When I was eight I found my mom’s disco albums in the basement. Dusty as hell and scratched to shit but I didn’t care. I’d put on Donna Summer or the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and just move around the room like a bad girl. That four-on-the-floor thing—it made everything else shut up. Homework, friend drama, whatever stress an eight-year-old carries around. Gone for three minutes. I’m grown now and it still works. A bassline hits right and that euphoria comes flooding back, except now I’m in a club at midnight or body rocking in my car on the freeway. 2025 handed us some tracks that reminded me why this shit matters to me.
“Tears” – Sabrina Carpenter
Nu disco lives and Sabrina Carpenter just proved it. “Tears” pulls straight from that Donna Summer and Baccara era with shimmering four-on-the-floor energy but here’s the twist – she’s singing about getting turned on by a man doing the goddamn dishes. The production is stacked with that unmistakable disco-pop groove. Co-produced by Sabrina and John Ryan, this track is a pure three-minute earworm. The music video is an entire Rocky Horror-inspired fever dream with Colman Domingo in drag pole dancing in cornfields and multiple alternate endings that kept the internet guessing. It hit number three on both the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot 100 it deserved every stream. This is what happens when you channel vintage disco energy but make it feel completely fresh and filthy in the best way.
“Jealous Type” – Doja Cat
This is just a jam that I had on repeat for days. Seriously. Doja pivoted back to pop after Scarlet’s rap-heavy era and “Jealous Type” is that smooth ’80s-funk-pop return we didn’t know we needed. Produced by Jack Antonoff and Y2K it’s plush, retro, and so goddamn groovy it hurts. Doja’s breathy vocals float over synths and driving drums, exploring jealousy and trust with lines like “Boy, let me know if this is careless / Could be torn between two roads that I just can’t decide.” There’s a punchy rap verse that adds some edge but mostly this song is about surrendering to that nostalgic ’80s energy without being corny about it. She debuted it live at Outside Lands before dropping it as the lead single from her album Vie and the response was immediate – it hit number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a whole mood. Critics called it a return to her Hot Pink era, and they’re right. This is Doja remembering she can make pop music that feels effortless and fun without sacrificing any of her vocal agility or playfulness. I played this getting ready for nights out, driving with the windows down, existing in that space between confident and chaotic. That’s the vibe.
“Times Like These” – Addison Rae
Sensual as fuck! “Times Like These” hits different when you’re driving at 2am with your brain running laps. Addison Rae went full trip-hop on this one—Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Kloser produced it, and the whole thing just floats. Her vocals land somewhere between “I’m fine” and “I’m absolutely spiraling” which is exactly where most of us live anyway. She’s singing about life moving quicker than she can keep up with and wishing she could just rewind the last five minutes. The chorus gets it: “My life moves faster than me / Can’t feel the ground beneath my feet.” Yeah, that. Critics kept bringing up Madonna’s Ray of Light and Frou Frou, and honestly they’re not wrong—this has that same ’90s dreamy atmosphere but without feeling like a nostalgia grab. Ethan James Green directed the video as a behind-the-scenes thing of a dance performance, super minimal and intimate in a way that makes you feel like you’re watching something private. Here’s what I love though—Addison never lets this sink into sad ballad territory. Even when she’s confused as fuck, there’s still a groove underneath keeping you afloat. It’s moody but it doesn’t drag you down with it. I played this on those late-night drives when you’re not sad exactly, just processing some shit and need the company.
“Illegal” – PinkPantheress
“Illegal” is PinkPantheress making a song about buying weed sound like the most important transaction of your life. She sampled Underworld’s “Dark & Long (Dark Train)” from 1994 and turned it into this drum’n’bass rush that feels like your heart’s trying to escape your chest. Opens with “My name is Pink and I’m really glad to meet you / You’re recommended to me by some people” – deadpan as hell – then the beat kicks in and you’re in a garage rave at 4am wondering how you got there. Her delivery is so matter-of-fact it somehow makes the whole thing better. Like yeah this is just what we’re doing tonight no big deal. The song became a viral TikTok meme with people doing that handshake POV thing, and honestly? It’s earned every view.
She described it as feeling like coming home—it’s garage, raw, and takes her back to where she started with music. That late-night energy is all over this track and the production by Aksel Arvid is hypnotic and tight. The track clocked in at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and snagged a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Pop Recording all in just 2 minutes and 29 seconds. PinkPantheress has never been about spelling shit out for you. Her lyrics are cryptic and you catch something new on the fifth listen and go “wait, was she talking about that the whole time?” It’s why you keep coming back. You think you’ve figured it out and then she throws you sideways. But forget all the pretentious critic-speak. This fucking bangs.
“Abracadabra” – Lady Gaga
Gaga came back swinging with Mayhem and “Abracadabra” is exactly why we needed her to return. This is the dance-floor Gaga we’ve been missing – pure dance-pop chaos with a hook that gets stuck in your head for days. She wrote and produced it with Andrew Watt and Cirkut, sampling Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Spellbound” because of course she did. The whole thing drips with that dark theatrical energy she built her entire fucking career on.
Lyrically she’s doing this Latin wordplay thing with amor (love) and morta (death), singing about finding magic in life’s chaos. Watt’s on bass and guitars, Cirkut handled the synths, and the production just goes. She dropped the video during a Grammys commercial break and it was a whole moment—40 dancers, Parris Goebel choreography, red-and-black everything that felt like “Bad Romance” grew up and got dangerous. The song topped charts in Lithuania, cracked the top ten in a bunch of countries, got four Grammy nominations including Record and Song of the Year.
Here’s the thing though—Gaga’s not playing it safe or trying to be tasteful about any of this. She’s going full Monster Mother with the dramatics, the fashion, the intensity cranked to eleven. This is the Gaga that made us obsessed with her back in 2009 except now she’s got a decade of experience and zero fucks left to give. She’s been through it and came out the other side more committed to the groove than ever.
Rewinding the Year
2025 reminded me why I keep coming back to dance music. These five tracks worked overtime and soundtracked my days and nights. Sabrina made doing dishes sound like foreplay. PinkPantheress turned buying weed into poetry. Doja gave us ’80s nostalgia. Addison got sultry and introspective at the same time. And Gaga remembered she’s a goddamn icon. More of this please! More basslines that hit you in the chest. More lyrics that stick with you days later. More moments where the only right move is cranking the volume and letting your body do what it needs to do.
For Laurelanne.media’s top 40 tracks and best album picks of 2025, click here.
Laurelanne.media is a fiercely female-focused music publication delivering unfiltered reviews and provocative pop culture articles. We specialize in championing female artists while covering compelling music from all creators, written in an authentic, conversational voice that ditches academic criticism for raw, relatable takes. Our reviews capture the visceral experience of music through honest reactions, lyrical deep dives, and the kind of enthusiasm (or criticism) you’d actually use in real life. We’re unapologetically provocative, professionally insightful, and built for twenty-something women who want their music journalism to sound like a conversation, not a lecture.
