The 20 best songs of 2024

Au revoir, 2024. It may have been a year filled with electoral upheaval, presidential assassination attempts and God knows what else, but damned if there weren’t some major bangers along the way.

20. ‘How Did It End?’ – Taylor Swift

Buried like a treasure in the 31-song tracklist of The Tortured Poets Department’s “Anthology” edition is “How Did It End?” – a stark piano ballad in the vein of 2020’s sepia-toned Evermore. Over arpeggiating notes that rise and fall like waves on a shoreline, Swift alludes to the gleeful press frenzy surrounding another public heartbreak: “Come one, come all/ It’s happenin’ again/ The empathetic hunger descends…” Then comes the tussle between mature acceptance and childish disbelief: “The deflation of our dreaming/ Leaving me bereft and reeling/ My beloved ghost and me/ Sitting in a tree/ D-Y-I-N-G.” Songwriting of the most exquisite kind. Roisin O’Connor

19. ‘Who Knows What You’ll Find?’ – Confidence Man

Australian dance-pop four-piece Confidence Man make great smoking area music, spacey keyboard nonsense built to accompany comedowns and lazy, end-of-the-night head-banging. “Who Knows What You’ll Find?” is the pulsing, glitchy glitter bomb that kicks off their October record 3AM (La La La), an album inspired by their 2022 move to London. In it, frontwoman Janet Planet invites the listener to hang out, orders us to shut up and dance, then admits through giggles that she kissed a DJ – but that it’s really no big deal. So a typical night out in Dalston, basically. Adam White

18. ‘Speyside’ – Bon Iver

“Speyside”, the first single from Bon Iver’s EP SABLE, is startling in its simplicity – a welcome reminder of Justin Vernon’s mastery of understated indie-folk. Here, he evokes a sense of yearning with the rich, warm tones of an acoustic guitar and his resigned admission: “Nothing’s really happened like I thought it would.” It’s his most pared-back song in years, and all the more powerful for its restraint. ROC

17. ‘Someone to Dance With’ – Robby Hecht

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Robby Hecht has produced some exquisite albums in recent years: his latest release, Not a Number, is another fine collection of gentle, lyrical folk songs. “Someone to Dance With” is the pick of the bunch, a sweetly sad song about loneliness, sung with whispery vigour. It’s deceptively slight, but the vibe is beguiling, and not a million miles away from the sort of maudlin, ethereal sound of someone like indie star Phoebe Bridgers. Hecht deserves more recognition – that much is obvious. Louis Chilton

16. ‘Aquamarine’ – Addison Rae

In late 2023, the TikTok celebrity Addison Rae was photographed walking in Beverly Hills with her nose stuck in Britney Spears’s bestselling memoir. What we didn’t know at the time was that we were essentially watching one of Jesus’s disciples pouring over the Bible. Today, Rae is one of the most unexpectedly exciting new acts in pop. Her second proper single “Aquamarine” – released in October on the heels of her autumnal sleeper hit “Diet Pepsi” – is blissful electronica straight out of the mid-Noughties Britney playbook. Purred vocals, come-hither lyrics, shimmering production. 2025 is hers for the taking. AW

15. ‘Joy’ – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

The joy that Nick Cave sings of is not the obvious sunshine and rainbows kind. Over a drifting bluesy piano, he recalls a night-time visit from “a ghost in giant sneakers… a flaming boy” who brings the message: “We’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy.” This invocation invites a subtle shift in mood signalled by the soaring take-off of a French horn. Any joy felt, though, is carefully diffused through an ethereal (or infernal) chorus of wordless vocals. The track embodies Cave’s brilliant fusion of grandiosity and vernacular; fact and fantasia. Annabel Nugent

14. ‘Sexy to Someone’ – Clairo

Charm, the third album from American singer-songwriter Claire Cottrill (aka Clairo), was a significant step forward from her previous work when it comes to musical ambition and range. “Sexy to Someone”, arguably the record’s standout track, is a particular joy – a tight, soulful and quietly sad indie-pop composition about wanting to be desired. “Sexy is somethin’ I see in everything/ Honey stickin’ to your hands, sugar on the rim,” sings Cottrill. The song itself is punctuated by loud, syncopated stabs that give it a fascinating off-kilter punch. LC

