We listened to a lot of music in 2025. The Independent culture team’s collective Spotify age would rival Methuselah, as we took in everything from fresh-faced Gen-Z pop to veteran rock’n’roll. Our tastes were eclectic, too, with some of our number championing the critically maligned Swag by Justin Bieber, while also falling for our anointed Album of the Year, Rosalía’s Lux.
When it came to individual songs, things got even weirder. This is not a ranked list attempting to find the definitive “best” songs of 2025. Instead, this is a personalised collection of the tracks that really resonated with the culture team. Here are our favourites:
Chappell Roan – “The Subway”
This year, away from the sudden whale-swallow that was her 2024 fame, Chappell Roan toured, wore outrageously elaborate costumes on international stages, and released this one-shot dream-pop triumph. “The Subway” is an open-hearted, grandiose slice of big-city yearning, with jangly production fluttering around Roan’s vocal as she mourns a lost love. We hear the chug of the underground, a choir, withering asides (“I made a promise if in four months, this feeling ain’t gone / Well, f*** this city, I’m moving to Saskatchewan”). It sounds a little like something the late Dolores O’Riordan could have made, which only adds to its sublime melancholy. And what a sheer flex it is: four and a bit minutes long, with half of it Roan repeating, with tiny, mellifluous variations, the words “she got away”. Only someone coming off a year of such stratospheric success could make something like this and then go (relatively) quiet once more. It’s left us pondering what Roan will do when she makes her return for album two. Adam White
Honourable mentions: Addison Rae – “Times Like These”; PinkPantheress – “Feels Good”; Young Fathers – “Promised Land”
Justin Bieber – “Daisies”
Though it wasn’t a critical slam dunk for Bieber like 2015’s Purpose, a decade later Swag is a masterclass in innovative production by Dijon (Charli XCX – “Pink Diamond”), Carter Lang (SZA’s Ctrl), Mk.gee and others. From the heavenly textures to the muted percussion, every turn is wall-to-wall gorgeous lo-fi R&B. The ASMR-like warmth is exemplified in the lead single “Daisies”. I know, I know, the lyrics are rudimentary. But there’s a charm in their chattiness, and Bieber’s soulful vocal performances have always been the centrepiece of his songs. You sense that when he sings: “You leave me on read, babe, but I still get the message / Instead of a line it’s three dots, but I can connect them.” It’s in the intimately off-hand way he might talk to his wife Hailey Bieber, pick-and-mixing old school imagery of love and the fragmentation of modern life. With its soft flip-flopping slacker guitars pushing the song along, “Daisies” is a frustratingly catchy ear-worm that’s echoed in my head all year. Hannah Ewens
Honourable mentions: Tyler Childers – "Eating Big Time", Hayley Williams – "True Believer", Lily Allen – "Pussy Palace"
“I Cried, I Wept” – Kingfishr
I’m not going to lie, my most-played song this year was in fact “Sports Car” by Tate McRae. It’s a completely unabashed Pop with a capital P song: slickly produced, impossibly catchy and completely vapid. I adore it. But thinking about what I’ve loved about this year in music, one of the things that stands out is the explosion of incredible music coming out of Ireland, from the alluring outlaw rock of rising band Cardinals to the garage punk of Dublin’s Sprints; Kneecap’s bristling, politicised hip-hop to Fontaines DC’s triumphant performance at Finsbury Park in July. Blowing up with less of the media hype (although that feels imminent) are the folk-rock band Kingfishr, who charted in the top 10 in the UK in August with their debut album Halcyon. The racing song “I Cried, I Wept” is one of the most moving, nuanced depictions of artistic ambition I’ve heard in some time, encapsulating the pressures musicians put on themselves in this brutal industry. Yet it’s subtle, too – frontman Eddie Keogh’s songwriting is poetic and he’s a gripping storyteller, with his barrel-chested brogue – while banjo player Eoghan “McGoo” McGrath plays with astonishing dexterity. It’s a rousing, defiant battle cry. Roisin O’Connor
Honourable mentions: Olivia Dean – “Nice to Each Other”, Perfume Genius – “It’s a Mirror”, Charli XCX – “Chains of Love”
Sam Fender and Olivia Dean – “Rein Me In”
As soon as clips of Sam Fender bringing out Olivia Dean at the London Stadium for a then-unreleased collaboration hit social media, I was hooked. Dean’s rich vocals floated over the Geordie’s trademark guitar riffs like honey on gravel, sending tingles down my spine. As the views and likes for “Rein Me In” racked up on Instagram, I was, presumably, among the throngs of fans checking Spotify daily for its official release. I don’t think it’s a stretch to credit the feature as the spark that lit the fuse for Dean’s explosion in popularity this summer, cemented by her omnipresent bop, “Man I Need”. That track, too, could easily have been my song of the year, but for the perfect harmony of rock and soul, “Rein Me In” has remained my most-played. Tom Murray
Honourable mentions: Whitney ft Maddison Cunningham – “Evangeline”, Hudson Freeman – “If You Know Me”, Waxahatchee – “Mud”
Greazy Alice – “Just Another One”
