Top 100 songs of 2024.

Better late than never – here’s my ranking of my top 100 songs of 2024, a list that took forever to compile in such a fertile year for great music, a process further complicated by the short break between the holidays, a brief family vacation after Christmas, and life in general. You can see my previous years’ song rankings here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012. I posted my ranking of the top 24 albums of 2024 just before Christmas.

As always, you can access the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the playlist below.

100. Jamie xx feat. Honey Dijon – Baddy On The Floor. I’m not a big EDM guy, so I was disappointed with Jamie xx’s follow-up to his outstanding debut album In Colour; he went heavy into EDM-land rather than the hybrid, indie-dance sounds from the last record. This was the best track on his latest album, In Waves, which had an incredible array of guest vocalists and musicians but ultimately left me cold because of the monotony of the beats.

99. The Lathums – Stellar Cast. Iadmit this is music that is almost algorithmically designed to meet my tastes – the Lathums are a direct descendants of the ArcticMonkeys’ musical tree, and this is their most Alex Turneresque song yet.

98. Folly Group – Pressure Pad. Folly Group get lumped into the new post-punk movement that’s been thriving in the U.K. for the last few years, but their sound is more experimental and chaotic than that, best exemplified on this noisy, throbbing track from their debut album Down There!

97. Yard Act feat. Katy J Pearson – When the Laughter Stops. One of my favorite tracks from Yard Act’s sophomore album, the disco-influenced Where’s My Utopia?, features guest vocals from English indie-pop singer Katy Pearson (who eschews the period after her middle initial, Harry S Truman-style).

96. Ezra Collective feat. Olivia Dean – No One’s Watching Me. Ezra Collective won the Mercury Prize in 2023 for their second album, Where I’m Meant to Be, but I preferred their follow-up, this year’s Dance, No One’s Watching, a more melodic (and perhaps more mainstream?) jazz record with some great vocal turns from various guest artists, including neo-soul singer Dean.

95. STONE – Save Me. STONE released their debut album, Fear Life for a Lifetime, in September, and it’s a decent first record, blending elements of punk, indie rock, rap, and even a little pop on tracks like this one and “My Thoughts Go,” although I preferred some of the stuff on their earlier EPs.

94. Swim Deep – First Song. Despite the song’s title,Swim Deephave been around for over a decade and released their fourth album, There’s a Big Star Outside, in July. It’s a shoegazey record with some bigger guitar riffs, although I found the album more interesting for its overall sound than for individual tracks or hooks. This remains my favorite, thanks in part to that big guitar line that comes in before the first verse.

93. Sampha feat. Little Simz– Satellite Business 2.0. The original “Satellite Business” was an 84-second track on Sampha’s 2023 album Lahai without any guest vocals, but this new version features a verse from Little Simz and runs nearly five minutes, taking a forgettable interstitial track and bringing it up to par with the rest of Sampha’s album.

92. Chime School – Give Your Heart Away. More jangle-pop greatness from Andy Pastalaniec, who also serves as the drummer for Seablite (and is a big Giants fans). His second album under this moniker, The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel, came out this summer and it’s full of sunny ‘80s hooks like this track has.

91. Wishy – Triple Seven. This is the title track from this Indianapolis indie-rock band’s debut album, which received pretty broad acclaim and was kind of unavoidable this fall in all the places where I typically find new music. I like their sound but didn’t hear a lot of memorable hooks on the album; this is the best track, but even here I don’t think it has a signature melody or anything specific to set it apart. It’s just a good example of their sound, which gets the “shoegaze” label like everything these days but which I don’t think applies here.

90. Elbow – Lovers’ Leap. This is the song that made me an Elbow fan, but by the time the year ended two other tracks they released this year surpassed it. I’ve said before that I’m late to this party; in my defense, I think they’ve evolved since their Mercury Prize-winning album The Seldom Seen Kid and become both more experimental and more uptempo. I love the horns in the intro here.

