2025 in Music: 50 Favourite Albums

 

Hopefully a little less writing this time... 

I've been keeping a score of everything I listened to this year - the bulk of which was just the once, since - well - things get in the way, don't they? In the end it was a grand total of 119 albums and EPs that I gave a whirl, and whilst I'm sure there're still many more I could embrace once I finally become aware of them I'm not entirely sure that half of the things making publications' lists even exist. Let's just write it all off as AI. 

If you're interested in why those other 69 didn't make this list... here they are and what I ended up scoring them. At a 7.6, it seems harsh not to make it; perhaps I was a little generous with some of the scores.

Lady Gaga - Mayhem - 7.6
Rose Gray - Louder, Please - 7.6
Sorry - Cosplay - 7.6
Tyler, the Creator - DON’T TAP THE GLASS - 7.5
Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party - 7.5
Indigo de Souza - Precipice - 7.5
Saint Etienne - International - 7.5
Alison Goldfrapp - Flux - 7.5
PinkPantheress - Fancy Some More? - 7.4

HAIM - I Quit - 7.4
Matt Maltese - Hers - 7.4
Greentea Peng - Tell Dem It’s Sunny - 7.4
Yeule - Evangelic Girl is a Gun - 7.4
Chance the Rapper - Star Line - 7.4
Cut Copy - Moments - 7.3
Suede - Antidepressants - 7.3
Blondshell - If You Asked For a Picture - 7.3
Conan Gray - Wishbone - 7.3
Celeste - Woman of Faces - 7.3

Rebecca Black - Salvation - 7.2
Shura - I Got Too Sad For My Friends - 7.2
Wolf Alice - The Clearing - 7.2
The Horrors - Night Life - 7.1
Nao - Jupiter - 7.1
Banks - Off With Her Head - 7.1
Sharon van Etten - Sharon van Etten & the Attachment Theory - 7.1
Lucy Dacus - Forever Is a Feeling - 7.0
Doja Cat - Vie - 7.0
Sigrid - There’s Always More That I Could Say - 7.0

Yaya Bey - Do It Afraid - 6.9
Big Thief - Double Infinity - 6.9
Tame Impala - Deadbeat - 6.9
Kesha - . - 6.9
Jennie - Ruby - 6.9
Tate McRae - So Close to What - 6.9
Ezra Furman - Goodbye Small Head - 6.8
Allie X - Happiness Is Going to Get You - 6.7
Mumford & Sons - Rushmere - 6.7
Olivia Dean - The Art of Loving - 6.7

Self Esteem - A Complicated Woman - 6.6
Franz Ferdinand - The Human Fear - 6.4
Lisa - Alter Ego - 6.3
Dave - The Boy Who Played the Harp - 6.2
The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow - 6.1
Ashnikko - Smoochies - 6.1
Demi Lovato - It’s Not That Deep - 6.0
Pinkpantheress - Fancy That - 5.6
Cardi B - Am I The Drama? - 5.5
Sleigh Bells - Bunky Becky Birthday Boy - 5.5

Cat Burns - How to be Human - 5.3
King Princess - Girl Violence - 5.3
Mimi Webb - Confessions - 5.2
Alessia Cara - Love & Hyperbole - 5.0
MARINA - Princess of Power - 5.0
Miguel - Caos - 4.9
Sabrina Carpenter - Man’s Best Friend - 4.9
Justin Bieber - Swag - 4.9
Mariah Carey - Here For It All - 4.7
MØ - Plaeygirl - 4.6

Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant - 4.6
Doves - Constellations for the Lonely - 4.5
Olly Alexander - Polari - 4.4
Ava Max - Don’t Click Play - 4.3
Inhaler - Open Wide - 4.1
Ciara - CiCi - 3.9
Perrie - Perrie - 3.8
Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl - 3.0
Justin Bieber - Swag II - 2.8
Ed Sheeran - Play - 2.5

All of that out of the way, let's crack on with the actual top 50. As always: the scores may be finite but they were largely based on a whim of one listen. Maybe some will grow on me, maybe others will fade. Maybe I was in a bad mood when I decided Self Esteem had let me down. 

