Like other areas of culture today, music fandom is beset by intense doomerism. A 2024 YouGov poll showed Americans think we’re living in one of the worst musical decades since the 1930s, revealing a breakdown in our sense of shared cultural experience.
That discontent is surely exacerbated by hyperbolic “poptimist” cheerleading and the increasing difficulty of making a living as a boundary-pushing musician — not to mention pervasive worries that art is in the process of being replaced by AI slop.
Even so, I don’t buy into the cultural malaise. While great artists don’t always get the attention they deserve, I still find it difficult to keep up with how many great records come out each year — even in the 2020s. I’m especially encouraged by musicians who are using their art to speak to the broader political unrest of our time — from punk and hip hop to post-hardcore and folk music.
In the end, this might not be our Summer of Love, where a distinctive style perfectly captures a generation’s sound and the fury. But 2025 saw dozens of politically potent and musically rich albums that give me hope for our cultural future.
As alternative culture continues to grow, there is still great new music to discover — and reason to advocate for cultural progress. As Hotline TNT frontman Will Anderson put it, “A cooler world is possible.”
Here are ten essential 2025 albums by artists who agree.
People Watching, the third album from English singer-songwriter Sam Fender, is the Born in the U.S.A. our moment desperately needed. A heart-wrenching expression of working class pain, Fender’s record documents the unemployment, addiction, and other ills that plague England’s once-flourishing towns. He’s the perfect person to tell the story: Fender flunked out of his A-Levels and struggled to support his sick mother while living in a black mold–ridden flat. His songs capture his experiences and…
Auteur: Jarek Paul Ervin
