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
20. Welly – Shopping
God bless Welly, a band who have finally given us a fitting nostalgia-laced tribute to the high streets of Britain’s great mid-sized towns. The joy of wandering from The Original Factory Store to Peacocks and back again. Alongside the evocative subject matter, it’s also a big indie tune which isn’t afraid to go maximalist in its pursuit of a good afternoon on a trading estate or two. ‘I want it trendy, but I also want a Costa and a massive Aldi’ say Welly, and honestly we couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
19. Confidence Man – I Can’t Lose You
‘I Can’t Lose You’ emerges like a late-night text from your most entertaining mate – delightfully unhinged and impossible to ignore. The track’s birth story reads like the best kind of accident: Janet Planet and Sugar Bones, as they tell it, were “completely wrecked” at 3am when inspiration struck. No meditation apps or green juice in sight, just the kind of late-night alchemy that turns questionable decisions into pure gold.
Their London relocation proved the perfect catalyst. Rather than chasing studio polish, they tossed the rulebook straight into the Thames, embracing what they describe as “slightly shonky” production. The results speak for themselves. That chorus doesn’t just demand attention – it grabs listeners by the collar and drags them straight onto the dance floor.
Even the accompanying music video leans into the sublime ridiculousness, featuring a helicopter striptease above London’s skyline – exactly the sort of idea that only makes perfect sense in the small hours. It’s that same spirit that makes every wobbly synth and off-kilter beat feel like perfectly captured moments of human connection.
18. Jamie xx – Baddy on the Floor
‘Baddy on the Floor’ stands as Jamie xx’s most joyfully human statement yet — a brass-fueled dance explosion that transforms vintage vinyl warmth into dancefloor euphoria. The track emerged from intimate pandemic listening sessions with his parents’ jazz and soul collection, but its impact reaches far beyond those domestic origins.
That opening riff hits with an immediate, irresistible funk swagger, setting up a conversation between decades that never feels forced. When the brass section makes its grand entrance, the effect lands somewhere between rapturous jazz club revelation and peak-time dance celebration — a sweet spot Jamie xx seems uniquely qualified to locate.
Its architectural brilliance lies in the way it evolves from intimate piano passages to full-band explosions, maintaining a delicious spontaneity despite its meticulous construction. House music luminary Honey Dijon’s contributions add essential authenticity, helping bridge the gap between reverential homage and forward-thinking innovation.
The result defies easy categorisation — neither purely retro revival nor simple modernist reinterpretation. ‘Baddy on the Floor’ radiates pure musical joy, transforming private inspiration into public celebration.
17. Fontaines D.C. – Favourite
It’s nigh on impossible to hear those opening chords of ‘Favourite’ and not immediately feel your mood lift. It’d be easy to justify most songs on Fontaines D.C.’s ‘Romance’ a spot on this list, but ‘Favourite’ is especially deserving. Softly wistful, it wasn’t necessarily the successor to first single ‘Starburster’ that many expected, but it offered a different side to the band entirely. Sentimental without ever being excessively so, ‘Favourite’ makes you want to squeeze your loved ones a little bit tighter. ‘Romance’ puts its listener through the ringer in a lot of ways, unravelling its meditations on the titular concept bit by bit throughout. ‘Favourite’ draws the album to a close with a sort of acceptance of what has come before – regardless of the thoughts that have plagued previous songs, the peaks and troughs that have come before, ‘Favourite’ is a smiling backwards glance. It’s intrinsically bittersweet, but with a levity that is spare across the rest of the album, drawing a formidable record to a shimmeringly gorgeous conclusion.
16. Magdalena Bay – Death & Romance
‘Death and Romance’ speaks volumes about Magdalena Bay’s capacity to create innovative, interesting and irresistibly catchy pop. Allegedly about an alien boyfriend who fails to fulfil a promise to arrive on his UFO, ‘Death and Romance’ forrays into the otherworldly in more ways than one. The percussion on the track feels stratospheric, whilst the chorus is genuinely addictive. ‘Imaginal Disk’ is a technicolour odyssey of an album, and ‘Death and Romance’ is the pinnacle of that – futuristic and nostalgic in the same breath, it occupies a space entirely its own, and Magdalena Bay continue to forge their own path. The last year has seen Magdalena Bay cement themselves as creatives working in a league of their own, and the bouncing piano and kaleidoscopic synths of ‘Death and Romance’ sees them at their most uniquely impressive.
