2024 was an incredible year for album releases. The single choices? Stronger than some years, weaker than others. In crafting this year's Top 40, the same rules applied as every past year up to this point (I've been doing it the same way since 2007) and the thing that caught my attention is just how devalued the music video is as an artform in 2024. I'd say that in creating this list I realized that my actual favorite songs of the year are...
1. "Girl, so confusing" by Charli XCX ft. Lorde
2. "Meet The Grahams" by Kendrick Lamar
3. The song I have at #1 at the bottom of this post
and that's not usually the case. Alas, the songs that my top three consist of are not the best song from the artist's album, not the best song from the main storyline of the musical calendar year and a bit of a throwback track that would have been #1 in 1994 also. Music videos are no longer necessary as an artist can just slap together a visualizer for cheap (see "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" by Shaboozey) or just let their music do the talking even though their music doesn't dominate in the real world the way that it should or even does online (Beyonce's last two albums). Music videos just don't garner the attention that they used to unless we're discussing a foreign act like the K-Pop groups that put a ridiculous amount of choreography and effort into their videos. "Disease", the new Lady Gaga single would have had 100 million views by Christmas after a Halloween release in 2014, today? 19 million. Sure, her imperial phase may be behind us but this is still Lady Gaga and she's not in character as Harley Quinn. If artists continue to notice the diminishing returns of the music video, they'll likely halt production of them altogether sooner rather than later and that could dramatically alter how I create these end-of-year countdowns. I only had 129 songs in consideration this year and that number has never been lower despite still seeming like more than enough. I won't be changing the platform this year but it does seem like we're only a couple years away from me just slapping together 40 songs, 1 per artist and saying "good enough!".
The cutoff date this year was December 14th, 2024. Any single with an accompanying music video released after this date is eligible for the 2025 Top 40 countdown. As always, eligible songs for this list NEED TO HAVE A MUSIC VIDEO RELEASED BETWEEN mid-December 2023 and mid-December 2024. (Apologies to "Girl, so confusing" by Charli xcx featuring Lorde, "Meet The Grahams" by Kendrick Lamar, "Starburned and Unkissed" by Caroline Polachek, "Bodyguard" by Beyonce', "Good Luck Babe" by Chappell Roan and "Exmilitary" by JPEGMAFIA).
Here were the nine hardest songs for me to cut out from the Top 40 this go-round...
Countdown Contenders
Badflower - Teacher Has A Gun
Beach Bunny - Clueless
English Teacher - Albert Road
Fontaines D.C. - Favourite
Mustafa ft. Daniel Caesar - Leaving Toronto
Olivia Rodrigo - Obsessed
Omar Apollo - Drifting
Paramore - Thick Skull
Soccer Mommy - Abigail
Earlier this decade, Ethel Cain released the song "American Teenager" and it has only grown in stature since as an anthem for those skeptical of the "American dream" in the 2020s. Now, her penchant for songwriting has gone more avant-garde and the gothic vibes of her 2022 debut album, Preacher's Daughter seem to have only been expanded upon. I may have underappreciated "American Teenager" at the time but, I could tell that this nearly 7-minute slow ambient track that centers around the topic of deep, dark shame was necessary in her catalog moving forth. Her follow-up album, Perverts will open 2025 (out January 8th) on a high note as I can't think of many albums with as much hype having an early release date next year.
One more thing: This song is for people that are into Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence and Jane Remover's Census Designated.
The Zambian rock band Ngozi Family's 1977 song "Nizaka Panga Ngozi" sounds like Black Sabbath's "War Pigs". Even at his most experimental, I did not foresee Tyler digging this deep into his or his mother's crate of records for a sample. It's one of the coolest sounding instrumentals of 2024 and it's stuff like this and whatever tip JPEGMAFIA is on that moves the rap genre forward without disincentivizing the lyrics behind a wall of sound. "Noid" being short for "Paranoid" is itself a timely lyrical masterwork that expresses a very 2024 feeling for a growing celebrity that has a now extremely widespread fan base of all ages constantly badgering Tyler to meet their expectations in his music and his time outside of the spotlight. The meteoric rise of pop star Chappell Roan and her very public reaction to unwanted in-person attention on TikTok can be pointed to as a comparably heightened version of this ever-growing phenomenon in the "Stan" era. Great song. Weird song. Not totally indicative of his Chromakopia tracklist but, a standout nonetheless.
One more thing: The Ayo Edebiri-featured music video is only 2:43 long, the official full track is around four and a half minutes.
