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Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Best Music of 2025 So Far
All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by Pitchfork editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission. Graphic by Chris Panicker Pitchfork's editors are already sorting, compiling, and straining to remember all the music that's been released this year. So we're spotlighting some of 2025's most outstanding records to date by rounding up albums that have earned high scores and Best New Music designations with a quick list of RIYLs (that's Recommended If You Like) and links to our coverage. Unlike our year-end lists, this one is organized in reverse chronological order. To help you keep track of the year's best music, we'll be updating it periodically throughout the remainder of 2025. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.) RIYL: Fragrantica reviews; phenomenology; dream logic; the relationship between scent and memory; live music as a liminal space; subtle club beats; modern dance; the sounds of the Oslo subway Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Actually watching, not waiting out, the movie credits; Lia Kohl; loop pedals; Mississippi humidity; buying old family photos at a dilapidated vintage shop; The Sacrificial Code; taking the window seat on multi-hour train trips Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Scrapbooks; collage; free spirits; false starts; first-thought-best-thought; house shows; unplugging; touching grass; smoking grass; growing grass; that one tape that's been on the dashboard of your car for like five years, since that road trip you took with your best friend, and still sounds great no matter how garbled it gets Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Timelapse videos of nature; drum 'n' bass to chill out to; Floating Points symphonies; Objekt; making a complex, inventive beverage to pair with a piece of buttered toast Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Geopolitics; anticolonialism; peace studies; survivor's tales; kuduro; Burial; rave stabs; reverb; battered patinas; smoke; shrapnel; slivers of light; silver linings Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Grouper; the landscape of coastal Ireland; Gothic novels; Cocteau Twins; going to the beach when it's raining; dream pop; uilleann pipes; frost on the windows Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Tinned salmon; vintage folding lawn chairs; Bruce Hornsby records; grinning from ear to ear; love's clarion trumpeters; more fine product collaborations Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Sea shanties; foghorns; Ravedeath, 1972; Ágætis byrjun; secular acts of worship; always carrying Narcan; 'the great blue yonder'; prior accordion experience not required Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Trance without the kick drum; chance music; jazz-not-jazz; engineering; oops all intros; '90s ambient; deconstructed techno; stereofields; Skee Mask Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Dappled sunlight; reducing, reusing, and recycling; lifelong friendship; minimalist folk; cosmic ambient; getting really stoned and going to the aquarium; pondering mortality Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Every genre you've ever heard; Drain Gang when they have joie de vivre; Pokémon fanfic; Julio Torres; dying on arcade games; hyperpop wunderkinds; sensory obliteration tanks; sci-fi EDM; emo rap with plausible deniability; playing Skrillex and the Chainsmokers in separate tabs and thinking it's one song that kind of slays Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Backpacking across India; private afters at Ibizan villas; warped cassette tapes; warm fuzzies; schlager; Afro-house; a blurrier Blur; a kindlier Keinemusik; breathing exercises; golden sunsets Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Self-deprecating humor; mixtapes; vocal fry; quick cuts; hyperpop; hyperactive pop; video-game soundtracks; 'Will It Blend?' videos; monster-truck announcers; monster bass; deadly beats; resurrection Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Trips to the dentist; unrelenting Britishisms; laser pistols; SOPHIE's 'Faceshopping'; Federici's Caliban and the Witch; eye of newt; tongue of frog; how changing your gender changes reality Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Chilled red; midlife crisis literature; bologna sandwiches; Bowie/Eno; barbershop quartet in Purgatory; auditioning younger actors for your biopic Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Meditative piano; native plants in bloom; Music for Airports; sitting on a bench at a James Turrell exhibit; sunlight through stained glass; Ryuichi Sakamoto; seeing how long you can hold a note Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Sensory deprivation tanks; hushed, cozy beats; slinking around the club by yourself; pre-cringe