15. Charli xcx – 360
With ‘360’, Charli xcx cemented her status as a total legend. It’s almost prophetic how she opens ‘360’ with “I went my own way and I made it”, because on its respective album ‘BRAT’, she literally did. In true xcx fashion, the pop culture references are from her own circle – model Gabriette, actress Julia Fox, producer A. G. Cook – and the chorus unbelievably catchy – “ah ahh ah ah ah” is an impossibly genius melody. Its old school ringtone-esque keyboard line spent the whole summer bouncing around heads and filling dancefloors and festival fields, hitting a sweet spot between the experimental glitch-pop that’s made her a cult fave and the topline songwriting that’s seen her in the credits in some of the 2010s biggest smashes. It’s ridiculously ironic that the song in which she claimed her “legacy is undebated” was also one that aided pushing her properly into the mainstream, and for those in the know, Charli was rightfully smug.
14. Orla Gartland – Little Chaos
‘Little Chaos’ arrives as a love letter to imperfection scribbled in glitter pen – messy, spectacular, and absolutely impossible to ignore. It’s the sound of an artist embracing her edges instead of frantically sanding them smooth, transforming half-formed ideas into something that sparkles with possibility.
The track bursts with the kind of confident uncertainty that makes perfect sense to anyone who’s ever felt like too much and not enough in the same breath. Gartland’s vocals swagger and soar over thunderous beats and glitchy electronics, creating an anthem for the gloriously imperfect. Existing in that exhilarating space between complete control and total abandon, where the most interesting art always seems to happen, ‘Little Chaos’ is the sound of someone embracing their own particular brand of beautiful disaster – and inviting everyone else to join the party.
13. Waxahatchee feat. MJ Lenderman – Right Back to It
‘Right Back to It’ is what happens when Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman strip away all the polish and just let something breathe. Their voices weave around Phil Cook’s banjo and Spencer Tweedy’s subtle drums like they’re sharing secrets around a campfire, creating something that feels both raw and perfectly formed. It’s the sound of finding power in restraint – a track that hits harder precisely because it knows when to hold back. Recorded at Sonic Ranch studios with Brad Cook, it’s what happens when you let authenticity win over everything else. When music feels this natural, who needs the spit and shine?
12. Remi Wolf – Cinderella
“Every time I’m in the studio, I’m having such a good time. I truly did have so much fun making ‘Big Ideas’,” Remi Wolf told us earlier this year but really, you could have figured that out yourself. The funky, free-spirited follow-up to the party-starting ‘Juno’ is about as joyful as records come. And the lush, wonky opening track ‘Cinderella’ is the perfect way to kickstart that rainbow-soaked celebration. Whistles, horns and Remi’s playful vocal delivery add lashings of sauce to the acrobatic track while turbulent lyrics about the emotional highs and lows of the past few years give the track a delicious heartfelt heft. It’s gorgeously unrestrained.
11. Clairo – Sexy to Someone
‘Sexy to Someone’ marked a new direction for Clairo, serving as the first glimpse of her third album ‘Charm’. It was an invite into a world of sepia-tones, warm guitars and a cosy intimacy that transformed the confessional into the casually conversational instead. Experimenting with a new breadth of instrumentals, ‘Sexy to Someone’ somehow manages to make even a clarinet seem flirtatious and electric. She finds beauty and longing even in the most mundane of things, and is practically gleeful in that yearning to be desired. ‘Sexy to Someone’ is a charged moment of what-could-be, aching and yet invigorating as it sets off a quest to both desire and be desired. Leon Michels’ soulful touch on the album is revitalising and warm, and ‘Sexy to Someone’ stands out as a moment particularly thick with that heat.
Leave a Reply