"Buy Canadian" has become a frequent rallying cry on this side of the border, as Canadian consumers look to retaliate against Donald Trump's tariffs and annexation threats by keeping our money within our own country.
For any music fans looking to apply that same philosophy to their listening habits, 2025 has offered a particularly strong selection of Canadian offerings. From the Montreal band with a double dose of new albums to the Anishinaabe duo calling out our country's violent history of colonialism — and, yes, some international artists as well — here are Exclaim!'s 25 best albums of 2025 so far.
25. PUP
Who Will Look After the Dogs?
(Rise Records)
PUP have never shied away from their constant ache for more. Their fifth studio album, Who Will Look After the Dogs?, is a time-soured love letter to a life that no longer exists. With a rich lyrical history of dissatisfaction, they are bored by what was once enough. New heartache opens the band to deeper levels of self-evaluation while curtailing their characteristic boisterous energy, making them surely the scrappiest punk band to sell out a six-night run of hometown shows.
Emma Schuster
24. Great Grandpa
Patience Moonbeam
(Run for Cover Records)
Seattle quintet Great Grandpa hit their peak on third studio album Patience Moonbeam by expanding the intricacies of their arrangements and production ambitions, filling what could previously be negative space with prismatic, genre-agnostic adornment. Their DIY ethos combines disparate influences into a cohesive form, with the through line of Al Menne's intuitively driven vocals offering an emotional experience from tip to toe. The band's evolution in the five-year gap between this record and the last is evident, signalling a trajectory toward even more captivating works.
Allie Gregory
23. Viagra Boys
viagr aboys
(Shrimptech Enterprises)
With their latest semi-self-titled album, Viagra Boys are once again gloriously suave perverts. The modern dance-punk kings are selling hard drugs to school children, successfully slamming 25 beers (depending on can size), and gooning to an OnlyFans MILF's "flappy giblets." But, this hyper-reality of meth, cocaine and cigarette smoke on viagr aboys celebrates insanity as a mode to vulnerability, deconstructing the ego of masculinity and toying with our culture's lack of etiquette in the same way a cat tortures a dying mouse.
Myles Tiessen
22. Art d'Ecco
Serene Demon
(Paper Bag Records)
There are never too many turns on Serene Demon. Most of its tracks build from the bottom up, alluding to a final climax to chase on its way. A blend of the Bowie-esque glam that Art d'Ecco made a name for himself with and early-era dance punk makes for the Victoria artist's most actualized album yet, going down like an herbaceous digestif.
Sydney Brasil
21. Bad Bunny
DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
(Rimas Entertainment)
Bad Bunny has said a lot over the course of six albums, but maybe nothing so loud as on DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (I Should Have Taken More Photos). The Latin singer assumes a much more nuanced and mature role as he explores the issues affecting modern-day Puerto Rico: gentrification, cultural identity, and a history of colonialism intersect amid 17 tracks of rap-laced reggaetón. The album is a love letter to his people and place of origin — and it musically matches the weight of its thesis, with traditional Puerto Rican styles like salsa and plena mashed with contemporary pop and urbana influences. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is Bad Bunny's magnum opus.
Dylan Barnabe
20. Backxwash
Only Dust Remains
(Ugly Hag Records)
Every time Backxwash steps into the studio, she levels up her game like she's been sleeplessly experience-grinding to unlock every skin in the latest season of Fortnite. That's saying a lot, since the Montreal rapper has dropped a string of stone-cold classics since delivering Exclaim!'s favourite album of 2020. Only Dust Remains hones all of the skills earned over her fiercely independent, uncompromising career so far, expanding on her talent for introspective storytelling and juxtaposing that measured, gritty punk poet flow against a palette of beautifully uplifting production choices. Catchy piano motifs serve as the lead harmonic guide, anchoring bold and vivid arrangements that blend powerful drum beats with hopeful strings, chopped-up vocal hooks, and tastefully articulated synth and guitar lines. The result is a unique amalgam that serves up shoegaze, world music references and alternative electro-gospel vibes. However poignantly Backxwash expresses an understanding of the impermanence of all things, she has made a piece of profound art that'll stand the test of time.
