Will Moore’s top albums of 2025
Another great year of music – just as they all are! Always fun to see trends shift and change over time. The big theme this year is that rock and roll is not dead, not even close in fact. So many fantastic rock bands are coming out with high quality material nowadays and its time to take note. So here’s some of my favorite albums of this year, roughly arranged from the top favorites and down:
After – EPs 1 and 2
I’m counting this as 1 album since they’re getting re-released together in January, but nothing stunned me more this year than the immense attention to detail and genuine pop-songwriting mastery of this LA duo that mixes heavy inspiration from the bubbly, optimistic pop of the Y2K era with the heavier rock styles of the time. Singer Justine Conley’s voice is pitch perfect for this music, and it feels less like trying to merely bring back the past and much more like reviving a lost art form. These could have been mega-hits 25 years ago.
Smut – Tomorrow Comes Crashing
This album I found more or less on a whim from a group out of Cincinnati (now in Chicago) blew me away start to finish. Turbo-charged garage rock with a punk edge and fantastic lead vocals from Tay Roebuck, the quality never dips for a second at any point on the album. “Syd Sweeney” may be my favorite song of the year. This feels like the kind of band the coolest kids you knew were part of.
Geese – Getting Killed
One of the biggest albums in music this year across the board. I truly do not remember the last time I saw a rock band blow up to this magnitude, but Cameron Winter and company have 100% earned it. This is their best album to date with experimental songs that push boundaries but are simultaneously major earworms. They could become some of the biggest genuine rock stars in ages.
McKinley Dixon – Magic, Alive!
In what was an extremely rock-heavy year, this was by far the best hip hop album I heard in 2025. The Virginia rapper has such an expressive, actor-like style to his delivery, and musically wows on all fronts. Every track has jazz drum rhythms, heavy use of strings or brass, or even whole gospel choir. And the whiplash flow from one impressive track to the next makes this album live up to its namesake of magical.
Flipturn – Burnout Days
This young band from Jacksonville is one of so many up and coming bands with the traditional rock lineup that are absolutely killing it right now, but the stellar voice of singer Dillon Bass and bright shimmering sound that evokes the post-punk revival of the 00s put this album and this group on a fully different level. Extremely excited to hear more from them.
Wednesday – Bleeds
An album born of heartbreak and shifting chapters as bandleader Karly Hertzman and company move on without MJ Lenderman. It’s a brilliantly written trip through small moments in rural Appalachia that never leaves its alt-country roots with plenty of pedal steel, but can turn ferocious and explosive at the drop of a hat as Hartzman pours out every ounce of emotion within her.
Cafune – Biting Reality
A New York duo that came out of nowhere to become one of my new favorite artist discoveries this year, and a fantastic retro-inspired shoegazy electro-rock album to pair with it. The track “e-Asphyxiation” is not only one of the catchiest songs I heard all year, but maybe the best descriptor of the feeling of tech overload I’ve heard.
Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter
The Kentucky alt-country royalty returns with his wildest, loudest, hardest hitting and most verbose album yet. No one is writing songs in the same headspace as Childers who can somehow turn a long country-twanged stream of consciousness yarn into a compelling song with zero effort.
Sprints – All That is Over
Another fantastic album from the Irish punk band, every bit as good as the one a fell in love with a few years ago. The always intensifying, mantra-like lyrics and voice of Karla Chubb is the hallmark of their style and it’s one of the most powerful things around.
Maribou State – Hallucinating Love
An extremely smooth groove permeates this record from start to finish. Chill electronica and uplifting beats of only the highest calibur, I’m surprised there’s not been more buzz about this beautiful album from the English duo with lots of help from singer Holly Walker.
Sam Fender – People Watching
I really think this young English songwriter could be the heir apparent to artists like Bruce Springsteen. Incredible lyrics with a relatable and heartfelt core to every song, and some wonderfully catchy melodies. The Deluxe edition of this album is especially excellent, almost doubling the number of fantastic tracks. Keep an eye on this guy.
The Velveteers – A Million Knives
When you have a band that’s made of two drummers and a totally out of control guitarist/lead singer, you know you’re in for a rocking time. Every song on this alt-punk project hits like a mortar shell and doesn’t give you a break for a second.
CMAT – Euro-Country
An album I criminally under-played on the air this year. A delightful British twist on America’s music turned dance pop. It’s silly, campy, and garishly over the top in the best way, all the while dishing out funny yet biting social commentary. One part Dolly and one part Chappell Roan, the whole thing feels like a high production stage show.
Bon Iver – Sable, Fable
The latest from Justin Vernon and friends is one that is contemplative, introspective, but also jubilant and possibly the most feel-good record from the artist ever. Vernon spans era of his music from introspective guitar and voice numbers for the first time in ages, to new collabs with different artists and lots of sample-heavy sentiment.
Racing Mount Pleasant – self-titled
The debut album from the renamed seven-piece group from Michigan that lifts baroque pop from the brink of death and makes a somber and cathartic, ultra-personal record that will destroy you emotionally.
The Bel-Air Lip Bombs – Again
Wall to wall pure distilled indie rock goodness with very few frills but it truly doesn’t need any. Pure meat and potatoes catchy alt-rock fun from the world’s current music capital, Melbourne Australia.
Yndling – Time Time Time (I’m in the Palm of your Hand)
Crunchy, ghostly, futuristic tunes that defy genre from a great new discovery with this unique singer from Norway. Feels like a soundtrack to a haunting and increasingly real dystopia. A sound straight out of the 2040s.
Snocaps – self-titled
A fantastic supergroup of Waxahatchee with her twin sister, MJ Lenderman, and Brad Cook dropped this gem of a record in the biggest surprise in music this year. More country rock goodness from some players and singers that are the top of their game.
More honorable mentions:
Coach Party – Caramel
Wet Leg – Moisturizer
The Beths – Straight Line Was a Lie
Deep Sea Diver – Billboard Heart
Oneohtrix Point Never – Tranquilizer
Hayley Williams – Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
Clipping – Dead Channel Sky
Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory – self-titled
Ken Yates – Total Cinema
Mandrake Handshake – Earth-Sized Worlds
