Pitchfork’s editors are already sorting, compiling, and straining to remember all the music that’s been released this year. So we’re spotlighting some of 2025’s most outstanding records to date by rounding up albums that have earned high scores and Best New Music designations with a quick list of RIYLs (that’s Recommended If You Like) and links to our coverage.
Unlike our year-end lists, this one is organized in reverse chronological order. To help you keep track of the year’s best music, we’ll be updating it periodically throughout the remainder of 2025.
(All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.)
March
YHWH Nailgun: 45 Pounds
RIYL: Psychotic art rock; drummers; New York noise rock; Battles; Hella; rototoms; bands so tight they sound electronic
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Sharp Pins: Radio DDR
RIYL: Power pop done right; yung Guided by Voices; Royal Headache; big lo-fi hooks; Chicago rock; DIY spaces; a pill that makes you stay young forever
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Lady Gaga: MAYHEM
RIYL: Having a formative Andy Warhol phase as a teenager; maximalism; analog synths; the concept of lipsyncing for your life; this photo of David Bowie and Trent Reznor hanging out; a touch of funk; campy horror movies; inventing your own nachos
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Truck Violence: Violence
RIYL: Model/Actriz; Modest Mouse; Deafheaven; “weightlifting music” generally; the tortured artist; the intentionally ugly; getting it off your chest
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Alabaster DePlume: A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole
RIYL: Alan Watts; jiu-jitsu; meditation retreats; Total Refreshment Centre; woolly sweaters; baby animals; joining a The Artist’s Way book club
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
February
Marie Davidson: City of Clowns
RIYL: Anti-capitalism; open-source software; culture-jamming; UbuWeb; the Electronic Frontier Foundation; 2000s electroclash; gabber remixes; self-aware bangers that aren’t afraid to break a sweat
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures
RIYL: Free diving; folktronica; music boxes; Burt Bacharach; full moons; glowing tides; weightlessness; the softest blanket ever
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Panda Bear: Sinister Grift
RIYL: Beach Boys; beach buoys; stacked harmonies; distilled essences; family reunions; midlife crises; new beginnings; simple pleasures; the golden light of Lisbon
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
John Glacier: Like a Ribbon
RIYL: Dean Blunt; King Krule; SSENSE; NTS; natural wines; autumn leaves; the after-afters
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Kelela: In the Blue Light
RIYL: Friday night at the jazz club; Sunday mornings at home; celestial harps; acoustic soul; Betty Carter; Joni Mitchell; the scent of jasmine
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Oklou: choke enough
RIYL: Going on a date to the Met Cloisters; Caroline Polachek; Bladee; Baroque polyphony; e-girl aesthetics; Y2K nostalgia; making memes about Enya but also genuinely loving Enya
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
January
MIKE: Showbiz!
RIYL: Introspection; introversion; intricate wordplay; extended rhyme schemes; hypnagogic drift; hip-hop history; psychedelic sample flips; hard-won wisdom
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal
Kathryn Mohr: Waiting Room
RIYL: PJ Harvey; Julianna Barwick; David Lynch; attic rooms; taxidermy; RCA cables; “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned”
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
OsamaSon: Jump Out
RIYL: Distorted 808s; Carti worship; bass-boosted edits; shitposting as a love language; “ok is the hardest”; dunking on leakers
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal
Benjamin Booker: LOWER
RIYL: Rage and resilience; an unexpected Kenny Segal collaboration; bluesy Yves Tumor; a dreamy ode to gay bars; righteous provocations; corroded textures
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Ale Hop / Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko
RIYL: Hallucinogenic dance music; soukous guitar; Ghanaian highlife; Latin cumbia; synth horns; bit-crushed drums; fireworks finales; dream sequences
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal
FKA twigs: EUSEXUA
RIYL: Ray of Light; Vespertine; “I Feel Love”; strobe lights; Simonson technique; fetish couture; kissing a stranger at the club
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
The Weather Station: Humanhood
RIYL: Re-reading Braiding Sweetgrass; somatic therapy; social media detoxes; Joni Mitchell deep cuts; long life-affirming conversations with friends; a little jazz, a little banjo; quilting as a metaphor
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
Bad Bunny: DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
RIYL: Hot coffee on hot afternoons; pouring rum in coffee; street music; salsa; dembow; collapsing the past and the present sounds of Puerto Rico; songs about sexy ladies on the beach; songs that will make you call your mom
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal
December
Cameron Winter: Heavy Metal
RIYL: Classic rock; soft rock; close-harmonized vocals; theatrical vibrato; exploratory falsetto; unabashed melodrama; states of innocence; songs about mononymic women; theological subtexts; the warble of warped vinyl; the vicissitudes of migrating geese
Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal
