Top 15 Rock Songs of 2025 (So Far)

UCR’s list of Top 15 Rock Songs of 2025 (So Far) isn’t subject to trends or perhaps even reason.

There have already been a pair of incredible – and incredibly unsuspected – studio reunions in 2025. Two lesser-known members of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame put out quieter, off-pace recordings that connected because of their nervy simplicity.

Our staff-voted list of Top 15 Rock Songs of 2025 (So Far) also includes one of rock’s longest-running bands – and a couple of upstarts who completely get it. Two old-line classic rockers also return to the past for just-released projects that provide new perspective on what came before.

READ MORE: Final Songs Performed Live by Rock’s Biggest Acts

Some can be observed going off the deep end in the prog pool, while another star answers to his younger self. Along the way, this countdown of Top 15 Rock Songs of 2025 (So Far) became strikingly varied:

No. 15. Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Morrison, “Gods of Rock N Roll”
From: The Morrison Project

Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Idol guitarist Billy Morrison wrote “Gods of Rock N Roll” some 10 years ago then it appeared on Morrison’s album God Shaped Hole – but as a straight-forward band recording. Osbourne always felt that was a missed opportunity, considering this is such a grand ballad. Morrison finally reworked everything an all-new single also featuring Idol bandmate Steve Stevens. “I told Billy then that it needed an orchestra and a choir,” Osbourne later quipped, “but it took 10 f–ing years for him to listen to me.”

 

No. 14. David Byrne, “Everybody Laughs”
From: Who Is the Sky?

The Talking Heads rose to early fame as an upstart stand-by at the East Village’s famed CBGB music venue. New York City clearly still holds a fascination for former frontman David Byrne, as “Everybody Laughs” becomes this celebration of urban life and all its weird, wonderful anomalies. (“Everybody’s going through the garbage, looking for inspiration,” he sings. “Some will find it staring at the ceiling of the subway station.”) “Music can do that – hold opposites simultaneously,” Byrne told Rolling Stone.

 

No. 13. Benmont Tench, “The Melancholy Season”
From: The Melancholy Season

When he was in Tom Petty‘s bands, Benmont Tench played the role of ace sideman. But he was prepared to step out. He’d written a few hits and did some notable guest turns. When Petty died, he’d released a debut LP, too. “The band, the main focus of my life since I was 19 years old, was gone,” he told The New York Times, “… but I was damned if I wasn’t going to make another record.” A bout with cancer slowed him but Tench has emerged healthy – and, as this delicately conveyed title track shows, in a more reflective place.

 

No. 12. Jethro Tull, “Curious Ruminant”
From: Curious Ruminant

Ian Anderson‘s most personal album with Jethro Tull began with this song, which originally didn’t have a title. He usually names them after a key lyric but after looking it over, Anderson felt the narrative reflected his own searching nature. After settling on “Curious Ruminant,” “I thought, ‘Well, I’ll carry on with this thread of an idea and apply it to the songs on the album as a whole,” Anderson later said. The result was a song – and an LP – that moves far afield of his typical “more objective, stand-away approach.”

 

No. 11. The Darkness, “Walking Through Fire”
From: Dreams on Toast

The Darkness can get knocked around for their jokey approach with interviews and a willingness to dabble in similarly unserious musical styles. In the run up to Dreams on Toast, however, Darkness singer Justin Hawkes said the material had been inspired by the “the elite songs, the life-changing music of the ages.” The lead single “Longest Kiss” made good on that promise, echoing Electric Light Orchestra. “I Hate Myself” was all punky. With “Walking Through Fire,” they attempt to out-Cheap Trick Cheap Trick.

 

No. 10. Styx, “Build and Destroy”
From: Circling From Above

Considering how central “Build and Destroy” feels to the new Styx album’s avian theme, it might be surprising to learn that this was among the last things they finished. Lawrence Gowan, who joined the team of Tommy Shaw and producer Will Evankovich in co-writing Circling From Above, said he kept singing the track’s title over the main melody while they were at work. “We knew it was strong,” Gowan said later. “Even though it was the second-to-last song we finished, it felt like a quick way into the album’s overall theme.”

 

No. 9. Melvins, “King of Rome”
From: Thunderball

Buzz “King Buzzo” Osborne and original drummer Mike Dillard lead the “1983” Melvins lineup through the punk-powered “King of Rome,” rather than any expected grungy portent. The result is an edgy nod to the past without a shred of nostalgia to create unwanted drag. Credit two guest stars (electronic artists Void Manes and Ni Maitres) and a general aversion to looking back. “I’m not a ‘good old days’ type of guy,” Osbourne admitted to the Portland Mercury. “I’m more the ‘what you done lately’-type of guy.”

