If 2025 proved anything, it’s that albums still matter. In an era ruled by singles, TikTok loops, and algorithmic churn, the artists who cut through weren’t just chasing hits. They were building worlds. These records felt intentional, emotionally specific, and culturally plugged in. Some were loud. Some were intimate. All of them left a mark.
Here’s Reel 360’s countdown of the 15 best albums of the year, starting from 15 and working our way to the one that hit hardest.
15. Mayhem – Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga thrives in disorder, and Mayhem leans fully into that instinct. The album is aggressive, theatrical, and unapologetically maximalist. It’s Gaga reclaiming chaos as craft, reminding pop audiences that spectacle still has teeth when it’s driven by intent instead of nostalgia. Listen to the entire album below:
14. Swag – Justin Bieber
Swag is a quieter flex. Bieber pulls back from pop bombast and leans into feel, groove, and atmosphere. The album sounds relaxed, confident, and unconcerned with chasing trends. It’s the sound of an artist comfortable enough to let restraint do the talking. Listen to the entire album below:
13. Debí Tirar Más Fotos – Bad Bunny
Bad Bunny continues to operate on a global frequency few can match. His latest album blends reggaetón, reflection, and cultural specificity without sanding down its edges. It’s deeply personal and universally resonant at the same time, which has become his signature move.
12. Bite Me – Reneé Rapp
Bite Me is sharp, funny, and emotionally volatile in the best way. Reneé Rapp weaponizes vulnerability, bouncing between pop polish and raw confession. The album feels fearless, messy, and self-aware, capturing a voice that refuses to be tidied up. Listen to the entire album below:
11. My Face Hurts from Smiling – Lizzo
Joy is working on this record. Lizzo delivers an album that sounds celebratory while quietly pushing back against burnout, scrutiny, and expectation. My Face Hurts from Smiling reframes happiness not as denial, but as resistance. Listen to the entire album below:
10. Cabin in the Sky – De La Soul
Old school meets new soul. Cabin in the Sky was De La Soul’s triumphant 2025 return, paying tribute to late member Trugoy while reinventing their sound. The title track hits with layered, soulful boom-bap, and “Don’t Push Me,” a modern homage to hip-hop’s roots, closes the whole thing with depth and wisdom
9. The Life of a Showgirl – Taylor Swift
With The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift turns the idea of celebrity itself into subject matter. The album frames fame as performance, inheritance, and burden, drawing a subtle but pointed parallel to Elizabeth Taylor, whose talent was often eclipsed by spectacle, scrutiny, and mythmaking.
Swift uses that lineage deliberately. This is an album about being watched, judged, and endlessly reframed by the public, even as the work itself grows sharper and more controlled. It’s self-aware pop that interrogates longevity, visibility, and who gets to age loudly in the spotlight.
8. Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025 – Public Enemy
Public Enemy remains fearless in confronting the most uncomfortable conversations, and Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025 is no exception. The album takes direct aim at Ageism, rejecting the idea that relevance has an expiration date. Instead, the group reframes longevity as experience, not liability.
Tracks like Sexenarian Vape function as sharp cultural shorthand, skewering how youth culture fetishizes rebellion while dismissing elders who refuse to disappear quietly. Meanwhile, Slick energy runs through the project, blending classic Public Enemy urgency with modern textures and production choices that refuse nostalgia.
This is not a comeback record. It’s a challenge. Public Enemy isn’t asking for space in the conversation. They’re reminding listeners they never left it.
7. Lux – Rosalía
Lux finds Rosalía operating in a rarified space where pop, experimentation, and cultural fluency intersect. Rather than chasing immediacy, the album luxuriates in mood and texture. It’s sleek and deliberately paced, designed less for instant hooks than for immersion. Rosalía bends electronic elements, classical flourishes, and global influences into something that feels futuristic but deeply human.
What makes Lux stand out is its confidence. Rosalía doesn’t overexplain or overperform. She trusts the listener to meet the album where it lives, rewarding patience with nuance and emotional undercurrents that reveal themselves slowly. In a year crowded with loud statements, Lux distinguishes itself by choosing elegance, restraint, and control. It’s an album that doesn’t demand attention. It earns it. Listen to the entire album below:
6. West End Girl – Lily Allen
With West End Girl, Lily Allen returns not as a provocateur chasing relevance, but as an observer who’s earned her perspective. The album is sharp without being cruel, funny without being flippant. Allen’s songwriting zeroes in on class, performative progressivism, and the quiet exhaustion of modern adulthood, especially as lived under a public microscope.
