YES, I know it’s an old chestnut – but Christmas is coming up fast, and it’s time to look back at the albums that have soundtracked my travels over the past 12 months.

What they have in common is precisely what they don’t have in common. It’s a very mixed bag, this shuffle of 2025 sets, ranging from stadium rock to cowboy ballads, and from rootsy folk to heavy metal and hard rock. But I’ve loved them all.

Too often, we paint ourselves into a corner, and miss the bigger canvas. There’s nothing wrong in liking a wide range of music, no matter how much social media likes to sneer. It’s OK to enjoy death metal and K-pop, country and Eurovision all at the same time.

Here, then are my favourites. Take a listen …

1. YUNGBLUD Idols

Blame Black Sabbath. I’d studiously sidelined Yungblud’s brattish blend of Britpop street smarts and rock candy crunch, then up he popped at Sabbath’s Villa Park farewell and stole the show with a stunning take on Changes. His fourth album is a revelatory reinvention that’ll divide the fanbase. Other than Lovesick Lullaby, which owes much to Blur’s Parklife, it’s a set of stadium-sized classic rock anthems spearheaded by The Greatest Parade and Ghosts, the latter a six-minute tour-de-force that takes a surprising turn. Painted with a broader aural palette than previously, and with nods to U2, Queen and Coldplay, there’s not a single weak link.

2. CARDINAL BLACK Midnight At The Valencia

There are no gimmicks when it comes to Welsh band Cardinal Black, just pro musicians at the very top of their game, yet not given to showboating. Their sublimely soulful January Came Close was my album of the year back in 2022, and the sophomore studio set of subtle soft rock is even better. Frontman Tim Hollister has one of the best vocals in the business, drummer Adam Roberts keeps things tight, and guitarist Chris Buck is simply sensational, his rich melodic solos proving that less can always be more. Every track’s a winner but Morning Light, Your Spark (Blows Me To Pieces) and Holding My Breath are the standouts.

3. SARAH McLACHLAN Better Broken

It’s been eleven years since singer-songwriter and Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan released a new studio album, and she’s been sorely missed. Happily, you’re only a minute into the title track opener before you discover she still has the voice of an angel. What has changed, however, is a new willingness to experiment with broader soundscapes, bringing in the likes of Prince alumna Wendy Melvoin, drummer Matt Chamberlain, pedal-steel genius Greg Leisz and MUNA’s Katie Gavin with whom she duets on Reminds Me. Lyrically, she sings of uncertainties visited upon us by personal upheaval and global tension. Highlights are album bookends Better Broken and If This Is The End.

4. ROBERT PLANT Saving Grace

Each time you think former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant can’t get any better, he just ups and exceeds expectation. He proved he could sing softly and honed harmonies with Alison Krauss but never has he sounded sweeter than on a rootsy set of off-the-wall covers recorded by a new band plucked from within a few miles of his Midlands home, with singer Suzi Dian exceptional as his vocal foil. It’s a broad church with Memphis Minnie’s Chevrolet rubbing shoulders with slo-core Low’s Everybody’s Song and traditionals such as As I Roved Out. The track to die for, though, is a gorgeously gentle take on Moby Grape’s It’s A Beautiful Day Today.

5. GRACE POTTER Medicine

Back in 2008, Grace Potter took a break from her band, The Nocturnals, to record a solo set produced by the legendary T-Bone Burnett. Record company bosses took one listen and killed it stone dead – the bluesy tracks weren’t what they considered rock chick material. Some of the songs, such as Medicine and Paris (Ooh La La) resurfaced a couple of years later on the eponymous Grace Potter & The Nocturnals breakthrough, given a radio-friendly polish propelling her to chart fame – but she hankered after the original sessions. Seventeen years later, here they are, with stripped back subtleties, a soulful horn section and sultry vocal. Highlight is opener Before The Sky Falls, which raises the bar high.

