Another year has passed, which means another crop of albums has released. From long-awaited drops to sudden, meteoric rises from up-and-coming artists, 2025 had a lot of great music to offer. As the world faced strife, conflict, and challenge, musicians and fans alike sought out and gathered around inspiring, cathartic expressions that functioned just as much as refuge as they did acts of resistance. That isn’t to say that 2025 was all bad, though, as it was one of the most momentous years of my personal life. The selections that I’ve made for my top albums of the past year reflect both of those realities simultaneously — music that was both necessary for the world but also extremely important and transportive for me through a new job, a move, and a dream wedding season. I took extra time to reflect and decide the order of the list this year, as there was simply so much incredible material to choose from. I wanted to be confident with my selections, and at last, it’s time to unveil my top albums of 2025. Without further ado, let’s get into the list. But first, I’d be remiss not to list some honorable mentions that had an impact but didn’t quite crack the top ten.
Honorable mentions (in no particular order):
Cancionera - Natalia Lafourcade
Revengeseekerz - Jane Remover
Glory - Perfume Genius
Alfredo 2 - Freddy Gibbs
Dead Channel Sky - clipping.
DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS - Bad Bunny
God Does Like Ugly - JID
Hurry Up Tomorrow - The Weeknd
Don’t Tap The Glass - Tyler, The Creator
The Life of a Showgirl - Taylor Swift
10. Pain to Power - Maruja
To kick off the list, I felt the need to highlight the Manchester-based Maruja and their hard-hitting, bombastic debut album Pain to Power. There is a familiarity and maturity to this project that gives the impression that the band has been doing this for decades. But that couldn’t be further from the truth; instead, this potent group is completely fresh on the scene. Inspired by the likes of Black Country, New Road, black midi, and Geese, Maruja embraces a post-punk, noise rock sound that both overwhelms and hypnotizes its audience. At the same time, though, Pain to Power is thoughtful, poignant, and political in all the right ways. I can’t wait to see where they go from here.
9. Getting Killed - Geese
I discovered Geese through their lead singer Cameron Winter and his recent full-length album Heavy Metal. His gorgeously grating, instantly-recognizable vocals translate incredibly well to a group-based project, as Getting Killed is one of my favorite experimental releases of the year. There is a captivating balance of tenderness and unabashed aggression throughout this project, with syncopated melodies and unique subject matter. This project is wide-ranging, covering subjects from spiritual searching, anxieties of modern life, apocalypse, to loneliness and seeking purpose in our current society. A whirlwind, Getting Killed is a must-listen from 2025.
8. People Watching - Sam Fender
Another new discovery for me in the past year, Sam Fender and his newest full-length album People Watching immediately had me hooked. The English singer-songwriter’s heartfelt and evocative lyricism discusses nostalgia, class struggle, addiction, and the importance of reflection. The instrumentation on this project is vast and whole, and the production value is very impressive for a modern rock album. Certain tracks evoke a young Bruce Springsteen, but Fender’s originality and unique perspective make him much more than a copycat of any other artist. The original release of this project was impressive enough, but the deluxe version and the additional tracks and collaborations he introduced on it bring People Watching to the next level.
7. Portrait of My Heart - SPELLLING
The first full-length follow-up to her enchanting 2021 album The Turning Wheel, SPELLLING’s Portrait of My Heart is the stylistic and thematic curveball she needed to both evolve and live up to the incredibly high standard that she set for herself with her last project. Self-reflective, raw, and honest, Portrait of My Heart lives up to its namesake with Chrystia Cabral’s most introspective lyricism to date. But this emotional clarity and availability isn’t masked by understated instrumentation; instead, this album’s alternative hard rock sensibilities amplify and strengthen the themes that Chrystia gets across to her audience. The theatrics are still present, and Chrystia’s unique vocals will always be a staple of her sound, but this project was also a step into a new direction, and I couldn’t get enough.
6. Forever Howlong - Black Country, New Road
With perhaps the highest stakes at hand with their 2025 album release, Black Country, New Road had the Herculean task of attempting to follow up the release of their 2022 smash hit sophomore album Ants From Up There after the departure of lead singer Isaac Wood, who for many fans, defined and sculpted the group’s identity. But the group didn’t regress into safety or mediocrity after this switch up — they rose to the challenge and doubled down by fully embracing their progressive, baroque-pop inspired sound and highlight each member’s unique talents brilliantly throughout the project. While not reaching the same cohesive and spellbinding heights of AFUT, Forever Howlong is an inspired, imaginative, and impressive showcase that proves Black Country, New Road is going nowhere but up as it features some of their best pieces yet.
