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L to R: Lael Neale, Miki Berenyi, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Geese, Tunde Adebimpe, Lily Allen, Alex G, Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice, Stereolab, Bartees Strange, Japanese Breakfast

Dec 25, 2025 By Mark Redfern (Senior Editor/Co-Publisher) Photography by Wendy Redfern (Lael Neale, Miki Berenyi, Pulp, Bartees Strange), Koury Angelo (Tunde Adebimpe), and Shervin Lainez (Wolf Alice)

Looking back on 2025, the general consensus seems to be that it was a helluva year—both globally and closer to home. Fires in Los Angeles, wars in Gaza and Ukraine, ICE raids, and the daily barrage of astonishing things President Trump says and does. And that’s before you factor in the losses: David Lynch, Sly Stone, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Diane Keaton, Brian Wilson, Rob Reiner, Val Kilmer, Marianne Faithfull, Ozzy Osbourne, D’Angelo, and Jane Goodall all died, some quite tragically. You don’t need a full accounting of why 2025 felt like a particularly heavy year—you lived through it too.

I’d love to counter all that by saying 2025 was an unambiguously great year for music—but that wouldn’t be entirely true either. There were plenty of really good albums, yet many of our writers echoed the same feeling: it didn’t quite reach the heights of 2024 (when our list was topped by Magdalena Bay, Nilüfer Yanya, The Cure, Fontaines D.C., Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Cassandra Jenkins). Most of my favorite albums this year came from artists I already loved, but their 2025 releases weren’t necessarily my favorite albums by those artists. Pulp’s More was a phenomenal comeback, but it still doesn’t touch the heights of their ’90s heyday (then again, few bands ever reach the level of Different Class or “Common People”). Wolf Alice’s The Clearing was one of the albums I returned to most, even if I wouldn’t call it their very best. I didn’t love the new albums by Wet Leg, Japanese Breakfast, or Hatchie quite as much as their previous records, though all three still made my list.

There were surprises, too. Alex G—an artist I’d been mixed on in the past—released his strongest album yet with Headlights, his major-label debut. For my 12-year-old daughter Rose, Headlights was the #1 album of 2025, which probably helped deepen my own appreciation for it. Lily Allen also returned with a disarmingly honest album that brutally dissected her failing marriage.

Of course, our Top 100 Albums list isn’t decided by me alone. Throughout the year, we highlighted the best albums of each month, which formed a master nominations list. From there, we added a few more records, and each writer submitted a ballot of their 50 favorite albums, awarding 50 points to their #1 pick, down to one point for #50. Twenty-one writers and editors participated, including Wendy and me. As the publishers and founders of Under the Radar, our ballots were given slightly more weight. This year’s #1 album emerged as a clear consensus pick, appearing on 16 ballots and finishing 146 points ahead of #2. Our writers usually write blurbs on the first 50 to 60 albums on the list, but this year we did write-ups on the first 67 albums (my middle schooler can explain why we ended up with that number).

I’ve been fairly doom-and-gloom about 2025 so far, but there’s still a lot here worth celebrating. We’ve selected 100 albums—plus a handful of honorable mentions—that we believe deserve your time and attention. An old friend of mine, and occasional Under the Radar contributor, recently admitted he might not have heard a single album from 2025; he felt completely disconnected from new music. Knowing his tastes, I pointed him toward the latest album by Hannah Cohen (which appears in our Top 100), sent him a few YouTube clips, and he was immediately hooked. If nothing else, this list is proof that even in a year that often felt exhausting and dispiriting, great music was still being made—and it’s still out there waiting to be discovered.

Check out Part 1 (#1-50) here.

Check out Part 2 (#51-100 plus honorable mentions) here.

(While we have you, all print subscriptions and all back issues worldwide are 50% off as we work to close a funding gap to get our next issue printed and to keep us in print through our 25th anniversary next year. Find out more about the current subscription drive here.)

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