If 2025 showed anything, it was that great albums rarely arrive in a single, uniform shape. The year’s standout records came from across the spectrum: bands sharpening their identity, veterans rediscovering their mojo, and artists choosing creative risk over complacency. Across genres and generations, instinct, craft, and personality came to the fore, whether through measured evolution or bold reinvention.
What follows is CinemaChords’ selection of the twenty albums that made 2025 such a rewarding year to listen to.
20. Courting – Lust for Life, Or: “How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Story”
Courting’s third album feels like the moment where experimentation and songwriting finally lock into place, revealing a band operating with real confidence and range.
Guitar-driven hooks sit comfortably alongside electronic flourishes, unexpected instrumentation, and rhythmic detours, all threaded together with a playful sense of momentum. The result is a record that feels expansive without being scattered, marking a clear step forward for a group unafraid to test how far their sound can stretch.
19. The Murder Capital – Blindness
On Blindness, Dublin’s The Murder Capital turn up the intensity, moving beyond familiar post-punk territory into jagged, unpredictable sounds that twist and shift across the album.
The songs carry a raw, urgent energy, but it’s tempered with thoughtful flourishes—from intricate guitar lines to subtle textures—that keep the record moving forward. Throughout, there’s a restless edge, a sense of a band testing new directions while never letting go of the rough immediacy that gives their music its bite.
18. The Wombats – Oh! The Ocean
Oh! The Ocean is a satisfyingly restless record, bouncing between guitar-driven hooks, glimmering electronics, and the occasional post-punk spurt, all delivered with The Wombats’ sly humour. Their lyrics remain as sharp as ever, registering the absurdities of everyday life without tipping into heavy-handedness.
Across the album, the band negotiates a careful balance between familiar motifs and understated experimentation, crafting a record that is inventive in its arrangements and propelled by lively melodies and cheeky wit.
17. Franz Ferdinand – The Human Fear
On The Human Fear, Franz Ferdinand face their fears with a record that’s sharp, lively, and unashamedly fun, blending their signature wit with a renewed sense of energy. Five years on, and with a reshuffled lineup, the Scottish trio weave propulsive hooks and playful melodies into songs that are as indie dancefloor-ready as ever, showing they can still craft tight, confident arrangements without losing their mischievous charm. It’s their most confident and playful, albeit darkest, record in years and a welcome reminder that seasoned indie hands can retain their signature spark without compromise.
16. Biffy Clyro – Futique
On Futique, Biffy Clyro continue to demonstrate why they remain a force in alt-rock, blending the echoes of their past with a forward-looking energy.
The album moves effortlessly between tender, introspective moments and full-throttle rockers, all infused with a sleek new polish that gives the songs a fresh dimension. There’s a warmth and honesty to the record—after time apart, the band’s reunion feels genuinely spirited—making Futique one of their most personal and inventive albums yet.
15. PUP – Who Will Look After the Dogs?
Who Will Look After the Dogs? finds PUP stripping back the grandiose gestures of their previous album in favour of something tighter, punchier, and immediate. Their signature blend of raw vulnerability and caustic humour remains firmly in place, but it’s delivered with a clarity and precision that makes each track land with satisfying force.
Against the backdrop of life’s chaos and absurdities, the album pulses with a fiercely hopeful undercurrent – anchored, human, and undeniably reflective of the band’s singular character.
14. Wet Leg – Moisturizer
On Moisturizer, Wet Leg build on the energy of their debut, tightening their sound without losing the mischievous spark that makes them unique.
The songs are lively and unpredictable, with distorted riffs, punchy rhythms, and a sly sense of humour that keeps the album engaging from start to finish. It’s a sophomore record that’s spikier, cheekier, and full of the same chaotic spark that drew fans to them in the first place.
13. Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking
With Critical Thinking, Manic Street Preachers deliver a record as immediate and uncompromising as we’ve come to expect across fifteen studio albums, sustaining the band’s always distinctive edge.
It may not stretch the boundaries of their sound, but the band channels their familiar rawness into songs that are both thoughtful and forceful, mixing pointed reflections on modern life with punchy guitars and soaring choruses. Balancing moments of frustration with flashes of hope, the album is a reminder that even fifteen records in, the Manics can still make music that strikes a nerve.
12. Japanese Breakfast – For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)
For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) sees Japanese Breakfast pairing introspective reflection with a newfound sense of musical assurance.
Michelle Zauner’s wistful vocals are at the centre of songs layered with glimmering guitars and subtle orchestral flourishes, giving each track emotional depth. The album navigates melancholy with care and nuance, transforming sadness into something vividly felt rather than simply lamented.
11. Pop Will Eat Itself – Delete Everything
PWEI return after a decade with a feral, wired blast of grebo-punk chaos and digital-age paranoia. Jagged guitars, sneering vocals, and breakbeat bedlam collide in a feral, feisty howl of a record – part state-of-the-nation sermon, part dancefloor detonator, with nothing wasted, not a shred of filler.
Delete Everything is vicious, vital, and vacuum-packed with bulletproof choruses for a world falling apart at the seams, driven by the same bug-eyed zeal that made them a singular force in the first place.