It's been thirteen years since "Back Down South" and "Pyro" were as far as I ventured into alternative country-rock or Kings Of Leon made an appearance on an end-of-year countdown for me. "Mustang" was a complete surprise for fans of the band that have felt like the Nashville-based rock band has abandoned their southern rock roots for a more milquetoast pop-centric sound over the past decade. Sure, the lyrics to "Mustang" are dumb as hell but they're also fun and the production on that bassline is a step up from anything they've done since 2011's Come Around Sundown. It's clear that instead of continuing down The Black Keys' route of one catchy but lifeless single every album cycle, there's more to be mined from the Followill brothers going forward even if this year's Can We Please Have Some Fun album didn't totally work.
One more thing: The ninth studio album released by this band this year was entirely produced by Kid Harpoon, the man behind "As It Was" by Harry Styles and "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus. He has a penchant for hit-making.
The old "as long as your music video from a previous year's album was released in a given year's eligibility window, it counts" loophole strikes again! This song was my introduction to Bruiser Wolf, a 42-year old Detroit rapper whose vocal delivery is reminiscent of E-40 at his most comedic. "Y.B.P." (standing for Young, Black and Poor) showcases both Danny Brown and Bruiser's ability to paint stories with their words. Having a dial on the television that's so busted that it only changes channels when you pull the pliers out? I remember growing up with a TV that eventually lost it's power button and having to live with that for a year or two back when spending money on a television meant missing a week's worth of desserts or some other financial "sacrifice" (Isn't it bizarre how the cost of TV sets is the one thing that hasn't exorbitantly risen over the years?). I can picture the stories of Detroit city they tell in this track but even with that gap closed, there's still a uniqueness to this brand of storytelling that really gets across how unlikely a rise to prominent success would have been for these two rappers in their forties.
One more thing: The Detroit-based sports references in Bruiser Wolf's verses really sold me on this as the standout track from Brown's 2023 album, Quaranta.
So far, this many comparisons to James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem seem flagrantly unwarranted for 28-year old Harrison Patrick Smith, AKA: The Dare. His production has highlighted the so-called "Indie Sleaze renaissance" of the early-to-mid 2020's. The only problem is that he's not out here writing classics like "Losing My Edge" or "Someone Great". No, Smith is trying to recreate and expound upon "Drunk Girls" and "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" by making some of the more fun nonsensical dance music that clashes against the more pristine production of pop music that has dominated the past ten years. This song "Perfume" is more 2010 Ke$ha than it is 2024 Kesha (see the eccentric mess that is "Joyride"). There's an edge to it even though it sounds and looks like a perfume ad. It's the perfect balance of sleaze and nerdy swagger.
One more thing: #36 last year was "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus.
Who would have thought Charly Bliss had a piano ballad in them when 2017's Guppy introduced the Brooklyn-based indie rock band to us? The band has since made a poppier pivot in their sound palette that had still remained harmless, upbeat fun two albums later until "Nineteen". This song is their "Fix You" (Coldplay) moment. A more contemplative, misty-eyed reminiscence of what was young love and how lead singer Eva Hendricks "died a little just to be let in". We don't get many details about the relationship itself but, there's enough here to know that Hendricks and the band were forever altered and now we know they've got this in their bag moving forward.
One more thing: Spencer Fox, the band's lead guitarist voiced Dash in 2004's The Incredibles.
I don't think anybody is having more fun making pop music and flying under the radar right now than Remi Wolf. There's no reason for "Cinderella" to stand out among the crowd of potential hits that came from this year's Big Ideas. It just so happens to be the track that got the most replay in mind when I wasn't listening to the album itself. There's just something so catchy about the "me and the boys in the hotel lobby!" refrain and the Chic-like instrumentation that carried it's memorability all the way throughout a stacked year in pop music. She's also seemingly beloved in the industry, having opened for Paramore and Olivia Rodrigo on their most recent tours as well. It's time for her Gracie Abrams-like breakthrough.
One more thing: Indie cult favorite Mac DeMarco appears as the ice cream man in the "Cinderella" music video.
Radical Optimism was never going to recreate how Future Nostalgia carried the down-year in pop culture that was 2020. It was unfair of anyone to have those expectations. There also weren't any "New Rules"-like smashes on Lipa's third album but, that'd have been crazy as well. Instead, Dua Lipa seems headed in the direction of Kylie Minogue on songs like "Illusion". Unafraid to work with every cool producer out there (Danny L Harle and Kevin Parker are credited with producing this third single off Radical Optimism), there's no telling what songs will click in America while she's already solidified her status as the biggest pop star worldwide in their twenties. This song should have been stickier than it was in the USA while we were busy shoving country music into every pop conversation but, if it leads to Dua making an Impossible Princess-style trip hop album before 2030 then I am on board.
One more thing: This is Dua's fourth appearance on my end-of-year Top 40 after "New Rules" (2017), "Break My Heart" & "Levitating" (both 2020).
