The 25 Best Albums of 2025

This is where I’m supposed to say something about how it was an extremely weird year in music—but first, I have to acknowledge that I realize that’s a very trite thing to say at this point. Still, what an extremely weird year in music, right?! In the mainstream, the Billboard Hot 100 was dominated for the majority of the year by Alex Warren and KPop Demon Hunters, either of which may or may not have crossed your desk at all (probably depending on whether you have kids or a TikTok account, or both).