It feels safe to say that 2025 was…challenging. A difficult and painful year for many. We persevere. But to say that music was in some way an escape feels trite. Nevertheless, it was there, for all of us. Something to turn to to drown out the noise or find our place in. There was no shortage of music that shaped our experience and aided us along the way.

See below to get a glimpse of what we turned to. Then leave us a reply and let us know what you turned to.

10. Tate McRae – So Close to What

2025 was honestly an underrated year for pop, and while I’m not here to tell you that Tate McRae’s So Close to What is better than whatever pop album moved you the most this year, all I can say is that it’s an earworm factory that didn’t leave my rotation. Tracks like “It’s OK I’m OK” and “Sports Car” deliver on the synthy, lusty, melodic sounds that McRae’s previous efforts hinted at. But these songs just explode with a new level of catchiness.

9. Sleep Token – Even in Arcadia

It’s hard to think of a more divisive band currently than English alt-metal act Sleep Token. Beloved by many (but certainly not all!) metalheads, and confounding to almost anyone outside of the current rock sphere (check out the Pitchfork review if you missed it), Sleep Token is kind of in the perfect place. Especially when you consider the curveballs the band delivered on Even in Arcadia – an album that gets arguably better and more fascinating with each subsequent listen. There may not have been a more shocking track this year than “Caramel”.

8. Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend

Sabrina Carpenter certainly struck while the iron was still hot in 2025, releasing Man’s Best Friend in a quick turnaround from last year’s breakout Short n’ Sweet. At this point, it’s undeniable that she claimed back-to-back song of the summer awards with “Manchild”, a track that still hasn’t left our heads. But the album itself offers even more variety than her previous work and opens the door for Sabrina to explore even more in whatever comes next.

7. Lorna Shore – I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me

Lorna Shore have become essentially peerless among the deathcore genre since being joined by vocalist Will Ramos in 2021. While Ramos shines as bright as ever here, it’s the ability of the band to take these songs to such atmospheric heights it nearly warrants a new genre descriptor. Adam De Micco’s riffs are as stunning as ever as Ramos explores the pain of his family’s history with dementia and its impact on his own psyche.

6. Rosalía – LUX

LUX may very well be the most daring and immersive album of the past few years. The fourth studio release from Spanish singer Rosalía treads completely new ground. At times, LUX towers to almost operatic heights while never losing accessibility or interest due to its constant ebbs and flows that allow Rosalía to weave some of the year’s most fascinating melodies within.

5. Underoath – The Place After This One

Since their return from hiatus, Underoath have picked up where they left off – continually morphing their sound and refusing to remain stagnant. No two albums are alike. For some, that’s been a constant sticking point, but for every fan of the band that doesn’t want them to just keep playing the hits, The Place After This One is another prime example of the band’s ability to make the genre sound fresh and new. In fact, Spencer Chamberlain and Aaron Gillespie haven’t sounded this in sync in years, as their vocals bounce off the walls of sound created by Chris Dudley and Tim McTague. Some will point to tracks like “Teeth” as the band jumping the shark. Instead, they’re simply toying with the bare experimentation that takes tracks like “All the Love is Gone” and “Shame” to a whole new level.

4. Kesha – .(Period)

For the first two minutes of Period’s opening track “Freedom”, Kesha seems to be cleansing all of the pain and frustration of recent years through a gentle exhale. Then, as if she were bursting through the speakers like the Kool-aid Man, the carefree, raunchy, loud Kesha returns. “I only drink when I’m happy and I’m drunk right now” she slurs across the beat. From start to finish, Period is an emotional release of the highest order. An artist finally making music on their own terms again. And it’s joyous.

3. Spiritbox – Tsunami Sea

Since the release of their landmark debut album Eternal Blue in 2021, Spiritbox have taken metal by storm. But despite the rapid rise in popularity, the band, fronted by Courtney LaPlante, have faced their fare share of frustrations in an oftentimes toxic and misogynist scene. On Tsunami Sea, the band explores their place in it all while continuing to push their signature sound forward. LaPlante explodes with fury on tracks like “Soft Spine” while still finding space for beautifully melodic musings on “Perfect Soul”. In many ways, it’s a statement album. With Tsunami Sea, Spiritbox tightens their grip on the genre.

2. Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out

So many times, we find that the reunions we long far were better left in our memories. Let God Sort Em Out, the first album in 16 years from Virginia Beach rap duo Clipse, is everything we could have hoped for and more. Somehow, at the respective ages of 48 and 53, Pusha T and brother Malice are still able to pull off a surgical-level of detail with razor-sharp lines atop snappy production from Pharrell Williams. The only thing shifted by time is a new sense of introspection and perspective of life, family, and purpose that can only come with age.

1. Hayley Williams – Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

When the tracks that make up Ego Death at a Bachelorette Partyfirst arrived, they came in the form of downloadable MP3s from Hayley Williams’ hair dye website Good Dye Young. The fact that this feels archaic speaks to how much the world has changed since Paramore burst onto the scene with their debut back in 2005. Still, Williams isn’t interested in nostalgia across the tracks of Ego Death as much as needing a canvas to explore the twists and turns in her own life and perspective the last 20 years. 

It’s easy to read it all as a breakup album, but there’s an abundance of depth and personal reflection here, displayed sonically in exciting new ways that make clear Williams is so much more than just the front of a rock band. In whole, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is the best kind of journey, even when the painful moments make your eyes well up with tears – both happy and sad. It might be the best work created by Williams thus far, which is truly saying something.

Posted by Kiel Hauck