The 25 best singles of 2025

The name of Durand Jones & the Indications' fourth studio full-length is called Flowers, and it feels appropriate given it sounds like the band is finally getting theirs. While the NPR literati have always embraced the retro-soul stylists' records, their profile had risen to the point where they no longer needed to record in garages to save some money. Instead, they had access to crystalline production aesthetics, which Flowers uses to maximum efficacy. "Really Wanna Be With You" is a mid-tempo soul-pop gem that uses shuffling drums, light string sections, and the band's always-glorious background vocals to craft a song that sounds like it was recorded in the heart of the 1970s despite us knowing it came out this year. It's slinky, it's romantic, and it recaptures not just the era of its inspiration but some of its earnestly oversweet emotion too. With its lovelorn lyrics and effortless cool, "Really Wanna Be With You" is the song we really wanna spend our time with.

The truth about KPop Demon Hunters is that once you get past the jokey title, the surprisingly solid production wouldn't have amounted to anything were it not for the music inside. "Golden", the film's centerpiece, is an astounding piece of music, riding a solid mid-tempo groove that supports the incredible vocal histrionics on display. Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami, and especially breakout star and co-writer EJAE dominate the space, achieving increasingly difficult high notes that give the lyrics a dramatic heft, which is needed in order to accentuate the film's themes of identity and acceptance. A multi-Grammy nominee, "Golden" wasn't merely a song existing within the K-pop space but a genuinely compelling song all on its own merits. The rare mega smash that deserved all its success, we only see the notoriety of its creators going up up up, it's their moment.

Demi Lovato has had a difficult time in the fame machine, frequently having to correct the record on herself as she explores new genres and new vibes in the pop landscape, even going so far as to put out 2023's Revamped, in which she did drastic rock reinventions of her own back catalog. With her new album It's Not That Deep, Lovato was determined to get back to her chart-rocking roots, fully embracing contemporary pop trends on her own terms. While the singles underperformed, there's still no denying that "Fast", the album's opening salvo, was an instant all-timer. Working with up-and-coming producer Zhone (Kesha's "Boy Crazy", Troye Sivan's "Rush"), Lovato landed on a sound that was fun, dramatic, and just a touch campy. With thundering stutter synths on that chorus, "Fast" is the sound of aggressive, in-control Demi in a way we haven't seen since, well, her last underrated record: 2022's "Holy Fvck". "Fast" isn't a lyrical miracle by any stretch of the imagination, but its impact is still sharp, immediate, and made for the club. Just when you counted her out, Lovato proves that true divas can be iconic whenever they want to be.

No harder couplet came out this year than "I am a man that's made of meat / And you're on the internet looking at feet." Yet few bands are built like Swedish post-rockers Vıagra Boys, who have been intentionally disrupting the scene since forming in 2015. This year's Viagr Aboys is only their fourth studio album, but everything you need to know about their thundering rock stylings can be summed up in this fantastic lead single, where Sebastian Murphy belches in the middle of the first verse, but they just decided to leave it in. They are true art-rock pranksters, delivering us insane non-sequiturs like "I stand outside of the McDonald's / I'm flexing my muscles 'til I explode" as if it's nothing. "Man Made of Meat" is wonderfully absurd, deliciously catchy, and a sharp rebuke to business-as-usual rock bands that take themselves too seriously.

Was it really worth all the drama? For having Clipse reunite after 15 years with a full-length album produced by Pharrell Williams, and with a lead single featuring both Williams and Kendrick Lamar, was it really worth all of the hassle on UMG's end to try and censor or remove the Kendrick verse, which they had deemed to be politically controversial? Allegedly, label higher-ups were worried about a rebuke from the Trump administration, and instead of censoring or deleting it, Pusha T and Malice instead bought out their own contract to self-release the record. That backstory is great, but it's still that thudding bassline and trilling organ sound that gives "Chains & Whips" its verve, anchored by ace lyricism across the board. As Malice exudes at the end of his verse: "You ain't thrive in the snow like it's 'The Revenant' / And send orders back down and keep shovelin'". Everyone shows up to the table with multiple entendres, double-meanings, and a flip-off-the-world energy that you can't buy with money. Clipse forever.

