Top 50 of 2025: #5-1: A Duet, Aussie Indie Rock and 1/3 of Boy Genius

We are finally here…the top 5 tracks of 2025. It has been a long road with many posts and many songs…but these are the top five. Last year was the first time in top 50 history that a man made the top track with Peter Gabriel. Will that happen again? Who knows??? Well, I do…and you will by the time you are done reading this block of tracks. So, let’s stop wasting time.

5. Lorde: Man of the Year

Like clockwork Lorde is back with a new record four years after Solar Power. her new record Virgin is less fun in the sun and more unrelenting self-discovery and questioning identity. Man of the Year posits being stuck between gender roles and craving a rebirth into something new. In this track she walks in a haze questioning her identity and who will embrace her new truth as the “man of the year.” Like all of Lorde’s introspective songs she is surgical, personal and fearless. Being accompanied by sharp percussion, snarling guitars and overwhelming synth gives the track a weight and an epic quality I love. Lorde is an incredible artist who is always finding new stories and themes to explore in very record…let’s just hope she doesn’t wait four years for the next one.

4. Courtney Barnett: Stay in Your Lane

I thought Courtney Barnett was finished releasing new music, so I was overjoyed to see Stay in Your Lane. Australia’s indie cross between Bob Dylan and Patti Smith is back with another high energy track proving that Aussie punk/rock is not dead. Her brand of slacker punk guitar organically snarling and crunching like some Rottweiler playing at the beach is the core of this track and really pushes it. Most importantly, her unique writing continues to elevate the everyday and gives us some of the best lines “Feel like a fish on a hook / I’m crying like a child would.” This is a song about how getting into other’s people’s business before you have worked through your own issues can spell disaster. Barnett has the gift of both making her songs relatable, while also elevating them with excellent writing and mesmerising guitar work. I hope this single leads to an EP or LP that we can dig into.

3. Ethel Cain: Nettles

Ethel Cain has been on the top 50 before with her breakout hit American Teenager. Nettles moves away from indie rock to somewhere between country folk introspection and a funeral dirge. This over 8 minute epic is slowed way down, which allows Cain’s vocal to soar and dip as it beautifully dances around slide guitar and some casual percussion. Her vocal on this track is impeccable. The vulnerability, fragility and beauty she shows while singing about death, society’s hatred of others, violence, identity and human connection is what makes this track so powerful. You immediately connect with Cain as she takes you on an emotional journey of both highs and lows throughout the 8 minutes. It is a risk slowing down and stretching a track out like this, but it pays off in how the space gives both you and Ethel room to fully explore the story she’s telling.

2. Lucy Dacus: Ankles

Who said indie women singer songwriters can’t be sexy? Not me. This track about sex, crosswords and tea is a blast. Full of baroque strings Dacus sings about physically demanding sex with her partner, but also the more mundane aspects of a relationship that make it work. For her, the mind blowing sex is on par with doing crosswords in the morning and talking about how they slept. This is a twist on the usual sex song where it is all about hot sex and the rest of the relationship is offstage somewhere. For Dacus this isn’t realistic. Love is not just about the physical, but is about it all. It’s about the quieter moments of connection and care that sustain us.

1. Bon Iver ft. Danielle Haim: If Only I Could Wait

The first time I heard this track I knew it was going to be the top track of 2025. It is only the second time a man is number 1…but it is a little cheat because Danielle Haim from HAIM is on the track as well. Justin Vernon’s vocal is at it’s best on this track. His vocal range is out of this world as he will jump from his powerful bass to his 70s funk-esque/emotionally gripping falcetto. I love the power behind his vocal and how it is up front and centre in the mix. He has such a presence on the track and shares the stage well with Danielle who is instantly gripping in her performance. We saw on Exile with Taylor Swift that Vernon can perform really well in a duet and this track is further proof that we need more duets from him. When they both come together in the track’s third act it is pure magic. Also, for once he is not singing about a relationship that fell apart or one that he is not able to fully realise. This is a song about being excited for a relationship and how they are both excited to see each other…it’s great to see love getting a pat on the back on this track. Even though this is an understated track, it is by far my favourite track of the year and deserving of being number 1.

That’s it! Thanks for sticking with me and now you have 50 tracks to check out. But, don’t go too far…we need to count through the tracks I missed. That’s right, tune in next week for the beginning of the OOPS! 50. By the end of it you’ll have 100 tracks to take you through 2025.