The 50 best albums of 2025
It is estimated that more than 100,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every single day, and that’s just one streaming service. This glut of music is unprecedented. Fewer tracks were released in the entirety of 1989.
These facts obviously raise a lot of questions and issues. But one of the most perfunctory problems is quality control. That’s where the humble, old album format comes to the fore. The effort it requires to whisk up an album goes some way to ensuring that due care and consideration have gone into an artwork.
So, in the age of so-called AI-slop, shrinking attention spans, and music following the unfortunate route of fast-fashion, the cared-for and curated LP has become sacred ground for many of us seeking something more permanent and meaningful. Like a high-vis jacket in the fog, releases like the evidently inventive Getting Killed and the potently poignant You Are The Morning shine like vital beacons that culture should aspire to.
These beacons attracted plenty of interest, too. Alternative music was discussed more on a parliamentary level this year than it has been for decades, proving one thing for certain: the vast sphere of indie has its bite back. Whether it be the uptick of the northern soul movement, the return of punk protest, or the continued dissolution of genre, subcultures are swinging from the hip once more.
That has led to a diverse list of crackers from all corners for Far Out in 2025: from the unsigned reaches of Brooklyn to Mauritania and even the rebirth giants whose hat we thought was hung, the best albums of this whirlwind year have been fittingly themeless, and this trove of masterpieces reflects that. Enjoy.
The 50 best albums of 2025:
Release: January 24th | Producer: John Congleton | Label: Rock Action
Mogwai have made a pretty solid name for themselves over the years as one of the best shoegaze bands on the market, and in 2025, they have continued to cement themselves as such with their record, The Bad Fire. Staying true to the wonder that is shoegaze, this is an album where there are plenty of innovative effects that help establish a real cinematic atmosphere throughout. That being said, the record also champions the guitar.
We can hear a lot of great guitar lines throughout, with some melody lines borderline being a creative flex of six-string muscles, as Mogwai really show off how well they construct instrumental music in order to create a song that feels as though it genuinely takes the listener somewhere. Stuart Braithwaite has always been adamant about creating music with just your own goals in mind. “With music, you are trying to achieve what you want,” he said, “Whether you successfully manage it is the issue.” I’m not sure what his aim was with this album, but he’s achieved it in my mind. [Words by Dale Maplethorpe]
Release Date: January 10th | Producer: Ben Zaidi | Label: Six Castle Road
On January 10th, Camille Schmidt put in 2025’s earliest contender for album of the year. Wasting absolutely no time starting the year off with something golden, her debut record Nude #9 sounds just as good 12 months later. Opening with ‘XOXO’, Schmidt sings “When I’m alone I go fucking crazy / Conjuring a demon in my room”, and it’s almost as if the record is that demon, taking the listener on a tour of her inner work. It’s one of those perfect examples of how the hyper-personal becomes the universal when it’s written right.
This is a record packed out with, and utterly coloured by, images and scenes from Schmidt’s life, from walking around New York having a “hot matcha and a heart attack” to devastating reflections of pregnancies, losses, encounters and childhood prayers. But it’s those exact details that make this album so hypnotic. Within the first weeks of the year, Schmidt revealed herself as one of the year’s most interesting songwriters and months later, the tales are still captivating. [Words by Lucy Harbron]
Release: April 18th | Producer: Compagnie 4000 | Label: Compagnie 4000
Creative frissons still clash with captivating spark since 2012, Franco-Ethiopian jazz rock outfit Ukandanz decided to wade into the world of early heavy metal, covering Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ for their sixth LP effort. Such a bold rendition emanated a coven energy across the rest of the Evil Plan የክፋት እቅድ mini-album, band arranger Damien Cluzel and Addis Ababa-born frontman Asnake Gebreyes taking inspiration from the original Brummie doom merchants to spin a similarly spectral fusion of heady rock fusions.
Under such thematic guidance, Ukandanz wander into a spooky but shimmering mist of brash lounge lizard skulk to indigenous East African heritage, all swirling together with beguiling alchemy. It’s a heady realm entirely its own, beckoning the intrepid listener toward a path well off the beaten track with an eager grin on its face. With seemingly no signs of slowing down based on the energy and dynamism bottled for their recent LP offering, Evil Plan የክፋት እቅድ seems to confidently spell further jazzy creations in their own, weird making. [Words by Tom Phelan]
Release date: September 19th | Producer: Shrink | Label: Atlantic Records
I had the pleasure of interviewing Julie Dawson, the lead singer of NewDad, earlier in the year, and she spoke about how unselfish each band member needed to be when making their newest album, Altar. “There’s no place for ego when you’re creating music,” she said. “You can’t have something in there because you want to be the one playing it, it’s not about that. It’s about what makes the song the best possible version of the song, so there’s definitely no room for ego when it comes to creating music.”
You can hear this unselfish nature throughout the record, as it feels like a very complete body of work which doesn’t exist without complete cohesion. Altar is a more layered, heavier, and full-bodied version of the debut, and it has well and truly earned its place as one of the best records of 2025, typifying the dissolution of genre within indie while feeling wholly singular. [Words by Dale Maplethrope]
Release Date: August 15th | Producer: Bret McKenzie & Mickey Petralia | Label: Sub Pop
It’s absolutely understandable that you might want to take a sizeable gulp when approaching a ‘serious’ album by someone best known for their comedic work, but Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie has more than enough in the way of musical chops to be able to make his second album, Freak Out City, draw a firm line in the sand between writing in earnest and gunning for laughter.
Of course, there are moments of humorous reprieve dotted throughout, but rather than choosing to lather on the irony and droll one-liners, he expertly weaves his dry New Zealander’s wit into the songs in a more natural and almost conversational manner, making the tracks of Freak Out City feel more akin to shooting the shit with an old friend rather than wincing your way through a forced stand-up routine. Here, he finds a comfortable home emulating 1970s folk-rock with a deep sense of love and care rather than parody, and he’s damn good at it. [Words by Reuben Cross]
Release date: May 16th | Producer: Brian Deck | Label: Bella Union
From start to finish, Goodbye Small Head is a masterclass in the beauty of letting it all go, of falling apart in the process, and losing control, whether through “weakness, illness, mysticism, BDSM, drugs, heartbreak, or just living in a sick society with one’s eyes open”. At the heart of all of that, Ezra Furman focuses on the art of finding liberation during trying times and emerging from the other side feeling more powerful than ever.
