40 Reliquias: The Best Songs of 2025

By: Josh Kitchen / December 9, 2025

Quiet rage, a thirst for art in a time of great political strife and unrest, finding love, community, and life through body, motion, and dance and in resistance. It's in these themes and ideas that the music of 2025 has come to solidify. From ROSALIA's aching yearning for beauty and love through pain by way of Vivaldian opera-pop, to Geese's alt-rock sins of their fathers bursting through in absolution and rage, to Japanese Breakfast's comedown from the highs of jubilation, the best songs this year were ones where we found solace in the worlds these songs built. Here are the year's 40 best.

40. Gospel Plough – Robert Plant

Robert Plant’s voice is something of a miracle. For over 60 years, he’s been belting that crisp, nasally wail, and while—like the rest of the legends of his era—he can’t quite hit the highest of the highs anymore, what he can do is just as remarkable. On “Gospel Plough,” from his excellent new album Saving Grace (his 12th solo record), Plant uses this traditional ballad to close out the album, delivering a haunting take on the gospel number alongside Suzi Dian, with Matt Worley’s banjo gently carrying them along. Plant’s voice is as strong here as it was on Zeppelin’s “Gallows Pole,” just down a register, leaving the listener feeling like they’ve stepped out of a gospel revival at dusk.

39. I've Got A Broken Heart - The Lemon Twigs

The Brothers D’Addario take us all the way back to 1965 on their newest single. A garage-band spin on a Revolver-era sound, The Twigs continue to surprise, leaning into their signature Byrds-style jingle-jangle with those chiming guitars, Brian and Michael manage to pull something wholly modern out of the McGuinn-influenced Lennon/McCartney mid-’60s folk-rock ether—delivering the perfect bit of ear candy to close out the year.

38. hov (unerthed) - toro y moi

“My advice to bring a coat,” Chaz Bear — aka Toro y Moi — sings on the stripped-down version of “HOV” from Unerthed, the unplugged reimagining of his excellent 2024 album Hole Erth. It’s good advice, because this version of Hole Erth hits even deeper, activating senses and emotions the original album touched on but with a much more honest and visceral intensity. On this version of “HOV,” Bear takes one of the album’s best tracks to even greater heights — a poetry slam where he’s an energy angel, biodegradable, and running with his whole gang searching for some romance in the night.

37. crows feast - pixel grip

Rita Lukea is the star of the opening track from Pixel Grip’s great 2025 album, Percepticide. She crushes her vocals across the entire record, with Tyler Ommen’s industrious drums and Jonathon Freund’s pulsing synths anchoring the sound. But on “Crows Feast,” Lukea pulls everything inward — her voice tender, sparse, and soaked in control and emotion. Even Davey Havoc of AFI has shouted out the track, and rightly so. It’s an elegant, gothic meditation—the calm before the storm on a record that only gets better with each listen.

36. Tyrant – Niis

Niis are one of the most exciting punk bands out of Los Angeles in a very long time, one pretty much having to see them live to believe them. Frontwoman Mimi Doe is a blast to behold, her flaming red hair weaving around stage as she prowls and scowls into the faces of her audience and at her bandmates. On their debut full length - Niis World, the band invites you into their perfect punk world that's free of fascists and in this case - tyrants. Tyrant is an album highlight, showcasing Ryan McGuffin's furious guitar playing, Izzy's speed fingers on her bass, and Jonathan Salvo's pounding drumming. "Kill the tyrant in your bed/Kill the tyrant, don't be led/Kill the tyrant, they want you dead," Doe screams. Next time you get a chance to see Niis - don't you miss' em.

35. T&A – Blondshell

Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum, who goes by the name Blondshell, feels like she's been making music for a whole lot longer than eight years. She's already established herself as an integral mainstay in the modern indie singer-songwriter post-grunge landscape, and on her sophomore effort, If You Asked for a Picture, Teitelbaum sounds as confident as ever, even when she's singing about her insecurities that make her accept a partner who's scummy enough to respond to her question of what he thinks of her by answering, "your tits and ass don't really hurt." It's raw and confessional in a way that Teitelbaum conveys so well. "Why don't the good ones love me," she continues as the song builds to a tidal wave that washes over you.

