The Best Songs of July 2024

July, the first full month post-BRAT gave us wall-to-wall enjoyments. Porridge Radio returns for their second consecutive month-end placement, as does MJ Lenderman. But July also saw some of our favorite musicians, like Haley Heynderickx and Laura Marling, release their first threads of new music in years. Last month saw the supposed finale of Childish Gambino and the still-fresh origins of Pittsburgh powerhouse Merce Lemon. Suffice to say, it was a great, great 31 days of music for pop, rock, punk, R&B and folk lovers alike. As we look toward what August has to offer, including upcoming albums from Fontaines D.C., Sabrina Carpenter, Why Bonnie and Charly Bliss, we’d first like to honor the best of the best from last month. So, without further ado, here are our 10 favorite songs of July 2024. —Matt Mitchell, Music Editor

Cassie Ramone: “Together”

Former Vivian Girls bandleader Cassie Ramone released her long-awaited sophomore album, Sweetheart, in early July, and it’s an incredible trove of nostalgia intertwined with modernist rock bedrock. The album itself is not yet on streaming services, instead available as buyable MP3s or in a full stream on YouTube (much like Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee), but all 11 songs deserve your full focus. It’s track #5 that sticks out on every listen for me; “Together” is lo-fi perfection and distinctive for how it sounds like Kim Deal singing a post-Blog Era dream-pop cut. There’s a strangeness to Sweetheart, in its serpentine homage to music unbothered by comparisons to any one genre or place in time. “Together” is the colossal, heavy and sugar-sweet focal point on a record packed wall-to-wall with timeless, bombastic quakes of pop enchantments. —Matt Mitchell

Childish Gambino: “Lithonia”

Donald Glover dropped a bombshell last month when he announced Bando Stone and the New World, a self-directed and self-starring feature-length film. An album of the same name was then released as the film’s soundtrack, which also served as the final album Glover releases under his Childish Gambino moniker. Glover enlisted longtime collaborator Ludwig Göransson along with Michael Uzowuru (Frank Ocean, SZA, FKA twigs) and pop powerhouse Max Martin for production on lead single “Lithonia,” a welcomed pivot toward a more rock-oriented sound for the Childish Gambino catalog. “Lithonia” is captivating and theatrical, with Glover consistently returning to the refrain “Nobody gives a fuck” as the instrumental explodes into Queen-esque, rock-opera territory—with its dramatic piano licks and sustained electric guitar ringing in throughout. Gambino’s vocal delivery is anthemic and passionate. —Leah Weinstein

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

Haley Heynderickx: “Seed of a Seed”

At long last, Portland’s Haley Heynderickx returned from an unofficial seven-year hiatus in July. It’s refreshing to see an artist refuse to churn out less-than-stunning material in order to satiate a streaming-addled, impatient fanbase, and to instead take her time on doing what she does best. Heynderickx’s slow-cooking has more than paid off—“Seed of a Seed” is already a classic in her small but rich catalog of meditative, idiosyncratic folk songs. On her comeback single, she expresses gratitude for simple joys: “And if I’m lucky / Maybe a glass of wine / And if I’m lucky / Maybe a hand next to mine” As for the rest of us, we’re lucky to hear from her again. —Grace Robins-Somerville

Hinds: “Superstar”

On the latest single from Hinds’ forthcoming album VIVA HINDS, the Madrid garage rock duo take unsparing yet surprisingly empathetic aim at a “local superstar” who’s lonely at the top. “Your mom and dad are paying all your bills / None of your friends will tell you how they really feel” Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote sing, reminding the star of their scene that they got what they wanted. The bright, syncopated chorus is deliciously bratty and snarky without sacrificing Hinds’ signature warmth and down-to-earth goofiness. It’s a kiss-off to a clout-chaser who put their ego before their friendships and is now reaping all the rewards and the losses. Listening to a Hinds song often feels like a gossip session with your best friends that devolves into manic cry-laughing, and “Superstar” is yet another perfect encapsulation of their charm and effervescence. —GRS

