The Country Albums to Look Forward to in 2025

Release Date: July 25

Tyler Childers’ highly anticipated seventh studio album is officially on its way.

Snipe Hunter, which drops July 25 via Hickman Holler Records/RCA Records, serves as the follow-up to 2023’s Rustin’ In The Rain, and appears to be the opus we’ve all been waiting for.

The 13-song collection is peppered with a number of the artist’s longtime staples, with fan-favorite tunes like ‘Nose On The Grindstone’ and ‘Oneida’ finally receiving official releases.

Where already road-worn hits meet new and exciting soon-to-be classics, Snipe Hunter is undoubtedly set to be Childers’ most tenacious work to date and we’ve only just scratched the surface.

- Alli Patton

Release Date: August 29

After putting the country world on notice with Holler's 2024 Country Album of the Year, Cold Beer & Country Music, Zach Top is ready to raise the bar once again.

His upcoming album, Ain’t In It For My Health, arrives August 29 and it's already shaping up to be his most defining work yet. Rooted in the rich tradition of '90s neo-traditional country sound, he’s not chasing trends; he’s chasing something truer.

Ain’t In It For My Health feels like a natural evolution for Top, and it's safe to say that he’s poised to deliver a record that’s as raw and real as the title suggests. His latest single, ‘Good Times & Tan Lines,’ is a sun-soaked anthem that’s tailor-made for the summer, offering a glimpse into an album that promises both laid-back melodies and emotional weight.

As the appetite for classic country continues to rise, this record arrives at just the right moment. Top leans in with conviction, but never falls into mimicry or copying legends, keeping the door open for that kind of country to live again.

- Caitlin Hall

Release Date: July 25

In a matter of 14 months or so, Hudson Westbrook has gone from a student at Texas Tech University to the cutting edge of the next generation of country music.

As one of the newcomers leading the pack of budding artists in the genre, the native Texan has hit stride after stride with each new release, starting with the viral 'Take It Slow,' and careening through subsequent instant hits like '5 to 9,' 'House Again,' 'Weatherman' and more throughout 2024 and the first stint of 2025, all building towards his long-awaited debut album.

Taking the name Texas Forever and teeing it up for release on July 25, the 17-track record will feature some previously released tunes, with plenty of never-before-heard magic poised to make a splash, too.

“I’m so proud of this record,” Westbrook says. “I love Texas, it’s shaped so much about who I am. We wrote 50-60 songs for this project and narrowed it down to 17 that I think really represent where I am in my life right now and what I love making as an artist: songs that sound like where I grew up, but read like something that just about anyone could relate to.”

Touching on everything from hard work and personal turmoil to family values and young love, the project is sure to be the perfect cocktail of Westbrook's southern sensibilities, red dirt upbringing and poignant, personal storytelling.

As far as debut albums go, Texas Forever will no doubt be a frontrunner for 2025.

- Lydia Farthing

Release Date: August 29

Reunited with Midwest Farmer's Daughter and All American Made producer Matt Ross-Spang and recorded in the historic RCA Studio A, the fifth studio album from Margo Price promises a return to the country sound of her first two records.

Featuring duets with Tyler Childers and Jesse Welles, Hard Headed Woman is the first album that the singer has made in Nashville, a town she has called home for more than 20 years.

Anyone lucky enough to catch her and her electrifying new band on their recent run of shows in the UK and Europe will have been treated to an early listen of the album, and if songs like 'Nowhere Is Where,' 'Losing Streak,' 'Red Eye Flight,' first single 'Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down' and the Tyler Childers duet, 'Love Me Like You Used To Do' are anything to go by, then Hard Headed Woman is very much a queen returning to her rightful place on the throne, creating her wisest, funniest, fiercest and most vulnerable album yet.

If ever there was a time we needed Margo Price in country music, it's now.

- Jof Owen

Release Date: July 11

Noah Cyrus’ 2022, critically acclaimed debut, The Hardest Part, found the youngest member of the star-studded Cyrus family developing her own country-pop, folk-tinged sound across a deeply felt personal collection that unpacked death, family issues and recovery from addiction.

