The Best Albums of 2025 So Far (Part 3)

A ranking and review of the top 100!

See No. 100 - 76 here and No. 75 - 51 here!

#50: Soraru, Solve the dream
After taking listeners down paths with sonic detours and symbols that serve as landmarks, the journey ends with “Solve the dream,” which has this summative line: “A single guidepost / Is what connects two people.” He expresses sorrow at the impermanence of his memories’ specifics, while deciding he will be “Gathering up the fragments of a dream” and revisiting those “guideposts” to try retracing his steps and recreating precious moments.

Solve the dream is both a promise and a quest, and the mission’s vast implications get the artful depictions they deserve. Read more here!

#49: KiiiKiii, UNCUT GEM

If someone were to put the hallmarks of younger millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha in a bottle and shake it up, the resulting mixture would be KiiiKiii’s essence! They distill the pop culture zeitgeist of the past two-and-a-half decades, with an implied awareness of trends that coexists with disinterest in caring about following them. Their lyrics, outfits, music videos, and promotional materials have eye-roll equivalents, with an embedded sense of irony that makes everything they say and do seem both serious and like a joke.

KiiiKiii are both fundamentally serious and unserious, making them products of an internet-consumed era and therefore not mere products at all, but regular young people. They are the musical version of internet culture, with all of its oddities and juxtapositions. They are emblematic of “kids these days,” treating literal and metaphorical concepts as interchangeable, and that makes their on-the-rise status illustrative. Read more here!

#48: CHUU, Only cry in the rain
Only cry in the rain is a wholesome and wholehearted tribute to the special bond between best friends. In the title track, CHUU celebrates what feels like just a “world for two,” and as the music video attests, that is a world where she plays with a friend while treating a potential love interest as merely the third wheel! She soaks in every second with her bestie, saving her tears for the times when they are apart. CHUU also shows the immense value she places on a specific relationship through the B-sides. There is a persistent “just between us” sentiment, as she talks in ways others might not understand. It doesn’t matter if others do not get her sense of humor (the one she shows in “Kiss a kitty”) or the depth of her affection (which is apparent in “Je t’aime”). Her songs are like phone conversations, especially when she excitedly reveals she’s “Back in town,” and when she offers someone encouragement to have pride in individuality in “No more.” The sacredness with which she views her friendship is further evident with the angel wings and 2D scenes in the music video. The bond she sings about is too precious to be accurately captured in just one dimension or a series of realistic scenes!

#47: CHEEZE, It just happened 
CHEEZE sings about getting butterflies in her stomach over a crush, daydreams about days with her lover, and grows flustered about making a move. … She spends less time telling a love story and more time describing a pre-relationship phase, when strong thoughts and feelings are there but corresponding actions are not! Her self-harmonizing and frequent “Mmm”s make it sound like she is daydreaming out loud. … It just happened is a lovable ode to love itself, and it humbly emphasizes the mental preparation that comes before expressing it! Read more here! 

#46: Zior Park, A BLOODSUCKER
A BLOODSUCKER is a macabre psychoanalysis. Zior Park does not know who he would be outside of his characters, and this era explores who the person behind his many past personas might be - despite, ironically, him playing a new persona as he tries to figure it out. … The counterargument to viewing A BLOODSUCKER as a “from monster to human” story is how he frames [a] very human ending: as a piece of a scripted production. Therein lies the crux of his problem: Every happy ending in his life seems at least partially contrived. The question remains: Who is Zior Park really? Read more here! 

#45: B.I, WONDERLAND
WONDERLAND is a vibrant reimagining of what it means to stay connected to one’s inner child. The album, full-length “Ferris wheel” music video, and short video clips that correspond to the B-sides all add up to a wise and wondrous story because of, rather than despite, its fragmented nature. The genres and moods vary as much as the video clips’ mediums… Read more here!

#44: CHUNG HA, Alivio
Named after the Spanish word for “relief,” Alivio is aptly cathartic. With dance-pop, house music, R&B, and even orchestral influences, CHUNG HA keeps the basic topic - stress relief - interesting and versatile. The songs that ought to be fan favorites are the sassier ones, “Even Steven (Happy Ending)” and “Salty”! The latter is a retro gem on which CHUNG HA harmonizes well with SUNMI, and it also stands out for its self-awareness. They show how to live both vulnerably and confidently, admitting to crying while describing it as just their eyes “getting salty”! Other revealing moments throughout Alivio show CHUNG HA’s conscious efforts to remind both herself and others to keep their chins up. Alivio acknowledges that becoming less self-critical (and therefore less stressed) is harder than it seems, so the album is less of a command and more of a permission structure. Reiterating the permission to let loose is the final track, “Still a Rose,” which reminds people they are worthy of  blooming even as they grow “thorns” and even if others try to “cut” their “stems.” 

