Jason Tate’s Top Albums of 2025

Why hello here, it looks like it’s time for yet another best of list.

You can subscribe to my newsletter if you’re interested in a weekly rundown of the music and other entertainment I consume, and the staff compiled best of 2025 list can be found here.

Favorite Albums of 2025

My original list, before ranking, had 97 albums on it. This is a perfect encapsulation of how this was one of those rare years where I found not only breadth, but also depth. My top fifteen, by itself, is a perfect snapshot of my year — featuring albums that have felt stuck to my bones and including some of the biggest heavy hitters in my musical life.

My favorite album of the year has had a stranglehold on me since the first time I heard it. And it’s only strengthened its position through the fall and winter. There was a moment recently when I was jogging through an old park near where I grew up. I was thinking about how strange it is that I’m back traversing these same old paths I used to walk as a kid. I was thinking about growing up, moving away, and coming home. And as I rounded the corner and started up over the bridge, it timed perfectly with the crescendo in “Design Ideas.” A truly transcendent song. An unbelievable moment. And I felt myself well up. In a year full of music that wrapped itself around me, there were a handful of songs that snuck into my pores, and this was the album that stayed with me through it all —- the looking back, the moving forward, and the strange feeling of standing in between.

Deftones have always been a band I respected, but this was the year they released an album that completely clicked with me. It’s massive, haunting, and deeply affecting. It was an album I wasn’t expecting, and then it just bowled me over and didn’t let go. A monster that ended up being one of those albums I felt like I could reach for in any mood. And damn does it sound good loud.

I wrote an entire essay on Yellowcard’s Better Days and it unsurprisingly became my most played album of the year. I love that the band released yet another album that helped define my summer and let me put into words how I’ve been feeling about this music scene finally getting some flowers and the concept of “late career” albums from bands from our youth.

And then rounding out my top five are two emotional powerhouses from Rosalía and Hayley Williams. Hayley’s unconventional release strategy was fun, but it wasn’t until I had collected all the songs that I was able to really sink into the full piece of work. And I found myself so incredibly moved by what she created. The raw honesty. The layers to her songwriting. Incredible stuff. And that same power, same hits you in the back of your throat feeling, came to me in every single listen of Rosalía’s magnificent Lux. That’s an album with multiple stop you dead in your tracks moments. Just flat out spine-tingling-goosebump-inducing moments.

The second half of my top ten starts with one of the most infectious albums I heard all year: People R Ugly. I can only call this inject this right into your veins, sugarcoated fun. Blending multiple genres into a collection of songs whose praises I want to blast far and wide. The kind of album I want to introduce to everyone I know. Including you, dear reader. Add this to your “must listen” playlist.

Practically everything I said about Yellowcard I could also write about The Starting Line. And if I had more time in my days, maybe I would have tried to find a way to do just that. I love Eternal Youth (excellent name) not only for adding to the band’s already stellar discography but for the way it made me feel every single time I hit play. I smiled. I felt full. I never thought we’d get another album from these guys, and now I don’t know what I’d do without it.

Sigrid and Taylor Acorn are no strangers to my year-end lists. Sigrid’s album was easily my favorite pure pop album of the year. Hell, you can almost feel how much fun she was having in the studio with this one. And Taylor Acorn has found such a great niche with these songs that feel like they came from the heyday of the 2000s emo/pop-punk music scene while also keeping her own spin on the sound. And a song like “Home Videos” is the kind of thing that sticks with you long after it’s finished playing.

Audrey Hobert’s songwriting and uncanny ability to throw so many words into a verse while keeping the flow perfectly are a thing of envy. One of the smartest and catchiest albums of the year.

I was extremely impressed with Boys Like Girls’ live album, and Acceptance’s re-record of Phantoms absolutely worked on me. The songs are so obviously good, and the new renditions sparked an even deeper love for one of my favorite records of all time. And, I am pretty sure I could make an argument that Thrice and Coheed & Cambria have two of the most consistently solid catalogs over the last two decades, while also reaching new inspired heights on their last two albums.

Ruston Kelly and Madi Diaz both turned in albums ripe with emotional weight (and Madi released an awesome cover album of Enema of the State late in the year as well). Grayscale released one of the more underrated pop-rock albums of the year, and Beauty School’s take on more of the emo-tinged rock seemed to fly under the radar and both deserve more love. Jay Som and NoSo released albums on the same day, and they’ve both been tied together in my mind ever since. Both have been shining bright during the past few cold months.

Sitting here now, reading back through my list, and I’m once again struck by the strength of the year. Old favorites are releasing great albums, and new bands are blowing the roof off with debuts. Turnstile and Spiritbox released extremely solid follow-ups to their breakout albums. AFI pivoted in the best way with a haunting Cure-inspired release. And every album on this list sat with me for multiple weeks over the course of the year, earning more time, more spins, and paying off that time with depth and discovery. While the world around me often felt confusing, cruel, and, at times, heartless, the music broke through like a shining light. A warming comfort in the darkness. It did its job. And for that, I’m grateful.

The Stats: I listened to over 12,117 songs this year (24,235 scrobbles), 894 different artists, and 1,807 different albums. My most played artist this year was Yellowcard, and tracking with that, my most played album of the year ended up being Yellowcard’s Better Days.

Thank you to everyone that read this website this year, it’s because of you, and especially those of you that support the website, that we exist. Also, if you want to hear more from me throughout the year, specifically once a week as I write about music and entertainment I find interesting, sign up for my newsletter.

To make it easy to check out music from my list, I put together a playlist containing a song from each of these albums on Apple Music and Spotify. (And each of the albums above links to a page with links to all the streaming platforms.)

