The 25 Best Albums of 2025

Kevin Olson
3 days ago
10 min read

Updated: 11 hours ago

Is it over yet? Not quite? Well, one thing's for sure. For better or worse, it was a heckuva memorable year. And a pretty amazing one, musically. During difficult times, people show their true colors, and in 2025, musicians of all genres came up with some of the most heartfelt, life-affirming, and yes, hopeful, music of their careers. And some of the best, most soulful tunes these ears have heard in quite some time. Here is my list of my favorite albums of the year:

25. Phonetics On And On - HORSEGIRL (Exile/Virgin)

Largely written in New York, Phonetics On and On was recorded back in their hometown of Chicago at Wilco’s studio, The Loft, with Welsh musician Cate Le Bon producing. Moving away from the 90's indie rock obsessions of 2022's Versions of Modern Performance, the indie trio's second album is a huge leap forward, full of musical restraint and lyrical clarity. Under Le Bon's tutelage, the trio learned to slow down and step back, and let the music come to them. On Phonetics On And On, Horsegirl have indeed found their voice.

24. Sinister Grift - PANDA BEAR (Domino)

Assisted by Animal Collective bandmates Deakin and Geologist, chill wave pioneer Noah Lennox’s eighth solo album is disarmingly laid-back. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis highlighted the album's "striking emotional arc", with plenty of "playlistable psych-pop" that "turns introspective". A straightforwardly beautiful and emotionally complex record, his Beach Boys timbre and looping melodic sense providing an alternately melancholic and uplifting listening experience.

23. Hard Headed Woman - MARGO PRICE (Loma Vista)

In some ways, Hard Headed Woman, is a return to classic country form—recorded in Nashville at RCA Studio A, where Waylon Jennings cut the 1973 outlaw-genre touchstone Honky Tonk Heroes. But Price’s record is also an integration and exhalation. A rewrite of Kris Kristofferson’s “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” recasts the late outlaw-scholar’s scathing anti-war ballad as a rowdy, funny, defensively personal honky-tonk screed. The track taargets “tone deaf sons of bitches” in the music industry: “Dudes lookin’ down their noses/Thinkin bullshit smells like roses,” she yawps with gusto, “All the cocaine in existence/Can’t keep your nose out of my business.”

22. The Collapse of Everything - ADRIAN SHERWOOD (On-U Sound)

It’s been thirteen years since Adrian Sherwood’s previous solo venture, Survival & Resistance. In the meantime, the passing of two friends and collaborators, The Pop Group founder Mark Stewart and drummer Keith LeBlanc, both featured on the album, became a trigger. The overall impression of the album is detached, yet observant and mindful. With guitar, effects and vocal contributions from Brian Eno, ‘The Well Is Poisoned (Dub)’ reflects on this strategy. Its ominous sound echoes Radiohead’s ‘The National Anthem’ and ‘Dollars and Cents’. For Sherwood, dub is a parallel realm where the world, however distorted it may be, looks at least tolerable. However dark the underlying motives are, The Collapse Of Everything gives a sense of hope, rising from ashes.

21. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory - SHARON VAN ETTEN & THE ATTACHMENT THEORY (Jagjaguwar)

There’s a new Sharon Van Etten album, though not quite; it’s Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory now, as the singer-songwriter has added her longtime band members (Jorge Balbi, Devra Hoff and Teeny Lieberson) into the creative process. Produced by Marta Salogni, this album feels like it was played live. The uptempo numbers bristle with new-wave energy (check out the propulsive Idiot Box), and the slower tracks are among Van Etten's most majestic. "Someone inside me saved me; Made me see the light/Someone had to make it feel alright", she sings in Afterlife, the album's first single. Introspective yet rebellious, Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory is a triumph.

20. A Tropical Entropy - NICK LEON (TraTraTrax)

Colombia-born and Ft. Lauderdale-raised, Nick Leon worked behind the scenes in the Miami hip-hop scene for years before scoring a hit of his own with 2022's Latin banger Xtasis, León worked on A Tropical Entropy for three years, naming it after a phrase in Joan Didion’s 1987 book Miami, which positioned the region as a sort of upside-down America thanks to its tropical heat and crime-ridden political landscape. In 2024, Leon said he was "tired of drums" and this album's more ethereal moments (better than half the album) underscore that sentiment. Still, there are some bangers here. If you're up for a dystopian cruise through Miami's shadowy soul, A Tropical Entropy is one wild ride.

19. Sable, Fable - BON IVER - (Jagjaguwar)

It’s cool to hear Vernon choosing fun at last on this, his fifth album. It’s a decision that’s opened up a whole new court for his melodies to play in. For all the sonic risks and boundary-pushing distortions of previous records, SABLE, fABLE is the more daring album in Bon Iver’s catalog, a record of rare beauty and hope that fits neatly into the catalogue of an outfit that has never failed to deliver something extraordinary.

