WTHB Albums Of The Year 2025
2025 was an interesting year for music - wasn't it? We will let you be he true judge of that. With so many great albums it is hard to decide what ones truly stuck out for us overall. But our writers have given it a go by picking their top albums over the past twelve months.
WET LEG
moisturizer, the sophomore album by Wet Leg, proved that the viral success of their debut was no fluke. They took that momentum to redefine their sound, expanding their sonic palette while retaining the cheeky, carefree attitude that made them an instant favorite. Moving from a duo to a five piece band, Wet Leg feels more expansive, more cohesive, and more playful than ever.
Where their debut was a mix of sharp wit and catchy hooks, moisturizer feels more deliberate. The band’s evolution is evident with a refined approach to songwriting, exploring the highs and lows of desire, insecurity, and love with a vulnerability that feels refreshingly honest. The album takes listeners on a journey from punchy, upbeat tracks such as “CPR” and “pillow talk” to more intimate, stripped-back moments such as “davina mccall” and “11:21.”
The album showcases Wet Leg’s ability to balance fun and introspection, combining infectious melodies with lyrics that reflect a deeper emotional meaning. "mangetout" is my favorite rock track of the year. It is fun, energetic, and smart, showcasing their impressive ability to create some of the most infectious melodies and lyrics you’ll find in an album released in 2025. It’s the kind of song that can soundtrack an entire season of your life.
What could have been a forgettable sophomore slump instead became a success story. Wet Leg proved once again that they’re more than just a fleeting sensation, continuing to shine and proving their place in the music scene. With moisturizer, they have crafted a record that feels both like a natural progression and a deliberate reinvention of their sound, allowing them to grow up, just enough, without ever growing dull.
Words - Marcus Sanoja
GEESE
With Getting Killed, Geese delivered their strongest and most vulnerable album yet. A record that is at once chaotic and precise, confronting chaos and allowing space for honesty.
Produced alongside Kenny Beats, the album contains their most daring work to date. From the explosive opener “Trinidad” to the atmospheric rock closer “Long Island City Here I Come”, Getting Killed never plays it safe. It is a record that thrives on disruption and strangeness: jagged guitars, abrupt shifts, and “weird” production choices.
Nevertheless, the record is not only about noise and fury; its moments of tenderness and introspection are what make it truly special. “Au Pays du Cocaine” stands out as the album’s gentlest moment. A track that allows the listener to breathe amid the record’s intensity, offering brief comfort in the middle of it. This juxtaposition between raw aggression and quiet reflection defines the album's unique tone, drawing the listener into its complex emotional landscape.
Lyrically, the album explores modern alienation, existential uncertainty, and the tug-of-war between vulnerability and defiance. On songs like “Taxes” and “100 Horses,” Geese weave absurdist, even confrontational imagery, including biblical references, surreal scenarios, and gritty realism. Yet, it's the emotional core that truly resonates. Lead vocalist Cameron Winter’s unique voice, filled with intensity, cuts through the noise like a storm of emotions, perfectly capturing the tension of the album. The way Winter conveys both a sense of resignation and defiance in the same breath gives the album its depth, as if each line is a confession laid bare.
As with their past records, Getting Killed is not an easy listen, but rather a journey through fractures, risks, and raw emotion. But within those fractures lies something deeply human. It is a reflection of life’s chaotic nature and the resilience we find within it. This emotionally honest project will stand the test of time, marking a pivotal moment in Geese’s career. It’s one of 2025’s most unique listening experiences, offering a sonic adventure that rewards those willing to dive deep.
Words - Marcos Sanoja
ANAMANAGUCHI
Do you ever stop and think about how much fun your favourite band has, and the joy they find in the act of creation? How much they give of themselves in pursuit of their art? You should sometime; or better yet, just ask New York-formed quartet Anamanaguchi, who wrote their latest album Anyway at 704 West High St. in Urbana, Illinois, otherwise known as the American Football House.
Their third album in 12 years—back-to-back six-year gaps!—sees the chiptune-centric band get a little more scuzzy with it, inverting their focus and writing in a room together for the first time ever. Escapism defined 2013 debut Endless Fantasy, while 2019’s [USA] barrelled into the real world, championing communication and connectivity in a strangely prescient way as those things became a lifeline during the pandemic.
