Songs of the Summer 2024
It's time to celebrate every diss, every groove, and every hot, sticky, blissful turn of phrase that's galvanized the last few months.
Last year, artists like Kylie Minogue, Dua Lipa, McKinley Dixon and Wilco dominated our mixes and weekly roundups. Fast-forward to 2024 and MJ Lenderman is just as stuck in our heads as ever, and starlets like Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan are making massive waves on the charts and on festival stages for some of the best work of their careers. BRAT Summer might be “dead,” but that doesn’t mean Charli xcx is done consuming our playlists, and club-worthy anthems from Jamie xx, Kendrick Lamar and Joey Valence & Brae have painted the music industry red. Some of our favorites, like This Is Lorelei and Font, have even put out magical nuggets of pop goodness this year, too. The hits keep on rolling in, but let’s cut to the chase and get to the really good stuff. Here are Paste‘s picks for the “Songs of the Summer” of 2024, as chosen by the music staff.
Angélica Garcia: “Paloma”
Angélica Garcia’s 2020 sophomore record Cha Cha Palace—a bright and playful mosaic of bilingual avant-pop—was unfortunately robbed of a proper summer by COVID so, to make up for that, it has soundtracked all of my summers since it came out. Its follow-up, Gemelo, is not as obvious a pick. Its sound is darker, murkier and often more electronic than its predecessor—fitting for an album that often deals in fearless confrontations with one’s shadow self or “twin,” as is the album title’s direct translation. But this edginess and introspection doesn’t mean that Garcia has lost her ability to make high energy pop tracks that’ll get the attendees of any block party, backyard barbecue, or patio bar moving their feet. Album closer “Paloma” happens to share the name of my go-to drink of the summer, and it’s every bit as bright, tangy and refreshing. Garcia sings of a love that is pure, beautiful, and disarming, her pliable call-and-response vocals and electronic snare beat acting as a vessel for its divinity. —Grace Robins-Somerville
Billie Eilish: “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”
“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” sticks out on every listen. It very well might be Billie Eilish’s best song yet—the kind of career highlight you’d expect someone like Clairo to make, existing so far in the sugary pop world that, on paper, it may seem out of Eilish’s wheelhouse altogether. But Billie attacks the track without fear, and it’s so bubbly that the era of Happier Than Ever all but goes extinct in a flash. The “birds of a feather, we should stick together” chorus is cliché in theory, but Eilish and Finneas land it colorfully. “I said I’d never think I wasn’t better alone,” Eilish continues. “Can’t change the weather, might not be forever. But, if it’s forever, it’s even better.” “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” is a no-frills pop hit that will only continue to grow in majesty and in likability. It’s summery and earnest, as the “I don’t think I could love you more, it might not be long, but baby, I’ll love you ‘til the day that I die” pre-chorus matches the lightness of Finneas’ synthesizers and looping guitar arpeggios, which, along with Eilish’s sugary-sweet singing, sound like a bouquet of immersive, frictionless pop ecstasy. —Matt Mitchell
Chappell Roan: “Good Luck, Babe!”
No pop musician is having a bigger moment right now than Chappell Roan, whose spring single “Good Luck, Babe!” was a serious song of the year contender from the moment an eight-second snippet of it went viral on TikTok. There’s nothing complex or ornate about Kayleigh Rose Amstutz’s newest track, and that’s precisely why it’s perfect—“Good Luck, Babe!” catches fire because it’s a proper amalgam of ‘80s synth-pop and Y2K chart-topping glee. Not to mention, it’s queer as hell. (“You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling” is one of the best comedowns in recent memory, in my opinion.) Amstutz’s vocal performance soars here too, gliding as high as the electronica enveloping her warbling falsetto. “You can kiss a hundred boys in bars, shoot another shot, try to stop the feeling,” she sings. “You can say it’s just the way you are, make a new excuse, another stupid reason.” “Good Luck, Babe!” is bulletproof and rebels against the campiness that often makes Chappell Roan’s music great in the first place. What’s different here is that Amstutz and her longtime collaborator Dan Nigro have figured out how to cut away the excess and get straight to the magic. —MM
Charly Bliss: “Waiting For You”
