And now to conclude our double dose of year-end listing from the TND writers' room! Yesterday, we shared our Top 20 Songs of 2025. We hope you enjoyed and maybe even got some good listens out of it!

I as editor would like to take a quick moment to comment on the headline of these pieces. I know writing "The TND" makes it read as "The The Needle Drop," and I am sorry that that sounds and looks a bit ridiculous. But it isn't technically wrong – just odd. Just say the abbreviation ("TEE EN DEE") and you'll never realize anything is strange about it!

So today comes our Top 40 Albums of the Year. We only did 20 songs, but we felt like we could do twice as many albums – and so we did.

We voted and contributed lists, and we all collaborated on this great list of 40 distinct albums from a great year in music. I hope you enjoy this list and maybe even fill in some blind spots you may have had. After all, a lot of good stuff got released this year; we won't judge you if you missed something big!

Again, I'd like to note: this is not reflective of Anthony's official Needle Drop lists! He will be uploading those soon enough. But we wanted to clue you in on what the website writers' room has been digging this year, and so here we are. And be sure to check out the playlist at the end for tracks from each of the records.

Without further ado... let's go!

#40. Kathryn Joseph – WE WERE MADE PREY [Rock Action Records]

Answers in love rarely come without a sacrifice of some kind, and it’s that rift that Kathryn Joseph explores on her blood- and wine-stained fourth album WE WERE MADE PREY. With the often coarse-grained electronic backing of producer Lomond Campbell, the Scottish singer/songwriter cuts to the marrow of choice with unsparing detail, as if writing a how-to guide to (almost) fucking up your life. These are pathfinder songs, embedded in a hunt for filaments of truth among the noise of frustration, paranoia, and faltering connection, all to see the animal inside us for what it really is. – Alan Pedder

#39. Jerskin Fendrix – Once Upon a Time... In Shropshire [untitled (recs)]

There is so much wisdom, wit, and tenderness in Once Upon A Time…In Shropshire by Jerskin Fendrix. In all our idyllic towns — whether the fairytale farmlands of Shropshire, or a cozy American suburb — someone’s heart has to stop. Some dog has to keel over; some car has to crash. Some songs in Shropshire wallow in the most sordid pits of grief, and others soften the blow with dumb jokes and jam sessions with friends, with ironically twee phrases and spritely violin and piano melodies. Shropshire is a warm embrace, giving thanks for the people who shaped us, as well as the beauty of nature. – Victoria Borlando

#38. Rochelle Jordan – Through the Wall [Empire]

In a time where the biggest house hits either favor the gray or the garish, Through the Wall goes down all too easily. Slick, elegant, and seamless, the U.K.’s Rochelle Jordan provides a full hour of deep grooves that can make any car feel 50k more expensive, and any old apartment feel like a Chicago high rise. With modern production sensibilities and timeless taste, Through the Wall has all the makings of a classic dance album bound to withstand the test of time. – Thomas Stremfel

#37. Danny Brown – Stardust [Warp]

Whether you’re making indie rock, folk, or pop, embracing a sense of lawlessness seemed to be a common denominator for many of 2025’s high profile releases. Danny Brown’s first full-length solo album in the Kingdom of Soberdom – Stardust – proves that being on the straight and narrow doesn’t mean forfeiting one’s appetite for entropy. Having spoken up on his desire to collaborate with the late SOPHIE, Stardust sees the rap maverick baptize himself gleefully in the cutting-edge pop smarts of the likes of Jane Remover (“All4U”), Frost Children (“Green Light”), JOHNNASCUS (“1999”) and underscores (“Copycats”). The result is a work that feels like deliberate disjointed fun: each song a little wonder in and of itself. – Jasper Willems

#36. Hayley Williams – Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party [Post Atlantic]

There’s an air of liberation that surrounds Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Its title is long and sarcastic, it’s Hayley Williams’ first release outside of the decades-spanning record contract she signed as a teenager, it was dropped on a random Monday via files scattered across her Y2K-styled website. It’s easy to look at an hour long 20 track album and roll your eyes, bemoaning what streaming has done to the art of succinctness. But the intrigue of what the 36 year old Paramore frontwoman has to say about her life and its observations never run dry. There’s something for everyone: the unraveling of her relationship with bandmate Taylor York, religious grievances, sullen moments of unabashed misery. Whatever fans are looking for from Williams, sonically or lyrically, it’s probably on Ego Death’s menu. – Leah Weinstein

