TOP 60 SONGS OF 2025 SO FAR
30. Decius (feat. Lias Saoudi & Maggie the Cat) - I Gave Birth 2 U
If you were paying attention earlier, I mentioned that you'd see some more Lias Saoudi on this list. Only instead of synthpop leanings, this one is a straight up house track. And in the time between ordering/formatting this list and writing the descriptions for it, a part of me regrets not ranking it even higher. Though the vocals on much of the album left me cold, they couldn't be more effective here. Insidious, a little frightened, but altogether a dancefloor essential.
29. Lady Gaga - Zombieboy
I would have bet (hypothetical) money that had Lady Gaga ran it back to her earlier eras, the result would be limp and desperate-sounding. It's been over a decade since the eras in question; would an older and more genre-fluid Gaga even fit in the same sound she once established? Maybe it'd be cooler and more contrarian to say no, yet her energy on old-tread ground is still so confident. 'Abracadabra' was the hit, and I do like that song, but 'Zombieboy' has the nicer groove. Strange to see it buried as a deep cut considering how well she sells it.
28. These New Puritans (feat. Caroline Polachek) - Industrial Love Song
Caroline Polachek, for all her strengths within more uptempo pop tracks, can crush ballads best of all. Between this and her feature on that phenomenal Caroline album (yes, Caroline featuring Caroline Polachek), the past year or two for her have been incredible as a between-albums run. As for These New Puritans, they decided to return in a more sombre, subtle form. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a worn-down-sounding lead artist with an angelic featured artist in tandem.
27. Moreish Idols - All In the Game
Another Windmill reference? Okay, okay, but these guys are actually a part of that scene apparently. Their sound certainly won't surprise you in that sense, though I consider their brand of maximalism to be much tighter and less indulgent than some of their peers. Speedy Wunderground has a knack for recognizing these sorts of guys out of the gate and sweeping up the less appreciated lot for full-length LPs. Not just Moreish Idols, but Heartworms as well if you like taking this movement in a more goth direction.
26. Frog - Stillwell Theme
Frog Gang is never-ending, though they do sound like a band ripe for yet another obnoxious fanbase. I'm at an impasse, for I want the band to see further success, as they so deserve, but I dread the day they become "college ex-BF"-coded. Maybe it's the slightly emo expressiveness? That stuff can sometimes grate on me, as can its cheekier sense of humor, but dammit if Frog aren't good at stumbling into remarkable melodies, harmonies, and an overall fun "mom's basement" energy.
25. The Southern - Funk You
I'm sure there is a YouTube link somewhere, just don't ask me where. Absolutely un-Googleable artist name/track name combination. The techno Gods are likely punishing me for snubbing Skee Mask this time around. I have very little idea as to who The Southern is or even how he found his way into my precious eardrums (I'm willing to bet it was some deep cuts style playlist...), but my one track impression is beyond impressed. A loud, hectic build-up with a drop that rips you out for just a moment before plunging you back into that cluttered, hectic, mechanical rhythm. If you want a club track that could double as a torture chamber for those coming unprepared, this is a good candidate.
24. Beirut - Guericke's Unicorn
More literal circus music from Beirut, though there's a melancholic nostalgia to 'Guericke's Unicorn' that's elevated by a return to his more electronic sound - one Zach Condon seemingly keeps reserved for special occasions. Childlike beauty that he's seemingly had a monopoly on since the mid-aughts, barring the occasional The Innocence Mission as a strong parallel.
23. Lucy Gooch - Clouds
Some music is an act of kindness toward your ears. Grouper fans have been burnt before by imitators sounding too lost to cultivate a real atmosphere, but the long-awaited debut LP from Lucy Gooch offers some strong contenders for meeting that same standard. Music for floating on the light of sunrises.
22. MIKE - Man in the Mirror
Last year's 'Pinball' put me on the path toward not only appreciating MIKE for his abstraction, but also for his versatility. As mindful as ever, lyrically-speaking, while also riding more uptempo beats effortlessly, standing comfortably in any environment thrown at him. A short track - as to be expected - but not a second wasted.
21. Anthony Naples - Scanners
Not a hard-hitting track in the conventional sense, but dammit if it doesn't feel physical. Built for large, spacious rooms to properly resonate and layer back in on itself. Naples has been doing great work since 2012 at least, though I can't say I remember the last time he forced a track of his into my rotation so concretely like this. A more liminal dance floor setting, perhaps, but grooving enough to move the right room.