I just want to give credit to Kendrick for introducing me to Debbie Deb's "When I Hear Music", the song that is heavily sampled all over "Squabble Up". It's one thing when David Guetta pulls an interchangeable pop singer looking for a come-up out of the trash heap to cover a song I remember from my childhood to introduce it to a new generation. It's a whole other beast to put the world on game with a song released before the artist themselves was born (Lamar in 1987, "When I Hear Music" in 1984). How else would I have found a song that never topped #43 on the "Black Singles" chart eleven years before I was born? This song and the original are both bangers. GNX is a banger. Kendrick came back with a vengeance in 2024 and it wasn't just with anger and beef. The vocal choices and meme-able vocal affectations he made on "Squabble Up" could have just as easily turned this song into a punchline but, the g-funk beat produced by Sounwave and Jack Antonoff help make this song a standout success.
One more thing: The visuals were on point as well with "Squabble Up"'s music video taking place entirely in the same room used to shoot The Roots' 1999 classic "The Next Movement".
We're in the midst of a gambling epidemic, being shoved in our faces every minute of the day through network TV advertisements, pop-up banners on mobile apps and every podcast known to human kind's sponsorship. There is no end in sight to this hobby taking over every young man's life as an addiction in a way that is very much Gen Z-specific that wasn't the case before a barrage of states began legalizing gambling around 2018. Zach Bryan tells the story of a more commonplace addict (supposedly in reality this is his grandfather) taking his son from dive bar to dive bar, smoking dudes on the pool table, grifting them out of their beer money to support dad's habits as a drunkard and a swindler. The narrator of "Nine Ball" doesn't love continuing to have this much pressure on him as the golden cash cow of this tricky relationship, only wanting to find alternatives to making his father proud of him outside of gambling entirely focused on some kid.
One more thing: Matthew McConaughey stars in the music video.
It's about time I found a way to get the Irish band that is carrying rock in the 2020s on to my Top 40 list and it is not the last we'll be hearing from them. "Starburster" is the song off Romance (the band's fourth studio album) that took the longest to grow on me. The gasping in the chorus was a bold choice among monotone rhyming and at first, I just didn't get it in a similar way to the fact that I don't think the band really hit me until their sophomore album. This is also the best Irish rap song not to soundtrack a movie from 2024 (see Kneecap). "Starburster" revolves around the internal narration lead singer Grian Chatten was having as he suffered a panic attack on a train in London. All of those thoughts and new lyrics rushing through the brain at one time while being a public figure using public transportation in the social media era? Yeah, I understand how he started to lose his grip on his emotions in that moment. I'm not sure I'll ever know how he crafted it into a song so well.
One more thing: The music video was also a curveball for me as a first-time viewer and probably attributed to my initial hesitance towards fully grasping "Starburster" as a whole.
In 2024, Justin Vernon slowly stepped back into public consciousness to do three things. One thing was to campaign for Kamala Harris, the second was a remix of "I Think About It All The Time" for Charli XCX's Brat and it's completely different but also still Brat and a four-song EP titled Sable. The latter was announced via this single, "S P E Y S I D E" and it brought me back to early-2010's Bon Iver. The rush of nostalgia I felt listening to this song reminded me of some of the alternative bands I found at the time that either don't exist anymore (The Lonely Forest) or bands that went down divergent paths (Saint Motel and Delta Spirit). This song was actually a remnant from one of the COVID lockdowns in early 2021, when Vernon and some family members retreated to the woods for a few weeks and the Bon Iver front man got to pondering past relationships and moments where he felt he had wronged others. It was all very reminiscent to the initial Blood Bank EP process back in January 2009. Naturally, it sounds similar with its sparse instrumentation and isolated vocals. The band has thrived with whatever approach they take to their music but from now on, this belongs with "Skinny Love" and "Holocene" as the song I picture when the name Bon Iver is brought up.
One more thing: This is Bon Iver's sixth appearance ever on my end-of-year Top 40.
2019's Young Enough is still a good album that in hindsight was a transitory album from the lyrically-focused alternative pop-punk band that Charly Bliss was on 2017's Guppy and the pop-rock band that they were this year on their third album, Forever. The thing that was missing were the ear-grabbing lyrics that stood out and helped keep the catchiest songs latched onto the listener's brain. "Calling You Out" is more a case of lead singer Eva Hendricks calling herself out as insecure than it is attached to any man. She openly wonders who her musician partner "writes your songs about" when it's probably a love song attached to her or a fictional story written about no one based on past experience as musicians are accustomed to doing. It's about as pop as this band gets and it's way more introspective than the band as we first knew them.
One more thing: #28 on last year's countdown was "Strong Enough" by Boygenius.