The overarching major of the entire record centres around not confining itself to one thing while also not oversimplifying the themes it tackles, many of them overlapping or coinciding to concoct a picture of the convoluted nature of life itself. In this world, experiences can be complex and frustrating, but ultimately, it’s about rising on top and being yourself, even in the flames. [Words by Kelly Murphy]
Release: April 25th | Producers: Ed Rodriguez, Greg Saunier, John Dieterich, Satomi Matsuzaki, Saul Williams | Label: Joyful Noise
If you’re looking for one album to encapsulate the true sound of 2025, you could do a lot worse than listening to Deerhoof’s strange Noble and Godlike in Ruin. The sound of the album is one of discordance and dissonance; a world fragmented, falling apart, pulling in different directions and being overwhelmed from every which way. Amongst all that noise and amongst all the rubble, though, there is still beauty to be found for those who are willing to look for it.
Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier described the album as being “our low-budget, DIY Frankenstein: A sensitive, spurned, intelligent, dehumanised creature made out of people”. And it’s that final image that is so important in making the album work. It is made out of people. “You make machines and I am one”, sings Satomi Matsuzaki at one point during ‘Kingtoe’. In our age of AI, no machine would ever be able to generate an album as monstrously human as this one. [Words by Matthew Ingate]
Release date: June 27th | Producer: Lorde and Jim-E Stack | Label: Republic Records
The air was fractious on that late June day as Lorde stepped on stage for a surprise set at Glastonbury’s Woodsies stage. After four years away, the New Zealand star had suddenly returned with her latest project, Virgin. It was a reckoning of the turbulent politics of fame, her identity, and the world at large. It was more than worth the wait.
Ever since Melodrama in 2017, Lorde has made a soapbox for herself as the reigning queen of electro-pop. To this end, Virgin could be seen more like the older sister – still as messy, hedonistic, and unpredictable, but with a shred more life experience under its belt. The album as a whole feels transitional, between ‘Shapeshifter’ and the godly submission of ‘David’, but never falters in its confidence. Lorde was always a force, but now she’s unstoppable. [Words by Lauren Hunter]
Release Date: January 24th | Producer: FKA Twigs, Marius de Vries, Stargate, Koreless, Eartheater, Ojivolta | Label: Atlantic Records/Young Recordings
Six years on from the release of Magdalene, FKA Twigs finally returned with her follow-up LP, Eusexua. A silky, sensual collection of tracks, you can imagine these flickering beats and ethereal rhythms soundtracking a night in an exclusive club lined with shining white walls and populated by the most eccentric-looking partygoers imaginable. Club Eusexua, you could call it, a place to lose yourself in the euphoria of moving your body and meeting a mysterious stranger, just for one night only.
It’s an innately feminine album, and as synths collide with Twigs’ delicate voice, you can feel the intimacy of every track, so intricately composed, moving through accessible pop cuts like ‘Perfect Stranger’ to more disorientating experimentations such as ‘Room of Fools’. If an alien came to earth and made their own interpretation of erotically-charged dance music, this would be it. With every thumping beat, there’s the threat that something will slide slightly off-kilter, while Twigs’ voice is at risk of glitching at any given moment, as demonstrated by the mesmeric single ‘Drums of Death’. [Words by Aimee Ferrier]
Release date: May 30th | Producer: Jasper Llewellyn, Casper Hughes and Mike O’Malley | Label: Rough Trade
If you ever hit shuffle on Caroline’s second album, you should be shot on sight. This is not the album for that. Instead, what the spanning eight-piece band delivered is a start-to-finish experience. It’s an album that demands to be heard in order and ideally in headphones, as the magic truly lies in the details. The ultimate proof of that is its standout track, ‘Coldplay Cover’.
Recorded with the band split in two and separated between two rooms playing two songs, the mic literally travelled between them, carrying the listener on that journey too, as the songs morph, converge and separate. Also featuring a stunning Caroline Polacheck feature, this is simply one of those albums made with clear skill. The members playing here are clearly talented masters of their instruments, and hearing them apply that to adventurous ideas and interesting experiments makes for an album that is as once both an experience to engage with but also simply a beautiful record full of feeling. [Words by Lucy Harbron]
Release Date: February 7th | Producer: Marta Salogni | Label: Jagjaguwar
There have been plenty of songs from earlier in Sharon Van Etten’s back catalogue that have helped cement the indie star’s position as one of the current generation’s great American songwriters, but never has an entire album of hers felt as cohesive and triumphant as a complete identity as her first alongside her newly minted backing band, the Attachment Theory. The album deals with her typical emotional heft in a flighty way and sees her writing with a greater sense of freedom and catharsis in her delivery.
From opening track ‘Live Forever’ onwards, Van Etten is far bolder in her creative decisions, and inviting her band to assist with the compositional elements has opened up new avenues that she was only flirting with on prior outings. There’s a poppy bombast to ‘Afterlife’, a scrappy scuzziness to ‘Indio’, and an exultant one-two finale in the shape of ‘Fading Beauty’ and ‘I Want You Here’. Her best album, bar none. [Words by Reuben Cross]
Release date: November 14th | Producer: Gabe Simon | Label: Island/EMI Label Group
Picture Parlour could have put out their debut a few years back, and it might have made the list. When their name first started being utter around after only a gig or two, the band could have rushed out ten tracks, cashed in on the hype and chased a quick high. But instead, they took their time, went away for a while and finally released something they’re rightfully really, really proud of.
The Parlour doesn’t just do the band proud, but it does the entire world of rock and roll proud. For those who complain about music ‘these days’, hit play here as Katherine Parlour and Ella Risi essentially invite you into a time machine, taking you right back to the 1970s as Parlour roars like Robert Plant and Risi shreds like Page. But this isn’t just a nostalgia trip – don’t make that mistake. The Parlour is alive and electric with fresh decisions, meandering melodies and unexpected choices that make ears prick up. It’s proof that sometimes good things deserve time, this is the product of patience turned into power. [Words by Lucy Harbron]
Release date: March 7th | Producer: Catherine Marks | Label: Gravity Records/Capitol Records
There’s a certain degree of cosiness that sometimes gets forgotten in the rock and roll scene. Plenty of artists want to blast the living daylights out of the speakers whenever their records come on, but ever since the 2010s, the more interesting bands are the ones that let their songs unfurl a little bit more. And while bands like Big Thief might linger purely on the folk side of the spectrum, it’s impossible not to listen to Divorce and hear elements of that free-form, dreamy spirit translated into rock.
