The 10 best songs of 2025

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Artificial-intelligence-generated “musicians” are now entering the charts at a pace that’s drawing worry from even the most bottom-line-focused label executives. What can everyday listeners do to combat this threat to human creativity?

We can celebrate real artistry – real songs by real people excavating their real minds for real ideas – as loudly as possible. Here are 10 songs from 2025 that anyone can celebrate.

Geese – 100 Horses

Geese flew to the top of rock’s discourse this year, thanks to its spastic rhythms and front man Cameron Winter’s deep warble. Both of these are on full display in the New York band’s big single 100 Horses, which lyrically implores dancing while stylistically inhibiting it.

HUNTR/X (Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami) – Golden

Is HUNTR/X a fictional band? Technically yes, but its members are very real. Did they put out one of the biggest bangers of the year thanks to KPop Demon Hunters? Goodness, yes.

Rochelle Jordan – The Boy

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Rollicking, club-destined R&B perfectly suitable for racing down a suddenly clear stretch of the Gardiner Expressway in the early-morning hours.

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PinkPantheress – Illegal

The British singer’s post-brat brand of manic pop delivered one of this year’s most interesting mixtapes. Is it CanCon? Not according to CRTC rules, but she did debut lead-off track Illegal with a TikTok filmed on … the Toronto subway?

Pup – Hallways

There is hope at the end of the tunnel, these Toronto punks implore with their most unforgettable riffs and lyrics in years. Sure, you can worry that when a door closes, “There might be no other doors.” But you’ve got to see your trouble through – because otherwise, “who will look after the dog?”

Ribbon Skirt – Wrong Planet

Escapism, abandonment and grungy postpunk from the Montreal band formerly known as Love Language, led by Anishinaabe singer Tashiina Buswa.

Saya Gray – Puddle (Of Me)

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The Torontonian’s crisp study of delusion in relationships is conveyed through sharp, light guitar pop with one of the most unforgettable hooks of the year.

This Is Lorelei and MJ Lenderman – Dancing in the Club

Lenderman, probably the most-talked-about guy in indie rock, reinterprets his tourmate’s best song. Resting on a playing-card metaphor that somehow doesn’t get tired across five minutes, the reworked acoustic ballad’s heartbreaking catchiness does not relent after dozens of listens.

Tyler, the Creator – Ring Ring Ring

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Hip hop’s most interesting post-Kanye songsmith laced his surprise ninth studio album with deliberate odes to dancing, with Ring Ring Ring as its commanding apex.

Wednesday – Elderberry Wine

The North Carolina twang-grunge band seemed to be everywhere this past summer with this song – a gentle-hearted vision of a Nashville standard that tracks a sweet relationship on the cusp of swerving off-course.

Honourable mentions

Aysanabee’s epic Edge of the Earth; Bad Bunny’s tipsy and reflective DTMF; The Beaches’ raucous Last Girls at the Party; Marie Davidson’s club banger Fun Times; Clipse and Pharrell’s money-stacking reunion, E.B.I.T.D.A.; Doechii’s machine-gun-flow flip of a coffee-shop anthem, Anxiety; Fred again..’s fantastic collab with punks Amyl and the Sniffers, you’re a star; Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist’s sly, ice-cold Mar-a-Lago; Jane Inc.’s revelatory reborn (on the dancefloor); Men I Trust‘s incidental Tango in the Night reference, Where I Sit; Nourished by Time’s left-field R&B character sketch, 9 2 5; Prism Shores’ endlessly jangly Weightless; Chappell Roan’s accidental Saskatchewan anthem, The Subway; Rosalía, Bjork and Yves Tumor’s cacophonic Berghain; Montreal band Sorry Girls’ will-they-or-won’t-they dream-pop song Ricochet; Taylor Swift’s inescapable The Fate of Ophelia; Turnstile’s skate-punk song sandwiched with ambient soundscapes, Never Enough.