Scott A. Gray
19. Panda Bear
Sinister Grift
(Domino Recording Company)
Before there was Animal Collective, there was the duo of Panda Bear and Deakin. Sinister Grift shows the two musicians in mind-meld with each other. Casting aside recent forays into Grateful Dead exploration, Panda Bear's eighth LP is a hot air balloon journey into a Brian Wilson-esque dreamworld. Each track is as expressive and razor-sharp as it is immaculately produced. This will be the album used to test hi-fi equipment in those cool-ass stereo stores.
Daniel Sylvester
18. Model/Actriz
Pirouette
(True Panther Records)
Model/Actriz's Pirouette is a reckless experience, and staggeringly tender. It's a conflicting spin through chaos and grace that sees the band take the raw grit of Dogsbody and gloss it over it in a bit of glitter, glamour and a bruised vulnerability. Vocalist Cole Haden is not just singing, he's commanding the room, dragging heartbreak and desire out from the shadows and onto a dance floor that serves as a sanctuary and battlefield. This is industrial pop with sharp teeth and lipstick of the reddest kind, a battered-glam act of catharsis that's as fierce as it is fragile — the kind of record that makes you want to fall apart and keep moving, even while your friends beg you to stay down. But you can't resist — the wreckage is ecstasy.
Kyle Kohner
17. Black Country, New Road
Forever Howlong
(Ninja Tune)
The departure of lyricist and vocalist Isaac Wood provided the prefix-heavy rock band Black Country, New Road with an opportunity for reinvention. The now-six-piece made the most of it. Forever Howlong dares to employ many of the same elements that previously brought the band acclaim while applying them to very different aesthetic ends, and rarely has a landing been stuck with such grace and vitality. Forever Howlong explodes with a baroque sense of curiosity, asking questions of the band, the listener and the world with a clarity of purpose previously lacking. The old BCNR was a smirk; this one's a wink and a smile.
Tom Piekarski
16. Djrum
Under Tangled Silence
(Houndstooth)
Felix Manuel's synthesis of electronics and acoustic instruments has seldom felt as frictionless as it does on his dazzling third album as Djrum. Already recognized as a rhythmic savant, the English producer's palette of subgenres leads drums to shift between immensely technical and downright imposing modes, his prominent piano accompaniment unafraid to flit along at speed. If it isn't the allure of these percussion instruments, it's the ornate touches of harp and cello that reaffirm Manuel as a master manipulator of sound.
Calum Slingerland
15. Bartees Strange
Horror
(4AD)
Horror goes beyond fictional tales of monsters or the paranormal. On Bartees Strange's Horror, fear is found in life's everyday uncertainties and fantasies — love, sobriety, the longing to move to a new city and raise kids, the reality of feeling lost as a queer black man in a world that doesn't have space for you. With Jack Antonoff's touch as producer, Strange creates his own folklore through this collage of hip-hop and indie rock, revealing the slivers of beauty embedded within scary stories.
Jordan Currie
14. Marie Davidson
City of Clowns
(DEEWEE)
If anyone can weave a cheeky treatise on surveillance capitalism into a danceable multi-genre electronic opus, it's Montreal producer and DJ Marie Davidson. While she's always had a knack for finding the sweet spot between kitsch and irreverence, City of Clowns finds Davidson integrating a newfound sense of sincerity without losing an ounce of her dry acerbic humour. It's the perfect soundtrack for our modern-age dystopia.
Scott Simpson
13. Bon Iver
SABLE, fABLE
(Jagjaguwar)
Nearly two decades in, Bon Iver's SABLE, fABLE sees the indie great conceding to brightness. A five-year stretch between releases has brought the artist to a reckoning, and a lyrical lightness that's autobiographical and direct, subtly nuanced, and free from shrouded mystery. Joined by guests Dijon, Danielle Haim, and band member Jenn Wasner in the form of Flock of Dimes, this latest release is a controlled burn after years of wildfires.