#35. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza [Anti]

Before there was LUX, there was La Belleza, Lido Pimienta’s radiant and dare I say just as radical fourth album. Plunging into the classical world, the Colombian-Canadian artist weaves a concise but thrillingly charged story of ancestral pulse, political fire, and love surviving all. Armed with a 66-piece orchestra, and working on compositions alongside co-producer Owen Pallett, La Belleza connects the dots between her Afro-Caribbean roots as a woman of the Wayuu people and a culture that has historically treated Indigenous stories as a sidebar at best, drawing on Gregorian chant, dembow rhythms, and rituals for the dead to stake her poignant claim. That she did all this without any classical training only accents her ambition. – Alan Pedder

#34. Backxwash – Only Dust Remains [Ugly Hag Records]

Only Dust Remains, the fifth album from Montreal rapper/producer Backxwash, finds her at a crossroads between the void and the thing that’s preventing her from going in. Her trademark blends of industrial hip-hop and horrorcore create an impenetrable atmosphere that makes her most personal writing and intense performances hit much harder. From the “life-or-death” circumstances she illustrates on “Wake Up,” to the newfound appreciation for life she finds on the title track, Only Dust Remains is a unique and emotionally heavy journey of self-discovery that might arguably be her grandest statement yet. – Jordan Goodman

#33. Baths – Gut [Basement's Basement]

Baths, the experimental electronic project of Will Wiesenfeld, returns after eight years with Gut, a record that lays bare years of self-discovery, indulgence, depression, and loneliness. On this album, those themes are turned up tenfold. Since his soundtrack work for the Netflix series Bee and PuppyCat, Wiesenfeld sounds more guttural and vulnerable than ever. The playful escapism has been replaced with full-throttle honesty: joy, pain, excess, and the emotional hangover all in one. Sonically, Gut feels like a return to form, but through a different lens. The album blends swaying electronic elements and experimental emo pop-rock with string plucks, layered synths, and Wiesenfeld’s fluctuating vocals. This time though, the production feels more muscular, more lived-in. His lyrics are more direct, exploring queer sexuality and the current state of life without sugarcoating the highs or ignoring the lows. Nothing here is abstract; Gut grinds forward with the messy, unfiltered emotion of a life actually being lived. – Ricky Adams

#32. Perfume Genius – Glory [Matador]

Perfume Genius’s newest project, Glory, is a self-reflective examination of time and place, grief, loss, love, and what remains on the other side. The broken images that singer/songwriter Mike Hadreas paints within his music, be they real or fictional, fall on a spectrum from liberating to near-nightmarish. He could be hopeful about the future in one moment and regretful about the past in the next. As the opener and lead single, “It’s A Mirror” implies, every situation that Hadreas illustrates is only a reflection of the emotional core hiding deep down within him, which fills the record with catharsis. – Jordan Goodman

#31. Quadeca – Vanisher, Horizon Scraper [X8 Music]

Quadeca’s long awaited nautical concept album Vanisher, Horizon Scraper, was a daring tidal wave of emotion and synergy. On “GODSTAINED”, a leading single, Quadeca gave us a folksy, breezy tune, with plucky guitars popping in and out of the frame. “MONDAY” was another earworm and highlight, with an unforgettable flute performance by Olēka. Along with a genre pushing final track with Maruja, and a cut that featured Danny Brown as a mythical sea monster, Quadeca proved (once again) on Vanisher, Horizon Scraper that he is one of modern art pop’s musical voyeurs. – Aaron Cousin

#30. Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out [Roc Nation]

On Clipse's Let God Sort Em Out, it's clear that no one’s more excited than Pusha T and especially Malice to be doing this again, to have survived this long, to be on top at ages 48 and 53, respectively. Pharrell’s production may be a little too Grammy-friendly compared to the old oddball bangers but it may also result in a Grammy. Doesn’t blunt the impact either way, whether the Thornton bros are confessing regrets about their late parents or sneering threats to make you join them. For more than two decades they’ve perfected this balance of vicious and clever, but here they’re even beautiful. So be it. – Dan Weiss

#29. Sudan Archives – The BPM [Stones Throw Records]