James Blake; softboy vocals Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Exposure therapy; dyeing your hair blonde as a trauma response; the phrases 'featuring Aldous Harding' and 'produced by Blake Mills'; agoraphobia; ragged guitar solos; tasteful flutes; sneaky disillusion; quiet wisdom Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Ceremonial music in the club; Boredoms; rough edges; raw Chicago footwork; arrhythmia; keytars; cowboy hats; spamming samples in DJ sets; 'if you ain't red-lining, you ain't headlining'; collapsing the distant past and present Listen/Buy: Bandcamp RIYL: Psychotic art rock; drummers; New York noise rock; Battles; Hella; rototoms; bands so tight they sound electronic Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Power pop done right; yung Guided by Voices; Royal Headache; big lo-fi hooks; Chicago rock; DIY spaces; a pill that makes you stay young forever Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Having a formative Andy Warhol phase as a teenager; maximalism; analog synths; the concept of lipsyncing for your life; this photo of David Bowie and Trent Reznor hanging out; a touch of funk; campy horror movies; inventing your own nachos Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Model/Actriz; Modest Mouse; Deafheaven; 'weightlifting music' generally; the tortured artist; the intentionally ugly; getting it off your chest Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Alan Watts; jiu-jitsu; meditation retreats; Total Refreshment Centre; woolly sweaters; baby animals; joining a The Artist's Way book club Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Anti-capitalism; open-source software; culture-jamming; UbuWeb; the Electronic Frontier Foundation; 2000s electroclash; gabber remixes; self-aware bangers that aren't afraid to break a sweat Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Free diving; folktronica; music boxes; Burt Bacharach; full moons; glowing tides; weightlessness; the softest blanket ever Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Beach Boys; beach buoys; stacked harmonies; distilled essences; family reunions; midlife crises; new beginnings; simple pleasures; the golden light of Lisbon Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Dean Blunt; King Krule; SSENSE; NTS; natural wines; autumn leaves; the after-afters Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Friday night at the jazz club; Sunday mornings at home; celestial harps; acoustic soul; Betty Carter; Joni Mitchell; the scent of jasmine Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Going on a date to the Met Cloisters; Caroline Polachek; Bladee; Baroque polyphony; e-girl aesthetics; Y2K nostalgia; making memes about Enya but also genuinely loving Enya Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Introspection; introversion; intricate wordplay; extended rhyme schemes; hypnagogic drift; hip-hop history; psychedelic sample flips; hard-won wisdom Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: PJ Harvey; Julianna Barwick; David Lynch; attic rooms; taxidermy; RCA cables; 'Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned' Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Distorted 808s; Carti worship; bass-boosted edits; shitposting as a love language; 'ok is the hardest'; dunking on leakers Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Rage and resilience; an unexpected Kenny Segal collaboration; bluesy Yves Tumor; a dreamy ode to gay bars; righteous provocations; corroded textures Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Hallucinogenic dance music; soukous guitar; Ghanaian highlife; Latin cumbia; synth horns; bit-crushed drums; fireworks finales; dream sequences Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Ray of Light; Vespertine; 'I Feel Love'; strobe lights; Simonson technique; fetish couture; kissing a stranger at the club Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Re-reading Braiding Sweetgrass; somatic therapy; social media detoxes; Joni Mitchell deep cuts; long life-affirming conversations with friends; a little jazz, a little banjo; quilting as a metaphor Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Hot coffee on hot afternoons; pouring rum in coffee; street music; salsa; dembow; collapsing the past and the present sounds of Puerto Rico; songs about sexy ladies on the beach; songs that will make you call your mom Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal RIYL: Classic rock; soft rock; close-harmonized vocals; theatrical vibrato; exploratory falsetto; unabashed melodrama; states of innocence; songs about mononymic women; theological subtexts; the warble of warped vinyl; the vicissitudes of migrating geese Listen/Buy: Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Spotify | Tidal Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Who Has This Year's Song of the Summer? These 10 Contenders Are Fighting for the Crown.