Anyway, meanwhile, goes bonafide rock band mode, pulling on a different thread of togetherness, evoking the spirit of the rooms in which the band cut their teeth during their late-2000s ascent, to which they pay their dues on mid-album highlight ‘Sapphire’.
It's there in the syncopated guitar squall and thundering drums of opener ‘Sparkler’, offering up a much different vibe than you may expect. It leans into the sound of their early EPs, scaling things down after the swings taken by its predecessors—which is to say it's only more lo-fi by comparison. Listen to the wall of noise when ‘Magnet’ kicks in; let yourself be awed by how ‘Fall Away’ runs on adrenaline for two minutes before collapsing and building itself up into something even bigger, hollering gang vocals and all.
This album started out with a focus on the poisonous nature of anger and toxic discourse, so as much as it sounds like it was a blast to make, it's not all fun and games, as much as the breezy ‘Buckwild’ and effortlessly catchy ‘Darcie’ are liable to get stuck in your head.
Moodier moments like ‘Valley of Silence’ and ‘Rage (Kitchen Sink)’ tap into weightier themes, with the latter executing the bright melodies/sad lyrics dichotomy expertly; that push and pull helping everything snap into focus more clearly.
Where Anyway truly shines is in its willingness to try something new; Anamanaguchi have never been ones to play it safe. They're here to have fun, and they're seriously committed; by turns catching you off guard with a lyrical curveball or well-timed adlib (woop woop), making you consider your place in the world, or washing you away in a tide of emotion—looking at you, ‘Nightlife’, a cathartic shout-along of the highest calibre. They're here to make you feel something, and their third album is nothing short of extraordinary.
Words - Gareth O'Malley
MARUJA
Maruja’s debut album, Pain to Power, is a unique explosion of jazz punk that heralds its status as my favourite album of the year – championed by the likes of Lambrini Girls for being a massive show of unity through experimentalism, combining the punk fury with that of jazz in a way that’s just about unlike anything you’ve heard before. From the word go the Manchester group’s album is clearly inventive – a fusion of hardcore, hip-hop, jazz and more – lampooning from their days as early acts on Arctangent into full on sold-out Electric Ballroom gigs, they’ve never had a bigger cause for explosion and success – that in no small part is due to this album, righteous and spiritual in every sense. “It’s our differences that make us beautiful,” Harry Wilkinson’s spoken word vocals tease triumphantly on Saoirse, backed by Joe Carroll’s brilliant saxophone, which separates them from just about any punk rock band out there – they cut deep with Trenches and Bloodsport and are able to champion Look Down On Us with a lead single that really pushes boundaries in the way no other band has this year – vitally important in the way it captures late-stage capitalism as the ultimate evil; CEOs, tech titans and more are called out in a way that accompanies Wilkinson’s championing of a free Palestine at their live shows.
Not just a record band their best music is experienced live; thunderously triumphant in every sense of the word – and it’s easy to see why they have the likes of Black Midi and Shame in their corner. What’s more is influences stretch out to the likes of Little Simz – and it’s clear that they’re mavericks as much as perfectionists, an oxymoron perhaps but an accurate one – capable of throwing everything at the wall in a way that feels controlled and organised. Like their concerts, a Maruja record is a spiritual exorcism – you leave completely changed – it’s the rare no-skips album that will have you utterly entranced, sprawling, yet also insanely intimate and discrete in the way it pulls you in. The urgency of its imperfect nature makes Maruja’s Pain to Power even more perfect because of it – skillfully crafted with the mastermind ability of someone ten times more experienced. It has some weighty themes and benefits from a larger than life presence that feels completely transformative – a Maruja show is transcendent, their record life-changing.
Not just a run of the mill punk act – they’re so much more; just as home at Outbreak and Damnation as would be at Green Man and End of the Road – Maruja find a way to push their music to completely new heights in a way that sees a rightly deserved explosion from the UK underground into the mainstream front and centre.
