Rolling Stone
December 3, 2025
The music world refused to stand still in 2025. This wasn’t a year for playing it safe. Across the globe and all over the stylistic map, music kept mutating in the weirdest, wildest ways. The artists behind the year’s best albums were taking big swings, not repeating past successes. Lady Gaga brought the mayhem for her most ambitious record in years. Rosalía made her deeply personal statement about sexual and spiritual transcendence. Bad Bunny traveled through time and space, from San Juan to Nuevayol. Pop visionaries like FKA Twigs and Taylor Swift made bold new moves.
Our list has everything from upstart country to Afropop to shoegaze to flamenco. We’ve got brash young indie bands like Geese and Lifeguard; we’ve got fearless rock storytelling from Wednesday and Craig Finn; we’ve got the underground rap poetics of Billy Woods and the radical clubland beats of Pink Pantheress. Some of these artists are rookies, some are legends — the 86-year-old soul queen Mavis Staples rules right next to the teenage kicks of Sombr. There’s comeback kids like Justin Bieber, who rediscovered his swag. Hayley Williams made her solo move, the Clipse proved hardcore never dies, Jeff Tweedy shared his hard-won Zen wisdom, Tyler Childers raised hell. We’ve got pop ingenues from Addison Rae to Olivia Dean. We’ve got melancholy brunettes, sad women, West End girls, man’s best friends.
These albums represent all different styles and beats and genres — but this is the music that kept us moving forward all year long. And it will be reverberating after the year is done.
No. 74
Hannah Bahng, ‘The Misunderstood EP’
Korean Australian singer-songwriter Hannah Bahng’s lushly low-key music combines yearning and heartache with a Gen Z sense that any genre is ready for use, be it melancholy indie pop or introspective alt-rock. Each of the seven tracks here stands on its own merit as a self-reflective tale of vulnerability and longing — whether she’s navigating a one-sided relationship on “Orchid/Flame” or attaining self-discovery on the dreamy “I’m Me Again.” The Misunderstood EP tells a complex story that begins with desperation and ends with promise. —Jae-Ha Kim
No. 86
Chaeyoung, ‘Lil Fantasy Vol. 1’
Chaeyoung has attained stardom as a member of the K-pop group TWICE. On her solo debut, lyrics about the loss of old friends, forgiveness, and embracing your own quirky self pour out of the singer-rapper, as she mixes neo-soul, trip-hop, and funk in her dreamy pop songs. “BF” reflects on how fame feeds into loneliness. But there’s optimism, too: On the disco-inspired “Shoot (Firecracker),” she sings, “Don’t say goodbye, there’s a new beginning.” Yes, Chaeyoung is living her lil fantasy, but she makes it clear she’s a work in progress with room to grow. —Jae-Ha Kim
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