“Just Another One” was the first tune I heard by the New Orleans country blues band Greazy Alice, and I was immediately snared by frontman Alex Pianovich’s rambling, lackadaisical storytelling style. Then, about 30 seconds in, the sweet, melancholy voice of singer Jo Morris came in, echoing Pianovich’s line about not feeling much like dancing, and I realised I was in the presence of a special magic. It’s a song about a man debating whether to upend his whole life to take a shot at true love, and one that finds time to drily reflect on the cowardice of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca when faced with a similar dilemma. The lyrics are wry and witty, calling to mind John Prine or Townes Van Zandt, but it’s the way the two singers’ voices wind and curl around each other that elevates this to something close to holy. I later learned Pianovich wrote the song about falling for Morris, and while it’s not necessary to know that in order to appreciate the couple’s fine musicianship, the backstory does add another layer of romance to proceedings. Greazy Alice are set to release their debut record in January. I’ll be first in line to hear it. Kevin EG Perry
Honourable mentions: Mac DeMarco – “Terror”, PinkPantheress – “Illegal”, Natalie Bergman – “Gunslinger”
Lily Allen – “Pussy Palace”
When Lily Allen’s West End Girl album dropped earlier this year, spilling all the gory details of a marital breakdown, it was a cultural moment like no other. The days that followed felt like a return to the golden age of terrestrial television-based water cooler chat – back when everyone was dying to gossip about the same cliff-hanger episode of a TV show they’d watched the night before. My WhatsApp group chats began popping off in real time not long after the album’s release, as friends from all walks of life swapped lyrics and exchanged suggestive emojis. Though the whole thing is a masterpiece, designed to be listened to in full as it tells the story of a woman first heartbroken, then scorned, then released, the stand-out track is undoubtedly “Pussy Palace”. It’s the staggeringly specific details – that infamous Duane Reade bag and its mucky contents, for example – and catchy earworm of a chorus that made this the immediate centrepiece of the record and one of the most undeniably zeitgeist songs of 2025. Helen Coffey
Honourable mentions: Jacob Alon – “Confession”, Chappell Roan – “The Subway”, Rachel Chinouriri – “Can We Talk About Isaac?”
Carter Felker – “Losing Hand”
There’s a beautiful simplicity to my favourite song of 2025, in which Carter Felker runs through all the reasons he doesn’t deserve the love of his life. “I should bring you flowers, baby, I should bring you gold/ I should take you someplace warm when the weather gets cold,” the Canadian musician croons, his voice tinged with knowing regret and a desire to do better. If that sounds too self-loathing for your tastes, don’t fret; it’s a beautifully produced ballad of the highest order with a melody to die for and a bass line inspired by Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks theme. What’s not to love? Jacob Stolworthy
Honourable mentions: Brian Dunne – “Clam’s Casino”, Cass McCombs – “Lola Montez Danced the Spider Dance”, Kathleen Edwards – “Other People’s Bands”
Addison Rae – “Headphones On”
Few songs can perk me up like “Headphones On” can – and has in the eight months since Addison Rae released the single back in April. A feather-light R&B number, it casts Rae as a girl in need of a pick me up herself, which she finds in the form of a good playlist and a cigarette. Her vocals seem to curve and bend mid-air against a soft bassline, pitch-shifted to girlish perfection. Since her days of dancing on TikTok, Rae has cultivated a cheerful brand of sugar-pop perfection. “Headphones On”, though, is a four-minute flash of pathos that nods to a less-than-ideal childhood (“wish my mom and dad could’ve been in love”) and the riptide of jealousy. Still Rae takes it on the chin, exhaling her worries like a puff of smoke from a cotton candy vape. Lyrically, she finds poignancy in the hackneyed: Life is no fun through clear waters! The lows are what makes the highs higher! And no, you can’t fix what has already been broken! The mantras work. Just sing along. Annabel Nugent
Honourable mentions: Ninajirachi – "iPod Touch", Ethel Cain – "Dustbowl", Chappell Roan – “The Subway”
Brandi Carlile – Returning to Myself
The guitar intro of “Returning to Myself,” the first single from Brandi Carlile’s latest studio album of the same name, has an ethereal feel; it’s not immediately clear where the tune is headed. But when the melody starts in, a steady calm emerges, enhanced by Carlile’s crooning. The lyrics pose mighty questions without a singular answer, and have been dancing around my head since mid-October: “Why is it heroic to untether? / How is alone some holy grail?” and “Is it evolving turning inward? / Oh, what an easy way to be / Only kneeling at the altar of / The great and mighty me.” It’s a resplendent anthem of strength for those grappling with finding their sense of self amid life’s external noise and chaos. Carlile reminds us that looking inward and evolving as individuals without relying on others is both strong and necessary. It’s no wonder I find myself listening on repeat. Caitlin Hornik
Honourable mentions: Lady Gaga – “The Dead Dance”, Sara Bareilles (feat. Brandi Carlile) – “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet”, Cynthia Erivo – “No Good Deed”
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