The Top 10 Indie Rock Albums of 2025

If you do not know what Indie rock means in 2025, then why did you click on this article in the first place? The bands that made the top ten list are of the more experimental variety, many times bordering on post-punk, but not as fully immersed in the bleakness, though more albums lean into a darker mood than not here, though given the website you are reading this on, that should not be a surprise. While indie rock lends itself to hipster culture, these are not intended to be the coolest albums, but the best, fuck what other blogs say,

 After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of 2025. The very fact that these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album; there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day, what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, and you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list, and I have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway, here are the top 10 indie rock albums of 2025

10-SWOLL- "Avoid Attach" 

This Baltimore-based band has an interesting atmosphere setting them apart from their peers. They mix post-hardcore with an ambient form of indie that dabbles in electronics like Minus the Bear. There is less math rock going on than minus the bear, with the bass players keeping a creeping tension flowing through the songs. The vocals are shouted in a more punk fashion, but the aggression is more passive than overt. Sometimes they are more dynamic and sung in a way that would not be out of place on a shoegaze album.

tps://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/swoll-avoid-attach.html

9-Activity-"A Thousand Years in Another Way." 

This one starts off with a tenser, more brooding vibe. The fragile vocals still bring Radiohead to mind. They employ swathes of sonic noise to create the atmosphere here. At times, they feature female vocals in an almost whimsical manner. They also veer into the experimental post- "Ok Computer" era of Radiohead. Their sounds are well-layered, but the beat brings this comparison further to mind. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/activity-thousand-years-in-another-way.html

8-Cult Therapy -"Get Fucked Sinner." 

These zany Michigan punks, have made a scathing album that gives religion the middle finger. There are elements of slacker '90s indie rock in the disjointed slink it takes on at times. There is also a noise rock sloppiness to what is going on here.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/12/cult-therapy-get-fucked-sinner.html

 

7-Smoking Popes - "Lovely Stuff." 

I first gave this band a shot because Morrissey said Smoking Popes was one of his favorite bands. Given the vocal quality of their singing and lyrical depth, I bought their 1995 album 'Born to Quit', for which they are most known.  This album is not produced in a manner that suggests they are trying to take you back to the 90s, but the guitar does have a punk jangle to it. What do accomplish is showing their songwriting chops are still tight as hell. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/10/smoking-popes-lovely-stuff.html

 6-The Bellair Lip Bombs -"Again" 

This band from Austrailia has flown under the radar for 8 years, and it is now time for them to step into the spotlight. Their new album finds early college rock colliding with the slacker sounds of the '90s. Singer Maisie Everett adds a detached layer of cool girl indifference to the sonic ramble of their sometimes Velvet Underground-like sonic attack. The overall sound is a more historically accurate depiction of where post-punk originated before evolving into what we know as indie rock

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-bellair-lip-bombs-again.html

5-Reverse YR Curse : " Where Are We Going and When Will We Get There?" 

This trio plays an interesting flavor of indie rock. They are introspective and melodic while their songwriting churns through odd yet organic shifts. There is more surf rock than punk feel to this weird take on pop if we are talking about pop from the '60s Phil Spector era. There is a garage vibe to the guitars at times as the lyrics are as oddly phrased as the music jangling around it.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/reverse-yr-curse-where-are-we-going-and.html

4-The Neighbourhood -" Ultrasound" 

I loved "Wiped Out" but this is the first album to I have listened to by this California band. I am not sure when they decided to stop making emo pop and took this turn to the zip code of the Stone Roses, but I approve, it is not what I expected at all.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-neighborhood-ultrasound.html

3-SMUT - "Tomorrow Comes Crashing" 

This Cincinnati-sourced band plays a raw punk-influenced take on indie rock that pulls from the more emotional side of 90s alternative rock. Tay Roebuck has both sugar and spice to her voice, with a syrupy knack for melodies that spill over the attack of the well-layered and intentionally lo-fi guitars. It's an overproduced album that makes it seem like it's just a mic in the practice room, with guitar running through all kinds of plug-ins, to achieve a wide breadth of tones.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/smut-tomorrow-comes-crashing.html

 

2- Pool Kids- "Easier Said Than Done"

It is funny that I found this band while searching for punk albums that came out this year. There is nothing punk about this but I like this album for what it is. This Tallahassee plays a pop minded version of indie-rock that benefits from some very slick production that lends to the pristine vocal lines and dancey grooves. It feels like if you were hoping the Beaches had made more of a pop album this time around then these kids would be for you. They take a page from Boygenius when it comes to blending hooks with indie rock.