Few bands seem to love the act of merely being in a band as much as Charly Bliss do. In a discography littered with a paper trail of heartbreaks and fuck-ups, “Waiting For You” is—at least thus far, their forthcoming album Forever may change this track record—the closest thing to a straightforward Charly Bliss love song. But it’s not one where Eva Hendricks is singing to a romantic partner. Instead, her bright, bubblegummy crush song is one that positions bandmates and soulmates as one and the same, an artistic partnership that was written in the stars. “We had nothing, but we were still alright,” a lovestruck Eva sings, “In the van that night / under nowhere sky / it was perfect / I was always waiting for you.” Forever tells the story of a band growing up together, the hardships and uncertainties of their career only strengthening the bond between friends and creative co-conspirators. It’s a profound platonic love ballad that just might be 2024’s greatest summer romance. —GRS [Read our recent feature on Charly Bliss]
Charli xcx: “360”
It’s fascinating to watch how a name can take on a greater cultural meaning of its own. Since 1989, “Heather” has become synonymous with the untouchable, love-to-hate It Girl. During her masterclass promotional cycle for the album that’s been painting the town Day-Glo green all summer, Charli xcx introduced a new type of It Girl—one with a certain je ne sais quois whose messiness is aspirational, much like its namesake Julia Fox; and who is, in the words of one of the song’s other notable namedrops, Gabbriette, “really hot, but in a scary way.” “I’m so Julia” feels like a phrase that’s existed in the public lexicon for longer than just a couple months, one of the many factors crystalizing “360” as an instant classic. The music video is a multiverse of madness of “hot internet girls,” and its ensemble cast even features a surprise cameo from the mother of all post-Y2K off-beat It-girls, Oscar-nominated Chloe Sevigny. “360” is BRAT’s thesis statement, a celebration of a fringe pop star who’s been playing the long game. As Charli says herself: She went her own way, and she made it. —GRS
Clairo: “Sexy to Someone”
Clairo’s new era arrived last month, and her latest album, Charm, was galvanized by lead single “Sexy to Someone”—an incredible summer track that found Clairo yearning for “afterglowing” and a reciprocated affection much like the one she holds for her so much around her. “Oh, I need a reason to get out of the house,” she sings. “And it’s just a little thing I can’t live without.” The Leon Michels-produced song sounds like the middle ground between Clairo’s first two albums, simmering like a pop hit recorded in a log cabin. There’s a homespun warmth that comes alive in Clairo’s voice, as Michels’s arrangements have cracked open a new ceiling for her singing. “Sexy to Someone” is exquisite, catchy and bubbly as can be. —MM
Font: “Looking at Engines”
It may be a more unorthodox pick for a “Song of the Summer” due to its cacophonous opening, but when it gives way to the shimmering, bubbly melody, “Looking at Engines” is as catchy as any pop track on this list. Font’s debut album, Strange Burden, is packed with unreal sonically textured tracks, and “Looking at Engines” is the Austin outfit’s brightest entry yet. However, it maintains the quintet’s familiar cerebral messaging as Wadhill asserts our species’ cognitive complexity as the titular “strange burden.” What’s more fitting to jam to in the throes of summer than an ruminative track about our inherent flaws as a hyper intelligent kind? Font will always have us covered in the existential dread jams department. —Olivia Abercrombie
Fontaines D.C.: “Favourite”
Let’s talk about a song that, from the first note, is perfect. “Favourite,” the second single from Fontaines D.C.’s forthcoming new album (and XL debut) Romance, is a chest-bursting, terminally sweet earworm that finds the post-punk Dubliners experimenting with a far poppier hue that usual. If preceding single “Starburster” was frenetic and energized through an anxiety personified, “Favourite” is the lullaby meant to cushion its fall. “Stitch and fall, the faces rearranged,” bandleader Grian Chatten sings. “You will see beauty give the way to something strange.” “Favourite” is immediately one of Fontaines D.C.’s best songs ever, a “continuous cycle from euphoria to sadness, two worlds spinning together.” There’s well-worn poetry and romance in the candy-coated, rocking and rollicking arrangement; a sense of longing that swirls around the endearments. —MM
Ginger Root: “There Was a Time”
The build-up for Ginger Root’s new album SHINBANGUMI has been a vibrant collage of pop extravagance—namely because of “No Problems” and “Better Than Monday” being such good teasers. Cameron Lew makes music unbound to any era, because it merges nearly all of them into one fuzzy, warming vessel of enchantment. “There Was a Time” sounds like a city pop outtake funneled into a kaleidoscope, a song-cycle gem rife with psychedelia and bleep-blooping electronica that sounds like the guts of a lava lamp. As Lew would have it, the whole show is very Ram-era Paul McCartney, a burner worth its weight in intercontinental splendor and pop majesty. —MM
Hinds ft. Beck: “Boom Boom Back”