Brittney Parks has been on fire for three albums now as Sudan Archives, but like the title [The BPM] says, this one moves faster. With violin still in hand, she continues twisting dance, pop, and R&B into unfamiliar, artsy shapes like no one else doing any of them. The breakneck leadoff “Dead” is anything but, and “Ms. Pac Man” is so named because she “eats these bitches, too.” The world she’s building with her sound is getting bigger, and she always takes us there. – Dan Weiss

#28. Addison Rae – Addison [Columbia]

Addison Rae has no pretenses about her desire to rule the world. She’s the ultimate modern-multi-hyphenate — she screamed her head off in Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving just as comfortably as on a remix of Charli XCX’s "Von Dutch", and she remains the sixth most followed account on TikTok, well beyond her “Renegade” days. To get a taste of her worldview, just listen to her debut album’s closer, the anthemic trip-hop inspired "Headphones On". Addison reminds listeners that strife is a natural part of life, but you don’t need to face it alone. Get dolled up, light a cigarette, and listen to your favorite song — which just might be off this album. – Trevor Gardemal

#27. Bon Iver – SABLE, fABLE [Jagjaguwar]

Selfishly, I think most of us prefer our favorite artists to be a bit fucked up. Misery can often produce the most entrancing art, and Justin Vernon spent the first four Bon Iver albums as a certified sad dude, to wonderful results. But on SABLE, fABLE, he pivots, splitting the record into two sections: the first echoing his older, acoustic, downtrodden work; and the second blooming into something hopeful, sunny, even comforting. Vernon pulls off this shift effortlessly, and, in the process, produces some of the most endearing work of his career. If SABLE, fABLE really is the final Bon Iver album, it’s one hell of a note to end on. – Drew P. Simmons

#26. Anna von Hausswolff – ICONOCLASTS [YEAR0001]

Can I interest you in pipe organ with a side of sax? How about some art-rock bombast, seasoned with a zest of ambient doom? At 73 minutes long, ICONOCLASTS is a full meal of all that and more. Sweden’s Anna von Hausswolff is no longer playing nice when it comes to the shitshow of the modern world, from forever wars to the climate crisis to staving off our moral decay, and she doesn’t spare herself either. ICONOCLASTS is far from didactic, nor is it a recipe for dissent, but what it offers is an ecstatic form of release: from comfort, from shame, and from systems and habits that only serve to hold us back. – Alan Pedder

#25. Tropical Fuck Storm – Fairyland Codex [Fire Records]

Fairyland Codex features the most visceral, narrative lyricism Tropical Fuck Storm have ever produced, alongside instrumental compositions that are consistently dynamic, bold, and challenging. The dour guitar thrums, chanting drums, and ear-cracking vocals are even more eclectic and depraved, but unlike their former albums, the content leaves me less aloof, and more concerned than ever, about the state of the world. This record gripped me by the shirt collar and told me a story that I could not choose but hear. – Tony Le Calvez

#24. Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS [Rimas Entertainment]

Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR Más FOToS feels like a free ticket with all expenses paid to Puerto Rico. Benito manages to break the language barrier and enthrall you with regional and Latin rhythms. Over a live salsa accompaniment, Benito tells a story of heartbreak in “BAILE INoLVIDABLE”. He builds to a breathtaking climax in “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii”, a Jibara in which he begs for Hawaii’s history with gentrification not to repeat itself in Puerto Rico and end up losing their homeland’s identity. Benito also delves into plena, dembow, bachata, and of course, reggaeton, in one of the most varied and compelling albums in his catalogue. – Daniel Gonçalves

#23. Navy Blue – The Sword & The Soaring [Freedom Sounds]

Sage Elsesser remains a tour de force in the fields of abstract and conscious hip-hop. The Sword & The Soaring might be Navy Blue’s most personal and introspective project to date, as the meditations he explores throughout the record offer listeners deeper perspectives on grief, familial trauma, and loneliness in an age of interconnectivity. And while his lyrical style might not click for everyone, the freeform delivery and the way he approaches these sensitive subjects make his music feel in a lane of its own. – Jordan Goodman

#22. Annahstasia – Tether [drink sum wtr]

