From the hottest new singles to tried-and-tested tracks, Songs You Need to Know is Rolling Stone Philippines’ weekly round-up of the best music right now.
To cap off the year, our staff reviewed all 85 songs covered in our weekly round-up between August 5 and November 21 through a rigorous two-phase voting process based on a points system. The result is a curated list of 25 tracks, featuring 12 Filipino acts and 13 foreign artists, with nearly 70 percent representing FLINTA — an inclusive term for women, femme, queer, trans, and non-binary artists.
While this methodology ensured a diverse list, it also has its limitations. As the column was first published in August 2025, it may have missed key songs released earlier in the year. To stay true to our coverage, we retained only what was included since the column’s inception. For a wider view of the year’s standout Filipino tracks, we recommend checking out our other list, 20 Best Filipino Songs of 2025, According to Critics.
So, if you’re expecting to see your favorites on this list, throw those expectations out the window. Come in with an open mind, because we hope this list will inspire curiosity, and help you discover something new for your musical canon.
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A glitchy, minimalist club track that goes super fast and slow
Released in August, Oli XL’s “DRIFT REGALIA,” from his album Lick the Lens – Pt.1, features a collaboration that feels written in the stars. When paired with james K’s vaporous vocals, Oli XL’s fractal production stretches time in multiple directions at once. At a satisfying half-time feel of 140 BPM, the track’s skeletal kicks simultaneously race forward while flickering back into negative-space ambience, creating a sense of suspension that is full of emotional weight.
As a glitchy, minimalist club track, “DRIFT REGALIA” gestures toward an exciting new direction in electronic music: the whip of hip-hop — that head-shaking, side-nodding momentum — meets the weightlessness of a feather. As you will see in this list, this mash-up approach to genres became a defining characteristic of music in 2025, and “DRIFT REGALIA” is, for us, a foundational track that shows what is possible in 2026. —Sai Versailles
Babe, wake up: The latest prog pop masterpiece just dropped
“Second Sleep” lands at a moment when art pop is leaning harder into texture and world-building, and Magdalena Bay sits at the center of that shift. In 2025, the genre’s most exciting work has come from artists who break away from maximalist habits and focus on clarity, and the duo captures that direction without losing the curiosity that made them stand out. The latest single builds on the duo’s Imaginal Disk momentum by scaling back and leaning into a softer, dreamier strain of art pop.
Matthew Lewin’s production folds in pianos and guitar lines that flirt with Steely Dan polish, while Mica Tenenbaum carries the track with a vocal performance that’s equally dizzying alongside the instrumentals. Almost like she is narrating a half-remembered dream, it is a song that pushes into a prog pop lane without treating the concept like homework.
“Second Sleep” feels like the blueprint for artists trying to merge precision and playfulness. Magdalena Bay makes it sound effortless, as if they can pivot toward a new idea whenever they want and stick the landing. —Elijah Pareño
Folk-pop written like “Dear Diary…”
Chezka has a way of keeping things close to the chest without losing the thread. This year’s listening landscape has tilted toward songs that feel like private conversations, and “Gently” fits that climate cleanly. It speaks to a generation that processes everything online but still searches for music that feels personal.
Chezka’s voice wavers in soft tones supported by a guitar section that moves lightly without feeling ornamental. The song feels like a moment suspended in air, the kind of introspection people lean into when they realize healing takes longer than they hoped. There is no attempt to scale the emotion upward or chase a grand payoff. Chezka keeps everything intimate and grounded. —Elijah Pareño
Road trip-ready, cinematic, and unabashedly smitten
In April, film studio A24 announced the coming of A24 Music, almost a whole year after original tracks were released under the music label for the 2024 thriller I Saw The TV Glow. In June, American indie pop band Japanese Breakfast added “My Baby (Got Nothing At All),” off the Materialists soundtrack, to A24 Music’s growing catalog.