#50 - "I Barely Know Her" by Sombr

Kicking the list off is someone who, if you peruse Tiktok even at the most leisurely pace and rarest of occasions, you will have heard in the background of some overwrought fan edit of Stranger Things or some new teen drama. It doesn't really feel like anyone has seized 2025 in the same way that, say, Chappell Roan did 2024 or Olivia Rodrigo did in 2021 - but if anyone really came close I suppose it was the 20-year-old New Yorker with a catalogue of teenage heartbreak rock. The album isn't going to shatter many expectations, but is stacked with a handful of great singles.

#49 - "Midnight Sun" by Zara Larsson

Ten years on since "Lush Life" thrust Larsson into the mainstream, it's somewhat fair to say the international pop sphere hasn't been terribly kind to her. Save for the occasional collaboration with a DJ or electronic group, she has largely disappeared from UK and US charts entirely - which is a shame because, as 2025 proved, she is still capable of producing fresh, exciting and catchy pop. The title track mentioned in my earlier list aside, the likes of "Blue Moon" and "Eurosummer" kept this record bursting with energy.

#48 - "Michelangelo Dying" by Cate le Bon

I don't get around to seeing many acts live, living down in the arse-end of the UK that very few venture to, so it turns out that seeing her support Perfume Genius all the way back in 2012 in Bath is still a somewhat fresh memory to me. Being that said gig was in a former chapel, it did feel a somewhat intimate and religious experience: one that conveniently segues into how I felt about this record this year. 

#47 - "West End Girl" by Lily Allen

It's impossible to delve into Allen's fifth studio album without muddying your feet in the ugly and stark details about the dissolution of her marriage to David Harbour, and indeed it's difficult to recall an album that deals with a break-up in such a vivid "TMI" way. Her signature playful lyricism and ear for a simple hook help keep it from being a total trainwreck, but I still would've maybe liked a little more polished production to help some of the tracks shine, however. 

#46 - "Scratch It" by U.S. Girls

Album number 10 from the Canadian, "Scratch It" did take a while to get into. The back half of the 9 tracks certainly outshone the openers for me, and are arranged with such a sophisticated and smoke-lit cool that is very charming.

#45 - "Glory" by Perfume Genius

Not to retread that above Cate le Bon anecdote, but someone I've followed a lot more closely and been a lot more musically attached to is Mike Hadreas. I have to admit it pains me a little to place him this low, given how blown away in the past I've been by the likes of Put Your Back N 2 It or Set My Heart On Fire Immediately. I'm sure this lowly mid-40s position is an error, put down entirely to its listening experience being a time I was in a terrible mood.

#44 - "Gut" by Baths

I promise I do listen to men that aren't just 2010s queers playing with folk and electronica in strange little ways. This reminds me, there must be a John Grant record out soon. It's been eight (!) years since his last record, in which all there's really been is the theme music to video game Dream Daddy that I've checked out, so 2025 was a nice welcome return. 

#43 - "Purity Ring" by Purity Ring

Speaking of 2010s acts taking obscenely long hiatuses, the Canadian duo Purity Ring ended their 5 year wait since WOMB with their self-titled fourth LP this year and the only negative I can say for it is: it is largely what you expect of a Purity Ring record. For those of us who spent formative years revelling in the likes of Fineshrine and Begin Again this is not a problem at all. May their unique brand of twinkly, mysterious dance continue.

#42 - "Birthing" by Swans

I have never checked out a Swans record before this year and, honestly, I might not again. Their 17th record has been talked about all year and I naively thought I could just easily access it and immediately understand their rich experimental discography. It's only 7 tracks! Just shy of two hours later, I walked out bleary-eyed and somewhat changed, like a toddler discovering Halloween. Each twenty-plus minute track is its own short film, completely unpredictable and stacked with energy and passion... but there's also a heck of a lot of fat to be trimmed. 