34. The Closer – Abby Kenna

New Jersey–born Los Angeles transplant Abby Kenna has been bubbling under the surface for about a year and a half now as she's begun dropping angst-filled tracks about honest, and sometimes very weird and wet moments with a partner, set to ’90s-inspired alt-rock pop riffs and drums. Think Shrek OST music, but in the absolute best way. On “The Closer” from her 2025 EP Spit!, Kenna spits (pun intended) savage declarations: “I think they're sick / I think they're soft / don't need you spitting in my mouth to make your name the last thing that I'll taste.” It's an infectious track, and one I find hard to shake. So stoked to see what Kenna does next.

33. Tina – Pulp

I could have put any song from Pulp's magnificent eighth album, More, on this list. "Spike Island" is as good as anything from This Is Hardcore. "Got To Have Love" would not have felt out of place on Different Class. But it's the desperate wails of Jarvis Cocker dreaming about a woman named Tina who he's never met, but is sure is his soul mate, that is right for this list. On "Tina," Cocker sings, "Do you remember walking past me in the snow?/Fourteen years ago/Or on the escalator last Saturday/You were wearing rainbow gloves/With matching socks/What a display of everyday sexuality." It's just creepy enough to be comical, and in perfect Pulp fashion. Backed with strings and a backing choir, "Tina" is classic Pulp, and it rewards on repeat listening. Well tonight and every night, I have been thinking about Pulp.

32. Picking Flowers – Sunday (1994)

Dream-pop three-piece outfit Sunday (1994) burst onto the scene in 2024 with their debut single, “Tired Boy,” and have released two full EPs since, with enough melancholic imagery and wordplay that Sylvia Plath would put her head in the oven all over again. (Trust me, it’s a lyric.) On “Picking Flowers” from their Devotion EP, lead singer Paige Turner gives her best vocal delivery yet, with gorgeous falsetto decrying a flower’s symbolism of life, love, and death.

31. Drowned In A Sea Of Tears – Sparks

The Brothers Mael are 80 and 77, and yet show absolutely no sign of slowing down as they released their 26th(!) studio album this year, Mad! Like almost every Sparks album, one can make a forceful argument for its inclusion in their top 10 albums, and choosing a song to represent the best of 2025 was itself a challenge. “Drowned in a Sea of Tears” feels right, however. “Tears” reminds more of music from Sparks’ soundtrack for Annette, and when listened to as you watch the smartly directed music video by Ambar Navarro, it only elevates the track, drawing the viewer’s eyes to beautiful shades of blue as Russell sings about drowning in a sea of tears.

30. Motion – Carriers

Curt Kiser, under the creative name Carriers, dropped their second album this year, and the entire thing is a glorious sad dad rock indie cornucopia that any fan of The National or War on Drugs will absolutely become obsessed with. In fact, Kiser can be heard on National albums and is a fellow Ohio native. On Motion, Kiser uses a drum machine to excellent effect with shimmering guitars and his signature impassioned vocal delivery that reminds a bit of Kurt Vile. "I need motion, part the ocean, walk us through, crescent moon," Kiser sings. It's a damn near classic on one of the year's best records. "Motion" makes you feel like it sure ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.

29. Lucky – Surfbort

DIY punk mainstays Surfbort return with what might be their best-sounding track to date — the mix here is so fucking good it almost feels like a different band, if not for lead singer and creative alien superstar Dani Miller’s signature slacker-snarl delivery on lines like, “I love it when you tell me God is gay, that your aunt was a metalhead back in the day.”

In the time since Surfbort’s last full-length, Miller has dropped solo tracks like the dance-floor banger “Fuck You I’m Hot,” along with great work as Trashworld with Ashley Smith. But this new Surfbort cut is a real tasty preview of what’s to come for the band in 2026.

28. Missing (feat. sharon van etten) – Jack Ladder

“What kind of man gets his kicks from singing about the bad things that happen to him?,” Jack Ladder asks on “Missing,” a sprawling six-minute ballad built around melancholic piano that recalls Weyes Blood’s “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody.” Ladder—Tim Rogers—dives inward rather than outward, circling the idea that maybe the thing he’s missing was never really there, his cavernous baritone lower than ever before. Joined by Sharon Van Etten, the track swells into something lush and cinematic, echoing classic Jimmy Webb, and is just one of the many highlights on his latest opus, Separation Rocks. It's hard to feel missing and alone when we have auteurs like Mr. Ladder consistently giving us top tier records like this one.

