Welcome to our yearly recap, if you followed this page last year you probably know that this is not a complete list of the best albums of 2025. It’s more a time-disordered list of personal favourites mixed in with the most influential albums of the year. It is important that I state the personal value of this list, so please accept my apologies if I missed your favourite album.
Just as the first fireworks were set off, at 00.00 on New Year’s Day Liberato unexpectedly released his third album Liberato III. The anonymous italian singer is not new to surprise drops and this was more unpredictable than any other. As per usual, his songs are deeply rooted in the classical neapolitan song, but the traditional melodies are given a modern sound heavily influenced by dance-hall and R&B. 2025 saw him play his biggest show so far in Rome before embarking on his second European Tour, Liberato will be playing his home ground at the Maradona Stadium in 2026 for a night that will define this decade.
In a similar context, Carlotta Moccia, artistically known as La Nina, released her sophomore album Fùresta (lit. woods, but metaphorically meaning ‘wild’) in March of this year. Fùresta is also rooted in the traditional melodies of the baroque neapolitan song with a strong influence from mediterranean music, but it also strongly reliant on the sounds and the instruments of the folklore.
Picking my favourite album of 2025 is a challenging task, but Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory‘s eponymous album is without a doubt in the mix. Her seventh studio album is also the first album with her band The Attachment Theory. The albums represents a complete change of style for her. The album comes with a dramatic change in aesthetic and sound, the singer-songwriter becomes the lead vocalist of a goth-rock album with post-punk influences coming straight from the eighties. “Idiot Box” is my favourite track on the album. It’s catchy, it’s melancholic, it’s desperate and a guitar riff reminiscing of the band New Order pairs perfectly with her contralto singing. It’s only as I’m writing this article that I notice that Marta Salogni is credited for production and mixing on this album confirming, once again, the unmatched quality of her work.
Bon Iver‘s Sable, Fable also saw a dramatic change of sound. Justin Vernon returned to ‘the shed’ and the band’s fifth studio works sound a lot less like the last decade: 22, a million (2016) and I,I(2019) and more like a balance between the adventurous folk of their first two albums and the industrial electronic-heavy sounds of their later two. In Sable, Fable, Bon Iver show their talent in crafting soft and catchy melodies that sound hearthy and folky whilst remaining true to their nature of innovators.
Rosalia‘s LUX, released in November, is a deeply innovative album. Her fourth studio endeavour, which comes three years after her major breakthrough Motormami, is an unique experience in four movements. It is and remains an art-pop album at its core, but it incorporates a classical orchestra which constitutes its backbone as Rosalìa mixes pop melodies and electronic elements.
The Irish post-punk trio M(h)aol released one of the most interesting albums of 2025, we talked about it here. Their sophomore album Something Soft comes as the band, once a quintet, became a trio. Naturally Something Soft sounds markedly different from their debut album Attachment Styles, but there is nothing soft about it. Obsessive drumming and heavy riffing are just the background on which Constance Keane’s vocals and her takes on modern issues such as online life, the gendering of her drumkit, and the bodily autonomy of women.
2025 was an incredible year for Irish music with more outstanding albums. We reviewed in depth Sprints‘ All That Is Over here. I was utterly shocked by their 2024 debut album Letter To Self and I was not anticipating a second album packed with even more excellent songwriting just over a year later. Sprints are also a terrific live band embarking a US/EU tour this winter, and I need to encourage everyone not to sleep on it!
Another Irish act on tour this winter is the phenomenal CMAT. The Dublin-born Ciara Mary-Ann Thompson is outstandingly prolific with three albums in the last four years. Euro-Country (2025) is probably her best work thus far in a constellation of great albums. CMAT does not hide behind a cheerful country-pop, instead she embraces her, relatable, unique quirkiness. The album has some of the most unhinged lyrics that I do not wish to spoil for anyone who has not had the pleasure to listen to the album yet, but titles such as “Jamie Oliver Petrol Station,” a song in which her hatred for the celebrity chef turns into an intrusive tune full of self reflections on her social anxiety. The title track faces her own mixed feelings towards her own country. The tune is incredibly catchy until one realises it’s shockingly sad. Also, my favourite song this year is featured on this album. “Lord, Let That Tesla Crash” is the most honest narrative of grief I have ever come across.