#41 - "Forever Howlong" by Black Country, New Road

One of the year's most anticipated follow-ups, not only because the previous Ants From Up There is one of the very few albums in my reviewing days that I've given a perfect 10 to, but because the band have gone through such a public and divisive line-up change. I have to confess that the departure of Isaac Wood must have made some damaging impact for me, given its middling score here, but I will defend the shift towards Kershaw, Ellery and Hyde as vocalists as a bold one, and their harmonies and deliveries are occasionally fantastic. 

#40 - "I'm Only Fucking Myself" by Lola Young

Perhaps I misspoke above in the Sombr paragraph, because in the UK there have certainly been two noticeable blow-ups in 2025 for Olivia Dean and the perennially Messy Lola Young. I can't imagine it's a too-common occurrence for Elton John to show up and publicly bet that your album's third single ("Dealer") is going to go to #1. His premonition may not have (yet) come to fruition, but the success elsewhere has been easily explained: Young's no-holds-barred honesty in lyricism, coupled with stellar production, posits her alongside other 21st century British acts like Amy Winehouse and Adele quite comfortably.

#39 - "Club Shy Room 2" by Shygirl

The only EP in this list. It physically pained me not to include her collaboration with Yseult here, "Fuck Me", in my tracks list because it was narrowly released in 2024 instead. It's been so heavily in rotation, as has the fantastic "Immaculate" featuring SaWeetie, on my playlist that each shuffle appearance has me locking the fuck in and convinced I have a pussy worth flaunting. 

#38 - "Perverts" by Ethel Cain

I went practically the whole year without listening to this in full, possibly because I've had enough emotionally going on that diving into this felt like a suicide mission. Released back in January as an ambient alternative to her more conventional other 2025 effort, Perverts is such an insane dichotomy of emptiness and cacophony. Take the lyrical list of "Pulldrone", delivered so huskily over pretty much nothing at first as something sinister and haunting creeps in... few albums can draw out the atmosphere so successfully, even if critics would (somewhat understandably) bemoan its length.

#37 - "For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)" by Japanese Breakfast

Given how much joy I got from "Be Sweet" on 2021's Jubilee (amongst other tracks), it was pretty astonishing that there wasn't a track from its follow-up that I deemed worthy enough to single out in my tracks list this year. That's not to say the album isn't stacked; it just may flow more cohesively and subtly than its predecessor. Jeff Bridges (yes that one) even pops up to keep the vibes flowing. 

#36 - "Loner" by Barry Can't Swim

DJ albums are often a risky venture; a confusing mix that might suffer from either abruptly ending tracks that sound nothing like the next, or slovenly shoehorning in segues that get a little bit gratuitous. Suffering from neither pitfall is the Scot's sophomore, which plays with genres and influences in such a captivating way. 

 

#35 - "Something Beautiful" by Miley Cyrus

Forever dropping albums nowadays in a futile endeavour to change Pitchfork's mind about treating her like the fucking plague, Cyrus has firmly established herself in the hearts of fans and pop aficionados alike now with her songwriting and showmanship. As always, there's something slightly holding this back from being an instant classic - but there are enough album tracks with star-power ("Walk of Fame", "Reborn", "Golden Burning Sun") to keep even the most snooty pop fan entertained. Could just maybe have benefited from a smash hit in the sense her previous LPs did with Midnight Sky and Flowers. 

 

#34 - "Anemoia" by SG Lewis

There's probably already a downward trend since Lewis' peak in 2020 or so with his production and hits for the likes of Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware and Mabel but it's not a trend I am willing to follow along. His grip on feelgood, summery house music has embedded itself within my psyche and I think I might fall apart if he moves onto a scary new genre like... *shudders*... trap...

