AP’s top albums of 2025: Bad Bunny, Rosalía, Hayley Williams, Dijon, Addison Rae and more

NEW YORK (AP) – The Associated Press has selected its 10 best albums of the year, presented in no particular order and with a legend describing who might particularly enjoy them, in the vein of our revamped music reviews.

Like our picks and want more? Enjoy bonus recommendations accompanying each entry.

Call her Miss Paramore if you must, but this year, it’s all about Hayley Williams. The fierce frontwoman has detoured on her own before – the explorative interiority of 2020’s “Petals for Armor” and 2021’s “Flowers for Vases / Descansos” – but nothing has come close to “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” her greatest solo work to date. It is a triumph in candor told across varied mediums: ’90s alternative (“Brotherly Hate”), college radio indie rock (“Mirtazapine”) and trip-hop-pop (“Ice In My OJ”). It sounds like freedom for a performer long subject to public expectations.

FOR FANS OF: Autonomy, psychic recalibration, Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch”

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: Alex G’s “Headlights,” No Joy’s “Bugland,” any of the new Copenhagen school like Smerz’s “Big City Life” and Snuggle’s “Goodbyehouse”

Not so long ago, Addison Rae’s pop ascension would’ve been hard to comprehend. She came from the stiff world of TikTok dance moves and then reinvented herself with the fame it provided, launching an inventive pop career in its wake. Her debut album, “Addison,” is stuffed with sequined pop songs from the pitch-shifted trip-hop “Headphones On” to the Madonna’s “Ray of Light”-channeling “Aquamarine.” At its core is “Fame Is a Gun,” an addictive, early Grimes-ian winner about desire and desperation.

FOR FANS OF: Victoria’s Secret, pouring cherry coke into red wine, the long-tail legacy of Britney Spears

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: PinkPantheress’ “Fancy That,” Perfume Genius’ “Glory,” JADE’s “That’s Showbiz Baby!,” CMAT’s “Euro-Country,” the “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack

In the eleventh hour of 2025, Rosalía emerged a savior, offering an album to music’s mainstream that was neither milquetoast nor expected. At the risk of flattening its extravagance: Her fourth studio album, “Lux,” is an offbeat, avant-garde embrace of her classical training. But it is also so much more than that. Across myriad operatic movements – as well as 13 different languages, a phonetic miracle performed by the Catalan singer – “Lux” is an ambitious collection of songs about divinity meant to challenge its audience into active listening. It is refreshing and arduous, a timeless reminder that rules are made to be broken.

FOR FANS OF: Feminine intuition, divine intervention, Hildegard of Bingen

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: Los Thuthanaka’s “Los Thuthanaka,” Aya’s “Hexed!”, Water From Your Eyes’ “It’s a Beautiful Place”

Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” is not just an album, but a cultural reset. At his residency in San Juan, it was evident, as Benito alternated between two stages. One, a rural scene with plantain trees and a large flamboyan tree for the folk movements. The other, a traditional casita for the reggaeton and perreo block – where the pari de marquesina, or house party, happens. It is the perfect representation of his album’s celebration of Puerto Rico and its expert melding of its musical styles past and present. For many, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” is a revolution committed to wax, a global superstar looking inward to his homeland to see the future. He wields his reggaetón and urbana skillsets – and weaves in salsa, bomba, plena, música jíbara – to find intergenerational pleasures.

FOR FANS OF: Cuatros, drinking Medalla beer on the beach, Nelson Antonio Denis’ “War Against All Puerto Ricans”

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: Karol G’s “Tropicoqueta,” Rauw Alejandro ‘s “Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0,” Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso’s “Papota,” Fuerza Regida’s “111xpantia”

For many listeners, Dijon is closely aligned with his big-name producing credits: on Bon Iver’s “SABLE, fABLE,” and Justin Bieber’s “Swag” series, or in his work with Mk.gee. But there’s a reason he is your favorite artist’s favorite artist. His take on R&B-pop and soul is surrealistic and dreamy; compositions are layered and borderline absurd. “Baby” is like peering into the brain of a great dadaist, if he just really loved Prince and springy electronics.

