Pop divas reclaimed the cultural zeitgeist in 2025.

Lady Gaga released a Mastercard ad beloved enough by Little Monsters that she nearly scored a solo hit again. Lorde returned from her sojourn through self-actualization with a promotional cycle that had everybody wondering if she was about to transition. Sabrina Carpenter was still riding so high on her breakthrough era that it practically overshadowed the follow-up. Taylor Swift capitalized on the hype of her reunion with Max Martin and her engagement to Travis Kelce, overcoming widespread revulsion with the actual music to launch the fastest-selling* album of all time. Lily Allen dragged her ex-husband to Hell on a record that owned the tabloids, if not the charts. And Rosalía finally returned with another pretentious ambitious opus that dominated the year-end critics’ lists.

All of these ladies left their mark on ATRL as well. But who truly defined the year? You can help choose the winner by ranking each of these 85 songs on a scale of 1-10 and then sending me your ballot by Sunday, October 18. Please listen to everything again at least once before submitting. I want honest assessments, not scores based on your memory or biases. Up to two decimal points are allowed. Feel free to include commentary if you are so moved. And no trolling or your ballot will be tossed. Enjoy!

Songs

MAYHEM

“Disease”

“Abracadrabra”

“Garden of Eden”

“Perfect Celebrity”

“Can’t Stop the High”

“Vanish Into You”

“Killah” ft. Gesaffelstein

“Zombieboy”

“The Dead Dance”

“LoveDrug”

“How Bad Do U Want Me”

“Don’t Call Tonight”

“Kill For Love”

“Shadow of a Man”

“The Beast”

“Blade of Grass”

“Die With a Smile” ft. Bruno Mars

VIRGIN

“Hammer”

“What Was That”

“Shapeshifter”

“Man of the Year”

“Favourite Daughter”

“Current Affairs”

“Clearblue”

“GRWM”

“Broken Glass”

“If She Could See Me Now”

“David”

MAN’S BEST FRIEND

“Manchild”

“Tears”

“My Man on Willpower”

“Sugar Talking”

“We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night”

“Nobody’s Son”

“Never Getting Laid”

“When Did You Get Hot?”

“Go Go Juice”

“Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry”

“House Tour”

“Goodbye”

“Such a Funny Way”

THE LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL

“The Fate of Ophelia”

“Elizabeth Taylor”

“Opalite”

“Father Figure”

“Eldest Daughter”

“Ruin the Friendship”

“Actually Romantic”

“Wi$h Li$t”

“Wood”

“CANCELLED!”

“Honey”

“The Life of a Showgirl” ft. Sabrina Carpenter

WEST END GIRL

“West End Girl”

“Ruminating”

“Sleepwalking”

“Tennis”

“Madeline”

“Relapse”

“Pussy Palace”

“4chan Stan”

“Nonmonogamummy” with Specialist Moss

“Just Enough”

“Dallas Major”

“Beg For Me”

“Let You W/In”

“Fruityloop”

LUX

“Sexy, Violencia y Llantas”

“Reliquia”

“Divinize”

“Porcelana” with Dougie F

“Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti”

“Berghain” with Björk and Yves Tumor

“La Perla” with Yahritza y su Esencia

“Mundo Nuevo”

“De Madrugá”

“Dios Es Un Stalker”

“La Yugular”

“Focu ’Ranni”

“Sauvignon Blanc”

“Jeanne”

“Novia Robot”

“La Rumba Del Perdón" with Estrella Morente and Sílvia Pérez Cruz

“Memória” with Carminho

“Magnolias”

Participants

@Album Leak @Icarus @dwuw @K$Ellie @California @HonourableVomit @Florence Belch @Rev8 @Invisibility @Julia Fox @Démodé @gelato @EJQL8 @creativity. @B-Luke

You're really gonna make us listen to Showgirl again huh

Just now, Eeveelution said:

You're really gonna make us listen to Showgirl again huh

First reply and you're already complaining

SO EXCITED FOR THIS!

Oh, ROSALÍA, you don't deserve to be among these mediocre albums

This should be exciting

Oh, Lorde, you don't deserve to be among these mediocre albums

i mean lux is the only one of these that i don't know well, i'll bring some scores to this if only to prevent taylor getting a round of 0s

Oh, ROSALÍA, you don't deserve to be among these mediocre albums

19 minutes ago, supaspaz said:

First reply and you're already complaining

I'm not done either. No 0s when Showgirl is in the lineup?

Taylor and Sabrina will get decimated early on. Lily and Lorde will coast by without eliminations for a while but then lose all of their songs at once, probably right before the Top 20. Gaga will be represented in both the bottom and top ten.

You heard it here first.

Excited for the mess

no 0s? dpmo

I wanna do this to give Lorde and Lily their 10s, but I don't know if it's worth damaging my ears by listening to Life of a Snoozegirl..

Taylor sweep

Will obviously do this though. I don't love any of these albums, and still haven't heard Lily's, but the five I have heard do have some highlights.

1 minute ago, conatus said:

five ... do have some highlights.

don't ******* lie.

4 minutes ago, conatus said:

no 0s? dpmo

I’m sure you’ll still find a way to fuck with the results!

5 minutes ago, conatus said:

Will obviously do this though. I don't love any of these albums, and still haven't heard Lily's, but the five I have heard do have some highlights.

Only heard TLOS once and it has since been expunged from my brain, but I do at least have bits I like from all the others. The Lorde and Rosalía albums are very good, in my estimation.

7 minutes ago, Graves said:

don't ******* lie.

I technically didn't say each of the five

Oh we're gonna get Lorde that win HUNNI

21 minutes ago, supaspaz said:

I'm sure you'll still find a way to **** with the results!

How low can an average go before you throw out the ballot? Just out of curiosity/asking for a friend/etc.

So I guess we can put 10s on more than 1 track per album?

Oh I shall be participating.

Also… I understand why she's not in the lineup but I felt like Jade really did release one of the best pop records that year.

having to go through

Life of aI Slop

Midhem

Chops Best Friend

again