#33 - "Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You" by Ethel Cain

Again, I hadn't exactly intended on placing Cain's two albums so close together when I began my 2025 listens - so it's a fun coincidence that both squat firmly in my 30s. I wish I could squat firmly in my 30s. I need to be a little more sensible with the cultivation of my Spotify playlists that I lazily put on whenever I head out the door, because the whiplash in going from something like Charli XCX's Von Dutch to "Nettles" from this record can be quite severe. Luckily, as always, the staggering beauty and lyricism from Cain cushions the blow, however emotionally devastating the sequel may be. 

#32 - "Caroline 2" by Caroline

Straight up? I only listened to this a week ago and I've got absolutely nothing insightful to say about it. I must have liked it though. I'm just now finding out they're British, which is odd because my impression of the record was "folk arty wankers waxing lyrical about growing up in the shadow of the Appalachians" or something. In an awe-inspiring way of course, not quite sure why I phrased that with such hostility. I'm glad this list can be a learning experience for us all.

#31 - "Baby" by Dijon

Another album suffering from "I only listened to it once so far" syndrome, this is popping up all over the place in critics' end-of-the-year lists in far higher positions. I am prone to error. I hadn't heard his debut from 2021, but this served as a more-than-capable introduction to a richly-produced, "everything good about Prince that isn't Prince" career that I'll definitely be checking out more in future. 

#30 - "Never Enough" by Turnstile

I'm struggling a little with doubt here, because again this is one of those 2025 records that I think "hmm... should be higher..." which is quite odd since I'd been operating under the impression that 2025 had been musically quite dull. No such problems with Turnstile here, and the album is a frenetic wake-up call.

#29 - "Sincerely," by Kali Uchis

I can't say I'm a fan of this "putting commas at the end of the titles" malarkey but I can overlook it, so long as it's Kali Uchis. Her 4th album to come out since I fell in love with Isolation back in 2018, "Sincerely," showcases her talent for setting the scene and making it sexy. 

#28 - "From the Pyre" by The Last Dinner Party

A much more classic rock record than their debut, "From the Pyre" finds the band drawing influences from ABBA ("This Is The Killer Speaking"), Fleetwood Mac ("The Scythe"), and even a little bit of Pink Floyd psychedelia ("Rifle") so there is a strong chance you could walk away from this record in search of a 70s wardrobe. Just a heads-up.

#27 - "Ain't No Damn Way!" by KAYTRANADA

After the kinda middling returns of Bubba, Timeless and his collaborative album with Aminé, I had slightly resigned myself to the fear that KAYTRA had been a bit of a one-off with his stellar, decade-defining 99.9% almost 10 years ago. I certainly didn't pin many hopes on a mostly-instrumental record to buck the trend, but listening all the way through this record is a raucous delight and one of the most fun and groovy records of the year.

#26 - "Black Star" by Amaarae

Any album that bizarrely interpolates Cher's Believe in a sea of... less-dated... dance music, let alone other samples including Kelis' Milkshake and, um, The Thong Song, is certainly playing with fire. The half-Ghanaian with one of pop's most distinct and intoxicating voices bridges the gaps with deliciously fun results. 

#25 - "The Crux" by Djo

I had expected this to be a completely middling effort in the same vein that most "indie" (as indie as you can get as an actor from the world's biggest TV show) records attempting to follow-up some viral success are, but the songs on offer here are so playful and evocative of Keery's effortless charm that it was anything but a flash-in-the-pan. Did I get into it because "Basic Being Basic" was added to Fortnite? Yes, I'm that cool.

#24 - "EUSEXUA AFTERGLOW" by FKA twigs

I've seen a lot of talk about preferring this to the...beforeglow? version and I can definitely understand why. A little more club-friendly than its predecessor, Afterglow is stacked with floorfillers and even offers a collaboration with PinkPantheress to seal that deal. 

#23 - "Through the Wall" by Rochelle Jordan

Look, it's really difficult to write so enthusiastically about house-pop when pretty much 50% of the albums I've featured showcase it, so please just accept my assertions that this is a very fun record (even if it does run on for about 20 minutes too long, in my humble opinion). 

