ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2025

Welcome, my friends, to the poll that never ends... until we get to number one and crown the scientifically-proven best song of the year.

We received 73 tracks ballots and 76 albums ballots this year. Thank you, voters!

Your team this year is me as your humble host, with Moka providing fabulous images and seandalai on organisation/tabulation/basically running this whole thing.

If anyone makes a spotify/youtube/apple etc playlist, please post the link and I'll add it to this post. We'll get started once I've had another cup of tea.

Youtube playlist

Spotify playlist

Qobuz playlist

Apple Music playlist

<3 em

let’s gooooo

I was too out of touch last year to consider nominating or voting, but I just wanted to drop in for a moment to say "love what you've done with the place!"

thank you all for doing this!

I was too out of touch last year to consider nominating or voting, but I just wanted to drop in for a moment to say "love what you've done with the place!"

― ⓓⓡ (Johnny Fever)

Save us, Johnny Fever!

We're going to kick off in style, with a song that I voted for...

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TIE 76. Ninajirachi - Fuck My Computer 110 points - 3 votes

Youtube video

Review link

“Fuck My Computer” is an assaultive dubstep rager that yearns for the days when you could download Adventure Club remixes for free from Hype Machine, and it arrives early enough into I Love My Computer that you can play it off, on first listen, as irony. But it quickly becomes clear that Wilson, who grew up in Kincumber, a regional town in New South Wales, Australia, is playing her album’s conceit straight; this is a concept record about Wilson’s relationship with her PC, emphasis on the P.

Fantastic opener. Thanks for all your work guys.

oh nice, a friend played some of this in the car on a road trip and I always meant to go back and check it out again

it's fun!

Ahhhh exciting! Thank you in advance pollrunners

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TIE 76. Metro Boomin ft. YKNIECE, BreSkii, DJ Spinz & Quavo - Take Me Thru Dere 110 points - 3 votes

Youtube video

Review link

The beat is classic Metro—dark, immersive, and instantly addictive. Quavo brings his signature melodic flow, delivering catchy lines that stick in your head. Breskii and YK Niece add fresh energy, balancing the track with unique voices and dynamic verses, while DJ Spinz ties it all together with his signature flair.

I like the opener and its little shooting sounds. Appropriate start.

yayyyy excited for this rollout!

Nice, will be listening

instant love for this Metro beat, sprightly chaos

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TIE 74. Smerz - Feisty 110 points - 4 votes

Youtube video

Review link

Time skips around when you’re on the verge of blacking out, and Stoltenberg’s droll narration glimpses the moments—checking your ass in the bathroom mirror, running into the guy you matched with on Tinder months ago, futilely petitioning the DJ to change the track—that disappear in a strobe flash. With chintzy string stabs and grime-caked live drums, she and Motzfeldt are on their ESG shit, and the only question worth taking seriously is Can you move to it?

Quavo’s verse makes that track, kind of meh on the rest of it

Thx y'all! I'm about to finally find out what Smerz sounds like.

xp I wasn't even paying attention to the rapping tbh, though I liked the chorus

So Smerz is early '00s nostalgia? I really don't like it, but now I know!

The thing with Smerz is I don't actually think their songs are very good (I say this as someone who absolutely loves a LOT of bands with very simple tunes and singers-who-can't-sing), but they are pretty good at creating a story and an atmosphere - is that enough? Not sure, but maybe.

(Also am I allowed to be opinionated on this thread while also doing the run-down?)

(If I get permission I promise not to just start calling you all idiots who chose the wrong songs. Pinky promise.)

honestly that is one of the things that has stopped me from stepping up to help poll-run. i'm afraid i'd poll-ruin with my snark.

Ha, despite being quite opinionated I am honestly pretty open to finding the merit of all music, or at least working out the appeal to other people... I think there was only one song from this 77 that made me turn to my partner and go "I HATE THIS" - see if you can guess which one it is when it turns up, that'll be a fun game for the rollout.

