The best albums of 2025 challenged orthodoxies, created new genres, and spanned a vast range of musical styles and traditions, while looking forward.
Brazilian pop thrived because artists recombined local textures with pop to paint a picture of how the country is rewriting its relationship to identity.
In these challenging times, the best soul and R&B albums walked tall and carried a big stick, while also being a much-needed balm and source of warmth.
The best hip-hop albums celebrate classic styles with new approaches, blend rap with electronic, jazz, and soul, and push the boundaries of genre.
The year’s best folk albums transcend genre boundaries, yet each entry remains firmly grounded in the folk ethos of connection and storytelling.
This year’s best electronic albums span the widest range of styles of any genre, ranging from melodic electro and warm house to the experimental outer reaches.
Dead Kennedys’ Frankenchrist is a full-scale assault on Reagan’s America–the hypocrisy, seedy undercurrent beneath the slogans, and institutional racism.
The 25 best pop albums of 2025 radiate with unstoppable playlist power, much-needed sweet escapism, self-reflection, self-criticism, and killer melodies.
The Best Americana has never been better with the quality of music, diversity of styles, and the artists’ demographics in terms of race and gender.
The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle is adept at carving patterns, often creating threads in his music by returning to idols that are both familiar and ever-evolving.
For singer-songwriter Maia Sharp, every song is both a mirror and a map, a way of testing her truths against the larger, shifting world.
In a year of daring experimentation in the best ambient music, sometimes the most classic-minded records are the ones that gave people what they wanted.
