50 Best Punk Albums of 2025

Have you noticed that guitars are back? I’m being a little facetious, but rock and even punk has has been steadily climbing its way back to the mainstream and we felt that more this year than we have in a while. Still, the vast majority of great punk bands are still occupying niche underground spaces, so you might have had to dig a little harder to see it but 2025 was an incredible year for music in and around the world of punk.

2025 was the best year for emo of the current decade so far, with so many bands from the genre’s new generation (the “fifth wave,” if you will) really coming into their own, along with a few key comebacks from familiar faces. Hardcore had an incredible year, even if it wasn’t getting the same crossover attention that it got in the aftermath of Glow On. Unmissable records came out of screamo, post-hardcore, garage punk, pop punk, ska-punk, metalcore, and jazz-infused art punk, all of which are represented on this list, with bands hailing from all across the United States and Canada, as well as England, Sweden, Australia, Spain, and Italy. For the purposes of this list, the word “punk” includes all of those aforementioned subgenres. And even with 50 bands across multiple styles of punk-derived music, this list is still just one snapshot of all the great punk music that came out this year. And if your favorite record isn’t on the list, maybe I just haven’t heard it yet.

Read on for the list…

50. Spite House – Desertion (Pure Noise)

A lot of bands wear Title Fight’s influence on their sleeves, but Montreal’s Spite House are one of the few who go beyond the surface-level comparisons and carry the type of emotional weight that made those early Title Fight records so cathartic. The record is largely informed by grief–specifically parental loss–and singer/producer Max Lajoie turns these traumatic, life-altering experiences into songs that’ll shake you to your core.

49. Pupil Slicer – Fleshwork (Prosthetic)

After pushing their music to a poppy extreme on 2023’s Blossom, Pupil Slicer go in the opposite direction and deliver their heaviest album yet with Fleshwork. It owes as much to mathy, metallic hardcore as it does to black and death metal, and the darker tone is matched by the bleak subject matter. As Kate Davies shrieks on one of its songs, “Feel this exquisite rage.”

48. Aren’t We Amphibians – Parade! Parade! (PNWK)

When this year began with an essential four-way split from awakebutstillinbed, Your Arms Are My Cocoon, California Cousins, and Aren’t We Amphibians, the least established band on the split was Aren’t We Amphibians. They were the only band on the split that hadn’t yet released a full-length album, and their presence on the split helped raise the anticipation for the day that they finally would. That day came this past September with Parade! Parade!, and the LP fully delivers. It’s everything you want out of Midwest emo, from the sad trumpets to the mathy noodling to the yelped hooks to just a little bit of screamo. To paraphrase a Kinsella, they know what they have to do and do it.

47. Feel The Pain – World In Two EP (Last Ride)

The first EP by the Australian hardcore upstarts Feel The Pain (following a 2023 demo) sounds like the work of a young band who are about to have a lot more eyes and ears on them. Surrounding its release, they opened tours in their home country for Speed and Sunami, the former of whom they’re labelmates with on Last Ride Records, and this EP reminds me a bit of when those bands’ early EPs started making the rounds. It’s tough guy hardcore with a real tunefulness that you can easily picture crowds shouting along to, and video of their recent headlining tour proves the kids at their shows definitely are. Yes they’ve got great mosh parts, but even more importantly they’ve got great songs.

46. PUP – Who Will Look After the Dogs? (Little Dipper/Rise)

After getting a little more experimental on 2022’s THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND, PUP went in the opposite direction this year with the back-to-basics punk album Who Will Look After the Dogs?. And in PUP’s hands, even a “back-to-basics punk album” sounds like no other band on the planet. Nobody does off-kilter shoutalongs or self-deprecation like this band. And as for the latter, how’s “I can’t die yеt ’cause who will look after the dog?” or “The best revenge is living well/I’ve been living like shit” for some all-timer PUPisms? John Congleton’s blown-out, Pinkerton-esque production only makes it all sound even more explosive.

45. Scowl – Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans)

Scowl are the latest Bay Area punk band to go from 924 Gilman to the national stage, and their trajectory reminds me of AFI. Their 2021 debut LP How Flowers Grow was sort of their Very Proud of Ya era, and now they’re somewhere between The Art of Drowning and Sing the Sorrow. That is to say, Are We All Angels almost entirely replaces their aggressive hardcore roots with clean-sung melodies, but Scowl still stands out from other melodic rock bands because you can take the kid out of hardcore but you can’t take the hardcore out of the kid. They’ve got their catchiest choruses yet on this album, and even though Kat Moss doesn’t scream much on it, Scowl still pack that moshable punch.

