The 2025 AllMusic Readers' Poll

Our 2025 year-end coverage ends with the top 10 albums of the year as voted on by the AllMusic community. Respondents from all around the world made their choices, and we're excited to share the top 10 results as voted by you, the AllMusic reader. Thanks again for reading and supporting AllMusic in 2025, and we look forward to bringing you more reviews and features in 2026.

"She sings here in 13 languages, weaves in elements from jungle, hip-hop, and classic Italian arias, and uses an orchestra as a representation of her own intrusive thoughts....Yet with an auteur’s hand, this Frankenstein-like mission seems utterly effortless -- natural, even, as if these pieces were always meant to be. The result is an album so expansive that the edges are almost entirely out of sight. Fearless, maximalist, and laden with emotion, Lux is a work worthy of both the Heavens and the Earth." (Read the Review)

"When they confront More's midlife crises, Pulp come into their own. Cocker's magnetism as a storyteller is at a peak -- he's still revealing the sleaze in posh surroundings and the romance within the mundane with unerring aim, and if his characters are a little different two decades later, they're still true to form. ...He and the rest of the band may be older, but they never sound as weary as they did on This Is Hardcore and We Love Life. This time, they do indeed get it right -- More is classic Pulp, aged to near perfection." (Read the Review)

"Plant's newest band, Saving Grace, might be his most casual and cooperative yet. After meeting banjoist Matt Worley at his local pub, the two put together a crew of regional folk musicians including singer/accordionist Suzi Dian; Suzi's husband, drummer Oli Jefferson; guitarist Tony Kelsey; and cellist Barney Morse-Brown. Billed as Robert Plant with Suzi Dian, Saving Grace is less of a solo record than it is the sound of a new collective learning its strengths. Like most of Plant's projects, their sound is largely informed by American traditions -- blues, folk, country, gospel -- and steeped in a bit of U.K. Midlands mystique." (Read the Review)

"A cheery outlook has never been Tweedy's stock-in-trade, but the undertow of his writing has been a troubled response to a world going mad, and in the essay that accompanies his 2025 album, Twilight Override, he sums up the tenor of American life as 'a bottomless basket of rock bottoms.' So what to do? In Tweedy's case, the answer is to make music, lots of it, and Twilight Override is an epic-scale response to prevailing malaise." (Read the Review)

"The third studio album from the shape-shifting, Brooklyn-based experimental rock band, Getting Killed finds Geese at their most chaotic, delivering an assured yet jarring set of no-wave-tinged art-rock missives that are as unnerving as they are festering with earworm hooks and biting humor. Gen Z’s superpower lies in its cultural immediacy -- a vast rolodex of influences ready to be summoned, ingested, dismissed, or argued over in the blink of an eye." (Read the Review)

"Historically, Pompeii falls at a significant hinge point in Pink Floyd's career. By the time they set up among the deserted ruins of the ancient Roman amphitheater outside Naples, they were in many ways still an undefined entity. Their output after Syd Barrett's 1968 departure was exploratory, often thrillingly so, but they had yet to find the sense of cohesion and polish that would mark their catalog from Dark Side forward. And that's a big part of Pompeii's charm, both on screen and disc." (Read the Review)

"Foxes in the Snow gives Isbell a chance to show off his abilities as a vocalist and guitarist with no distraction; it turns out he's every bit as adept with an acoustic as he is with an electric, and he shares his stories with a master's touch. Jason Isbell is a singer and songwriter who is never afraid to do the work to make his music something special, and even when he's performing in stripped-down fashion, he delivers great songs and the commitment to make them special. Anyone who questions that hasn't heard Foxes in the Snow." (Read the Review)

"If listeners thought Ohms was the pinnacle of what Deftones could achieve in their late-era surge, here comes Private Music to run circles around that notion. Perfect from back to front, this tenth set from the alt-metal veterans is a lean, mean stunner. Going two for two in the 2020s so far, Deftones maintain their position as one of the greatest bands of their generation. Throw on a pair of headphones and get lost with Private Music." (Read the Review)

"While Double Infinity is an album more likely to wash over listeners than stick, its collaborative, impromptu spirit has infectious qualities of its own, and it's interesting to hear that the band expanded outward instead shrinking with the first departure of a member." (Read the Review)

"Buddy Guy stands his ground as a blues journeyman and icon on 2025's Ain't Done With the Blues. His 20th studio album, it arrives just as the legendary, Lousiana-born guitarist and singer celebrates his 89th birthday. It also comes on the heels of his surprise appearance in director Ryan Coogler's hit vampire action-drama Sinners; a role that built crucially on Guy's storied blues reputation and which he also underscores on Ain't Done With the Blues." (Read the Review)

Thanks to everyone who cast their votes, and we look forward to more great music in 2026.