This is also country music, though, and by definition that means that someone’s heart’s going to get broken at least once, but the band has no intention of leave the audience weeping. As much as people might come for the storytelling in many of the tunes, they stay for the beautiful vocal harmonies that feel reminiscent of 1970s-style AM radio gold, along with the kind of songwriting chops that have Jeff Tweedy’s fingerprints all over them. They’re still getting started, but it’s also clear that they’re going places with their unique blend. [Words by Tim Coffman]
Release Date: March 21st | Producer: Blake Mills | Label: Dead Oceans
A record suited to every mood you could possibly think of, For Melancholy Brunettes proves Michelle Zauner’s proficiency for blending the accessible indie pop tones of her previous efforts with something entirely new and different, moving effortlessly into different styles and genres to pull off something that pulls you into all sorts of directions, each as gracious as the last.
Blake Mills’ flawless production bolsters this experience, enriching Zauner’s themes of grief, loss, isolation and relationships, coasting the line between personal recollection and mythological embellishments. If for nothing else, the record proves an artist coming into their own and maturing in all aspects, standing out as a distinctive voice that you’d be foolish to miss out on. For those coming in fresh, let the richness of the emotions wash over you, before beckoning you back again, and then again, into its delicately charming world of melancholy and everything in between. [Words by Kelly Murphy]
Release Date: May 26th | Producer: Mattias Stålnacke | Label: Spare Dog Records
Gasper Nali man-handling his makeshift three-metre-long babatoni is an uncanny sight. But even more impressive than this unique bass guitar is the sound that comes from it. For such a hefty instrument, the Malawian manages to produce a sound that is as soft and soulful as the morning sun. Yet, on Chule Chule Iwe, it’s also as propulsive and rhythmic as Arcade Fire at their finest, adding an Afrobeat heart to his own brand of jangly folk.
He brings his hometown of Nkhata Bay to the masses as he playfully navigates his cowskin creation and chants with a chipper smile. Playing in a percussive manner that summons the sound of a one-man band, Nali’s charming originality is full of dance and sung with a smile. It’s only his second full-length LP, but it’s clear he still gets a kick out of finding new sounds in his creation. [Words by Tom Taylor]
Lotus – Little Simz
Release: June 6th | Label: AWAL | Producer: Miles Clinton James
When are we going to call a spade a spade and just admit that Little Simz is the best rapper in the UK? She continues to prove herself as someone incapable of feeling pressure as album after album becomes an instant classic. Dabbling with various styles, sounds, flows, and images, Simz is one of the most versatile rappers making music at the moment, and she shows no signs of letting up on her newest record, Lotus.
What sets this album apart from anything else that she’s ever done is the fact that it takes all of those versatile approaches to music which she’s explored in the past and presents them in one cohesive body of work. It’s incredibly impressive to say the least, as despite songs being radically different to one another, they don’t sound odd appearing on the same record. You want something to dance to? It’s here. Something to cry over? Yup. Something that shows Simbi getting more vulnerable than ever? It’s all on Lotus, a record which blooms for every single second of its run time. [Words by Dale Maplethorpe]
Release: April 4th | Producer: Hataałii | Label: Panther Mountain
Cormac McCarthy might have lived to see old America fracture under the weight of the new, but he never hung around long enough to hear it crack completely. Hataałi picks up his pen and captures the sound of the creaking precipice with a brand of Americana that captures so much more than a pedal-steel and a violin with his own resonant tales of unguarded heartache, all set to tones that summon the sleepy, setting-sun saudade of Suttree.
The 22-year-old Native American exhibits literary wisdom and raw vulnerability in equal measure with an album that feels oddly unstuck in time. Picking up where Cindy Lee left off, I’ll Be Around plays with the present paralysis of eras, one moment feeling like a forgotten folk record left in the glove box of a Ford truck from 1962 and the next serving no-fi dissonance. [Words by Tom Taylor]
Release Date: July 16th | Producer: Jerry Harrison | Label: Blue Arrow
On his 18th studio album, at 74 years old, Jonathan Richman entered the studio for a mere five-day session with little more than a few rough ideas. It shows… in the best possible way. Only Frozen Sky Anyway is pure expression. Alongside Jerry Harrison, Richman lets it all flow in every which way, and thanks to innate craftsmanship, the songs that follow are irresistibly melodic anyway.
Capturing a folk-samba sound, in a free-form manner, Richman weaves his way through hot topics like shame, elegant bats, night fever, the ebb and flow of a bickering relationship, and bilingualism, all from behind the trusty conduit of his acoustic guitar. I suppose it’s a spiritual record at heart, but the crux of what it conjures is having a beer on the corner of a square in Seville while a local busker, some place not far off, plays with drunken passion. [Words by Tom Taylor]
Release: October 3rd | Producer: John Congleton | Label: Third Man Records
While a much maligned term among the punk underground, a band like Nashville’s Snõõper reminds you of why eggpunk was so exciting in the first place. Sticky garage attack, lo-fi mulch gunked all over the punk fizz, and a discoloured cartoon slime congealing both between the band and singer Blair Tramel’s piquant lyrical comic strip all pinged and zapped with ever more mirth for sophomore LP Worldwide.
Following the template laid out by 2023’s Super Snooper, the quintet injects a giddier dose of turbo acid to their surrealist punk attack, every cut on Worldwide ripping that bit harder and faster than has been wielded by the band yet. While still sonically dwelling in the crude, a certain wider canvas can be detected this time around, breathing new life to an eggy sub-genre that’s found itself gnawing its own tail among many Bandcamp imitators. Snõõper is still cracking on with cannonball power, their dizzying fun and adrenaline-spiking garage hurtle still fizzing with joyously absurd velocity and all the right levels of weirdness thrusting Worldwide to another mangled gem unleashed amid the punk underground. [Words by Tom Phelan]
Essex Honey – Blood Orange
Release date: August 29th | Label: RCA / Domino | Producer: Devonté Hynes
With each release, we see Blood Orange excel more and more with the sporadic sound that he has become renowned for. It’s a real treat to witness, and on Essex Honey, it feels as though he has really worked out how to be uncompromising with his approach to music, but also reel in his creative ideas so that they can be digested.
Tracks cut off halfway through and start again; the differing styles throughout are incredibly unpredictable, but the whole thing feels cohesive. His previous records have come across as a little bit too disjointed, and while still being well received, there has been something left to be desired. That’s not the case here, as Essex Honey sounds like a Blood Orange album for the ages. [Words by Dale Maplethorpe]
Release date: September 19th | Producer: Alex Farrar | Label: Dead Oceans
Alt-country Asheville group Wednesday started this year on the precipice of mainstream stardom. With much to lose, they hit a home run on their September release, Bleeds. The album not only cemented their talent, but did it with a rotund morbidity that was uncompromising and refreshing at every turn. The project opens with droopy, scuzzy guitars, a rotting suburbia, and a lamentation on “broke dick sincerity”. Karly Hartzman starts as she means to go on, with lyrics that are brutal and kaleidoscopic, a new take on the stream-of-consciousness that dissects the personally excavated, corpse-like and confrontational, but retains a meandering level of myth and mystique.
Plus, for all its dissection of the complicated entanglement of love and loss, it acts out its own theory: MJ Lenderman shares the lead on ‘Elderberry Wine’, though the two front-persons had split up by the time of recording, and the guitarist had all but left the band by the time of release. There’s something legendary about the charge behind the shuffling sonic sincerity, a quiet Fleetwood Mac moment revisited, drowned amidst the perfect level of angsty alt-rock scuzz. [Words by Rachael Pimblett]
Release date: September 26th | Producer: Simon Tong | Label: Valley of Eyes Records
Couples with a favourite graveyard, seaside existentialism, and the blueish hue of an Erik Satie composition all push Studio Electrophonique’s reflections on everyday life closer to Charles Baudelaire’s flair rather than Alan Bennett’s witterings. With stunningly resonant lines like, “It’s hard, when you’ve been working all week, to make decisions”, James Leesley’s debut outing under this moniker feels like a deeply earnest reflection.
The compositions are tender and unfussy. They serve as a perfect mellow bed to the beguiling words, never getting in the way or overcrowding things. There’s the sweeping textures of a distant electric guitar, the meek mainstay of a tuneful acoustic, and a hint of becalming ambience thanks to sustained synth notes. That’s about it. And it’s a world unto itself, serenely conjuring that rain-sapped feeling of a sleepy 7pm bus ride in early November from the city to the suburbs, thinking over things from the past that never really happened, you just read about them in an Alan Sillitoe novel. [Words by Tom Taylor]
Release Date: April 4th | Producer: James Ford | Label: Ninja Tune
Enough has been said about how Black Country, New Road have risen like a phoenix from the ashes following the departure of original frontman Isaac Wood. However, as spellbinding as their first two albums were considered to be, Forever Howlong ought to render them as artefacts of a hallowed past as opposed to glory days that fans long for a return of. Avoiding the rigmarole of finding a new lead vocalist and songwriter, the band opted to take the democratic approach, allowing Tyler Hyde, May Kershaw and Georgia Ellery to divide the duties equally.
Not only does this allow for a greater expansion of the sounds that the band explore, but it also subverts the idea that BC, NR were a band destined to always be centred around grandiose crescendos and male anguish. There are fragments of the same band heard on Ants From Up There to be clutched onto for those unwilling to accept this new future, but for anyone willing to open their ears to the reincarnated version of the band, expect a glorious tour de force of progressive folk, ornate art pop and neo-classical flourishes. It is an original touch of class. [Words by Reuben Cross]
Release Date: March 21st | Producer: Roger Moutenot | Label: Blang Records
Bob Dylan has had more of a presence in 2025 than you might have expected from an 84-year-old. Perhaps his greatest cultural contribution this year, however, has been the inspiration for the album cover and title of anti-folk hero Jeffrey Lewis’ incredible album, The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis. Thankfully, the tracklisting contained inside the album is not made up entirely of Dylan parodies – although you can never put that sort of thing past Lewis – and instead offers up one of the songwriter’s most diverse and emotionally vulnerable efforts to date.
Tracks like ‘Inger’ and ‘Tylenol PM’ are particularly heartbreaking, with the latter focusing on Lewis’ own inner-workings, having spent the majority of his existence dedicated to DIY music-making and unwavering independence. As with every Lewis album, though, there is light within the shade in the form of his distinctive sense of humour, which is never too far away from his performance. While other efforts – ‘DCB & ARS’ being one such example – are distinctly more upbeat, thus preventing the album from ever feeling too overly dragging in its melancholic introspection. [Words by Ben Forrest]
Release date: October 17th | Producer: Richie Kennedy | Label: Play It Again Sam
It would only be right for Far Out’s resident Scottish music writer to have a space in this top 50 list to big up the fellow Scots, and Brògeal have emerged as the year’s most worthy winners. As is the case with musical exports hailing from home, the indie rock juggernaut is in full force, but this band might just harbour something both classic and fresh.
If you were to picture the admittedly very bizarre image of The Pogues and Fontaines DC having a lovechild, Brògeal might just be born out of that Celtic elixir. There’s enough rollicking accordions in the album to have you dancing round the bar, but also those piercingly tender moments that would undoubtedly bring a tear to even Shane MacGowan’s eye. The weekly paper round just got a whole new soundtrack. [Words by Lauren Hunter]
Release date: January 17th | Label: Saddest Factory Records | Producer: Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus
Jasmine 4.t. delivered a standout LP within just a few weeks of 2025 bursting into existence. You Are The Morning quickly became a go-to record. It is light and dark, soft and hard, speckled with suffering and bruised by the brightness of hope. It’s a very special disc built out of Jasmine.4.t’s pain and her attempts to heal it, like the breaking blue sky following a dark and stormy night.