18. Saving Grace - ROBERT PLANT WITH SUZI DYAN (Nonesuch)

A Black Country roots session where the former Led Zeppelin singer's blues, folk and indie tastes are complemented by a new vocal foil, former music teacher Suzi Dyan, in the Alison Krauss/Patty Griffin/Sandy Denny role. Across 10 intimate songs deftly adorned by guitarists Matt Worley and Tony Kelsey and cellist Barney Morse-Brown, magic happens. Saving Grace is just a testament to the joy of making music – a true ensemble piece where every voice and every instrument serves the songs.

17. Twilight Override - JEFF TWEEDY (DBPMA)

A recurring theme of 2025 albums was how musicians could respond to, or even function in, challenging times. Not a problem for the Wilco frontman, whose strategy was to write even more songs: “Creativity eats darkness,” he told MOJO Magazine in October 2025. Tweedy’s fifth solo album, then, was his White Album – a triple, with not one of its 30 songs a filler. And with Lou Reed Was My Babysitter released as the first single, how can you go wrong?

16. Find El Dorado - PAUL WELLER (Parlophone)

The covers album from Paul Weller, provisionally called Small Town Melancholia, was produced by Steve Cradock and features guest appearances from such artists as Amelia Coburn, Noel Gallagher, Seckou Keita, Declan O'Rourke, and Robert Plant. Find El Dorado, as it was eventually titled, celebrates the passion for finding a good tune and the feeling of having discovered a lost treasure when you do. Far from a filler project, ‘Find El Dorado’ stands as a fully formed artistic statement, reaffirming Weller’s place, once and again, as a restlessly creative interpreter of song.

15. Allbarone - BAXTER DURY (Heavenly)

Left with just the words, Baxter (son of Ian) Dury's new album Allbarone would read as poetry—a collection of biting observations, cynical social commentary and curious characters. However, with producer Paul Hepworth matching his verbosity with inventive electronica (Return of The Sharp Heads evokes Gorilla's Dare), Allbarone is elevated to a level on par with Dury’s best. Allbarone is a highly potent and undeniably successful combination: that rare album that continually reveals hidden depths, both lyrically and musically. A nine-track tour de force.

14. The Passionate Ones - NOURISHED BY TIME (XL)

The second full-length release from Baltimore self-described post-R&B artist Marcus Brown, AKA Nourished By Time features a guest appearance by Tony Bontana. Nourished By Time is the perfect prescription for the present moment: a voice for the ones that never had a chance to develop theirs. So much of The Passionate Ones is about reclaiming the autonomy—the time, the space, the compassion—that capitalism denies. “It’s okay to change your mind, I know it’s pain/But you gotta let that pain get inspired,” he rambles on the album-closing title track. “We hardwired for love.” Cathartic from start to finish.

13. Remembering Now - VAN MORRISON (Exile/Virgin)

After puttering around with skiffle, covers and duet versions of his back catalogue, Morrison’s 47th album (!) saw his still staggering voice back on the deep stuff – a heroic re-engagement with the mystic, with the muse William Blake and what he calls on page 54 “transcending the mundane”. Side Two, remarkably, stands up in comparison with his very finest work: "Back in shady lane in golden summertime" he croons wistfully on closer Stretching Out. "Sitting pretty; all along the coastline; miles and miles of golden sand" The effect is hypnotic, cathartic and, well, eternal. Remembering Now is the deeply heartening sound of an artist reintroducing himself to himself.

12. Antidepressants - SUEDE (BMG)

Having reformed in 2010, Suede’s fifth album of their second act seems to be the album they've been aching to make for years, maybe decades. Antidepressants built on the reset of 2022’s Autofiction, its soundworld closer to the band’s ’80s adolescence than their ’90s success: pounding, post-punk anthems with blood ties to The Cult, Killing Joke, Magazine and PiL. Hitting the mark throughout, Antidepressants is a musical tour de force from a band at the very height of their powers.

11. moisturizer - WET LEG (Domino)

While their self-titled debut mocked tragic suitors and doomed relationships with wit and whimsy, moisturizer finds Wet Leg deep in their feels. And it’s the kind of love that makes you call the doctor. On their sophomore album the band leans into what made the English rockers so interesting and fun to listen to. What Wet Leg have done ... is nudge their formula – and their image – enough to maintain people’s interest yet not enough to alienate those drawn to their

innate weirdness in the first place. Elastica anyone? Spot on.

10. Instant Holograms On Metal Film - STEREOLAB (Duophonic)

Six years of reunion touring laid the groundwork for the 11th Stereolab album, and their first since 2010. From the title down, Instant Holograms… illustrated how Lætitia Sadier, Tim Gane and co could still deploy so many elaborate musical and lyrical concepts with such stainless avant-pop ease. Recorded by Bitchin Bajas’ Cooper Crain, and an album to stand comparison with key ‘Lab work like 1999’s Cobra And Phases Group.

