Musically, 2025, like the year that came before it, has been very difficult to pin down. Don’t get us wrong, there have been big hits, incredible albums, and a sun-drenched summer of giant shows and festivals. But if you were hoping for a movement, a wave of new artists united by a common aesthetic, it has not come.
The big things have definitely gotten bigger. Oasis’s reunion tour made over a billion pounds, Coldplay broke records with their run at Wembley Stadium, Alex Warren broke records with over 12 straight weeks at Number One with ‘Ordinary’, and Take That, Bon Jovi and Ed Sheeran all sold a frightening amount of tickets for their stadium tours.
And the year has been full of great discoveries, with esoteric indie, playful hip-hop and dark-hearted pop all very much in vogue for newer artists.
As the year comes to a close, we thought it was high time to look back at its highlights, and put together the ultimate New Year’s Eve playlist…
ROSÉ & Bruno Mars – ‘APT’
2025 has had several irrepressible pop hits, and ‘APT’, where megastar Bruno Mars and ROSÉ of Korean big-sellers BLACKPINK, came together, is most definitely one of them.
Bouncy, catchy as hell and guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Also, ‘APT’ is named after a Korean drinking game where you have to sit in a circle and get as drunk as possible. Absolutely fitting for any New Year's Eve playlist you might be planning…
Lily Allen – ‘West End Girl’
In an era where it is almost impossible to deliver an album that gets everyone talking, Lily Allen certainly came as close as you can with ‘West End Girl’.
The album, which brutally and uncompromisingly chronicles Allen’s divorce from Stranger Things actor David Harbour, has mostly drawn shock and open-mouthed awe from all those who’ve taken it in, but it is full of bangers too.
Allen, who has delighted in flitting between genres, does so here from song to song. The title track is half musical theatre, half soulful pop, all with a ridiculously hummable chorus over the top.
In the early weeks of this album being released, it was easy to spot who was listening to ‘West End Girl’ as they commuted to work. They were the people with their mouths hanging open, and they’re the same people who have put Lily Allen back in arenas next year.
Wolf Alice – ‘Just Two Girls’
Wolf Alice have always been brilliant, and 2025 has been the year where the band’s status finally caught up with their incredible and consistent back catalogue.
The band’s fourth LP, ‘The Clearing’, represented a marked shift from their rockier, feedback-drenched era and into something more classic, with influences like Carole King and Fleetwood Mac key in the mix.
It is still exceptional, and ‘Just Two Girls’, a piano-based groovetastic banger, is the pick of the bunch.
Turnstile - ‘NEVER ENOUGH’
![TURNSTILE - NEVER ENOUGH [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Nfk1Su1Q8SI/maxresdefault.jpg)
In 2025, Maryland hardcore punks Turnstile made the transition from being a handful of people’s favourite band to serious players.
Their fourth record, ‘NEVER ENOUGH’, hit Number One across the world when it dropped in June, and it is full of dreamy soundscapes mixed with crunching guitars and soaring melodies. Get on board if you haven’t already.
Sam Fender – ‘People Watching’
Newcastle’s favourite son has enjoyed another stellar year, with a gigantic stadium tour, his biggest album to date and a Mercury Music Prize for his third album, People Watching.
The album has Fender fully embracing his inner Bruce Springsteen, with heartswelling nostalgia-dipped anthem after anthem. Fender worked with The War on Drugs mainman Adam Granduciel to put the album together, and Granduciel’s gift for infusing warmth and power into every note is right across the album.
A stadium anthem created by a man who will be filling stadiums for a long time to come.
ROSALIA – ‘Berghain’
If anything sums up 2025’s genre-smooshing vibe, it is ROSALIA’s ‘Berghain’. A morphing marvel, named after the Berlin superclub where a pseudo operatic first-half gives way to Bjork, who in turn gives way to rapper Yves Tumor, all over stabbing strings from the London Symphony Orchestra. It doesn’t make sense until it does.
Chappell Roan – ‘The Giver’
2024 belonged to Chappell Roan, and she has spent most of 2025 touring in front of her ever-increasing army of fans. The hits from her debut LP, the likes of ‘Pink Pony Club’ and ‘Good Luck, Babe’, still remain in constant rotation, and while there is no date as yet for a new album, there have been two singles.
‘The Giver’ is a raucous, rabble-rousing slice of country pop, which she then followed three months later with an Alanis Morissette-style weepie named ‘The Subway’. Her next album could go in any direction, or be all the directions. It will be one of the highlights of 2026.
Pulp – ‘Spike Island’
After years of reunion shows and promises that it would be the last time we could ever see them, 2025 finally brought a new Pulp album, and a really good one, too.
‘Spike Island’, which serves as the opener from the new album ‘More’, is a perfect encapsulation of its sound. Wistful, elegant and stirring in the same way as all of the band’s classic material was. Pulp always were the smartest of the Britpop generation, and to return with such an accomplished effort is in perfect keeping with their legacy.
Lady Gaga – ‘Abracadabra’
After recent dabbles with country as well as her burgeoning acting career, Gaga returned to her bizarro-pop roots in 2025 and truly delivered with ‘Mayhem’, her first solo album in five years.
‘Abracabadra’ is vintage Gaga, gigantic in scale, ridiculously catchy, and built around this odd drum and bass-esque loop. She remains one of a kind.
Huntrix – ‘Golden’
The year’s other irrepressible, inescapable pop hit. Even if you haven’t seen Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters, there’s no way you have not heard, hummed and gone back to ‘Golden’.
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