“There’s a bit of everything for everyone” is the kind of platitude I am paid to avoid, but it feels wholly necessary for describing the LP. But while it can veer from grunge to folk to bedroom pop and back to chugging Britpop, the real star of the show is Jasmine 4.t., as she demonstrates herself as not just an expert arranger, but a potent songwriter. She has created an album deeply rich with personal affectation and accomplishment, but provides a brutal sense of humanity. It’s the kind of record that morphs to fit whoever is listening. It’s empathetic. It’s adaptable. It’s honest. [Words by Jack Whatley]
Release date: October 17th | Producer: Markus Dravs | Label: Island
After the release of their debut, Prelude To Ecstacy, The Last Dinner Party’s lightning-fast rise to the top came along with a huge amount of pressure and one deafening question: How on earth will they follow that up? When ‘This Is The Killer Speaking’ dropped, they shared their answer, ‘With originality’. The Last Dinner Party bust any suggestion of the ‘difficult second album’ by leaning fully into their own vision.
Delivering a ten-track multi-world fantasy, the band are traversing myths, legends and genres, from the cowboy shoot-out swagger of that opening single, to the folk-horror of ‘Woman Is A Tree’, into the neon-lit, Elton John-esque finale of ‘Inferno’. Once again, they delivered an album that is hit after hit with no skips, but once again, they did it fully their way, never needing to surrender to cliches or easy options. Instead, they simply keep perfecting their own golden recipe, crafting earworm indie tunes that feel set to be timeless anthems. [Words by Lucy Harbron]
Release date: August 29th | Producer: CMAT and Oli Deakin | Label: CMATBaby via AWAL
2025 seemed to be a year of Irish cultural dominance on all fronts, but no one hit the bullseye of that zeitgeist with more force than the ‘Dunboyne Diana’ herself, CMAT. Having already been riding high off the back of a Mercury Prize nomination in 2024 for Crazymad, For Me, the new pop princess made it a consecutive double-whammy as Euro-Country secured even more critical applause.
By her own admission, Euro-Country is CMAT’s most serious album yet. You can’t hide from that in the reflections of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger years on its title track, nor the devastating depths of grief explored on ‘Lord, Let That Tesla Crash’. But the expert craftsmanship is carrying this weight without ever making it a burden. It has paid dividends – not only is she now Ireland’s sweetheart, but the world’s newest pop favourite. [Words by Lauren Hunter]
Release date: July 25th | Producer: Tom Healy and Folk Bitch Trio | Label: Jagjaguwar
From start to finish, Folk Bitch Trio’s debut album is beautiful. You could ignore every single word they say, and it would still be beautiful. Or, you could mute it and simply read those words, and it would be beautiful. What the Aussie three-piece have turned in is simply a perfect slice of folk from all sides. Vocally, the trio’s harmonies ascend to a place that’s nothing short of heavenly. Lyrically, they’re sharp, witty and weave between being off-the-cuff and completely webbed in poetry.
Sonically, too, the guitar playing on this album is inspiring as they’ve also mastered the balance between being impactful but never overcrowded. It’s an album of such consistent quality that picking a standout is near impossible. Instead, that can simply be added to the pile of things the band have achieved, putting out a record of start-to-finish gold that also stands up song by song in playlists dedicated to various shades of heartache and angst. [Words by Lucy Harbron]
Release date: June 6th | Producer: Brendan Yates | Label: Roadrunner Records
Turnstile had their niche. They were, undoubtedly, one of the biggest hardcore bands to come out of the last decade. And they were great at it: that crunchy, scuzzy, high-energy rage. But the Maryland band wanted more, and on their 2025 album, Never Enough, their pursuit of greatness transformed into a cathartic, experimental, and impressively innovative foray to the very outer limits of the genre.
Across 14 formidable tracks and with newly-appointed full-time guitarist, Meg Mills, in tow, the band jostle and jump through a considered exploration of space and texture, soaring from flute meditations to funk rhythms, a Hayley Williams cameo, an accompanying experimental short film, and a techno-infused synth outro. It’s teeming with life and bite. In 2025, Turnstile have also toured the new sound furiously, leaning on the eleventh track ‘Birds’ as an anthemic set closer and the grooving bass of ‘Seein Stars’ providing a welcome reprieve from the mosh pits. It’s a carefully curated cluster. [Words by Rachael Pimblett]
Release date: January 31st | Producer: Ben Baptie | Label: BMG
Comeback albums are a tricky thing to pull off, particularly when – as in the case of British funk powerhouse Cymande – so many years have passed since your 1970s heyday. Nevertheless, the funk outfit took to their unexpected triumph, Renascence, with effortless grace, as though no time at all had passed since the heady days of their ’72 debut. Not forgetting the political activism of their earlier days, the album takes aim at the rather dismal state of the modern world, rendered in the band’s typical style of funk-fueled activism, and that certainly roots the album in the present tense.
The timeless Cymade succeeds in this comeback where countless others have failed: they do not abandon the roots of their original sound, which, after all, still remains utterly beloved even after all these years, but they do not rely too heavily on nostalgia fuel either. With the aid of guests like Celeste, the band creates a record which feels like a euphoric celebration of funk expression, both new and old. In that sense, it is the perfect comeback record. [Words by Ben Forrest]
Release date: March 21st | Producer: James Adrian Brown and James Welsh | Label: Invada Records
It’s hard to think of any other group that orbits the world of post-punk noise who could summon blasts of caustic seethe while never once lapsing into draining nihilism or inadvertent flirtation with misanthropy. Underneath Robbie Majors’ digital pummel and frontman Kingsley Chapman’s lyrical reportage, forever burned a furious, passionate plea for a better world than was on offer from our failed political class. Such validating anger stung ever more sharply on this year’s Constant Noise sophomore.
Expanding their sonic palette to embrace a wider terrain of contemplative cogitations, matching the duo’s wider, thematic look beyond the UK’s boundaries, Benefits wrestled a more coherent slab of industrial belligerence, subsuming faded club nostalgia one minute to congregation sermon choirs the next. Bottling the febrile times, Benefits somehow seemed to score the ‘new’ New Labour with the same zeitgeist crackle as previous effort Nails had captured the grey ebb of the Conservative Party’s austerity stasis. Political without preaching, Benefits conjured a fired-up yet deeply moving statement on the state of things, charged with swaggering, punch-drunk belligerence but always tethered to a core of compassion amid the snarling murk. [Words by Tom Phelan]
Release date: April 11th | Producer: Undisclosed | Label: Glitterbeat
Now that we are approaching the conclusion of 2025, there can be no denying that we exist in an age where music and culture are being trimmed down to short-form content, optimised for social media exposure and, in that digital hellscape, narrative albums – particularly good narrative albums – are becoming fewer and further between. So, when Tokyo trio Kuunatic unveiled Wheels of Ömon back in April, it was a breath of fresh air.