6. JOHN FOGERTY Legacy

For much of his musical life, the Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman refused to perform the classics with which he conquered the world because of bitter lawsuits with erstwhile management and bandmates. The floodgates finally opened in 1987 when, reputedly at Bob Dylan’s behest, he started singing them again – but it took until 2023 for him to reclaim the publishing rights to his own songs. To celebrate, Taylor Swift-style, he’s returned to the studio with sons Shane and Tyler, who play in his current band, to re-record twenty of his favourite back catalogue cuts, sticking steadfastly to the original arrangements. They’re all great, but who can resist the likes of Proud Mary, Green River and Fortunate Son?

7. MICHAEL KIWANUKA Small Changes

Five years ago, Michael Kiwanuka won the Mercury Music Prize for an eponymous third album hailed as an instant classic, even if he’d been paying his dues since 2011. Now, following last year’s critically acclaimed Glastonbury performance, he’s back with an album that’s as sweet as a soft summer breeze. It won’t win you over immediately, but rather take its time seducing your senses with a sublimely soulful vocal, complementary backing and polished performance. Highlights include finale Four Long Years, described by The Guardian as the answer to the question: “What if Bill Withers covered Radiohead?” The track I keep returning to, however, is Lowdown (Parts I and II) with its languid Pink Floyd-like guitar. Simply gorgeous.

8. HALESTORM Everest

Can’t have an albums of the year list without a helping of heavy rock, so step up Halestorm, who I first saw some years ago supporting Black Stone Cherry, and who I last caught at Black Sabbath’s all-star Back To The Beginning supergig this year. Truth be told, between the two, I’d fallen out of love with Lzzy Hale & Co, disappointed by a lacklustre run that did the band scant justice. Everest, however, suitably sees them scaling peaks again with a sterling set of crunchy rock and roll anthems charting Hale’s personal redemption in robust but melodic surrounds. The likes of Darkness Always Wins (despite the cheesy video), Like A Woman Can and the title track are essentials.

9. FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS A Matter Of Time

There’s been something missing in my life for fifteen years and I’ve just figured out what it is – the funky beats of those Fun Lovin’ Criminals. A Matter Of Time is the new line-up’s first album since the acrimonious split with former frontman Huey Morgan, who had been the face of the band for 28 years, and who has continued touring his own FLC show. His place has been taken by guitarist Naim Cortazzi, alongside co-founder bassist Brian ‘Fast’ Leiser and Brit drummer Frank Benbini, and it’s like turning back the clock to the first time I saw the band jamming with G Love & Special Sauce at the Phoenix Festival in 1996. Faves include Full Stop and 1972.

10. DALLAS BURROW The Way The West Was Won

When I was knee high to a grasshopper, my mother loved the Wild West gunfighter ballads of Marty Robbins. I can still hear “Out in the West Texas town of El Paso …” ringing in my head. Americana exponent Dallas Burrow has revived his home state’s songwriting tradition, building a reputation since his 2019 debut Southern Wind set. His new album is an unashamed tribute to an Old West populated by gunfighters and gamblers, cowboys and chancers, and includes guest spots by Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kelly Willis and Jim Lauderdale. Best are Tornado and Read ‘Em And Weep. Dylan and Springsteen are said to fans, and it’s easy to understand why.

Others I’ve enjoyed listening to over the past 12 months include the unexpected return of long-time favourites Aerosmith with an EP of new songs spearheaded by the mighty My Only Angel, one of four collaborations with my album of the year pick, YUNGBLUD, and probably my most played earworm of 2025. Just a shame that the rest of the tracks were so lacklustre. Still …

Elsewhere, Jason Isbell stripped everything back to the bare bones for Foxes In The Snow and Suzanne Vega returned with Flying With Angels, both great albums that narrowly missed the cut. Classic rock chug was championed by Ghost Hounds’ Almost Home and Whiskey Myer’s toughest-sounding set yet, aptly titled Whomp Whack Thunder.

Last, but not least, in the 40th anniversary year, the cast of Live Aid musical Just For One Day brought new energy to the classic songs we heard when we could be heroes just for one day in 1985. Best here is a startlingly soulful gospel take on Bob Dylan’s signature Blowin’ In The Wind, worth the price of admission on its own.

Have a great Christmas, however you celebrate the Holiday, and a happy and healthy New Year. It’s something we might all well wish for in these uncertain and troubling times.