The End of the World Should Not Come Between Us: The 50 Best Songs of 2025 So Far
"Henry, Come On" just missed the cut, I swear
Bang bang, Bhad Bhabie shot me down
50. Jill Sobule, “J.D. Vance Is a Cunt”
R.I.P. Jill.
49. Ava Max, “Lovin’ Myself”
This up-up-and-up inspo-disco should’ve been the Lizzo comeback song; close your eyes and picture her delivering that “All my exes, R.I.P.” bit. God knew Max would be too powerful if he gave her a personality.
48. Tunde Adebimpe, “Somebody New”
Coming and going when he pleases, here’s a sleeker, streamlined, synthpop-modded version of a thoughtfully positive guy we wish would stick around longer. And he brought his dancing choose.
47. Sudan Archives, “Dead”
No one’s ever accused Brittney Parks of running out of ideas, making something predictable, or painting herself into a corner. But her tempos weren’t what you’d call fast. She won’t hear any more of that slander.
46. Oklou feat. Underscores, “Harvest Sky”
Muted synthpop is a tricky prospect for sustained interest, but the gratification isn’t so delayed in this one. Pretty, too.
45. The Beths, “Metal”
Their purest jangle-twee ever, shorn of many of the quirks that distinguish one of our best rock bands. The fact it still holds up gorgeously is to the credit of one of our best song bands.
44. Shygirl feat. Yseult, “F*Me”
Because “Coochie (A Bedtime Story)” was too subtle.
43. Men I Trust, “Worn Down”
Neu!’s “Hallogallo” meets R.E.M.’s Chronic Town meets Devo’s “Girl U Want.”
42. Bad Bunny, “Kloufrens”
Early Eurythmics-Depeche Mode sad-regal synth riff and counterpoints set to — what else — reggaeton. His most plainly beautiful tune since “Pero Ya No” in 2020.
41. Superchunk “Is It Making You Feel Something?”
Since they finally figure out how to write the perfect pop song and celebrated it by reuniting 15 years ago, they’ve also figured out how to dole out subtle variations lest they lose their mojo, from the hardcore throwbacks on What a Time to Be Alive to sax-y sophistipop on Wild Loneliness. This one throws a wrench in the hook by adding an extra bar to jolt you off course and wouldn’t you know it, that’s a hook, too. Even their prog makes you feel something.
40. Bruno Mars feat. Sexyy Red, “Fat Juicy & Wet”
I don’t know how the filthiest-ever tune by this Halftime Show Hall of Famer has avoided virality (it went to number 17!) but he’s clearly enjoying himself: “That good kitty, make it my pet.” So’s the kitty: “Eat that ass from the front.”
39. Model/Actriz, “Vespers”
Melody/Pulse.
38. Yeule, “Dudu”
Tired: Pop-adjacent artist evolving into a pop artist
Wired: Poppy-adjacent artist evolving into an Art Angels-adjacent artist
37. Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, “New Threats From the Soul”
Your granddaddy’s “Desolation Row” ain’t begin with a Tribe Called Quest callback and your daddy’s Silver Jews don’t sound this primed to open for Tyler Childers at the BB&T Pavilion.
36. Saint Etienne, “Glad”
Pulling out all the stops for their upcoming finale, they build on a Chemical Brother’s banging drums and psychy trills of stitched-together euphoria and I admit I wouldn’t have minded a whole album of just this.
35. Lifeguard, “T.L.A.”
Their only punk-jangle-monotone jawn worthy of Deerhunter’s early 2010s thus far.
34. Addison Rae, “Money Is Everything”
From her self-titled album to her studied vapidity, I admit her empty lyrics made her production occasionally pop with surprise. But pop also requires good songs, and this one’s melody/attack combo carries “wanna roll one with Lana / Get high with Gaga” far enough past the finish line.
33. Ringo Starr, “Look Up”
As audacious an intro as he’s made in 50 years: Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” riff downcast, “It’s a long way down but there’s no bottom / You had the blues but you forgot ‘em.”
32. Alien Boy, “I Broke My World”
It’s always a cause celebre when an emo band learns the power-pop trade, and this is the jumping-on-bed tantrum every high school breakup come crashing down should result in.
31. Katseye, “Gnarly”
“Everything is gnarly,” sneers mildly subversive K-Pop group, fine. Then Tesla is Exhibit A and the unmistakable clang of imitation Sophie as they compare themselves to a bag of Takis tells you this’ll be some ride.
