Well, I thought 2024 was a trying year, but 2025 turned out to be an even bigger shitshow! Between the death of my cat and the unending nightmare of the odious and spectacularly corrupt Trump regime, it’s a wonder I (and millions of others) survived this year intact. Thankfully, there was lots of great music to help keep us relatively sane.

As I do at the end of each year, I’ve compiled a list of my 100 favorite songs for the past year. I’ve previously posted my list of the 100 Best Indie Songs of 2025 (which you can read here), and now this new list represents a compilation of my favorite songs of 2025 (23 of which also appear on my 100 Best Indie Songs list.) I avoid ranking albums, as there are simply far too many I’ve either not heard or had the time to fully listen to, therefore any list I might compile would be woefully inadequate.

As a music blogger, I’m exposed to a tremendous amount of new music over the course of a year, both from the thousands of artists and bands I follow, as well as all the music I learn about from fellow bloggers. Despite this, I’ve heard only a tiny fraction of all the music released in 2025, which was clearly evident to me when I perused the year-end best song lists of music sites and publications like Consequence, The Fader, Rolling Stone, NPR, etc. Therefore, my list includes only songs I know, and I’m certain there are likely hundreds of great ones that should be included, except that I’ve never heard them. Among the thousands of songs I did hear in 2025, there were many outstanding ones, and it frustrates me to have to cull my list down to only 100, omitting quite a few that I really like. It’s also a challenge ranking them, because a song at #40 isn’t necessarily any better than a song at #70. Perhaps it’s a pointless exercise to even rank them at all, except for the fact that I love making lists!

Music tastes are very subjective, and while I don’t understand how others cannot share my love for a particular song or artist, I fully realize that not one person will agree with all my song choices or rankings. I’m an unapologetic lover of pop, but also love dream rock, folk rock and alternative rock, so a lot of songs on my list reflect those genres. My favorite music artist this year was sombr (the hyper-talented 20-year-old American singer-songwriter and producer born Shane Michael Boose), who’s gorgeous, anthemic torch song “back to friends” is #1, while his equally great “undressed” is #11 and “12 to 12” comes in at #29. Also ranking highly are songs from favorite acts of mine who ranked highly on previous years lists, including Royel Otis, Lord Huron, Twenty One Pilots, Fontaines D.C., The Black Keys, Talk in Waves and Frank Joshua.

Most of the songs on this list were released in 2025, however, several were released in 2024 but didn’t ‘peak’ until 2025. Likewise, several songs released after November 1st are still moving up my weekly charts and won’t peak until early 2026, thus will appear on next year’s list. The few songs in this Top 100 that also appeared on my 100 Best Songs of 2024 list are indicated with an asterisk *. I’ve created both YouTube and Spotify playlists for this Top 100, which are included at the end of the post. Hopefully you’ll find some of your own personal favorites on it. Let me know what songs resonated with you in 2025.

