It’s that time of year again: Our End-of-Year Album longlist is finally here. 100 meticulously selected top albums that shaped the year, covering a vast sonic landscape—from intimate folk and boundary-pushing jazz to the dense topography of ambient and experimental works. Dive in now, read the essential review highlights, and listen to the music that made 2025 unforgettable.

Acclaimed artists ganavya and Sam Amidon share two new songs, “Would Be Better” and “Willow Street (feat Sam Gendel),” recorded at LEITER’s Funkhaus Studio. The double single traces a tender dialogue between distance and belonging, finding a way home through chosen siblinghood. Amidon’s experimental folk meets ganavya’s devotional depth, joined by Sam Gendel’s distinct ambient jazz.

It’s that tough time of the year again, when music writers feel like they’re throwing some of their favourite artists under the bus by not including them in their annual Top 10. But here are the ten albums that made it. From Shabason, Krgovich, Tenniscoats’ feather-light pop to Milkweed’s eerie folk and Ben Lamar Gay’s thrilling jazz, 2025 delivered essential, fearless, and deeply distinctive records.

Erlend Apneseth Trio and writer Erlend O. Nødtvedt collaborate on Black Hauge, an album that expertly fuses experimental Norwegian folk with the poetry of Olav H. Hauge. Using samples of the poet reciting his own work, the music employs techniques from plunderphonics and musique concrète to create stunningly original and often uncanny tracks. It’s an exploratory, free-folk journey. A stunningly original album that combines elements rarely seen together.

Glenn Kimpton looks back at the year and selects his Top Ten Albums of 2025. As he says, “This year really feels like a real banger in terms of fascinating and exciting album releases… I’m sure I say that every year, but that’s no bad thing. It was tricky choosing just ten, but each of the works…have really resonated.”

Open Guitar (Volume One) marks a return of sorts to a simpler sound for D.C Cross, celebrating peace through acoustic mastery. Blending improvisation with composition, the album offers spacious, meditative soundscapes. From the urban nature-infused Antwerp Kangaroo to the epic NEVER GIVE UP OR IN., Cross displays a lightness of touch that proves calm can be found within chaos. A welcome, honest gesture.

French-Algerian icon Souad Massi returns with “Samt” (Silence), the hypnotic first single from her upcoming album Zagate, out March 6, 2026. Produced by Justin Adams, this Afrobeat-infused track redefines silence as a spiritual refuge rather than resignation. Accompanied by a video from Yann Orhan, “Samt” paves the way for Massi’s most liberated and outspoken work to date.

Multi-instrumentalist Colleen (Cécile Schott) announces her new album Libres antes del final, arriving March 20, 2026, on Thrill Jockey. Inspired by her journey overcoming a 30-year water phobia, the record serves as an ode to movement and resilience. Schott shares the euphoric lead single “Antídoto,” a “whirlwind of synthesis” acting as the album’s joyful centrepiece, alongside upcoming US and EU tour dates.

Irish folk duo Ye Vagabonds release “The Flood” from their upcoming album All Tied Together, out January 30, 2026. Recorded live in Galway with producer Philip Weinrobe, the track explores Dublin’s housing crisis. Its accompanying one-take video, directed by Ellius Grace and featuring dancer Jimmy Southward, portrays the struggle of urban survival through emotive movement.

As we wind down the year, in a new split series Mixtape, we look back at some of our favourite music releases of 2025, including Big Thief, Varo, Eve Adams, Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver, Cynefin, James Yorkston, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Shabason, Krgovich, Tenniscoats, Quinie, Joshua Burnside, Erlend Apneseth, Joan Shelley, Ian Humberstone, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Sam Amidon, Màiri Morrison & Alasdair Roberts, Constant Follower, and many more.

North Carolina’s experimental folk collective Weirs have released a mesmerising live video for “Lord Bateman,” the centrepiece of their acclaimed album Diamond Grove. Captured at the FEAST festival, the performance features intricate shadow puppetry. This release coincides with the launch of their East Coast tour, which begins tonight in Washington, DC.

Honed by high-profile support slots, Glaswegian songwriter Iona Zajac delivers a fiercely feminist and dynamically shifting debut. Bang traverses dream-pop, folk minimalism, and moody alt-rock, channelling the raw intensity of upsetters like PJ Harvey. Zajac is a songwriter with important things to say and a willingness to say them loudly and with a laser-like focus. Bang is a remarkably accomplished, statement-making achievement.