If anyone tells you 2024 was anything less than an absolute win for new music, they clearly spent the year with their head stuck in a bin. While the world outside might have been doing its best impression of a dumpster fire, our headphones have been blessed with an embarrassment of riches. From bright-young-things becoming even brighter to established faves finding new gears, the last twelve months have delivered more golden moments than we can count.
That’s where this list comes in. Over the next few days, we’ll be celebrating the very best tracks 2024 had to offer – from chart-destroying anthems to underground gems that deserve their moment in the spotlight. So grab your party hat, pour yourself something fizzy, and join us as we count down the defining songs of 2024.
100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1
90. Master Peace – Start You Up
Master Peace’s ‘Start You Up’ essentially does what it says on the tin – it pushes the accelerator flat to the floor and gets things immediately fired up. The ultimate hype song, ‘Start You Up’ is the kind of track that will soundtrack your most questionable decisions, but fill you with enough energy to see them through and laugh about it afterwards. Combining the nostalgic tones of 2000s indie sleaze with a more modern attitude, it’s a highlight of Master Peace’s outrageous debut album, and feels like the realisation of all the potential he has shown more and more glimpses of over the last few years. It’s been a landmark year for Master Peace, and there’s no signs of Peace hitting the breaks any time soon – with tracks as good as ‘Start You Up’, why would anyone want him to? NEIVE MCCARTHY
89. Billie Eilish – LUNCH
2024 was the year where big personality and unrestrained, joyous honesty grabbed hold of pop’s big steering wheel and refused to let go. While big ‘Brat’ summer and Chappell Roan’s queer-pop revolution may have won big, Billie Eilish proved that even the established A list were taking ownership of their own narrative by being unashamedly themselves, no apologies offered nor required. ‘Lunch’ landed with maximum impact – just prowling bass, knife-edge guitars and the kind of confession that makes perfect sense at 3am when the world gets properly quiet. “I could eat that girl for lunch / Yeah, she dances on my tongue” isn’t aiming for the pride playlist – it’s just telling it’s lust-laden truth in its messiest, most electric form. What makes it hit so perfectly in 2024 is its beautiful spontaneity. In a year defined by artists finally breaking free from the machine, Eilish reminded us that sometimes the biggest statements are the ones that arrive with nothing but truth, desire and absolutely killer hooks. DAN HARRISON
88. Adrianne Lenker – Sadness As A Gift
Remember when music felt like an actual communion between humans? Adrianne Lenker does. ‘Sadness as a Gift’ captures something we can so easily forget – the electric current that sparks when musicians share the same air, the same moment, the same breath.
Recorded at Double Infinity studio with just instruments and tape machines, this is what happens when you strip away the digital armour of modern production. Every creak of guitar string, every raw edge of Lenker’s voice exists exactly as it happened, like overhearing a secret. ‘Sadness as a Gift’ is an offering to everyone who still believes in the power of humans making music together, no screens required. It turns out we’re all secretly starving for something real. ANDREW WESCOTT
87. Kim Gordon – BYE BYE
Kim Gordon’s ‘Bye Bye’ is astounding. At the cutting edge of experimental music for almost 35 years now the Sonic Youth legend has been enjoying a purple period for the last decade with her solo work fearlessly following her own distinct path. ‘Bye Bye’ sets Gordon’s abstract poetry and rap delivery to pulverizing mechanical trap beats and jagged guitar thrash for a sensory overload that beautifully contrasts with the enigmatic mundanity of the lyrics detailing Kim’s shopping list and daily to do list. As inscrutable and ground breaking as ever. MARTYN YOUNG
86. Conan Gray – Lonely Dancers
‘Lonely Dancers’ is a deliberate act of creative destruction, torching the very genre that made Conan Gray famous. The artist who once soundtracked millions of teenage heartbreaks through whispered confessionals has emerged from his chrysalis wearing platform boots and wielding synthesisers. Working with pop overlord Max Martin, Gray has crafted something deliciously subversive: a track that sounds like pure euphoria while actually being a trojan horse filled with melancholy. The production sparkles with 80s excess — all chrome-plated synths and disco-ball shimmer — but listen closely, and there’s something gloriously wrong about it all. The dance floor is empty. The party’s over. Everyone’s gone home except for the lonely souls looking for connection in all the wrong places. FELICITY NEWTON
85. Sunday (1994) – Tired Boy
Sunday (1994) have pulled off something rather extraordinary with ‘Tired Boy’ – they’ve made DIY production feel like a Hollywood movie set. Recorded in a one-bedroom apartment (the kind where the kitchen doubles as a wardrobe and triples as a studio), this debut single shouldn’t sound this expansive. Yet somehow, between the walls that have witnessed both their romance and their recording sessions, Paige Turner and Lee Newell have conjured up something that feels like Sofia Coppola directing a music video in their living room.