Honorable Mentions

Anchor Braille – New Mexico
Anxious – Bambi
Armor for Sleep – There is No Memory
Arms Length – There’s A Whole World Out There
Bearings – Comfort Company
Ben Quad – Wisher
Benee – Ur an Angel Im Just Particles
Bon Iver – Sable Fable
Cartel – Chroma (2025)
Charmer – Downpour
FRND CRCL – JRSY FRSH
Girlfriends – There Goes the Neighborhood
Good Charlotte – Motel Du Cap
Greyhaven – Keep it Quiet
Have Mercy – The Loneliest Place I’ve Ever Been
Hazlett – Last Night You Said You Missed Me
Heartwork – Three Alley Cats and the Impossible Sky
Hot Mulligan – The Sound a Body Makes When Still
Inspection 12 – Are We There Yet?!!..
Lady Gaga – Mayhem
Last Night Saved My Life – The First Hello
Lily Allen – West End Girl
Madi Diaz – Enema of the Garden State
Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful
Mini Trees – Slow it Down
Momma – Welcome to my Blue Sky
Nightly – Songs to Drive To
Oversize – Vital Signs
Paul Meany – Forever Phase
Pinkshift – Earthkeeper
Punchline – Somewhere to Land
Rob Thomas – All Night Days
Sabrina Carpenter – Mans Best Friend
Saturdays At Your Place – These Things Happen
Scott Sellers – One and and and and One and and Three and and
Scowl – Are We All Angels
The Callous Daoboys – I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven
The Midnight – Syndicate
Winona Fighter – My Apologies to the Chef
Wolf Alice – The Clearing

Look, I told you I started with a huge list of albums to try and rank. These are the leftovers. And I had to cut some because otherwise it was just starting to get silly. I could make an argument for almost all of these finding a way into the main list, and in other years they probably would have. It was just a ridiculously good year of music for me and at some point things have to be ranked in this silly game.

I’m not sure why we originally started ranking just the top thirty of the year, but one of the main reasons is that you have to stop somewhere. My honorable mentions section is where I can give credit to the plethora of other albums that stuck with me throughout the year but just missed the cut onto the official list.

Favorite EPs of 2025

Hit the Lights – Tomorrow’s Gonna Hurt (EP)
Jack’s Mannequin – Everything in Transit: Strings Attached (EP)
Kacy Hill – But Anyway, No Worries! (EP)
Kelsea Ballerini – Mount Pleasant (EP)
KennyHoopla – Conditions of an Orphan// (EP)
Lost Stars – C’est La Vie and All That Shit (EP)
Millington – Better Safe and Sorry (EP)
Now, Now – 01 (EP)
Ruston Kelly – Dirt Emo Vol. 2 (EP)
Spitalfield – Play + Record (EP)
Sunday (1994) – Devotion (EP)
The Paradox – NSFW (EP)
The Wrecks – Inside: (EP)
The Young Hearts – The Good, the Bad, & the Rest of Us (EP)

If an EP, or something EP length, gets an extraordinary amount of listens from me in a year, I have no problems putting it in my main list, but often I find myself just not returning to singles and/or EPs as often as I do full-length albums. So, that’s why I also include a section for the EPs released this year that I liked the most.

Movies I Enjoyed in 2025

A Real Pain
Black Bag
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
One Battle After Another
Saturday Night
Simple Plan: The Kids in the Crowd
Sinners
Superman
The Count of Monte Cristo
Transformers One

I watched over 170 films in 2025, and this list contains the movies I saw for the first time in 2025 that I liked the most. I think the best movie I saw was One Battle After Another, but the most fun I had and my favorite was Superman. You can find more of my movie watching habits and ratings on Letterboxd, and an updated list of my all time favorites on my blog.

TV Shows in Enjoyed in 2025

Adults
Alien: Earth
Andor
Fallout
Harley Quinn
Interview with a Vampire
IT: Welcome to Derry
Mobland
Murderbot
Overcompensating
Peacemaker
Poker Face
School Spirits
Severance
Shogun
Shrinking
Silo
Skeleton Crew
Stick
Stranger Things
Task
The Bear
The Chair Company
The Day of the Jackal
The Eternaut
The Last Of Us
The Pitt
The Rehearsal
The Studio
Welcome to Wrexham

I watched over 731 episodes of TV in 2025 from 62 different TV shows. My most-watched show was a re-watch of Parks and Recreation. My favorite of the year was season two of Andor. You can find more of my TV watching habits and ratings on Trakt, and an updated list of my all time favorites on my blog.

Books I Enjoyed in 2025

Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir by Mark Hoppus
Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell by Deryck Whibley

I read 3 books (1,090 pages) in 2025. It just didn’t end up being a reading books year for me this year. I read far more articles/essays/online blogs than ever before, but wasn’t as able to sit down with books as I wish I could have. That’ll definitely be a goal to change for next year.

Apps I Discovered and Enjoyed in 2025

Another year where I didn’t find many new apps that really stuck with me or found their way into my daily life. Are we just not getting as many new apps these days? Or maybe I’ve got so much subscription-fatigue that I’m just less interested in even trying new things out for fear I’ll need to add yet another recurring cost to my budget. The beta of Mimestream for iOS was the only app that got added deep into my workflow this year. My Raycast wrapped says I use Raycast a lot. That tracks.

My Favorite Articles of 2025

I wrote 2,383 articles this year for a total of 229,251 words. And I posted 4,271 times in the forum while accumulating 17,322 likes. It was also one of the most productive “update” years on the website as there were over 80 numbered updates this year documented in the change log.

Thank you everyone for spending your time with me this year.

And, with that, we put a bow on 2025. As always, thank you for reading and spending yet another year with me.

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