The 50 best albums of 2025: No 3

Dev Hynes’ deeply personal response to his mother’s death embodied the many unexpected shades of grief in pastoral hymnals and post-punk

The Genius of Handel’s 'Messiah'

The oratorio is a feat of sustained inspiration arguably unsurpassed in the canon of Western classical music.

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 4

The former TikTok star defied expectations by delivering dreamy, experimental synth-pop whose fizzy hedonism was a tonic for trying times The 50 best albums of 2025 More on the best culture of 2025

‘It became a running joke how much my brothers and I hated it’: the sound of Christmas to me

Beyond Wham! and Elton, Guardian writers from across the generations select the songs that conjure the personal magic and memories of the season

Tune in Today: Marriage Celebrated in Sound

In 1896, Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) composed a piece in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of his marriage to the former Nina Hagerup, a lyric soprano. The pair had wed in 1867, parenting a daughter who died in childhood. Though they had no more offspring, the couple enjoyed musical collaboration through the decades. Nina premiered many of her husband’s vocal works and is said to have inspired the composer’s best-known large-scale composition, the Piano Concerto in A minor.

The Best Albums of 2025

This year’s most interesting artists invented their own grammar and tunneled in idiosyncratic directions.

‘Happy by Pharrell is exceedingly annoying

The Another Chance star does Journey at karaoke and gets the party started with Daft Punk. But which Stevie Wonder track would he like played at his funeral?

‘Harder work than almost any album we ever did’: Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here turns 50

As the classic album hits 50, Nick Mason talks about the often difficult process of making it and how it has since fit into their larger catalogue

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 5

Returning in high style to the operatic electroclash that first made her name, the zest and zip of these songs still sounds truly innovative The 50 best albums of 2025 More on the best culture of 2025

‘Fans stole my underwear

‘We had 2,000 people outside our hotel room in Buenos Aires singing our songs all night. David Coulthard later told me that all the Formula One drivers were staying there and were annoyed because they couldn’t sleep’