Anthony Fantano here, Internet's Busiest Music Nerd. It is time for 2025 List Week, another installment of that. Yep, going through the best and worst that 2025 had to offer, musically speaking. We are going to go over our Worst Albums of the Year, and they are as follows.

Without any further ado, let's do it.

10. Tame Impala – Deadbeat

We're going to start at number 10 with a release that I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed to see on this list. That is going to be the new Tame Impala album, Deadbeat.

I know there are a lot of people who strongly disagreed with my 2 out of 10 review for this record, but I truly do think this is a terrible album and a massive disappointment for a project that... I mean, the last Tame Impala album was already the worst one. This just brings Kevin Parker's output to a new low, but if there is a silver lining in this cloud, it's that I don't think it can get much worse than this. It can really only go up from here.

However, part of me does question whether or not that will happen because surprisingly, there was actually a very positive reception among many fans to this album, to its endless, spacey, entrancing dance beats, to its dreamy production, despite the fact that the songwriting across this record was painfully mediocre. The progressions quickly grow stale on nearly every single song, especially the longest tracks. And routinely, Kevin Parker's lead vocals are pitchy, sour, a little out of key during some very important moments. And it all just leaves the listening experience of this album, feeling very daunting, feeling very grading and stressful.

Out of all the albums I heard and reviewed in 2025, which there were quite a few, not many have I wanted to be over faster than this one because it really is a shockingly mediocre representation of all the genres Kevin toys with here.

9. JACKBOYS & Travis Scott – JACKBOYS 2

At number nine, I am going to put an even bigger disappointment of an album, and that's going to be the new JACKBOYS and Travis Scott record, JACKBOYS 2.

An album that was so bad, so mediocre, so forgettable, so useless, so pointless, so thrown together, and so effortless, that likely there are people who heard this thing and actually forgot that it came out this year. I even had to remind myself that this thing happened. And while surely there were more offensive albums that dropped in 2025, JACKBOYS 2's prime sin is just not doing anything of note whatsoever, which is a real disappointment because Travis Scott's last album, Utopia, actually ended up being one of his most daring and experimental projects to date, at least within the confines of his usual sound.

But while Travis Scott's career has still very much been riding on a high as of late, one thing that for a while has been dying on the vine is his Cactus Jack label, his JACKBOYS musical collective, which has more hits than misses when it comes to fielding talent that's genuine, authentic, and interesting enough to actually stand on its own without Travis Scott supporting it. Shout out to Don Toliver.

So under best conditions, one would hope that a JACKBOYS 2 project would actually do something to move the needle and create some motion for some of the more underappreciated names on Cactus Jack in the JACKBOYS Collective. But instead of showing out and showcasing the best of what JACKBOYS has to offer and providing some actual bangers, what we get instead is a series of cutting room floor nonsense where pretty much everyone involved seems to be putting in as little effort as possible over mediocre instrumentals, songs that go nowhere, really some of the most boring trap and hip hop that you could possibly listen to in 2025.

8. Royel Otis – hickey

However, I somehow found this next one at number eight even more mind-numbing, and that would be the new Royel Otis album, hickey. A duo that somehow gained some buzz in the indie scene over the past few years coming out of Australia, despite the fact that they have one of the most measured, generic, meat and potatoes, Beach Fossils rip-off type sounds that I've ever heard in my life. Really the same drum beats, twangy guitar licks, and nonchalant dodgy vocals that you've heard many bands that come out of the lofi craze of the early 2010s, late 2000s, do a million times before.

But now this time around, we're hearing an iteration of it that feels like it was thrown together in GarageBand in like 10 minutes with some of the most forgettable songs that have ever been written in modern human history. The whole thing is so vapid, so pointless, so vacuous that it makes you worry about the modern state of the indie scene, or at least it would if it weren't for bands like Geese popping off this year, which hopefully means the death of store brand indie for the rest of the 2020s.

7. mgk – Lost Americana

I'm waiting for whatever this next record is the 'store brand of' to go away to, but that's the new mgk album, Lost Americana.

For as bad as this album was, I honestly could not bring myself to put it in the top five for worst of the year because there are just worse records. But still, this one is pretty bad, not only due to its super generic, bland, flavorless pop rock tunes that sound like something out of the late '90s, early 2000s, but cooked a little bit too long on high in the microwave.