Honeyglaze: “Cold Caller”

The latest single from London trio Honeyglaze, “Cold Caller,” can be summed up in one word: pretty. It’s a rock tune shepherded by a sinous riff that explodes into an elegant measure of part-math rock, part-jangle pop goodness before nose-diving back down into the throbbing rhythms of the band’s controlled chaos. Vocalist Anouska Sokolow unravels atop Tim Curtis’s bassline, singing “I can hear your voice at night, bathed in warmth from my phone light. Stay with me, oh, love of mine.” There’s a delicacy in Sokolow’s phrasings, as “Cold Caller” is a delight from start to finish. Honeyglaze have an ace up their sleeves, and it’s Curtis’s foundational, timeless harmonics paired with Yuri Shibuichi’s snare-forward drumming and Sokolow’s lyrics of desperation and isolation. “Don’t let me get away,” Sokolow lets out. Lucky for the rest of us, “Cold Caller” will keep Honeyglaze around for a long while. —MM

Merce Lemon: “Backyard Lover”

After releasing “Will You Do Me a Kindness” earlier this year, a track that wound up in the #3 spot on our mid-year best songs list, Merce Lemon returned with the lead single of her forthcoming album, Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild. The Pittsburgh native sounds as good as ever on “Backyard Lover,” as she turns Are We There-era Sharon Van Etten into cross-continental twang. It’s singer-songwriter music with a blistering, heavy-fisted soul, as Lemon oscillates between romantic poet (“I am swimming in a river, showing off the butterfly enraptured by light”) and broken-hearted nomad (“A wooden spoon tossed in the fire, ‘cause nothing’s good enough, you fucking liar”). The song crawls upwards from Americana pickings to an explosive, country-rock firestorm. “A sliding hill, a quick refrain, a frozen bird melting, an eyelash for wishing,” Lemon cries out, as “Backyard Lover” ruptures like fluid leaving a bruise. —MM

MJ Lenderman: “Joker Lips”

MJ Lenderman’s flavor of sad-clown country music doesn’t shy away from the uglier, grosser and most absurd aspects of the human condition. The protagonist of “Joker Lips” is “Draining cum from hotel showers / Hoping for the hours to pass a little faster”—all in a day’s work. Lenderman is the kind of guy who’ll rhyme “Kahlua shooter” with “DUI scooter,” but he’s also the kind of guy who’ll freely admit that “this morning wants to kill me.” The cries for help are indistinguishable from the punchlines. “Please don’t laugh / Only half of what I said was a joke,” he sings. Which half of the half-truth is true is anybody’s guess. —GRS

Parannoul: “Painless”

The mostly anonymous South Korean shoegaze sensation Parannoul returned with another affecting track in July: “Painless.” This blown-out shimmering rocker arrives on the heels of “Gold River,” which dropped in May with no context or album announcement in the same mysterious way Parannoul loves to operate (and landed highly on our mid-year best songs list). “Painless” captures an aura of heartbroken hope, as the track opens with the line “No pain, no happiness.” Parannoul is as bleak as ever, with the sun slowly rising on the horizon, and I can’t wait to see what they gift us next. —Olivia Abercrombie

Porridge Radio: “Sick of the Blues”

Earlier this summer, Porridge Radio teamed up with IAN SWEET to drop my favorite song of 2024 so far, “Everyone’s a Superstar.” Now, the former have announced their next record, Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There For Me. The Best of What’s Next alums are firing on all cylinders on lead single “Sick of the Blues,” a reclamation of joy and seizing of agency and control. Bandleader Dana Margolin sounds like she’s going through a hair-raising rapture on the track, quaking and aching through strained vocals, tear-drop synths and a wounded guitar-and-drum combo. “I’m sick of the blues, I’m in love with my life again,” Margolin cries out, as chaotic, incongruous instrumentation flutters into a horn outro that pillows your soul like a lullaby after waking up in a cold sweat. —MM

Listen to a playlist of these 10 songs below.