The 20 best albums of 2025

BarcelonaOf the albums of 2024 The biggest concerts of 2025 have been announced (Billie Eilish, La Ludwig Band, Kneecap, Remedio de Ca la Fresca, Charli XCX). The same could happen with the 2025 album crop, a year that began with an undeniable standout album and ended with another equally significant one. According to ARA, this is how the last twelve months have unfolded. As usual, the list only includes 20 albums, but it could easily be much longer and include albums by Maria Rodés, Turnstile, Anna Andreu, Suede, Maria Hein, and Oklou, among others, as well as film soundtracks. A complete unknown and One battle after another.

Lluís Margarit, born in Granollers in 1994, arrives at the end of 2025 with the debut album of Irieix, a singer-songwriter project for retro-futuristic tents. Ironic and sentimental, he uses pop and electro to express an exhilarating emotional carnival. At times he recalls Zach Condon's Beirut or a Sufjan Stevens with a nautical swagger, but he's also the mischievous nephew of Sisa.

Michel Cloup is in top form and quite angry. Just like in the glory days of the Expérience project and in such successful works as the soundtrack for Return to ReimsCloup recites with punk fury and electro-rock rage, fueled by indignation against liberalism David, Goliath and Godzilla even the angry shouts of the 21 minutes of Who can? Why? We celebrate the radicalism of the musician from Toulouse.

The Barcelona native Juliet He has distinguished his project by making pop the core of his songs; club pop, of course. With more meticulous production, including strings and a play of contrasts between acoustic and electronic sounds, his first album with Sony employs resources and ambition in pursuit of hitand it comes out of them in songs like I forget to forget you and bachata The love of my life.

Brindis is not just a covers album. It's a declaration of love from the people of Empordà. Aleix Turon and Joan DelgadoOut of love for the groups and artists who have shaped and moved them: Los Pets, Jarabe de Palo, El Último de la Fila, Da Souza, Julieta Venegas, Turnstile, Lucio Battisti, and Fugazi. Versions in Catalan, Spanish, and Italian complete the musical and emotional portrait of Cala Vento.

The heartbeat of the Ebro resonates in every corner of the album. Genís Bagés and Andreu PeralThe memory of the river and electronic music propel melodies, fandangos, and jotas. Peral's voice is earthy and defiant, and Bagés's percussion is rich and unpredictable. Both do justice to the landscape and the lives that have shaped it. Another great album born from admiration for tradition.

Catalan metal lives on a splendid momentIt's a new test The awakening of the dead, from the Tarragona-based band God's Funeral: a concept album about the First World War built with fatalistic doom, but illuminated by violins and choral sections that give a special dynamic to tracks such as The Procession of Shadows and mass grave.

The romantic ambition ofÁlvaro Lafuente It has no limits. It's no wonder Rosalía admires this musician from Benicàssim who has been living in Barcelona for some time. Between the drive of Babieca! and the epic contemplation of TramontanaIt overflows with folk and club music, boasting a stunning production, and delivers wonders like Pilgrim Port and Future lovers.

Lady Gaga claims the pop throne mainstream with an album that doesn't hold back: there are almost all the faces of Lady Gagaeach one presented in the best version, and recovers the ability to make songs with universal impact like Abracadabra, Perfect celebrity and the disco The dead danceAnd as a coda, the hit ballad Die with a smile with Bruno Mars.

One day the garden dried up, but the next day it began to drizzle. The water of creativity flowed again, and Mazoni He smiled again. From creative block to a vibrant album in which Jaume Pla recaptures his former selves, puts the crisis behind him, and delivers a fine collection of songs that rival the best in his repertoire. Welcome back, Mazoni.

There are songs that turn a good album into something extraordinary. That's what happens with YamahaA stunning neo-soul track that serves as the figurehead of American Dijon Duenas' album. The rest of the album is equally impressive. hit And it shows that in the year of D'Angelo's death, there are still those who know how to experiment and move with soul and R&B.