The song is fun to sing along to. Like much of Japanese Breakfast’s work in the albums For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) and Jubilee, “My Baby” is tinged with folk and bluesy rock. Here, vocalist and Crying in H Mart author Michelle Zauner sings sweetly, almost coquettishly, about her broke man: “My baby, he don’t got nothing to give / but he gives it to me.” It’s a great track to put on during road trips, and as a needle drop in a romcom-drama that explores class, “My Baby” is just perfect. —Pie Gonzaga
Official shy guy anthem of 2025
Waiian cracks open a new lane for himself in “SOFTIE,” even if he jokes about sounding corny the moment he tries to sing. When Waiian released BACKSHOTS back in March, a lot of folks expected therapy-speak and motivational quotes, but listeners got a rapper having so much fun.
He trades his usual flex-heavy delivery for something looser and more self-aware. Nicole Anjela’s vocals slide in as the perfect foil, smoothing the edges of Waiian’s awkward charm until the entire track feels like a push and pull between bravado and softness.
“SOFTIE” becomes the shy guy anthem that never winks too hard at its own premise. Waiian leans into vulnerability without turning it into a bit, and Anjela takes over the second half with a swagger that lifts the whole track. Together, they build something playful and disarming, proof that Waiian can drop the mask without losing the spark that made him stand out. —Elijah Pareño
A hypnotic cut of Manila house music
Clocking in at nearly seven minutes, Bins’ “Body Satisfaction” sets the tone for The Body Project, the Filipino producer-DJ’s four-track sophomore EP. Built on psychedelic deep-house layers, the track glides in euphoria, led by a rubbery bassline, a healthy amount of percussion, and a sultry sample from the 1988 house track “Give A Little More Body Action.” Released under Manila indie imprint Twelve Points Records, it offers a heavier, more deliberate pulse than much of the city’s high-energy dance output.
Whether it’s the erratic return of electroclash or the subdued and more heady electronica, 2025 saw dance music being pulled into various sonic directions. Whatever path that may lead, Bins reminds listeners to stay in tune with your body as he stretches time and tension in this hypnotic dance track. This song isn’t on Spotify, so go listen to it on Bandcamp or SoundCloud. —Pie Gonzaga
Explosive pop-rock with a smooth landing
Hayley Williams’ “Parachute” glides in a dreamy, crystalline haze, weathering emotional storms before preparing for a smooth landing. As the 18th track on her third solo album, Ego Death at the Bachelorette Party, released in September, the song sees Williams transcending the shadow of her Paramore legacy to prove she can continue to stand firmly on her own.
“Parachute” lets Williams finesse her signature rock sensibilities with pop-narrative tenderness, where hurt is deceptively hidden beneath the song’s shimmer (“I thought you were gonna catch me / I never stopped falling for you / Now I know better, never let me / Leave home without a parachute”). As the track builds toward its climactic bridge, it sweeps listeners off their feet with explosive, moody guitar shreds, making “Parachute” both a headbanger and an earworm all at once.
In a year full of genre mash-ups, “Parachute” sees Williams knowing what she’s good at, which she cuts through with precision and clarity. —Sai Versailles
Experimental Filipino grunge meets funky jazz
SABINE’s “Pretty Like a Boy” is hard to pin down. Its lyrics examine genre fluidity in a way that is both sharp and tender, creating a tapestry of small details that push against our tendency to compartmentalize (“Saltwater taffy, sugar in coffee / Never staying the same / But maybe that’s the joy”). Not only is it witty, but its rhythm is strangely seductive, carrying an air of mystique that keeps you guessing (“I wanna be / Your confusion / Let me be / Your solution”).
Then there’s the sound. SABINE’s hushed vocal delivery confidently straddles explosively distorted grunge and smooth-like-butter funk and jazz, layering small details that — like the lyrics — refuse to stay in one place. The singular clap of drumsticks, for instance, punctuates each stanza and reappears in the track’s bluesy bridge — a particularly nice touch, as if teasing a four-beat rhythm without ever fully landing. There’s also the heart monitor flatlining near the end, seemingly placed to advance the story without relying on words, before the song leaps into its final chorus.
To see this kind of experimental mastery from a twenty-something artist from Manila is fiercely exciting, and something I’d personally like to see more of in 2026. —Sai Versailles
Whimsical, buoyant, and irresistibly groovy
This was a big year for French artist Oklou (pronounced “okay, Lou,” if you’re still confused). After releasing her third album, choke enough, in February, Marylou Mayniel gave birth to a son in mid-2025, and then released the album’s deluxe edition, which features a collaboration with FKA twigs.
