Top 5 Albums by Artists in the "Taylor Swift Sphere" of 2025
- Louise Geri
- Dec 31, 2025
- 8 min read
Running a blog oriented around women in music, I face an annual dilemma of how to contextualize my ranking of my top five albums of the year. If you recall, I labelled this circle “Relatives of Taylor Swift” last year. But this year’s ranking had a major unexpected caveat: there’s a brand-new Taylor Swift album that I had no desire to include – surprising because her last three albums all topped my rankings for their respective years. But with this in mind, the biggest commonality I could find between the albums that did make the ranking was that, while I don’t think all these artists are heavily inspired by Swift, they all have fandoms that largely overlap with Swift’s. With that in mind, let’s get into the music I loved the most this year!
5. Bite Me by Reneé Rapp
I think Reneé Rapp is making great headway as an artist, although there’s more fleshing out that must be done. These songs are all excellent individually, but they don’t necessarily mesh perfectly as a complete album. Some songs are pure coming-of-age-movie pop (“Leave Me Alone” and “You’d Like That Wouldn’t You”), some stray in jazzy or R&B directions (“Why Is She Still Here?” and “I Think I Like You Better When You’re Gone”), and some rock (“Mad” and “Shy”). I already vented in my album review that “At Least I’m Hot” was held back by Towa Bird’s random feature and “You’d Like That Wouldn’t You” lacked proper context behind Rapp’s rage. The songs are all of quality, but they don’t exactly streamline into one succinct musical or emotional story.
Nonetheless, they provided some valuable soundtracks. “Mad” was my favorite song to drive to this year. I also have some great memories of blasting “Good Girl” while driving through Nashville with a college friend. “Shy” was on repeat for all of August. The guitar riff in “I Can’t Have You Around Me Anymore” gets stuck in my head whenever I feel the slightest bit sad. “I Think I Like You Better When You’re Gone” made me all the more happy to have moved away from my hometown. Nothing quite like realizing you relate to, “I think I like you better when you’re… across the fucking country”. “Across the country” is also where Rapp always seems to be – I sincerely hope she tours in Nashville sometime soon.
4. Everything I Am by Luca
Considering that this record was released less than a week ago, I feel bold putting it in this spot, but I genuinely love Luca’s second EP so much.
The title track opener discusses the ways in which Luca is "made up of a mosaic of everyone I’ve ever loved”. Lyrics like, “I’m so damn self-aware it’s almost comical, you’d think that it would help but it just makes me difficult” make this song stunning.
“Naked” really leans into Luca’s sound, which I’d describe as “glittery synth”. Or, “as if the taste of sugar had a musical manifestation”. The song’s message is clever – “Don’t even know myself most nights”. To be a people-pleaser is to try so hard to make other people feel seen that you eventually lose sight of who you are. As she puts it, “You can take off my clothes, but I think you should know that you’ll never see me naked”.
“Unlove” dips into a feeling of deep, painful nostalgia. Luca explains the concept of the gorgeous song best in an Instagram post, “I’ve always been a believer that ‘I love you’ has no take backs. If you love someone once, part of you will always love them”.
The fourth track, “How Could You?” was heavy in my rotation over the summer. I adore the lyric, “How could you look at all the love in my eyes and leave it there to die?” The build between the second verse and the bridge feel deeply Swift-inspired. The flow of the bridge triggers the most perfect rage.
Lastly, “Over.” sends me into orbit. It was the perfect move to close the EP on an upbeat note, especially with a song that has such a fitting title. The bridge structure reminds me of that of “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” by Gracie Abrams. I love the line, “I can’t find a reason to lose you”. The delivery of the final lyric of the EP, “I’m over being over so I’m coming over all over again” scratches an itch in my brain.
This EP is smooth, raw, and stunningly produced. And this is not the only EP on the list, so I’ll add that I think EPs will be my new favorite thing going into 2026!
3. Who’s the Clown? by Audrey Hobert
I want to clarify at this point in my ranking that there was a massive knot in my brain between these last three records. If I loved more of the songs on Audrey Hobert’s debut album individually, it might be higher, but these songs exist best when listened to chronologically as a collection.
Bottom line, Audrey Hobert knows who she is. This makes the title, which may look silly to people who haven’t listened, both ironic and iconic. Hobert’s smirk on the cover perfects it. Throughout the album, she laughs and practically thirsts over herself, bemoans what she deems her failures, and celebrates others’ successes.
The strengths range from the upbeat explosions of “Sue Me” and “Thirst Trap” to the catchy but more casual “Bowling Alley” and “Sex and the City”. The music is a little bit awkward, but Hobert’s sound is perfect for that. Her voice is a smooth, clean soprano, and the way she sings sounds enough like talking that it makes her sound grounded.
