The Top 40 Songs of 2025 (Part 1 : 40-31)

This list is pretty straightforward; it's a list of the 40 catchiest songs that got the most airplay from me this year. These are the songs that I kept on repeat and got stuck in my head, which certainly factored in when ranking these albums in the big picture, only one artist on this list delivered an album that was underwhelming with the single as one of the only memorable songs on the album, but a great deal lies in how that was hyped leading up to the album's release. 

I have split this up into four more digestable play lists of 10 songs, each I think these songs all speak for themselves, so there is no need for me to wax poetic about what makes them great as their hooks will do that for them so take a listen and maybe these will be the melodies that haunt you when you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night so here we got with the top 40 songs of 2025. 

 40--Blut Aus Nord- "Shadows Breathe First." 

39-Deadguy- "New Best Friend." 

38-Hotline TNT  -"break right."

37-Viagra Boys - "Man Made of Meat."  

 

  36-Alice Cooper -"Black Mamba" 

35-Internal Bleeding "Settle all scores." 

 

34-RWAKE- You swore we'd always be together."

33-Propaghandi- "Cat Guy."

32-Dax Riggs -"Even the Stars Fall."

 

31-chokecherry- "You love it when" 

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The Top 10 Shoe-Gaze Albums of 2025

Shoe-gaze continues it's comeback, as it continues to  branch out into dream pop and post-rock so both of those are included in this list, it just makes for an easier title rather than the Top 10, Shoe gaze, dream pop, drugged out indie rock, and hipster post-rock albums of 2025, which is a lot. These are not the coolest, but the best, fuck what other blogs say,.   After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of  2025.The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list; and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway here are the top 10 Shoe gaze albums of 2025.

10-Soft Sun- "Eternal Sunshine" 

Gary Arce from Yawning Man started this band a couple of years ago, while he uses similar tones as he does in Yawning Man here, there is a more melodic shoegaze vibe, which is more song-focused. Thanks to the vocals of bassist Pia Isaksen, there is a fragile atmospheric drift that weaves sleepy melodies in the spaces left by the floating guitar parts. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/11/softsun-eternal-sunshine.html

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9-Slow Crush -"Thirst" 

The heavy shoegazers are back, and this time around, there are more emotional layers to the hovering croon of bassist Isa Holliday's dream-laden delivery. This album sounds great as it balances out the dynamics you want from this kind of 90s-inspired affair. They give her voice plenty of room to haunt the songs, as the drums and bass keep a driving backbone of fuzzed-out heft coming at you. This is the Belgian band's third trip into the studio, and they have mastered this, even throwing in things like a saxophone to create another layer of sound. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/slow-crush-thirst.html

  

8-they are gutting a body of water - "LOTTO" 

They open the album with a renewed commitment to sonic heaviness. It captures the genre's two greatest dynamics . The album experiments with the formula and employs effective dynamics while typically caring about the songs. A more balanced less obtuse album from this band. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/12/they-are-gutting-body-of-water-lotto.html

 

7-Mogwai-"Bad Fire" 

11 albums into their career, this Scottish band has a clear focus on their sonic journey. Vocals appear right from the first song, though they are more of a smooth texture that sits into the swirl of sound. I think there is some growth in terms of songwriting and how vocals are used here. After your first ten album you have to do something different to keep things fresh, which is what they are doing here. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/01/mogwai-bad-fire.html

 

 6-male// gaze - 'Too Late Now" 

Extreme pop is not a thing? That is what this band of spaced-out hipsters seems to think. The album goes from  easy listening with cinematic dream pop thrown in, the way the strings soar out of control like amped up Phil Spector  to more experimental forms of shoegaze. The drummer helps it all click. everything to click. To their credit, I appreciate their commitment to dynamics and going all out on the big choruses., with some screaming buried in the background. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/10/malegaze-too-late-now.html

 

5-Esses- "Pain at the Altar of Jest" 

This Portland-based band plays a stormy version of goth-infused rock that carries some heft that sometimes feels like a cross between Switchblade Symphony and Swans. The hypnotic throb of the tribal drumming and taunt guitars provides the web over which Kelly Correl's voice crawls. There is plenty of dynamic ebb and flow, with witchy vibes swirling around the cauldron of brooding. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/07/esses-pain-at-altar-of-jest.html

 

4-Swans- "Birthing" 

Listening to this album through headphones is recommended. This album is an event. \ it is not their best work, but it remembers to employ similar moods that bring them closer to the more classic sounds of the Jarboe era.  They step in a somewhat darker direction while placing emphasis on a spiritually resonating drone. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/swans-birthing.html

3-Shedfromthebody_"Everything Out There Has Teeth" 

A second album from this Finnish project is a surprise for the darkness of fall to spread over. Her voice continues to glide overly beautifully bleak passages, which is not far removed from where we left off with "Whisper and Wane".There is more grunge influence and a 90s feel overall at times on this one, it is  neck and neck with the more doom feeling January release.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/11/november-is-doom-shedfromthebody.html

2-Hot Line TNT- " Raspberry Moon" 

They have gone in a more Stone Roses direction for this one. In doing so, this means more melody. The vocals got more love in the studio and are crooned with less apathy. On the other hand, this album jangles more and has less punk rock left in its veins. The atmosphere is thicker and often more melancholic. They are in many ways the same band, but attacking things from a different direction. This means bringing a little more rock balls to the songs at times ,as the vocals carry a more surreal plea to their croon. The guitars have several interesting layers, and the overall production on this album is fantastic.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/hotline-tnt-raspberry-moon.html

1-Ethel Cain-  "Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You"

Not only the best shoe-gaze / post-rock album of the year , but perhaps the best album of the year. I don't think she set out to make a shoe-gaze album, which is what makes it so effective, the ethereal atmosphere just organically came about  thanks to the hypnotic drones that also incorporate pop and country music into the mix. Unlike Wednesday who takes jarring turn between the two genres, on this album you can't tell where one ends and the other begin as they are woven with such sonic beauty. As stated these albums are ranked according to how much I actually listened to them, and I listened to this album more than any other this year.  

I talk more about this album on our Top 5 Shoe-gaze album episode here... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iupLD4b-1zo

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/ethel-cain-willoughby-tucker-ill-always.html

Thanks for reading. Please "like" and share on social media to give music a voice 

https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns

Check out our Podcast here ... https://www.youtube.com/@abysmalhymns666

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The Top 10- Indie Rock / Shoe-Gaze Albums of 2025 ... so Far

As the Doomsday Clock races, time speeds up, as 2025 is at its midpoint. With the impending end of times comes the need to get high, and these bands are making substantial soundtracks for that. These lists serve as a decent snapshot of where the year is heading in terms of music. I have already received promos for albums dropping as far out as August in my inbox, so they will need to bring it to compete with the top five albums on this list. For the mid-year report card list, I'm combining shoegaze with its close cousin, indie rock.  So basically, they all are more surreal than post-punk, not punk, and left of center when it comes to rock n roll.  I have included links to full reviews if you want to check these out, and with all that said, here are the top 10 indie-rock / shoegaze albums of 2025 so far. 

10- Korean Cars -"#1" 

This band proves Norway is capable of exporting more music than metal. This band is are fantastic musicians weaving challenging but nuanced instrumentals that find most of the vocals are incidental, but creatively employed. If you like prog that flows and unfolds as it jams along, then these guys are worth a listen. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/korean-cars-1.html

9-Jaye Jayle-"After Alter"

 This project went from being Evan Patterson’s solo project that explored sounds outside of what he did in Young Widows, and has now become a full-fledged band. What makes this album work so well is its vision and artistic direction, not an album that rocks out, but an album that lurks within.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/01/jaye-jayle-after-alter.html

 

8-Black Country New Road - 'Forever Howlong" 

