Top 50 Albums of 2025: #10-1
10. Even In Arcadia by Sleep Token
Love them or loathe them, there is no denying mysterious genre-bending outfit Sleep Token have been one of the defining bands of 2025. From topping Billboard charts, headlining Download and other European rock festivals to a huge sell-out US tour, this was the year the band followed in the footsteps of their contemporaries in Bring Me The Horizon and became one of the UK’s biggest musical exports.
Across the ten tracks here, Sleep Token frequently shapeshift between styles - sometimes even within the same song - making it impossible to pigeonhole their sound into any one genre. Frequently on this record, I can’t tell if it’s a pop band making a great rock album or a metal outfit making a great electronic or R&B record. While this unique style irked some of the metal community who believe they don’t belong, Sleep Token officially won me over in 2025 with their heavy, hook-laden and genre-twisting ways.
Anchored by Vessel’s emotive vocals and their knack for crafting melodies that stick in your head, the album weaves beautiful sonic surprises that ensure there is never a dull moment. From towering opener Look To Windward to the dazzling genre-hopping of Emergence, we then get a pure pop moment in the ultra-catchy Past Self. Massive single Caramel is still an honest chart-ready anthem, while the title track boasts an epic ending laced with gorgeous strings. However, the best moments are saved for last, with the emotional soars of Damocles and math-rock riffs of Gethsemane making way for the thunderous 8-minute crescendo of Infinite Baths.
While Sleep Token very much remain a Marmite band, for me this is a stunning album of which I simply couldn’t get enough, truly soundtracking my 2025 from the moment in dropped back in May. Brimming with emotion and filled with all sorts of marvellous sonic twists and turns, it's an exhilarating and utterly captivating listening experience.
Best tracks: Caramel, Even In Arcadia, Damocles
In a year which saw AI-created songs chart for the first time, artists removing music from streaming services and more bands struggling to survive against a myriad of corporate algorithms, a DIY-band making an album about humanity’s relationship with the digital world felt awfully fitting. Enter Oxford electro-rock outfit Low Island and their delicate, thought-provoking record bird, which dared us all to break free of our digital constraints and soar in the skies once again.
Produced by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, across the 10 tracks the band explore all aspects of man vs. machine, be it relationships with AI chatbots (follow your direction and machine lover) or feelings of technology-induced claustrophobia (Radiohead-inspired single spit it out). The album also features one of my favourite songs of the year in this is water, which sees frontman Carlos Posada encouraging us all to look beyond our daily doomscrolling and digital distractions, and instead “move a little closer” to one another.
Thematically timely and sonically satisfying, Low Island produced a beautiful record seemingly made for this very moment in 2025. As I wrote in my original review for CLASH:
“With bird, Low Island have crafted a sonically bold and conceptually ambitious record for the digital age. While exploring humanity’s detachment through the AI-technology we ourselves have built, they manage to anchor the music in something altogether more fundamental: human emotion. Complex, evocative and wonderfully cathartic, this is the sound of Low Island really starting to spread their wings and fly.”
Read my full original review for CLASH magazine here
Best tracks: spit it out, this is water, little bird
I can make a strong case that no artist had a bigger 2025 than Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson. From blowing up on TikTok thanks to her viral dance for Take A Sexy Picture of Me, putting on one of the performances of the weekend at Glastonbury over the summer, earning her second Mercury Prize nomination in two years and playing her first arena show in her native Ireland, CMAT simply ruled over 2025. Helping her to get there was EURO-COUNTRY, her brilliant third album that continued her stellar run of records that have helped make her one of the artists of the 2020s thus far.
Overflowing with great songwriting and her own infectious charm, it’s another faultless collection of songs that jump between introspection and social commentary. The title track sets the stage perfectly, starting off with lyrics in her native Irish before CMAT relates her own quest for fame and superstardom with Ireland’s own ambition on the political stage. She then gives us one of the most iconic lyrics of the year on folky single When A Good Man Cries, coining herself “The People’s Mess, Dunboyne Diana.” She also explores irrational hatred and intolerance as only she can on The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, quirkily meditating on being sick of seeing the celebrity chef at every tour pit stop, before thinking of his kids and calming herself down.
