The 40 Best New Artists Of 2025

Ami Taf Ra brings a soulful, ceremonial grandeur to vocal jazz. On her recent debut album The Prophet And The Madman — inspired by Khalil Gibran films like, uh, The Prophet and The Madman — the LA-based Moroccan singer lets her alto unfurl into fluttering extended notes over percolating grooves, sometimes backed by big-name talents like Kamasi Washington and Ryan Porter. Her bellows brim with an elegance borrowed from some bygone era. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Chris DeVille

Asher White is an Alex G-level prolific talent. The New England musician has been self-releasing music for years, but her latest album 8 Tips For Full Catastrophe Living marks her debut on Joyful Noise and feels like a true breakthrough. White has a gift for indelible indie pop but delights in taking unexpected turns. 8 Tips For Full Catastrophe Living veers fluidly from chamber pop to grunge, from hardcore to techno glitch freakouts. In our interview from earlier this year, she portrayed herself as an artist endlessly creating, more concerned with what’s in the process of being made rather than what she’s promoting. Despite an already substantial catalogue, it still feels like we’re only at the beginning of Asher White’s story. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Margaret Farrell

We live in a self-imploding, tea-spilling era of pop music, and Aubrey Hobert’s infectious bangers — bratty, confessional, and gloriously self-aware — make her a pop musician made for this moment. Her debut Who’s The Clown? is full of songs that will have you dancing in your bedroom and singing into your hairbrush, all while craving the juicy insider details that pop so often ostensibly promises. If you’ve grown restless with the reigning snarky, well-penned pop monoliths — Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Lily Allen — who once played the cheeky, double-entendre-wielding Robin Hoods of the genre, Hobert might just be the corrective. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] —Margaret Farrell

The “Baby” part of this kid’s name is not a joke. Chicago rapper/producer BabyChiefDoIt looks like he’s maybe 11. He’s really 17, which means he’s still a literal child, so he probably should not be out here rapping about fucking, killing, and popping Xans. He’s good at it, though — a fast and precise technician with purpose and conviction in his voice. He’s got enough talent that he might stick around once the novelty of his age fades away and the “Baby” stops feeling quite so eerily accurate. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] —Tom Breihan

Despite their name, Bedridden are a blast. It’s true that the abundance of grunge-tinged shoegaze bands means it will soon be illegal for more to exist, but the Brooklyn outfit made the cut right in time. Moths Strapped To Each Other’s Backs, released on the reliable Julia’s War, is more rowdy than it is reverb-laden; this is not music for gazing at your shoes. The hooks are aplenty, and the energy is endless. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Danielle Chelosky

Anything Can Be A Hammer is a striking name for a debut album, and luckily the music matches the intensity of that morbid phrase. The Brooklyn band come crashing in with acidic riffs, dark energy, and an atmosphere that absorbs. The songs range from ghostly to explosive, and there’s no shortage of striking hooks, proving that even a guitar can be a hammer. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Danielle Chelosky

Do you even geal, brò? The Scottish band Brògeal filter pub singalongs and traditional Celtic music into their rousing rock music, like a new-generational Pogues from one island over. But that’s a reductive view of debut album Tuesday Paper Club, which shows off Brògeal’s mastery of effervescent indie-pop jangle and occasionally reveals an emotional rawness to match Frightened Rabbit. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Chris DeVille

For those who’ve ever had a deep Elephant 6 phase or spent hours poring over Darla Records’ beloved indie pop compilations, Cootie Catcher will almost certainly strike a nerve. For the rest, don’t let these cutesie song titles fool you: The Toronto band’s latest album Shy At First is the real deal, chock-full of slacker-rock riffs, electronica flourishes, and hooky vocal harmonies. Cootie Catcher’s music is just about everything indie pop should be, going down easy without sacrificing its depth. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Abby Jones

Cardinals are breathing new life into the accordion. The Cork-based quintet — comprising brothers Euan and Finn Manning, their cousin Darragh, and former schoolmates Oskar Gudinovic and Aaron Hurley — is expanding rock music’s sonic cliches the way Iceage do with the saxophone or Show Me The Body with the banjo. Sounding like a collage of Ben Kweller, Bright Eyes, Elliott Smith, Modest Mouse, and Yo La Tengo, their music boils between poetically wrenching and vulnerably volatile. Their debut album Masquerade, out next year, is bound to be a big one. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Margaret Farrell

As crushed, Los Angeles’ Shaun Durkan and Bre Morell have earned a reputation for making lush, maximalist dream-pop. Their debut LP no scope culls together influences all across the ’90s adult alternative spectrum, often settling somewhere between Garbage, Portishead, and Liz Phair’s self-titled. Delivered through pristinely hi-fi production, the result sounds almost impossibly chic, even when Durak and Morell are ostensibly singing about a breakup that feels much more difficult to manage. Sometimes, that’s exactly what the doctor orders. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Abby Jones