The third album from these British indie folksters who flirt with rock music less and indulge in more woodwinds and jazz-tinged passages this time around. The vocals are what anchors them in indie rock, as the more folk notions lie in the poetic melodies that run the center course of their songs.  Most of it flows really well and seems like how things just progressed. There is a more Beatles-like tone to things on this album. It reminds me of the more quaint pastoral moments from the White Album. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/04/black-country-new-road-forever-howlong.html

7-Smut -"Tomorrow Comes Crashing" 

The  Cincinnati-sourced band plays a raw punk-influenced take on indie rock that pulls from the more emotional side of 90s alternative rock. Tay Roebuck has both sugar and spice to her voice, with a syrupy knack for melodies that spill over the attack of the well-layered and intentionally lo-fi guitars.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/smut-tomorrow-comes-crashing.html

 

6-Mogwai- "The Bad Fire" 

11 albums into their career, this Scottish band has a clear focus on their sonic journey. Showing they still have room to grow when it comes to their willingness to use vocals again.They give you what you want from them. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/01/mogwai-bad-fire.html

5-Bleed -"s/t" 

This Texas band takes you back to the 90s in a weird, unexpected manner.  By unexpected, this does not mean I have not already seen the writing on the wall when it comes to nu-metal making a comeback. These guys just go about it differently. The flourishes of DJs spun, scratched ambiance at the edges of their throb point this band's sound in the direction of nu-metal. There is some darker tension to the grooves that the vocals coo over. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/04/bleed-st.html

4-Swans - "Birthing" 

Listening to this album through headphones is recommended. This album is an event. Almost more of an art show than a rock album. Not their best work, but it remembers to employ similar moods that bring them closer to the more classic sounds of the Jarboe era.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/swans-birthing.html

3-Hotline TNT - "Raspberry Moon"  

Going in a more Stone Roses direction for this one. In doing so, this means more melody. The vocals got more love in the studio and are crooned with less apathy. On the other hand, this album jangles more and has less punk rock left in its veins. The atmosphere is thicker and often more melancholic. They are in many ways the same band, but attacking things from a different direction. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/hotline-tnt-raspberry-moon.html

 

2-Sharon Von Ettan & the Attachment Theory- " s/t" 

This album was spawned from Sharon walking into band practice and asking to just jam. The magic of spontaneity in this experience showed her that relinquishing creative control and being more collaborative was so freeing for her that it invited her band to become a part of the more organic writing process for this album

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/01/sharon-von-etten-attachment-theory-st.html

       

1-Superheaven - "s/t" 

The third album by this band has built buzz with their first two albums. They have a 90s sound that occupies the middle road between grunge and shoegaze, recalling "Gish" era Smashing Pumpkins, but with a less androgynous vocal approach. This album it gives you what you want from this sort of 90s shoegaze rock. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/04/superheaven-st.html

Thanks for reading, please "like" and share on social media to give music a voice 

https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns

Check out our Podcast below 

https://www.youtube.com/@abysmalhymns666

pst290

Hotline Tnt : "Raspberry Moon"

 

They have gone in a more Stone Roses direction for this one. In doing so, this means more melody. The vocals got more love in the studio and are crooned with less apathy. On the other hand, this album jangles more and has less punk rock left in its veins. The atmosphere is thicker and often more melancholic. They are in many ways the same band, but attacking things from a different direction. This means bringing a little more rock balls to "the Scene," though the vocals carry a more surreal plea to their croon. The guitars have several interesting layers, and the overall production on this album is fantastic.

"Julia's War" finds the distortion ringing out brighter. The vocals are mixed forward. It's far from a pop song, but more accessible to indie rock audiences, despite the somewhat noisy guitars that give things a dissonant charm. "Letter to Heaven' is noisy and drifting in the droning strum of the guitar. "Break Right" is one of the album's strongest songs, thanks to where the vocals sit and the almsot 90s alt strum of the slacker guitar. The subdued vocal pattern is more syncopated. "Time Flies" works with a faster strum while the vocals go about things in a manner that has been most prevalent throughout this album. 

