It’s said that music helps keep us sane in insane times, and as we noted at the year’s midway point, that theory has been put to the test in this miserable and exhausting 2025. So to wrap up a year where music either inspired action or helped soundtrack distraction, we’re rounding up our 20 most favorite tracks that have helped ease life’s firehose of chaos and provide a little bit of levity during our long and tiresome days. As is Vanyaland’s true nature, the bangers we’re feeling the most this year span a spectrum of genres, from SpiritWorld’s hellacious Americana acre of death metal to Madison Beer’s white-hot electro seduction to Wet Leg getting their Britpop on to City Builders bumping a 3 a.m. blog house afterparty to Fontaines D.C. further cementing a place as one of Ireland’s greatest exports. To kick off Vanyaland’s week-long 2025 Year in ReView, here are 20 standout jams, listed alphabetically, that have shaped the sound of 2025, whatever that may be, and have helped provide a needed respite from our daily scream through the screen.
away fans, ‘Keeping On’
Break-ups are hard, but true reconciliation is even more difficult. The panic and confusion that comes with a desperate attempt to make amends is usually soundtracked by some lovelorn ballad soaked in solemn emotion and tear-stained reflection. away fans are having none of that shit. The London foursome reflect the beating heart of internal disorientation with propulsive and restless October single “Keeping On.” Buoyed by backing vocals from SEY.MOUR., British indie magnetism, post-punk urgency, and Madchester rhythms combine with hyperactive jungle and drum and bass breaks to craft a head-spinning kind of kinetic indie-rave tension where the walls of hysteria are quickly closing in. In fewer than four minutes, “Keeping On” is a cinematic house of mirrors, where self-doubt and inner confidence spiral in lockstep, echoing out loudly and ricocheting across our emotional states as one of the most interesting and engaging tracks we’ve heard in a hot minute. “The song is about that moment post-argument with your partner, when the initial anger has faded and you just wanna sort things out but don’t know how,” says vocalist Tom Fisher. “That sort of malaise when you’re desperate to get back to how things were but aren’t quite sure how to get there.”
The Beaches, ‘Last Girls at the Party’
We’ve been so busy blaming our ex over the past year or so that we totally slept on The Beaches coming back to the scene with delectable new jams. But the transcendent Toronto band isn’t worried about any of that, as the unfuckwithable guitar-pop unit is purely concerned with what’s up next, and fast on the agenda is a night out soundtracked by boisterous April bop “Last Girls at the Party.” This firecracker retains the playful intensity of 2023’s Blame My Ex — a wildly re-listenable and whipsmart record that’ll stand proud as one of the decade’s best. “We’re four crazy girls who like to have fun together, and are literally always the last to leave,” frontperson and bassist Jordan Miller says about the new single. It set a tone for August’s No Hard Feelings, and our only gripe is that the record hit too late in the summer, long after those initial day trips and long drives, as the gals’ breezy and infectious sound is just pitch-perfect for the casual season. But hey, we’ll just blame our ex for that, too.
Madison Beer, ‘yes baby’
We’re running this list alphabetically, but if we were ranking these 20 songs, Madison Beer’s potent “yes baby,” the first taste of January’s locket album, would land with a sloppy wet kiss at #1. A Justin Herbert deep-ball into the end zone of bacchanalian seduction, this pulsating electro-pop banger fueled by dizzying momentum and playful intrigue extends its dark techno deep into the underground dance party circuit while posturing proudly in neon excess for the mainstream, vaulting our gal Beer into the alt-pop stratosphere with the paparazzi closing in fast. It’s a flirty pile-driver of a tune best heard on a continuous loop, its entangled sonics brought to breathless life by the ’80s exercise video-inspired visual, concepted and co-directed by Beer and director Aerin Moreno. “‘yes baby’ is really just a fun and flirty song,” says Beer. “After I shot the music video, though, it took on a whole new energy, and just feels like a song you want to blast with your friends.” The only thing that’s missing is a Boy Deluxe remix. Come on now, baby, let’s get physical.
Big Thief, ‘Incomprehensible’
Back in the fall of 2019, when Big Thief released their fourth album Two Hands, it seemed like a lot of folx brought the generation-defining “Not” with them back home for Thanksgiving, using the song to soundtrack whatever it was we were all facing with our families as our former lives crossed with the current. June single “Incomprehensible,” the first offering from Double Infinity, emerged with a similar feeling of emotional heaviness, the type of track that stays with us long after the first listen, and seems poised to hold a place of importance as we collectively teeter on the brink of whatever it is we’re on the brink of. As percussion swirls and a feeling of hopeful nostalgia permeates through this stunning composition, an immediate contender for SOTY and eventually to be placed amongst Big Thief’s finest efforts of a pretty remarkable career, Adrianne Lenker’s soul-stirring lyrical wordplay dances in and out of our headspace with ease. What gorgeous wonder from a truly generational band.
Boy Deluxe, ‘Feedback’
Darker days demand darker beats, and Boy Deluxe have answered the call to beam down from the shadow of heaven and crack a strobe-light whip on our faded mental blackout. The Los Angeles electronic music project of Ever So Android members True Murra and Hope S continue to seduce with year-defining EP From Black Sheep to Icon, which makes us feel the same way we felt when we first heard ADULT. some 25 years ago. The record, one of a handful issued this year from the duo, is an intoxicating head trip of EBM, darkwave, and electroclash, a potent dose of sinister post-wave death rave led by “Feedback,” the type of mutant disco we danced to at the turn of the millennium when not a single shit was given. We’ll follow Boy Deluxe straight off the catwalk cliff and into a deeper realm of lust and trust, and the army will only grow stronger as this electro-punk banger can be heard on The CW’s All American and the latest Chevrolet Equinox EV “Unplug and Unlock” commercial. Close your eyes until it hurts; this may not be a hazy daydream after all. If we had a roundup for the best EPs of the year, this would reside at the top like a queen in black neon holding court over our devilish souls.
Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Manchild’
When Sabrina Carpenter gets her Chappell Roan on, amazing things happen. But it’s kinda crazy that the week Elon and the president had a public falling out, our girl dropped this feathery alt-pop bop about the dudes that drive us mad. Score another certified hit for songwriting queen, Maine native, and Vanyaland fave Amy Allen, who here teams up with Carpenter and Jack Antonoff for the first primer and proper standout from the Man’s Best Friend album. “I wrote ‘Manchild’ on a random Tuesday with Amy and Jack not too long after finishing Short n’ Sweet and it ended up being the best random Tuesday of my life,” Carpenter writes. “Not only was it so fun to write, but this song became to me something I can look back on that will score the mental montage to the very confusing and fun young adult years of life. It sounds like the song embodiment of a loving eye roll and it feels like a never ending road trip in the summer ! hence why i wanted to give it to you now — so you can stick your head out the car window and scream it all summer long!” As Carpenter continues to speaks out against fascism, her powers grow even stronger.
Charlotte OC, ‘God, We Tried’
Around these parts, we simply love a good O’Connor comeback story. So we’re excited and intrigued by the return of Charlotte OC, the English singer-songwriter who in March resurfaced with an elegantly dramatic new single in “God, We Tried,” which instantly felt like one of 2025’s best. Ms. OC also revealed some personal setbacks that allow proper view to this enchanting new release. “God, We Tried” is described as a poignant and raw reflection on love, loss, and grief, and we’ll let the artist take it from here: “This song is deeply personal to me, I started writing it after my dad passed away. In my grief, I ended up in a relationship that probably wasn’t the healthiest choice for me, and I wasn’t truly allowing myself to heal. If I think about it, all I wanted was a male figure in my life, to fill a void… ‘God, We Tried’ reflects the end of that relationship and the emotional complexity of trying to make something work when it really wasn’t right. It’s about love, loss, and the struggle to move forward while still processing deep grief.” Sounds about right for 2025.
City Builders, ‘No Sleep’
In this yawning 2025, nothing feels fun. City Builders is sick of that shit. In November, the alt-pop project from Toronto artist Grace Turner dropped an electro beat on the kind of all-night revelry we used to have with “No Sleep,” a rowdy banger that throbs with euphoria as the walls of chaos close in around us. It’s a pulsating soundtrack for wild nights, reckless fun, and a sense of unhinged liberation we all seemed to have lost along the way to yesterday. “My best friend and I turn into absolute demons on a night out,” says Turner. “There’s nothing like giving into your intrusive ideas with a best friend, and I needed to write something that sounded as chaotic as our nights out.” Mission accomplished. Like Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK” for the modern day, where good times feel illegal, “No Sleep” is a mascara-smeared compass for the party circuit, filled with the promise and intrigue of a pre-game dress-up sesh, the strobe-lit revelry of a 3 a.m. bass drop, and the slutty haze of a misguided hook-up just before dawn. Its DNA traces back to the untamed blog house era and a glitzy and glittery time when pop music wasn’t afraid of being a little bit disheveled, and there’s a sense of fun to it that’s sorely lacking right now. Dial 666 and hit the town. There’s an afterparty somewhere.
feeble little horse, ‘This Is Real’
The unrelenting Big Content Industry (BCI) demands a continuous stream of releases from bands in 2025, designed to keep momentum and buzz rolling atop all our social feeds and ensure that artists are permanent fixtures on not only our playlists, but also in our hearts. It’s a grind. We long for the days when a single song — an absolute fucking belter — was enough to feed the masses, to steady a beat forward for weeks and months and maybe even a year. A song like “This Is Real” from feeble little horse. The Pittsburgh indie noise-pop band dropped this SOTY contender, where the kaleidoscopic meets the unhinged, in March via Saddle Creek, their first new music since 2023’s Girl With Fish, and interestingly enough, the notion of a timeline is embedded within the track’s origin story. “I think it’s important that this song is released to turn the page, but also to enjoy the product of sitting with something for a record breaking amount of time for us as a band,” says feeble little horse’s Lydia Slocum. “We wrote our past 2 albums with this indescribable urgency, and I think ’This Is Real’ happened while the burner was turned to low if that makes sense. I wouldn’t say this track can function as a prophecy for what our sound will become for the next album, but it’s become something no other song will ever quite compare to… I hope this track can function as a time capsule for our fans the same way it has for us.”
Fontaines D.C., ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’
Can a band or artist deliver a SOTY contender right after dropping the AOTY? Chappell Roan did it in 2023 into 2024 with The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess into “Good Luck, Babe,” and so it makes perfect sense that bridging last year’s vibe with the fresh sound of now is Fontaines D.C., the Irish standouts who in February followed the era-defining ROMANCE album with an elegantly dramatic new single called “It’s Amazing To Be Young.” And it’s just fucking massive. “’It’s Amazing To Be Young’ is a song that was written in the presence of a newborn child — Carlos’ child,” says bassist Conor Deegan III, citing guitarist Carlos O’Connell. “It sounded more like a lullaby or a music box then, but with the same lyric — ‘it’s amazing to be young’. The feeling of hope a child can give is profound and moving, especially for young men like us. That sense of wanting to create a world for them to grow up in happily. It’s a feeling that fights against the cynicism that can often overtake us in the modern world.” A lucid daydream of a single, this went onto our Best of 2025 list upon first listen, and now here we are, even more tired than before.
Home Front, ‘Kiss The Sky’
Every year there seems to be an album released so late on the calendar, that it’s true impact comes long after all the Best Of lists go to press. Home Front’s November record Watch It Die already feels like the best album of the oncoming 2026, one that will eventually be appreciated and heralded with some time to properly marinate. A textured and intricate record where hardcore and synth-pop merge in captivating ways, Watch It Die has several standouts — particularly the anthemic sing-along crusher “Light Sleeper” and confrontational street punk “For The Children (F*ck All)”. But our pick here is “Kiss The Sky,” a dark-pop blitz with Korine DNA and Hooky basslines that showcases the Canadian post-punk group’s complexity in sound, embeddable emotion, and remarkable sonic architecture. It’s a dance party for a time when few feel like dancing. “For us, ultimately, this is music that comes out of loss and heartbreak and failure, but I hope people have a good time listening to us,” the band states. “You can get rowdy, you can get emotional, you can do whatever you want, but maybe with all of that freedom, we all take a second to reflect on all our fallen brothers and sisters and friends who may have slipped away.” Just look up.
Lonely Little Kitsch, ‘Puncture Wounds’
It’s wild that the smash rooms aren’t booming with business these days. Everyone’s on edge, forever ready to throw hands, and one minor inconvenience thrusts otherwise chill folx into a blind rage. But a controlled and coordinated release of the tension that grips us is quite necessary to get through this cursed timeline, and Lonely Little Kitsch have released a sensational soundtrack to help address frustrations in ways that won’t get us arrested. The Canadian duo of Kristen Goetz and Nolan Jodes in November unleashed a soaring dose of alt-rock catharsis in “Puncture Wounds,” where the uneven urgency of the times is met with a relative calm outlook. And using a smash room as the visual for the official lyric video opens a mental portal into our own headspace as we doomscroll the day away. “It’s a song about dissociating, and wanting to feel numb,” says Goetz. “When something is too painful or your emotions are overwhelming, you’d rather just shut down and feel nothing at all.” This anthemic display of moody, introspective yearning, fueled by a juxtaposition of razor-sharp guitarwork that can pierce mountains and a confident comfort in vocal delivery to sooth the valley below, takes the angst and frustration of our daily living experience and filters the emotion into something blissful and beautiful. Hell, it might even be the SOTY — in both its sonic grandeur and its ability to harness our collective anxiety into something we can recognize and confront.
