With my favourite artists promising new music for next year, 2025 became a waiting game. Blissed out after her Louisiana wedding, Lana Del Rey released two country ballads, ‘Henry, Come On‘ and ‘Bluebird.’

She debuted three more tracks – as yet unreleased – at US festivals, and a UK stadium tour (her first): ‘Stars Fell On Alabama,’ ‘Quiet in the South‘, and ”57.5.’

While working on her next album with producer Stuart Price (described as ‘Confessions Part Deux’), Madonna revisited past glories, including Veronica Electronica, the lost remix album from her Ray of Light era; plus deluxe editions of Bedtime Stories and Confessions on a Dancefloor.

Some of this year’s highlights came from master lyricists like Father John Misty – whose disco opus, ‘I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All,’ is a throwback from 2024 – plus Ezra Furman’s Lou Reed-ish ‘Power of the Moon‘; and Katherine Priddy’s brooding ‘Matches‘. But if 2025 has left you reeling, Suede’s ‘Disintegrate‘ – the only 90s comeback I cared about – delivers ‘broken music for broken people.’

In a boom period for music memoirs, The Shangri-Las have stayed in the shadows. Lisa MacKinney’s Dressed in Black is their rescue mission; and with Eternal Flame, Jennifer Otter Bickerdike shows The Bangles ‘in a different light,’ drawn from their own words.

This year we lost key players from bands that once meant the world to me: drummer Clem Burke, the ‘beating heart of Blondie’; and bassist Mani, who made The Stone Roses dance.

And finally, who can forget Marianne Faithfull?