10. Ash – Ad Astra
Almost 30 years on from 1977 – a galactic ode to the year Star Wars first blasted into cinemas – Ash embrace the Force, blasters blazing, with Ad Astra, an album that brings their journey full circle.
The LP features some of the most infectious, raucous songs of their career, propelled by possibly the wildest, most serpentine guitar riffs they’ve ever laid down. Seamlessly blending adventurous experimentation with their signature high-octane pop-punk, Ash deliver a cosmic, charismatic collection, proving their Shining Light hasn’t dimmed one bit.
9. The Lathums – Matter Does Not Define
On their third album, The Lathums adopt a bolder, heavier approach. The shift puts Alex Moore’s vocals to the test, and he rises to it with impressive range and control, carrying both the raw, driving tracks and the quieter, reflective moments with equal poise.
Amid this new energy, the band slip in a few of their signature anthems, including one standout captured in a single, seamless live take. One of the most prolific outfits around, it’s baffling how the Lathums keep turning out banger after banger – but thank goodness they do.
8. The Amazons – 21st Century Fiction
On their fourth album, The Amazons stretch into a bolder, more commanding sound, blending overdriven guitars and alt-rock swagger with fleeting country-tinged flourishes that lend the tracks unexpected depth and texture.
Matt Thomson’s seasoned lyrics take in doubt, longing, and the chaos of modern life, adding warmth even to the album’s heaviest moments. The LP moves effortlessly between tension and tenderness, with cinematic touches and dynamic arrangements, showcasing a band firmly at the top of their game.
7. Suede – Antidepressants
Nostalgia isn’t on Suede’s playlist – they’re all about moving forward, and that’s why they still sound as vital as ever, decades on.
Antidepressants delivers the post-punk energy I would hazard a guess the band have been aching to make for years, capturing the anxieties of the moment while still delivering music that carries their unmistakable bite and emotional weight. Across its tracks, the album transforms anxiety into shared energy, providing a welcome reminder of music’s power to bring people together.
6. The Clause – Victim of a Casual Thing
Victim of a Casual Thing is a debut that bursts with ambition, fusing arena-ready choruses, twitchy grooves, glossy indie rock, and moments of tender reflection with effortless, infectious ease. Pearce’s vocals shift seamlessly from bite to vulnerability across a record that balances swagger, grit, and emotional depth with remarkable poise.
Confident, playful, and unafraid to push boundaries, The Clause have gone and dropped one of the freshest, most exciting debuts in recent memory.
5. Pulp – More
After a quarter of a century away, Pulp return with a record that is unmistakably their own, yet still keeps a finger on today’s pulse. Jarvis Cocker’s knack for spotting the absurd, the awkward, and the delightfully banal remains front and centre, giving the album a lyrical sharpness that keeps the band’s songs as sly, smart, and seductive as ever. It’s rare to hear a band grow up without growing dull, yet Pulp have pulled it off – a minor miracle at a time when so many of their contemporaries seem content to coast on nostalgia and back catalogues.
4. The Lottery Winners – KOKO
KOKO (Keep On Keeping On) is less a slogan than a guiding principle when it comes to The Lottery Winner’s latest long player. Drawing openly on Thom Rylance’s experiences of anxiety and ADHD, The Lottery Winners pair disarming honesty with buoyant, carefully crafted pop-rock, turning private struggles into songs built for shared release. Balancing party-ready anthems, tender introspection, and featuring collaborations that feel woven into the fabric of the album rather than tacked on, KOKO is a record that wears its heart on its sleeve and insists – loudly, joyfully – that no matter what life throws at us, we can always find a way to Keep On Keeping On.
3. The Royston Club – Songs for the Spine
With their sophomore album, The Royston Club serve up the same riotous, catchy-as-hell sound, now expanded and amplified to feel bigger, bolder, and more sprawling than ever, making this one of the year’s best LPs.
It’s hard to believe it’s only their second album—these tracks could easily hold their own alongside The Cure, The Verve, James, Radiohead, and the like. Every song is clearly soaked in sweat, blood, and heart, and if this doesn’t launch them onto a much bigger stage, nothing will.
2. Geese – Getting Killed
On Getting Killed, Geese stretch their sound wider than ever, fusing angular guitar work, intricate rhythms, and subtle folk influences within a carefully crafted yet adventurous framework. Cameron Winter’s vocals are expressive and dramatic, complementing lyrics that twist surreal imagery with wry humor and thoughtful observation.
The band is tighter than ever but still gloriously unpredictable, carving out a bold, uncompromising identity in a sea of safe rock.
1. The Lemonheads – Love Chant
On Love Chant, Evan Dando and The Lemonheads lean into spontaneity, grit, and instinct, delivering a record that feels resolutely alive in an age of polish and predictability. Guitars scrape and shimmer, styles collide without warning, and Dando’s voice carries just enough fragility to remind you this is music made by people, not processes. Loose, collaborative, and creatively charged, it’s a rare late-career game-changer of an album that sounds fearless rather than comfortable – a reminder that music, like life, is best enjoyed a little imperfect, a little wild, and full of soul.