Words - Miles Milton-Jefferies
THE HIVES
It takes the confidence that only a band that has been running for 27 years to title their new album after themselves and have a song about how enduring they will be – but if you’ve ever seen them live you’ll be aware that frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist has that kind of confidence and then some – this is a celebrationary album that looks back at the legacy of their success with plenty of stadium-ready anthems that feel born to be sung along to – often, you’re out of breath by the time Paint a Picture comes on; the garage rockers delivering reliably in a way that no bands with this legacy can rival – they’re master showmen, and their seventh record is a real return to form. They have never got the critical acclaim as their more artsy contemparies – and indeed, it takes a few listens for The Hives Forever Forever the Hives to grow on you, because it is – at its core, an album that sounds like a Hives album.
There is a touch of self-awareness that comes with the title and if you see them live you’ll be aware Pelle has a skill of poking fun at himself and the band – the vocals are searingly chorus-driven and appropriately choreographed – Enough is Enough is confrontational and highly straight to the point – “Everyone’s a little fucking bitch and I’m getting sick and tired of this,” is blunt and that’s how it’s going to stay. But sometimes bluntness is a good thing – “oh let me paint a picture, I ain’t no fucking slob, oh let me paint a picture, more like a fucking god to you,” is a chorus that many bands could wait their entire careers to try and rival something so catchy and simple and still never hear all of Alexandra Palace belt out in unison, but for the Hives it’s a mid-album track that switches you into the next groove. It feels like a call to arms – the early Hives during a time when they were at the top of their game. This is what a return to form is; in their Ally Pally show, Pelle comments on the fact that the audience has never seen a better show here than The Hives and how it’s now Pelle’s Palace. This is the kind of confidence that makes The Hives Forever Forever the Hives soar – the character nature of Born a Rebel is juxtaposed by The Path of Most Resistance – encouraging rebellion and activism. They ultimately like to talk about themselves and that helps them shine because of it – no matter the cost; The Hives Forever, Forever the Hives is a perfect set-closer, a theme of joy about how great the band are. It never feels offputting and always untouchable – just like The Hives at their best.
Words - Miles Milton Jefferies
SELF ESTEEM
Some albums arrive with a kind of quiet authority - not demanding attention, but earning it. A Complicated Woman is one of those records. After how deeply Prioritise Pleasure embedded itself into my everyday life, I honestly didn’t know what a follow-up would look like. That album felt so fully realised that expecting another chapter felt risky. But Rebecca Lucy Taylor approached her next era with a steadiness that made the whole thing feel effortless, as though she’d already mapped out where she wanted to go long before we caught up.
The ambition behind the project was obvious even before the music dropped. Staging a West End production with Tom Scutt signalled that it wasn’t just another album cycle. It framed the record within a broader creative world - one built around collaboration, especially with the group of women whose presence is woven through the tracks. You hear that immediately on I Do and I Don’t Care, where the layered vocals give the opening a sense of shared experience rather than background ornamentation. It roots the album in community from the start.
What makes the album truly great is its ability to hold different emotional temperatures without losing coherence. Focus is Power is a perfect example. It grows slowly and deliberately, trusting the listener to stay with it instead of chasing drama. Then it pivots into the boldness of Mother, which arrives with a wink and a pulse, and somehow both songs feel like parts of the same thought. That flexibility - shifting between restraint and swagger - is part of what makes Self Esteem so compelling.
The introspective moments land with surprising clarity. The Curse isn’t dramatic or heavy-handed; it just states the truth plainly, which makes it hit harder. Logic, Bitch! carries that same straightforward emotional honesty. It’s a song about the people who stay lodged in your life whether you want them to or not, and its softness makes it believable. Nothing about these tracks feels like performance - they sound lived-in.
There’s still room for joy. Cheers To Me is easily one of the album’s biggest releases of energy. It’s celebratory without posturing, the kind of song that feels instantly familiar in the best way. If Not Now, It’s Soon balances that brightness by looking back at messy years with clear-eyed self-awareness. It’s hopeful, but in a grounded way that feels earned.
The collaborations broaden the album’s perspective without breaking its shape. In Plain Sight pushes the sound somewhere new, while Lies adds texture and tension that fit neatly into the overall arc. Even 69, with its blunt honesty, feels purposeful rather than provocative.