#22 - "DeBI TiRAR Mas FOToS" by Bad Bunny

The only genre perhaps sneered at more than house at the moment is reggaeton, but that isn't going to apply the brakes to the stratospheric rise of Bad Bunny in the last 5 years. Whether this was released with the knowledge of a date with the Super Bowl in mind or not, it's a canny reminder that nothing unites us more than an urge to dance sometimes. 

#21 - "Bleeds" by Wednesday

It's... a lot. 

#20 - "Everybody Scream" by Florence + the Machine

I can't really think of many other acts who emerged at my most formative year (18) and are still touring and releasing great records to this day, so Welch holds a very special place in my heart. After a horrific experience with miscarriage in 2023, she returned - ever defiant, ever immovable - with more stark lyricism and storytelling that, at this point, feels like a constant narrative in my life. 

#19 - "Virgin" by Lorde

The fanbase of Lorde sometimes confuse me, so earnestly devoted and yet a complete chaos of expectations when it comes to a new Lorde record. Some bark and cry for a back-to-basics Pure Heroine approach, others clutch a poppers bottle and hope for a spiritual successor to last year's remix of Girl, So Confusing with Charli XCX, and then there's those of us just hoping for anything as good as Melodrama. Or at least better than Solar Power. 2025 certainly met and assuaged a lot of those expectations, and showcases some of her most personal songwriting yet - and I wholeheartedly ask the Grammy committee to fuck off and die for snubbing it.

#18 - "More" by Pulp

Given that I was still putting on nativity shows and my greatest trouble in life was Skeleton Warriors being discontinued on my television, around the time that Pulp had their biggest cultural impact on the UK and beyond, you could understand that I met the news of their 24-year comeback with something of a shrug. Such lengthy hiatuses usually result in something stilted or a bare-minimum cash-grab (ABBA), or are a harbinger of an untimely death (Bowie), so neither of these options particularly had me on the edge of my seat. More, however, is fantastic even beyond its singles. Age always adds an extra layer of tenderness and sentiment to lyrics as romantic as Cocker's here, and sometimes even the car park of a "Farmers Market" can serve as the backdrop for something moving and world-changing. "Ain't it time we started feeling?" indeed.

#17 - "That's Showbiz Baby!" by JADE

Pop's most mythologised entity, in the UK at least with its rich history of Spice Girls, Sugababes, Girls Aloud, All Saints, et al: a girl-band member going solo. Most endeavours never quite make it, unable to shake off the shackles of a previous step in the career ladder, or are perhaps helmed disastrously by producers without a hit to offer. The only other case I can specifically recall that charmed both charts and critics alike with such success was Rachel Stevens. 20 years on, JADE picks up that rare mantle and smashed expectations. I believe she's just dropped a couple new tracks so I'm off to soak in those.

#16 - "People Watching" by Sam Fender

The Mercury Prize winner. I reacted quite negatively to that news at the time, fully aboard the bandwagons of some albums yet to be mentioned below that were also nominated. In hindsight this was harsh: I definitely loved People Watching when it dropped, and still do. The only criticism I could make at the time, in favour of other choices, was that it is indeed "more of the same" when it comes to Fender's career; fans who revelled in Hypersonic Missiles or Seventeen Going Under aren't exactly going to come into contact with Fender's third and recoil in confusion and horror at a new sound. But when you've carved out such an anthemic presence in the UK music scene, and speak power to causes so beautifully and poetically as Fender does, why would you ever need the formula changed?

#15 - "Headlights" by Alex G

I only got into him with 2022's God Save The Animals so every time I look him up I'm a bit intimidated by there being eight other albums I've still not checked out, but maybe that can be a 2026 resolution. Both GSTA and this have been stellar so far for me, so it can't hurt. This is his first since becoming a father, so maybe it just appeals to me as a 30-something emotional wreck. 

