3 Rock Albums Make Billboard’s List of 50 Best Albums of 2025 (Only 1 Cracks Top 10)

Three rock albums made Billboard's list of the 50 Best Albums of 2025 and one of them actually cracked the Top 10.

This particular list consisted of staff picks and there are 30 writers credited on the piece. They noted that 2025 was a good year for pop as there was a plethora of releases from artists such as Lady Gaga, Lorde, Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and others.

Thus, it's a bit surprising that rock picks even made the cut at all, but we're excited to see it nonetheless.

Which Rock Albums Made Billboard's List of the Best Albums of 2025?

Ranked at No. 36 was Hayley Williams' third solo album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Although the singer's solo material leans more alt-pop and pop-rock, she's still the face of Paramore.

"With the ultimate Ego Death, Williams didn’t just expertly look back on her life, career, personal demons and heartbreaks through her timeless-sounding pop rock; she also showed the industry that it’s still possible to shake things up in the age of streaming," writer Hannah Dailey wrote of the album.

Deftones' 10th studio album private music was placed two spots ahead of Ego Death, with writer Anna Chan referring to the rockers as "the masters of creating a vibe and painting lush, jagged soundscapes."

"With nearly seamless production and Chino Moreno’s vocal prowess ranging from fierce to mesmerizing – sometimes on the same track (“Metal Dream”) — the LP is an enthralling listen from start to finish, a source of infinite replay value," the excerpt continued.

READ MORE: The 'Big 4' Rock + Metal Artists of 2025

Lastly, Turnstile landed the No. 10 spot on the list with their latest effort Never Enough. The writer compared the band to Minnesota punk rockers Husker Du and Canadian hardcore punk outfit Fucked Up, praising them for their broadened sonic evolution over the last few releases.

"Hard to pin down yet cohesive (thanks in part to frontman Brendan Yates producing the album, alongside Will Yip), Never Enough finds the Baltimore punks dining at a fancier class of restaurant, without bothering about the stuffy dress code — and they’ll take one of everything on the menu, thanks, because sweet, savory, bitter and salty are all part of the palette," writer J.L. said.

Which Other Albums Made the Top 10 of Billboard's List?

The other nine albums that took the top spots on the list were Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl, Tyler, the Creator's Don't Tap the Glass, PinkPantheress' Fancy That, Sabrina Carpenter's Man's Best Friend, Olivia Dean's The Art of Loving, Clipse's Let God Sort Em Out, Lady Gaga's Mayhem, Rosalia's Lux and Bad Bunny's Debí Tirar Más Fotos.