30. Alex G, “Afterlife”
When I’m not grousing how overrated he is, sometimes I forget how good Alex G can actually be, more ornamentally than melodically, and this is his most magnetic arrangement since “Powerful Man,” just replace the gorgeous fiddle with searching, labyrinthine mandolin.
29. Girl in Red, “Hemingway”
Too hard on herself but she has fun with it. Hooky enough to tap into 2021 Olivia if not quite up to giving 2024 Sabrina notes.
28. Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild”
A musically improbable amalgam of Chappell Roan’s 2024 hit (those blocky synth chords) and her 2025 one (yee-haw) gentrified for cishets conscientious enough to not finger-wag her upcoming album art. Quite the contortion, indeed, just like that topline. And once carefully untangled it works just like her others.
27. Bhad Bhabie, “Ms. Whitman”
Look, ZZZ-list celebrity beef is whatever, and the best line is “you sucked the dick straight out my ass.” But I’ve always been a fan of the actual sound of Ms. Cash-Me-Outside’s rapping, which she spits out like it’s gum and the mic is your hair.
26. Sam Fender, “People Watching”
Imagine if the War on Drugs actually kicked like a mule, or the Killers’ killer hooks with a brain over looks.
25. Alien Boy, “Pictures of You”
The new crop of shit-damaged indie has myriad moments that sound tuneful at a distance, but don’t ever come into full focus when you listen up. Then there’s this swirling, microwaveable power-pop Hot Pocket about realizing your ex (or are they) is “just an idea,” which starts out climaxing and doesn’t refract until 2:29.
24. Pulp, “Spike Island”
They know their best songs are synthpop epics, so I don’t know why they dole them out so sparingly. But at least they don’t take them for granted.
23. Ivvys, “IG Reels”
The most addictive beat of the year (“sound like two hyenas fighting”), and if young rap was in a state to break even one astounding lyricist of the many who sound off on this cypher, we’d be in quite the era. Youthful energy, bloopy hook, almost breathtaking anonymity split nine ways.
22. Spin Doctors, “Still a Gorilla”
No one, especially not me, saw these guys pulling up in 2025 with stoner metal that messes with time. The best, silliest Queens of the Stone Age tune since “Emotion Sickness,” which was the best since “No One Knows.”
21. Clipse, “Ace Trumpets”
Somewhat typically, the first Clipse track in 15 years doesn’t even shrug to acknowledge the absence. Literally brothers, their connection never left, and the born-again (No?) Malice’s skills haven’t diminished nearly as much as you’d think from spending most of the last decade-plus either on the bench or in the confession booth. Doesn’t play like a single but a deep cut off an album I can’t wait to hear, and that’s triumph enough. That and “never leaving home without my piece like I’m Mahatma.”
20. S.G. Goodman, “Snapping Turtle”
Wednesday’s famed chicken-fried grotesquerie simultaneously rendered more violent and beautiful. “I grew up hard on bottom land where only crops should grow / Watched people reap what the demons sowed,” and that’s only the beginning.
19. OsamaSon, “Break Da News”
Say this for blown-out hyper-rap: there’s clearly gems buried in the mess. But someone else will have to find them.
18. Waxahatchee, “Mud”
Great, Katie Crutchfield’s one of those singers whose throwaways and one-offs are more fun than half her album inclusions. Let the compiling begin.
17. Feeble Little Horse, “This Is Real”
What Water From Your Eyes do horizontally for styles these Pittsburgh pranksters do vertically for dynamics. Songpaths that trail off, absurd noises that explode when stepped on, they fuck up the audio space like a kid crafting their own weird Barbie.
16. Lucy Dacus, “Ankles”
Bed and breakfast, Boygenius fanfic made real. Not a happy ending; an elated hiatus.
15. Playboi Carti, “Pop Out”
If OFWGKTA was mainstream rap’s punk era and rage is its hardcore, this is Metal Machine Music. He knows what he’s doing about as much as Lou Reed in 1975. Anyone who gets to track 30 is dumber than he is.
14. Messa, “Fire on the Roof”
“Doom metal,” quoth Encyclopaedia Metallum, more-than-worthy Alice in Chains bite with burbling synth-bass and explosively pretty (is that even a compound modifier) chorus sayeth me. Don’t let anything on paper or pixel fool you, this is as perfect a pop song as any other entry on this list.
13. Corook, “Pepto Bismol”
“They!” blew me away with its kindness and generosity, its willingness to teach (their specialty), and kicked open a full great album of the most feelable anxieties and sad stories as I’ve heard by anyone in 2025. But even when said album isn’t quite what my mood needs, this sad story comes with such an addictive tune it convinces me Corrine Savage can impress anyone who hasn’t yet taken them seriously. And let’s be real, there are many.
12. Water From Your Eyes, “Life Signs”
Now Nate Amos stitches together not even genres but familiar licks from disparate eras, fluent enough that he plays ‘em himself without the seam of a sample in sight. So the chorus modulates to a jazz chord and he answers himself with a blues turnaround. Fuckin’ weirdo.
11. Billy Nomates, “Plans”
Even if she’s through with the decade-best sprechgesang’n’bass of her debut, plug the eventual best-of compiled from these perfect Joan Armatrading slammers every couple years straight to my veins. Just hold the “skyhigh A.I.”
10. Kate Nash, “Germ”
It’s a beautiful thing when a quality artist’s musical facility greatens in tandem with their sociopolitical acumen. Not only does this TERF rebuke rock and pogo and head-nod for over five minutes, but it folds in right-on factoids straight from the statistics the way topical music videos used to flash across the screen minus the middleman. Minus any man, really.
9. Jennie feat. Dua Lipa, “Handlebars”
Blackpink’s breakout star hasn’t quite broken out musically but she has the juice: rapping competently, sampling J. Lo, and making Dominic Fike useful. But her instant classic (and the best tune with Dua’s name on it since “Don’t Start Now”) is a slow-rolling, pop-soul easygoer like Kali Uchis’ “Telepatía” that deserves more Hot 100 action (and arms-linked singalongs) than it’s gotten.
8. Wednesday, “Elderberry Wine”
I trust we haven’t seen the last of their noisy side even if they’ve been makeup-brushed for prime time. As ever, Karly Hartzman sings and crafts so beguilingly she doesn’t necessarily need it. But shooting her on-point narrative details through such extremes is what makes her not merely great but world-class.
7. Erika de Casier, “Delusional”
“You can call me delusional / ‘Cause I’m imagining things” is just trip-hop for “insane in the membrane.”
6. Pinkpantheress, “Tonight”
Brat Summer is long gone but Basement Jaxx Summer is only just beginning.
5. Doechii, “Anxi—HAHAHAHA JUST KIDDING FUCK THAT SONG “Nosebleeds”
No ill will here, get it girl, secure the bag, etc., and I’m just so relieved our current GOAT’s biggest and shittiest hit to date is an undercooked 2019 mixtape novelty reheated to throw to the chart wolves. Her lone actual 2025 copyright is a Tasmanian Devil twister of everything she does wonderfully: badass beat, blinding Robin-Williams-genie mockups of Kendrick and Nicki flows, walk-in closets worth of boasts and inspired stunting on the eve of her Best Rap Album Grammy coronation. What would she have done with this track if she hadn’t won? I guess we’ll never knowwwwww.
4. Wet Leg, “Catch These Fists”
Doing Damon Albarn’s one dumb job for him like Elastica before them; Julian Casablancas’, too. Humongous riff, enormous attitude, and a convincing argument that all a song needs is both.
3. Momma, “I Want You (Fever)”
Speaking of gigantic riffs, here’s a neo-’90s brat pack finally making good on that essential promise and pouring Veruca Salt in the wound. And now if you’ll PICK UP AND LEAVE HER excuse me I must be I WANT YOU FEVER PICK UP AND LEAVE HER I WANT YOU FEVER PICK UP AND LEAVE HER I WANT YOU FEVER PICK UP AND LEAVE HER I WANT YOU FEVER PICK UP AND LEAVE HER I WANT YOU FEVER PICK UP AND
2. RXK Nephew, “John Fetterman”
5. “I’ma turn Mexican and jump the border”
4. “Got a BBL, that shit stank”
3. “White men can’t jump to this day”
2. “She my type: OnlyFans and food stamps”
1. “Tell Fetterman he can suck my dick / I take that back, I don’t want him to do that”
1. Chappell Roan, “The Giver”
Yes, I also listed it last year off one SNL performance that her handlers kept off YouTube for as long as they could, and yes the official release is completely identical to the live premiere minus one on-the-nose ad lib. The song itself is so irresistible that it merits not being buried behind… oops, a Post Malone and Luke Combs duet 😬. An unabashedly honky-tonk ode to women topping women (no, you can’t watch) is also the perfect antidote to our current sapropatriarchy. Consider this a testament to last year being the greatest 12 months for pop in at least a generation. Consider this a warning to 2025 to get its shit together. Consider this a desperate and futile wish for it to still be 2024.