Staff Picks: 20 Pop Songs From 2024 That Deserved to Be Smashes

K-pop quartet AESPA released their first album, Armageddon, in May, then topped it a few months later with “Whiplash,” the title track from their latest mini-album, which pushes the group’s hyperpop-adjacent aesthetic into overdrive. The chorus moves briskly, the production is rife with hums and whirs that reveal themselves on repeat listens, and the group is cool beyond words, a collection of global stars in dominant form.

Allie X has spent a decade as a pop provocateur, and “Off With Her Tits,” from her Girl With No Face project, is one of her most effective three-minute bangers to date: a send-up of anxieties surrounding gender dysmorphia, the single could feasibly help struggling listeners feel more understood, but it also works as a head-knocking synth pile-up, kicking into high gear during the second verse.

An immediate pop confection that highlights North Wales native Catty’s debut project of the same name, “Healing Out of Spite” eventually gets under your skin thanks to its clever use of point of view and internal rhyme, as well as a blistering post-chorus — hearing Catty cry “At least I’m healing!” over a squealing guitar solo is a moment that helps the song levitate within any pop playlist.

Working closely with Max Martin on third album Found Heaven, Conan Gray achieves pop bliss most clearly on the album track “Fainted Love” — a neon-streaked ‘80s riffer that puts the singer-songwriter’s dramatic delivery to good use, and boasts a chorus that should be soundtracking a pivotal first kiss on the next Netflix teen dramedy.

As a rhythmic sex jam, Erika de Casier’s “Home Alone” demonstrates the appeal of the Danish singer-songwriter’s vocal approach, providing simmering percussion but ample space within the production to stretch out, make quick exclamations and speak-sing lines like, “I’m coming up for air from beneath the sea/ And when I reach the sky, will you come with me?”

The entirety of Fabiana Palladino’s self-titled album carries an elegant pop craft, as the daughter of legendary bassist Pino Palladino shows off an inherent understanding of classic songwriting; “I Can’t Dream Anymore” flaunts that innate skill, the natural imagery intermingling with blasts of percussion and Palladino’s voice delicately lilting as she sings, “I know you see me/ In the lilac light every night.”

The long-awaited new full-length from Florrie, The Lost Ones, finally arrived in 2024 and met fans’ high expectations — thanks in part to songs like “Looking For Love,” in which the former Xenomania star polishes a post-breakup anthem that was over a decade old and injects a new gravitas that comes with time and life experiences. Deeply satisfying, and well worth the wait.

In between pulsating drums and Enya shout-outs, Griff tells a story of smudged makeup in the morning, reminding her of the anxieties from the night before — “Last Night’s Mascara” makes for a perfect pairing of performer and subject, with the singer-songwriter’s powerful tone adding heft to every instance of smeared-away memories.

“Angel of My Dreams” is obviously not an introduction to JADE, the longtime member of British girl group Little Mix, but more debut solo singles should be this delightfully unhinged: a meditation on pop stardom that swerves between bliss in the spotlight and the rumble of behind-the-scenes discontent, “Angel” turns its commentary into a wild sonic ride, a platform for JADE to drop some knowledge, and a bonkers listening experience that rightly won over the pop blogosphere.

If Jane Remover’s 2023 album Census Designated offered the sprawl of experimental rock, her singles this year were obsessed with the finely manicured details of pop music, and how they can be deconstructed; “Magic I Want U” hits like a sugar rush at first, combining pinpoint melodies with synth hooks and breakbeats, but then she removes elements one by one, as if a song about infatuation can be treated like a Jenga tower.

Neither Jessie Ware nor Romy started their careers as dance sirens, but as the former torch singer has drifted towards the club and the xx co-leader embraced the pop world, they’ve separately uncovered moments of euphoria — and then linked up this year for the ecstatic, sing-with-your-windows-down banger “Lift You Up” to find some more together.

Kenya Grace went viral in 2023 with the seductively downbeat “Strangers,” which eventually topped the UK singles chart, but follow-up “It’s Not Fair” deserved a greater cultural footprint, with a more delicate twist on Grace’s drum-n-bass preoccupation and affecting lyrics about not being able to move on from someone who clearly has already done so.

The Chvrches leader’s debut solo project Vicious Creature succeeds whenever Mayberry shows off more of her personality, and the single “Crocodile Tears” stands tall as its highlight, with the singer-songwriter eviscerating a dude who’s trying to tangle her up: “Maybe I’m a villain, but I find it kind of thrilling when you cry,” she seethes, before adding one more “…cry” for good measure.

Magdalena Bay’s Imaginal Disk album operates on multiple levels, as the L.A. duo asks expansive questions about existence, conscious and identity — but also supplies emphatic grooves, making a song like “Image” a breathless dance freakout doubles as an account of perfecting a personality.

As the lead track on Porter Robinson’s brilliant full-length Smile 😀, “Knock Yourself Out XD” introduces the album’s exploration of a dance producer’s life in the public eye, and how it can be dizzyingly fun and emotionally damaging; jumping between sardonic one-liners and hooks that could satisfy stadiums, Robinson sets up a tricky balancing act but pulls it off expertly.

After some promising moments prior to 2024, Remi Wolf’s pop approach came into focus this year with Big Ideas and the album’s standout track “Toro,” an ode to hotel hook-ups full of strutting bass, disco guitar, nifty sound effects and the type of second verse that transforms Remi from an aspiring pop voice into a full-blown rock star.

The title “Honeycrash” comes from the line “Honey, crash into me,” from the chorus of SASAMI’s best single of 2024 — no Dave Matthews Band homage here, but a bold, oversized romantic declaration instead, with plenty of cymbal-bashing and a new shade of the fearlessness that Salami Ashworth displayed on her 2022 album Squeeze.

Toronto native Saya Gray makes music designed to jolt pop listeners, and “AA Bouquet For Your 180 Face” functions like a defibrillator upon first listen, from the deceptively unfussy production bubbling up to that first “Yeah!” ad-lib to out-of-nowhere soul harmonies crashing in; Gray nails every left turn, and is set up for a big 2025.

Make no mistake, Box for Buddy, Box for Star, the stellar debut album from Nate Amos’ project This Is Lorelei, could have had multiple entries on this list, and none of them would sound like each other — but amidst the lonesome country of “Angel’s Eye,” shambolic indie-rock of “I’m All F—ked Up” and plucky synth-pop of “Dancing in the Club,” “Perfect Hand” is a bit of shuffling, sophisticated pop with a warmth that elevates it on the track list.

After 2022’s Glitch Princess and last year’s Softscars, Yeule didn’t release a new album in 2024… but their single “Eko” hopefully foreshadows future greatness, as a more straightforward pop track that clarifies the smudges of their synth-heavy production, shoves their voice into the foreground, and gathers steam before evaporating, a hint at what’s ahead that still stands on its own.