There’s a profound sense of gravity to Tether, Annahstasia’s whole-souled debut album, manifesting through her dusky, often half-spoken singing, and an intuition for space and phrasing that allows the weight of air to be felt, almost as an instrument in its own right. The MVP here is undoubtedly the voice, a lightly-weathered torch-bearer for the world before autotune, but there’s plenty of flickering beauty to be found in the arrangements too. Even in its less subdued moments (“Silk & Velvet”, “Believer”), Tether’s insistence is patient rather than loud, like an old friend who always has time for your heartache and floods it, little by little, with hope. – Alan Pedder

#21. Japanese Breakfast – For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) [Dead Oceans]

After the sugar rush of her 2021 hit album Jubilee, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast returned to music in 2025 with a record that exemplified her literary prowess and her taste for the refined. For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) is Zauner’s most delicate album, as well as her most technically adept, as she traded the sweet horns and marching drums of “Paprika” and “Be Sweet” for the tender sounds of the harp and bow. Songs like “Orlando in Love” and “Little Girl” exemplify and expand the best parts of the latter end of her 2017 record, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, with gentle, caressing music that serves to soften the blow of her gut-punching lyrics. – Tony Le Calvez

#20. Titanic – HAGEN [Unheard of Hope]

Titanic – the duo formed by Héctor Tosta and Mabe Fratti – performed magic on my ears with HAGEN's opening moments. Unfamiliar with the pair, I assumed that the band procured a seasoned-yet-unknown Scottish bagpiper, who wailed soaring pipe-riffs amidst their lush, ever-present drone. Now, I know there is no Scottish bagpiper; there aren’t even any bagpipes. Titanic are playful with their genres, oscillating between gothic chamber folk and twee synth bliss, sometimes at the same time in some avant-garde tontipop melange. It’s glittery and airy, phantasmically cold but danceable. Titanic are true alchemists, shaping disjointed percussion and discordant hums into their own unique form of pop magic. – Alex Peterson

#19. Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong [Ninja Tune]

Black Country, New Road are no strangers to shake-ups: from a dramatic line-up change, to multiple side projects, to the constant rotation of instruments, lead vocalists, lyricists, etc., the six current members have grown as powerful and skilled individual artists. However, as we saw on Forever Howlong, when they’re together, they are unstoppable. This album — in all its plucky twee, chamber pop, and soft rock glory — celebrates the unique dynamic BCNR have cultivated. Whether it’s the saxophone and guitar duet in “Nancy Tries to Take The Night”, the drum and piano race in “Two Horses”, the beautiful three-part harmony in “Mary”, or even all the subtle lyrical callbacks woven throughout, this patched-together record radiates with thoughtfulness and care for one another. – Victoria Borlando

#18. Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter [RCA]

With “Outlaw Country” a brand that graces a satellite radio station and a cruise, maybe it’s no longer a shock that a country singer exists who kicks off his best album yet – Snipe Hunter – with a psychedelic boogie about killing, gutting, and deep-frying a “man in the doorway of a motherfucking mansion.” But this ain’t some cult weirdo; Tyler Childers is a megastar who sells out amphitheaters, got Rick Rubin behind the boards, and was trotted out by Olivia Rodrigo onstage to sing one of his songs. Nowadays, cult weirdos are the megastars — just look at Playboi Carti — so let’s all delight in his “Bitin’ List” of priority nemeses should he contract rabies, his itinerary for a spiritual sojourn in India, and his warning about koalas carrying syphilis. – Dan Weiss

#17. Ichiko Aoba – Luminescent Creatures [Psychic Hotline]

Mythmaking in miniature has rarely, if ever, sounded so divine as on Luminescent Creatures. An expansion pack of sorts for her imaginary island of Adan, Ichiko Aoba turns her thoughts here to the seas and out beyond the stars above, crafting a prettily detailed, chamber-folk fantasy that draws on her own days spent coral reef diving and swimming with whales. As playful as it is delicate and cooing, Luminescent Creatures’s vision proves once more that Aoba is in a world of her own, holding the key to a treasure chest of creativity and elliptical tranquility. – Alan Pedder

#16. Smerz – Big city life [escho]

Copenhagen may have hogged the Scandi spotlight lately – and Smerz themselves have had a hand in that – but Big city life is a timely reminder that their hometown of Oslo is also very much a hotbed of invention (see also Niilas, Nothing Personal, and Katarina Barruk). Another restless triumph for the Norwegian duo, it taps into the emotional language of pop as filtered through a neon-blurred, after-club aesthetic and the late-night liminality of glowing city streets. It's a more focused, less fragmented record than 2021’s Believer, but still just as dripping with claustrophobic want and listless, postmodern tension. Euphoria, when it does come, is fleeting, and full immersion is a must. – Alan Pedder

