If anyone tells you 2024 was anything less than an absolute win for new music, they clearly spent the year with their head stuck in a bin. While the world outside might have been doing its best impression of a dumpster fire, our headphones have been blessed with an embarrassment of riches. From bright-young-things becoming even brighter to established faves finding new gears, the last twelve months have delivered more golden moments than we can count.

That's where this list comes in. Over the next few days, we'll be celebrating the very best tracks 2024 had to offer – from chart-destroying anthems to underground gems that deserve their moment in the spotlight. So grab your party hat, pour yourself something fizzy, and join us as we count down the defining songs of 2024.

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While Queen once put on dresses to hoover, Self Esteem and Moonchild Sanelly’s ‘Big Man’ struts around in oversized suits doing the dishes. “Me and Moon wrote a song from the perspective of a good boyfriend,” Self Esteem explains. “The ones that see that you’re working your tits off so they go and get yet another thing you’ve ordered and missed the delivery of from the post office.” As Self Esteem’s first original release since ‘Prioritise Pleasure’, it’s a perfect reminder of what we’ve been missing. Two of music’s most uncompromising voices trading verses over some of the sharpest pop imaginable, creating something that works as both cultural commentary and pure musical adrenaline. When the results are this good, who needs subtlety? DAN HARRISON

After a couple of years away from the studio, we're happy to have Dork favourites Sports Team back. Anyone worried they may have lost their touch since they last put pen to paper and guitar to amplifier can rest easy on hearing 'Condensation'. Whip-smart lyrics bounce along on top of an instrumental which is so inimitably Sports Team that you could pick it out at 100 metres. An earworm chorus consisting half of a wordless vocalisation is perfect fodder for a singalong in the car, but everything about 'Condensation' is achingly geared towards a sweaty basement gig that you'll never forget. JAKE HAWKES

If there is anyone with the gall to push the boundaries of how much humour and horniness the music industry can take, it is rather fittingly The Dare. His effortless cool and willingness to be as sleazy as possible hits its peak on 'Girls', where he makes it exceptionally clear how much he loves women (very inclusively, too). A hard-hitting beat, impassioned vocals and a healthy smattering of synths, the sheer undiluted fun of 'Girls' is key to understanding The Dare. The man responsible for producing Charli xcx's 'Guess', and its huge remix featuring Billie Eilish, The Dare has had an altogether gigantic year. NEIVE MCCARTHY

International pop star and all-round sensation CMAT has always been candid about her love of Country music. On 'Aw, Shoot!' she makes her most nakedly yee-haw track to date, complete with a refrain about being a 'Sad Country song of a woman'. Confessional lyrics and bleak subject matter of rotting alone in a Paris hotel room are counterbalanced by CMAT's incredible lyricism and just a dash of pedal steel guitar. This is a song that most artists would put front and centre on their new album. CMAT's decision to release it as a standalone single is a testament to her talent. JAKE HAWKES

Nilüfer Yanya's 'Like I Say (I Runaway)' arrived with all the dramatic flair of a Richard Curtis plot twist – a bride in full regalia, making her grand exit before the 'I dos'. But this isn't just another tale of cold feet and getaway cars. The track itself pulses with the kind of distorted guitar squeals and mesmerising beats that suggest not so much an escape as a headlong rush into something bigger. Think less Graduate, more Thelma & Louise, if the cliff they were driving towards was made of pure possibility. Those crunchy guitars crash against ethereal vocals like waves on a rocky shore. FELICITY NEWTON

'saving flowers' is what happens when dance music remembers it was meant to be social in the first place. While so many producers are still perfecting their basement-dweller aesthetic, salute rented a whole countryside house and turned it into the kind of creative hub that makes magic inevitable. The track itself is a beautiful contradiction - moving at the pace of a lazy Sunday morning (66 BPM!) but somehow still feeling like peak-time euphoria. Add Rina Sawayama's vocals to the mix and you've got dance music that's learned to do more than just make you move - it's figured out how to make you feel something too. DAN HARRISON

'Push N Shuv' arrived in spectacular fashion as the gateway drug to one of the year's most ambitious debuts. Picture this: a gender-fluid musical space alien, sent to study humanity's self-destructive tendencies, ends up falling in love with the very species they're meant to analyse. It's like E.T. stumbled into a Tom Tom Club concert and decided to start a band; the kind of track that makes perfect sense both in a sweaty club at 2am and through headphones while contemplating the vastness of space. As Lava La Rue's debut 'STARFACE' unfolds its full narrative, 'Push N Shuv' stands as a loving tribute to Earth's pop culture. FELICITY NEWTON

Nell Mescal's 'Killing Time' turns those endless post-breakup questions into the kind of pop song that makes overthinking feel like a superpower. "Did I give it up before we'd had enough?" she asks, her voice carrying the perfect mix of strength and vulnerability that makes you want to both hug her and crack open a bottle. The track builds with the kind of patience that only comes from knowing exactly what you're doing. The production creates space for Mescal's disarmingly direct vocals to hit harder, while memories like "Left in a hurry after 18 / bottled up that night / like a bad dream" turn private moments into universal anthems. DAN HARRISON

'BOYS' isn't just another track about crushing hard: it's a masterclass in taking the most stereotypical teenage experience and transforming it into something deliciously unhinged. It's the kind of concept that could've fallen flat in less capable hands, but here it soars with knowing wit and sharp self-awareness. A sly commentary on how society views teenage girls' interests and emotions, flowerovlove manages to both embrace and subvert the 'crazy in love' narrative. "I like the ones MIA / And the ones that wanna stay," she sings, turning indecision into an art form. It's simultaneously a celebration and a send-up of crush culture. FELICITY NEWTON

It's hard to flip a hook based on 'Hey, Mickey!' into a menacing, introspective song, but Sorry have managed it on 'Waxwing'. Contrasting lo-fi aesthetics with sci-fi synths and snarling static, it's a real evolution of the band's sound, without stepping on the toes on what's always made them so compelling. When they first burst out of the so-called 'South London Scene' several years ago (despite being from the other end of the capital), Sorry were one of the most experimental and unique of the crop. 'Waxwing' proves they're still in their own lane, and still bloody brilliant, to boot. JAKE HAWKES