The Best Songs of 2024 (So Far)

“She’s Leaving You,” MJ Lenderman

MJ Lenderman is fascinated with losing. He sang about being a “beat-down rodeo clown” and literally falling on his face on his 2022 breakout, Boat Songs; even “Dan Marino” focused on the Hall of Fame quarterback being replaced by Tom Brady on the Wheaties box. On “She’s Leaving You,” Lenderman has never made failure sound so good. His character is a sleazy faker who loves Clapton and Vegas and, as the title suggests, can’t keep a woman around. Not the kind of guy you might want to be singing about — until you hear that roaring chorus: “It falls apart / We all got work to do.” Cap it off with a coarse, Crazy Horse–esque guitar solo and you’ve got a winner of a song. —Justin Curto

“Put Em in the Fridge,” Peso Pluma feat. Cardi B

On his latest album, Éxodo, Peso Pluma is out to prove that he’s not just one of the biggest stars in música Mexicana — he’s a pop star. So on “Put Em in the Fridge,” he takes on one of pop’s biggest challenges by going toe-to-toe with Cardi B. Amazingly, he holds his own, spitting threats to his enemies and even rapping the hook in English, over a corrido-goes-trap beat full of squealing horns. Peso’s presence challenges Cardi, too, as she raps her best Spanglish verse yet (“En Jalisco ven mi culo y dicen, ‘Diablo, Cardi’” goes hard in any language). It’s an unrelenting two and a half minutes, and both performers come out bigger stars than before. —J.C.

“Please Please Please,” Sabrina Carpenter

“Espresso” finally has some song-of-summer competition — from Sabrina Carpenter herself. “Please Please Please,” the rising star’s follow-up, is somehow breezier and weirder than (and completely different from) her undeniable dance-pop hit. Carpenter plays a 21st-century Olivia Newton-John on the sun-kissed pop-country–ish song, pleading with a lover to not embarrass her. She packs the song with silly quotables with help from “Espresso” co-writer Amy Allen: “I know you’re cravin’ some fresh air, but the ceiling fan is so nice,” she sings with the pep of a cheerleader. And just like “Espresso,” this one’s all momentum too: Carpenter sticks the landing on a thrilling second-verse key change and Swiftian outro. —J.C.

“Death & Romance,” Magdalena Bay

For the first few years of their career, Magdalena Bay were overeager students of pop music, stuffing their music with styles and homages. Now, they’re quickly becoming masters themselves. “Death & Romance,” the presumed leadoff to a new album, is denser and sleeker than anything off their debut, Mercurial World. A house piano line grows into a full kaleidoscopic track, flourished with twinkly synths and groovy bass. The duo hasn’t lost their prog-rock roots, though, as Mica Tenenbaum sings from the perspective of a woman whose alien boyfriend has left her. The hook splits the difference between a perfect pop earworm and a prog declaration: “You know nothing is fair in death and romance.” —J.C.

“Pink Skies,” Zach Bryan

Zach Bryan is a matter-of-fact narrator for most of “Pink Skies,” setting a funeral (presumably for his late mother, DeAnn, whom he previously named a 2019 album after) to banjo and harmonica, before raising his voice for one striking line: “I bet God heard you coming!” But “Pink Skies” is mostly a testament to a life that continues to echo on earth. Throughout the song, other memories rush back. Cleaning the house, Bryan sees childhood height markings on the wall, and the smell of the grass transports him to the day someone broke their arm on a swing. Bryan knows how loudly these moments speak, so he lets them. —J.C.

➽ Read Justin Curto on the country music being made outside of Nashville.

“Hang Tight Honey,” Lainey Wilson

Lainey Wilson played an unbelievable 180 shows last year. Thankfully, she’s got quite a bit to show for it — some No. 1 singles, two Entertainer of the Year trophies, and now, “Hang Tight Honey,” a steamy new love song dressed up as a road song. “Just know they’re singin’ along to all them songs I wrote about you,” Wilson sings with a smirk, before screaming guitars rev “Honey” into its overdrive chorus. She’s going to burn up more than a few stages with this. —J.C.

“Lunch,” Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish didn’t release singles ahead of her third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, but she was hiding an obvious one in plain sight. With “Lunch,” Eilish gives one of her coolest performances yet, gliding over an ’80s New Wave–ish groove as she sings about a girl who seems, well, good enough to eat. “Taking pictures in the mirror / Oh my God, her skin’s so clear / Tell her, ‘Bring that over here,’” sings Eilish, balancing wide-eyed eagerness with sexy nonchalance. “Lunch” made headlines as Eilish’s first track about being with a woman, but beneath that, it’s just a charged-up pop song. —J.C.

➽ Read Craig Jenkins’s review of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft.