89. Kendrick Lamar – reincarnated. I have never been a big Kendrick Lamar fan, and even now I am probably one of the lower folks out there on his newest album, GNX. I admire his experimentation, and he did put out his best song every this year (hint: this isn’t it), but I find his music maddeningly inconsistent, and his delivery can vary widely too. When his lyrics are more driven by emotions, as on this track, his flow is worlds better than it is on some of his more mundane songs. I also happen to love the call-and-response at the end of this song, although Pitchfork’s review of GNX called this song “unlistenable.”

88. Pond – So Lo. I am pretty much a perfect mark for any artist that records an homage to Prince; Pond has certainly drawn from funk before, but the guitarwork here sounds like something that might appear out of Prince’s vaults.

87. Courting – Flex. It should be clear by now that I love Courting’s New Last Name, as it’s shiny and poppy but hasn’t lost its sharper edges with overproduction or even too many layers. I’m assuming the “now she’s calling a cab” is a Killers reference.

86. Lauren Mayberry – Change Shapes. I’d been clamoring for Mayberry to put out a solo album for probably seven or eight years, and she finally did so this year with Vicious Creature … and it’s nothing special. It’s extremely poppy, which is fine, but a lot of the lyrics are shallow and they’re extremely repetitive. Lines like “go to hell or go home/or you will die on your own” (from “Something in the Air”) make the whole endeavor feel superficial. I rather appreciated the Guardian’s mixed review of the album, which mirrored a lot of my own thoughts. This was by far my favorite track from the record, mostly for the memorable melody in the chorus.

85. Khruangbin – A Love International. Another album that disappointed me, A LA SALA is a surprisingly dour affair for a band whose previous output always pulsed with energy. Everything that worked on Mordechai, their 2020 album and first with extensive vocals, is gone here; the album feels like great background music, but that’s a letdown from their assertive work on the previous two records.

84. Corker – Distant Dawn. Corker hail from Cincinnati but sound like they should be from London, or maybe Brighton, with their clear influence from early post-punk – although the band they sound like more than any other is the contemporary group Preoccupations. They’re both more Joy Division than Wire or Gang of Four, with some of the gothic production style of Bauhaus and early Cure.

83. Crows – Bored. When I say 2024 was a good year for music, I mean that a band like Crows, whose first two albums I really liked and whose sound is very much in my personal wheelhouse, Reason Enough, came out in September and couldn’t crack my year-end list even though it is, once again, something I really like. This isn’t a criticism, but I don’t think the record pushed any new boundaries for them, which is why I ended up omitting it from my rankings. It’s also a darker record than the previous two, although that fits their hard-edged punk/hard rock hybrid style.

82. Childish Gambino feat. Fousheé– Running Around. I didn’t have Donald Glover releasing a peak emo-pop track à la Jimmy Eats World on his (supposedly) final album under the Childish Gambino name on my bingo card for 2024, but here it is – and it’s the best song on his fascinating if somewhat inscrutable Bando Stone and the New World record.

81. Hayden Thorpe – They. Thorpe was the lead singer of art-rock band Wild Beasts, who broke up after their 2016 album Boy King, which is one of my favorite albums of this century. His solo output has kept the art part but dispensed with most of the rock, so I haven’t enjoyed any of it as much as I did the work of his previous band. His third solo album, Ness, a musical interpretation of Robert Macfarlane’s 2019 book of that name, is challenging and smart and a little too quiet for my tastes, unfortunately.

80. Lambrini Girls – Company Culture. Lambrini Girls are a punk duo with strong hooks and wry, frequently off-colour lyrics that fit the left-wing roots of the genre. I assume the subject of this track is self-evident.

79. Opeth – §3. This is one of my favorite tracks from Opeth’s latest album, The Last Will and Testament, and also the most accessible song on the record for its scant use of death-metal vocals, making it more of a progressive metal song plucked from the larger and heavier album that surrounds it. It’s not Blackwater Park, but it’s good to see Mikael & company get a little heavier after a few albums that were more King Crimson than King Diamond.

