My Top 100 TV Shows of 2024

Saturday, December 21, 2024

 





1. "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (Amazon Prime)
I think the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring two generational sex symbols who began a tabloid-ready relationship on set, broke some people's brains, because the most common complaint about Donald Glover's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" was that Glover and co-star Maya Erskine are not as sexy as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, as if that's what they were even going for. In fact it's not really the same premise, instead of two married spies, it's two spies who pose as a married couple while on assignment. In any event, it hangs with the best seasons of "Atlanta" and "Community" among Glover's greatest work (I understand he also makes music but I'm pretending I've never heard it), every episode takes a dramatically different approach to the premise and the performances and storytelling are always clever and nuanced. 

2. "Evil" (Paramount+)
Every year it feels like there are multiple movies about exorcisms that mimic 1973's The Exorcist as closely as possible, whether or not they're officially connected to the franchise. It's an extremely narrow genre with a single origin point. So "Evil" had a very wide open lane to do something else, and they did just about everything they could in 50 episodes over 5 years about a Catholic priest and a forensic psychologist investigating all manner of possessions, miracles and unexplained phenomena. To call "Evil" a Catholic "X-Files" would actually undersell how relentlessly funny, creepy, and entertaining this show was. 

3. "The Franchise" (HBO)
One of my favorite things a television show can do is tell a story from the perspective of someone who isn't typically considered the most important person in their workplace. It's a brilliant idea to make the first assistant director on a tentpole film the main character of "The Franchise," to make Hamish Patel the guy who has to run around soothing the egos of the pretentious director, the deeply insecure lead actor, and the overqualified actor playing the villain. The show also allows for hilarious but sometimes very empathetic depictions of all sorts of below-the-line people on the set, from the sleep-deprived visual effects guy to the extras. My favorite cast of 2024, including Richard E. Grant, Aya Cash, Billy Magnussen, and Darren Goldstein from "The Affair" revealing himself as a comedic genius. 

4. "Presumed Innocent" (Apple TV+)
Apple TV+ does a lot of dark, intense courtroom dramas and murder mysteries, and "Presumed Innocent" is by far the most gripping of them. I hadn't read the novel or seen the previous film adaptation with Harrison Ford (both of which apparently have different endings), but I was just on the edge of my seat the entire time and genuinely surprised by the final episode. Career best performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Negga, the best thing from David E. Kelley 2.0's prestige TV run since "Big Little Lies." 

5. "Girls5Eva" (Netflix)
Every network and streamer cancels more shows than it renews, but Netflix wound up with a reputation as the bad guy that cancels everything, partly earned but partly because they simply make more shows than everyone else by several orders of magnitude. So I will give Netflix some credit for picking up "Girls5Eva" for a third season after Peacock failed to renew it, giving me another season of Renee Elise Goldsberry and Paula Pell being two of the funniest women on television. Yes, "Girls5Eva" just got canceled for the second time, by Netflix this time, but they didn't have to pick it up in the first place, and getting 3 seasons instead of 2 is really the point where I usually start to feel like a show got a fair shot, so I'm not gonna hold this one against Netflix. 

6. "We Are Lady Parts" (Peacock)
"We Are Lady Parts" is a slightly more empathetic look at a more DIY kind of girl group than "Girls5Eva," but it's often hilarious in its own right, quite likely the first good sitcom about a punk band. Sarah Kameela Impey is the standout that I'll be looking out for in other projects in the years ahead, in 2024 she was also the only good thing about an episode of the otherwise mediocre "Dinner with the Parents." 

7. "Expats" (Amazon Prime)
In 2017, Nicole Kidman pledged to do a project with a woman director every 18 months, and she's more than exceeded that goal with 15 films or series since then. My favorite of those projects is "Expats" from The Farewell director Lulu Wang, an exquisitely lensed and emotionally complex tale of American families living in Hong Kong. Kidman's character isn't even really the most important role or most impressive performance in the series, which I would say is Ji-young Yoo, but my hat's off to Kidman for helping this get made.  

8. "What We Do In The Shadows" (Hulu)
In this fragile streaming era, a show as good and as ridiculous as "What We Do In The Shadows" getting six seasons is a miracle, especially because the quality never dipped. This year they ended their absurd vampire story with an even more absurd arc with a Frankenstein storyline and a ghost. I can't wait to see what Matt Berry, Kayvan Novak and Natasia Demetriou do next. 

9. "Manhunt" (Apple TV+)
Steven Spielberg didn't depict the president's assassination in Lincoln, figuring, probably correctly, that it would've overwhelmed the rest of the story. That left a lane open for a great miniseries about the assassination and aftermath, and "Manhunt" did a fantastic job with it. I've spent probably a couple hundred hours in Ford's Theatre, often right under the place Lincoln was killed, and I've left the building out the same alley where John Wilkes Booth escaped, so it was fascinating seeing the whole tragedy recreated on location, but obviously there's a lot more to the show, which centers on the 12 days Booth was on the run. 

10. "Abbott Elementary" (ABC)
"Abbott Elementary" being consistently excellent is no longer news. But I'm glad they're still going and showing us how it's done, gradually expanding the cast of recurring players, subtly evolving the main characters and their relationships, and maybe relying on celebrity cameos a little less than they did after that initial burst of awards and acclaim. 

































11. "So Help Me Todd" (CBS)
I try to advocate for the old Big Four broadcast networks and show them praise when they get things right instead of just ignoring them entirely outside of "Abbott" like many do. They don't make it easy on me, though, canceling a great show like "So Help Me Todd" starring Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin after only two seasons. It even ended with a cliffhanger, goddammit! 

12. "Bodkin" (Netflix)
The true crime podcast industrial complex is one of my least favorite aspects of popular culture these days. So I'm glad it's become a punching bag for TV comedy, between "Only Murders in the Building," "Based On a True Story," and this show starring Will Forte as the fish-out-of-water American podcaster visiting an Irish town full of secrets. 

13. "Interior Chinatown" (Hulu)
"Interior Chinatown" sends up an older and more firmly entrenched genre, the crime procedural, with Jimmy O. Yang basically playing a day player from a cold open of a "Law & Order"-type show who gets involved in the story and becomes the star of his own show. Great concept, great execution. 

14. "Lady in the Lake" (Apple TV+)
It's been a while since Barry Levinson made a period piece about the Baltimore of his youth. So I enjoyed seeing director Almar Har-el's vision of '60s Baltimore, complete with Natalie Portman as a reporter for a fictionalized Baltimore Sun (the 'Baltimore Star'), she has a good eye for filming Baltimore for an out-of-towner. It even brought Wood "Avon Barksdale" Harris back to the city! 

15. "I'm A Virgo" (Amazon Prime)
Boots Riley has really made a remarkable pivot from music to film and television. For my money this is an even more accomplished step into poignantly absurdist storytelling than Sorry to Bother You, I hope he keeps getting opportunities to get behind a camera. 

