From pop queens to rap duos, and rave-loving singers to hardcore rockers, we pick our favourite music of the year for you to listen to now.

At the end of her Coachella set in April, Charli XCX passed on the mantle of last year's "Brat summer", by assigning summer 2025 to a variety of artists, including her friend and collaborator Addison Rae. And if Rae's self-titled debut LP hasn't quite had the zeitgeist-defining impact of Brat, then it can nevertheless lay claim to being one of the pop moments of the year so far. After her initial rise to fame as a TikTokker posting viral dance videos, last year's hypnotic, Lana Del Rey-adjacent single Diet Pepsi showed Rae was far more than a digital-era novelty act. And what followed here was equally compelling, a succession of tracks pairing dreamy ambience with exquisite, layered production. Highlights include the shimmering, iridescent Aquamarine and superbly snappy paean to the "glamorous life" Fame is a Gun: Rae's primary persona throughout is that of sun-kissed sybarite. It makes for a combination of charismatic frivolity and serious artistry that somehow feels like just what the musical landscape needs right now. (Hugh Montgomery)

When frontman Isaac Wood left the band just four days before their last album's release, the remaining members of BCNR recalibrated as a sextet, redistributing vocal duties between its female members. BCNR's new era moves them from what Wood once called "the world's second-best Slint tribute act" to a kind of prog-baroque folk, backed by gentle guitars and piano with dashes of woodwind, mandolin and plenty of eccentricity. But that quirkiness belies its complex, and often dark concerns. Besties' paean to female friendship contains a painful, unrequited queer undertone; Two Horses is a propulsive ballad about a female traveller whose fling with a sexy highwayman-type ends in him killing her animals; Happy Birthday is a jaunty mandolin-tinged foot stomper about existential despair, and so on. A predilection for meandering slow-builds and medievalism won't be everyone's cup of tea, but Forever, Howlong is a treasure that bears sticking with. (Rebecca Laurence)

Born and raised in Ilford, Essex, Devonté "Dev" Hynes decamped to Brooklyn, NY in the mid-'00s, lending his writing and producing talents to Solange, Britney Spears and Sky Ferreira, among others. Recording first as indie artist Lightspeed Champion and then as the more R&B-forward Blood Orange, Hynes all the while retained a supercool over superstar status. Essex Honey – his first album as Blood Orange in seven years – sees Hynes return to British shores for his most personal and complex work yet, which deals with the death of his mother. Essex Honey's elegiac tone is set with the melancholic synths of opener Look at You, while first single The Field feat Tariq Al-Sabir includes a crystalline refrain of "hard to let you go" from Caroline Polachek. Featuring interstitial voice and street recordings, sometimes discordant stabs of mournful Arthur-Russell-esque cello and jazzy saxophone, it's a beautiful meditation on time, memory and loss. (RL)

As the title reflects, West London rapper Central Cee had steadily built his rep over several years – via an array of hit mixtapes and collabs – before releasing this debut album proper. Can't Rush Greatness will be a familiar catchphrase to fans of Cench (as he's also known) – the line also features here on the punchy, confessional 5 Star, and this entire collection is an outstanding statement of intent. There's a lively guest-list of featured artists, among them long-time compadre Dave; Puerto Rican vocalist Young Miko; and US hip-hop star Lil Baby (on the irrepressible banger Band4Band). But the core force is Cench's impressively fluid flow: he's a distinctly British voice and a global heavyweight, navigating life, love and crazy fame with confidence, delicious wit and candour. (Arwa........

© BBC