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

With 2025 coming to an in depth, meaning we have reached the midway level for this decade.

Tough as that could be to consider, it’s true, and it technically marks six full years of music, counting from Jan. 1, 2020.

In that point, we have seen some spectacular releases. There was the triumphant return of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, who launched a extremely anticipated follow-up to 2007’s Elevating Sand titled Increase the Roof. There was additionally a model new album from the Rolling Stones — Hackney Diamonds was the band’s first album of all authentic materials in almost twenty years. Equally, Billy Joel launched his first authentic music since 2007, “Flip the Lights Again On.”

After which there was maybe essentially the most astounding new launch of all of them: “Now and Then” by the Beatles. Sure, you learn that accurately. In November 2023, “Now and Then” arrived after many years in limbo. The music was pulled from a demo John Lennon first recorded in 1977, plus recording periods finished by the three surviving Beatles within the ’90s. Twenty-first century know-how helped finalize what’s, in essence, the final new Beatles music.

“It is unusual when you consider it,” Paul McCartney shared with The Instances. “There’s John, in his condo, banging away at a piano doing a demo. And now we have restored it and it is a crystal-clear, stunning vocal. You continue to marvel, is it inferior, one thing we should not do?

“However each time I assumed that, I assumed, To illustrate I had an opportunity to ask John. And John would have beloved it. In fact, I am by no means going to know, however I believe mine’s the perfect guess we will have. And now it’s a Beatles document. Once we performed it to individuals, some cried, some stated, ‘Jesus Christ, it is a Beatles document!'”

That was only one particular music to come back out of the previous few years. Learn on to see UCR’s picks for the 20 Greatest Songs of the Half Decade.

20. Lindsey Buckingham, “I Do not Thoughts” (Lindsey Buckingham, 2021)

In 2021, Lindsey Buckingham returned along with his first solo album in a decade — it was additionally his first since leaving Fleetwood Mac in 2018. This was the lead single from the album. “‘I Don’t Thoughts,’ like most of the songs on my new album, is in regards to the challenges {couples} face in long-term relationships,” Buckingham stated in a press release then. “Over time, two individuals inevitably discover the necessity to increase their preliminary dynamic with certainly one of flexibility, an acceptance of every others’ flaws, and a willingness to repeatedly work on points; it’s the essence of long-term relationship. This music celebrates that spirit and self-discipline.”

19. Billy Joel, “Flip the Lights Again On” (2024 Single)

When Billy Joel launched the 2024 music “Flip the Lights Again On,” it marked the primary time he’d put out a single since 2007. For Joel, writing new songs had turn into one thing of a chore. “You may at all times inform [when a song is good or bad],” he stated to the Los Angeles Instances in 2023. “Nevertheless it additionally simply bought to some extent the place it was getting excruciating for me to put in writing. The enjoyment went out of it.” However with “Flip the Lights Again On,” Joel returned to the craft and even carried out the music on the Grammys in February of 2024.

18. Mammoth, “Do not Again Down” (Mammoth WVH, 2021)

Method again in 2013, Wolfgang Van Halen, son of Eddie Van Halen, started engaged on what would turn into his debut solo album, 2021’s Mammoth WVH, on which he performed each single instrument. “Do not Again Down” was launched as a single, going to No. 1 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock chart. “It is a combat music whenever you need your crew to decimate the opposite crew,” Wolfgang stated to Songfacts in 2021. We agree.

17. Depeche Mode, “Ghosts Once more” (Memento Mori, 2023)

In Might of 2022, Depeche Mode’s keyboardist and cofounder Andy Fletcher handed away at 60 years previous. In a form of unhappy means, it was becoming that “Ghosts Once more” be the lead single from Depeche Mode’s 2023 album Memento Mori, given its “good stability of melancholy and pleasure,” as singer Dave Gahan put it. What higher option to honor their late bandmate?

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

Tears for Fears will not be the primary band to come back to thoughts when as soon as considers anti-patriarchal anthems, however right here we’re with “Break the Man” from 2022’s The Tipping Level. “That is the place somebody was meant to say sufficient is sufficient,” Curt Smith sings.

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

Curiously, Robert Plant’s “Chevrolet” is the lone music on this record to have been launched in 2025. It got here from an album made with Saving Grace, a band of English musicians that Plant began out enjoying casually with after which changed into an internationally touring group. Like a lot of his earlier work, “Chevrolet” is a contemporary interpretation of an previous Delta blues music, however boy is Plant good at that type of factor.

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

Bruce Springsteen is, on the time of this writing, 76 years previous. He nonetheless seems fairly energetic, however the actuality is that lots of his pals, colleagues and family members didn’t make it as far. This is kind of the premise of “Ghosts” from the Boss’ 2020 album Letter to You, a form of ode to musical pals which have handed on. “I make my vows to those that’ve come earlier than,” he sings. “I flip up the amount, let the spirits be my information / Meet you, brother and sister, on the opposite facet.”