16. "Hacks" (Max)
I've seen people criticize the jokes that the characters on "Hacks" write, as if the show isn't called "Hacks." The character-driven and conflict-driven laughs on the show hit the hardest anyway, but I'm a sucker for some of those hackier punchlines anyway, it's probably the best show about how the comedy sausage is made since "30 Rock," even if it approaches it in a very different way. 

17. "Time Bandits" (Apple TV+)
Lisa Kudrow has consistently done the most good work of any member of the "Friends" cast, and this year she ran up the score with starring roles in both the Netflix dark comedy "No Good Deed" and the Apple TV+ adaptation of the 1981 film Time Bandits. I was probably too young the first time I saw the original Time Bandits and it left a huge footprint on my brain, and I enjoyed what the "What We Do In The Shadows" creative team did with the reboot. Kal-El Tuck is so incredibly funny and on point as a child actor, that kid's going places. 

18. "Fallout" (Amazon Prime)
Ella Purnell probably edges out Kudrow with the most impressive pair of lead performances in two different shows in 2024, "Fallout" and "Sweetpea." I've never played the Fallout video game, but I really enjoyed how they transferred that world to a story populated with a ghoulish Walton Goggins and Matt Berry-voiced robots. 

19. "The Decameron" (Netflix)
The cancellation of the last few years that I'm most bitter about is Kathleen Jordan's "Teenage Bounty Hunters," which only lasted one season. So at least Jordan's latest Netflix project was designed as a miniseries from the get-to so I never got my hopes up. And I loved how she turned 14th century Italian literature into a madcap ensemble sitcom with Tony Hale and Zosia Mamet. 

20. "Hot Ones" (YouTube)
About a week ago, Buzzfeed sold the company that produces "Hot Ones" for $82.5 million to a consortium of investors that includes the show's host Sean Evans. To some, this was a funny or depressing story about the value of silly chicken wing-themed YouTube content, but I thought it was a rare feelgood story in this hellish media landscape. Evans is one of the best interviewers on television of any kind these days, and he totally deserves to own a piece of the silly phenomenon he built into what is frequently the most entertaining and even most intellectually stimulating stop on a celebrity's promotional junket. 

21. "Conan O'Brien Must Go" (Max)
Conan O'Brien has been a comedy genius for decades, and this year people finally treated him like one after the debut of his hilarious travel series and his even funnier "Hot Ones" appearance. And now he's going to host the fucking Oscars in March! I'm so excited for that. The Conanaissance is here. 

22. "The Diplomat" (Netflix)
Nostalgia for "The West Wing" took another fatal hit this year when Aaron Sorkin published a moronic op-ed suggesting that the Democratic party run Mitt Romney as its presidential nominee. But a "West Wing" writer and producer, Debora Cahn, created the kind of smart, snappy political drama that Sorkin lost the ability to make a long time ago, and they even added Allison Janney for the second season!

23. "Feud: Capote Vs The Swans" (FX)
I can't tell if Ryan Murphy was interrogating his own catty fascination with the controversies of the rich and glamorous in the harsh way he depicts Truman Capote in the second season of "Feud" or if he only accidentally made a show about himself. In either event, it's one of the only worthwhile things he's made in years, with some great meta casting of several generations of Hollywood it girls including Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, Chloe Sevigny, and the unexpected standout, Calista Flockhart. 

24. "English Teacher" (FX)
Enrico Colantoni is so good as the beleaguered principal on "English Teacher," his best role since "Veronica Mars." Sean Patton is hilarious too, I'd never seen him in anything before. A really fucked up story about other stars of this show was just published a few days ago, so that's all I'm gonna say right now. Yikes! 

25. "Agatha All Along" (Disney+)
"WandaVision" set up a Kathryn Hahn spinoff series so brilliantly in early 2021 that my main criticism is that they didn't have one in the works right from the bat, it would've hit better if it didn't take three and a half years to show up. Jac Schaeffer is definitely one of the only people working in the MCU right now who has a real vision, though. Keep her busy, please. 


































26. "Three Women" (Showtime)
27. "Shrinking" (Apple TV+)
28. "La Maquina" (Hulu)
29. "Sweetpea" (Starz)
30. "A Man On The Inside" (Netflix)
31. "Only Murders In The Building" (Hulu)
32. "Bob's Burgers" (Fox)
33. "Shoresy" (Hulu)
34. "Bad Sisters" (Apple TV+)
35. "Say Nothing" (Hulu)
36. "Fantasmas" (HBO)
37. "Shogun" (FX)
38. "Bad Monkey" (Apple TV+)
39. "Somebody Somewhere" (HBO)
40. "No Good Deed" (Netflix)
41. "The Sex Lives of College Girls" (Max)
42. "St. Denis Medical" (NBC)
43. "The Old Man" (FX)
44. "Based On A True Story" (Peacock)
45. "The Acolyte" (Disney+)
46. "Last Week Tonight" (HBO)
47. "The Bear" (Hulu)
48. "Mary & George" (Starz)
49. "How To Die Alone" (Hulu)
50. "The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal" (Amazon Prime)
51. "A Good Girl's Guide To Murder" (Netflix)
52. "Death And Other Details" (Hulu)
53. "One Day" (Netflix)
54. "For All Mankind" (Apple TV+)
55. "Animal Control" (Fox)
56. "The Brothers Sun" (Netflix)
57. "The Sympathizer" (HBO)
58. "UnPrisoned" (Hulu)
59. "A Man In Full" (Netflix)
60. "Renegade Nell" (Disney+)
61. "My Lady Jane" (Amazon Prime)
62. "Bridgerton" (Netflix)
63. "The Veil" (Hulu)
64. "Disclaimer" (Apple TV+)
65. "The Madness" (Netflix)
66. "Joan" (The CW)
67. "Nobody Wants This" (Netflix)
68. "The Boys" (Amazon Prime)
69. "Saturday Night Live" (NBC)
70. "Before" (Apple TV+)
71. "Silo" (Apple TV+)
72. "Dune: Prophecy" (HBO)
73. "The Legend of Vox Machina" (Amazon Prime)
74. "Palm Royale" (Apple TV+)
75. "The Regime" (HBO)
76. "Not Dead Yet" (ABC)
77. "The Girls On The Bus" (Max)
78. "Invincible" (Amazon Prime)
79. "The Big Door Prize" (Apple TV+)
80. "Under The Bridge" (Hulu)
81. "Sunny" (Apple TV+)
82. "STAX: Soulsville U.S.A." (HBO)
83. "Futurama" (Hulu)
84. "Geek Girl" (Netflix)
85. "Dark Matter" (Apple TV+)
86. "Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show" (HBO)
87. "Trying" (Apple TV+)
88. "Life & Beth" (Hulu)
89. "Poppa's House" (CBS)
90. "Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist" (Peacock)
91. "The New Look" (Apple TV+)
92. "Mr. Throwback" (Peacock)
93. "The Penguin" (HBO)
94. "The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin" (Apple TV+)
95. "The Vince Staples Show" (Netflix)
96. "Loot" (Apple TV+)
97. "Will Trent" (ABC)
98. "The Daily Show" (Comedy Central)
99. "Monsieur Spade" (AMC)
100. "Reacher" (Amazon Prime)

2:36 PM

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

 






I made a list of the 10 best 2024 hip-hop albums by women for Spin. 