1. BACK TO FRIENDS – sombr
2. THE FAITHFUL HEART – Wons Phreely + The Horses (my #1 indie song)
3. SO COLD – Balu Brigada
4. MOODY – Royel Otis
5. NOTHING I NEED – Lord Huron
6. NO RAIN, NO FLOWERS – The Black Keys
7. IT’S AMAZING TO BE YOUNG – Fontaines D.C.
8. THE LINE (from Arcane League of Legends) – Twenty One Pilots
9. IMPOSTER SYNDROME – Fake Empire
10. FIVE MORE SECONDS – Seafret & KT Tunstall
11. UNDRESSED – sombr
12. SAD IN CAROLINA – Dexter and The Moonrocks *
13. TIME WAITED – My Morning Jacket
14. ENSENADA – Sublime
15. WALLS – Frank Joshua
16. ANOTHER LIFE – Alabama Shakes
17. THE CONTRACT – Twenty One Pilots
18. FEELS RIGHT – Talk in Waves
19. ARROW – The Head And The Heart
20. TAKE THIS HEART – Brian Lambert
21. THE WEATHER – All Time Low
22. BAD DREAMS – Teddy Swims
23. CITY WALLS – Twenty One Pilots
24. METAVERSE – Cage the Elephant
25. SALLY, WHEN THE WINE RUNS OUT – ROLE MODEL
26. NEVER ENOUGH – TURNSTILE
27. PORCELAIN (LOSING ALL MY PATIENCE) – Somebody’s Child
28. JUPITER – almost monday feat. Jordana
29. 12 TO 12 – sombr
30. PEOPLE WATCHING – Sam Fender
31. DRACULA – Tame Impala
32. THE NIGHT BEFORE – The Black Keys
33. BOBBY SOX – Green Day *
34. SUSHI AND COLA COLA – St. Paul & The Broken Bones
35. RUSHMERE – Mumford & Sons
36. CONTROLLER – Moody Moody
37. NEVERENDER – Justice feat. Tame Impala *
38. A TEAR IN SPACE (AIRLOCK) – Glass Animals *
39. ELEGANTLY WASTED – Hermanos Gutiérrez feat. Leon Bridges
40. BAD LARRY – Cloakroom
41. LOVE IS A FIRE – Art Block
42. YOU’RE MY DRUG – Talk in Waves
43. THE TURNAROUND – DelCobras
44. BASIC BEING BASIC – Djo
45. BACKSEAT – Balu Brigada
46. ARCHBISHOP HAROLD HOLMES – Jack White
47. SAILOR SONG – Gigi Perez
48. AUTUMN LEAVES – Secret Postal Society
49. IN THE LIVING ROOM – Maggie Rogers
50. MISTAKES – Caamp
51. DOWNSTAIRS – Matt Maeson
52. LONDON TOWN – HEALER
53. MORTAL WOUND – The Veils
54. DETROIT – Badflower
55. POLYESTER (YES SIR) – Sorry Ghost
56. LAREDO – Leon Bridges
57. CATCH THESE FISTS – Wet Leg
58. AS ALIVE AS YOU NEED ME TO BE – Nine Inch Nails
59. LUTHER – Kendrick Lamar & SZA
60. BETTER DAYS – Yellowcard
61. SAME OLD SONG – The Lumineers
62. SHE WANTS TO GO DANCING – Mt. Joy
63. STRAIGHT TO THE GROUND – Unquiet Nights
64. RIPPLE – Good Neighbours
65. BETTER OFF EVENTUALLY – Bealby Point
66. SNAKESKIN – NAVE
67. THE FATE OF OPHELIA – Taylor Swift
68. BARBARIAN – AWOLNATION
69. BONNET OF PINS – Matt Berninger
70. ORDINARY CREATURE – Of Monsters and Men
71. POOR SAD INDIE EVERYTHING – Icarus Phoenix
72. WITHOUT A DOUBT – Charm School
73. ASSHOLE – The Lumineers
74. GILD THE LILY – Billy Strings
75. SPECTER – Bad Omens
76. LIGHT YEARS APART – Unobliterated
77. LET THINGS GO – Caamp
78. RITALIN – Dexter and The Moonrocks
79. SO FAR SO FAKE – Pierce the Veil
80. THE FEAR – Future Theory
81. THE SUBWAY – Chappell Roan
82. SPIKE ISLAND – Pulp
83. WRECK – Neko Case
84. MOTHER – Lyia Meta & Mark Allen Lanoue
85. BLOOM BABY BLOOM – Wolf Alice
86. DAY & NIGHT – Oli Barton
87. LUCY – Mt. Joy
88. WHO’S A FRAUD? – Still Traffico
89. HORNETS – Western Jaguar
90. ANKLES – Lucy Dacus
91. HESITATE – Meltt
92. GIVING UP – Michigander
93. THREE SIX FIVE – Shinedown
94. RELATIONSHIPS – HAIM
95. AFTERLIFE – Alex G
96. GET THE MESSAGE – The Paradox
97. DANG – Rainbow Kitten Surprise
98. SUGAR ON MY TONGUE – Tyler, The Creator
99. WHAT WAS THAT – Lorde
100. AFTERLIFE – Sharon Van Etten

Honorable Mention (these songs would rank #s 101-115):

EVERYBODY SCREAM – Florence + The Machine

ROUTINES IN THE NIGHT – Twenty One Pilots

SCARS – Secret Postal Society

DARKERSIDE – David Kushner

MY MIND IS A MOUNTAIN – Deftones

REMEMBER US? – Two Feet

EVERYTHING IS PEACEFUL LOVE – Bon Iver

GOLDEN – HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna & REI AMI

TODAY’S SONG – Foo Fighters

WATCH ME GO – Lord Huron

EMERGENCE – Sleep Token

REALITY BUZZ – Future Theory

HERE WE GO AGAIN – Set the Tone

SO LONG – Wavves

ENOUGH – Jeff Tweedy

Here’s the YouTube playlist:

And the Spotify playlist: