Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
album photos on wall
album photos on wall
Photo by Clay Banks from Unsplash
Washington | Culture > Entertainment

My Top Albums of 2025

Jaya Parsons Student Contributor, University of Washington - Seattle
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Washington chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

After this year’s Grammys aired, I was left wondering if I’m already too old for current music. Cheering for Bad Bunny and booing for Sombr is something that I’m happy to do any day, especially Grammys day. This left me thinking about what my favorite albums of last year were. 

10. “Welcome to my Blue Sky” – Momma. I first saw Momma play about 5 years ago as an opening band playing at Chop Suey. I remember thinking they were so good I’d go just to watch them play their own show, something I admittedly never think about opening bands. In the years following, they opened for Snail Mail and eventually Weezer (don’t laugh), which is an insane jump over the course of a couple of years. Welcome to my Blue Sky was released last year and is the perfect summer album with my favorite track by far being I Want You (Fever.) They are a band I see going super far in the next few years.

9. “Iron” – Post Animal. Post Animal is another band I see going super far in the future. The lesser-known of Joe Keery’s musical projects, I first saw them open for my favorite band, Twin Peaks in 2019. Their album Iron is a perfect revival of the band since their last album, “When I Think of You in a Castle,” which came out in 2018.

8. “The Scholars” – Car Seat Headrest. A long-time favorite band of mine released their first album in years last year. While it definitely wasn’t my favorite of their discography, I do think that some of the songs like Deveraux and Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man), give it a respectable 8 in my top 10.

7. “1,000 Variations of the Same Song” – Frog. Contrary to the name of the album, this is an incredible project by Frog. A band well-known among my fellow Rainy Dawg Radio DJs, but not much outside of that space. They hit it out of the park with HOUSEBROKEN VAR. IV among the rest of the acoustic album. 

6. “DON’T TAP THE GLASS” – Tyler, the Creator. A classic, I believe that CHROMOKOPIA was one of the best albums to come out in 2024, and I think I even put it at the top of my list. This was a surprise album release that no one saw coming until the second it came out last summer. While I do think there were moments that stick out as good songs from this one and I will adore Tyler until the end of time, it wasn’t as good as some of his last albums to me, earning a 6 on my list. 

5. “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)” – Japanese Breakfast. As a melancholy brunette, I do feel a certain authority to say that this is one of Michelle Yeoh’s best pieces. Orlando In Love is something I listened to while taking off on a plane ride to California earlier this year, and it just might be the perfect song for that moment. An incredible album for plane rides or studying, it lands right in the middle of the list. 

4. “Getting Killed” – Geese. Oh boy, the girl with a jean jacket wants to talk about Geese, call the cops. I’ll keep this one brief, just to say that if you haven’t listened to Geese, you should. 

3. “HYPERYOUTH” – Joey Valence & Brae. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, JVB are singlehandedly going to bring back dance music. I saw them for the second time this year, and it was hands down the best crowd experience I have ever experienced in all the years I’ve been going to concerts. They hype up the crowd unlike any other artist I’ve ever seen.

2. “DeBĂŤ TiRAR MáS FOToS” – Bad Bunny. This may be the first time in my life I’ve ever completely agreed with the Grammy-winning best album of the year. By the time this article comes out, he’ll have played the Super Bowl and done what I’m sure will be the performance of a lifetime. This album is something so catchy that you don’t have to know a word of Spanish to understand exactly what he’s conveying. 

1 . “The Crux” – Djo. It’s no surprise that the world’s #1 Djo fan (yours truly) would rank this as the top album of the year. Everything from Charlie’s Garden, being the closest thing to a modern-day Paul McCartney song, to Gap Tooth Smile, bringing back love songs with lyrics like the 50s, is absolutely incredible. I remember when his first song was released in 2019, and it’s insane to see how far he’s come, even releasing a deluxe version of The Crux later in the year.

I loved these albums so much and felt like this year was even better for music than the last. I can’t wait to write about my top ten albums of 2026.

Jaya Parsons

Washington '27

Jaya is a second-year junior at UW. She was born and raised in Seattle and grew up two blocks from campus. She is double majoring in journalism and creative writing and loves to write more than almost anything. When not writing, she can be found at concerts, with friends, at Sounders soccer games, or on the field herself. She is also a volunteer DJ for Rainy Dawg Radio and adores sharing music with anyone willing to listen. She is always happy to meet anyone who loves to write (or to be meeting anyone in general.)