12:02 PM

My Top 100 Singles of 2024

Monday, December 16, 2024































I already posted the lists of my favorite rap, country, R&B, rock/alternative, and pop singles of 2024, so here's where I just pour them all together into one 5-hour playlist. 

The artist or producers or songwriters who appear on this list three times each are GloRilla, Daniel Nigro, Sabrina Carpenter, Julian Bunetta, Amy Allen, Usher, and Jay Joyce. The people who appear twice are Chappell Roan, Kendrick Lamar, Mustard, Billie Eilish, Finneas, John Ryan, Bruno Mars, D'Mile, Beyonce, Go Grizzly, Bankroll Got It, Lucky Daye, Muni Long, Jeff Gitelman, Megan Thee Stallion, Andrew Watt, Driver Williams, Jessie Jo Dillon, Ryan Tedder, Luke Laird, LunchMoney Lewis, and Kevin Theodore. 

1. GloRilla - "Yeah Glo!"
2. Chappell Roan - "Good Luck, Babe!"
3. Kendrick Lamar - "Not Like Us"
4. Billie Eilish - "Birds Of A Feather"
5. Sabrina Carpenter - "Taste"
6. Hozier - "Too Sweet"
7. BossMan Dlow - "Get In With Me"
8. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars - "Die With A Smile"
9. Ella Langley f/ Riley Green - "You Look Like You Love Me"
10. Charli XCX - "Apple"
11. Doechii - "Nissan Altima"
12. Chayce Beckham - "23"
13. SZA - "Saturn"
14. Beyonce - "Texas Hold 'Em"
15. The Last Dinner Party - "Nothing Matters"
16. BigXthaPlug - "MMHMM"
17. Ariana Grande - "The Boy Is Mine"
18. Flo Milli - "Never Lose Me"
19. Chappell Roan - "Hot To Go!"
20. Badflower - "Detroit"
21. 21 Savage - "Redrum"
22. Sum 41 - "Landmines"
23. Latto - "Sunday Service"
24. Maeta f/ Free Nationals - "Through The Night"
25. Sabrina Carpenter - "Espresso"
26. The Marias - "Run Your Mouth"
27. Billie Eilish - "Lunch"
28. Post Malone f/ Morgan Wallen - "I Had Some Help"
29. Ashley Cooke - "Your Place"
30. Toosii f/ Muni Long - "I Do"
31. Coco Jones - "Here We Go (Uh Oh)"
32. Future & Metro Boomin f/ Kendrick Lamar - "Like That" 
33. Parker McCollum - "Burn It Down"
34. GloRilla f/ Megan Thee Stallion - "Wanna Be"
35. Pearl Jam - "Dark Matter"
36. Jackson Dean - "Heavens To Betsy"
37. Tems - "Love Me JeJe"
38. LL Cool J f/ Saweetie - "Proclivities"
39. Beyonce f/ Miley Cyrus - "II Most Wanted"
40. Green Day - "Dilemma"
41. Halsey - "Ego"
42. Lucky Daye - "That's You"
43. Taylor Swift - "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart"
44. PsiRyn - "Sober"
45. Cash Cobain f/ Bay Swag - "Fisherr"
46. Dexter and the Moonrocks - "Sad In Carolina" 
47. Olivia Rodrigo - "Obsessed"
48. Beabadoobee - "Beaches"
49. Lainey Wilson - "Hang Tight Honey"
50. Maxwell - "Simply Beautiful"
51. Dasha - "Austin"
52. The Cure - "A Fragile Thing"
53. Tinashe - "Nasty"
54. Djo - "End of Beginning"
55. Gracie Abrams - "Risk"
56. Jordan Adetunji - "Kehlani"
57. Isabel LaRosa - "Favorite"
58. Jack White - "That's How I'm Feeling"
59. Shaboozey - "A Bar Song (Tipsy)"
60. Gunna - "One of Wun"
61. Benson Boone - "Beautiful Things"
62. Kassi Ashton - "Called Crazy"
63. Real Boston Richey - "Help Me"
64. Jordan Davis - "Tuscon Too Late"
65. Camila Cabello f/ Lil Nas X - "He Knows"
66. Megan Thee Stallion - "Hiss" 
67. Usher - "Kissing Strangers"
68. Kehlani - "After Hours"
69. Beartooth - "I Was Alive"
70. Mustard f/ Travis Scott - "Parking Lot"
71. Lay Bankz - "Tell Ur Girlfriend"
72. Myles Smith - "Stargazing"
73. GloRilla - "TGIF"
74. Blink-182 - "All In My Head"
75. Nicki Minaj f/ Lil Uzi Vert - "Everybody"
76. Future Islands - "The Tower"
77. Usher f/ Pheelz - "Ruin"
78. The Black Crowes - "Wanting And Waiting"
79. Muni Long - "Ruined Me"
80. Bryan Martin - "We Ride"
81. Jelly Roll - "Halfway To Hell"
82. Sabrina Carpenter - "Feather"
83. Honey Bxby - "Touchin'" 
84. Key Glock - "Let's Go"
85. Luther Vandross - "Michelle" 
86. Renee Rapp f/ Megan Thee Stallion - "Not My Fault"
87. Good Neighbours - "Home"
88. Rob49 f/ Cardi B - "On Dat Money"
89. Teddy Swims - "Lose Control"
90. Linkin Park - "The Emptiness Machine"
91. Eric Church - "Darkest Hour (Helene Edit)"
92. Megan Moroney - "Am I Okay?"
93. Jeremih f/ Bryson Tiller and Chris Brown - "Wait On It"
94. Dierks Bentley - "American Girl"
95. Tommy Richman - "Million Dollar Baby"
96. Justin Moore - "This Is My Dirt"
97. 4batz f/ Drake - "Act II: Date @ 8 (Remix)"
98. Marshmello & Kane Brown - "Miles On It"
99. The Weeknd f/ Playboi Carti - "Timeless"
100. Luke Combs - "Ain't No Love In Oklahoma"

11:13 AM

The 2024 Remix Report Card: Final Grades

Saturday, December 14, 2024


 






















I've been doing the Remix Report Card since 2007, reviewing somewhere around a thousand remixes, mostly here, but on Noisey from 2014 to 2018 (I'd be happy to publish it elsewhere if anyone ever wants to pay me to do it again). 2023 was the first time I reviewed over 100 remixes in one year, and once again in 2024 I reviewed over 100 remixes of 80-something songs (some songs had two or more remixes). We are, at least from a quantity standpoint, arguably at peak remix, although a greater majority of them are bare minimum effort remixes with one new verse, no change to the production, no video, no DJ spins, just padding out the promo rollout with empty calorie features. Let's restore the feeling! More remixes that actually matter! 