78. Blossoms – Perfect Me. Gary is a more expansive album than their previous work, with more influences and more musical ambition, but there’s nothing here to match “Ode to NYC” or “The Sulking Poet” from 2022’s Ribbon Around the Bomb. This song is easily the new album’s best thanks to the earworm chorus.

77. Soccer Mommy – Lost. I’vestruggled to understand the critical acclaim for Soccer Mommy, as her often-flat singing and funereal melodies just don’t do it for me. “Lost” might be the best thing I’ve heard from her, or at least close to it, as her ,vocals are much more expressive and the melody in the chorus balances its somber lyrics with a hint of sweetness in the vocal lines.

76. Blushing – Tamagotchi. Blushing are a dream-pop/shoegaze band from Texas who sound a lot like early Lush – and indeed they covered Lush’s “Out of Control,” which led to Lush singer Miki Berenyi appearing on their second album, Possessions. Their third record, Sugarcoat, is more of the same – imagine Lush but a half-degree heavier at times, with bright vocals shimmering above walls of distorted guitars. This track and “Silver Teeth” were my favorites from the new record.

75. Kamasi Washington – Prologue. I can’t pretend to know Washington’s work prior to this song, but it was everywhere this summer – I think NPR featured it on their extensive weekly playlist – and it’s the sort of jazz I find I can understand and appreciate (which is a criticism of my own tastes, not of any style of jazz). There’s a

74. Bob Vylan – Hunger Games. The best track off Bob Vylan’s album Humble as the Sun wasn’t actually the best thing the British duo did this year, but this grime/hard rock track highlights their viciously satirical lyrics and knack for finding heavy riffs to work along with the vocals. “You are more than your take-home pay” should be a slogan for the Working Families’ Party – or the Democrats.

73. GIFT – Going In Circles. I almost ended up with three GIFT songs on the top 100, with “Later” among the last few cuts from this list. Their album Illuminator was an instant favorite for me with its blend of psychedelia and dream-pop along with a slew of extremely memorable hooks.

72. Japandroids – All Bets Are Off. I’m a bit unusual for a Japandroids fan in that I didn’t love Celebration Rock, one of the most critically lauded records of the 2010s and the album that made and nearly broke them. I liked the two albums that followed, including their 2024 swan song Fate & Alcohol, significantly more, as they polished their sound up just enough to let me appreciate the lyrics and the interplay between the guitar and drums. It’s a shame that they’re done (for now), but at least they left on a high note. I have two Japandroids tracks on this list, and I would guess this is the one that would appeal more to fans of their earlier work.

71. Ride – Peace Sign. Ride’s second act has been something to behold, as they’ve been riding (pun intended) the second shoegaze wave and brought a more mature and more melodic sound to their three post-reunion albums. They’re still recognizably Ride, but it’s like they picked up where “Chrome Waves” left off and kept right on going.

70. Fontaines D.C. – Starburster. Honestly, if Grian Chatten didn’t do that weird inhaling thing before every line in the chorus, this would have been a top ten track of the year for me. Hearing that through Airpods is a bit much. It’s a great fuckin’ song, though.

69. Beyoncé– TEXAS HOLD ‘EM. Surprised? I believe this is the Queen’s first ever appearance on one of my top 100s, but I was captured by this track immediately – and it was the only original on Cowboy Carter that I liked enough for a second listen. Her taste in covers is exquisite, of course, and I hold out hope that she will one day put out an album of standards and torch songs while she still has the voice for it.

68. Charly Bliss – Calling You Out. Charly Bliss’s power-pop sound seemed destined for a breakout album at some point, and I think they had it this year with Forever, although I barely know what constitutes success for an album in the streaming era. The album was full of bouncy pop bangers like this one, which seems to subvert the typical sounds of a teenybop artist with grungy guitars and smart lyrics, although my favorite track from the record (much higher on this list) follows a totally different template.

