Favorite Songs of 2024

75. Wilco - “Hot Sun”

A bit of a gimmick pick? Maybe. But I love a recurring bit and this is mine. Wilco is arguably my favorite band of all time, though my love affair is occurring in reverse chronological order. I finally hit their earliest stuff this year! A.M.! Being There! Uncle Tupelo! Yet their new stuff always sneaks into my rotation each year and so I return the favor and sneak them onto this list. Wilco hit the final spot in 2022, 2019, and #29 in 2016. It’s not a sleight, it’s a nod of respect.

74. Tommy Richman - “DEVIL IS A LIE”

I’ve been around long enough to know that there’s simply gotta be some kind of annoying discourse around Tommy Richman. And yet I’ve also been around long enough to know that it’s cool to just avoid all of that and enjoy a fun song.

73. beabadoobee - “Take a Bite”

I first got into beabadoobee in 2019, which makes me feel ancient because I swear it could not have been that long ago. She’s been on a slow-burn trajectory, and 2024 feels like the year she finally broke through in the way I imagined after I heard “Space Cadet” five years ago.

72. Heems, Lapgan & Sid Sriram - “Stupid Dumb Illiterate”

Anyone who was as deep into the blog scene as I was in 2008 and 2009 could not exist without feeling the microcultural shockwave that was “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.” The song’s had a weird staying power (or cyclical rebirth cycle) even while the band and its members split up and proceeded largely unnoticed. But Heems in 2024 is just as charismatic, and for all of the same reasons. I think fun, playful hip-hop always has a place in the world.

71. BADBADNOTGOOD - “Take What’s Given”

Speaking of the blog scene: BADBADNOTGOOD broke big on the internet doing covers of Odd Future songs, and exhibited staying power making music with Ghostface Killah. Their newest stuff is much more formal but no less enjoyable. (Though, admittedly, I’d be first in line to listen to a sequel to 2015’s Sour Soul.)

70. Dominic Fike - “THICKRICK”

Here’s a guy whose career didn’t develop like I thought it would in 2018, though “THICKRICK” demonstrates that enduring knack for catchy pop songs with just enough sonic grit and just enough lyrical edge. I no longer think he’s destined to be Gen Z’s pop savior, but he’s still got some juice.

69. Pillow Queens - “February 8th”

I don’t even know where I found this but it’s hung around for the better part of 2024—perhaps because it feels like a kind of callback to 2013 (in a good way). It feels like it should be playing in an Urban Outfitters during a time where that was a compliment.

68. Father John Misty - “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose”

One of the last decade’s ultimate ‘you either love it or you hate it’ musicians, and I am unabashedly in the former group. You have to really love an artist to read their pretentiousness and preening as post-ironic—so clearly overt that it bulldozes past embarrassing and has earned the right to be respected. In an album that intentionally brushes against all of FJM’s different styles and tics, “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose” is most like I Love You, Honeybear, my personal favorite album of his.

67. The Red Clay Strays - “Wanna Be Loved”

Bad country music is completely intolerable and good country music feels like the only correct music in the world to me.

66. Quavo & Lana Del Rey - “Tough”

Gimmick song! Gimmick song! I think someone dug this out of a time capsule from, like, 2014. I am susceptible.

65. Cordae - “Saturday Mornings” (ft. Lil Wayne)

With all due respect to Cordae, this is here because of Lil Wayne’s contributions. It’s certainly not an S-tier verse and probably not even an A-tier verse, but it might be B-tier, and I didn’t think Wayne had that in him anymore.

64. Kendrick Lamar - “dodger blue”

I have tremendous respect for Kendrick Lamar as an artist, and all of the things I respect him for make him kind of exhausting to listen to. But “dodger blue” arrives without any pretense, a turn I’m grateful for after years and years of heavy, dense pieces of work.