NLE Choppa guested on 6 remixes and Flo Milli guested on 5 (really they're tied, because Flo Milli is also on the remix of "Embrace It" by Ndotz that just came out last week, which I won't cover in this column until the first 2025 edition). Trina was on 3 remixes, and I think those are the only artists that guested on more than 2 remixes this year. 

Here's the Spotify playlist of every remix I reviewed in 2024, and the columns from this year where I wrote about all of these tracks: Vol. 1, 2, 3, and 4. Let's work it out on the remix, as they say. 

The 20 Best Remixes of 2024: 
1. "Sunday Service (Remix)" by Latto featuring Megan Thee Stallion and Flo Milli
2. "Girl, So Confusing (Remix)" by Charli XCX featuring Lorde
3. "M.N.E.I.G. (Remix)" by idontknowjeffery featuring GloRilla, NLE Choppa, Juicy J and Marcus.901
4. "Texas Hold 'Em (Pony Up Remix)" by Beyonce
5. "Okay (Remix)" by JT featuring Jeezy
6. "Fisherr (Remix)" by Cash Cobain featuring Ice Spice and Bay Swag
7. "Put That On Everythang (Legends Remix)" by Pookie F'n Rude featuring Suga Free, Warren G, E-40 and Hash Hearted
8. "Your Friends (Remix)" by Hunxho featuring Summer Walker
9. "The Boy Is Mine (Remix)" by Ariana Grande featuring Brandy and Monica
10. "Kehlani (Remix)" by Jordan Adetunju featuring Kehlani
11. "Never Lose Me (Remix)" by Flo Milli featuring SZA and Cardi B
12. "Bad Bitty (Remix)" by J.P. featuring NLE Choppa
13. "Act II: Date @ 8 (Remix)" by 4Batz featuring Drake
14. "Wanna Be (Remix)" by GloRilla featuring Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion
15. "Mmhmm (Remix)" by BigXthaPlug featuring Finesse2tymes
16. "Team Tomodachi (Bun B IITIGHT Remix)" by Yuki Chiba featuring Bun B
17. "Ghetto & Ratchet (Remix)" by Connie Diiamond featuring Remy Ma
18. "Don Who Leo (Anejo Remix)" by Monaleo featuring Rob49
19. "Can't Get Enough (Dutty Remix)" by Jennifer Lopez featuring Sean Paul
20. "Slut Me Out 2 (Country Me Out)" by NLE Choppa featuring J.P. 

The 10 Worst Remixes of 2024:
1. "Like That (Remix)" by Future & Metro Boomin featuring Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign
2. "Bow Bow Bow (F My Baby Mama)" by Sexyy Red featuring Chief Keef
3. "Never Lose Me (Remix)" by Flo Milli featuring Lil Yachty
4. "Barbie (Remix)" by JaidynAlexis featuring Blueface
5. "Problem (Remix)" by Laila! featuring Cash Cobain, Fabolous, Kenzo B, Big Sean, Lay Bankz, Luh Tyler, Anycia, Chow Lee, Kaliii, 6lack, Flo Milli, YN Jay, Flee, Don Q and Rob49
6. "Nasty XXX Remix" by Tinashe featuring Tyga
7. "Act III: On God? (Remix)" by 4batz featuring Kanye West
8. "Drift (Remix)" by Teejay featuring French Montana
9. "Ghetto & Ratchet (Remix)" by Connie Diiamond featuring Jenn Carter
10. "FTCU (Sleezemix)" by Nicki Minaj featuring Travis Scott, Chris Brown and Sexyy Red

2:55 PM

The 20 Best Pop Radio Hits of 2024

Thursday, December 12, 2024

 





I've already done the rap, country, R&B and rock/alternative lists, so this is the last in the series. Here's the Spotify playlist: 

1. Chappell Roan - "Good Luck, Babe!"
#1 Pop Airplay, #4 Hot 100
Like a lot of people, one of the albums I listened to the most this year was Chappell Roan's 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which I didn't hear when it first came out (although if anyone told me the whole thing was made with Olivia Rodrigo's producer/co-writer Daniel Nigro I think I would've checked it out and loved it right away). Touring with Rodrigo and putting on some great viral performances on things like Tiny Desk Concert helped Roan's album gradually take off, but the non-album single she released this year, "Good Luck, Baby!," was really the thing that put her into the stratosphere, thankfully without totally outshining the album. In an era when pop songs with bridges are an endangered species, "Good Luck, Babe!" made the bridge feel like the climax, the showstopper, the part you look forward to every time the song comes on. 

2. Billie Eilish - "Birds Of A Feather"
#1 Pop Airplay, #2 Hot 100
Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell have created a signature sound that stands apart from a lot of pop music even now that they're heavily influencing other artists. And they'll occasionally tweak that sound to great effect without totally departing from it in, the best example of which being "Birds Of A Feather." I immediately called it the best thing she's ever made the first time I listened to Hit Me Hard And Soft, and wasn't surprised at all when it leapfrogged over the album's chosen lead single, the also very good "Lunch," to become a far bigger hit. 

3. Sabrina Carpenter - "Taste"
#2 Pop Airplay, #2 Hot 100
A year ago, I put Sabrina Carpenter's "Nonsense" at #1 on my year-end singles list, and though it was definitely her breakthrough, it was a relatively minor hit compared to everything she's released since then. I've been nostalgic about the One Direction era lately given Liam Payne's death, and it's nice to see Julian Bunetta, the producer behind a lot of my favorite One Direction songs, return to the pop charts in a big way with Carpenter (on "Taste," "Nonsense," and another song that will appear on this list, "Espresso"). 

4. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars - "Die With A Smile"
#1 Pop Airplay, #2 Hot 100
Bruno Mars is the only male singer in the top 10 of this list or in the image at the top of this post, and he's still basically on a long break between projects, just occasionally darting back onto the charts to show off his hitmaking prowess. Pretty much everything Lady Gaga did this year underperformed, including the movie this song was released in connection with, but "Die With A Smile" is a fucking hit, and reminds me how much I enjoyed the first time Mars got in his movie soundtrack power ballad bag with "It Will Rain." 

5. Charli XCX - "Apple"
#12 Pop Airplay, #51 Hot 100
I adore Charli XCX and think that the unexpectedly huge year she's had has been pretty cool, but I have to admit I don't think Brat is remotely her best album and was always a little underwhelmed by the album's biggest hit, "360." But I will credit TikTok with helping one of my favorite songs on the album get some momentum. 