27. Gimme Time – Hannah Jadagu

Hannah Jadagu is having a good year. Her sophomore album, Describe, has hit all the right notes in the indiesphere and has started to blow up on TikTok. Describe is a vulnerable and confident record, filled with great hooks and vocal performances, but the standout here is “Gimme Time.” Jadagu’s time is very important to her — she told me earlier this year, “When I give someone my time, that means everything.” It’s a sentiment that draws the listener into the impressive and infectious track, with a chorus that will have you tapping your foot and bobbing your head.

26. Earthstar – Hannah Cohen

On Hannah Cohen’s first album in six years, Earthstar Mountain, she’s built a monumental record filled with dreamy soundscapes, crisp and wispy vocals, and incredible warmth and breadth. In just 37 minutes across ten songs, Cohen creates a world you won’t want to leave, complete with funky dance halls, tropical cafés, and vaudevillian stages. The title track, “Earthstar,” is about as magical as it gets — a kaleidoscopic keyboard circling jazzy drums and Cohen’s vocals soaring to impressive octaves as she sings, “I know who you are, it’s true / Part of me is always half of you / I, I see it now, clear as day / Riding out on our own waves, waves, waves,” with each “waves” answered by tide-like keys.

25. Throw Yourself to the Sword – Die Spitz

Ozzy Osbourne might be dead, but heavy metal surely is not — as evidenced by Die Spitz, one of the heaviest new bands doing it. Hailing from Austin, Texas, the all-female outfit has been making great hardcore sludge-metal and punk music for a couple of years now, but on their second record, Something to Consume, they hit all the right notes with a project that will leave you bloody, bruised, and begging for more. On “Throw Yourself to the Sword,” Ava Schrobilgen asks, “Do you ever wake up and find you’re missing something deep in your spine?” It’s a killer opening line that accompanies a sick riff, complete with face-melting solos throughout.

24. Ain’t Quite Right – Still Blank

Still Blank dropped their debut single this summer, "What About Jane?," and the mysterious duo have continued to put tracks out and now their debut self-titled album last month. With Interpol and PJ Harvey-esque riffs and soundscapes that remind of early 90's U2, Jordy and Ben, hailing from Hawaii and Manchester respectively, have hit on something both nostalgic and vital in "Ain't Quite Right." It's a pulsing anthem led by Jordy's soaring vocals and Ben's expansive guitar, that caught the ear of legendary producer Flood. Still Blank are absolutely a band to watch.

23. Potion – Djo

There are stranger things than a TV star moonlighting as a rock musician — and luckily, Joe Keery, a.k.a. Steve Harrington of the Scoop Troop of Hawkins, Indiana, is actually the real deal. Under the moniker Djo, Keery dropped his third album this year, The Crux, and it’s his best to date.

The record is filled with musical ideas of yesteryear, from the 1967 Beatles-kaleidoscope of “Charlie’s Garden” to the slow-burn, Foreigner-flavored “Egg,” but the inspirations only give way to Keery's fresh musical aspirations. The Crux is a statement of an artist more confident than ever. The standout is the Lindsey Buckingham–inspired “Potion,” complete with a whisper-soft falsetto floating over delicate acoustic plucking — a la “Never Going Back Again” — but filtered through Keery’s signature technicolor imagination.

22. Favourite Daughter – Lorde

Lorde returned this year with an album that is as honest as it is filled with hook-centric nonstop bangers. I believe this will be looked at in years to come as an underrated classic. Classic songs abound on Virgin — the tongue-in-cheek “What Was That,” the sparse and delicate “Man of the Year,” and the beautiful album closer, “David.” But the standout here is “Favourite Daughter.”

On “Daughter,” Lorde examines who she is in a world that’s hell-bent on defining her. “I was a singer, you were a fan, when no one gave a damn,” she sings over a Gary Glitter-esque drum track. It builds from there, her vocals expanding into a frenetic beat. Like the album cut “Shapeshifter,” Lorde is doing just that — evolving everything, everywhere, all at once.

21. No Front Teeth (feat. Aldous Harding) - Perfume Genius

Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, returned this year five years after the phenomenal Set My Heart On Fire Immediately with the even more insular Glory. Where Set My Heart On Fire featured vast synth chasms and dance beats, Glory is filled with crunchy guitar hooks and mystic prose. On “No Front Teeth,” which features the shapeshifting Aldous Harding, Hadreas taps into something universal and intrapersonal, Harding singing: “Better days let them touch me, let it take everything that I know,” before the track moves into a heavy, psychedelic guitar-and-drum loop that recalls late-era Beatles cuts like “Tomorrow Never Knows” or “She Said She Said.” Hadreas’ vocals here are tender and crisp, filled with vulnerability and restraint, an instant classic.