Forget shoegaze, art-punk, emo — where are the rock bands who just want to rock? That’s where Die Spitz enter the picture, informed not by passing trends in guitar music as much as their shared desire to shred. The quartet of young Austin natives nod to their forebears in grunge, metal, and riot grrrl on their aptly-titled debut album Something To Consume, simultaneously rotating instruments and songwriting duties as they deliver pummeling riffs and earth-shattering shrieks. The main throughline in Die Spitz’s music, though, is the band members’ longtime friendships, and the bliss of when “Wanna start a band?” successfully grows some legs. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Abby Jones

It takes chutzpah to go out on stage sounding like Geese while opening for Geese, and Dove Ellis has it. But let’s not overstate the Irish singer-songwriter’s resemblance to Cameron Winter and friends just because they’re touring together. I’d just as readily compare him to Cory Hanson and Wand, who would be the beneficiaries of Geese-like hype in a more just world, or to Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, Thom Yorke, or any number of swooning powerhouse vocalists. Ellis, too, is deserving of your flowers for the tender, explosive tracks that make up his forthcoming debut album Blizzard. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Chris DeVille

This year fakemink transcended the underground with his viral hit “Easter Pink,” which fused together cloud rap and bloghouse. The combination is exactly what the kids want — and he should know, as he’s only 20. Since his rise, he’s been brought onstage by Drake and Playboi Carti, and his output has been nonstop. He’s locked down the formula to a song that serves as the sonic embodiment of a dopamine hit, and everyone’s hooked. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Danielle Chelosky

Yes, it’s supposed to be spelled like that. No, it doesn’t look right. The young Las Vegas crew Febuary evoke the spirit and intensity of ’90s basement screamo without the studied intentionality of many of their present-day peers. Instead, Febuary attack that sound with raw desperation, as if this musical language created before the members were born was the only way they know how to communicate urgent truths. They will allegedly kick you out if you’re not emo enough, so you better get emo enough real quick. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Tom Breihan

Here’s a common piece of wisdom: Never let them know your next move. If I had to guess, this was on Fib’s mind when they recorded their debut album Heavy Lifting. The Portland post-punks make music like they’re playing chess, and the listener is getting checkmated into oblivion. Do you know where “PS” is heading? Definitely not. Is every moment of “Mutuals” restless and almost nauseating (complimentary)? It certainly is. The weirdness is welcome. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Danielle Chelosky

This Copenhagen artist’s actual name is Fine Glindvad Jensen, but she’s better than fine. Fine came up as the singer for the electro-pop group CHINAH, and she co-wrote big K-pop hits with her former conservatory classmate Erika de Casier. On her own, however, Fine makes sparse and gossamer slow-motion dream-pop that’s both icily cool and deeply felt. On her 2024 debut album Rocky Top Ballads and the string of singles she’s released since, Fine taps into a prime Mazzy Star vein of luxuriant melancholy. Sadness never sounded so comfortable. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Tom Breihan

“We definitely wanted the song to feel enveloping,” Glixen said of their track “all tied up,” but it could really apply to all of their music. The Phoenix shoegazers have mastered the art of a wall of sound that’s powerful enough to knock a listener off their feet. The dreamy vocals don’t need to be decipherable to be stirring; if anything, obscured lyrics heighten the stakes. Everything is amorphous but moving. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Tom Breihan

Spouses Mickey and Xenia Shuman started their bleary garage-pop power trio Golomb during the pandemic, with Xenia’s brother Hawken Holm joining up as drummer. Together, they make propulsive melodic freakouts so tight that you can almost hear their family connections at work. Golomb understand classic songcraft, and they’re confident enough to muck around with dub reggae or country-rock, but the best thing about them is the noisy immediacy of three people bashing out riffs in a basement somewhere. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Tom Breihan

Hemlocke Springs sounds like a name from a celestial realm. Even though the 26-year-old musician (née Isimeme “Naomi” Udu) was raised in North Carolina and is now LA-based, her music sounds as magically unrelated to those places the way Dorothy’s red slippers were the furthest fashion from Kansas. Her 2023 EP going…going…GONE! — a glittery summer camp collage of new wave, spritely pop, and psych-funk — showcased Hemlocke Springs as an artist that can make everything feel Technicolored. Following a stint opening for fellow mythmaker Chappell Roan this past fall, she’s ready to unleash her sorcery into this dire world with her first album at the top of next year. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] —Margaret Farrell

New Jersey’s High. don’t have an album yet, but this year’s 30-minute EP Come Back Down is a thoroughly memorable experience. The opener “In A Hole” is exquisite enough on its own; the hazy guitars sweep like a tornado, calling to mind bands like Swervedriver or Hum. They’ve nailed down atmospherics that feel emotional and all-encompassing, and the result is songs that haunt. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Danielle Chelosky

