Albums of note

There were thousands and thousands of full-length albums released in 2025.

We didn’t hear them all, but here are our critics’ picks of their favourites of the year.

John Kendle’s top 10 pop/rock albums

1. Florence + the Machine — Everybody Scream (Polydor)

After a miscarriage and subsequent life-saving medical intervention, British singer-songwriter Florence Welch spent time examining the primordial essence of existence, took stock of her life and re-emerged with an album of profoundly personal music that exorcised her rage, grief and torment.

2. Wet Leg — Moisturizer (Domino)

To follow up a global hit single and equally excellent debut album, Wet Leg’s core duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers reimagined their visual styles and wrote songs about the wonder and self-doubt of falling in love, dealing with scrutiny and struggling to be themselves, all while managing to maintain their cleverly esoteric pop hooks.

3. Lambrini Girls — Who Let the Dogs Out (City Slang)

Brighton-based guitarist/vocalist Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lilly Macieira are catchily strident, raging punk-noise merchants whose propulsive, distorted riffs and screamed/spoken vocals are an irresistible and absolute indictment of modern life. Debut of the year.

4. Turnstile — Never Enough (Roadrunner)

5. Geese — Getting Killed (Partisan)

6. Begonia — Fantasy Life (Birthday Cake)

7. Fontine — Good Buddy (Birthday Cake)

8. Charley Crockett — Dollar a Day (Lone Star Rider)

9. The Weather Station — Humanhood (Fat Possum)

10. Snocaps — Snocaps (Anti-)

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Keith Black’s top 10 jazz albums

1. Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura — Ki (Libra)

A beautifully melodic and meditative duet album that moves unhurriedly through complex and wonderful moments.

2. Angell & Crane — Angell & Crane (Chalet Musique)

Montreal guitarist Simon Angell, and drummer Tommy Crane’s debut album as a duo is a treat. The music is challenging at times, but always accessible and makes one hope for more.

3. Marius Neset — Cabaret (ACT)

Norwegian saxophonist Neset’s releases cover a wide range of jazz moods. This one is straight-up small-group energy and driving rhythm. His quintet never lets up on the enthusiastic fun. Always creative and strong.

4. Sylvie Courvoisier & Wadada Leo Smith — Angel Falls (Intakt)

5. Charles Lloyd — Figure In Blue (Blue Note)

6. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith — Defiant Life (ECM)

7. William Carn’s Choices — The Unburdening (Independent)

8. Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra — East Meets West: Connections (Chronograph)

9. Mary Halvorson — Cloudward (Nonesuch)

10. Sam Dickinson — Gemini Duets (TQM)

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Holly Harris’s top 10 classical albums

1. Johannes Brahms: Ein Deuteches Requiem — Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon (Harmonia Mundi)

Pichon leads chamber group Pygmalion through Brahms’s masterful Ein deutsches Requiem, which never fails to stir the soul.

Soloists Sabine Devielihe, soprano, and Stephane Degout, baritone, take turns bringing the sacred text based on the German Luther Bible to life; its final chorus, Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herrn sterben, leaving listeners in the lap of God as it offers consolation to the bereaved as well as comforting hope for all those left behind.

2. Rachmaninov: The Bells; Elgar: Falstaff — Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Harmonia Mundi)

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Vasily Petrenko, performs two seldom-heard masterpieces both dated 1913. Rachmaninoff’s choral symphony, The Bells, Op. 35, composed of four movements based on Edgar Allan Poe’s same-titled poem, brims with colour and life, with guest soloists — Mirjam Mesak, soprano; Pavel Petrov, tenor; Andrij Kymach, baritone — joining forces with the Philharmonia Chorus.

The second work, Elgar’s Falstaff, Op. 68, offers a musical portrait of the aging Shakespearean knight, unfolding as a bitingly satirical series of shorter movements while rounding out this thoughtfully curated album of “literary” scores.

3. The Curious Bards — Sublimation: Songs and Dances from 18th-Century Scandinavia (Harmonia Mundi): It’s a safe bet any annual Top 10 list will include the Curious Bards, the period instrument group known for its infectiously joyous energy.

Helmed by baroque violinist Alix Boivert, the bards were back this year with a smorgasbord of 18th-century Scandinavian songs and dances specific to Norwegian and Swedish culture.

A can’t-miss track — and the album’s oldest piece — is medieval Norwegian song Signe Lita, about the sinking of the ship Little Signe, with guest mezzo-soprano Iletkra Platiopoulou’s sublime vocals rising and falling like ocean waves as she brings the haunting tale to life.

4. Lea Birringer, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie — Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 (Rubicon)

5. Cello Tango — Ophélie Gaillard (Aparté)

6. Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suites — NDR Radiophilharmonie, Stanislav Kochanovksy (Harmonia Mundi)

7. Mozart and Bruch — Patrick Messina, Lise Berthaud & Fabrizio Chiovetta (Aparté)

8. Schumann: Violin Sonatas — Alina Ibragimova, Cédric Tiberghien (Hyperion)

9. Bartók, Enescu, Kodálat, Martinu — Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra & Carlo Tenanof (Onyx)

10. Visiting Rachmaninoff: Chopin Variations/Romances — Alexander Melnikov, Julia Lezhneva (Harmonia Mundi)