5. Lotus - Little Simz
I truly believe that Little Simz is one of the greatest living hip-hop artists and is greatly underrated in the genre. Her 2025 album Lotus is another entry into her increasingly legendary discography that proves just that. After the public fallout with her longtime producer and collaborator Inflo, Simz had a chip on her shoulder and a point to prove. Lotus opens with a bang, addressing the conflict head on with the hard-hitting and direct “Thief,” but the project doesn’t linger and overly focus on a subject that proved he isn’t worth Simz’ time. The project expands to let her loyal fanbase into the mindset she was in when navigating this difficult period of her life, which often led to uncertainty and a lack of creative direction. But that struggle is also what was needed to create this beautiful, somehow relatable project. After seeing her live in concert in November of last year, I believed even more firmly that Simz is one of the best rappers alive.
4. Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You - Ethel Cain
Another installation of the lore-heavy sonic universe created and inspired by Hayden Silas Anhedönia, otherwise known by the same name as her title character Ethel Cain, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You serves as part two and a prequel to the trilogy that her 2022 album Preacher’s Daughter introduced. This Americana, slowcore project delves into the depths of doomed young love, generational trauma, and disillusionment over the course of its sprawling seventy-three-minute runtime. While much of this project’s tracks are intentionally and methodically drawn out, its peaks are among the highest of the previous year, with tracks like “Nettles” and “Tempest” stealing the show with their inescapably poetic lyricism. “‘Cause baby I’ve never seen brown eyes look so blue” still twists the knife every time. I can’t wait to watch this trilogy conclude once Hayden is ready to tell the rest of her compelling and heart-wrenching story.
3. Let God Sort Em Out - Clipse
The reunion of Clipse’s founding brothers Pusha T and Malice is exactly what hip-hop needed in 2025. Not only is this project as hard-hitting and downright fun as their past work, like 2006’s classic Hell Hath No Fury, but Let God Sort Em Out showcases a maturity and emotional vulnerability that humanizes the brothers more than ever before. The album’s opening track, “The Birds Don’t Sing”, discusses and reflects on the passing of the brothers’ parents in the time since their most recent project, setting an emotional tone for the rest of the album. But that isn’t to say that the brash confidence of these two is gone — in fact, it’s stronger than ever. Tracks like “Chains & Whips” and “P.O.V” also employ the use of collaborations and features masterfully, with Tyler, The Creator and Kendrick Lamar offering some of the best verses of the year, respectively. This project’s production is top-notch, its melodies are infectious earworms, and the aura of Let God Sort Em Out is unmatched. Despite strong competition, this is by far the best rap album of the past year.
2. The Art of Loving - Olivia Dean
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I know. I get it. This is one of the more unexpected selections that I’ve ever made on a top albums list, especially considering its very high placement at my number two spot for 2025. What you may be even more interested by is the fact that Olivia Dean was my top artist of 2025 according to Spotify’s Wrapped. Yes, I’m serious. I know.
But you, like I wasn’t, also shouldn’t be surprised. The Art of Loving is one of the most soulful, romantic, and uplifting albums of the decade so far. Olivia Dean’s ability to deliver timeless, vulnerable, jazzy pop music in a modern context is second to none. Songs like “Man I Need,” “So Easy (To Fall In Love),” and “Let Alone The One You Love” sound like they’ve always existed. And the emotional finale of “I’ve Seen It,” an interpolation of Bill Withers’ “Just The Two of Us” is simply exquisite. Dean is warm, welcoming, audaciously-talented, and we are lucky that she is sharing her gift to tap into this genre of music so delightfully with the world. This album served as the soundtrack for my Maui honeymoon, and I will continue to return to its brilliance for years to come.