#14 - "Juniper" by Joy Crookes

The highest album I didn't select a track from for my adjacent list, Crookes' second is nonetheless stellar. Subtly arranged in such a way to let her unique, twanging voice shine unhindered, Juniper is a record perfect for rainy days and introspection - simultaneously warming and heartbreaking. 

#13 - "Addison" by Addison Rae

The pop masterpiece no one saw coming. At least, no one like me - whose previous exposure to Rae was a Netflix remake of She's All That being savagely torn apart by drag queens Trixie Mattel and Katya on their YouTube reaction series. Rising to fame via Tiktok is almost certainly a guarantee to have your future musical endeavours torn apart by critical hands, but the reception to her eponymous debut has been lavish. Its hits have been on the back-burner since their emergence - in part due to their own Tiktok virality, particularly in "Diet Pepsi"s case - and the full LP proved the real deal. 

#12 - "Stardust" by Danny Brown

After the sombre introspection of Quaranta in 2023, there was the fear that Brown had lost his sense of fun. A quick blast of "Lift You Up" nipped that idea in the bud. In the past I've loved Danny Brown records for their hazy production that completely let his personality and flow shine easier, but on Stardust he turns his ear to house and hyperpop and still flourishes. 

#11 - "Moisturizer" by Wet Leg

Their debut three years ago was the sort of sudden cultural phenomenon that you could be forgiven for expecting to be a fad; shaking up the newly post-COVID landscape with a sense of bratty rebellion and unbothered cool that - if 2024 proved anything - has certainly lingered in the zeitgeist. Their follow-up is no less punchy, even if literal ("Catch These Fists"), and those jabs delivered over jagged guitar riffs - begging to be the soundtrack to Netflix's newest teen drama - are knockout. 

#10 - "The BPM" by Sudan Archives

Another 2022 record I instantly fell in love with - perhaps more than most - was Natural Brown Prom Queen. The multi-instrumentalist has such an incredible ear for crafting R&B that pushes boundaries and crashes into bridges and interludes that you couldn't possibly predict. She follows that up with a dance record: The BPM is no less ambitious and has so much to unpack that will keep me coming back for multiple listens. 

#9 - "Lotus" by Little Simz

The UK's other biggest talent in hip-hop made a misstep in 2025; whilst his lyricism and activism were still unrivalled, the production on Dave's The Boy Who Played The Harp was incredibly frustrating and left him to perform unaided. No such errors were made in the creation of Lotus, Simz' sixth LP: playing with Afrobeats on the Obongjayar-aided "Lion", stripping everything bare for the therapeutic "Blood", or even dabbling in a little bossa nova on "Only". Lotus comes with the visceral fallout of Little Simz' public spat with former producer and long-time collaborator Inflo, so there may have been some fears that her production house was shaken and tattered. Instead, it establishes a new sound somehow even more compelling. 

#8 - "Essex Honey" by Blood Orange

Seven years on from his last LP Negro Swan, the comeback of one of the 21st century's most prolific and exemplary producers had a lot to live up to. Coming with it was a whole lot of emotional baggage: the death of Hynes' mother in 2023 and his return home following almost a decade stateside - producing for the likes of Solange, Mariah Carey, and Turnstile - makes Essex Honey one of those rare bittersweet but devastating listens. It's a love letter to his upbringing, that even in spite of its many star collaborations (Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Zadie Smith) provides a fascinating insight into what made one of music's most creative minds who he is today. 

#7 - "A Matter of Time" by Laufey

One of those records that could - if I'm in a particularly bad mood - come off as too fanciful or floaty for my musical needs, but on other days will have me rapt and enchanted. The Icelandic singer's third album, fresh off the back of a Grammy Award win in 2024, unravels with guile and wraps around you with dreamy lullabies, romantic jazz, and a timeline-hopping fizz: it's simultaneously ageless and yet so indebted to the decadence of the 20s, the sexual liberation of the 60s, the lyrical profanity of today. Time will tell, of course, but it's difficult to conceive a time where this album doesn't hit.

