The Best Songs of 2024 (So Far)

Just making sure—everybody’s OK? We all made it through the Great Taylor Swift Conquest of 2024? With over a billion-with-a-b streams on Spotify in its first week, The Tortured Poets Department rewrote the record books (though my money is still on Cowboy Carter for that Album of the Year Grammy when it all shakes out).

But it hasn’t been an easy road for every superstar out there–Justin Timberlake’s Everything I Thought It Was only lasted four weeks in the top 200 before disappearing, Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well may not make six weeks, and Dua Lipa’s first two singles have struggled ahead of her upcoming Radical Optimism album. Fortunately, there have been some interesting songs in recent weeks from less-expected directions—punk-inclined young women, returning indie rock stalwarts, and supercool non-Western musicians.

Olivia Rodrigo, "Obsessed"

She only recently turned 21, but Olivia Rodrigo keeps making all the right moves. Her terrific second album, Guts, leaned more into her singer-songwriter side, but for the deluxe edition, retitled Guts (Spilled), she added five new songs that steered back into the pop-punk lane. Co-written by St. Vincent, “Obsessed” is a snarling rave-up about stalking her boyfriend’s ex, and it’s just the right mix of funny, desperate, and cathartic—a territory Rodrigo is making her own.

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Iron & Wine (feat. Fiona Apple), "All in Good Time"

Look, at this point I will take whatever Fiona Apple I can get. She wasn’t part of the writing on this gently swaying track, but she sounds fantastic alternating verses and lines with Sam Beam (who records as Iron & Wine). A spare but intricate arrangement of strings and acoustic instruments backs the pair up as they sing with humor and bite, and Apple’s voice—as Beam put it—“sounds like both a sacrifice and a weapon at the same time.”

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Blondshell (feat. Bully), "Docket"

Grunge lives! LA-based Blondshell (Sabrina Teitelbaum) released her acclaimed self-titled debut last year, with a heavy ‘90s feel, while Nashville’s Bully (Alicia Bognanno) put out her fourth album, Lucky for You, proudly flying similar influences. Teaming up was natural and delivers just as it should on this ode to hooking up with guys on the road. “It’s about wanting to cope with distance and change,” said Blondshell, “but it’s also just a bit about being reckless.”

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Fabiana Palladino, "Can You Look in the Mirror?"

Fabiana Palladino is the daughter of bass god Pino Palladino, who’s held down the bottom for everyone from D’Angelo to the Who. Her debut has been a damn long time coming; she’s been releasing songs online for 13 years, and seven years ago, she was the first artist signed to Jai Paul’s label. But the self-titled album was worth the wait—it’s a gem, with exactingly crafted ballads and ‘80s-flavored funk sometimes revealing a Prince-like edge. The slinky, tense “Can You Look in the Mirror?” could be a lost track from Control-era Janet Jackson.

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Vampire Weekend, "Gen-X Cops"

On their fifth album, Only God Was Above Us, Vampire Weekend spend a lot of time looking back, across their own history and the passage of time that all of us face. The refrain on this propulsive, slightly raggedy track—with a wild slide guitar line that was initially recorded a dozen years ago—is “Each generation makes its own apology.” Rocking until it’s not, upbeat but introspective, named for a cult classic Hong Kong action movie, “Gen-X Cops” encapsulates the complexities of VW at their best.

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Arooj Aftab, "Raat Ki Rani"

Pakistani singer/composer Aftab was an unlikely nominee for Best New Artist at the 2022 Grammys, where she won the Best Global Music Performance trophy. A Berklee grad who’s adjacent to the NYC jazz community, she’s performed at Coachella and Glastonbury. “Raat Ki Rani” is the first single from Aftab’s upcoming Night Reign album—and no, I don’t know what she’s singing about, but it’s gorgeous and evocative, highly reminiscent of Sade at a time when we could all use that kind of calming, romantic beauty.

