Best Albums of August 2025
The highest-rated albums released in August 2025, ranked by critical consensus from professional music critics.
Best Albums of August 2025 arrives as a month where veteran voices and adventurous newcomers collided, producing a slate of records that critics returned to all month. August's standout albums blended sharp songwriting with bold reinvention - from introspective art-pop to widescreen country and daring jazz explorations.
Hayley Williams's Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party led the critical consensus with a 90.82/100 average across 11 reviews, a late-August statement that critics praised for its emotional range and risky production. Close behind was Dijon's Baby, an intimate 88.0/100 set from five reviews that deepens his genre-blurring palette, while CMAT's EURO-COUNTRY scored 87.45/100 from 11 reviews, turning country tropes into sly, transatlantic pop. Across the top-ranked releases there is clear critical agreement - adventurous songwriting met confident reinvention, reflected in aggregated scores and steady review counts.
August 2025 favored reinvention over safe retreads: established artists expanded their sonic vocabularies, and smaller acts carved memorable niches. Scroll down for the full ranked list of top albums, their consensus scores, and the reviews that made August one of the more compelling months for new music this year.
Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
Hayley Williams
Baby
Dijon
EURO-COUNTRY
CMAT
private music
Deftones
Carving The Stone
For Those I Love
The Passionate Ones
Nourished By Time
Ride Into The Sun
Brad Mehldau
Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You
Ethel Cain
No Hard Feelings
The Beaches
The Hives Forever Forever The Hives
The Hives
Essex Honey
Blood Orange
Burnover
Greg Freeman
A Matter Of Time
Laufey
Bugland
No Joy
I Barely Know Her
sombr
Live Laugh Love
Earl Sweatshirt
Blue Reminder
Hand Habits
Everest
Halestorm
Hail To The Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009)
Radiohead
Soak
Black Honey
The Heat Warps
Modern Nature
Last Missouri Exit
Case Oats
So Long Little Miss Sunshine
Molly Tuttle
Easier Said Than Done
Pool Kids
Hyperglyph
Chicago Underground Duo
Songs For Nina And Johanna
James Yorkston
Legacy: the Creedence Clearwater Revival years
John Fogerty
The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life
Debby Friday
We're Only Human
Hayes Carll
Airline Highway
Rodney Crowell
Puff Of Smoke
The Wood Brothers
Ghosted III
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin
I Wonder When They're Going To Destroy Your Face
Prolapse
Who's the Clown?
Audrey Hobert
Interior Live Oak
Cass McCombs
THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED
The Armed
Hard Headed Woman
Margo Price
The New Eve Is Rising
The New Eves
Songs In The Key Of Yikes
Superchunk
It's A Beautiful Place
Water from Your Eyes
The Clearing
Wolf Alice
Learning Greek
Humour
Music For Writers
Steve Gunn
Black Star
Amaarae
Straight Line Was A Lie
The Beths
That Wasn't A Dream
Pino Palladino And Blake Mills
The Collapse Of Everything
Adrian Sherwood
You Heartbreaker, You
Jehnny Beth
GUSH
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
Man's Best Friend
Sabrina Carpenter
when i paint my masterpiece
Ada Lea
METAL FORTH
BABYMETAL
Radio Libertadora!
DJ K
If Not Winter
Wisp
Wishbone
Conan Gray
Escape Room
Teyana Taylor
Supreme Clientele 2
Ghostface Killah
Billionaire
Kathleen Edwards
Ricochet
Rise Against
BITE ME
Reneé Rapp
Parasites & Butterflies
Nova Twins
Guitar
Mac DeMarco
ABOMINATION REVEALED AT LAST
Osees
Between You And Me
Flyte
No Rain, No Flowers
The Black Keys
Pressing Onward
Big Freedia
Dreams Of Being Dust
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die
AIN'T NO DAMN WAY!
Kaytranada
New Radiations
Marissa Nadler
God Does Like Ugly
JID
hickey
Royel Otis
Star Line
Chance the Rapper
Flux
Alison Goldfrapp
The Coldest Profession
DJ Premier & Roc Marciano
lost americana
MGK
Freak Out City
Bret McKenzie
Love Is Like
Maroon 5
Making Room For The Light
Mae Powell