Sometimes you don’t have enough tracks for an album, but you want to put more music out into the world than a single. The EP is the awkward middle child of musical formats, but it’s endlessly useful for acts at every level of the industry, from rising new artists to one-off collaborations and experimental detours for established stars.
SPIN’s list of the best EPs of 2025 has a bit of everything, from outtakes and posthumous recordings to live tracks and great new songs, always in small, bite-sized portions.
25. The World’s Fair, Swervedriver
EPs were the beating heart of the U.K. indie scene in the ’90s, and the Oxford band Swervedriver made more EPs than full-length albums during their original run. For their first release in six years, Swervedriver returned to the 4-song EP format that served them well in their early shoegazer days on Creation Records, with violin and cello fleshing out their signature swirling guitars to great effect on “Volume Control.”
24. We Live in a Society, Flume & JPEGMafia
Australian future bass producer Flume and American experimental hip-hop star JPEGMafia have collaborated on each other’s respective solo albums. But “Track 1,” the opener from their first release as a duo, entertainingly plays off the idea that they’re not on the same wavelength, Flume offering up glitchy drum sounds while Peggy sneers, “This beat right here is trash.” After that comedic intro, We Live in a Society quickly picks up steam with songs like “Is It Real,” featuring the weirdest production that 2025’s breakout pop star Ravyn Lenae has ever sung on.
23. Opus: The Moretti EP, Moretti
The A24 thriller Opus underwhelmed critics with its music industry satire and underperformed at the box office. But John Malkovich was a lot of fun to watch in his turn as a Bowiesque enigmatic pop star named Moretti. And Malkovich recorded three songs in character for the film, collaborating with a couple of big time hitmakers, Terius “The-Dream” Nash and Chic’s Nile Rodgers, the latter channeling some of his past work with the real David Bowie.
22. Happy to Be Here, Dexter and the Moonrocks
The Texas quartet Dexter and the Moonrocks have gotten about as big as a band can get without a full-length album to their name. Their third EP features “Ritalin,” the band’s second Top Five hit on alternative radio, and they’ve continued to refine their signature “Western space grunge” sound with twangy songs like “Cry” and “Breakin’.”
21. But What the Hell Do I Know, Alemeda
Top Dawg Entertainment was a boy’s club when it became one of hip-hop’s most revered labels over a decade ago. But SZA and Doechii, the ladies of TDE, are the label’s top stars these days, and in 2025 Top Dawg also signed Alemeda, an Arizona native who makes brash, catchy punk pop songs like “Beat a Bitch Up” and “I’m Over It.”
20. Warning Shot, BabyChiefDoIt
In 2025, Chicago rapper BabyChiefDoIt appeared on the cover of XXL’s Freshmen issue, released his second album, made a standout guest appearance on Chance the Rapper’s Star Line, and turned 17. In the middle of that eventful year, BabyChiefDoIt released Warning Shot, including four songs with a clever and punchline-heavy spin on the Chicago drill sound, and the radio-friendly Cash Cobain collaboration “Attitude Problems.”
19. Amortage, Jisoo
All four members of K-pop’s top girl group Blackpink released solo projects in 2024 or 2025. But while Lisa, Rose, and Jennie made full-length albums full of guest stars and genre experiments to help raise their profiles in America, Jisoo topped South Korea’s album charts with an EP of good old-fashioned dance pop—two tracks sung in English and two sung in Korean.
17. If I Were An R&B Singer, Marvin Sapp
Many of the best R&B singers honed their craft in a church choir, so it’s no surprise that gospel institution Marvin Sapp has daydreamed about making secular soul. If I Were An R&B Singer isn’t a huge departure—“Moment or Lifetime” and “Through My Pain” are love songs that are performed more like gospel hymns than seductive slow jams—but the thought experiment allows Sapp to loosen up and show off his voice in a new context.
16. Dangerous Summer, Yeat
The 34-minute Dangerous Summer would be an album for many artists, but it’s just a stopgap EP for Yeat, whose full-lengths typically run well over an hour. Most of the project leans on the AutoTune-heavy rage rap that’s made Yeat a festival headliner, with tracks like “[ADL is Coming]” hyping up his forthcoming A Dangerous Lyfe album. But “Fly Nite” featuring FKA Twigs is a detour into avant-pop that suggests exciting new directions for Yeat’s sound.
15. Leap Through Poisoned Air, W. Cullen Hart & Andrew Rieger
The Olivia Tremor Control frontman Will Cullen Hart died of a heart attack in November 2024. A few months later, Elf Power’s Andrew Reiger released four songs that he and Hart had recorded together as roommates back in 1999 and 2000. The four lo-fi psych rock tracks on Leap Through Poisoned Air feel like a brief, exhilarating lost chapter of the era when the Elephant 6 was indie rock’s most adored collective.
14. Land of Hope and Dreams, Bruce Springsteen
The E Street Brand toured abroad this year, kicking off a U.K. leg with a Manchester show in which Bruce Springsteen gave a couple extended speeches lamenting that his homeland is “currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.” After President Trump responded by playing rock critic and calling the New Jersey icon “overrated,” Springsteen doubled down, releasing a live EP with both speeches and a few songs from the Manchester show, including a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.”
