The best music of 2025 (so far)

It’s 2025: Do you know where your pop hits are? Ravyn Lenae and Rosé & Bruno Mars aside, it’s been a tough year for new music to scale the Billboard Hot 100. Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” is about to spend its 100th week on the chart even though it’s barely moved in months, and Benson Boone is stuck in a backflip loading cycle with “Beautiful Things” that has pushed out his other new songs. Even Billboard itself had to post about the paucity of new hits. Even the good stuff, like Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra”, has underperformed. And yet, if you look past the Hot 100 there’s been a bunch of great new music that has bubbled up over the last six months.

We asked our music writers at In Between Drafts to write about three of their favorite albums for an unranked mid-year list of the best music of 2025. The choices range from dream pop to IDM to shoegaze to whatever genre King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is trying on for size this year.

Anxious – Bambi

There’s something so goddamn infectious about emo done well. And the band Anxious delivers that bottled time element in their latest album, Bambi. Delivering energized instrumentation and a cohesive album layout, they deliver one hit after another with punchy guitars and growling vocals that settle in necessary moments to something sweeter.

Bambi manages to distill their previous tones – contrast rhythms with buzzy guitars and catchy lyricisim – into something a bit more indie-rock. By utilizing dual vocals in the vein of classic Jimmy Eat World, the band finds new room to grow and play within their designated genre. It’s a zippy and hyper album that presents a confident band with control over their sound. The ambition is clear in the way they play with style and form, from the grungier and dynamic “Bambi’s Theme,” to the contemplating “Audrey Go Again,” to the blend of the two in “Tell Me Why.” And, more than anything, it’s a perfect album for summer listening. Blast this in the car,  you won’t be disappointed. – Ally Johnson 

Cloakroom – Last Leg of the Human Table

The grungy guitars, the staticky production, and the soft and sweeping vocals of lead singer Doyle Martin come together to create the distinctive sonic cues of the latest from the band Cloakroom. Last Leg of the Human Table, their fourth studio album, pulsates with their shoegaze instrumentation and meditative songwriting.

The album does a wonderful job at highlighting the many ways in which the band operates in the genre while maintaining a steady and cohesive sound. It adopts a broad sonic pallet that allows them to play with the grander themes the album touts, such as grappling with the end times, while maintain a level of levity in the approach. Despite the melancholy they sing about, this isn’t a somber affair. Peppered with instrumental interludes, the album finds the right balance of darker themes with vibrant production and vocals. The blending between songs “Bad Larry” and “Story of the Egg” beautifully capture this dichotomy of sound and story with some stunning cohesion and shifts in style.

“Unbelonging” is the clear standout, the north star of the album, that guides the bands sound. As they sing about the inevitability of life, the cursory way that we deal with fallout, the song finds a buzzy sonic backdrop that alleviates the content. “The sky is gonna fall if it’s gonna fall down.” Missteps and grievances find us all, whatever happens happens. Cloakroom comforts us with it’s beautiful atmosphere and pulsating, peaks. – Ally Johnson 

Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power

Prior to the release of their newest and most explosive album, Lonely People With Power, Deafheaven were at a strange crossroads in their career. Ever since the release of their landmark album Sunbather back in 2013 the band had weathered equal amounts of overhyping and relentless criticism for pushing black metal, a genre with a large contingency of die-hard gatekeepers, to new and decidedly non-extreme places by injecting it with shoegaze inspired walls of sound and an optimistic disposition. This scaling down of intensity in favor of shimmery textures and experimental prettiness culminated in 2021’s Infinite Granite, and album that did away with their usual shrieked vocals and blast beats in favor of new-wave inspired almost-pop songs to decidedly mixed results.

All this context is somewhat necessary to understanding the significance of how much of a homecoming LPWP feels like, one in which elements of every one of their eras can be found. The heaviness is back in full force (Revelator and Magnolia go incredibly hard), the clean vocals are more neatly integrated this time around (Heathen does the Infinite Granite sound better than anything off that record), the experimental tendencies are more focused and surprising (Body Behavior is somehow as close to pop-punk as a black metal song can get), and the gorgeous soundscapes of the Sunbather days can be found in the album’s last few tracks. As one of the most well known and widely debated metal bands of the modern era, Deafheaven have crafted the finest work of their career by giving fans a taste of everything they’ve been asked for. – Quinn Parulis 

Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie

Djrum – Under Tangled Silence

I think IDM is about due for a comeback, wouldn’t you say? Not that Djrum’s masterful Under Tangled Silence can solely be labeled as such. The unbelievably beautiful piano arrangements might remind you of the genre’s classic touchstones, but Djrum’s approach to fluidity lies within the tension of his music. A keen listener can hear a blend of trip-hop, jazz, techno, drum & bass, but none of it feels like a gimmick or an attempt to simply overwhelm the listener. Instead, Djrum’s influences coalesce into something otherworldly. This is an album that feels like a mosaic showcasing the influences of the creator. – Mark Wesley

Hotline TNT – Raspberry Moon

The shoegaze revival has been in full swing for longer than the original scene was active at this point, and there’s been a bunch of young bands who have done a good job at breathing new life into a scene that was once derided in its heydey. With Raspberry Moon. Will Anderson and the rotating lineup of his band Hotline TNT deliver a winning followup to 2023’s Cartwheel. Like a lot of newer shoegazing bands, there’s a bit of grunge in Hotline TNT’s sound that helps emphasize their hooks and guitar solos among the churning fuzz.

“Break Right”, the album’s best song, is sneakily catchy even as it has a fairly low profile chorus. Raspberry Moon is the first album where Hotline TNT has a relatively consistent lineup alongside Anderson and that sense of cohesion can be heard on the way this band gels together on songs like “Julia’s War” and “Where U Been”. The album is the sound of a promising band breaking through to a new level, and time will only tell where they go from here. – Ryan Gibbs

Japanese Breakfast – For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)

In the latest album from Japanese Breakfast, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner grapples with the aftermath of divulging too much of one self. Consumed with the idea of melancholia, she distills this detached yet poignant energy through the album, which finds new sonic playgrounds for the artist to dabble in. There’s an immense confidence to the album that highlights the growth of a intuitive artist who understands the nature of finding oneself through music and then remaking oneself after laying themselves bare.

From ’90s-alt grunge, to clear Mazzy Star inspirations, and some folkish layers, Japanese Breakfast manages to deliver something deeply emotional even if it’s meant to be something less overly personal. Propulsive, poignant, and pulsating with whimsy teaming with haunting qualities, it’s yet another knock-out for a band that continues to delight in the unexpected. – Ally Johnson

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

King Gizzard brings a new album to you every year and 2025 was no different with Phantom Island. The 27th album from King Gizzard is a super jammy mash-up of The Beatles and Bruce Springsteen, which shouldn’t work but somehow does. At this point, I’m not surprised to love a King Gizzard album but Phantom Island is special in its own right. Of all the songs on the album, “Lonely Cosmos” is my favorite because of that string arrangement. It’s a fully realized concept album that kept me listening to the next song even when I was running late for something.  – Kayla Chu

Men I Trust – Equus Caballus

The dreamy Montreal indie band Men I Trust have been dropping standalone singles over the past couple years that rank among their best work. On Equus Caballus, they not only reprise the three best songs they’ve ever released (“Husk”, “Ring of Past”, “Billie Toppy”) but build upon those songs into a misty but sparkling records that sounds like Mazzy Star filtered through ’80s Fleetwood Mac.

Men I Trust may have a reputation as a “vibes” band, but like other bands that have gotten tag that, that doesn’t tell the full story of the band’s songcraft. They’re not just making music for the sake of being on in the background while you wait for your edible to hit. “In My Years” and “Come Back Down” have an almost Blue Nile-ish construction as smooth indie pop songs that pack a lot of meaning into the music and lyrics, and they have hooks for days. After the released of the muted and somewhat disappointing counterpart album Equus Asinus earlier this year, Men I Trust have gone through a full course correction on Equus Caballus. It is the culmination of everything the band has been building to since the release of Untourable Album in 2020 and the best album of their career. – Ryan Gibbs

Oklou – Choke Enough

Choke Enough, the newest album by french electronic artist Oklou, is a difficult album to label. It is a record crafted with the ethos of electronic music; tracks are built around repetition of bubbling synths and glitchy Y2K era textures, but the build ups here never explode into cathartic raves. Those traditional genre indicators are pushed into the background in favor of icy dreamscapes that smother the hooks with foggy fragility.This all results in an album that is just as easy to focus on and engage with as it is to have sit in the background and let wash over you, a fusion that makes it either the world’s chillest hyperpop or most restless ambient album.

