Top 25 Best Albums Of 2025
What a year it was! While pop stepped aside for a bit, a lot of niche artists came out with some of their best work yet. Let’s take a look at the best albums of 2025, according to Showbiz by PS Editor-in-Chief (me).
#25 Lotus by Little Simz
Lotus feels purposeful, mature, and confident — Little Simz is an artist fully in command of her voice. This record balances raw rap muscle with softness, restraint, and pristine sequencing. The flow of the production is very interesting, moving between heavy and softer moments, and the lyrical content is immaculate, especially toward the end of the album.
#24 Sleeper Hits by Soft Avalanche
Sleeper Hits is a remarkably self-assured debut, built on atmosphere, restraint, and emotional precision. Anders Ankerstjerne leans heavily into nostalgia, pairing dreamy, hazy production with introspective songwriting that tackles grief, mental illness, and memory with genuine warmth. It’s intimate, cohesive, and quietly ambitious — the kind of debut that signals real artistic longevity.
#23 Choke Enough by Oklou
Choke Enough is a quietly immersive debut that introduces Oklou as a compelling new voice in left-field pop. Co-produced by Danny L Harle and A. G. Cook, the album blends chamber pop and electronic textures into a hazy, wintery soundscape that feels both warm and unsettling. Its strength lies in atmosphere and cohesion: muted synths, sharp autotune, and echo-heavy production carry themes of loneliness, memory, and emotional responsibility like a half-remembered dream.
#22 Caroline 2 by Caroline
Caroline 2 finds Caroline expanding their sound without sanding down its edges. The album is hypnotic and immersive, built on dynamic contrasts between quiet introspection and overwhelming sonic bursts, with production that feels both raw and meticulously controlled.
#21 Private Music by Deftones
Deftones prove on Private Music that longevity doesn’t have to mean creative retreat. The album distills everything that made them timeless: crushing heaviness colliding with fragile intimacy, aggression dissolving into moments of eerie beauty. Rather than chasing reinvention, Deftones refine their core language, sounding ferocious, graceful, and emotionally charged three decades in.
#20 EUSEXUA by FKA twigs
FKA twigs returns in full command of her vision on EUSEXUA, a fearless electronic record that feels both deeply intimate and sonically untouchable. Twigs blends vulnerability with extremity, unpacking love, desire, power, and self-erasure through constantly shifting soundscapes that pull from IDM, trip-hop, trance, and glitch-pop. The album thrives on unpredictability—distorted outros, sudden beat drops, and vocals that move from fragile to inhuman in seconds.
#19 The Art of Loving by Olivia Dean
Olivia Dean presents The Art of Loving as a warm, emotionally precise album about growth, self-worth, and love in all its fragile forms. Her songwriting is clear and touching—never naïve, never cynical—capturing intimacy, fear, joy, and healing with remarkable clarity. Wrapped in smooth pop-soul arrangements and guided by her velvety, reassuring voice, the record lingers like a long conversation you don’t want to end.
#18 The Crux by Djo
Djo’s The Crux is his most emotionally grounded and complete album to date, striking a balance between playful theatricality and genuine vulnerability. Joe Keery leans into his eccentric instincts while sharpening his songwriting, delivering stories about dissatisfaction, escape, and the search for meaning with surprising sincerity.
#17 FURÈSTA by LA NIÑA
LA NIÑA’s FURÈSTA feels strikingly fresh while remaining rooted in a bold, unmistakable Neapolitan identity. The album blends traditional cantautorato and folk motifs with modern, Mediterranean-spanning influences, resulting in a stylish, powerfully expressive, and fiercely contemporary record.
#16 Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse
After more than a decade apart, Clipse return sounding not nostalgic, but razor-focused and fully present. Let God Sort Em Out thrives on tension: Pusha T and Malice trade cold, surgical verses with a chemistry that feels untouched by time, while Pharrell Williams builds a cinematic, slightly unsettling backdrop that modernizes their signature minimalism.
#15 Tsunami Sea by Spiritbox
On Tsunami Sea, Spiritbox refine everything that made them essential while pushing their sound further into something massive and emotionally overwhelming. Courtney LaPlante delivers career-best performances, balancing vulnerability and ferocity with jaw-dropping control, while the band surrounds her with towering riffs, precise breakdowns, and cinematic production.
#14 Never Enough by Turnstile
On Never Enough, Turnstile lean into something murkier, looser, and far more introspective. The album thrives on contrast: bursts of hardcore energy dissolve into hazy dream-pop detours, creating a restless, drifting atmosphere that feels emotionally immersive rather than instantly gratifying. The band sounds unafraid to slow down, wander, and sit with melancholy.
#13 SABLE, fABLE by Bon Iver
On SABLE, fABLE, Bon Iver makes his boldest pivot yet — away from sorrow and toward clarity, warmth, and earned optimism. This is Justin Vernon as a grown romantic, uninterested in competing over pain, choosing softness and intention instead. The record feels sunlit, grounded, and quietly radical in how unashamed it is of peace, proving that emotional maturity can be just as powerful as heartbreak.