20. FKA Twigs - Girl Feels Good
I had "Eusexua' on last year's list, which I considered to be Twigs' take on trance music. But really, the whole album of the same name wears its electronic worship on its sleeve even beyond what Twigs has done before. I nearly chose the Koreless featured track 'Drums of Death' for its glitching rhythms, but instead I went with a more retro soundscape in 'Girl Feels Good.' Beautifully performed and distinctly nocturnal, as trip hop was born to be.
19. Domenique Dumont - Amants Ennemis
Balearic Beat legends Domenique Dumont ride a groove more akin to City Pop, a genre also paired comfortably for city beaches and vacation packing. While 'Miniatures de auto rhythm' remains their obvious and undeniable pinnacle album-wise, this has to be one of their best individual cuts for how vivid and immediate the tone is set. It's hard not to be all in once it gets going.
18. Snapped Ankles - Smart World
Maybe the newest album is a bit on-the-nose, I'll admit to that if nothing else. As far as that music justifying those more upfront observations, 'Smart World' is easily my choice for the album's highlight - certainly it's a highlight for a band who has been well-equipped for a decade now to turn the sardonic or the absurd into something cathartic and playful.
17. Panda Bear - Ends Meet
Buried beneath Panda Bear's typical psyched out production is, in essence, 'Kokomo'. I'd call it a thinking man's Kokomo, but in all honesty, Kokomo is the thinking man's Kokomo. Between the two however, I'm still taking the desperate cynicism and sonic surreality of 'Ends Meet', a song far too dedicated to be misinterpreted as a pisstake. The sincerity is honestly what sells it.
16. Honningbarna - Schafer
TALK ABOUT LOUD!!! THE VOCALS SOMEHOW EVEN GET EVEN LOUDER DURING THE "CHORUS", IF YOU CAN EVER CALL IT THAT. JUST AN ABSOLUTELY CRUSHING PERFORMANCE, WITH PRODUCTION TO MATCH. WHEN THE WORLD GETS LOUD MAYBE WE SHOULD JUST GET LOUDER.
15. Nilufer Yanya - Cold Heart
Still the coolest singing voice in indie music. If you wanna talk about artists you could never mistake for anyone else, I can't really think of anyone who sounds quite like this - that, and the fact she makes it work is simply miraculous. 'My Method Actor' might have been her strongest album to date, and I'm not 100% sure if the 'Dancing Shoes' tracks are new material or ideas floated around during those sessions... even if it's the latter, I can't dream of a reality where 'Cold Heart' is a "throwaway". I prefer to believe it was so good that she couldn't muster the patience to build a whole album around it. I can respect that.
14. Yves Jarvis - One Gripe
Oddball pop music from an artist who has already more than proved himself as a master of mood-setting. I tend to take offense when songs tell me what to do (you're not my dad...), but even I can't deny that sharp, affirming moment of that bridge cutting in a measure early: "Get up while the sun is still out." Credit as well to an iconic music video. Let's go Habs.
13. Darkside - S.N.C
Between all the weird artifacts and quirks of this mix comes another case of Nicolas Jaar going guilt-free into the greatest and goofiest ideas possible. And that bass riff feels like the sort of thing Kevin Parker could build a house around. I do very much mean that as a compliment, especially when such a riff elevates all these other bizarre aspects to greater heights.
12. HAIM - Relationships
I hate how much I like this song. I originally didn't even consider it as one of my favorites, as if its job was to trick me into thinking it has more worth than it does, and I was the brave soldier refusing to fall for it. Yet something about it refused to escape my mind, and thus here we are. I can't escape the HAIM train. That final minute expanding on the melody is what seals the deal for it being less of a fluke and more like a stroke of genius from women who dance like they're fighting off ghosts.
11. C Duncan - Delirium
If 'It's Only a Love Song' was C Duncan's effort to exemplify the romantic, 'Delirium' is my choice for what best represents his attempts. A stunning album altogether, unashamed of its extravagance or its deeply impassioned sincerity. 'Delirium' is the track best conveying love in small details and large emotions, only choosing to get larger and larger just as you think it's resolved.
10. Milkweed - The Milk-Fed Calf
To the friend whom I had sent this to as a recommendation, my closest comparable was Adrianne Lenker coming through on a radio far past the point it should still be operating. Gorgeous; altogether hazy and fragile-feeling. This paired with the likes of Lankum, Poor Creature, John Francis Flynn, Rois, etc., all seem to suggest the present state of Irish Folk is a sound that's cracking beneath the surface, or borders on uncanny in unheard of forms.
9. Minor Conflict - Glue
Harpist art/post-punk is an odd descriptor that might give the impression that this is just going to be a minor tweak to a pretty common feature in 2020's indie music. This weirdo trio(?) certainly fits in with the Shame's and the Fontaines D.C.'s of the world, but I'd also make the claim that just two EPs in, they serve as worthy peers. 'Glue' is the closing track to that second EP, lying low before pursuing the listener in bitterness and paranoia. I didn't expect this to rise as far as the top ten initially, and yet... I suppose it fits the theme of the year pretty well.