20. keep it, hold it - fka twigs

“Sometimes I wanna turn the other way, sometimes I feel so empty where I lay,” Tahliah Debrett Barnett whispers at the beginning of “Keep It, Hold It,” off her latest triumph EUSEXIA. The track builds slowly from there over otherworldly synths that pluck and hum beneath Barnett’s trance-like vocals. Eventually, the song explodes into a house-club trance that never lets you go. It’s a track that recalls Kate Bush mixed with The Chemical Brothers — a digital fantasy dreamscape that refuses to loosen its grip.

19. About To Begin – Barry Can’t Swim

Scottish electronic producer Joshua Spence Mainnie, better known as Barry Can't Swim, knows how to set a festival alight — delivering insane rhythms and hooks that have made him one of dance music’s most exciting new talents. His second album, Loner, is nonstop sweat and pulse, and on the outstanding “About to Begin,” Mainnie takes what works so well in his sets and gives you a glimpse of what a night on the club floor feels like. It’s nonstop electronic forward momentum, propelling you in a beat that holds you close and makes you never want to stop.

18. Bird on a Swing – Cory Hanson

Cory Hanson's latest opus, the George Harrison and Jackson Browne tinged I Love People is a remarkable record. It sounds like something you'd discover in your cool uncle's record collection, sounding familiar yet completely gobsmackingly current. The album opens with "Bird on a Swing," which washes over you in Hanson's tender soulful crooning and his guitar solo's, and Roy Bittanny piano rhythms. It's a killer track and one that will keep you wanting more of the kind of nostalgic, yet entirely fresh world that Hanson is so good at building.

17. Taxes – Geese

Cameron Winter and co. seem to be taking over the rock world these days. His Thom Yorke–y vocals and slacker delivery have sunk their hooks into the rock-and-roll faithful in a way that makes you believe that rock is indeed not dead — and might even be heading toward its greatest renaissance. Geese are good at making you believe in things like this, and on the great single “Taxes,” it’s not hard to chug the Kool-Aid. Their excellent record this year, Getting Killed, has plenty of moments that could rank among any band’s greatest, but on “Taxes,” Geese sound as confident as ever, launching into the kind of chorus that, in 20 years, will be played during their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction montage.

16. Real Thing – Drugdealer & Weyes Blood

Drugdealer — the stage name of psychedelic LA wizard Michael Collins — returned this year with two excellent singles, the first being the ’70s easy-listening- and disco-inspired “Real Thing.” Longtime collaborator Natalie Mering, aka Weyes Blood, takes the lead vocals on this gem, her out-of-time delivery taking “Real Thing” to groovy, candy-sweet heights. “Think I found someone who loves me / Somebody that's so proud that they found me / Someone who loves me in every way,” Mering sings, as the track closes with a Wings-era-inspired sax solo. This is, indeed, the real thing.

15. Nanaimo – Tei Shi

“‘Nanaimo’ is the perfect wrapping up of everything I was trying to say. It was where we made the album. We spent a week fully immersed in creating, and then stepped out. That song came directly from that experience," Tei Shi told me about the creation of her new album, Make Believe I Make Believe. “‘Nanaimo’ is a highlight on an album where Tei Shi is shining after putting music out for over a decade. It’s a soft and sparse lullaby—Tei Shi singing about her hometown in a dreamy and heart-wrenching meditation, a love song for the places that help make us who we are—places we never really leave altogether.

14. terminal (طرفي)– Automatic

On Is It Now?, Automatic's excellent third album, the band challenges the listener to think about their place in a world that's constantly being ground down by fascist capitalist oppressors, but in typical Automatic fashion, they'll lure you in with sweet grooves shining synth lines. The album’s most powerful statement comes in its closer, “Terminal (طرفي),” where guest vocalist Diana Quandour sings entirely in Arabic—a poignant act of solidarity that calls attention to the genocide in Palestine. It’s here that Automatic’s vision for Is It Now? feels complete: they refuse to give in to despair, holding on to joy in resistance.

