If you’re like a lot of us, this past year might be one you’re not unhappy to see go. (Maybe you’d even like to see the swinging door slap 2024’s ass on the way out.) But then, also like some of us, perhaps you look back on the wealth of phenomenal songs the year gave us, and suddenly it’s: Come back, ’24, all is forgiven. Whether it was an unusually great year for you or an annus horribilis, chances are you needed music to help see you through.
Here are 50 of the songs that did the trick for the Variety music staff — representing the realms of superwoman super-pop (Chappell, Charli, Taylor and Ariana), hip-hop (Kendrick Lamar, Doechii), Latin music (Karol G, Kali Uchis), country (Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney), rock (Jack White, Vampire Weekend), R&B (Ella Mai, Tinashe), club sounds (Jamie XX), Americana (Waxahatchee, Gillian Welch), show tunes (Cynthia Erivo) and, not least of all, the great, genre-defying mischief that Beyoncé got up to this year. (Note: These aren’t in any particular order of preference… and of course we adhere to a one-song-per-artist policy, with apologies to the multiple hits of Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, etc.) Relive some favorites and pick up a few new discoveries to take with you on the yellow brick road into 2025. —Chris Willman
Kendrick Lamar, ‘Not Like Us’
Engaging in one of the greatest rap battles of all time and climbing out of it with the biggest hit single is a definitive victory lap. And thus Kendrick Lamar took his with “Not Like Us,” a song that not only defined 2024 but also staked itself as one of the greatest diss records of all time. If success is the sweetest revenge, then Lamar got it. Not only did it become a chart blockbuster, but it also re-centered the spotlight on the west coast, a marvel for a single song whose message resonated across state lines. Doubting Kendrick is a full-time sport, and keyboard warriors wasted their time trying to do just that. —Steven J. Horowitz
Chappell Roan, ‘Good Luck, Babe!’
Setting fire to Chappell Roan’s Grammy-nominated breakthrough, “Good Luck, Babe!” is a perfectly crafted synth-pop gem. Though it’s largely identified as a queer pop anthem, the single is applicable to anyone who has escaped and survived a tumultuous “situationship” in their lifetime. Roan exorcizes her anger and love, starting in a place of dreamy optimism that fizzles out with a heart-stirringly frustrated resignation and reality check: “You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling,” Roan sings in an echo at the end. —Thania Garcia
Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Please Please Please’
It didn’t seem possible that Carpenter could come up with anything that would wipe the taste of “Espresso” out of America’s mouths, when everyone was so content to let it linger there. Yet, improbably, “Please Please Please” supplanted and topped it. (Although you can be forgiven if you still consider it a tie.) In an essential Variety video where producer/co-writer Jack Antonoff talked about the making of the track, he said that it’s a song that “in my head sounds like the heavens opening up,” which fortunately is how it sounds to us too — and there’s no disputing that he’s right on in making self-comparisons to ELO and ABBA, as the vocal stacks and synths line up. But it’s still Carpenter’s persona itself that makes the song, with a pithy lyric that’s more about a minor private hell than any open heaven. This Relationship Is Definitely Doomed, as the singer tries to convince her boyfriend not to do anything humiliating at the party — vulnerable in her trepidation, albeit with a “motherfucker” threat that makes it clear she’s near the end of her rope. Somehow, in this short (‘n’ sweet) mini-masterpiece, her discomfort becomes our ecstasy. —Willman
Taylor Swift, ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’
Taylor Swift spent so much of 2024 being America’s sweetheart — between the family-friendly Eras tour and her solid NFL attendance record — that it was easy to overlook the idea of her as America’s avenging wraith. But what were we to make of this powerful avowal of wicked witchery, which was not only a highlight of “The Tortured Poets Department,” but also the key part of a newly added section of her live show, which she referred to as “Female Rage: The Musical”? Amid the mostly good vibes that Swift is receiving and sending out into the world, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” was kind of a weird throwback to the paranoia and defensiveness of some of the songs the “Reputation” era … which is a big part of why it’s so great, in case anyone would be under the impression that’s a bad thing. What does she have to be so mad about? Well, that’s a loaded question — what do any women have to be enraged by in 2024? Plenty. And Swift specifically may never run out of reasons, if she chooses to catalog them, as the embodiment of some sort of evil in so many ultraconservatives’ or just general haters’ lives. Taking ownership of the instillment of fear works for her here, even as she throws in hilariously strange and scary asides like “Don’t you worry, folks, we took out all her teeth.” Of course the reference to “I levitate down your street” gave a great license to the Eras Tour’s production team to design a vehicle that created just that illusion on stage. Swift is of course the very definition of mainstream right now, yet this wonderfully bizarre song was proof that she’s determined to stay weird, too. Boo! —Willman
