The 20 Best Songs of the Half Decade: 2020-2025

With 2025 coming to a close, that means we’ve reached the halfway point for this decade.

Difficult as that may be to believe, it is true, and it technically marks six full years-worth of music, counting from Jan. 1, 2020.

In that amount of time, we’ve seen some pretty spectacular releases. There was the triumphant return of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, who released a highly anticipated follow up album, Raising the Roof. There was also a brand new album from the Rolling Stones — Hackney Diamonds was the band’s first album of all original material in nearly two decades. Similarly, Billy Joel released his first original song, “Turn the Lights Back On,” since 2007.

And then there was perhaps the most astounding new release of them all: “Now and Then” by the Beatles. Yes, you read that correctly. In November of 2023, “Now and Then” pulled from a demo John Lennon first recorded in 1977, plus recording sessions done by the three surviving Beatles in the ’90s, and used brand new 21st century technology to finally create what is, in essence, the very last new Beatles song.

“It’s strange when you think about it,” Paul McCartney shared with The Times then. “There’s John, in his apartment, banging away at a piano doing a demo. And now we’ve restored it and it’s a crystal-clear, beautiful vocal. You still wonder, is it inferior, something we shouldn’t do?

“But every time I thought that, I thought, Let’s say I had a chance to ask John. And John would have loved it. Of course, I’m never going to know, but I think mine’s the best guess we can have. And now it is a Beatles record. When we played it to people, some cried, some said, ‘Jesus Christ, it’s a Beatles record!'”

That was just one special song to come out of the last few years. Below, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to vote on what we feel to be the 20 Best Songs of the Half Decade.

20. “I Don’t Mind,” Lindsey Buckingham
From: Lindsey Buckingham (2021)

In 2021, Lindsey Buckingham returned with his first solo album in a decade — it was also his first since leaving Fleetwood Mac in 2018. This was the lead single from the album. “‘I Don’t Mind,’ like many of the songs on my new album, is about the challenges couples face in long-term relationships,” Buckingham said in a statement then. “Over time, two people inevitably find the need to augment their initial dynamic with one of flexibility, an acceptance of each others’ flaws, and a willingness to continually work on issues; it is the essence of a good long-term relationship. This song celebrates that spirit and discipline.”

 

19. “Turn the Lights Back On,” Billy Joel
From: 2024 Single

When Billy Joel released the 2024 song “Turn the Lights Back On,” it marked the first time he’d put out a single since 2007. For Joel, writing new songs had become something of a chore. “You can always tell [when a song is good or bad],” he said to the Los Angeles Times in 2023. “But it also just got to a point where it was getting excruciating for me to write. The enjoyment went out of it.” But with “Turn the Lights Back On,” Joel returned to the craft and even performed the song at the Grammys in February of 2024.

 

18. “Don’t Back Down,” Mammoth
From: Mammoth (2021)

Way back in 2013, Wolfgang Van Halen, son of Eddie Van Halen, began working on what would become his debut solo album, 2021’s Mammoth, on which he played every single instrument. “Don’t Back Down” was released as a single, going to No. 1 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock chart. “It’s a fight song when you want your team to decimate the other team,” Wolfgang said to Songfacts in 2021. We agree.

 

17. “Ghosts Again,” Depeche Mode
From: Memento Mori (2023)

In May of 2022, Depeche Mode’s keyboardist and cofounder Andy Fletcher passed away at 60 years old. In a sort of sad way, it was fitting that “Ghosts Again” be the lead single from Depeche Mode’s 2023 album Memento Mori, given its “perfect balance of melancholy and joy,” as singer Dave Gahan put it. What better way to honor their late bandmate?

 

16. “Break the Man,” Tears for Fears
From: The Tipping Point (2022)

Tears for Fears may not be the first band to come to mind when once considers anti-patriarchal anthems, but here we are with “Break the Man” from 2022’s The Tipping Point. “This is where someone was meant to say enough is enough,” Curt Smith sings.

 

15. “Chevrolet,” Robert Plant With Saving Grace
From: Saving Grace (2025)

Interestingly, Robert Plant’s “Chevrolet” is the lone song on this list to have been released in 2025. It came from an album made with Saving Grace, a band of English musicians that Plant started out playing casually with and then turned into an internationally touring group. Like much of his previous work, “Chevrolet” is a modern interpretation of an old Delta blues song, but boy is Plant good at that kind of thing.

 

14. “Ghosts,” Bruce Springsteen
From: Letter to You (2020)

Bruce Springsteen is, at the time of this writing, 76 years old. He still appears quite energetic, but the reality is that many of his friends, colleagues and loved ones did not make it as far. This is more or less the premise of “Ghosts” from the Boss’ 2020 album Letter to You, a sort of ode to musical friends that have passed on. “I make my vows to those who’ve come before,” he sings. “I turn up the volume, let the spirits be my guide / Meet you, brother and sister, on the other side.”

