Wednesday, December 18, 2024

 






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

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"

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

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 2012201320142015201620172018201920202021, 2022 and 2023

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 20122013201420152016201720182019202020212022, and 2023. 

Sunday, December 08, 2024

 




I ranked every Coachella lineup for Vulture

Saturday, December 07, 2024

 






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

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 20122013201420152016201720182019202020212022, and 2023

The 20 Best Country Radio Hits of 2024

Thursday, December 05, 2024

 





I did the rap list earlier in the week, now onto country. Here's the Spotify playlist:

1. Ella Langley f/ Riley Green - "You Look Like You Love Me"
#7 Country Airplay, #30 Hot 100
This song, with its spoken verses and sung chorus, easily could've been an unsuccessful experiment. But I think it's the chemistry between Langley and Green's voices, both of them Alabama natives with charming drawls, that really makes it work. 

2. Chayce Beckham - "23"
#1 Country Airplay, #45 Hot 100
"American Idol" has been a reality TV ghost town with none of its once mighty impact on the music industry for a long time now, but 2021 winner Chayce Beckham beat the odds. He's the only person to ever win the show with an original song, and after three years that song became a genuine hit, and he's not the only one of the last 5 "Idol" winners to release an album. I hope he keeps beating the odds and has a long career, "23" is a great song. 

3. Beyonce - "Texas Hold 'Em"
#33 Country Airplay, #1 Hot 100
For those of us who love country music and love Beyonce's music, 2024 was a pretty exciting year, but I'm not sure if it was much more than a weird novelty to people who are only into one or the other. As successful as Cowboy Carter was, Beyonce got zero CMA nominations this year, and "Texas Hold 'Em" actually did worse on country radio than other radio formats (#7 on pop radio and #19 on R&B radio). So it feels a little like Nashville was put to a test and failed, because "Texas Hold 'Em" sounded great on country radio the handful of times I did hear it, I wish it had been embraced more. One of the highlights of my year was interviewing Raphael Saadiq and I got to shed some light on what he did on "Texas Hold 'Em," the first Hot 100 #1 of his long career. 

4. Post Malone f/ Morgan Wallen - "I Had Some Help"
#1 Country Airplay, #1 Hot 100
As the cursed union of two White guys who were both caught saying the N word on camera, I'd like to oppose "I Had Some Help" on principle, especially because of the optics of Post Malone thriving in his country crossover in ways that Beyonce did not. But I have to admit, it's easily one of the catchiest songs either of these mooks has ever made. This song's lyrics make more sense as a duet between two people arguing about their relationship with each other than as two guys scolding two different women, so I have chosen to queer the text. 

5. Ashley Cooke - "Your Place"
#2 Country Airplay, #80 Hot 100
I was rooting for "Your Place" from the first time I heard it, and loved seeing it climb all the way to #2. Kind of insane that Big Loud hasn't released a follow-up single, though, women already have it hard enough on country radio, so it's pretty frustrating when labels don't capitalize on the ones that do get a hit. At least she guested on a Brantley Gilbert song that also charted. 

6. Parker McCollum - "Burn It Down"
#1 Country Airplay, #42 Hot 100
It's frustrating to me sometimes how much slower the country radio charts move compared to other formats. "Burn It Down" was released as a single in spring 2023, I wrote about how much I liked it here in October of that year, and then it finally hit #1 in April 2024. I didn't like Parker McCollum's voice much at first, but he's had so many good singles in a row now that it's growing on me. 

7. Jackson Dean - "Heavens To Betsy"
#43 Country Airplay
Jackson Dean's "Fearless (Echo)" was kind of a casualty of country radio's slow way of doing things, it spent 68 weeks on the chart but still just fell short of becoming a top 10 hit. I hope his new single fares better, I've always rooted for Jackson Dean as a Maryland guy who's got a couple Baltimore indie rock guys in his band, especially after interviewing him in 2023, really seems like a good dude. 

8. Lainey Wilson - "Hang Tight Honey"
#13 Country Airplay, #61 Hot 100
Lainey Wilson's biggest hits have tended to be slower songs, so I respect that she came out of the gate with a fast one as the lead single for Whirlwind, my favorite country album of 2024. 

9. Dasha - "Austin"
#8 Country Airplay, #18 Hot 100
Country music tends to be notoriously reluctant to embrace artists from other genres, but the floodgates really opened this year, and I would argue the effect was largely positive. Case in point: California singer Dasha Novotny was plugging away at making pop music for a couple years before she made "Austin" and immediately had a viable career in country. 

10. Shaboozey - "A Bar Song (Tipsy)"
#1 Country Airplay, #1 Hot 100
Shaboozey is another country outsider -- 10 years ago he was basically making Soundcloud rap -- but he'd been established enough in country by 2024 to land two guest spots on Beyonce's Cowboy Carter, which he quickly followed up with a solo single interpolating J-Kwon's 2004 hit "Tipsy" that has become a historically huge chart smash, poetically tying Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" as the longest-running Hot 100 #1 ever (a tie it may break soon if Mariah Carey or Brenda Lee doesn't stop it). Some days "A Bar Song" really irritates me and reminds me of, like, the acoustic covers of "Gin and Juice" and "Boyz-n-the-Hood" that were big on filesharing services in the early 2000s, but its success is still kinda cool. I hope J-Kwon cashed out big time on this. 

