Seven Swans A-Swimming (Christmas Attack)
The Top 120 Songs of 2024 (Part 7 of 12)
The holiday season is ramping up so my apologies that this is late, but let’s get it started!
Click here for: #120-111, #110-101, #100-91, #90-81, #80-71, #70-61.
#60: “Asha The First” by Kamasi Washington ft. Thundercat, Taj Austin, & Ras Austin (from Fearless Movement)
Kamasi Washington is the best contemporary jazz musician. Thundercat is the second best contemporary jazz musician. What do you think happens when you pair them together for an eight minute track with multiple bass and horn interludes? “Asha the First” is a magnificent track that would go over incredibly live. The virtuoso playing of Kamasi, Thundercat, and the session musicians lends so well to a piece that feels both relaxing and cinematic. Covering topics like mass incarceration, the systemic racism afflicting Black youth, and climate change, this song is a rumination on many of society’s modern ills while aiming to find empowerment through the hardship. Fearless Movement was one of the brightest spots of my early 2024, and “Asha the First” was its crown jewel. Fantastic song.
#59: “Caroline” by Laura Marling (from Patterns in Repeat)
The queen is back! Bow down! Laura Marling’s Patterns in Repeat was such a gorgeous and restrained folk record, and while I wouldn’t put it among her best—that’s difficult when you’ve made I Speak Because I Can and Song For Our Daughter—it’s still another excellent entry in her near-perfect, underrated discography. Lead by a cycling guitar melody and a subtle background chorus, Laura tries to piece together a love song about an enigmatic woman who escaped the narrator’s life. She can remember Caroline in the abstract: the zest for life she had and the fact that Caroline was the person who left. When it’s time to recall the song, however, all Marling can muster is vocalizations and a something something Caroline. There’s bittersweet humor to the love lost, as both the narrator and Caroline have gotten older and moved on with their lives, but there’s just something about Caroline that leaves the narrator slightly wistful. As an ode to “the one that got away”, “Caroline” manages to find healing and serenity through heartbreak.
#58: “Lonely Millionaire” by Kacey Musgraves (from Deeper Well)
If we live in a just world, The Forever Story by J.I.D. will go down as a classic in the canon of 2020s hip hop. As an introspective and versatile picture of family, street violence, and love, it truly is a landmark record. Despite J.I.D. rapping his ass off in a way few artists could up and down that album, my favorite track is actually the downbeat R&B number “Kody Blu 31” that features a sung verse and chorus from J.I.D. So imagine my shock when I’m in the final third of Kacey Musgrave’s Deeper Well and hear an eerily familiar piano line. If sampling one of my favorite tracks of the decade weren’t enough, “Lonely Millionaire” also features Kacey’s strongest writing and vocal performance since at least Golden Hour. After her divorce, Kacey is falling in love for the first time with someone who she fears—similar to her ex-husband—may be intimidated by her wealth and success. Instead of lambasting this partner like she has on previous tracks like Star-Crossed’s “breadwinner”, she assures him that the wealth hasn’t helped her find happiness and (this person’s) love means far more to her. Similar to “Kody Blu 31” the vocalizations on the hook serve as a message of self-empowerment. While J.I.D’s focus was on people who felt disenfranchised from achieving their dreams because of a lack of confidence, Kacey pivots inward and reassures her partner of his self-worth. While some could have pause for Kacey feeding into men’s fragile ego at the face of a successful woman, she sells the song with song with earnest charm and empathy instead of condescension or resignation to his insecurity; it’s a tender moment that showcases Kacey at her most human.
#57: “Choppa Sound” by Lisha G & Trini Viv (from Groovy Steppin Shit)
I talked about false hierarchies of “objective quality” in music when discussing TisaKorean’s great album In Silly We Trust, but the same stands for this quirky two-minute trap number. Opening with an off-kilter bassy horn groove that splits the difference between “Suge” by DaBaby and “STAR” by BROCKHAMPTON, Lisha spits verses full of flexing, fighting, and falling in love with YNs. The call and response hook for “Choppa Sound” is an absolute monster with the gang vocals swelling behind Lisha as they all scream yeah I love that choppa sound in unison. The chemistry Lisha G and Trini Viv exuded on Groovy Steppin Shit was nothing short of synergistic: Trini brought the hard Plugg beats, and Lisha flowed over them effortlessly while getting off some hilarious one-liners.
#56: “Reincarnation of a Love Bird” by Samara Joy (from Portrait)
Grammy winner and prodigy Samara Joy covered the Charles Mingus instrumental classic of the same name by writing some stunning prose to accompany the track. Do I need to say more? She sounds incredible with some gorgeous operatic belting in her soprano range. The instrumental interludes are light and playful while maintaining technical prowess. The song’s drum-led outro is exhilarating and features one of the best notes that I’ve heard from Samara to date. The lyrics centering yearning are the perfect balance between earnestly wistful and decadently melodramatic. There isn’t much to say about this one, just check out this excellent jazz song!