An expansive soundscape visiting the age-old musical heritage of Japan, and blending it into the band’s ever-unpinnable sound, which exists somewhere between prog, metal, and psychedelia, the album extends the mystical landscape of Kuurandia, which was first introduced on the band’s earlier releases. More specifically, Ömon is the sun of Kuurandia, and this album tells the story of an entire rotation around that sun. That narrative is almost worryingly easy to get swept up in as the runtime progresses, highlighting the extent of the trio’s entrancing powers, along with the infectious nature of their Iron Butterly-come-Azuma Kabuki Musicians sound. [Words by Ben Forrest]
Release date: September 5th | Producer: Dom Monks | Label: 4AD
Songs found not written. I think those words originally stem from Bob Dylan talking about his own work, but in the modern age, it feels as though it applies much more to a band like Big Thief and their gorgeous, naturalistic approach. I’m still waiting for them to release a bad song, let alone an album, as their most recent LP, Double Infinity, continues to highlight just how much of a tour de force this band truly are.
This is one of those albums that you need to set aside time for. It’s music with corners, layered and all-consuming, something which is well and truly wonderful to get swept up in. You’ll find yourself lost in a record like this, but don’t panic, you’ll work your way out of it eventually. Until then, just sit back and enjoy the ride that is Big Thief. It’s a serene adventure of free-flowing folk, unafraid of sonic risks. [Words by Dale Maplethorpe]
Release date: March 28th | Producer: Sam Evian | Label: Bella Union
The essence of a great album is the execution of an idea. Not in a technical, virtuosic sense or even an experimental sense that opens up the possibilities of a new musical world. But execution of ideas in the way of truthfulness, where the songs within an album feel inherently linked to the artistic voice of the musician. Earthstar Mountain is the clearest example of that I have seen in years. There’s a familiarity to the arrangements, be it on the upbeat indie of ‘Draggin’ or the groove-laden pop of ‘Summer Sweat’, but it’s all presented through the lens of Hannah Cohen.
Despite whatever influences she is taken from, each song feels like an extension of her, as though she is wasting no energy trying to be somebody else and instead operating in her own sphere of confidence. This album just feels right; it feels simple, and at best, it feels meditative. It’s almost like music medicine that slows you down and crystallises your attention to be calmly focused on entering the alluring world of Cohen’s artistry. [Words by Callum MacHattie]
Release date: March 21st | Producer: Saguiv Rosenstock | Label: AD 93
With every one of 45 Pounds’ feverish slices of panicked, post-punk clangour, New York’s YHWH Nailgun displayed an unnatural gift for hammering a groove or hooky beat amid the most twisted industrial forms. Erratic, fizzing with electrolyte energy, and seemingly convulsing between brittle snaps of terse disquiet and gargantuan slabs of metallic engulfs, YHWH Nailgun seized the senses and transported them to a realm of sheer somatic heft sincerely sounding like no one else before them.
The key to 45 Pounds’ pugnacious marvel is the electric synergy between each member. Each of their aural elements collapsing and crumpling into each other with teeming, wriggling, insectoid anxiety, YHWH Nailgun spat out their electronica whirlwinds with an effortless sense of ever-changing metamorphosis, each cut across 45 Pounds’ barely 20 minutes, never quite sure of its final form. This all makes for a fascinating immersion into their world, scoring the buzzing, noisy contemporary we’re all forced to wade through. Burnishing a truly unique voice in the crowded world of industrial, YHWG Nailgun summoned an explosive debut of an arcane, otherworldly aura. [Words by Tom Phelan]
Release date: October 10th | Producer: Short Porch and Charles Dahlke | Label: Unsigned
There are plenty of exceptions to the rule, but by and large, the best films are 90 minutes and the best albums last half an hour. These concise runtimes imply a pointedness and a lack of pretence. That certainly sums up Short Porch’s no-nonsense debut album, Hot & Ready. The unsigned Brooklyn rockers have been around the DIY scenes of their big old city long enough to know what they’re about.
So, from this contentedly resigned place of doing it for kicks, they pair big Friday night riffs with Tuesday night tales of bar staff refusing drunks one final cold beer before closing time. They irreverently ponder an apocalypse with all the wry slacker spirit befitting of an unsigned rock ‘n’ roll band in today’s musical ecosystem. And it’s all so very joyous to listen to. With a big sound, they get the blood-pumping in a melodic manner reminiscent of ‘Born to Run’… provided Bruce Springsteen was the sort of bloke to put his favourite local pizza chef on the cover. [Words by Tom Taylor]
Release date: September 5th | Producer: Kid Harpoon, Dom Monks | Label: Matador
Like a cold shower, Who Is the Sky is very refreshing, but it takes quite a bit of adjustment. If anything, in his 70s, David Byrne exhibits even greater zeal and lust for life than he did in Talking Heads. On his latest solo album, he puts that passion to good effect. He draws harmony from disparate strands and a swollen ensemble to create a rollicking record that bounds around like a juvenile Duracell bunny.
By and large, it is a pop record. As he points out on ‘The Avant Garde’, there is a lot to be said about the polished accessibility of pop. But it is not one that abides by platitudes or tolerates the notion of a singular formula. Take, for instance, Kid Harpoon’s paradoxically straight production. The British producer is primarily known for his work with the likes of Harry Styles and Miley Cyrus, and it feels joyously odd to have his hook-driven minimalism married with the maximalist Ghost Train Orchestra ensemble’s instrumentation and a manic frontman yelling, “I saw a woman in a leotard.” But somehow, when you’ve gotten used to the brashness, it goes down an invigorating storm. [Words by Tom Taylor]
Release date: August 1st | Producer: Joe Jones, Jack Ogborne | Label: Transgressive Records
I’ve written about The New Eves’ debut album a few times this year, and yet despite my familiarity with it, pinning the LP down remains a near-impossible challenge. If you’re looking for a genre to attach to it, your best bet is folk, but The New Eves manage to do so much more with this record. This is folk music reimagined, repackaged and redistributed in a swarm of absorbing invention. The legend of The Wicker Man is alive.
