The 30 best songs of 2024, according to Time Out

After a slow-burn start to her career, Chappell Roan’s breakneck 2024 can be neatly summarised by the fact her debut LP The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is finally storming the album charts, but in the wake of the lead single from the next record. An equal part sardonic and heartbroken kiss-off to a female lover who refuses to see our heroine as anything more than a hookup, Good Luck, Babe! is queer synthpop par excellence, but really what makes it is the utter audacity of that skyscraping falsetto chorus – almost indecipherable on first listen, and suffused, I’d argue, with more raw feeling than every other song on this list combined.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER was a 2024 TikTok anthem: I couldn’t open the app without seeing clips of randoms using it to soundtrack a proposal. And, although Feather has been somewhat overplayed, you can’t deny that it’s a brilliantly infectious pop bop. It signified a new era for Billie Eilish, coinciding with her coming out – and the album itself feels lighter and more joyful in essence. The beat of this song is bright and glossy, gliding through romantic lyrics like ‘I’ll love you ’til the day that I die’. It’s kind of amazing that it wasn't the lead single, but it’s a fan fave through and through – she even ended up performing it at the Olympics closing ceremony.

When Oasis announced their comeback, I posted a rubbish tweet about how it was good news because Fontaines D.C. needed a support band. Obviously, it’s turned out the other way around, but after the Irish band’s Glastonbury performance and another killer record this year, Fontaines are about to go supersonic. The tip of the spear was this raucous single, amped-up with a vocal flourish that sounded like a hit on a tear gas inhaler. With producer (and ex-Simian Mobile Disco man) James Ford bringing hip-hop beats to the mix, it’s like Stereo MCs’ Connected found its inner punk. Absolute bliss.

The euphoric opener to Vampire Weekend’s newest album somehow sounds like both a greatest hits compilation of the band’s debut release and the freshest thing they’ve recorded in the decade-and-a-half since then. The ‘fuck the world’ vibes of Ezra Koenig’s drowsy intro builds with galloping drums, twinkling piano and hurried swells of strings. But then Ice Cream Piano (a play on the ‘in dreams I scream piano’ in the chorus) collapses into quiet before swerving into a feverishly tremolo-picked coda, with squelches that’ll poke the pleasure centres of your brain into hitting rewind.

Mustafa’s 2024 album Dunya is packed with gut punches, the Canadian musician and poet poignantly writing about his friends, community, heritage and city – my favourite, however, forgoes the big picture for something much more personal. On What Good Is a Heart? Mustafa hones in on a single relationship, tenderly longing (with increasing desperation) after memories of someone clearly no longer around. Is the song about a romantic or platonic relationship? You decide. Whoever or whatever the song is about, it’s utterly gorgeous. 

Girl, so confusing featuring lorde saw two of our most iconic pop girlies put a longtime rivalry to bed with one single bop. When Charli released ‘Girl, so confusing’ in June, one question was on everyone’s minds: who was it about? Our suspicions were confirmed when the Lorde remix dropped and we were given the happy ending that 2014 Tumblr never saw coming. The song makes a statement, unpicking knots of perceived rejection and the sadly all-too-relatable tug of war with self-loathing and body image, but it’s also a masterclass is giving the fans what they want. At the end of Lorde’s feature, she sings: ‘And when we put this to bed, the internet will go crazy’. The internet did indeed go crazy.

I wouldn’t count myself as a big Fred again.. fan – there’s something about those viral finger drumming clips which make my stomach turn a little bit – but when I first heard his remix of Joy Orbison’s already excellent club track, I was hooked. With features from Lil Yachty, Future and Playboi Carti, it hits the ground running with an ear-worm chant, wobbly bass and ricochetting percussion, swiftly ushuring in repeats of a fuzzy whirring synth like a rocket taking off. Drop this into a set and you’re pretty much guaranteed the club will go wild.

This playful pop anthem was everywhere this year, from covers to parodies to the festival circuit and TikTok. Its cheeky, nonsensical lyrics packed with sexual innuendos are, in part, the reason you can’t stop singing this earworm – even if you’re not exactly sure what it is you’re saying. Carpenter’s breathy hit about a lust so intense it causes a sleepless state is all about female empowerment and being on the other side of a sexy, addictive love while not taking yourself too seriously.

The Kendrick Lamar-Drake rap beef reached its shocking climax in May with the release of one of the greatest diss tracks of all time. Accusing Drake of sexual misconduct with underage women, Not Like Us was a devastating salvo that also served as a victory lap for Lamar and the West Coast. Even with its controversial lyrical content, the song dominated the airwaves this summer and propelled Lamar to a headlining performance at next year’s Super Bowl.