Ash Hampson
12. Population II
Maintenant Jamais
(Bonsound)
Honing their psychedelic prog rock tighter than ever before, the Québécois power trio of drummer/vocalist Pierre-Luc Gratton, guitarist Tristan Lacombe, and bassist Sébastien Provençal landed Maintenant Jamais somewhere between the LCD exuberance of Galaxie's electro-rock, the synth-fuelled space-rock of IV-era Black Mountain, and the far-out francophone flow of Chocolat's acid jazz rock voyage Jazz engagé. It definitely rocks, anyway. With Chocolat producer Dominic Vanchesteing helping out on the console, the sound is immediate and immersive. Every moment is as catchy as the clap. They focused in while tripping out.
Alan Ranta
11. Perfume Genius
Glory
(Matador Records)
After a few years of creative shapeshifting, Glory marks a Saturn Return for Perfume Genius. While the record establishes the familiar melodic darkness of his breakthrough records Too Bright and Put Your Back N 2 It, it's still fresh and capable of pushing the indie pop needle. The project harnesses the dystopian droning of Portishead in the same breath as the feminine backyard arson of Tori Amos. Even the album art feels like a callback to Amos's opus Boys for Pele, featuring Mike Hadreas in high-fashion poses among the indifferent gables of flyover America.
Joshua Korngut
10. SUMAC and Moor Mother
The Film
(Thrill Jockey)
Collaborative records tend to be terrible gimmicks or truly fantastic pieces of art with very little middle ground. Thankfully for us all, SUMAC and Moor Mother's The Film falls into the latter camp, easily cementing itself as one of the most important and powerful records of the year so far. The Film is undeniably a record rooted in justifiable anger about the state of our world. Still, instead of drowning in that anger, it channels it into something productive and even hopeful. This record is undoubtedly harrowing, but the closing moments of "Scene 5: Breathing Fire" bring about a sense of comfort that makes you believe that maybe, just maybe, things will work out for us.
Jeremy Sheehy
9. Lambrini Girls
Who Let the Dogs Out
(City Slang)
Lambrini Girls refuse to be demure in a world that silences marginalized voices. The Brighton duo are far from the first band to scream about social injustice, but few do it while whipping up as much debauchery as they do. With cheeky, sardonic vitriol, they hack away at workplace harassment, police brutality and gentrification with buzzsaw punk anthems. Fake allies who claim "I'm one of the good ones" aren't off the hook either. Lambrini Girls draw personal boundaries so their best selves can show up for others. Until power returns to the people, Lambrini Girls will keep rallying while they party.
Leslie Ken Chu
8. MIKE
Showbiz!
(10k Recordings)
With every MIKE release, it feels like the prolific MC has delivered his best yet, and Showbiz! is no exception. With Showbiz!, he continues to sharpen his pen and further experiment with sound, providing a textured soundscape as the bed for his drowsily delivered reflections on life and the concept of "home," from bouncing around in his youth to the continuous travel of touring. This is yet another stellar outing in a catalogue rife with quality material, and, with another Pinball album with Tony Seltzer already out, it doesn't seem like MIKE is slowing down anytime soon.
Wesley McLean
7. Emma Goldman
all you are is we
(Zegema Beach)
Caught between the end of the workday and where the real work begins, Vancouver screamo punks Emma Goldman debut with a blistering attack on customer service, political pageantry, real estate and grassroots delusions. Shredding vocal cords and expectations, they challenge too the notion of underground "community" that can accommodate elite norms while ignoring street-involved populations dying on venue doorsteps. Their fresh-hell firehose fuses riffs, blast beats and pointed critique with the post-industrial possibility of gabber and breakbeat interludes, revolutions per minute innumerable. It's a furious petition for pits to dance and dialogue with every contradiction they would rather leave unspoken.
Tom Beedham
6. Oklou
choke enough
(True Panther Records)
Debut albums rarely boast a sonic signature as distinct and fully realized as this proper first from France's Oklou. Subterranean ponds reflecting iridescent mushrooms; undulating synth arps roiling delicate cave mists; Marylou Mayniel's sweetly augmented vocals dancing like a glowing anime butterfly throughout — choke enough often feels as much a piece of world-building as it does a pop album, understating its ample hooks to an almost absurd degree, and notably eschewing prominent beats. The result is a sophisticated rabbit hole of an album that may frustrate your automap at first, but ultimately connects up as you discover its shortcuts and secrets.