6. Ariana Grande - "The Boy Is Mine"
#16 Pop Airplay, #16 Hot 100
Eternal Sunshine is the only album Ariana Grande has released in the last 4 years, and it got a somewhat abbreviated promo cycle with no tour, because, as she made clear many times, the Wicked rollout was her top priority for 2024. And given Wicked's box office, that was a pretty shrewd choice, but I'm glad we got an album out of her this year. Other artists had multiple #1 songs this year, but Eternal Sunshine was the other album with two #1s, and those songs were both decent, but I really liked the third single the most, which my local pop station has played a lot more than other songs that missed the top 10. 

7. Chappell Roan - "Hot To Go!"
#9 Pop Airplay, #15 Hot 100
I remember when I first heard "Pink Pony Club" earlier in the year and started to catch onto the huge buzz around Chappell Roan and started to check out the album and all her videos, and "Hot To Go!" really jumped out as an obvious potential hit. And I think I like the song even more now that it has become ubiquitous, just puts on a smile on my face every time I hear it. 

8. Sabrina Carpenter - "Espresso"
#1 Pop Airplay, #3 Hot 100
Future generations will be baffled that it was "Please Please Please," not "Espresso," that hit #1 this year, but in the streaming era, chart peaks are even more about timing and the artist's momentum than the song itself. "Please Please Please" is a pretty good song that sounds fucking terrible, the final endpoint of all of Jack Antonoff's worst instincts (the acoustic version salvages it pretty well), and it only hit #1 because it was the first thing that came out after "Espresso," her real world-conquering coronation moment. 

9. Beyonce f/ Miley Cyrus - "II Most Wanted"
#19 Pop Airplay, #6 Hot 100
I rolled my eyes pretty hard when Miley Cyrus was revealed as one of the guests on Cowboy Carter (family ties aside, maybe 3% of her catalog can be described as country  music). I have to admit, though, "II Most Wanted" is a good song and Beyonce and Miley harmonize really well together. As I noted in the 2024 country list, country radio's embrace of "Texas Hold 'Em" was kind of tepid and obligatory, and the song actually did better on pop radio, so it felt like a good choice for this song to follow it as the Top 40 single. 

10. Halsey - "Ego"
#28 Pop Airplay
The funniest thing that happened to me on Twitter this year was inspired by "Ego," but it's also a pretty awesome song, one of my favorites on The Great Impersonator. I guess the official artist that this is a nod to is the Cranberries, which wouldn't have really occurred to me, but either way I enjoy it as a nice angsty mall rock jam. 

11. Taylor Swift - "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart"
#6 Pop Airplay, #3 Hot 100
Every album Taylor Swift released in the first decade of her career, culminating in 1989, was well positioned for maximum commercial impact. Of the many albums Swift has released in the 10 years since 1989, I would say that only one of them, Lover, was lobbed straight down the middle as the product of an A-list pop star trying to maintain their position at the top. The rest are all curveballs in some way or another, even if they're all pretty accessible and successful by any reasonable measure. The Tortured Poet's Department is particularly downtempo and feels almost actively angry at her fanbase for hastening the end of a relationship that, judging from the album, meant a lot to her. "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" is one of the few really uptempo songs on the album, but it's kind of a passive-aggressive celebration of how she could carry the Eras Tour to historic grosses while she was, apparently, completely miserable and heartbroken for at least part of the tour. In a weird way I think it's actually one of the more moving and relatable songs she's ever written, I think most of us have had days where we feel like shit about our personal lives but go to work that day and admire our ability to compartmentalize it all and put on a smile. 

12. Olivia Rodrigo - "Obsessed"
#14 Pop Airplay, #10 Hot 100
"Good 4 U" is Olivia Rodrigo's biggest song, and it feels like it signaled her true musical direction, I love how guitar-heavy Guts was and how she had the Breeders open for her. Doubling down on that sound is still a little risky, though, and when Rodrigo released three rock-oriented singles in a row, none of them were embraced by alternative radio, and all of them landed in the same middle zone on Pop Airplay (#11 for "Bad Idea, Right?" and #9 for "Get Him Back" and #10 for "Obsessed"). I don't know if she'll pull back from that sound in the future or just keep at it, but I love all the music she's done in this vein, she's such a badass. 

13. Gracie Abrams - "Risk"
#25 Pop Airplay, #94 Hot 100
Gracie Abrams, daughter of blockbuster filmmaker J.J. Abrams, is in the same post-Taylor Swift zone as Olivia Rodrigo, they even have kinda similar voices, but Abrams's music is a bit softer. My favorite songs of hers have a little of a Lilith Fair vibe with fast strumming acoustic guitar risks, but The Secret of Us lead single "Risk" was very quickly overshadowed by the radio favorite "Close To You," the YouTube favorite "I Love You, I'm Sorry," and the deluxe edition streaming favorite "That's So True," which sounds a lot like "Risk" but not as good. 

14. Isabel LaRosa - "Favorite"
#26 Pop Airplay
Isabel LaRosa is a singer-songwriter from Annapolis, Maryland who's done some pretty big streaming numbers with a few of her singles, mostly building an audience through TikTok, but I didn't hear her until my local pop station started playing "Favorite," which has one first in English and one in Spanish. I've been on a couple email threads with her people this year trying to set up an interview, hopefully that will happen soon, I feel like she's got a big future. 

15. Benson Boone - "Beautiful Things"
#1 Pop Airplay, #2 Hot 100
A slow-burning song that starts in waltz time for its first half and then switches to 4/4 for a big bombastic rock climax is an unusual structure for a massive hit song with well over a billion streams. But it's happened twice in the last few years, first with Billie Eilish's "Happier Than Ever," and then with Benson Boone's breakthrough single. 

16. Camila Cabello f/ Lil Nas X - "He Knows"
#27 Pop Airplay
Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes were a chart-topping power couple for a minute, but they've both descended into their respective flop eras since breaking up. I didn't much care for Cabello's new album C,XOXO, which felt kind of forced and edgy in a way that reminded me of Miley Cyrus circa Bangerz. But I really dug one song, the one that featured Lil Nas X, someone else who was a huge star a few years ago but has had trouble scoring a hit this year (and I liked "J Christ" too!). 

17. Usher - "Kissing Strangers"
#28 Pop Airplay
After all the comeback hype, Usher's Coming Home was just a solid, moderately popular R&B album, and the week after the Super Bowl, "Yeah!" was the only song he had on the Hot 100. The song that got worked to Top 40 radio was a really lovely, underrated track, though. 

18. Sabrina Carpenter - "Feather"
#1 Pop Airplay, #21 Hot 100
Sabrina Carpenter became a major star by any measure this year, including on streaming services, but her radio domination is really something. She currently has four songs in the top 20 of the Pop Airplay chart, and "Feather" was the first of three of her songs to hit #1 on pop radio this year. 

19. Renee Rapp f/ Megan Thee Stallion - "Not My Fault"
#12 Pop Airplay
Renee Rapp is one of the best things about the Max sitcom "The Sex Lives of College Girls," and she recently left the show to focus on her music career. That's fine with me, because I thought her 2023 album Snow Angel was great, but for whatever reason, that album didn't do great on the charts. Instead, one of the songs from the movie of the Mean Girls she co-starred in turned out to be her real radio breakthrough. It's also Tina Fey's husband Jeff Richmond first songwriting credit on a pop hit, let's go Jeff! 

20. Teddy Swims - "Lose Control"
#1 Pop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
"Lose Control" was the biggest radio song of 2024 and was a cross-format smash, even getting play on R&B and alternative stations, in a fashion similar to another White soul song, "Rolling in the Deep," did over a decade ago. I got really tired of it for a while, but then the extremely tiresome follow-up single "The Door" came out and I realized I at least enjoy "Lose Control" a lot more than that one. Also, another big win for Julian Bunetta! 

The 10 Worst Pop Radio Hits of 2024:
1. The Weeknd - "Dancing In The Flames"
2. Katy Perry - "Woman's World"
3. Eminem - "Houdini"
4. MGK and Jelly Roll - "Lonely Road"
5. Knox - "Not The 1975"
6. Jagwar Twin - "Bad Feeling (Oompa Loompa)"
7. Mark Ambor - "Belong Together"
8. Gracie Abrams - "Close To You"
9. Selena Gomez - "Love On" 
10. Addison Rae - "Diet Pepsi"

Previously: The 20 Best Pop Radio Hits of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

1:08 PM

The 20 Best Rock/Alternative Radio Hits of 2024

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

 




I posted the rap, country and R&B lists last week, finishing up the series later this week with pop. Here's the Spotify playlist:

1. Hozier - "Too Sweet"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #1 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #1 Hot 100
My wife is an enormous Hozier fan, and it's been fun to sort of watch his enormous success in 2024 through her eyes. We saw him at Merriweather Post Pavilion in May, a show that had sold out months before "Too Sweet" was even released, so I enjoyed that moment of seeing someone perform their biggest hit right at the moment that it was everywhere, but the audience was still full of longtime diehard fans who loved the album cuts just as much. 

2. The Last Dinner Party - "Nothing Matters"
#7 Alternative Airplay, #15 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I like this year's breakout UK indie rock girl group a lot more than their predecessors, Wet Leg, although I think they're doing a pretty similar insouciant self-aware thing, just with a more luxuriant aesthetic. The follow-up single "Sinner" is also really good and was closer to being my top Spotify track for 2024, but I think the guitar solo on "Nothing Matters" puts it a little higher for me. 

3. Badflower - "Detroit"
#11 Alternative Airplay, #3 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #5 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I probably note this every year when I do this list, but the 'Mainstream Rock' chart has been ironically named for a couple decades now because it's even more niche and distant from pop culture than the Alternative chart. Some classic household names like Metallica still dominate the chart, but a lot of it is bands you didn't realize still existed like Seether and bands you may have never heard of in the first place like Badflower, who totally blew me away with the best song of their career recently. 

4. Sum 41 - "Landmines"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #19 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #2 Rock & Alternative Airplay
The custom for farewells in rock is to generally wait until you're so old you can barely play anymore and haven't written a hit song in 40 years, and do one last tour. The Canadian pop punk band Sum 41 however, decided to go for a farewell album and tour just 20 years after their commercial peak, and the lead single was so good it became one of their biggest songs ever, making a good argument for rock retirement in your 40s. 

5. The Marias - "Run Your Mouth"
#16 Alternative Airplay, #27 Rock & Alternative Airplay
It's interesting these days when albums wind up having two hits with totally different audiences in different formats, one for radio and one for streaming. The uptempo lead single for L.A. indie pop band The Marias' second album became their radio breakthrough, but a few months later, one of their quieter tracks, "No One Noticed," took off on TikTok and became their first Hot 100 entry. Personally, I like "Run Your Mouth" more. 

6. Billie Eilish - "Lunch"
#8 Alternative Airplay, #9 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #5 Hot 100
Billie Eilish made much ado about not releasing an advance single from Hit Me Hard And Soft, but also wanted to control what was the first single from the album once it did come out. That plan quickly went off the rails as "Birds Of A Feather" became a streaming sensation and eventually dominated pop radio, but the nominal lead single "Lunch" was also pretty great and followed in the footsteps of "Bad Guy" and "Therefore I Am" as an alternative radio hit. 

7. Pearl Jam - "Dark Matter"
#6 Alternative Airplay, #1 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #1 Rock & Alternative Airplay
In the '90s, Pearl Jam were a great singles band that acted like they didn't care about being a singles band, and eventually they made enough counterintuitive single choices that they stopped dominating rock radio. They've circled around to having pretty excellent singles on their last few albums, though, especially all three singles from Dark Matter, and the title track became the band's first #1 on Mainstream Rock since "Given To Fly" way back in 1998. 

8. Green Day - "Dilemma"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #1 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #1 Rock & Alternative Airplay
Green Day have been a lot more efficient and unambiguously ambitious about keeping their spot at the top than reluctant rock stars like Pearl Jam, but Green Day have really released a lot of mediocre, samey singles over the last couple decades. So "Dilemma" was a pleasant surprise, just a nice hard hitting combination of Billie Joe Armstrong's affection for '50s rock in the verses with a big sludgy '90s chorus. 

9. Dexter and the Moonrocks - "Sad In Carolina" 
#1 Alternative Airplay, #11 Rock & Alternative Airplay
For the last decade or two, a band I've never heard of becoming suddenly ubiquitous on alternative radio has usually led to a lot of annoyance and disappointment. But Dexter and the Moonrocks, the "western space grunge" band from Texas who recently topped hit #1 with their first song on the chart, seem pretty promising, I hope they continue to thrive. 

10. Beabadoobee - "Beaches"
#12 Alternative Airplay, #22 Rock & Alternative Airplay
I really like Beabadoobee's albums, but I had kinda resigned myself to the idea that the time she was sampled on Powfu's hit "Death Bed" was the peak of her mainstream exposure and she'd remain kind of a cult artist. And I was pleased to be proven wrong this year when her Rick Rubin-produced third album This Is How Tomorrow Moves hit #1 on the UK charts and did better on American radio than her previous albums, with a splashy rollout and lots of music videos where Beatrice Laus looked gorgeous. 

11. The Cure - "A Fragile Thing"
#15 Alternative Airplay, #16 Rock & Alternative Airplay
A lot of people were blown away by "Alone," The Cure's first new song in 16 years, partly because it was a slow 8-minute behemoth that was so outwardly unconcerned with radio airplay. When I wrote about Songs of a Lost World, though, the second single "A Fragile Thing" appealed to me a lot more, and I'm glad it's done better than I expected on the radio. Yesterday I had to drive to work at 5:30am, and "A Fragile Thing" was the first song that came on the radio after I got in the car, sounded really good in that weird context. 

