CLASSIC ROCK'S ULTIMATE PLAYLIST OF 2025

Take any style of music, and there's good and bad. Here we've collected tracks from across the board that, no matter which way your musical taste usually swings, are all worth a listen.

- Words: Henry Yates

A-LISTERS AND ICONS

Big tunes from rock's big cheeses

CHEAP TRICK

The Riff That Won't Quit

When you've got five necks on your guitar – like Rick Nielsen has – a classic riff is bound to fall off one of them eventually. Its parent album might be titled All Washed Up, but this headbanger suggests a hungry garage band awaiting their big break.

ALICE COOPER

Wild Ones

Originally drafted back in the 80s, this standout from The Revenge Of Alice Cooper was envisaged by its co-writer, AC band bassist Dennis Dunaway, as "an anthem for bikers [like] Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild". The riders might be a little older now, but the engine still roars.

THE BLACK KEYS

Man On A Mission

The Black Keys are no longer the scraddedy-arsed bluesers we met back in the post-millennium. But they'll still show you flashes of fuzz and fury, and louche kerb-crawl anthem Man On A Mission is the kind of tune you'd hear throbbing inside a Dodge Blacktop with tinted windows.

ROBERT PLANT

Everybody's Song

While there's a dusting of Kashmir's spices in this jangle-drone cover of the cult Low track, Everybody's Song, from his latest project Saving Grace's self-titled album, isn't Zeppelin-lite, but the work of a career artist still forging ahead. Plant told us.

BIFFY CLYRO

True Believer

Don't bow your head: this sweet/sour galloper from the alt.rock Scots isn't about organised religion, but about backing yourself when life puts you on the ropes. urges frontman Simon Neil, 'and the people you love.'

NINE INCH NAILS

As Alive As You Need Me To Be

Sci-fi dud