A lot of wonderful new melodies and lyrics successfully made their way to my ears, brain, and feet in 2025. Here are the standouts, in collectible and solitary form:

ALBUMS

1. Tame Impala, Deadbeat: Kevin Parker’s psychedelic project always finds me exactly where I need to be found.
2. Miley Cyrus, Something Beautiful: Miley’s pop ambitions extend as wide as the branches of the most magnificent tree.
3. Garbage, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light: Alt-rock titans make another grand statement.
4. De La Soul, Cabin in the Sky: A heavenly visit from hip hop icons.
5. Wet Leg, Moisturizer: That soothing title is kind of the opposite of this album’s whole delightfully down-and-dirty deal.
6. Doja Cat, Vie: Doja’s just zipping all over everywhere – how could we ever possibly keep up with her?!
7. Kyle M., Winter’s Wish: Low-key just restoring all the holiday magic.
8. Blood Orange, Essex Honey: Mr. Orange is currently fulfilling the duty of delivering my life-sustaining shot of soul.
9. Reneé Rapp, Bite Me: I can’t help but take a nibble myself on the bratty pop attitude.
10. Lily Allen, West End Girl: You’ll feel like you’ve lived through a whole lifetime’s worth of first loves, breakups, and reconciliations after listening to a Lily Allen album.
11. Sabrina Carpenter, Man’s Best Friend: As long as Sabrina keeps releasing new music, it will be impossible to forget about the importance of having fun.
12. The Beaches, No Hard Feelings: These rocking Canadian ladies are just getting so confident in their lane of deeply felt lyrics and blistering guitars.
13. Zara Larsson, Midnight Sun: This one’s for the rainbow-coded dolphin in all of us.
14. Florence + the Machine, Everybody Scream: The Witching Hour is spreading to everyone, whether you realize it or not.
15. Portugal. The Man, Shish: This album hits the sweet spot of bruising by distortion and soothing by falsetto.
16. sombr, I Barely Know Her: Thank you for returning New Wave Disco to the masses, Mr. sombr.
17. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Perimenopop: Still killing it on the dancefloor in middle age.
18. Hayley Williams, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party: It feels like Hayley threw her journal and her heart into a blender, just as we hoped.
19. Kyle Mooney, The Real Me: A guide for navigating our new and confusing society.
Tied for 20. Fred Armisen, 100 Sound Effects/Haim, I quit: And in the final spot, we’ve got a dead heat between an oddball collection of noises and another trip through Cali Sister Rock Heaven.

SONGS

1. Tame Impala, “My Old Ways”: This is the perfect song to start your day and remind yourself that you are who you are, and that’s who you need to be.
2. Brandi Carlile, “Church & State”: A blistering protest anthem to remind us of a bedrock principle.
3. sombr, “12 to 12”: The song of 2025 that most had me thinking, “Are we about to do this thing?”
4. Huntrix, “What It Sounds Like”: This belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of Emotional Climaxes.
5. Addison Rae, “Fame Is a Gun”: What is that ethereal flourish of notes during the chorus? In many ways this is a straightforward pop song, but it also feels entrancingly otherworldly.
6. Garbage, “There’s No Future in Optimism”: A groovy how-to guide for navigating a present-day of seeming hopelessness.
7. Doechii, “Anxiety”: For when you want that title word to make you artfully contorted.
8. Ice Spice, “Big Guy”: The latter-day SpongeBob anthem we didn’t know we needed.
9. Jack White, “Archbishop Harold Holmes”: Preaching a religion I can get behind.
10. Wet Leg, “catch these fists”: It’s got that chug-chug-chugging along riff.
11. Miley Cyrus, “Easy Lover”: Is this what it feels like to be grown up and have everything in its place?
12. Doja Cat, “Aaahh Men!”: A knightly sample for the ages rides again.
13. Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild”: Actual relationships with hopelessly immature dudes are no fun, but songs about them can be so delightful!
14. Miley Cyrus, “Dream As One”: I can’t deny that we’re all connected to the end when I listen to this anthem.
15. Huntrix, “Golden”: It just hit that sweet spot you can’t deny.
16. Kyle M., “Mrs. Claus Is Getting Down”: Finally lifting the curtain on the North Pole’s afterhours.
17. Reneé Rapp, “Leave Me Alone”: Party music for when you just want your precious space.
18. Haim, “Gone”: This must be what you hear when you walk down the street hand-in-hand with the Haim sisters.
19. Zara Larsson, “Midnight Sun”: Whoa, check out those vocal lifts in the chorus. This whole song lifts you up, in fact.
20. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, “Relentless Love”: And one more shot of pure passion before we go.

Older Songs That Also Mattered in 2025:
George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness”, thanks to its inclusion in Weapons
Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, thanks to its inclusion in Marty Supreme