13. Honey Water – Japanese Breakfast

If Japanese Breakfast's breakout third album, Jubilee was a joyous treatise on love and the sensual freedom found in living, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) is the comedown—but necessary follow-up record—proving you can have all the feelings Zauner sings about on Jubilee, even when the mood shifts. The grinding meditational dirge - “Honey Water” is one of Zauner's best tracks to date, and it's a serious highlight from Brunettes. Zauner drones, "so it goes, I don't mind," over and over," as the track reaches it's vicious crescendo, an extremely satisfying meditation on accepting what you can't change without having to sacrifice your dignity.

12. Rather Be - givēon

On “Rather Be,” the best song from GIVĒON’s second album, Beloved, he opens with lush horns and strings, immediately transporting you back to the great soul records of Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes. GIVĒON’s vocals are a cut above here, his delivery and control as good as ever. “Rather be a fool than believe in someone new / I’d rather be with you / Than the other half of someone who’s not even half of you,” GIVĒON belts, evoking the best heartbroken lyricism from the likes of Percy Sledge. It’s an immaculate track — and one that stands out as one of the best soul songs in years.

11. Illegal – PinkPantheress

“Hey! ooOOoooOOOooo, is this illegal?,” Victoria Beverly Walker — AKA PinkPantheress — croons in her bedroom-pop delivery in "Illegal," set to a sample of Underworld’s “Dark & Long.” It’s an infectious track that has been an earworm in the minds of millions who consume social media, myself included. The sample is a great example of Walker’s impressive taste — a student of the British underground techno and house scene, PinkPantheress uses creative samples like the Underworld one to masterful effect on her second mixtape, Fancy That. She’s such an exciting new talent, and I got the chance to see her perform at the Wiltern in Los Angeles this year, where the entire theater’s response to the first notes of “Illegal” was something I’ll never forget — a thunderous, explosive reaction that shook the room.

10. Playin’ Dumb – Tchotchke

"Let you explain how the world’s gone insane / And all the while, roll my eyes, hide my smile," Tchotchke slyly sing on the title track that appropriately closes their second full-length album, Playin' Dumb. The track shares the same kind of warmth and swelling arrangements the Beach Boys were laying out in the mid-’60s; it recalls “Different Drum” by Linda Ronstadt and her Stone Poneys, as well as great Beach Boys tracks like “Let Him Run Wild,” “The Little Girl I Once Knew,” and highlights from Pet Sounds. It plucks along in a way that would make Mike Love fret over ditching the formula. Anastasia Sanchez is a modern day Levon Helm delivering her signature candy crush vocals while drumming furiously, Eva Chambers' bass keeping the band in time and Emily Tooraen's slick guitar playing recalling Brian May. It’s impressive stuff and leaves the listener in disbelief that this music didn’t come out 50 years ago.

9. This Morning Six Rabbits Were Born – Goon

Kenny Becker had not planned to write about a breakup for Goon’s third album, Dream 3, but to paraphrase what Lennon sang, life often has other plans for you. Dream 3 is arguably the best record from Becker and co., filled with the band’s signature dream-pop sound but fuller and richer thanks to producer Claire Morrison. The album is full of tracks that wash over the listener, with Becker’s angelically high vocals, shoegazey guitar work, and beautifully poetic lyrics giving visions of worlds like our own but touched with hints of magic and wonder.

On “This Morning Six Rabbits Were Born,” a song whose title evokes just as much beauty as the track itself, Becker sings the verses with innocent grace, letting heavy guitar lines bridge them while he delivers lyrics like, “Everything rhymes / So bear this in mind / The hand of the devil behind / This time I’ll be sleeping in the pines.” It’s a gorgeous track that extends a hand to anyone looking for solace in the muck.

8. Pyramid of Health – Viagra Boys

Viagra Boys are having a moment. The Swedish punk outfit has been chugging along for a decade now, lead singer Sebastian Murphy shirtlessly shouting their abrasive and bizarre musings in clubs and festival tents for the die-hards who’ve grown to love them. On their fourth album, viagraboys, the band delivers a record that’s remarkable not for changing what made them interesting, but for doubling down on it — making a punk album full of melodic pop songs, with enough lyrics about food and World War II history to keep everyone happy.

The best track on a record full of “best tracks” is the gaudy “Pyramid of Health,” where Murphy invites the listener to “get real high, with your shrimp up in the sky,” as he invokes a little green worm, sacrificial goats, and cactuses for breakfast. The song builds into a frenzied groove that never lets you go. All hail the Shrimp Kings.