However for all her witty way with words on EURO-COUNTRY, it’s the moments when CMAT drops her armour of humour and shows her vulnerability where this album really shines. Take A Sexy Picture of Me became one of the songs of the year for its relatable message about insecurities and self-doubt, with CMAT also giving a big middle finger to all the online trolls who negatively commented on her appearance at festivals and award shows, turning their vile attacks into a hit single. Lord, Let That Tesla Crash is then one of the most profound songs of her career thus far, a heartbreaking track about dealing with the pain and regrets that come from losing a close friend.
With EURO-COUNTRY, CMAT not only continued her career hot streak with another near-faultless record, but it also helped lift her to a new level of superstardom. A ridiculously talented songwriter and performer, my guess is the next album cycle will see CMAT ascend on to the world’s biggest stages where she rightfully belongs.
Best tracks: EURO-COUNTRY, When A Good Man Cries, Take A Sexy Picture of Me
7. A Complicated Woman by Self Esteem
Heading into the writing process for A Complicated Woman, Sheffield’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor (RLT) had the impossible task of following up one of the most critically acclaimed projects of the 2020s so far – her outstanding 2021 sophomore effort, Prioritise Pleasure. However after a period of overwhelming pressure and experiencing intense writer’s block, Self Esteem emerged with not just a brilliant album on par with its predecessor, but an entire West End theatre production to go with it as well.
Sonically doubling down on everything that made Prioritise Pleasure great, RLT once again fills the backdrop with orchestral strings, choral harmonies and catchy, gospel-infused pop. It’s an emotional rollercoaster ride too, opening on the powerful gut punch of I Do And I Don’t Care, before later uplifting and inspiring on Lioness anthems Focus Is Power and If Not Now, It’s Soon. She then confronts her complex relationships with alcohol and love on The Curse and Logic Bitch, before making you laugh out loud on the tongue-in-cheek, sexual preference listings of 69. She has a couple of friends help her along the way too, with Moonchild Sanelly and Nadine Shah both delivering memorable guest features on In Plain Sight and Lies.
All that said, RLT saves the very best moment for last, serving up one of the songs of the year with The Deep Blue Okay. A continuation of opener I Do And I Don’t Care and her own take on LCD Soundsystem’s All My Friends, the song was apparently written in only 10 minutes and is a powerful message of hope to the women of the world, with RLT rattling off the lyrics in one hugely emotional, stream of consciousness. An incredible song that gives me goosebumps and a lump in my throat every time I hear it.
Beautifully written and arranged, Rebecca Lucy Taylor once again delivered the best pop album of the entire year. Cohesive, eclectic and powered by pure emotion, seeing her perform a heroic homecoming show at Sheffield Arena in October only further cemented this collection of songs as one of the best of the year for me. Please protect Self Esteem at all costs, as RLT is truly one in a million.
Best tracks: Focus Is Power, Logic Bitch, The Deep Blue Okay
6. Everybody Scream by Florence + The Machine
Transforming tragedy and trauma into an absolute triumph, Florence + The Machine returned in 2025 with their sixth studio album Everybody Scream, a horror-inspired tapestry of pain that ranks right up there as one of their best albums to date.
The making of the record came after some quite terrifying circumstances, with Florence Welch having experienced an ectopic miscarriage during the touring cycle for her previous album, Dance Fever. A near fatal incident that required emergency surgery, the devastation of the whole horrific ordeal meant Everybody Scream creatively poured out of her as a result. Laying bare her honest thoughts and feelings while conjuring up dark imagery of satanism and witchcraft along the way, it’s an endlessly captivating and impactful listen that features some of the best songs she’s ever written too.
Backed up by a stacked group of guest performers and collaborators including legendary producer James Ford, American singer-songwriter Mitski, The National’s Aaron Dessner, Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley and IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen, the instrumentation supporting Florence’s passionate, anguished vocal cries are always richly textured, regardless of whether it’s hugely cinematic or more subtlety stripped-back.