Things ring out in a very sonic manner for "Candle" but the vocals are jsut a texture that glides along with the guitars, nothing that hooks you in. "Dance the night away" does a better job of working the jangle into a song that has heart and tells a story more tangibly. There is a slight hint of emo in its sentiments as he sings about "heartbreak/ my valentine". There is a crisp strum to the guitar of the more Brit-pop influenced "Lawnmower". "Where U Been?" closes the album in a manner that could be described as dream pop, as it's more articulated in its arrangement than the droning wall of sound typically associated with shoegaze. I will give this album a 9.5; they continue to grow as songwriters, and this more shoegazing direction works well for the band. 

pst285

the Top 10 Shoe Gaze Albums of 2023

 

Shoe-gaze has seen a comeback this year, though as a genre it branches out into dream pop and post-rock so both of those are included in this list, it just makes for an easier title rather than the Top 10, Shoe gaze, dream pop, drugged out indie rock, and hipster post-rock albums of 2023, which is a lot. These are not the coolest, but the best, fuck what other blogs say,.   After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of the year. 2023. The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list; and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway here are the top 10 Shoe gaze albums of 2023.

10- Slowdive - "Everything is Alive" 

The British Shoe - gaze icons are releasing a new album and they packed their synths. Not to be bound by the rules of the sub-genre they help create. Only makes sense that Slowdive should see a groundswell of popularity with the resurgence of shoe-gaze, the facts being they are pound-for-pound a better band than My Bloody Valentine when it comes to just playing their damn instruments. It would be easy to assume that they would go straight to the top of the list , instead of getting what is more of an honorable mention spot, but that is where we are this year, some comebacks work more of hype that the rest of music media buys into. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/09/slowdive-everything-is-alive.html

9- A Horrible Death to a Horrible Man- "Days Gone By" 

It was my second listen to this album I put on the headphones to ingest all that they have going on. Some of this is more in your face than others. I would not say comparisons to Deafheaven are unfounded. They capture a similar static buzz. The downtrodden vocals have more in common with Interpol. This detached croon sits back in the mix. This also serves as a case for when the unique nature of the swirl they hit you with takes you into it's arms before you question the cause of the hypnosis.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/05/a-horrible-death-to-horrible-man-days.html

8-Iress - "Solace" 

I was a big fan of the band's 2020 album "Flaw".  This ep carries the kind of raw empty longing that the album did but finds them drifting in a more shoe-gazing direction. The guitar lays back rather than really attacking. Which I am fine with if it is giving Michelle Malley more room to flex her pipes. The best band you are likely not aware of. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/10/gothtober-iress-solace.html

 7- Explosions in the Sky - "End" 

 The Texas post-rock band's 8th album proves that to have had such a lasting career as an instrumental band they must be doing something right,. I listen to most music for vocals so it is normally hard to sell me on something like this. I came aboard as a fan in 2007 thanks to their album "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone" which has enough melancholy and longing in the guitars that it won me over. That same feeling is hinted at in this album while branching out into more expansive sounds. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/09/explosions-in-sky-end.html

6-Mad Honey - "Satellite Aphrodite" 

Oklahoma is not my first guess for where Shoe Gaze is going to be coming from, but it is as good of a place as any. There is a hazy web of effects and dense dreamy layers of guitar that recalls the early 90s soaking the rest of the album. Some verses are allowed to breathe amongst soft to louder dynamics in play. Vocalist Tiff Sutcliffe has plaintive coo that cuts through the layers of guitars swirling around her voice most of the time.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/09/mad-honey-satellite-aphrodite.html

  5- Hotline TNT - "Cartwheel" 

Here is a band that leans into the noise side of shoegaze that owes equal amounts to My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. Stone Roses is also a fair reference point regarding how the more prominent vocal melodies are handled. In many cases bands replicating this era of music focus more on capturing this sound and less on the song itself, which is not the case here,.This album solidified them as one of the major players in the current shoe-gaze revival today. Just cause they are hipsters from the Brooklyn scene doesn't mean there is no substance here.   

