This year, the music scene has seen some big moments, ranging from Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl, to J. Cole’s retirement album, “The Fall-Off,” and BTS returning to music after their required military service. This is a list of my favorite albums released this school year.
This album had a bigger lore than it needed to. It was delayed for 286 days and got backlash for involving Artificial Intelligence in original versions of the album. The vinyl version had reportedly used AI for the entire album, but aside from the AI talk, the titled song “BULLY” has a cry for help, making his tone sound like he’s asking for forgiveness. However, the worst song on this album is “Last Breath” featuring Peso Pluma. This song sounds like an unrefined project compared to his deleted song “Nah Nah Nah” from the album Donda.
This album is overrated, the hype around it has extended to April. Typically, albums are still debated for months post-release, but ‘Swifties’ defend this album like it has just been released. Sure, “The Fate of Ophelia” is a good song with a great story, but all of the other songs are underwhelming.
One song from this album basically carried the summer of 2025. The music video of “Manchild” accumulated 138K views, even with Sabrina’s suggestive nature that can also be seen from “Short n’ Sweet.” A song that felt out of place was “Sugar Talking.” The melody didn’t seem fitting when the rest of the album was upbeat and loud. The vibes for this song were not the same as “When Did You Get Hot?” or “Tears.”
- “BEAUTIFUL CHAOS” by KATSEYE
Ever since their debut in 2024, they’ve been popular, with “Gnarly” taking TikTok over by storm and racking in more than 400 million streams on Spotify. However, their popularity came from nowhere. Sure, their music is enjoyable from time to time, but it gets repetitive with each listen or played back in repeat.
BTS’ return was worldwide news. Every one of their fans were excited to hear about the return of the whole group. Some members came back earlier than others. One of their most heard songs off the album, “SWIM,” was a track that was made for summer and will played more during the summer months.
- “SWAG” by Justin Bieber
“SWAG” was an album that took a lot of dedication. Some of the songs have a sound similar to Berber’s music in 2014-2016, but they contain more maturity and growth. This can be specifically heard on “DAISIES” with deep bass guitar, a sound that could come from something that was unheard of in the early days of Bieber’s rise in popularity. “YUKON” sounded more like a demo track and had Bieber’s voice in a high pitch rather than how he would normally sound, including faint adlibs from 2 Chainz in the background.
This album is different from the others, as it has three discs. Disc 1 has vocal remixes, including the remix of “Illegal” with Anitta, changing the plot of the song, as this version was sung in Spanish more than English. However, English was still there regardless, with artists like SEVENTEEN and Zara Larsson. Disc 2 has remixes, and disc 3 has the traditional songs. “Noises” had a feeling of part two of “Illegal” but with more intimacy.
- “Monica” by Jack Harlow
This album is comforting in many ways. It was soft, lofi-esque and has a chill listening experience like going to Starbucks to get breakfast and doing your work for the whole day. “Prague” feels like an intimate confession. The same can be said for “All Of My Friends.” One track that felt out of place was “My Winter,” which sounds like it would not make the final cut and overall was different from all the other songs in this album.
“DEADLINE” was their return from the 2022 album “BORN PINK.” In this new EP, it starts with “JUMP” as the opener, which is a song that has a feeling of an invitation to dance, with its bass heavy after the chorus. Yet after all the hype, you enter into a feeling with “Champion,” which talks about occasionally taking the loss.
This album has a sound different from past Cavetown albums. While their past albums were always pop, the melody throughout this album was more 8-bit and lofi based, which made the theme almost dreamy. “Cryptid” is an empowerment song for transgender people alike, with mentions about being misrepresented by the media. Lyrics like ‘I’m looking through frosted glass, like footage through a trail cam’ help capture the message. Another song that made this album feel special is the self-titled song, “Running With Scissors,” which talks about how you should still move on as if nothing happened, quoting Robbie Skinner from his rundown with Flood Magazine: “This whole ‘Running With Scissors’ sentiment is my way of accepting that there’s so much risk and so much to be scared of in this world, but there’s also so much fun to be had, and so much to learn, and you’ll never get those things if you don’t just wing it.” This is agreeable in many ways, but there’s people who comment on what others do, which can feel like someone can’t do something they enjoy.