44. Militarie Gun – God Save the Gun (Loma Vista)

With God Save the Gun, Militaire Gun’s breakout debut LP gets its messy followup. The album is lyrically more tortured and musically all over the place, ranging from some of the band’s brightest power-pop-punk songs yet to some of their dirtiest to one of 2025’s prettiest acoustic emo ballads.

43. Hot Mulligan – The Sound A Body Makes When It’s Still (Wax Bodega)

Is anybody making emo/pop punk that’s more explosive than Hot Mulligan right now? I think the answer is no. For as sugar-sweet as The Sound A Body Makes When It’s Still gets, the band constantly sounds like a ticking time bomb, screaming their way through even their most candy-coated hooks. It’s one cathartic release after the next, with the finesse of a band who’s ready for arenas and the energy of a band whose club-show crowds leave soaked in each other’s sweat every night.

42. La Dispute – No One Was Driving the Car (Epitaph)

No One Was Driving the Car is classic La Dispute. It’s an apocalyptic concept album split into five acts, with the ever-expressive Jordan Dreyer dancing between spoken word and feral screams as the rest of the band weaves a patchwork quilt of art rock and post-hardcore. The best song is almost nine minutes long. Eerily, the album was named after a true news story about a lethal self-driving Tesla crash. In a lesser band’s hands, this would all be too pretentious or too ambitious for their own good. La Dispute make it sound overpowering.

41. University – McCartney, It’ll Be OK (Transgressive)

If you can picture putting Cap’n Jazz, Lightning Bolt, and Los Campesinos! in a blender, it might sound something like UK band University’s debut album McCartney, It’ll Be OK. It’s a concoction of Midwest emo, math rock, noise pop, and a little bit of post-rock, and it’s a full-blown racket. These Crewe-bred noisemakers are finger-tapping and drum-rolling their way through one of the most chaotic emo albums of the year (including a 10-minute song called “History of Iron Maiden Pt. 1”) and still finding time for triumphant, noise-battered hooks.

40. Raein – Forme Sommerse (Persistent Vision)

The first album in 10 years from Italian screamo greats Raein reminds you why this band was so important to the genre in the first place. Forme Sommerse is a 27-minute album that’s broken up into just two tracks, with impassioned, majestic screamo passages that flow in and out of each other with a dreamlike fluidity. It’s as gorgeous as it is heavy. It constantly keeps you on your toes. It’s a reflection of the growing intensity and maturity that has permeated this band’s catalog for over 20 years; they truly never look back.

39. Glitterer – erer (Purple Circle)

Ned Russin has long been one of his generation’s great conveyors of negative feelings, and on erer, he’s doing what he does best while looking more outwards than ever. The same familiar roar that once sang about early 20s solipsism and depression is now more focused on the hopelessness that sets in when you look at the world around you. Or as Ned puts it on the album’s excellent lead single “Stainless Steel,” “It’s not enough to sit around and worry while the world is blowing up.” As he unveils his inner monologue, the dial is set to the same grungy post-hardcore frequency that’s been Ned’s sweet spot since the Shed days.

38. Ben Quad – Wisher (Pure Noise)

After embracing Midwest emo on their 2022 debut LP I’m Scared That’s All There Is and screamo on 2024’s Ephemera EP, Ben Quad have gone full-on third-wave emo-pop with their sophomore LP Wisher. It often sounds straight out of the early 2000s Victory Records catalog, while still retaining elements of both ISTATI and Ephemera and putting the unique Ben Quad stamp on things. Jon Markson’s (Koyo, One Step Closer, etc) production makes it sound huge, and Ben Quad’s top-of-the-lungs harmonies cross the threshold into a total third-wave-style emotional release.

37. Radioactivity – Time Won’t Bring Me Down (Dirtnap)

The cult heroes of DIY poppy punk are back! Radioactivity (and related band The Marked Men) have long dished out a brand of sweetly melodic garage punk that’s imitated by many and rivaled by few, and their first album in 10 years finds them sounding as great as ever. Their punk side is as revved-up and rippin’ as ever, and their pop side is often at its most sentimental. Some of Time Won’t Bring Me Down‘s best songs ease up on the distortion and veer fully into jangle pop–Joey Ramone and Grant Hart would be proud.