1. Vanisher, Horizon Scraper - Quadeca
Vanisher, Horizon Scraper was easily my top selection for best album of 2025. The artistic progression we are witness from Ben Lasky, known by his performing name of Quadeca, is unrivaled and truly inspiring. I knew that we were in for a treat once the intentionality of this album’s rollout became clear — every detail accounted for, not a single stone unturned. Then came the singles to introduce the new era: “GODSTAINED” and its Bossa Nova-inspired art pop, “MONDAY” and its progressive baroque tendencies, and “FORGONE” and its progressive chamber pop sprawl. What I could never have imagined was how Ben would be able to tie these tracks from one to the next so seamlessly, creating a narrative depiction of the sailor’s journey that explores individualism, existentialism, the search for meaning, and a futile pursuit of the impossible. This project’s themes and tracks resonated with me on a very deeply personal level, and the cyclical structure of this narrative is continually submerging in all of the best ways.
What truly sets this album apart as an incredible work of art, though, is its accompanying film. Not just a cheap visualizer, but a full-length narrative in-and-of itself with some of the most creative, symbolic, memorable, and cinematic imagery I have ever seen put behind a concept album. If you haven’t yet, you owe it to yourself to get lost in the world of Vanisher, Horizon Scraper as I have many times. You can do so by clicking this link. I can’t wait to discover the universe that Quadeca introduces to us next.
And there we have it! Always my favorite blog post to write, my top albums of the previous year list is complete, and there are so many great projects to revisit and choose from. What music did you get into last year? Which projects are you looking forward to or hopeful for in 2026?
Little Simz
Album Review: Lotus - Little Simz
Little Simz has returned with her sixth full-length studio album Lotus, and its title tells you everything you need to know before hitting play. It’s an album about emergence — how something beautiful can grow out of something else that has been tarnished. For Simz, that “something else” is the fallout from a collapsed creative partnership with her former producer Inflo, subsequent legal battles, and years of unreleased material scrapped entirely. Lotus doesn’t sound like a comeback, but instead sounds like survival. It’s measured, unsentimental, and at times, angry enough to burn through the speakers.
The album’s opening track is called “Thief,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like: a direct reckoning. The beat’s restrained, almost dry, leaving plenty of space for Simz to put Inflo on notice. She’s not hiding the pain, but she’s not drowning in it either. It’s a form of confrontation as closure. From there, the album starts to twist and pull: “Flood” (with Obongjayar and Moonchild Sanelly) hits like the emotional purge it’s named after. It’s anxious and cathartic in equal measure, featuring a Simz that seems as determined as ever in her blooming career. The closing four tracks on the album are as impressive of a run as Simz has ever had in her career — “Blood” is genius narrative, “Lotus” is desperate and direct in its instrumentation, and “Lonely” is as vulnerable as Simz has ever been.
There’s no moment on Lotus where things “resolve.” Even when the production softens, the weight doesn’t lift. “Blue” is one of the quietest moments toward the end of the record, and yet it’s still one of the heaviest. Sampha shows up with the exact voice you’d want for a song like this, just above a whisper, but it’s Simz who brings the emotion. She’s not just rapping about being tired, she sounds tired: of the industry, of betrayal, and of people expecting strength from her without ever asking the cost.
Production-wise, she keeps things stripped back — sometimes jazzy, sometimes grimy, but never too flashy. There’s still orchestration like we’ve grown to love on her previous records, but it’s lighter, less cinematic than her past work with Inflo. That decision feels deliberate. Nothing on this album is trying to impress you. Even the features — Wretch 32, Michael Kiwanuka, Yussef Dayes — show up more like collaborators than guests. They feel part of the architecture, not ornaments. This isn’t the album where Simz tells you how brilliant she is. It’s the one where she tells you what it cost to get to this point, further cementing the authenticity that makes her discography so authentic and magnetic.
Lotus doesn’t aim for closure, and it doesn’t pretend healing is linear. There’s no grand finale. Instead, it circles its own themes — grief, resilience, fatigue, clarity — and sits with them. That restraint is what makes it feel so human. Simz isn’t performing strength; she’s documenting the process of rebuilding it. It’s an album that offers no solutions, only honesty. And in a moment when the music industry is loud and everything is instant, Lotus feels like Simz choosing to speak slowly, carefully, and only when it really matters.