Canadian dancer-turned-singer Tate McRae has always had a flair for the melodramatic, which you can hear on early hits like "You Broke Me First". Yet as her career has progressed, she's become increasing fascinated with the idea of filtering her love of the early-2000s dirty pop diva sound through her sonic prism. While her 2025 album So Close to What features what is effectively multiple rewrites of "Buttons" by the Pūssycat Dolls, it was her lesser-seen single "Revolving Door" that genuinely stood out. Working closely with dark synth sounds as captured by co-writer/producer Ryan Tedder, McRae details a toxic relationship where it's she who keeps running back to her lover despite her own insistence that she wouldn't do so. "Say I couldn't want you less / But I just want you more," she admits as the drum fills ratchet around her. Aided by some stunning dancing in the music video, "Revolving Door" proves that, while McRae's brand of performance may not be everyone's preference, you can't ignore the fact that she's got the sauce.

Who knew that the hyperpop revolution would bleed so heavily as it did into the furry community? Yet over the past few years, the extremely online (and deeply horny) anthropomorphic animal scene began pushing out new and daring narratives at the edge of the genre, with acts like Russelbuck and Pent-Up Pup leading a small-but-noisy sonic revolution. Passengerprincess, a Los Angeles-based duo that consists of "chris + lizzy," lit up ears like a dog whistle with "4K Carpet", an intensely addictive dance track which is textually about wanting to buy a fursuit and subtextually speaks to the pure economic anxiety this generation of youth is experiencing. Its beat quickens, the stuttery piano riffs circle tighter and tighter, and the sense of release from the drop is immense. It hits like a candy hammer: an explosive sugar rush that will have you barking for more.

Whenever a list like this comes out, there's always got to be at least one "slant" entry, a maybe-almost-single, and for us, the opening track off of Australian psych-pop outfit Babe Rainbow's sixth album does the trick. Sure it never had a formal music video, but "What is ashwagandha" sound likes a glorious piece of alt-hippie fluff, riding thick basslines and the best, most addictive yo-yo guitar riff we heard all year to ensnare listeners in a sticky sweet honey trap where synth lines, chopped vocal samples, B-52's guitar strums, and crazy vocal reverb all add up to a headtrip of a song that doesn't require any drugs. "Swing around like yin and yang / Plunge into oblivion," coos singer Angus Dowling through a variety of filters, and as the colorful vibes swirl around, it's more apparent that you don't want whatever this trip is to end anytime soon.

Hot off the heels of her star-making, hits-filled album Short & Sweet, the blonde pop starlet struck while the iron is "Have you ever tried .... this one?"-hot and dropped the new full-length Man's Best Friend this year. While some critics felt she had pushed to the limit of her too-smart-for-the-room persona, the twangy lead single "Manchild" proved she still had plenty of mileage left in her Sabrina persona, crafting a song that's both an absolute delight and a well-deserved chart-topper. Cutting down the stupid men from her life ("Whole outfit that you're wearing? / God I hope it's ironic," she deadpans), Sabrina takes all her wannabe boyfriends to task while country guitar picking and feather-light '80s synths dance around her. While she flirted with a few country-adjacent tracks on her last full-length, "Manchild" is the sound of her mastering the genre on her own terms and being handsomely rewarded for it.

Much like their Californian friends The Mowgli's, the Woodland Hills-born band Bad Suns have been cranking out some of the finest pop-rock gems ever heard for over a decade, largely under the radar save for a few streaming breakout hits. While signed to a prominent label like Epitaph, hearing a damn-near-perfect song like "Slow Karma" — which doubles over as the opener to fifth studio full-length Accelerator — and finding out it didn't chart anywhere feels like you are witness to some sort of crime. With an insanely catchy guitar hook and pitch-perfect lyrics about trying to find your mission in life after your first set of goals didn't work out ("I get the feeling I missed the moon / Tried for the stars, I hit the pavement," sings Christo Bowman), "Slow Karma" is the megahit that never was from a band who specializes in that sort of thing. Yet if the 2025 chart trends have shown us anything, we can't wait for this to be rediscovered on next-gen social media seven years from now and become a chart-topper sometime in the 2030s. Remember: we called it here first.

Since putting out their exemplary 2023 back-to-basics effort Alchemy, Disclosure have been charting their own course, putting out singles when they feel like it and promoting them as they please. Anderson .Paak, meanwhile, shines his star power sparingly, as his only other major appearance on a track this year was for legendary K-pop rapper G-Dragon (and it was a hit). So "No Cap", the first collaborative effort between the artists, transports Disclosure back to the sweaty early club days of their sound, as looping synth notes roll over into escalating drum patterns and keyboard pounds hitting on the fours. It's a groovy number, and .Paak drops effortless swag all over the number, living a party-rocking life with little worry: "More cake, more champagne by the cases / Rotate, simmer down, are we in The Matrix?" It's a charmer, it's a party-starter, and it's everything we would want out of a collab this high profile. Sometimes you don't need to break new artistic ground to make something special: you need to be extremely skilled at the genre you're aiming for, no cap.