36. Nuvolascura – How This All Ends (Zegema Beach)

On LA screamo band Nuvolascura’s third album, vocalist Erica Schultz tackles topics like capitalist greed and abuse, but most hair-raising is when she opens up about the aftermath of her 2019 breast cancer diagnosis. Intense topics like these require intense music, and that’s exactly what How This All Ends is. It’s gorgeously shimmering screamo with jagged, metallic edges. Each scream is soaked in raw desperation, and every instrumental peak is a sensory overload.

35. Gumm – Beneath the Wheel (Convulse)

Gumm’s 2023 debut album Slogan Machine sounded like a combination of its influences, but Beneath the Wheel blends its different parts together so seamlessly that it just sounds like one new thing. It’s catchy enough to fit in with the Drug Churches and Militarie Guns of the world but it never sounds like it’s trying too hard to do so. It echoes the primitive melodicism of Revolution Summer but it’s too adventurous and modern to sound like a Rev Summer worship band. It’s just amped-up, tuneful hardcore punk with passion, sincerity, and a personality of its own.

34. Catbite – Doom Garden EP (Bad Time Records)

Doom Garden is just a six-song EP but it feels like the biggest leap that Catbite have made in their six years as a band. On it, the Philly ska flagbearers branch out into power pop, alt-rock, dub reggae, post-hardcore, and emo, and in the process they gain a co-sign from one of punk rock’s biggest stars, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, who sings and plays trumpet on “Tired of Talk.” (The EP’s other guest is Sweet Pill’s Zayna Youssef, whose screams help take “Eyes Wide” into the EP’s aforementioned post-hardcore territory.) Doom Garden is Catbite’s catchiest, best-produced, and most original record, and it sounds like the work of a band who’s ready to blow up more than ever. If you didn’t have the singer of Fall Out Boy co-signing a DIY ska band on your list of 2025 predictions, maybe you just didn’t realize what Catbite are capable of.

33. Xiao – Control (Twelve Gauge)

The best hardcore whips you into such a frenzy that you don’t have the capacity to overthink it, and Stockholm band Xiao’s debut LP Control is that kind of hardcore. It deserves to be praised for taking the influence of aughts-era powerviolence-y hardcore bands like Coke Bust, Mind Eraser, and Hatred Surge and turning it into something new. And it deserves to be praised for directing a good chunk of its anger toward fascism, nazis, and corporate greed. But once I click play, all I can think to praise it for is how much ass it kicks for its entire 23-minute, 25-second runtime.

32. Die Spitz – Something to Consume (Third Man)

Die Spitz hail from the dusty Austin, Texas punk scene and they cite Nirvana, Mudhoney, PJ Harvey, Pixies, and Black Sabbath as their core influences which should give you a very good idea of the grungy, garagey punk racket that this quartet stirs up. Something to Consume is their first full-length, first release for Jack White’s Third Man Records, and also the band’s first time working with Will Yip (Turnstile, Mannequin Pussy, etc), who helped beef up Die Spitz’s production without toning down any of their grit. With four longtime friends all contributing to songwriting, bringing clashing ideas to the table, and feeding off of each other with tangible chemistry, Something to Consume is a reckless, lively blast.

31. Maruja – Pain to Power (Music For Nations)

In the political protest punk genre that often prioritizes musical simplicity in order to get a message across, Maruja have gone for musical complexity. They’ve got the Crass-worthy lyrical slogans (“They look down on us!”, “It’s our differences that make us beautiful!”, “I’ll see you in the trenches!”), but instead of setting them to primitive power chords, they stir up a strange brew of jagged post-punk, uplifting spiritual jazz, and a hint of hip hop that’s as brain-teasing as it is moshable. The way it weaves its rallying cries into a jazz-infused musical odyssey, it’s post-punk’s answer to To Pimp A Butterfly.

30. Florida Man – Plastique (The Ghost Is Clear)

Florida Man came back from hiatus with their best album yet. Plastique falls somewhere between the sludgy sarcasm of The Jesus Lizard, the polyrhythmic shuffle of At the Drive-In, the experimental hardcore of Time & Space-era Turnstile, and the anthemic barks of Militarie Gun/Drug Church. Never before have Florida Man had range this wide, and never has their political/social critique been so pointed.