Unlike the chameleonic, genre-bending force of her sister, Cyrus has chosen a significantly different path as an artist by simply choosing to pause, reflect and hone her razor sharp skills in between releases. The results of this thoughtful action have made the anticipation for her upcoming sophomore release, I Want My Loved Ones to Go with Me, positively exhilarating.

The heavenly ‘I Saw The Mountains’ recalls the experimental structure of Patty Griffith’s finest early work, whereas the darkly hopeful ‘New Country’ finds Cyrus inspiring the best Blake Shelton vocal performance since 2019’s superb ‘God’s Country.’ Through it all, though, Cyrus’s carefully curated point of view is spellbindingly front and center.

While The Hardest Part announced a signature new talent from a very famous family, I Want My Loved Ones to Go with Me could remove them from the conversation entirely.

- Soda Canter

Release Date: July 25

One of country’s last outlaw poets, Cody Jinks, is returning with his thirteenth studio album, In The Blood.

The 11-track release, set to arrive on July 25 via Late August Records, marks the follow-up to his 2024 collection, Change the Game, and the first steps into a whole new era for the ‘Hippies and Cowboys’ artist.

Across album offerings like the previously dropped ‘Better Than the Bottle’, ‘The Others’ and ‘Found’, you’ll get reacquainted with the staunchly independent, boldly authentic singer-songwriter at his most honest and resolved.

In The Blood is set to marry Jinks’ trademark grit and intensity with a newfound emotional weight as he grapples with redemption, resilience and the things that have deep down always been innate.

- AP

Release Date: August 8

Given the fact that Bailey Zimmerman is now widely considered a staple of country music’s upper echelon, it might come as a surprise to learn that he’s only released one full-length studio album so far.

With two years having passed since his momentous debut, Religiously, expectations are sky-high for Zimmerman’s forthcoming album, Different Night Same Rodeo, which drops on August 8.

However, judging by the singles we’ve heard so far, it looks like the country prodigy will deliver. There are the inevitable heartbreak odes, such as ‘Holding On’ and the Twisters: The Album stand-out, ‘Hell or High Water’, both of which find Zimmerman wrapping his weighty vibrato across atmospheric instrumentals.

Although the Illinois native has become synonymous with this brooding, introspective ambience, during his live shows and across social media, Zimmerman refreshingly exudes joy, energy and positivity. Thankfully, that has started bleeding into his music, with fired-up, motivational anthems such as ‘New to Country’ and ‘Backup Plan’ with Luke Combs making their way onto Different Night Same Rodeo.

This will be a fascinating marker-post in the future stadium-filler’s burgeoning discography.

- Maxim Mower

Release Date: August 8

The hardest working man in country music is at it again.

The latest addition to the ever-growing Charley Crockett discography will see Dollar a Day slotting in as the second installment of his current project, The Sagebrush Trilogy.

It’s only been five months since the drop of Lonesome Drifter, but we didn’t expect anything less from the Texas troubadour. The new release sits at 15 tracks long, but so far our only glimpse into this scene has been ‘Crucified Son’, a track that leans into Crockett’s signature “Gulf and Western” sound with an easy confidence and a gentle swing. His cinematic approach to music is becoming somewhat of a conversation topic in the world of traditional country; as your favourite artist’s favourite artist, there’s no doubt that Crockett is the “real thing.”

Once again joined by legendary producer Shooter Jennings, the pair are guaranteed to embrace a whole lot more swagger, country intricacy and sheer passion for the landscape of Texas. “With Lonesome Drifter, it felt like we opened the portal. With Dollar A Day, we stepped through and came out the other side,” Crockett says. We can't wait to go with them.

- Daisy Innes

Release Date: August 22

You can't tell me that I'm the only one that's been screaming "GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN, AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS" for the past six months. I won't have it.

Since the release of 'Happen To Me' in February, Russell Dickerson has hit a purple patch of songwriting gold that he's perhaps not seen since the triple salvo of 'Everything Little Thing', 'Yours' and 'Blue Tacoma' back in 2017.

Now he's back in the driving seat, anything is genuinely possible when it comes to his forthcoming new album, Famous Back Home.

