Charli, Sabrina, Chappell, Shaboozey, and more
If you were hoping for the pop madness of 2024 to slow down and start making sense: good luck, babe! Because there has never, ever, been a pop year like the hot-not-pretty mess that was 2024. Week to week, song to song, it was a year when previously unimaginable things happened. Kendrick and Drake had a high-profile MC battle unlike any other. A complete unknown named Shaboozey spent 19 weeks at Number One with a country-rap classic so perfect it’ll probably still be Number One this time next year. Tinashe slid in with the most unmatchable freak in history. Charli left that voice note and Lorde worked it out on the remix. How could this year get any weirder? Do the words “Hozier comeback” mean anything to you? Sabrina poured the espresso, Billie ordered lunch, Taylor changed the prophecy.
Every genre was booming, and as you can see from the list below, every genre kept switching it up. It was tough cutting our list down to a hundred songs, but in music—if in no other way—this was a year for the ages. You’ll have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.
Check out this playlist of 100 Best Songs of the year here.
The Dare, ‘Perfume’
Image Credit: Youtube
Mention former substitute teacher, current dance-punk phenomenon the Dare, and you’ll likely be met with a Rolodex of polarizing descriptors: “indie sleaze,” nostalgia for the aughts, James Murphy comparisons, scoffs about NYC’s “Dimes Square” neighborhood. “Perfume” is perfectly primed for any sticky body-to-body-packed function, much like the Dare’s infamous Freakquencies parties. It’s one more example why his music has become the soundtrack to a massive sector of debaucherous New York nightlife. As Charli XCX sang about the Dare on their Brat collab, “Guess”: “I think he’s with it.” —L.L.
Lip Critic, ‘In the Wawa (Convinced I Am God)’
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Pounding, distorted beats; twisted vocal samples; and a guy screaming incomprehensible lyrics about protozoa and perdition. If this sounds fun to you, you’ve gotta check out Lip Critic, the New York quartet making some of the strangest sounds in any genre. Lead bellower Bret Kaser has a disorienting sense of humor that comes out on songs like this one: “Standing in the Wawa, convinced I’m a god/So I’m gonna get any sandwich I want.” Is that a satire of toxic male ego, a comment on convenience-store economics, a Yeezus reference, or none of the above? Don’t worry about it. —S.V.L.
Kim Gordon, ‘Bye Bye’
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Some people were shocked to hear Kim Gordon stepping into post-industrial trap beats on her second solo album, but they shouldn’t have been — she’s been making freaky, brilliant noise since before much of today’s streaming audience was born, and she’s still got it. On “Bye Bye,” she talk-raps a packing list for a trip (“Blue jeans, cardigan, purse, passport”) in the same killer monotone she’s been using since Sonic Youth’s Confusion Is Sex, only this time it’s over a deconstructed club banger from producers Jeremiah and Justin Raisen. Your favorite avant-garde twentysomething wishes they sounded this cool. —S.V.L.
SiR, ‘Tryin’ My Hardest’
Image Credit: RO.LEXX*
Most of Heavy, SiR’s follow-up to his excellent 2019 LP, Chasing Summer, finds him burdened by internal tumult — particularly, as he told Rolling Stone, with addiction and its impact on his marriage. Tucked toward the end of the album, “Tryin’ My Hardest” feels like the first ray of sun breaking through passing storm clouds (“We’re good now, but I did a lot of dirt,” the singer told us). It’s a methodical confession of the ways SiR is giving being better a shot, beautifully crafted with soft guitar, jazzy bass, delicate piano, and upbeat percussion that, in unison, sounding like the epitome of cautious optimism. —M.C.
Dasha, ‘Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)’
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“Did your boots stop working?” is a hell of a hook for a country breakup song, not to mention a hell of a question to throw at your trifling ex after he doesn’t show up for the secret getaway you two had planned. “Did your truck break down? Did your ex find out?” The up-and-coming country star Dasha holds it down in “Austin” with acoustic guitar, hand claps, and her mean voice. She declares that she’s leaving to go take over L.A., but she’s leaving his ass behind to drink his life away in Austin. —R.S.
