The Best Non-Jazz Albums of 2025

Initial draft not yet collected (stub from November 17, 2025) The file will be updated as additional worthy records are found (although updating may lag behind the official 2025 list). Last year's list was never frozen (perhaps around Nov. 17, 2025). There also exists a parallel list of The Best Jazz of 2025.

Note: numbering of lists (aside from A/A-) is only temporary, to make it easier for me to tally up stats. I've made no effort to order (other than alphaetical by artist) anything in grades below A-.

Also, several A-list albums below were close enough to Non-Jazz that I duplicated the entries in the Non-Jazz file (sometimes giving them lower rankings there; the year file rank is more authoritative).

[*] indicates that I reviewed this on the basis of an advance, often a CDR copy (a good thing, I might add, for vinyl-only releases). [**] identifies a record that I've only heard via download or through a streaming service like Napster.

For all lists, I've included a few 2023 (and possibly earlier) records that I discovered after last year's freeze date, but I've only included such records if they were released on or after Dec. 1, 2023, or were so little known that they received no mention in the 2023 metacritic file. These are marked, e.g., '23, after the label.

New Music

1. Maria Muldaur: One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey (Nola Blue)

2. Mekons: Horror (Fire)
**

3. Craig Finn: Always Been (Taramac/Thirty Tigers)
**

4. Saba & No I.D.: From the Private Collection of Saba and No I.D. (From the Private Collection)
**

5. The Ex: If Your Mirror Breaks (Ex)
**

6. Big Thief: Double Infinity (4AD)
**

7. Apathy: Mom & Dad (Dirty Version/Coalmine)
**

8. Public Enemy: Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025 (Enemy)
**

9. Dean Wareham: That's the Price of Loving Me (Carpark)
**

10. Bryan Ferry/Amelia Barratt: Loose Talk (Dene Jesmond)
**

11. Bill Scorzari: Sidereal Days (Day 1) (self-released)

12. Clipping.: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)
**

13. Helene Cronin: Maybe New Mexico (self-released)
**

14. Brother Ali: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music Group)
**

15. Marie Davidson: City of Clowns (Deewee)
**

16. Buck 65: Keep Moving (Handsmade)
**

17. Billy Woods: Golliwog (Backwoodz Studioz)
**

18. Bar Italia: Some Like It Hot (Matador)
**

19. Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (Saustex)
**

20. Karol G: Tropicoqueta (Bichota/Interscope)
**

21. Mahotella Queens: Buya Buya: Come Back (Umsakazo)
**

22. Kae Tempest: Self Titled (Island)
**

23. Moonchild Sanelly: Full Moon (Transgressive)
**

24. The Kasambwe Brothers: The Kasambwe Brothers (MASS MoCA)
**

25. Madi Diaz: Fatal Optimist (Anti-)
**

26. Annie & the Caldwells: Can't Lose My (Soul) (Luaka Bop)
**

27. Amanda Shires: Nobody's Girl (ATO)
**

28. Jeffrey Lewis: The Even More Freewheelin' Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni/Blang)
**

29. FACS: Wish Defense (Trouble in Mind)
**

30. Chance the Rapper: Star Line (self-released)
**

31. Greentea Peng: Tell Dem It's Sunny (AWAL)
**

32. Haim: I Quit (Columbia)
**

33. Sabrina Carpenter: Man's Best Friend (Island)
**

34. Snocaps: Snocaps (Anti-)
**

35. Patterson Hood: Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams (ATO)
**

36. Clipse: Let God Sort Them Out (Roc Nation)
**

37. The Mountain Goats: Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan (Thirty Tigers)
**

38. Dave: The Boy Who Played the Harp (Neighbourhood)
**

39. Joy Crookes: Juniper (Insanity)
**

40. Taylor Swift: The Life of a Showgirl (Republic)
**

41. Rochelle Jordan: Through the Wall (Empire)
**

42. Hayes Carll: We're Only Human (Highway 87)
**

43. Blueprint: Vessel (Weightless)
**

44. Margo Price: Hard Headed Woman (Loma Vista)
**

45. YHWH Nailgun: 45 Pounds (AD 93)
**

46. Mavis Staples: Sad and Beautiful World (Anti-)
**

47. Lambrini Girls: Who Let the Dogs Out (City Slang)
**

48. The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (Decor)
**

49. Open Mike Eagle: Neighborhood Gods Unlimited (Auto Reverse)
**

50. Panic Shack: Panic Shack (Brace Yourself)
**

51. Corook: Committed to a Bit (Atlantic)
