The best albums of 2025 so far
- - - The best albums of 2025 so far
Jason Lamphier, Allaire Nuss, Wesley Stenzel, Emlyn TravisJuly 13, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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Haim; Lady Gaga; Perfume Genius; Bad Bunny; FKA Twigs
With the first half of 2025 behind us, it's time to… uhh, forget most of it. But there's still much to celebrate, especially when it comes to the stuff that's been emanating nonstop from our speakers and earbuds for months. In addition to the long-awaited return of Mother Monster (whoa! she's making pop songs again?!), we saw some brilliant pivots from music's greatest poets and visionaries. It all offered a much-needed escape from the headlines (excluding ours) and a soundtrack to those occasional highs that kept us pressing on.
Here, Entertainment Weekly's top 10 albums so far this year (in very diplomatic alphabetical order).
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Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos
Rimas Entertainment
Bad Bunny, 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos'
Bad Bunny may be a global superstar, but he's never forgotten where he came from. After years of being swept up in the limelight, the three-time Grammy winner returned to Puerto Rico and allowed his roots the space to bloom in vivid color for his genre-defying sixth album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos ("I should have taken more photos"). Recorded entirely on the island, the 17-track reggaeton and Latin pop master class not only serves as his love letter to his homeland, but also captures the 31-year-old singer deftly blending his modern stylings with music near and dear to its cultural identity, including plena ("Debí Tirar Más Fotos"), salsa ("Baile Inolvidable"), and jíbaro ("Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii"). A joyous opus binding an artist to his heritage, Debí Tirar Más Fotos will only feel more meaningful — for him and his listeners — as time goes on. Not unlike a photograph. —Emlyn Travis
Bon Iver, Sable, Fable
Jagjaguwar
Bon Iver, 'Sable, Fable'
In the opening lines of last year's Sable, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon stares into the mirror and sees an anxious stranger trapped in a prison of his making. But that EP, which also serves as the prelude to his fifth full-length, was a red herring. Over the nine tracks that follow, Vernon — a lonesome troubadour who launched his career with an album he recorded in a secluded Wisconsin cabin in the dead of winter — sheds his pensive sadness. Backed by pedal steel, lapping beats, and gospel-style vocals, he turns his gaze outward with gratitude and childlike wonder ("Damn, if I'm not climbing up a tree right now," he declares in the exultant "Everything Is Peaceful Love"). He's hopeful, elated, even a little horny ("Get your fine ass on the road," he commands in the Danielle Haim collab "I'll Be There"). On Sable, Fable, the winter frost has melted. Vernon is ready to face the world and, more important, face himself. —Jason Lamphier
Destroyer, Dan's Boogie
Destroyer Music Limited
Destroyer, 'Dan's Boogie'
Three decades into his career, Destroyer's Dan Bejar remains a reliable purveyor of dense, dazzling compositions. The band's 14th LP, produced by bassist John Collins, clocks in at just 36 minutes but feels sprawling. An onslaught of orchestration fuels the title track, while others ("Bologna," "Cataract Time") are languid and layered. Bejar's smoky alto is our anchor, sounding like an omniscient ghost serenading us in a liminal space. His honest, often sardonic observations ("women fill out and men crumble inwards") echo through a thick cloud of dizzying pianos, jazz horns, and glistening synths. Maximalist and mesmerizing, the record unfolds like live commentary for a bustling metropolis — ah, look at all the lonely people! It makes a compelling case for stopping to breathe in the urban smog. It may smell like shit, but at least you’re living in the moment. —Allaire Nuss
Djo, The Crux
Djo, 'The Crux'
After years spent demolishing demogorgons with a nailed baseball bat, Stranger Things' Joe Keery (a.k.a. Djo) reintroduced himself to the world as the next indie-rock darling with his vulnerable, varied third full-length, The Crux. A nostalgia-drenched exploration of love and grief following the end of a relationship, the 12-track album offers sees Keery marrying his conflicting emotions with a medley of different genres, setting his sorrows to the tune of dreamy '80s pop on "Delete Ya," recreating late-night loneliness through Fleetwood Mac–esque fingerpicking guitar on "Potion," and expressing his devotion to his family, both lyrically and through a soaring orchestral arrangement, on "Golden Line." The shoulder-shimmying doo-woppers of the 1960s weren't lying when they sang that breaking up is hard to do, but Keery manages to make it through to the other side with his heart still intact — and his music sounding better than ever. —Emlyn Travis
FKA Twigs, Eusexua
Atlantic
FKA Twigs, 'Eusexua'