29. L.S. Dunes – Violet (Fantasy)

The L.S. Dunes that emerged in 2022 with members of Circa Survive, My Chemical Romance, Thursday, and Coheed & Cambria couldn’t avoid being called a “supergroup,” but the L.S. Dunes of 2025 is just a band… and that’s a compliment. On their debut LP Past Lives, you could hear elements of all of the members’ most famous bands, and it felt like a total nostalgia rush for anyone with fond memories of the early 2000s post-hardcore scene. On their sophomore album Violet, the members’ familiar individual strengths are drowned out by the chemistry they formed after two years of touring. It’s often a slower, more ethereal album than Past Lives, and it pushes L.S. Dunes to places that none of the members’ other bands have gone before. This isn’t “Circa Survive + My Chemical Romance + Thursday + Coheed & Cambria.” This is L.S. Dunes.

28. Charmer – Downpour (Counter Intuitive)

2025 was the year that DIY emo bands shifted their attention from mid ’90s Chicago to early 2000s Long Island, and Charmer’s Downpour will go down as one of the most intriguing examples. The aughts-era Victory Records vibes are undeniable, but it still sounds like a warm, shaggy Charmer record. They’re embracing the influence but not transforming into it entirely, making for a record that stands out from both the early 2000s OGs and the new bands that have been re-lighting that torch. It’s not a revival, it’s a re-imagining.

27. Tiny Voices – Reasons I Won’t Change (PNWK)

The Wisconsin band Tiny Voices’ debut album Reasons I Won’t Change is constantly caught between screamy intensity and pop bliss, and it’s overflowing at both ends. Following in the footsteps of bands like The Wonder Years and Hot Mulligan (whose Chris Freeman lends his voice to “Yesterday”), Tiny Voices make charged-up pop punk that’s in touch with the rawer, grittier aspects of hardcore and emo, or maybe it’s the other way around. Their songcraft sounds wise beyond their years, but this whole LP is brimming with the big feelings and boundless energy of youth.

26. For Your Health – This Bitter Garden (3DOT)

Who exactly are For Your Health? Are they the raw screamo band that we heard on their split with Shin Guard, or the mathcore/sasscore band we heard on their debut LP In Spite Of, or are they the shiny emo-pop band we heard on their split with awakebutstillinbed? On This Bitter Garden, the answer is all of the above. It’s an album that the singles really did no justice to because it can’t be summed up in one or two or even three songs. Made with Foxing’s guitarist and in-house producer E.M. Hudson, it’s a cinematic, two-act album that swirls together everything For Your Health have ever been capable of and more. Like the films that helped inspire it, it’s full of surprise and suspense.

25. Speedway – A Life’s Refrain (Revelation)

The year’s best East Coast-style melodic hardcore album didn’t come from the East Coast, or even the US. It came from Sweden’s Speedway, who followed up two promising EPs with an absolutely frenzied debut LP. Every song sounds like a mosh pit waiting to happen, vocalist Anton Larsson has a tuneful shout that’s built to be yelled along to, and the crisp production makes A Life’s Refrain sound as nice in your headphones as Speedway do tearing it up on stage. And Speedway are deservingly in great company: A Life’s Refrain was released on the legendary hardcore label that put out so many of the classic albums Speedway are clearly influenced by, it was produced by Ned & Ben Russin of Title Fight (and mixed and mastered by Arthur Rizk), and Ned is also one of the album’s three guest vocalists, alongside Sebastian Murphy of Viagra Boys and Chris Wilson of Ekulu. That’s a lot of respected people to be rallying around a relatively new band, and there’s good reason for it.

24. Boneflower – Reveries (Deathwish)

On their third album, Madrid screamo/post-hardcore band Boneflower went for something more lush and shimmering than ever, and the result is one of 2025’s most beautiful screamo albums. Cushioning the harsh shrieks and thunderous rhythms are atmospheric, melodic guitars that sound clean even when they’re distorted. The production (by Borja Pérez, who also helmed 2020’s great Armour) is so glossy that you can see your reflection in it. The occasional clean vocals add a boost of melody as well. It’s Boneflower’s first LP for Deathwish, and it echoes other great Deathwish LPs like Deafheaven’s Sunbather, Touché Amoré’s Is Survived By, or last year’s State Faults album Children of the Moon in the way the aggression and the beauty come together to create something overwhelming. (Touché Amoré’s Jeremy Bolm also lends his voice to standout track “Pomegranate.”)

