Yes, a lot earlier than I’ve usually pulled my fingers and thumbs out to do these statistical breakdowns of the previous year’s Necessary Evil list of the year’s best albums. I’d fallen into the bad habit of putting it off for so long, that it now usually acts as a semi-introduction to the nexr year’s list, which is pretty fucking pointless.
And this year I have come to the realisation that, ultimately, this whole yearly tradition is pretty dang pointless. Self-referential, divisive, needlessly segregationary, and of absolutely no interest to literally anyone in the world other than myself. It gives me a chance to make fun little pictures, but that’s it.
Which is why, what is to be done, is that this will be the final time ever that I list the stats of the previous year’s list. Especially since I started the (far more important, obviously) Gold Star Artists Hall of Fame (which will get its 2025 update soon), this twee and meaningless drag on my time simply can’t justify itself. After this year’s stats, I’m going to storm the Necessary Evil Winter Palaces and change the whole system for the better.
You might remember that I threatened this on last year’s stat breakdown but decided to give it one more run around because of one important factor: I honestly think that 2025 might see the UK beat the USA for the first time, which would be a great and extremely honourable way to bow out.
Also, I’m really running out of puns for ‘Stats’. And this is two years after I did a Fatman Scoop reference. Times are tough.
Length (fnar!)
As we all agreed long ago, the perfect album can fir on on one side of a blank CS90 cassette tape, which – as the real one’s know – is actually forty six minutes. Unfortunately, the average of 49 minutes in 2025 means that many of the best records released that year are functionally useless.
Enough time to watch the theatrical cut of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and have 20 minutes afterwards to really question your life decisions, though crucially not long enough to watch the extended, 208 minute version. To be clear, watching either would be a colossal waste of time, whereas ‘DECK‘ is great.
‘Don’t Tap the Glass‘ is by far Tyler’s shortest album, and also his… best??
No, absolutely not, that’s a ridiculous opinion to have. Like, factually incorrect, and saying it in public is a quick way to get immediately mogged by everyone around you for obvious jestermaxing. It’s really good though.
Before any of you scummers come at me with claims of Lambrini Girls eraser, ‘Who Let the Dogs Out‘ is a full twenty five seconds longer than Tyler’s latest. If those chicks reign in their ridiculous, coke-fueled excesses on their next album, they might have a chance.
‘Tracks’, see?
My genius is wasted on you jabronis…
With their monster achievement ‘DECK’, HTH are going to be sweeping up a lot of the length/width/distance/scope awards. Cynical of them to make a whole fifty four track project with the explicit intention of being named on the year’s stat round-up? Possibly, but not technically illegal, and I’m only here to report on the facts, not the politics.
Three way tie for ‘The Thumbtacks‘, ‘Jettison‘ and ‘Bugland.
2025 was the year I got sick of Metacritics soft removal of music reviews and decided to instead take ratings from albumoftheyear.org. There was one big issue with that decision that will come to light very soon.
Of course Twigs and Kendrick are loved by the critics as always (including – generally – me, to be fair), and it’s good to see the scientifically correct best album ‘Iconoclasts‘ getting appreciation, but Ninajirachi?? What are you doing here??
Thank the lord for Rosalía for doing their bit to preserve the legitimacy of the AOTY ratings (and for always proving such amazing photos for me to use). AOTY doesn’t have a minimum number of entries to qualify for an average rating, so – just speaking hypothetically here – if your album got one incredible review in – let’s say – Pitchfork, and literally not a single over review, then your ‘average’ is going to incredibly high.
Now, speaking more literally, Los Thuthanaka have the joint highest average critic rating of the year based on one incredible review in Pitchfork.
The great unwashed generally appreciate Ethel Cain’s talents than the critical bourgeoisie. Great result for Hallelujah the Hills, though it really should be pointed out that it’s based on one user review of one of the four parts of ‘Deck’.
Christ, AOTY, will you please just give us one clear winner? Bloody liberal Millennials wanting ‘participation trophies’ as per usual. Everyone’s a winner! Give me a fucking break…
Some very good albums in here with, to be fair, not bad ratings at all. The appearance of Oklou proves the unfortunate lack of Peak Millennialcore representation amongst critics, which should perhaps be investigated, and I don’t like seeing Disiniblud and And So I Watch You From Afar anywhere near any ‘least’ lists. MARINA though? Yeah, people hated that.
As we all expected. I thought Tame Impala might take home both the worst prizes, but I forgot what people we are talking about.
Fucking Americans, man. Albumoftheyear.org is overrun and colonised by those people like every other factor of life and culture, and – as you would know if you’ve ever checked the Grammy results for the past 66 years – Americans’ taste in music is rancid. They’re the most propagandised people on Earth, and I am in no way blaming the people themselves for being at the centre of the imperial core and having to work that extra hard to recognise that anything outside the USA even exists, but I can still call them all cunts while recognising they’re as much victims as the rest of the planet. Well… not as much victims as the innocent people in the Global South that America bomb and exploit just to maintain their dominance, but close! Moonchild Sanelly‘s inclusion is baffling on its own, but most Americans reason for writing off Lambrini Girls is that it’s highly stylised and commercialised and so not real punk. Real punk to Americans is Green Day and The Offspring. We should not be treating these people seriously.
