THE BIG TEN: Outstanding Albums 2025
Rather than being a countdown, this is a list of ten outstanding records that either refined their genre with precision, dragged it somewhere completely new, or both. These are ten records that reward time spent with them, and many are political by necessity. All have been widely praised, yet largely absent from the identical end-of-year lists doing the rounds. The strongest set of recommendations from 2025 we can offer (with one held back for tomorrow) these are THE BIG TEN 2025.
Songhoy Blues - Héritage
A profound homecoming, Héritage sees Songhoy Blues step away from the rock-band framework that first brought them global attention and fully immerse themselves in the traditional sounds of Mali. Born out of a history of displacement and cultural suppression, the album feels like a living document featuring forty musicians from across Mali weaving kora, flutes, fiddles and hand percussion into deeply rooted music that transcends geography with ease. Political by the simple defiant act of preserving their heritage, Héritage is a clear career peak for Songhoy Blues, radiating calm and communal joy.
Jinjer - Duél
Duél captures Jinjer operating at an elite technical peak as uncompromising cultural voices for Ukraine with djent-fuelled riffs twisting through impossible grooves. Tatiana Shmailyuk’s ability to pivot from bone-crushing growls to soaring melodic hooks is virtuosic and fierce, with lyrics tackling personal struggles with urgency. Forged from the harshest conditions, Duél pushes modern metal forward with precision and invention, standing as one of the year’s most important heavy records.
Dawn of Ouroboros - Bioluminescence
A bold statement from a band still flying under the radar, Bioluminescence is modern metal at its most ambitious and rewarding. Technically dazzling, emotionally rich, and fearless in its fusion, Dawn of Ouroboros weave progressive metal, black metal, post-rock and jazz into music that surges and recedes with the logic of the ocean that inspired it, pivoting from blistering blast beats to eerie calm, and even at its most complex the album remains strangely catchy. Chelsea Murphy is one of the most versatile vocalists in metal today, moving between monstrous lows, piercing black-metal screams and intimate, sensual passages. With elite musicianship across the board, Bioluminescence pushes extreme metal into lush and expansive territory, and deserves far wider recognition.
Harry Shotta - Odyssey
A landmark British hip-hop record, Odyssey is a career-defining statement that stitches together a lifetime of UK sounds into one cast, joyful and purposeful whole. Across its sprawling runtime, Harry Shotta brings boom bap, jungle, grime, soul and rave culture into perfect alignment as an act of gratitude and a celebration of the music that raised him. The guest list reads like a roll call of the UK underground, and every contributor arrives at their absolute peak, yet for all the blistering double-time flows, immaculate production and genre-hopping confidence, it’s Shotta’s personality that gives the album its power. Open and generous, he balances childhood trauma, escapism and hard-earned hope. Odyssey is a love letter, a history lesson, and a benchmark for British hip-hop in 2025.
Sault - 10
Immaculately produced, 10 is stripped back and rich with restraint, radiating joy, faith and deep musical reverence. Built around collective harmony rather than individual spotlight, its silk-threaded vocals draw from the lineage of late-’90s R&B where group dynamics and intimacy carried immense cultural weight, while the instrumentation taps into the smooth discipline of ‘70s soul, funk and disco. 10 is full of stylish music designed for togetherness, with a powerful integrity from all of the performers.
The Cure - Mixes Of A Lost World
Far more than a remix collection, Mixes Of A Lost World plays like a monumental tribute. Where most remix albums function as footnotes, this feels closer to a career-spanning anthology, transforming the already weighty songs on The Cure’s final studio statement into a vast, two-and-a-half-hour journey through the lineage of music the band helped shape. Carefully sequenced and astonishing in scope, it moves across electronic, experimental and guitar-driven terrain with Robert Smith’s voice and melodies refracting and looping with warm melancholy. A full-spectrum celebration of The Cure’s influence and legacy that’s immersive, demanding and profoundly moving.
Mei Semones - Animaru
Animaru is a light and whimsical debut that makes complex musicianship feel inviting, drawing together chamber jazz, Bossa Nova, indie rock and Japanese pop. Mei Semones and her close-knit ensemble glide through intricate arrangements with the ease of a summer breeze with lightning-fast guitar work sitting inside warm and playful three-minute songs. Strings, double bass and delicately grooving drums move and breathe with natural chemistry, radiating joy and finding beauty in animals, fleeting city moments and the gentle oddness of everyday life. Animaru exists in its own lane, and leaves you feeling delighted by the time it fades out.
For Those I Love - Carving The Stone
A staggering work of modern political art, Carving The Stone uses relentless spoken-word delivery and skeletal techno to document grief, rage and belonging with brutal clarity. David Balfe’s writing is so rich in character, painting the lives of the Irish people as their home is hollowed out by techno-feudalism. Traditional Irish music blurs into cold electronic frameworks with beats that hover rather than drop, sustaining unbearable emotional pressure. This is furious music that’s lovingly rooted in a place, and unflinching in its gaze. Carving The Stone is a colossal, necessary album that proves when systems fail, art can speak with devastating power.
Asidhara - Asidhara
A blistering riot of a debut, Asidhara is thrash metal fired at full throttle, revelling in speed and adrenaline. Drawing proudly from the genre’s golden age with the swagger, bite and ambition of the Big Four the album hits hard driven by colossal riffs, ripping solos and drums that never let up. With theatre and fantasy in the lyrics and war-cry vocals at the centre, this is tight, muscular thrash that’s relentlessly fun. Ambitious without pretence and powered by the kind of camaraderie and great riffs that remind you why thrash mattered in the first place.
Pupil Slicer - Fleshwork
Brutal and unflinching, Fleshwork is extreme metal as a direct response to life in Britain in 2025. Rooted in the real political cruelty of austerity, isolation and collapse, the album strips away fantasy and abstraction replacing them with panic and grief. Jagged mathcore structures carry Kate Davies’ harrowing vocal performance, a throat-shredding claustrophobic howl, as the album veers between grind, prog metal, industrial and hardcore. Fleshwork captures the emotional temperature of the moment with terrifying clarity. One of the heaviest and most necessary albums of the year.
