As I mentioned in my last post, there was so much incredible music that came out this year. The albums list was already incredibly difficult to put together, but this was another level. I finally decided on an order I was reasonably happy with, and yet I bet as soon as I post this I'll want to change it again. The difficulty I had compiling this is just a testament to the wide range of incredible music that came out this year. I chose to limit myself to one song per artist to better showcase the range of fantastic music released in 2024.
Disclaimer: Again, I feel like it's worth saying I'm not a music critic and won't give a lot of depth or insight into these. It's also biased by what I managed to listen to this year too. There are plenty of great songs I wanted to put on here and probably more I completely overlooked. Please send me any songs you loved this year that weren't on here. Again, if you want to listen to all these songs I will link a Spotify playlist at the end.
30. Thee Oh Sees: Cassius, Brutus & Judas
One of my favourite workout songs of the year, really strong punk voice and cool production.
29. Julia Holter: Spinning
This very aptly named song makes you feel like you're spinning in a really trippy way with super interesting production. Really unique song from the immensely talented art-pop artist.
28. Caroline Polachek: Coma
My favourite of the “Desire, I Want To Turn Into You” bonus tracks. Really beautiful intricate Caroline Polachek production incorporating a heart rate monitor.
27. Thou: I Feel Nothing When You Cry
This song is so heavy, sludgy and visceral. The lyrics (while barely audible through the very throaty death metal voice) are abstract and badass and this song is just a sick one to rock out to.
26. St. Vincent: Sweetest Fruit
Some very dark and atmospheric but very funky art-rock, with some great lyrics about the tragic deaths of queer artists, urging queer artists to continue trying against their struggles.
25. Mannequin Pussy: Sometimes
One of the most low-key and straightforward songs from the (great) new Mannequin Pussy album, but just very catchy indie rock that gets stuck in my head a lot.
24. Krallice: Hinderer
Great black metal song which builds the atmosphere super well around a very fast, heavy, loud riff that absolutely bangs.
23. Ichiko Aoba: Lucifèrine
Japanese singer-songwriter Ichiko Aoba is back with another absolutely gorgeous song. Her very high beautiful voice comes together with the really sweet background vocals to create a wonderful track that makes you want to frollic in a forest or something.
22. Godspeed You! Black Emperor: GREY RUBBLE - GREEN SHOOTS
The lead single from legendary post-rock band GY!BE's 2024 album about the genocide of Palestine is horribly ominous and crushing, perfectly sonically capturing the destruction and cruelty of Israel and the western war machine and its suffocation of Palestine (and now other places). It provides some moments of hope, however, as the “green shoots” can sprout from the wreckage and the destroyed land can be reborn again.
21. Father John Misty: Mahashmashana
The title track from Father John Misty's great 2024 album mixes some very grand and abstract singer-songwriter lyrics with a very powerful rising instrumental to create an ethereal experience.
20. Xiu Xiu: Veneficium
Just an absolute experimental rock banger, incredibly inspired Xiu Xiu production in a way that is experimental but still super easy to listen to. It's very ominous at points and very hype.
19. Arooj Aftab: Last Night Reprise
This reprise of an older Arooj Aftab song brings really wonderfully jazzy and floaty production inspired by Pakistani music.
18. Laura Marling: Child Of Mine
A beautiful and enchanting low-key tribute to Laura's child. Such a relaxing and wonderful listen, she has a great voice and the instrumental is a lovely comfortable simple folksy one.
17. glass beach: the CIA
I really love the lyrics of this one, which blend the surveillance of the CIA into a relationship the singer has with a partner. The production is great too and very varied across its almost 5 minute runtime, and the last minute or so of instrumental is sick.
16. Tyler, the Creator: I Killed You
Really well-written song about Tyler's relationship to his black hairstyles, over an incredible afro-inspired beat with sick drums.
15. Chappell Roan: Good Luck, Babe!
She absolutely deserved to blow up off this song. It's not massively complicated but it just nails the formula for a great hit song: simple but emotionally powerful lyrics with a passionate delivery, and a really solid catchy beat behind it.
14. Clairo: Add Up My Love
My favourite song off the new Clairo album, which really brought me onto her music. A very relaxing soft bedroom pop song that I've constantly repeated throughout the year to make me feel good.
13. The Last Dinner Party: Mirror
The perfect closer to their debut album. A James Bond song-esque grand rock opera, really theatrical, begging for you to sing along at the chorus.
12. Beth Gibbons: Floating On A Moment
Beth Gibbons returned with an incredible album, and this is my favourite song on it. Her voice and the production is so ethereal and takes you to another world.
