The best songs of 2025

By Callie Ahlgrim

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Reneé Rapp is one of the most technically skilled and expressive vocalists working today. No song from her sophomore album, "Bite Me," exemplifies this better than "I Think I Like You're Better When You're Gone," an R&B-inflected anthem for avoidant lovers everywhere.

If you like this, listen to: "Mad," "Why Is She Still Here?," "Shy"

"Cuntissimo," the third single from Marina's sixth album, "Princess of Power," is a welcome return to the pomp of her 2012 cult classic "Electra Heart," which satirized and subverted female archetypes ("Bubblegum Bitch," "Primadonna," "Homewrecker") to tell a story of rebellion and independence.

Thirteen years later, Marina still prefers to act up rather than settle down, and to counter patriarchy with pleasure.

In an internet era saturated with "manosphere" influencers and "trad wife" content, which often urges women to embrace homemaking and submit to their husbands, Marina's "Cuntissimo" is a much-needed dose of ostentatious girl power.

"So often, women don't think they're allowed to feel their sexuality in a way that doesn't involve how it looks for men. They feel that it's been co-opted," Marina said of the song, via Dork. "I would love to be able to free younger women of that, the feeling that our bodies don't quite belong to us."

If you like this, listen to: "Cupid's Girl," "Metallic Stallion," "I <3 You"

Tyler, the Creator had very clear objectives with his ninth studio album, "Don't Tap the Glass" — namely, to make people ditch their phones and dance. In the album's opening track, Tyler instructs the audience, "Body movement. No sitting still."

The very next song, "Sugar On My Tongue," is Tyler's vision fulfilled. I can't imagine anyone with sturdy feet and healthy knees being able to resist that beat.

If you like this, listen to: "Big Poe (feat. Sk8brd)," "Sucka Free," "Ring Ring Ring"

Joe Keery may star in one of Netflix's most popular shows ever (as the beloved Steve Harrington in "Stranger Things"), but if the quality of his music maintains its current trajectory, he'll be better known as a musician in no time.

This year, Keery released his third album, "The Crux," under his stage name Djo. It was led by the endearingly retro "Basic Being Basic," in which Keery makes the case for being earnest over trying to be cool.

The song toes the line between lecture and confession, while Keery's delivery alternates between monotone and falsetto. Here, as well as elsewhere in "The Crux," he's taking cues from frontmen like Matty Healy, Julian Casablancas, John McCrea, and Paul McCartney — but the result is a sound that's entirely his own.

If you like this, listen to: "Potion," "Delete Ya," "Charlie's Garden"

Justin Bieber is back, baby. "Daisies" is the infectious highlight from "Swag," Bieber's best album in a decade, and the song of the summer that got away.

If you like this, listen to: "Yukon," "Butterflies," "Walking Away"

In "Tears," the second single from Sabrina Carpenter's "Man's Best Friend," she takes a man to task — or, more accurately, modern men as a species — for how far underground the bar for seduction has sunk.

Her sarcastic fawning over the bare minimum ("A little respect for women can get you very, very far / Remembering how to use your phone gets me oh so, oh so, oh so hot!") is paired with irresistible disco-pop, making a strong case for Carpenter as Donna Summer's saucy offspring.

If you like this, listen to: "Manchild," "Nobody's Son," "House Tour"

Katseye, a six-piece girl group positioned as the first global K-pop phenomenon, enjoyed a mainstream breakout moment amid the great jeans war of 2025. The group went viral for dancing to "Milkshake" by Kelis in Gap's "Better in Denim" campaign, which the company's CEO touted as a financial boon and "cultural takeover."

The ad's success on social media showcased Katseye's zeitgeisty star power, but "Gabriela" proves the group has staying power as well. The top-40 single features a cowriting credit from Charli XCX, a juicy romantic rival motif à la Dolly Parton's "Jolene," a flamenco-inspired hook, and a bridge sung entirely in Spanish — a seemingly chaotic mix of elements somehow blended to perfection. "Gabriela" is one of the year's smoothest, most indelible pop songs, destined to soundtrack Katseye's ongoing rise to stardom.