12. Djo - "End of Beginning"
#4 Alternative Airplay, #5 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #11 Hot 100
The last season of "Stranger Things" had a powerful effect on the charts, launching Kate Bush and Metallica tracks from the '80s onto the charts. and this year one of the actors on the show wound up with a fluke viral sensation on TikTok that also became a fairly major Hot 100 hit. Joe Keery doesn't seem to be very overtly trying to parlay his TV fame into a Don Johnson-style music career, but this song is good, I wouldn't be mad if it did turn him into some kind of radio fixture. 

13. Jack White - "That's How I'm Feeling"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #21 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #2 Rock & Alternative Airplay
Since the end of the White Stripes, Jack White has done a pretty good job of maintaining his status and maybe the biggest rock star under 50 (at least until next year), but it wasn't until he surprise released his sixth solo album, No Name, that he hit #1 on alternative radio for the first time since "Icky Thump." "That's How I'm Feeling" hits some familiar marks, playing the same riff for most of the song, first quiet and then really really loud, and it's extremely satisfying to blast on a car radio. 

14. Beartooth - "I Was Alive"
#1 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #13 Rock & Alternative Airplay
Hard rock radio has been a bland slush of post-grunge and nu-metal for a couple of decades, but at some point someone decided to brand that stuff as "metalcore" and it's very, very popular. Most metalcore bands cannot write a song to save their lives, but "I Was Alive" is a good one. I can still imagine it being way better with less bland production and possibly a more expressive singer, but as is, it's still a really catchy standout song in a scene that I have very little time for. 

15. Myles Smith - "Stargazing"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #2 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #20 Hot 100
We've had feelgood folk pop hits like this every few months for the last 10 years or so, and "Stargazing" comes from Myles Smith, a Black Brit from a Jamaican family. I haven't listened to any of his other songs yet, but I could definitely see him sticking around and being as big as the Lumineers, if not Ed Sheeran. 

16. Blink-182 - "All In My Head"
#7 Alternative Airplay, #8 Rock & Alternative Airplay
After Blink-182's Enema of the State-era lineup reunited, they released a couple of singles I hated that veered chaotically from puerile ("Edging") to maudlin ("One More Time"). With "All In My Head," however, I hear some recognizable remnants of the songs I loved by the band from 2003. 

17. Future Islands - "The Tower"
#33 Alternative Airplay, #26 Rock & Alternative Airplay
Future Islands have stuck to their guns with a deeply unique sound for over 15 years now, and I love that a band from Baltimore's 2000s DIY scene can still have a foothold in the mainstream today, just awesome brilliant dudes. 

18. The Black Crowes - "Wanting And Waiting"
#15 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #14 Rock & Alternative Airplay
More than most other Gen X retro rockers, I really think the Black Crowes' early albums have aged well and those guys can really play. So I was happy to see the Robinson brothers work things out and make a new album with probably my favorite producer working today, Jay Joyce. 

19. Good Neighbours - "Home"
#8 Alternative Airplay, #10 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #77 Hot 100
Alternative radio has kind of become the de facto home for a lot of moody, quirky and/or atmospheric songs that blow up on TikTok but aren't bit and bright enough to be pop hits. Sometimes those songs are a little too bland to stick in my head, but "Home" is a a pretty strong example of whatever you call this genre of viral songs. 

20. Linkin Park - "The Emptiness Machine"
#1 Alternative Airplay, #1 Mainstream Rock Airplay, #1 Rock & Alternative Airplay, #21 Hot 100
The first time I did this list in 2012, the #5 song was "Weatherman" by Dead Sara, an absolute scorcher that instantly made Emily Armstrong one of my favorite rock singers. Dead Sara made three albums but never managed to get any further than the modest success of "Weatherman." Now, though, Armstrong is the new lead singer of one of the biggest bands in the world, a kind of bizarre and surreal position to suddenly be thrust into that has made her the object of a lot of positive and negative attention. I still love her voice and she has some great moments on the From Zero, but I kinda wish it was the debut album by a new band, it is a little weird to think of Linkin Park existing without Chester Bennington. 

The 10 Worst Rock/Alternative Radio Hits of 2024:
1. Shinedown - "A Symptom of Being Human"
2. Artemas - "I Like The Way You Kiss Me"
3. Hardy - "Psycho"
4. Pierce The Veil - "Karma Police"
5. Royal Otis - "Sofa King"
6. Honestav f/ Mod Sun - "I'd Rather Overdose"
7. AJR - "Yes, I'm A Mess"
8. Glass Animals - "Creatures In Heaven"
9. Imagine Dragons - "Eyes Closed"
10. Black Keys - "Beautiful People (Stay High)" 

Previously: The 20 Best Rock/Alternative Radio Hits of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. 

6:35 AM

Sunday, December 08, 2024

 




I ranked every Coachella lineup for Vulture. 

12:15 PM

Saturday, December 07, 2024

 






My latest for Spin: I ranked Beatles albums and interviewed Janani K. Jha. 

12:14 PM

The 20 Best R&B Radio Hits of 2024

Friday, December 06, 2024

 





I posted the rap and country lists earlier in the week, rock/alternative and pop to follow. Here's the Spotify playlist: 

1. SZA - "Saturn"
#5 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #6 Hot 100
In spite of all her success, it still feels like SZA is being held back by her label from releasing whatever she wants to release when she wants to release it. Ever since SOS was finally released, she's talked about a bunch of songs she didn't get to put on the album that were going to come out on a deluxe version of the album, and "Saturn" was originally pitched as the first single from the deluxe SOS. Now it appears the next thing she'll release is an entirely new album called Lana, and with a stadium tour with Kendrick kicking off in a few months, hopefully we'll get that sooner than later. I was kinda lukewarm on the biggest SOS singles like "Kill Bill" and "Snooze," but I really like "Saturn. 

2. Maeta f/ Free Nationals - "Through The Night" 
#21 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I like all of Maeta's stuff that I've heard, but this song is a definite standout, it'd be cool if she did a whole project with Anderson .Paak's band. 

3. Toosii f/ Muni Long - "I Do"
#16 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Muni Long had a great year and really cemented her spot in R&B. I put "Made For Me" on the list last year, if I hadn't then it'd probably be #1 here. 

4. Coco Jones - "Here We Go (Uh Oh)"
#9 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
So many R&B songs sample rap and R&B hits from 15-25 years ago that I tend to roll my eyes and lower my expectations right off the bat, but the vocals and the melodies on "Here We Go" really add something to the Twista/Lenny Williams interpolation. 

5. Tems - "Love Me JeJe"
#30 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I guess even in Afrobeats they've got their classics that they like to revisit, I didn't know Seyi Sodiumu's 1997 song "Love Me Jeje" before Tems did her version but I really love what she did with it. 

6. Lucky Daye - "That's You"
#12 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Lucky Daye's Algorithm is a fantastic album, he surpassed even what he did on Candydrip. The Bruno Mars-penned lead single is not even one of the album's high points, but I respect that Bruno is helping craft hits for artists that really deserve it. 