67. Color Green – Four Leaf Clover. Thispsychedelic rock quartet from California put out their sophomore album, Fool’s Parade, in 2024; imagine Phish, but reined in by more conventional song structures and the limits of time and space.

66. Tunde Adebimpe – Magnetic. The lead singer of TV on the Radio and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew actor is working on his solo debut, due out on Sub Pop this year, and I believe this is his first-ever single as a solo artist. It’s very much in the “Wolf Like Me”/“Mercy” vein and I couldn’t be more pleased.

65. The Lemon Twigs – Rock On (Over and Over). The Lemon Twigs’ schtick does nothing for me but I concede that they do a credible impression of 1960s pop even if I don’t always love the results. There’s some Beach Boys in the vocal lines, sitting on a standard blues shuffle.

64. Nilüfer Yanya – Like I Say (I runaway). Yanya’s third album, My Method Actor, made a few best-of-2024 lists (including Paste’s, where it landed at #32), and after revisiting it at the end of the year I think I’ve underrated it, probably because her sound, with influences from her Turkish heritage, is so new I haven’t been able to pin it down.

63. clipping.– Run It. This hip-hop trio headed by Daveed Diggs (along with two producers) plans to release its fifth album some time in 2025, with this as the first single; Diggs often writes high-concept lyrics, and his delivery is outstanding, as he can use his voice almost as a percussion instrument with his rapid-fire rhyming.

62. Atlas Genius – Animals. I thought Atlas Genius had given up the ghost when my daughter, who loved their first two albums, happened to look them up while we were driving her down to college, only to see they’d just put out an album – their first in nine years. End of the Tunnel sounds just like their first two records, but perhaps a little lighter on the big hooks that made “If So,” “Trojans,” and “Molecules” hits. This was our favorite track by a wide margin.

61. Foxing – Barking. Foxing’s self-titled 2024 album was an ambitious, arduous listen with a lot of screaming and other harsh elements befitting the lyrics; I’ve said before it’s like hearing someone cracking up in album form. This was by far the most accessible track on the record, although even that probably undersells how haunting it is.

60. High Vis – Drop Me Out. High Vis blend a lot of styles in their music, but they’re a hardcore punk band at heart and that’s very evident here on the third single from their third album, Guided Tour. They twist the genre around by bringing in some dance elements and eschewing the most dissonant elements of hardcore.

59. English Teacher – R&B. English Teacher won this year’s Mercury Prize for their debut album This Could Be Texas; I was disappointed in the record after they placed songs on my top 100s for 2021 (“Good Grief”, not on the album) and “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” (which is), as it moves them further away from their rock and post-punk influences and into something more proggy in a way that weighs many of the songs down. This was probably my second-favorite track on the album, ahead of “Nearly Daffodils.”

58. Elbow – Good Blood Mexico City. The track I come back to the most from Elbow’s latest album Audio Vertigo is this swirling, ebullient song that if anything ends far too soon, with a huge guitar riff that comes in at the chorus. The song is apparently a tribute to the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

57. Waxahatchee – Much Ado About Nothing. A non-album single Waxahatchee released in October, this track again features MJ Lenderman on guitar and fits very much with the vibe and style of Tiger Blood; it doesn’t appear that it was a bonus track or late cut but it certainly sounds like it could have come from the same sessions.

56. Mdou Moctar – Oh France. Moctar’s pyrotechnics on guitar are front and center of most of the tracks on Funeral for Justice, but this song opens with him noodling away before hitting that two-chord sequence that leads into each chorus. It’s a fireball of pure guitar energy and makes me want to flip on my amplifier and crank up the distortion pedal.

55. The Howl & The Hum – Same Mistake Twice. I wasn’t familiar with this British group before hearing this track, which was one of their first as a solo project for lead singer/songwriter Sam Griffiths after the other three members left the band in 2023 or so. He writes earnest, introspective lyrics over traditional indie-rock sounds driven by acoustic guitars … and yeah, this song does remind me a little of The Head and the Heart, which is kind of unfortunate in its way.