If you like this, listen to: "Gameboy," "Mean Girls," "M.I.A"

Kevin Parker's fifth album as Tame Impala, "Deadbeat," was heavily inspired by the rave scene in Western Australia, a mood neatly summarized in its third single: "Run from the sunlight, Dracula." The album's narrator thrives in the shadowy, faceless corners of a dance floor.

Shortly after its September release, "Dracula" became the first Tame Impala song ever to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 — a shockingly overdue achievement, but one that "Dracula" earned with its sticky hook and party-ready production. Parker even told Apple Music's Zane Lowe that he wanted "Dracula" to sound "like a Max Martin song," referencing the legendary pop producer who's churned out more hits than anyone else in this century.

If you like this, listen to: "My Old Ways," "Loser," "Obsolete"

Justin Vernon said his acclaimed fifth album as Bon Iver, "Sable, Fable," took shape on the day he wrote "Everything Is Peaceful Love," a soft-rock ballad awash in the musician's signature falsetto.

"I knew what kind of record I wanted to make the day we made 'Everything Is Peaceful Love.' I always knew that would be the feeling I wanted to share first," Vernon said in a statement. "The idea that happiness and joy are the highest form and the true buoyancy of survival, and even taking yourself less seriously could heal the world."

If that claim sounds a bit starry-eyed, the song is sincere and soothing enough to almost make you believe it. "Everything Is Peaceful Love" is the sonic equivalent of taking a warm bath; whatever's going on above water level tends to melt away mercifully, if only for a few minutes.

If you like this, listen to: "Things Behind Things Behind Things," "Walk Home," "There's a Rhythmn"

It's tempting to attribute the success of "Sally, When the Wine Runs Out," a surprise hit from the deluxe version of Role Model's sophomore album, "Kansas Anymore," to a series of viral live renditions.

During early performances of the song, Role Model would invite fans onstage to play Sally during the song's chant-along bridge ("Heard through the grapevine, she can be a diva / Cold like Minnesota, hotter than a fever").

As the tradition gained traction on social media, Role Model began recruiting fellow musicians and celebrities to play the role. The prestigious list has grown to reflect his rising rank in Hollywood, featuring everyone from Olivia Rodrigo and Charli XCX to Kate Hudson and Natalie Portman.

It's the latest iteration of the special guest concert gimmick, following in the shrewd footsteps of Justin Bieber's "One Less Lonely Girl" serenades, MUNA's "Silk Chiffon" cameos, and, more recently, Sabrina Carpenter's "Juno" arrests. But the truth is, a concert gimmick only catches on if the song is actually good, and "Sally" is very good. It's annoyingly charming — easy to memorize and near impossible to shake off.

It has also become a career-shifting hit for Role Model, who was largely unknown just one year ago. Now, when he gets onstage, he greets his fans with a shriek-inducing, "Hey, divas," and they eat it up every time. Through his adoring lens, who wouldn't want to be Sally?

If you like this, listen to: "Look at That Woman," "Old Recliners," "Some Protector"

Raye has not misfired once since becoming an independent artist in 2021. Following last year's audacious single "Genesis," her latest offering is a gorgeous blend of humor, theatrics, and intimacy.

"Where Is My Husband!" feels like gossiping with friends over cocktails, in that it understands the joy of complaining and commiserating. Raye is tired of searching for her lifelong partner, a topic that many artists might plumb for a mournful ballad — but she refuses to succumb to dating doomerism.

Instead, Raye copes by cracking jokes and keeping her eyes on the prize, transforming her exasperated yearning into playful teasing ("Wait 'til I get my hands on him, I'ma tell him off too / For how long he kept me waiting"). She may be impatient, but she's far from hopeless.

If you like this, listen to: "Suzanne"

"Buckle" is the soft heart of Florence + The Machine's sixth album, "Everybody Scream." The track was cowritten by Florence Welch and Mitski, two women who are renowned for unspooling uncomfortable and raw truths in their music. Naturally, their team-up yielded an exquisite piece of lyricism.