By the final stretch - especially the vocal-only What Now and the reflective The Deep Blue Okay - everything clicks into place. The album feels cohesive, not because it ties everything up neatly, but because it allows complexity without apology. That confidence is what makes A Complicated Woman such a strong, enduring piece of work.
Words - Laura Dean
SEA FEVER
Sea Fever have a pedigree that’s hard to ignore - with members from New Order, Section 25, and Johnny Marr’s band, they bring decades of experience - but their second album, Surface Sound, isn’t about proving themselves. It’s about what they can do together, and that cohesion is evident from the first track.
Breaking Out opens with Elliot Barlow’s driving beat, Phil Cunningham’s precise guitar, and Tom Chapman’s layered synths, immediately establishing the album’s pulse. Iwan Gronow and Beth Cassidy share the vocal spotlight in a way that feels natural rather than calculated, giving the track a push-and-pull energy that threads through the rest of the record. That dynamic is a recurring strength, as heard on Go to Ground, where ambition and change meet syncopated rhythms and melodic hooks. Shouldn’t Have Been This Way continues the momentum with a bass-driven groove and guitar flourishes that feel both bold and effortless.
One of the album’s most impressive qualities is its handling of contrast. Sincere to Some starts brooding and slow-burning, anchored by weighty synths and bass, before opening into unexpected melodic territory. Able Eyes keeps the energy but adds a lighter touch, drawing on Manchester’s musical heritage without leaning on nostalgia. Here, Iwan’s vocals lead with clarity, showing versatility that goes beyond past projects and emphasising the band’s collective growth.
Mid-album tracks highlight how well the members balance each other. Thrills, Kicks & Lies puts Beth front and centre, with guitar and rhythm creating tension beneath her ethereal delivery. Triggers Us builds steadily, layering instruments and vocals until it reaches a controlled, exhilarating climax. Loose Cut shifts the tone again, smooth and hypnotic, allowing Beth’s vocals to glide over moody synths and strong rhythms. Across all of these, every member’s contribution feels intentional, which makes the album feel cohesive despite its variety.
Consistency carries through the closing tracks. Truth Dare highlights the chemistry between the dual vocalists, with harmonies and contrasting tones perfectly balanced. The final track, Seen as a Lifeline, delivers energy and catchiness without overstaying its welcome, leaving the listener with a sense of purpose rather than closure. It’s a fitting end to a record where every track feels deliberate, polished, and essential.
Surface Sound works because it’s focused and self-assured. It isn’t a collection of side projects or past glories; it’s a fully formed record from a band that have found their identity. The album blends experience, experimentation, and strong songwriting into something that feels fresh and purposeful, and that combination is what makes it genuinely compelling.
Words - Laura Dean
SAYA GRAY
My album of the year is Saya Gray’s self-titled album ‘SAYA’. Released back in February, I have found myself returning to it with renewed devotion for the best part of a year. I first encountered Saya Gray in the midst of the ‘Qwerty II’ EP era, drawn in by its fractured textures and restless, demo-esque charm. Since debuting her solo music just over five years ago, Saya Gray has operated as a sonic magpie, fusing intricate collages of influence, most notably in the nineteen art-pop vignettes that form her debut album ‘19 MASTERS’. As I traced my way back through her catalogue, her genre-resistant sound quickly worked its way into my everyday rotation.
‘SAYA’, her second album release, finds its footing in more conventional forms. It anchors itself in folk-rooted guitar riffs and circling hooks and is reminiscent of experimental-pop lineage rather than her indistinguishable past experiments. Nonetheless, Saya’s unique take on production and sonic palettes makes an album that is undeniably her. From the outset, it was clear that ‘SAYA’ is, in its own oblique way, a heartbreak record. The opening chant makes it clear enough, “This is why I don’t fall in love in Springtime / Hello snow, I’m alone”. True to nature, Saya’s approach is not a tidy, chronicled narrative, but instead opens portals to the emotional rupture through shards and silhouettes. Neglecting to narrate the singular wound, she maps the disorientation that follows it.
It opens with the anthemic “THUS IS WHY (I DON’T SPRING 4 LOVE)”, a track that, if her current tour-trail Instagram stories are anything to go by, is a complete crowd hit. It’s a grounding introduction, with sweeping guitar riffs, shout-sing hooks, and a wide-open atmosphere. Where her earlier work leaned into intricate, often claustrophobic beats, here Saya flings the doors open and lets in a spring-breeze clarity. But don’t worry, the occasional Qwerty-esque gust still whips through.