SZA, ‘Saturn’
Image Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
It’s been a few years since SZA completed her Saturn return, the astrological phenomenon experienced around the age of 29 and marked by deeply transformative changes and realignment. On her single “Saturn,” SZA yearns for further metamorphosis. “Stuck in this paradigm/Don’t believe in paradise/This must be what hell is like/There’s got to be more, got to be more,” she sings. The record maintains a mid-tempo pace, creating the feeling of a trip through the cosmos. Even as she’s vocalizing a sense of deflation, there’s a sliver of hope in SZA’s performance as she urges: “Find something worth saving.” —L.P.
Soccer Mommy, ‘Driver’
Image Credit: Anna Pollack*
This year Soccer Mommy released Evergreen, a bracingly personal album steeped in real-life loss and grief that might be her most gripping record yet. The steely guitar banger “Driver” is the LP’s moment of release, the sound of someone hungering for power and control in a life that always seems fading into helplessness. The mood even gets kind of scary: “He’d never leave me now/Even if he could, there’s no way out,” she sings as the song seethes and rattles. But that hint of darkness inside the freedom she’s demanding makes the song that much more real. —J.D.
Griff, ‘Anything’
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They say that love is blind — but on “Anything,” not only is Griff’s vision crystal clear, she’s seeing red. “I hate how much that you took away/Like my confidence was yours to take,” the British singer-songwriter and producer spits on the hyper-dramatic record. When she unashamedly admits how far she was willing to go — “You knew if you told me to run, jump/Throw my body right off of a highwire bridge/’Cause you’d meet me at the bottom/I would’ve done anything you wanted” — it’s with crazed, devastating conviction. As Griff reclaims the power she once gave away, she uses it to fuel one of the most electrifying, cathartic releases in recent pop memory. —L.P.
Fcukers, ‘Bon Bon’
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The young New York trio Fcukers provided the electro indie-sleaze soundtrack for some of the summer’s sloppiest nights with “Bon Bon.” Signed to Ninja Tune’s Technicolor label, the threesome come on like a punk house-party answer to Basement Jaxx or the Chemical Brothers, with headbanger house beats. When Shanny Wise chants her killer hook “I gotcha bon bon” over the bloopity-bloop bass line, she sounds like she’s cannonballing into the pool from the roof without spilling her beer. —R.S.
Karol G, ‘Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido’
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On “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” — which translates to “If I Had Met You Before” — Karol G pays homage to the Dominican Republic in an uplifting, wistful merengue. Inspired by her time in the country while recording last year’s Mañana Sera Bonito, the song talks about a deeply personal missed connection, with the retrospection of someone who came out on the other side with a newfound maturity. “What would have been, if I had met you before?” she asks, as the song builds layer by layer, culminating in a joyous and communal refrain. —Reana Cruz
Cardi B, ‘Enough (Miami)’
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“I know for a fact I make fucking hits,” Cardi B told Rolling Stone in her June cover story. She’s been hard at work on her long and much-anticipated second album, with “Enough” dropping earlier this year like something of an appetizer — and sure enough, it’s one of her best declarations of how much she’s accomplished and how little shit she’ll take. “I’m in Miami, I pull up on cruise ship, you in Miami four-hoes-to-room shit,” she teases, pulling the insult from experience. Sure enough, it’s the hard-hitting rap track like this one that leveled her up. —M.C.
Kali Uchis feat. Peso Pluma, ‘Igual Que un Ángel’
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“Igual Que un Ángel,” Kali Uchis’ turn toward dreamy disco pop, was a surprise even for an artist who’s down to experiment with most sounds and genres. She practically coos the lyrics, about a woman owning her autonomy, juxtaposing the strength of the message with an air-light touch. Then there’s another unexpected moment: Mexican crooner Peso Pluma slides in for a verse, his gravelly voice suddenly soft and silk-smooth. Their quick chemistry might be why the song made the Top 10 of Billboard‘s Global 200 earlier this year. —J. Lopez
Olivia Rodrigo, ‘Obsessed’
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Olivia Rodrigo is at her best when she embraces her most unhinged emotions. On “Jealousy, Jealousy,” from her debut album, Sour, she sang, “Comparison is killing me slowly.” But here she’s the one doing the killing — metaphorically, of course. Maybe. The song spins a stalker-ish tale of envy-laced curiosity. “I can’t help it, no, I can’t help it/I’m so obsessed with your ex,” Rodrigo sings over raging guitars. She creates the illusion that she could be lurking anywhere — under the bed, inside the walls, in the back seat of the car. But her own neurosis might destroy her before she gets a chance to strike. —L.P.