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Chris Stapleton, "I Should Have Known It"/Slash (feat. Chris Stapleton), ”Oh Well” —

Even the best tribute albums are kind of silly. If we like an artist enough to listen to an album’s worth of their songs, do we really want to hear a bunch of covers? But Chris Stapleton is in such command right now that I’m happy for a couple of songs well-matched to his voice and blazing guitar. “I Should Have Known It” was a raucous late career highlight for Tom Petty, and Stapleton’s version from the Petty Country collection stays pretty much note-for-note but still kills. The early, Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac hit “Oh Well” comes from Slash’s upcoming all-star blues tribute and tees up a monster riff for these two hairy dudes to burn down.

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SZA, "Saturn"

More than five years passed between SZA’s debut album, Ctrl, and 2022’s juggernaut SOS. But a few months ago, she announced a new project called Lana, which she has alternately called a deluxe version of SOS or a standalone record—either way, it was good news when she previewed a song in a Grammy commercial, which is now out in multiple mixes as the shimmering, soulful “Saturn.” With vague traces of Stevie Wonder’s paean to the ringed planet on Songs in the Key of Life, SZA yearns for a better place (“There’s got to be more,” she sings) over a track both futuristic and classic.

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Pearl Jam, "Dark Matter"

Well, they weren’t lying. The members of Pearl Jam indicated that their forthcoming album would be hard, loud, and guitar-heavy, and the crunching first single (the LP’s title track) delivers the goods. Opening with drummer Matt Cameron’s thunderous thwack, and building to a ripping guitar solo, “Dark Matter” was produced by the hot hand of Andrew Watt (who handled the recent Rolling Stones album and plays in Eddie Vedder’s solo band). “Everybody else pays for someone else’s mistakes” yowls Vedder, as the Last Classic Rock Band returns to form in a tight, head-spinning three-and-a-half minutes.

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Beyoncé, "Texas Hold ‘Em”/”16 Carriages"

The biggest surprise of the Super Bowl (Taylor’s Version) turned out to be the announcement of new music from Queen Bey—during a Verizon ad, of all things. But then things got even more interesting when it emerged that, at least judging from the first two songs, Act II of the Renaissance trilogy will be country-flavored. Anchored by Pulitzer Prize-winner Rhiannon Giddens’ banjo, the irresistible stomp “Texas Hold ‘Em” made history as Houston gal Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top the Country Singles chart, while the dramatic, elegant “16 Carriages” is more personal (“I saw Mama cryin’/I saw Daddy lyin’”) and potentially more rewarding over time.

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Khruangbin, "A Love International"

One of the oddest stories in recent years has been the ascension of Khruangbin—the mostly instrumental, largely uncategorizable Texas trio which draws from such far-flung influences as 1960's Thai funk, dub reggae, surf rock, and Middle Eastern soul—to arena headliner status. It’s hard to think of the group in terms of songs rather than the aggregation of vibes, but “A Love International” is the first sample of their upcoming album A LA SALA (their first in four years, following collaborations with Leon Bridges and Malian musician Vieux Farka Toure), and its swirling, gradually building propulsion is a fine representation of Khruangbin’s atmospheric, mesmerizing sonic universe.

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Brittany Howard, "Power to Undo"

After shelving her Grammy-winning band Alabama Shakes, Brittany Howard’s 2019 solo debut Jaime was a declaration of independence; named after her late sister, it was an expansive and personal exploration of race and love and life. The new follow-up, What Now, is more abstract and experimental, adding electronic textures and club rhythms. “Power to Undo” is infused with the spirit of Prince (who once brought the Shakes to Paisley Park to jam), all stutter-y, stop-and-start funk, a slinky beat never quite settling in behind Howard’s tense, spiky guitar.

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Sarah Jarosz, "Runaway Train"

A Grammy-winning bluegrass prodigy and graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz is an Americana superhero. But for Polaroid Lovers, her seventh album (not counting the acclaimed group project I’m With Her), she tapped into the Nashville machinery for the first time, with results that are more poppy and conventional sounding, but no less impressive. The record is produced by Daniel Tashian (best known for his work with Kacey Musgraves) and contributing songwriters include some of the biggest guns in Music City, like Jon Randall on the breezy, hook-heavy lead single, “Runaway Train.”

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