This acoustic-folk foundation is carried into tracks like ‘SHELL (OF A MAN)’, ‘HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP UP A LIE’, and, my personal favourite, ‘PUDDLE ( OF ME )’. Elsewhere, Saya’s patchwork impulses take the reins, albeit towards the record’s final stretch. ‘LINE BACK 22’ and ‘CATS CRADLE!’, hark back to Saya’s earlier DIY production, with bubbling synths, glinting harp flourishes, and jolting electronic drums for clarity. The former unfolds into a climbing jam of sampled vocals and crashing drum fills. The latter reiterates Saya’s anti-fame, anti-industry statements through the familiar automated voice we met in 'Qwerty II'. ‘SAYA’ ends on the luminous ‘LIE DOWN’, a song suspended in space between electronic pulse and acoustic warmth. As a closing statement, it distils the album’s duality, demonstrating how expertly Saya Gray commands both.
Just as she sings on the opening track, “you woke up yesterday / I watched the seasons change,” Saya Gray has stepped into a new artistic season with ‘SAYA’, one where past textures and more conventionally grounded instincts exist in equilibrium. It’s a record, I’ve found, that rewards repetition, each visit unravelling a new thread from its detailed tapestry, making it my highlight of all the incredible albums to land this year.
Words - Sasha Renn
CLIPSE
It has been a landmark year for hip-hop, a fact highlighted by the 2026 Grammy nominations for Album of the Year. For the first time, three hip-hop records sit among the nominees: GNX by Kendrick Lamar, Chromakopia by Tyler, the Creator (which I reviewed in last year’s WTHB Album of the Year article), and finally Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse, my personal pick for the best album of 2025.
But this project exists far beyond awards or industry approval. Let God Sort Em Out feels like the culmination of almost two decades of separate journeys. Two brothers whose diverging paths ultimately led them back to one another. What brought them back together was not nostalgia or commercial ambition, but a shared mission to remind the world what made hip-hop great in the first place. To prove that age is no barrier to artistic relevance. To reignite the competitive spirit that sharpened the genre’s edges and elevated the craft.
After years of rumours, delays, and the controversy surrounding a Kendrick Lamar verse, Clipse finally reunited and released the album in June 2025. Their return was heralded by the lead single Ace Trumpets, a triumphant re-entry, followed by the music-video-of-the-year contender So Be It. True to form, the track generated controversy as Pusha T fired shots at Travis Scott, an outburst some assumed was a publicity stunt. In reality, it was simply Clipse being Clipse, unapologetically sharp, competitive, and occasionally outrageous. “Yellow diamonds look like pee-pee” remains one of the most memorable lines of the year.
After a run of interviews, performances, and mounting anticipation, the album opened with the majestic Birds Don’t Sing featuring a profound hook from John Legend. It is a vulnerable and emotionally devastating song in which Pusha T and Malice rap from the perspectives of their late parents. Both verses are breathtaking, introspective, and delivered with the kind of maturity only time can bring. It is the perfect showcase of their chemistry, and even after sixteen years, their interplay feels effortless from the first moment.
Features play a prominent role in Let God Sort Em Out. Pharrell leaves his fingerprints all over the project, from the crisp beats to a surprise vocal hook, grounding the album in the sonic DNA that made Clipse iconic in the early 2000s. The record moves quickly into the infamous Kendrick Lamarcollaboration, where Kendrick delivers one of the sharpest rhyme schemes of the year. That momentum continues as Tyler, the Creator appears on the following track with one of the strongest verses of his career. Stove God Cooks and Nas also add flavour toward the end of the album.
Still, the highlight of the album is Pusha T and Malice themselves. The brothers each have multiple contenders for verse of the year. After the singles, Clipse launch into an incredible three-track run anchored by the acronym-heavy M.T.B.T.T.F. and its companions E.B.I.T.D.A. and F.I.C.O. This section captures the competitive bravado hip-hop has been missing. Every bar drips with confidence, and every exchange between the brothers feels like a reminder of their legacy.
