Poptimism jumped the shark in 2025, with the charts offering up lengthy Billboard reigns for grocery store muzak and Netflix children's musicals, as the biggest stars on the planet struggled to recapture past glories.
Consequently, our list of Exclaim!'s favourite songs of the year has quite a bit of overlap with yesterday's list of the best albums. In lieu of chart rulers, we've got aughts-evoking anthems, some bangers fit for indie dance nights, and a simple request to see friends' dicks. It doesn't have to be a big deal!
See all of our year-end lists for 2025 here.
20. This Is Lorelei and MJ Lenderman
“Dancing in the Club (MJ Lenderman Version)”
(Double Double Whammy)
While the original version from 2024's Box for Buddy, Box for Star is certainly much more suited to dancing, MJ Lenderman makes the case for this song actually being even better as the reason you're crying in the club right now. Slowing way down and stripping away the rave-y artifice Nate Amos's breakneck electronica and robotic Auto-Tune, Lenderman's shaggy organic instrumentation and delicately gruff vocals hit the floor like the dad in that one scene from Aftersun.
Megan LaPierre
19. Robyn
“Dopamine”
(Konichiwa Records / Young)
I went to four weddings in 2025, and “Dancing on My Own” played at every single one of them. But while that song has become the millennial “Dancing Queen” by virtue of its irresistible pulse, Robyn's comeback single “Dopamine” is all restraint. It's got the euphoric melodies, the yearning romance and the four-on-the-floor thump — but, this time, Robyn mostly holds back the snare, creating a sweaty, throbbing pulse that feels like it's going to let loose on the floor, but never fully does. What a rush.
Alex Hudson
18. Jonah Yano
“Homerun 2021”
(Innovative Leisure)
Ever felt the nostalgic pang of missing something after experiencing it for the first time? This unique experience can be felt when listening to “Homerun 2021.” The bicoastal collab you never knew you needed started coming together four years ago with Montreal-based songwriter Jonah Yano and L.A. guitarist Mk.gee. Produced by the latter, the track layers Yano's emotional vocals over Mk.gee's signature tape-warped guitar riffs, a soundscape that lulls the listener into a comfortable cocoon of yearning.
Vanessa Tam
17. Clipse feat. Kendrick Lamar
“Chains & Whips”
(ROC Nation Distribution)
In guest verses, Kendrick Lamar can be a liability: he called out by Big Sean by name when asserting his dominance on that same rapper's track “Control,” and he kicked off the biggest feud in modern rap when dissing Drake on Future and Metro Boomin's “Like That” last year. Although he doesn't name names on “Chains & Whips,” he and fellow Drake destroyer Pusha T are still controversial enough that this song got Clipse dropped from Def Jam Recordings. No worries, since Kenny came here to celebrate: “They said I couldn't reach Gen Z, you fuckin' dickheads.”
Alex Hudson
16. Great Grandpa
“Ladybug”
(Run for Cover Records)
Gang vocals have never sounded as cathartic as on the genre-blending, multi-disciplinary “Ladybug.” Pedal steel (courtesy of bandleader Al Menne's partner Jodi) stands in for sitar on the acid-dipped summer anthem, which is built for hot days and damp nights, cliff-diving into cold lakes, and spilling beer in your tent. The camaraderie between members of the once-nearly-defunct band is palpable as they howl at the proverbial moon, “Ladybug summer / Ladybug forever,” letting us join in on a fleeting ecstasy immortalized on tape, while name-dropping Donald Glover, Mama Duggar and Doctor Bronner across its choruses.
Allie Gregory
15. Ethel Cain
“Fuck Me Eyes”
(Daughters of Cain)
On Ethel Cain's album Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You, “Fuck Me Eyes” feels like what the big single “American Teenager” was to her breakout album Preacher's Daughter — the big-swing anthem that offers a soaring moment of pop catharsis amid the record's tendencies toward cinematic slow burns. A power ballad inspired by Kim Carnes's “Bette Davis Eyes” and Cain's own upbringing in a gossipy community in small-town America, “Fuck Me Eyes” is a portrait of a small-town teenage girl taunted by salacious rumours and a misogyny-laden reputation as the “town slut.” It's a character who's described as beautiful but desperately lonely, and that's exactly how this song sounds.
