Dry Cleaning: Secret Love review – the south London band double down on their haunting, peculiar brilliance

The standout act in the sprechgesang wave, the four-piece’s newly expansive sound carries singer Florence Shaw’s distinctive tales of mundane lives spiralling out of control

‘Being annoying is worse than being evil’: the high-octane, low-culture genius of indie duo Getdown Services

Scatological lyrics, social conscience and a shoutout from Walton Goggins – 2026 is going to be the laptop garage band’s year

Lily Allen’s live return, Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights and Simon Rattle’s Janáček: music to listen out for in 2026

Raye, Deftones and Yungblud do UK tours, Jill Scott returns for more neo-soul, and classical world gears up to celebrate György Kurtág at 100

‘Seeing all the work that goes into DIY scenes changed my life’: the bitterly optimistic indie-rock of Prewn

Like her forebears Fiona Apple and Giant Drag, Izzy Hagerup puts a distinctly twisty take on indie-rock, and is unafraid of dark emotional truths

The best songs of 2025 … you may not have heard

From a folk murder ballad to an impassioned call for peace, Guardian writers pick their favourite lesser-heard tracks of the year

‘We bonded over losing very good friends in our mid-20s’: the candid, shoegazey dream-pop of Snuggle

Heartbreak and humour combine in the Danish duo’s appealing blend of balladry, shoegaze and miminalist pop

Paranoia, pop-dubstep and perfectly odd gems: the best old music we discovered this year

Strange folk, lost pop, disco oddities and, um, Dido – here are the forgotten tracks that became this year’s most replayed revelations

‘It contains the greatest song ever about an ice cream truck’: readers’ favourite albums of 2025

The beautiful despair of Cameron Winter, the perfectly imperfect life of Lily Allen, the maximalist R&B of Dijon and more: here’s what our readers have had on heavy rotation

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 2 – CMAT: Euro-Country

Furiously angry and uproariously witty, the Irish singer’s third album was a high-water mark for pop, inspiring a TikTok dance craze and a triumphant set at Glastonbury

The 50 best albums of 2025: No 3 – Blood Orange: Essex Honey

Dev Hynes’ deeply personal response to his mother’s death embodied the many unexpected shades of grief in pastoral hymnals and post-punk

This Is Lorelei: Holo Boy review – sweet-sad songs from a new pearl of the US alt scene

One half of Water From Your Eyes re-records songs from the back catalogue of his other band, resulting in acoustic fare touched with regret and darkness

Dove Ellis: Blizzard review – Irish indie enigma’s glorious debut justifies the buzz

With shades of Jeff and Tim Buckley, the Galway-born artist writes tunes so strong they seem as familiar as old friends

The 20 best songs of 2025

This year’s outstanding tracks – from post-punk rap to indie-disco and operatic pop – as voted for by 30 Guardian music writers

Life in One Chord review – the Dunedin sound through the eyes of a music maverick

Based on a memoir by Straitjacket Fits frontman Shayne Carter, this documentary maps out the New Zealand town that birthed an indie movement

Cameron Winter review – Geese wunderkind whittles confident rearrangements in an intimate show

With two of the most-feted albums of the past 12 months under his belt, the New York singer-songwriter puts fresh spins on songs from his solo debut