Hell of a Ride is ostensibly a ‘see ya later’ to an ex, but Nourished By Time’s Marcus Brown can’t make up his mind. Is he free and triumphant? Tender and sentimental? Is this it or will he inevitably come crawling back? Emotional relatability aside, Hell of a Ride is also a hell of a tune; soaring, soulful, fuzzily euphoric with twinkling psychedelia, Brown endearingly yelling out the lines, 'STILL CALL MY EX-GIRL WHEN I GO HALF CRAZY.'

There is simply no way you made it through the summer without hearing the line ‘is somebody gonna match my freak?’ This viral sensation from R&B superstar Tinashe is an absolute earworm and a deserving contender for 2024’s song of the summer. A chic, sexy trap rhythm comes paired with flirty vocals chiming tongue-in-cheek lines such as, ‘I’ve been a nasty, nasty, nasty (I like it just like that)’. It became the singer’s first Billboard Hot 100 since 2014: a momentous occasion for longtime fans who finally got to see her get her dues.

It really has been MJ Lenderman’s year. The current golden boy of indie music received rave reviews for his 2024 album Manning Fireworks for his sincere songwriting, but the single She's Leaving You is a stand-out: a slacker rock bop that skillfully observes the dissolving of a relationship, tracing the risks of falling in love and jeopardising our own emotions for someone else. 

Though 2024 has blessed us with a tidal wave of pop music to wade through, the sheer volume makes it hard to pick a highlight. Beyoncé’s Bodyguard is one song I’ve listened to consistently since its release: it’s an immediate standout on the sprawling Cowboy Carter, and the sensual, obsessively protective lyrics, sultry backing vocals and Fleetwood Mac-esque strumming make it quite an intoxicating listen. Beyoncé’s legendary voice melting with swooning, swaying country elements makes this a brilliant slow bop.

When footage emerged of Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker cuddling while side stage at Speed’s LA show earlier this year, it baffled many people. Why would a Kardashian go to see a hardcore band from Sydney? But it didn’t surprise me. Despite what some oldheads might say, hardcore has evolved into something really interesting and inclusive. SPEED’s THE FIRST TEST is a testament to that. It starts as a seemingly normal hardcore track, and just when you think the song has finished, you are smacked in the face with this hectic groovy bassline that alternates with front man Jem Siow gorgeously playing the flute. It always makes me giggle. 

Nobody is as surprised as I am that I’m recommending a Camila Cabello ballad that samples Pitbull’s Hotel Room Service, but honestly, it’s one of the coolest things I’ve heard so far this year. This track comes near the end of Cabello’s third solo album, C, XOXO, her voice bobbing up and down on a piano melody like someone lost at sea. It’s a meditation on romantic regret, which shares the distant, dissociative-feeling production of the rest of the record, and it also somehow manages to make one of the most memorable basslines of your underage clubbing career into an achingly mournful refrain. Weird but very brilliant.

In a slew of post-Little Mix singles, JADE has managed to stand out as the coolest of the foursome (and I’m not just saying this because she remixed Angel with happy hardcore legends Scooter). I’m not going to lie, this song had to grow on me, but when it got there it had me strutting around my flat, singing along to ‘When the camera flashy, I act so happy.’ JADE’s solo debut feels like a sudden burst in creativity, a grandiose moment that takes you from relative calm to a slap-in-the-face pop chorus. In other words? A bloody strong statement for her to make straight out the gate.

‘I stay playing on your mind, you think of me forever’, sings Shygirl on the opening track from her February 2024 mixtape Club Shy, and the south London-based singer isn’t lying. With its throbbing base, driving synths, breathy, ethereal vocals and a stellar feature from Empress Of, half sung and half rapped in irresistible Spanish, it’s an absolute bop, and one of the best releases from what was undoubtedly a vintage year for British-made club bangers

Inspired by grief, loss, substance abuse and reality TV, armed with a thumping, fuzzy electronic stomp that’s not a world away from Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus, and graced by a soaring performance by one of the best vocalists making music right now, Greatest Dancer is a powerhouse on all fronts. At once abrasively dark, disorientatingly trippy and soaringly escapist, this is a full-on-immersion kind of a track that’s deserving of your finest noise-cancelling headphones.

‘You’re not alone / And if they ask you, say you feel it / But don’t call it love, Eusexua,’ sings FKA Twigs in an ethereal, sensual soprano over disfigured synths and trance-laced techno. Produced by Koreless and Eartheater, Twigs’ latest single is a floor-filler which cuts deep: it’s about those glorious moments of euphoria, those head-spinning climaxes, those fleeting moments of love-like feeling which are impossible to convey with words alone. Clubby, intricate, delicately engineered: the music video is just as brilliant, a gritty seven-minute descent into the uncanny via corporate monotony and Gollum-esque ballet. And let’s not forget this is just the title track of Twigs’ new album – you can bet we’re counting down the days to its release early next year.

