The 100 Best Songs of 2024: 100-76
- Jack Eureka
- Jan 9
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 31
Hello and welcome, to the station with the top tracks of 2024. Here we house the year's auditory snippets of triumph and failure, joy and pain, anger and apathy, with some dashes of nostalgia and its imitations.
Lists of this brand tend to publish and blend around the beginning of December, overlapping one another at about a 65-85% rate. Hopefully that isn't the case here. And while a fair amount of the expected aren't present (something about a rap feud of some kind?), there are still a handful of the usual suspects. Hey, who am I to discount the appeal of "Espresso"?
This year, we have an actual list. A countdown. Smaller than last year's undertaking of 187 tracks, but with more clarity. A conciseness that is mainly the byproduct of 2024's master list having a whopping 280+ entries. But also because picking a winner is fun, and winning is the soup du jour of every du jour in these United States of America.
So let's hand out some trophies, shall we?
100.
Spaced
"Landslide"
Moshercise, y'all! Incredible that they say the title word about 100 times throughout, and still each one hits harder than the last.
99.
Have A Nice Life
"When I Go Deaf"
"When I go deaf
When I go deaf
When I go deaf
When I go deaf
When I go deaf
When I go deaf
When I go deaf
When I go deaf
When I go-"
98.
Slow Joy
"4U"
Self-described "Chicano Heavy" is undoubtedly present on "4U", a tale of the lengths gone for another. Categorically, you've heard it before, but probably not with the statement to "make me the neck under your feet"? Now that's shoegaze dedication.
97.
Cigarettes After Sex
"Baby Blue Movie"
Cigarettes After Sex is still, after three albums and numerous singles and EPs, one of the damned dumbest band names around. A flashing neon sign to an end goal still achieved with something that isn't so nose-centered. Despite that, and the fact that they fall into the trap of basically making the same song over and over, the schtick works when it works. And on "Baby Blue Movie", the bedroom calls.
96.
Kississippi
"Last Time"
No comment on the trend with band names forming here, but nothing eliminates the need for reason quite like a sugary slice of cheerleader pop. This example more of the Buffy variety, though.
95.
Dusky
"Trance You"
The Dusky boys exclaim the '90s vibe of dance floor I always have a mental go-bag ready for. Trance me? Lads, there is no need. I came out of the womb tranced. It is my static state. I'm a man constantly tranced up. But, by all means, try me again in 2025.
94.
Bo Ningen
"The Climbing"
The bass here, folks, the bass. Nine minutes of diesel-powered bass magic. The track's metronome of brutal steady. And while the drums and guitars do come (with fury) during the track's second-half descent into jam band chaos, bass remains the MVP of "The Climbing". Always there, always reliably there. The Josh Allen of our 94th selection.
93.
Bicep
"CHROMA 001 HELIUM"
Bicep: banging pots and pans on the side of a desert road, absolutely not in rhythm and completely messing around, barely even making music.
Me: "Holy shit."
92.
Jack J
"Wrong Again"
Oh to be seventeen again. Driving under moonlit-drenched city lights and laughing with friends that feel like forever companions. Hours feel like minutes. Life feels horizonless. Unbeknownst to you and them, and to your life and adolescence, it's all waning. The sunrise is near, and it sounds like this.
91.
Francis of Delirium
"Who You Are"
One of the better choruses this year. A fantastic mirror hold to all the relational cowards of the world.
90.
Hovvdy
"Meant"
There is just something about Will Taylor's voice on this one. Maybe it's the individuality to it. Or the way it compliments the drums. Or maybe it's the layering of it on the chorus. Possibly his missing vocals in the finale even do it, in absentia. I don't know, maybe you don't, maybe scholars will never know. There are certainly worse cases than being stuck on repeat trying to figure it out.
89.
Arooj Aftab
"Raat Ki Rani"
So completely and utterly gorgeous. Aftab finds a way to keep her vocalizations reserved while maintaining every ounce of emotion behind the words. A midpoint of purity between the two. As for the exactity of the Urdu words, I'm not sure. But I can feel an idea.
88.
Midwife
"Autoluminescent"
Midwife, one of the mainstays on this list year in and out. The mother of heaven metal, who will 'gaze into your eyes and pull out your heart (musically). And while this doesn't quite reach the emotional highs of "Anyone Can Play Guitar" or "Sickworld", it's difficult to name a soul in her space doing it better.
87.
Patrick Holland
"Left At The Table"
Do me a favor and picture the most rhythmless non-dancer in your life. Father? Uncle? An uncle Todd, maybe? Regardless, now picture that man doing the white man two-step to this song. It fits, no?
It's the groovy, white man two-step song of the year!
86.
Memphis LK
"Just The Way You Are"
Good luck getting "Do do do, do do, do do do" out of your head after listening to "Just The Way You Are". Such amazing positive energy to this, and earworm hooks like the aforementioned only multiply the feeling. An infectious, "Play it again!"-result from an artist who, at least in the past couple of years, is proving to be a serious hitmaker.
85.
Pictureplane
"Velvet Lies (Metallic Garden)"
Industrial dance club banger. Don't think. Just set the limbs free for 3:15.
84.
Clinic Stars
"Only Hinting"
For me, can't fathom another song this year slotting into a Legend (1985) montage quite like this one. Forest glades with infinite falling petals. Demonic beast with disproportional horns of hell. Mia Sara. Etc. Etc.
83.
junodream
"The Beach 2.0"
What a crescendo. The final minute thirty, when the strings reach an emotional high and the percussion beats to a drum of pure release. A short wave you could ride across entire oceans of doubt and anxiety.
82.
Jane Remover
"Dream Sequence"
A melancholic takedown of living for a dream, rather than chasing it. In mirror, at child, or to a past version of either, the dream itself is often just the tiny nucleus of Who We Are. The Want To Be runneth over in its aftermath. So, why not chase? "If you could go anywhere, would you wanna stay?"
Would you?
81.
Bicep
"CHROMA 004 ROLA"
Bicep: still banging pots and pans on the side of a desert road, now in rhythm but I've since joined them and am screwing everything up in a royal-type way.
Me: "Hey guys, what if we made something for a '00s car commercial?"
80.
Been Stellar
"Scream from New York, NY"
A lyrical standout from this year. "Who made the rats?" "Burning in the low cold hum of holy motors." And, of course, "I just don't have the words, they don't make words for this." Poetry via NYC shoegaze.
79.
Burial
"Dreamfear"
In Michael Mann's The Keep, SS major soldier Erich Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne) asks the spectral entity known as Radu Molasar, "Where do you come from?" The question coming after both he and Molasar have committed various atrocities to man, woman, and child alike.
As Molasar, Michael Carter supplies an all-timer delivery in his response: "I am...from you."
There are various musical dividing lines in a life. For me, there is a true B.C.-type importance to Burial. There is before, and there is everything after. The first notes of "Archangel" mutated me down at a DNA-level. Much like Molasar, his power is of the overlord variety. A sieve through which all others are pushed through and graded against. A sort of north star. A gravity force the likes of a black hole. And, as such, inclusion on my list is inevitable.
78.
Charlotte de Witte feat. Marion Di Napoli
"Sanctum"
You know within about 10 seconds whether this is not for you, or very much for you. But it's the "Could Be Inserted into the Opening Club Scene in Blade Song of the Year". A made up, but very high honor.
77.
The Cure
"A Fragile Thing"
In the best connotation that's humanly possible: What year is it?
76.
Joey Valence & Brae feat. Danny Brown
"PACKAPUNCH"
Automatic add for any tune that introduces King Danny Brown like an undefeated boxer. Infectious fun.