Luke Pearson
5. billy woods
GOLLIWOG
(Backwoodz Studioz)
Delving deeper into darkness, experimental New York rapper billy woods's masterful GOLLIWOG explores fears, trials, traumas and tribulations through eerie, dissonant, surreal, horror-inspired soundscapes. Named after a racist caricature, GOLLIWOG's layered, literary haunted stories span time and place, a compelling Afro-pessimistic vision delivered with grit, grimness and a grin. On opener "Jumpscare," a standout couplet encapsulates his craft: "The English language is violence, I hot-wired it / I got a hold of the master's tools and got dialled in." He weaves poetic, inventive, impressionistic lyrics with wise, witty wordplay: "History never repeats, it do rhyme though," he raps on "Born Alone." For woods, the past is present, history grips a strong hold, and unlearned lessons linger.
Chris Bryson
4. Deafheaven
Lonely People with Power
(Roadrunner Records)
It would be difficult to find an album title more encapsulating of 2025's general vibe than Lonely People with Power. On their colossal sixth full-length, blackgaze innovators Deafheaven retread territory that made their 2013's Sunbather one of the most invigorating (and polarizing) metal records of the century ("Magnolia," "Doberman"). This time around, however, the San Francisco quintet have a decade's worth of sonic experimentation up their sleeve, folding in elements of dark pop ("Heathen"), post-punk groove ("Body Behavior") and foreboding darkwave rumination ("Incidental II").
Owen Morawitz
3. Men I Trust
Equus Asinus / Equus Caballus
(Independent)
With the newfound ubiquity of their woozy, bass-walking songs like "Show Me How" and "Numb" on TikTok, Men I Trust have gone from being a humble DIY unit to unassuming indie superstars. Pairing together two distinctly curated vibes from the same genus, Equus Asinus and Equus Caballus represent both sides of the trio's proverbial coin: the former a countrified collection of slower tempo ditties, and the latter a scintillating expansion upon the wobbling new wave fervour of 2022 single (and satellite radio sleeper hit) "Billie Toppy." They merge two equally intricate, dreamlike worlds with the subtle power to give even the most quotidian moments a halcyon shimmer.
Megan LaPierre
Heartbreak is pop music's jet fuel, and nothing makes for an explosive liftoff like young love. Taken in that light, Saya Gray's second album is, on paper, as conventional as it comes. Under the hood, though, it's anything but. Yips and whoops, guitar licks that sound more like warm-up runs than central hooks, and parenthetical song titles that feel like inside jokes with herself: Gray bends the form to her musical world view. Teeming with hooks and clever turns of phrase, SAYA is an idiosyncratic and deeply personal spin on big-tent pop music.
Ian Gormely
1. Ribbon Skirt
Bite Down
(Mint Records)
The brainchild of Anishinaabe vocalist/guitarist Tashiina Buswa and multi-instrumentalist Billy Riley, Montreal's Ribbon Skirt are a post-punk art-grunge band making dreamy, swirling compositions complemented by Buswa's powerful, breathy vocals. Melody and anxiety commingle, a distinct tension running through these songs. It's all so very crunchy and rhythmic, deftly blending elements of pop, shoegaze, '90s alternative and riot grrrl.
At the centre are Buswa's direct yet poetic lyrics, which explore Indigenous identity, systemic racism, the police state, shapeshifter intimacy, colonialism, religion, grief and relationships; vehicles are a recurring motive, both as a means of escape and confinement. The words are vivid, questioning, provocative, yet also strangely familiar, as if we've heard them before — from a half-remembered night out, perhaps? A text argument with a former friend-slash-lover? Through a megaphone at a protest? Or during a bout of self-reflection (and -doubt)?
Easy to swallow yet difficult to digest, Bite Down is an exercise in juxtaposition, simultaneously dark and dynamic, fun and unsettling. During the inevitable repeat listens, you'll find yourself analyzing every cryptic note and fuzzy word in minute detail, wishing it were much longer than just nine glorious songs.
Marko Djurdjić