One of choke enough’s defining tracks is “ict,” which stands for “ice cream truck” and served as the opener to her Tiny Desk Concert on National Public Radio (NPR) in October. It opens with an anachronistic trumpet melody that transports the listener centuries back, only to pull them into a more timeless space with atmospheric synths, a bubbly arpeggiator, a fluid bassline, and Oklou’s gossamer vocals. Co-produced by English producer A.G. Cook, “ict” reminds us there’s whimsy in dance music. —Pie Gonzaga
Essential Filipino disco education
In the hopes that you, the reader, will discover something new for your musical canon, our Songs You Need to Know list isn’t solely reserved for the latest releases. During our voting and deliberation process, Black Opinion’s “Bahay Yugyugan” set itself apart as the only track in our year-ender lineup that wasn’t released in 2025, making it essential music education for Filipino listeners today.
Released in 1978 under Canary Records, the Filipino group consisted of vocalists Cesar Hermosa and Yolly Luib; guitarists Boy Jongko and Vic Omila; keyboardists Ebot Santos and Lito Deseo; drummer Vic Jongko; and bassist Bonggie Valenzuela.
Despite a digital re-release in 2012 by PolyEast Records, very little is documented about the band, but listeners would benefit from a repeat listen of “Bahay Yugyugan,” which captures the relentless disco spirit that dominated Filipino dance music in the ‘70s and ‘80s. With its warm, melodic brass; funky, almost sticky bassline; and commanding vocal presence, the track calls all bodies to the dance floor and threatens to shake the house down.
While Filipino house and techno music had its moment in 2025, our country’s homegrown disco is long overdue for a revival. —Sai Versailles
A swaggy genre-bender about the existential crisis of new kicks
In August, Steve Lacy — the Filipino-American singer-songwriter and guitarist of The Internet — dropped “Nice Shoes,” the lead single from his upcoming third solo album Oh Yeah?, first announced in Rolling Stone’s September 2025 cover story. Since then, fans have been eagerly waiting for the full release, flooding Instagram posts of his new haircut or a grainy full moon with comments like “RELEASE THE ALBUM ALREADY.”
If “Nice Shoes” is any indicator of what to expect from Oh Yeah?, it’s swaggy in the most cool, calm, and collected way possible. A song about contentment, or the lack thereof, the track teeters between playful and melancholic as Lacy’s smooth vocals and the choppy breakbeat make for head-bopping contemplation: “Crazy, how you could be sad and not notice / All I need is my guitar and serotonin / Even when I clear my head to make room / Still feel claustrophobia, I can’t move / Can you make it stop?”
Like many of the tracks on this list, “Nice Shoes” experiments with genre and pace, which speaks to the shape-shifting direction of music in 2025.—Sai Versailles
Learning from the master of British avant-pop
“Vivid Light” is Dev Hynes’ Blood Orange at his most distilled form. The track opens with a warmth that feels deceptively simple before widening into a layered, textured space that carries traces of everyone he has collaborated with through the years.
There is a looseness to his songwriting here; the arrangement grows in small pulses, like a street scene unfolding one detail at a time. The percussion pans across the mix with a hand-played intimacy that makes the track feel lived in. Hynes has cycled through so many musical selves that the sharp lines between past and present feel irrelevant now. “Vivid Light” settles into a sound that is unmistakably his, rooted in Black avant-pop while still welcoming new sounds into the fold. Blood Orange’s presence in the music scene is a reminder of how much depth he can summon when he pulls things back.
“Vivid Light” hits at a moment when a lot of alternative R&B has drifted toward maximal gloss, and Hynes responds by stripping everything to its emotional core. It is a reminder that intimacy can still lead the conversation in 2025. —Elijah Pareño
Biblically accurate Y2K sound
Y2K has been having a moment. But now that we’re past the trend’s 20-year cycle, the aesthetic is entering a reckoning point, forcing us to distinguish what’s truly evergreen from what’s merely pastiche. But arguably, Y2K has yet to permeate music in the same way it has fashion and design — and After, the Los Angeles–based duo who describe themselves as “Massive Attack meets Michelle Branch,” might just be leading the charge, despite only forming in 2023.
