From Lorde to Jimmy Barnes and beyond. We rank the #1 albums of the year so far
Plenty of incredible albums released this year won't even make the top 100 of Australia's ARIA album charts, let alone the top spot.
But charts do matter. A number one album can give artists leverage when it comes to career progression, and simply being atop the pile for a week or two is a compelling reason for a lot of people to listen.
There have been 14 new number-one albums on the ARIA charts so far this year. And this number should grow in coming years, once new rules excluding albums over two years old are adopted from September.
Hopefully, this unscientific and completely subjective ranking (hashed out between Double J music brains Dan Condon and Al Newstead) will help you decide which of those chart-topping albums are worth your time.
Dan Condon: Don't love the violence and racism, but I'm The Problem does explain why Morgan Wallen is one of the biggest artists of this decade. He has an everyman charm that comes through in the songwriting and his voice, and he generally comes across as edgy but non-threatening. Mostly, his songs are packed with hooks and stories that people see themselves in.
Al Newstead: I can see the appeal, even if I can't personally separate art from artist. But gosh, after two hours and 49 songwriters' worth of material, this really doesn't do much to shift the needle on his pop-friendly, Tennessee twang.
DC: That's my biggest musical gripe: the record is TOO LONG. There are financial reasons everyone is doing this and I hate it.
AN: Yep, hard agree. The 'photo-dump' approach is all about gaming the algorithm and nothing about what works so well about the album format. This will be a recurring critique for other albums on this list.
AN: This is my first full exposure to the tattooed Atlantan with the big voice and even bigger production. I think it's more effective when he's not competing against grandiose arrangements and allows the size and sensitivity of his voice to shine. For example, the understated sizzle of Bad Dreams or straight-up soul of Black & White.
DC: Do I need to hear volume one for volume two to make sense? This bland soul pop leaves me feeling so empty. I wish he would just try therapy.
AN: Lol. There's certainly a lot of predictable, by-the-numbers filler I'd never come back to. But in smaller doses, Teddy Swims is better than a lot of other stuff clogging up the charts.
AN: Best known for his tux-tearing, acrobatic Grammys performance of 2024 hit, Beautiful Things, I've wondered what all the fuss about backflipping showman Benson Boone is. Frankly, his second album only confirmed my worst suspicions.
When he's not embodying "we have Harry Styles at home", he's performing unbearably sappy ballads or oozing grating musical theatre kid energy. See Mystical Magical, which sounds like A.I. Freddie Mercury covering Olivia Newton John's Physical. American Heart isn't objectively terrible. It's worse – offensively average.
In the tongue-in-cheek music video for Mr Electric Blue (reference point: Electric Light Orchestra), Boone sports a 'One Hit Wonder' shirt and meets a music exec at Industry Plant Records who declares: 'We need a new gimmick. Maybe, good songwriting?'
'You know I can't do that,' Boone replies. Cute joke. Except if the punchline on the evidence of his second album is: Yeah, you really can't.
DC: I'd prefer to hear a David Boon album than ever listen to this again. Actually, I'd really like to hear a David Boon album.
AN: Who'd have guessed Bliss N Eso would still be topping the charts more than 20 years after they helped homegrown hip hop break into the mainstream? Certainly not me. Listening to the trio's eighth album, it seems consistency and adaptability have been key to their enduring popularity.
The Moon (The Light Side) bridges past and present. There's tracks that pay homage to rap greats in a barrage of bars and athletic rhymes, but also flips of familiar hooks — like The Rubens' Hottest 100-topping 'Hoops', and Dirty Heads' viral hit, Vacation — in flashy, algorithm-friendly productions.
DC: You can't deny their skill, not just on the mic, but in the conception and execution of ideas that remain faithful to their history, while staying fresh enough.
DC: I love the idea of a cheesy glam-rock record being the number-one album in the country. Theatrical Swedish metal dudes Ghost do what they do pretty well on Skeletá: it's not especially inventive, but it's fun. Come for the titles (Satanized, Marks of the Evil One) and stay for the sweet guitarmonies.
AN: I'm with you there – love the novelty of something that hits such a hyper-specific strain of theatrical, arena-ready hard rock ending up resonating so broadly. This record, Ghost's sixth, marks a conceptual departure for the group. Founder Tobais Forge now fronts the band, inaugurated as Papa V Perpetua (Ghost lore is definitely worth a Google), and shifting to more introspective material. You'll know from track one if this is to your taste, and if it is, you've got a heavy music feast ahead of you.
AN: This enigmatic UK group might be 2025's wildest success story. A masked metal act fronted by a man known only as Vessel, they term their albums 'Offerings' and their gigs 'Rituals'. And yet, they scored a number-one album, not only in Australia but in the US, UK, and six other countries.
Sleep Token's fantasy-gothic image and splicing of heavy music DNA with R&B, trap, pop and EDM has already sparked a dogpile from metal purists and scathing reviews for Even In Arcadia.
As a fan of 2023 predecessor, Take Me Back To Eden, I'd say the follow-up is a weaker, much messier effort. But even then, the group's strange sonic pot-luck is absolutely an acquired taste. It's not for everyone, but I'd much rather have something ambitious and willingly different topping the charts than yet another Taylor Swift album.
DC: Nah, I'd prefer more Taylor, thank you very much. This just leaves me completely unmoved and kinda confused at what they're all about.
DC: The debut from 5 Seconds of Summer bassist Calum Hood sees the 29-year-old deliver pleasant moody indie pop that feels like the latest deliberate step away from the apparently wretched boy band origins they've tried to escape for a decade.
It's a pleasant but safe record that shouldn't irk anyone. But it doesn't really stand out from the cavalcade of much smaller artists making similarly pleasant pop in bedrooms and studios the world over.
AN: I think it does what it set out to do: showing off a range of musical shades and interests that outgrows his pop-punk origins. However, it's tempting to compare Hood to his bandmate Luke Hemmings, who had a similar sounding, respectable solo debut a couple years ago.
DC: It's not the work of genius the 5SOS army may proclaim it to be, nor is it the affront that the anti-pop brigade might want you to believe. It's nice, it's easy to listen to, and it's just a relief to have another young Aussie artist on the top of the charts, even if he was out of the Top 50 just a week later.
DC: It wouldn't have helped his bank balance, but had Playboi Carti brutally shed half of this 30-track, 76-minute album, he could've created another essential modern rap work. As it stands, it's a strong but patchy display of how rage rap can infiltrate the mainstream while retaining its menace.
AN: Another great example of an album that's simply overstuffed. Sure, I can cherry-pick my favourites (shout out Cocaine Noise and the Kendrick Lamar joints), but this really would've benefited from some editing. Converts of the hugely popular Atlanta rapper will tell you it's a star-studded, meaty alternative rap classic. Me? I'm just hearing mild, uneven variations of the same dark, dystopian trap.
DC: After 20 solo albums and nine with Cold Chisel, who needs another Jimmy Barnes album? Well, Jimmy Barnes did, for one. He was in a very bad way last year, and many of these songs came while he was incapacitated. We don't know exactly how much the music affected his recovery, and vice versa, but it's safe to say there's correlation.
Thankfully, there's plenty in it for us too. Barnsey's voice might truly sound better than ever and these big rock songs pulse with an energy that belies their hospice origins.
AN: He's still got it! "Remember you thought I wouldn't last six months? But 50 years on I haven't had enough," Barnesy belts on the title track, a fun rocker with genuine attitude. "You can't deny it," he declares of his voice and enduring presence. And he's absolutely right.
DC: Buy me a beer and I'll tell you why Barnsey is not Australia's Springsteen, however The Boss's brand of big sky, heartland rock is the blueprint here. If that's your thing, Defiant is worth your time. You might not come back to it as much as you do East or Working Class Man, but it's a good advertisement for keeping the fires burning long after windbag critics reckon you should stop.
