The 100 Best Songs of 2024: 50-26
- Jack Eureka
- Jan 17
- 9 min read
Updated: Jan 31
The penultimate entry. The better before the best. The Alex Smith to the final installment's Patrick Mahomes.
If I had to assign any throughline to it all, it'd probably be nostalgia. Which is the inescapable throughline to pretty much everything these days, anyway. Y'all excited for Happy Gilmore 2?! Huh, are ya?!
But seriously, hopefully a little more optimistic version of our longing for past. In genre, tone, voice, vibe, and even occasionally in the actual artist. Where these specifically assign is up to you, but they're all present and accounted for.
Starting with a bang...
50.
modest by default
"关于暴力的论文 (DEMOS LOGIKE)"
Modest is a relative enigma of a musical artist. Apparently Argentinian and seemingly unknowable past that, they make the most soothing music imaginable for someone so cast in shadow. "Virtually everything is plundered, and absolutely everything is free," it says on the artist's Bandcamp page. Maybe due to these constraints, this is one of the few that's slipped onto Spotify, the industry's Swedish house of commerce. Or maybe it all just reinforces the "free" point, rendering the artist in question a pretty real one.
49.
Crush Your Soul
"GETMONEY"
The first twenty five seconds here are a steady thump of punkish angst. Percussive anger as a prelude. Then, upon Peta's first shout of title card, the sea of bass drum parts for a metalcore breakdown for old and new heads alike. If that anger felt lonely before, the guitar unites us all. From there, a Martened-boot bopper where momentum never halts, with drum and power chords that never do, either.
And thank god for that.
48.
Sabrina Carpenter
"Espresso"
(obligatory, volume 2)
Listen, both this and "Good Luck, Babe!" from the previous section have been discussed elsewhere ad nauseam. Probably (most likely and definitely) by someone smarter and with more insight.
For me, these are great pop songs devoid of any serious pretense or artifice. They are songs aware of the artifice itself. Engaging with it. And despite the media landscape arguably needing less discussion with itself these days, it works in spades within each of these candy coated tracks.
47.
Fontaines D.C.
"Here's The Thing"
Accompanied by a lovely music video that's a cocktail of Carrie, The Craft, and high school Tyler Durden(s). Along with the anxieties that come with each and the modern youth landscape.
The video has great direction, with a nifty split diopter shot, and what's gotta be the second best lipstick smear of 2024 (tough to upstage Demi).
46.
clipping.
"Tipsy"
Too often in regards to art, questions of "Who is this for?" and "Why now?" and, mostly bluntly, "Why?" get asked of a work. Anyone thinking critically at all about media gets these inklings. Despite the answers being obvious for all three at all stages of inception.
It would be all too easy to give in to these questions preflop of clipping.'s "Tipsy". Perhaps thinking about the matter from the perspective of the group themselves will help.
"J-Kwon’s ‘Tipsy’ is one of the greatest party rap songs of all time. We could never make a beat as hard as the original, so we took our version in another direction — something like if Skinny Puppy had somehow remixed it in the late 1980s."
So clipping. via J-Kwon by way of Skinny Puppy. In that case, why not?
45.
Sunday (1994)
"Tired Boy"
A deadbeat boy masquerading as a carefree man. Free of obligation to anything and, vitally here, anyone else. Drinking with his buddies. Playing video games. The kind of guy who quips "You can't control what you can't control" as he manages the restraints of his life about as well as a toddler with a fallen ice cream scoop.
Sunday (1994) render disdain through a sober daydream.
44.
Tourist
"Protector"
Tourist mines the power in letting yourself feel pain. Through an unceasing piano and a faraway voice of reason, he provides a window to the release of that pain into something else. The brief moment when its concrete lines of surety fade into blissful acceptance. Tourist finds this fleeting re-imagining in further layers of piano, building synths, and watery snaps.
It's a pulse to get you to see it all through another lens. 4:49 of dancefloor perspective.