Released in October, their track “Deep Diving” carries a hint of Lisa Loeb’s suspended chord progressions in “Stay (I Missed You),” except with bubbly, floating synths and a lo-fi breakbeat that unmistakably calls back to softer strands of trip-hop, like in Morcheeba’s 1998 album Big Calm. It feels almost sinful to hear a sound so biblically accurate to the 2000s; even the music video bears the high-contrast treatment so prevalent in Y2K sub-styles like Frutiger Aero and Gen X soft club. And while some may dismiss “Deep Diving” as pastiche, it’s part of the art that makes After so brilliant.
With artists like Erika de Casier, FKA Twigs, Eartheater putting their own modern spin on trip-hop and Y2K-inspired pop, it feels like high time to reinvent both genres. It would be too much of a waste to let that lineage remain trapped in a brief blip of music history, which was quickly superseded by indie sleaze and bloghouse. —Sai Versailles
Bouncy and menacing, Clipse and Pharrell level up with Kendrick
If you believe American hip-hop is in a slump, full of ego and devoid of the social commentary that once made it subversive, then the reunion album of Clipse might just be the thing that’ll change your mind.
After 16 years of silence, 2025 saw the Virginia Beach rap duo of Pusha T and Malice release their highly anticipated fourth studio album Let God Sort ‘Em Out, featuring a head-turning line-up that is arguably the most bombastic display of “crew shit” in the genre this year. The album’s second track, “Chains & Whips,” mirrors Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 hit “Not Like Us” in that it, too, takes aim at Drake; this time by dissing The Diplomats rapper Jim Jones for siding with Drake during his feud with Pusha T. And just as Lamar’s success ultimately transcended his beef, “Chains & Whips” has earned a well-deserved nomination for Best Rap Performance at the 2026 Grammys.
Pharrell Williams’ punchy production, paired with Clipse’s signature menace, recalls their earlier work, only now aged like fine wine. Pusha T and Malice’s deliberate cadence amps up an ominous atmosphere as Lenny Kravitz’s electric guitar shreds in the background, urgently slicing through verses on fame, irrelevance, the death of hip-hop, systemic injustice, “kumbaya shit,” and selling out. This is all to set up Lamar for success in the track’s final verses where, over several bars, his wordplay of “gen-” prefixes goes nasty in the best way possible. This verse, in particular, about an infamous orange man lands with icy precision: “The two-time Gemini with the genocide / I’m generous, however you want it, I’ll be the gentle kind / Gentlemen and gangstas connect, the agenda of mine / Move niggas up outta here, this shit get gentrified.”
“Chains & Whips” is East Coast rap at its most nuclear and irreverent. With 2026 on the horizon, the only way is up. —Sai Versailles
Welcome to the antagonistic world of alt-rock
“LAZY i” opens ANTAGONISMS like a curtain pull into Jason Fernandez’s restless, overstimulated universe. hazylazy turns the contradictions of the project into a strength, juggling washed-out guitars, glitchy electronics, and a vocal delivery that sounds like it crawled up from the basement. The track wrestles with inertia and longing without trying to solve either one. Instead, it invites listeners into a space where burnout and imagination collide.
“LAZY i” also lands in a year when alt-rock is splintering into hyperpop-leaning hybrids, and hazylazy’s approach feels like a needed counterpoint: messy, tactile, and stubbornly human. —Elijah Pareño
Cumulus nimbus trip-hop and a dream
Erika de Casier’s “You Got It!” floats with the kind of calmness that comes from knowing exactly where every detail should sit. Her latest album, Lifetime, lands in a moment when intimate, slow-blooming records cut through the noise louder than any chart-chasing single, and this track proves how feather-light touch in production can still feel radical in 2025.