The closing tracks bring the record full circle, offering more affirmational raps and a Nas appearance that helps seal this long-awaited and undeniably powerful body of work. Let God Sort Em Out isn’t just a great reunion album, it’s a statement, a celebration, and a reminder of what elite hip-hop sounds like.
Words - Alex Peters
HOTWAX
For a long time, HotWax were a band I kept hearing about, but for whatever reason, never really connected with. All that changed when I finally decided to catch up with their debut album ‘Hot Shock’, released to widespread acclaim back in March.
I felt obliged to listen to the album in preparation for their set at The Great Escape, and quickly realised what a fool I’d been for sleeping on it. With the brooding opening notes of ‘She’s Got a Problem’, it became clear that the HotWax hype was fully deserved. Over the next 20-odd minutes, the album took me on a thrilling sonic journey, at once laid-back and immediate, propulsive yet melodic. The songs on ‘Hot Shock’ have a way of getting under the skin, and as such, you’ll want to play them over and over.
This was certainly the case for me. Throughout the past year, every time I haven’t been sure what to listen to, I’ve returned to ‘Hot Shock’. There’s something about its moody swagger which suits almost any mood: Angry? Lead singer and guitarist Tallulah Sim-Savage wraps up often scathing lyrics in a cathartically shreddy scream. Sad? Many of the tracks are tinged with an existential restlessness, while closing song ‘Pharmacy’ leans into melancholy. Happy? ‘Hot Shock’ is a true rock ‘n’ roll record, distilling the electric energy of a HotWax gig into an adrenaline-raising package. In short, the album works on multiple levels, blessing it with a huge replay value.
This desire to revisit the record was heightened after I saw the band live, in what became one of the standout performances of this year’s Great Escape. The songs sounded even more muscular and exhilarating live, which is saying something, as the album’s production accentuates all the right details. Lola Sam’s hooky basslines and beefy tones are a commanding presence throughout, while Alfie Sayers’ nimble, kinetic drumming enhances every track. The opening three song salvo - the mysteriously punchy ‘She’s Got a Problem’, infectiously lively ‘Wanna Be A Doll’, and brilliantly catchy ‘Strange To Be Here’ - is easily the best of the year, at least in my book.
HotWax are a band with proper songwriting prowess, and while they’re clearly massively influenced by bands like Hole, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The White Stripes, they also feel like a singular prospect in the current musical climate. Plenty of fantastic punk bands have broken through in the past ten years, but there’s not been much in the way of straight up rock. HotWax are here to change that. From their DIY beginnings in Hastings, to support tours with the likes of The Libertines and Royal Blood, not to mention multiple, bizarrely suitable needle drops in Made In Chelsea, HotWax are proof that fresh, grungy anthems still have the crossover appeal which defined the genre’s 90s heyday. If any record has the sheer vitality to push the sound back into the mainstream, it’s ‘Hot Shock’.
Words - Ben Left
OLIVIA DEAN
If 2025 belonged to anyone, it was surely Olivia Dean.The London based singer-songwriter started the year strong, with not one but two of her songs featuring in February's Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which was frankly excellent, and a perfect fit for Dean’s confessional musings on love and life. She had first established her skill at weaving such sonic stories in 2023, with the release of her debut album ‘Messy’. Containing her breakthrough track ‘Dive’, the album landed her not just a Mercury Prize nomination, but an appearance on Later... With Jools Holland, plus his annual Hootenanny.
It was the former which acted as my introduction to Dean, though I had heard ‘Dive’ on the radio a few times by then. I was impressed by its soaring chorus and singalong nature, and so decided to check out ‘Messy’, which I remember being pretty good, though (perhaps tellingly) I didn't return to it. Fast forward to the start of this year, and I was pleased to hear her soundtracking Bridget alongside the likes of Raye, as the series has always made great use of contemporary hits. Better still was Dean’s duet with Sam Fender, who she supported on tour this summer: ‘Rein Me In’ quickly became - and remains - one of my favourite songs of the year. Which brings me onto her sophomore album, ‘The Art of Loving’, which has dominated the charts since its release in September, and rightfully so.
