The 10 best songs of 2025...

The 26-year-old pop star mastered the art of "happy-sad" on her seventh record, Man’s Best Friend, crafting another collection of clever, sugary kiss-offs like "Manchild," "Goodbye," and, the jewel of them all, "Nobody's Son." Set atop a sparkling, reggae-infused beat, the song finds Carpenter dryly reciting her partner's detached breakup text before spinning out into a heady and all-too-relatable mix of fury and woe over being scorned once again. Still, she brings a buoyant energy to the track with her signature sense of humor, sarcastically noting how her mystery man has finally, miraculously learned about self-control — "He discovered it this week!" — and dropping in some charmingly cheesy whip sounds when dressing him down. "That boy is corrupt," she deadpans to his parents. "Could you raise him to love me maybe?" If there's nobody's son left for Carpenter to believe in, at least, as always, she can laugh about it. —Emlyn Travis 8. Dijon, "Yamaha" Dijon is in love, but he's also in love with being in love — the irrepressible power it has over him, the way it makes him see the world differently, the ineffability of it. "Bang bang, Annie / I want it more / And more than I can explain / So let's explore," he announces at the start of "Yamaha," like a thesis statement. What follows is a feat of sonic wizardry as he tries to articulate just how moony and enraptured he is. "Write me in for Friday through Tuesday / I am on call!" he sings over a whirlpool of panting synthesizers, fuzzed-out guitar, chopped-up samples, and thumping percussion straight out of Prince's playbook. Like the myriad thoughts churning in his head, the final product is dizzying, the most euphoric expression of desire and devotion this year. Annie, if you don't call this man, we will. —Jason Lamphier 7. Lily Allen, "P---y Palace" Lily Allen dropped what may be the divorce album of the millenium at the end of October, a vulnerable record filled with cathartic, genuinely moving tracks about an open marriage gone wrong. The British artist's confessional West End Girl is based, at least partly, on her split from Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2024, and she co-wrote and recorded it over the course of just 10 days. Despite that accelerated timeline, Allen's diaristic, head-turning storytelling is sharp, funny, and affecting, never more so than on the addictive "P---y Palace," in which she details the "Duane Reade bag with the handles tied / Sex toys, butt plugs, lube inside" and the "hundreds of Trojans" she unearths in her husband’s secret f--- cave. Its chorus — "I didn't know it was your p---y palace" — is still impossible to scrub from our brains. Unlike her doomed relationship, it'll live on forever. —Tiffany Kelly 6. PinkPantheress, "Illegal" Does it even matter what this song is really about (buying weed and, before that, getting an escort)? The internet, as the internet is wont to do, turned it into something else entirely. On TikTok and Instagram this year, it was nearly impossible not to encounter a video of two people shaking hands over the 24-year-old British singer's bite-size dance track, which samples the 1994 Underworld cut "Dark & Long (Dark Train)." The lyrics "Hey, ooh, is this illegal? Hey, ooh, it feels illegal" were some of the most inescapable of 2025, and its garage-inspired beats hit you like a truck. But in her stripped-down NPR Tiny Desk Concert in September, PinkPantheress proved that the single still works without that irresistible pulse. Her angelic, featherlight, now instantly recognizable vocals supply their own kind of soothing high. Hey, is it illegal to be this cool? —Tiffany Kelly 5. Cameron Winter, "Love Takes Miles" As the frontman of Geese, Cameron Winter is a ballistic missile, roaring like a caged animal and dripping sweat into the mic. But on his debut solo album, Heavy Metal, the rising art-rock star reveals his hand as a singer-songwriter extraordinaire, toning things down and slipping into a drowsy falsetto. The record's high point is "Love Takes Miles," a groovy piano-parlor ditty with a handclappy beat and cinematic strings. Here, love is sublime but elusive, like trying to catch a sunbeam in the palm of your hand. But it's also something earned with great effort and patience — "you better start a-walking, babe," Winter croons. What he wants may be far away, but if the depth of soul and range on "Miles" is any indication, he's on track to become one of the greats. —Allaire Nuss 4. Bad Bunny, "Baile Inolvidable”