By now, you’ve likely seen Dazed’s Autumn 2025 issue kicking about online. Some of you might have even felt its girthy weight, or caught a whiff of its glossy print when picking up a copy in person. Although we don’t recommend it, it’s also entirely possible that someone out there has even tasted the magazine (but please don’t do this). But what does our Autumn 2025 issue sound like? 

For our Uncensored issue, we scoured the world – from Wetlands of Walthamstow to the crowded streets of Kolkata, and from the primal peaks of Iceland to the alleys lurking behind Beijing’s Tiananmen Square – in search of the artists and young people fighting to be heard. We spoke to Aussie drill pioneers ONEFOUR, rap rulebreaker Cortisa Star, the liberated bodies of London’s Playbody event series, and many more.

Below, we break down the sounds of Dazed’s Autumn 2025 issue. 

LORDE 

What better way to start this than with the Autumn 2025 issue’s first unveiled cover star, Lorde? First appearing on the Dazed cover back in 2015, the Kiwi pop artist recently embarked on a period of shapeshifting with her latest album, Virgin. She interrogated her own relationship with gender, laid bare her experiences coming off birth control, and, when doing our the DA-Zed Guide To Being, shared her struggles with acne. In Lorde’s words: “This is me: all the gore and all the fuck-ups”. Here’s “Shapeshifter”.

STEVE LACY

Next up is cover star Steve Lacy. In the run-up to the issue’s release, Lacy dropped his first single in three years, “New Shoes”, which he described as ‘a trailer’ for a new moment in his career. Expanding on his upcoming third studio album, titled Oh Yeah?, in his cover story interview with Solange, Lacy explained that he has “pushed himself to talk about certain subjects I’ve never talked about before” on the project.

CORTISA STAR

Freshly 20 years old and already a Miu Miu runway model and viral rap sensation, Delaware-raised, Baltimore-based artist Cortisa Star is about as uncensored as they come. Going head-to-head with queer rave revolutionaries OPIA in our latest issue, Cortisa speaks candidly on everything from furry conventions to navigating trans girlhood. Cortisa’s latest single, “FIEND”, shows that she still doesn’t give a fuck about conforming to musical convention.

HEZEN

Amid the increasing policing of trans and queer bodies in 2025, London clubnight Playbody has become a sanctuary, carving a safe space for LGBTQ+ partygoers to celebrate their bodies. Sweat and smoke cloud the room as multicoloured lights bounce off attendees in various states of undress, and this is reflected in the clubnight’s hedonistic musical selections – here represented by otherworldly dance producer HEZEN.

SIDEPROJECT

Photographer Erika Kamano’s portraits of young people in Iceland capture a generation caught on the axis of history. On one side are the primal peaks and valleys of the country’s breathtaking geothermal landscape, and, on the other, are the brutalist, urban environments painfully familiar to many young people around the world. Here, this dichotomy is represented by Björk co-signed electronic trio Sideproject, who are fighting to uphold a distinct Icelandic musical identity amid rapid venue closures across Reykjavik. 

MC STAN

In the issue, Kolkata photographer Soham Gupta’s series Desi Boys depicts young Indian men navigating masculinity from a variety of religious and caste backgrounds. Often, despite their material wealth, the flagrant excesses of hip-hop feature heavily in their bootleg Gucci accessories and gold chains, but, among the Desi Boys, one hip-hop reigns supreme: Pune’s own MC Stan. 

H.LLS

It’s ironic that anonymous music trio H.LLS choose to cover their faces with a mysterious red box (colour #ea3e23, to be exact) in almost every online appearance, because a box is precisely what H.LLS don’t fit in. “H.LLS is a genre,” says Two, one of the group’s two singer-songwriters. Formed by childhood friends who had all pursued separate careers in music, H.LLS released their debut alt-R&B album TAPE 1 in late 2024. The project featured singers Tay Iwar, Col3trane and rapper Tommy Saint, with yet more set to appear on their upcoming, dance-oriented album TAPE 2 later this year. 

ERIKA DE CASIER

Erika de Casier is a worldbuilder. The singer, songwriter and producer makes music that takes your hand and pulls you through soft-lit rooms and half-remembered states, landing with one foot in the past and one in the future. Born in Portugal and raised in Denmark, De Casier is at the forefront of Scandinavia’s minimalist pop movement, known for a sound that reshapes 90s R&B into a sleek, futuristic form.

JANE REMOVER

The Jane Remover origin lore can be traced to one obvious place – the internet – but their sound has long since mutated beyond it. Born in New Jersey and now based in Chicago, the artist grew up in online spaces, feeding off the chaos and velocity of digital culture. Their work under various aliases speaks to a restless talent whose sound only continues to diversify with each release. Remover has already released two albums this year, Ghostholding (under the venturing moniker) and Revengeseekerz. Wired with strains of digicore, shoegaze, emo, industrial and rap, they’re an artist with an instinct for seeing genre as something volatile. “There’s a Jane Remover in another universe that is probably an accountant right now,” they joke. But in this one, Jane Remover is here to make noise.

FCUKERS

New York party kids Shannon Wise and Jackson Walker Lewis released their debut single Mothers in 2023. A year later came their first EP, Baggy$. Over the past two years, Fcukers have caught the world’s attention with their surreal lyrics and electronic club bangers. Even Hedi Slimane was an early fan, flying them out to Paris Fashion Week to perform at the Celine afterparty. “Everything has gone from zero to 100mph very quickly,” Walker Lewis tells Dazed.

BLOODZBOI

As a teenager in Beijing, Bloodz Boi used a VPN to explore the world beyond the Chinese firewall, searching for sounds that spoke to him. A decade later, he has become one of the most influential figures in Chinese underground rap. It all began with the cloud rap scene of the early 2010s. “When Yung Lean started music, I was shocked,” says Bloodz Boi, speaking in our new issue. “His style was easy to copy – I thought, ‘I can make this kind of sound.’” Rap soon went mainstream in China, but Bloodz Boi represents a different lineage. “It’s easy to get people hype, but to give people your feelings? That’s hard. I don’t care about mixing, all I care about is being 100 per cent real in my music.”

AMORE 

Raised on radio hits and borrowed library CDs, AMORE studied classical piano before falling in love with the energy of live gigs. “Music reveals way more about you than you think,” she says. “If it’s made with passion and honesty, people will feel that. You can’t really fake emotion in this craft.” Earlier this year, she released her debut album, Top Hits, Ballads, etc…, a record that breaks all the rules of what a first project should be, making space for something more experimental. “I went back to the idea of a compilation, like those timeless ‘greatest hits’ albums, something messy, varied and open-ended,” she tells Dazed.

LELLA FADDA

Lella Fadda is one of the most compelling voices to emerge from Egypt’s independent music scene. Born in Italy and raised in Cairo, she seamlessly blends rap, alt-pop and dreamlike melancholy while always sounding unmistakably herself. Fadda’s music serves as a personal archive – at times confrontational, yet often tender. Her distinct voice is rooted in her refusal to conform to preconceived notions of women in music. Singing in Arabic, her pointed use of female pronouns challenges a landscape usually dominated by male perspectives. “I’m documenting my life as a woman. I’m the audience. I make music that I like.”

ONEFOUR

Released in 2019, ONEFOUR’s debut singles “The Message” and “Spot the Difference” were a cultural phenomenon; they were Australia’s first drill tracks, spawning their own dance trend (the “Mounty Bop”) and providing much-needed visibility to the country’s deprived and Islander communities. But their depictions of gang crime proved controversial, prompting the New South Wales police to launch a campaign of harassment against the group. “I guess the thing about being first is they’re going to try and make an example out of us,” says Spenny, speaking in our new issue. “I feel like the tide’s turning for us, but there is still stuff happening in the background. All we can do is move forward.”

Listen to the full ‘Sound of Dazed Autumn’ playlist above.