54. Lotte Gallagher – This Room. A singer-songwriter from Melbourne who is around 19 years old, Gallagher just released her debut EP, A Better Feeling, in October, featuring this outstanding indie-pop track that draws heavily on sounds from the ‘90s and the aughts.

53. Hundred Waters – Towers. Hundred Waters’ four-song EP, also called Towers, was the band’s first new music in seven years, so long that I thought they were done, especially since singer Nicole Miglis put out her first album as a solo artist this year. The four songs on Towers are actually unreleased tracks from their best album, The Moon Rang Like a Bell, so they have that same sound that I loved when the LP came out in 2015.

52. SPRINTS – Heavy. This Irish punk band released its first LP, Letter to Self, last January, featuring several songs they’d put out previously, including “Adore Adore Adore,” “Up and Comer,” and “Shadow of a Doubt.” This was the best of the new songs on the record – and I think it’s my favorite.

51. The Tubs – Freak Mode. When I first heard this track, I assumed the Tubs came from the Midwest, as their take on jangle-pop seemed so quintessentially American. They’re actually a Welsh band, started by two of the founding members of Joanna Gruesome after that group called it quits in 2017. The Tubs’ second album, Cotton Crown, is due out in March.

50. Oceanator – Lullaby. I love how this track starts out like it’s going to be a late-80s metal song with heavy, crunchy guitar riffs, before Elise Okusami brings in a vocal melody that sounds like it could come from a straight pop track. It’s the best track from her third LP, Everything is Love and Death.

49. La Sécurité – Detour. A Montréal-based art punk collective, La Sécurité channel early U.S. new wave/post-punk acts like Blondie, Television, and even Devo on thisbouncy, sparse track that is their first new music since their mid-2023 album Stay Safe came out.

48. The Weather Station – Window. Tamara Lindeman’s ever-changing project The Weather Station will release their seventh album, Humanhood, in about two weeks, featuring this track that echoes School of Seven Bells in the ethereal chorus.

47. DEADLETTER – Mere Mortal. DEADLETTER’s label describes them by evoking Gang of Four and Talking Heads, but I don’t see how you could hear this track without thinking of Madness, just with more prominent guitar work. It’s incredibly catchy and the lyrics feature some clever turns of phrase, such as “Like a set of crutches set aside for optimists to walk with.”

46. Alcest – Flamme Jumelle. As with Opeth’s latest, Alcest’s new album Les Chants de L’Aurore is best digested as a whole, and some of the best tracks include harsher elements that deter me from putting them on this list; “Flamme Junelle” is the most straightforward track on the album and has the most prominent melody lines in the vocals and the haunting guitar lick that follows the verses (and reminded me, oddly, of a similar lick from My Bloody Valentine).

45. Geese* – The Bonecracker Acetates. Fun fact: This isn’t Geese, the Brooklyn-based band, but that’s how it ended up on one of my auto-generated playlists on Spotify … and I assumed it was those guys, because they mess around constantly with genres and styles, and their singer sounds different on so many tracks. This is a Lancashire-based blues/jazz/math-rock trio that also plays with genres. (I added the asterisk to their name; I assume at some point we’ll get a Geese UK and a Geese US or something to distinguish them.) Anyway, this song is built on a deep, bluesy shuffle that absolutely rocks.

44. The Killers – Bright Lights. Released in concert (hah!) with their Vegas residency, this is certainly my favorite of their tracks since “Dying Breed” in 2020 and represents the best of the Killers in my opinion – it’s big, it’s anthemic, it’s a little bombastic, and it builds to a rousing chorus.

43. The Mysterines – Sink Ya Teeth. The best track from the Mysterines’ sophomore album Afraid of Tomorrows gets Lia Metcalfe’s smoky voice front and center, and has a faster tempo with more prominent rhythm guitars than most of the tracks on their debut record. I’m still waiting for word on whether the band is still a going concern after they abruptly cancelled their fall tour in late August; they’ve had no social media activity since then.