Cameron Winters' warble of a voice is a divisive variable for some, which is why some people feel his work in his multi-faceted band Geese is more striking than the vulnerability he showcased on last year's hummer of a solo album Heavy Metal. Yet Geese were anything if not undeniable on their new full-length Getting Killed, with single "Taxes" serving as a deeply Pavement-indebted kind of calling card that would hook high-brow music fans the world over. It's a strummer of a pop number, but in that second verse, when the shuffling percussion and bass give way to those powerful rhythm guitar strums just as Winters holds out the long note on "You're gonna have to nail me downnnnn," it feels like a rush of energy has hit a live concert crowd that you're suddenly a part of. "Taxes" is emblematic of much of Geese's new era: unusual, completely lacking a repeated chorus, deeply catchy, and unquestionably memorable.

We can almost guarantee that this standalone single hasn't made it into most radio rotations, but Sam Wilkes is somewhat of an acquired taste. The Los Angeles-based bassist was very much part of the experimental Leaving Records/alternative jazz scene for some time, but when he pivoted to lo-fi indie-pop with 2023's dynamic Driving, he ended up being crowned as our pick for Album of the Year. He's put out more jazz and calm instrumental records since then, which makes his two-song 104.3 EP his first return to that college-jam sound. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" has lush recurring guitars, simple keyboard squiggles, a simple drum machine pattern, and warped vocal stacks that spit out R.E.M.-style lyrics so cryptic you're unsure if they're poetry or just inscrutable ("Well, here comes the nighttime / I'm looking for a little more," Wilkes croons). In short, this track transports the listener into another world, one of cassette tapes and dorm room playlists, of the infinite possibilities of the sonic universe with a budget of a couple dozen pawed-together dollars. It's a pocket universe: a garage-pop throwaway that contains multitudes. Or, to put it another way: Sam Wilkes has done it again, and we know we're not wrong about it.

For those unfamiliar with K-pop, NMIXX have been a divisive group from the get. Initially scoring hits via songs with abrupt stylistic changes midway through (the "N-MIXX change-up!" they'd call it), some still questioned whether they could outlast the gimmick. As it turns out, it was the girls themselves who led the charge, constantly experimenting with new sounds and releasing full rehearsal videos — live vocals included (a rarity) — instead of the industry-standard dance practices. The hard work paid off immensely in 2025, as the group unleashed some of the best singles of their career and even netted their first Korean chart-topper with the song "Blue Valentine". While the stunning minimalist electro of "Know About Me" was also a close contender, we find ourselves coming back to "Know About Me" time and time again, as its call-and-response vocal pattern is so unusual in K-pop, much less as the group straddles the line between pop and guitar rock with astonishing ease. Pleasantly rabble-rousing, "Spinnin' On It" bears one of the year's most powerful K-pop choruses, coming from a group that was always good but is just now finding the peak of their powers.

Following their exemplary 2020 album Women in Music, Pt. III — as surprise-yet-deserved Album of the Year nominees at the Grammys — the group didn't stop making music so much as Alana Haim found her film career taking off, starring in long-standing friend of the band Paul Thomas Anderson's 2021 feature Licorice Pizza and then landing roles in films like The Mastermind and One Battle After Another. The group's long-awaited new album, I Quit, was met with a more measured response than their records previous, but few could deny the power of lead single "Relationships", one of their finest tracks yet recorded. "I've always been averse to conflict / But you really f----d with my confidence," they sing, describing the psychosexual maturation one must go through to be in love with someone but not wanting to be their rock, their steady, their monogamous only one. Over a lithe piano beat, the group warps their song through stylish chord progressions and a final chorus that is more upbeat and buoyant. Just like the song's subject matter, we find ourselves unable to turn away from such a delectable pop experience.

The main conceit of The BPM, the thrilling third full-length album from Sudan Archives, finds singer and violinist Brittney Parks searching for her new electronic identity as "Gadget Girl," evolving beyond the alternative-soul sound of her debut to embrace house and dance music in bold new forms. "Dead", the album's lead single and opening track, finds a simple backbeat exploding into waves of deep synths and rising string sections to transport the listener to a wild new digital world. The song's lyrics are literally about finding one's place in said dimension ("Can you tell me where my body goes? / I don't wanna step on anybody's toes," she softly intones), and the musical journey this track goes on feels like her body is merging with the machines by the end of it. While this album's funkier, more accessible "My Type" was also in consideration for this slot, "Dead" has more dramatic heft, and ultimately more gravity, making it sound like nothing else out there right now — which is Sudan Archives' whole aesthetic to begin with.