#15. Jane Remover – Revengeseekerz [deadAir]

Noise is seldom so mind-melting and speaker-blowing in the way that Revengeseekerz is. You would be justified in hearing this and thinking there is a team of skilled producers who made this happen, but you’d be wrong. Production, mastering, writing, and vocals are all masterminded by Jane Remover – plus a completely insane Danny Brown feature on "Psychoboost". Remover stated that during the photoshoot for the album’s artwork their hair caught fire “around 50 times.” That heat and intensity they experienced managed to translate flawlessly into the record. Revengeseekerz oozes confidence and style in a way that few albums can match – an album so hot and explosive that its physical copies should come with a fire extinguisher. – Wade Stokan

#14. Erika de Casier – Lifetime [Independent Jeep Music]

Erika de Casier’s surprise-released fourth album is a chilly set of trip-hop, but the coldest thing here is her attitude. On Lifetime, de Casier has no space for delusional men and chase-obsessed playboys. She stays calm and collected as she fends them off effortlessly. “You don’t even try,” de Casier coos on the highlight “December,” turning that eye-roll toss-off into a lilting hook. de Casier’s music has always toyed with space; her vocals echo into cavernous songs. But Lifetime is truly zero-gravity. Not even the stupidest boys can bring her down. – Andy Steiner

#13. billy woods – GOLLIWOG [Backwoodz Studioz]

billy woods, the 2020s rap MVP, brightened his worldview on 2023’s universally beloved Maps, focusing on touring pleasures like brined pork belly and skipping soundcheck. Didn’t change him! This loosely horror-themed opus, GOLLIWOG, is grim as ever, with creaky beats including one Macgyvered from a woman sobbing on "Waterproof Mascara" and saucy jazz for "Misery", where he goes home with a vampiress. The gripping, stream-of-consciousness verses kick off with "the English language is violence" and proceed through "If you never came back from the dead you can’t tell me shit." Oh, and Despot shivs God in “Cornthians” just to see if he bleeds. – Dan Weiss

#12. Dijon – Baby [R&R/Warner]

The Prince acolytes have found their way into the highest rungs of popular music, and it’s been nothing short of a delight. Uninhibited in its passion, Dijon's Baby makes being a wife guy cool again. The self assuredness that’s come with his recent success and building a family is endlessly potent on this record. Dijon screams about his love from the mountaintops as he curates sonic palettes that somehow feel both modern and nostalgic – he’s a magician whose wand is an Ableton license. – Leah Weinstein

#11. Oklou – choke enough [True Panther Records]

Has an album ever made you feel like you were watching some medieval fairy prancing around a moonlit forest? Me neither, until I listened to choke enough by Oklou. It’s a mesmerizing listen, and one I’m fairly certain I wasn’t the intended audience for (a mid-20s white guy who can taste the difference between Miller Lite and Coors Light on the first sip and still gets down with Smash by The Offspring). Yet, everything about this record clicks for me. The constantly fluttering synths, melodic chords, and delicate vocals build a singular world, reminiscent of 2000s Eurodance, but far more subdued and atmospheric (“Harvest Sky” sounds like “Stereo Love” passed through an ambient-pop filter). choke enough stands as one of the most interesting soundscapes of 2025, and leaves me excited for what’s in store down the road for its creator. – Drew P. Simmons

#10. FKA twigs – EUSEXUA [Young Recordings Limited]

EUSEXUA is when the dancefloor stands still, the moment of emptiness before a surge of emotion; it's the anticipation moments before climax; it’s the fever you get after locking eyes across the room. FKA twigs's voice is acrobatic, flitting across plucking luminescent synths, pirouetting with the lights off. There are moments where twigs could have shifted full into a house diva, full of thumping club bombast. Instead, she slips back into the crowd, but do not be mistaken, her voice still cuts through like a coke-dusted razor. There are moments where the loneliness of the club starts to feel overwhelming. What does twigs do? She turns up the BPM and keeps dancing. – Alex Peterson

#9. Skrillex – F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3 [OWSLA/Atlantic]