7. Perfect Celebrity – Lady Gaga

Mayhem from Lady Gaga is a complete triumph. On her seventh album, she returns to the goth-dance art-pop she perfected on her opus Born This Way, reinventing herself without abandoning what made her so popular in the first place — searching for the beauty in the dark and divine, with dancey hooks, synth drops, and vocal freakouts in the mayhem, to borrow the album’s title. She’s doing enough new and interesting things here to continue cementing herself as a visionary.

From the Bowie/Prince funk vibes on “Killah,” to the out-of-this-world lead single “Abra-Cadabra,” to the Michael Jackson–style groove on “Shadow of a Man,” Gaga is so fucking back. The best example of this is “Perfect Celebrity.” On this epic, Nine Inch Nails–esque track, Gaga sings about the ugliness of being a celebrity — being forced to play the game like a seal — while at the same time inviting you to dance in a techno-goth-rock odyssey. It’s one of Gaga’s best songs and one that helps cement her as a modern pop legend.

6. Elderberry Wine – Wednesday

North Carolina alt-rock icons Wednesday had a lot to live up to after their 2023 record Rat Saw God, and on Bleeds, they surely have. Karly Hartzman’s honest and oftentimes brutal lyricism reflects life in Greensboro and growing up in the South. Hartzman and bandmate — and fellow indie-rock god — MJ Lenderman broke up after the album was written, but you can tell listening to the record that things were not peaches and roses.

“But everybody gets along just fine / ’Cause the champagne tastes like elderberry wine / And the pink boiled eggs stay afloat in the brine / ’Cause even the best champagne still tastes like elderberry wine,” Hartzman sings over a country-tinged slide-guitar groove, letting listeners glimpse how even the most beautiful things can be tinged with an unspoken unraveling.

5. Mother of Riches – Cate Le Bon

Cate Le Bon’s Michelangelo Dying is a great example of an artist who is completely in the driver’s seat. Le Bon’s artistic instincts and songwriting are completely unbridled here, taking what was great in her most recent album and still finding new ground. On “Mother of Riches,” Le Bon treats the listener to a complicated synthesizer track that feels completely organic, recalling Peter Gabriel’s work on So but remaining wholly her own. An ’80s-style guitar accompanies it, managing to sonically transform into something almost like a guitar solo. “Mothers of riches / I got your letter and there's something wrong / I can't remember / What makes us elegant when love goes spare,” Le Bon sings to open the track, her vocals upfront and strong. It’s a cacophonous piece, and one that followers of Le Bon’s art-pop oeuvre will immediately find addicting.

4. Bloom Baby Bloom – Wolf Alice

Ellie Rowsell on Wolf Alice’s 2018 Blue Weekend is the same Ellie Rowsell of 2025’s The Clearing, but on The Clearing, it feels like Rowsell has reached her final form. On Blue Weekend and their previous albums, Rowsell was the band’s fearless rock frontwoman, slinging her axe around in ultimate guitar-hero fashion, her insanely impressive vocals taking songs like “Lipstick on the Glass” or “Smile” to epic heights. On The Clearing, Rowsell sheds the guitar-hero persona for one with more emotion on her sleeve. On the album’s first single and video, she prances around the stage like she’s in a theatrical production — dancing and acting in a way that makes it impossible to take your eyes off her, her gaze manic and ferocious.

The song begins with Freddie Mercury–style piano playing before shifting into an intense rock section, Rowsell screaming, “Look at me trying to play it hard / I'm so sick and tired of trying to play it hard,” before soaring to new heights in the chorus, belting, “I’ll bloom, baby, bloom / Watch me, yeah, you’ll see just what I’m worth / Yes, I’ll bloom, baby, bloom / Every flower needs to neighbor with the dirt.” It’s in this bridge between ferocity and ecstasy that Rowsell gets at what she’s trying to express — this is an album about rebirth and renewal, shedding her skin for a new one and finally ready to show the world her true self. It’s a brilliant track that grows more beautiful every time you hear it.

3. Bound to Rain – Ken Pomeroy

"Stay vague, my dear / Slap the face of the auctioneer / Selling countryside in a new frontier / Steer clear," Cherokee singer-songwriter Ken Pomeroy sings in the sparse intro in her warm acoustic ballad, "Bound To Rain." Pomeroy's voice is powerful—immensely pleasant to listen to, with authenticity in every note and octave. There is no vagueness in her voice; it's one you believe. When she first sings the chorus, drums kick in with electric guitar effects that fill the space like the rain beginning. It's going to be a stormy few minutes. Hailing from Moore, Oklahoma (about fifteen miles outside of Oklahoma City), Pomeroy released her second album this year, Cruel Joke, and it's a stunningly fresh set of songs.