Movers and Shakers
Anna VH benefitted from their previous record being a live album; Nourished by Time’s second record was an astonishing leap forward from their debut; ‘DECK’ was such a significant leap in ambition from anything Hallelujah the Hills had done previously; and Car Seat Headrest game the system by releasing an incredible album after previously releasing one that was pretty much ass.
Again, Rosalía, thanks for providing me with these pictures. Listening to the incredible ‘Lux‘, I accept that I may have been too hard on ‘MOTOMAMI‘. Don’t read that review, it’s a little embarrassing
No great shame here: Mogwai are always consistently in that area of the year end lists, and there isn’t much to choose between ‘The Bad Fire‘ and ‘As the Love Continues‘ once you take the #2025Tax into account; Twigs is only there after her second album of the year wasn’t quite as magnificent as her first; Tame Impala is a can of worms I’m not going to open again; yeule kind of tripped up slightly for the first time in their career with an album that pales next to previous achievements (but is still pretty good); Lonnie Holley’s record didn’t improve significantly from his last, and he was another victim of the dreaded #2025Tax.
This feels mean. I really liked ‘Bloodless‘, I just didn’t fall head over heels super kooky bananas for it like I did ‘Honey‘.
Say what you like about Lorde, but they bring consistency. Commendably landing in the exact same spot in 2025 as they did in 2021.
Including debut albums by Los Thuthanaka, Oklou, Ninajirachi, Disiniblud, and the Lambrini Girls, plus debut Necessary Evil entries from Clipping, Clipse, Wet Leg, No Joy, and Moonchild Sanelly, with Cleo Reed at #10 being the highest entry for both.
Release Date
Albums Released in November 2025: 2
Albums Released in October 2025: 4
Albums Released in September 2025: 1
Albums Released in August 2025: 4
Albums Released in July 2025: 5
Albums Released in June 2025: 4
Albums Released in May 2025: 5
Albums Released in April 2025: 1
Albums Released in March 2025: 2
Albums Released in February 2025: 2
Albums Released in January 2025: 5
Albums Released in December 2024: 0
Albums Released earlier in 2024: 1
Albums Released in 2023: 0
Albums Released in 2022: 1
Albums Released in 2021: 0
Albums Released in: 2020: 0
Albums Released in 2019: 0
Albums Released in 2018: 0
Albums Released in 2017: 0
Albums Released in 2016: 0
Albums Released in 2015: 0
Albums Released in 2014: 0
Albums Released in 2013: 0
Albums Released in 2012: 0
Albums Released in 2011: 0
Albums Released between 2001 – 2010: 0
Albums Released in 2000: 0
Albums Released in 1999: 0
Albums Released in 1998: 0
Albums Released in 1997: NO DATA EXISTS FOR PERIOD
Albums Released in 1996: 0
Albums Released in 1995: 0
Albums Released in 1994: 0
Albums Released between 1989 – 1993: 0
Albums Released in 1988: 0
Albums Released in 1987: 0
Albums Released in 1986: 1
Albums Released in 1985: 0
Albums Released in 1984:0
██████ ████████ ██ █████ █
Albums Released in 1982: 0
Albums Released between 1970 – 1981: 0
Albums Released in 1969: 0
Albums Released in 1968: 0