11. Kassi Ashton - "Called Crazy"
#32 Country Airplay
Kassi Ashton has had a couple good minor hits on country radio over the past few years and her recent album Made From The Dirt is probably the best country debut album I heard this year, I hope she's just getting started right now. 

12. Jordan Davis - "Tuscon Too Late"
#1 Country Airplay, #71 Hot 100
Jordan Davis is kind of an amiable unassuming guy who hasn't been hyped up as a major star, and went five years between albums just releasing EPs. But pretty much every single he's released has been a top 5 hit and it really feels like he should be acknowledged as a serious hitmaker at this point. 

13. Bryan Martin - "We Ride"
#4 Country Airplay, #56 Hot 100
I like that country is one place where grizzled guys in their 30s can become stars, and Bryan Martin was an oil rig worker, a bull rider, a football player before he released a couple albums and "We Ride" became his first hit. 

14. Jelly Roll - "Halfway To Hell"
#1 Country Airplay, #48 Hot 100
Jelly Roll has quickly become really popular and really overexposed, even outselling Rod Wave in a big boy chart battle for the ages, and at this point I think he already has more hits that suck than good ones. But I like "Halfway To Hell," I'll put it in the good pile with "Son of a Sinner" and "Need A Favor."  

15. Eric Church - "Darkest Hour (Helene Edit)"
#25 Country Airplay
Eric Church is a very mainstream guy who makes very accessible records, and even this year he appeared on a #1 hit by Morgan Wallen, but by modern Nashville standards Church takes creative risks and carries himself like an iconoclast. And with his polarizing Stagecoach set this year and this really beautiful, offbeat charity single that he released after the part of North Carolina he's from was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, I'm excited to hear what he does next. 

16. Megan Moroney - "Am I Okay?"
#31 Country Airplay, #63 Hot 100
It really irritates me how this song mutes the word "bed" in a line that couldn't be anything but "good in bed" (even on the album version!). Like that's a pretty mild innuendo to censor in earnest, and way too mild to be playfully coy about. Otherwise, though, this hits 

17. Dierks Bentley - "American Girl"
#22 Country Airplay, # Hot 100
Classic rock still looms large over mainstream country -- this year Chris Young got a big hit out of pasting the guitar riff from David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" over a mediocre new song, "Young Love & Saturday Nights." But I always like hearing country songs that remind me a little of Tom Petty, and this year's Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty had some lovely covers. 

18. Justin Moore - "This Is My Dirt"
#4 Country Airplay, #96 Hot 100 
I'm fond of saying Justin Moore is one of country's greatest contemporary vocalists -- he did a great job with "Here Comes My Girl" on Petty Country. And I'm really happy Moore released his first normal length album in five years in 2024, after a couple of weird 8-song mini-albums that seemed like his label was being really timid with an artist who's got enough top 5 singles for a greatest hits album. 

19. Marshmello & Kane Brown - "Miles On It"
#1 Country Airplay, #15 Hot 100 
As a biracial country star who kind of stumbled before while making overt attempt at crossover success -- I still cringe thinking about him performing the Mike Posner-written "Grand" at the VMAs -- Kane Brown could've gotten really left behind in the year of "Texas Hold 'Em" and "A Bar Song." Instead, he linked up with the EDM guy who wears a giant marshmellow on his head and made a track that sounds equally good on country radio and pop radio. 

20. Luke Combs - "Ain't No Love In Oklahoma"
#1 Country Airplay, #13 Hot 100
With his "Fast Car" cover becoming a giant across-the-board hit, Luke Combs seems second only to Morgan Wallen in terms of the current generation of country stars. Then he made the unexpected move of releasing his fifth album, Fathers & Sons, with barely any promotion or advance notice and no radio singles, just before Father's Day, which I think is odd because it hardly feels like an uncommercial move given the music he's had success with so far. In any event, he still topped the charts with a lead single from the pretty good all-country soundtrack album for the blockbuster move Twisters

The 10 Worst Country Radio Hits of 2024:
1. Dustin Lynch f/ Jelly Roll - "Chevrolet"
2. Morgan Wallen - "Love Somebody"
3. Hardy - "Truck Bed"
4. George Birge - "Mind On You"
5. Koe Wetzel f/ Jessie Murph - "High Road"
6. Jason Aldean - "Let Your Boys Be Country"
7. Tim McGraw - "One Bad Habit"
8. Bailey Zimmerman - "Where It Ends"
9. Warren Zeiders - "Pretty Little Poison"
10. Chase Matthew - "Love You Again"

Previously: The 20 Best Country Radio Hits of 20122013201420152016201720182019202020212022, and 2023