There is something fittingly strange about Humour. The Glaswegian five-piece make deliriously exciting post-hardcore music that sounds like a lot of notable American hardcore bands, which they didn’t know existed (let alone that they sounded like) until after they started making music together. Their debut Learning Greek grapples with personal mythmaking, nuanced takes on Greek myths, and unsettling fictional perspectives, all while cementing their sometimes monstrous, sometimes baffling, but always engrossing sound. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Margaret Farrell

At 16 minutes, Intermission’s debut mini-LP Power Corrupts‘ only standout flaw might be that it isn’t longer. On the other hand, the perk is that you’ll rarely come across filler when it comes to the Oakland band, who breathe a fresh new life into early hardcore punk. Power Corrupts interweaves doses of danceable no wave with rough-around-the-edges guitars and shouted vocals. On both sides of the Intermission coin, they’ll make you move. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Abby Jones

Technically, the singer and producer born Jamie Krasner doesn’t belong on this list, since she’s already three albums deep into a career that’s taken her from New York to Berlin and back again. But the new Friend feels like a breakthrough and a beginning — a transportive hour-long twinkle-sigh that transforms the Pure Moods aesthetics of ’90s downtempo and circa-now micro-pop into a lush, inviting digital mattress. It’s hard to get stressed when Friend is playing, so maybe that assurance just takes time to create. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Tom Breihan

On 40, his first album for True Panther, the London emcee Jawnino raps over jazzy electronic beats that capture an imagined sensation of metropolitan England after dark. He matches those rhythms and textures with a moody, understated approach on the mic, dotting the beats with reflective poetry as if subtly tagging the sides of train cars. Some of the quieter moments convey the unvarnished intimacy of mumblecore cinema, but even when the music gets revved up, Jawnino never seems to lose his cool. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Chris DeVille

Copenhagen bashers JJ & The A’s recall an early-’80s moment when hardcore was still a branch on the rock ‘n’ roll tree, long before it became its own world with its own codes and reference points. The band brings all the speed and ferocity of any hardcore era, but they lace it with deadeyed hooks, triumphant surf-guitar leads, and playful keyboard action. Their album Rhetoric Of Trash might make you feel like you’re in a car chase in the LA River. [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Tom Breihan

After their coveted major label deal ended up not being the right fit, Junior Varsity decided it was time to start over. That reintroduction came by way of last November’s My Star, a six-song EP that harks back to party-ready bloghouse, Tumblr-era guitar pop, and — as they told us themselves in our Band To Watch interview — the “early iPod era.” Will this Los Angeles trio make you, too, feel like an anonymous silhouette dancing in front of a solid neon background? There’s only one way to find out. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Abby Jones

It takes more than funny spelling to stand out among the crop of art-damaged rock bands flowing from London these days. Fortunately, Legss also have the magnetic power of Ned Green emoting tenderly in low, anguished mutters, putting the Felt in Elias Rønnenfelt as he details the uncanny tragedies of modern life. On debut full-length Unreal, Green’s bandmates encircle his voice with fluid arrangements that forgo easy repetition in their pursuit of transcendence. It’s neither the weirdest nor the most conventional album, but it sounds entirely natural coming from this quartet. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Chris DeVille

California-born artist Chuquimamani-Condori has spent over a decade making avant-garde, sample-heavy sound collages informed by their queer identity and their Aymara heritage. But Los Thuthanaka, the duo they formed with their brother Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, is a real homecoming. Mixing elements of traditional Andean music with blasts of proto-hyperpop noise, Los Thuthanaka’s dazzling, transcendent self-titled debut is a gesture of gratitude to the queer deities who’ve served as a North Star to countless generations. [Bandcamp] —Abby Jones

We need to give Macie Stewart her flowers. Stewart is already a well-established musician, having taken part in bands like Finom (fka Ohmme) and Kids These Days. She’s worked with everyone from Jeff Tweedy to SZA to Japanese Breakfast to Mannequin Pussy, and yet she continues to fly under the radar and continually reinvent herself. This year she released When The Distance Is Blue, which is a phenomenally stilling experimental instrumental jazz album. From pop to classical music, the Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist seems destined for indefinable greatness. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Margaret Farrell

Young Broward County, Florida producer Nick Léon has worked with people like Rosalía, Oklou, and Denzel Curry, and he’s developed a Latin-influenced version of forward-thinking dance music. Léon’s compulsively listenable debut album A Tropical Entropy is inspired by Miami, Joan Didion’s 1987 book about Léon’s hometown. Léon adapts reggaeton drum patterns into floaty, architectural club while guests like Erika de Casier and Ela Minus float overtop. Whoever his collaborators might be, Léon’s vision always shines through. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Tom Breihan

