Top 15 Songs of 2024

Matt K's Best of the Year

15. Jessica Pratt - Life Is

Jessica Pratt’s Here in the Pitch is a perfect album, and there was no better entry point than the opening drums on Life Is. It’s psychedelic and otherworldly, and by the time Jessica’s vocals come in, you’re already buying whatever she’s about to sell you. She comes in swinging big by telling you the meaning of life, but the way she sings it, it sounds like she’s lived a thousand lives and knows exactly what she’s talking about. Whatever she says Life Is, I’m all ears!

14. Taylor Swift - So Long, London

The moment I realized I was really enjoying The Tortured Poets Department was during So Long, London. I decided I actually wasn’t enjoying it about five songs later, but I never stopped coming back to this one all year. So Long, London is a microhouse anthem that’s a little bit Folklore and a little bit Midnights. Beyond its consistently pounding beat, this is a unique breakup song in the way that it’s not mad or regretful at the way things ended, but instead the final goodbye before the moment of moving on. In a career spent writing about relationships and breakups, “two graves, one gun, you’ll find someone” is one of Taylor’s saddest and most succinct lyrics about the topic.

13. Chappell Roan - Good Luck, Babe!

For someone who had a year as undeniably successful as Chappell Roan did, I can’t say much of her music does it for me personally. On the other hand, I can’t deny a star-making smash when I hear it. Good Luck, Babe! shows off all Chappell’s strengths—her soaring voice, writing overflowing with personality, and the ability to craft an unforgettable chorus. Toss those in with a little Kate Bush-esque dramatics and the year’s best bridge, and you’ve got one of the best pop songs of the decade so far.

12. Olivia Rodrigo - so american

From So Long, London to So American, there was a little something for everybody who was in a relationship with a Brit this year. This track off of Olivia Rodrigo’s deluxe edition of GUTS is a career highlight, in a short career full of huge highlights. Its power pop chorus is impossible not scream along to, with irresistible vocal inflections of “anywhere he GOES” or “la-la-la-la-love”. This song proves to me that even though she’s loved for her ballads, Olivia will always sound her best wailing over some guitars.

11. Fontaines D.C. - Starburster

Irish rock band Fontaines D.C. put the “banger” in “bangers and mash” with Starburster. The song, with its hip-hop beat and panting chorus, lies somewhere between a head-banger and a panic attack. The lyrics are incredibly catchy and full of great one-liners like “I wanna strike with the SAG, I need the friends from it”. When life feels like a movie, the cinematic strings and guitars of Starburster make for a great soundtrack.

10. Camila Cabello - B.O.A.T.

B.O.A.T. is a song that shouldn’t work, and almost doesn’t. It combines bare lyricism as an insight into her on-again-off-again relationship with ex Shawn Mendes, heavy use of a recurring Pitbull sample, and overwhelming amounts of autotune, all wrapped up in a somber piano ballad. It makes absolutely no sense, and yet where you’d expect to find some semblance of camp or a wink to camera, there’s only genuine sincerity and introspection. B.O.A.T. is easily one of the weirdest songs in recent pop history, and you almost have to respect its audacity.

9. Vampire Weekend - Connect

Say what you will about Vampire Weekend, but damn do these guys know how to make a great song. Connect uses every millisecond of its five-minute runtime. Truthfully, I don’t even know how you come up with a song like this. Its an impressive odyssey filled with giddy drums, so much piano, and at least five separate musical passages. Forget a solo, why not just have every instrument go as hard as possible all at once? Getting to the end of Connect feels like running a marathon, with all of the runner’s high and only a slight bit of exhaustion.

8. Charli xcx - Von dutch

Back when Brat was just a whisper and not a global phenomenon, Von dutch arrived like a balloon flying around a room, squealing with a surplus of helium gas. It blasts you with so much energy that never stops building, it’s hard not to succumb to its demands to “put your hands up” by the end. It may not have the success that other singles from the album received, but Von dutch was the perfect thesis statement of everything that made Brat such a success. “It’s so obvious, I’m your #1” was a self-fulfilling prophecy for Charli in 2024.