23. The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – Dreams of Being Dust (Epitaph)

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die are a band who have always done the expected. So, releasing a metalcore album five albums and 15 years into this pioneering emo revival band’s career–why the hell not? Even for a band that increasingly embraced metal and prog (the latter of which is present on Dreams of Being Dust too) over the years, this album felt like a surprisingly hard pivot, but it’s not surprising that TWIABP pulled it off. They do metal, hardcore, and post-hardcore in a way that still sounds like no other band in the world, with all these unique TWIABP-isms worked in, and the album’s heaviest songs work perfectly with the moments that sound more like classic TWIABP. The heavy pivot was partially a result of TWIABP feeling like they had nothing to lose, but also a result of the politically outspoken band’s state-of-the-world subject matter. Harsh times call for harsh music.

22. Destiny Bond – The Love (Convulse)

Destiny Bond’s sophomore LP is a hardcore/hard rock party in the vein of Fucked Up, Every Time I Die, and The Bronx, and this is a pedal-to-the-metal riff-fest with a real sense of purpose. Every throat-shredding bark, heroic guitar lick, and high-speed drum burst is done in the face of anti-trans crusades and other forms of oppression. It’s protest music, but as reinforced by the title The Love, it’s as much about fighting the power as it is about defiant celebration.

21. My Point of You – This Is My First Heist EP (Rite Field)

In just four songs, Denton, TX’s My Point of You emerged as one of the most gripping new ’90s-style emo bands to hit the scene in a minute. Their melodic, melancholic emo brings to mind second-wavers like Rainer Maria, Everyone Asked About You, and Mineral, and it’s got that intangible special something that tugs at the heartstrings in the way the best emo always does. This debut EP simultaneously sounds like a lost ’90s gem and your new favorite band, and it stood out from the pack in what might’ve been the busiest and best year for “Midwest emo” of the 2020s so far. Hoping we get a full-length from this band sooner than later, but meanwhile this all-too-brief record has already left a big impact.

20. Moving Mountains – Pruning of the Lower Limbs (Wax Bodega)

Moving Mountains’ first album in 12 years feels less like a comeback and more like a restart. It came together in a similar way as their cult classic debut–organically, privately, and entirely free of expectations. It wasn’t written to kick off a new album/tour cycle; it was written because bandleader Greg Dunn was flooded with musical inspiration for the first time since Moving Mountains went into hibernation, and that’s probably why it feels like some of the band’s most natural music. It finds Moving Mountains in their post-rocky emo comfort zone, just older, wiser, and a little more noticeably influenced by The National. It’s uplifting, soaring, beautiful music that stands out as much today as Moving Mountains’ first album did nearly two decades ago.

19. The Armed – The Future Is Here And Everything Needs To Be Destroyed (Sargent House)

Can’t knock The Armed’s hustle for trying their hand at arena rock on 2023’s Perfect Saviors, but I know I’m not alone in being happy to have them back making vicious hardcore punk again. And not just again, but heavier and often angrier than ever. True to its title, The Future Is Here And Everything Needs To Be Destroyed is a relentless attack on the horrors of our current reality, soundtracked by some of the harshest, most disorderly music in The Armed’s shapeshifting catalog. And for The Armed, a return to screamy punk doesn’t mean a simplification. The Future Is Here And Everything Needs To Be Destroyed is as genre-busting as the band’s more recent records, with elements of noise, electronics, and free jazz making the chaos even more intense.

18. Secret World – Tomorrow Is A Mystery To Me EP (Sunday Drive/Last Ride)

Not content to get lost in the “hardcore-adjacent alt-rock” shuffle, Secret World severely leveled up from last year’s promising Guilt Is Good EP with six gritty, anthemic singalongs that cut through all the noise. Their supergroup-worthy lineup includes members of various Australian hardcore bands (including Speed, Downside, Hand of Mercy, and more), and this EP gets an assist from a more melodic Australian punk great, Shogun (of Royal Headache/Antenna/Finnogun’s Wake), who nearly steals the show with his guest verse on EP opener “Good Faith.” But the EP never dips in excitement after that track, and that’s ’cause these lifer hardcore kids keep piling on the addictively tuneful hooks, song after song after song.

