Wonderland

BEST ALBUMS OF 2025 SO FAR

From Bad Bunny and his rich homage to Addison Rae’s self-titled debut and Oklou’s ethereal brilliance: these are Wonderland’s favourite albums of 2025 — so far…

Whoever said the album is dead must been feeling pretty silly right about now. We’ve traversed the year’s halfway mark, and already have been gifted with scores of wonderful bodies of music that
— not only augment and/or kickstart the respective artists’ discographies — but prove that, when done right, the album is still the quintessential format to digest music.

Bad Bunny solidified his stripes as one of Latin music’s most significant dignitaries, Oklou and Addison Rae announced themselves in full-length form, Lady Gaga dropped a pop masterclass, Wet Leg reaffirmed their brilliance, and JENNIE stepped into the solo spotlight with aplomb. Wonderland’s albums of the year so far? Keep on scrolling…

Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS

Release Date: 5th January 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: It feels like DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS was released light years ago — but it was actually only seventh months. But the sprawling, cinematic oeuvre from Puerto Rica’s biggest music export Bad Bunny has the air of immediate seminality. Clocking in at just over an hour long, the colourful and reverent project marries the classic with the now: both a paean of the music that made him and a doctrine of what música urbana can — and will — be as the genre continues to rise in global prominence.

Little Simz – Lotus

Release Date: 6th June 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: At this point, there’s an argument for Little Simz being the most critically decorated UK rap artist of her generation. On Lotus, her sixth studio album, the London wordsmith explores her musical style and inner psyche alike, finding influence in a range of genres and lyrical motifs — from grapples with self-doubt to incisive introspection. Despite the well publicised legal and personal problems that surrounded the release, Simz shows once again she really is in a league of her own.

Oklou – choke enough

Release Date: 7th February 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: Despite being a bubbling presence in left-field pop for over a decade, it was only this year that French artist Oklou shared her debut full-length studio album. The end result proves well worth the wait though; a masterful, concise and explorative melding of ambience, mood and experimentation. With complex yet spacious production, diaphanous vocals, and status-quo-splitting musical choices, choke enough feels fresh and off-kilter, a growth of PC Music-isms, and a marker poised for future inspiration.

Addison Rae – Addison

Release Date: 6th June 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: A pasty pastiche of pop’s powerhouse performers or an exciting opening opus from one of the genre’s next epoch-definers? In some ways, Addison Rae’s eponymous debut is both. Addison is rough around the edges, overtly zeitgeist worshipping, and often a touch too gaudy. But it can also be deeply compelling — infectious even. “Headphones On” is one of the best pop songs of the year too. The breakout star does enough to shake off her virality — now she must earn her sonic stripes by showing her artistic depth.

Saya Gray – SAYA

Release Date: 21st February 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: Enigmatic, effervescent and outrageously engaging, Saya Gray is without doubt one of the most interesting artists/producers working today. In February, the Japanese-Canadian polymath shared her most cohesive and palatable body of work to date in the form of her self-titled debut studio record. Atop experimental folk-tinged productions, Gray grapples with heartbreak and searches for self-discovery on the meticulous yet loose, broad but delicate, softly stinging masterpiece.

Turnstile – NEVER ENOUGH

Release Date: 6th June 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: Giving the hardcore genre some needed digestibility, Turnstile have the makings of trailblazers — moulding their eccentricity into NEVER ENOUGH, their most thoughtful and creative collection of cuts. From the ethereal and barn-storming title-track opener to the uplifting idiosyncrasy of climatic ballad “MAGIC MAN”, the album is captivating, challenging and surprising, fusing dream pop and electronic tendencies into the crux of the sound that formed them. A truly engrossing listen.

Wet Leg – moisturizer

Release Date: 11th July 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: Their 2022 self-titled debut album may have skyrocketed them to be one of the biggest bands in Britain, but for many the jury was out on whether Isle of Wight rockers Wet Leg could seal the deal with a sophomore. From first listen — in fact from just the singles alone — such deal was signed, sealed and delivered. moisturizer is crunchier, richer, more emotionally potent and far more complete than the band’s first outing, aided by their amelioration into a five piece with their live band members becoming involved in the writing process, and singer Rhian Teasdale stepping into the limelight and immediately affirming herself as one of the most naturally intriguing frontwomen of the decade.

Mac Miller – Balloonerism

Release Date: 17th January 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: Posthumous releases are a divisive topic, and can often be plagued by the commercialisation of tragedy — look at the bloated, painstaking additions to Pop Smoke, Juice WRLD and XXXTENTACION’s respective discographies. Which makes what the Mac Miller estate has achieved even more inimitable — to augment the late Pittsburgh rapper’s reputation rather than tarnish it. Balloonerism, the second full-length album shared since his death after 2020’s wonderful Circles, shades in narrative and sonic gaps in its maker’s catalogue, encapsulates a difficult yet growth-heavy period in Miller’s life, and boasts several stunning tracks — “Stoned”, “Funny Papers”, “Rick’s Piano” — that sit in the upper echelons of his wider portfolio.

JENNIE – Ruby

Release Date: 7th March 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: The best album spawned from BLACKPINK’s four superstars going solo, JENNIE finds an impressive rawness, vocal presence and stylistic flexibility on Ruby. The features are A-list (Doechii, Dua Lipa, Childish Gambino, Kali Uchis, Dominic Fike) the songs are in large dynamic and well-crafted, and JENNIE does well to distance herself from the curse of getting caught up in the past.

Lady Gaga – MAYHEM

Release Date: 7th March 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: It’s grand, it’s bold, it’s sexy — it’s fabulous. The queen of pop herself Lady Gaga goes full circle on MAYHEM, a majestically curated and gloriously camp album that is a stellar addition to her over 15-year and now seven-album-deep catalogue. The vocals pop, the production pushes, the writing just plain works. Mainstream maximalism at its highest Fahrenheit.

caroline – caroline 2

Release Date: 30th May 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: One of the most beautiful and rewarding bodies of music that you’ll hear this year. Yet also yearning, demanding, esoteric. London octet caroline’s sophomore album (aptly named caroline 2 following 2022’s self-titled debut) is less an assortment of tracks and more a concord of subtle odyssey, an unconventional and vastly original oeuvre that questions and surprises, calms and compels.

Kali Uchis – Sincerely,

Release Date: 9th May 2025

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: Sensual and sultry, Latin superstar Kali Uchis and her music have been maturing like the finest Pinot Noir. On her fifth studio album Sincerely, the Columbian-American opts for rich and tender vibrance, personal and playful is good measure, vocally luscious and musically at her most refined and resplendent.

Sam Fender – People Watching

Release Date: 21st February

Best Track:

Why It’s Special: It’s been a while since we’ve had a British artist capable of selling out stadiums with politically-infused and thought-provoking songwriting. Somewhere between Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen, Geordie troubadour Sam Fender delivers a monstrously effective album in People Watching, his third full-length. Expansive without losing its intimacy, the work is a pouring of souls and intellectualisation of anguish, told through the lens of arena-filling alt-rock elegance.

Honourable mentions: FKA twigs – EUSEUXA // Loyle Carner – hopefully ! // Mei Semones – Animaru // Model/Actriz – Pirouette // Jacob Alon – In Limerence // Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong // Obongjayar – Paradise Now // Ela Minus – DÍA // Jane Remover – Revengeseekerz // John Glacier – Like a Ribbon