FOR FANS OF: Grooves, the musician Panda Bear, taking a break from social media

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: Nourished by Time’s “The Passionate Ones,” Leon Thomas’ “Mutt Deluxe: Heel,” Justin Bieber’s “Swag” and “Swag II”

Let the headline read: Great band gets better. It hasn’t been so long since the AP named Wednesday’s last album, “Rat Saw God,” one of the best of 2023, dubbing the North Carolina alt-country group the most exciting band in contemporary indie rock. Two years later, it appears there are no threats to their title. “Bleeds” is a sharpening of their already present skillsets: folksy and jagged vocals, guitar fuzz, bright and mournful slide guitar. And in singer and songwriter Karly Hartzman, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a keener lyricist.

FOR FANS OF: Urban legends, dive bar regulars, stick and poke tattoos

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: Geese’s “Getting Killed,” Daffo’s “Where the Earth Bends,” Sharp Pins’ “Radio DDR,” Algernon Cadwallader’s “Trying Not to Have a Thought”

Lo and behold, an eight-time Grammy-nominated hardcore punk band! Baltimore’s Turnstile were underground stalwarts until 2021’s “Glow On” launched them into mainstream consciousness; they cemented their place there with “Never Enough.” They remain true to their punk spirit, but now with certain sonic deviations, like the ’80s radio rock “I Care” and the fleshy reverb of its title track. There are ferocious moments, too: Hit play on “Sunshower,” “Birds” and “Look Out For Me.” But ultimately there’s no need to don a spiky leather jacket to get into these rhythms; it’s hardcore for every listener.

FOR FANS OF: Fugazi, John Waters, Carhartt jackets

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: They Are Gutting a Body of Water’s “Lotto,” Lame’s “Lo Que Extrañas Ya No Existe,” The Tubs’ “Cotton Crown,” Artificial Go’s “Musical Chairs”

They didn’t need to do this. And it didn’t need to work so well. It’s been 16 years since brothers Malice and Pusha T teamed up for a Clipse album – 2009’s “Til the Casket Drops” – and a lot has changed. Their approach, too: Clipse’s return is fully produced by the glossy Pharrell Williams and features Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator. But ultimately, “Let God Sort Em Out” excels because the pair’s dexterous flows, sinister and motivational, are weighted and worldly. Where Malice’s voice is throatier now, Pusha T offers some smoothing. The combination of new and old makes for one of the year’s best rap records.

FOR FANS OF: Louis Vuitton, the wisdom of distance and experience, family reunions

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: Earl Sweatshirt’s “Live Laugh Love,” Open Mike Eagle’s “Neighborhood Gods Unlimited,” Billy Woods’ “Golliwog”

Tyler Childers is an outsider in the contemporary country music industry; his idiosyncrasies are a kind of superpower. Lest anyone forget the album preceding this one, 2023’s rowdy “Rustin’ in the Rain,” was conceived of as Childers penning song pitches for Elvis Presley. “Snipe Hunter” continues to keep fans on their toes. It’s a wild ride of rollicking songs, sometimes earnest and sometimes ironic, that at least one time ends with some serious consideration of the Bhagavad Gita. File that next to beer, trucks and church as regular country guy topics.

FOR FANS OF: Wailing, rule breakers, having a sense of humor at the end of the world

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: Charley Crockett’s “Lonesome Drifter,” Julien Baker and Torres’ “Send a Prayer My Way”

There is no more appropriately titled album than Sudan Archives’ “The BPM.” The latest release from the violinist and songwriter born Brittney Denise Parks pulls straight from the beat worlds of 1980s Chicago house and ’90s Detroit techno and evolves from there, developing something truly kinetic and unique that spans more genres than possible to list here. But at its core, this is club-pop-soul music, meant to live in the body of its listener.

FOR FANS OF: Karma, being the hottest person at the party, Jersey club music

LIKE THIS? CHECK OUT: Rochelle Jordan’s “Through the Wall,” Amaarae’s “Black Star,” Blood Orange’s “Essex Honey”