The track itself is a masterclass in finding grandeur in intimate spaces. While much bedroom pop revels in its lo-fi limitations, Sunday (1994) treat their spatial constraints as a creative catalyst. Every note feels deliberately placed, every reverb tail carefully considered – as if they’ve transformed their tiny apartment into an acoustic playground where even the creaky floorboards might become part of the percussion section. FELICITY NEWTON
84. WILLOW – symptom of life
In a year where everyone else was busy chasing the algorithm’s approval, Willow Smith decided to apply some pop science laced with genuine feeling. ‘Symptom of Life’ wraps complex rhythms and intricately plotted arrangements around raw emotion, creating something that makes perfect sense even when you can’t quite count along. Instrumental layers that slip between conventional structures, building a world where technical precision and heart-on-sleeve release aren’t just compatible – they’re essential partners. ‘Symptom of Life’ arrived as a reminder that pop can still be both clever and effortlessly cool – a perfect formula for breaking free from formulas entirely. ANDREW WESCOTT
83. Lola Young – Messy
Lola Young’s straight-talking storytelling has always been a part of her charm, but never moreso than on ‘Messy’. Delivered with an ever-increasing level of frustration, ‘Messy’ is a middle finger to the overly opinionated and hypocritical. Balancing a steady beat with a building ferocity as the track progresses, ‘Messy’ has a special kind of resonance that undoubtedly stems from Lola’s unfiltered approach and has seen the track do the rounds on TikTok. The release that the tracks offers is a declaration that messiness is actually in. No matter how difficult it can be at times, ‘Messy’ embraces chaos and honesty above all else, and Lola Young invites her listeners to do the same — naysayers be damned. NEIVE MCCARTHY
82. Picture Parlour – Face In The Picture
With their debut EP, Picture Parlour built something far more intriguing than mere nostalgia — a smoky, spectral lounge where the past doesn’t just echo; it throws drinks in your face. ‘Face in the Picture’ is a séance disguised as a record, constructed in an entire parallel universe where David Lynch runs a dive bar, Nick Cave tends the piano, and every mirror holds a story that won’t stay buried. The title-track opens like a ghost story told in reverse — strings and piano creating an unsettling waltz before Katherine Parlour’s vocals emerge from the darkness. “The face in the picture represents the haunting of the past,” she explains, but this isn’t some comfortable meditation on memories. This is about the moments that follow us home, tap on our windows at night, and refuse to fade no matter how hard we try to forget. FELICITY NEWTON
81. The Last Dinner Party – Caesar on a TV Screen
There’s a reason The Last Dinner Party stand as 2024’s most vital breakthrough act. Their world-building hasn’t just invited us in – it’s refused to let us leave. ‘Caesar on a TV Screen’ captures every theatrical flourish that made their live shows feel like stepping into a different dimension entirely. It’s one of several moments where they transcended from being merely thrilling to absolutely essential, marking their territory across the year with perfect precision. Dizzying and classic yet impossibly fresh, it helped set the coordinates for twelve months where The Last Dinner Party’s feast became impossible to resist. JAMIE MUIR
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