Eric Church, ‘Darkest Hour (Helene Edit)’
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“Darkest Hour” announces a new era for country’s chief shapeshifter. With strings, a choir, and Eric Church singing in falsetto, the healing ballad — “I’ll do everything in my power/To take even a minute off your darkest hour,” he sings — evokes the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the symphonic compositions of Queen. It’s rock opera from the Seventies, crossed with Church’s rough-hewn mountain country. Yet, even without Jay Joyce’s gilded production, “Darkest Hour” can wow on its own; see Church’s stunning solo acoustic performance at the Concert for Carolina. —J.H.
Flo Milli feat. Cardi B and SZA, ‘Never Lose Me’
Image Credit: Christopher Polk/Variety/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images/Coachella; Prince Williams/WireImage
The “Never Lose Me” remix is particularly thrilling because it brings together three women in eras that challenge any notion of their success being serendipitous. Flo’s girlish melodies here are so bite-worthy that the two superstars did just that; SZA gives nice-nasty a whole new meaning; Cardi B flips Flo’s line “Never had a bitch like me in your life” to “That bitch could never be me in her life,” then spits like she was supposed to have tapped out eight bars earlier but couldn’t help herself. It’s yet another indication of rap-girl supremacy. —M.C.
NewJeans, ‘How Sweet’
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Since their debut in 2022, NewJeans have brought sounds and genres that weren’t commonly found in K-pop to the foreground. “How Sweet” is no exception, with its contrast between a high-energy electro-pop beat and bright, echoey vocals. Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein’s voices shine as they sing, “Cause me and you are different/So I won’t stay, I’m leaving,” turning lyrics about getting out of a bad situation into something that feels liberated and fun. “How Sweet” continues their track record of releasing music that’s experimental, fresh, and original at its core. —K.K.
Cash Cobain, Ice Spice, and Bay Swag, ‘Fisherrr (Remix)’
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There’s something to be said about a signature sound, when any artist who collaborates with you wants to enter your world. That’s rapidly become the case with Cash Cobain, who’s had Drake and J. Cole both jump on his beats. His peak this year is the “Fisherrr” remix, on which Ice Spice gives Cash and Bay Swag’s already-buzzing hit a feminine touch, mirroring their slinky cadence and rhyming. Cash kept his roll going all year, but we didn’t forget this May harbinger for a slizzy summer. —A.G.
Taylor Swift, ‘The Prophecy’
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Tucked away on the Anthology portion of The Tortured Poets Department, “The Prophecy” reveals the type of dark, innermost yearnings that have shaped some of Taylor Swift’s strongest, most classic songs. Above a hypnotic, plucky guitar, Swift wonders aloud if she’s destined to a life of loneliness after her dreams of finding a soulmate continue to be unrealized. On the chorus, she offers a rare declaration of desperation, begging to “change the prophecy” in order to find someone who wants her company. It’s the most tortured poetry on the album and one of Swift’s finest songs to date. —Brittany Spanos
Sophie feat. Hannah Diamond, ‘Always and Forever’
Image Credit: Renata Raksha*
Electronic music innovator Sophie’s aesthetic was always about rapturous extremes, from synth assaults that could push your sensory responders deep into the red to drone passages that could make you feel lifted and haunted at the same time. It’s hard not to hear this gorgeous highlight from the posthumous release SOPHIE, which features vocals from hyper-pop kindred soul Hannah Diamond, as a kind of elegy: tender blips and sweet squiggles, even a little poignant whistling, that softly usher us “Into the skies, into the light/Transcending time.” Always and forever, indeed. —J.D.
Eliza McLamb, ‘Modern Woman’
Image Credit: Griffin Lotz for Rolling Stone
Eliza McLamb first gained notoriety in the pandemic with the spicy TikTok song “Porn Star Tits,” and as the co-host of the podcast Binchtopia. But her excellent debut, Going Through It, feels like the proper introduction to this fiery songwriter. The opening track, “Modern Woman,” contains some of the best songwriting you’ll hear all year, jam-packed with lines like “They love me when I’m miserable/Because I’m super marketable” and “2 p.m. is a wormhole into buying clothes on Instagram/And standing in front of my fridge eating deli ham.” It doesn’t get more relatable than that. —A.M.