42. The Cure – Alone. “Alone” is the critical consensus best track on the Cure’s magnificent comeback album Songs of a Lost World – and I agree that it’s great, but I have it as the second-best. This is what many people think of when they think of the Cure: dark, depressing, tenebrous, synth-heavy, ambient. That’s one of their modes, but they run deeper than that.

41. Royel Otis – If Our Love Is Dead. Royel Otis are huge in their native Australia, winning the ARIA awards (their equivalent to the Grammys) for Best Group and Best Rock Album for their debut LP Pratts & Pain, along with earning a nomination for Album of the Year. I wasn’t a big fan; I didn’t hear much in the way of hooks or other memorable lines on the record, but this track, from the deluxe edition, is a banger – and yes, it has a great hook in the chorus.

40. The Darkness – I Hate Myself. The Darkness refuse to change and I love them for it. Their music is a glorious throwback to the late 1970s and early 1980s styles of glam rock and early metal (particularly the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, popularized by Iron Maiden & Judas Priest). This single, one of two they released at the end of the year off their upcoming album Dreams on Toast, is vintage Darkness, combing a fast-driving hard-rock riff with ridiculous lyrics.

39. Jorja Smith – Don’t Let Me Go. One of two new-old songs Smith released this year, first written a decade ago but never released until this year; the other, “Loving You,” is also strong, but this track is such a beautiful showcase for her voice.

38. The Chameleons – Where Are You? The Chameleons are one of the forgotten bands of the new wave/post-punk movement in the UK that came to dominate American pop charts between Thriller and the rise of hair metal and then rap in the end of the 1980s. They broke up before the decade ended, re-formed once to put out an album in 2001, and then broke up again; that remains their last full-length LP. They put out two EPs in 2024, with the promise of an album (Arctic Moon) some time in the near future. This song is up there with the best of their early output like “Swamp Thing” and a harbinger of good things if that full-length record ever appears.

37. Kid Kapichi – Can EU Hear Me? Kid Kapichi might be my favorite band among the hordes of descendants of early Arctic Monkeys, as they combine the same sense of melody and wry, witty lyrics with more direct punk influences. This song, mocking Brexit as it deserves to be mocked, has the wonderful line “You can’t just separate a tectonic plate, mate!”

36. Miles Kane – Fingerless Gloves. I believe this is the only instrumental track on the top 100, driven by a great guitar hook by Alex Turner’s former bandmate in the Last Shadow Puppets and the former leader of the Rascals.

35. Hinds feat. Beck – Boom Boom Back. Beck isn’t on this track a ton, and I’m not sure it’s any different for his presence other than perhaps the marketing value, but it’s one of Hinds’ best songs ever, with higher production values than they’ve had before and their signature intertwined vocals that are always just slightly off from each other in time.

34. Jack White – It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking). White’sback-to-basics rock album No Name starts off with a suite of ass-kicking guitar tracks, none better than this funky, bluesy number.

33. Pond – Neon River. Stay with this song through the oddly quiet beginning, as a huge guitar-driven chorus is about to hit you square in the face just before the one-minute mark.

32. The Libertines – Shiver. I’ve said plenty about All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, and I’ll say more about it later on this list, but “the last dreams of every dying soldier” is such a great opening line.

31. Kaiser Chiefs – Reasons to Stay Alive. I know Kaiser Chiefs’ very name probably sounds passé, but they’ve had quite a few great if totally ignored songs past their “I Predict a Riot”/“Ruby” days. Their latest album had two standouts, including this one, and I think Nile Rodgers’ presence on some of the tracks helped significantly.

30. Charly Bliss – Nineteen. You don’t hear me wax poetic about many straight piano ballads, but this song blew me away the first time I heard it and it still gives me goosebumps when it comes on. Charly Bliss ought to be superstars off this latest album, Forever.

