The 20 most anticipated albums of fall 2025
It’s not like this hasn’t already been a year stacked with great new music, but there’s a flood on its way. Fall is just around the corner, and with it comes a whole bunch of essential new releases—and that’s not counting just-released favorites like the new albums from Lucrecia Dalt and Titanic. But as we do every fall, we picked 20 of our most anticipated albums of Fall 2025 through our own skewed lens. As such, longtime readers should probably expect not to see some of the biggest mainstream releases of the fall here, necessarily, but rather the ones that we’re personally most excited about. It’s more fun that way.
Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums we cover are chosen by our editors and contributors.
Wednesday – Bleeds
(Sept. 19; Dead Oceans)
The first single from Bleeds, “Elderberry Wine,” was a stellar return for Wednesday, a track that had Song of the Summer written all over it. But there’s much more where that came from on the group’s follow-up to 2023’s Rat Saw God. Their strengths, along with Karly Hartzman’s singular detail-oriented storytelling approach, have always been in their fluid mixture of Americana twang and roaring peals of distortion, the combination of which comes together stunningly on “Pick Up That Knife.”
Cate Le Bon – Michelangelo Dying
(Sept. 26; Mexican Summer)
Since 2022’s Pompeii, Cate Le Bon has been doing a lot of production work, lending her behind-the-boards touch to records like Wilco’s Cousin from 2023 and this year’s sophomore album from Horsegirl, Phonetics On and On. Yet with her own music, she’s returned to a place of dreamy abstraction, as on the dreamy sprawl of “Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)” or the mesmerizing sheets of guitar on “About Time.” Described as “the product of all-consuming heartache,” Michelangelo Dying seems to reach toward more open emotional wounds than its predecessor, but a Cate Le Bon album about love “and its aftermath” almost certainly won’t take the most direct approach.
Jeff Tweedy – Twilight Override
(Sept. 26; dBPM)
Arriving five years after his previous solo album Love Is the King, the latest album from Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy shows just how productive he’s been in that time. Described in a press release as “a testament to creativity in the face of overwhelming darkness,” it’s a full three albums’ worth of new music, and Tweedy has shared an EP’s worth of new songs from the album already, including the graceful and elegant “One Tiny Flower,” the gently hypnotic “Stray Cats in Spain,” and the scrappy rock ‘n’ roll of “Enough.”
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu Plays Mulatu
(Sept. 26; Strut)
Mulatu Astatke, the legendary architect of Ethio-jazz, has been enjoying a fruitful late-career renaissance, with continued live performances and a number of studio album releases, including collaborations with The Heliocentrics and Black Jesus Experience. Mulatu Plays Mulatu is the first release from Astatke as the marquee artist in over a decade, however, and it offers a fresh look at his signature style, which features guests such as Carlos Niño as well as producer Dexter Story, and includes a number of traditional Ethiopian instruments. A track like the updated version of his ’70s-era track “Netsanet” maintains the hypnotic groove of the original while brightening up its sound.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Neko Case – Neon Grey Midnight Green
(Sept. 26; Anti-)
It’s been seven years since the release of Neko Case’s last album, 2018’s Hell-On, which makes for the longest gap between records for the all-time great singer/songwriter. But she’s been up to a lot in the meantime, including the release of a memoir and a career-spanning retrospective. Nonetheless, it’s great to hear new music from Case again, with early singles like the string-laden “Wreck” offering a showcase for a maximalist permutation of her shape-shifting sound.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Agriculture – The Spiritual Sound
(Oct. 3; Flenser)
Agriculture delivered one of the best metal debuts of 2023 with their self-titled LP, following a well-received early EP. But they’re setting their sights even higher based on the first single of upcoming album The Spiritual Sound. “Bodhidharma” is a powerfully dense dirge that pairs heavy riffs with an infectious melodicism that makes their already excellent sound even more accessible. As they said in a statement preceding the album, “This is not background music. This is not for vibe.” Put down the lo-fi beats for studying, turn this up and transcend.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
P.E. – Oh!
(Oct. 3; Wharf Cat)
P.E.’s run has been brief but fruitful, yielding three full-length records and a few more experimental interludes. Oh! is the group’s final record, following up 2022’s The Leather Lemon and wrapping up a project that began as something of a live one-off in the first place. Still, they’ve made the most of it, delivering some of the most hypnotic psychedelic industrial dance pop in recent years, including the wonderful title track and the extra funky first single “Color Coordinator,” featuring vocals from Eleanor Friedberger.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Black Eyes – Hostile Design
(Oct. 10; Dischord)
A singular, idiosyncratic band from the Washington, D.C. Dischord scene of the early 21st century, Black Eyes recently reunited for a series of new shows, and have followed that up with their first new album in two decades. The skronky sax-punk freakout of “Pestilence” reveals that their agitated post-punk remains as potent as ever, while there’s a dubbier, more hypnotic sound to “TomTom,” further leaning into their noisier, psychedelic sound—one that pays off handsomely here.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Jay Som – Belong
(Oct. 10; Polyvinyl)
Jay Som’s Melina Duterte hasn’t exactly been absent in recent years, collaborating with the likes of Troye Sivan and Dream, Ivory, releasing a split single with Soccer Mommy and contributing a song to the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack. But the six years since 2019’s Anak Ko still feels unusually long. All the same, she’s returned with a new set of songs that, based on the four pre-release singles, sound like some of her strongest yet—especially the absolute belter “Float,” featuring Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World.