#6 - "SABLE, fABLE" by Bon Iver

22, A Million - for all its successes - had Justin Vernon and co. tampering with a formula that I'd used to soundtrack my university years. Whilst it was great, it sacrificed a little of the world-building and scenic awe that had me visualising my own Americana so religiously. Indeed, I don't even remember listening to the follow-up, i, i, and I am also quietly grateful that the band's penchant for ridiculous song titling has been (if temporarily) put to bed. Whether it's reductive to compare this to 2011's self-titled record, I don't know, but SABLE, fABLE (not quite there with the titling, I see) transported me back to those years with an aching optimism. 

#5 - "Getting Killed" by Geese

I've read a few too many thought-pieces about this record that can get a little exhausting, so when I first gave it a spin I was relieved to hear that the hype wasn't misguided. It's one of those contemporary rock records that shakes off the shackles of being derivative of so much that came before it: with Cameron Winter's unique take on a drawl and startling arrangements, their fourth album is apparently something of an anachronism. Their earlier three records were released to middling (at best) acclaim, but on Getting Killed I guess something just clicked. I think I forgot to mention "Au Pays Du Cocaine" on my list of 100 tracks last week, and for that I profoundly apologise. What a fucking song. 

#4 - "Choke Enough" by Oklou

I have a Spotify playlist called "Recent Obsessions" which... well it's obvious what it's for... and, right now, my newest additions and immediate selections whenever I want a lift are roughly 8 tracks from this record. As debuts go, I am hard-pressed to recall a more instant love. The Frenchwoman plays with 2000s trance nostalgia, elements of vaporwave and vocal samplings that just combine into this thrilling dance / electronic record.

#3 - "EUSEXUA" by FKA twigs

I mentioned earlier preferring this to its successor, and I wasn't lying. For such a long time, this sat at the top of my 2025 rankings and - following the relative "selling out" of its predecessor Caprisongs, came as such a relief to those of us who fell in love with her insane eye for artistic expression on the likes of Magdalene and LP1. This still retained some of the more contemporary production, not quite fully immersing itself back in the stuttering chamber-pop of her debut; it could certainly still find its way onto a club playlist. It just felt that this record allowed itself more room to breathe than Caprisongs: not quite so eager to play with The Weeknd. 

#2 - "EURO-COUNTRY" by CMAT

I gave her the single title perhaps as a courtesy, knowing I had to - hand on heart - give the album title to the lady below. That's not to say it didn't give it a good fight, though: EURO-COUNTRY immediately cemented itself as one of the most personal, witty, moving, savvy and powerful albums I've ever heard. There'd been glimpses of this on her previous material, especially Crazymad For Me, but the stars just aligned in 2025 and I could wax lyrical about each and every track here: the unabashed Irishness of the fiddles on "When a Good Man Cries", the painful loneliness and everyone is having fun except me on "Coronation St.", or the playful innuendo regarding a 7" on "Lord Let That Tesla Crash". 

#1 - "LUX" by Rosalia

Where to even begin? 

Following up El Mal Querer with the chaos of MOTOMAMI was already jaw-dropping in and of itself, but to then go from the chaotic hyperpop and reggaeton to this: this sprawling, multilingual opera that dives headfirst into Christian mysticism and the history of femininity and its relationship with God? Who even possesses that ambition? Some of us are more than happy to suffice with a little record about doing coke on the weekends and musing that Kier Starmer is a bit of a wanker, and that's it. Here, Spain's foremost musical power largely sacrifices her earlier urban sound for a play that unfolds in four movements. It's rare for classical music to play any part in modern releases save for some tongue-in-cheek interpolations and sampling, but here Rosalía is her own maestro: each track a dedication to women of religious significance all over the world (9th-century Iraqi poet Rābiʼa al-ʼAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya, 17th century Japanese monk Ryōnen Gensō, 12th century abbess Hildegard of Bingen). The scope is astonishing, and executed with a beauty that defies superlatives.