Adam Feibel
14. Hayley Williams
“True Believer”
(Post Atlantic)
Amidst constant political unrest, “True Believer” gracefully calls out religious hypocrisy: “They say that Jesus is the way but then they gave him a white face / So they don't have to pray to someone they deem lesser than them,” she sings with a chilling rawness, her smooth vocals carrying harsh truths that demand to be heard.
Kristin Breitkreutz
13. Jordan Firstman
“I wanna see my friends dicks”
(Openly Gay Productions / Universal Music Group)
Sure, “I wanna see my friends dicks” is a comedy song ripped from Jordan Firstman's DMs, but it holds a certain amount of vulnerability. Beneath its silly veil is commentary on male friendships, and morbid curiosity about the things you'll probably never know, but don't care enough to find out. In this world where nudity is unserious and unsexual, all there's left to do is fluff it up, throw on some electroclash and handle it.
Sydney Brasil
12. cootie catcher
“Friend of a friend”
(Cooked Raw)
At its innocent core, “Friend of a friend” is about the realization that our relationships are so surface-level these days that we've lost that craving for a deeper connection. This likely universal sentiment is conveyed through pure twee pop bliss with frolicking guitars, cooing electronic squiggles, frenzied drumming, and the three-headed vocal monster of Sophia Chavez, Anita Fowl and Nolan Jakupovski, making the song the crown jewel of cootie catcher's playful album Shy at first. Look for even bigger things in the near future from Toronto's hottest lo-fi indie-pop group, as the quartet have recently signed to Carpark Records.
Chris Gee
11. Lorde
“What Was That”
(Universal Music Group)
In the year of our Lorde 2025, she returned to us. Arriving four years after the mild reception to her psych folk record Solar Power, “What Was That” finds Lorde getting back to her shadowy electro pop roots. No, “What Was That” doesn't sound quite like the flashy bangers on Melodrama, but that doesn't mean it lacks intensity. “What Was That” has a humming energy that gets under your skin and leaves you raw and perfumed with cigarette smoke. It's enough to make you believe in Lorde again. Hallelujah.
Laura Stanley
10. Wet Leg
“catch these fists”
(Domino Recording Company)
Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers chose violence in 2025. The lead single from Wet Leg's sophomore album packs a literal punch: “catch these fists” is a pugilistic takedown of toxic masculinity and a lesson in saying no with your chest. It propels forward with a pulsating bass line and catchy guitar riffs, and it will have you purring “man down” under your breath for months. Always tongue in cheek, Teasdale and Chambers have become the perfect purveyors of modern-day “girl power.” It's bloody and bruising, but it's one hell of a fight.
Dylan Barnabe
9. Water from Your Eyes
“Playing Classics”
(Matador Records)
Leaning into the pop side of this experimental pop project, “Playing Classics” is the perfect distillation of Rachel Brown and Nate Amos's love for New Order and sad dance music. Over pulsing synths, a four-on-the-floor beat and wobbly piano, Brown deadpans about a seemingly inescapable crisis, where the only way out is through. There are echoes of Brooklyn's recent indie rock past in these grooves and plenty of nods to New York's broader role in the development of dance music in general. But for all its historical antecedents, “Playing Classics” is, for better or worse, pure 2025.
Ian Gormely
8. Marie Davidson
“Fun Times”
(Deewee)
If Madonna came up with MUTEK rather than Studio 54, she may have made something as left-field as “Fun Times.” What makes Marie Davidson's lead-off single from City of Clowns so absorbing is the way she subverts the Material Girl's populist songcraft while rejecting every institution in four minutes, including domestication, the ruling class and even tech bros. Sounding effortlessly cool over a thudding 4/4 electro beat, Davidson and Pierre Guerineau allow producers Soulwax to do what they do best, proving Davidson an unapologetic visionary.
Daniel Sylvester
7. Dijon
“Yamaha”
(R&R / Warner Records)
This was Dijon's year. An integral piece of Justin Bieber's back-to-back surprise albums SWAG and SWAG II, the 33-year-old singer-songwriter-producer also sandwiched the release of his own incredible sophomore album Baby between the two. Its climax is undoubtedly “Yamaha” — a record that exists in a place between time and space, feeling as cutting-edge and progressive as it does '80s-inspired and nostalgic. It's wholly original while also being as reminiscent of Prince and D'Angelo as it is Frank Ocean and Bon Iver. It's a psychedelic R&B experiment with the pop sensibilities to be a hit single, and a tour-de-force for one of the most exciting artists working today.
Wesley McLean
6. Jenny Hval
“To be a rose”
(4AD)
A rose is a cigarette, a cigarette is a mother, a mother is a memory — in the humid, heady world of Jenny Hval's “To be a rose,” scent memory is a mutating force that turns a smoke spiral into a dancing body, a microphone into a flower. Despite its conceptual density, Hval's otherworldly art pop always feels exceedingly human, and “To be a rose” is no different. As cigarette smoke drifts toward her from the crowd, Hval's reality, the very stage she stands on, dissolves into a haze of feeling — she is a child again, a performer, an artist, a gardener and a daughter.
Kaelen Bell
5. Olivia Dean
“Man I Need”
(Capitol Records)
This year, Olivia Dean skyrocketed into the mainstream, notching multiple hits, releasing an acclaimed album and earning her first Grammy nomination. “Man I Need” was the last single off the British singer's sophomore effort, The Art of Loving, and it boasts her nostalgic yet modern soul-pop sound. Accompanied by a lush piano, Dean playfully sings about not being afraid to ask for how she wants to be loved. The track is easy-listening, forward and fun, as she coos “talk to me” to her lover on repeat. In the summer, it took over TikTok, further catapulting Dean into stardom. “Man I Need” is a perfect thesis for a lot of Dean's work: through the chaos, there's someone out there who knows how to make us feel loved.
Heather Taylor-Singh
4. Ribbon Skirt
“Wrong Planet”
(Mint Records)
The perfect anthem for the end times, “Wrong Planet” is a scathing critique of the climate emergency and the emotional turmoil that comes with it. Dissonance is at the heart of the song, a track that presents emotional conflict through glaring opposites: feeling love, then none at all; having the right timing, but on the wrong planet, one that's actively falling apart. Tashiina Buswa's lyrics are delivered with a delicious, nihilistic bark, informed by the band's post-punk roots. The captivating outro includes Buswa's blood-curdling scream, a vehicle of femme rage that speaks to our collective failure to enact change, and the pain of bearing witness.
Em Medland-Marchen
3. Geese
“Taxes”
(Partisan Records / Play It Again Sam)
The most euphoric moment in music in 2025 is easy to identify: it comes 92 seconds into “Taxes,” when the song's anxious tom intro explodes into a triumphant, sublime crescendo. With lead warbler Cameron Winter absurdly comparing paying (possibly metaphorical) taxes to getting crucified, and screaming about ancient proverbs, “Taxes” is cryptic, a bit ridiculous, and the most glorious, zeitgeist-grabbing rock song in years. Much like the indie rock hits of old (think “Wake Up” or “I'll Believe in Anything”), it turns inscrutable lines into profound mantras by virtue of its earnest maximalism.
Alex Hudson
2. Alex G
“Afterlife”
(RCA Records)
Time comes to a standstill on Alex G's “Afterlife,” a track that breaks through the clouds and bathes everything it touches in warm, golden light. Giannascoli expertly weaves emotional threads of bittersweet nostalgia throughout the song's mandolin-driven melody, culminating in a chorus that blooms with pure catharsis. While he may be looking towards the heavens, “Afterlife's” light shines down on earth as Giannascoli recalls the prickle of tiger grass against skin and the flash of the TV screen. “When the light came big and bright, I began another life,” Giannascoli repeats, and when he sings, you can almost hear him smiling.
Karlie Rogers
1. Wednesday
“Elderberry Wine”
(Dead Oceans)
“Sweet song is a long con” runs away with the lyric-of-the-year honours; I firmly believe Wednesday should've had the lead single from Bleeds sequenced as its opening track, so those heartbreaking words would've been the first on the record. Karly Hartzman sings them without a hint of malice, as though it were an inevitable, objective fact she later found while combing through the vivid rolodex of unnerving retrospective details that should have predicted the end of her long-term relationship with guitarist MJ Lenderman.
While she doesn't specify that the old vehicle's AC was broken when she drove him to the airport with the e-brake on, the stifling summer air hangs heavy alongside Lenderman's chorus harmonies in the blistering countrified arrangement. It's a song that feels hard to remember having ever lived without: a dog days classic to return to for years to come as the bubbles flatten, a lack of careful reduction no longer neutralizing the season's poison.
Megan LaPierre