As for the songs themselves, this feels like Florence at her most unrestricted, as if she has been liberated by the near-death experience. One of the Greats is a big standout, with Florence contemplating her legacy, scathingly taking aim at the female experience within the music industry in the process, which she also does on the equally great Music by Men. Perfume and Milk is another favourite, a bluesy folk song about the endless cycle of suffering and healing, while dark voodoo enchants singles Witch Dance and Sympathy Magic.
With not a single moment wasted, Florence firmly cements herself as one of the UK’s greatest, most criminally underrated songwriters on Everybody Scream. Perfectly paced, beautifully arranged and with her own emotionally charged vocal performances anchoring the whole project, Florence truly deserves all the plaudits for this album. With a huge arena tour planned for early next year and several festival headline slots also coming up in 2026, I have no doubt she’ll have everybody in the audience screaming.
Best tracks: One of the Greats, Perfume and Milk, The Old Religion
5. Carving The Stone by For Those I Love
Back in 2021, electronic musician and spoken word poet David Balfe made one of the most affecting, impactful and beautiful records I have ever heard with his self-titled debut album under his For Those I Love guise. Winning the Irish Choice Prize and becoming my 2021 Album of the Year in the process, given the story behind that album I half expected it to be a “one and done” project. However this year, David Balfe returned with the second For Those I Love album and incredibly reached those same heights, delivering another outstanding collection of hard-hitting, beautifully written and emotionally resonant songs.
Where the first album was sewed together through feelings of personal grief, on Carving The Stone Balfe broadens his scope to look at the loss of innocence and culture through the lens of modern life in Dublin. His narrative perspective has changed as a result, switching from a young boy growing up in Ireland enjoying life with his friends, to now taking us with into the rage-fuelled present where all their dreams have been shattered by soaring rent prices, increased poverty and selfish capitalist governments.
The way he tells these stories are once again captivating, with the opening title track setting the scene perfectly, before No Scheme – a spiritual sequel to Top Scheme off the debut - poetically reflects on his past life and the hollowness of social media. The Ox / The Afters is then one of my songs of the year, telling the sad yet beautifully written story of a Dublin-based, Rocky-like boxer. He is the figure used to drive home an important message about male mental health struggles, with the climax of the story really knocking you for six.
Elsewhere on the record, we get a further mix of nostalgia and frustration. Civic is a reflection on how he took his twenties for granted, while Mirror is probably the most outwardly aggressive and frustration-fuelled cut on the record, taking fierce aim at this current wave of nationalism we’re seeing around the globe.
Lead single Of The Sorrows remains one of my favourites here too, building towards a wonderful Irish trad passage and passionate refrain of “I have to leave / I’ll never leave” at the end. He then leaves the listener on an optimistic note with I Came Back To See The Stone Had Moved, with the message that despite everything that’s going on in Dublin and indeed the world right now, he’s just grateful to be alive – which I believe is something in which we can all find a bit of peace.
Once again, David Balfe’s music absolutely blew me away in 2025. I came into this record back in August assuming there was no way it would match the debut for me, but here in December I think I love Carving The Stone just as much - an essential listen in every single way.
Best tracks: Carving The Stone, The Ox / The Afters, Of The Sorrows
4. Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd
2025, the year I bid a fond farewell of sorts to one of my favourite artists of the last decade – The Weeknd.
Hurry Up Tomorrow was not just the conclusion of Abel Tesfaye’s brilliant recent trilogy that begun with After Hours and continued on Dawn FM, it is also supposedly his final record as The Weeknd, with rumours of a shift into Hollywood or releasing music under his own name or a different persona in the future. As a final bow out for The Weeknd, Hurry Up Tomorrow was the most fitting finale you could’ve asked for, with Abel remaining bold and overly ambitious to the very end.
As with all The Weeknd’s albums, the music is ultimately just one part of the whole experience. For this record, Abel delivered a series of artistically crafted music videos and visualisers for a lot of the tracks, as well as a companion movie starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, offering a fascinating and surreal trip inside his own state of mind. Not only that, but Abel also released several different versions of the album, with the vinyl release offering a much more condensed tracklist compared to the 22-track odyssey that makes up the digital version, with the vinyl release even including a couple of tracks that have yet to make it to streaming services.