7. PsiRyn - "Sober"
#27 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I definitely miss the days when there were more girl groups in mainstream R&B, and I love that someone like Kandi Burruss, a member of Xscape who wrote classics for Destiny's Child and TLC, has taken it upon herself to mentor a new group and try to restore that feeling. I don't love the name PsiRyn, but "Sober" is a very promising first single. 

8. Maxwell - "Simply Beautiful"
#10 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Al Green's I'm Still In Love With You is an amazing album that's been sampled many many times (most famously "I'm Glad You're Mine" on multiple Biggie songs), and this year two songs from the album were revisited by big names. First "What A Wonderful Thing Love Is" was sampled on Kendrick Lamar's "6:16 in LA" and then a few months later Maxwell released a cover of "Simply Beautiful," a song he's performed live for years (which had also been previously sampled by Kanye on a Talib Kweli track). I don't know when if Maxwell will ever release his 6th album (he released three new singles between 2018 and 2021), but I wouldn't mind if he just took it easy and released some great occasional covers. 

9. Tinashe - "Nasty"
#30 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #61 Hot 100
Tinashe has built up such an excellent catalog and I love that she's been able to thrive as an independent artist after being a little squandered by RCA, but I was a little nonplussed when I started hearing this viral clip everywhere of a song where she sings in a robotic monotone over a droning dial tone synth. Thankfully, the song is more than just the part that was big on TikTok. 

10. Jordan Adetunji - "Kehlani"
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #24 Hot 100
For the third year in a row, Baltimore rapper Rye Rye's "what" ad lib from Blaqstarr's 2007 track "Shake It To The Ground" has been sampled in a Hot 100 hit (the previous two times were both Drake songs). 
I feel like as this song has blown up over the last few months I've heard multiple radio DJs struggle to pronounce Jordan Adetunji's name and eventually give up and start saying things like "my boy Jordan" or "here's Jordan with 'Kehlani'." 

11. Kehlani - "After Hours"
#23 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #72 Hot 100
Kehlani released 2 excellent projects this year (one an album and one a 'mixtape') and had a successful tour. But being the namesake of someone else's big hit, which she of course jumped on a remix of, seemed to overshadow her own recent music, and then there were some truly bizarre and concerning stories coming out of her recent divorce. 

12. Lay Bankz - "Tell Ur Girlfriend"
#29 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #58 Hot 100
Another song that kind of broke out of R&B's relatively low commercial ceiling these days by getting big on TikTok. I really love the use of the Ginuwine "Pony" sample on this, flips it in a creative way with a totally different vocal melody, so it's not just playing off of nostalgia. 

13. Usher f/ Pheelz - "Ruin"
#24 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Usher is still a world class performer and really made everybody took notice over the past couple years, with the Tiny Desk Concert and the Vegas residency and the tour and of course the Super Bowl halftime show, it was really enjoyable to see him take this victory lap. Amidst all this, he released his first new album in ages, and timed it to capitalize off the Super Bowl, but Coming Home ultimately felt a little like an afterthought compared to all the live stuff. All the singles were solid, though, "Ruin" was a pretty good attempt to dip his toe into Afrobeats. 

14. Muni Long - "Ruined Me"
#12 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Revenge is a really good album, I'm glad its had legs beyond "Made For Me," I really like "Make Me Forget" too. 

15. Honey Bxby - "Touchin'" 
#30 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I once mused that "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" by Busta Rhymes is one of the biggest '90s rap hits that I'd never heard sampled or imitated. But that changed this year when two songs sampling the "Put Your Hands" drums competed for spins. Honey Bxby's "Touchin'" came out first and got Busta on a remix, but Offset and Don Toliver's "Worth It" got on the radio first and became a bigger hit peaking at #8. 

16. Luther Vandross - "Michelle" 
#40 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I love the Beatles but I feel like everyone reserves the right to hate a few Beatles songs (besides just the obvious minor or obnoxious ones). And "Michelle" is just one of those songs I have never liked one bit. But I really adore this Luther Vandross cover, which had been discovered by a friend of his when going through Vandross's archives, and was released this year alongside a documentary and best-of compilation. 

17. Jeremih f/ Bryson Tiller and Chris Brown - "Wait On It"
#15 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, # Hot 100
I hate the way Jeremih has been treated by the music industry. He's had so many hits and has done hooks on so many hits for other artists, but it's been 9 years since his last album (which is double platinum and had three big singles!) and it feels like he may never release another. His biggest recent single kind of coasts on the name recognition of two bigger artists who I don't like as much, but they all sound pretty good on this. 

18. Tommy Richman - "Million Dollar Baby"
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #2 100 Hot 100
I try not to overthink what genre to put a song in when I do these lists, but there's a lot of mixed messaging with "Million Dollar Baby." Tommy Richman is a White singer, who rose to fame after signing with a Black R&B star, Brent Faiyaz. His videos look like rap videos if you put them on mute and he sings a lot of hip-hop slang, but he sings in a White boy struggle falsetto over dinky synth funk beats that remind me of '90s Ween songs. His one big hit was huge on both pop and R&B radio, and he recently irritated a lot of people by tweeting "I'm not a hip-hop artist" and then submitting his music for rap categories at the Grammys. I don't know what all this means, but I guess I'll categorize him as an R&B artist for at least the purposes of this list. 

19. 4batz f/ Drake - "Act II: Date @ 8 (Remix)"
#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #7 Hot 100
In the 2010s, the famous 'Drake effect' often took the shape of Drake jumping on a rising artist's biggest song and blowing it up, which happened with Future, Migos, ILoveMakonnen, WizKid, Fetty Wap, and Summer Walker. For the first time in a long time, Drake did that for 4batz, a weird novelty act kid singing falsetto in a ski mask. And while I think the idea that Kendrick ended or permanently hobbled Drake's career has been really overhyped and exaggerated, right now "Act II: Date @ 8" kinda stands as one of the last really big Drake moments before things got a little weird for him with the Kendrick beef. 

20. The Weeknd f/ Playboi Carti - "Timeless"
#7 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #3 Hot 100
The Weeknd is kind of the biggest R&B artist in the world over the past decade, but a lot of his hits are synth pop songs like "Blinding Lights" that bypass R&B radio and go straight to Top 40. The pop single for his forthcomig album, though, "Dancing in the Flames," is total dogshit, so for the first time in a while, it's his R&B radio single, featuring Playboi Carti and co-produced by Pharrell, that really has the juice. 

The 10 Worst R&B Radio Hits of 2024
1. Chris Brown - "Residuals"
2. Fridayy - "Baddest In The Room"
3. Sentury - "Tonight"
4. Bryson Tiller - "Whatever She Wants"
5. Marques Houston - "Cowgirl"
6. Austin Rogers - "Tip" 
7. YG Marley - "Praise Jah in the Moonlight"
8. Inayah - "For The Streets"
9. J. Brown - "If You Could See You"
10. Keith Sweat - "Lay You Down" 

Previously: The 20 Best R&B Radio Hits of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. 

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