The thing with Smerz is I don't actually think their songs are very good (I say this as someone who absolutely loves a LOT of bands with very simple tunes and singers-who-can't-sing), but they are pretty good at creating a story and an atmosphere - is that enough? Not sure, but maybe.

Yeah, there's a certain charm to the amateurishness. Most of the time, it's not enough for me, but "Feisty" is an example where it does work.

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TIE 74. Amaarae - Fineshyt 110 points - 4 votes

Youtube video

Review link

Discussing “Fineshyt” in a press statement, Amaarae said: “1998 had ‘Blue’ by French duo Eiffel 65; 1999 had ‘Believe’ by Cher; and, at the turn of a new millennium, Modjo gave us ‘Lady’… I remember being a little girl in Ghana hearing ‘Believe’ by Cher and immediately being entranced. The hard-tuned vocals, the glittery dance beat, and that hook! Do you believe in life after love! What a sentiment. A true manifesto of life. My favorite thing to do as an artist is take an inspired concept and flip it on its head. In this case, ‘Fineshyt’ is ‘Believe’’s bad-ass play cousin or maybe its evil twin sister!”

heading off my annual “where is the american rap?” complaint at the pass, good job y’all.

metro’s album was a lot of fun, good mix of old and new and a big part of the revival of the 00s atl sound that kinda dominated rap last year

Fineshyt was either 19th or 20th on my list. great interpolations happening in that track.

Loving the clever '25' on these graphics. Kudos Moka again!

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73. Justin Bieber - DAISIES 110 points - 4 votes, 1 #1 vote

Youtube video

Review link

A jam session with guitar prodigy mk.gee where Bieber murmurs about a wishy-washy relationship. The yearning is palpable, but the actual connection is flimsy: the kind of relationship that feels better in your head than in your bed. But God, that yearning still hits, and mk.gee’s guitar chords and the marching percussion drive that odd middle ground between melancholy and infatuation.

making a youtube music playlist here: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLblxCtzm7x4pO9kjc7eAvJSEDgA0dulP0&si=i5KO5HtwnIABjm0O

Loving the clever '25' on these graphics. Kudos Moka again!

― nashwan, Monday, January 26, 2026 11:36 AM (sixteen minutes ago)

ahhh thanks for pointing that out! very cool

I voted for the Metro Boomin record. I didn't think it was dark at all I thought it was sprightly and informative

making a youtube music playlist here: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLblxCtzm7x4pO9kjc7eAvJSEDgA0dulP0&si=i5KO5HtwnIABjm0O

― silverfish

Thanks, silverfish!

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72. Miley Cyrus - The End Of The World 110 points - 5 votes

Youtube video

Review link

Cyrus’ latest offering opens with an electrifying disco-infused beat that immediately pulls you into a world where the apocalypse is merely an afterthought – at least for now. The track, written and produced by Cyrus herself alongside Shawn Everett, Michael Pollack, Jonathan Rado, and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley, has a timeless feel, with its rich layers of live strings, piano chords echoing ’70s glam, and a groovy bass line that gets under your skin. Yet, the real highlight here is the lyrics, which are at once a declaration of escapism and a love letter to a life lived fully.

I was a hater for far too long. "The End of the World" is a good one.

Started a Spotify list here, will update as it rolls.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/14SfcIVX1QxPRiio0JrUuW?si=db8506ce44da4e2a

Awesome, thank you!

Excited

thanks poll runners

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71. Rosalía - Berghain 112 points - 3 votes

Youtube video

Review link

Never before has Rosalía flexed her classical training this hard: composing in three languages, turning in a performance that’s almost all coloratura. “Berghain” feels as ambitious as Lux’s supposed four-movement structure, cantering from violin fireworks à la Vivaldi’s “Winter” to a pummeling Rite of Spring grand finale. Yves Tumor is here—to usher us into the final act—as is Björk, whose own gale force presence threatens to knock the song on its side like a two-dimensional façade.

i'm not a Miley hater, but i found that track sort of too limp pastiche for moi.

