When the dust of 2025 settles, what songs are still in heavy rotation from the year? We look back at a dizzying amount of music and share some of our picks for the best tracks of 2025.

This is an incredibly incomplete list that obviously just scratches the surface of all the incredible music that came out this year.  For a more comprehensive breakdown of what we loved in 2025, check out NPR Music’s list of the 125 best songs. 

Artists and songs featured on this episode:

Dijon: “Yamaha,” from ‘Baby’

Nourished By Time: “Max Potential,” from ‘The Passionate Ones’

Patrick Watson: “Peter and the Wolf,” from ‘Uh Oh’

FKA twigs: “Room of Fools,” from ‘EUSEXUA’

PinkPantheress: “Stateside,” from ‘Fancy That’

Asher White: “Beers with my name on them,” from ‘8 Tips for Full Catastrophe Living’

Wednesday: “Townies,” from ‘Bleeds’

Gabriel Jacoby: “the one,” from ‘gutta child’

Olafur Arnalds, Talos: “We Didn’t Know We Were Ready (feat. Niamh Regan & Ye Vagabonds),” from ‘A Dawning’

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