The year 2025 has delivered an astonishing array of folk music albums that push creative boundaries and bring new life to traditional sounds. But here's where it gets controversial: some purists might argue that blending genres like minimalism, jazz, or electronic influences dilutes authenticity. Yet, others believe this fusion is essential for folk music to evolve and resonate with modern audiences.
Let's explore the ten standout folk albums of 2025 that exemplify this vibrant musical landscape.
10. Spafford Campbell – Tomorrow Held
This highly anticipated sophomore album by the talented duo Owen Spafford on violin and Louis Campbell on guitar marks their debut on Peter Gabriel’s prestigious Real World Records. Drawing inspiration from the atmospheric soundscapes of Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden and the delicate echoes of early Bon Iver, Tomorrow Held masterfully combines traditional melodies with elements from minimalism, post-rock, and jazz. The album takes listeners on a dynamically shifting journey—ranging from the introspective mood of a track like 26, where distant drumbeats mimic a heartbeat, to the groove-heavy, trip-hop-inspired All Your Tiny Bones, and culminating in the intense, adrenaline-pumping finale, Four. This eclectic combination showcases their ability to craft emotionally rich and sonically surprising compositions.
9. Benedicte Maurseth – Mirra
This year, Maurseth was not alone in exploring inspiration drawn from Scandinavia’s reindeer-hunting cultures; Sara Ajnnak and the Ciderhouse Rebellion also delved into this icy, rugged world. Maurseth’s Mirra stands out for its attempt to translate ecosophy—a philosophical approach advocating ecological harmony—into musical language. Utilizing her hardanger fiddle, she weaves drones and plucked notes seamlessly with field recordings of animals and bird calls, creating a vivid auditory landscape. These natural sounds are echoed and enhanced through her band’s bass guitar, electronics, and piano, blurring the lines between music and environment. Noteworthy tracks such as Kalven Reiser Seg (“The Calf Rises”), about a newborn deer, and Jaktmarsj (“Hunting March”) exemplify her ability to evoke powerful narratives through sound. This album is a moving meditation on ecology and wilderness, inviting listeners to reflect on humankind’s place in nature. Read the full review
8. Jennifer Reid – The Ballad of the Gatekeeper
Hailing from Lancashire, Reid’s voice stands out as a bold, evocative force in contemporary folk. With her deep-rooted passion for workers’ songs and a dedication to meticulous research, her debut album blends stark a cappellas with gently rhythmic arrangements, layered harmonies, and natural bird sounds. This mix revives old narratives like Spinning Shoddy and Poor Little Factory Girls, giving them a profound freshness. Additionally, her poignant original compositions—such as When the Rivers Rise, So Must We, a commentary on the greed of bankers and land dispossession, and Conversa, which draws a poetic link between factory workers of the past and call center employees today—highlight her capacity to intertwine political consciousness with traditional storytelling.
7. Zoé Basha – Gamble
With a voice that echoes the spirit of early radio blues, Basha’s Gamble revitalizes folk and country traditions through a contemporary lens. Her energetic and soulful performances handle classics like Three Little Babes and Love Is Teasin’ with a fresh twist, adding vibrancy and modernity. Based in Dublin yet with French-American roots, Basha’s debut weaves folk tunes alongside country staples like Sweet Papa Hurry Home and her own originals that carry influences from ragtime and chanson. Her intricate arrangements feature nyckelharpa, Spanish guitar, and atmospheric synths layered over deep bass on tracks like What Dream Is This, displaying her versatility and promising artistic potential. Read the full review
6. Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver – Hinterland
This collaboration brings together Knapp’s free-spirited and expansive vocal style with Diver’s innovative production expertise. Their album Hinterland offers a rich, cinematic take on traditional folk songs. Highlights include the haunting, dramatized rendition of the murder ballad Long Lankin and the heartfelt, vulnerable Lass of Aughrim. Knapp’s lively fiddle work in the Monaghan Jig/Monks Jig Set and her evocative spoken-word snippets in Train Song further demonstrate her captivating performance. Gerry Diver’s ability to blend folk authenticity with modern sound design elevates the album, making it both a tribute and a reinvention of folk traditions.
5. Malmin – Med Åshild Vetrhus
In this collection, Malmin offers vivid, unpolished interpretations of Norwegian dances, psalms, and ballads that draw from early to mid-20th-century recordings. Unlike the squeaky-clean folk recordings often favored, this album insists on rawness—fiddles gnash and shiver, microtonal mandolins and guitars explore the expressive “hinterlands” between notes. Tracks like Hullaspringar (“Hole Jumps”) burst with energy, while Man Fandt Jo Dette Himmelsind (“This Heavenly Mind Was Found”) delivers a reverent, almost spiritual climax, pulling listeners back through time to the singing traditions of Norway’s past.
4. Poor Creature – All Smiles Tonight
Formed by members of Landless and Lankum, this Irish folk super-trio diverged from their intense core projects to craft a debut album that feels unexpectedly tender, haunting, and subtly pop-infused. The title track, All Smiles Tonight, and Adieu Lovely Erin marry folk melodies with electronic rhythms, sounding like a nostalgic Broadcast crossing into the folk realm. Tracks like Willie-O and The Blackthorn Tree introduce lush, dream-like textures built with fiddle, guitar, theremin, vintage organs, and modern synths—an innovative musical palette that expands folk’s expressive horizons. This album demonstrates how folk can evolve while respecting its roots, creating new emotional landscapes.
3. Savina Yannatou, Primavera en Salonico, and Lamia Bedioui – Watersong
This enchanting collection of fourteen folk songs traverses quite literally across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, all centered around the universal theme of water—a symbol of life, cleansing, and sometimes drowning. Yannatou’s voice, full of longing and expressiveness, shifts effortlessly from gentle whispers to percussive accents, especially in songs like O Onda (“The Wave”) and A los Baños del Amor (“To the Baths of Love”). She seamlessly collaborates with Bedioui, a Tunisian singer, creating a mesmerizing vocal dialogue. Musicians play on traditional instruments such as the ney (a centuries-old flute), qanun (an Arabian zither), and waterphone (an eerie, bowed instrument), which adds to the mystical, otherworldly atmosphere of the album.
2. Širom – In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper
This Slovenian trio’s fifth album is an adventurous journey through mystic soundscapes populated with the sounds of West African xylophones, Moroccan guembris, resonator guitars, and more than twenty other instruments. Tracks like Curls Upon the Neck and Ribs Upon the Mountain invoke vivid imagery and complex moods—starting with intense fiddle harmonies before escalating into rhythmic chaos with drums and wails, or blending frisky bluegrass with high-pitched flute melodies in No One’s Footsteps Deep in the Beat of a Butterfly’s Wings. The album exemplifies how traditional instruments, when played with creative freedom, can produce a spectrum of emotions—from serenity to menace—showcasing the limitless possibilities of folk-influenced experimentation.
1. Quinie – Forefowk, Mind Me
Since its release in May, this album has left a profound impact, resonating deeply within me. Created by Josie Vallely, known as Quinie (meaning “young woman” in her native Doric dialect), it is a heartfelt collection of Scottish Traveller songs documented with accompanying liner notes and a documentary filmed during her horseback journey through Argyll. The album’s raw, earthy 11-track set passionately explores the significance of our ancestors, their care for us, and our responsibility toward them. Influenced by traditional practices like canntaireachd (vocal mimicry of bagpipe melodies), sean-nós singing, spoken-word passages, and stark a cappella, Forefowk is a soulful, soul-stirring reminder of Scottish history and identity—an emotional bridge connecting past and future through vibrant storytelling and powerful vocals.
This curated selection of albums exemplifies how folk music continues to innovate, challenge norms, and tell stories that matter. Do you agree that blending old and new is essential for folk’s survival, or do you think it risks losing its core? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.