63. Cam’ron & Swizz Beatz - “Last Stop”

Just realizing how unhinged this list of songs is. It’s 2024 and poet laureate Cam’ron said “A lotta y’all gettin’ foreclosed. Me? I got a crib that’s just… for… clothes.” Welcome back to 2004.

62. Tiny Moving Parts - “The Cure (But Not Really)”

Anybody mind if I emo post? I’ve seen TMP live at least once and they’re one of those bands that are good in studio (“Headache” transcends) but really unlock themselves in a crowded bar. This song makes me feel 21. “Why does a Midwest sky hold the darkest clouds above my head?” Preach it.

61. Microwave - “Huperzine Dreams”

I’ve read enough about this album online to know that people received it as a disappointment. Wrong! It rocks. More on that later in this list.

60. Liquid Mike - “Mouse Trap”

Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot is one of my favorite albums of the year because of songs like this. It’s Rust Belt emo and I don’t know how much that translates outside of where I grew up, but it made immediate sense to me. “Given what you know / The American dream is a Michigan hoax / You can see it from your window / Rust on the frame from the salt on the road”

59. Westside Gunn & DJ Drama - “I Know Verdy”

The best rapper voice in the game right now. I could listen to Westside Gunn’s whiney flow on anything, but this is the song I’m tabbing.

58. Boldy James, Tee Grizzley & Harry Fraud - “Cecil Fielder”

Just the first Boldy James appearance on this list. He’s the latest in a long line of rappers that sound good with just about anyone, on just about any beat. I could’ve never imagined this back when I was nearly shattering the windows on my first car with the “JIMBO” 808s more than a decade ago. (See also: “Roland Bishop”)

57. Anthony Green - “Last Summer In America”

A song that explains itself and has only grown more fitting since its release. “Win an education if you don't get killed or play the lottery / So enjoy the last summer in America, just as seen on TV”

56. Chief Keef - “Too Trim”

Chief Keef just turned 29 years old and I have been listening to him for 13 years. Child rappers—just like other child musicians or child actors—are historically not set up for sustained personal or career success, but Keef seems to be doing well. It’s a rare and much-needed success story.

55. Benny The Butcher & Stove God Cooks - “One Foot In”

A couple new-ish, relevant-ish rappers who make music that still works for old-ish people like me.

54. Moselle - “Pesticides (Acoustic)”

First heard this one on TikTok as one of those folk/singer-songwriter songs that opens with a haymaker and weaves in enough catchy lyrics that it spreads. This is how Noah Kahan blew up. Moselle released the official studio version last year, but fortunately the (better) acoustic version came out in 2024 so I can put it here.

53. Arm’s Length - “Really Big Shrimp”

Arm’s Length first grabbed me a couple years ago. I’m desperate for a follow-up album, but this is more-than-serviceable to hold me over.

52. Moneybagg Yo - “PLAY DA FOOL”

Probably the best car stereo rapper working in 2024. I’m tempted to manually blow out my subwoofer so I can properly enjoy this song.

51. A$AP Rocky - “Tailor Swif”

As I’m writing this, we’ve just recently passed the 13-year anniversary of the “Peso” video—one of my generation’s greatest “You just had to be there” moments. Rocky has endured, perhaps against the odds. And the music videos still hit.

50. beabadoobee - “Ever Seen”

Beabadoobee in her groove, which is to say this is pop magic.

49. Friko - “Get Numb To It!”

Perhaps 2024’s greatest discovery for me, Friko makes elaborate, intricate, anthemic rock music, which is all I ever need. I’m on the record as a complete sucker for any song with do-do-do lyrics, just like I am with lyrics that open uplifting and finish bitter. “And it doesn’t get better, it just gets twice as bad, because you let it / So you better get numb to it”

48. Waxahatchee - “Right Back To It” (ft. MJ Lenderman)

It’s duet season and two of my favorite songwriters from the last few years are on the menu. Lately a lot of my favorite rock musicians sound the best to me when they bend towards country and this is perhaps the most overt example. This would play in a Nashville bar. Every year I build this list for 12 months by throwing songs in a big playlist as they strike me, and this one—released on January 12th—was the first selection for 2024.