That said, the joy of seeing the movie in the cinema and spinning the vinyl for the first time only added to my fondness for this record, as from January onwards it was already well on its way to being one of my most played albums of the entire year. With plenty of career highlights including the ultra-catchy Cry For Me, the euphoric switch between Baptized In Fear and Open Hearts, as well as the heartfelt, emotionally charged climax of Without A Warning and the title track, there is not much here I don’t love. Expertly produced and stitched together by the great Mike Dean, the album also features a host of great collaborations with the likes of Justice, Travis Scott, Florence + The Machine, Giorgio Moroder and Lana Del Rey, all together making for one final dazzling and hugely immersive experience.
So, while I patiently wait and see what Abel Tesfaye does next, I’ve enjoyed taking this last rollercoaster ride with The Weeknd in 2025, which has brought about an immense sense of gratitude for all the moments and support his music has given me over the years. Like a lot of The Weeknd’s projects you can easily pick out the flaws, but for me the high points of Hurry Up Tomorrow more than outweigh any criticisms of the album and its slightly indulgent runtime.
Sticking the landing as best as he possibly could, this is the long goodbye to the character that has defined Abel Tesfaye since 2011, through which he has become one of the most successful and visionary popstars of modern times. An artist, visionary and superstar to the end, The Weeknd gracefully bowed out with one of the defining records of 2025.
Best tracks: Take Me Back To LA, Without A Warning, Hurry Up Tomorrow
3. A Dawning by Ólafur Arnalds & Talos
Earlier on in this post I mentioned how that For Those I Love debut album had impacted on me back in 2021, sure that no other record would move me to my core in that way ever again. I was wrong, as A Dawning by Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and late-great Irish musician Eoin French (Talos) continues to replicate that overwhelming feeling of gratitude for love, life and friendship.
An album born out of tragic circumstances, Eoin French – known musically as Talos – passed away following a short illness in August 2024 at the age of just 36 years old. During this time, him and Ólafur Arnalds had only just started to collaborate together, when French’s incurable illness became increasingly apparent. As a result, the crafting of this album became a fulfilling coping mechanism for the two artists – French distracting himself from his impending death by working on the project, before Ólafur Arnalds was left to complete the project in isolation, healing his unimaginable grief by finishing what they had started together.
This touching story engrains so much emotional weight into A Dawning, a project which is less an album but more a beautiful meditation on the healing power of music. Centred around four main tracks – Signs, Bedrock, A Dawning and We Didn’t Know We Were Ready – the rest of the album is then made up of ambient instrumental passages and musical vignettes. Altogether, it makes for an emotionally devastating yet hugely uplifting experience, the sadness of hearing French’s voice and contemplating that immeasurable loss buoyed by the love at the heart of the record and the community spirit in which it was completed.
Ultimately, this is an album that carries with it a rare power and energy that few other albums could even imagine. Fuelled by a palpable sense of love and friendship, A Dawning is a life-affirming experience and magnificent ode to the collective healing force of music. As Eoin French himself describes it during opener Shared Time:
“That's what music is - there's a youthfulness to it and a communal end to a solitary kind of creation. The organist playing in the church, the shaman plays the drums - it's more connected. The burden of performing is shared as opposed to just focused on you.”
Another essential album from 2025 that demands to be heard and appreciated, the beauty and impact radiating from this record will undoubtedly stick with me for years to come.
Best tracks: Bedrock, A Dawning, We Didn’t Know We Were Ready
Read more about the making of A Dawning via Far Out Magazine here
2. Drive To Goldenhammer by Divorce
As a proud and vocal advocate for the Nottingham music scene, witnessing the year that Notts indie quartet Divorce have had has truly been one of the great musical joys of the last 12 months.
Building on the success of their brilliant early EPs and singles, Drive To Goldenhammer arrived back in March as bold and as polished as any debut album released in 2025. It was the launchpad the band was looking for, leading them to feature on magazine covers, play festivals and music venues all over the world, as well as now being included in multiple year-end lists from renowned publications likes DORK, Rolling Stone and NME.
