The best songs of 2025 so far

After the success of singles ‘Diet Pepsi’ and ‘Aquamarine’, we were all left wondering one thing: what would Addison Rae do next? The answer came in pink hair dye and this whispery, world-building track, which cemented the TikTok influencer turned pop star as Gen Z’s ultimate It girl with a sound distinctly her own. With nonchalant lyrics dosed in nostalgia, breathy vocals reminiscent of early days Kylie Minogue and soft, effortless percussion, ‘Headphones On’ is nothing short of irresistible.

The title track from Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos is the crowning glory of a sublime album that’s a love letter to his native Puerto Rico. Blending elements of rap, Latin pop and reggaeton to create a deceptively dance-worthy backing track, ‘DTMF’ (translated to ‘I should have taken more photos’) is both a touching sentiment and an absolute belter of a song. 

Every song on Rosalía’s frankly mind-melting LUX takes listeners on a journey. Opening with hopeful, cinematic strings, paired with Rosalía’s sublime soprano, ‘Reliquia’ swells into a bombastic, crashing crescendo, before finally bursting into its unexpectedly glitchy ending. Inspired by the Peruvian Santa Rosa de Lima, the surreal and introspective prose sings of body parts left all over the world. But it suggests a more personal experience of loss too, painting the image of a woman who has given her heart away one too many times. This is true storytelling both lyrically and sonically. 

It would be easy for me to argue that virtually all the songs on CMAT’s third album are up there with the best released this year, but the stonking title track ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ best encompasses what is so moving, addictive and relatable about the record. By pairing a patchwork of country and pop sounds with nods to traditional Irish music and lyrics about her complex relationship with her homeland and stifled upbringing – ‘I never understood what this way of living could do to me / All the mooching ‘round shops, and the lack of identity’ – ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ is a gut wrencher of an anthem with a tumbling surrender of a chorus.

Gangster rap may not be the most conventionally beautiful of music genres, but there is patent, resounding beauty to Westside Gunn’s ‘055’. Atop a soulful, careening instrumental that leans heavily on a sample of the Jean Johnson Singers’ There Is No Greater Love, verses by Westside and Stove God Cooks boast of riches and success, cars, jewellery and calamari. The gorgeous sample, the extravagant boasts, the uproarious noise of Westside Gunn’s adlibs – it all radiates triumph. ‘You don’t have to die in order for you to hear what heaven sounds like,’ says longtime Westside collaborator AA Rashid in the spoken word outro – and that’s true, audial paradise is right here.

As 2026 approaches, NYC-based singer and producer Jamie Krasner is poised to be handed the baton of ‘ethereal electronic pop girlie of the year’ by Oklou, largely thanks to the sleeper success of this lead single from her third studio album. Beginning with sugary, glittery synths that give way to mournful, Caroline Polachek-esque vocals lamenting the breakdown of a relationship, it steadily builds into a triumphant, emotionally charged chorus backed by shredding guitar and chaotic breakbeats. It’s a great showcase of Krasner’s genre-defying production.

Every so often, a piece of art comes along that perfectly nails the queer experience. This year, Chappell Roan delivered that gut-punch with ‘The Subway’, a melodramatic, gloriously over-the-top ’80s-soaked anthem. In the dazzling way only she can, Roan bottles the ache of lost love with stunning precision, building to an outro that’s destined to echo through stadiums. Girls, gays and theys everywhere felt this one deep – and its dreamy pull is one that will hook us in again and again. 

FKA twigs’ third studio Eusexua is a lush homage to the sweaty, grubby dancefloors of Europe’s dingiest clubs. Piercing out of the headsy, metallic techno soundscape is ‘Childlike Things’. This fun-filled homage to J-pop features an unexpected guest appearance by North West who sings almost entirely in Japanese against a bubblegum sweet ‘dum, dum, dum’ singsong. It’s Twigs at her most playful: blending imagination and innocence with cherub-like vocal delivery to bring the fantasy to life. 

Released when Doechii took home her first Grammy for Best Rap Album with Alligator Bites Never Heal, ‘Nosebleeds’ is effectively the rap star’s victory lap – and a big one at that. Instrumentally, it opens with buzzing, brash bass and departs to a lighter, bubbly melody – but it’s all grounded by her growling vocals, gleaming with lyrical wit and narrative depth. Theatrical and self-referential, like all of her best work, the rapper references Kanye West’s legendary speech from the 2005 awards as she boasts about her success, effectively cementing herself into music history once and for all: ‘Everyone wanted to know what Doechii would do if she didn’t win / I guess we’ll never know’. Listening, you can’t help but want to join in her celebrations.