43.
The Last Dinner Party
"My Lady of Mercy"
Pretty anthemic, and undoubtedly my favorite vocal inflection of the word "heart" I've heard in some time. Great fucking band, Last Dinner Party is.
42.
Curses
"Another Heaven"
If nostalgia hasn't struck yet, it surely will on Curses entry here. Keeping the dream of '80s coke-littered dancefloors alive, it's a Eurodisco love letter. A Moog adoration, a drum machine valentine, borne of decades long MIDI romance. Substance 2024, if you will.
41.
CASTLEBEAT
"Tom's Place"
Not a whole helluva lot to unpack, here. A pure summer's breeze in song form.
Josh Hwang's enchanting version of bedroom pop a natural rest stop for this emotive state. Sometimes leaning melancholy, and sometimes leaning into the "Could it ever get better than this?"-brand of late teens that all prepubescents and seniors yearn for. "Tom's Place" is after the latter, and one of the best tracks in a catalog filled with hits.
40.
Holly Macve
"Time is Forever"
Time. One of the great themes of any kind of adult-aimed media, our own ticking clocks clearly frighten us all. The jealously spent on the young is merely that they don't know what's coming.
Holly Macve suggests an approach of acceptance. Through slow-drip drums and twinkling keys, she puts it as plainly as "When something's born, something is dying". But also, don't run from this outcome. It is merely the way it is. A blunt edge to this sharp outcome, but, after all, time is indeed forever.
39.
Loren Kramar
"Glovemaker"
Can't find a better song this year that features the word "starfucker" so prominently. And Loren Kramar's vocal inflections in the chorus are superb.
If those hedonistic L.A. parties that every conspiratorial mind out there assumes exist do, in fact, then this song is playing in the PNC smoking room out back. Where martinis are abundant, it smells like worn leather, and million dollar decisions are made on napkins.
38.
Sprints
"Cathedral"
A steady boil of Catholic guilt via screeching guitars and steadied toms. The ritualistic love of exclusion in every snare pop. The lack of empathy as calls to parents more likely to give to the basket than those on the street. The fake smiles slip as the strings do.
But then the bubbles overflow and the crazed guitar kicks in, with the bass sitting behind and attempting any harmony it possibly can amongst the chaos. And guilt becomes anger. And the eyes open.
37.
The Serfs
"Paid In Full"
This is borrowing so much from new wave's collision with hip hop in the mainstream and, like, undercover cop shows from the '80s. Amorphous in that it could be played at any dancefloor you can imagine within the decade. From Detroit to Berlin. And I am so fucking in love with it.
36.
Death From Above 1979
"TURN IT OUT XX"
Just setting aside for a minute that this is in honor of You're a Woman, I'm a Machine's 20th anniversary and pretty much a 1-for-1 remake of that album's opener, and I'm docking it heavily with these factors in mind...
This is unassailable. Literally thousands of listens, and when it kicks in I still get goosebumps. Nothing sounds like Jesse Keeler's bass. Simultaneously ahead of its time and primal, it's the loudest thing you've ever heard. An alien with a guitar strap. It's a monster that requires more volume. The lunch bell for all weirdos who like to dance but couldn't to Britney Spears ("Toxic" notwithstanding). Which is where Sebastien Granger's screams and slaps come in. He's a man who wants to dance, but he wants to scream about it. Imagine not moving your head to his snare? Imagine not screaming along?
Twenty years later and it's not just the start to an album anymore. It's a level of bombast that immediately spells out to the world who these Torontonians were, and what they're still about. Inviting all fellow aliens to the sweat drenched dancefloor.
35.
junodream
"The Oranges"
The soundtrack at the hippest planetarium that's ever existed. Bass the uncomfortable warmth from the stadium chairs. Light drums the projectionist queueing the show to begin. Guitar a hypnotic and recurring star flashing across the domed screen every few seconds. And the chorus. A grandiose and immersive encouragement to sit back and enjoy. The show. Life. It doesn't matter, because the seat's so warm.
34.
Telenova
"Teardrop (Telenoir Version)"
There's just something about the little chirpy flourish that comes in every few seconds on this. Add in Angeline Armstrong's spectral vocals, a killer chorus, and jazzy percussion, and you've got yourself a hit. Smooth as hell, and such an easy smash of the repeat button.
33.
Been Stellar
"I Have the Answer"
Another anthem. One of droned guitar and pining chorus. And the fleeting of certainty we all get with the frenzy that comes from all sides of it. What are we to do, with the things we know, the things we don't, and the things we think we know?
"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it?" Roy Batty once questioned. The New Yorkers distill the joy and horror in knowing and answer his question with instrument, and the void of the track's final seconds.
32.
Lunar Vacation
"Fantasy"
The catharsis that strikes with "Time to pack it up/It'll never be sincere"...man. Talk about a release. And one that temporarily distracts, providing a melatonin to living in the fantasy of dream. In self and relationship, alike.
"Hold on to it, Hold on to it
Hold on to it, Hold on to it
Hold on to it, Hold on to it
Hold on to it, Hold on to it"
But, for how long?
31.
Gordo feat. Drake
"Sideways"
Rough year for Wheelchair Jimmy! Gordo taps him here for a musical beach vibe to unwind and lick his wounds to. As per usual, he brings his heartbreak along to pair with piña colada. "But you were never my girl/It was just my turn" would probably register a bit more devastating if not being his static relational state. However, Gordo does what he can to make it sound sincere. Dousing Drake's vocal in reverb and dropping his hero on a seaside Chaise lounger. He may tell Mr. Drizzy it'll all get better and drop lines about fish and sea while waves crash at their feet, but we all know that won't take.
30.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
"Challengers: Match Point"
No other song on this list—hell, no other song the entire year—can say it soundtracks one of the most audacious, fun, and thrilling scenes in ages. Fantastic on the whole, Challengers is amplified further by Reznor and Ross's sultry electronica.
The sound of climax, "Match Point" brings together bits and pieces of their past work, but as a completed piece and companion, it's near unparalleled in their catalog. You can see this music. Sweat dripping from Faist's face, O'Conner's cocksure smirk, Zendaya's sheathed desire. With Trent and Atticus in the court's bunker, turning dials, the party, and the drama up.
29.
Softcult
"Shortest Fuse"
Softcult's summer's night takedown of corporate greed. The band uses riotgaze guitar only as a respite from the anger at the systems in place to control and suppress the populace. The bosses, the banks, the rats eating each other. The girls are sick of free enterprise, and want to use six strings to drown it out.
28.
Jamie xx feat. The Avalanches
"All You Children"
Few songs or albums, whether it be intentional or not, inspire. Cynicism and tastes vary, but I'd guess that's a pretty universal notion.
What makes you want to get up and do? Be it something as big as marching for change (not on 1/6) or as small and non-Earth-moving as improving a day. Or remind you that there's more out there in the world? Fresh perspectives and faces. More for you and all you love. A self paradise waiting to be found.
This song applies.
27.
Caroline Polachek
"Coma"
Polachek's jungle freight train is a runaway. This is frantic, lovesick, and unhinged. Lost in that kind of dream that is so bizarre and accelerating that the details barely stick. Whose voice is that? Why am I in this bedroom? Where am I? You are, of course, in a dream. A temporary coma.
Polachek's vocal hooks rarely miss, and she submits here a dead-in-your-tracks halter. But, just for a moment. Just before the rush returns and the caboose slips off the tracks.
26.
Mica Levi
"slob air"
Fresh off crafting sound for the sensory feel-bad film of the decade, The Zone of Interest, Levi takes about the sharpest left imaginable. Out of oven ash and into cloudy heaven, his twelve-minute encore is light as a feather and just as epic.
Strings of uplift a needed prescription after the exploits of the Höss family, I suppose.