The best songs of 2025 so far

The title track from Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos is the crowning glory of a sublime album that’s a love letter to his native Puerto Rico. Blending elements of rap, Latin pop and reggaeton to create a deceptively dance-worthy backing track, ‘DTMF’ (translated to ‘I should have taken more photos’) is both a touching sentiment and an absolute belter of a song. 

After the success of singles ‘Diet Pepsi’ and ‘Aquamarine’, we were all left wondering one thing: what would Addison Rae do next? The answer came in pink hair dye and this whispery, world-building track, which cemented the TikTok influencer turned pop star as Gen Z’s ultimate it girl with a sound distinctly her own. With nonchalant lyrics dosed in nostalgia, breathy vocals reminiscent of early days Kylie Minogue and soft, effortless percussion, ‘Headphones On’ is nothing short of irresistible.

After patiently waiting for five years, and having to sit through a number of commercial flops that came in the form of disappointing movie soundtracks, Lady Gaga fans have finally been rewarded with the electrifying ‘Abracadabra’. We’re going back to peak Gaga weirdness with this one: it’s got gibberish, witchy lyrics and a glitchy, industrial beat, all while Gaga’s powerhouse voice delivers hook after hook. 

If you felt disoriented and immediately like you were back in 2011 when the creeping strums of Gotye’s ubiquitous ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ pulsed out of Doechii’s new single, you won’t have been the only one. But that’s why this song is good – the confusion of an earworm melody which was etched into our minds over a decade ago being warped and changed by a completely new vibe is strange, but Doechii has finessed packing her contemplative writing with bags of energy – and it works.

FKA twigs’ third studio Eusexua is a lush homage to the sweaty, grubby dancefloors of Europe’s dingiest clubs. Piercing out of the headsy, metallic techno soundscape is ‘Childlike Things’. This fun-filled homage to J-pop features an unexpected guest appearance by North West who sings almost entirely in Japanese against a bubblegum sweet ‘dum, dum, dum’ singsong. It’s Twigs at her most playful: blending imagination and innocence with cherub-like vocal delivery to bring the fantasy to life. 

Playboi Carti’s almost overwhelmingly long album Music may have some dud tracks – hey, you can’t win them all – but one absolute belter is ‘Rather Lie’. Eschewing the usual rage rap sound he’s become so known for, Carti enlists The Weeknd (on their third collaboration so far) and Keith Lawson to provide a melodic, chest-clutching chorus. The lines ‘I’d rather lie than confuse you, girl / Truth is, we lapped them, they want us gone / Truth is, they can’t handle me at the top,’ acts as a double entrendre for the cost of fame, while Carti’s unusually warbled vocals got the internet debating the use of AI within the track.

Few debut albums seem to have sparked as much excitement in 2025 as Oklou’s long-awaited Choke Enough, and the dreamlike ‘ict’ might be my favourite track of the whole brilliant bunch. With its sci-fi synths, a bright yet faraway-sounding trumpet refrain and girlish vocals singing sparse lyrics about running for ice cream trucks, it’s a wistful, atmospheric lullaby of a song that I’ll no doubt have on repeat all year.

Gangster rap may not be the most conventionally beautiful of music genres, but there is patent, resounding beauty to Westside Gunn’s ‘055’. Atop a soulful, careening instrumental that leans heavily on a sample of the Jean Johnson Singers’ There Is No Greater Love, verses by Westside and Stove God Cooks boast of riches and success, cars, jewellery and calamari. The gorgeous sample, the extravagant boasts, the uproarious noise of Westside Gunn’s adlibs – it all radiates triumph. ‘You don’t have to die in order for you to hear what heaven sounds like,’ says longtime Westside collaborator AA Rashid in the spoken word outro – and that’s true, audial paradise is right here.

Portrait With Firewood, a 2018 album from UK bass musician Djrum, remains one of my favourites of all time – it’s a meeting of classical chamber music and strobey dance floors in a way that feels genuinely fresh and moving rather than gimmicky or over-ambitious. ‘A Tune For Us’, released as a single this year, has a similar contradictory flavour: luscious, tinkly piano is paired with rich, chocolatey cello, giving way to soft breakbeats and rippling percussion. Orchestral, multi-layered and delicately emotive, it feels like a journey to finding clarity.

