It’s January of 2026 and, round these parts, that means looking back at 2025. Specifically, it means my Best of 2025 lists! I meant to post these a bit earlier, but after getting unexpectedly laid off from my day job last week, I was kind of reeling. Still not 100%, but time is a-wasting, so a-listing I must start. And to get the party started, where better than Best Songs of 2025?

As in the past couple of years, these songs do not appear on my Best Albums of the Year. It is, perhaps, a bit of cheating to say, “I loved ‘Everybody Scream’ off Florence and the Machine’s newest album. The album is on my Best Albums list (spoilers!), though, so that’s how I’m honoring the song.” But it is my list, and I do what I want. Also, because I am old, unhip, and until recently, gainfully employed, think of this less as “Best” and more as “Favorite” as I am sure I’ve missed a ton of 2025 music that might be better.

Also, like the last few years, I won’t comment on every choice. Although with this one, I hit nearly all of them. So be it.

All that handwringing spoken to, let’s get into it!

Good Boy, Daisy City. That’s something, right?

Songs

20. Victory Lap by Fred Again, PlaqueBoyMax, and Skepta- I frequently write to dance music, and this song was in heavy rotation for those purposes. A mix of zero game lust and feature spots full of the stream of consciousness braggadocio, I’m not sure I can endorse any of the behaviors on display here. But as a nonstop mood piece that gets your heart rate up and your brain working, it’s a delight.

19. Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend by The Waterboys ft. Fiona Apple- The Waterboys are a band I respect greatly, while rarely loving. Throwing Fiona Apple’s voice in the mix is a tremendous help in overcoming that gulf.

18. Himbo by Boy Radio- Not my culture, not my scene. Don’t care. Love it.

17. Defying Gravity by Josh Ramsay- This was the year I finally got to see Marianas Trench in concert, a real highlight for me. About two weeks, maybe less, before they swung through Toad’s Place, this cover by the lead singer went mildly viral. And for a Canadian pop-punk/emo/scene band whose biggest hits were over a decade ago, going mildly viral is huge. Plus, my son and one of my students are big Wicked heads. So it was just a mélange that made this song irresistible to me.

16. The Subway by Chappelle Roan

15. Independent Girls & Nasty Evil Gays by Jeangu Macrooy- If you can’t guess the title of this track is firmly tongue-in-cheek, lyrics like “Louder than they should be, shouting horrible profanities/Like, ‘We won’t live in chains’/’We won’t be erased’” and “It’s so much harder to remain/A decent human when you have to call a person ‘they’” clears it up right quick. A mix of sing-talking (with echo effects) and ready-made club chants over a bright pop composition and a simple bass line, this one smirks as it sends up some of the ugliest, bigoted talking points of the past year.

14. Diet Pepsi by Ben Platt- If you saw him perform this live, you know why it is here.

13. Check by bbno$- bbno$ (pronounced Baby No Money for the uninformed) is just this side of novelty artist. Still, he’s on like a four-run of releasing at least one sample-heavy track that utterly delights me.

12. Sally, When the Wine Runs Out by Role Model- From what I’ve heard, the bloom has gone off of Role Model’s rose a bit. Be that as it may, I still will always listen to this song when I come across it. Downbeat in attitude but not presentation, it really evokes that mix of dread and hope when you are crushing on someone who constantly strings you along.

11. Supermodel by Good Boy Daisy- A spiritual successor to kiss off songs like “No Scrubs” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much”. Hand claps, fuzzed-up guitars, and a bouncy bass line complement the twin sisters’ increasingly assertive, layered vocals. Indie rock as fun as it gets.

10. Daisies by Justin Bieber- Look, it’s a good pop tune. Best he’s ever done by my ears.

9. Gloria by Summer Set- Speaking of Marianas Trench, this Arizona band was one of the opening acts. The new album is good, but this song in particular stands out. Anybody bold enough to quote the Pokémon Theme Song without expiring from irony poisoning deserves a listen. Summer Set does exactly that here.

8. Animal by Goose- Not to be confused with 2025’s darling band Geese, Goose is a decade-plus-old Wilton, CT band with a propensity for jamming. I’m not a jam band guy, but this album cut of a song they’ve been playing in concert for years is appealingly chaotic and a bit sprawling. Somehow, the lyrics stay clean and legible through layers of synths and what sounds like the entire horn section of your best local marching band. The lyrics are mostly silly, but dammit if Rick Mitarotonda doesn’t sing, “The monkeys, they work their abdominals,” with conviction.

7. Both Eyes Closed by A$AP Rocky- I played this for my class. None of them seemed to like it. They were wrong.

6. Man I Need by Olivia Dean- A throwback that doesn’t sound stale. I wish I could give you a specific era to connect it to, but Dean is mixing up a few different influences here, which is why it feels so familiar without being boring.

5. When I Was by Youth Group- In pacing and tone, there’s something very “88 Lines about 44 Women” about this track. It has that same bittersweetness. It triggers a longing in the listener despite how the song barely defines what it is reminiscing about.

4. Wreck My Life by Illuminati Hotties featuring PUP- If one could organize a continuum from Good Boy Daisy’s “Supermodel” through Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need,” “Wreck My Life” would anchor the other side of the scale. “Supermodel” is the cutting rejection, and “Man I Need” is the demand for Mr. Right. “Wreck,” meanwhile, is the admittance that sometimes you need that “dash me on the rocks” relationship.

3. You You You by Maisie Peters- Like all of us, Peters is growing older. She still looks great, sounds great, and is much younger than me, don’t get me wrong. But there’s a maturity creeping into her songs, particularly “You You You,” which complements her usual love-on-the-rocks themes with a deeper sadness. “Body Better” is perhaps the easier comp for “You” and they share plenty, but there’s something lonelier and, yet, stiller about this song of heartbreak. She was once worried about the girl’s body that replaced hers; now she notices her own weight loss since the breakup. Even the song’s oral sex reference feels grown up, if you can believe that.

2. Ankles by Lucy Dacus- “Ankles” was released as a single in January of 2025. I don’t think there was a week in the rest of the year after that that I didn’t listen to it at least once.

1. The Answer by Energies, Bastille, Joywave & Rittipo- Joywave is one of my favorite bands. Bastille is one of my favorite bands and my wife’s current #1, period. Just the two of them guaranteed them a slot on the list. Tossing in Energies and Rittipo almost feels unfair. Of course this song had to be #1.

Worst

Mystical Magical by Benson Boone- Benson has done some decent songs. He sure can nail a flip. Nonetheless, this is a treacly mess.

Pretty Girls by Will Smith- It is hard to express how deeply I resent the existence of this song. The terrible music video achieves a certain level of good-bad, but the song does not. Dreck.