Songs about new beginnings – ranked!
From CMAT and the Carpenters’ fresh starts to the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun and Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, starting again is a rich theme in pop. Here are some of the best examples
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