Australian electronic DJ and producer ninajirachi has Gen Z in the palm of her hand with I Love My Computer. Attempting to capture the internet age isn’t an easy task, but the 26-year-old’s ecstatic, buzzy take is it. “I wanna fuck my computer/ ’Cause no one in the world knows me better” operates as an unforgettable hook. We could either lament the fact that we’re addicted to screens, or we could dance about it like we’re at a rave. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Danielle Chelosky

For Izzy Hagerup, who makes enigmatic glitched-out folk-rock as Prewn, music has been a slow burn. The 28-year-old has been writing songs for years, but it wasn’t until 2023’s Through The Window that the ball finally got rolling. System, this year’s follow-up, showcases Hagerup’s newfound unwavering commitment to her intuitive, infectious tracks that tend to the voids of everyday life. The album solidified her as an undeniable, one-of-a-kind voice that should not be ignored. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Margaret Farrell

For vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Moe Kazra, growing up Arab in suburban Detroit meant he was persistently and unjustly perceived as a threat. By the time he formed his band Prostitute, he figured he couldn’t reckon with his identity by simply placating his persecutors: He had to fight back. On Prostitute’s debut album Attempted Martyr, Kazra mobilizes his rage into scathing, hardcore noise-rock with some of the most perturbing lyrics in recent memory. “I’ve been thrown to the furnace on God’s corpse of an earth,” he muses on “Body Meat,” and that just begins to scratch the surface. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Abby Jones

Racing Mount Pleasant’s new self-titled album acts as a sonic collage depicting the past six years of the band members’ lives. The midwestern seven-piece built their foundation from the chamber-folk-rock popularized by bands like the Microphones and Broken Social Scene, but the rest is pure instinct. Songs like the sprawling, shapeshifting “Your New Place” luxuriates in its stream-of-consciousness deliveries and amorphous structure. It’s music made for getting lost and not yet wanting to be found. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Abby Jones

Bite Down is serious fun. The Montreal indie band Ribbon Skirt is led by Tashiina Buswa, an Anishinaabe singer-songwriter intent on illuminating her indigenous experience. On Ribbon Skirt’s debut album and its follow-up EP PENSACOLA, she and her bandmates do so in free-flowing, irreverent fashion. Buswa brings hooks, personality, and a knack for memorable lines like “Save me white Jesus!” to songs that pull inspiration from across decades of ultra-catchy alt-rock. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Chris DeVille

TTSSFU is the project of Manchester-based eccentric Tasmin Stephens, whose music is so alluring that we’ll excuse the annoying moniker. The 22-year-old makes chic swaths of dream-pop, the guitars sleek and mischievous and her vocals as wispy as cigarette smoke. “Call U Back” is the most addictive, and it feels like cruising down a dark road at night on a messy mission. Few artists are as instantly bewitching as TTSSFU. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Danielle Chelosky

There’s nothing more fun than getting lost in a band’s absurd mythology, which is easy to do with NYC duo Um, Jennifer? Elijah Scarpati and Fig Regan make self-described “trans slut rock” that worships Jennifer — a mythological deity that has been described as “demanding” and compared to the sound of wet socks plopping on the floor fresh out of the shower. Does Jennifer like their witty slacker rock? No. But she insists they make music to fuel her power. And thank god (or thank Jennifer) because Scarpati and Regan’s scuzzy left-turning garage rock is so damn unyielding and fun. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Margaret Farrell

With a name like Upchuck, it’s gotta be good. These Atlanta punks have been around long enough to have three albums, but the new I’m Nice Now feels like a big step up in scope and visibility. Now, they’re signed to Domino and working with Ty Segall, a producer who helps them get even louder and more passionate. The songs come out in a fuzzy, hooky rush that never obscures the deep well of anger at the band’s heart. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Tom Breihan

How’s this for a kernel of wisdom: By leaning into their most extreme influences, the members of Vacuous have found a success that eluded them in previous crossover-minded projects. The London death metal band’s recent album In His Blood lurches, growls, and bursts into flames. It’s designed to evoke a bloody mess, and yeah, a gruesome grindhouse movie might break out around you if you play it loud enough. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Chris DeVille

With three lead singers and an even broader rotation of vibes, Westside Cowboy are hard to pin down but easy to enjoy. On EPs like This Better Be Something Great and the upcoming So Much Country ‘Till We Get There, the Manchester quartet veers from uptempo indie rock to somber folk, from trembling confessionals to blaring sing-alongs. The constants are the centrality of the guitar and the can’t-turn-it-off infectiousness that permeates every track. [Spotify] [Apple Music] [Tidal] [Bandcamp] —Chris DeVille