The 25 best Indie albums of 2025

26 December 2025, 20:26

Here is Radio X's pick of the finest albums of the past 12 months... from the return of Florence + The Machine and Pulp to new material from Sam Fender, Wet Leg and Wolf Alice.

1. Richard Ashcroft - Lovin' You: release date 10th October 2025

   The former Verve frontman's first album of new material in seven years came during a busy period - Ashcroft opened for the reunited Oasis at their dates this summer. Lovin' You sees the musician hone his technique of pairing memorable hooks with his distinctive, passionate voice.

   

2. Biffy Clyro - Futique: release date 19th September 2025

   Ten albums in for the Kilmarnock trio and their talent for nailing huge, heroic rock anthems is still present and correct, while keeping the vulnerability that's endeared them to fans for over two decades.

   

3. Circa Waves - Death & Love: release date 24th October 2025

   The full length follow-up to the Death & Love Pt 1 EP earlier this year sees frontman Kieran Shudall face mortality after a life-saving heart operation in 2024. This literal new lease of life gives the Liverpool band's sixth album a fresh energy.

   

4. Doves - Constellations For The Lonely: release date 28th February 2025

   The band’s sixth studio album marked their first new music in over four years and included the lead single Renegade - which came alongside a Blade Runner, dystopian-styled video. The critically acclaimed record reached the Top 5 of the UK album charts and was followed by tour dates from the Manchester band, with Jimi Goodwin continuing his break from performing live shows.

   

5. Sam Fender - People Watching: release date 21st February 2025

   Fender’s third studio album saw the Geordie singer-songwriter cement his status as a stadium-filling artist, scored him his third consecutive UK number one album and bagged the 2025 Mercury Prize, which he won in his home city of Newcastle. The album’s lead single and title track provided fans with the biggest Springsteen-esque singalong on the record, but his onstage duet with Olivia Dean on Rein Me In boosted the life and popularity of the song well beyond expectations.

   

6. Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream: release date 31st October 2025

   Released on Halloween, Florence Welch’s bewitching sixth studio effort is one of her most brutal and personal albums yet. Written after her life-saving surgery following an ectopic pregnancy on her 2023 Dance Fever Tour, the project also saw Welch reconvene with co-collaborator Autumn De Wilde once more to create sumptuous visuals worthy of the big screen.

   

7. Franz Ferdinand - The Human Fear: release date 10th January 2025

   The Scottish band’s sixth outing witnessed a return to form, with Alex Kapranos and co delivering another energetic yet timeless take on ‘00s guitar rock. With singles such as Night Or Day , Audacious and Build It Up featuring The Smiths legend Johnny Marr on guitar, the quintet’s 35 minute record is a short and sweet burst of indie-pop perfection.

   

8. Geese - Getting Killed: release date 25th September 2025

   Despite hearing plenty of buzz about Geese this year, they’re far from a new band. Getting Killed is in fact their fourth studio album and saw the outfit transition from a five-piece to a quartet after the departure of guitarist Foster Hudson. With the line-up change prompting the band to take on new challenges and refine their collaborative approach, four has proven to be a winning number for Cameron Winter and co, who released the record - which includes the tracks Taxes , Trinidad , 100 Horses and Cobra - to widespread critical acclaim.

   

9. Good Neighbours - Blue Sky Mentality: release date 3rd October 2025

   The duo of Oli Fox and Scott Verrill made a splash last year with their debut single Home and their first album makes good on the promise shown by being a masterly collection of sunny indie pop.

   

10. Haim - I Quit: release date 20th June 2025

    The sisters' first album in five years sees them swap long-term collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid for producer Rostam Batmanglij, but their music remains smooth and the lyrics honest, as titles like Everybody's Trying To Figure Me Out and Try To Feel My Pain demonstrate.

    

11. Inhaler - Open Wide: release date 7th February 2025

    The third album from the Irish indie rockers sees Elijah Hewson shake off that "nepo baby" tag and venture into new areas, embracing dance beats and lyrics that examine more mature concerns.

    

12. The Kooks - Never/Know: release date 9th May 2025

    20 years on from Inside In/Inside Out and Luke Pritchard is now something of an elder statesman of indie rock. This seventh outing keeps the irresistible hooks coming while keeping a bittersweet tinge to the lyrics.

