Some years glide by. 2025 absolutely did not. It lurched, snapped, fizzed, spiralled, and yet spat out moments of such clarity, chaos and brilliance that they somehow made the whole thing feel worth it.

As always, we’ve argued, sulked, shifted things up and down spreadsheets at 1am, changed our minds, changed them back, and eventually landed on a Top 100 that captures the full, messy shape of the year. Some of these records arrived with full blockbuster fanfare; others crept in sideways and refused to leave. Some are debuts that signalled a door blowing open; some are by artists who’ve never felt more in command. What they all share is that special jolt that something real was happening, whether it was shouted from rooftops or whispered into headphones.

That’s the version of the year we’re counting down over December, not the tidy narrative the machine likes to pretend exists, but the one we actually lived through. The one full of odd left-turns, tiny triumphs, emotional haymakers, ridiculous bangers, huge statements, quiet killers and albums that lodged themselves so firmly under our skin we’re still shaking them loose over the festive nut roast.

Across this two weeks, we’ll be revealing the list bit by glorious bit. Just the albums that made our hearts race, our brains fizz and our year make a tiny bit more sense. From the cult favourites to the big hitters, this is 2025 as we heard it: brilliant, unpredictable, occasionally unhinged, and absolutely worth celebrating.

100-81 | 80-61 | 60-41 | 40-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

The album that finally cemented CMAT as an honest-to-god superstar, ‘Euro-Country’ is an absolute triumph. Not that she’s made any great overtures to the mainstream, it’s more a case of the rest of the world catching on to what we at Dork have known since day one - she’s just really bloody great. It doesn’t hurt that the album is as funny, personal and bonkers as anything she’s done before. It had a viral TikTok dance! It’s got a hate song about Jamie Oliver! She compares herself to Princess Diana!

‘Take a Sexy Picture of Me’, recipient of said TikTok dance, is the standout single, somehow combining insightful commentary on unrealistic beauty standards and body shaming with catchy hooks and an absolute earworm of an instrumental, but the rest of the album is home run after home run, too. From the title track’s encapsulation of Ireland’s housing crisis to ‘Iceberg’s exploration of female friendship and work-related stress, its sights are set so much broader than anything CMAT has done before, yet manage to stay grounded by a deeply personal core.

That core takes on centre stage for ‘Lord, Let That Tesla Crash’, a genuinely affecting gut punch rumination on grief and loss. It’s the beating heart of the album and yet more proof that CMAT can do basically anything she puts her musical mind to.

Turning her country-flecked instrumentals and phenomenal gift for songwriting up to eleven, this is an album by a pop star with a capital P. For most artists, this would be a career-best record, but we have a feeling that for CMAT, it’s only the start. JH

CMAT headlines LiDO in London’s Victoria Park on 12th June 2026; find out more at lidofestival.co.uk. Tune in for Dork's albums of the year 2025: Number 1 on Friday.