**

52. James McMurtry: The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy (New West)
**

53. Cam Pierce: A Thousand Lonely Horses (self-released)
**

54. Sudan Archives: The BPM (Stones Throw)
**

55. Chuck D: Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio: Radio Armageddon (Def Jam)
**

56. Robert Finley: Hallelujah! Don't Let the Devil Fool You (Easy Eye)
**

57. Water From Your Eyes: It's a Beautiful Place (Matador)
**

58. Sam Stoane: Tales of the Dark West (Cloverdale)
**

59. MindsOne: Stages (Fort Lowell)
**

60. Willie Nelson: Oh What a Beautiful World (Legacy)
**

61. Jason Isbell: Foxes in the Snow (Southeastern)
**

62. Robert Forster: Strawberries (Tapete)
**

63. Vinnie Paz: God Sent Vengeance (Iron Tusk Music)
**

64. Sunny Sweeney: Rhinestone Requiem (Aunt Daddy)
**

65. Garbage: Let All That We Imagine Be the Light (Infectious Music/Stunvolume/BMG)
**

66. Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts: Talkin to the Trees (The Other Shoe/Reprise)
**

67. Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter (Hickman Holler/RCA)
**

68. KRS-One: Temple of Hip Hop Global Awareness (R.A.M.P. Ent Agency)
**

69. Dylan Hicks & Small Screens: Avian Field Recordings (Soft Launch)

70. CMAT: Euro-Country (CMATBaby/AWAL)
**

71. Todd Snider: High, Lonesome and Then Some (Aimless)
**

72. Amaarae: Black Star (Interscope)
**

73. The Chills: Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs (Fire)
**

74. David Greenberger & the Hi-Ho Barbers: Ginger Ale (Pel Pel)

75. Jon Batiste: Big Money (Verve/Interscope)
**

76. James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel: The Universe Will Take Care of You (Border Community)
**

77. Apollo Brown & Bronze Nazareth: Funeral for a Dream (Escapism)
**

78. >Willie Nelson: Workin' Man: Willie Sings Merle (Legacy)
**

79. Jubal Lee Young: Squirrels (Reconstruction)
**

80. Aesop Rock: I Heard It's a Mess There Too (Rhymesayers)
**

81. Gurf Morlix: Bristlecone (Rootball)
**

82. Six Sex: X-Sex (Dale Play, EP)
**

83. Lucy Dacus: Forever Is a Feeling (Geffen)
**

84. Hailey Whitters: Corn Queen (Pigasus/Big Loud)
**

85. Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band: Land of Hopes & Dreams (Columbia)
**

Also added the following older albums after freezing the 2023 year-end file:

Honorable Mention

Additional jazz rated B+(***), listed alphabetically.

Also added the following older albums after freezing the 2024 year-end file:

Reissues/Historic Music

The standard for historic music is a record where everything was recorded 10+ years ago, regardless of whether it's ever been in print before. Some past lists may have treated previously unreleased music as new (regardless of actual age), but I've never been able to manage that distinction consistently. This category also includes compilations of previously released music, including straight reissues, although my selection is very erratic.

1. John Lee Hooker: The Standard School Broadcast Recordings (1973, BMG)
**

2. Edna Martinez Presents Picó: Sound System Culture From the Colombian Caribbean (1950s-70s, Strut)
**

3. Joseph Kamaru: Heavy Combination 1966-2007 (Disciples)
**

4. Studio: West Coast (2006, Ghostly International)
**

5. Zig-Zag Band: Chigiyo Music Kings 1987-1998 (Analog Africa)
**

6. The Bitter Ends: The Bitter Ends (2022, Trouble in River City)
**

7. Scrapper Blackwell: Mr. Scrapper's Blues (1962, Craft)
**

Also added the following older albums after freezing the 2023 year-end file:

Honorable Mention

Additional jazz rated B+(***), listed alphabetically.

Also added the following older albums after freezing the 2024 year-end file:

Notes

Additional new jazz records rated B+(**) or below (listed alphabetically by artist).

Additional reissued/archival jazz records rated B+(**) or below (listed alphabetically by artist).

Recommended but Unheard Jazz Records

New non-jazz records I haven't heard estimated to have a 2% (or better) chance of making the A-list if/when I finally hear them.

Limited sampling grades may be noted for any record in this section. Bracketed grades refer to older editions of reissues.

Reissued/historical jazz records I haven't heard estimated to have a 2% (or better) chance of making the A-list if/when I finally hear them: