Steven Wilson's latest album, The Overview, has been voted the Best Album of 2025 by staff and writers of Classic Rock magazine.
Wilson's eighth solo collection found the Porcupine Tree man making a committed return to the prog fold with a two-track concept album inspired by the overview effect, the often overwhelming cognitive shift experienced by astronauts as they gaze upon Earth from the darkness of space.
"I guess it was a pretty uncommercial (not to mention obnoxious!) move to release a concept album with only two tracks on it in 2025, so I'm genuinely amazed and blown away that Classic Rock have crowned it their number 1 of the year," says Wilson. "I’m definitely feeling the love, thank you!"
“A phenomenally immersive listen and a stunning audio-visual spectacle, The Overview combined transportive arrangements, hard-hitting songcraft and existential questions in one commanding rock record," adds Classic Rock deputy editor Polly Glass. "In making an album with such nostalgic sensibilities feel so timeless, Steven achieved something truly remarkable – both on record and on stages across the world this year.
"Perhaps most tellingly, it’s an album we’ve returned to over and over again. A thoroughly deserving winner!”
Wilson beat out stiff competition from the Alice Cooper Band, who returned to action for their first album together since 1973's Muscle of Love, and Wolfgang Van Halen, who suggested on the third Mammoth album that rock's future might just be as bright as its past.
Rounding out the Top Five were Cheap Trick, whose songwriting chops show no sign of diminishing more than half a century after their formation, and much-loved East Anglian tykes The Darkness, who've now completed their own quarter-century.
For the full Top 50, check out our comprehensive online rundown of the Best Rock Albums of 2025. And to read interviews with many of the featured artists, as well as our selections for best country, prog, AOR and blues album of 2025, plus the best tracks and reissues of the year, pick up the festive, end-of-year edition of Classic Rock.
