2025 Music Year End Lists
As 2025 comes to a close, music critics and publications worldwide have released their annual year-end lists celebrating the best albums, songs, and artists of the year. We’ve aggregated year-end lists from all the major publications including Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR, The Guardian, and independent critics to help you discover the most critically acclaimed music of 2025.
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AllMusic best of 2025
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50 best albums of 2025 (Alt Press)
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AP’s top albums of 2025: Bad Bunny, Rosalía, Hayley Williams, Dijon, Addison Rae and more
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Atwood Magazine’s 2025 albums of the year
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BBC Radio 6 Music reveals its albums of the year 2025
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The 50 best albums of 2025: Staff picks (Billboard)
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Year end charts (Billboard)
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Albums of the year – 2025 (Bleep)
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BPM’s top 50 albums of 2025
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BPM’s top 50 songs of 2025
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50 best punk albums of 2025 (BrooklynVegan)
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The 50 best rock albums of 2025 (Classic Rock)
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The 50 best albums of 2025 (Complex)
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The 50 best albums of 2025 (Consequence)
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Dancing Astronaut’s 2025 Artist of the Year: Chris Lake
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SPOILER: Here are Decibel’s top 40 albums of 2025
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DIY’s 2025 albums of the year
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DJ Mag’s top albums of 2025
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DJ Mag’s top tracks of 2025
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DJ Mag’s top mixes of 2025
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Dork’s albums of the year 2025: 40-21
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Dork’s albums of the year 2025: 20-11
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Drowned in Sound’s albums of the year 2025
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Earmilk’s top 50 albums of 2025
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Exclaim!’s 20 best songs of 2025
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Exclaim!’s 50 best albums of 2025
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The best albums of 2025 (Flood Magazine)
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The Glide 20- Glide’s 20 best albums of 2025: The Tubs, Florry, moe., Panda Bear, Hannah Cohen, Geese & more
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Albums of the year 2025: 50-26 (God Is In The TV)
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Albums of the year 2025: 25-1 (God Is In The TV)
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Gorilla vs. Bear’s albums of 2025
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Gorilla VS. Bear’s songs of 2025
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KCRW Music best of 2025
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The 50 best albums of 2025 (Kerrang!)
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Loud And Quiet albums of the year 2025
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Louder Than War top 100 albums of 2025
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The 13 best metal albums of 2025 – Ranked (Loudwire)
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Album releases by user score (Metacritic)
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Metal Hammer top 50 albums of 2025
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Metal Injection’s top 25 albums of 2025
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The 50 best albums of 2025: MOJO’s guide to the year’s best new music
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The best albums of 2025 (New Yorker)
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The 50 best albums of 2025 (NME)
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The 50 best songs of 2025 (NME)
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The best albums of 2025 (No Ripcord)
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Northern Transmissions best albums of 2025
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The best albums of 2025 (NPR)
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Best songs of 2025 (NPR)
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Rosalía’s LUX is NPR Music’s no. 1 album of 2025
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The 50 best albums of 2025 (Paste Magazine)
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The 50 best albums of 2025 (Pitchfork)
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The 100 best songs of 2025 (Pitchfork)
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The 32 best rap albums of 2025 (Pitchfork)
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The 80 best albums of 2025 (Pop Matters)
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The Quietus albums of the year 2025 (In Association with Norman Records)
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The 100 best albums of 2025 (Rolling Stone)
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The 100 best songs of 2025 (Rolling Stone)
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Albums of the year 2025 (Rough Trade)
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The 50 best albums of 2025 (Slant)
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The 50 best songs of 2025 (Slant)
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The best EPs of 2025 (Spin)
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The 50 best songs of 2025 (Stereogum)
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The 10 best rap albums of 2025 (Stereogum)
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The top 40 pop songs of 2025 (Stereogum)
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The 10 best country albums of 2025 (Stereogum)
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10 best albums of 2025 – and the three worst (Telegraph)
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The 50 best albums of 2025 (The Fader)
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The 51 best songs of 2025 (The Fader)
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Albums of the year – 2025 (The Line of Best Fit)
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Top 10 worst songs of 2025 (The Needle Drop)
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The Quietus albums of the year 2025 (In association with Norman Records)
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The Skinny’s albums of 2025
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The 25 best albums of 2025 (Time Out)
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Steven Hyden’s favorite albums of 2025 (UPROXX)
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10 best songs of 2025, ranked (USA Today)
The Daily Music Report Photo Credits:
Alt Press image courtesy of Alt Press
KCRW image courtesy of KCRW
Pitchfork image via Graphic by Chris Panicker
Stereogum Best Songs image via Hvyllya