17. End It – Wrong Side of Heaven (Flatspot)

Eight years, three EPs, and countless live shows into their career, Baltimore hardcore band End It finally dropped a full-length, and it was well worth the wait. Outside of a clean-vocal cover of Maximum Penalty’s 1996 melodic hardcore gem “Could You Love Me?,” End It don’t really use the full-length format to expand their sound at all, and they didn’t need to. It’s just more End It, and it’s also some of the best End It. It’s 15 tracks in under 23 minutes of thrashy finger-pointing screeds that you don’t wanna find yourself on the opposing end of, and each one is elevated by the pure magnetism of vocalist Akil Godsey. Akil is an incisive lyricist, and his ability to sing brings a unique flair to his primarily-shouted vocals even when he chooses not to. With Wrong Side of Heaven, we get a fresh take on a formula that’s worked since the earliest days of hardcore: short, fast, primitive songs with a vocalist that you can’t turn your eyes or ears away from.

16. The Starting Line – Eternal Youth (Lineage)

The Starting Line’s first album in 18 years feels like the album they always wanted to make. They got sucked into the early 2000s pop punk machine when vocalist Ken Vasoli was still a teenager, and then spent the rest of their career trying to fight their way out of it before breaking up and eventually reconnecting with their love of pop punk and emo from a new perspective. Surrounding the release of Eternal Youth, they talked about taking notes from comeback albums by emo/pop punk OGs like Lifetime and Braid, as well as learning from bands that took off after The Starting Line broke up like Title Fight. And with this album, you get classic, unmistakable Starting Line vibes delivered with the same raw authenticity that we associate with all three of those bands. It’s easy to picture an alternate timeline where The Starting Line’s first album sounded like this, but these songs also possess such clear maturation that they only could’ve been written after years of growth.

15. First Day Back – Forward (self-released)

First Day Back are named after a 1998 Braid song, and their love of ’90s (and ’90s-inspired) emo doesn’t stop there. Right from the off-key yelps, twinkly guitars, and fidgety rhythms that open their debut album Forward, the Cap’n Jazz and Algernon Cadwallader comparisons are unavoidable, and like Algernon did when they started out, First Day Back make this stuff feel so much like it did in the ’90s that you almost can’t believe it’s a new band. Elsewhere on the LP, you’ll hear echoes of Sunny Day Real Estate (“Lines”) and Title Fight (“Gone On”), and violin playing from singer Maggie that adds an extra layer of beauty. It’s an album that reveals its sincerity right away, and then uncovers more and more depth with each listen.

14. TRSH – String Theory (Wax Bodega)

TRSH really leveled up this year with String Theory, the Springfield, Missouri emo band’s third full-length and best record yet. It’s got sharper production (courtesy of Billy Mannino) than any TRSH record before it, and that only makes the band’s combustible energy even more tangible. From the fast-paced Midwest emo noodling to String Theory qualifying as about 50% a screamo album, it’s one of the most chaotic emo records of this year, and no less catchy than any of TRSH’s comparatively softer counterparts.

13. Weatherday – Hornet Disaster (Topshelf)

One of the most unique albums from in or around the world of emo this year was Hornet Disaster by Swedish artist Weatherday. It’s rooted just as much in emo as it is in noise pop, and the 19-song, 76-minute album unfurls in so many different ways and covers so much ground. It can be a lot to take in at once, but no minute is wasted. Every unpredictable turn is as interesting as the last, and Weatherday makes sure that even the most brain-tickling moments come with an emotional release.

12. Kerosene Heights – Blame It On The Weather (SideOneDummy)

Kerosene Heights can Midwest emo noodle with the best of ’em, but with their sophomore album Blame It On The Weather, they’re really writing hooks. The jump from their 2023 debut LP Southeast of Somewhere to Blame It On The Weather is like 30° Everywhere to Nothing Feels Good, Braid to Hey Mercedes, Grow Up, Dude to Keep Doing What You’re Doing–they’re still an underground emo band but they’ve sanded the edges and strengthened their pop sensibilities and it suits them very well. It’s one of the year’s most deceptively simple indie-emo records, and one of the most addictive too.

11. Superheaven – Superheaven (Blue Grape)

As Superheaven’s mix of post-hardcore, shoegaze, and grunge became hugely influential on a new generation of bands, Superheaven themselves came back with their first album in a decade. It picks up right where they left off, it sounds as fresh as all the newer “grungegaze” bands, and it’s got some of the band’s hardest-hitting songs yet. From the titanic riffs to casually bleak couplets like “Tyrants rejoice/The end is here” and “Children burned alive/Money’s everything,” Superheaven embodies the feeling of looking out at the world and being crushed by the weight of it.