The TikTok dances, Hulk Hogan poses and ridiculously packed live shows aside, Dickerson's fifth album could finally cement him as the forthright, fun-time, party-starting, Commercial Country King we've been looking for since FGL broke up and Sam Hunt ended up in the outskirts.

'Bones' and 'Heard It In A Country Song' offers a touch of emotion and vulnerability that you can't help but scream out of your bedroom window, while 'Sippin' On Top of the World' is a live opener that'll warm up any crowd fast with it's stadium-sized drums and easy-life affirmations.

So yeah, you bet we'll be putting 'Happen To Me' in Songs of the Year, and when it comes to an easy-going, pop country record in 2025, we'll be hard pressed to find better than this.

- Ross Jones

Release Date: August 15

Jordan Davis has gone from strength to strength lately. His 2024 Damn Good Time World Tour with Mitchell Tenpenny and Ashley Cooke was a roaring global success, fed by the unmistakably fun and uplifting album, Bluebird Days.

Since then, we’ve seen Davis release a constant stream of great new music, including his 8-Week UK Country Radio Airplay chart-topping, ‘I Ain’t Sayin’’ and the title track of his upcoming album, ‘Learn The Hard Way’.

With the track list now live on Spotify, fans can get a look at what’s in store for the release, including who he’s collaborating with. ‘Mess with Missing You’ features female powerhouse Carly Pearce, which we already know will pull at the heartstrings, alongside ‘Louisiana Stick,’ which closes the album and features guitar master, Marcus King.

Davis excels at the modern country sound–he maintains the integrity of the genre through his lyricism whilst laying down easy beats that make his music wholly accessible. This release, coupled with the Ain’t Enough Road Tour, make for a very exciting remainder of 2025 for Jordan Davis.

- Georgette Brookes

Release Date: September 26

This one’s a must-listen just to figure out what that title’s all about.

The Southern rockers known as Whiskey Myers have spent a fair few years making their name, and seemingly turning the heat up each time. “This album’s about where we’ve been, what we’ve lived and the scars we earned along the way–it might just be our most fearless album yet,” lead guitarist John Jeffers says.

Whomp Whack Thunder marks their seventh album and capturing close to two decades worth of work, life, ups and downs, all to the unforgiving rhythm of a hard rock band, suggesting that this one might just be a milestone moment for the band.

Leading the release with the fiery single ‘Time-Bomb’, the group kept the burner turned up high with the gritty, guitar-driven track ‘Tailspin’, delivering a hard-driven acknowledgement of life’s chaos. All 11 tracks have been penned by Whiskey Myers’ frontman Cody Cannon, so it’s likely we’ll be getting their classic arena-filling sound paired with the honesty of lived experience.

Although planting their roots in Texas, the album has been recorded and pieced together in Nashville with Jay Joyce, a producer renowned for his unpredictability. Whichever direction of the rock 'n roll road this one goes, Whomp Whack Thunder is bound to be a strong statement.

- DI

Release Date: September 26

Florida native Karley Scott Collins has been slowly peppering streamers with bold, gravelly-voiced songwriting showcases, such as the addictively forthright 'Marlboro Reds' and the unabashedly vulnerable 'Quit You', for the last three years.

With just one EP under her belt thus far, her upcoming debut record, Flight Risk, produced by Taylor Swift album veteran Nathan Chapman, will give us our first glimpse at Collins in her entirety.

“It sort of feels like putting 16 little pieces of my heart back together,” she wrote on Instagram, and with track titles like 'Easy to Leave,' 'Music to Cry To,' 'I Used To Love Him' and 'Daddy’s Habits', it seems we can expect more of the heartfelt, confessional truth-dealing that has defined her music so far.

Paired with her tight, clever wordplay, typical of a Nashville writers’ room, and neat pop-rock production, Collins is certainly one to watch here at Holler.

- Holly Smith

Release Date: August 8

Hayes Carll's eighth studio album, We’re Only Human, kicks the summer off with a bang. Often hailed as being a songwriter's favourite songwriter, this record has the potential to be an absolutely huge record for Carll.