Favorite tracks: “Thief” — “Flood” — “Free” — “Lion” — “Blood” — “Lotus” — “Lonely” — “Blue”
SCORE: 9.4/10
Album Review: Sometimes I Might Be Introvert - Little Simz
I was made aware of Little Simz after the release of her 2019 album Grey Area. The London native rapper established her dominance and lyrical stature with track after track packed full of aggressive, hard-hitting bars over refined beats. Only a few minor tweaks away from being perfect, Grey Area was a fantastic introduction to Little Simz’ sound and style. Her most recent album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, is in many ways diametrically opposed to the aesthetic of Grey Area, this time employing rich instrumentation and introspective lyricism with almost twice as long of a runtime. All of these changes, however, allow Simbi to explore new genres and prove just her versatile and talented she really is. With apparently only a single sample on the entire project, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is inventive, masterfully written, and diverse in its construction, leaving no stone unturned by an artist whose introversion manifests in a flawless project.
After learning that this project’s tracklist was a lengthy one hour and five minutes spread over nineteen songs, I grew weary that this project would be bloated and unrefined like many rap albums have become in the streaming era. To my surprise, though, this runtime is precisely how long Simbi needs to explore the many intricate themes discussed here - no more, no less necessary. The project never becomes stale, either, with each track transitioning logically and naturally into the next, oftentimes carrying thematic elements over gracefully to keep the listener engaged at all times. “Introvert” is a grandiose, epic opener, and only two tracks later, “Two Worlds Apart”’s minimal, bass-heavy instrumental sets the perfect backdrop for Simz to deliver complex rhymes schemes. The soul-sample-inspired aesthetics of this project just work for me, and I can’t help to hold on tightly to all aspects of Simbi’s intoxicating wordplay.
The production, sonic elements, and instrumentation for this album were clearly assembled with unrivaled craftsmanship and attention-to-detail that modern hip-hop often lacks. “I Love You, I Hate You” builds slowly but surely, and by its end, Simz has reflected on the challenging relationships in her life, with potent verses two and three that tackle the complicated back-and-forth she has always had with her father, leading to eventual forgiveness - not for him, but for her. “Little Q, Pt. 2” is just as deeply personal, but instead recounting her cousin’s upbringing and unimaginable circumstances from his perspective that would lead most to become resentful or hateful. Instead, Simz grows more empathetic and understanding of those in similar situations to the point that she is able to forgive the boy who once stabbed her. Little Simz’ emotional maturation and intelligence are inspiring.
This album is interesting in part because of its use of interludes, which are actually used correctly and effectively instead of simply for artistic effect and stylization. These spoken-word breaks build the album’s theme just as strongly and efficiently as the tracks do. Simz understands that interludes are best used as turning points in albums, but also as bridges that can connect two thematic and sonic elements together harmoniously.
The middle of the album should give Grey Area fans a taste of what made that project so special, with Simbi dropping banger tracks like “Speed” and “Standing Ovation” that leave no holds barred. Almost every track here sounds like a sample cut or interpolation of a classic hip-hop track, which makes it that much more astounding that this album’s production was almost entirely original. These tracks transition into “The Rapper That Came To Tea - Interlude”, which transitions the listener from more hard-hitting rap songs to the genre-bending styles that Simz has now proven she can also master without wavering in her own element. “Protect My Energy” is not only impressive because it’s a What’s Your Pleasure?-level disco-inspired hit, but because its artist can also excel in complicated rhyme schemes and hip-hop beats as well as she can. “Point and Kill” with Obongjayar is inspired by Nigeria according to Simz, and this authentic African influence can be felt throughout the track just as intended. That same vibe continues into “Fear No Man”, but Simz drops more bars before closing the album out on an introspective high-note.
The album’s penultimate track “How Did You Get Here” is one of the moving songs on the project, as Simz outlines every step that it took to find success in doing what she loves. Themes of perseverance despite doubt and lack of confidence thrive here, as they do throughout the rest of the project. Little Simz rightfully reflects on the uphill challenge she has faced as a Black woman in the rap game but describes how she overcame odds to become the amazing woman she is today. As perfect as this track would have been as a closer, “Miss Understood” yet again one-ups Simz, raising the bar and ending just as beautifully as they started.
Don’t worry, I’m very aware of what I’m doing. After only giving one perfect score last year, you might think my standards are slipping. But as a blogger who frequently reviews music, I find it important to come into albums as unbiased, neutral, and objective as possible while holding a consistent standard for the media I consume. This year has just been that good for music. Promises and now Sometimes I Might Be Introvert are flawless, transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime albums that have come out within months of each other, and they all deserve as much praise and recognition as possible. Little Simz has cemented herself as the best female rapper in the industry with this album, and I cannot wait to see where she is able to go from here.
Favorite tracks: All
SCORE: 10/10