Rolling Stone UK’s 25 best albums of 2025
As 2025 comes to a close, we take a look back at the 25 albums that have defined the year for the Rolling Stone UK team
We get it. It’s the final full week of work before Christmas and your thoughts are on little else but where the next mince pie is coming from and how long until you’re clocking off work. It can, therefore, be a royal pain to recall all the wonderful music that’s arrived this year. Here’s where we step in. From FKA twigs’ year defining Eusexua to returning Britpop icons, it was another stellar year for British music.
Before you tuck in to your festive treats, join us here to remember a brilliant year in music. In alphabetical order (twigs aside, being our top choice, of course), these are Rolling Stone UK’s 25 best albums of 2025.
Words: Nick Reilly (NR), Will Richards (WR), Richard Burn (RB)
Our album of the year: FKA twigs – Eusexua
FKA twigs – Eusexua
Titling her new EUSEXUA companion album Afterglow might have suggested that FKA twigs was set to use her second album of 2025 to take things from the pulverising, euphoric beats of the club towards contemplative, hazy conversations back at hers for the afters. Press play on opening track ‘Love Crimes’, though, and it seems she has simply stepped outside for a cigarette break, before returning inside to be smacked in the face with techno bass even harder and more ferocious than anything on the first album.
Inspired by her experiences clubbing in Prague while filming for The Crow, EUSEXUA was a dazzling techno-pop reinvention for twigs, with both her most sugary pop hooks and hardest beats. Across her first two albums, LP1 and MAGDALENE, twigs became the UK’s most enigmatic and intriguing pop star – one to admire, ponder and chin-stroke to. On EUSEXUA, she let it all hang out and allowed the audience – and, crucially, herself – to dance.
On previous tours and in music videos, she has proved herself an excellent pole dancer and even sword fighter, balancing her body with exquisite poise. EUSEXUA, though, is an opportunity to dance like no one’s watching. “I always think when I dance, I look so crazy,” she tells Rolling Stone UK in her new cover feature (see p. 40). “It’s like everything I’ve ever learned about moving my body goes out the window and it’s whatever feels good.”
There is plenty to dance to – in whichever way you wish – on Afterglow. ‘HARD’ is a predictably hip-shaking slice of bubbling noise, while the BPM drops but the intensity grows on the fantastic ‘Sushi’. The latter song also skewers the tension and somewhat overly serious intellectualisation of eusexua as a concept and an album. “Would you be surprised to know that my karaoke song is ‘Gasolina’?” she whispers, before the album’s biggest and most brash drop into all-out pandemonium.
While techno bass still forms the album’s backbone, the main sonic development on Afterglow is the even greater prioritisation of hooks and melody. PinkPantheress is a surprise duet on ‘Wild and Alone’ (though perhaps not as eyebrow-raising as North West rapping in Japanese on EUSEXUA’s ‘Childlike Things’), though twigs slots perfectly into her Y2K throwback mode as Pink cheekily sings: “I think being famous is funny / Told me I hate your life and I hate all your money.”
‘Piece of Mine’, meanwhile, sounds like a 90s girl band vocal track somehow wandered into a leftfield pop song, and ‘Predictable Girl’ uses the album’s fastest beat to dance delightfully on top of.
The release of Afterglow coincides with a number of tracks from EUSEXUA being removed from streaming services, positioning this era of the musician’s career as a living, breathing, evolving thing. “The point that I want to make with EUSEXUA now is that an idea can exist and be perfect at the time, but it’s OK for things to be mercurial and to develop and change,” she tells Rolling Stone UK. On Afterglow, the story and universe of eusexua deepens as FKA twigs fully learns to let go.
Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong
On their first studio album as a six-piece, Black Country, New Road turn even further into baroque majesty led by three striking voices. W.R.
caroline – caroline 2
This London octet’s second album is a divine collection of swirling post-rock songs punctuated by distinctive and powerful Auto-Tuned vocals. W.R.
Central Cee – Can’t Rush Greatness
The title of Cench’s debut album sums up his story – it may have taken a hot minute, but his arrival was worth the wait. N.R.
CMAT – EURO COUNTRY
After the viral trend of ‘Take a Sexy Picture of Me’, CMAT’s third album dives headfirst into discussions of body image and politics. Richard Burn
Dave – The Boy Who Played the Harp
His first album in four years proves why the Streatham rapper is one of the UK’s great innovators and a true poet. N.R.
Divorce – Drive to Goldenhammer
On their debut album, the Nottingham quartet bring sweeping Americana and indie crunch to the UK guitar scene. W.R.
Jacob Alon – In Limerence
With a voice that stops you in your tracks, this stunning debut album is built upon queer culture, connection and community. W.R.
JADE – THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY!
A true testament to working on your craft, the Little Mix star breaks free to create the most exciting pop record of the year. R.B.
jasmine.4.t – You Are the Morning
Recorded with boygenius in LA, this Manchester singer’s superb debut album calls for trans liberation through perfectly crafted indie-rock songs. W.R.
Jim Legxacy – black british music
Pop-punk, beats and acoustic guitars all have a place on the new record created by a shining light of 2020s UK rap. W.R.
Joy Crookes – Juniper
The singer’s second album reflects on her mental health battles with a record that is as bold as it is beautiful. N.R.
Lily Allen – West End Girl
This searing recollection of the breakdown of Lily Allen’s marriage to David Harbour pulls no punches about the situation she faced. N.R.
Olivia Dean – The Art of Loving
The London singer’s second album, something of a catchy, inventive and deep 101 of all things love, rightly has her selling out arenas. W.R.
PinkPantheress – Fancy That
Her name is Pink and we’re really glad to meet her. Fancy That is a much-needed reintroduction to the sweet world of PinkPantheress. R.B.
Rianne Downey – The Consequence of Love
In Rianne Downey, Scottish country music has found an incredible new voice that washes over you like a musical balm. N.R.
Self Esteem – A Complicated Woman
Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s third album comes out swinging, with her purest pop songs yet set to a backdrop of existential dread. W.R.
Sleep Token – Even in Arcadia
The masks still remain firmly intact, but this is a record that sees Sleep Token continue their ascendancy to metal royalty. N.R.
The Tubs – Cotton Crown
The Smiths and Richard Thompson are touchpoints for the excellent and supremely catchy second album from this indie-pop quartet. W.R.
Wretch 32 – Home?
The Tottenham MC proves why he continues to be one of rap’s boldest voices on a record of frank and urgent discussions about identity. N.R.