"It was a great year for music, but everything felt a little more splintered this year, and in fact, picking a #1 album this year felt harder than it has in a while. Instead of a few major, dominant moments, we had the indie-country boom hitting a new peak, the biggest year for black metal in a while, the best year for emo in a while"
"We had great comebacks from veterans we love and thrilling breakthroughs from newer artists. It was such a good year for music that we couldn't limit this list to 50, so here are our 55 favorite albums of 2025. And even with 55 albums here, some honorable mentions below, and other genre-specific lists (like punk and more TBA), there were still so many other records we loved in 2025 that pained us to leave off."
Coming off a year with big culture-defining moments like Brat Summer and "Not Like Us," 2025 felt different and more splintered. Music across indie-country, black metal, emo, hip hop, hardcore, metal, country, indie rock, indie pop, pop, shoegaze, and more all produced standout releases. The fragmentation made picking a single #1 album unusually difficult, prompting expansion of favorites to 55 top albums for 2025. The year included major comebacks from veterans and thrilling breakthroughs from newer artists. BrooklynVegan expanded audio coverage with BV Weekly and ramped up BV Interviews. Honorable mentions and genre-specific lists complemented the favorites.
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