There are elements of punk creeping into The New Eves’ sound, as well as ritualistic chants and a free-flowing sense of improvisational instrumentation. It’s not an album where you pick out individual songs, but one that you allow yourself to get lost in and then wonder where the last 40 minutes went. There is no specific genre that you can attach to a band like The New Eves, who seem to be pushing the boundaries of sound, but stop worrying about labels and just enjoy it. [Words by Dale Maplethorpe]
Release date: March 7th | Producer: Aaron Dessner, Anna Stumpf and Hamilton Leithauser | Label: Glassnote
One of the most profound forces to behold in music is a performer just letting it all out. Beneath his Oxford collar, Hamilton Leithauser is a bona fide rock star in the least cheesy sense. On This Side of the Island, he simply releases a cyclone of expression that whips away feebler quirks like irony, manufactured ‘originality’, orchestrated dissonance, and dreaded ‘trends’ in a blaze of something a whole lot more pure. It’s a blast still solely reminiscent of Leithauser’s own solo work and his time with The Walkmen.
But largely, this bluderbuss bellow is borne from the boldness of his blood-vessel bursting performance, because the music itself is so ingeniously crafted it belies the depth of consideration at hand. The almost reggae-like staccato sounds are layered in a jazzy whirl of syncopation. Every instrument has its own route to follow rather than simplistically clinging to the core melody, creating the thinking person’s rock ‘n’ roll backdrop to joyously thoughtless, frenzied expression, and a wallop of searing lines sticks with you to boot. [Words by Tom Taylor]
Release date: August 8th | Producer: Luke Temple | Label: Saddle Creek
You hear a finger-picked guitar melody and your mouth almost says the word folk without you knowing it. Sure, upon hearing the first track of Ada Lea’s album ‘Death Phase of 2024 (moonlight)’, you would be forgiven for labelling this record in the same vein. But ideas, genres and layers are unveiled with every new track to a point where this is no crystallised way of describing what frequency Lee is operating on.
Lea flies through shoegaze and dream pop landscapes, hypnotising you with her arrangement choices as she does so. ‘Something in the Wind’ and‘Midnight Magic’ showcase her ability to layer self-recorded harmonies with patient ease, before ‘Snowglobe’ and ‘Down Under The Van Horne Overpass’ hit, changing tack completely and pitting Lea as the frontwoman of a burgeoning garage rock band. Lea clearly has all the skills to do whatever she wants in a record, but exercises continued restraint for the wider purpose of the song. She knows her talent, but more importantly, knows her artistic voice and has a genuinely brilliant knack for expressing that in a stunningly unique way. [Words by Callum MacHattie]
Release date: August 29th | Producer: Johnny Hostile | Label: Fiction Records
There are many albums out there – no doubt there are more than a few on this very list – that require some getting used to, and maybe won’t connect with audiences upon that first initial runthrough. Unsurprisingly, though, the latest record from Jehnny Beth is not one of those albums. Indeed, it doesn’t give you much time to get used to it, throwing you right in at the deep end, keeping you there for as long as the grooves of an LP will allow.
“I really wanted a singular vision for the record. Like to have no distraction, being very focused, and for the record to have its unity sound-wise,” Beth told Far Out in an interview ahead of the album’s release, and that musical manifesto certainly comes across in the tracklisting. ‘Broken Ribs’ is the starting pistol for Beth’s defiant journey, testing the boundaries of her own performance, in between exploring everything from her post-punk past to her ever-lasting adoration for hardcore. Even during the moments when the songwriter does take her foot off the accelerator for a more introspective effort, there is still an undying sense of impassioned defiance throughout. [Words by Ben Forrest]
Release Date: July 11th | Producer: Dan Carey | Label: Domino
Rather than taking the approach that many breakout indie acts tend to follow of rushing out with their second album to capitalise on their success, Wet Leg almost found themselves retiring from public view altogether in the interim period following their self-titled debut and subsequent tour. Many speculated that their silence could have meant all sorts of disastrous events were taking place behind the scenes, but the Isle of Wight duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers were simply being meticulous in how they would go about sonically revitalising their sound and coming back stronger.
Safe to say, they didn’t just come back with verve; they came back determined to prove that they’ve got so much more left to give. Moisturizer retains the hookiness and attitude of Wet Leg, but has a much darker undercurrent running through it alongside a more diverse palette of influences. Any thinly-veiled misogynistic theories about whether they had run out of steam quicker than they’d ascended or if they were a complete fluke were immediately quashed, and their second outing serves as hard evidence that they’re made of far tougher stuff than most of their contemporaries. [Words by Reuben Cross]
Ethel Cain’s second album and the long-awaited prequel to Preacher’s Daughter was as instantly gripping as anything this year, commanding attention. It’s not just that this is Cain’s most musically dynamic release yet, spanning from her well-proven balladic power on tracks like ‘Nettles’ and ‘Waco, Texas’ to the heavier rock of ‘Dust Bowl’ via her deep love of noise music on ‘Radio Towers’. It’s not even just that Cain sounds vocally better than ever across every song here. It’s that Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is something that continues to reveal itself, months on from its release.
For those that want something to sink their teeth into, the artist continued the wider narrative of her moniker, diving back into the story of Ethel Cain with more clues and more chapters to the devastating story that the end of her current tour will see her put to bed. Closing this period of her career, this sophomore release is a true opus and still only the start of the potential that Hayden Anhedönia keeps showing. [Words by Lucy Harbron]
Release date: February 28th | Producer: Noah Lennox and Josh Dibb | Label: Domino Records
Those who say no man is an island clearly haven’t listened to Sinister Grift. Because Panda Bear, known to his folks as Noah Lennox, throws layer upon layer of his independently explored ideas onto this triumphant record to create a sonic world through which a catalogue of personalities and ideas can live. Sunny 1960s pop, reggae and Latin music are all pulled into focus on Sinister Grift, coherently joined together by Lennox’s voice, which anchors the myriad ideas through one musical identity.
