I think we all know how silly the year-end "best of" lists are.
But there is something valuable about the exercise.
Why Do We Do This Again?
Checking other peoples’ lists and how much people gush about certain songs of the year firstly make sure things don’t get totally past you if you (like me) haven’t been paying too much attention to what’s hot.
For instance, 2024 year end lists reminded me I should ignore "brat summer" completely, and I’m glad for that.
Sure, the lists are showoff showcases for music critics and always feature way too much intentional eclecticism (and too much shoe gaze mixed in with an acceptable minimal quota of hip-hop).
But when you have a few critics or sources you trust, it makes you check out some songs and give them a chance to crawl into your ear.
As long as there’s a Play button on these lists, it’s a public service.
Don’t Hold Me To This
As always, I played catch up on a lot of this in the last week to go through with my yearly "what came out this year" ritual.
So these are way too new to me to be real ranking of what I like.
Additionally, I’m going to run into a lot of songs recorded in 2024 that I have yet to hear on January 1, 2025.
Those will retroactively become my favorites, just not in this post.
I’m going to write quickly below about the top 25 here - but if the order switches around it’s because I messed around with it in my Spotify.
Not that anybody is tracking this that deeply.
Biases & Intentions
I don’t try to cover all bases and in fact I generally leave out hip-hop, jazz, country a lot -- or at least I don’t like having an intentional quota to seem super cool or well-rounded.
These are just my favorites right now that I happened to have run into.
My other intention is to give a real fair chance to long-established artists who aren’t that excited.
Pearl Jam, Mark Knopfler and Elbow all have not been making that much noise in the culture this year.
But they’re great enough artists with incredible track records who deserve the chance to be on this Spotify list for me to return to and get an opportunity to let these songs get familiar with me.
Here We Go
Father John Misty "Mental Health" - Not a banger but no song has crept into my head like this.
Wow.
Can listen to this beautiful one on repeat for a long time.
Georgie Greep "Holy, Holy" - High energy shit.
Playful, multi-genre and feels like if you dropped Donald Fagan singing a modern rock song.
Billie Eilish "Birds Of A Feather" - She and her brother aren’t fucking around.
They make a great pop song.
St. Vincent "Broken Man" - Lets get some of her clanging and hint of avant-gardism into this pop list.
It’s holding up on repeat listens.
Manic Street Preachers "Decline & Fall" - Hell of a throwback from a band I always liked.
It’s no "A Design For Life" from them but damn good.
beabadoobee "Coming Home" - I coach high school tennis and one of our players commandeers the playlist control at practice and I don’t mind since she turned me on to the whole catalog of beabadoobee
Charli XCX "Girl, so confusing" - I normally hold the lower-case titles against artists but not today.
It’s been a hell of a brat year.
Justice, Tame Impala "Neverender" - Saw this just today on a list I trust and like.
I like Tame Impala so much more when they’re fun instead of navel-gazing.
Crowded House "All That I Can Ever Own" - Vintage Crowded House.
They’re not super relevant but I’ve heard this for two days now and I just won’t get out of my head.
Chappell Roan "Good Luck, Babe!" - The high school tennis players I coach will laugh thinking of my listening to this in my free time but it’s just good pop.
Tyler, The Creator "I Hope You Find Your Way Home" - Not trying to be very hip-hop in this year’s list but this song is so nuts it’s impossible to assign a genre.
It’s like if you let ChatGPT fuck up an Usher groove.
Orla Gartland "Simple" - I hate when critics use the word "jangly" to describe a guitar but that’s just what this is.
Beyonce "YA YA" - I so didn’t want to like this from more of her continued country music dalliance but she really made something here.
Fuck genres.
Ed Harcourt "1987" - Forever I’ve felt like Ed is a criminally unknown artist, I think his 30 best songs go toe-to-toe with anybody’s.
This one is less pop and more of a curio but damn good.
Like Roses "Broken Things" - For those of you who like real rock but with a modern feel, this is it.
Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman "Right Back To It" - Cool beautiful harmonies, try it.
Alessia Cara "Dead Man" - Cool bassline, modern sound but with retro 1960 Gene Pitney shit and jazz trumpet, unique.
Sabrina Carpenter "Espresso" - Another singer who’s had a killer ubiquitos pop year.
Plenty of other lists have this in top 5-10.
Yup, catchy AF.
Cameron Winter "Cameron Winter" - Really distinctive voice and singer-songwriter stuff going on here.
Glad I ran into it.
Phish "Evolve" - Jam bands don’t always nail it on recordings.
But it’s been a hell of a year for recorded jambands with Billy Strings, Phish and Goose always in the studio.
Hurray For The Riff Raff "Alibi" - Moving away from challenging rock to mature western indie folk pop.
Hooky.
RAYE "Genesis" - I wanted to not like this but I just can’t get this off this list.
It bounces through genres in such a cool way.
It’s like 3 songs smushed into 1, though I like the 2nd part best.
BrhyM, Bruce Hornsby "Deep Blue" - I can’t leave my guy Bruce off a list when he keeps doing cool stuff like this.
Whole album is like if stoned jazz cats recorded the soundtrack to "Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou"
Lowertown "Best Person You Know" - All so modern acoustic pop sounding.
It’s sticking with me for now after a couple of days.
We’ll see.
That’s about it.
There’s more on the list after 25 songs but I’m clearly out of steam trying to say something original or descriptive about pop indie folk.
I’ll keep using this playlist as a spot to dump 2024 songs as I hear them for the first time in years to come.
I hope this gave you a clean shot at a couple of pieces of new music that you’ll like.
That’s what it’s all about.