13. The Smile, “The Smoke” (A Mild for Attracting Consideration, 2022)

Not each band spinoff works, nevertheless it does appear to be Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead have cracked the code with the music they have been making with the Smile, which additionally contains drummer Tom Skinner. “The Smoke” is reminiscent — in a great way – of Radiohead’s sound, nevertheless it additionally feels simply the correct quantity of funky.

12. Pretenders, “Did not Need to Be This Lonely” (Hate for Sale, 2020)

“Did not Need to Be This Lonely” has that quintessential Pretenders sound, full with Chrissie Hynde’s slight sneer of a vocal — or within the phrases of UCR’s personal Michael Gallucci, that “rough-woman swagger that pushes again at any vulnerability that tries to sneak in.”

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

You do not have to be historically non secular to understand Paul Simon’s 2023 album Seven Psalms, or, extra particularly,  its opening observe “The Lord.” It comes throughout extra as a poem, a rumination on these issues which are past one’s personal particular person management over high a lush acoustic guitar.

10. Judas Priest, “Panic Assault” (Invincible Protect, 2024)

There’s a couple of option to interpret Judas Priest’s “Panic Assault.” One is thru a political lens: “It is a signal of the occasions when bedlam guidelines / When the lots condone pompous fools / And the scales of justice suggestions in disarray.” Make of that what you’ll, however one factor you can not say about Judas Priest is that they’re meek or and not using a sense of confidence.

READ MORE: 2025’s Prime 15 Reissues

9. AC/DC, “Notice” (Energy Up, 2020)

It was round October 2018 that AC/DC completed work on Energy Up, however it will be one other two years till the album was launched into the world. The entire scenario was bittersweet — Energy Up marked the return of singer Brian Johnson, but additionally AC/DC’s first album for the reason that dying of Malcolm Younger. “Notice,” the second single from the album, can be its leadoff observe.

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

One factor to find out about Drive-By Truckers: they aren’t the kind to maintain quiet about causes they consider in or injustices they witness. That features channeling their emotions into their work, as they did with 2020’s “Ideas and Prayers,” which bluntly but sincerely addresses gun violence in America and the shortage of political laws to assist cease it.

7. The Remedy, “Alone” (Songs of a Misplaced World, 2024)

When the Remedy got here bearing new music in 2024, it was welcomed significantly by their followers given there had not been any new Remedy music earlier than that in effectively over a decade. Nevertheless it was as if they’d by no means left and “Alone” is an epic the kind solely Robert Smith might dream up.

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

We beloved Elvis Costello’s 2022 album The Boy Named If, and evidently so did a number of different business of us — it was nominated for Greatest Rock Album on the sixty fifth Annual Grammy Awards. “I needed to put in writing in regards to the ache of want,” Costello advised BBC Radio 2 about “Magnificent Harm.” He is at all times been so, so good at that.

5. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, “Cannot Let Go” (Increase the Roof, 2021)

After the success of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ 2007 album Elevating Sand, the pair have been requested time and again in the event that they’d ever make one other album collectively. That lastly got here to fruition in 2021 with Increase the Roof. “Cannot Let Go” is a music written by Randy Weeks, made well-liked by Lucinda Williams again within the late ’90s, and made model new once more by Plant and Krauss as solely they’ll.

4. The Beatles, “Now and Then” (2023 Single)

For these of us who weren’t round through the decade the Beatles have been collectively — a inhabitants that’s growing annually — the arrival of “Now and Then” in 2023 was an unbelievable deal with. This was, primarily, the final “new” Beatles music ever to be launched, comprised of a ’70s demo tape of John Lennon’s and recordings of the remaining Beatles from the ’90s.

3. The Rolling Stones, “Indignant” (Hackney Diamonds, 2023)

It is doable that if the world got here to an finish tomorrow the one issues left can be cockroaches and the Rolling Stones. All jokes apart, the British unhealthy boys returned to authentic songwriting in 2023 by way of Hackney Diamonds with the lead single “Indignant” embodying all of the qualities we all know and love in regards to the Stones.

2. The Black Crowes, “Wanting and Ready” (Happiness Bastards, 2024)

There was a time it wasn’t clear the Black Crowes would ever reunite, however right here we’re. As written by UCR’s Michael Gallucci: “The perfect music [from the 2024 album Happiness Bastards], ‘Wanting and Ready,’ could sound like a rewrite of the Black Crowes’ debut single ‘Jealous Once more,’ however there’s reassurance of their ardour, which hasn’t softened a lot over three and a half many years. It is good to have them again.”

1. Bob Dylan, “Homicide Most Foul” (Tough and Rowdy Methods, 2020)

Go away it to Bob Dylan to randomly drop a 17-minute dirge in regards to the assassination of JFK in the course of a world pandemic. “Greetings to my followers and followers with gratitude for all of your help and loyalty throughout the years,” he wrote on social media in March of 2020. “That is an unreleased music we recorded some time again that you simply may discover fascinating. Keep protected, keep observant and should God be with you.” “Homicide Most Foul” couldn’t have been written by anybody else.