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/12/hotline-tnt-cartwheel.html

  4-Helga - "Wrapped In Mist" 

The first song from this Swedish band hits you with a lot. It takes what artists like Myrkur and to a lesser extent Chelsea Wolfe does and runs it through a filter of progressive metal. Thus bringing closer to what Marriages used to do, or even the Gathering. It is big-sounding and has a wonderful blend of dynamics. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/10/helga-wrapped-in-mist.html

3- Drop Nineteens -"Hard Light" 

 This Boston band came about back in 1990 and have read the room enough to know it's time to show the shoe-wave revival how it's done. They lay the atmosphere on perhaps thicker than most while still being able to write poppy songs when called to. This album shows how important they are to this genre, and deserves to be a name more widely mentioned when it comes to shoe-gaze. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/12/drop-nineteens-hard-light.html

2-Vulture Feather - "Liminal Fields" 

If Fugazi did not have Ian MacKaye's straight edge past haunting them and had done drugs while writing 'Steady Diet of Nothing" perhaps the result would not be unlike what unfolds on this album. This is a California band by way of Baltimore, which might be what preserves some of the integrity here. This is not to say they are a Fugazi tribute band by any means, the guitar jangles more like the Velvet Underground at times. The vocals have an expressive manner that reminds me of Shudder to Think though with none of the dramatic yodeling. There is that odd middle ground between emo, post-rock, and shoe-gaze that bands like Mineral and the Gloria Record also traversed, which is what is captured here

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/07/vulture-feather-liminal-fields.html

1- Give Up to Failure - "Cocoon" 

Here is another album that was never on my radar for the year, and no clue why it was not.  I was unsure what to expect going into this album, I just pressed play and was hit by a wonderful mix of dark sounds. This Polish band takes the ambiance of shoe-gaze and pumps it full of post-sludge muscle. The vocals are a depressive moan that is more often than not swallowed by reverb and mixed behind the guitars. They build off more epic shoe-gaze cascades and ebbs down to allow melodies to breathe. With depressing lyrics that seem to mull addiction.  They brought everything just right to earn their place here. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/10/give-up-to-failure-cocoon.html

Hotline TNT : "Cartwheel"

 This album just came out in November so you are not behind the times if you do not know who these kids are, even though this is their fourth album. Here is a band that leans into the noise side of shoegaze that owes equal amounts to My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. Stone Roses is also a fair reference point regarding how the more prominent vocal melodies are handled. In many cases bands replicating this era of music focus more on capturing this sound and less on the song itself, which is not the case here,. "I Thought You'd Change"  is more upbeat and poppy for what they do. The Stone Roses Brit Pop I referenced earlier is shown in a big way on "Beauty Filter" which sounds like a more straightforward Brit-pop song given the surreal sheen of dream pop ambiance. 

"History Channel" begins to make me think they sat down and wrote these songs with acoustics and then plugged into their effect after the face, which seems like a pretty solid songwriting formula that paying off here. Maybe there is even a My Bloody Valentine effects pedal you can step on these days that gives a normal song this woozy feeling. "Son In Law" makes you think it is going to be more upbeat before falling into the dreamy malaise that coats most of this album in the best way possible.  There are subtle dynamics that hide the fact they are rocking out. 

The loose jangle of "Out of Town" is the first song that does not connect with me as being perfect. It just feels like filler and less thoughtful. It doesn't suck they have just raised the bar for themselves on this album already. The distorted filter gives "Maxine" more of a muffled sound. This is when the lo-fi production begins to play against them. "That Was My Life" leans more into the Sonic Youth side of creating landscapes of sound. "Spot Me 100" finds them returning to more song-oriented waters. The vocal melody drifts more than what we have heard earlier in the album making the drums hold it together. 

"BMX" splits the difference at the intersection of where shoe-gaze and Brit-pop meet. The vocals are more deliberate which seems to be the key for what plays to their strength as a band. "StumP" closes the album with more of a pop feel. I will give this album a 9.5, as it has solidified them as one of the major players in the current shoe-gaze revival today. Just cause they are hipsters from the Brooklyn scene doesn't mean there is no substance here.