 

13. “The Smoke,” The Smile
From: A Light for Attracting Attention (2022)

Not every band spinoff works, but it does seem like Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead have cracked the code with the music they’ve been making with the Smile, which also includes drummer Tom Skinner. “The Smoke” is reminiscent — in a good way – of Radiohead’s sound, but it also feels just the right amount of funky.

 

12. “Didn’t Want to Be This Lonely,” The Pretenders
From: Hate for Sale (2020)

“Didn’t Want to Be This Lonely” has that quintessential Pretenders sound, complete with Chrissie Hynde‘s slight sneer of a vocal — or in the words of UCR’s own Michael Gallucci, that “rough-woman swagger that pushes back at any vulnerability that tries to sneak in.”

 

11. “The Lord,” Paul Simon
From: Seven Psalms (2023)

You don’t have to be traditionally religious to appreciate Paul Simon’s 2023 album Seven Psalms, or, more specifically,  its opening track “The Lord.” It comes across more as a poem, a rumination on those things that are beyond one’s own individual control over top a lush acoustic guitar.

 

10. “Panic Attack,” Judas Priest
From: Invincible Shield (2024)

There’s more than one way to interpret Judas Priest’s “Panic Attack.” One is through a political lens: “It’s a sign of the times when bedlam rules / When the masses condone pompous fools / And the scales of justice tips in disarray.” Make of that what you will, but one thing you cannot say about Judas Priest is that they are meek or without a sense of confidence.

READ MORE: 2025’s Top 15 Reissues

9. “Realize,” AC/DC
From: Power Up (2020)

It was around October 2018 that AC/DC finished work on Power Up, but it would be another two years until the album was released into the world. The whole situation was bittersweet — Power Up marked the return of singer Brian Johnson, but also AC/DC’s first album since the death of Malcolm Young. “Realize,” the second single from the album, is also its leadoff track.

 

8. “Thoughts and Prayers,” Drive-By Truckers
From: The Unraveling (2020)

One thing to know about Drive-By Truckers: they are not the sort to keep quiet about causes they believe in or injustices they witness. That includes channeling their feelings into their work, as they did with 2020’s “Thoughts and Prayers,” which bluntly yet sincerely addresses gun violence in America and the lack of political legislation to help stop it.

 

7. “Alone,” The Cure
From: Songs of a Lost World (2024)

When the Cure came bearing new music in 2024, it was welcomed greatly by their fans given there had not been any new Cure music before that in well over a decade. But it was as though they’d never left and “Alone” is an epic the sort only Robert Smith could dream up.

 

6. “Magnificent Hurt,” Elvis Costello and the Imposters
From: The Boy Named If (2022)

We loved Elvis Costello’s 2022 album The Boy Named If, and evidently so did a lot of other industry folks — it was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. “I wanted to write about the pain of desire,” Costello told BBC Radio 2 about “Magnificent Hurt.” He’s always been so, so good at that.

 

5. “Can’t Let Go,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
From: Raise the Roof (2021)

After the success of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ 2007 album Raising Sand, the pair were asked over and over again if they’d ever make another album together. That finally came to fruition in 2021 with Raise the Roof. “Can’t Let Go” is a song written by Randy Weeks, made popular by Lucinda Williams back in the late ’90s, and made brand new again by Plant and Krauss as only they can.

 

4. “Now and Then,” The Beatles
From: 2023 Single

For those of us who were not around during the decade the Beatles were together — a population that is increasing each year — the arrival of “Now and Then” in 2023 was an incredible treat. This was, essentially, the very last “new” Beatles song ever to be released, made from a ’70s demo tape of John Lennon‘s and recordings of the remaining Beatles from the ’90s.

 

3. “Angry,” The Rolling Stones
From: Hackney Diamonds (2023)

It’s possible that if the world came to an end tomorrow the only things left would be cockroaches and the Rolling Stones. All jokes aside, the British bad boys returned to original songwriting in 2023 via Hackney Diamonds with the lead single “Angry” embodying all the qualities we know and love about the Stones.

 

2. “Wanting and Waiting,” The Black Crowes
From: Happiness Bastards (2024)

There was a time it wasn’t clear the Black Crowes would ever reunite, but here we are. As written by UCR’s Michael Gallucci: “The best song [from the 2024 album Happiness Bastards], ‘Wanting and Waiting,’ may sound like a rewrite of the Black Crowes’ debut single ‘Jealous Again,’ but there’s reassurance in their passion, which hasn’t softened much over three and a half decades. It’s good to have them back.”

 

1. “Murder Most Foul,” Bob Dylan
From: Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)

Leave it to Bob Dylan to randomly drop a 17-minute dirge about the assassination of JFK in the middle of a global pandemic. “Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years,” he wrote on social media in March of 2020. “This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.” “Murder Most Foul” could not have been written by anyone else.