Now that 2025 is almost halfway over, it may be a good idea to take a look back at the year so far to see what kind of music albums have dropped over the past five months and six days and to see which ones are the most significant.
One significant album worth mentioning was dropped early on Jan. 5, 2025 and is “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS,” by Bad Bunny, which is also currently ranked as the best album of 2025 on Metacritic. Many critics have given the album itself outstanding and impressive reviews, with one being New Musical Express, claiming that “Bad Bunny’s cross-generational ear is best exemplified in the transcendental ‘El Clúb’, which breathes new life into bomba and plena with house music” and that “On ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’, Benito revolutionizes Puerto Rico’s folk music and reclaims his reggaeton throne with game-changing fusions that are authentic to him and what he believes in.”
Another strong contender for one of the best albums that have been produced in 2025 is Tunde Adebimpe’s first solo album, “Thee Black Boltz,” which was released on April 18, 2025. The album since release has been given high praise for its composition as detailed by Maura Johnston, “an extreme closeup of the human condition, using his mighty howl to tie its wild explorations of genre together. He defies the constraints of ‘the age of tenderness and rage’ on the churning ‘Magnetic,’ strips down and opens up on ‘ILY,’ or charges up the tear-in-the-beer lament ‘God Knows.’ Throughout, Adebimpe’s physical voice is a beacon, leading the way.”
A third significant album that is worth focusing on is Heartworms’ “Glutton For Punishment,” which dropped on Feb. 7, 2025. This indie album mix of Pop and Rock makes a great example of an outstanding album in 2025. As described by Nick Soulsby, a music reviewer, “‘Glutton For Punishment,’ is a highly intelligent, essentially perfect album. I think this is the only time in recent history that I have breached my English restraint and I just decided to say this is an absolute 10.”
