This year’s standout Australian releases saw artists delivering works across traditional and experimental spaces, resonating worldwide for their strong execution, confidence and control. Here are ten Australian music releases that shone bright in 2025.
Best 10 Australian – quick links
I Love My Computer – Ninajirachi
There is a sharp, aggressive irregularity that pulses through I Love My Computer. With rapid genre switching and playful noisiness, Central Coast artist Ninajirachi embraces a balance between signature pop clarity and electronic chaos, crafting a record that thrives on friction.
‘I wanna fuck my computer,’ she says wryly over a jagged and glitchy build to a dubstep climax. It’s a defiantly candid and humorous probe into her relationship with the internet and technology set to an onslaught of noise and assaultive rhythms.
Perhaps the messiest yet most cohesive record of this past decade.
Released 8 August 2025 by NLV Records.
Liquorice – Hatchie
A blissfully hazy dreampop record, Liquorice delivers a lush and cinematic experience, redolent of Cocteau Twins and shoegaze records of the 80s.
It’s an album that feels immersive, rather than immediately gratifying, and it rewards close listening with an array of sonic nuances and textures. Harriette Pillbeam shifts between rock, pop, and her signature Hatchie sound, resulting in a transportive lament for lost love that is heady, summery, glittery and hypnotic.
Liquorice is less digestible than Hatchie’s previous album, but with its spacious and spirited production, it feels more authentic and much more inviting.
Released 7 November 2025 by Secretly Canadian.
Unleaded91 – MACËY
For a small Adelaide hyperpunk band, MACËY’s strengths are now unmistakable – embedded firmly in the overwhelming, gargantuan soundscape of their latest EP Unleaded91.
This record merges tradition with an abundance of caustic suburban Australian charm— ‘you’re a fucking skitz c*nt,’ drummer Devon Ng whispers over a glitchy shutter on ‘Table 85’, while ‘Nihilistic by Design’ explodes into violent screams.
Unleaded91 proves that the age-old pairing of tense and biting lyricism with abrasive guitar is as potent as ever, but it takes the time to pull back from drug fuelled mayhem into a calmer, melancholy alternative. It’s personal, powerful, loud and captivating.
Released 17 July 2025 by NU.ADL.
Late Night Call – Logan Priest
Late Night Call is a bright and shimmery EP that captures the thrill of love and connection. It leans into a very traditional sound with a familiar concept, but is executed well, with confidence and a stunning vocal performance.
A classic guitar-led record with bedroom pop features, Late Night Call develops an inviting warmth and intimacy that feels characteristic of its subject matter: late night romance. Priest never struggles with letting each track stand on its own while maintaining a cohesive sound that ensures the EP feels complete.
It is a fresh and fun glimpse into the life of its creator.
Released 27 July 2025 by Mushroom.
Cry About It – Aleksiah
In a sea of indie-pop releases, Aleksiah shines brighter than most with her signature confessional style on sophomore EP Cry About It.
It’s a record rooted in self-awareness and insecurity, with a warm, upbeat, pop soundscape that directly contrasts its subject matter. Inspired by her childhood love of ‘depressing songs with fun pop beats’ – as shared in an interview with Atwood Magazine – it’s a universal idea that works exceptionally well with Aleksiah’s songwriting and vocal performance.
On the aptly named single ‘The Hit’, she uses a MUNA style vocal melody to express her struggles with performing to appease. Cry About It proves she has no cause for concern.
Released 11 July 2025 by Chugg Music and Stellar Trigger.
hickey – Royel Otis
After launching themselves into the global spotlight with two viral covers in 2024 – ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and ‘Linger’ by The Cranberries – Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic returned to the scene a year later with their sophomore album.
A breezy and woozy soundtrack of a deeply angsty late teen-young adult life, hickey is slick with dreamy vocals and soft guitar that highlights the pair’s signature Aussie nonchalance.
While neither revolutionary nor very experimental, it showcases their chemistry through its cohesion and clear commitment to a beachy, humid atmosphere. Thirteen head-bopping tracks to fill the air on pool days this summer.
Released 22 August 2025 by Ourness/Capitol Records.
Seventy – Paul Kelly
Few songwriters have chronicled Australian life as intimately as Paul Kelly, who, now five decades into his career, has released an album celebrating his seventieth birthday.
Seventy highlights just how fascinating of a storyteller and poet Kelly is. From ruminations on mortality to the sequel of famous Australian classic ‘How To Make Gravy’, it’s a record that lives in a space of tender self-reflection and community.
It may seem sonically simple but it carries all the depth of a novel, and all the dedication of a man who so clearly loves his craft.
Released 7 November 2025 by Universal Music Australia.
Like Love – Ball Park Music
A fresh new folk-tinged record from Australian icons Ball Park Music, Like Love captures the essence of love in all its forms.
Layers of soft guitar and delicate piano licks tell a narrative of love felt and love lost, while lead vocalist Sam Cromack delivers his most fulfilling and impressive vocal performance yet.
With writing that reads more like poetry than infectious pop-rock lyrics, Like Love is the perfect vessel for the kind of subdued emotion and storytelling that comes with the band’s maturity and evolution into a new sound.
Released 4 April 2025 by Prawn Records.
Light hit my face like a straight right – Mallrat
Mallrat returned with Light hit my face like a straight right, a genre-blending exploration of nostalgia, relationships and rebirth.
Beginning with softened, low-key and understated electronic production, the album quickly progresses to upbeat hyperpop-inspired anthemic arrangements of flickering synths and deep vocal harmonies.
Mallrat constructs an atmosphere of vibrant and intricate lyricism that is captivating across both sides of the album’s sonic landscape, maintaining a firm grip on the narrative she is attempting to convey.
Establishing a cohesive sound and personality that pivots so greatly from that of her first album is no small feat, but Mallrat has proven her prowess and is here to stay.
Released 14 February 2025 by Dew Process/Universal Music Australia.
If That Makes Sense – Spacey Jane
Spacey Jane are so uniquely Australian, it is impossible to omit them from a year-end list like this. If That Makes Sense is yet another laid-back, groovy record of wobbly guitar, classic drum beats and raw vocals.
That is, after all, what Spacey Jane does best. In contrast to their previous albums, it features a stronger and better developed sound, and it also plays with experimental drum machines and synths that filter in and out throughout the course of the record.
The result is an album that feels relaxed, yet bigger, better and more personal than the last. Imagine a sunset, poolside drinks and deep conversation with a friend – that is If That Makes Sense.
Released 9 May 2025 by AWAL Recordings Ltd.
This article is published as part of ArtsHub’s Creative Journalism Fellowship, an initiative supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