Best of What’s Next alums (and perennial Paste favorites) Hinds returned with the news of their long-awaited next record—VIVA HINDS, the follow-up to their massively beautiful 2020 album The Prettiest Curse, with a song so catchy it’ll make your eyes pop. Hinds have gone through some upheavals since 2020, as bassist Ade Martín and drummer Amber Grimbergen both left the band. Without a label or a management team, Hinds, quite literally, reworked themselves from the ground up. And co-bandleaders Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote sound as infectious as ever on “Boom Boom Back,” which features some vocals from Beck. It’s a collaboration that, as unlikely as it might sound on paper, works magically—as the track brandishes hypnotic double-layered chorus vocals from Cosials and Perrote and a mirage of guitar hues that radiate as brightly as Hinds’ always-gracious and upbeat stage presence. —MM
Coming off of his fantastic headlining set at Pitchfork Music Festival, Jamie xx shared another single from his highly-anticipated sophomore album, In Waves a few weeks ago: “All You Children.” On the track, the DJ-producer calls upon the Avalanches, the best electronic duo of the last 25 years not named Daft Punk. Together, their sample-heavy song has a spoken-word intro (“All you children gather ‘round / We will dance, we will whirl”) and a house beat that drops and soars and glitches through a handful of intervals. Think of it as Jamie xx’s attempt at a Wildflower song but better—it’s colorful and infectious, collaging ‘80s synth-pop tones with club throbs and a sensual, robotic narration that’ll linger until you start humming the melody all night. The threads in the song bounce off of each other so seamlessly that you’ll forget “All You Children” is four or five conversations happening all at once. —MM
Someone on Reddit said that Joey Valence and Brae’s “THE BADDEST (BADDER)” is like “if the Beastie Boys served cunt.” I wholeheartedly agree, as the Pennsylvania duo’s sophomore album, NO HANDS, fires on every cylinder because of this song. “THE BADDEST” delivered from the moment the “Do you think anybody’s actually gonna dance to this” intro first hit, as JVB flood the soundscape with boastful, chaotic jumps and colorful glitches. In the song’s recent remix, Ayesha Erotica stops by to drop a verse on our heads. “In the club, put his dick in my tits, and I might shoot it off in this bitch,” she announces to everyone within earshot. The track sounds as indebted to Lil Jon as it does Daft Punk, as Valence and Brae yell “I’m the baddest bitch in this club!” off every rooftop they can find. There is no ceiling on “THE BADDEST (BADDER)”; if there was, JVB and Ayesha crashed right through it and dropped a few middle fingers on the shards. It’s the best pop song of the summer that didn’t hit #1, though it absolutely should have. —MM
As soon as Kendrick Lamar dropped the diss track “Not Like Us” less than 14 hours after his previous diss track, “Meet the Grahams,” it was obvious that the world would be talking about it for a long time. Produced by Mustard and featuring performances from Sounwave and Sean Momberger, “Not Like Us” not only blew up the feud between Kendrick and Drake, but it shut the door on the entire beef with a swift, brutal thud. The arrangement isn’t uber-complex, fit with finger snaps, a brass section and throbbing bassline, but it’s Kendrick’s ability to make his machine-gun lyrics fatal and danceable at the same time. If your song gets packed clubs chanting “certified pedophile” in unison, it’s undeniable that you’ve created a monolithic zeitgeist moment. If you can put down one of the biggest names in music by accusing him of “colonizing” Atlanta rappers to further his own career while draping it in chant-along choruses, perhaps your opponent should have never stepped into the ring to begin with. “Not Like Us” went #1 on the Hot 100, a perfect end-cap to a generational diss. —MM
Magdalena Bay returned this summer ready to save pop music (not that it needed saving, but they may as well hold down the fort while they’re here) with “Death & Romance.” Taking a more rock-oriented approach than usual, the track finds the duo playing to their strengths: The groove on this song is nothing short of infectious, immediately reminding me of a modern take on George Michael’s “Freedom! ‘90.” Mica Tenenbaum’s sugary sweet vocals promises the song’s subject—“My hands, your hands / I’ll hold forever / Now way I’ll break hold / no, not ever”—alongside some of the best pop instrumentation I’ve heard all year. With “Death & Romance” holding court, Magdalena Bay’s next chapter is already phenomenal. —Leah Weinstein
