Here are my favourite tracks from 2025. Better late than never!
This should have been published a month ago, but December was a very busy month for me. Without further ado, let's round up some of the best bops I heard in 2025.
Honourable
mentions:
20. ‘Angel’
– MSPAINT
Kicking off
this list is this new single from MSPAINT - a Mississippi hardcore band with a
unique all-synths-no-guitars sound. ‘Angel’ is my favourite track off their new
EP, No Separation. It features uplifting lyrics about overcoming
depression delivered defiantly over strident wailing electronica.
19. ‘Dinosaur’
– Cut Cult
Aptly-titled stomping
rock song ‘Dinosaur’ features some monstrously distorted bass and an infectious
groovy riff. The song is the work of Cut Cult - a Nova Scotia supergroup made up of members from the
bands Holy Fuck and Wintersleep.
18. ‘Tourmaline’
– Earl Sweatshirt
Off his new
upbeat album Live Laugh Love, ‘Tourmaline’ sees West Coast rapper Earl
Sweatshirt bringing a newfound melodic delivery to his signature lo-fi hip hop sound.
It’s a tuneful side of Earl that I want to hear more of!
17. ‘Blastbeat
Falafel’ – Igorrr ft. Trey Spruance
Teaming up
with Mr Bungle guitarist Trey Sprunace, French experimental artist Igorrr serves
up this exhilaratingly bonkers mix of death metal and middle eastern influences.
For more unhinged songs like this, check out his new album Amen.
16. ‘Childlike
Things’ – FKA Twigs ft. North West
Usually I’m more
drawn to FKA Twig’s experimental side, but I couldn’t get enough of ‘Childlike
Things’ in 2025 – the British singer’s poppiest track to date. That hook is
just so ridiculously catchy. Not even Kanye’s daughter rapping her verse inexplicably
in Japanese can put me off.
15. ‘This
Is Real’ – Feeble Little Horse
‘This is
Real’ by Pittsburgh band Feeble Little Horse is one of the most thrillingly chaotic
tracks I heard in 2025. From the jump scare noise guitar to the Bladee-like
hyperpop outro, it throws constant curveballs at the listener. It will leave
you in a sweat.
14. ‘Leave
It’ – 100%WET
100%WET are a
hypergaze band from Copenhagen (check out my interview with them). ‘Leave It’ mixes
electronic punchy drums with atmospheric shoegazey guitars. The transition at
2:30 is truly heavenly.
13. ‘Play
Me’ – Fcukers
I saw a YouTube
comment saying that Fcukers are the most ‘aggressively British’ group from
America and I couldn’t agree more. ‘Play Me’ is a drum and bass track with
Nero-style wobbling bass. Frontwoman Shanny Wise delivers confrontational lyrics
over the top in a disarmingly calm voice. It’s a fcuking banger!
12. ‘Dallas
Major’ – Lily Allen
‘Dallas Major’
comes off of Lily Allen’s new album, West End Girl – perhaps one of the
most scathingly raw breakup records ever released. This track about dating as a
single forty-year-old mother is a personal highlight. The humorously bleak
lyrics contrasted with the seductive delivery and sleek production really lay bare
the soul-destroying nature of online dating.
11. ‘Bust Down’
– Joey Valence & Brae ft. TiaCorine
Joey Valance &
Brae’s new album Hyperyouth is wall-to-wall bangers. I was tempted to feature
multiple singles from the record on this list, but I felt ‘Bust Down’ was the
one I returned to the most. The beat sounds like 00s Pharrell, the TiaCorine
feature is so fun, and the lyrics are hilarious.
10. ‘Aweh’ –
Lordkez
Into the top
10! Johannesburg singer Lordkez was a new artist I was exposed to in 2025. This
ultra-smooth R&B song merges old-skool production and modern South African
slang (‘Aweh’ can apparently mean ‘hi’, ‘yes’ or ‘cool’). An underrated summer
bop.