not sure any of my ten votes for tracks will make it, but hoping maybe a couple from my full albums ballot will

will power through the placements so far this evening

have a feeling a few of mine will place given the ilx hivemind, but there are definitely some i now know will definitely NOT place lol

this is the first time i can remember enjoying 7 poll placements all in a row

glad 'Berghain' is this low - not against it (tho it's quite a waste of its guests) but overhyped in many eoy lists

I really like 'Berghain' (and voted for it!) but I am a massive sucker for big pompy strings and operatic vox.

this is the first time i can remember enjoying 7 poll placements all in a row

― Parallel Heinz (Noodle Vague)

iirc you will also enjoy this next one...

i do like it, but there's something about opera in pop songs that makes my stomach feel weird

top 20 probably the least exciting portion of the rollout (which i think is more often than not the case?) but still cool. honestly there were also a few that i found surprisingly unremarkable for being that high, but so it goes. v nice winner tho and yes this is still the best year-end list poll i am aware of :)

"folded" my #1 is my highlight from today <3 "illegal" was my #2 and tbh i also thought it had a good chance to win

'Folded' is maybe the only actual (US) radio hit on here so far? Definitely the only one that civilian friends have brought up irl. Didn't vote for it but great tune.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Thursday, January 29, 2026 11:45 AM (seven hours ago)

I guess Shake It To the Max wasn't a US radio hit? no surprise, though ftr it's the only track on this list that I heard out in the streets of Montreal last summer

― obvious old hat (rob), Thursday, January 29, 2026 11:46 AM (seven hours ago)

"daisies" was a radio hit too. "shake it to the max" was also big for a time at rap stations altho some top 40 stations also started playing it (characteristically late, very recently actually) because it showed up on their moldy market research reports months after it was a streaming hit. rap radio also played (plays) "take me thru dere"

i don't think "vote splitting" was the problem for taylor swift as much as "musical quality", iirc she had nothing nominated until the last minute and even then it ended up being just the two (mediocre) hits + the 1 other song on the album that anyone here liked

also glad not to see "abracadabra" tbh. i've always been less enthusiastic than average about gaga but seeing consensus build around this completely average pop tune, with the oh-god-not-this-again nonsense syllable repetition + clanking pots and pans production was simply baffling to me

"yamaha" is a good song but idk i'm not that amazed by it. is it actually the best song on the album or just 'the only one structured like a conventional song'? idk, i listened to the album twice and enjoyed but didn't return to it much. not as excited about blonde-boy r&b as many here (tho i did vote for "daisies")

haven't listened to addison rae's album but have found her tunes good-not-great at best so far. some i'd heard that others were calling excellent were just ok to me so i think she's just not my thing

"shake it to the max" remix was THE one to vote for imo, original is also good but the extra verses add so much and moliy's verse is all the more impactful being saved for last like that

honestly i was shocked that “Mortals” made it into the top 10– don’t get me wrong, it was my #4, but hard to believe others were equally attracted to its weirdness.

Such a great, varied and unpredictable list this year. Thanks to the pollrunners for putting this all together. It has been a much needed distraction this week.

I have been extremely busy at work but able to pop my head in and even comment. Haven't been able to dive in but looking forward to discovering this last year.

thank you seandalai, emil.y and moka

10 Avalon Emerson - Eden
11 Neggy Gemmy - Mysterious Girl

2 new discoveries for me that I enjoyed. Checking out more of Avalon's stuff and super cool so far.

Another big thank you to emil.y, seandalai and moka for running this. it must be a lot of work and time out your weeks, but this really is one of my highlights of the year, so thanks again

Thanks to pollrunners and tbose who participated. As someone who has heard almost no 2025 music this was such a fun education. Shake it to the max, Mortals, and most of all the elaine howley tune for now make me hapoy.

Or happy for tbose who who care

I realise I was in a bit of a cynical mood yesterday. Previewing tracks while sitting at my work desk really isn't the best way to enjoy music. Had the playlist on in the background last night and found myself enjoying it a lot more. These things take a while to sink in sometimes.