The production dips into trip-hop textures and slow-burning percussion, giving de Casier room to let her voice run smoothly instead of anchoring the mix. She writes with a clipped precision, turning small emotional slips into a late-night broadcast for people nursing their own storms. What makes the track work is how controlled everything feels. Nothing reaches for intensity, yet the mood pulls harder than expected. De Casier sharpens her style without hardening it, proving she can stretch her sound while staying loyal to the softness that defines her best work. —Elijah Pareño
Self-referential pop music that transcends pastiche
“Music” sounds like a thesis statement from an artist who thrives on bending genres until they stop behaving. underscores builds the track around a rush of bright synths and jittery percussion before lifting into a hook that is equally both self-referential and strangely earnest. April Harper Grey, the Filipino-American producer behind the underscores project, leans into the anachronisms of hyperpop, pop rock, and indie electronica without turning the mash into a joke. The song pushes their style into a more optimistic light, powered by a kind of forward motion that suggests they are no longer interested in simply deconstructing pop. They want to rebuild it.
“Music” arrives in a year when genre boundaries feel useless anyway, and underscores treats that collapse as a creative license to tear the whole map apart. —Elijah Pareño
Wolf Gang ringleader takes two steps on the dancefloor
“Sugar On My Tongue” is Tyler, The Creator snapping back into instinct mode, a reminder in 2025 that he can still outpace a trend the moment he feels like loosening his grip on concept albums. The track leaps over a hip-house beat with a bass line that buzzes under the surface, leaving just enough space for Tyler to riff on hooks like he is messing around between tour stops.
His delivery has always been free-flowing, avoiding the theatrical detours that defined his last few eras. The repetition works because Tyler leans into it, turning the track into a loop built for movement rather than message. —Elijah Pareño
Lush, feather-light, and one of 2025’s most pleasant surprises
If you told me a year ago that TikTok starlet Addison Rae would come up with one of the best pop albums of 2025, I would have laughed in your face. But when she dropped “Diet Pepsi” earlier this year, I knew I had to familiarize myself with her game. In the lead-up to her debut album, Addison, the singer also released “Headphones On” — a lush downtempo track, and her best so far.
Addison Rae’s lullaby vocals sparkle in the album’s final track, which borrows its atmosphere from Madonna’s Ray of Light, with a swinging trip-hop beat, mellow strings, and an electronic organ. Everything is light and feathery, except the emotional weight the singer attempts to shed in its lyrics by “soaking up the rain / letting my hair down.”
The track is better appreciated in the context of the album, as it follows “Life’s No Fun Through Clear Waters.” While the previous track is waterlogged and muddy, “Headphones On” feels like an emergence — and for Addison Rae, it’s her baptism into the pop hall of fame. —Pie Gonzaga
2010s feel-good EDM lingers in a nostalgic 2020s dance track
We talk a lot about recession indicators, but nothing speaks more of a society on the edge than good electronic music, and Australian DJ-producer Ninajirachi delivered just that with “iPod Touch,” off her fifth album, I Love My Computer.
The track harkens back to the aughts and early 2010s with lines like “It sounds like dyed, frayed, high-waist, bought at Supré” and “I’ve got a song that nobody knows / and I heard it in a post when I was twelve years old” (Remember posting songs on MySpace and Tumblr?). The production likewise returns to the sensibilities of popular electronic dance music in the 2010s: feel-good, tech-optimist, and laden with a bright piano.
But “iPod Touch” is still distinctly a 2025 dance track: forward-looking with its glitchy textures, and just begging to be played at parties. —Pie Gonzaga
Pop pushed to breathtaking, theatrical heights
This year, Catalan pop star Rosalía returned to her classical roots to deliver what is inarguably one of the best albums of the 2020s so far, LUX. Ushering it in is the hair-raising single “Berghain,” which features experimental artists Björk and Yves Tumor.
The track, its title a reference to the exclusive German nightclub, is built on the foundations of Baroque music and opera, but is not beholden to the genres’ prescriptions. Rosalía’s vocals soar over the orchestral arrangement, singing in German and Spanish and swinging between lamentation and devotion. Often, in pop, the orchestra — if there is one — is relegated to the background; here, instrumentation is front and center.
