Best Albums of October 2025

Best Albums of October 2025 arrives as a startlingly varied month, where spectral folk, archival excavations, and bold alternative statements shared equal billing. Critics took notice across genres, producing a critical consensus that elevated quiet dreamscapes and major reissues alike.

Sirom's In The Wind Of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper led October with a 90.67/100 consensus from three reviews, while the rediscovered country intimacy of Waylon Jennings's Songbird scored 90.0 across two reviews. Anna von Hausswolff's ICONOCLASTS followed closely at 89.83 from six reviews, signaling a month in which both new, atmospheric composition and carefully curated historical releases commanded attention. Standouts such as Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series Vol. 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963 (86.0, five reviews) and Agriculture's The Spiritual Sound (86.67, seven reviews) reinforced a pattern of critics rewarding depth, craft, and archival ambition.

October's top albums reveal two clear trends: a hunger for evocative, immersive soundscapes and a renewed critical appetite for archival projects and veteran voices. Below is our ranked list of the month's top albums, ordered by aggregated score and review count to reflect the prevailing critical consensus for October 2025.