MARINA, ‘I <3 YOU’
Our forever homegirl MARINA wants to take us to the alt-pop disco we deserve, and the playlist en route to features ABBA, Erasure, The Waitresses, Blondie, that one Estelle banger, and all the other sonic strands of care-free DNA we hear pulsating through white-hot June single “I <3 YOU.” This dance party bop of the summer arrived alongside MARINA’s all-caps-everything album PRINCESS OF POWER, and it’s the third mega-jam we’ve hyped from the record here on the V. It followed April’s sexpot anthem “CUNTISSIMO” and February’s dramatic, house-infused, hall-of-mirrors psych-pop romp ‘BUTTERFLY‘. “One of my lessons in the last few years is that love — and showing love — is not a weak thing,” MARINA says of the track. “Of all the superpowers we have as humans, love is our greatest one.” The instantly memorable and dance-party-minded “I <3 YOU” surfaced with a Olivia De Camps-directed music video, and it was destined for this space from the first beat.
MØ, ‘Keep Møving’
A famous 20th-century Englishman once said something to the effect of “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” And that’s the vibe of MØ’s emphatic and euphoric March single “Keep Møving,” where the Danish alt-pop artist drops a crunchy electro-punk beat on all the stresses of modern life. Instantly alluring, Keep Møving” has a bit of a throwback mood to Gwen Stefani’s “What You Waiting For?” and “Two of Hearts” by Stacey Q, and it’s a certified banger. “’Keep Møving’ is an ironic take on my endless to-do list,” says MØ. “It’s about the feeling of unraveling under the weight of everybody’s expectations (including my own) whilst also secretly dreaming of being set free from this constantly shifting, absolutely mental Western world. …I have never enjoyed recording ad-libs as much as I did screaming ‘BUAH!’ in the chorus – definitely my favorite ad-libs ever. The lyrics come from a place of real frustration, but writing and performing this one heals me too.” Another for the ’25 books.
Nuovo Testamento, ‘Picture Perfect’
Back in the long-gone n’ lawless Allston days of the mid- to late-aughts, there was a DIY house party circuit called Club Fuxx that, for at least a short burst that felt like forever, was the hottest shit in the neighborhood. And the DJs would bump nothing but early-’90s dance-pop, house, and Euro-NRG, a stark contrast to the indie and electro soundtrack of the day. We bring all this up nearly two decades later because “Picture Perfect,” the lethal June single from Nuovo Testamento, would fit right in. The Los Angeles trio — who graced our 2023 Year in ReView on the sleek strength of Italo disco standout “Heartbeat” — dropped the blissful retro-pop dance track ahead of summer EP Trouble, out via the trio’s own imprint Discoteca Italia. “Picture Perfect” is a proper banger throwing it back to when clubbing was exciting, carefree, and fun, an intoxicating sonic cocktail of synth-pop and freestyle that showcases the vocal pull of Chelsey Crowley, who doesn’t sound out of place alongside the likes of Melanie Thornton and Karin Kasar. “It’s about a sweet, pure kind of desire — adoration, admiration, wanting, hope,” the trio write about the new track. “It’s free of doubt and full of conviction. There’s no pain in this song, only the joy of someone’s existence and knowing that they are meant for you. It’s asking for trust until someone knows as much as you do about who you will be to one another.”
Sea Lemon, ‘Stay’
The world is a cruel and miserable place, consistently finding new ways to accelerate those concerns, and sometimes all we wanna do is crawl up inside a song and hide. Providing sonic shelter this week is “Stay,” a gauzy March everything-‘gaze tune from Seattle’s Sea Lemon. The warm and expansive dream-pop track appeared on June album Diving For A Prize, complete with a video that takes us for a calming walk by the water alongside the project’s Natalie Lew. It’s a divine experience that has us mentally dropping out, at least for an exquisite three minutes and 24 seconds. And turns out that checking out is embedded in the song’s DNA. “‘Stay’ was the first track I actively wrote for my record, and is a little vignette of a man I saw in a local thrift store,” says Lew. “This older guy, probably in his 70s or 80s, was acting as a security guard at this thrift store near my house, but he was basically asleep on the couch the entire time I was there. I couldn’t stop thinking about him after I left, and wrote ‘Stay’ as a reaction to seeing this guy who I felt deserved to take a break. The song became a short story about him, and about how important I feel it can be to have someone in your life willing to tell you to take a step back and just relax.” Most days, we are all that security guard asleep on the thrift store couch of life. And today, tomorrow, and into the scary beyond, Sea Lemon supplies the lullaby.
