There aren't many metrics by which 2025 could be judged as a great year, but musically speaking? It was pretty damned good. Rosalía made a grand and accessible piece of high art. Annie DiRusso and The Beaches filled the "song of the summer"-shaped hole in our hearts. Wet Leg got spikier, funnier, hornier, scarier. Ólafur Arnalds & Talos transformed deep loss into something warm and lasting. Gordi, Annahstasia, Indigo De Souza, Madi Diaz and Tamino all found fresh, inviting, intoxicating twists on singer-songwriterliness.
A top 20 or top 30 would have been so much easier this year — an excuse to find room for more underheard voices (Anna Tivel! Emily Hines! Ken Pomeroy! Victoria Canal!), festival-packing stars (Lucy Dacus! Little Simz!), rising rock stars (Wednesday! The Beths!) and, sorry-not-sorry, the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, a factory that served up wall-to-wall bangers and salvaged what otherwise seemed like a down year for pop music.
Stephen Thompson's Top 10 Albums of 2025
1. Rosalía, LUX
2. Annie DiRusso, Super Pedestrian
3. Wet Leg, moisturizer
4. The Beaches, No Hard Feelings
5. Ólafur Arnalds & Talos, A Dawning
6. Gordi, Like Plasticine
7. Annahstasia, Tether
8. Indigo De Souza, Precipice
9. Madi Diaz, Fatal Optimist
10. Tamino, Every Dawn's a Mountain
Read about more of NPR Music's favorite albums of 2025 and our list of the 125 best songs of 2025.
Graphic illustration by David Mascha for NPR.
Copyright 2025 NPR