“The record was inspired by a desire to start listening to my inner voice rather than running from it," Carll says of the album. "The songs are my way of solidifying the lessons I’ve learned, not because I have all the answers, but because I need the reminder that we're all only human.”

Already teased by the first single 'Progress Of Man (Bitcoin & Cattle),' a light-hearted, sobering commentary on the greed, selfishness and narcissism of our modern age, and 'High,' which celebrates finding those rare moments of inner peace in amongst a world of chaos, he thoughtfully addresses a wide spectrum of emotions over 10 songs that range from insecurity to inspirational, contemplative to content, regretful to resilient and hopeful to hilarious, in his most contemplative and personal album yet.

If that wasn't enough, the Gospel-tinged album closer, 'May I Never', features Ray Wylie Hubbard, Shovels & Rope, Darrell Scott, Nicole Atkins, Gordy Quist and Ed Jurdi of Band of Heathens, who each take a verse in a powerful anthem of solidarity and resistance that has the same spiritual resonance as 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken.'

- JO

Release Date: August 8

From 2015’s groundbreaking The Blade to 2018’s stirring Sparrow, Ashley Monroe easily secured herself as a once-in-a-generation talent within country and Americana music, with a crystalline voice that recalls the effortless stylings of greats like Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline. It was 2021’s Rosegold, though, that took the heralded artist into unexplored, pop-infused territories with strikingly sensuous results, shaking many a traditionalist to their core.

With a talent like Monroe’s, it would be impossible to keep her prismatic power behind the confines of any genre. This is what makes the upcoming release of Tennessee Lightning  such an intriguing affair, as it appears that Monroe’s past has melded gloriously with her present exploration.

The soulful ‘Risen Road’ showcases her skyrocketing vocal abilities across a rustic gospel landscape, just as the sensual ‘The Touch’ builds over a '70s pop-folk crescendo with a welcomed assist from legendary Marty Stuart. It’s the swampy funk of ‘Magnolia’, though, that finds the thread Monroe expertly weaves as she unfurls a unique array of sounds that's sure to be an arresting next chapter of her illustrious career.

- SC

Release Date: TBA

When folk megastar Noah Kahan announced Stick Season (Forever) in 2024–the third iteration of his smash hit album, which arrived two years earlier–he joked that he’d now milked that era of his music for as long as he possibly could. Of course, Stick Season was a phenomenal, game-changing project, so we don’t blame the Vermont native for sitting with this chapter for a little longer than usual.

Having said that, we’ve been hankering for another studio album from Kahan, and it looks like we’re going to be getting one soon. The ‘Northern Attitude’ hitmaker has been teasing a plethora of unreleased gems over the past few months, as well as hinting at an impending announcement with shots from the studio and typically tongue-in-cheek quips, such as, “This album is going to slap so hard”.

Kahan has been performing fan-favourites such as ‘The Great Divide’, ‘Pain is Cold Water’ and ‘Deny, Deny, Deny’ so frequently during his recent European tour, that fans now sing most of the words back to him, despite none of these being released yet. When he released his Live From Fenway Park live album last August, Kahan explained that he would be omitting ‘The Great Divide’, due to this song playing such a pivotal role in his next album. This seemingly suggests the project will again find the ‘All My Love’ maverick delving into themes such as friendship, nostalgia, faith and home.

All three of these unreleased offerings are pervaded by storytelling magic, lyrical vulnerability and soaring, evocative melodies, all qualities we’ve come to expect from Kahan’s songwriting.

Since Stick Season, Kahan has become something of a serial collaborator, dropping duets with Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves, Sam Fender, Hozier, Zach Bryan, Kelsea Ballerini, Gracie Abrams and countless other artists, as well as joining forces on-stage in recent months with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi and Gigi Perez. Therefore, we think we can look forward to at least a couple of collaborations on his new album–even if these come as part of a later deluxe version–such as the previously teased ‘Wreckage of You’, which is rumoured to feature Bon Iver.

Regardless of the guestlist, we have no doubt the Stick Season follow-up will be well worth the wait, with Kahan set to consolidate his status as contemporary folk music’s leading light.

- MM