Year-End Critics Coalesce Around 2025’s Boldest Albums, From Swift’s Record Debut to Rosalía’s Orchestral Leap

Overview

• Hindustan Times capped the year with a Dec. 28 roundup, drawing on Rolling Stone and other outlets to list 15 albums critics say redefined 2025.
• Billboard confirms Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl posted the modern era’s biggest debut with record single-week sales and all 12 tracks entering the Hot 100’s top 12.
• The BBC highlights Rosalía’s Lux as a radical operatic project recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra with arrangements by Pulitzer winner Caroline Shaw.
• Rolling Stone’s selections emphasize ambition across pop, citing Lady Gaga’s Mayhem as one of her most sonically wide-ranging releases of the year.
• NYLON’s artists-of-the-year lens spotlights unconventional impact, crediting figures like PinkPantheress and Addison Rae for viral hooks and inventive campaign tactics.