Next 25 Music Albums of 2025
by MadhattanJack

Rank Score:

Rank in 2025:

1,469

Rank in 2020s:

15,112

Average Rating:

74 (2 votes)

Comments:

6. (5) 1

Miracle Music

Grails

I sort of lost interest in this group after all those "Black Tar Prophecies" albums in the 2010's, but after hearing this I might have to go and check out some of their more recent albums, which seem to have different-colored tar in them. Their material still sounds like avant-garde suspense-film music to me, and that's not necessarily bad, but if you've starred in as many avant-garde films as I have... well, I'm sure you can imagine. [First added to this chart: 11/03/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

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7. (6) 1

Portraits

Jack O' The Clock

These songs were actually recorded in 2003, and then overdubbed with new vocals and other tracks in 2024, just in time for an early-2025 release date. That's really the best way to record an album - you have to give songs time to "digest" or else they come out sounding all pretentious or whatever. [First added to this chart: 11/29/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

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None

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None

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9. (8) 1

Shapeshifter

Triptides

This band (not to be confused with fellow Californians Tripsitter from circa 2004, who were similar but more "surfy," or the Bloomington, Indiana band Triptides who were active circa 2014) takes a kind of "hybrid retro-pop" approach, whereby they'll write songs that sound like they belong in 2010, but record them with Fender Rhodes piano patches and horns that belong in 1970, only they're doing this in 2025. Basically, nobody really knows what's going on with these guys, but if you like those 70s-era records recorded by folks like Boz Scaggs, Al Stewart, and Gerry Rafferty (who was in Stealer's Wheel), you might like these guys too. [First added to this chart: 10/20/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

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12. (11) 1

🌀❓(Spiral Question Mark)

Pets

I wasn't even going to rank this one because I was afraid the album title would crash my computer, but then I remembered this thing is only a year old and has the latest version of the operating system and everything. Also, I like the band name. It's a nice, somewhat laid-back "leftfield pop" album with some good songs, but I'm also not big on baseball metaphors. [First added to this chart: 11/06/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

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None

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None

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13. (12) 1

Perverts

Ethel Cain

A little scarier than her previous album, 2022's critically-acclaimed "Preacher's Daughter." I don't know if scaring the listener is the intent here or not, but you have to appreciate the effectiveness of her approach, if nothing else. [First added to this chart: 11/29/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

Appears in:

39 charts

Rank Score:

Rank in 2025:

Rank in 2020s:

1,158

Overall Rank:

15,009

Average Rating:

74 (64 votes)

Comments:

14. (13) 1

Crush Me

Cross Record

I'm a stickler for good cover art, so it's a testament to the quality of this recording that I'm including it here despite what is clearly an aesthetic disaster of the first order being used as the visual representation for it. That said, this album is not, as they say, "full of bangers." It's dark, quiet, dreamy, contemplative, and occasionally both arty and experimental. Cross Record is the musical name for Emily Cross, who mostly makes her living as a "death doula," i.e., someone who helps elderly or terminally-ill people manage their final days on Earth. (Obviously this should not be confused with Death Dealer, a 1980s Canadian heavy metal band.) Her vocals are, dare I say it, a bit "waifish," but in these musical settings that's a good thing. You wouldn't want somebody doing screamo over this material. [First added to this chart: 11/29/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

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Rank in 2025:

2,345

Rank in 2020s:

22,823

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15. (14) 1

Piqued

Jeff Runnings

This is Jeffrey Runnings' second solo album, recorded on an 8-track cassette deck and released posthumously after his death from cancer in March 2025. He's best-known as the leader of For Against, one of those "big sound" post-punk guitar bands that people like me are fond of. I suspect the tracks on this album are actually demos, many of them unfinished, especially given how they were recorded and the fact that few of them have any vocals on them, but that's no reason to not be thankful, is it? Of course not. Also, there's a cat on the album cover, along with some leaves, which probably is his way of saying "this cat is leaving." R.I.P., Jeffrey. [First added to this chart: 11/29/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

Appears in:

Rank Score:

Rank in 2025:

1,440

Rank in 2020s:

14,842

Average Rating:

74 (2 votes)

Comments:

16. (15) 1

Valerian Tea

Magic Fig

This band from San Francisco seems to have hybridized quite a few musical approaches, including 60s West Coast psychedelia, 70's AOR prog-rock (especially the English variety), 80s synthpop, 90s deadpan waif-folk, and maybe a bit 16th-century medieval chorale music. I like it, but it's going to take a few more listens before I can fully understand what's going on, given my limited brain capacity. [First added to this chart: 12/02/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

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None

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None

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18. (17) 1

New Wilderness Gospel

Lux Interna

This is what you might call a "gothic Americana" band who remind me of an earlier group called Holler Wild Rose, except that Holler Wild Rose were significantly more obscure, so what's the point of comparing the two? I have no idea. They also remind me of The Jazz Butcher, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, and Nick Cave (especially his late-90s, early-2000s material). That's good, right? Unfortunately, none of these (except maybe The Jazz Butcher) are among my favorite bands, but it's a fine record nevertheless. [First added to this chart: 10/20/2025]

Year of Release:

2025

Appears in: