I don’t know if it’s because we procrastinate or because we’re simply very thorough, but the editorial team at Spinning Platters has FINALLY settled on our Top 15 albums of 2025. There’s a little something for everyone, including some metal, punk, hardcore, Spanish-language avant-pop, and a whole lot of scorned women on this list, which is my favorite music genre anyways.
Without further ado, here’s the list:
#15: Para Bellum / Testament
Once again, Testament proves that they are the best Thrash Metal band in existence. Para Bellum is a no-holds-barred assault on the rise of right-wing fascism that seems to have our country in a chokehold. A fiery statement of resistance in a world gone mad and a big middle finger to all that would strip away our rights and freedoms. (Oliver Brink)
#14: Getting Killed / Geese
Geese get a lot more chaotic and unhinged on Getting Killed. While these might be some of Cameron Winter’s darkest lyrics, the band feels loose and alive. Vocally, Winter is at his best. Geese are showing they’re among the most interesting bands of their generation. (James King)
#13: Meet Me After Practice / Boys Go To Jupiter
Blame it on the algorithm: I first stumbled across Boys Go To Jupiter while doomscrolling Instagram in late 2023. And thank god I did, as their singles and music video clips pulled me away from the depths of despair I sank into between reading the news and fruitlessly applying to jobs. I don’t know about you, but for me, 2025 proved to be the most difficult year I’ve faced in this decade so far, and one of the only ways I got through it was dancing to BGTJ’s debut album, Meet Me After Practice. Several of the songs were singles I’d listened to and fallen in love with before- in particular, Last Last Time, an upbeat breakup song with a healthy dose of 80s-inspired synth- and played on repeat heavily. Still, many new tracks caught my ear and my heart with their nostalgia-inducing lyrics and youthful indie pop sound. Tiltawhirl effortlessly captures the emotional range of encounters with an ex-lover, while “Wish U Were “Here dives headfirst into that kind of intense yearning found in the unspoken parts of situationships. Listening through the whole album takes me back to my 20s in the best possible way: reminding me how it felt navigating new-to-me friendships and crushes, and why I don’t ever want to relive the messiness of my 20s ever again. Boys Go To Jupiter is definitely on the rise, and from their latest singles, I’m very excited to see what their sophomore album has in store for us. (Lily Miller)
#12: My Apologies To The Chef / Winona Fighter
2025 was a doozy of a year, both sociopolitically and personally. What I really needed was a good, solid scream and a slam. I needed to yell “I’m A LITTLE STRESSED OUT. JUST A LITTLE STRESSED OUT. IS ANYBODY ELSE STRESSED OUT?!?!” just like track 4, “Hamms In A Glass.” My Apologies To The Chef is equal parts an homage to the Pop-Punk and Emo of Warped Tour’s mid-00s heyday and something very fresh and relevant to today’s listening audience. Chloe Kinnon balances out humor with humanity, creating a truly honest record. The kind of record that feels just plain good, and helps your brain find balance through the rough patches. (Dakin Hardwick)
#11: Tron Ares / Nine Inch Nails
While to some, perhaps doing the soundtrack for Tron Ares as Nine Inch Nails rather than Reznor and Ross may not seem like much of a distinction, for the rest of us, it’s night and day. The soundtrack finds the band perhaps at a crossroads and proves that they’re still just as vital as they have always been. Not only that, they’re still able to find things that keep THEM excited about what they’ve been doing all these years. The vocal tracks on the score are Nine Inch Nails through and through, and they explore different unused production methods, most notably the vocoder. It’s truly amazing that such a simple addition could add a whole different layer of feeling and atmosphere to their music. The instrumental score is incredibly emotive, not just an atmosphere like some of their previous scores, and while I’m the first to admit I don’t really have a desire to watch Tron Ares, if anything might convince me to do it, it is this score. (Oliver Brink)
#10: For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) / Japanese Breakfast
Japanese breakfast has grown leaps and bounds over the last few years, and For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) is a perfect and shimmering, radiant, artistic cherry on top. After the enormous success of 2021’s Jubilee, Michelle Zauner and her incredible band of musicians quietly released the soundtrack to the video game Sable, which wound up being over 95 minutes long of almost entirely instrumental music. This is a feat that dwarfs Japanese Breakfast’s usual sub forty-minute artistic outings, and there’s no way that a project like that doesn’t affect an artist moving forward. If you happened to miss this integral component of Japanese Breakfast’s growth, you might wonder how the band with incredible danceable hooks and anthem-like choruses could produce a release so different than their other songwriting-oriented material. Somewhere in Sable, Japanese Breakfast has seemingly found a place to reflect. Gone now are the vocal hooks of choruses repeated over and over again, now replaced by large sonic scapes, counter melodies often played on violin and saxophone instead of crunchy reverbed out lead guitar with arrangements that change slowly with the words that are more akin to epic poems than the verse chorus verse pop numbers we’ve all been conditioned to accept is the only way to write a song. There’s something almost proggy about For Meloncholy, and I mean that in the most sincerely beautiful way possible. The songs often unfold in front of you, as if you’re participating in the deep inhale followed by a longer exhale of a morning meditation. If you listen carefully, each song feels like you’re listening to the full lifecycle of a flower, and experiencing each side of a record feels like witnessing the beginning and end of a season. For Melancholy is gorgeous through and through. Michelle Zauner and crew are at times quirky, poetic, quiet, powerful, bold and brash, haunting, large, small, and soft. Buried on side two is a duet with Jeff Bridges, a song that an opportunist band would exploit for a single and print on every press release. On Melancholy, it’s an understated note of the chord and not a belted-out selling point. We’re all very lucky to have bands that take chances like this. (Davis Storts)
#9: The Bestiary / Castle Rat
I was not expecting Castle Rat’s sophomore effort to be anything more than an extension of their first album, which mainly came across as a love letter to Black Sabbath’s early albums. I anticipated riff rock with soaring vocals and dark grooves, and I looked forward to enjoying it. The debut effort from Castle Rat was written solely by Riley “Rat Queen” Pinkerton, but this time around, Castle Rat’s new songs are a group effort with her band mates writing alongside her, including he addition of a new “Count” Franco Vittore on lead guitar. Castle Rat provides so much more than just a second outing on Bestiary. This isn’t just a doom record, and it’s not just a fantasy metal album. At times ethereal, expansive, and meditative, the new “Count” shows serious chops on a technically spectacular level, and the band’s songwriting excels as an all-out love letter to all genres of metal. Being a good rhythm section is so much more than holding down an intense groove and knowing when to hold back is just as important as knowing when to beat the shit out of your instrument at full volume. Charley “Plague Doctor” Ruddell and Josh “Druid” Strmic both know when to hold back for the good of the band, in a way that serves the songs. Knowing when not to play is just as important as knowing when to play all of the notes as quickly as possible. Bestiary has peaks and valleys, poetic chants that seem to reverberate off mortar walls, incantation-like in their approach, droning as if a prayer to an unspoken, long-forgotten medieval deity. Now the intense bombast of this costumed band of metal protégés is balanced by acoustic passages, sweeping mellotron arrangements, choirs of backing vocal harmonies, and a quietness that more bands should be brave enough to embrace. Bestiary feels like a concept album but without the pomp. There is a distinct theme of animals and fictional creatures woven throughout the album’s framework, but it’s easier to access than most concept-driven records. When I fell in love with their first effort, I was nervous that my expectations of them would be too great for them to live up to in the future. What they delivered was a young and interesting band shirking off the belief that being uniform and making the same song over and over again is required for a sophomore effort. I look forward to Vol III. (Davis Storts)
#8: NEVER ENOUGH / Turnstile
Turnstile’s Never Enough album is genre-diverse, with surprise shifts every 2 to 5 minutes; thus, erasing any lullaby comforts. The intense, emotional lyrics, combined with old-school hardcore riffs that shift gears between pop, emo, and dance vibes, create a melodic sensibility. This allows the music to be more accessible to a variety of people. The thread linking the diverse songs is the unique drumming style, holding tension or drifting into absence as it moves into the next phase. The album is inclusive of all generations beyond the lyrics; it is timeless. A few of many homages to 80s music, such as “The Police” in “Lookout for Me” and “New Order/Age of Consent” in “I Care,” with other relatable influences to the British club scene. It’s a complete cinematic story relating to heartbreak, identity, and hope within us all. The references to other musical historical milestones are subtle. with Turnstile’s experimental creativity infused. Never Enough offers a unique and refreshing perspective on music across time and genres. (Emily Anderson)
#7: Man’s Best Friend / Sabrina Carpenter
I was a bit skeptical of Man’s Best Friend at first. Short n Sweet and emails i can’t send are both excellent records, but I worry about what I call “John Dwyer Syndrome,” when an artist aims for quantity over quality, and the albums become a blur. Instead, we got a fantastic follow-up from pop music’s reigning queen of satire. The record follows the year in which Carpenter moved from cult icon to stadium superstar, all while navigating a public romance with an actor ALSO having a big and busy year. Does the man who supposedly hit on women by saying he is “off and on with Sabrina Carpenter” come out sounding good? Heavens no. But is it a fun ride? Yes. Is it a sonically adventurous record that bridges together classic pop, 70’s California country, disco, and even some New Jack Swing? Yes. It’s an addictive, witty pop record that has proven that Carpenter’s star isn’t falling anytime soon. (Dakin Hardwick)
#6: Eusexia / FKA Twigs
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if FKA Twigs started listening to electronic music and went to the club, and came home and decided to start writing songs about how it made her feel, this is her gift to you. Starting with the first album’s title track, “Eusexia,” you’re immediately thrown into an exploration of various dance music elements intertwined with everything you’ve always loved about her previous records: her unique, emotionally driven blend of abstract and deconstructed R&B. The addition of dance elements (which, really, isn’t a surprise) to her repertoire adds a unique sense of urgency to her sound that masterfully reflects the experience of dancing in a club while fully self-immersed in the music. So much so that tracks, like the aforementioned, and “Striptease,” may cause you to shed a tear. This record is another fantastic, exciting step in her self-exploration and artistic evolution. (Raffi Youssoufian)
#5: Private Music / Deftones
Deftones are best heard with the music streaming from the open windows of a car speeding through the night in California. Escape, freedom in the moment behind the wheel, the high of inertia, the thrum of the engine, the dream of a golden-hued future burning with love. Deftones in the air and a gas pedal underfoot.