“Delphinium Blue,” Cassandra Jenkins

Cassandra Jenkins recites the spoken hook to “Delphinium Blue” with an entrancing, eerie swagger, like she could be anything from a gang lackey to a housewife: “Chin up / Stay on task / Wash the windows / Count the cash.” Really, she’s working at a flower shop, as the title gives away. It’s a job Jenkins actually took, in a moment of confusion. But her daily duties began to feel mythic, she said, like she “was surrounded by a Greek chorus.” She translates that feeling to song on “Delphinium Blue,” backed by a plodding, cinematic track and, yes, even a choir. —J.C.

“Old Dutch,” Bonny Light Horseman

“Old Dutch,” from folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman, is about two lovers struggling to verbalize their terrifyingly big feelings. “You know that you move me and I don’t know why,” sings Eric Johnson, best known for his indie-folk project Fruit Bats. The song doesn’t build toward any epiphany or resolution — instead, Bonny Light Horseman wants to make listeners feel the same way. So near the fourth minute, Johnson’s howl gives way to a singing crowd, recorded live in an Irish pub where the band tracked half their new double album. —J.C.

“The Last Year,” Jessica Pratt

Like the rest of her new album, Here in the Pitch, Jessica Pratt’s “The Last Year” feels like a visit from an old daydream — sweet, wistful, a tad melancholic. Over a gentle guitar riff and smokey reverb plucked straight from a ’60s soul track, she sings of a hopeful future: “You’d wonder if ever there’s been hope for me / I think it’s gonna be fine / I think we’re gonna be together / And the storyline goes forever.” In an era of recycled culture, Pratt’s vintage approach sounds refreshingly alive. —Alex Suskind

“Love Me Not,” Ravyn Lenae

Ravyn Lenae’s early standouts like “Sticky” and “Free Room” were full of youthful playfulness — after all, the singer was only a teenager when she recorded them. After exploring a more mature, sultry sound on 2022’s Hypnos, she finds that levity again on “Love Me Not,” with help from a playground game. The single is springy throwback R&B: crisp drums, sly bass, and a good dose of reverb set against Lenae’s classically trained voice. —J.C.

“Baddy on the Floor,” Jamie xx feat. Honey Dijon

Jamie xx’s ears work differently. When most listeners hear Divine Styler’s boisterous hip-hop track “Ain’t Sayin’ Nothin’,” they gravitate toward that squealing horn, sampled from Motown’s Junior Walker and later made famous in House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” Not Jamie. He takes a few stray bars from Styler’s first verse and mashes, stretches, and loops them into the hook of this slick dance track: “Move your body on the floor.” With the blessing of house evangelist Honey Dijon and some slick piano and horns from Keni Burke’s forgotten “Let Somebody Love You,” that command becomes easy to follow. Where Jamie’s recent singles like “It’s So Good” have been dense and intricate constructions, “Baddy” shows that sometimes, just a few perfect sounds can be transportive. —J.C.

“Comin’ Around Again,” Amber Mark (April 5)

Amber Mark’s first solo follow-up to her debut album is feel-good music to the max. Mark blends high-gloss turn-of-the-century R&B with a joyous gospel piano line and sunny Motown-esque songwriting for a love song that feels fresh yet genuinely timeless. (Okay, minus the one line about cell phones.) She’s maturing as a lyricist too, trading the clichés that could weigh down 2022’s Three Dimensions Deep for satisfying concision on lines like, “Let’s take it easy, no diamond, no pressure.” Falling in love has never sounded so smooth. —J.C.

“Self Sabotage,” Katie Pruitt

Katie Pruitt directs her most penetrating lyrics at herself. “I wish my head had a trapdoor / For when I need escaping,” she opens her song “Self Sabotage.” An early peak to Pruitt’s second album, Mantras, the song faces the negative thought patterns that inspired the record head-on. The anthem builds from a whimper to a full-throated cry, amplified by wailing electric guitars and pounding drums: “I’m not some narcissistic God / Abandon this self-sabotage.” Pruitt may fashion herself a folky country singer in the vein of her hero Brandi Carlile, but here she sounds closer to the exposed indie-rock songs of Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus.—J.C.

“Cheerleader,” Porter Robinson

Porter Robinson has grown a lot in three years. His last album, 2021’s Nurture, was marked by anxiety over following up his 2014 debut — a weight he carried for years before channeling it into a collection of explosive, life-affirming songs. On “Cheerleader,” the first single off a new album, Robinson sounds like he’s having fun again. It’s a slick turn from EDM to indie pop, like a Passion Pit song went to a rave: bubbly, bright, and loud. —J.C.

“Get It Sexyy,” Sexyy Red

Who’s writing better hooks right now than Sexyy Red? Over a brooding Tay Keith beat, the St. Louis rapper becomes her own cheerleader: “Walkin’ through the club lookin’ like a snack (But you knew that though)”; “Catch me slidin’ in a Benz”; “Go on, Sexyy, do your dance.” Like “SkeeYee” and “PoundTown” (and “Hellcat SRTs” and “Rich Babby Daddy”), everything here is quotable. —A.S.