Incorporating both TNH and WUNH’s choices, alongside my own personal favorites, this is a comprehensive best albums list from the year of 2025:
25. viagr aboys - Viagra Boys
The Swedish post-punk outfit are back with what is essentially a self-titled release, yet perpetually remains a bit ‘off,’ as the distorted title suggests. But with humorous lyrics that fuse the absurdity of life with the existential heights of art, viagr aboys is just the right amount of ‘off.’
24. Deadbeat - Tame Impala
Coming from the neo-psychedelic soundscapes that housed the Tame Impala moniker for more than a decade, Kevin Parker found that his newest studio album was the time for change. In pulling inspiration from the West Australian rave scene, some saw the album as a repetitive exploration of house music, while others felt it was “the euphoric listening experience [they’d] been yearning for” this year.
23. Let God Sort Em Out - Clipse
New-gen rap fans may not even know that gangsta-rapper Pusha T got his start in the 2000s as part of the duo, Clipse. Backed by early Pharrell production, Push and his brother, Malice, made iconic hip-hop in the genre’s bling era, but it wouldn’t be until 16 years after their last album together, and a lucrative solo career from Push, that the duo reconvened to make some of the most quality rap of 2025. With a seasoned Pharrell still on production, and sporting a stacked feature-list, LGSEO is arguably the duo’s best record yet.
22. Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party - Hayley Williams
Every so often, a solo record from a member of a popular band can be just as interesting as the band’s material. Hayley Williams, lead singer of Paramore, made her third album as an attempt to diverge as far from Paramore’s usual styles as she could, and from as many directions as possible. Versatile songwriting and some truly bizarre lyrical topics make this handily her most captivating album to date.
21. Guitar - Mac Demarco
The most chilled-out record on this list is without a doubt Mac Demarco’s sixth studio album, Guitar. As always, the singer-songwriter’s voice is relaxing and his grooves are wavy enough that any Mac Demarco fan could view this as a favorite of 2025.
20. moisturizer - Wet Leg
Wet Leg’s sophomore studio album may not be as consistent as their laid-back garage-punk debut, but its devotion to a wider array of sounds gives the album a boatload of personality to make up for its weaker points.
19. DON’T TAP THE GLASS - Tyler, The Creator
Following the singer/rapper/producer’s ultra-personal CHROMAKOPIA from last year, few could’ve expected a follow-up so soon. In mid-July, Tyler, The Creator announced DTTG a mere two days before its arrival – a perfect length of hype-time for a sub-30 minute album that exists for the sole purpose of dancing to.
18. Revengeseekerz - Jane Remover
While this was not a personal favorite of mine, it’s hard to deny the impact Revengeseekerz has made on the indie/hyperpop scenes this year. Making use of multi-layered digital arrangements and endless sound effects, Jane Remover’s production is as colorful as it is challenging. Regardless of one’s takeaway after listening, it’s impossible not to leave respecting the sheer artistic commitment.
17. Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You - Ethel Cain
Willoughby, a prequel to 2021’s Preacher’s Daughter, sees Ethel Cain continuing to execute complex worldbuilding narratives, using her haunting vocals and intricate production to create atmospheres that at times are ambient, and at other times are nothing short of transcendent.
16. SABLE, FABLE - Bon Iver
A two-part record that tailors to many styles Justin Vernon has attempted throughout his lengthy career, with the first half being a skeletal EP from last year that includes some of Vernon’s most emotive songwriting in years, and the second being a multi-genre journey from contemporary R&B to glitchy soul; a perfect album for any kind of Bon Iver listener.
15. Virgin - Lorde
In the same way that Solar Power was not the follow-up to Melodrama that many were expecting, Virgin was a complete 180 from Solar Power. The album’s relatively stripped-back nature could make the project seem underwhelming, but Lorde’s stream-of-conscious updates on life make the project feel like a necessary one for the pop singer to make. It doesn’t always have to be a perfect pop record. This one makes you feel, and that’s what’s most important.
14. In The Earth Again - Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo
The most unlikely collab of the year came from noise rock/sludge metal outfit Chat Pile and folk, americana guitarist Hayden Pedigo. I don’t know how this dreary, post-apocalyptic odyssey came about, or why it even works in the first place, but its excellent songwriting, symbolic lyrical themes, and its calming yet anxious tones make the project wholly unique in both artists’ catalogues.
13. Sinister Grift - Panda Bear
A little bit of reggae; a little bit of neo-psychedelia; a little bit of art rock; a little bit of pop. That’s Panda Bear’s Sinister Grift in a nutshell, but that does not describe it in full whatsoever. The album is a testament to Panda Bear’s singular versatility, both from an arrangement and vocal standpoint, and has an argument to be the best project he’s ever attached his name to (including his legendary indie rock band Animal Collective…I said what I said).
