2025 has come to a close, and as we go back to classes, we want to highlight some of the albums that made our year as awesome as it was. Several of our staff members took the time to write about their No. 1 picks, and we hope you’ll find some new favorites among them.
Ashe Burr, Entertainment Editorial Assistant
Carving the Stone by For Those I Love
I’ve seen critics call this album a eulogy for a place that doesn’t love you back, and this level of solemn adoration helped to make this an album that I continued to turn to as the year progressed. Touching on topics that range from the death and desecration of youthful energy to drinking oneself to death, home no longer feeling like home to burnout and more, For Those I Love managed to capture a somewhat nihilistic adoration of Ireland that spoke to me more and more as the year progressed. Four years passed between Carving the Stone and For Those I Love’s previous release, I Have A Love, and it made this album hit that much harder.
Aaron Kasuba, Cohost of Pity Party and Media Librarian
It’s a Beautiful Day, What a Beautiful Day by Skinhead
From songs about home invasions, reflecting on the past, and the quiet dread of getting stuck with the check at dinner, melodic hardcore band Skinhead deliver their most personal album to date. Releasing in June 2025, this album has been on repeat for me all for the whole second half of this year. It’s one of those projects that a band releases which pushes their sound to the next level. Josh Long’s lyricism on this LP cuts deeper than ever, revealing a far more emotional and personal side that scratches an itch in my brain. This album rules, and I look forward to seeing what this band cooks up in the future.
“Sixteen years old /
My first broken nose /
Listening to Blitz in a convertible
With some blood on my clothes /
I may never feel that same breeze again /
First time in my life, I knew I had friends ”
Rachel Kozlowski, Digital Media Director and Airstaff DJ
Getting Killed by Geese
I consider myself a founding member of the Gaggle (is that what we can call the Geese fandom?) so watching one of my favorite bands take over the music scene this year felt awesome. Getting Killed captures the intense yearning and nostalgia I feel on the daily with punching production and soul-grabbing melodies. There have been countless moonlit nights on my porch where I press play and “let me dance away.” This album feels like discovering fire for the first time. Intense, new, and bright.
“You can’t keep running away”
Violet Zatek, Graphic Designer
The BPM by Sudan Archives
A chaotic, energetic, and periodically vulgar album that explores the mixture between human love and technological obsession. As a fan for a couple years, my first listen felt like an unexpected jump from her usual mix of R&B and art pop to an album that’s much closer to EDM. Yet, it kept reeling me back in for some reason. More time with the album made me realize her previous aspects never left: Under this new and energetic coat of paint were still her dynamic instrumentals and R&B vocals. These familiar things which have me listening to her previous albums time and time again were now effectively computerized. Even with some flaws, it’s my personal favorite release of 2025.
“All that I know is that I don’t want this computer love /
‘Cause right now I feel alive”
Dante Chinni-Ianzito, Host of Torch & Twang
Pilgrim by Jesse Welles
Folk music has always been a genre rooted in the issues of the time the songs were written. This is something that I have always loved about the genre, but it does mean that any folk song inevitably becomes dated. And while it’ll always be interesting to look back at Pete Seeger singing about forming unions in the 1940s, it can be hard to connect to the emotional throughline or message in the lyrics. Sufficed to say, Jesse Welles provides an answer by creating a folk album relatable to anyone who read a headline in 2025.
It’s almost jarring, listening to an album so clearly inspired by the music of artists like Bob Dylan mention Black Rock or having your job replaced by AI and yet here it is. Welles is able to walk a difficult line of incorporating these ideas into his music without it feeling clumsy or comprising the actual musical talent on display. If you don’t want to feel alone about your anxieties about living in the 21st century, give this album a listen.
Paige Mattison, Staff Writer
everything is a lot. by Wale
Through his brilliant Seinfeld projects, Wale proved and perfected his skill to take on pop culture without sounding dated or corny. “Michael Fredo,” the sixth track off his latest album, is perhaps the crown jewel of this expertise—A Godfather analogy about the intrusive and manufactured nature normalized in celebrity relations: “Ni**as lie on my name to stay afloat / And it’s too many Fredos and it’s not enough boats.”
On his eighth album, everything is a lot., Wale continues his tender, introspective tunes that lend themselves to being played in the club, or alone on the contemplative drive home. His honesty about the maze of celebrity doesn’t make him out of touch, rather, it homes in on the feelings that make us all human. The difference is, his feelings aren’t presented as a discombobulated journal entry like the masses—It’s always a thoughtful meditation fueled by his versatile flow and colorful imagery. everything is a lot. is a powerfully honest album that perfectly blends fun, engaging sound with deep subject matter.
Jena Samson, Social Media Manager
Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd
At the beginning of the year, The Weeknd dropped arguably one of the best albums of the year. As he hinted during the rollout for this album, it could be the end of “The Weeknd” persona altogether. Noting this, the album perfectly encapsulates all of his past projects and ends on a kind of a high note. For me, this is his best project since After Hours. Highlighting what he went through when he lost his voice at one of his shows and showcasing his trauma.
This album for me perfectly highlights the seasons of January and winter. Having one of the last songs end with him repeating “how do I know tomorrow’s coming especially when I always kiss the sky especially when I always chase the high, especially when they put me in the ground, I don’t suppose tomorrow’s coming.”
This album was an insane first listen, and I always find myself going back to it and reliving the experience. I think it’s a lot harder for artists these days to make a timeless album, but I believe The Weeknd has accomplished this feat on numerous occasions.