10. Pool Kids – Easier Said Than Done (Epitaph)

Yes, Pool Kids’ third album is their poppiest. But more importantly, it’s their most vivid and descriptive. Throughout this shapeshifting collection of songs that range from vocoder-fueled alt-pop to crunchy ’90s-style alt-rock to indie balladry to remnants of Pool Kids’ math-emo days, Christine Goodwyne sets scenes that play in your head like a movie. Throughout this record, you see our protagonist crying on a curb outside a CVS in the middle of Missouri during one song and smoking in the back of a truck in a parking lot of Christine’s childhood hometown of Tampa in another. And with the sweetest melodies of their career thus far, Pool Kids will have you singing along to all of it.

9. Home Is Where – Hunting Season (Wax Bodega)

Everybody’s going country lately, but nobody’s doing it like Home Is Where. While making Hunting Season, the post-emo trailblazers found inspiration in both The Flying Burrito Brothers and Joan of Arc, and this one-of-a-kind album actually reflects that. The Florida band trek through rustic acoustic guitars, Dylanesque harmonica, and throat-shredding screamo as singer Bea MacDonald takes you on a sepia-toned trip through the underbelly of rural America. Her goal was to write songs “that you could grill to but also cry to… not cry, just feel something.” Mission accomplished.

8. Lambrini Girls – Who Let the Dogs Out (City Slang)

Lambrini Girls aren’t the only current punk band honoring the age-old tradition of yelling at the tops of your lungs about societal bullshit over revved-up guitars, but they’re one of few who make it this fun. Their debut album Who Let the Dogs Out flips a middle finger at sexism, homophobia, capitalism, and gentrification, and vocalist/guitarist Phoebe Lunny screams her head off about these topics in a thick Brighton accent that goes so well with red-hot rage. She never really seems concerned with melody, but Who Let the Dogs Out reminds you that melodies aren’t the only way to stuff an album with hooks. Lambrini Girls rope you in with pure attitude.

7. Algernon Cadwallader – Trying Not to Have a Thought (Saddle Creek)

Algernon Cadwallader’s comeback has been as unassuming as their departure was. After a six-year run of doing everything their own way, the emo revival OGs quietly called it quits after a 2012 tour with Joyce Manor, and as members went on to focus on other projects like Hop Along and Dogs On Acid, their legend and their influence took on a life of its own. Now they’re widely considered one of the most important emo bands of all time, and in classic Algernon fashion, they still don’t act like it. Speaking about their first album in 14 years in an interview with Pitchfork, singer/bassist Peter Helmis said the band have “never worried about how [they’ll] be received” and added “if anything, we’ll steer something in another direction if we think it’s gonna be perceived too well.” And by listening to nothing except their own instincts, they’ve made a comeback album that effortlessly stands tall next to their classics. Trying Not to Have a Thought is a little prettier sounding than their early records, a little more reflective, and at times more overtly political, but mostly it sounds like the same band you could see in basements across America 15-16 years ago. They’re still the kings of twinkly, Midwest-style emo revivalism, and they still sound like they’re having a blast doing it.

6. Good Luck – Big Dreams, Mister (Lauren Records)

It’s time to give Good Luck their flowers. In the late 2000s, they were at the center of the US punk DIY circuit, crossing paths with the era’s emo revival, folk punk, power pop, and indie rock scenes without being beholden to any of them. But as close peers like Algernon Cadwallader (whose Joe Reinhart produced this new album) and Jeff Rosenstock (who penned the extremely praiseworthy bio for this album) achieved crossover success later on, and as younger bands like The Hotelier sang Good Luck’s praises, Good Luck remained a band that were fervently loved by those who knew them yet only known by few. Now they’ve released their first album in 14 years, and it’s the perfect opportunity to hop on the Good Luck train because it’s just as good as everything they released back then. Musically, it pretty much picks up right where the band left off, while lyrical themes reflect the personal changes (like parenthood) and societal changes that took place in the time since their last LP. Like their first two records, Big Dreams, Mister fits nowhere and everywhere all at once. From its hard-charging indie-punk to its bright power pop melodies to its twinkly emo guitars and beyond, it’s a record that shares varying amounts of DNA with Superchunk, The New Pornographers, Hop Along, Rilo Kiley, and the aforementioned Algernon Cadwallader, Jeff Rosenstock, and The Hotelier. But most of all, it’s just Good Luck.