47. Zach Bryan - “This World’s A Giant”

2024’s inevitable Zach Bryan breakup song. “I say I want kids even though I can’t quit / The things that make me childish”

46. Boldy James & Antt Beatz - “Super Mario”

This list’s second (and self-imposed final) Boldy James track. “On 6-4 with that Switch, Super Mario.” Maybe shoulda put this higher.

45. Been Stellar - “I Have The Answer”

One of my favorites from a masterful album, “I Have The Answer” feels like the soundtrack to a dream. Floating, haunting, echoing, shadowy, and (maybe) a backdoor Squid & The Whale reference.

44. Maxwell Stern - “Frame By Frame”

Maybe the year’s best autumn anthem. It aches like November. “More ground than you could ever cover / More space than you could ever span / All crystallized in perfect order / A wish dressed in the clothes of plans”

43. Stay Inside - “A Backyard”

There’s an imaginary alternate version of this song that’s perfect for a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtrack.

42. Tommy Richman - “MILLION DOLLAR BABY”

One of 2024’s bonafide smash hits. A younger version of myself would’ve rejected this but the adult version has to give it its flowers. It’s undeniable.

41. Retirement Party - “Skatin’”

One of the best things I did during what I’d consider my last six months before the onset of True Adulthood was go to a Foxing show where Retirement Party opened. The band called it quits not long after and I’d long since given up hope when they randomly resurfaced in November. A real godsend at the perfect moment.

40. Kerosene Heights - “Such Great”

A throwback ripper. If you’re 22 years old please do whatever it takes to see this live in a sweaty bar where your Vans stick to the floor.

39. Beyoncé & Miley Cyrus - “II MOST WANTED”

I’m sorry to say that Beyoncé’s much-publicized foray into “country music” did not really work on me, as much as I continue to respect her career. This one, which apparently started as a Miley solo song, works flawlessly though. I wish the rest of the album was able to channel this energy.

38. Bedbug - “Halo On the Interstate”

TWIABP, is that you?

37. Wild Pink - “Air Drumming Fix You”

Would be much higher on this list if not for the fact that Wild Pink one-upped this very good single with, like, three more of them. This lit me up in March and I still wasn’t excited enough for the album—one of the year’s very best. It’s one of those songs that feels perfect in the moment and almost heaven-sent after 11 p.m. “There was more gas in the tank / But the tank was on fire, I guess”

36. Junior Varsity - “Cross The Street”

A band that continues to persist, much to my delight, while rising to the top of a pretty crowded field of similarly post-pop-type stuff.

35. Sierra Ferrell - “Dollar Bill Bar”

Welcome back Dolly Parton!

34. Stay Inside - “My Fault”

I’m such a mark for anything emo-adjacent that can do the trumpet thing and the catchy lyrics thing.

33. Bleachers - “I Wanna Get Better (Acoustic)”

Say what you want about Jack Antonoff’s production—and everyone does—but I still love him as a songwriter. This year he re-released some of his Bleachers work in acoustic form and this one in particular takes on a new soul when it gets stripped back.

32. hahaweiner420 - “idc if My Grandfather Sees His Face In Mine!!!!!!”

Columbus, Ohio’s resident TikTok folk hero is a gifted songwriter, and I think this is The One until he (hopefully) sits down to build out a proper album.

31. Heems & Lapgan - “I’m Pretty Cool”

Welcome back Das Racist. I like this album, but most of my enjoyment came from its production. This is the track where the lyrics really carry things. “I was coppin' quarter waters and bologna sandwiches / You wasn't born yet when I saw those buildings vanish, kid”

30. Bon Iver - “S P E Y S I D E”

I think we as Americans have returned to a point where we need Bon Iver, especially this new version that sees Justin more willing to bring his lyrics to the forefront.