"I'm obsessed with alternative cultures and subcultures," FKA Twigs told guest host RuPaul on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live last year, describing how she found herself in the thrall of Prague's underground techno scene while filming The Crow. The British singer, producer, dancer, and actress has always operated from the periphery, eschewing straight-up bangers for steely, elusive mood pieces; what her songs lack in top 40 appeal they more than make up for in vision. But her third studio album strikes the perfect balance between accessibility and experimentation, with Twigs slipping snugly into whatever genre she tries on before bending it to her will. That includes, yes, techno but also house, drum and bass, industrial, trip-hop, new age, Ray of Light–era electronica, and — with the 2024 single "Perfect Stranger" — sleek, low-frills pop. Eusexua’s power lies in its interplay of the cerebral and the alluring, of dominance and submission, of tension and release. It’s enough to push Twigs from the outer limits to the dead center. —Jason Lamphier
Haim, I Quit
Columbia Records
Haim, 'I Quit'
Though it registers as a breakup record, the breezy fourth LP from Los Angeles' foremost sister act embraces the entire emotional spectrum of messy modern romance, channeling frustration ("Relationships"), desire ("All Over Me"), heartache ("Try to Feel My Pain"), and unabashed sentimentality ("Million Years") into near-impeccable pop-rock tunes. I Quit doubles down on the summery sounds that populate Haim's best work, drawing focus to their live drums, slick guitar riffs, bouncy basslines, and fuzzy synths. But the rich, sunny production, from former Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij and lead vocalist Danielle Haim, continually modulates over the course of a track, leaving many songs with strikingly different arrangements than they started with. Plus, it's lovely to hear the trio’s other siblings take the wheel, with Alana shining on the album's bubbliest song ("Spinning") and Este driving home its most melancholy ("Cry"). —Wesley Stenzel
Lady Gaga, Mayhem
Frank LeBon
Lady Gaga, 'Mayhem'
After experimenting with stripped-back Americana on Joanne and cyberpunk dance music on Chromatica, Lady Gaga triumphantly emerged from the quickly forgotten shadow of Joker: Folie à Deux with Mayhem, her most eclectic album to date. Across 14 intensely energetic tracks, our preeminent gonzo pop princess delivers her take on Prince- and Bowie-inspired funk ("Killah"), industrial grunge (“Perfect Celebrity"), retro glam-rock ("Vanish Into You"), flirty Halloween party bops ("Zombieboy," "The Beast"), moonstruck soft-rock ("Die With a Smile"), and the best Taylor Swift song not written by Taylor Swift ("How Bad Do U Want Me"). Meanwhile, the album's opening trifecta — "Disease," "Abracadabra," and "Garden of Eden" — finds Gaga revisiting the Gothic theatricality and hyper-catchy, stuttering choruses of her earliest hits. The result is both a return to form and a breath of fresh air from one of the most reliable voices in the biz. —Wesley Stenzel
Perfume Genius, Glory
Matador Records
Perfume Genius, 'Glory'
Over the past 15 years, Mike Hadreas' discography has evolved from sparse, lo-fi piano ballads to baroque-pop mosaics and back, and on his seventh LP as Perfume Genius, he is once again a conduit for the sublime. Though stylistically elastic, Glory remains thematically consistent as Hadreas, a vocal contortionist, tightens his breathy bellows into a whimpering falsetto as he sings about being hopelessly tangled in his past traumas ("I still run and hide when a man's at the door"). His output has always felt uncannily intimate, like secrets shared in confidence, but this album is his most collaborative release to date. Along with longtime producer Blake Mills and his co-writer and romantic partner, Alan Wyffels, Hadreas brings New Zealand folk artist Aldous Harding into the fold for the standout single "No Front Teeth," which teeters between quaint Americana and rapturous rock. The entire record is a high-wire balancing act, but it never buckles under the weight of its beautiful contradictions. —Allaire Nuss
Turnstile, Never Enough
Roadrunner Records
Turnstile, 'Never Enough'
Turnstile is your favorite band's favorite band. A well-kept Baltimore secret for far too long, the hardcore heavyweights made massive waves with 2021's Glow On, propelling them beyond the purview of die-hard insiders and introducing them to the rock-starved masses. Anticipation was sky-high for their next outing, and Never Enough delivers seismic goods. Like its predecessor, the album is a genre-bending odyssey, skating through house music ("Look Out for Me"), bubblegum for bruisers ("I Care"), ceremonial woodwinds ("Sunshower"), disco ("Seein' Stars"), and, of course, furious, breakneck guitar riffs. These are kinetic and kaleidoscopic songs seamlessly woven together like a tapestry that keeps changing color. Never Enough never feels bloated or overly ambitious; in this fable, Icarus flies away. —Allaire Nuss
Kali Uchis, Sincerely
Capitol Records
Kali Uchis, 'Sincerely'
What a f---ed-up time to be alive. Kali Uchis' solution? Close the curtains, pour the Cab, draw the bath, and spend the next hour basking in impossibly sexy, sophisticated slow jams that conjure Motown, doo-wop, golden-age R&B, and the soundtrack to some private striptease. The Columbian American artist has said her fifth album is about "finding beauty in the pain and taking the good" — it is dedicated to her late mother and inspired by the birth of her son — and it is best appreciated as a whole. This is a record to get lost in. That's never more apparent than on the highlight "Lose My Cool," which switches tempos halfway through to luxuriate in lush, spine-tingling harmonies that call to mind Ultravox's '80s classic "Vienna." Surrender to Sincerely’s charms and you'll swear you've brushed shoulders with the sublime. —Jason Lamphier
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Source: AOL Entertainment
