My Favourite New Songs of 2024
A list of my top 30 new songs from this year.
By Ryan McGreal.
1291 words. Approximately a 4 to 8 minute read.
Posted December 30, 2024 in Blog.
Contents
I didn't want to try and rank them so the songs are listed alphabetically by artist.
You can see the full playlist here:
There is also a Spotify playlist but it’s missing the Beaches track as it’s specific to Apple Music:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VaLL71l0aT1ONK5cBMszL?si=spCguJiUSTW1j4odc_s7-w&pi=u-mfHkF1MzQlW6
1 Ayokay - On My Mind ↑
This blissful, reverb-drenched club track glides into your brain effortlessly and stays there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZQ4hDYxuZA
2 Bby - Pretty Boy ↑
Bby take upbeat British indie rock in the Wombats style as a jumping off point, and this jazzy track finds them in a more hip hop/grime inflected vein - especially in the Part 2 version featuring rapper Zino Vinci.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rHAMtoZJ_A
3 The Beaches - We Fell in Love in October ↑
I will always be a sucker for a shimmery pop-punk girl band, and these Canadian artists have irresistible exuberance. Their cover of the 2018 girl in red single was recorded to celebrate Pride 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iggmiF7DNoM
4 Chappel Roan - Good Luck, Babe! ↑
Chappel Roan is everywhere this year and with good reason. This sumptuous heartbreak song is just about perfect, combining Roan’s soaring Kate Bush-esque soprano with lush, symphonic orchestration and an unbearably catchy melody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcVwbhooTm0
5 DAIISTAR - Clear ↑
Last year’s Good Time was a great time, packed with maximalist shoegaze anthems. In 2024 they leaned more into dream-pop with this gorgeous, restrained, midtempo single.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bev2eAyFO9Q
6 Deradoorian - Digital Gravestone ↑
This ominous, gritty single by former Dirty Projectors vocalist Angel Deradoorian is a teaser for her new album, due in 2025. It recalls the menace of PJ Harvey's "Down By the Water" and makes the best use of a scuzzy saxophone I’ve heard in years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRzy6lFym1o
7 Djo - End of Beginning ↑
It’s kind of perfect that this single by Joe Keery, who also plays Steve Harrington in Stranger Things, is a gorgeous retro-eighties pop ballad steeped in glistening nostalgia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH7gkoBpN3s
8 Dummy - Nine Clean Nails ↑
I had a hard time picking just one song from Free Energy, their psychedelic pastiche of 1990s sounds that evokes Screamadelica in its eclecticism. And like all the best indie bands, Dummy has dual male/female vocalists in Emma Maatman and Nathan Odell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCyb1729fe0
9 Freak Slug - Ya Ready ↑
I absolutely love the fact that the 1990s have been having a major moment in new music, and this debut album, I Blow Out Big Candles, is awash in Pavement-esque lo-fi guitars and grimy trip-hop beats. “Ya Ready” thrums with a guitar riff that sounds like it was down-tuned a full octave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljyKMbg_nOE
10 GIFT - Milestones ↑
I also struggled to pick just one song from Illuminator, a fantastic collection of polished shoegaze/dream-pop delicacies. “Milestones” is less well known than their main hits, “Wish Me Away”, and “Going in Circles”, but it’s just a gorgeous, groovy album closer that deserves more recognition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb8G8YSwAZg
11 girlpuppy - Champ ↑
I didn’t love girlpuppy’s 2022 album When I’m Alone. Becka Harvey has a fantastic voice but the songs felt a bit flat. With new single “Champ”, all the elements finally snap into place: Harvey’s warm, sweet vocals soar above a mosh pit of huge crunchy guitars and melancholy melody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxrxREFfIUM
12 illuminati hotties - December ↑
Recorded as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of Hopeless Records, this emo pop punk cover of the more acoustic 2015 Neck Deep single is heartbreaking and beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMZ5Ez1eqnQ
13 Jane Weaver - Love in Constant Spectacle ↑
The jazzy insouciance of this title track from her 2024 album reminds me of Edwyn Collins - noisy and discordant and cheekily self-aware. The whole album is a masterpiece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKzzR4J4RMU
14 Jesse Mac Cormac ft. Kaya Hoax - Grip ↑
The slowed-down, deeply swung dance beat feels almost Latin, but the emotive synth plucks of the “can’t do it on my own” verses are gorgeous and terse, contrasting the full-spectrum assault of the main motif. Just fantastic electronica.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8POwMMr8PqM
15 Katie Gavin - Aftertaste ↑