29. Lady Gaga - “Disease”

Not Lady Gaga’s best work, but it scratches the itch. She’s still probably my pick for my generation’s Pop Star That Is Actually A Genius (No, Really).

✏️

Editor’s note: Every year there’s an invisible cut-off where the ‘I’m gonna listen to everything below this on loop for years to come’ section begins. Here it is.

28. Carpool - “Can We Just Get High?”

Feels like a direct descendent of a lot of dirtbag rock that was big when I was in high school (complementary).

27. Militarie Gun - “Thought You Were Waving”

I gotta see Militarie Gun in concert.

26. ROLE MODEL - “Oh, Gemini”

ROLE MODEL kind of embodies a strain of trendy Gen Z pop that I briefly got into before realizing we were gonna get dozens of iterations. But this is one of the best songs to come out of the entire movement.

25. Chief Keef - “Grape Trees” (ft. Sexxy Red)

An absolute blast. “I be ballin' so damn hard, you'd think I play with the Cavs”

24. Vampire Weekend - “Gen-X Cops”

I am so happy to have Vampire Weekend back in my life. This one came out in February and, like some others on this list, proved to be prophetic. “Each generation makes its own apology”

23. Maxwell Stern - “The Edge of the End of the World”

Max said this is the first song he’s ever released that doesn’t have any guitar and I believe that without a second thought. It stands out amongst his discography and it’s a trick he can pull off as one of my favorite songwriters. It’s the perfect album closer—an almost uncomfortably earnest ballad that lands completely. Things seem pretty perilous lately, and it’s easy to numb ourselves to the onslaught, but some of us are blessed with the privilege of working through the paradox of blending large-scale paranoia with small-scale bliss. The last verse makes me choke up.

22. MJ Lenderman - “Joker Lips”

I am far from the first person to say this, but “Kahlua shooter / DUI scooter” is the year’s best couplet, and this song probably has the next four on that list, too.

21. Wild Pink - “Eating The Egg Whole”

Prestige rock albums dropping sports references! Yes… Ha Ha Ha… Yes!

20. Microwave - “Let’s Start Degeneracy”

I think I like Microwave just enough to perceive this weird left turn as totally awesome and not as a betrayal of their sound.

19. Maggie Rogers - “Don’t Forget Me”

Just a mammoth song—a universal experience relayed perfectly. Every time I see Maggie’s name I think of that clip with Pharrell. She’s still flexing that immense talent.

18. Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign - “BACK TO ME” (ft. Freddie Gibbs)

Look, Kanye has unfortunately become irredeemable, but blind squirrels, nuts, etc. This isn’t pre-2016 Ye but it could pass as a Life of Pablo or Donda track, and Freddie Gibbs is rapping like he foolishly believes he’s on the album of the year.

17. Remi Wolf - “Alone in Miami”

I still love Remi Wolf, even if it seems she’s matured out of her wildest, most exciting songwriting impulses, and it’s because her music remains melodic ecstasy. This has my favorite bridge of the year.

16. Maude Latour - “Too Slow”

Is this the hardest song of 2024 that doesn’t include Boldy James or Moneybagg Yo?

15. Vampire Weekend - “Mary Boone”

Continuing in Vampire Weekend’s growing tradition of songs named after women: “Diane Young,” “Hannah Hunt,” now “Mary Boone.” It’s a gorgeous, haunting song about yearning and burning out. “We always wanted money / Now the money’s not the same”

14. MJ Lenderman - “She’s Leaving You”

The first song off MJ Lenderman’s marvelous Manning Fireworks is hardly the album’s most enigmatic or adventurous, but I think that’s what excited me so much when I first heard it. I’ve loved his work for a few years now and I feel like I’m watching him come into his own in real time, and that growth is evident in “She’s Leaving You,” a song that feels less like a shiny new toy and feels more like a classic that’s always existed. It’s a quality that’s extremely rare in new music.

13. Wild Pink - “St. Catherine St.”

My two favorite albums of the year sound like ‘90s alt-rock, and maybe nowhere is that sound more apparent than on this song, which lathers up a vibe, without a chorus, that sounds like a downtempo deep cut from an old Counting Crows or Wallflowers album. Anyone going back to this vein is playing the hits, so to hear a new song emulating ‘90s filler is exciting.

12. This is Lorelai - “I’m All F****d Up”

Catchiest song of the year.

11. Zach Bryan - “Oak Island”

A thing that happens with songwriters as prolific as Zach Bryan is that you get 100 songs deep and find you’ve started to run out of things to write about. A successful solution some find (see: Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z, Taylor Swift) is simply making up stories. Bryan’s a great songwriter and storytelling suites him, so whether the story is his own or not will prove to be immaterial over time.

10. Zach Bryan - “Pink Skies” (Album Version ft. Watchhouse)

Zach hasn’t quite figured out how to piece together a great album, but he sure knows how to write a great song, and “Pink Skies” might be his best yet––a song about death and what the dead leave behind.

09. Liquid Mike - “K2”

Any song that opens with the words “Summertime 2009” has my attention. “K2” is about being young and dumb in 2009, built from a sonic palette that feels just like a 2000s pop punk band.

08. Mustafa - “SNL”

My favorite songwriters have an ability to make their lyrics feel specific yet universal, intimate yet unknowable. Mustafa is that kind of songwriter. Sparse compositions will have you hanging on every word. In the absence of Frank Ocean, this is the guy whose writing I want to meditate on.

07. Maxwell Stern - “Whispers in the Ground”

Speaking of my favorite songwriters, Stern is only getting better. In The Good Light sees him continue his career-spanning fascination with time, distance, and evolution. Nowhere is that clearer than on the album’s best track. It’s a song about getting older and growing up, and it resonated a lot with the 32-year-old writing this. “And I could tell that I was changing, but I could not see just how.”

06. Been Stellar - “Scream From New York, NY”

“Scream From New York, NY” sees Been Stellar take Reagan’s 1984 “Morning in America” campaign messaging and reinterpret it in the only way one possibly could 40 years later—an unquestionable portent of doom. The hokey 2010s Tumblr band name betrays the fact that this album is unrelenting in its mood and laced with dread. In my most cynical moments, this is what living in 2024 felt like. “It’s the end of the world. And I feel fine.”

05. MJ Lenderman - “Wristwatch”

“So you say I’ve wasted my life away? Well I got a beach home up in Buffalo. And a wristwatch that’s a compass and a cell phone.”

04. Mustafa - “Gaza Is Calling”

A song about love driven apart by distance, by violence, by circumstance. “There's a place in your heart that I can't get into.”

03. Vampire Weekend - “Classical”

Ezra Koenig and Co. may not release music nearly as often as I’d prefer, but their best songwriting is still pretty untouchable. Each album contains a My Goodness This Is a Masterpiece bit of writing, and this is the entry from Only God Was Above Us. It’s a pondering of the cyclical nature of civilization. Empires rise, revolution comes, and what are we left with? What is it all for? “A staircase up to nothingness inside your DNA. Well, that's a bleak sunrise.”

02. Wild Pink - “Rung Cold”

Some time in the last few years Wild Pink quietly became the best rock band in the world. Dulling the Horns is fantastic, and contains a lot of songs that are more easily identifiable as great, but “Rung Cold” is the special one. It’s a wandering, stumbling, shapeshifting album capper that manages to incorporate all that I love about them in a single package. “There’s a break in your heart. And if you can’t get along with it, you gotta just get on with it.”

01. Friko - “Where We’ve Been”

A song of destruction and construction, breaking down and building back up, death and life, pain and joy. It’s a five-minute odyssey that features cascading drums and uplifting sing-a-long. It’s 2024’s best piece of songwriting. “The truth is hard to bear. So we'll be waiting here 'til sundown. Seems it only comes now when we're staring away from it.”