As one of the most talented lyricists working today, Maggie Rogers writes clear-eyed takes on love that feel like sonic cold plunges. Aided by an eminently hummable melody and portrait-like vignettes, Don’t Forget Me is not your average plea for commitment or longevity in romance – but for memorable and unique experiences. It’s an ode to the special nights and days that can impact a life as strongly as any long-term partnership, and captures the relentless belief that your next great love could be just around the corner.

Bladee’s doting cult fanbase is now gargantuan. The Swedish rapper has become an undeniable star, and on Don’t Wanna Hang Out he can’t bear the stifling pressure of popularity. His social interactions are rotted by fame and he lashes out desperately, shrinking from the misery of stardom. But the song isn’t just a raw insight into Bladee’s psyche; it’s also a thumping, head-spinning banger, just under two minutes of thunderous beats, dreamy synth lines and infectious energy.

Every time that Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – aka your winsome bluegrass mum and dad – release a song, it’s going to be an event. Even more so when you consider that this is the first time Welch has sung lead vocals on one of their collaborations in 13 years. As wistful and wise as ever, Empty Trainload of Sky is a pulsing, mysterious meditation that brings together classic country imagery (a freight train! the devil!) and meta Neil Young references into something quite beautiful.

After countless recent collaborative albums and covers, Louisiana’s experimental sludge overlords turned the focus back on themselves on their new album, Umbilical, and the results are astonishing. Narcissist’s Prayer, off that record, is the perfect embodiment of everything Thou does well: it’s brutal, groovy, harsh and still somehow melodic, with the best ending refrain of any heavy song this decade.

Leading up to their Hot Girl Summer tour, Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla teamed up for the ultimate anthem of the summer. Sampling the 2010 hit Pretty Boy Swag from Soulja Boy, Wanna Be is all about independent women ready to take their power back when it comes to the modern-day love scene. With Glo rapping on the chorus, ‘He don’t wanna be kept, don’t keep him,’ it’s a strong reminder that girls can be players, too.

Hakushi Hasegawa's Departed opens with a dense blare of hyperspeed drums and dazzling synths; this is loud, showy experimental pop as rooted in fiddly jazz as it is in hardcore club music. But while, sure, the musicianship is knotty, Departed has undeniable and immediate appeal. As is typical for head-spinning Japanese musician Hasegawa, hidden within the noise are plenty of moments that blossom with sublime relief, the track’s roar only making those moments prettier and more magical.

Donald Glover surprised all of us (especially millennials) when, back in July, he dropped this single from his fifth and final studio album as Childish Gambino. The song hits all the best parts of a mid-2000s alt rock anthem – from the lyrics (‘I feel liberated, over medicated, it was over rated’) sung with a bit of distortion to the mix of playful synths that drop into a heavy guitar riff. Glover’s crooning and screaming is so cathartic. ‘Nobody gives a fuck’ is a nice hook, too, especially when things have been a little dark lately.

The six-minute closer of Mount Kimbie’s The Sunset Violent encapsulates all the best parts of the English band’s fourth studio album, droning with an irresistible bounce punctuated by collaborator King Krule’s tender, broken baritone. The band have experimented with genre in the 16 years since debuting as a post-dubstep duo in the late aughts, but this track demonstrates Mount Kimbie leaning assuredly into its alt-rock evolution, shining brighter (and dodging the shadows of loneliness) the more layers they add.

Snake plants are considered hard to kill even by novice gardeners, with sword-like leaves that purify the air. In the title track on the 10th studio album by indie band Hurray For The Riff Raff, the resilient house plant is a nostalgic symbol for growth in a disarmingly emotive entry into a year of country-influenced pop. Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive) is a sweeping recitation on survival amidst struggle. Clear and poetic at once, Alynda Segarra’s lyrics evoke the songwriter’s story of leaving home young to pursue art and community.

One of the biggest songs of the year comes from a small-town American boy turned TikTok sensation, Benson Boone. The global pop star topped charts this year with Beautiful Things, which peaked at the number two position on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as across Australia, Canada, Germany, France, New Zealand and the UK. Reflecting on the feeling of foreboding joy, it’s a soulful ballad with more than a billion streams thanks to its universally relatable themes.

Who’d have thought the man behind some of the cheesiest pop-rap hits of the early ’10s would drop the protest anthem of the year? Released in solidarity with this spring’s pro-Palestine student encampments, Hind’s Hall delivers a searing call for a ceasefire, while smiting politicians, social media censorship and the silence of the music industry – all backed by the steady march of a backing track sampled from Lebanese singer Fairuz. Will Hind’s Hall go down as one of the greatest anti-war songs in history? Maybe not. But at least Macklemore had the bottle to do it.