While the bulk of "Everybody Scream" leans baroque and bombastic, with "Buckle," Welch and her co-producer, Aaron Dessner, smartly strip down the production. Backed by an acoustic guitar, Welch wrestles with degradation, desire, and the addictive cycle of rejection and resolution, interrupting her own spiral with a poignant wail: "Oh god, I thought I was too old for this."

If you like this, listen to: "One of the Greats," "Perfume and Milk," "Music by Men"

"It's a Mirror" by Perfume Genius, aka Mike Hadreas, sounds confident and robust, yet lyrically, the song is fearful and fragile. The narrator is trapped inside his home and inside his mind, terrified that real life is happening somewhere else out of reach. He peers out his window, but can't bring himself to leave.

Hadreas describes this threshold as a kind of portal, a thin barrier between safety and curiosity, akin to Lewis Carroll's famous looking glass. "It's a Mirror," indeed.

"It's a soup of all the things I was thinking about the last few years, the things I ended up talking about across the album," Hadreas told Stereogum of the song. "I like when things are loud, big, but the sentiment is what some people would think of as softer, more tender. That tension is satisfying to me."

If you like this, listen to: "Me & Angel," "Full On," "Capezio"

In between her third and fourth studio albums, "Eusexua" and "Eusexua Afterglow," FKA twigs released "Perfectly," a clubby ode to self-actualization.

Twigs gives herself — and, by extension, her listeners — free license to be messy, even a little delusional, especially if it means having more fun. "Inside my head, I have the best time," she sings, abolishing shame with a simple, elegant mantra.

If you like this, listen to: "Girl Feels Good," "Cheap Hotel," "Sushi"

Even on Taylor Swift's most divisive albums, her songwriting skill can't help but shine through.

Swift is a master at pairing her personal lyrics with mass-appeal-optimized melodies. Of course, it's true that popularity and profit don't always (or even usually) correlate with high quality. But it's also true that successful pop songwriting — communicating knotty emotions and layered narratives in a way that resonates with a large number of people — is terribly difficult. Swift just makes it look easy.

"Elizabeth Taylor" is one such example from Swift's extensive catalog, and the best from "The Life of a Showgirl."

Sure, "The Fate of Ophelia" is the album's major Billboard hit and "Opalite" is favored by TikTok choreographers, but "Elizabeth Taylor" has all the glamour, friction, lust, and drama that one should expect from a self-professed showgirl — the view of Portofino, the rustle of paparazzi, the buzz of a love affair that's about to hit the front page. The song's rich visuals and snappy one-liners ("They say I'm bad news, I just say, 'Thanks') are complemented by its lavish, orchestral-pop production. And don't even get me started on the beat drop in the chorus.

Swift and her coproducers, Max Martin and Shellback, went all out for this song, leaning into the extravagance that its namesake evokes — and thank goodness they did. Nonchalance has never been Swift's forté.

If you like this, listen to: "The Fate of Ophelia," "Opalite," "Father Figure"

Following the slow-burn success of her 2023 debut, "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess," Chappell Roan has maintained her grip on pop culture with a steady stream of singles: Last year's much-loved "Good Luck, Babe!" was followed by this year's one-two punch, "The Giver" and "The Subway."

The latter became Roan's first top-three hit on the Hot 100 and received two Grammy nominations, including record of the year. The song even sparked a tourism boom in Saskatchewan, the Canadian prairie province that Roan name-drops as her post-heartbreak contingency plan.

Each and every accolade, however wacky, is well deserved. "The Subway" is the kind of torch song that immediately sounds like a classic, at once fresh and familiar. Roan delivers each line with such passion, such palpable yearning, that every time she reaches the anthemic outro ("She's got a way, she's got a way / And she got, she got away"), no matter where I am, I'm seized by an urge to sway a lighter in the air.

If you like this, listen to: "The Giver"

"Relationships" was the first taste of Haim's fourth album, "I Quit," which both laments and celebrates single womanhood.

