From a music by a licensed celebrity that got here out within the very first week of January to breakthroughs from lesser-known indie acts, listed below are alternatives from NPR Music’s listing of the very best songs of 2025.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
2025 was an excellent yr for music. So many songs crammed us with pleasure, love, reflection. With the yr coming to a detailed, we needed to look again with NPR’s resident music critic, Ann Powers. Hey, Ann.
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: Hey. How are you doing, Scott?
DETROW: NPR Music had a listing of, like, 125 nice songs of the yr. We sadly can’t speak about all of them. Let’s do a number of. The place do you need to begin?
POWERS: Effectively, I need to begin proper at the start of 2025 as a result of no one in pop proper now has extra swag than Dangerous Bunny. And he launched an album known as “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos” in January that dominated the zeitgeist all yr. And from that album, the most important hit was a music known as “Baile Inolvidable” that completely set folks dancing all yr lengthy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BAILE INOLVIDABLE”)
BAD BUNNY: (Singing in Spanish).
POWERS: This music is certainly one of my favourite sorts of songs. It’s a dance music about dancing. It is simply such a enjoyable music. Hey, it is also about heartbreak, although – I’ve to say – and that message comes by way of. However the final quiet agenda of this music is to, , promote the great thing about Latin music and Latin tradition, which is completely Benito’s factor.
DETROW: We will shift gears right here. And the title of this subsequent music is form of humorous in itself – all caps and exclamation level on the finish – “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!”
POWERS: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!”)
RAYE: (Singing) Child – woo-hoo – the place the hell is my husband? Woo-hoo. What’s takin’ him so lengthy to search out me? Woo-hoo.
POWERS: Raye is a British singer, and to me, she’s within the line of the good theatrical pop singers like Barbra Streisand, Cyndi Lauper, Amy Winehouse. She has a lot wit and intelligence. And this music hit dwelling, I feel, for lots of girls this yr. I imply, loads of girls are frankly struggling to discover a companion who treats them respectfully, and he or she has created a very enjoyable battle cry.
DETROW: All proper, Ann, all people loves a band with an enormous breakthrough yr. This yr, that band is Geese, particularly the…
POWERS: Sure.
DETROW: …Track, “Taxes.”
POWERS: So Geese. Sure. Geese is certainly one of many tales of 2025. They seem to be a Brooklyn indie rock band. Their singer, Cameron Winter, has this large voice and this wild singing type. And Geese is absolutely taking the rock music aside and placing it again collectively in each music they do. Their songs are poetic and unusual, however they nonetheless hook you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TAXES”)
GEESE: (Singing) You are gonna (ph) should nail me down.
DETROW: Then there’s Dijon, one other singer with an enormous yr. Your crew picked his music “Yamaha.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YAMAHA”)
DIJON: (Singing) How do you pull it off?
DETROW: He was in all places, wasn’t he?
POWERS: He wrote songs for Justin Bieber’s album, “Swag.” However Dijon’s personal album, “Child,” was actually the breakout. And this music is, to me, the very best music on the file. He is form of much like Geese, in a means, in that Dijon is taking R&B aside and placing it again in shapes which might be sudden. “Yamaha” form of jogs my memory of early Prince in that means.
DETROW: Let’s finish with this, one thing I do know you will have loads of ideas about, “Spangled” by the band Fust.
POWERS: Yeah, Fust is one other North Carolina band. I would been listening to about all of them yr, and I received to see them right here in Nashville. And after they performed this music, I spotted that is greatness proper in entrance of me. It is a few hospital that has been torn down and the ghosts which might be floating round – , the ghosts of all of the souls who’re on this hospital.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SPANGLED”)
FUST: (Singing) And I am now floating off the 8305.
POWERS: And that’s actually a message, to me, that rang so true this yr. I imply, the financial blight that so many individuals are affected by, the altering landscapes of our nation, and but, this music, it makes this horrible scenario one thing transcendent. I simply adore it.
DETROW: That’s NPR Music’s Ann Powers. You may get a playlist of all 125 of NPR Music’s favourite songs of the yr at npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SPANGLED”)
FUST: (Singing) You’ll be able to’t get sufficient to drink. Effectively, I have been consuming.
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