Militarie Gun – God Save the Gun
(Oct. 17; Loma Vista)
Militarie Gun left a big impression with their 30-minutes of hook-laden punk (with more than a little Britpop influence) on their 2023 debut album Life Under the Gun. And two years later, the California group returns with another set of extra-catchy rippers, albeit ones informed by addiction, trauma and the process of healing. That being said, a two-minute anthem like “B A D I D E A” is the best kind of therapy.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Sudan Archives – The BPM
(Oct. 17; Stones Throw)
The latest album from Sudan Archives is titled The BPM and yeah, she means it: All four of the pre-release singles that Brittney Parks has offered up thus far are all meant to make your body move, whether via the house pulses of opener “DEAD” and the spacier, trap-laden sound of “YEA YEA YEA,” the irresistible disco funk of “MY TYPE” or the playful chomp effects (“I eat these bitches too!“) of “MS. PAC MAN.” It’s been continuously rewarding to hear her evolution over the past decade, and all indications point to some of her best work here.
Tortoise – Touch
(Oct. 24, International Anthem/Nonesuch)
For the first time in eight years, post-rock legends Tortoise return with a new full-length studio LP, Touch, which finds them making the move to the International Anthem label, in partnership with Nonesuch, where longtime member Jeff Parker has been releasing music for the better part of a decade. The group’s long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s The Catastrophist was preceded by the release of the groove-laden single “Oganesson,” followed by the synth-laden hallucination “Layered Presence,” each of which captures the classic Tortoise sound while making room for modern updates to their fluid hybrid of rock, electronics, jazz and Morricone-esque cinematics. It’s a return well worth waiting for.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Anna Von Hausswolff – Iconoclasts
(Oct. 31; YEAR001)
Anna Von Hausswolff has a singular sound, drawing a kind of cosmic heaviness from her admittedly unusual choice of instrument: pipe organ. It remains at the center of her sound with new album Iconoclasts, which finds her in the company of some high profile guests, including Ethel Cain and the one and only Iggy Pop, who lends his vocals to the gorgeously melancholy first single, “The Whole Woman.” It feels like a breakthrough moment.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Makaya McCraven – Techno Logic/The People’s Mixtape/Hidden Out!/The PopUp Shop
(Oct. 31; International Anthem/Nonesuch)
Jazz drummer and bandleader isn’t following up his 2022 album In These Times with a new album, but rather four separate EPs (all released concurrently, that is). That being said, they’re all being released together as a 2xLP compilation titled Off the Record, not unlike his stellar 2018 release, Universal Beings. The EPs comprise four different sessions that feature tracks built out from live improvisations in Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Brooklyn, with collaborators including Jeff Parker, Theon Cross, Jeremiah Chiu, and Ben LaMar Gay, sometimes with unpredictable results, like the warped electro-jazz of “Technology.”
Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo – In the Earth Again
(Oct. 31; Computer Students)
Earlier this year, our 2024 album of the year honorees Chat Pile teased that their next project was going to be a collaboration with Texas guitarist Hayden Pedigo, and though they come from different aesthetic worlds, it sounded just fascinating enough to work. The album’s first single, “Radioactive Dreams,” has proven as much, pairing Pedigo’s dreamy instrumental Americana with his Oklahoma neighbors’ dark, harrowing noise rock. Yet they do so in a way that feels natural and fully collaborative—no square pegs in round holes here, just an eerie beauty giving way to a thunderous undercurrent.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Armand Hammer and the Alchemist – Mercy
(Nov. 7; Backwoodz/Rhymesayers)
Just announced this week, Armand Hammer and The Alchemist’s second collaborative release, Mercy, hasn’t yet yielded any singles, so any hints about the direction they’ve taken on their latest collaboration are still being mostly kept under wraps. But given that their previous pairing, 2021’s Haram, was not only one of that year’s best albums but one of our favorite of the decade so far, certainly bodes well. The rap duo and prolific producer will no doubt offer up some surprises, but it’s fair to say this is likely to be yet another darkly immersive hip-hop experience.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Drain – …Is Your Friend
(Nov. 7; Epitaph)
Drain’s Living Proof was one of 2023’s best heavy releases, a thrilling hybrid of hardcore intensity with no-frills fun. And they’ve proven a big live draw as well, for very good reason: They absolutely rip. With their follow-up to that album, Drain seem primed for a bigger breakthrough, but not at the expense of writing songs that utterly slay, as evident by early singles “Nights Like These” and the three-chord hookfest “Who’s Having Fun?”, which injects some much-welcome thrash riffs into some infectious, radio-friendly, Descendents-esque punk.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Sessa – Pequena Vertigem de Amor
(Nov. 7; Mexican Summer)
Brazilian singer/songwriter Sessa has already delivered two outstanding LPs of psychedelic samba, including 2022’s stunning Estrela Acesa. But Sergio Sayeg says that his latest is “a bit more nocturnal, open-ended, crooked funky.” And it’s easy to hear what he means in the after-hours grooves of first single “Vale a Pena,” which is rich in Rhodes piano, saxophone and a lush soul sound that fleshes out his approach into something wonderfully luxurious.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
The Mountain Goats – Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
(Nov. 7; Cadmean Dawn)
The always prolific John Darnielle and company are back with their third album in four years, following 2022’s Bleed Out and 2023’s Jenny From Thebes with the first new album released on their own label, Cadmean Dawn. Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan features some unexpected collaborations, including Hamilton composer Lin Manuel Miranda, and based on the first single, “Armies of the Lord,” it’s shaping up to be an epic new chapter.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
Home Front – Watch It Die
(Nov. 14; La Vida Es Un Mus)
Edmonton synth punks Home Front built up a following on the strength of their high energy live shows and the new wave-meets-hardcore sound of their debut Games of Power. Now the group is returning with their second offering, which promises even more hook-laden ferocity, as evident by the outstanding first single “Light Sleeper,” which pairs a soaring chorus with raw, punk rock power. It’s everything the band excels at, expanded and amplified.
Buy: Rough Trade (vinyl)
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