This ambivalence is presented frankly in the lead single. "I think I'm in love, but I can't stand fucking relationships," Danielle, the band's lead vocalist and middle sister, repeats throughout the song.

In the outro, the qualifying phrase changes shape ("I think I'm in love, but I can't stand communicating it," "I think I'm in love, so why am I trying to escape from it?"), teasing out shades of annoyance, exhaustion, panic, and avoidance as her relationship collapses. At the root of it all, the singer is plagued by a gut feeling that something isn't quite right — that there's something that love can't overcome.

The song offers no sense of resolve or resolution, and its circular logic is mirrored in the fuzzy, funky production. I could ask myself the titular question over and over without reaching any conclusions, just as no amount of replaying this song seems to satisfy me.

If you like this, listen to: "All Over Me," "Down to Be Wrong," "Everybody's Trying to Figure Me Out"

Olivia Dean's breezy, soulful breakthrough single serves as a balm for the rejection-filled world of modern dating.

Journalists, podcasters, and psychologists alike are tripping over each other to diagnose and cure the woes of modern courtship. This very list features a variety of reactions and coping mechanisms: Marina refuses to sacrifice her independence, Sabrina Carpenter openly mocks her suitors, and Raye opts for restless optimism.

Meanwhile, Dean has a cleaner approach: "We could be nice to each other."

Even as she's realistic about the challenges and miseries that accompany desire, and even though she doesn't want a boyfriend (a fact she proudly declares in the song's third verse), Dean is resolutely hopeful about our capacity for kindness, about the tenderness required for true human connection. Her lyrics suggest there are no road maps, no easy answers, and certainly no guarantees in matters of the heart. Still, she insists, that doesn't mean our hearts have to wither and harden.

If you like this, listen to: "Lady Lady," "So Easy (To Fall In Love)," "Man I Need"

Traditionally, I've been opposed to including songs from the previous year in a list like this, even if they arrived too late for last year's ranking.

I'm breaking this informal rule for "Luther," which was released on Kendrick Lamar's 2024 album "GNX," for two reasons.

The first is that "Luther" deserves to be immortalized as a defining song of 2025. After Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show, "Luther" rose to No. 1 on the Hot 100 and stayed there for 13 consecutive weeks. It's one of just 47 songs in history to secure a double-digit reign on the chart, and the fact that it reached this milestone several months after its release speaks to its enduring and timeless appeal. (In decades past, this may not have been notable. But in the streaming era, our cultural attention span is shorter than ever.)

The second reason is more important: The song is just that good. "Luther" is the crown jewel of Lamar's longtime creative synergy with SZA, and considering how their duets also include classics like "Babylon," "Doves In the Wind," and the Oscar-nominated "All the Stars," that's no easy distinction. It's the result of two living legends at the top of their game.

If you like this, listen to: "Man at the Garden," "Hey Now (feat. Dody6)," "Gloria (with SZA)"

While finalizing her fourth studio album, "Virgin," Lorde repeatedly teased fans with a tagline: "After the Ecstasy, the Laundry," taken from a book about spiritual enlightenment by Jack Kornfield.

Her album's climactic closer, "David," could be summarized with the same five words. After the spilled secrets, the reckless worship, and the drug-like high of falling in love with the wrong person, Lorde returns to reality, left alone with the mess of independence. "I don't belong to anyone," she crows, apparently in triumph, though she presents a more sobering vision in the outro: "Am I ever gonna love again? Am I ever gonna love again? Am I ever gonna love again?"

Michelangelo's David is known for his pure, scratchless, perfect form, but Lorde inverts this image. Making art is all about chipping away at what doesn't work, finding a recognizable shape within the random chunks of material; with songs, unlike with sculptures, the artist mines her own flesh. Where the beauty of Michelangelo's David is immortal and unattainable, the beauty of Lorde's "David" is willfully human, leaving the listener with the taste of metal and salt on their tongue.

"The body that made this album bleeds and aches and sheds," Lorde told Zane Lowe. "I really tried as hard as I could to make this without shame."

If you like this, listen to: "Shapeshifter," "Favourite Daughter," "Current Affairs"