Listen up: The best albums of 2025

The algorithms want you to listen to songs. And not even whole songs, but bits of songs that get chopped up and tumbled through as one reel jumps to the next. Buck the trend and listen to a whole album. Maybe start with one of the best LPs of 2025.

“Bleeds,” Wednesday

A lot of people say this is a break up album. That may be. But there’s a real marriage of sound and vision here, a bond between screamed lyrics and screaming guitars. Karly Hartzman is the rare songwriter who can pen powerful hardcore punk, tender Americana twang, shoegaze fever dreams, and Southern gothic grunge, and the rare singer comfortable delivering the four styles. Her ex, MJ Lenderman, comes in around the edges with ugly guitar decorating the messes. Everything that isn’t supposed to go together goes together, but that doesn’t mean anything is easy or breezy.

“Flowers,” Durand Jones & the Indications

It can be hard to tinker with the formula of classic soul. After all, what can you offer that Al Green didn’t? Turns out, you can offer a lot of delightful little detours if you’re Durand Jones & the Indications. “Flowers” is a big bearhug of soul, an album you can get lost in as one dreamy track drops into the next. The deeper you dig into it, the more you find  — ’70s style quiet storm blends with ’80s sophisti-pop, which is smothered by modern, down-tempo indie rock.

“Neon Grey Midnight Green,” Neko Case

This album would be a love letter to music if Neko Case wrote love letters. Instead, it’s a tribute to and an autopsy of lost artists, past selves, dirty clubs, relationships. The topics may be more personal, the arrangements and performance are as new and broken as anything Case has done. On songs with no use for templates — typical chord changes, standard structures — she spins poetry over wave after wave of key changes, sonic wandering, spikes in volume or noise, experimentalism. All of it brought to life by a 20-piece string section.

“I Quit,” Haim

Quit the past, the haters, the burden. Haim wants you to step into the sunshine with a fresh freedom, and the soundtrack to go with it. Not surprisingly, the trio pull from sunny-but-dense, poppy-but-complicated sources to build its soundtrack to liberation — George Michael, U2’s discotheque period, Top 40 that isn’t dumb dance music, hip hop that’s understated, some unheard of combo of new wave synths and American twang. This is sophisticated pop, which is either a lost art or a new art in Haim’s hands. Your gateway is the bridge on “Down to Be Right.” Listen to the song three times and discover that you can’t resist shouting “Boy, I crushed my whole heart/Tryin’ to fit my soul into your arms” during the song’s brilliant bridge.

“Billboard Heart,” Deep Sea Diver

Deep Sea Diver has built steam in a way that bands don’t really do anymore: two self-released albums, two on respected indie rock labels (“Billboard Heart” is on Subpop), lots of small shows, opening slots with Pearl Jam. It’s been a nice rise. But enough with the rise. Time for Deep Sea Diver to be famous. “Billboard Heart” is such a smart, punch-tossing, musically weird LP. Songwriter Jessica Dobson writes huge hooks that would go gold if we lived in a world where rock hooks still went gold. All the tracks crackle with energy, thump, chaos. No ballad is safe from a mighty crescendo. No mid-tempo dream safe from an earned burst of volume.