If I had to choose two words to describe this era of Vampire Weekend, it'd be "LOUD NOISES". In the past, they've been too preppy to be the rockingest band around but on 2024's Only God Was Above Us and more specifically "Gen-X Cops", they removed any doubt that this is an honest-to-god rock band. What a message it is then for THE indie rock band of the late-00's to come back with a message that seems to have escaped the Baby Boomer-era voices of rock and roll. As time passes and the generational ideals that these forty-somethings grew up on fade or blur, they don't scold Gen-Z or Gen Alpha on what is to come of their ideas for how to police society but instead, beg for their forgiveness in advance. Lead singer Ezra Koenig realizes this is an endless cycle of receiving criticism for how his generation (Millennials) has handled life in comparison to Gen-X and how the Millennials will now look down upon whoever is next. This is an idea that has been around for centuries but has seemingly never been as prevalent of a discussion as it has been in the 2020s due to just how dramatically things have changed since the technological revolution in the internet era and how easily it has been to be hammered over the head with generational divide instead of celebrating the commonalities of them all, their human nature.
One more thing: That opening distorted guitar hook will live rent-free in my head until I die probably.
Holy high notes! There are three parts to this song that are firing on all cylinders. There's Anderson .Paak's sung-spoken delivery trying to convince his attraction that he is the one with whom to spend the night. He is unsuccessful in his courting of this woman and then is forced to contemplate all of his life choices that led to him being alone after a real-life divorce. It's sad but that isn't really obvious until the October London falsettos hit the chorus and shiiiiiit... this dude's whole world is broken. Snoop Dogg comes in that end for a spoken-word narration to opine that the worst thing to come home to isn't an empty bed, but rather a locked front door with all of your belongings on the front step and the locks changed. A closing time breakup song that showcases male vulnerability at it's smoothest.
One more thing: NxWrries is the collaborative duo of Anderson .Paak and producer Knxwledge, their second album Why Lawd? came out in 2024. October London's album October Nights came out in October 2024 also.
Released the week before Halloween, "Disease" sounds like a sister track to 2010's smash hit "Bad Romance". It's also an idea that had probably been floating around in Gaga's head since the 2017 one-off single "The Cure". She is now both the "Disease" and "The Cure". Robert Smith could never. The highlights of this song, presumably coming off whatever she decides to name her eighth album, are in the production and vocal choices. Gaga's voice is layered between a more common sounding pre-chorus of vocal and what I'm calling Evil Swamp Voice Gaga. It actually makes for a really cool sounding contrast and makes the grittier chorus hit perfectly over the deep, synth-laden bass of the house-inspired instrumental. This fits neatly in his catalog and was a perfect choice for a lead single as she looks to take over 2025 uncontested in her experience at the top.
One more thing: Lady Gaga did release one album this year... Harlequin, a concept album of sorts based on her character (Harley Quinn) in the failed Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à deux. It's more of a jazz/traditional pop album than anything to be considered as part of her official discography.
Annie Clark remains one of the most consistent acts around on 2024's All Born Screaming. She returned to her rock roots with a bit more emphasis on delivering ten solid rock songs and no particular sound to attribute as being of a specific album cycle. As always, there was also at least one highlight to the album in the lead single, "Broken Man". Unlike the Vampire Weekend song earlier, this song starts out relatively meek and subdued with a bit of distorted synthesizer and a cowbell, only to escalate and escalate to the point where she sounds like a middle-aged mother yelling at her children to get out of the damn road after repeating herself innumerable times. It's the sense of exhaustion and irritation that breaks through the song for me. We've seen plenty of "Broken" men make music, constantly shape-shifting in their sound palette and receive praise for taking chances. St. Vincent's continued efforts to sound different from album to album, working with artists like Sleater-Kinney and Taylor Swift that seemingly diverge from the critical darling that she was through her first decade in the alternative spotlight have soured some longtime fans or critical admirers. On this song, she went back to basics and turned it up a notch to the point where I think everyone left this song happy and hopeful no matter what moves she makes next.
One more thing: Dave Grohl plays the drums on "Broken Man" and one other single off All Born Screaming ("Flea").
I did not love this song when I first heard it at Coachella the week it was released but, I was watching my dad and Father Todd knew this was a hit. It's the most right-on he's been since Rihanna's 2007 classic "Umbrella". It only took one or two more listens for "Is somebody tryna match my freak?" became the TikTok phenomena that it was. The somewhat futuristic pop sound of "Nasty" is reminiscent of Janet Jackson's late-90's "Together Again" production meeting well... Janet Jackson's "Nasty" sentiments on her 1986 classic. Some credit is due to the under-reported production genius Ricky Reed, a certifiable hit-maker at this point. I've enjoyed a lot of what "Nasty Nashe" has put out over the past decade but, this was the first song of hers where everything clicked and we all declared that she should be a bigger artist, becoming her first Billboard charting hit since the Schoolboy Q-assisted "2 On" from 2014.
One more thing: Tinashe was born Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe.