#12 From the Pyre by The Last Dinner Party
On From the Pyre, The Last Dinner Party refuse the usual sophomore slump and instead lean straight into excess and ambition. Where Prelude to Ecstasy dazzled with baroque sparkle, this record feels darker, wider, and more self-aware — a theatrical reckoning with sudden fame, obsession, and the fear of being reduced to spectacle. The Last Dinner Party are not a fleeting indie phenomenon, but one of the most imaginative bands Britain has produced in years.
#11 Vanisher, Horizon Scraper by Quadeca
With Vanisher, Horizon Scraper, Quadeca delivers the most decisive artistic leap of his career to date — a fully realized conceptual journey that leaves his hip-hop origins behind in favor of something fluid, cinematic, and almost genreless. Ambitious without slipping into self-indulgence, it’s a landmark release that rewards repeat listens and confirms Quadeca as one of the most exciting artists of his generation.
#10 Something Beautiful by Miley Cyrus
Something Beautiful is a masterclass in how to make a pop album right. Hot, lavish, and effortlessly stylish, it’s the first Miley Cyrus record where every song truly has something to say. She elegantly folds together her entire musical past — from radio-friendly pop and left-field experiments to melancholic nods to ABBA and the grand tradition of classic showgirls — and reshapes it into something confident and forward-looking. Miley sounds fully in control here, moving toward a timeless future where Something Beautiful will only sound better.
#9 Getting Killed by Geese
Getting Killed finds Geese refining their chaos. Beneath its breezy rhythms and playful textures lies something heavier: disillusionment, quiet fear, and a strange acceptance of pressure and defeat. It’s a record that thrives on tension — playful on the surface, anxious underneath — proving Geese don’t need constant explosions to feel dangerous.
#8 Euro-Country by CMAT
CMAT’s Euro-Country is a confident, charming, and uniquely personal album that effortlessly blends pop hooks with traditional country influences. The first half of the record delivers a near-perfect pop statement. Guided by her remarkable voice, sharp lyrics, and playful humor, CMAT crafts songs that feel both intimate and jubilant. Euro-Country is full of charisma, live energy, and that distinctive flair reminiscent of what Chappell Roan is bringing to the US, but here in Europe.
#7 Moisturizer by Wet Leg
Moisturizer confirms that Wet Leg are not a one-album moment but a fully formed band with staying power. The sarcasm, absurdist humor, and razor-sharp hooks are all still here — but this time they’re paired with richer textures, more dynamic pacing, and moments of unexpected softness. Moisturizer doesn’t chase bigger explosions; it trusts mood, groove, and identity, proving Wet Leg already know exactly who they are — funny without being gimmicky, light without being empty, and confident without ever sounding forced.
#6 Forever Howlong by Black Country, New Road
Forever Howlong finds Black Country, New Road moving forward without hesitation, not by rewriting their past but by reshaping their identity. With three new lead vocalists, the album feels warmer, more melodic, and quietly inviting, while still retaining the band’s signature complexity and ambition. This isn’t a comeback or a reset — it’s a confident continuation that shows BCNR never really stopped.
#5 Patience, Moonbeam by Great Grandpa
Patience, Moonbeam is the sound of Great Grandpa slowing down, starting over, and emerging more focused and emotionally attuned than ever. Built around tender songwriting, expansive strings, and soft acoustic foundations, the album feels intimate yet quietly monumental. It’s a mature, reflective record that proves time, trust, and restraint can turn uncertainty into something genuinely moving.
#4 Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams
Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is Hayley Williams at her most expansive, fearless, and emotionally exposed, balancing towering rock anthems with hushed, devastating confessionals. Released independently after Paramore’s industry reset, the album feels unfiltered, unfolding like a public reckoning with depression, heartbreak, and identity. It’s her most ambitious and commanding work to date.
#3 People Watching by Sam Fender
People Watching finds Sam Fender passing the “third album test” with confidence, maturity, and clarity, firmly cementing his place among the strongest singer-songwriters of his generation. Framed around observing ordinary lives, the record turns deeply personal stories into universal anthems, touching on love, family, growing up, political disillusionment, and the quiet anxiety of adulthood — very much in the Springsteen tradition. It’s an empathetic, hopeful record that reminds us everyone is carrying something — and that connection often begins simply by paying attention.
#2 LUX by Rosalía
LUX is less a traditional album than a towering performance piece, where Rosalía stages love, rage, devotion, and collapse as equal forces. Expanding the radical pop language she began with El Mal Querer and MOTOMAMI, she turns mass culture itself into theater, confronting fame, fractured identity, and emotional excess with operatic intensity. Grand and chaotic, LUX feels like a once-in-a-decade statement — pop music pushed to cathedral scale without losing its soul.
#1 DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by Bad Bunny
DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is Bad Bunny’s most personal and meaningful statement to date — not just a breakup album, but a love letter to Puerto Rico and a meditation on memory, identity, and loss. Beneath the familiar club-ready energy lies a deeply reflective record about watching both love and homeland slowly change, slip away, and risk losing their essence. By blending reggaeton and Latin pop with plena, bomba, and salsa, Benito grounds the album in Puerto Rican tradition while confronting issues like tourism, cultural erasure, and fragile independence. It’s powerful, sincere, and politically aware without preaching — a culmination of Bad Bunny as both a global star and an unbreakable cultural voice for his island.