7. JT - Sideways

When JT decided to separate from City Girls and go solo this year, she arrived with a fully-formed aesthetic and 90’s indebted sound. Sideways sounds like the work of someone who’s been doing this forever. JT is cool and reserved rapping over this beat, which is the sonic equivalent of riding down US-1 in Miami at night. Most rappers might debut and sound like they’re hungry to make it, but on Sideways, JT sounds assured that she’s already on top.

6. Clairo - Juna

Upon first listen of Clairo’s Charm, Juna is such an obvious standout as a fan favorite, she might as well have just started the song with the TikTok recording countdown sound. In an album all about love, Juna is the most romantic and tender of them all. From the opening piano chords to the mouth trumpet to the actual trumpet crescendo, it sounds exactly how falling in love feels. Side note: amazing music video.

5. Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars - Die With A Smile

This was a collab that absolutely did not need to exist, but I’m so happy it did. Take two of pop’s most talented powerhouses, give them a 70’s style soft rock ballad, and magic ensues. Realistically, these two were never going to make a bad song, but for Die With A Smile to be this good feels like lightning in a bottle. If the chorus doesn’t do it for you, or if you don’t even crack a smile hearing the harmonies, or if the music video doesn’t have you thinking this is a masterpiece, the breakdown at 2:50 WILL give you full body chills. If not, an appointment with a psychiatrist is in store for you soon. Something is severely wrong.

4. Kim Gordon - BYE BYE

BYE BYE arrived on January 16th, bringing in 2024 with a beat powerful enough to shift the Earth’s tectonic plates. This song has pounding bass, car sirens, and layers and layers of guitar noise, all accompanying a literal to-do list delivered by Sonic Youth’s deadpan diva Kim Gordon. BYE BYE proves that we’ve moved into a post-lyrics world; what truly matters is how loud your song is, how hard your beat goes, and just how cool you sound when you say “call the dog sitt-uh” or “Eckhaus Lattaaa”.

3. Ravyn Lenae - Love Is Blind (Spotify Singles Version)

This year, Ravyn Lenae left her R&B roots to move into dreamy indie rock. Love Is Blind is simply a great song, made even better on the Spotify Singles version, which replaces DJ Dahi’s airy hip-hop beat with a live band. It may be a breakup song, but there’s no sadness here, only freedom. Love Is Blind sounds like hair blowing in the wind, roller skating beachside, swaying side to side in a hammock—basically imagine the happiest day on Earth and you’ll be close. There was hardly a more blissful song this year.

2. Sabrina Carpenter - Please Please Please

I just love Please Please Please. What really makes this song work is the way Sabrina Carpenter delivers the lyrics with pure frustration and irritation; you can practically hear her sighing on the mic. You know someone just pissed her off, and she walked straight into the studio and hit record. Short n’ Sweet may have been full of songs about disappointing men, but nothing hit quite like “Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another, I beg you, don’t embarrass me motherfucker”. Putting your recent celebrity boyfriend in your music video is a gamble, but it pays off here, where disappointment is already built into the gig. Spoiler alert, not matter how much she begged, he did prove her right, and the song hits even harder now than it did before.

1. Future, Metro Boomin, & Kendrick Lamar - Like That

Before GNX, before Not Like Us, before Euphoria, there was WE DON’T TRUST YOU, an entire album from Future and Metro Boomin dedicated to Drake hatred. The best of the bunch was Like That, which was basically Kendrick’s drawing board for months of beef to come. The things I could accomplish while listening to this beat are limitless: I could jump on top of the moon, I could enter flow state, I could break up Dua Lipa’s engagement, I could break the world record of skee ball, I could break through a brick wall Kool Aid Man-style…need I go on? The power and anger and hype emanating off of this song is palpable. Listening to Like That feels like history in the making, and it’s no wonder it launched the year’s biggest event in rap.

Top 100 Songs of the Year

I can only write so much, but after months of narrowing down, my yearly Top 100 of the Year playlist is here:

Let me know your favorite songs that came out in 2024 :)