The debut solo release by MUNA vocalist Gavin is a bit more folky and country-inflected than her band work and this single is a great example of her maturity as a songwriter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1CeOmYO0fA
16 The Last Dinner Party - Burn Alive ↑
Channeling Siouxsie and the Banshees and Kate Bush in their operatic gothic art pop, this band burned hot and bright when their debut album Prelude to Ecstasy launched in February and then caught a quick backlash for coming across a little too self-consciously put-together, but there’s undeniably a real talent at work. I look forward to seeing how their sound matures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4BWxFgmAjo
17 Lauren Mayberry - Sunday Best ↑
The CHVRCHES singer’s solo debut often feels like less than the sum of its parts, but this track stands out for its gloriously sunny Big Beat rhythm and soaring chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBmn2TWCP_Q
18 Luna Li - Bon Voyage ↑
When a Thought Grows Wings, the second album by Toronto’s Luna Li, is precise and intricate and gentle and calmly resolute. I picked this single because I just think it’s gorgeous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMuxb5SH5T0
19 Magdalena Bay - That’s My Floor ↑
So many bands over the past few years have embraced a kind of pan-1990s musical aesthetic and I am so here for it. Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay is an exemplar of the genre. This track is busy and zany in the best way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd1i6CYVE6c
20 Moaning Lisa - getting over you is on my list of things to do (but not at the top) ↑
Did I mention the 1990s are having a moment? Moaning Lisa presents an amalgam of Veruca Salt, Letters to Cleo, Juliana Hatfield, Tracy Bonham, the Breeders and Celebrity-Skin era Hole with a 21st-century sheen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLbSm6f5heI
21 Pelvis Wrestley - World is a Bucking Horse ↑
It’s easy to dismiss this as a cheesy Sparks pretender novelty act, except that this is a genuinely great song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw1ey3WdE0s
22 Ride - Last Night I Went Somewhere to Dream ↑
Hard to believe Ride are still making music in 2024, let alone music as vital and engaging as their latest album Interplay. This slow shuffle diverges from their prevailing sound, but I chose it because the driving, bombastic rhythm section that is the hallmark of Ride’s sound just can’t be suppressed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgO5Zu52uxw
23 RIP Dunes - Cruel Nature ↑
While a lot of my favourite songs this year have channeled the 1990s, the languid guitar-and-synths solo debut from Caveman vocalist Matthew Iwanusa harkens back to the mid-1980s. This dreamy mid-tempo track recalls the romantic synth pop of Boys and Girls-era Bryan Ferry, Thompson Twins, Alphaville and Icehouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLgccIXwOUA
24 RÜFÜS DU SOL - Edge of the Earth ↑
These guys have emotionally weighty electronica down to a science and their 2024 album Inhale / Exhale delivers exactly what you want and expect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFFWgi1IpQM
25 Sam Fender - People Watching ↑
1980s Bruce Springsteen meets The War on Drugs with a soupçon of the Killers for good measure. This is just a timeless feel-good song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHzaHMmXB6Y
26 Sky Ferreira - Leash ↑
Sounding like a cross between Garbage, Rose Chronicles and Ray of Light era Madonna, this soaring tribute to, um, BDSM for the Babygirl soundtrack is yet another entry into the new canon of 1990s grooves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D0JeugTeNs
27 total tommy - Losing Out ↑
Bruises, the debut for Jess Holt’s new band, is another trove of gorgeous guitar tracks vying for a spot on my favourite songs list. This song is an achingly beautiful quiet/loud meditation on heartbreak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHnSzL510
28 Vampire Weekend - Hope ↑
I chose the languid 8-minute closing track from Only God Was Above Us because it’s a microcosm of the album as a whole: a slow burn that gradually clicks with repeated listening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keKluVOD_WE
29 VR SEX - Dictionary Talk ↑
The whole album, Hard Copy, is a cheeky post-punk masterpiece, churning together new wave, glam, goth, garage, cyberpunk, psychedelia and a lot of noise into a surprisingly cohesive whole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S0SheJYDuU
30 World’s Greatest Dad - The Ocean ↑
There’s always room for another hooky emo pop punk song in my life, and this single from the band’s 2024 album Better Luck Next Time reminds me of what it feels to be young and in agony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMElGMtJZHI
“Well it’s been a rough year, and it’s only gonna get worse” indeed.