This is the album of the year, according to music critics' averages

Rosalía’s new album ‘LUX’ has ranked as the album of the year in the aggregated top 50 combining almost 100 publications, blogs and magazines’ end-of-year lists. READ MORE: The 50 best albums of 2025 Drawing from 99 sources aggregated by albumoftheyear.org, the Catalan artist’s fourth album topped ten lists and appeared in the Top Ten on a further 19. The chart awards points based on position in end-of-year lists. Placing first in a ranked list earns 10 points, eight for a Number Two, and six for a Number Three. Albums that rank within a top ten score 5 points, within a top 25 gets 3 points, and any other placement earns one point. Unranked lists also win between 1 and 5 points depending on their length. ‘LUX’ earned 364 points overall, with Geese ‘s ‘Getting Killed’ just behind in second with 338 points (though it came in at Number One on more lists overall). Ranking third is Bad Bunny’s ‘DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ with 178 points. The full list reads as follows: 1. ‘ LUX’ - Rosalía (365 points, number 1 on 10 lists) 2. ‘Getting Killed’ - Geese (338 points, number 1 on 11 lists) 3. ‘ DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ - Bad Bunny (178 points, number 1 on 5 lists) 4. ‘Bleeds’ - Wednesday (175 points, number 1 on 1 list) 5. ‘ EUSEXUA’ - FKA Twigs (174 points, number 1 on 1 list) 6. ‘ choke enough’ - Oklou (158 points, number 1 on 3 lists) 7. ‘ Let God Sort Em Out’ - clipse (155 points, number 1 on 1 list) 8. ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ - CMAT (148 points, number one on 2 lists) 9. ‘ Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party’ - Hayley Williams (146 points, number 1 on 3 lists) 10. ‘Baby’ - Dijon (146 points, number one on 1 list) Recommended Noticeably absent is Taylor Swift ‘s ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’ , which only scored 20 points and didn’t make the top 50 after receiving mixed reviews (including a three-star write-up from NME ). Meanwhile, ‘Getting Killed’ topped NME ‘s own albums of the year list, earning a five-star review praising “a band living up to their reputation as exhilaratingly free-spirited, not so much proving they deserve all the accolades and fervent fanaticism bubbling around them but demanding it”. Meanwhile, ‘DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ came in fifth, its five-star review lauding the ways Bad Bunny “revolutionizes Puerto Rico’s folk music and reclaims his reggaeton throne with game-changing fusions that are authentic to him and what he believes in”. ‘LUX’ came seventh in NME ‘s list, also receiving a five-star review . “‘Lux’ contains not just whole worlds, but astral planes, bridging the gap between Earth and whatever you believe heaven to be,” NME ‘s Rhian Daly wrote.

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