Which songs are contributing to my statement that the album exists best in chronological order?
“I Like to Touch People”, the opener, is almost too perfect of a choice for the opening track. It’s good for the album structure but feels like a filler in any other context. “Shooting Star” only has a 15-second synth intro, but nothing in the song is interesting enough to make me feel like waiting that long. That’s just about the laziest thing I could possibly say, but it’s honest. Some other songs, like “Drive”, “Wet Hair” and “Phoebe” are also of quality but feel too casual in production.
Nonetheless, the awkward yet casual feeling is what makes Audrey Hobert stick out in the main-pop girl world. I would also like for her to tour in Nashville.
2. I’m camera . by Sofia Isella
If you were in my life at all this year, you know how much seeing Sofia Isella in concert this April shook me. I recently posted an article that goes in depth about it, but the short version is that I love how she approaches complex topics. Her writing is vulgar in a profound way and blunt while still being incredibly metaphorical.
“Muse” is summarized by the concept, “She smiles at me like I’m camera”. “She” is an entity separate of Isella that she feels almost enters her body when writing. Isella explains in an Instagram video, “I don’t feel like I write my songs”. The production is simply stellar. The lyrics are cutting; the vocals are cutting. This song immediately showcases the EP as a work of art, not just something you listen to for fun.
“Josephine” is more percussion-based and sounds how a crash-out would (literally) sound. The lyrics continue being absolute insanity. It feels like you’re watching someone’s quick descent into mental illness as they wonder how to look at a formative relationship after it’s ended.
An analysis on “consensual, mediocre sex”, “Dog’s Dinner” is ominous. The whispering vocals, “Breaking moans, kissing clones, come back home” are haunting. A verse that showcases what I mean by “vulgar in a profound way” reads,
When you’re turned on, you’ll call it anything except a vagina
In my opinion, the mood doesn’t deserve this much saliva
But dear reader, slowly the shit you eat will taste like hope
You’ll understand dick and loneliness when you’re filled with both
“Crowd Caffeine” is almost humorously written. It’s about the horror of screens and mechanization of humans that seems to occur because of the Internet. The keyboard instrumental feels robotic. If you haven’t deduced this based on this record and Audrey Hobert’s, I love when artists use irony.
“Man Made” is the most in the singer/songwriter genre of any song on this record. Isella’s voice breaks as she describes a man triumphing over things working out in his favor, something she mockingly notes that the “manmade” world was perfectly wired for. Over acoustic guitar, the song is dense and heavy.
The closing track, “Orchestrated, Wet, Verboten” seems to complete “Dog’s Dinner”. She explains what she wants in a lover. She sings, “I want a splash of slut with your compulsion, I want your feelings confused if it’s obsession or repulsion”.
In the full 23 minutes and 40 seconds of listening to this album, I never once found myself bored. It’s so beautifully produced and written that it’s impossible to be. Isella’s words are never lacking in meaning, and it’s a beautiful thing to bear witness to. If you have the chance to see her in concert, I would absolutely recommend that you go.
1. Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter
To understand how this got placed at number one, you have to remember that this is my ranking. This is not the best album ever released. However, when I listened to it the whole way through after listening to the rest of these records, I was excited to find that not only did I never get bored, but every single song has also found its own separate place in my life over the last few months. This album was released at the sweetest spot of the year – the very end of August. Albums released at this time create oddly successful bridges between seasons, making for obvious shoo-ins as I transition into a new seasonal playlist.
Man’s Best Friend, released during my first full week of college classes, has songs that embody the light-hearted party spirit of summer, others that manifest a slightly mournful but accepting autumn, and still others that don’t force any time of year upon me. The upbeat songs that get me most are “My Man on Willpower”, “Go Go Juice” and “Goodbye”. “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night”, “Never Getting Laid” and “Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry” summarize the fall feeling. “Sugar Talking”, “Nobody’s Son” and “When Did You Get Hot?” provide a medium. Even the songs I don’t adore – mainly because they’re too sexual, like “Tears” and “House Tour” (which both fall into the summer category) – are of high quality. Despite my negative commentary in my album review posted a few months ago, Carpenter’s innuendo theme might get old soon, but for now it still works, so she might as well milk it before it fizzles out completely.
And I think it’s fantastic that I closed out on Carpenter, because she is the artist in the industry that I’m most excited to watch blossom over the rest of the 2020s. What a ride this decade has been. See you next year!
Bonus - my top 10 albums of the year:
Man's Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter
I'm camera . by Sofia Isella
Who's the Clown? by Audrey Hobert
Everything I Am by Luca
Bite Me by Reneé Rapp
Virgin by Lorde
The Art of Loving by Olivia Dean
Dreamsicle by Maren Morris
Cherry Valley by Carter Faith
Cinematic by Lily Kincade
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