13. ‘Starburned and Unkissed’ – Caroline Polachek

For Caroline Polachek, the singular artist behind last year’s coruscating Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, it’s been a year of quality over quantity. We didn’t get an album, but she did pop up with a brilliant appearance on the remix of Charli XCX’s “Everything is Romantic” as well as her own single “Starburned and Unkissed”. Commissioned for the soundtrack of Jane Schoenbrun’s acclaimed indie film I Saw The TV Glow – a haunting allegory about repressed trans identity that immediately gained “cult classic” status – “Starburned and Unkissed” is an electro-rock fever dream of a track. Polachek’s voice is usually as precise and cutting as an icepick; here, it flexes and distorts with the woozy electronic backing, sounding like nothing she’s done before. LC

12. ‘Never Need Me’ – Rachel Chinouriri

Britain’s big indie-rock hope, Rachel Chinouriri specialises in the diaristic and the dramatic, her sound pulling from Eighties New Wave, the sonic maximalism of peak Coldplay, and the London bravado of early Lily Allen. “Never Need Me”, the immediate smash off her May album What a Devastating Turn of Events, is a soaring kiss-off that finds her oscillating between certainty and self-doubt. Keyboard synths and thrashing guitar bubble around her, but it’s when the production drops out almost entirely – leaving us alone with Chinouriri’s husky whisper of a voice – that the song reaches its zenith. AW

11. ‘Crown’ – Billie Marten

It’s that time of year: the days have drawn in and the kettle is working overtime. The latest single from Yorkshire singer-songwriter Billie Marten captures that ambient mood in amber, the noodling piano and soft-glow vocals backed by an instrumental scaffolding that feels denser than the minimalist folk with which she made her name on YouTube a decade ago. “Crown” offers the same comfort of those earlier tracks, while doubling down on the experimental leanings that have distinguished her newer work. AN

10. ‘Lone Star Lake’ – Waxahatchee

By this point, we know what to expect from Waxahatchee, the chief project of American indie-rock musician Kathryn Crutchfield: erudite lyrics, evocative vocals, and a rich, guitar-based sound that hovers somewhere in the region of indie, country and its modern rock-inflected heir, Americana. “Lone Star Lake” has all of this. It’s a wonderfully suggestive song that finds beauty in its simple, repetitive guitar hook, the melody pulling out the feelings of her many dextrous metaphors. In lesser hands, lines such as “My expectations are a cinder block I tote around like a hollow gun” might seem overwrought. Here, they’re pitch-perfect. LC

9. ‘Starburster’ – Fontaines DC

Frontman Grian Chatten gasps for air in between his end-of-days rap on Fontaines DC’s thrilling, ominous single “Starburster”. Violins and bright piano flourishes set the scene for romance, swiftly shattered with a sharp kick on the drums. “Do you inspire like the same did Salinger?” he demands. “I’m the pig on the Chinese calendar/ I got a shadow like a .58 Caliber/ I wanna move like a new Salamander/ I love the carrion who’s a real Scavenger/ It’s moral tyranny keeping me from thee.” It’s dramatic and daring – we’d expect nothing less from the Irish innovators. ROC

8. ‘Bed Chem’ – Sabrina Carpenter

“Espresso” might have been the song of the summer, but “Bed Chem”, also from Sabrina Carpenter’s sixth album Short n’ Sweet, is the apotheosis of her pop star magnetism. A dreamy, Eighties-indebted synth hook mingles with her own hushed recollections: “I was in a sheer dress the day that we met/ We were both in a rush, we talked for a sec.” It’s unapologetically horny, describing her fantasy in detail and delivering the stick-it-on-a-T-shirt gem: “Come ride on me, I mean, camaraderie/ Said you’re not in my time zone but you wanna be/ Where art thou? Why not upon-eth me?/ See it in my mind, let’s fulfil the prophecy.” ROC

7. ‘Angel of my Dreams’ – Jade

Few debut acts have leapt out of the gate quite as brilliantly as Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall, a true student of pop music who’s quickly proven to be ready and eager to take bold sonic swings. “Angel of My Dreams”, which launched her solo career in July, brings to mind vintage Girls Aloud in its three-songs-in-one pile-up, pivoting from a scarily distorted Sandie Shaw sample to lush balladry and anarchic electroclash. Thirlwall’s vocals are sometimes sped up, sometimes slowed to a crawl, often bludgeoned into anarchic, dancefloor-splattering mash. Pop star? Think of her more as a scientist. AW

