It’s time to rank the year’s best bangers! What were your favourite tracks of 2024?
2024 was a pretty jam-packed year musically. I could barely keep up with all the music that was dropping. These are the songs that cut through the noise and that I couldn’t get enough of.
20. ‘Cool Hand’
– Derya Yildirim & Grup Simsek
Turkish folk
music and funk-soul isn’t a blend I expected to hear any time soon. And the best
part is that it works so well! It’s the most pleasantly surprised I’ve been by a wacky genre hybrid since I discovered Flametal.
19. ‘Mean Girls’
– Charli XCX
‘360’, ‘Sympathy is a Knife’ and ‘B2B’ were close contenders for this list. But I’ve concluded
that ‘Mean Girls’ is the most enjoyably bratty song off of Brat. The
chorus is anthemic and piano break is nuts.
18. ‘Samurai’ –
Lupe Fiasco
I’m still yet
to hear the new Lupe Fiasco album. But the lead single and title track ‘Samurai’
has been on repeat this year. Lupe’s bars trickle over the smooth boom bap beat
like water. The Frank-Ocean-esque hook is addictive too.
17. ‘Writing
Out A List Of All The Names Of God’ – Thank
Leeds noise
rock band Thank were one of my favourite new finds of 2024. ‘Writing Out A List
Of All The Names Of God’ is a thrilling cocktail of mean riffs, frenetic drums
and absurd lyrics. It’s got a pretty loopy breakdown too!
16. ‘Turn It
Up’ – PinkPantheress
This is peak
PinkPantheress (try saying that fast). The enchanting ‘ayayayayayaaaaa’
hook grabs you from the get-go and the twinkly piano beat is absolutely
gorgeous. Turn it up!
15. ‘I Forgive
You’ – Sia
Sia’s music usually
doesn’t do much for me, but the way she vocally let’s loose in this track is
truly impressive. Those tortured wails have so much pain poured into them. It’s
a beautifully chaotic vocal performance.
14. ‘Overcompensate’
– Twenty One Pilots
‘Overcompensate’
saw Twenty One Pilots announcing a return to a more experimental sound. The song is such
an exciting musical journey consisting of an intense breakbeat-style intro, surprise
tempo change and semi-rapped-semi-sung vocals.
13. ‘House of
Sylph’ – Shida Shahabi
This 12-minute
nightmarish avant-garde ballet-inspired electronic instrumental (do the demonic
whispers count as vocals?) is the work of Swedish producer Shida Shahabi. The
way it slowly builds and morphs is masterful. It also makes for a terrifying
listen on headphones.
12. ‘Fight
Song’ – Scions
This epic
track from Canadian nine-piece is about fighting a losing battle against climate
change. The mix of classical instrumentation, skronky post-punk guitar and
folksy vocals is very unique. I also love the defiant ‘when we go down, we
go down swinging’ mantra at the end.
11. ‘Call It
Love’ – Nilufer Yanya
The snaking guitar
riff in this single from Nilufer Yanya is so hypnotic that I could listen to it
all day. Combined with the melancholy Sade-like vocals, it makes for a heavenly
track that’s hard to musically categorise.
10. ‘In My
Cave’ – Keegan Powell
This underrated
rugged rock track from Toronto musician Keegan Powell is another one that’s
been on repeat. It hooks you straight away with its kickass blown-out guitar
riff and stomping snare. I love how it almost completely derails at the 2:40
mark.
9. ‘Sticky’ –
Tyler, the Creator ft. Glorilla, Sexyy Red and Lil Wayne
Although I
think ‘Like Him’ is the most powerful song on Tyler’s new album, I felt ‘Sticky’
was ultimately more worthy of this list. The amount of times I’ve played this
since I first heard it is borderline unhealthy. This beat is absolutely stupendous
and every guest is on fire (even Sexyy Red!).
8. ‘Not Like Us’ – Kendrick Lamar
The Great Kendrick-Drake Rap Battle of 2024 was ultimately won with this track ‘Not Like Us’. Not only
is it a hilariously brutal diss track, but also a catchy banger (even Drake kinda admitted he liked it on ‘The Heart Part 6’).
7. ‘Nothing
Can Stay The Same’ – Peachnoise
Entrancing
vocals dance over woozy chopped-up vocals in this wonderfully weird track from
Melbourne experimental duo Peachnoise. Every second of it is pure woozy ecstasy.
6. ‘Million
Dollar Baby’ – Tommy Richman
Tommy Richman
blew up on TikTok this year with this old-skool r&b banger and I haven’t
been able to get enough of it. His Sampha-meets-Justin-Timberlake vocals are so
good, and the production slaps.
5. ‘Jump Cut’ –
Corridor
‘Jump Cut’ mixes
fidgety post-punk guitars, downbeat crooned vocals and a spacey shred synth
solo to sound like some long-lost underground rock gem from the 80s. And it
comes with one of the coolest videos I’ve seen this year.
4. ‘Like The
End’ – James Blake
There’s a lot
threatening humanity right now. This haunting ballad from James Blake confronts
the fear that it may be too late for us. Combined with the AI-generated
visuals, it feels all the more apocalyptic.
3. ‘Death
& Romance’ – Magdalena Bay
Every song on
Mag Bay’s new album is a blast. But ‘Death & Romance’ is the one I’ve been
hooked on the most. The 90s piano chords, euphoric exploding chorus and spacey
synth section are all so fun.
2. ‘Life’ -
Louis Cole
There’s so
much going on in this crazy song from multi-instrumentalist Louis Cole. If his
funky sound wasn’t already electrifying enough, he’s now taken things to a new
level by working with a full orchestra. The result is an exhilarating mix of Psycho-style
string stabs, cinematic horn blasts, racing drums, funky vocals, speedy slap
bass and bouncy synths. There’s also a jazzy sax solo. Oh, and the whole thing is
live.
1. ‘b i g f e
e l i n g s’ – Willow
Of all the great songs that 2024 delivered, this one has continued to awe me the most. It’s partly because it completely caught me off guard the first time I heard it. Willow was making pop-punk up until this year – whereas this is like a beserk hybrid of jazz and prog rock. It hops from one crazy piano riff to the next and is paired with hooky theatrical vocals that show off the full extent of Willow’s range. It really does feel like a music encapsulation of the type of ‘big feelings’ that cannot be put into words.