F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3 is a tape of career highlights from Skrillex: some new, some old. Most tracks barely eke past a minute; now’s not the time to look for cohesion. Embrace the chaos. One moment will be an ear-splitting jerk beat dedicated to God, the next will be a sarcastic spoken-word plea begging you to listen to the album at full volume otherwise, Skrillex will be "put in the hole." The only thing jelling these scattershot ideas is the pervasive, violently saccharine vocals of an irony-poisoned dubstep auteur. Beyond the face-melting drops, a decade-younger DJ wades through the irony, careening through the wubs, screaming “You’ve got to believe there’s something more.” – Alex Peterson

#8. Water From Your Eyes – It's a Beautiful Place [Matador]

“Making indie rock is like, a funny thing to do,” Nate Amos told NME. For a band whose catalog ranges from abstract ambient to new wave to art pop, Water From Your Eyes can be easily boiled down to Amos’s statement. Do what’s funny; make good music by choosing the most unexpected options; never let them know your next move. It’s A Beautiful Place applies that ethos to gritty math-rock and tinny chamber-pop. It’s the duo’s most built-out, structured album to date. Still, it oozes with mischievousness. Making indie music is funny; doesn’t mean it shouldn’t rock. – Andy Steiner

#7. Nourished by Time – The Passionate Ones [XL]

We seldom find joy in commuting, clocking in, working, clocking out, commuting home, and recovering for the next day. On his second album, The Passionate Ones, Nourished by Time thrives in that relationship between working to live and living to create. The Passionate Ones proclaims that working sucks, but it does so with a gapped-tooth, ear-to-ear grin. Its core – defined on “9 2 5” as “Tryna beat the system/ Manifest a vision/ Working restaurants by day/ Writing love songs every night” – is an unbroken spirit that acts not in defiance to 40-hour weeks, but in servitude of the late nights away from the office. – Colin Dempsey

#6. Rosalía – LUX [Columbia]

When news broke that Rosalía's new album would feature lyics sung in over ten languages, that seemed like it was going to be the main centerpoint. But what LUX revealed was that that would maybe be the secondary or even tertiary focus. Rosalía's vocal chops are well-documented by now (go back and revisit even her debut record, Los Angeles, for proof of her beautiful singing) but topping them with a pristine array of classical-leaning and traditional pop stylings (butting intriguingly against some modern-age electronics) was the string-laden cherry on top. She is in such awe-inspiring control of her voice throughout, hitting even the most dramatic, most operatic moments with grace and fire. After a couple groovier releases, LUX showed us a new edge to this impressive, multi-faceted artist. – Jeremy J. Fisette

#5. Wednesday – Bleeds [Dead Oceans]

Americans love to demonize things – themselves, each other, events they are helpless to trace to a root cause. The best way to combat that inclination, though, is to simply sit back and observe, to accept absurdity with a stifled chuckle.

That’s exactly what Wednesday frontwoman Karly Hartzman is most gifted at. The 28-year-old Greensboro, NC native is eager to use her pen to string together the beautifully odd minutiae of the “born here, live here, die here” Southern mentality prolifically bastardized by the bros of post-9/11 stadium country.

While she does take a couple breaks to look inward, Bleeds, like its brilliant sister album Rat Saw God, is a patchwork of Hartzman’s humid, sun-bleached surroundings. Bleeds’s critical reception, while overwhelmingly positive, was sorely misdirected by the public interest of her 2024 split with guitarist and indie tour-de-force MJ Lenderman in what I can only describe as perpetuation of misogyny against Hartzman. With a dramatic, gossipy angle, the real story of Bleeds was eclipsed by an incorrect but easily digestible parallel to Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

Luckily for the cannon of truth, Bleeds’s bespoke southern storytelling and commanding hooks are plenty strong to fight against its mythologizers. If Rat Saw God was not enough to crown Wednesday as one of the defining rock bands of this decade, Bleeds serves the final blow to any remaining skeptics. – Leah Weinstein

#4. Ethel Cain – Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You [Daughters of Cain Records]

More than she is a musician, Hayden Anhedönia – aka Ethel Cain – is a storyteller. She allows her words to breathe and linger, allowing her characters’ expansive lore to inhabit lyrics’ subtext.