13. The Provocateur, Adela
The international girl group Katseye’s formation was documented in a 2024 Netflix reality series, Pop Star Academy. And one of the contestants eliminated early in the competition, Slovakian singer Adela Jergova, became a fan favorite who soon signed with Capital Records and released her debut EP. Hyperpop tracks like “Sex on the Beat” and the Grimes-produced “Machine Girl” confirm that the same qualities that made Adela an odd fit for Katseye make her an intriguing solo artist.
12. C0FFEE!, Saba
Chicago rapper Saba’s best 2025 release was a weighty and cohesive collaborative album with producer No ID. But C0FFEE! is an invigorating palate cleanser, nine short tracks written and recorded in the Pivot Gang founder’s Ford Bronco Wildtrak, ranging from lyrical exercises to the goofy melodic experiment “Looking For Parking.”
11. WWP, Tyla
Since her 2023 smash “Water” made Tyla the first major international star of the South African amapiano scene, she’s continued a steady march of danceable singles. Some of those tracks, including the Wizkid collaboration “Dynamite,” were collected on WWP, a preview of a mixtape called We Wanna Party, along with the sexy, propulsion “Is It,” a Top Ten hit in South Africa.
10. A Written Testimony: Mars, The Inhabited Planet, Jay Electronica
New Orleans rapper Jay Electronica has cultivated an enduring mystique over the past two decades by sporadically releasing small amounts of stunning, uncompromising music. In September, he celebrated his 49th birthday by releasing an uncharacteristically generous deluge of music to streaming services over several days, some of it familiar to longtime fans and some previously unreleased. One of those releases, A Written Testimony: Mars, The Inhabited Planet, is a tapestry of elliptical Jay Elec verses wrapped in samples of Christopher Nolan film dialogue, Radiohead live recordings, and Louis Farrakhan speeches.
9. Ethel Green, Field Hospitals
The four members of Minneapolis’s Field Hospitals have played in heavier or artier Midwestern punk bands in the past, but their new project’s chiming guitars and tuneful hooks sound like something you’d hear on a college radio station in the ’80s alongside early R.E.M. singles. The six songs on Ethel Green were recorded as a demo, but the South African label Subjangle correctly decided that they were good enough to be released as the band’s debut EP.
8. Goldust, Dapper Dan Midas
Baltimore rapper Dapper Dan Midas, also known as DDm, delved back into his adolescent love of pro wrestling during the COVID-19 lockdowns. For the Goldust EP, Midas delves into WWE lore for punchlines and boasts, but he also casts an empathetic eye toward female wrestlers on “Dark Divas” and “The Ballad of Luna & Sherri.”
7. Burning Moonlight, Marianne Faithfull
Years of hard living famously made Marianne Faithfull’s voice hoarse and deeper yet more unique and expressive after her ’60s pop hits. In the years leading up to her January 2025 death, though, Faithfull released little music as she battled emphysema and COVID-19. So it was exciting to learn that she’d actually completed a 4-song EP in her final months, including two new compositions and an a cappella rendition of “She Moved Thru’ the Fair,” a folk song she had been performing for 60 years.
6. Backroads, Samara Cyn
Tennessee rapper-singer Samara Cyn’s charismatic performances and conversational rhymes have earned praise from legends like Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. And after releasing her second EP and performing “Hardheaded” on The Daily Show, Cyn is “swimmin’ in hype like a big white tee,” as she puts it memorably on the Smino collaboration “Brand New Teeth.”
5. Lucky You, Isaiah Falls
Florida R&B singer Isaiah Falls doesn’t need a duet partner to make a sensual slow jam. But his falsetto sounds best with another voice to bounce off of and harmonize with, as on “Just a Dream” featuring Alex Isley and “Butterflies” featuring Joyce Wrice, both standouts from his second EP of 2025.
4. Sellout II, Jae Stephens
The unheralded jewel of Def Jam’s current roster is Texas-born R&B singer Jae Stephens, who wields witty, alliterative wordplay on songs like “10/10.” This year, she released an even better sequel to her 2024 Sellout EP, and went on tour opening for the British group FLO.
3. Hidden Out!, Makaya McCraven
Chicago-based jazz drummer Makaya McCraven released 90 minutes of new music on Halloween. But instead of presenting that bounty as a double album, he divided it into four EPs, each with its own distinct sound and personnel. The best of those EPs, recorded live at the Hideout in Chicago, features a trio of collaborations with Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker and a jaw-dropping drum solo from McCraven on “Awaze.”
2. Madder!, Sparks
It’s a strong indication of the increasing ubiquity of EPs in the music industry that long-running artists who’ve never released an extended play before are embracing the format. This year Ron and Russell Mael released their 26th album as Sparks and then followed Mad! up with the band’s very first EP. Madder! features four songs including “Porcupine” and “Fantasize” that provide an additional helping of the Maels’ signature synth hooks and droll sense of humor.
1. Pholks, Leon Thomas
Leon Thomas III made the transition from acting to music after working on hits by his Victorious co-star Ariana Grande. With the sleeper success of his 2024 album Mutt, though, Thomas became a major star in his own right this year. And in October, just as Mutt racked up six Grammy nominations and its title track climbed into the Top Ten, Thomas made a victory lap with the release of Pholks, seven funky new tracks that heavily showcase his guitar chops.
