genres? We all consume from various sources.

Depending on the track, CMAT can make one weep at the death of a good man, commiserate with a pre-pubescent teen wanting to look sexy, get pissed at the unhealthiness of food choices, rage at other people’s bad behavior, and reflect on one’s own actions and find them wanting. She does this with a sense of humor and hubris, evoking tender feelings one minute and honky-tonking the next. CMAT complains that the world is becoming one big Euro-Country where individual nations lose what makes them distinctive, and she revels in our shared humanity as exemplified by our mutual musicality. It is a brilliant juggling act. – Steve Horowitz

8. 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

7. Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend (Island)

Sabrina Carpenter does not represent a new concept of pop stardom. Instead, she turns celebrity itself into a performance, using traditional hallmarks of fame as launch points for new cultural conversations. Carpenter’s seventh album, 2025’s Man’s Best Friend, is a quirky juggernaut produced by Jack Antonoff and co-written by Amy Allen. Antonoff also worked on Carpenter’s previous record, 2024’s Short n’ Sweet, adding his signature off-beat chord progressions and bubbly production to “Please Please Please”. Man’s Best Friend expands on that concept sonically, with sharp 1980s synths on “House Tour” and sentimental strings on “We Almost Broke Up Again”.

Barry Keogan, who guest-starred in the “Please Please Please” music video, allegedly inspired Man’s Best Friend. In “Manchild”, Carpenter scolds him: “Never heard of self-care / Half your brain just ain’t there.” However, the singer entices listeners by admitting that, at least partially, the joke is also on her. The title Man’s Best Friend satirizes both a possessive boyfriend and the well-meaning girlfriend who falls for his charms. Carpenter’s glittery pop music is a robust defense mechanism; public backlash against R-rated lyrics is the least of her worries. – Matthew Dwyer

6. Jade – THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! (RCA)

Going into solo pop stardom, Jade Thirlwall didn’t have good omens lighting her path. Her former Little Mix bandmate Jesy Nelson bet it all on a Nicki Minaj-assisted P. Diddy rewrite called “Boyz” in 2021, a flop that ended her solo prospects. Leigh-Anne Pinnock netted a few chart entries that basically have been forgotten by time, while Perrie Edwards scored normie hits with the exact kind of sounds you’d expect from a Little Mix soloist.

Thirlwall was last out the gate, but what few expected was just what a game-changer of an album she had on her hand. That’s Showbiz Baby! feels more like a Greatest Hits project than a pop debut, running through a cavalcade of styles with braggadocious finesse. The lead single and album opener, “Angel of My Dreams”, is a bold, tempo-switching dance-pop number that reflects on her torrid relationship with fame and the music industry. This theme runs through tracks like the slithering electro pulse of “It Girl”.

Yet for such a bold album title, That’s Showbiz Baby! is truly more interested in the mechanisms of the heart, as tracks like the Robyn-esque “Self Saboteur” and the breezy Tove Lo co-write “Lip Service” speak of misfires, missed opportunities, and regrets. With dynamite production by the likes of Cirkut, MNEK, and Raye, Thirlwall turns her bad heartbreaks into delectable confections, resulting in one of the year’s most unexpected and supremely delightful pop surprises. – Evan Sawdey

5. 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

4. 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

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