Few debut albums seem to have sparked as much excitement in 2025 as Oklou’s long-awaited Choke Enough, and the dreamlike ‘ict’ might be my favourite track of the whole brilliant bunch. With its sci-fi synths, a bright yet faraway-sounding trumpet refrain and girlish vocals singing sparse lyrics about running for ice cream trucks, it’s a wistful, atmospheric lullaby of a song that I’ve had on repeat all year.

I can’t say I knew what Duane Reade was before West End Girl dropped. Now I’m never going to forget this chain of American pharmacies, from which an incriminating bag is stuffed with ‘sex toys, butt plugs, lube’ in one of the more memorable lyrics in Lily Allen’s brutal divorce album. The gut-punch lyrical content is offset by a shimmering, dreamy sound that is laden with hooks, and Allen sounds serene as she sings about the horror of discovering that her husband’s pied-à-terre was not in fact a ‘dojo’ but a shag pad. So devastating in its content, Pussy Palace should come with a trigger warning.

PinkPantheress came into her own with the 2025 Fancy That mixtape. She’s still got her trademark sugary, autotuned sound, but in this song – all about hooking up with a drug dealer – she’s lost some naivety, and has zeroed in on her singular vision that shows no regard for the rules of genres. The deliciously synthy Underworld sample (‘Dark & Long (Dark Train Mix)’) underpins the whole song, while Pink’s deadpan lyric delivery (‘I like the fact that we don't communicate / As long as you don't tell all your best mates’) along with crashing drum ‘n’ bass beats transforms the addictive electronica melody into a catchy pop song. Despite the vintage samples the track is distinctly modern, and undeniably Pink. 

On first listen, ‘Spike Island’ is a classic Pulp hit: a catchy indie-pop anthem, with witty, if a tad opaque, lyricism. But a closer inspection reveals that behind all that synth lies Jarvis Cocker’s anxieties about selling out artistically only to fade into irrelevancy. Or perhaps anxiety is the wrong word; he seems to ultimately decide that as long as he still gets to sing, everything will be alright. Given the fact as a 62 year old he still performs, and sounds, like he did in 1996, it’s hard to disagree.

Portrait With Firewood, a 2018 album from UK bass musician Djrum, remains one of my favourites of all time – it’s a meeting of classical chamber music and strobey dance floors in a way that feels genuinely fresh and moving rather than gimmicky or over-ambitious. ‘A Tune For Us’, released as a single this year, has a similar contradictory flavour: luscious, tinkly piano is paired with rich, chocolatey cello, giving way to soft breakbeats and rippling percussion. Orchestral, multi-layered and delicately emotive, it feels like a journey to finding clarity.

If there’s one thing you can be sure of on a Weeknd album, it’s bangers – and arguably the biggest previously-unheard smash on Abel Tesfaye’s 2025 album, Hurry Up Tomorrow is this one. ‘Open Hearts’ is a skyward synthpop hit à la ‘Blinding Lights’, ‘Save Your Tears’ and ‘Take My Breath’ (and was created with those tracks’ super pop producer/writer Max Martin), which is achieved with a carefully concocted blend of irresistible influences: Hi-NRG ecstasy, flashy trance, throbbing French electro. Oh, and it has a belter of a hook (this is the Weeknd, after all).  

Alex G is an artist seemingly incapable of messing up. With every album his style gets sharper, shinier, more refined, more recognisably pop, but never compromising on its innate Alex G-ness. The meandering, probing, cliche-averse indie songwriting is still present on 2025’s Headlights, but on tracks like album opener June Guitar everything seems slicker than usual. Even the artist’s trademark weirdo pitched-up vocals can’t destabilise the resolutely smooth mood. The whole thing is capped off with a climactic accordion solo, which is surely something worth celebrating in 2025.

Baxter Dury – a 50-something Marks & Spencer's Leonard Cohen in a slate grey suit – makes for an unlikely squelchy electro-house kingpin, but this might be his catchiest single yet. A call-and-response bottomless-brunch banger with south London vocalist JGrrey, Allbarone is the song you didn’t know you needed about the complex charms of high street cocktail chain All Bar One. In essence, it’s a porn star martini you can dance to.