The Best Songs of October 2024

Year-end season is rapidly approaching, so it’s time for Paste to bid adieu to October. Halloween came and went, and we got four great New Music Fridays to boot. Music releases are slowing down now, but last month remained terrific, whether it was the release of a track that didn’t make the final cut of Tigers Blood, a lead single from the next Weather Station album, or the returns of Sharon Van Etten, Momma and Haley Heynderickx. Let’s take a moment to celebrate the best of the best from these last 31 days. Here are our 10 favorite songs of October 2024. —Matt Mitchell, Music Editor

Ducks Ltd. ft. Julia Steiner & Margaret McCarthy: “Grim Symmetry”

Few bands have had as good a year as Ducks Ltd., as they released their second post-Harm’s Way single last month and, once again, called upon Ratboys’ Julia Steiner to lend some backing vocals to the function. Also present is Moontype’s Margaret McCarthy, who links with Steiner to help spin Dave Vettriano’s production into that sweet, colorful jangle-pop that the Ducks so devilishly pull off. Written during the demo phase of their 2021 record Modern Fiction, “Grim Symmetry” is quick and full of skittering bombast. Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis turn twin guitars into an institution here, on a terrific follow-up to the terrific “When You’re Outside,” which was a terrific follow-up to the terrific Harm’s Way. I’m sensing a pattern. —Matt Mitchell

Fabiana Palladino: “Drunk”

The best pop star working right now isn’t Charli, or Taylor, or Halsey, or Ariana. It’s Fabiana Palladino, whose eponymous debut remains one of my favorite records of 2024 so far. The London performer is an alum of the Paul Institute, and her work gives catchiness an entirely new meaning. “Stay With Me Through the Night” and “I Can’t Dream Anymore” are SOTY candidates, and her new single “Drunk” ain’t no slouch either—arriving a bit more soulful than the flawless vibrance of her full-length. But that’s more than okay, as “Drunk” gets its kicks off Fabiana’s anchoring, mystical vocal. With, as she calls it, “the chaos of modern dating” as her muse, she’s grappling with fatigue from apps, mixed signals and few resolutions. Her father, Pino, plays bass on the tune and his picking gives “Drunk” a wash of brooding immediacy alongside Ellis Dupuy’s drumming and Joe Newman’s guitar playing. Where Fabiana Palladino pulled so cheekily from dance pop, “Drunk” simmers in its own velvet shadows. Fabiana strikes a chord strongly, blurring the lines between detachment and captivation—withdrawing from “love bombing” and “ghosting” by defining “heavenly bodies” and questioning purpose: “Am I reading too much into nothing? I’m easily led, hope loving you is not a mistake.” —Matt Mitchell

Haley Heynderickx: “Gemini”

Haley Heynderickx contends with life’s inescapable messiness on “Gemini,” the final single from her new album Seed of a Seed. The Portland, Oregon-based singer injects some bluesy edge to her typically soft folk sound here as she shares home truths about finding ourselves when we’re foundering. Her lyrics are sardonic and poetic, akin to “Avant Gardener”-era Courtney Barnett. “Gemini” moves from the sparse intensity of Heynderickx’ voice, deftly plucked guitar and the occasional swell of strings to a bright lushness as soon as she utters the line, “You know I finally begin to feel better,” the expansive soundscape reflecting the growth documented in the lyrics. The track’s progression is a reminder that time gives us perspective, or as Heynderickx puts it: “Time you know / Has its stones / You were a boulder then / You’re in my pocket now.” —Clare Martin

Lambrini Girls: “Big Dick Energy”

There was an era right after college when all I wanted to listen to were feminist punk bands who could tap into my roiling rage about systemic injustices and make me feel less alone in my all-consuming anger. In the years since, I’ve grown tired; I’m still a feminist, but that fiery rage is more often than not a glowing ember that gets occasionally stoked by whatever bullshit I see in the news or some creep on the street. Thanks to the Lambrini Girls, though, that ember is on its way to becoming a raging bonfire once more. The Brighton duo’s new track “Big Dick Energy” takes no prisoners, railing against phony male feminists and toxic masculinity in all its forms. The song is an abrasive punk party from the outset, with thrashing guitar and pounding drums drawing you to the mosh pit. Guitarist and vocalist Phoebe Lunny yell-screams the song’s title, intercut with sarcastic lines like, “I’m one of the nice guys, so why won’t you have sex with me?” “Big Dig Energy” already has me panting for Lambrini Girls’ debut album Who Let The Dogs Out, which will be released on January 10, 2025 via City Slang. —Clare Martin

Momma: “Ohio All the Time”

After touring nonstop for the past two years, Brooklyn four-piece Momma take a nostalgic road trip past state lines on their first track since last year’s “Bang Bang.” With a grunge-pop, summery flair, singers Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten contextualize a romance through the lens of the Midwest state: “I never got Ohio, babe, but now I do,” they smile sweetly, as they detail busy nights, broken car parts and conversations near the state sign. Instead of being a traditional love letter to the actual state of Ohio, it’s more of an ode to the random and silly things we remember when they come out of a crush’s mouth—or the memories we make with them. With an early-‘00s, rom-com-esque backing melody, Momma offer up a catchy riff aching with young, reckless love and the high-strung, never ending nights they’ve collected. “Ohio All the Time” has a similar, dreamy sound to beabadoobee—who they will be on tour with throughout the remainder of the year. After hearing this bright, dazed track, it’s easy to see why that lineup is a match made in indie-rock Heaven. —Alli Dempsey

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: “Afterlife”

For much of her career, we’ve known Sharon Van Etten as a solo artist, even as she’s collaborated and featured on tracks with the likes of Angel Olsen, Xiu Xiu, The National, Superchunk and others. These days, though, she’s embracing being part of a whole: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory will release their eponymous debut album on February 7, 2025 via Jagjaguwar. If their new single “Afterlife” is any indication, we can expect a record with exquisitely textured yet well-controlled soundscapes, a complex and compelling scaffolding that elevates Van Etten and her band’s artistry to new heights. Little flurries of synth ping in and out of the track as it starts, backed by steady, muted drum machine. The chorus unfurls with a gloomy grace as Van Etten wonders, “Will I see you in the afterlife?” The uncertainty of what awaits us after death hangs over the song like a dark cloud, but the yearning inherent to Van Etten and her bandmates’ songwriting allows shafts of light to break through. “Afterlife,” as well as the rest of Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, was recorded at The Church studio in London (which was once home to Eurythmics) and produced by Marta Salogni (Bon Iver, Animal Collective). —Clare Martin

Tucker Zimmerman ft. Adrianne Lenker: “Lorelei”

Tucker Zimmerman reinterprets the very notion of a siren song in his latest single “Lorelei,” a duet with Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker. The Lorelei of German legend is a thoroughly tragic figure, a heartbroken young woman whose despair led her to hurl herself into the Rhine River—but instead of getting the relief of release, she found herself transformed into a siren, forever luring sailors to their deaths even long after her own. But Zimmerman’s Lorelei is much more than the maritime portent of doom of German lore; she’s utterly sympathetic, yearning to “Move away / To the city on the hill,” to sing her siren songs “Only as a guiding light / To better times and safer shores.” The track, which is sung from Lorelei’s own perspective, is a tranquil flow of hushed voices and muted guitar strums. Intimate and tender, the duo imagine a world in which Lorelei manages to leave her post upon the rocks of the Rhine in search of peace, of better times. “I’ll sing away their trembling fears,” Zimmerman sings, before his voice intermingles with Lenker’s in soft harmony: “Take away their tears and so much more / And then I’ll cry.” —Casey Epstein-Gross

Tunde Adebimpe: “Magnetic”

Is mid-2000s Pitchfork-core back? I have no scathing evidence to back this question up, except if you count TV On The Radio vocalist Tunde Adebimpe’s official solo debut—and first release since signing to Sub Pop—“Magnetic.” When I listened to the single after its release on Tuesday, I felt like I was instantly transported to when I heard 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain for the first time; the pulsing and surging electricity that enraptured the indie space back then is still present in Adebimpe’s musical DNA. Wavy basslines and the hissing, emphatic beats scattered throughout the track ring back to “Careful You,” and other songs off of 2014’s brilliant but unfortunately memory-holed Seeds. Adebimpe is plagued with the state of the world, as he muses on the human race, love, tenderness and how to fly above it all. He whistles, claps and yelps—in all the ways that made TV On The Radio songs so compelling and mesmeric—but with a progressive voice that sounds fresh and thrilling in 2024. —Alli Dempsey

Waxahatchee: “Much Ado About Nothing”

Particularly after the March release of the phenomenal Tigers Blood, the general consensus on Waxahatchee (Katie Crutchfield) is that the singer-songwriter is not only on a hot streak, but that she’s fully aware of it to boot. “Much Ado About Nothing,” Crutchfield’s first song since that triumphant, Paste Pick-awared LP, only confirms that hypothesis. Twitter’s designated Indie Boy Of 2024, MJ Lenderman, takes up guitar for Waxahatchee once more, the source of all those sweet, sweet guitar licks underneath Crutchfield’s insightful lyricism. The track is all twang and self-deprecation, a folk-rock anthem for those among us who go a bit insane sometimes, particularly in matters of the heart. “Always the easiest to love and hardest to claim,” croons Crutchfield. “Play it off like I’m cynical / But I sweat and I swear.” Half-plucky folk instrumentation and half-gorgeous harmonies about losing your mind, “Much Ado About Nothing” is yet another instance of Waxahatchee’s ability to seamlessly marry outlaw country with honeyed indie rock. —Casey Epstein-Gross

The Weather Station: “Neon Signs”

I will contend that few artists have had a better last five years than the Weather Station. Thanks to Tamara Lindeman, we’ve been given both Ignorance and How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars since 2021, the former of which spawned one of my favorite songs of the 2020s so far: “Ignorance.” After her song “Moonlight” appeared on the I Saw the TV Glow Soundtrack earlier this year, Lindeman’s beloved project is back in full view—as her new LP Humanhood is coming in January. But lead single “Neon Signs” is here now and it sounds like everything you could ever want. Lindeman sings like she’s reciting a short story, reckoning with climate emergencies and unbound love. “Now you got me, this broken prize clinging to you but blank in the eyes,” she sings. “Want is a feeling you can’t take alive, ‘till I fell out of desire like a slipped knot.” “Neon Signs” boasts textures colored by an intertwined piano, drum machine and synthesizer, sewn together by Lindeman’s unmistakable vocal. There’s a slight edge of pop lingering beneath her, as the beat throbs like a siren asking you, slowly and quietly, to dance and keep going. But don’t you ever stop questioning, it continues. “I swear to God I saw real love once,” Lindeman declares. “But nothing needs you so badly as a lie, so lonely, drifting, unmoored from real life—if nobody believes it, all it can do is die.” —Matt Mitchell