 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/12/pool-kids-easier-said-than-done.html

 

1-HAIM- "I quit" 

The Haim sisters came back after five years, which in pop music is an eternity, given how attention spans and trends cycle out. In being generous and taking things like touring into consideration, we can say they had 3 years to follow "Women in Music pt 3" which was a career-defining album, that elevated the band's status. This time the focus was on playing their instruments and busting out guitar solos rather than pop hooks, but they packed a few of those as well. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/haim-i-quit.html

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Smut : "Tomorrow Comes Crashing"

This Cincinnati-sourced band plays a raw punk-influenced take on indie rock that pulls from the more emotional side of 90s alternative rock. Tay Roebuck has both sugar and spice to her voice, with a syrupy knack for melodies that spill over the attack of the well-layered and intentionally lo-fi guitars. It's an overproduced album that makes it seem like it's just a mic in the practice room, with guitar running through all kinds of plug-ins, to achieve a wide breadth of tones. Roebuck is said to have blown out her voice in the sessions for this album, and perhaps it came from her screaming out during "Syd Sweeney," which was released as the album's lead single. 

"Dead Air' is a dramatic contrast from the previous song, as it is strummed with almost pop ballad intentions. Robuck will get excited even when things begin to take a more building climax on a song like this and let out a brief punk scream. 'Waste Me' finds a sweetly hooky chorus serving as a fitting counterpoint to the brisk phrasing of the verses.  There is a marginally more '80s touch to the guitar tone for "Ghosts." The guitar interplay on this song is interesting and well-layered, as they start delving more into atmosphere. To the band's credit, they are not investing more in the sounds than the songs. 

"Burn Like Violet" benefits from the arrangement that gives the vocals plenty of space. The guitars ring out with more of a rock flair on this one, when not strumming the chords on the verse."Touch & Go" works off the soft-to-loud formulas 90s radio made popular, with a little more introspection in the verses. The strum of brisk guitar carries the melodies to "Crashing in the Coil" forward with hopeful speculation. There is a more Veruca Salt-like feel to "Spit" in the tension to hoe the guitars chug under the vocals. The album ends with what is the equivalent of a 90s alternative power ballad.  I will give this album a 9.5, and see how it grows on me if you are looking for 90s flavored rock with a more modern punk sneer lurking in the corner , this is worth your timr.This drops on Basyonet Records, June 27th.  

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Smut : "Soft Engine"

 

This band is deceptive, while upbeat with a 90s alt jangle there are some woozy shoe gazing glaze to the edges of the guitars. This sheds to focus on more vocal centered songs. The Sundays have to be this band's biggest influence as it is the closest sonic neighbor when it comes to the upbeat breezy indie rock that they are creating here. The melodies are flowing, but it is too organic, and guitar focused to really feel like pop. The melodies are not going for overt radio hungry hooks. At times it feels like easy listening for people who listen to shoe gaze and post-punk. The guitar is casually strummed on "Believe You Me" which could be indie folk, but some definitions. In the 90s it would have just been lumped onto alt rock radio. I could hear Taylor Swift singing some of these songs, but the detached less emotional aspect of the vocals is what gives these songs their charm.   

There is a more upbeat swing to "Supersolar". I guess this is rock it does not have much attack as the guitar stroll at a strum. The vocals are not falling where pop would though. By the time we get to "Janeway" things are beginning to take on a more uniform palette of sounds. It flows better than the previous song, which was not ineffective this one just feels better on my ears. Even with that said it is not as strong as the first say four songs. The first time I listened to "How the Light Felt" the sleepy strum of acoustic guitar bathed in ambience breezed by not really capturing my attention. The second listen did not really reap many more thoughts; it works for what it is but fades into the background.

"Person of Interest" is more of a pop song. If not for the haunting reverb in the production, it sounds like a song that might have been playing in the background on the show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" . The more surreal sounds they color this with, puts it more firmly as dream pop. The electronic beat to "Moringstar" is an effect shift in the dynamics. This makes it one of the album's best songs. The last song is another so unobtrusive that it breezes by without me forming a thought on it.  Second listen finds the melodies holding more weight. I will give this album 9 . It recalls an era of music that I was a fan of of, while looking forward into the future. This comes out November 11th on Bayonet.