Australia just has a solid reputation for churning out musical acts that I adore and Amyl and The Sniffers fall right in line. The lead single for their third album, Cartoon Darkness was a perfect encapsulation for what makes this band so fun. Spitting in the face of naysayers that might be repulsed by whatever antics Amyl (lead singer Amy Taylor) or the Sniffers (the rest of the band) might be up to on stage or in promotion of their devil-may-care attitudinal music. "U Should Not Be Doing That" is a fun middle finger to anybody that thought the band's presentation might hold them back in any way. If anything, it's helped them stand out and the detractors have only inspired the art.
One more thing: #22 on 2023's countdown was "Bad Idea Right?" by Olivia Rodrigo.
The disappearance of classic back-and-forth duets like this needs to be studied. Perhaps the world heard any song like this and immediately thought of 1973's country hit "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn and thought "too cheesy". Whatever the case may be, there are far too many tacked on remix duets that do not sound natural in any way (like who actually hears the "Die For You" remix by The Weeknd ft. Ariana Grande and thinks those two are in the same studio?) and not enough callbacks to music this organic and yes, still cheesy. "Die With A Smile" is probably the lead single for whatever Bruno Mars project drops in 2025 (if any) and perfects his most acclaimed music, combining the sentimentality of 2010's "Grenade" with the throwback acoustic sound that was channeled on his Silk Sonic record with Anderson .Paak. Mars is a man that knows how to show love to the music he grew up on and "Die With A Smile" is sure to sweep up the two Grammy nominations it has in early 2025 (Best Pop/Duo Group Performance and potentially Song of the Year?).
One more thing: Lady Gaga is set to headline Friday night of Coachella 2025.
Billie's coming-out song is the most fun she's had on record since "Bad Guy". I'm going to keep it short since this is the first entry off of Hit Me Hard and Soft. The lead single from her third studio album in five years, Eilish explicitly speaks on her infatuation with an unnamed woman by comparing her to a meal. It's more delicately handled than Katy Perry's "Bon Appétit" and approaches the subject as the hunter instead of the hunted, reading like a modern day rap song.
One more thing: "Lunch" was nominated for the VMA for Video of the Year.
A less-obvious choice for a single, "Chihiro" is a five-minute electronic track that was inspired by the main character from 2001's Spirited Away, a widely-acclaimed anime classic. The second single off Hit Me Hard and Soft spends it's time luxuriating underwater for most of the verses before Billie emerges and is eventually carried off into the stars at the track's conclusion. At least, that's the way I've always heard it. The song is about Eilish trying to reconnect with people in her life prior to fame after her rise into one of the world's biggest pop headliners. I hope she's found a way to reconnect with those friends that she felt too distant from as it's easiest to lose track of people once you hit your twenties and branch out into the world. One can only imagine how different life must be for someone to become famous in that same time frame.
One more thing: The video for "Chihiro" co-stars Nat Wolff from the late-00's Nickelodeon show The Naked Brothers Band.
The lead single from Only God Was Above Us did not sound like much of parting from Vampire Weekend's music up to 2024 and that was never going to be a negative thing as there's still very few piano-centric, contemplative ballad-adjacent tracks in their catalog. Well, it didn't sound that different until the absolutely bonkers synths and orchestration came in. "Capricorn" is a bit of a sleeper track in a similar vein as St. Vincent's "Broken Man", only this song comes back around to being quiet at it's conclusion, just a man and a guitar. It is an extremely forward-thinking song that again deals with generational differences as Ezra Koenig and company observe that anybody born their age or later essentially grew up on the internet and has no concept for what defines their decade or any sort of time frame. The concept of a monoculture is essentially dead if not on it's dying bed. Much in the way that a Capricorn born now has no relation to the year they were born into, coming in late before the New Year.
One more thing: This is Vampire Weekend's fifth appearance on my end-of-year songs countdown, putting them in my personal countdown Hall of Fame (a thing I just invented).
This may not have been the most inspired song of the year but it's definitely in the top twenty of songs I've thought about in 2024. A perfect pop song in the post-producer that worked with Katy Perry this year that shall not be named world. I'm not sure what the thought process was behind lyrics like "I'm working late, cuz I'm a singer" or "one touch and I brand-new'd it for ya" but, I'd love for musicians to do more idiosyncratic stuff like that in their writing if they can't plug together a new storyline for a song or something. "That me espresso" never got tiresome despite being the most played song everywhere all year long. Saturday Night Live even parodied it and it's a natural song to appear in a Keurig or Starbucks ad twenty years down the road. Not too shabby for a former Disney actress on her sixth album that somehow has a Best New Artist nomination this year.
One more thing: "Espresso" was the most streamed song on Spotify in 2024 at 1.6 billion streams.