The last Irish act on this list is The Murder Capital with their third album Blindness which came out in February and was on our list of artists to watch for 2025. Their 2023 critically acclaimed Gigi’s Recovery is kept at some distance, but Blindness is by all means just as striking. It sounds heavier and more direct than their previous albums with tracks such as “Moonshot” and “Swallow” and “Love of Country” which faces the dark side of patriotism and nationalism.
The other band on our list of artists to watch from 2025 are the scottish Swim School which released their self-titled debut album. The nine-tracks long record encompasses screaming guitars which are masterfully tamed into nightly atmospheres and catchy melodies.
I cannot recommend this band enoguh, especially if you’re fans of Wolf Alice‘s debut album My Love Is Cool. Who, by the way, released in 2025 their fourth studio album The Clearing. On their latest record, Wolf Alice saw a turn to a more pop-ish sound with songs such as “Passenger Seat” and “Bread Butter Tea Sugar.” They embarked on a US/EU tour in late 2025 and will be touring throughout 2025 with more dates in Europe and Asia.
Thinking back on 2025, I cannot fathom how revolutionary was Hayley Williams‘ Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party. Despite the incredible quality of the production and the songwriting on this album, I believe it is important to stress its history. At the end of July, 17 individual tracks were first shared from her archive and then released as singles. It was made clear that an album containing them was going to be released later on, but the tracklisting was not decided yet. In perfect style she encouraged her fans to suggest possible track listings through Spotify playlists, as she would eventually choose from them. The album was released digitally in August and then physically in November with a total of 20 tracks.
One more record that had a massive impact on the year is Turnstile‘s Never Enough. The Baltimore hardcore quintet had their 4th album released in June. Their first show of this tour was a free admission gig at the Wyman Park Dell in their hometown. The videos from the show which demonstrate their endless love connection with the fans, put them on the radar for many and made Turnstile one of the most-hyped band of the year.
One more act that had massive results from their live performances in 2025 was Lady Gaga who released her first solo album in five years – Mayhem. The album and its aesthetics were anticipated by a few guest appearances including the ones at Coachella and the free concert on Copacabana beach that drew 2.5 Million fans. Sonically the album sees influences such as Siouxsie and The Banshees, with samples from “Spellbound”, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, but also David Bowie and Blondie. The album revolves around the themes of fame, identity and love.
On the topic of massive wolrd tours, we have Sabrina Carpenter who’s been on her Short n’ Sweet tour since late 2024. In 2025 she released her seventh studio album Man’s Best Friend, not without controversies regarding its cover. The album is for the most part a well produced country-pop with a clear and direct influence from Dolly Parton. The songs are playful and filled with innuendos. Overall, I largely preferred it to the critically acclaimed Short n’ Sweet.
Sabrina Carpenter also featured on the most anticipated (overhyped?) album of the year: Taylor Swift‘s The Life Of A Showgirl. This record saw Swift joined again by Max Martin and Shellback, whom she had not worked with since Reputation (2017), in order freshen up her sound. Indeed, The Life Of A Showgirl does not sound like anything produced by the duo Antonoff/Dessner. It’s fresh, but less catchy and perhaps less inspired than her other records. It draws from 70s/80s pop and rock including Fleetwood Mac and George Michael. For the sake of brevity I will not indulge further on this album of which I deeply appreciate the length, especially with respect to her previous 31-track long The Tortured Poets Department.