But on top of that, mgk does a little bit of a genre switch once again on this record because after seeing himself get so much pushback for so long for all of his pop-punk stuff, he's now just straight up doing pop tunes like the song "cliché", which, look, nothing wrong with pop music at its core or going a little bit pop for a release here or there, but unfortunately, mgk's very dead, lifeless, monotone voice doesn't really do much for this style of music. You know, pop music historically is pretty bright, pretty snappy, pretty straightforward and catchy, which just doesn't sound great when you're singing over it like this.

I don't know. For as cringe as a lot of mgk's pop-punk stuff was, maybe that affectation just works better in that context. Yeah, this record, sadly, is just so mediocre, so disappointing, so weird that it has me nostalgic for a peak pop-punk mgk.

6. Morgan Wallen – I'm the Problem

However, at number six, we have an artist who I will never be nostalgic for in any form or fashion, and that's Morgan Wallen. I'm the Problem is this man's new record, and I don't know if the case for this album sucking really needs to be made at this point because I think it's something the internet has already widely understood and accepted for a while now.

But here's the thing. Not only does Morgan pretty much continue to set the tone and standard for the most paint by the numbers, generic, awful, tasteless, cliché and brainless modern pop country music that you can hear today, but this man had the audacity to drop a record that was 37 fucking tracks long.

37 songs. 37 Morgan Wallen songs in a row, and that's not the deluxe version of the album. If there is more where this came from, please burn it, because we truly do not need it. 37 tracks, goddamn. Do you even like your audience? Because why would you put them through all that?

But yeah, not only are the instrumentals on this record pretty soulless consistently throughout the tracklist, Morgan's voice gets quite annoying, too, but even more obnoxious, are just all the toxic relationship dynamics, all the religiosity that falls flat, all the crappy glorified behaviors, even well-intentioned commentary, like on "Come Back As A Red Neck", does not make sense or is framed in a way that is actually more insulting than it is helpful. The drinking, the bullshitting, the manipulation, I just can't stand this record.

5. Jessie Murph – Sex Hysteria

Even though it is shorter, though, I really did genuinely have a tougher time listening to this next one at number five. That is Jessie Murph with Sex Hysteria.

If I have to listen to this album one more time, I will be in a fit of hysteria. I already talked about Ms. Murph on my worst songs list because, yes, "1965" is genuinely a terrible song, but somehow the rest of this record, in many pockets, is actually worse and showcases, I think, even greater shortcomings vocally and lyrically.

Jessie Murph's aesthetic and style and angle conceptually, in terms of the pop star vision she's created for herself, it really does confuse me because we're trying to be this throwback, nostalgic, '60s girl-group vocalist, but simultaneously be a completely unrepentant red neck. It's like you're hearing all of that smoky Miley Cyrus, cigarette-voice type rasp, that throaty nasally tone, but Jessie Murph doesn't even have a fraction of the vocal talent of Miley.

I think maybe Meghan Trainor is the most obvious point of comparison that one could make. You just grab all of that really watered down, shitty pop nostalgia from the '50s and early '60s, but instead of Meghan Trainor, who I will give a bit of a pass here because her record is not landing on this list, Meghan Trainor, for all her flaws, is at least a little bit self-aware. She knows she's making bubble gum pop.

Jessie Murph is doing very much the same thing, but I think she and her collaborators have deluded themselves into thinking they're actually making something that's truly, genuinely edgy in a weird Amy Winehouse way or even an early Lana Del Rey way when, no, you literally are just making Meghan Trainor music, but with more F bombs.

4. Lil Darkie – USD

Okay, next. At number four, we have an artist who I've really been avoiding talking about for quite a while, honestly, mostly because I do genuinely think he makes some of the dumbest, edgiest, most pointless and unnecessary music on the planet. But that would be Lil Darkie with his USD record.

I'm not going to go into this guy's backstory, his music just sucks. But the reason I'm bringing this record up is not only is it also trash, but he does seem to be making a genuine effort to make a profound and interesting artistic statement here in terms of rapping over more experimental and abrasive beats and giving us a series of verses and character performances where he's rapping from the standpoint of different perspectives, rednecks, veterans, so on and so forth in a very cartoon-ish, almost like early South Park way, and painting this weird character portrait of America.

Which maybe in concept sounds good and sounds mature and all that, but maturity is what this album lacks the most, because what we're hearing with USD is essentially what you would get if mindless self-indulgence made just a purely political album and did not turn down the edge lord bullshit at all in the process of writing it.

