2025 has been a tremendous year for Singaporean artists and fans alike. From the encouraging rise of fresh new faces in the local scene to the welcome return of familiar veterans - we’ve been blessed by a wealth of quality music coming out of our little island. These were just some of the best homegrown songs that caught Hear65’s ears this calendar year.
Hidzir Junaini's picks:
Mary Sue & The Clementi Sound Appreciation Club - ‘Oracle Bone Script’
A mystical mosaic of hip-hop, jazz, and folklore, ‘Oracle Bone Script’ captures the boundary-breaking spirit of Mary Sue’s collaboration with the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club. The track feels ancient and futuristic all at once — pairing archaeological symbolism with live instrumentation and introspective rhymes. In a year of genre-blurring experimentation, this track sits at the frontier of sound and storytelling. Read more about it here.
elo elo - ‘I Can’t Find My Head’
On the title track of her debut EP, elo elo turns disorientation into delight. She describes its creation as “weird” — a song written in fast, vivid bursts but agonisingly slow to finish, mirroring how she was “feeling about life.” Revisiting songs from her childhood while building an inspiration playlist became its own emotional excavation: “the finding of one’s head is an ongoing process,” she reflects. The result is a sparkling, restless pop experiment — a whirl of memory, feeling, and self-rediscovery.
Amateur Takes Control - ‘Göbekli Tepe’
With ‘Göbekli Tepe’, Amateur Takes Control channel their fascination with the ancient Turkish site — a place they describe as “dating back to around 9600 BCE, way before known agriculture or settled societies existed.” The band found themselves drawn to imagining “what were their struggles and what did it mean to be a human then?”, and the track becomes a sonic excavation of that mystery. Using a mixture of pitch effects, stutter triggers and string harmonics to “extend the reach of our guitars,” ATC craft something that feels both monumental and intimate, a sweeping return that reaffirms why they are one of Singapore’s most vital instrumental rock forces.
Sigmoid Fn - ‘Sklearn’
Sigmoid Fn (aka FZPZ) continues his deep dive into the sonic metaphors of machine learning. He shared with us that the “adolescence of ML” reminded him of his early days composing, where constant moulding and iteration became part of the music-making instinct. Training Set, mirrors that shift: instead of planning everything upfront, he began with patterns and let them flourish organically. And despite public assumptions, no AI was used — “I don’t use AI or loops or even Splice… I still use only one shots and synthesize.” ‘Sklearn’ captures that ethos perfectly: tense, cerebral, pattern-driven electronic music built not from algorithms, but from human curiosity and craft.
Pleasantry - ‘Constellation’
A triumphant return nearly a decade in the making, ‘Constellation’ reintroduces Pleasantry with their signature blend of dreamy textures and indie-pop radiance. “It captures a moment of surrender, when the weight of the walls we build around ourselves finally gives way,” the band shares. “The freedom we experience when we release our defenses and step into the unknown…” It’s a twinkling reminder of why they remain one of Singapore’s most cherished indie acts.
ALICIA DC & Gabba - ‘Fall’
When ALICIA DC teams up with Filipino math-rock instrumentalist Gabba, the result is a track where tension, space and emotional fallout collide. ‘Fall’ unravels the aftermath of a lovers’ quarrel through sweeping dynamics — ambient calm gives way to rhythmic intensity — and the duo say the collaboration “felt quite effortless” despite being remote across Singapore and Manila. Gabba, whose work until now has been instrumental-only, reflects that “the vocals gave the track a clear direction.” Meanwhile, ALICIA emphasises balance: “It doesn’t sound like just Alicia’s song or just Gabba’s song… it very clearly sounds like an equal collaboration.”
Blush - ‘X My Heart’
Don’t be fooled by the sunny guitar pop — Blush’s ‘X My Heart’ wraps melancholy in candy-coated dream-pop sheen. Anchored by the line “cross my heart and I hope to die in this sick sad world that’s never mine,” the track dives from wistful lovesickness into dark romantic delusion. With jangling melodies, pristine production, and a vibrant-but-macabre visual, it’s a standout from their album Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever.
Sharvamaya Mohan's picks:
The Februarys - ‘That’s Why’
“How do I tell her?” is the core question that 'That's Why' embodies, telling the story of somebody who is afraid of expressing their feelings for somebody. Their hands are shaking and they can’t explain how no matter how many times they practice in front of their mirror, they cannot confess their feelings for the life of them. The pop punk sound gives it the novelty edge of the early 2000s along with lyrics that say, “You know that I try but I can’t believe I’m messing it up again."
Rose Tinted Press, shazza - ‘Hell For Leather’
Soaring beats and whimsical melodies spearhead ‘Hell For Leather’ that feels like a dizzying whirlwind romance that takes over every part of you. The yearning to have them by your side turning into a craving for their presence — solidifying how merciless love is when capturing a person. With lines that embody the story behind the song saying, “I can't pretend, I can't regret, step on the gas, and take my hand, won't you take my hand?”. Speed down the empty winding road of life with the windows down, with the person you love by your side, and ‘Hell For Leather’ soundtracking the moment.
Hijack Hayley - ‘Bodies’
On the surface, ‘Bodies’ displays the blistering rage of being wronged by a lover, slowly uncovering the deceit and lies that they used to pull wool over one’s eyes. However, under the heat and the anger, the track also radiates a slight sadness, thinking that the person that once meant so much to them could do such a thing, with lines such as, “Washed up with your lies I, tell myself that it would pull through” and “I, really want you to say” that capture the conflict between ending the relationship or continuing it without being able to stay apart from them.