#43: ZEROBASEONE, BLUE PARADISE
As a BLUE PARADISE preview video puts it, “Blue shadows my face, but I let it in. Sad and beautiful, blue becomes a piece of life.” The BLUE PARADISE era dutifully channels this “beauty in blueness” theme. In “BLUE,” ZEROBASEONE sing about feeling blue via up-tempo synth-pop. Songs about being “Out of Love,” wanting to “Step Back” from a relationship, and feeling like a relationship is “Cruel” and a “Devil Game” are also delivered with pep in their steps! And with “Doctor! Doctor!,” they keep things light with lyrics like “It’s an L-O-V-Emergency”! They prioritize playfulness in countless other ways… Read more here! 

#42: SUPER★DRAGON, SUPER X
SUPER X is a zesty mix of EDM, pop, rock, and rap, and those ingredients never present themselves in isolation. Brand-new songs and pre-release singles alike bring the heat: EDM bangers like “Hallucination of Love” and “Downforce,” the relatively abrasive “Dark Heroes,” the rock song “Omaejanai,” the sudden tropical twist that is “Good Times & Tan Lines,” the rugged-voiced “DOG,” and more. The group also keeps people guessing with interludes that are mere chaos agents, rather than chapter introductions or conclusions. With the sounds of texting, a phone buzzing, sirens, screeching brakes, beeping, and more, the only clear message consistency is “Ready or not, here we come, and you’ll never know from which direction!”

#41: Danny Koo, Danny Sings! 
This jazz album is an absolute delight! It centers love and optimism in both sound and style, and it stays danceable but in changing forms, sometimes sway-worthy and slow-dance-ready (like “1st Step” and “My Secret”) and other times euphoric and primed for tap dancing (like “Who Cares”)! Danny Koo is both a violin and vocal virtuoso, and while he has gotten the former title more often than the latter, this album makes his worthiness of the latter title evident, especially through ballads like “Will You Be My Home.” However, the best songs are “Who Cares,” which has the strongest live-musical energy, and “Another Day,” for epitomizing the album’s theme of ordinary memories turning extraordinary thanks to finding luck in love!

#40: ONEW, CONNECTION
Previously, ONEW sang about rolling dice in the game of life and hoping he would be a “winner.” Now, he references “the dice of fate” while wondering who else can become a winner. The “Winner” music video and the album’s B-sides give the answer: anyone and everyone who finds “CONNECTIONS.” … Throughout the album, ONEW sticks to this theme. He promises to give all his love to someone in “Promise you;” he describes “small dreams” as being as important as big ones in “Boy,” since what matters more than a dream’s specifics is the ability to have and tell someone about that dream in the first place; he sings about someone filling his life with color in “Gradation;” he sings about leaning on someone and vice versa in “Conversation;” and he ends with “Yay,” in which he celebrates emerging from solitude. … CONNECTION’s songs and videos use disparate ways to send the same universal message about a “win” in life coming not so much from a relationship’s particulars as from the presence of a relationship itself. Read more here! 

#39: tripleS, <ASSEMBLE25>
This tripleS era rhymes with the <ASSEMBLE24> era without repeating it. Both take unconventional approaches to the topics of resilience and rebirth, and both eras’ main music videos thrive in a murky space between the stuff of dreams and nightmares. … The good and bad times alike have much to read into, both separately and when comparing and contrasting the videos. … The lyrics throughout <ASSEMBLE25> also take after <ASSEMBLE24>. They are about breaking out of self-imposed boxes, expanding one’s world, and valuing perseverance. <ASSEMBLE25>, however, reaps more of the fruits of that labor… Read more here!

#38: ARTMS, <Club Icarus>
Some of the parallels between <Club Icarus> and a previous ARTMS release, <Dall>, are subtle, like the fact they whisper “Wait for me” in the <Dall> intro and say the word “Whisper” in the <Club Icarus> intro. Other parallels are more obvious, like repeated references to wings and to virtual connections; these carry symbolic value in both eras’ videos. Outside of linkages to the <Dall> era, <Club Icarus> shines for its flipping of a classic mythological script… Read more here!  