11. Lust$ickPuppy: OFF THIS
This song is uhh… less ethereal. It definitely won't be for everyone, it's incredibly loud and in-your-face industrial hip-hop that hits so hard. It's heavy and hype. Anyway, onto the top 10!
10. Paramore: Burning Down The House
The “Stop Making Sense” cover album was for the most part very disappointing, but this was a huge exception. Hayley Williams absolutely kills this, matching and exceeding the energy of the original song to absolutely make it her own. It brings an entire new life to an already fantastic Talking Heads It sounds like the song was made for her.
9. samlrc: Storge
This one is very different from the rest of the list. A super atmospheric and dark almost 12 minute long post rock song with almost no lyrics. It does what any good post-rock song does and takes you through a musical story with different sections of super layered production, incorporating folk and metal passages among other things.
8. Magdalena Bay: She Looked Like Me!
My favourite track off of this absolute masterpiece of an album. The production is so layered and intricate, the chorus is an absolute earworm in the best, most funky way and the more classic Magdalena Bay sections are super electronic and trippy and feel like being sucked into a disk to another world. Go stream imaginal disk again!!!
7. LCD Soundsystem: x-ray eyes
There's absolutely no reason this song should work. It is almost 5 minutes long and dominated by the same super basic riff. It is a masterclass in minimalist production to turn what could've (and maybe should've) been incredibly annoying into a hipster dance-punk anthem that I've had stuck in my head ever since it came out. It's even more weird and minimal and hipster than the usual LCD soundsystem stuff, but it works super well anyway, I'm so excited for the album next year.
6. Ka: Bread Wine Body Blood
My favourite song off of the late Ka's final album. A super nice, light floaty rap beat where Ka's soft voice is mesmerising as he dives into how rap music is dominated with harmful messaging about drugs, sex and violence. The technical ability of Ka and his super intricate rhyme schemes along with the super calm delivery is reminiscent of MF DOOM. As with the whole album, elements of gospel and samples of religious speech are brought in to tie the whole thing together.
5. SHEBAD: Black Walnut
This song masterfully combines elements of jazz, soul, dance and even classical music into an incredible feel-good dance tune. The lead singers voice is so soulful and nice on the ears. It never fails to make me feel good and get me moving.
4. Geordie Greep: Holy, Holy
The lead single to “The New Sound” sets the tone perfectly for what it will be. Incredibly inspired multi-phase prog production with elements from Brazilian music. Geordie's vocal performance is incredible: he's one of the few people who's tone could match the insane lyrics about… well, just listen to them yourself.
3. Kendrick Lamar: Reincarnated
This song is Kendrick Lamar back at his absolute best. The story-telling is absolutely top-tier and does justice to the really interesting and ambitious concept involving famous musicians and their vices becoming their undoing. The Kendrick staple of having an inner debate using different voices returns as well as ever, and the whole thing is laid over a wonderfully produced piano-centric beat.
2. Charli xcx & Lorde: Girl, so confusing remix
Brat is such an incredible album and yet I think this song eclipses all of the original songs. Charli and Lorde team up to “work it out on the remix” in an absolutely beautiful song that deals with their struggles in a music industry that hurts them and makes it difficult and confusing to exist as a woman. Lorde elevates the song with incredibly vulnerable but beautiful lyrics about her struggles with food and self-image, matching Charli perfectly and massively elevating the original song. It's great to see prominent women in the industry come together and elucidate their struggles in a super real way and uniting instead of being pawns in the game. They have so much chemistry together, the production is great and the entire concept is so great and well-executed. This felt like more than a song, it was a really important pop-culture moment.
1. Chelsea Wolfe: House of Self-Undoing
It was incredibly hard to pick a favourite song in this stacked year, but this one has stuck with me ever since I heard it in early February. The instrumental is dark and hypnotic, with super sick marching drums over a trippy beat that sounds like a darker, more horror-soundtrack portishead. There are faster trippy sections and hauntingly beautiful dark slower moments where Chelsea's vocals absolutely shine. The abstract lyrics perfectly fit the song title, the beat and the vocals. All the elements culminate to produce such an incredible listening experience that takes you to a sonic “House of Self-Undoing”.
Conclusion:
That's all I will talk about for 2024 music, although I might make a post about older things in 2024 I discovered that I loved. Here is the Spotify playlist to listen to the 30 songs mentioned here. If you want even more music, here is a (far) more extensive playlist of songs from this year that I loved. Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, bye!