The 25 Best K-Pop Albums of 2025: Staff Picks

In 2025, K-pop albums became vehicles for artistic clarity—structured spaces where artists pursued cohesive creative visions shaped by pacing, intention and conceptual focus.

Many of the year’s standouts came from solo efforts by artists best known for their group work. Projects such as Lee Chanhyuk of AKMU’s EROS, JENNIE of BLACKPINK‘s Ruby, MARK of NCT‘s The Firstfruit, WENDY of Red Velvet’s Cerulean Verge, CHAEYOUNG of TWICE’s Lil Fantasy, Vol.1, and YEONJUN of TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s No Labels: Part 01 all functioned as focused statements of authorship, foregrounding personal perspective, self-awareness, and creative control. These releases captured artists claiming renewed clarity and creative autonomy — many of whom were marking their first time venturing into a solo project.

Meanwhile, established acts continued to evolve and refine their global presence. SEVENTEEN‘s Happy Burstday, Stray Kids‘ Karma and TWICE‘s TEN : The Story Goes On demonstrated how veteran groups pushed boundaries while maintaining core identity. The KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack reached beyond K-pop’s traditional core listenership, underscoring the genre’s growing cultural adaptability and cross-platform reach with a lineup of collaborators that included Teddy, EJAE, TWICE and more of Korea’s top creatives while shining a spotlight on new diamonds of talent for the world to discover.

Veteran solo artists, including G-DRAGON, SUNMI and JAURIM, reaffirmed the album’s role as a measure of longevity and artistic continuity with milestone projects that represented overcoming adversity or reaching new creative heights. Meanwhile, releases from newer acts such as ZEROBASEONE, EVNNE, BOYNEXTDOOR, RIIZE, CLOSE YOUR EYES and Hearts2Hearts reflected a generation defining its space within an increasingly open and competitive scene.

Below, Billboard, in collaboration with Billboard Korea, presents the 25 Best K-Pop Albums of 2025: Staff Picks.