Music
The best music videos of 2025
Jetskis, orchestras, zombies and football throwbacks – all of this from the artists keeping the music video art form thriving
In a year when AI and user-generated content seemed to be the talk of the town, there have thankfully been collaborations between musical and visual artists that have continued to set the standard of creativity.
From the likes of FKA twigs, Wolf Alice and Sabrina Carpenter, we saw surrealism, humour, dance moves, zombies, mirror tricks and more through grainy analogue lenses to sweeping cinematic shots. Here are the very best music videos 2025 had to offer.
Bakar – ‘Lonyo’
We’re big fans of director Tom Emmerson, whose efforts on AntsLive’s ‘Captain Ants’ earnt it a, ahem, much-coveted spot on our list of the best music videos last year. His collaboration with fellow North Londoner Bakar this summer was pure joy, as we see the eclectic artist share a new track with his young cousin, making him promise he won’t share it. What ensues is the best choreographed example of going back on your word I can think of. The track’s an absolute bop, but these kids inject it with that sense of euphoria on the last day of school before the summer break.
Bakar plays Reading and Leeds Festival in August 2026 – find tickets here
OK Go – ‘Love’
If you’re unfamiliar with their work, OK Go are simply masters of the music video art form. The most famous work is undoubtedly the synchronised treadmill workout on the 2005 track ‘Here It Goes Again’, but you can find all kinds of creative genius throughout their career. There were two examples from their latest album, And the Adjacent Possible, that could’ve made this list, but its’ the mesmerising mirror work of ‘Love’ that makes it the standout. Filmed in Budapest Nyugati train station, the one-shot take employs use of 60 mirrors and 29 robot arms for this kaleidoscopic triumph.
Rosalía – ‘Berghain’ feat Björk
One of the reasons Rosalía’s LUX immediately entered so many album of the year lists is how the London Symphony Orchestra enhanced the inimitable artist’s own sense of drama and elegance. In the video to its lead single, ‘Berghain’, the orchestra seems to overshadow every aspect of her daily life like a dark, thunderous cloud, with plenty of clues nodding to a broken heart.
Jim Legxacy – ‘Wayne Rooney’
Upon its release back in July, NME hailed Jim Legzacy’s third mixtape black british music a “potential future classic”. But it’s the not-so-distant past that the track ‘Wayne Rooney’ shoots for, drenched in the nostalgia of noughties football culture, particularly the retro aesthetics of the FIFA games from that period that take us straight back to simpler times. The execution of the idea is ridiculously impressive, thanks in no part due to LAUZZA, the buzzy, anonymous director becoming increasingly hyped for his overstimulated, retro-futurist style.
Jim Legzacy plays Reading and Leeds Festival in August 2026 – find tickets here
Doechii – ‘Denial is a River’
It’s hard to believe ‘Denial is a River’ was released as a single in January, so huge a year was 2024 been for the Grammy Award-winning rapper. Though her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal was released to feverous acclaim that summer, Doechii’s team rightfully thought it was worth resurfacing this track, even just to direct us to its accompanying video. Perfectly matching the song’s therapy-style discussion, the video takes visual cues from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Too Many Cooks, as we see Doechii in an ever-changing sitcom-set house, navigating the many characters busying her mind until reaching an explosive climax.
Turnstile – ‘Never Enough’
![TURNSTILE - NEVER ENOUGH [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Nfk1Su1Q8SI/0.jpg)
Turnstile’s fourth and most successful full-length Never Enough was accompanied by a visual album, so you’d hope its title track would impress. What’s so striking about the song is the interplay between this deep and glistening out-of-body ambience and the rousing, crunchy head-banging the band are loved for. It’s video captures this balance with cinematic vision, using light and colour of contrasting environments, with sweeping shots of vocalist Brendan Yates on a jetski adding a feeling of suspense and mystery.
Find out more about Turnstile here
Wolf Alice – ‘Just Two Girls’
Wolf Alice returned in 2025 with a bang, winning The Mercury Prize for their fourth studio album, The Clearing. ‘Just Two Girls’, an ode to female friendship, was one of its infectious delights, a soft rock banger that makes you feel giddy and woozy. It its video, these two girls are the band’s frontwoman Ellie Rowsell and actor Lucy Boynton, who let a few drinks turn into a gorgeously choreographed evening of chaos.
Wolf Alice play TSNMT Festival, Glasgow on Friday 19 June 2026 – find tickets here
DJ Snake – ‘Patience’ (with Amadou & Miriam)
Admittedly more of a ‘short’ than a music video, this piece of cinematic excellence focussed on the theme of migration – a pertinent topic in 2025 but one treated with care and humanity. The song is the French producer’s take on ‘Sabali’, the 2008 song from Amadou & Miriam, and so it’s charged with even more emotion given Amadou’s untimely passing back in April.
Olivia Dean – ‘So Easy (To Fall In Love)’
The video of this woozy bossa nova number from one of the UK’s most in-demand artists has the pacing and feel of a musical, as perfectly timed and choreographed actors have meet-cutes around her. If that doesn’t sound like a modern day My Fair Lady then a group dance in the middle of the street might. A gorgeously flowing video that matches the fluent and flirty feel at the heart of the song.
Find tickets to Olivia Dean’s headline UK tour in April 2026 here
Sabrina Carpenter – ‘Manchild’
As we saw last year with A$AP Rocky’s ‘Tailor Swif’ video, anything that Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia touch seems to turn to surrealist gold. In a year filled with increasing AI slop, their VFX work becomes even more admirable and impressive; here we see Carpenter hitchhiking through a Californian desert and leaving inept men in her wake.
Find out more about Sabrina Carpenter here
Viagra Boys – ‘Bog Body’
There’s been a few zombie/undead tropes in music videos this year – see Lady Gaga’s ‘The Dead Dance’ – but this one from Swedish post-punks Viagra Boys was our favourite, as we frontman Sebastian Murphy fall for a bog creature, only for her to take the limelight and eventually usurp him from the band.
Viagra Boys play London’s Alexandra Palace on Friday 6 March 2026 – find tickets here
FKA twigs – ‘Drums of Death’
This would’ve made the list for the group choreography alone, but the bleak Severance tone to match the song’s glitchy, industrial vibe scores extra points.
FKA twigs brings the BODY HIGH TOUR to The O2, London on Wednesday 10 June 2026 – find tickets here
