Top 50 Best Songs of 2025

It's finally time to celebrate the musical year of 2025 with annual lists ranking my favorite music. Here are my top 50 favorite songs of the year.

Folks, we made it. Another year is almost over and the next year is upon us. 2025 was a year for sure. Whether we want to categorize it as a good year or not is up for debate. But the year has been full of exciting music that has truly defined the year and has gotten me through all the turmoil and hardship, that's for sure. Comebacks, brave departures in sound, experimentations, you name it. It's been a more difficult year for me to rank all my favorite music. Maybe it has to do with my recent excursions with my iPod, escaping the dulling streaming phenom in some ways. Maybe it has to do with so much good music being out there, that I couldn't even get around to listening to. Regardless, I've done the rankings and they are of course not perfect, but I hope you enjoy them. 2025 has been a fruitful year for my blog, since I've been continuing the Substack account I've launched last year to compliment the website. (If you're not on there, sign up here). It's been much easier to share reviews as well as think pieces. Anyways, thanks for reading and here's to another great year for music!

Top 50 Best Songs of 2025:

01. DJ Koze - “The Universe In a Nutshell”

02. Geese - “Husbands”

03. shame - “Cutthroat”

04. Darkside - “S.N.C”

05. Kesha - “Freedom”

06. Bad Bunny - “Nuevayol”

07. Cass McCombs - “Peace”

08. Real Estate - “Pink Sky”

09. Esther Rose - “New Bad”      

10. Cameron Winter - “Love Takes Miles”

11. The Beths - “Straight Line Was a Lie”

12. Destroyer - “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World”

13. Model/Actriz - “Cinderella”  

14. Pulp - “Spike Island” 

15. Clipse, John Legend & Voices of Fire - “The Birds Don’t Sing”

16. Bahamas - “Sauna”  

17. Rose City Band - “Lights on the Way”

18. Squid - “Crispy Skin” 

19. Horsebath - “Another Farewell”        

20. The Autumn Defense - “The Ones” 

21. Black Moth Super Rainbow - “Open the Fucking Fantasy”

22. Stereolab - “Melodie Is a Wound”

23. Danny Brown & Quadeca - “Book of Daniel”            

24. Turnstile - “Never Enough”   

25. Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke - “Back In the Game”

26. Deradoorian - “Storm In My Brain”  

27. Alabama Shakes - “Another Life”     

28. Tortoise - “Layered Presence”

29. The Mountain Goats - “Armies of the Lord”

30. Stella Donnelly - “Standing Ovation”

31. Miley Cyrus & David Byrne - “Lockdown”

32. Superchunk & Rosali - “Bruised Lung”

33. Dry Cleaning - “Hit My Head All Day”

34. Gorillaz & Sparks - “The Happy Dictator”

35. Panda Bear - “Praise”

36. clipping. - “Keep Pushing”   

37. Black Country, New Road - “Besties”           

38. Pino Palladino & Blake Mills - “Taka”

39. The Weather Station - “Window”     

40. The Format - “Holy Roller”

41. Sam Prekop - “Light Shadow”

42. Sparks - “Do Things My Own Way”  

43. Danger Mouse, Black Thought & Rag’n’Bone Man - “Up” 

44. Midlake - “The Ghouls”

45. Franz Ferdinand - “Audacious”

46. Sports Team - “Condensation”

47. Miya Folick - “Erotica”

48. Courtney Barnett - “Stay In Your Lane”

49. Jeff Tweedy - “Enough”

50. Joe Jonas & Luísa Sonza - “What We Are”