The Best Albums of 2025

The Lebanese Civil War. Corporate agri-capitalism. Tips for surviving a nasty divorce. Violence, unfettered avarice, and the need to hold on to your heart—all of these, among other timely themes, infuse a group of widely varied but generally excellent albums released over the past year. A horrible time in so many ways that we know all too well, 2025 also gave us some terrifically inventive, ear-stretching, and entertaining music. It was an exceptionally good year for music, in fact, especially for music that engages bad times incisively and offers up ideas for how to survive.