    

13. The Last Dinner Party - From The Pyre: release date 17th October 2025

    The lyrics on TLDP's second album are character-driven but still personal, combining modern life with fantasy imagery; being ghosted becomes a western dance with a murderer in lead single This Is The Killer Speaking. Expressive imagery of medieval weaponry, sailors, saints, cowboys, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc and burning infernos all make an appearance, taking the band into a darker, earthy venture.

    

14. The Lathums - Matter Does Not Define: release date 28th February 2025

    "When will they learn that it’s not matter that defines a being? It’s the reflections of the lessons they leave." The third album from the Wigan lads shows that songwriter Alex Moore is an old head on young shoulders, but while the words may be introspective, the music is as anthemic as ever.

    

15. Manic Street Preachers - Critical Thinking: release date 14th February 2025

    The Manics' fifteenth studio album continues the trio's quest to make sense of the world and this instalment proves that the critical thinking of the title is being applied to one's own self. James Dean Bradfield provides lyrics for three songs this time out, while Nicky Wire's voice is to the fore on songs like Hiding In Plain Sight.

    

16. Mumford & Sons - Rushmere: release date 14th February 2025

    Now pared down to the trio of Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane, Rushmere sees the band go back to the beginning and reconnect with their roots - the title track is a reference to the group's Wimbledon origins.

    

17. Pulp - More: release date 6th June 2025

    It's taken twenty four years to follow up We Love Life, but the wait has been worth it. Recorded without long-term member Steve Mackey, who died in 2023, More sees Jarvis Cocker looking back at his life ("I was born to perform" he says on the sourly nostalgic Spike Island), but this is most certainly a Pulp album created specifically for 2025.

    

18. Sombr - I Barely Know Her: release date 22nd August 2025

    New Yorker Shane Boose had a huge viral hit this year with Undressed and this debut album proves that he's moved beyond the bedroom songwriting of his earliest days and moved into bold, emotional pop territory.

    

19. Stereophonics - Make 'Em Laugh, Make 'Em Cry, Make 'Em Wait: release date 25th April 2025

    Kelly Jones has his songwriting skills down to a fine art as the 'Phonics turn their hand to their thirteenth studio album. Make 'Em Laugh... despatches eight songs in half an hour, proving Jones has mastered the art of the pithy, world-weary statement matched to a killer tune.

    

20. Suede - Antidepressants: release date 5th September 2025

    For their tenth album, Suede have returned with an album that reflects on age and mortality, as the epic losing track Life Is Endless, Life Is a Moment suggests.

    

21. Turnstile - Never Enough: release date 6th June 2025

    The follow up to the 2021's breakthrough Glow On, Turnstile’s fourth album is a genre-defying return for the Baltimore hardcore punk band. 2025’s “Turnstile Summer” saw the band take their famously rowdy live shows of mosh pits and stage diving to Primavera, Glastonbury, Outbreak and more. Never Enough was the first album without founding member Brady Ebert following his departure back in 2022, and their first to feature guitarist Meg Mills.

    

22. Wet Leg - Moisturizer: release date 11th July 2025

    After the huge splash made by their self-titled 2022 debut, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers have expanded the band, expanded the sound and reinvented themselves without losing the quirky guitar pop that endeared themselves to people in the first place.

    

23. Wolf Alice - The Clearing: release date 22nd August 2025

    The London band's fourth studio album was written and recorded between Seven Sisters, North London and Los Angeles. The Clearing jumps from the rush of touring lifestyle in the USA shown in album three, Blue Weekend, to residing back at home in the UK and getting used to some peace, quiet and comfort - as standout track The Sofa explains.

    

24. Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party: release date 28th August 2025

    The surprise, third solo album self-released by Paramore’s Hayley Williams on her own label Post Atlantic. Originally a seventeen track collection, it was uploaded to her official website on July of this year, with the songs Good Ol’ Days and Showbiz added later. The album itself explores heartbreak, self discovery and the end of significant relationships.

    

25. The Wombats - Oh! The Ocean: release date 14th February 2025

    Frontman Matt "Murph" Murphy sings the praises of sobriety and building a new life in a new town (in this case, Los Angeles), while keeping The Wombats' arch style and tone on songs like Sorry I'm Late I Didn't Want To Come and The World's Not Out To Get Me, I Am.