Lambrini Girls, ‘Company Culture’
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The Brighton, England, duo put their own explosive feminist spin on the ageless tradition of rock & roll diatribes against shitty jobs and asshole bosses: “Pretend that I know how to use a computer/Harassed in the workplace/My cold resting-bitch face,” singer-guitarist Phoebe Lunny shouts, before circling back with her leering supervisor to inform him, “Michael, I don’t want to suck you off on my lunch break.” In the video, they bring new meaning to the concept NSFW by smashing up a dreary basement office. —J.D.
GloRilla, ‘TGIF’
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GloRilla has been known to use the recording-studio booth as her pulpit, sneaking benedictions into her hits. But on “TGIF,” she pivots to prophecy, forecasting the weather for every summer Friday on the 2024 calendar: “It’s 7 p.m. Friday/It’s 95 degrees.” The urgent strings and horns of Zenjikozen’s production evoke a breaking-news weather report. The rest of the song provides the perfect recipe for a night out for a single woman in hot weather: lightly dressed, no relationship commitments, stocked up on libations, and equipped with an abundance of disposable income. —Elise Brisco
Lana Del Rey and Quavo, ‘Tough’
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Did you know that there’s a tunnel under “Bad and Boujee”? Lana Del Rey and Quavo join forces for “Tough,” a sliver of country-trap Americana celebrating red dirt and blue collars. It’s a perfect American portrait for a year when this here U.S. of A. seems to keep redefining the Del Reyan concept of Fucking Up Big-Time. Quavo gets real about grief, mourning the still-raw loss of his Migos comrade and nephew, Takeoff. But it’s a song about how surviving adversity makes you as hard as “nickel-wound strings on your good ol’ Gibson guitar.” —R.S.
Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen, ‘I Had Some Help’
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Few country songs this year have been as inescapable as Post Malone’s collab with Morgan Wallen. The Nashville newbie’s breakup song, off his upcoming F-1 Trillion album, basically says, “Hell, yeah, I’ve been spiraling, but it’s not just my own doing” — and then cues up a monster chorus. Sure, “I Had Some Help” has a few hints of Kip Moore’s 2012 rocker “Beer Money” in its DNA (that intro!), but Malone and Wallen’s swerving vocals makes it distinctly their own. Passing the blame has never sounded so fun. —J.H.
Charli XCX, ‘Von dutch’
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Charli XCX promised a tribute to the underground London rave scene with her sixth album, Brat, and lead single “Von dutch” proved she wasn’t lying. The brash, aggressively fun single is one of XCX’s many tributes to being the It girl on everybody’s minds this year, both flipping off and embracing the gossip and obsession. One of pop’s boldest auteurs, XCX still finds new ways to make it clear she’s pushing boundaries and creating trends. And as an added bonus, the A.G. Cook remix featuring Addison Rae triples the excitement and is bound to be a club staple beyond just this summer. —B.S.
Megan Thee Stallion, ‘Hiss’
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“Hiss” was a potent warning to anyone who thought they could disrupt what the H-Town Hottie dubbed “The Year of the Stallion” (and a pointed comeback to disparagements from Nicki Minaj and Drake). Everyone took heed, and it brought with it Megan Thee Stallion’s third time topping the Billboard Hot 100 and first time doing so completely solo. For longtime fans, it represented the down and dirty, no holds barred, UGK-studied rapping that made them fall in love with her. She herself credits it to her beloved ego Tina Snow. —M.C.
MJ Lenderman, ‘She’s Leaving You’
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The centerpiece of MJ Lenderman’s excellent fourth album is a poignant portrait of a crumbling relationship that doubles as a ragged-glory guitar anthem. The first verse finds Lenderman suggesting some classic midlife-crisis balms — Ferraris and Eric Clapton — to someone suffering through a breakup; later, he adopts a kind of self-aware mantra, intoning, “It falls apart/We all got work to do.” The result is Neil Young-ian in the best way, sticky, heartfelt tunefulness poking through a thicket of awesome guitars. —C.H.
Jade, ‘Angel of My Dreams’
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For more than a decade, Little Mix reigned as a well-crafted girl group with a near-scientific formula for shaping great, traditional pop songs. But as the final member of the group to reenter the pop arena as a solo artist, Jade shredded the rulebook with “Angel of My Dreams.” She pulls back the curtain on the theatrical record, delivering a sharp commentary about the pitfalls of craving validation in the music industry over dreamy synths that twinkle throughout the electro-pop song and create a trance-like listening experience. It’s an exciting and unconventional feast of a pop record and a hell of a debut single. —L.P.
Addison Rae, ‘Diet Pepsi’
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Back in 2021, Addison Rae’s first attempt at pop stardom was met with more reticence than excitement: The world wasn’t ready to accept a TikTok personality as the next pop princess. But her relaunch this year is making it clear that Rae will have the last laugh. Her single “Diet Pepsi” turned a lot of heads with its wistful, “Video Games”-esque sound as Rae coos about cross-gold chains, ripped blue jeans, and losing all her innocence in the back seat. It’s as sweet and bubbly as the drink the song’s title is taken from and set the tone for Rae to become a bigger star than any pop fans could have imagined. —B.S.
ROSÉ and Bruno Mars, ‘APT.’
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While in the studio for a solo session one night, Blackpink singer ROSÉ taught her crew how to play APT, a Korean drinking game that seems like a pretty good time. She reasoned, correctly, that a chant associated with the game — the word “apateu” — might make a good hook for a new song. Thus was born this weapons-grade catchy anthem, on which ROSÉ’s label mate Bruno Mars drops in some soulful yearning, while a candy-coated punk-pop beat keeps things moving at a breakneck pace. —C.H.
Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Taste’
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She leaves quite an impression — five feet to be exact. Sabrina Carpenter’s year of superstardom started with “Espresso,” but “Taste” is the official introduction to Short & Sweet, the opening track that’s a killer kiss-off to an ex and the lover he’s reunited with. Carpenter marked her territory with this guy — she taught him top-tier jokes and is still wearing his clothes — so she has a blast with this new development, taunting and dancing her way through delicious pop hooks and delightful riffs. Come for the horny humor, stay for the slasher video featuring Jenna Ortega and a chain saw. —A.M.
FloyyMenor and Cris MJ, ‘Gata Only’
Image Credit: Adrian Mainou*
FloyyMenor and Cris MJ’s low-fi reggaeton hit has been everywhere this summer. The track found an audience on TikTok first and then started winding up the charts at the start of the year. Part of its appeal lies in its stars: FloyyMenor was a mysterious, hard-to-pin-down Chilean artist whose face and identity had been hidden from the internet before he teamed up with fellow Chilean and rising star Cris MJ. Now that the song has blown up, it’s spent the past few months ka-booming out of cars and shadowy clubs across the globe. —J.L.
Clairo, ‘Juna’
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Claire Cottrill’s dazzling third album is jam-packed with highlights like the lead single “Sexy to Someone” and the groove-laden “Second Nature,” but “Juna,” was the hidden gem. The whimsical track contains everything Cottrill does so masterfully: twinkly, jazzy, vibe-heavy melodies, quotable TikTok-ready lyrics (“You make me wanna go buy a new dress/You make me wanna slip off a new dress”), and quirky mouth trumpet. But even Cottrill was surprised when “Juna” took off. “I made that song not thinking it was going to become huge,” she told us. “I just wasn’t anticipating doing mouth trumpet on television.” —A.M.
Lady Gaga, ‘Disease’
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For Little Monsters, it’s felt like a lifetime since Lady Gaga let her pop freak flag fly. Chromatica came out at the height of the pandemic, and it was years before she even got to tour the album. In between gigs in big-budget films, she’s been dishing out jazz standards in Las Vegas (and even put them on a Joker 2 companion album). “Disease” is a thrilling and very welcome return to form, as pop’s most adventurous star sings about wanting your disease (an always welcome trope in the Gaga extended universe). It’s a sick and ferocious reminder that Gaga is one of one. —B.S.
Raye, ‘Genesis’
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Raye spent more than two years crafting “Genesis,” a three-part single that spans at least five different genres. The record is a master class in creativity, defying any and all structural rules in its exploration of big-band jazz, gospel, pop, R&B, and hip-hop. Its lyrics sharply interrogate the futile pursuit of validation on social media, addiction and depression, and pay inequality. None of it should work, not sprawled out and melted together like this. All of it does. Raye contorts her ever-malleable voice to match each new genre exploration with ease and fits an album’s worth of material into exactly seven minutes. —L.P.
Kendrick Lamar, ‘Euphoria’
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We know which Drake diss culminated the Kendrick Lamar/Drake volley, but “Euphoria” initially kicked the door off the hinges. Just when Drake thought his AI track and social media trolling was enough for the W, Lamar claimed his status as Drake’s “biggest hater” with a song that’s equally hilarious and disdainful. The six-minute track was probably the most lyrically impressive song in Lamar’s quintet of Drake hate-campaign offerings, with the Compton rhymer calling out Drake’s inauthenticity, hypocrisy, and even “the braids!!” over an uptempo Cardo and Kyuro beat. And many rap fans felt the same way. —A.G.
