It’s safe to say that the last year has been tumultuous for many reasons, but that hasn’t prevented us from being blessed with great music from across the globe. In a year where we couldn’t be more divided, music (to use the term broadly) has done a good job at uniting us in a particular, hard to pinpoint way. We saw artists take a defiant stand in the face of adversity, and we also took note of those whose silence spoke volumes. In and amongst the mess that is 2025, we saw the resurgence of bands (again), largely in part to the likes of Geese and Turnstile, as well as genre-bending debut albums, career magnum opuses and yet another King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard record. Here are our Top 25 albums of the year. You can listen to music from each album in a master playlist at the foot of this page.
25 LAMBRINI GIRLS – WHO LET THE DOGS OUT
24 I LOVE YOU HONEY BUNNY – DON’T LOOK WHILE I’M CHANGING
23 MOMMA – WELCOME TO MY BLUE SKY
22 AINO SALTO – IMAGINE PEOPLE AS ADOLESCENT BIRDS
21 SMERZ – BIG CITY LIFE
20 GHOST – SKELETÁ
19 SHAME – CUTTHROAT
18 CLIPPING. – DEAD CHANNEL SKY
17 NINAJIRACHI – I LOVE MY COMPUTER
16 JAMES K – FRIEND
15 THE BETHS – STRAIGHT LINE WAS A LIE
14 FKA TWIGS – EUSEXUA
13 OKLOU – CHOKE ENOUGH
12 BLOOD ORANGE – ESSEX HONEY
11 CLIPSE – LET GOD SORT EM OUT
10 HAYLEY WILLIAMS – EGO DEATH AT A BACHELORETTE PARTY
9 MODEL/ACTRIZ – PIROUETTE
8 DEFTONES – PRIVATE MUSIC
7 DEAFHEAVEN – LONELY PEOPLE WITH POWER
6 KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD – PHANTOM ISLAND
5 BAD BUNNY – DEBI TIRAR MÁS FOTOS
4 GEESE – GETTING KILLED
3 WATER FROM YOUR EYES – IT’S A BEAUTIFUL PLACE
2 TURNSTILE – NEVER ENOUGH
1 ROSALÍA – LUX
Our album of the year is Rosalía’s emphatic, grandiose and staggeringly beautiful fourth album LUX. And although the term magnum opus is sometimes thrown around a bit too casually, those two words can absolutely be used to describe this powerhouse of a record. Across fifteen songs, the Spanish artist does a deep dive into the world of classical music, teaming up with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daniel Bjarnason to conjure up a stunning mix of multilingual classical-meets-pop-meets-flamenco, spearheaded by intense lead single Berghain (ft. Björk and Yves Tumor) and fan favourite waltz La Perla. Singing in thirteen languages across the record, Rosalía invites us into the worlds of more than a dozen female saints whose backstories she studied while writing. The intricate lives of these saints provide the backbone to LUX’s songwriting, allowing Rosalía to explore different worlds as she intends to understand who these women were and where they came from.
Rosalía’s decision to sing in thirteen languages on LUX was a bold one, but it most certainly paid off. Spanish is – obviously – at the forefront of proceedings, although we also hear bits and pieces of Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Ukrainian and Arabic along the way. The twinkling Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti is also sung entirely in Italian, while a choir on the aforementioned Berghain (as well as Rosalía herself) sing in German. And yet, despite the constant shift in tone and language, LUX is Rosalía most cohesive and ‘complete’ album to date, head and shoulders above everything which came before it. The true highlight comes near the end of the album on the flamenco-infused La Rumba Del Perdón, which ironically relies the least on the orchestra. It’s Rosalía going back to her flamenco roots, raw emotion and all, alongside Estrella Morente and Silvia Pérez Cruz. LUX’s fifteen songs are nothing short of a beautiful sonic journey, and it’s unlikely that we’ll ever hear an album like it again. The risk paid off, and now it’s time for a worldwide victory lap in 2026 when Rosalía takes LUX on the road.
Listen to a song from each album in this list below.