5. Arm’s Length – There’s A Whole World Out There (Pure Noise)

There may not have been an emo album in 2025 as intense and dead-serious as Arm’s Length’s sophomore LP There’s A Whole World Out There. It picks up where early/mid 2010s bands like The Hotelier and Pianos Become the Teeth left off, with heavy yet shimmering instrumentals and a knack for turning grief, loss, and trauma into goosebump-inducing songs. There’s a greater sense of wisdom and emotional weight than the still-young band had on their 2022 debut LP, and more musical variety too. The aggressive parts are more aggressive, the poppy parts are poppier, and there’s a noted folk/country influence–one of the album’s best songs, “You Ominously End,” is the banjo-infused emo song you didn’t know you needed.

4. Saturdays At Your Place – These Things Happen (Wax Bodega)

After a pivotal 2023 EP that could barely contain Saturdays At Your Place’s ambition, the Kalamazoo emo band go for something a little more calm, cool, and collected on their best release yet. It’s a folky indie/emo hybrid that has earned a lot of comparisons to Modern Baseball, and it finds SAYP cleaning up as good as MoBo did on their now-classic sophomore album. It sounds strikingly youthful and remarkably mature all at once, fueled by the ups and downs of quarter-life and presented in a way that could hit whether those days are ahead of you, behind you, or happening right now.

3. Anxious – Bambi (Run For Cover)

On Bambi, Anxious sound like the best early 2000s emo band that never was. They’re caught somewhere between Tell All Your Friends-style dual vocals and Bleed American-style anthems (and Bleed American-style ballads), and they’ve got the range to seamlessly weave in some Beach Boys/Animal Collective harmonies too. Like Bleed American, Bambi is produced like a big, warm rock record, eschewing scene-specific production styles and sounding instantly timeless. But what really makes Anxious stand out from all of their peers and forebears is their self-assurance. They know exactly who they are, and Bambi perfectly captures that. From the bangers to the ballads, every moment of this album is delivered with intention and grace.

2. Drain – …Is Your Friend (Epitaph)

Drain are currently putting on some of the wildest, biggest, and most fun shows in hardcore, and their third album …Is Your Friend captures that energy on tape better than any Drain record has before. With 10 ragers in 27 minutes that run the gamut from skate punk to crossover thrash, Drain make you feel like you’re right there in the room with them with lyrics that follow suit (“The energy I feed, you feed, we feel alive/Just for tonight… And when I scream, I want to hear it ring forever”). While piling on the energy, Drain have upped their songcraft too; these are Drain’s catchiest songs yet, and not just because of the clean vocals on “Who’s Having Fun?” and parts of “Living In A Memory.” Even when he’s barking his head off, Sammy Ciaramitaro delivers the most memorable refrains of his career.

1. Turnstile – Never Enough (Roadrunner)

The most common criticism leveled at Never Enough is that it sounded too much like Glow On, which was probably brought on even more so by an opening track/lead single that sounded like an intentional rewrite of Glow On‘s opening track/lead single. But six months later, you don’t have to squint very hard to see this album’s unique identity shining through. Two of its best and most widely-loved songs sound kinda like The Police (“Seein’ Stars,” “I Care”), and Turnstile prove they can swing the pendulum all the way in that direction and still find them for some of their fiercest, fastest hardcore punk songs (“Birds,” “Sole,” “Sunshower”). Never Enough is loaded with some of the sharpest left turns in Turnstile’s catalog; the Latin horns and reggaeton beat in the otherwise heavy rock song “Dreaming,” the transition from headbanger riffs to club beats on “Look Out For Me,” and the explosive mosh part after the A.G. Cook-assisted sound collage in “Dull” still sound surprising even after you’ve heard them dozens of times. In classic Turnstile fashion, Never Enough finds them focused on pushing the catchiness, the experimentation, and the heaviness to new limits, and doing so their way and no one else’s.

**

Honorable Mentions aka two 3-song EPs and a split that would’ve made the list if they were a little longer:
Saetia – Tendrils
Speed – All My Angels
Haywire / No Guard – Shirts vs. Skins

**

Browse the ‘In Defense of the Genre’ archives and our “punk” tag for all of our punk coverage from throughout the year.

Browse Best of 2025 for more lists.