The best albums of 2025, selected by Vogue Adria’s editorial team

The music world in 2025 did not stand still. Nor did it play it safe. Across the globe and throughout the entire spectrum of genres, music changed in the strangest and most impressive ways. Some artists took new risks, others repeated old successes. Lady Gaga returned with her most ambitious release of the past decade, and no one was happier about it than I was. Pop visionaries such as Sevdaliza, Lorde, and FKA twigs made bold moves, pushing their innovative musical expression one step further. Bad Bunny traveled through time and space, from San Juan to Nuevayola, while Rosalía delivered a revolution the likes of which we have not witnessed in a long time. Below, discover the best albums of 2025 as selected by the Vogue Adria editorial team.

LUX | Rosalia

LUX is the album I needed without even realizing how much my brain was craving melodies like these. For some time now, I have noticed an inexplicable sense of strict confinement in all of my creative endeavors. A block I cannot break through. I feel that I am missing the childlike playfulness that once knew no limits. That process of creation in which creativity fully takes over and governs every aspect of life. A special kind of creative energy I once had at eleven, when I spent every free moment painting motifs that constantly flowed into my mind, and at thirteen, when I decided to write my first fantasy novel spanning around a hundred pages. I have not been able to bring that energy back into my work for quite some time.

Listening to the very first notes of LUX, I felt as if that creative block was slowly melting away. With each new beat it disappears, and the next track seems to reignite that unrestrained creative spark within me. The album is so beautifully composed and layered that it was only after listening to it for the tenth time that I realized how much I had missed being exposed to this version of creativity. It is slightly wild and untamed, with an intriguing dose of romance and deeply human experiences. When I feel creatively blocked, I simply put on Reliquia or Divinize. When I want to recharge with energy, De Madrugá and Berghain help me the most, while La Yugular carries me into other dimensions, akin to an out-of-body experience. I consider LUX one of the albums of the decade, and I believe it will be remembered for years as a masterpiece. It is a true example of how the layered nature of an artwork, wrapped in music inspired by human experience, can resonate and hold attention far longer than three seconds. The sources of creative energy had run dry, and LUX replenished them at the speed of light. At least in my case.

Kristina Mikulić, beauty editor

The Art of Loving | Olivia Dean

Call me a late bloomer, but I only recently discovered Olivia Dean, a wonderful, charming, gentle yet powerful British musician. It took her releasing her second album, The Art of Loving, this September for me to truly take her seriously, and now her airy, soulful pop regularly fills my speakers. A warm, soft voice without excessive vocal exhibitionism, yet so pleasant, elegant, and slightly vulnerable, confirming musical honesty as the greatest asset with which an artist binds an audience to themselves. Let us all remember Amy Winehouse and her never-surpassed Back to Black from 2006. Olivia sings to us about love, desire, fear, and the gray zones in between, while the contemporary dating scene remains just as incomprehensible to her as it does to us, it seems. Nice to Each Other, Lady Lady, and Man I Need are already quite big hits, while my personal favorite remains So Easy (To Fall in Love). We should all fall in love with love.

Tina Kovačiček, lifestyle editor

Pulp | More

Breaks of nearly a quarter of a century never sound promising, and that is exactly how long it has been since Pulp released their last album, We Love Life. Although I must admit I was extremely skeptical, in the name of good old times and out of affection for British rock, I decided to give it a chance and press play on More. Is it possible that Pulp are back, I thought after the very first track, and the answer is clearly yes. As unbelievable as it sounds, the Sheffield band led by Jarvis Cocker still radiates that recognizable nonchalant coolness, and the vibe is positive from the first to the last note. More earns a special bonus for Tina, the second track on the album, which I hope will manage to knock Mambo No. 5 out as the only song in the collective consciousness that mentions my name. This is one of those albums you play on repeat in the car when you are traveling somewhere, and honestly, those are my favorites.

Tina Lončar, executive editor and fashion features editor

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS | Bad Bunny

I am truly not a passionate music listener. I like music, but it simply is not part of my everyday life. Many times I have received shocked looks from friends when they find out that days can go by without me listening to a single song. Strange or not, that is just how it is. Despite that, this year I listened to more music than ever before by my standards, starting with great albums from our region as well as global releases. One of the albums that often played in the background while I was cleaning the house, showering, or doing any other tasks where I do not want to be left alone with my thoughts was DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by Bad Bunny. It fit me perfectly as hype in moments when I did not need to understand the lyrics or deeply connect with their meaning, just pure vibes.