Giddy up girls, there’s a new Chappell Roan single sweeping the country charts. Flipping the traditional gender roles that are so embedded within the genre on their heads, the Midwest Princess sings, ‘Cause, baby, I’m a giver / Ain’t no need to hurry / ‘Cause, baby, I deliver / Ain’t no country boy quitter,’ against a backdrop of highly camp Wild West instrumentals. Paired with a marketing rollout where the singer cosplays various masculine-heavy professions with the strapline, ‘She gets the job done’, ‘The Giver’ is fun, sexy, and stupid as hell. If there’s anyone who can combine drag artistry and blue-collared country, it’s Chappell.  

Aaaand she’s back. After the dreamy, folksy, hazy deviation from her classic, Antonoff-infused alternative electro-pop sound that was Lorde’s previous album Solar Power (2021), she has stormed back to the centre of 2025’s new music landscape with her banger ‘What Was That’. Does it pack the same sense of palpable urgency as the singles from Melodrama? Arguably not, but it does comprise a satisfying build of energy and the same introspective sense of nostalgia we love her for.

Haim are back just in time for festival season with this bittersweet hit. With a blissful sound but angsty, introspective lyrics, Danielle, Alana and Este lament the pain that comes with being in a long-term relationship. Haim’s dreamy, pop-rock sound is as good as ever, and lends itself perfectly to this nostalgic-feeling track that captures the ennui and confusion that is so often a part of modern love. I imagine this song will provide the ultimate soundtrack for every single girl this summer.

For his new EP, Kai Bosch ditches the rulebook and leans into instinct — and it pays off. ‘Popstar of Your Dreams’ is a bold, glammed-up anthem about chasing stardom with zero apologies. “Everybody says ‘fake it to make it’, so what you gonna do when I’m the fakest bitch around?” he quips, riding high on shimmering synths and a racing beat before hitting a chorus that’s absurdly catchy. With sharper production and a real spark in his stride, Kai sounds like he’s finally on the path he was always meant to take — and he’s gunning for a podium finish.

Released when Doechii took home her first Grammy for Best Rap Album with Alligator Bites Never Heal, ‘Nosebleeds’ is effectively the rap star’s victory lap – and a big one at that. Instrumentally, it opens with buzzing, brash bass and departs to a lighter, bubbly melody – but it’s all grounded by her growling vocals, gleaming with lyrical wit and narrative depth. Theatrical and self-referential, like all of her best work, the rapper references Kanye West’s legendary speech from the 2005 awards as she boasts about her success, effectively cementing herself into music history once and for all: ‘Everyone wanted to know what Doechii would do if she didn’t win / I guess we’ll never know’. Listening, you can’t help but want to join in her celebrations.

Japanese pop juggernaut YOASOBI — aka producer Ayase and vocalist ikura — are reaching new international highs. After storming Coachella and Primavera, and selling out shows from London to New York, their shimmering new banger ‘Watch Me!’ was an instant hit with fans. Inspired by a novel from Witch Watch creator Kenta Shinohara (yes, it’s also the theme song for the anime adaptation), the track fuses sleek electropop with candy-coated hooks and their unmistakable kawaii flair. The result is a dazzling, high-octane earworm that makes Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road look practically beige.

It’s been a hot minute since Selena released anything at all, and most of us expected a few more classic ballad-esque pop tunes and yearning ‘Lose You To Love Me’-style dance tracks. And we got a fair bit of it with I Said I Love You First, her new album with bae Benny Blanco. But then, there was ‘Bluest Flame’ – a fresh, boppy, fun tune with a distinctly ‘Brat summer’-esque vibe with the repetition of, ‘I just wanna go all night/I just wanna go insane’. Could this be a contender for 2025’s song of the summer?

The intro to ‘Sports Car’ sounds like it’s been lifted from a 2000s Pussycat Dolls album. And when you get into it, the lyrical content is frighteningly similar, too. But it’s this toying with new and nostalgic influences that has affirmed Tate McRae as one of the most exciting pop stars working right now. This single from her second album So Close To What is a metaphor for various parts of her life, including the adrenaline rush of love and sex, and potentially alluding to her sudden rise to fame. But whatever’s going on beneath the surface, one thing is guaranteed: it slaps.