Wedding Jam's Favourite Songs of 2025

It can be easy to feel a little despondent about today's music industry: with the way its consumption has changed, how most artists outside the very top of the mainstream struggle to make a decent living, and that sense of losing touch as we get older, but in truth the musical landscape is as rich and as diverse as ever.

Everyone at Wedding Jam is music mad and so we've put together 20 of our favourite songs of the year, taking in a number of genres and every one a gem. Tuck in!

SAULT - K.T.Y.W.S.

The brilliant and enigmatic SAULT returned this year with their album '10', and this cut is SAULT at their best. Blending r&b, soul and funk, these absolute groove merchants simply never miss, and it's wonderful to have them back.

CARRTOONS - Fade Away

CARRTOONS is the brainchild of New York producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Carr. Taken from this year's 'Space Cadet', 'Fade Away' is a typically soulful, dreamy and breezy bop, fusing classic soul with hip-hop and r&b. Criminally little-known, despite having worked with George Clinton, Roy Ayers and Freddie Gibbs, CARRTOONS deserve a wider audience. Fans of J Dilla should probably take note!

HAIM - Relationships

Continuing the theme of stylistically capitalised band names, this summery banger from HAIM rips into the complications of modern relationships - arguably not an ideal selection for a wedding based business! Still, we know they're often difficult and this little gem intelligently deals with the darker side of love. Complete with bass-line to die for.

BC Camplight - The Tent

In typical BC Camplight fashion this great song confronts an intensely difficult subject - childhood trauma he experienced at a summer camp - with intelligence, black humour and beauty. Beginning ominously, it settles into a woozy ballad, before the final minute explodes into a goosebump-inducing climax, with the terrific line 'some people face the music, some people face the floor' backed by soaring choral harmonies.

Tyler, the Creator - Sucka Free

This absolute bop taps into the vibe of Tyler's 2017 record 'Flower Boy', all summery, smooth and vibey. No ordinary rapper, Tyler has an immense musicality, drawing on a broad palette of influences. 'Sucka Free' comes with more than a nod to 90s G-Funk production, and that is no bad thing at all. He most certainly is 'that guy'. Glorious.

El Michels Affair feat. Clairo - Anticipate

Leon Michels - aka El Michels Affair - produced Clairo's fabulous 2024 album 'Charm', and here Clairo returns the favour by taking guest vocals on this sultry little jam. El Michels Affair's album '24 Hr Sports' is low-key one of the best LPs of 2025, a genre-bending record that sounds simultaneously both vintage and fresh as hell. 'Anticipate' is the lead single, and very much in Clairo's wheelhouse. A beauty.

Black Country, New Road - Besties

This delightfully oddball track takes on a tricky subject - unrequited love for a best friend, with the protagonist torn between falling in love with her same-sex friend but not wanting to trash the friendship. The arrangement, including harpsichord, is beautifully baroque, somehow evoking a blend of the Zombies, the Beach Boys and McCartney at his most wacky.

Jamie Woon - Heavy Going

After a decade away, most Jamie Woon fans had given up all hope of a comeback, but in 2025 he finally returned with a new album. Mining classic Woonish neo-soul and alt r&b, 'Heavy Going' features one of the year's finest chord progressions and showcases the best of British modern soul.

Stereolab - Aerial Troubles

Following an even longer absence than Jamie Woon, art-pop legends Stereolab came back with a stunning new record fully 15 years after their last. 'Aerial Troubles', one of the lead singles, showed they've lost none of their genius. As meticulous and as locked-in as ever, this is vintage Stereolab without ever plagiarising their earlier work. A proper bop.

Will Stratton - Temple Bar

'Temple Bar' is peak storytelling in song from Bella Union's Will Stratton. A lovely, lolloping country ballad, it's an extremely evocative story of a bunch of hard-drinking bar regulars, with the narrator lamenting 'I miss all my friends at the Temple Bar', before detailing the ragtag collection of drinkers and what they're getting up to. Saloon bar fiddle interweaves with pedal steel guitar and piano. A mini masterpiece.

Tom Misch - Red Moon

Tom Misch is one of a clutch of young British dudes serving up modern soul with jazz vibes, and he's on fire here with 'Red Moon'. Liable to bring out serious stank face, this is less beat-heavy than previous work and an exercise in sublime restraint. A classic, timeless piece of music that will surely endure.

Benny Sings feat. Mathilda Homer - Caviar

Vibes, vibes and more vibes! Taken from 'Beat Tape III', Caviar is a typically groovy nugget from the Dutch maestro, and features a sweet and on-point vocal from up-and-coming London vocalist Mathilda Homer. This guy never misses, and despite some vast streaming numbers, we reckon he's not as well-known as he deserves to be.

Geese - Cobra

The hottest rock band of 2025, Geese finally found mainstream approval with their fourth album 'Getting Killed'. Critics can't decide if 'Cobra' sounds like Van Morrison, Lou Reed, or the Stones, and that's a good thing in our eyes. They've chucked a load of vintage influences into a pot and come out with something that sounds unmistakably Geese.

Little Simz feat. Sampha - Blue

The final track on Little Simz's brilliant record 'Lotus' is Simbi at her vulnerable and introspective best, embellished by a sublime guest vocal from Sampha. Little Simz can snarl with the best of them, but she's at her very peak when she lowers her guard. Simz has put together a quite phenomenal run of albums, and she's quickly becoming a national treasure.

Sampha - Cumulus / Memory

This ice-fresh track was the first to be written for his 2023 album 'Lahai', and the last to be finished. Indeed he finished it so late it wasn't included, so he dropped it as a stand-alone single in October of this year. Boasting one of the most distinctive voices in British music, Sampha is a master of his trade, a voice for the vulnerable.

MUNYA feat. Kainalu - Until the Morning

Dreamy, twitchy synth-driven pop from Montreal based Josie Boivin, aka MUNYA, in collaboration with producer Kainalu. Oozing with a groovy, bedroom production aesthetic, this is immaculate stuff and deserves a wider audience.

Olivia Dean - Man I Need

The incredibly likeable Olivia Dean has risen from a midday slot at Glastonbury in 2023 to a pop behemoth, posting gigantic streaming numbers and filling out arenas across the country. 'Man I Need' is smooth and timeless pop, recalling 70s and 80s legends and bringing those vibes to a new generation of ecstatic young fans. Good on her!

Melody's Echo Chamber feat. El Michels Affair - Daisy

Leon Michels makes a second appearance in our list courtesy of this sparkling collab with Melody's Echo Chamber. Opening with a highly infectious guitar part, it breezes along in under three minutes with not a second wasted and no fat at all. Delightful!

Hannah Cohen - Dusty

Winding down now with the penultimate song of the playlist, this is a gorgeous, chilled track that recalls Laurel Canyon. In Cohen's own words, ''Dusty' is about the relentless passage of time that we will all experience, and the way beauty and sorrow intertwine at every turn.' We can all relate to that.

C Duncan - Time and Again

One of Britain's most underrated songwriters, C Duncan is a proper composer, writing unimaginably swooning and romantic songs that would tug at even the coldest of hearts. 'Time and Again' opens with a beautiful, almost Chopin-esque piano refrain, a section we don't hear again until the three minute mark, when it returns underpinned by heavenly, angelic harmonies that take you to another place altogether. The magic of music is unparalleled, and this music is magic.

The full 20 track playlist is below. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.