29. The Smile – Eyes & Mouth. I want to like The Smile more than I do, but too much of their output has felt pretentious and noodly to me; this track has some incredible work from Tom Skinner on percussion and a simple but highly effective riff from Jonny Greenwood on guitar. I wish more of their songs sounded like this.

28. Doves – Renegade. Doves’ comeback single and their forthcoming album – their first since 2009’s Kingdom of Rust – feature singer/bassist Jimi Goodwin, but their tour hasn’t as he continues his recovery from substance abuse. This first single from Constellations for the Lonely has the broad, spacey, anthemic sound of their best work on The Last Broadcast and Lost Souls.

27. Griff – Tears For Fun. Griff’s full-length debut album Vertigo finally dropped this year,with two songs that made my top 100 last year in the title track and “Astronaut;” this is the best of the new material. She’s a legit pop star in her native U.K. already, and opened for some pretty big names this past year including Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter.

26. Courting – We Look Good Together (Big Words). My favorite track yet from this English dance-rock-fun band, whose last album New Last Name came out in January but will see a follow-up early in 2025.

25. Japandroids – Chicago. I talked a bit about Japandroids above; this song really captures their best sound, where they blend high energy with the sort of despair that struggles to find words. They went out with a bang.

24. Sam Fender – People Watching. The best Killers song of 2024 was by Sam Fender.

23. milk. – Don’t Miss It. This Dublin band has only released a handful of songs so far, but I’m already a big fan, and this is their best track yet – a swirling indie-pop gem with a guitar line that seems very familiar (early Cure?) and a singalong chorus.

22. Kaiser Chiefs – Beautiful Girl. If this song had come out in 2006, it would have been a huge alternative-radio hit, but as I said above, I think people just dismiss Kaiser Chiefs as an artifact of the aughts even though they can still churn out a banger like this one.

21. Phosphorescent – Revelator. The title track from Matthew Houck’s latest album, his first since 2018, is the best song he’s ever written, accordingto Houck himself. I agree. This sort of modern folk-rock often misses me because it’s too slow and gentle, but that one extra chord change in the chorus is just (chef’s kiss).

20. Yard Act – We Make Hits. It ain’t braggin’ if you can bring it. I don’t know if this was an actual hit anywhere, but it should have been.

19. Good Looks – Broken Body. A handful of readers tried to turn me on to Good Looks when the Austin rockers released their latest album, Lived Here for a While; I loved this song, obviously, but it was the only memorable track on the album for me, with a jangly guitar riff that repeats for most of the song and a catchy vocal melody right from the first line.

18. Ezra Collective feat. Yazmin Lacey – God Gave Me Feet For Dancing. We’re in the part of the list where it’s mostly songs that I think should have been everywhere in 2024, but this one in particular just seems like one everyone should love. It straddles the line between jazz and jazzy, with beautiful vocals from Lacey and a great couplet in the chorus (“God gave me feet for dancing/and that’s exactly what I”ll do”) that you should be seeing on T-shirts.

17. Katie Gavin – Aftertaste. Gavin is part of the indie-rock band MUNA, but her solo debut What a Relief goes in a completely different direction, leaning more into folk and country in a way that elevates her voice, never more so than in the chorus on this lovely song.

16. Michael Kiwanuka – Floating Parade. The best track on Kiwanuka’s latest album Small Changes calls back to classic R&B from the 1970s, and like the best tracks on his previous album, it’s driven by a prominent and complex bass line.

15. GIFT – Wish Me Away. This song evokes so much of the music that I loved in the 1990s that I was almost compelled to love it, although the two strong hooks – the opening guitar riff and the floating vocals in the chorus – didn’t hurt.

14. Humdrum – There And Back Again. One of the catchiest tracks of the year came from Loren Vanderbilt III’s debut album (as Humdrum), Every Heaven, powered by a guitar line that seems straight out of 1980s jangle-pop and a tremendous hook in the chorus.