6. ‘Alone’ – The Cure

Given the build-up, the 16 years worth of heady anticipation, no one would’ve been surprised if Songs of a Lost World was a let-down. Instead, the album’s bleak, bleary-eyed brilliance is a testament to The Cure’s enduring relevance. Nowhere is that more evident than on the scorching, searching opening track “Alone”. It’s three minutes of epic shoegaze instrumentation before Robert Smith materialises at the mic, every bit the moody goth of his early years: “This is the end of every song we sing/ Where did it go?” A rarity in every sense, “Alone” was well worth the wait. AN

5. ‘Free Treasure’ – Adrianne Lenker

There is no one writing love songs quite like Adrianne Lenker, the prolific and idiosyncratic frontwoman of American indie-rock outfit Big Thief. And “Free Treasure”, taken from Lenker’s sixth solo album Bright Future, is a stunning piece of work. Lyrically, it is familiar ground for Lenker who has explored love and the natural world countless times down the years. As ever, they’re brought to life by Lenker’s distinctive finger-picked guitar work, and her peerlessly soulful vocals. It is, she has said, a song that is “not just about nature, but also about ideas” – ideas that are communicated gracefully and understatedly, submerged in delicate sincerity. LC

4. ‘Bodyguard’ – Beyoncé

The most prolific troll in entertainment, Beyoncé spent 2024 seemingly promoting everything but her music. Haircare, Levi’s, Verizon, Kamala? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Her blockbuster-single-in-the-making? Absolutely not. And what an almighty shame – “Bodyguard”, from her March country album Cowboy Carter, is an absolute force, a sultry soft-rock jam built on a stack of romantic metaphors (she’s your bodyguard, your Kevlar, your lifeguard) and sung with husky, cigarette-burnt, whiskey-soaked nonchalance. It’s the song of the year that wasn’t. AW

3. ‘Not Like Us’ – Kendrick Lamar

The biggest hip-hop feud in years boiled over this year, resulting in a total knockout from Kendrick Lamar against his sparring partner, Canadian hip-hop star Drake. “Not Like Us” is a ferocious and merciless point-by-point takedown of the “One Dance” artist, taking aim at his corny lyrics (“Then step this way, step this way,” Lamar mocks, referencing Drake’s 2020 hit “Toosie Slide”) to his futile flitting between hip-hop and pop (“Tell the pop star quit hidin’”). Lamar raps over a woozy sample of American saxophonist Monk Higgins’s “I Believe to My Soul” with mind-boggling dexterity, weaving in Pulitzer-worthy wordplay and funny asides. Adding insult to injury, “Not Like Us” was nominated for both Song and Record of the Year at the 2025 Grammys. Sorry Drake, it’s no contest. ROC

2. ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ – Chappell Roan

It is a shame that only one of Chappell Roan’s songs is eligible for this list, so buoyantly brilliant was her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess – discovered by so many only this year. But it makes sense that it was “Good Luck, Babe!” (released in April) that finally sent her star soaring. The sapphic encapsulates the singer’s most melodramatic tendencies: Eighties synths wrapping around her Kate Bush-inspired yodels like a fluffy, purple feather boa. Lyrically, it’s brattish and frank – which is to say, classic Roan. AN

1. ‘Girl, so confusing featuring lorde’ – Charli XCX

When Charli XCX released her club record Brat, she never mentioned Lorde by name but several clues hinted that the scuzzy ninth song was about her rumoured nemesis. The surprise remix, on which the Australian singer appears, confirmed it. On the track, the two singers trade verses with the intense vulnerability of a late-night voice note. “I was trapped in the hatred/ And your life seemed so awesome/ I never thought for a second/ My voice was in your head,” confesses Lorde who, bidding farewell to the soft-rock folk of her last album, feels instantly at home here in the vocodered spoken rap of Charli’s universe. Throw in the sentimental narrative of two pop stars at their peak putting tabloid rumours to bed, and it’s practically a watershed moment in music history. AN