In these 100 songs, you’ll hear lusty dubstep, quietly subversive digital pop, regional rap bangers, alt-country odysseys, ubiquitous chart-toppers, and far more. We had been drawn to songs this 12 months that expanded the toolkits of genres that we’ve lined for many years—all in service, very often, of unspooling the mysteries of affection and human connection.
Take a look at all of Pitchfork’s 2025 wrap-up protection right here.
100.
gyrofield: “Vegetation Grows Thick”
gyrofield began off making drum’n’bass, however on this 12 months’s Suspension of Perception EP, the music comes unglued from these strict rhythms and types into one thing stickier, extra pliable. It’s proper there within the title of the primary observe, “Vegetation Grows Thick,” whose textures really feel like mutant natural tissue. With dusty hip-hop drums straightened out and sped up, it feels a bit like an outdated Mo’ Wax document left in a humid attic till it grew mildew in its grooves—humid, buzzed, and a bit of blissed-out in its spongy transformation. It’s a head rush grounded within the earth, electronics working via soil and sending messages to god is aware of the place. –Andrew Ryce
Hear: gyrofield, “Vegetation Grows Thick”
99.
Tortoise: “Oganesson”
Tortoise’s first new music in 9 years slinked and shimmied into existence. With a bobbing and weaving bassline, watercolor guitar strums, and a 7/4 rhythm that stubbornly refuses to resolve, the music appears like it’s tumbling ahead in perpetual movement. Like its mum or dad album Contact, the fantastic thing about “Oganesson” is in its penumbral qualities: a spinning dream machine that glints between gentle and shade. In time-honored Tortoise style, the band dropped “Oganesson” alongside a collection of remixes—principally notably, one by Saul Williams that lent this instrumental band a brand new political voice, drawing strains between division at house and destruction overseas: “These bombs are welfare/Come accumulate your shrapnel.” –Louis Pattison
Hear: Tortoise, “Oganesson”
98.
Morgan Wallen / Publish Malone: “I Ain’t Comin’ Again”
Right here is the place “I Ain’t Comin’ Again,” Morgan Wallen and Publish Malone’s second blame-shifting duet, goes from a superbly serviceable nation radio hit to an awesome music: “There’s a lotta causes I ain’t Jesus, however the principle one is that I ain’t comin’ again.” It’s a rattling close to excellent line, one which’s humorous and sounds prefer it was written and sung with an enormous ol’ shit-eatin’ grin. And it’s simply lengthy and uneven sufficient to make you need to recite each single phrase, reminding you that this breezy single from the black sheep of mainstream nation was ridiculously launched on Good Friday. –Matthew Strauss