My first glimpse into its greatness was the music video for her future mega-hit ‘Man I Need’, which I stumbled across on one of MTV’s late-night channels. I was instantly struck by its catchiness, though it would take a few more listens before I fully grasped that she had a true classic on her hands. Soon enough, the song became a staple of TikTok and Instagram Reels, rocketing to number one here in the UK, and breaking into the Billboard Top 100 across the pond, peaking at a career-altering number four.
As with ‘Dive’ two years ago, the euphoric quality of the single led me to check out its parent album in full. The difference is that I’ve repeatedly returned to ‘The Art of Loving’. ‘Man I Need’ might be the instant classic that’s destined to close out romcoms for (at least) the next ten years, but it’s far from the only highlight. From the sunny bounce of ‘Nice to Each Other’ to the modern Motown of ‘So Easy (To Fall in Love)’, the Amy Winehouse-esque jazz of ‘Close Up’ to the orchestral, James Bond-coded atmosphere of ‘Loud’, ‘The Art of Loving’ is stuffed full of gems, all of which warrant repeat listens.
It’s an album which will sound amazing when Dean tours it across arenas next summer, though the warmth of her voice equally suits the nostalgic qualities of winter. Whichever way you slice it, ‘The Art of Loving’ is a fantastic record, and one which cements Olivia Dean as a particularly bright new talent.
Words - Ben Left
TURNSTILE
Having such a deep talent pool of releases this year made it extremely difficult to narrow down one album that I thought stood above the rest. One that came out firing on all cylinders, taking no prisoners, and stunned audiences from cover to cover. With releases like Geese’s “Getting Killed” and DRAIN’s “...is your friend” blazing through in the latter half of the year to really shake up the rankings there was one piece that never faltered, never ceased to progress and take on a life of its own inside the 2025 musical zeitgeist, and this album was without a doubt in my mind Baltimore hardcore legends Turnstile’s “NEVER ENOUGH”.
Being their 5th full-length studio album, “NEVER ENOUGH” sought to build on the emphatic and alluring progress that they made with their 2021 album “GLOW ON”, and boy did it deliver. While the latter album propelled the band into global recognition and mainstream acclaim, they sought to harness this new energy and feeling and amplify it tenfold. “NEVER ENOUGH” saw a vast improvement in the band's use of FX boards and soundscape creation, building ecosystems around songs that really pulled you into the vacuum of musical brilliance. To be able to appeal to the masses with a very in your face and robust hardcore sound while still keeping it catchy and infinitely relistenable was something that long seemed like a pipe dream for the hard core scene yet Turnstile have been able to do this without straying from what they want to make, staying true to the fans through tracks like “BIRDS” and “SLOWDIVE” keeping the hardcore scene 2-stepping and spin kicking till the sun came up, before switching the vibe to build atmospheric and scenic singalongs like “I CARE” and my personal song of the year “SEEIN’ STARS”. This viscosity of stylistic changes manages to stay within the same bubble and create something truly generational.
Seeing these tracks performed live can only be equated to something like witnessing the birth of the universe, as every single song from this album was met with roaring applause and a once in a lifetime energy from the Ally Pally crowd this November, truly cementing this album as not only a masterpiece, but a point in time, creating endless memories for every lucky soul in the pits of sweaty venues worldwide for the “NEVER ENOUGH” tour.
Following multiple Grammy nominations, Heavy Music Awards nominations, and Radio 6 Music's Artist of the Year awards. The Baltimore 5-piece have cemented their legacy in stone and clearly seem to be on the rise to global superstardom, and I am truly blessed that I have been able to ride the wave with Turnstile this year. Move over, Brat summer, Turnstile is here to stay.
Words - Josh Pook
SAM FENDER
The fastest selling vinyl album by a British artist in the 21st century, winner of the 2025 mercury prize and earning Sam Fender the biggest opening week of his career, ‘People Watching’ is worthy of being album of the year on accolade alone. What makes it MY album of the year is the legacy it leaves behind. It’s down to this album that £25,000 was donated to Music Venue Trust, ensuring that the grassroots local venues where Sam started out can continue to thrive. It celebrates the stories of ordinary people who live quietly extraordinary lives and tells a tale of a man who will forever stand by the community that allowed for him to become the artist he is today.
Words - Kirsty-Ann Thomson