#37: P1Harmony, DUH!
While long-time P1Harmony listeners will hear many of the boy band’s hallmarks in DUH! - ad libs galore, singing and rapping flexes within the same song, heavy hip-hop inspiration - this project stands apart from their past ones. It is not so much that they have honed their sound, nor is it so much that they have grown more confident. It is both and then some, and what feels the most new-to-them is the apathy they have towards those who wish for their creative and commercial downfall. Those people are jokes to them, and that comes across in their music loud and clear! While being more fun-loving than forceful, the group exudes a triumphant “Doubt us at your own peril” attitude, and their music is better off for it! Read more here!

#36: G-DRAGON, ÜBERMENSCH
Psychologist Friedrich Nietzsche popularized the term “Übermensch,” referring to a human who transforms into the most idyllic and powerful state imaginable. This aspirational “Overman” transcends human categories, hence why artists’ depictions of an Übermensch take on superhuman traits. Since an Übermensch can play any human role one can think of but never needs to, human-describing adjectives are deemed irrelevant. An Übermensch does not need to be “this” or “that;” the Übermensch is beyond compliments and reproach alike. With this context in mind, it makes sense for G-DRAGON to defy clear categorizations for any part of this ÜBERMENSCH era… Read more here!  

#35: JISOO, AMORTAGE
AMORTAGE combines “amor,” meaning “love,” with “montage,” and this EP indeed tells a love story montage-style. At a brisk pace, it cuts out the filler and sums up a relationship’s highs and lows. Likewise, the “earthquake” music video just makes time to touch on key milestones. … The 0-to-100 way people go from hesitant to approach a crush to forgetting what a day was like before communicating with that crush throughout it is something “earthquake” perfectly captures. As for the EP itself, JISOO goes from sounding head-over-heels (in the first two songs, “earthquake” and “Your Love”), to sounding proud of breaking up (“TEARS”), to giving her now-ex a blistering chastising (“Hugs & Kisses”). If one wants to summarize what the rush of a romance feels like from start to finish, AMORTAGE and “earthquake” do the trick! Read more here! 

#34: ENHYPEN, DESIRE : UNLEASH
As written about at length previously, ENHYPEN’s sprawling narrative is so much more than a vampire story. It uses vampires as a conduit for deep messages, and those messages remain relevant in DESIRE : UNLEASH, through the music videos, songs, and short film. Their vampire characters continue to raise questions regarding the following: what meaning life can have if it has no specific start or endpoint, what kind of legacy someone can leave if they never leave, what it truly means to be human, what immortals miss out on when they have no sense of space and time to firmly live within, and what it really means to have an insatiable craving. Read more here! 

#33: The Rose, WRLD
A hopeful streak runs through WRLD, sometimes on the surface, sometimes buried, and always returning to the theme of cosmic fate. … After singing about having hope that “Tomorrow” will be better and calling out to the universe for answers in “Nevermind,” they end with “Ticket To The Sky” and lines like “Below the stars, we ignite.” Before that, in “Slowly,” they hit an emotional low point, but lines like “Faces come and faces go” share the “This too shall pass” outlook of the brighter songs. The myriad of ways the songs on WRLD allude to each other embodies its “full-circle” theme… Read more here! 

#32: BAEKHYUN, Essence of Reverie 
Suiting the title, which includes the French word for “daydream,” Essence of Reverie lets listeners indulge in BAEKHYUN’s dreamy and romantic voice. He smoothly elevates each R&B-rooted song, while adding pop pizazz for the perfect finishing touches. He switches to a more talk-like pace and tone partway through “No Problem,” “Black Dreams” features ad-lib interjections, and the string melodies in “Lemonade” give it extra sweetness! The best song, though, is “Love Comes Back,” and the most smile-worthy is “Elevator.” The latter brings to mind “Candy” but has even cuter lyrics! One more dose of swoon-worthiness comes from the acoustic ballad that ends the album, “Late Night Calls.” It is the perfect bow on this present, concluding with a simple reminder of BAEKHYUN’s voice’s silkiness. 