Raised on John Denver, Gillian Welch, and stories from her Cherokee family, Cruel Joke is heavy on vivid storytelling and images of coyotes, calves, and Pomeroy's loyal pup, Wrango, who even gets their own love song. "Bound To Rain" was left off Cruel Joke, but it's an incredible track, with confident singing and writing. Pomeroy writes verses about people down on their luck, leaning on the age-old adage that when it’s raining, it’s pouring—but in a way only she can, using hyperlocal settings and imagery with outcomes that feel universal. While only 22, Pomeroy has been writing music for over a decade. On Cruel Joke, she's begun to make a serious name for herself in the alt-country scene, and people are noticing. On "Bound To Rain," Pomeroy drops her best song to date, and she's already begun writing the next album.

2. House (featuring John Cale) – Charli xcx & John Cale

The top two tracks on this list are exciting for a number of reasons, but something that links them is the inescapable influence of one of pop's greatest patron saints — Kate Bush. Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek, Cate Le Bon, ROSALÍA — we're living in a period where her influence is inescapable, hovering over pop culture like a ghost. Kate Bush is finally getting her cultural flowers. When Emerald Fennell called Charli XCX up to ask about making music for her adaptation of Wuthering Heights, it should be no surprise that she jumped at the chance to not just make one track but to build her entire post-brat era around it.

I'm probably not alone wondering what a Charli XCX cover of the timeless Kate Bush classic "Wuthering Heights" could sound like, but there is so much more there in the Emily Brontë novel to mine from. On “House,” XCX gives us the first look into what the rest of this album will sound like, and it's immediately apparent that it's going to be a special one. Along for the ride is Velvet Underground founder and art-pop patriarch John Cale, who gives a spoken-word performance for the first half of the track.

"What and who I really am / I'm a prisoner / To live for eternity / I was thinking, 'What is this place?'" Cale speaks quietly over monotonous strings that build until XCX unleashes into her part — "I think I'm gonna die in this house," over and over as an apocalyptic and industrial crescendo crashes into the quiet, building track.

Without spoiling the 178-year-old novel, one of the lead characters spends a lot of time in their house — living, dying, and haunting — ideas and imagery that are up front in “House.” The video features both XCX and Cale in a gothic house, enough imagery to fill all our goth hearts as we await the rest of the record and film.

1. Reliquia – ROSALÍA

On Lux, ROSALÍA leans into her classical training and has dropped a near-perfect pop album influenced by the likes of Kate Bush, Björk, Vivaldi, Bach, and Yves Tumor. It probably comes as no surprise that she even features two of those artists—(Bach and Vivaldi were unavailable)—and on the best track of the year, “Reliquia,” she almost nabbed the last one: Kate Bush. ROSALÍA released a working board of each track in a behind-the-scenes making-of LUX post with different dream guests for various songs. It included Lady Gaga, Björk, and on “Reliquia”—Kate Bush. ROSALÍA has spoken openly about Bush's influence, and it can be heard throughout the record. On “Reliquia,” ROSALÍA lists all the various items and pieces of her she leaves around the world, decrying her heart has never been hers, and hoping lovers and friends can keep parts of her when she's gone — their own relics of the art-pop genius.

Devotion is a recurring theme on Lux, continuing a long tradition starting with religious music that artists like Nick Cave, Robert Smith, and modern pop artists like Caroline Polachek and Weyes Blood lean into. It’s a perfect pop song — ROSALÍA's stunning operatic vocals weaving in and out of religious imagery and language, with strings that sound kissed by God.

She closes the song in a verse Bush could have written herself: “Running away from here, like I ran from Florida / We are dolphins jumping, going in and out / Of the scarlet and shining hoop of time / It's only a moment, it's only a moment / Eternal and fierce sea, the eternal song / It has neither an exit nor my forgiveness.” Lux feels like a completely natural evolution for ROSALÍA after Motomami, and yet still totally fresh, exciting, and surprising. On “Reliquia,” she’s given us a piece of music that will stand as the ultimate relic.

Listen to 40 Reliquias: The Best Songs of the Year below :