In September, the American rock band Twenty One Pilots released Breach, the final installment of the conceptual series they have been narrating since Blurryface (2015). It is mainly an alternative rock album with pop-rock, emo and nu-metal influences encompassing perfectly the spirit of these times. The band has been touring extensively since Clancy (2024) came out with spells in the US and overseas and are set to take part in all major european festivals in 2026.
Overall, 2025 cemented itself as a pivotal year with major sound shifts and interesting work from up and coming bands. Among the acts that confirmed their role as major players in the scene are Big Thief with their 9-songs record Double Infinity. Coming from a band reshaping (bass player Max Oleartchik left the band in 2024) and recent solo work from both Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future (2024), and Buck Meek Haunted Mountain (2023), I feared the album would pale with respect to their previous studio work Dragon Warm New Mountain I Believe In You (2022) which is probably my #1 favourite album of all time. Double Infinity has a different complexity compared to it and it is, perhaps, a lot more influenced by the individual studio work of the two songwriters than their sum. The songs are all heavily layered with interwoven melodies with “All Night All Day”, “Grandmother” and “Los Angeles” being immediate favourites consolidating Lenker‘s role as one of the most influential songwriters of the 21st century.
Lucy Dacus is another outstanding songwriter and her fourth solo record, Forever Is A Feeling, demonstrates it once again. It’s an album about love in all of its forms from the bittersweet “Limerence” to the rather explicit “Ankles” which are the two singles that anticipated it. The album includes “Bullseye” featuring Hozier and her bandmate from boygenius Phoebe Bridgers sings backing vocals on the song “Modigliani”, a song on long distance friendships.
Her other bandmate from boygenius and partner Julien Baker features on “Most Wanted Man”, a deeply personal song about her. Baker recently joined Torres on a collaborative effort that resulted in Send A Prayer My Way – an alt country record – which came out in April 2025.
As a coda to this long rambly article, I felt like including five albums that are outside of my niche and from artists I recently discovered. I had never heard of the rapper Little Simz when the radio started playing the song “Thief,” the first strack of her latest album Lotus. It’s a raw and powerful album in which Simz seems to face raw emotions including grief, burnout and spiritual rebirth.
The same radio station introduced me to Geese and their fourth album Getting Killed. It is chaotic and energetic with heavy riffs reminiscing of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and some unexpected sections that feel a lot more like free-jazz jams than a part of a rock album. All members of Geese are in their twenties and, naturally, the album has loads of post-rock influences.
Over the last decade I lived by the fact that Aaron Dessner is a bit like king Midas, who turns to gold anything he touches. Hence I have been following very eagerly his career both as a member of The National and as songwriter and producer. This year he featured on the track “A Cautionary Tale” from Laufey‘s A Matter Of Time. It’s a stunning album of classical melodies with a heavy jazzy tone coming straight from the american songbook, but Laufey gave them a modern spin. It’s her personal take on love, in different forms and shapes.
Dessner also contributed to Everybody Scream, the new album by Florence And The Machine. Most tracks are written by Florence Welch with Dessner, Mark Bowen from Idles and Mitski: an unusual wonder quartet. It’s a raw and stripped back version of Florence the one that shows up in this album which lacks the grandeur, the extravagance, and the baroque hooks that we are used to in favour of chaotic and messy emotions. Personally, a favourite from her long catalogue.
The final album of this list, is Pain To Power, the debut album of the Mancunian quartet Maruja. It’s a post-rock album with strong jazz and rap-rock influences. It opens with “Bloodsport” a track that combines heavy drumming and an intense saxophone which counterbalances the rapping vocals. The sax is a common thread that keeps the album together and drives its flow. The album balances explosive refrains influenced by bands such as Rage Against The Machine, as in “Trenches,” and very atmospheric and jazzy, cathartic moments like in “Saoirse,” “Zaytoun,” and “Born To Die.”
We have come to the end of this very partial list, and these are only 25 of the incredible albums that made 2025 special, there’s hundreds more worth listening to. Apologies if I missed your favourite album!