Some might say that certain sounds define the season of warmer temps and staying outside. Let's face it—summer is only as good as the songs that play through our speakers on the way to the beach or boom through our rooftop hangs. I'm still hanging on to the feeling of listening to Lorde's 'Green Light' for the first time in 2017, or reliving my teen angst through Olivia Rodrigo's 'good 4 u' in 2021, which begs the question: who will bring fans that same cocktail of fearlessness, euphoria, and emotion in 2025? While last year boasted massive hits in Sabrina Carpenter's 'Espresso,' Chappell Roan's 'Good Luck, Babe!' and Kendrick Lamar's infamous Drake diss track, 'Not Like Us,' stans are still scrambling to find 2025's song of the summer. While stars like Reneé Rapp and Addison Rae have new music on the way, others have already started their respective rollouts and proven that 2025 has already birthed some bangers. Ahead, find my personal top 10 contenders for 2025's song of the you haven't stumbled upon sombr's 'undressed' during your late-night FYP scroll, congratulations, you aren't chronically online! The indie-pop musician made a mark with his emotional track, on which he muses that he doesn't want to start a new relationship from scratch. And, before you judge, a situationship anthem can totally be the song of the summer (just ask Taylor Swift or Gracie Abrams). See the original post on YoutubeThis lineup alone deserves every award imaginable. Whether you're pre-gaming a night out with your group chat or gearing up for a beach barbecue, 'Sticky' is the perfect adjective—and song—to capture the essence of summer. Tyler, The Creator never misses, and neither do GloRilla, Sexyy Red, and Lil Wayne. These core four rappers bring a little bit of everything to the table, and believe it or not, that might be the perfect recipe to get anyone out of their seats and onto a dancefloor. See the original post on YoutubeLast summer had folks claiming there was a 'lesbian renaissance' thanks to Chappell Roan's campy, drag-inspired pop. On the other side of the spectrum of queer women dropping bangers lies Young Miko. The Puerto Rican rapper has been on the scene for a minute (and even collaborated with fellow boricua hottie, Bad Bunny), and her rise is imminent thanks to her latest Lil Wayne-sampled track, 'WASSUP.' This has already on heavy rotation and will continue to be all summer long. See the original post on YoutubeI'm the first person who loves to see a Florida girl winning, and Doechii has consistently slayed since she dropped 'Yucky Blucky Fruitcake' all those years ago. While 'NISSAN ALTIMA' was my personal song of summer 2024, I can't imagine this year without the multifaceted emcee's voice booming through my speakers. Her latest feature on The Weeknd and Playboi Carti's 'Timeless' brings a fresh spin to the standard track that dropped earlier this year, and every party that emerges this summer will definitely have this on its playlist. See the original post on YoutubeI don't know if you heard Lady Gaga, but she said the category is 'Dance or Die.' She's back in full force on her seventh effort, Mayhem, as she revisits the disco-fueled dark pop that put her name on the map in the early aughts. While the album's second single, 'Abracadabra,' is a mainstream favorite reminiscent of her monster hit 'Bad Romance,' it's an obvious choice. If Gaga's headlining Coachella performance indicates which Mayhem track could take over our social feeds and radio waves alike, I have to go with 'Zombieboy.' Every person in that crowd moved their body one way or another, and I fear that's what this summer desperately craves. See the original post on YoutubeEYEKONS, I have to admit that this one was a grower for me. As someone who ate up KATSEYE's 'Touch' and 'Debut'—and was even roped into learning the choreo by some of my best friends—'Gnarly' caught me completely off-guard. Its in-your-face, bombastic production is such a departure from the girlies' debut. But, just like their star power, the track is impossible to ignore. I haven't been able to stop myself from singing my latest vocal stim twice on the hour: 'Hottie, hottie like a bag of Takis / I'm the shit.' Thanks to its instant virality, 'Gnarly' has found its way into the crevices of my brain, and I haven't been able to get it out. Something tells me most people won't be able to, either. See the original post on YoutubeWe've officially survived the Lorde drought since 2021's Solar Power, and honestly, I only felt like summer started once I found myself perched in Washington Square Park waiting for her to preview this track. 'What Was That' promises the upbeat and unapologetic arrival of a Lorde that's evolved through Melodrama into new territories. It only makes me wonder what else she has up her sleeve, and how her upcoming album Virgin will amplify the voice of a generation (again). See the original post on YoutubePinkPantheress said she wanted to make music for the clubs, so she did and dropped her mixtape, Fancy That. The electronic star is a force to be reckoned with, and her lead single 'Tonight' makes a Panic! at the Disco sample sound like a voguing track made for endless nights breaking a sweat on the dance floor. She even received a stamp of approval from the brat queen and fellow Brit, Charli XCX—who's down for a collab, by the way. See the original post on YoutubeDoja Cat is slowly defrosting. Her upcoming album, Vie, marks her first full-length release since 2023's Scarlet, and fans are itching for more. The multifaceted rapper is no stranger to a hit, as her Grammy-winning collaboration with SZA, 'Kiss Me More,' was rightfully crowned the song of summer 2021. There's a chance that her (hopefully!) soon-to-be-released track, 'Jealous Type,' will take the reins, as proven by fans' reactions to her Marc Jacobs pre-fall campaign. See the original post on YoutubeCharli XCX has always been ahead of the curve. Despite being released five years ago, 'party 4 u' is undeniably the song of summer 2025. The How I'm Feeling Now standout has seemingly taken on many different lives since it dropped in 2020, was featured in Bottoms's major fight scene in 2023, and gained traction this year thanks to a TikTok trend. As she comes off the high of last year's brat summer, her Gatsby-esque confessional keeps the party going. See the original post on Youtube You Might Also Like Here's What NOT to Wear to a Wedding Meet the Laziest, Easiest Acne Routine You'll Ever Try