So I'd like to revise some of my earlier thoughts:

Erika De Casier - Delusional
That Cypress Hill break is inspired

Sofia Kourtesis - Unidos
Yeah I just didn't have it turned up loud enough. Sounds great on headphones

Gelli Haha - Bounce House
This one threw me completely at first. I liked the bouncy melody but the vocal sits in a really strange place in the mix so it sounds indistinct over this bright, bouncy tune. But listening later I realised this is actually a good thing and a reason the song works. By the time her voice starts distorting in the last part, sounding like a Pinky'n'Perky Stevie Nicks, landing somewhere between agony and ecstasy, I'm sold

Rosalia - Divinize
Really like this now. It's a bit more understated than the overblown one with Bjork et al. Very beautiful

the things that the Elaine Howley made me think of when i first heard that song were Sugarcubes 'Birthday' and Julee Cruise 'Floating Into The Night', both hushed and intimate songs based on a little gentle bass guitar pattern (ok a Bass VI on the Julee Cruise), and y'know i don't think it's particularly overshadowed in that company

overshadowed is probably not quite the right word, i just mean it holds its own

also is that the mellotron flute on the Neggy Gemmy? or at least a mellotron plug-in? one of my favourite sounds ever, always gets me straight in the feels, the fact that the rest of the song is so good is almost just bonus for me

10 Avalon Emerson - Eden
11 Neggy Gemmy - Mysterious Girl

2 new discoveries for me that I enjoyed. Checking out more of Avalon's stuff and super cool so far.

Ms Emerson released another great tune last week and the album drops in March

Jupiter and Mars

thank you to the poll runners. great job

is there an imgur page with all the images? sorry if I missed it

I always assumed Avalon Emerson was some dull and worthy deep house DJ, but the two tracks that placed are really groovy and not at all what I expected

Further thanks to sean, emil.y and moka (and all voters) - this is a great list. I gave my #1 vote to 'Play' which has exhilarated since release and deserves all the love it gets here.

Really unexpected and great to see Elaine Howley catapulted into the top 10! Don't sleep on her album from 2022; it's a tiny marvel

listening to "mortals," and this is a totally wild song to make a year-end top ten poll haha

i dig it tho

we got full-on prog rock in the top 5 tbf! crazy times

one of the GOAT top 20s. good work gang

As a Saint Etienne fan, it was nice to see both a very good song from them place in this poll (and obviously it’ll be their last one ever to do so if I had to guess), but also Neggy Gemmy. She's pretty fantastic even with that name. I think there are probably some better songs from that album of hers, but this one is good.

When does the album poll start?

probably Monday 2nd February? start of the week

shmaali - my favourite discovery in the poll. banger

mangetout - the album art is genuinely scary to me, and kept me from listening to this. catchy song

blood orange - i like the hi-hat forward drums. very interesting blend of sounds happening here, but i wish it didn't stop/slow down/get quiet so much and just committed to locking in

laura groves - detecting notes of mcvie in her voice? very pretty

james k - i didn't listen to this album a bunch but i recognized it as one of the best of many projects at confluence of many buzzy sounds (breaks, electronica, late 90s-early 00s alt). personal fav being no joy. cool that many of the vancouver <-> melbourne people had a hand in this

wild sign i choose you - "a handsome man once said/that all the best songs sound like longing" is so funny to me. like not a wise man or a rich man or a powerful man, but a handsome man. the lyric i relate to most isn't the 17 year old voiceover but the "i want to live in a 1970s/80s/90s/2020s film"

bells - nice blue nile vibes, but badly in need of a beat drop

darkside - really funky. kind of thing i wouldn't have checked out on my own but glad the poll got me to listen to

shake it to the max - forgot to vote but it was one of my most listened to songs of the year. i misunderstood the first lyric of the song, thought he saying "ya pussy fart and now ya shart" for the longest time

neggy gemmy - this one passed me by without much of an impression

avalon emerson - i liked her techno stuff, didn't realize she'd pivoted so hard. i find this sound dull tbh

mortals - voted for this. admittedly kind of a novelty track, but i'm a sucker for this sort of goofing around. fun unpredictable melody