What makes West End Girl resonate is its balance of wit and weariness. Allen sounds fully aware of the contradictions she’s dissecting, including her own. The production stays understated, letting her voice and lyrics carry the weight. In a pop landscape often allergic to nuance, West End Girl succeeds by trusting intelligence, experience, and honesty. It’s a reminder that maturity, when wielded this precisely, is its own kind of edge.
5. Baby – Dijon
Baby is an album that refuses urgency, and that’s precisely its power. Dijon works in restraint, building emotion through texture, silence, and restraint rather than big moments. The record unfolds patiently, blending R&B, indie, and experimental pop into something that feels intimate without ever being insular.
What separates Baby from louder releases this year is its emotional intelligence. Dijon understands when to pull back, when to let a vocal crack, and when to leave space instead of filling it. The album rewards close listening and repeated plays, revealing its depth gradually rather than announcing it up front. In a year dominated by maximalism, Baby stands out by trusting subtlety, vulnerability, and craft. It’s not chasing attention. It’s confident enough to wait for it.
4. Who Believes in Angels – Belinda Carlisle & Elton John
Who Believes in Angels works because it refuses irony. At a moment when pop culture often rewards detachment, this collaboration leans unapologetically into sincerity, melody, and emotional clarity. Belinda Carlisle’s voice carries warmth and vulnerability, while Elton John brings decades of melodic intuition and theatrical restraint. Together, they sound less like legacy acts and more like artists choosing purpose over posture.
What makes the album resonate is its sense of perspective. There’s no scramble for relevance here, no attempt to mimic younger trends. Instead, the record embraces lived experience, reflection, and grace. In a year where ageism surfaced repeatedly across music and culture, Who Believes in Angels quietly pushes back, offering proof that emotional resonance doesn’t diminish with time. It deepens. This is not a nostalgia play. It’s a statement about endurance, faith in craft, and the power of voices that have nothing left to prove.
3. Escape Room – Teyana Taylor
Between One Battle After Another and her album Escape Room, this is undeniably the year of Teyana Taylor. Where the former showcases her ferocity and presence, Escape Room reveals her control. The album is cinematic in scope and meticulous in execution, balancing vulnerability and power with remarkable precision.
Taylor builds atmosphere deliberately, treating each track like a scene rather than a standalone moment. The result is an album that unfolds with intention, pulling the listener deeper as it progresses. Emotion is never overstated, and strength is never performative. Instead, Escape Room immerses you in a world shaped by restraint, confidence, and emotional clarity. It’s not just an album you hear. It’s one you experience.
2. Let God Sort Em Out – Clipse
Let God Sort Em Out is a return that never once feels like a comeback. Clipse doesn’t reach backward for relevance. They stand exactly where they are, sharpened by time and consequence. The album is disciplined, cold-eyed, and morally complex, refusing easy nostalgia or crowd-pleasing gestures.
What makes this record land is its control. Every verse feels deliberate, every beat chosen to serve tension rather than release it. There’s a weight to the writing that comes from experience, not bravado. Clipse sounds fully aware of their legacy and utterly uninterested in being softened by it.
In a year where longevity and ageism quietly surfaced across pop culture, Let God Sort Em Out functions as a rebuttal. This is grown-up rap that doesn’t explain itself, doesn’t chase youth, and doesn’t flinch. It trusts the listener to keep up. And if you can, the reward is one of the most uncompromising albums of the year.
1. Man’s Best Friend – Sabrina Carpenter
Man’s Best Friend is the album that lingered the longest this year, balancing emotional precision with undeniable pop instinct. At its core is Tears, a song that sneaks up on you. Built on an infectious dance beat, it disguises heartbreak as momentum. You’re moving before you realize what the song is actually doing to you.
That tension is what makes the record work. Carpenter pairs vulnerability with control, sadness with rhythm, never letting the album collapse into melodrama. Instead, Man’s Best Friend feels self-aware, emotionally specific, and quietly devastating. It’s pop music that understands restraint can hit harder than spectacle. This is the sound of an artist fully stepping into her voice.
Dance Break! Happy New Year’s from Reel 360 News!
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