Charli XCX, ‘Von Dutch’
“Brat” didn’t have a breakout single because there were several — four of its songs, and the album itself, are up for Grammys — but the dancefloor-wrecking “Von Dutch” was the one that set it off. The album’s first single, its woozy synths and thundering beats practically drown out her braggadocious lyrics, and the unusual production from Easyfun (aka Finn Keane) keeps the listener in suspense, simply by the beat kicking back in on the two instead of the one. For many New Yorkers, the song’s defining moment came during Charli’s solo tour back in June, at the very beginning of “Brat Summer,” when it lit up the Brooklyn Paramount with swooping spotlights and crushing beats to a universally ecstatic response (just look here). —Jem Aswad
Hozier, ‘Too Sweet’
Let’s just say it out loud here: WTF, Grammys? “Too Sweet” seemed almost too obvious as a shoo-in for a record of the year nomination, not to mention consideration in other categories, but it and Hozier were shut out of noms in the year he finally had his first No. 1 single. Of course, that oversight matters not a whit when it comes to how enduring this will be as an earthy earworm for years to come. The fuzzy guitar-and-bass riff almost makes it seem like we’re going to get a garage-rock burner… and make no mistake, this does count as a rock song, one of a very few such to top the Hot 100 in the 21st century. But harmonically, of course, it immediately goes some different places, even as Hozier breaks with his usual sincere form to take on a possibly more debased character who’s looking for an excuse to ditch the partner whose drinking and sleeping habits don’t match his. There are very few Hozier songs that you’d describe as primarily “confectionary,” let alone kind of down-and-dirty confections. But this is an irresistible outlier that’s drawing folks back into the rest of his equally deserving catalog, where he can take them to church instead of celebrate a hangover. —Willman
Beyoncé, ‘Ya Ya’
OK, there are obviously other great songs that stack up from Beyoncé’s sprawling opus “Cowboy Carter.” Hand it off to “Bodyguard” or “II Most Wanted,” take your pick. But that’s the key to her missive: There are so many options from the record that there isn’t just one answer. Mine, for what it’s worth, is “Ya Ya.” It’s an amalgamation and command of pop culture that in a way pays deference to so many influences while producing something fresh and original. Beyoncé is nothing if not a master interpreter, but interpretation is about understanding and transformation. “Ya Ya” is the embodiment of that ethos, across every breathless beat. —Horowitz
Billie Eilish, ‘The Greatest’
There are so many best-in-class contenders scattered through Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft” album, as proven by how quickly “Lunch,” “Chihiro” and “Birds of a Feather” all began competing with one another for streaming primacy as soon as the album launched in May. But this ballad — it really is the greatest. The title comes laden with irony, as the singer is really expressing regret or even shame for how fruitlessly she tried to bring passion into a failed relationship, wanting to give herself a heavyweight belt for her ability to move on from a tough situation she really did think could be destined for romantic greatness. Meanwhile, under Finneas’ hand, it builds and builds, as so many Eilish classics have now, to a determined intensity before finally landing back on an a cappella denouement. Even given the candor of today’s pop lyricism, there’s something especially vulnerable about a singer admitting to “All the times I waited / For you to want me naked” — Eilish has sung about being publicly objectified, but she can write about how bereft the opposite of that can feel in a relationship, too. Legitimately great stuff, this is, even if your first response to a whole new album’s worth of this stuff may just be a simple: Wow, is she good. —Willman
Ariana Grande, ‘Ordinary Things’