Portishead has not released an album since 2008 and their reputation as a staple of the nineties' trip hop movement stands tall thanks to a bit of a resurgence through the internet. Beth Gibbons didn't need to release solo material but after her surprising cameo on Kendrick Lamar's moving 2022 deep cut "Mother I Sober" (The highlight of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers), it became apparent that her presence was missed in present-day musical discussions. Her debut solo album, Lives Outgrown came out this year and is the first that any of Gibbons' music really stood out to me. Her voice has aged wonderfully and the little bit that it has changed really pulls the emotion out of a reflective song like "Lost Changes". The string-section behind this track makes it feel like a Radiohead cut from the A Moon Shaped Pool recordings and I hope her absence from music won't be another 15 years but if it is, she's got a pretty spotless record of beautiful songs.
One more thing: #16 on last year's countdown was "Chosen To Deserve" by Wednesday.
The noise around Father John Misty has dissipated since he overplayed his media hand back around 2017's Pure Comedy press tour. In the years since then, he's released two albums to somewhat diminishing returns and fans had been wondering if he'd lost a step and if he'd ever return to his southern rock-inspired sound that can sometimes cover up his brilliant songwriting. "Screamland" is a throwback in the Father John Misty timeline to some of his earliest, choppier sounding productions. Massive on the instrumentation to the point of intentionally blowing out the recording studio's microphones, the chorus for "Screamland" is very on-the-nose with it's overstated exhaustion at the constant need to "Stay young", "Get numb" and "Keep Dreaming". Not the most uplifting sentiment but, I do find that Josh Tillman thrives when he's rolling his eyes at those around him.
One more thing: In case the blown-out production didn't make it clear, Low's Alan Sparhawk plays guitar on the lead single off Mahashmashana.
The only solo act to land three tracks off one project on this year's countdown, this was the biggest song off of Hit Me Hard and Soft. I knew this song would be a personal favorite just off the snippet that accompanied the teaser trailer for the third season of Netflix's Heartstopper series. It's production bubblier than any of the pop music Billie and her brother Finneas had released up until this Summer and the singing some of Billie's most optimistic without sounding as forced as it did on "My Future". "Birds Of A Feather" is such a breezy listen that has Eilish expressing her love for a significant other that drives her to feel all the emotions at their most heightened sense. It's something of an instant classic by today's standards and was THE breakthrough hit off her third album.
One more thing: "Birds Of A Feather" is nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance, Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the upcoming 67th Annual Grammy Awards.
Don't ask me what the hell is going on in this music video, just know that it is an uncomfortable cinematic experience of sorts. Romance is a legitimate breakout album for this band and I was most enamored with "In The Modern World" of all the singles. Accompanied by bandmate Connor Deegan on the chorus, I feel that Grian Chatten really stretches his voice at points on this song that we don't otherwise hear too often from the distinctly Irish lead singer. The lyrics for "In The Modern World" were inspired by Lana Del Rey's themes of disillusionment with their surrounding world. The band knows that this is all just a state of mind and simply taking a break from their phones or the news might just help them realize how beautiful the world can truly be at moments when we're not hopelessly attached to the negativity. A very modern idea indeed.
One more thing: The music video stars Ewan Mitchell from Game of Thrones.
No EDM producer/singer has had quite the career trajectory that Porter Robinson has. His glow-up from being a highly-billed festival DJ in the mid-2010s to being a 1-of-1 songwriting genius is about as unexpected as the Golden State Warriors sudden rise to a dynasty around the time they hired Steve Kerr as head coach. "Year Of The Cup" is by far the most fascinating song off Robinson's third studio album, Smile! :D. Not an official single but still getting a music video, this track splices together Porter singing an acoustic track with his guitar about how anxiously he reflects on past flaws and snippets from an interview with British DJ Tim Westwood back in the 2000's. It's probably the most experimental track on this entire countdown and the common thread of open vulnerability really helps it stand out on what was otherwise a very electropop record.
One more thing: Speaking of cups, the Florida Panthers won this year's Stanley Cup in the NHL. Thus marks the beginning of their year of the cup.
When I was first introduced to Magdalena Bay back in 2020, I thought they were going to be a fun, quirky band that brought in early 2000's internet vibes as aesthetic and that'd be as far back as the concepts for this experimental pop Duo would go. Boy, was I wrong about that as they jumped through multiple decades and genres of music on 2024's Imaginal Disk. The band's second album is loaded with catchy tunes with the lead single being the longest track and a total journey through space (quite literally) fitting into the concept of the album as lead singer Mica Tenenbaum's character sings to an alien boyfriend that left her, communicating through a star. It's almost a bit too sci-fi for me, the hardened dark realist that I can be but when Mica and Matthew Lewin do psychedelic pop, I seemingly can't help but praise the creativity behind what they've accomplished.
One more thing: "Death & Romance" was Paste's #1 song of 2024.