8. Shanti Celeste - Thinking About You
Bizarrely underrated sophomore album with a lead single I was (and perhaps still am) obsessed with. It's not terribly complicated or technical, it just knows the right groove to meet and how to layer those vocal loops into something so much larger and brighter than it first suggests. Celeste seems largely dedicated to the warmer, more summery side of electronic, and this could very well be the culmination of those efforts up to this point. I expect once the generations down the road start romanticizing 2020's aesthetics, this will be some equivalent to YouTube algorithm-core - slightly buried away, but still popular enough to imagine it defined the era for somebody.
7. Craig Finn - Luke & Leanna
Like if a Bruce Springsteen or Bob Seger song kept building and building and building only to dissipate in the void that is uncertainty. No saxophone solo, no enduring hooks that rise above the pain, just the endless loop of a song that refuses to end, only ever eating its tail and starting again ouroboros-style. It's sad, but hey, it's honest.
6. Kali Uchis - All I Can Say
I sometimes throw stones in my little glass house when it comes to annoying fanbases. I can't act like I didn't see Hila Klein use this very song in her vacation Instagram story in the midst of a billion lawsuits against her and her husband's "haters", only emphasizing to me how a song that states "I'm not sorry for the way that I am" will encourage the sorts of people who really ought to be sorry. Not Uchis, however. She has no reason to be sorry. I was honestly kind of blown away by how fantastic this album came out - easily my favorite of hers to this point, and surely an early candidate for album of the year on my end. When it came to picking a favorite track, subconsciously I must have decided to keep with the theme of throwbacks by pointing to the Spector-sounding song over another half-dozen tracks from the record that had a fighting chance. Maybe my reasoning for this one is it best conveys Uchis as an artist whose voice is so effortlessly perfect that she can hit impossible-sounding notes as simple accents to a moment instead of using them to prove her skill. A rare breed of performer, one as defined by their taste as they are by their talent.
5. Caroline - Two Riders Down
Two albums deep, Caroline continues to make the case for themselves as innovators of sound and style - post-rock at its most alien, its most removed from the trends and cliches its otherwise tied to. Few bands have excited me to quite this extent, and fewer still are capable of something as emotive or as eruptive as 'Two Riders Down'. I pray these guys will continue to surprise me, or at the very least impress me like they've done thus far.
4. Gelli Haha - Normalize
You just thought you were getting silly quirky pop music? Jokes on you, you're in a cult now. You are Reader Haha and you are going to like it. These hooks will well and truly break your brain, as they did mine. 'Bounce House' might be the smash, but 'Normalize' is the most satisfying in my eyes/ears. I am curious whether Angel Abaya fully embraces pop madness under the Haha brand or perhaps finds a balance with her previous indie rock aesthetics. Either way, the two of us - you and I - will be dedicated to the Haha Cause.
3. YHWH Nailgun - Castrato Raw (Fullback)
Though this single technically dates all the way back to the Before Times (2023), it finally earned its place on an album back in March. As one last.fm commenter so aptly put it, "i like listening to them because it feels like bouncy balls in my brain". Or if 'Summer of Love' was recorded by The Contortions.
2. Tennis - Weight of Desire
The alleged final album by a group who in spite of their indie-side popularity, I would still consider to be under-appreciated. Always observant in the pain of love, yet less bitter and more yearning than some of their influences (e.g. Fleetwood Mac). It only makes sense that them retiring the Tennis name would raise questions about what that even means for the ethos of the band in the first place - what once seemed permanent is now desperately held onto in fear of slipping away. Regardless of what's to become of them, we'll always have one of pop music's finest evolutions, from humble homages to something harder to define, its influences more spread out and unexpected. 'Weight of Desire' feels as dedicated as it does desperate, and it's the more nervous details to romance that Tennis have done best.
1. Messa - At Races
Maybe it's time we borrow metal from the head-bangers and weird-bearders of the world and make it, at least for a short while, bizarrely danceable. Sara Bianchin continues to be one of the best vocalists in any genre, selling every phase of 'At Races' from its urgent first half to the belting later in its runtime more akin to Messa's prior work buried deeper in doom metal sensibilities. Both halves are equally crushing, and circling back to that earlier urgency by the end is all the more exciting when provided the illusion that the band has "moved on". That's the fun with lengthy digressions - so long as you remember to come full circle by the end. There's an ouroboros on the album cover, but I already made that metaphor earlier.
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