“Brian May called this 2014 hit ‘one of the best rock songs ever’ – now he’s playing on it”: September 2025 Guitar World Editors' Picks

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of September, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Now, September often brings a true avalanche of new music, and this year was no exception. In addition to that, though, we've been preoccupied all month with a different avalanche – that of new guitar gear. Seriously, every week has been like a mini-NAMM, just with later sunsets.

So, no long-winded ramblings about our particular favorites from the 75-strong playlist below (devastating, I know), but do give it a spin.

Goodies within include...

Shams by Saudi Arabian band Seera, which turns Asturias by Isaac Albéniz into a prog- and psych-inspired opus, and SPRINTS' Better, which is a wash of shoegaze euphoria – all colorful distortion and ear worm melodies – and a sublime moment of catharsis amid a set full of fuzzy rage, spiky wit, and raucous dynamic shifts.

Also featured is the Struts' Could Have Been Me, which Brian May cited in 2014 as “one of the best rock songs ever.” Now, he’s playing on it courtesy of an epic, harmony-laden remake.

On the folkier, lo-fi side of things, there's Hudson Freeman's If U Know Me, a TikTok smash with a diabolical down-tuned (acoustic!) riff, and I Know (A Little) from Jacob Collier, which gives us our first taste of what's to come from the multi-instrumental prodigy's guitar-centric album.

Enjoy!