SpiritWorld, ‘Abilene Grime’
Few albums have captivated in 2025 quite like SpiritWorld’s third record Helldorado, where death metal and Americana collide in such brutally wonderful ways. If we had a section for AOTY, these death-western Vegas dudes would hit the jackpot, as Helldorado is a wild ride through metallic hardcore and alt-country genre-fusion that has pissed off the purists on both sides of the aisle. But holy mother of fuck what a record — standout tracks like searing power ballad “Bird Song of Death” and hyper-adrenalized “Western Stars & The Apocalypse” are also contenders for this space — and it’s all kickstarted by a lethal dose of metal twang in “Abilene Grime,” where the groove thrust of country and a feisty honky-tonk shuffle is met dead-on by some heavy Slayer riffage and noise brutality. It somehow crushes with seduction. “When I wrote the demo for ‘Abilene Grime,’ it felt like the album really found its identity and materialized out of the ether,” says frontman Stu Folsom. “It twangs, it bangs and it has a sick video, directed by our dear friend Todd Hailstone, which we filmed in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Enjoy, everybody!” We sure will.
Suede, ‘Dancing With The Europeans’
A few short years ago the mighty Suede delivered the unexpected with Autofiction, an album so potent in its vitality and beautifully self-aware in its context it remarkably earned a place alongside the English icons’ ’90s-era holy trinity. It found a weathered and battle-worn band once again comfortable in its own skin, exploring themes of aging, of personal growth and maturity, and how we are all so much older than we were when we first kissed in rooms to popular tunes. It was perhaps the most in the moment Suede record since the forever unfuckwithable debut. Nearly three years later, Brett Anderson and the gang released 10th (!) studio album in Antidepressants in September, and sterling July single “Dancing With The Europeans” proved there’s still some magic floating through the air that binds us all these decades later. And it carries the same type of contagiousness we first heard in 2013 comeback record Bloodsports, and all the hits that came before it. A thematic electrical current that flows through Antidepressants is a feeling of connection in an increasingly distant world, and “Dancing With The Europeans” encapsulates that notion in the same way classic tracks like “Trash” and “Can’t Get Enough” once did. The bond between Suede’s die-hard fans and the band itself has always had a starring role in this never-ending drama, and now the two merge blissfully through the metallic sheen and effortless cool that permeates this new ripper. “There’s a sense of optimism about this song,” says Anderson. “I remember specifically we were doing a gig in Spain during the time we were writing this album. I was going through a bad time and at a low, personally. But we played this brilliant gig. There was a great connection between me and the audience.” Come dancing with one of England’s most essential bands, on this day or any one prior, as this evolving second act is holding steady as far more impressive than any of their Cool Britannia peers.
Sunflower Bean, ‘Nothing Romantic’
As American highways deliver Sunflower Bean to venues across the country this year and beyond, supporting April album Mortal Primetime, the New York trio had a certified banger in each night’s setlist courtesy of a soaring reflection on that rock and roll life dubbed “Nothing Romantic,” a supercharged ’70-kissed glam anthem that sounds electric out of the speakers. “‘Nothing Romantic’ is about rejecting the myth of the tortured artist — realizing that the joys of creativity don’t have to come from the lows of misery,” declare the ‘Bean. “The video mirrors this journey, capturing our lives as touring musicians in between nightmarish performances. From green rooms to lost highways, we travel from town to town, feeling alive only in the escape of our show. There’s tension between the connection and solitude; on stage, we’re together, sharing our music with others but later isolation and the price of our sacrifices creep in.” As we said in March, put this right on the Best of 2025 list, and we stayed on course — what a fucking tune.
Wet Leg, ‘catch these fists’
Wet Leg doesn’t want your love — they just wanna fight. The whipsmart English band roared back with a new single on April Fool’s Day, a noisy number dubbed “catch these fists” that’s sure to cause a ruckus. The punchy track is perhaps the greatest Britpop anthem of the past 25 years, and if Elastica delivered this on The Menace, Justine and the crew would probably still be playing Glastonbury. The first taste of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers’ sophomore album moisturizer sets a provocative tone as the band fend off unwanted advances from a belligerent bloke as their new-age dance-punk sways, struts, and somersaults in every direction. Everyone’s gonna love this one, yeah, we thought at first listen, and with tracks like “Mangetout”, “CPR”, and “pokemon”, it shapes moisturizer as pretty much the best album of 2025. It all sounded dope every time Wet Leg hit a stage this year. Says Teasdale on the album’s writing process: “We focussed on: Is this going to be fun to play live?” We know the answer, we heard the answer. C’mon now and catch these lists!