Bream’s top 10
It was a big year for K-pop, thanks to the Netflix-fueled sensation “K-Pop Demon Hunters.” It was a big year for a parade of new pop stars including Tate McRae, Benson Boone, Olivia Dean, Alex Warren, Addison Rae, Laufey and Sombr. It was a big year for Taylor Swift. But isn’t it always these days for that showgirl?
Morgan Wallen continues to rule country music, winkingly acknowledging “I’m the Problem,” the title of his latest blockbuster double album. Geese and Turnstile showed that rock is going in curious directions these days. The Clipse rebounded in hip-hop, pairing praise music and rap.
Puerto Rico’s Bad Bunny is proving you don’t have to sing in English to become a massive music star. He’ll have his crowning moment during the Super Bowl halftime show in February. Spain’s multilingual Rosalía delivered the year’s most remarkable album, “Lux,” a magnum opus in 14 languages and multiple musical styles dripping with drama and emotion as a popera should.
In the Twin Cities, we were preoccupied with the three-day pretty great Minnesota Yacht Club fest, the one-day totally great Farm Aid 40 and the six-week not exactly great “Purple Rain: The Musical,” reminding us that no one can approach Prince’s greatness.
However, today we’re talking about the best albums of 2025. Yes, albums still matter, as Prince told a Grammy audience the year before he died, in the streaming era. Some artists hew to the old-school notion that an album is a complete statement, or at least a collection of 10 or more new songs.
Here are 10 albums that made my ears perk up because of passionate vocals, intriguing sounds, crafty or important words, or they broke new ground or just gave me feels.
- Rosalía, “Lux”
- Mavis Staples, “Sad and Beautiful World”
- Brandi Carlile, “Returning to Myself”
- Olivia Dean, “The Art of Loving”
- Lucy Dacus, “Forever Is a Feeling”
- Tyler Childers, “Snipe Hunter”
- FKA Twigs, “Eusexua”
- Dijon, “Baby”
- Justin Bieber, “Swag”
- Leslie Vincent, “Little Black Book”
Riemenschneider’s top 10
Sorry, but your music sucks.
By “your,” I mean your most popular albums and songs of 2025. I’m not usually anti-mainstream, but it’s hard not to be when “KPop Demon Hunters” and the similarly cartoonish Morgan Wallen are among the top sellers of the year; when marquee pop stars Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Lady Gaga had a couple decent singles on their records but a lot of duds; when a lot of hip-hop acts like Drake or Playboi Carti sounded too whiny or weedy or, in Bad Bunny’s otherwise admirable case, just a bit too cutesy; and when the top trendsetting, young rock bands, Geese and Turnstile, sounded like they were trying too hard.