This one is difficult. For those unfamiliar, Nell Smith was a young Canadian superfan of The Flaming Lips, who sang every song of theirs at their shows dressed as a parrot, and when frontman Wayne Coyne sang a David Bowie song to her, only to have her sing it back, a connection was formed. Staying in touch over the pandemic, they recorded what would ultimately become her 2021 debut album Where the Viaduct Looms remotely, wherein she tackled songs from the Nick Cave songbook, with Coyne drawn to her vocal stylings and his band providing the musical backing to support her. She was working on her proper solo album, Anxious, when she tragically died in a car accident at the age of 17. While Anxious came out this year to little fanfare, "Boy in a Bubble" was a dynamite song that was so clearly directed at her inspiration: Wayne Coyne. Her lyrics are sweet and beautifully strange ("Where did you come from, alien of mine? / Cosmic autumn, rebellion mind"), and with help from the Brighton-based band Penelope Isles, a bubbly synth riff soon turns into a darkly psychedelic guitar squall that would fit perfectly within the Flaming Lips' catalog. She may be tragically gone, but Nell Smith is assuredly not going to be forgotten.

In 2022, the indelible indie-pop duo of Lucius (Jess Wolfe & Holly Laessig) went public with the fact that despite singing the chorus to the 2021 Harry Styles single "Treat People with Kindness", he refused to give them a career-boosting feature credit on the track, which is wild considering they sing the chorus unaccompanied — and also the title of the song is literally "Treat People with Kindness". While some of Styles' fans bemoaned that this was just a ploy to direct eyes to their 2022 album Second Nature, their 2025 self-titled follow-up put all the doubters to rest. It was a solid, muscular record, powered by the incredible lead single "Gold Rush". Through a chugging guitar riff and pure vocal firepower, Lucius revive the '70s AM rock sound in a modern context, delivering quite possibly the finest single of their entire discography. When they harmonize on the chorus singing "You've got something sweeter than liquid gold," it feels transportative, evoking a different era, with glitter strewn about on a rock stage and no one around to clean it up, as if by design. It's a stunner, and easily one of the best rock songs of the year.

Depending on how familiar you are with the K-pop industry, it should be of little surprise that most of the idols on stage rarely rewrite or produce their own songbook: it's up to their label and management to give them a direction, a POV, a worldview. While there are literally dozens of new groups that appear every year, it takes something special to break through the noise, and with Hearts2Hearts, SM Entertainment knew exactly what they were doing. The girl group featuring eight idols who were great vocalists and even better dancers was given a banger of an opening salvo with the mid-tempo wanderer "The Chase", but it was the non-album standalone single "Style" that changed the game. As close to a perfect pop confection as has ever existed, this charming, bubbly track about kind admiration features thick and syrupy basslines, a catchy "doo doo doo" post-chorus, and every expert production trick that could be done to craft as sweet a candy confection as has ever existed. With "Focus" (a piano-based club track) dropping at the end of the year, Hearts2Hearts quickly proved that they were monster rookies, coming in quickly with a distinct identity, a powerful sound, and the personality to sell it all. We haven't seen an opening run of singles for a group this good since ITZY's early days, but what can we say: they're just our type, and we like their style.

The opening string section seems dark, scratchy, and brooding, but the second that the beat and keys come in, you realize that you're in for a good time. What PinkPantheress (Victoria Walker) doesn't tell you, however, is that no matter what you were expecting, you're in for the party of the year. Her entire Big Beat-influenced album Fancy That is unquestionably one of the year's best releases, and while "Illegal" was the viral hit, "Tonight" was the deserving lead single that lured us in. With funky basslines, descending synth chords during the verses, and a cheeky sense of fun, it casts an almost hypnotic spell on the listener, pulling them into such a safe and comfortable groove that one can't help but get caught up in the flirty vibes. When she notes to her suitor that "You can ruin my makeup," it's as much a tease as it is an enticement, reminding you that magic is possible, if only for, well, "Tonight".