Ariana Grande spends so much of “Eternal Sunshine” bemoaning the end of her marriage and celebrating her new-ground relationship that by the time she arrives at the concluding song, “Ordinary Things,” it feels like an all-seeing epiphany. Romance is a multi-card spectrum, and making sense of it is what’s produced some of the best pop songs of our lifetime, Grande’s catalog included. Which is why “Ordinary Things,” a sauntering, horn-kissed meditation on the honeymoon phase of blossoming love, is one of the purest pop songs of the year. Grande examines how materialism and keeping a schedule can be the bedrock of connection, but in the end, none of that really matters as long as you have each other. “We could spend every dime, but I don’t want anything but more time,” she sings. There is nothing more romantic than valuing the temporality of what a partner can offer, and the weight of clinging to it feels as human as can be. —Horowitz
Dua Lipa, ‘Whatcha Doing’
Everyone enjoys jumping on an album that doesn’t perform at the massive levels a superstar’s previous one did, as if to say: Aha, we knew it. Well, you knew nothing, if that’s your reaction in this case, because Lipa’s “Radical Optimism” was probably the year’s most underrated album. As a fan of the record, I’m convinced that maybe it had something to do with the choice of singles… not that anybody can be blamed for picking songs like “Houdini” or “Training Season,” but I suspect that maybe the spirit of lyrical caution in those tunes didn’t resonate as much when the world had been captivated previously by the pure triumph in hits like “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating.” And also she was looking to make a bit of a break from neo-disco. But you get all of what everyone loved about her — the pure, unalloyed joy and, yes, the disco — in “Whatcha Doing,” which should have been a world-beating smash. It still was, in my mind, which maybe is the only place that mattes for any of us as listeners. There are other great songs on the album too (“French Exit”! “End of an Era”! Check them out, people). But “Whatcha Doing” might be the celebrative throwback slammer I return to most when I need a cure for seasonal affective disorder this winter. —Willman
Waxahatchee featuring MJ Lenderman, ‘Right Back to It’
Waxahatchee founder and frontperson Katie Crutchfield has been refining her gifts for more than a dozen years, but it’s hard to think of a better distillation of her melodic and lyrical abilities than this one. A confessional from a character who can’t get out of her own way, the song plays out like an intimate conversation with a lover, her words spilling out in a multisyllabic but precise rush before easing into a response and pause: “Photograph of us in a spotlight on a hot night/ I was drifting in and out… ” It carries into the keening chorus, where she is joined by MJ Lenderman (who basically joined the band for the “Tigers Blood” album), both of their voices bounding up into a heart-rending near-falsetto on the “do it” / “to it”s: “I let my mind run wild, don’t know why I do it/ But you just settle in, like a song with no end/ If I can keep up, we’ll get right back to it.” The song ambles along at an easy pace, its midtempo groove, gently plucking banjo and tasteful guitar delivering the feeling that it-will-all-work-out more than the self-lacerating but hopeful lyrics. Crutchfield wrote the song and sings lead but Lenderman’s contribution perfects it, his warm voice joining with hers like the supportive partner she’s singing to, putting a consoling arm around her. —Aswad
Doechii, ‘Denial Is a River’
Doechii strikes a balance between humor and darkness on “Denial Is a River” in a way that’s equal parts harrowing and self-reflective. That sort of appraisal is an extremely difficult tone to strike, yet the TDE rapper is so adept at juggling the intricacies of the human experience that she makes it feel like entertainment. That’s the charm of “River,” where she lets us in on a therapy session that recounts a cheating ex who lost her 100 stacks, her proclivity for parties in Hollywood and just how far she’s willing to go if someone pushes her past the limit. With her debut album on the way, Doechii has already laid the groundwork for what could be the year of conquering both her vices and music. —Horowitz
The Marias, ‘No One Noticed’
The Marias achieved a pop breakthrough with “No One Noticed,” a haunting but welcoming lullaby about loneliness. Nearly five years into their time as a band, the Los Angeles-based foursome flexes a perfected formula. They can lull you in, making some surprisingly experimental turns – melodious backing vocals formed of thought spirals, with no need for a safety net. Though the Marias have long been local heroes, this track is a significant landmark in the band’s ascension as songwriters, producers and instrumentalists. —Garcia
Source : https://variety.com/lists/best-songs-2024/the-marias-no-one-noticed/