The ocean does its thing, inexorably working against the coast. The idea is to hold on as long as you can. Against attrition, the Deftones have endured. The warm sleeper waves of Steven Carpenter’s guitar, the sure-throated bleat and keen of Chino’s voice, the kick and thwack of Abe Cunningham’s drums, all layer together for greater strength like the hammered folds in a blade. The crash of the sound through speakers into the body stands hair on end: “Keep a hold of me here as long as you can.”
For a band of the Deftones’ octane to thrive is no small accomplishment, and that earned beatitude shines through in Private Music.”It’s a really nice time for this, the ol’ Deftones,” said Cunningham in an interview with Kerrang. “We’re really grateful, man.”
It shows. One thing that can be counted on is that the ocean takes no time off. Private Music is a vision of endurance hand-in-hand. With Private Music, the dream is that the ride goes on together. (Chris Rogers)
#4: the world is still here and so are we / mclusky
There are certain bands that have left deep impressions upon everything that informs my music taste, and Mclusky is easily in the top 3. The World Is Still Here and So Are We is not only a generally true statement, it is a literal one that could very well have not come true. A bit older, a bit wiser, they have returned with their unapologetic metaphors and cheeky prodding of societal idiocies and norms. For many new listeners, they are just as much a revelation today as they were for those of us who found them in their heyday, which in my case was 2002, and I’m grateful that so many people are starting to come into the light and dig the noise. If you haven’t listened to this album yet, you’re doing yourself a disservice, so get on with it. (Oliver Brink)
#3: West End Girl / Lily Allen
After creating this record in just ten days, Lily Allen has said she moved through all the pain that gave birth to it. I’m not sure the work is finished simply because the artist has survived it. I think every listener who steps inside this album helps transmute what so many people endure in abusive relationships. This record belongs to the collective consciousness. It belongs at the center of every lie, especially the ones we tell ourselves to stay alive.
The fervor and heat, wrapped in humor and sarcasm, only skim the surface of what makes this album so deeply relatable. It’s sharp, funny, and biting, but beneath that is a seriousness that lands hard if you’ve lived anywhere near this terrain.
I’m writing this as my sibling heads to a Stranger Things New Year’s Eve party, and the idea of that celebration gives me chills, celebrating a cast while holding complicated, unresolved feelings about the real-life actions of one of its central figures. Reactive abuse is real. Silence is not neutrality. Context matters.
This album has moments of levity alongside moments that cut close to the bone. Anyone who has lived through these dynamics should know it can be re-traumatizing at times. And still…I’ve never felt more seen by a record. I know, without question, that I’m not alone in that. (Tiffany Black)
#2: moisturizer / Wet Leg
When Wet Leg came out with “Chaise Longue” in the middle of our second COVID Summer, it was a beacon of light in such heavy darkness. It was what we needed, and I was unsurprised by the band’s swift rise. However, whenever a band reaches such success so early, the blowback is also swift, with the suggestion of “one-hit wonder” status. How do you fight these predictions? Making sure you go heavy on the sophomore record. And by heavy, the first single was a song called “catch these fists,” which is heavier and louder than anything they’ve released thus far, and Rhian reintroduced herself with a set of biceps that would be the envy of your average gym bro. That being said, moisturizer is much more emotionally diverse than their debut. The humor is still there, but songs like “mangeout” and “davina mcall” show a growth and emotional maturity that help ensure a band’s legacy continues to grow. (Dakin Hardwick)
#1: LUX / Rosalia
I don’t like heavy turbulence on airplanes. I’m unable to pretend it’s just a roller coaster ride. Instead, I have a handful of albums saved to my phone that are so engrossing and rich that I’m able to escape into the world of the music, forgetting where I am, also allowing me to answer the question, “if this plane crashes, is this album beautiful enough to be the last thing I hear?” The first time I listened to LUX, I was on a plane, a nice, smooth ride, but I listened to the album four times in a row. It’s the most beautiful, dramatic, and emotional record I’ve heard in ages, and I don’t even understand many of the lyrics. It stands among the greatest records of any genre, even as it demolishes the whole concept of genre. If this is contemporary pop, where are the drum machines? If it’s contemporary classical, why is Pharrell one of the producers? This is 50 minutes (60 on vinyl) of pure escape into a world of music that is completely singular in its beauty. It has, of course, been saved to my phone in case it’s the last music I ever hear. (Gordon Elgart)
