In the grand scheme of years in history, 2025 wasn’t too bad, was it? I mean, it wasn’t 536 CE, after all. We didn’t face mass crop failures and famines. We will, down the road, but we didn’t this year. It wasn’t the year of the Plague of Justinian in 541 CE or the Black Death of 1347. Hell, it wasn’t even the covid pandemic of 2020. Sure, there was geopolitical instability, genocide, the arrival of fascism in the West again, the 1968-style flu epidemic, the onrushing apocalyptic climate crisis, and the nagging idea that bird flu is waiting to make all this seem like a lark. No nuclear weapons detonated, though. An asteroid didn’t collide with the planet. The theme for the year could be summed up succinctly as this: 2025 – It Could Be Worse.
As usual, of course, there was some great music that was put out, regardless of what your dumb drunk uncle told you. They have made great music after 2000, and contained herein are 100 examples of this. This could easily have been 300 examples, but anything over 100 is a list comprised mainly of madness. These are the top albums of 2025, and the cut off has to go somewhere. Regardless, beyond the top albums of 2025, there are piles of new music released every week that deserve your attention. Below are five albums that almost made the cut, but didn’t – honourable mentions, if you will. After, follow the link to begin the top albums of 2025 proper.
Honourable Mentions
Park Jiha – All Living Things [tak:til] – February 14th
Jason Isbell – Foxes In The Snow [Southeastern] – March 7th
Sunny War – Armageddon in a Summer Dress [New West] – February 21st
Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out [City Slang] – January 10th
Sharon Van Etten – Sharon Van Etten and The Attachments [Jagjaguwar] – February 7th
Continue to #100-81 of the Top Albums of 2025!