12. A Matter of Time - Laufey
AMOT is the third studio album by Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey. Showcasing a honing of her jazz-pop sound into an emotional and vulnerable work of art, some songs are tragic, while others are uplifting; though, it’s Laufey’s soothing vocals that dictate precisely how the listener should feel at any given moment.
11. Pain to Power - Maruja
After a decade in the music industry, jazz-rock/post-rock band Maruja have seen fit to release their debut studio album, a work that is aggressive, but also deeply sensitive and human – heavily charged with contemporary social and political issues. Pain to Power is as important as it sounds.
10. Something Beautiful - Miley Cyrus
Few records in 2025 have been as surprising as Miley Cyrus’ Something Beautiful. Her ninth studio album doubles as a visual experience, with the sometimes jazzy, sometimes noisy soundscapes reflecting the album’s themes of overcoming trauma perfectly. Miley Cyrus finds beauty in life’s inherent darkness, and she does so with some of the most complex (and catchiest) pop songs of the year.
9. Forever Howlong - Black Country, New Road
The departure of lead vocalist Isaac Wood following BCNR’s last studio album, 2022’s Ants From Up There, created a cataclysmic rift in the center of the band, but it takes a group of true musicians to rise up from those ashes and rebuild completely anew. Forever Howlong represents the tried and true artistry at the heart of this group, because even with all the bumps along the way, they still managed to produce one of the most creative releases of this year.
8. Balloonerism - Mac Miller
In January, Mac Miller’s estate finally released the rapper/singer/songwriter’s long-lost album, Balloonerism, following his passing in 2018. Created around the same time as his iconic 2014 mixtape, Faces, Balloonerism contains a much more harrowing sound, tonally and lyrically reflecting the darker side of Mac Miller’s psyche that never even made it to the public. It’s an emotional experience, as if you’re hearing a tangled web of discarded memories.
7. LUX - Rosalía
Alongside Miley’s Something Beautiful, Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía’s fourth studio album is the most daring release from a major-label artist in 2025. Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and sung in fourteen different languages, LUX is a triumph of female artistry and spiritual autonomy.
6. HYPERYOUTH - Joey Valence & Brae
HYPERYOUTH is JVB’s explosion into something truly special. Before, their Beastie Boys-esque energy and rapping styles were uproarious fun, but their third studio album takes things to a new level. According to a WUNH DJ, it “showcases one of the most accurate displays of growing up while clinging on to childhood joy, all the while having some insane bangers.” It goes ridiculously hard, and it hits ridiculously hard.
5. The Scholars - Car Seat Headrest
One of the defining indie rock bands of the 2010s are back with a record that makes up for lost time. It’s been over five years since the group’s last album, a mildly underwhelming blend of art rock and electronica, but The Scholars proves that CSH still knows how to do what they do best: writing sometimes lengthy, memorable, and emotional indie rock songs, this time with an ambitious, world-building concept to back it.
4. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS - Bad Bunny
The title of Bad Bunny’s sixth studio album translates to I Should Have Taken More Photos. Memory is intertwined with the album experience, and history is intertwined with memory. Incorporating a variety of influences from reggaeton and Puerto-Rican house music, Bad Bunny has reached an apex in his artistry with an album that is brimming with irrepressible patriotism.
3. From The Pyre - The Last Dinner Party
The Last Dinner Party is one of the most exciting groups in the 2020s’ art rock sphere. With an all-female ensemble of five, the band’s sound is expansive, their harmonies are full, and the emotions stem from an amalgam of places. Anyone can find something meaningful in this sophomore record, and it’s obvious TLDP is just getting started.
2. Double Infinity - Big Thief
The sixth studio album by indie folk group Big Thief feels like the culmination of their artistic prowesses. Adrianne Lenker’s vocals are as calming as ever. The group’s instrumentation is lush, yet down-to-Earth. The album is brief, but its ideas are as maximalist as can be. It’s a consistently excellent 2025 album experience.
1. Getting Killed - Geese
This album, man. Cameron Winter’s vocals are beautiful, raw, and wholly unique. The instrumentation is diverse but never strays too far from the path. This thing feels like “Geese” to the core, but that does not mean it’s treading on recognizable ground. Everybody has raved about this album, and they’re right. It gets better and better as it reaches its epic climax with “Long Island City Here I Come,” a song that places the unknowns of existence at the forefront and revels in the beauty of it. Getting Killed culminates into a spiritual dissection of what it means to be human, and what it means to strive for something.