I'm a sucker for a captivating, seemingly autobiographical storyline. In his singer-songwriter bag for this one, Josh Tillman tells the story of a very bad trip on acid where he references Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and expresses fear at becoming a human Humpty Dumpty. It's the best track off his sixth album, Mahashmashana and a total return to form after a one album detour into classical experimentation. I'm happy to report that he can still do the lounge singer thing without feeling tired.
One more thing: Father John Misty now has had four appearances on my annual Top 40s.
It's taken just over a decade but finally, Ariana Grande has a solo song that I fully embrace as one of the best songs of the calendar year. Sure, it's a carbon copy of Robyn's 2010 classic "Dancing On My Own" but, the world needs more Robyn-like music. Pop music mastermind Max Martin worked on both songs and the melancholic choruses of both songs hit like a heartbreak that's as fresh as a wound gets. The song is the highlight of Ariana's seventh studio album, eternal sunshine and seems like something created in the midst of her real-life divorce. The music video nails home the emotions of the song's breakup with it's own take on the 2004 Jim Carrey film Eternal Sunshine and The Spotless Mind. Quite possibly the best music video of 2024? Or at least the one with most effort behind it.
One more thing: The music video co-stars Evan Peters of American Horror Story fame.
I missed the boat on Sonic Youth. Their final album came out in 2009, just as I was beginning to expand my interest in alternative music and they just never came up as someone I had to listen to. After Kim Gordon's divorce with Thurston Moore, she tried a side-project with experimental artist Bill Nace that I have admittedly been too intimidated (and just swamped in general with a massive backlog in my musical queue) to give a listen to and eventually went solo in the late-2010s. Understanding that she was part of one of the biggest alternative rock bands of the eighties and nineties', imagine my shock when I pushed play on this lead single from her fascinating 2024 sophomore album The Collective and heard the hardest beat in all of rap music this year. Playboi Carti could never make reciting a list of things for packing on a long trip over an opium beat sound this cool. Of course, Gordon still knows how to shred and the guitar kicking in through all the bass and fuzz of this song just kicks the most ass of pretty much anything I heard in 2024.
One more thing: At age 71, Gordon is the second oldest artist to ever make my end-of-year Top 40 behind Petula Clark (who was 81 in 2013 with her song "Cut Copy Me")
Another perfect duet only these two understated vocalists work best as a team (unlike the Bruno/Gaga duet where those two's track records as soloists precede themselves). The alt-country sphere has invaded the rock world over the past few years in a much more tolerable and honorable way than how country infiltrated the pop bubble this past year (No, I am not in on Post Malone's country re-brand but whatever keeps him happy is fine to me). "Right Back To It" is the first Waxahatchee single to really stand out as a potential future classic with it's storytelling as a long-term love story that has it's rough patches. Ultimately, the two at the center of the song get "right back to it" as a couple despite these bumps and bruises and the vocal stylings of both these born-again rockers compliments each other beautifully.
One more thing: Spencer Tweedy, son of Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, plays the drums on this song.
The song that owes the most to Kesha and Taio Cruz's "Dirty Picture" of any song since it's release in 2010. Just a relentlessly horny smash hit of a pop song that would have killed a small Victorian era child if you put a pair of headphones on them. The biggest commercial victory of the Brat album roll-out was not anything off of the remix album, Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat but between the remix of "Girl, So Confusing" and the hype delivered around all of the bonus features. I'm not sure the bonus track "Guess" needed a remix since The Dare already had the instrumentation perfected to what the final product was in said remix. The only difference was Eilish hopping on the track to add her own "Lunch"-like energy, talking about buying a pair of underwear for her mystery partner, same as she did on the #20 song off her own album.
One more thing: The original version of "Guess" doesn't even appear on the original version of Brat, it made it's debut after the fact on the deluxe edition, Brat and It's The Same but There's Three More Songs So It's Not.
Touching on the constant barrage of fan attention through social media much in the same way as Tyler, The Creator's "Noid", "Cheerleader" again explores stan culture going too far. Robinson's lead single from Smile! :D has the electropop musician singing about a fandom so obsessive that he gets messages threatening his life if he doesn't meet or exceed their expectations as an artist or public figure. We'd all like to imagine that these are just kids too young to understand how to act online but in truth, we will never know for certain. That's what makes the music video so great as Porter is placed into a virtual reality controlled by this faceless human donning the mask of an anime character. That avatar being the only recognizable indicator of who's tormenting Robinson's psyche.
One more thing: This is the closest track outside of "Kitsune Maison Freestyle" off Smile! :D that Robinson gets back to his original style of music.