"Can I get off without reliving history / And let every echo just sing to itself?" So sings Michael Hadreas on "It's a Mirror", one of the best rock songs of 2025 and one of the finest emotional anthems he's written in a catalog that's already full of them. Leaning away from the dramatic art-rock of his earlier work and more into a Kurt Vile-styled sinewy groove, "It's a Mirror" is a crackling ode to self-reflection, of trying to escape your past and rewrite your history, all while surrounded by a stomping beat, elastic guitar lines, and a thundering chorus which feels close to evoking the "holy terror" he sings about in the chorus. In some ways, this is Perfume Genius at their most accessible, but also, it's a track that shows off the project's emotional angles that were always present. It's a stunner, it's a classic … "It's a Mirror".

The story of Hachikō is a famous one: he was the Akita dog who waited at the train station for his owner every day after work, including ten years after said owner's passing. It's a story of devotion, of love, of infinite patience. On the song "Hachikō", Japanese pop star Fujii Kaze spreads a spiritual-hippie message in his verse ("We're so chill out here, just vibin'") before going into a chorus that expands on that theme of love and devotion ("You're been patiently waiting for me / This time I'll never let you go"). On paper, it sounds sweet and maybe a little saccharine, but this epic track is defined less by its lyrics and more by its presentation, as you will be hard-pressed to find better vocal production in a pop song than here. Produced by Sir Nolan & 250, "Hachikō" starts with simple synth washes that soon lead into a funky little bass-and-beat combo, making for an addictive little pop moment. But during the choruses, the way Kaze's voice doubles over, loops, builds, and wavers is nothing short of a sonic miracle. The vocals are the star of the show, each expertly-penned lead line stacking to the point where the emotion is palpable, undeniable, and binding. It's a showcase for Kaze's talents, proving his ability to turn even the simplest of phrases into profound poetry through the power of performance. Months after its release, we're still convinced it's an overlooked masterwork.

You know how embraced a Lady Gaga song is when it appears as the final Lip Sync for the Crown on not one but two RuPaul's Drag Race franchises in the same calendar year (via both Season 17 of the mainline franchise and a better iteration via Drag Race France: All Stars). With a music video that surprise-dropped in the middle of this year's Grammy Awards, "Abracadabra" feels like a one-song greatest hits revue, playing on multiple Gaga tropes (sick rising synths, lyrics as poetic as they are inscrutable, lots of nonsensical "ga ga" lines shouted in the post-chorus, an end-of-track vocal aria) all at once without feeling like a cheap rehash. On the parent album MAYHEM, Gaga taps into the sound that made her famous while also trying out some stylish experiments, but "Abracadabra" reminds us that no matter where her muse takes her, she's still tapped into the cultural zeitgeist.

It's basically a worst-case scenario. There's this guy named Seunghan, a new K-pop idol who joined the hot new SM Entertainment boy group Riize, and shortly after debut, a scandal erupts that tarnishes the squeaky-clean image of the idol (i.e., there are photographs of you in bed with a woman). After a long suspension and an excited return, some fans think the group is better off without him and mail hundreds of funeral wreaths with his name to the SM offices. He sees this, is visibly shaken, and withdraws from the group, takes a few months to regroup and re-strategize, and comes back with one of the most astonishing pieces of bubbly dance-pop this year: "Waste No Time". Credited to XngHan&Xoul (the latter component being a two-person dance unit that always backs him), "Waste No Time" is a wildly clever, colorful production, using repeated synth tones, flashbang horn sections, and joyous melody lines to back lyrics about making sure every moment counts. As great as the song is, it feels custom-tailored for Seunghan's talents, as his pre-chorus vocal line shows off his incredible range, the promo and rehearsal videos showcasing his laser-precise dance moves. While not a hit as big as any given Riize track, Seunghan has proved his talent shines all on its own and can overcome any obstacle.

Where do you even start with "Berghain"? From that opening string section to the choral vocals jutting in while singing in German, this multi-lingual classical crossover song is nothing short of one of the most stunning about-faces in the history of pop music. While Rosalía has always been a scholar of her past (her debut album was almost exclusively flamenco cover songs), her album Lux was another thing entirely: an opulent opera about love and sex and the female saints. "Berghain" finds her in the throes of helpless devotion, her only release via divine intervention. Singing in German and switching to Spanish, Rosalía hits passioned, operatic peaks via her classically-trained voice before Björk and Yves Tumor, in English, note that heavenly interruption and mindless passion seem to be the only way forward, the only way out. As the tempo ebbs and flows, quickens and slows, the emotion only intensifies, and soon you discover that "Berghain" isn't merely a song that stays with you, no: it's a song that changes you if you let it—a masterpiece in a year with too few of them.