9. Sad and Beautiful World - MAVIS STAPLES (ANTI-)

Her 15th solo album is her best in more than a decade. Producer Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Bon Iver) does a nice job keeping the focus on Mavis and her singular voice. None of the guest spots (Bonnie Raitt, Derek Trucks) are intrusive. The overall effect is that of Mavis, a living saint and the voice of empathy, leading the hushed gathering in prayer, best evidenced in her take on Curtis Mayfield’s “We Got To Have Peace.”

8. Double Infinity - BIG THIEF (4AD)

Despite the 2024 departure of their bassist of nine years, Max Oleartchik, the Brooklyn-built indie band’s sixth album sounds like another instant classic. Double Infinity is a gloriously satisfying record on which it feels like everything is in its right place; Los Angeles evokes Monster-era R.E.M., while Happy With You achieves zen enlightenment through repetition. It helps that Adrianne Lenker remains in the songwriting form of her life, further establishing her standing as one of the great American songwriters of her generation.

7. More - PULP (Rough Trade)

To come back after over two decades and casually produce an album that sounds like it could have been made in the band’s heyday is quite some achievement. More is that rarest of reunion records: one that transcends nostalgia to actually enhance a band’s legacy. With a collection of memorable songs offering observations on life with both a singular wit and obvious care for its subjects, Pulp clearly still feel comfortable on More flourishing at the high bar they set for themselves long ago.

6. EURO-COUNTRY - CMAT (AWAL)

“This is making no sense to the average listener,” Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson – aka CMAT – claimed halfway through The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station. But just where is this EURO-COUNTRY she's singing about? It’s as much a place as it is a concept and a state of mind. As she puts it herself, it’s a term she coined for her continental take on the genre, a nod to how Ireland still sits proudly in the EU under the euro, and how “capitalism is one of the worst things to ever happen to us”. It’s classic CMAT: a roiling sea of charm, chaos, substance, sadness and piercing insight – and yet more proof this nascent star is in a class of her own.

5. Baby - DIJON (R&R - Warner)

Throughout Dijon’s second album, fragments of sounds — fiery ad-libs, golden age hip-hop samples, whizzing, inverted vocal riffs — jut out like beams of light piercing through the pitch black of night. Baby is best described by that all-encompassing word, experimental, but Dijon can occupy a space closer to traditional R&B too, concluding “Kindalove” with a thematic summation: “When I need it you shock me with your love!” he belts, having just done the same to us. - Pitchfork/Rolling Stone

4. Heavy Metal - CAMERON WINTER - (Partisan)

On ‘Heavy Metal,’ Winter's debut solo album, he unravels his eclectic influences into a surreal mosaic of modern songwriting. Rumored to have been composed in abandoned basements, taxi back seats, and in impromptu jam sessions in public spaces, ‘Heavy Metal’ draws on both the chaos of the road and Winter’s greater sense of existential dread. A rock’n’roll classicist with a razorblade croon, as much Tom Waits as Thom Yorke, and a precocious songwriting talent: “A glorious, emotive voice with brilliant, blistering words, a racked and wondrous thing,” - Nick Cave

3. Getting Killed - GEESE (Partisan)

Cameron Winter, along with his old school friends, now matured into possibly the US’s most exciting indie-rock group. Getting Killed rounds up the anxiety, desperation, and existential dread of 2025 and delivers it in a way that no other band alive could. Winter’s astonishing voice and agile songwriting is matched by the band’s funky and wired flexing, so that Getting Killed frequently sounded like a mythic Stones/Magic Band/Talking Heads mash-up.

2. DeBi TiRAR MaS FOToS - BAD BUNNY (Rimas)

In a fraught political moment following the victory of Donald Trump and a devastating loss for the Puerto Rican Independence Party in the 2024 election, Bad Bunny’s sixth studio album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (I Should Have Taken More Photos), is a bold declaration—a groundbreaking testament to his evolved artistry and vision for the future of música urbana. On ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’, Benito revolutionizes Puerto Rico’s folk music and reclaims his reggaeton throne with game-changing fusions that are authentic to him and what he believes in. The album is entirely cohesive yet musically ambitious in its foundation of live instrumentation, blending tradition and modernity with genres like salsa, reggaeton, dembow and plena, creating a patchwork of the island’s richest musical resources. Potent and personal, ‘DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ pays homage to Puerto Rico while inviting strangers along for the ride. Boasting 17-tracks and a full hour of music, ‘DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ is a love letter to his heritage that boasts some of Bad Bunny’s most definitive moments. A generational voice within the diaspora, this project finds the star bringing it all back home.

1. Bleeds - WEDNESDAY (Dead Oceans)

Off the back of 2023’s breakout LP ‘Rat Saw God’ and guitarist MJ Lenderman’s solo success with last year’s sublime ‘Manning Fireworks’, there are more eyes on Wednesday than ever before. Karly Hartzman is at the peak of her songwriting on Bleeds, with instantly quotable lines both profound (“The easy things in life keep getting harder everyday”) and genuinely funny stoner escapades (“We watched a Phish concert and Human Centipede/Two things I now wish I had never seen”). Rock records don’t come much better than this. Bleeds is another monumental statement from one of the most exciting bands working today.