#31: Sakurazaka46, Make or Break (Special Edition) 
Under the umbrella message of “You miss every shot you don’t take,” Sakurazaka46 give the thoughts and feelings of young adults the wonderfully odd musical equivalents they deserve! In “Renaimusou,” they compare the odds of success to a lottery and sports that are both worth playing: “If you don’t do anything, there won’t be any problems / But still, you have to try, [or else] nothing will be different from yesterday;” “The minimum requirement is to [do] the required batting.” The other songs have more atypical metaphors (not to mention more colorful instrumentals). In “Shindafuri,” they sing about how they would rather “play dead” than live in an inauthentic way: “Reject! I don’t like it! Sorry!;” “I can’t compromise on anything.” In “Minatoku Parsley,” they treat those as code words that indicate a pending confession. And in “Make or Break,” they cannot decide if love is more like a knife or a bumblebee, so they compare it to both! 

With energizing instrumentals and offbeat analogies, this J-pop group has always stood out, and their latest work is no exception.

#30: Stray Kids, Mixtape : dominATE 
This mixtape is playful, punchy, and personalized. It is unmistakably a Stray Kids release, filled to the brim with braggadocio and cheeky ways with words, while also laced with layers of sincere sweetness and personal pride. Blending everything together is a consistent conviction and charisma. Read more here!

#29: SIX LOUNGE, more than love
more than love is an audacious alternative to the average rock EP. It gets better and more daring as it goes on, starting with a “woe is me” song about wishing they were better songwriters! “Donzoko” (“Rock Bottom”) is also self-deprecating, but with more of a shrug than an axe to grind! They decide to just dance out their feelings, which escalates to a pledge to be so honest that they get “embarrassed all the time” (in “You and I”) and to let people “laugh at [them] for being stupid” (in “Shinuhodoaitaikaradakaraainiikuyo”)! After throwing accelerating caution to the wind, their humorous brand of self-disgust culminates in “GuroiLOVESONG.” The self-described “gross love song” is enjoyably excessive, especially when a note is held for a jaw-droppingly long time!

#28: PassCode, INSIGNIA 
PassCode prove they are always in fighting form! With head-spinning speed and frequency, the electronic/pop/rock group balances guttural screams and metal-adjacent tendencies with periods of glitchy hyper-pop. Their words share their sound’s combustible energy. ... They are aggressive cheerleaders, wielding words of encouragement like weapons more than seeds to passively plant in people’s minds. The relentless advice-giving avoids getting annoying or tedious, though, thanks to both the all-consuming sound and some more inspired lyrical detours… Read more here!

#27: Pets Tseng, Stay Tuned
Stay Tuned is a gentle and accessible meditation on life imitating art and vice versa. Soft guitars and pianos are the main events, sometimes for ballads, sometimes for more upbeat material, and always for songs with “life as a show” framing. … The last song, “What Love Feels Like,” expresses anticipation for “the next season,” and it makes an astute observation about why the TV show analogy is useful. TV shows are something that goes “From impermanence to daily life;” they become parts of people’s daily routines, so in a way, TV is life. “Count to Ten” gets at the same sentiment: TV is like a date on a calendar, something that might mean nothing to outsiders but can be personally significant and important for the viewer. Pets Tseng sings about the importance of always remembering the day of a breakup, much like someone always remembers when they tune in to a favorite show or when they found out a favorite character’s fate. Numbers are a way to recall and categorize memories, making them more meaningful and understandable. TV shows are a tool for the same ends, to make sense of the world both after and as it is unfolding. As she puts it in “Unforgettable,” TV stars who “have your time” and attention recognize “It’s short, but it’s forever,” just like life. Read more here!

#26: The Crane, Same Stories, Different Narratives
These songs are not exactly confident, but they are not not confident either! The Crane does not tout his strengths nor wallow over his weaknesses. “This is me; nothing to be done about that” is essentially his message, and that comes through the loudest and clearest in “take it or leave it.” He describes his many flaws: not being a fast learner (“[I]t took me / More than a decade / To see things that way”), showing disrespect (“Guess we all have to hurt some feelings sometimes”), and lacking the motivation to change for the better (“I’ll be just the same… I heard what you said / But my schedule is tight / And I don’t wanna change”). He learns the wrong lessons from his shortcomings, seeing them as story sweeteners, which explains why his music indulges in them instead of shunning them. He does so through theatrical flourishes, like haunting sounds in “Same Story” and “VILLAIN,” and surprisingly upbeat rhythms, like in “DISEASE.” ... The Crane uses his foibles to justify, to avoid change, and to keep himself entertained, turning a self-defeating “story” into a witty and, indeed, very “different narrative”! Read more here!

Stay tuned for the rest of the countdown!

View the Substack version of this piece here!