Mercury Prize 2025: The Albums Redefining British Music Right Now

The Mercury Prize 2025 felt different from the moment guests walked into Newcastle’s Utilita Arena. For the first time, the U.K.’s most respected album award left London, staging its “Albums of the Year” ceremony in the North East – and eventually crowning Sam Fender’s People Watching as the winner.

Twelve albums by artists from across the UK and Ireland competed for the Mercury Prize 2025 shortlist and its £25,000 award, reminding everyone that the album – not the playlist – is still the most powerful format in music.

Alongside Fender’s hometown victory, four records in particular feel tailor-made for Niche readers: stylish, risk-taking and emotionally loaded.

Mercury Prize 2025 shortlist: four albums you need to hear

From avant-club experiments to grief-soaked jazz and razor-sharp indie pop, these four albums show where British and Irish music is heading next.

FKA twigs – Eusexua (avant-pop for the dancefloor faithful)

FKA twigs’ third studio album Eusexua arrived in January 2025 as a concept in itself: she coined “eusexua” to describe a heightened, almost wordless state of clarity and physical focus – the feeling just before a creative or emotional rush.

Across 11 tracks, she pulls club culture into something intimate and almost spiritual, weaving techno, house, garage and drum’n’bass into an avant-pop record about body, desire and transformation.

• Key track to start with: “Perfect Stranger” – a sharp, dance-pop single later added to a reissue of the album, balancing experimental production with a very accessible emotional core.

• One line critics love: The Guardian called Eusexua “a hymn to the healing power of the dancefloor,” underlining how much of the album lives in that club-floor catharsis.

• If you’re new to twigs:Put on “Eusexua” (the title track) and “Perfect Stranger” back-to-back, then let the record run – it’s the closest thing to a full night out, compressed into 40-odd minutes.

  
  

CMAT – EURO-COUNTRY (heartbreak, capital-C Capitalism and Irish glamour)

Irish singer-songwriter CMAT pushed firmly into the spotlight with her third record EURO-COUNTRY, released in August 2025.

On paper it’s indie-pop and country, but the themes cut deeper: the album tackles grief, economic anxiety and Ireland’s post-“Celtic Tiger” reality, all wrapped in theatrical choruses and fully committed pop drama.

Singles like “Running/Planning,” “Take a Sexy Picture of Me,” “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station” and church-bell ballad “Lord, Let That Tesla Crash” show how she can flip from humour to heartbreak in a verse.

• Key track to start with: “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station” – a satirical, storytelling song that captures CMAT’s mix of social commentary and pure pop hooks.

• One line critics love: AP News praised EURO-COUNTRY as “smart, emotional and irreverently clever,” calling it her strongest work yet.

• If you’re new to CMAT:Start with “Take a Sexy Picture of Me” for the humour and swagger, then move into “Euro-Country” (the title track) to hear how she threads politics into a stadium-sized chorus.

This is the Mercury-shortlisted album that feels closest to a fashion editorial in sound – big silhouettes, big emotions, absolutely no fear of being “too much”.

Emma-Jean Thackray – Weirdo (jazz-funk as a grief diary)

On Weirdo, London-based multi-instrumentalist Emma-Jean Thackray turns deep personal loss into something bold, funky and strangely uplifting. The album was written and largely recorded in her South London home after the sudden death of her partner in 2023, and released in April 2025.

Nineteen tracks move between jazz, P-funk, rock, soul and hip-hop, with Thackray playing drums, bass, guitar, keys and brass herself. Critics have described it as a “grief diary” that still manages to groove – music about depression, neurodivergence and survival that never stops reaching for light.

• Key track to start with: “Thank You for the Day” – often highlighted as the album’s emotional climax, where gratitude and sorrow sit side by side.

• One line critics love: One review called Weirdo “an album born of grief that is unafraid to take risks,” underlining just how experimental yet accessible it feels.

• If you’re new to Emma-Jean Thackray:Play “Wanna Die” into “Save Me” and then “Thank You for the Day” in order – you get the emotional arc in three songs, from darkest thoughts to something that feels like sunrise.

Wolf Alice – The Clearing (soft-focus rock, maximum feeling)

English band Wolf Alice returned in August 2025 with The Clearing, their fourth studio album and second UK Number 1. Written in North London and recorded in Los Angeles with producer Greg Kurstin, the record leans into soft rock and cinematic balladry, without losing the band’s dynamic quiet-to-loud punch.

Songs like “White Horses,” “Bloom Baby Bloom,” “Midnight Song” and “Just Two Girls” move between airy, almost dream-pop verses and big, arena-ready choruses.

• Key track to start with: “White Horses” – a shimmering single that captures the whole album’s mood: nostalgic, widescreen and just a little bit haunted.

• One line critics love: Reviews describe The Clearing as a “soaring, cinematic journey” that cements Wolf Alice’s evolution into a fully grown classic-rock band with a modern edge.

• If you’re new to Wolf Alice:Try “Safe in the World” and “The Sofa” after “White Horses” – you’ll hear how they fold intimacy, drama and subtle strings into something that still feels like a festival headline set.

  
  

Why the 2025 Mercury Prize in Newcastle matters

Holding the Mercury Prize 2025 at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena – the first edition outside London – was more than a venue change. It underlined how U.K. music culture is decentralising:

• A North East winner in Sam Fender with People Watching, a hometown story about working-class life, guilt and success.

• A shortlist spread between Dublin, London, Coventry, Yorkshire, Wales and beyond, from CMAT and Fontaines D.C. to Pa Salieu, Emma-Jean Thackray and Wolf Alice.

For Niche readers, this year’s Mercury Prize 2025 shortlist is basically a listening roadmap: four albums to live with, not just stream once. They’re records you can style a shoot to, soundtrack a city weekend with, or put on repeat while planning the next big thing.