Deafheaven and Imperial Triumphant have also been highly regarded in the 2025 metal scene, but the most impactful album has been released by Lorna Shore. The New Jersey band, driven by Will Ramos's obsessions, unleashes a maximalist deathcore sound, grandiose, exuberant, and brutal. They begin by showcasing... Prison of fleshAnd they're not backing down.

Pay attention to the leap forward made by the Barcelona saxophonist. Beyond bebop, and with contemporary influences like Immanuel Wilkins, Irene Reig includes in the album a suite that begins with Contained happiness and which leads into one of the most stimulating jazz experiences of the year. When it ends with the theme Within a dream, the feeling is one of fullness.

Frustrations with the music industry and love life. Depressions treated with mirtazapine. Rage against Christian and political intolerance... And all of this in a handful of magnificent songs, some of them bright pop, like Whim; others with indie rock choruses, like Parachute; some with disturbing distortions, like HardA very good album by the American Hayley Williams.

Joan Pons, the volcano of La Segarra, tours the world of metaphysical pop and returns to where The Little One from Cal Eril It sparked the first explosions. There's an emotional thread connecting this 2025 album to past glories like Flight and duel (2010) and The figure of emptiness (2013). There are extraordinary songs that are seemingly simple and have impeccable sound. How good it sounds! Eril Eril Eril.

Now that divorce albums seem like a cliché, British singer Lily Allen has created one touched by inspiration, in which her own experience (her separation from actor David Harbour) is explained without falling into the narcissism of other pop stars. Allen recounts anxieties and insecurities with an emotional and musical palette that ranges from the delicacy of Sleepwalking to the drama of Madeline and the anger of Pussy Palace.

Mallorcan folklore as a familiar context. Electronics and the octopus as tools of the present. The lute and the voice. And discernment and sensitivity in the combination of both worlds. This is it. Paradise of Júlia Colom, an excellent album from start to finish, with peaks like I've been looking for you., His Madonna (with the collaboration of Tarta Relena), An island for you and me and the exciting part His night and his dayA singer like few others.

Cameron Winter, in addition to his remarkable solo project, leads the latest sensation from New York. Geese is art rock that's gently chaotic, as if Talking Heads and Violent Femmes had fallen into a psychedelic cauldron while The Strokes and The Velvet Underground looked on. Beyond the references lies an exhilarating songbook.

The poetic talent of Barcelona native Max Codinach explodes on this second album of electronic pop about diverse existential tribulations. Like a kind of Guillem Gisbert for Generation Z, he strings together verses like "A philharmonic plays, it seems like everything is burning" and "You're nothing like my memory," and delivers some of the year's best songs. City and Balconies, horses.

In 2025 he began with the masterpiece that the so-called Latin urban music surely deserved. I should have taken more photos It demonstrates that in musical creativity, seeking new horizons is as important as knowing how to honor the past. Bad BunnyFurthermore, it has an unbeatable ally: the rich rhythmic tradition of Puerto Rico, which spreads its influence in songs like Unforgettable Ball, Coffee with rum and The move, and that coexists harmoniously with reggaeton and dembow New York and I'm going to take away your bread, PRA unique and distinct genius.

The most significant sixty minutes of music in 2025. The album that establishes Rosalía as an inimitable talent. The album in which the artist from Sant Esteve Sesrovires breaks free from stylistic constraints to create within the realm of music. Lux It has a music lover's interpretation, because it marvels with its harmonic details and rhythmic patterns, and also with its connections to different chapters in the history of music, from the Baroque to contemporary experimentation. But Lux It goes beyond mere virtuosity. By modulating the symphonic-choral and lyrical universe with maximalist production (how amazing this album sounds!) and structures more akin to flamenco and song, Rosalía opens the door to a new pop that acknowledges a lineage (Björk's, for example) and champions a spirituality without hierarchies. A 10 out of 10, of course.