13. Fontaines D.C. – Favourite. Fontaines D.C.’s latestalbum crosses all kinds of styles and genres, taking the band well away from their punk roots, and on this standout track they play it incredibly straight – it’s almost a pure pop song, and shows how far their songwriting has come in the last five years.

12. Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well. I was never much for Musgraves’s music before this latest album, also called Deeper Well, but her sound on this record steers more into folk and a little away from country while working with sparser arrangements and production.

11. The Cure – A Fragile Thing. My favorite song from Songs of a Lost World is this dramatic, textured track that still brings the band’s trademark despair but offsets it here with an ominous piano line and then brings in a surprising guitar solo from new member Reeves Gabriels.

10. Parsnip – The Light. Parsnip calls back to 1960s power popthroughout their new album, Behold, as on this two-minute earworm powered by the vocal lines in the verse.

9. Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice. The title track from my #2 album of 2024 is another showcase for Moctar’s guitar heroics, and the fury of the music matches the tone of the lyrics (translated as “Dear African leaders, hear my burning question/Why does your ear only heed France and America?”), as the Tuareg musician was touring in the U.S. just as the Nigerien government fell in 2023.

8. Gojira, Marina Viotti, & Victor Le Masne – Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!). The highlight of the 2024 Olympics for me was the performance of this song of the French Revolution, pairing the French metal icons Gojira with opera singer Viotti contributing a verse. Nothing could match the majesty and grandeur of the live performance, with Gojira’s members standing on balconies of the Court of Cassation while Viotti, dressed as a pirate, floated into the scene on a replica of the Liberté. The song earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance.

7. Elbow – Adriana Again. This track came out about seven months after Audio Vertigo and will be on a new EP coming out early this year; it ended up my favorite Elbow song of 2024, even ahead of the two album tracks on this list, because the chorus was stuck in my head for weeks.

6. Waxahatchee – 3 Sisters. Katie Crutchfield’s lyrics are powerful – “If you’re not living, then you’r? dying/Just a raw nerve satisfying” remains my favorite couplet on the album – but it’s how she delivers them that sets this track apart.

5. Nice Biscuit – Rain. I became a Nice Biscuit fan this year after finding this track from the Australian indie-rock band, off their second album, SOS. They draw heavily on psychedelic rock, which has been a signature part of a lot of Australian rock over the last five years, with some elements of shoegaze and other 1990s alternative music.

4. Bad Omens feat. Bob Vylan – TERMS & CONDITIONS. The best thing Bob Vylan did this year was the duo’s guest appearance on this Bad Omens track, which packs a hell of a punch in just 2:07, with two furious verses and one of the year’s most memorable choruses (“who they killing/when they makin’ a killing/conditions getting’ worse/ignore the terms and conditions”).

3. The Libertines – Oh Shit. This ended up becoming my favorite track on my favorite album of 2024, although it had some stiff competition in the 2023 single “Run Run Run” and this year’s “Shiver.” The lyrics here are fun if not as clever as some of the turns of phrases elsewhere on the album, and I have found myself walking around the house singing the chorus “Oh shit, oh shit/Let’s make some money/Just enough to get us by” more times than I can count.

2. Los Campesinos! – Feast of Tongues. Inmost years, this would have easily been the top track, but it had the bad fortune to run into the The Great Diss Track War of 2024. Los Campesinos! have probably gotten the most attention here for silly songs like “You! Me! Dancing!” and “Avocado Baby,” but this track is an anthem that should be blasted from phones and portable speakers at every antifascist protest for the next decade and beyond. The slow build and heavy drums give even more power to the couplet that closes the chorus: “When the black cloud comes, if one flame flickers/We will feast on the tongues of the last bootlickers.”

1. Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us. Could it really be anything else? I’ve never been a big fan of Kendrick’s output, especially not his earliest stuff, but this song is a tour de force – not just as a diss track, although it obviously is that, but as an ambitious and wide-reaching piece of music that blends genres and styles, and that also features some unbelievable wordplay. I’ll never hear a reference to the chord A minor the same way again – and neither will you.