My Top 10 Albums of 2025

 10. Eat This by Bite Me Bambi

This is my tenth straight year of compiling these lists, and I think this is somehow the first time I've had a ska album on my year end list. Eat This is 24 minutes of pure infectious ska energy from beginning to end along with a cover of one of my favorite Offspring songs.

9. Pathways by The Birthday Massacre

I've been a fan of The Birthday Massacre for a number of years; their 2020 album Diamonds even made my top 10 list that year. I'm glad to report that the album delivers on what we've come to expect from the band: dark-tinged music with strong hooks. Standout tracks include The Vanishing Game, Wish, and the title track Pathways.

8. Lighten Up by Bad Cop/Bad Cop

I've been a big fan of BC/BC for almost a decade, ever since I originally fell in love with the band after hearing their 2017 album Warriors. Then in 2020, their album The Rise also made my top 10 list that year. Lighten Up continues their trend of hard rocking punk music with lyrics ranging from the personal to the topical. Standout tracks include Straight Out of Detox, I4NI, and the opening track All Together Now.

7. Earthkeeper by Pinkshift

We've got another repeat act. Pinkshift first came to my attention with their 2022 album Love Me Forever. That was an album I quickly fell in love with, and Earthkeeper absolutely keeps up that momentum. It keeps up with the energy they had on the previous LP while at times seeming heavier in sound. Standout tracks include Evil Eye, Patience, and Free Fall.

6. Junior by Rodeo Boys

This is a band I had the pleasure to see live last summer and instantly knew they were a band to pay attention to. Their sound is a mix of punk and heartland rock. Their music is a reminder to the world that queer culture exists everywhere, even here in the Midwest. Standout tracks include Blue, All American Man, and the album opener Sam's Song.

5. Straight Line Was a Lie by The Beths

We can add another stop on the world tour that is my annual year-end list with this band from New Zealand. Earlier this year, I started getting into this sort of songwriter driven indie rock again. I initially fell in love with The Beths from their previous album Expert In A Dying Field (which is also fantastic, I regret not discovering that album when it came out in 2022); just as I was becoming obsessed with that album came Straight Line Was a Lie. The album is full of emotion driven music with personal lyrics touching on things ranging from the 2023 Auckland floods to frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes's strained relationship with her mother. Standout tracks include the aforementioned Mother, Pray For Me, Take, and the opening title track Straight Line Was a Lie.

4. Are We All Angels by Scowl

This is another band I regret not discovering on their first album, because this is some of the best melodic hardcore I've heard in a long time. This is undeniable hard rocking punk while also having great hooks. Lead singer Kat Moss has a great voice for this sort of music. Standout tracks include Tonight (I'm Afraid), Special, and Not Hell, Not Heaven.

3. Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams 

The story of my Hayley Williams fandom began a decade ago with Paramore's self-titled album ever since I have been more or less ride or die. Moving into her solo career allowed her to get even more personal in her lyrics, mining highly emotional gold from her anxieties, her past relationships, and her own mental health struggles (this album contains the first love song to an antidepressant I've ever heard). The strangest compliment I can give this album is it contains a somber interpolation of Bloodhound Gang and manages to make it work. Standout tracks include Mirtazapine, I Won't Quit On You, and the title track.

2. Tunnel Vision by Beach Bunny

This year is another case where the top two spots were a toss-up for the longest time. Even now I'm not truly seeing it as number one and number two, it's more like a tie for number one. I love this album so much. Big Pink Bubble's theme of severe conflict avoidance to the point of mental harm is very relatable to me, as is Clueless and it's theme of the anxieties of getting older and moving from her 20s to her 30s. Violence gets across the message of trying to live a normal life while the world is going to hell around you with verses that sound like how an anxiety attack feels. There's so much to this album, but those are the three that stood out the most to me.

Also, it's not on the album, but shout out to Year Of The Optimist: the non-album single they released this year. Masking fear with a public facing illusion of optimism is another thing I can absolutely relate to.

1. My Apologies To The Chef by Winona Fighter

As I mentioned in the previous entry, the top two spots were neck and neck for the longest time. What it ultimately came down to was the album I kept coming back to this year. The album that I can't help but play again and again. I'm constantly looking for new bands; part of my criteria for new punk bands is "would I mosh to this?", which Winona Fighter clears so easily. The album is full of a sort of infectious, fun anger. From the interpersonal rage on the first two tracks JUMPERCABLES and You Look Like a Drunk Phoebe Bridger to the worldly rage on Attention. And goddamn was 2025 the right year to be shouting along with the bridge on HAMMS IN A GLASS: "I'm a little stressed out, just a little stressed out, is anybody else stressed out?!". The entire album is a lot of fun. I can't wait to see what this band has to offer in the future. Other standout tracks include R U FAMOUS, Wlbrn St Tvrn, and I Think You Should Leave.