Blondshell feat. Bully, ‘Docket’
Image Credit: Muriel Knudson*
On the raging “Docket,” Blondshell’s Sabrina Teitelbaum mulls about love and trust on the road, while Bully’s Alicia Bognanno swoops in to join her on the second verse. This collaboration between the two indie-rock greats is so good that you end up wishing they’d join forces for an album. Until then, we’ll keep this on repeat. “For me this is a song about splitting off from yourself,” Teitelbaum said. “ In a way it’s about wanting to cope with distance and change, but it’s also just a bit about being reckless.” —A.M.
Ariana Grande, ‘We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)’
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On this Max Martin-produced chart-topper, Ariana Grande offers her own resplendent spin on the alone-on-the-dance-floor vulnerability that Robyn perfected with “Dancing on My Own,” another peak Martin moment. She sings about getting past a failed relationship and getting some personal space outside the media glare, swirling in the song’s four-on-the-floor beat and Euro-glitz synths as she luxuriates in forlorn resistance: “Me and my truth, we sit in silence,” might sound sad, but it can feel like freedom too. —J.D.
Future, Metro Boomin, Travis Scott, and Playboi Carti, ‘Type Shit’
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There are a few ways to measure influence. There’s streams, sales, and awards — and then there’s the amount of friends you know who’ve had the chorus of a track enter their daily lexicon to a meme-able extent. This chaotic, endlessly quotable Travis Scott and Playboi Carti-assisted standout from Metro Boomin and Future’s We Don’t Trust You launched some of the most polarizing slang of 2024. The track’s MVP has to be Carti, who brings a knack for turning a phrase into a Gen Z rallying cry that’s as infectious as it is idiosyncratic. We’ve been muttering “Posted up with my dogs, Scooby-Doo type shit” since March. —Waiss Aremesh
Beyoncé, ‘Ya Ya’
Image Credit: BLAIR CALDWELL*
“Ya Ya” is a sonically adventurous and combustible peak of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. Over a stompin’, clappin’, snappin’ beat and a Nancy Sinatra sample, she evokes Tina Turner’s rock-soul sass, James Brown’s Black-and-proud testifying, garage-rock guitar scuzz, and, most directly, the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.” Her lyrics place her own family’s struggles against a backdrop of American economic, racial, and social hypocrisy, and wrap her anti-erasure gospel in a music that radiates freedom, resistance, and joy. —J.D.
Waxahatchee feat. MJ Lenderman, ‘Right Back to It’
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Every indie head who heard MJ Lenderman’s Boat Songs in 2022 walked away thinking that they’d like to be bros with the shaggy North Carolina riff slayer. Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield did one better, recruiting him to play lead guitar all over her latest country-rock LP. Their musical chemistry peaks on this sweet, leisurely duet about the joys of long-term partnership. Crutchfield and Lenderman harmonize like Emmylou and Gram, evoking Sunday-afternoon splendor in warm vocal tones punctuated by his laconic solos. —S.V.L.
Charli XCX feat. Lorde, ‘Girl, So Confusing (Remix)’
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When exactly did Brat Summer coincide with Pop-Girl Summer? Well, when two major pop-star women, Charli XCX and Lorde, teamed up for a remix that ushered in a whole new wave of feminism, or at least, pop feminism. Lorde’s verse supercharged the vulnerabilities at the heart of Brat when she used Charli’s olive branch to put her own guard down and chronicle disordered eating thoughts, fears, and jealousies. It’s the type of honesty and grace that women don’t usually give each other in the competitive sphere of pop music. Now that is Brat.–M.G.
Zach Bryan, ‘Pink Skies’
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Take a peek at the YouTube comments for “Pink Skies,” Zach Bryan’s highest charting solo hit. You’ll see hundreds of people talking about how the song helped them get through their grief after losing a parent or relative. That’s due to Bryan’s careful storytelling in this sub-four-minute song, which tells the story of a pair of grown-up siblings showing up to their parents’ funeral. Cleaning up the empty house, their lives flashing before them: the childhood heights etched into the doorframe, the teenage fistfights they regret. Even better: The album version features an additional verse from Watchhouse that makes the characters feel even more real. —J. Bernstein
Tinashe, ‘Nasty’
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Let’s be honest here: How could anybody match Tinashe’s freak? “Nasty” was one of the most indelible hits of summer 2024 — a pop summer that was not exactly skimpy on indelible hits. With her deep-chill voice, she got everyone walking around for months with the question “Is somebody gonna match my freak?” stuck in our heads. “Nasty” won her a new audience that’s just now catching up with her stellar run of adventurous soul, from Nightride to BB/Ang3l. It’s the long-overdue payback for one of the truly unmatchable minds in the freak game. —R.S.