Equally cute and serious, this record functions best when taken as a whole, but that doesn’t stop Oklou from giving us a few bangers to latch onto – Harvest Sky’s hook is cool and infectious, and the sublime Take Me By the Hand features the liveliest Bladee feature in ages – but overall this album is an exercise in blending organic sounds with minimal trance soundscapes, resulting in songs like the lowkey and beautiful Blade Bird or Endless. A great album to zone out to without getting bored, Choke Enough is a must hear for fans of both pop and electronic music and one of the most exciting albums of the year so far. – Quinn Parulis

Pet Symmetry – Big Symmetry

At the end of the day, pop punk owns my heart, which means Big Symmetry by Pet Symmetry is another in a long list of albums I’ll be listening to on repeat. I was happily surprised when Big Symmetry dropped for a handful of reasons, but mainly because it sounded like a return to their older sound that I missed on Future Suits. “Big Engagement” is the song of the album for me, with how direct the lyrics are before the eventual question is asked. It’s a nostalgic album that reminds me of the bands I used to listen to in high school. But that’s just one girl’s opinion.  – Kayla Chu

Pulp – More

Pulp are the Britpop band that significantly predate the genre’s mid 90s heydey, having been formed in the late 1970s and going through several false starts before fully breaking through with 1994’s His N Hers. Over 30 years since that album, and nearly 25 since their last album, comes More. It’s always a tough needle to thread when you have a comeback from an act that has been gone for so long, but Pulp nail it here.

Jarvis Cocker is still his usual self: wry, detached, sarcastic, but also empathetic and with a keen eye for observation. The band also knows how to still have fun as the singles “Spike Island” and “Got to Have Love” prove. Pulp has been the favorite Britpop band of the discerning indie fan for decades, and they don’t disappoint the fans who pick them over Blur or Oasis. More is a better reunion album that either of Blur’s and pushes the band forward while still reminding their fans what made them so great in the days Different Class and This is Hardcore. It is a worthy addition to a strong catalog – Ryan Gibbs

PUP – Who Will Look After the Dogs?

PUP, PUP, PUP. They’re the band that comes out with banger after banger and Who Will Look After The Dogs? is no exception. I fell in love with this album the moment I listened to it. The lyrics on this album are a lot darker than albums in the past, but it works because there’s a maturity we haven’t seen in older albums. Despite being named after a place I hate, “Olive Garden” is my favorite song off the album. It’s a love song without being a traditional love song and it works so well. It’s definitely a pop punk-filled summer with PUP. – Kayla Chu

Maria Somerville – Luster

On Luster, Maria Somerville presents a beautifully sublime image of dream pop/shoegaze. She moves through these tracks like a ghost wistfully exploring areas from a past life that held deep, personal meaning. It’s a lonely album. “Projections” is a beautiful highlight that sounds like a transmission from a lost radio station. The work of Grouper is a clear touchstone for Somerville, as many moments on Luster draw upon Liz Harris’ iconic formula both emotionally and sonically. However, Somerville’s approach is lighter opting for airy, fleeting textures in conjunction with the murky, lulling drone. It’s an album you’ll want to live and relive over and over. – Mark Wesley

Turnstile – Never Enough

Trying to craft the follow up to Glow On, the game-changing record released in 2021 that for better or worse brought hardcore to the masses, had to have been a daunting task for Turnstile. After catapulting to stardom and becoming the face of a genre known for its purist mentality via an album that appeased both the oldheads and their newer fanbase through its fusion of banging riffs with an embrace of melody and a brighter color palate, the path forward for the band was wide open. Never Enough is both an embrace and wink at these massive expectations, a record that leans deeper than ever into their melodic side while keeping their punk ethos intact through the continued mastery of what is arguably the most important thing a hardcore band requires – massive riffs that make you want to throw down.

While the heavy intensity of their early work shows up in only a few places (shout out to “Birds” for going harder than anything off both this record and Glow On) the softening of their edges has given way to entire tracks that succeed as straight up pop songs (“I Care” and “Seein’ Stars” sound like they could have been slotted in perfectly on any album by The Police), which when combined with the abundance of songs that end with atmospheric ambient outros seems designed to challenge the rigid limitations of the genre. Even if you miss the headbanging and the fury of their old albums, Never Enough offers the necessary variety and familiarity to make guarantee that there is something to be found here for any member of their wildly diverse and endlessly growing fanbase. – Quinn Parulis 

Ryan Gibbs