magical | ˈmajəkəl |
adjective
- beautiful or delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life.
For me, 2025 was a magical year for popular music. These are the 14 beautiful albums I delighted in the most. As usual, musically, they’re all over the map, representing my faves from the 8,425,594 genres my Spotify Wrapped said I listened to last year. The connecting thread between them is the overwhelming predominance of female artists. That, and the full-body, chill-inducing dopamine surges that they all produce.
Here they are in no particular order.
I lied. The first two are my favorites for the year, and I cannot decide between them.
Lady Gaga Mayhem It’s silly how good this album is. Gaga goes back to her Fame Monster past with added bombast and brings Nine Inch Nails, Prince, and Bowie references with her. It’s one BIG sonic feast that is uniquely Gaga.
Hayley Williams Ego Death at a Bachelor Party My Girl Hayley pours every one of her feelings of identity, grief, anger, and liberation into a sprawling genre-blurring masterpiece. Williams’ raw vocal vulnerability, combined with haunting, experimental production, makes this a definitive, triumphant artistic statement.
Here are the others, in no particular order.
Abor & Tynna Bittersüß This is the excellent debut album of an Austrian brother-sister electronic and pop music duo, who represented Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2025. Abor’s beats and production bring an expansive, textured quality to their sound, and Tynna is an alluring vocalist. This was my most listened to album of the year and it didn’t matter that I don’t understand German.
Laufey A Matter of Time How is she so good? This is a deeply serious, personal, and vulnerable album that maintains the orchestral jazz roots of her prior Grammy-winning Bewitched, while adding pop and cinematic influences.
Addison Rae Addison
For her self-titled debut album, Rae and her Swedish producers Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Kloser used Madonna’s 1998 classic Ray of Light as a primary inspiration, particularly its electronic, hypnotic, and atmospheric production. Vocally, Addison channels Britney Spears’ saccharine, breathy synth-pop Toxic-era. Whether she’s a singular artist or the product of her references remains to be seen, but this album is nice.
Renee Rapp Bite Me I love her sassy, attitude and versatile, Broadway-trained powerhouse voice.
Iniko The Awakening I have never heard anything like this before, but I like it.
Sault 10 I call this enigmatic British collective “pan-black”, as their music is a brew of seemingly every black genre: R&B, funk, disco, jazz, gospel, et al. And floating above the vibes is the angelic, crystal clear voice of Cleo Sol.
Olivia Dean The Art of Loving
Text from a friend: “I have to know what you’re thinking of Olivia Dean!!”
My reply: “Love her. Been on her for more than a minute. The first album was great. The retro soul sound of the new one is fantastic.”
Alison Goldfrapp Flux Solid, no skips, dance-pop that extends the continued influence of The Year of Our Disco 2020.
Eli & Fur Dreams at Dusk The London duo of Eliza Noble and Jennifer Skillman expands on their signature emotional, atmospheric melodic house/techno sound, blending mesmerizing beats with sedative, yet expressive vocals.
Ella Eyre everything, in time If the heyday of Motown were today instead of the 1960s, it would sound like this.
Larkin Poe Bloom Wherein the Grammy-winning sister duo are seriously bringing that southern rock and blues, and giving all of the Black Crowes, Allman Brothers, and Delaney and Bonnie vibes.
Album That Came Out in Late 2024 But I Really Got Into It in Early 2025
Rufus du Soul Inhale/Exhale (Oct 2024) Spacious and sophisticated dance music that is as much for the brain as it is for the body. It’s nominated for the 2026 Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Here are links to a playlist with a song from each album.
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4hdUGO3bWOarSkgKeLal5V?si=b8d99c62ee5144e0
Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/favorite-albums-of-2025/pl.u-11zBMMVtokL05
Ray's Musings 
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