Bojana Jovanović, copy editor

The Crux Deluxe | Djo

One of the things I am grateful to Stranger Things for is discovering the musician Djo. Behind the project stands everyone’s favorite manny, Steve Harrington, also known as actor Joe Keery. Like most fans, the viral song End of Beginning caught my ear and nearly broke TikTok once it became known that Joe Keery was behind it. However, the 2025 album The Crux Deluxe gave me the answer I had been hoping for. Not only is Djo not a one-hit wonder, but he has also proven that he is not just an actor casually trying his hand at music, because Joe clearly has his own style. He does not stray far from the previous sound that teleports me straight back to the glory days of indie music in the 2010s, with very intentional traces of the seventies and eighties. Is that retro sensibility inspired by Stranger Things, or was Stranger Things the perfect place for him? I do not know. And I do not need to know. I only know that his music already sounds like it comes from someone who knows exactly what they are doing. And so I will end this the way every serious conversation about Stranger Things ends: if End of Beginning is not in the final scene of the series, we are starting a petition.

Nives Bokor, digital director

Everybody Scream | Florence and the Machine

This autumn, my little millennial heart leapt with joy when, on my already favorite holiday, Halloween, Florence and the Machine released their new album, Everybody Scream. I fell in love with her ethereal presence and beautiful, full-bodied vocals back in 2010, when I first heard her live at a concert at Kino Šiška, and fifteen years later her music still inspires me just as much and fills me with a special, feminine strength. Everybody Scream is a raw, honest confession, almost a ritual of release. On this album, Florence Welch returns to herself after a life-shaking upheaval. At its very core are trauma, loss, and anger, intertwined with physicality, paganism, and a recognizable theatricality that never feels empty. What delights me most is that the album is not built around the need to please or repeat proven formulas, but around the need to survive and search for strength on the other side of pain. A cathartic journey in twelve acts, from brutal images of a body that feels foreign, to gradual calm and quiet peace at the end, and it is precisely in that arc that I feel its greatest strength. This is an album that does not shy away from darkness, but bravely walks through it, affirming Florence as an artist who with each new release moves further and more fearlessly away from pop conventions and creates something deeply personal, mature, and true. Her Dog Days Are Over has been my personal anthem at several points in my life, and Everybody Scream is, in today’s chaotic world, a return to myself for me as well.

Tijana Čvorak, copy editor

Heroina | Sevdaliza i Mayhem | Lady Gaga

How could I not be subjective in a year when I worked on my first Vogue Adria cover story, with Sevdaliza, a musical icon who once again pushed boundaries with her latest album, Heroina? As she spoke to me on the go, traveling from Milan Fashion Week to Paris Fashion Week, about her Iranian heritage, perceptions of the body, and female autonomy, she only confirmed that the path from destruction to acceptance, and then to celebrating one’s own authenticity, is never linear. All of this is reflected in her songs and in her videos, which resemble a kind of performance. We danced to Messiah, Angel deeply moved us and led us to introspection, just like the powerful anthem for mothers, Stronger Because You Matter.

On the other hand, among the many outstanding albums that stole attention this year, such as Rosalía’s LUX, Something Beautiful by Miley Cyrus, and Everybody Scream by Florence, we unfairly neglected Lady Gaga’s Mayhem. This was the year of her magnificent return, both through new songs and a tour. She took me back to 2009, when I was so obsessed with her that I now consider her one of the few figures who had any formative influence on me at all. From fashion style, yes, I wore platforms like McQueen’s, to fearless and avant-garde expressions of personal identity. As the year draws to a close, I find myself returning to this album again, listening to Perfect Celebrity and Garden of Eden, while waiting for her to announce concert dates for 2026. See you in the fan pit.

Tara Đukić, culture editor

Virgin | Lorde i (((((ultraSOUND))))) | the nbhd

This year’s Spotify Wrapped transported me back to 2015. As soon as Lorde’s photo appeared on my screen, I remembered a post I had recently seen on social media: fifteen-year-old me did not know much about many things, but she had excellent taste in music. Lorde’s return defined my summer. If you ask me, Charli XCX was completely right about Lorde Summer. As a kid, I eagerly awaited the release of her first single from the album Virgin, What Was That?, a song that went viral even before it was officially released. It had that recognizable Lorde sound, but with a sense of maturity. Virgin is so honest and raw that it made me cry on the first listen, and on the second, and the third. My favorite track is probably, or at least currently, Favorite Daughter, but the album is truly full of hits and deserves to be listened to in its entirety, as if the musician poured a part of her soul into it.

This autumn also brought me the most exciting personal news: The Neighbourhood are back. My favorite band from my teenage years, whose every behind-the-scenes video I watched, Devon Lee Carlson, you will always be famous, and whose breakup devastated me a few years ago, are together again. They returned with the album (((((ultraSOUND))))) which I only hoped would retain their recognizable sound, those melancholic melodies I associate with their early albums. To my delight, that is exactly what I got. True, (((((ultraSOUND))))) is not as brilliant as I Love You or Wiped Out!, but honestly, it is unlikely that any album ever will be. How thrilled I am about this comeback is proven by the fact that not even my failure to snag tickets for any of their 2026 tour dates has dampened my enthusiasm.

Sonja Knežević, social media editor