DC: I'm a sucker for a big pop album, and Tate McRae's third LP has scratched that itch best for me this year. It's not a classic, but a solid display of Tate's breadth as she bounces from elegant dance pop to slinky R&B. The Jersey bounce in Revolving Door is maybe two years too late, but pop music will always borrow from the underground after it's been rinsed. And it still sounds good on her.
AN: She's no agenda-setting Chappell, Charli or Sabrina in my book, but I don't think she's necessarily coming for their throne. This is more indebted to the 2000s era of hyper-sexualised mass market pop, and I think the bops here are tailored toward being performed — all stylised choreography and bold visuals.
DC: Yeah, I'm picturing its visuals and choreo when I hear this record. I just figured that was due to too much screen time on my part.
AN: At 16 tracks, I expected more variety, sonically and lyrically. But the promise is there, and maybe when she's put out more albums, we'll get more range.
DC: I have no interest in seeing the accompanying film, and the various marketing stunts surrounding its release bore me to hell. But The Weeknd still makes music that excites me. Tell me about the album's concepts and I'll fall asleep. But play me São Paulo and I'll stampede you on my way to turn up the volume.
AN: I'm partial to Abel Tesfaye's f**kboi-pop aphorisms, but here his self-awareness has curdled into self-absorption. It has its moments (he always does), but after the neatly structured radio concept of Dawn FM, this is a disappointing slog where too many boring stretches just drift by. Hurry Up Tomorrow? Hurry up and get to the chorus!
DC: Exactly. Abel can be a genius when he wants to — he either needs to get out of his own way or listen to anyone brave enough to tell him that less is more.
AN: Maybe he's a victim of his own ego and success. But this is a merely competent album rather than the truly great climax to a conceptual trilogy that he wanted it to be. I hope this isn't the swan song, because otherwise the music of The Weeknd risks being thought of in the same terms as his acting career: a surreal vanity project.
AN: On the basis of lead single, Abracadabra, the Little Monsters fanbase were expecting a return to Gaga's 2010s output. I'm pleased that, instead, Mayhem offers more dimension and dynamics.
Killah echoes 1980s Prince. Perfect Celebrity channels the industrial grit of Nine Inch Nails. There are neat evolutions of the lockdown-disco from 2020's Chromatica (Zombie Boy); Garden of Eden reminds me of Muse's Supermassive Blackhole — a plus in my book. But no doubt a minus in yours, DC?
DC: Oh, surely the last thing we need is a Muse revival. While Gaga has never been for me, Mayhem got me in a way I wasn't expecting. If you don't love her big, theatrical choruses then this will still grate, but its hard-edged production gives the record serious teeth.
While I'm not identifying as a Little Monster yet, and I'm still reaching for Dua Lipa or Ariana Grande on a tipsy Saturday night, I can't deny that Gaga's latest chapter is another masterclass in pop excellence.
AN: I think getting the showtunes out of her system for Joker: Folie à Deux and her 2021 duets album with Tony Bennett helped clear the creative decks for Gaga to deliver a far more focused effort. Her upcoming tour is going to be a blast.
AN: As a fan of the much-maligned Solar Power, I'm a little sad that its sunny, mellow sound has been completely abandoned. I didn't immediately love this return to synth-driven melodrama – some of her and producer Jim-E Stack's choices fall flat.
That said, after a few spins I've come to appreciate the sound — full of sharp, chrome edges to snag your ear on — and the bold artistic growth. And I'm curious how all this will sound live.
Lorde asks challenging questions about her identity and often walks away with few definitive answers. But hearing her untangle those knots — on stand-outs like Hammer, Favourite Daughter, Current Affair and Broken Glass — is what makes Virgin so compelling.
AN: I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ball Park Music are incapable of releasing a dud album. That's quite a feat when you consider the Brisbane five-piece have released eight albums in 14 years.