9. ‘Seein
Stars’ – Turnstile
As much as I
love the hardcore side of Turnstile, their more melodic dreamy tracks are what
really set them apart. ‘Seeing Stars’ comes off their new LP Never Enough and it sounds like a mixture of Tame Impala and The
Police. The groove is irresistible and I love those reverb-slathered chords.
8. ‘Ace
Trumpets’ – Clipse
Hip hop duo
Clipse reformed in 2025 and dropped a new album, Let God Sort Em Out – their
first album in 26 years. The record is a masterclass in the lost art of
rhyming. I particularly could not get enough of this single ‘Ace Trumpets’,
which sees Pusha rhyming ‘squeegee’, ‘Luigi’ and ‘the Bee
Gees’, and Malice rhyming ‘tie-dye’ with ‘Mai Tai’. Give
me more of this creative rhyming please!
7. ‘Only
Girl’ – Man/Woman/Chainsaw
Man/Woman/Chainsaw
are the most exciting addition to the UK art rock scene and this is undoubtedly
their best single so far. It’s got some pretty raunchy lyrics (‘choke me/
I’m your only girl’), but the violins make it sound very sophisticated and
the delivery of the chorus is euphoric rather than seductive. The result feels
like a celebration of the beauty of sex with a partner you trust, rather than
just another cheap sleaze rock anthem. I am very interested to see where these
guys take their sound next.
6. ‘Cult
Status’ – JPEGMAFIA
Behold the
most abrasive and filthy beat released in 2025! I’m sure it sounds like pure
noise to most normies, but I am in awe of how inventively disgusting it is. The
experimental hip hop artist teased us with a few seconds of this beat at the
end of ‘New Black History’ on his previous album I Lay Down My Life For You,
and clearly decided it was such a great beat that he needed to make a whole
song out of it, and it slaps!
5. ‘Stateside’
– PinkPantheress
While the
Zara Larsson version currently seems to be getting more traction, the original version
of PinkPantheress’s ‘Stateside’ is my favourite. It’s a transatlantic love
anthem with some very fun dancey production. And despite paying obvious homage
to Estelle and The Sugababes, British singer/producer PinkPantheress still
feels like she had one of the freshest sounds right now in pop.
4. ‘Worldwide’
– Snooper
2025 introduced
me to Nashville ‘egg punk’ band Snooper. ‘Worldwide’ is the title track off
their new record - it’s a fast-paced song with blown-out bass and lyrics about
being jostled around while touring that are delivered like chaotic dance
instructions: ‘PUSH PULL, SIDE TO SIDE, THIS WAY, THAT WAY’. It’s wildly
addictive.
3. ‘Baby
Baby’ – Nourished By Time
Baltimore singer/rapper/producer
Nourished By Time was another new fantastic discovery for me in 2025. His new album
The Passionate Ones is definitely worth hearing if you like experimental
R&B. This single ‘Baby Baby’ lands the bronze podium position on my list – the
loopy lo-fi production is so unique and his casually delivered acerbic bars give
the song so much personality. It sounds
like nothing else out there.
2. ‘Long
Island City Here I Come’ – Geese
Everyone
wouldn’t stop honking on about Geese, so I finally decided to give them a
gander, and they lived up to the hype. ‘Long Island City Here I Come’ is the
final track of their new album Getting Killed and a contender for the
best closing track on an album this decade. The track builds and builds,
increasing in speed until you think it can’t get any faster. But, no, it gets
faster! It’s so impressively musically tight and thrillingly intense.
1. ‘Psychosis
Is Just A Number’ & ‘Life’s A Zoo’ - Guerilla Toss
It was a toss
up between two Guerilla Toss tracks, ‘Psychosis Is Just A Number’ and ‘Life’s a
Zoo’. In the end, I decided to award them both the number one position, because
they’re both exhilaratingly nuts (so technically this is the top 21 tracks of 2025). The Brookyln art rock band have perfected their
knack for writing skronky-but-catchy riffs and zany-but-oddly-profound lyrics.
Some listeners might find them too cartoonish, but I think they’re the most fun
band in rock right now.
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