Hozier, ‘Too Sweet’
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Over a fuzzy bass line, someone who lives a hedonistic lifestyle dismisses a potential lover with safer tendencies. “Don’t you just wanna wake up, dark as a lake?/Smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze?” the hedonist asks, in a declaration that’s both self-aware and self-deprecating. A funk-rock departure from the Hozier’s characteristic folk-soul style, the sardonic, playful song touched a nerve like nothing the Irish artist has done before, resulting in his first Number One hit and a whole new level of fame. —G.M.
Billie Eilish, ‘Birds of a Feather’
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Billie Eilish brilliantly encapsulates the way time can seem fragile and fleeting on “Birds of a Feather,” the impassioned fan favorite from her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft. “Can’t change the weather, might not be forever/But if it’s forever, it’s even better,” she sings. There’s not a single note wasted or a lyric delivered without the full catharsis of all-consuming love. Time, she recognizes, passes just as quickly when you’re watching sand drain into the bottom of an hourglass as it does when you’re sinking your feet into those same grains at the beach. It’s better spent living and loving. —L.P.
Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Espresso’
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Who says the song of the summer has to make sense? The effervescent synth-pop buzz of Sabrina Carpenter’s smash single is strong enough to make you think that you, too, are that me espresso — even if it’s been years since you’ve had to work late because you’re a singer. Carpenter keeps the rich, honeyed vocals and the witty innuendos coming, giving 2024 a much-needed splash of fun. She’s Mountain Dew, she’s a dream come true, she’s a pop star whose rizz rivals early Madonna. Pour us another cup, this one’s tiny! —S.V.L.
Shaboozey, ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’
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Shaboozey took the countryfied hip-hop torch from “Old Town Road”-era Lil Nas X and galloped full speed toward this Number One hoedown. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” dispenses with the trap beats of his previous music, resurrects J-Kwon’s rowdy 2004 club hit “Tipsy,” and gets you just as buzzed. Twanging guitar, a slurred fiddle, double shots of Jack Daniel’s, and women dancing on tables ensure you’ll never make it to that other party downtown. Which is probably just as well: You’ve got everything you need for summer’s ultimate rager right here. —Miles Klee
Kendrick Lamar, ‘Not Like Us’
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Of all the songs that Kendrick Lamar unleashed against Drake this spring in a paroxysm of pure contempt, this was the winner — the one you were most likely to hear at sporting events, club nights, and summer festivals, with crowds of thousands cheering along to each vicious insult. A good part of the credit goes to Mustard, whose bouncy, brass-boosted beat is the catchiest thing the producer has done since his early-2010s heyday. Lamar takes that baton and runs with it, dismantling Drake’s entire being in terms that might be morally dubious but are sure fun to shimmy to. In the end, “Not Like Us” transcended the battle of egos that birthed it to give us something much better than a diss track. It’s the sharpest, funniest Lamar single in ages, a reminder that the Pulitzer Prize-winning genius is also a world-class entertainer with a mean streak and impeccable timing. —S.V.L.
Chappell Roan, ‘Good Luck, Babe!’
Image Credit: Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images
When Chappell Roan’s 2024 kicked off, she was fresh off a debut album that she was just happy to finally release. By May, she was on track to becoming the biggest star in the world. Much of that is thanks to “Good Luck, Babe!,” the one-off single she dropped the same weekend she performed at Coachella’s first weekend. The song is Eighties New Wave-meets-Nineties soft rock in its pop perfection, as Roan dedicates the song to a lover who is afraid to admit to her world, and herself, that she likes girls. She howls the year’s most iconic bridge, the type of musical moment destined to become the stuff of karaoke legend for decades to come. As catchy as it is raw, Roan’s only released song of this year catapulted her to megastar status and brought all her other songs with it. It’s a pop fairytale that’s not ending any time soon. —B.S.
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