There are two ways to listen to Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, the prequel to Cain’s star-making Preacher’s Daughter: with Anhedönia’s Genius lyric annotations pulled up, and without. Both are equally effective, the mark of a truly great concept record.

Deep diving into the lore of Ethel Cain and Willoughby Tucker as complex characters certainly enriches the source material, but the music stands on its own as a touching story of young love, loss, and addiction that rewards patience and attention. Its sprawling instrumentals foster reflection as their haunting leitmotifs return like Pavlov’s bell. What was billed by Anhedönia herself as a B-sides record often eclipses Preacher in its ambition and heft. Ethel Cain may be dead, but Anhedönia is just getting started. – Leah Weinstein

#3. Ninajirachi – I Love My Computer [NLV Records]

Technology has become such a pivotal part of society and daily life. Things like social media and music can fill all the social holes in your life. Who needs somebody to turn to when you can just play your favorite song on repeat?

Ninajirachi makes music about attaching ourselves to online spaces, seeing terrible videos that we can’t erase from our minds, listening to a song from our childhood that nobody else seems to know, to name a few. The way she looks through the good and the bad moments she’s experienced online with a nostalgic lens makes her computer read more like a person, and fuels the passion that I Love My Computer exudes.

“Fuck My Computer” plays on the idea that your computer knows more about you than anyone ever could. It remembers your favorite restaurant and where you like to buy clothes, but it also knows all your passwords, banking information and has thousands of pictures of your family. While sleeping with somebody like that sounds like a terrible idea, it almost seems like a no-brainer when you realize just how many memories and shared experiences you two have together. Who could love you more than that?

I Love My Computer will make you laugh, cry, and question why you still haven’t deleted your Facebook account. It’s a thrilling listen from top to bottom, and it says a lot more than you’d expect from an artist’s debut album. Should the Australian Music Prize winner continue at this rate, she could take over the world. – Wade Stokan

#2. Pinkpantheress – Fancy That [Warner Records UK]

Her name is Pink and she’s very glad to meet you, but you probably already knew that. With this year’s mixtape, Fancy That, Britain’s PinkPantheress proved that her online success earlier this decade was no passing fad.

The 24 year old pop star, born Vicky Walker, cemented and trademarked both her effervescent, bouncy, reference-ridden sound, and her plaid-heavy, darling image. Her performances on Jimmy Fallon and NPR’s Tiny Desk proved her dancing and musical ability, and she earned her first two Grammy nominations — the mixtape is up for Best Dance/Electronic Album, and viral hit “Illegal” was nominated for Best Dance Pop recording.

And, on the lengthy remix project Fancy Some More?, Pink got to turn her inspirations into collaborators. Just check out the remix with the recently revived 2000s girl group, the Sugababes, the version of “Stateside” featuring international princess of pop Kylie Minogue, or the one featuring Zara Larsson’s unexpectedly powerful vocals, fresh off the viral success of “Midnight Sun.”

Only a few years inter her career, PinkPantheress has become one of the most exciting artists and producers in the pop scene, and one of the most enjoyable to watch. – Trevor Gardemal

#1. Geese – Getting Killed [Partisan / Play it Again Sam]

Geese took time to dominate the indie music world, first capturing the hearts of the locals in New York City before exploding all at once. Getting Killed is the culmination of everything that makes Geese a spectacle, from the adventurous, disco punk days of Projector to the surrealist cowboy ballads of 2023’s 3D Country. Cameron Winter’s lyrics are simpler yet punchier, spiraling into religious mania with incessant repetition, fixations, and the occasional freak out.

Though he's known to contort his vocal range at will (just look at the way he slips from belt to falsetto in “Domoto” or “Low Era”), the relationship between Winter and his melodies sounds stronger and more sacred — as if he has relinquished control and blindly follows the spirit of the song from note to note.

The band then quadruples his craziness, taking this opportunity to take some bold, musical swings. Drummer Max Bassin electrifies each piece with his raucous and cluttered percussion sections in tracks like “Bow Down” and “100 Horses”; Emily Green and Dominic DiGesu fry the amps with guitar and bass during “Trinidad” and “Getting Killed”. And all four come together harmoniously in the loose, angelic, and unforgettable finale of “Long Island City Here I Come”, solidifying them as one of the next great bands to follow.

An album that sounds this frustrating and challenging, yet beautiful and euphoric at the same time, calls for a great awakening. – Victoria Borlando