The year of the shred continues full-steam ahead. After serving as the lead guitarist (and occasional duet partner) on Waxahatchee’s new LP Tigers Blood, Wednesday axeman and ‘90s athlete enthusiast MJ Lenderman is back in the spotlight fully on his own. His fourth LP, Manning Fireworks, is arriving next month, and lead single “She’s Leaving You” was, as expected, as good as you could want it to be. It’s melodic and full of wit (“You can put your clothes back on, she’s leaving you”; “Go rent a Ferrari and sing the blues, believe that Clapton was the second-coming”), toeing the line between alt-country and something you’d find in the Matador catalog 30 years ago. Lenderman’s Wednesday bandmate Karly Hartzman, provides harmonies (and sings the song’s title in a concluding finale atop a pulsing bassline) and, naturally, MJ rips into a pitched-up guitar solo that squeals and dissolves back into his vocal. “It falls apart, we all got work to do,” he sings. Let us rest on every word. —MM
From an album packed to the brim with maximalist summer bangers, “Wave” from Remi Wolf’s recent sophomore record Big Ideas grabbed me immediately. Hook, line and sinker. Wolf sets the scene of a long distance relationship over flanger-heavy guitars (“Airport, shoes off, no friends, he kept me going”) before exploding into the song’s larger than life chorus. Her signature maximalist production on “Wave” sticks the landing better than any other track on Big Ideas (“Toro” is a close second), and it’s been massively rewarding to see her grow over the past five years. Most of the songs from Big Ideas wouldl probably work on this list. We’re going with “Wave” and its diorama-sized epicness. —LW
I was not immediately a passenger on the “Espresso” train, but I do certainly adore the pop confection that is “Please Please Please.” Co-written with Amy Allen, Sabrina Carpenter unveils her on-the-rise, long-in-the-making stardom on the Jack Antonoff-produced second installment from her upcoming album Short n’ Sweet. I think this is a moment where Antonoff’s penchant for muted electronica serves its performer well, as Carpenter’s style has always flirted between the confines of pop, singer-songwriter and country—which makes the scaled-back synthesizers a perfect pillow for her sometimes-twangy, sometimes-anthemic delivery. The verses are sassy and conversational (the “Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another / I beg you, don’t embarrass me, motherfucker” lines are especially great in Carpenter’s care), while the “Please, please, please don’t prove I’m right” chorus is one of the catchiest of the year so far. —MM
The final single from Box For Buddy, Box For Star, an album that, more often not, feels clouded with confusion, “Perfect Hand” is an oasis—a moment of clear-eyed, wholehearted trust in oneself. Whether it’s laying all your feelings out on the table for a new love or throwing yourself into a creative project when inspiration strikes, this track beautifully captures the feeling of trusting yourself fully and choosing to see where your instincts take you. “I’m not looking 30, I’m looking one,” Nate Amos sings, in a rebirth of sorts, over a drum machine and repeated phone ringing sound effects—a wake-up call, if you will. He might not know where he’s going, but he’s gonna keep moving forward anyway. —GRS [
As someone who considers summer to be the best season—a basic take, I know, but sometimes consensus happens for a reason—I will be the first to admit that it is also the grossest. The humidity weighing heavy in the air, the stench of hot garbage left outside for rats and bugs to feast on, damp skin accruing a week’s worth of sweat and grime from just a day of walking around outside—it’s when the general public are at their most disgusting, their most uninhibited and their most primal. In short, ’tis the season to be nasty. Tinashe, a longtime mainstay of pop’s middle class, has finally achieved her overdue mainstream breakthrough with a hit that’s catchy and sultry enough to make us believe that any of us could be a Nasty Girl (Nasty)—
11 years ago, Lorde capped off the chorus Pure Heroine’s opener with an ice-cool command: “Let’s go down to the tennis court / And talk it up like yeah (yeah!)” The dream team of 21st century electronic film score composition, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have taken Lorde’s call-to-arms quite literally on Challengers’ tennis-goes-techno soundtrack—specifically on the walk-up song for ethereal tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). “Yeah x10” is playing when boarding school besties-turned-rivals Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) fall in love and/or lust at first sight with Tashi while watching her demolish her opponent in the Junior U.S. Open. In Luca Guadagnino’s love-triangle sports drama, everything is tennis except tennis, which is sex. And what better sonic accompaniment for a three-way psychosexual Cold War that spans 13 years than a series of sweaty, pulsating electronic dance tracks? The power-walking electroclash beat and bratty one-word delivery of “Yeah x10” makes the track as satisfying as some good fucking tennis. —GRS