The scale of the production in the track proves that Rosalía is no longer just a student of her craft, but well on her way to becoming a master. “Berghain” and the rest of LUX are simply so divine and incredible that you have to thank Rosalía for putting them out. —Pie Gonzaga
Pensive but not subdued indie rock
There are many reasons aunt robert’s debut album, Goodbyes Forever, earned five stars from us. One of them is that Gabe Gomez was able to craft a set of dream pop tracks without just banking on the nostalgia that often haunts the genre, and the album’s third single, “Please Say It,” perfectly demonstrates this. For aunt robert, this also marks the moment she breaks out of bedroom-pop obscurity and asserts herself as one of 2025’s most compelling new storytellers.
The track, fourth on the album, is steeped in wanting: the drums slam with desperation, the guitar seems to weep. Rising above the music’s subtle fuzziness is aunt robert’s crystal-clear, no-holds-barred confessional. “I’m scared you’ve had enough,” goes a line in the verse, before she presses on in the chorus, asking to be wanted. —Pie Gonzaga
Filipino grunge at its most visceral
Goon Lagoon’s music demands to be put on full blast, and “Decent Man” is no exception. This year, the five-piece returned with a track that doesn’t shy away from chaos and grime, deploying microphone feedback and muffled drums before sending the listener into a head-banging frenzy.
Here, all the instruments shine through, and distortion is used as a weapon rather than as a crutch, shocking and arresting. The falsetto’d “ooh”-ing is an earworm amid all this noise. But even with the track’s grungy textures, the cleaner mix in “Decent Man” shows that Goon Lagoon, named after the brine pool in SpongeBob SquarePants, is more assured of itself as a band. This 2025 single marks their return after their 2023 EP Rocket Peace. Now, I wait and hope that it’s the opening salvo to a bigger, more abrasive record. —Pie Gonzaga
Pinoy rock time-traveling to the future
2025 saw bands digging into past eras for comfort, but Man Made Evil took the same references and pushed them forward instead of polishing them into nostalgia.
“Sawang-Sawa” strips away that particular polish that often buries OPM rock under safe production choices. Instead, the band leans into the lane of their voices, the distortion of the guitars, and the push of a rhythm section that sounds like it was recorded in one room with little to hide. Rather than leaning to the past, Man Made Evil treats their influences like shared memory and pushes them into something heavier and more present. “Sawang-Sawa” cuts through with a crystallized yet intoxicating take on ‘70s Pinoy rock that comes from refusing to smooth anything down, reminding us why people turn to experimentation in the first place. —Elijah Pareño
Introducing Pinoy hugot’s latest rookie
While the Rolling Stone Philippines team had different ideas about which songs should make the list, there was overwhelming consensus on who should sit at number 1.
Released on Valentine’s Day this year, fitterkarma’s “Pag-Ibig ay Kanibalismo II” is, in our eyes, the sleeper hit of 2025. Beyond sweeping music charts on TikTok and Instagram Reels, it reached a peak position of number 2 on the Billboard Philippines charts (as of this time of writing), knocking off Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” from its place to sit under Cup of Joe’s “Multo.” For an indie act that frequents not arena stages, but grassroots venues like Quezon City’s Mow’s and Jess & Pat’s, their viral rise is a case study waiting to happen.
The Filipino band pushes the formula of local alternative rock into new territory, veering away from (dare I say) vanilla tropes of yearning through the grotesque metaphor of cannibalism as it depicts the unbridled act of giving your heart. (“Ibabalik kita nang buong-buo / Pangako ’yon sa ’yo / Sa ’yo lang ang puso ko / Kahit kainin mo.”) Paired with Andreanna Therese Pantig’s aching vocal delivery, the song’s emotional maturity feels like a graduation moment for the genre, and a testament to the evolving complexity of modern Pinoy hugot.
There’s also something about its instrumentation that feels familiar and lived-in, taking the four-chord loops of classic OPM alt-rock and paring it down to just two. The result is a gradually hypnotic, climactic effect — like a blood rush to the head, or the high of being all-consumed by someone. It’s raw, witty, and unforgettable, with all the makings of a classic earworm.
If we had to pick just one track from this year, “Pag-Ibig ay Kanibalismo II” is undeniably the Song You Need to Know. —Sai Versailles