𝕒𝓛ｂ𝐮𝐌ѕ ᖇ𝐄𝓛𝐄ⓐѕ𝐄∂ เ几 ➀❾➅➆: 0
A༙྇l༙྇b༙྇u༙྇m༙྇s༙྇ R༙྇e༙྇l༙྇e༙྇a༙྇s༙྇e༙྇d༙྇ i༙྇n༙྇ 1༙྇9༙྇6༙྇6༙྇: 0
Ä̷̢̨̡̨̪͉̫͍̫̠͔̖̫͓̯̪̲͚̫͚͖͕̿̑̽̅̊̓ͭ̂ͯ̀ͬͥ̇͆̋ͣ͘͝͝͝ͅͅl̨̛̼̱͖̦̅̊͗b̸̸̟̮̞̮͎͕͚̐̾̔́̍̆u̷̴̡̨̠̻͉̭͙̱̠̖͑͗̈́ͩ̄́̅̅ͦͧ̏ͤ̋͟m̶̻͕͚̫̣̏̎͗͐̊̈́ͥ͡͞ͅś̷̨͔͖̰̗̝͎̱͓̫̠̻̭͎̪̠̙̻̤̋̀̓̽́̈́͛͋ͨͯ̀̽̓̎̊ͧ̐͊ͭ̐͟͝ͅ R̼̆ͮ̌̌͑e̵̢̲̲̲̞̺̟̱͖͎̞̯̹͍ͣͮ̋̍̾̆̈́̑ͤͩ͊̎̚͡͡l̹͓̭̝̖̿ͮ͂̚͢͡e̴̮̰̼̖̹̪͙̻̯̲ͨ̈̋͒͑ͣͫa̞͚̘̳͕̪̹͚̓̄̏̃͌ͩͣ̋̐̅̇͛̿͂̚̕͟͟ͅs̵̤̮͚͉͉̭̦̳͋͆ͥ̋̃̽̌́̽̒͆͜ͅe̵̫͖̼ͯd̷̷̨̻͉̜̠͙̖̹͔͔̪̊́ͭͬ̔͐͛̾̃ͥ̍̎̿̆͌̅̔͋̓̿̉̂̔͑̚͢͟͜͟͡͝ i̸̸̢̧̛̬̻̯͇̞̎̇́ͫ̅ͭͧ͑͛ͩͤ̍͢͟͞ņ̵̙͙̫̭͈̳͎̞̞̘̟̮̼͍̉̍̿ͫ͌͐ͥ͌ͨͫ̚ 1̸̵̹̣͙̮͇ͦ̆̑͂͐͒̄ͧ̚͢9̥̭͈̪͕̆͊͊̊̓̀ͤ͒͆͘͡6̵̛̺̯̝̦̙̱͗͌́ͨ͋̊ͧͨͫ͐̓ͩ͜5̨̤̥̺̦͇̱͇̹͕̳̜̤̬̺̭͖͍̫̲̱̫͗̓ͩ͊ͧ̽̋̈́̈͑͐͌̓̑͐ͩ͛ͬ̚͢ͅ: 0
☠𝙰☠ ☠𝚕☠ ☠𝚋☠ ☠𝚞☠ ☠𝚖☠ ☠𝚜☠ ☠𝚁☠ ☠𝚎☠ ☠𝚕☠ ☠𝚎☠ ☠𝚊☠ ☠𝚜☠ ☠𝚎☠ ☠𝚍☠ ☠𝚒☠ ☠𝚗☠ ☠𝟷☠ ☠𝟿☠ ☠𝟼☠ ☠𝟺☠: 0
Ⱥłƀᵾᵯꞩ Ꞧēłēⱥꞩēđ īꞥ 𐏑૭꘦੩: 0
𐑕მe߁ ᴎi bɘꙅɒɘ|ɘЯ ꙅmud|A: 0
ₐᴸᵦᵁₘˢ ᴿₑᴸₑᴬₛᴱᴰ ᵢᴺ ¹₉⁶₁: 0
𝙰⃥̸⃝ 𝚕⃥̸⃝ 𝚋⃥̸⃝ 𝚞⃥̸⃝ 𝚖⃥̸⃝ 𝚜⃥̸⃝ 𝚁⃥̸⃝ 𝚎⃥̸⃝ 𝚕⃥̸⃝ 𝚎⃥̸⃝ 𝚊⃥̸⃝ 𝚜⃥̸⃝ 𝚎⃥̸⃝ 𝚍⃥̸⃝ 𝚒⃥̸⃝ 𝚗⃥̸⃝ 𝟷⃥̸⃝ 𝟿⃥̸⃝ 𝟼⃥̸⃝ 𝟶⃥̸⃝ : 0
Albums Released in 1959: 0
Albums Released in 1958: 0
Albums Released between 1939 – 1957: 0
Albums Released in 1938: 0
Albums Released in 1937: 0
Albums Released in 1936: 0
Albums Released before: 1935: 1 [sorry, counting error] 0
Yeah, CSHR tend to dominate this award when they’re allowed to enter. Rico Nasty’s whole record would almost be finished in this time.
No great surprises here, and everyone who got three Legit Bosses also made the Necessary Evil countdown. Apart from Spellling, with two entries from her notably ass latest album and one re-recording with Weyes Blood. So 2.5, really…
Debby Friday, Destroyer, Self Esteem and The Answers in Between all managed 2 entries without an album making the Necessary Evil list.
Good achievement by Moonchild, and even when they release pretty mid records The Manics can’t stay away from these lists.
Holy tamlole: so that’s the artist with two records inside the top 20 drawing with the artist whose one record (the album with more Legit Bosses than any other in 2025) finished #34.
The Main Event
OK, this is it, this is the part where we send everyone home happy, when we cap off a decade of these meaningless lists by finally beating those Septic Tanks back in their place and reassert the dominence of ol’ Blighty and our glorious queen or king or whatever it is we have now (I heard it’s now an archduke? Can someone ask Grok?). Goodbye to the yearly stats, and goodbye to the US dominance!!!
Or, maybe another country wins, who knows? These stats are in no way an annual representation of how insular my music taste is.
Thanks for your effort, Australia.
OK, so it’s down to the final two, and it’s probably the two you’ve been expecting, but as previously stated, I have a really good feeling that 2025 is the year that the UK finally overturns an absolute napalming that has never been closer than -14.5 and one year went as large as -47. First, let’s look at the UK number:
OK… OK so that’s single figures… and actually half a point down on last year…
But, that doesn’t necessarily matter! Now it all hangs on how much countries like South Africa, Singapore and Sweden managed to take of the USA, and if we look at the final…
Yeah, seriously, fuck this list, glad I’m never doing this shit again.
Necessary Evil 