 

No. 8. Dirty Honey, “When I’m Gone (Live)”
From: Mayhem and Revelry Live

This is Dirty Honey‘s first concert recording, and the energy in the room is palpable. Recorded in North America and Europe during a 2023-24 tour, “When I’m Gone” underscores Dirty Honey’s goal to be “like the imaginary baby of all the big bands you can think of — AC/DC, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, the Black Crowes,” guitarist John Notto once told Billboard. It also represents a little history: “When I’m Gone,” from their debut EP, made Dirty Honey the first unsigned group to top the Mainstream Rock airplay chart.

 

No. 7. Billy Idol, “Still Dancing”
From: Dream Into It

The advance song from Billy Idol‘s first album since 2014’s Kings and Queens of the Underground paid homage to 1981’s “Dancing With Myself.” Unlike that seminal radio and dance club favorite, however, “Still Dancing” takes a wider view of Idol’s life and career. He told UPI that be purposely began the song “during the early times in London, when I was living in squats or at friends’ apartments” and “punk rock gave me an opening,” before pivoting to his more settled present: “I’m still dancing,” Idol sings, “but now I ain’t alone.”

 

No. 6. Ringo Starr, “Look Up”
From: Look Up

Producer T Bone Burnett co-wrote this song, along with most of Ringo Starr‘s first country album in more than 50 years (and his first full-length LP since 2019). The propulsive results helped Starr to the top of the U.K. country charts with a characteristically uplifting message (“up above your head where the music plays, there’s a light that shines in the darkest days“) which could have easily been delivered right before another of his typical “peace and love” mantras. Starr’s impossibly flat dirt road of a vocal style is just perfect for it.

 

No. 5. Jason Isbell, “Bury Me”
From: Foxes in the Snow

This first entirely solo acoustic LP was recorded without Jason Isbell’s usual backing band, the 400 Unit, and outside of a marriage that turned into a muse. He’s been stripped bare, and you hear it everywhere on Foxes in the Snow – except during brief moments like “Bury Me.” The clouds part on Isbell’s album-opening song, as he tries to sort out his next steps. He was focused, for a moment, on “rebirth and change,” Isbell told NPR, “but it also deals with gratitude – because it’s like well, if I died today then I’ve had a good time.”

 

No. 4. Rolling Stones, “Zydeco Sont Pas Sales”
From: A Tribute to the King of Zydeco

This cover of the genre-defining “Zydeco Sont Pas Sales” celebrating Louisiana legend Clifton Chenier’s centennial may seem like a bolt out of the blue – but it really wasn’t. “Clifton was a great influence on me,” Mick Jagger told Songlines. “I love the way he just grabs a blues number and adapts it to his style.” Local stars like Dr. John, Aaron Neville, Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural and Michael Doucet have done studio work with the Rolling Stones. Blue and Lonesome also included three songs by Louisiana native Little Walter.

 

No. 3. Doobie Brothers, “Learn to Let Go”
From: Walk This Road

The big news on this song (and this album) from the Doobie Brothers was the return in full of Michael McDonald. Sure, original frontman Tom Johnston was on 1976’s McDonald-led Takin’ It to the Streets, and McDonald sat in for 2010’s Johnston-led World Gone Crazy – but in both cases, their guest appearances were brief. This is a reunion in full – and “Learn to Let Go” underscores how happy and successful their homecoming really was. “In my heart,” McDonald said frankly, “I’ve always been a Doobie Brother.”

 

No. 2. Bruce Springsteen, “Rain the River”
From: Tracks II: The Lost Albums

Deep into an eventually shelved album populated with synths and drum loops in the style of his Oscar and multi-Grammy Award-winning 1994 Top 10 hit “Streets of Philadelphia,” Bruce Springsteen decided to completely cut loose. The stomping, quite murderous “Rain in the River” wouldn’t be issued for more than 30 years, as Springsteen added it to 2025’s rock-focused Perfect World compilation disc on the seven-album Lost Tracks II box. “I was looking,” Springsteen would admit, “for someplace else to go musically.”

 

No. 1. Alice Cooper, “Black Mamba”
From: The Revenge of Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper the man reunited Alice Cooper the band, and they returned to an old-school style: “Black Mamba” was developed in the studio. Cooper described this to Billboard as a “from-the-ground-up song.” They started “jamming on the riff and warming up together. The next thing you know, we get this swampy feel and decide it’s gonna be about a Black Mamba snake, which is very deadly.” Robby Krieger of the Doors guested on “Black Mamba,” from the Alice Cooper group’s first LP since 1973’s Muscle of Love.

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