He’s the tour guide in this rollercoaster of ideas that hides pockets of ideas in every single song. Songs which are often so dense in their textural arrangement that it’s hard to truly absorb every single piece of sonic information upon listening. Nevertheless, the album feels calm and intriguing, despite its unpredictability. Through clever use of harmonies and track layering, Lennox allows himself to hold your hand through the record and take you to a much-needed place of emotional openness. [Words by Callum MacHattie]
Release date: November 7th | Producers: Matthew Tinari and Mikey Coltun | Label: Glitterbeat
Arriving in mid-November, Yenbett arrived as something of a late-comer to 2025’s record collection, but it certainly made up for that lost time in the raw power and endless energy of Noura Mint Seymali’s griot mastery. It has been almost a decade since the Mauritanian songwriter graced the airwaves with a solo album, but the captivating quality of her desert blues harp playing certainly hasn’t been lost in the intervening years.
Recent years have witnessed something of a widespread emergence for the sounds of Tuareg, griot, and desert blues, thanks in no small part to the likes of Tinariwen and Mdou Moctar – both of whom have crossed paths with Seymali on a multitude of occasions – but Yenbett feels particularly special. Not only does the songwriter’s ardent harp hark back to the traditional roots of her griot sound, going back hundreds of years in her native Mauritania, but the message and sheer energy of the album bring it firmly into the 21st century, creating the kind of timeless masterpiece that is becoming ever-elusive within the modern music industry. [Words by Ben Forrest]
Release date: June 6th | Producer: James Ford | Label: Rough Trade
Reunions took up a lot of column inches in 2025, but More is the only product from all the hubbub that will last. Pulp did everything right with the record, giving fans what they wanted with a fairly familiar sound, but, in the process, they looked back to more aptly present the present. Nostalgia, rather than being an awkward anchor to the stagnant waters of the past, has actually been transfigured into a precious part of what makes More feel so vital. The group have by no means embarked on an upheaval of their sound, but in the process, they pry the eyes of the public back to the mid-1990s, and all the Spike Island shenanigans and northern soul knees-ups therein.
The shell-suited year of 1995 was a time when average house prices were at a prime affordability of 3.69x the average wage, compared to the unattainable 7.91x of today. Basket goods were half the price, university was free, and on and on…somehow, Pulp subtly indict this societal slide with a sound that remains as anthemic as it ever was, with perhaps just a little more sting to the winks Jarvis Cocker delivers. As they decree: “So learn to say it whilst keeping a straight face: love.” That ballsiness feels positively euphoric and perfectly profound. [Words by Tom Taylor]
Release date: August 22nd | Producer: Greg Kurstin | Label: Sony Music
2025 started with speculation for Wolf Alice. They hadn’t released music in four years, so where had they got to? Was their transition from the indie label Dirty Hit to the big leagues of Sony Music the thing that would make or break them? It’s fair to say that their patient fans were becoming more than a little anxious.
But they need not have worried when the band eventually returned with The Clearing in August, as a helping from pop-producing maestro Greg Kurstin blasted them from indie darlings to out-and-out rock and roll legends, with just the right mix of 1970s glam nostalgia thrown in with ‘80s power rock and 2020s indulgence to get the whole world spinning towards The Clearing.
The album was more than a defined step forward for Wolf Alice – it was a massive leap which has solidified their status as bold pioneers of the often lacklustre genre. They may have only just started playing arenas, but stadiums are easily within their sights with The Clearing. As Ellie Rowsell commands the table between the angst of ‘Thorns’, the anthemic spirit of ‘White Horses’, or the screaming romp of ‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar’, Wolf Alice represent everything that 2025 needed and more. [Words by Lauren Hunter]
Release Date: March 14th | Producer: Leon Michels | Label: Big Crown Records
Perhaps as a reflection of just how miserable the crushing reality of the world has been throughout 2025, the past 12 months have been awash with particularly good psychedelia, and Derya Yildirim’s latest effort, from the sunshine months of spring, was an ultimate highlight. Blending the traditional folk sounds of Anatolia with an expansive palette of psychedelic sounds, the vocalist, along with Grup Şimşek, constructs a truly one-of-a-kind album that harks back to the golden age of 1960s Anatolian and Eastern psych-rock without ever feeling overly reliant on retroism or nostalgia points.
That timeless sound is helped along by the sheer breadth of sonic influences drawn upon throughout the tracklisting, spanning the globe from deep Afro-Caribbean grooves to the ever-expanding world of Eastern folk, and a healthy dash of Western indie, too. Sonically, it is an album which truly defies borders, along with genre conventions and long-held expectations of folk-psychedelia.
While modern folk-psychedelia has a tendency to lack substance, Yarın Yoksa offers a deeply affecting emotional narrative, capturing themes of loss, love, and resistance on both a personal and existential level over the course of its sprawling tracklisting. Fittingly, its title translates in English to ‘If There Is No Tomorrow’, reflecting its roots in resistance. If there is a tomorrow, though, then there is no doubting that Yarın Yoksa will still be in regular rotation. [Words by Ben Forrest]
Release date: September 26th | Producer: Geese / Kenny Beats | Label: Partisan
I can’t imagine Geese set out to make their third album a cultural behemoth, ready to snatch the throne from Charli XCX’s Brat summer and freeze into an indie winter. But lo and behold, they have. They have not arrived at this diegesis for the arts through elaborate marketing campaigns that tap into the digital zeitgeist, but rather by curating a throwback bona fide rock album fit for the modern ages.
This is an album ready-made to snatch rock and roll back from the clutches of cultural history. But Geese didn’t exactly arrive from the shadows in order to do so. Those who have listened closely won’t have been surprised to see their previous release, 3D Country, backed up by a record drenched in bold ideas and frenzied instrumentation.
However, on Getting Killed, the dial was turned up, and genres were thrown wilfully into this boiling point of innovation. ‘Cobra’ saw the band enter Beach Boys-esque territory, with playground melodies swirling around Cameron Winter’s tenor, almost like a vortex entrance into this bold new record. Because once you passed that, the Geese rollercoaster didn’t stop as it took you on a whistle-stop tour of their exciting new world. The industrial experimentation of ‘Husbands’ gave way to the Jackson Pollock-like experimentation of the title track, all before welcoming the warm embrace of Winter’s tender songwriting on the now-beloved ‘Au Pays Du Cocaine’.
Geese’s rampant rise to the top of the cultural zeitgeist this year can only be attributed to the pertinence of their music showcased through this stunning album. It’s the sound of a band firing on all cylinders, realising that in their ambition is genuine greatness and with the bravery to explore it, a truly historic album like Getting Killed awaits. Coherent chaos is the sound of modern hope. [Words by Callum MacHattie]