During all this, they have continued to fly the flag for the Nottingham music scene in the process, whether that’s spotlighting city hotspots and other local artists in their music videos, or proudly wearing their Nottingham origins like a badge of honour in every interview.
However, despite all these merits, it is still the music on the record itself that is the biggest reason Drive To Goldenhammer is my runner-up Album of the Year for 2025. One of my most played albums of the last 12 months, it is always a joy to dip back into, whether it’s the catchy singles coming on a playlist shuffle or strapping in and playing the whole album front-to-back. As illustrated in our LeftLion Awards roundup:
“From standout singles like All My Freaks, Hangman and Lord, to tender album cuts like Old Broken String and Karen, it’s an impressively confident and accomplished debut where each song is as good as the last, with not a single dull moment to be found. Anchored by the enchanting harmonies of Tiger Cohen-Towell and Felix Mackenzie-Barrow, alongside drummer Kasper Sandstrom and multi-instrumentalist Adam Peter-Smith, the album is a warm, cosy blanket that dances majestically along the lines between indie rock, folk, and country music.”
Without a doubt the debut album of the year for me, this is just the starting point for Divorce and I already can’t wait to see what their next move is from here.
Best tracks: Lord, All My Freaks, Hangman
1. 21st Century Fiction by The Amazons
So here we are then, my 2025 Album of the Year and if you know me well enough, seeing Reading rockers The Amazon topping the list for this year will probably come as no surprise. But really there are many reasons why this has been the defining album of 2025 for me, beyond the fact it is simply one of my favourite bands releasing their best and most accomplished project to date.
Firstly, I played this album A LOT. On Apple Music Replay stats alone, 8 of the songs from this album made my Top 10 most played of the year, and the album itself I spun for a whopping 913 minutes. Secondly, the album has been there with me through most of the year, offering up plenty of memorable moments – whether that was their intimate Rough Trade in-store during the album’s release week, seeing them kickstart festival season at Live At Leeds back in May or their biblical 2-hour live show at Rock City in October.
However, despite the personal connection of this record to 2025, I think this album also thematically feels very appropriate for the times. In a year of fear and uncertainty, The Amazons delivered a 10/10 rock record, filled with a sense of urgency and existential dread. Where Oasis’ reunion was objectively the music industry’s biggest moment and talking point in 2025, The Amazons also showed that Rock & Roll is alive and well, with the genre not needing to survive on the blood of nostalgia alone. Here was a current band with a catalogue of big anthems, mind-melting riffs and, most importantly, something worthwhile to say.
With this album being their first since the departure of drummer Joe Emmett and their first as a trio, their sound could have easily been dialled back. But by recruiting in the incredible Ella McRobb as backing vocalist, George Le Page and Royal Blood’s Ben Thatcher as their studio drummers, with Peter Hutchings and Catherine Marks then leading production duties, The Amazons’ music has never sounded bigger, bolder or more richly cinematic. Whether it’s the industrial thud and passionate cries of opener Living A Lie, the smoky guitars of Pitch Black and Love Is A Dog From Hell, the heavy grunge of Joe Bought A Gun, the mind-blowing shreds of Wake Me Up or the goosebump-inducing balladry of Go All The Way, The Amazons will have you thrilled from the first note to the last breath.
Fuelled by frustration and built around a central message of perseverance, 21st Century Fiction is the sound of a young rock band pushing themselves and their sound to grand new heights. This is Matt Thomson, Chris Alderton and Elliot Briggs getting “tired of screaming in the back seat” as old rock bands get all the attention and plaudits, instead demanding that your attention turns to them and the future before it's too late.
In a year where the music industry and everyone on the planet at times felt like they were fighting for survival in some way, The Amazons delivered a glorious, cathartic soundtrack fit for the apocalypse – and it was quite something to witness. For that and all the reasons above, 21st Century Fiction is my Album of the Year for 2025.
Best tracks: Pitch Black, Wake Me Up, Go All The Way… and everything else!
Read my interview with frontman Matt Thomson for LeftLion here
Read my original review for CLASH Magazine here
Thanks for following along with my 2025 Albums of the Year countdown – still to come over the festive period, my Top 100 Songs playlist, Top 10 EPs and Best Gigs of the Year!
