The Best Country Albums & Songs of 2025, According to Us
Happy end of 2025 - we did it, everyone! Well, almost. This year, we were excited to once again partner with our friends at Stereogum to rundown our favorite albums of the year (with our favorite songs listed below as well). I think Natalie summed up everything expertly in her intro...
2025 — a year where once again, country music, its aesthetic and its politics remained far too relevant. But year after year we're compelled to reiterate: there's so much more to this story than Morgan Wallen, in spite of his perennial ubiquity. Yes, much of Nashville is wrapped up in trying to replicate Wallen's country pop-via-clumsy R&B crossover formula (or somehow worse, Jelly Roll's Three Doors Down/Nickelback pastiche) — but as ever there is a counter, in this case the neotrad resurgence headlined by Zach Top and to a degree Ella Langley, who is working hard to keep a Lambert-esque spirit at the core of her pursuit of country charttoppers. Not to mention the veritable flood of non-Music Row country, Americana and folk, which has become nearly as trendy — Tyler Childers plays arenas, people! Rising tides being what they are, there were a glut of wonderful albums this year by artists who never get so much as a sideways glance from radio PDs.
This year, I personally tried not to include, in the interest of giving more space to more records, any albums I had written about for Rolling Stone's (terrific, I think!) year end country list, because it is weird to pretend we do this in a vaccum! There, I raved about Madeline Edwards, Kristina Murray and Luke Bell. They're definitely among my favorites, too. It was hard picking just five here, but also - not really. These records were pillars in my life this year - and Natalie, as always, brings such an interesting, informed and deeply curious look into country with her picks (Muscadine Bloodline hive, you shall be pleased!).
You can find the whole piece here with full blurbs on each of the picks, with the abridged album rundown and full songs lowdown below! Happy holidays and a peaceful New Year to all - thanks for sticking with us for another year here at Don't Rock the Inbox. We wouldn't be anywhere without y'all.
Don't Rock The Inbox's Best Country Albums of 2025 (via Stereogum)
Natalie's picks: (full writeup here)
Muscadine Bloodline, …And What Was Left Behind
Leon Majcen, Making A Livin' (Not A Killin')
Sunny War, Armageddon In A Summer Dress
Valerie June, Owls, Omens and Oracles
Honorable Mention: It's All Her Fault - A Tribute To Cindy Walker
Marissa’s Picks: (full writeup here)
Eric Church, Evangeline & the Machine
Margo Price, Hard Headed Woman
Don't Rock The Inbox's 10 Best Country Songs of 2025
Once again, so many to choose from, and we made sure not to pick songs off any of the above albums, to spread the love around the most. Make sure to check our 2025 playlist if you are a subscriber for all of our favorite picks this year!
"6 Months Later," Megan Moroney: Moroney might be the only one on the radio right now who isn't strictly playing to nostalgia — be it a neotraditional sound, '00s rock or decade-old hip-hop/R&B. "6 Months Later" is catchy, fun and bright without sounding like algorithm bait, original in a way I hope we hear more of from Music Row in the year to come. — NW
"Choosin' Texas," Ella Langley: Not sure I have heard such a solid country radio release in years. Such a fun, uniquely Texas tempo, with perfectly delivered lines ("she's from Texas I can tell, by the way"), just the right amount of retro production and Langley's voice sounding better than ever. - MM
"Friday Night," Olivia Ellen Lloyd: A strip club, an immigrant story and ABBA make for one of the most emotionally wrenching songs I heard this year. Proof that when the feeling's there, you don't need any backroads or cowboy boots — this is pure country. — NW
“Elderberry Wine,” Wednesday: Bleeds is not a country record, I realize, but it is a deeply southern one, and "Elderberry Wine" is most definitely a country song that feels like it has existed forever - even with lines like "I drove you to the airport with the e-brake on." If I used Spotify, this would probably be at the top of my wrapped! But fuck that place. - MM
"Wildfire Season," Jobi Riccio: I was spellbound by Riccio performing this one acoustic at AmericanaFest, and was just waiting for the studio version to drop; it delivers. Riccio sums up our moment's crises with startling urgency and clarity, making what's on country radio and much of what's being made by her peers in the Americana world sound self-indulgent and small by comparison. We need more songs like this in 2026. — NW
“Heavy Foot,” Mon Rovia: On the "there are others besides Jesse Welles doing protest music" tip (see below), Mon Rovia manages to deliver his message in a gorgeous package of kindness, writing songs with the desire to make them truly stick, not go viral. It feels like a solemn overview of everything that we fought through in 2025, but ends with a mantra: no, they never gonna keep us all down. - MM
"Fuck I.C.E.", Croy and the Boys: The title is self-explanatory; while millions are somehow falling under the spell of Jesse Welles and his heavy-handed, self-congratulatory "protest music," an Austin electrician (union man, naturally) has been beating the drum of radical Texas country for years now. It's only right that he'd release a full-band version of this five-year-old song (he's not new to this!) full of accordion and righteousness at a time when we desperately need it in Texas and beyond. — NW
"Sounds Like Something I'd Say," Kassi Ashton (featuring Parker McCollum): A killer ballad from one of the best writers - and most definitely one of the best singers - on Music Row today, Kassi Ashton (with a guy I guess? We don't have to talk about him. I kid!). A duet that actually feels like it should be a duet, too, in a world of "collaborations." - MM
"Artificial Intelligence," Jim Lauderdale: Country music is supposed to be home to the saddest songs, around, and what's sadder than the disintegration of human curiosity, ingenuity and creativity in service of robots? Fittingly, the King of Broken Hearts, Jim Lauderdale himself, penned a tongue-in-cheek (but fittingly mournful) honky tonk tune about this more philosophical kind of heartbreak — perfectly classic and perfectly timely at once, the way a good country song should be. — NW
"The Crown," Kip Moore: Longtime readers know I'm a dedicated Kip Moore fan, which feels all the more important when Nashville has their head up their ass (meanwhile, dude is playing stadiums in South Africa!). Such a fun distillation of the heartland country rock sound like Moore is just so damn good at. Do no harm, take no shit, amen! Let that be the wise words that lead us into whatever 2026 holds. - MM