Their latest, Like Love, tends towards the softer, slower side of their sound. They can still knock out a kooky, memorable indie rock song in their sleep (take a bow, Please Don't Move To Melbourne) but those are the exception here rather than the rule.
Instead, Sam Cromack's reliably offbeat lyricism and well-honed songwriting nestles into tender, folksy material, like the acoustic title track and charming As Far As I Can Tell.
Bells In Bloom has a Bends-era Radiohead lilt to it, while Pain & Love possesses late-Beatles DNA. It's songwriting that's easy to admire, but with enough unique twists alongside the memorable melodies to ensure staying power.
DC: In a list packed with big and bold albums, Ball Park Music's latest is comparatively unassuming. Maybe that's partly while it's also so appealing?
AN: If nothing else, I much prefer having Aussies sitting atop the Australian charts. And with ARIA changing the rules with how they are calculated, here's hoping that Ball Park and other local favourites aren't so lonely at the top in future.
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6 hours ago
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The Logies are almost upon us, with organisers announcing the winner of the coveted Hall of Fame award ahead of this Sunday's ceremony. It's been revealed Magda Szubanski AO will be bestowed with the honour, making her just the fifth female recipient since the first ever awards back in 1984. Szubanski, 64, who has enjoyed a stellar four-decade showbiz career, will be presented with the award onstage at The Star in Sydney. The comedic entertainer, who was born in England but raised in Melbourne, first hit our screens in the '80s on sketch shows including The D-Generation, Fast Forward and Full Frontal, while also carving a career in film with roles in 1995's Babe and its subsequent sequel. But she's perhaps best known for her star turn in the 2000s comedy Kath & Kim, playing the loveable Sharon Strzelecki – a character previously debuted in 1994's Big Girl's Blouse with Gina Riley and Jane Turner. 'With a career spanning nearly four decades, the much-loved Magda Szubanski has helped define Australian comedy, creating some of the country's most beloved and enduring characters,' a statement from Logies organisers read. 'The TV WEEK Logie Award Hall of Fame recognises outstanding and continued contribution and enrichment to Australian television culture by an individual, a group of individuals, or a program. 'Magda's contribution to comedy, literature, activism, and Australia's cultural identity is profound and influential. This induction into the TV WEEK Logie Awards Hall of Fame celebrates not only a remarkable television career but also a lifetime of shaping hearts, headlines, and history, and giving audiences the gift of huge laughs.' Szubanski was previously bestowed with an Order of Australia (AO) in 2019 'for distinguished service to the performing arts as an actor, comedian and writer, and as a campaigner for marriage equality.' The recognition comes amid a devastating time in Szubanski's personal life, with the star announcing her stage four cancer diagnosis in May. The beloved entertainer told fans in a social media post she was battling Mantle Cell Lymphoma, a rare and fast-moving blood cancer. Szubanski confirmed she had begun 'the Nordic protocol' … 'one of the best treatments available' for the disease that was randomly picked up during a recent breast screen. 'Hello, my lovelies. The head is shaved in anticipation of it all falling out in a couple of weeks,' she said at the time. 'I have just been diagnosed with a very rare, very aggressive lymphoma. 'It is one of the nasty ones unfortunately. 'The good thing is I'm surrounded by beautiful friends and family and an incredible medical support team. Honestly we have the best in the world here in Australia. 'It's pretty confronting. It is a full on one. But new treatments keep coming down the pipeline all the time … I've just got to (laughs). 'What do you? What are you gonna do?' During the past decade, Szubanksi has increasingly opened up about her private battles. In her 2015 memoir Reckoning, Szubanski documented her complicated relationship with food and her sexuality, something she had guarded for decades before coming out in February 2012. She later admitted it was one of the scariest things she'd done in her life. In her social post this year, Szubanski signed off to her legion of fans with a request: 'If you do see me out and about – don't hug me, kiss me or breathe anywhere near me! Wave enthusiastically from a safe distance and know I love you madly.' The Logies will air Sunday night on Channel 7.