#55: “Borrowed Time” by Ka (from The Thief Next To Jesus)
Ka was taken from us far too soon. As a fan since Descendants of Cain—whose favorite album from him prior to 2024 was 2016’s Honor Killed the Samurai—I was heartbroken to learn of his passing in October at the age of 52. After revisiting his newest record The Thief Next To Jesus posthumously, many of the tracks have an added pathos in his world-weariness; for this, I would call The Thief Next To Jesus his best album, and “Borrowed Time” is one of the largest examples of why. The sinuous strings and guitar have gorgeous interplay evoking memories of an old Western film. Across two intricately-constructed verses discussing the street-level violence and poverty that he had to endure, he frames these tribulations as God’s will that he was able to overcome. As Ka solemnly says I hope it’s borrowed time when my time come on the chorus, he pleads for a continued life of joy and prosperity in the face of the individualized and systemic turmoil. Some would say that this song is devastating considering his passing months after this track’s release, but I respectfully disagree: through his family, his art that resonated with hundreds of thousands of people, his faith, and his perseverance, he touched the lives of many within 52 years even if his time was not borrowed. Rest in power, Ka.
#54: “Sinking Boat” by Infinity Song (from Metamorphosis Complete)
Infinity Song hopped on Tik Tok virality to release a 70s soft rock album that’s among the best records of 2024. And while the humor of “Hater’s Anthem” has an ironic twist now that they are more successful than their naysayers, and the album opener “I Want You Back” really clicked for me with its theatricality, the Fleetwood Mac-inspired “Sinking Boat” is easily the album highlight. The titular metaphor of the sinking boat is used as an analog to a failing relationship where rocking said boat—through conflict or cheating—is minimal compared to the damage caused by this toxic dynamic. The guitar work and the oblique harmonies turn Infinity Song into a greek chorus for the tragic dissolution of this relationship, as the tension builds through the track until the outro personifies it as an evil lurking around corners. Infinity Song’s Metamorphosis Complete was a masterclass in “setting the vibe” through its 70s stylings; however, on “Sinking Boat”, the group managed to revel in their darkness to create the most compelling song of their young career.
#53: “Pop” by ScHoolboy Q ft. Rico Nasty (from Blue Lips)
Blue Lips was an introspective and intense examination of ScHoolboy Q’s lifestyles, and “Pop” was easily the most menacing representation of this. The electric guitar line reminiscent of proto-metal builds tension accentuating the danger of coming across ScHoolboy Q. The bars find the balance between highlighting the trauma that this violence can cause while also serving as flex that if ScHoolboy is going to be wrapped into street-level violence, he’s going to do it better than anybody else. Then, Rico Nasty hops on the track with a level of urgency and intensity that I haven’t heard from her since her Nasty mixtape days, shouting pop across shredding guitars and switching into a double time flow for an abbreviated verse that shows Rico at her best: bruising, technical, and chock full of attitude. When talking about “Blueslides”, I said that Blue Lips was shorter on bangers in place of more contemplative cuts; however, with “Pop”, ScHoolboy Q proves he’s second-to-none when it comes to delivering those perfectly-timed, custom-built for moshing bangers.
#52: “Psychic Attack” by Machine Girl (from MG Ultra)
Machine Girl’s MG Ultra was an exploration of modern men in psychological decline due to the forces of late-stage capitalist, highly-online culture. And while the penultimate track “Schizodipshit” diving into alt-right radicalization was very close to making this list, it was the album closer “Psychic Attack” that won over in the end. As the drum-and-bass groove and Matt Stephenson’s howls propel the song, the sunny hook and spacy synths snap this dance punk rager back into some semblance of focus. The track ramps up with glitchy effects, tempo shifts, and drum breakdowns to highlight the disorientation nature of the subject matter: getting so angry that you want to fuck someone up. And I’m not talking about the Zeus Network, I’m talking Fuck a handgun, my thoughts are long-range / Dig up your bones, and deep fry your fucking brain. The track concludes with the repetition of you may say I have no life, but I can take yours with my third eye until the song abruptly stops mid-sentence: Machine Girl stood by their wo-
#51: “CHOKEHOLD” by LustSickPuppy (from CAROUSEL FROM HELL)
Now he on his knees plain obsessed with me / Baby please / Don't be dissin' me, you can't impress me / Lookin' good in these jeans but you can't undress me / Now he tryna press me for some LSP! might be the chorus of the year, and those aren’t even my favorite bars on the track. This glitchy hyperpop-rap blend is on the lightweight side for CAROUSEL FROM HELL, but still manages to showcase some manic, industrial instrumentals and LustSickPuppy’s unstoppable charisma. LSP simply has their naysayers in a “CHOKEHOLD” and will spend the next two minutes rubbing it in their opps’ faces. The haters are on their dick because LSP is serving tight pussy, Neo from The Matrix cunt and they’re all just mad because they can’t fuck: LustSickPuppy is the voice of a generation.
See you tomorrow,
e