With this record, even with it making as many political statements as it's trying to, it never really digs below the surface or gets to anything much deeper than just like a social nihilism of sorts, where it just mostly concludes that everything is bullshit: politicians, the system. While there are most definitely figures who are mentioned and addressed that are worthy of criticism for sure, most of its whining and complaining just merely boils down to rejecting everything, both good and bad, in this performative political edginess that feels more based in being anti-social than being genuinely socially minded. Yeah, this one was annoying, but this next album is double annoying.

3. Sleep Token – Even in Arcadia

That would be the new Sleep Token record, Even In Arcadia. Just this absolutely trashy, annoying fusion of metal and pop and RnB that I couldn't really stand on the band's last album, I still can't stand on this record. I feel like everything I disliked about that LP just continues on with Even In Arcadia, but I can't even really be surprised that that's the case.

Because, I mean, Sleep Token, for all intents and purposes, with their last record, got a very warm and positive music industry response. Sure, there were lots of people criticizing, and there were very loud detractors in the music nerd space, and with some music reviews here and there. But for the most part, commercially, that record did very well, and this album did very well, too. Streaming platforms fucking love this thing. I mean, yes, I and many others may be highly critical of Sleep Token's very vague messaging, their boring, measured, soulless, bellowing lead vocals, and how flavorless a lot of the metal passages on this record are.

But still, that doesn't change that Sleep Token remains to be one of the most popular metal bands out there today and are seemingly a hit with a lot of music fans who don't even really like all that much metal to begin with.

What I'm trying to say is if only the worst bands in this genre are the ones who are concerned with accessibility, then it's going to be records like this that continue to be the most popular in metal, which is something that I would hate to continue seeing for the rest of this decade.

2. KILL KARL – SUCK ON MY ALBUM

However, this next LP at number two, I would hate to continue seeing, but also I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this album, because as much as I dislike it and I do find it painfully corny and cringe and difficult to sit through, it's also very hilarious and obviously on some levels self-aware. Even if I do feel like I'm laughing at it for a great deal of its run time, I'm still laughing. That would be Kill Karl with Suck On My Album. Suck, suck my album...

Yeah, I mentioned Kill Karl on my worst songs list with that whole "Metalhead Bitch" song, which, believe it or not, is a track that didn't make the cut on this record. Kill Karl actually manages to come through with 10 more worse songs where he is continuing to pull us down this rap metal rabbit hole where it's super cooky, super cartoony, edgy, offensive, and zany.

He's doing deathcore vocals and rapping and screaming and growling about cheeseburgers and a host of other things. He even throws a few jokes out there about coworker music, too. Which I do agree, I do think on some level this album should be categorized as such, but the more I hear Kill Karl's music, the more I do actually feel like there is something to his argument that he is a special little guy who does deserve his own categorization beyond just merely coworker music. I will do that now and say Kill Karl is actually not just coworker music, but Invader Zim branded thong music. Yes, the TV show, Invader Zim. If you at all in your drawers in your house own some kind of Invader Zim branded undergarment, this album really truly is for you.

1. Will Smith – Based on a True Story

Which brings us to our number one album in this list. I've actually seen this record hated as the number one worst record of the year, and I was a little skeptical going into it thinking maybe it didn't really deserve that spot because no way, people got to be overreacting or overstating just because it's easy to hate on this guy. Nobody's going to jump down your throat for saying this is the worst album of the year. I will admit that. But I do truly think the worst record of 2025 is this Will Smith album, Based on a True Story.

It's not even for how terrible the rapping and songwriting and unnecessary the songwriting is on a track like "Pretty Girls". But also throughout the rest of this album, Will engages in this series of very weird performances in different characters, spitting from different perspectives and narratives that are actually so bad and hokey and tasteless, I had to remind myself this man was a literal professional actor for decades.

Because that's the thing: this guy has been acting most of his life at this point. Why is the acting on his rap album so bad? None of his characters or performances are believable in any way, nor do they even work in a satirical sense. None of the jokes are landing. None of the over-exaggerations are funny or even witty or showcase any smart commentary or observation. The features are also a headache and a half; I've never, ever, ever wanted to listen to Will Smith rap with Joyner Lucas, and I never want to again.

But yeah, this album is shockingly bad, especially for an artist who already at this point has had quite a few career lows, musically speaking, which I guess is just really saying something.

There are your 10 worst albums of 2025. Let me know what you think of the list.

Anthony Fantano, Will Smith, Worst albums. Forever.