Rap music is such an incredible genre for music discovery. Prior to college, I would not have known of Father John Misty, Haim or even Band of Horses were it not for Kid Cudi's covers and over-sampling up to the Indicud album. Now, I've been able to go even deeper in virtual crate digging thanks to artists like Tyler, The Creator pulling a feature from the up-and-coming British neo soul artist Lola Young. She started out as more of an R&B singer and there are certainly still hints of that in her extraordinary Winehouse-ian vocals. Her second studio album, This Wasn't Meant For You Anyways went completely under the radar on this side of the Atlantic but let me tell you something, it's picking up steam and she could be the big, not quite Chappell Roan but hardly anything is, up-and-coming star in 2025. "Messy" is a brutally honest song towards an ex about Young recognizing her imperfections and still burying that partner's head in the sand because they were seemingly so much more flawed. It's very much filling the gap that Olivia Rodrigo left this year.
One more thing: "Like Him" is probably the second best track off Tyler, The Creator's Chromakopia behind "Hey Jane".
It seems hard to believe that this was our first taste of what would become Brat summer. It certainly wasn't the most popular or even best (again, the "Girl, So Confusing" remix is a 10/10, GIRL, no notes. What an inspiration Lorde is as a songwriter) track to come out of this whole album cycle. Alas, "Von Dutch" was a perfect preview of what was to come from Charli XCX's legendary 2024. The song just exudes the no-fucks given attitude and confidence that was carried over into the Sweat tour with Troye Sivan. "Von Dutch" shows Charli recognizing just how cool and acclaimed her music and personality have been up to this point and pointing it out to us that she's a "cult classic" but still "pop". I couldn't have said it better myself. Who knows who exactly the song might be targeted at, this is seemingly the song we know the least about behind the scenes but as long as she continued to evolve that PC Music sound, I don't need to know the subliminals on this particular song.
One more thing: This is Charli XCX's 7th appearance on my end-of-year Top 40.
"Meet The Grahams" was the death knell for Drake in the rap battle of our lifetimes, coming a mere half-hour in response to Drake's "Family Matters". "Not Like Us" was the victory lap. I feel extremely weird putting this song at #1 even if it is the biggest cultural moment of the music year and a banger and a half. I don't feel right putting a song at #1 that accuses someone of heinous sex crimes. Thankfully, there was one song that got a music video that I can't get enough of also. This song helped Mustard reemerge to a level of hit-making relevancy he really hasn't seen since Ella Mai's 2018 smash hit "Boo'd Up". The history lesson that Lamar gives on colonization and the context he provides for his hatred for "The 6 God" are made so viscerally clear over both these diss tracks he released on the May 3rd-4th weekend that one can't help but admire putting forth that much energy into getting back at someone they feel is misusing their stature. It's not the Compton rapper at his most philosophical but even when he's not jumping around genres, he's writing the most captivating music around.
One more thing: #2 on last year's countdown? "The Window" by Ratboys.
#1 songs of year's past
2006. P!nk "Stupid Girls"
2007. Amy Winehouse "Rehab"
2008. Kanye West ft. Dwele & Connie Mitchell "Flashing Lights"
2009. Santigold "L.E.S. Artistes"
2010. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Skeletons"
2011. Adele "Someone Like You"
2012. Santigold "The Keepers"
2013. Arcade Fire "Afterlife"
2014. St. Vincent "Birth In Reverse"
2015. Courtney Barnett "Depreston"
2006. P!nk "Stupid Girls"
2007. Amy Winehouse "Rehab"
2008. Kanye West ft. Dwele & Connie Mitchell "Flashing Lights"
2009. Santigold "L.E.S. Artistes"
2010. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Skeletons"
2011. Adele "Someone Like You"
2012. Santigold "The Keepers"
2013. Arcade Fire "Afterlife"
2014. St. Vincent "Birth In Reverse"
2015. Courtney Barnett "Depreston"
2021. Alt-J "Get Better"
The #1 Song of 2024
Featuring Karly Hartzman, Lederman's bandmate from 2023 breakthrough band (in my world) Wednesday, "She's Leaving You" was the best single of 2024. His wry sense of humor and sarcasm dominates the guitarist's solo music and with nods to Eric Clapton being a guitar god, this song is no different since that is 100% the unpopular take in the present day. This single could have also fit in as the #1 song of 1994 with perhaps a dustier sound quality. The lead single from Manning Fireworks, this song is about a middle-aged fuck-up going through a breakup and continuing to take risks that could lead him down more of the same path. We all know this guy. He's not MJ Lenderman but this very well could be believed to be autobiographical were he a few years older. The thing is Mark Jacob Lenderman is only 25 years old and he'll hopefully be doing this music thing for another 50 years. Perfect music for dudes to check up on their bros to. The world isn't ideal right now but, it could be better with more music like "She's Leaving You". Life gets hard, we've all got work to do.
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| Per Ole Hagen/Redferns Fontaines D.C. |
Merry Christmas!
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