folded - should've been top 2

elaine howley - skipped

illegal - a song that makes me happy every time i listen to it

stereolab - didn't connect with this album at all. my friend who went to their show on this tour said it was a flop. revisiting this track is not converting me

yamaha - i started out completely in awe of this album but cooled on it over the year. he hit on something amazing, both production-wise and in the overall structure of the songs. but i think he has some weaknesses as a singer. and also tbh as a songwriter... some of his melodies are weak/corny. but this track is obvs unimpeachable

playing classics - agree with tables tbh, this one's a dud for me. i like the remix on the new ep though

headphones on - i fucked up and nommed diet pepsi not realizing it had placed last year but way more songs on this album could've placed itp imo. fame is a gun felt like "one of the songs of the year 2025" to me

smo - something i've always wondered. is ginger slang for something?

It means energy, being energized, pumped, that kind of thing

laura groves - detecting notes of mcvie in her voice? very pretty

interesting comment because her song "Sky At Night" has a part that reminds me of "Rhiannon"

thanks rob

enjoyed those summaries

"All the best ones sound like longing" is a bit of a mantra/motto for Real Lies. It crops up in quite a few of their songs xps

nice rundown flopson!

mangetout - the album art is genuinely scary to me, and kept me from listening to this

she kind of has demonic Mar a Lago face

elaine howley - skipped

fwiw I think you'd like this?

My first thought on hearing the start of the Neggy Gemmy was "Oh! 'Street Tuff' by Double Trouble and the Rebel MC!"

thx rob :)

she kind of has demonic Mar a Lago face

looking at it again i don't even know if it's supposed to be scary or if they just have an out there fashion style. but it gives me chills the way windowlicker or the trailer for the movie smile do

elaine howley - skipped
fwiw I think you'd like this?

ok i listened all the way through, it's good i'm just very a.d.d. when it comes to slow/gentle music. plus im browsing these polls caffeinated in my office

ha no worries, I def didn't listen to every track in full

i think my brain went the opposite way, i've got so little interest in things having "edge" nowadays, i'm too old for that shit

Conversely, the older I get the more I want things to smack me upside the head

I'm much more in the Noodle Vague mode, but I do like the occasional trip to annoying town

the only thing this poll was missing was the joke/fake-out placement which should have been "friend of mine" by rihanna (the smurfs one). it would have been perfect bc it was v warmly received here upon release then completely forgotten a week later after it did not become a hit

i think it was not nominated

i was hoping it would be the Ice Spice Spongebob song

"friend of mine" was maybe the funniest pop song this year and would have been a perfect joke placement yeah

Yes I agree with that, however a joke placement for “The Fate of Ophelia” would have had some layers of irony the song itself lacked

xpost ro CaaL: I dig Lola Young, too, although it resulted in awkwardity when my shuffle setting brought up her track "Fuck" while some friends and I were driving their kids to a soccer practice in a mini-SUV with one of those cartoonishly-large screens, and they both started yelling "LOOK, MOMMY - IT SAYS 'FUCK', DO YOU SEE THAT,'FUCK'!!'

While I didn't submit an albums list because most of what I liked last year was released as a single, or part of an EP (which hopefully appear on full-length albs this year), my 5 fave records among those that received ILM love* are all likely to be part of the 77: Rochelle Jordan, Men I Trust, and Wolf Alice amidst those already announced; with an Aussie non-somnolent art-piffler offering nomenclature of which the aforementioned Ms. Young would approve, and a fiddler venturing into assertive tempos rounding out the group.

*any fans of The Velveteers, King Mala, Niis, Instant Crush, or Tehya on here? Maybe I should take that q to another thread

lol at your carpool story

(I haven't heard of any of the artists you asked about)

oops, meant for the 77 albums thread

(and thanks!)

I liked Suck The Cherry from the tracks playlist xps

I’ve been so tied up with boring life shit over the last couple of months that I totally missed the rundown this year and only spotted the thread a couple of days ago.

However, thanks for cheering me up a bit with some great new discoveries as always gang. I DO NOT get Geese though, what are you thinking? :D