2024 Hottest 100
Triple J's Hottest 100 is coming around so it is time for me (🐻) to pick my top songs for 2024.
2024 was quite the change for me. Punk has been my primary genre of choice since my young teens. Propagandhi has been my most listened to and favourite band every year since 2012. Other favourites are the likes of Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, NoFX and everything that Pat the Bunny or Laura Jane Grace touch.
But come late 2023 and Olivia Rodrigo releases Guts. Over the spring and summer Triple J plays it and I get hooked on bad idea right? and then get him back! My spotify autoplay then puts me onto this fresh new artist I've never once heard of Chappell Roan, and soon 2024 becomes my Hot Girl Pop era.
I don't think I was really particularly early to Chappell Roan, but it is possibly the first time in my life that I'd listened to an artist before anyone in my social circle had talked about them that then went on to become big. This was quite a novel experience, especially as "discourse"™️ began to pick her up and she got both die-hard defenders and haters. My list this year is perhaps slightly less interesting precisely because I am covering well known and endlessly discussed tracks, but I guess that is just what it is.
Enough preface, my top ten picks for the year:
10. Dull - Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers (and Softcult)
If 2024 was my Hot Girl Pop era, 2023 was my year of Teen Jesus. I loved their single Girl Sports and lent in. I saw them live, got a signed album, my infant saw them as his first live performance, they were my #1 spotify listen, including 4 of my top 5 songs, and they made up 8 of my 10 Hottest 100 votes. This year they released less music, but I feel almost obliged to keep the support going for them with this release.
9. Cruel Summer [triple j Like A Version] - G Flip
G Flip was another fav of 2023 (for me and much of Australa) and they had a well deserved album of the year in Drummer. The gender flipped rendition of Cruel Summer was fun and frisky.
8. Me and the Girls - Amyl and The Sniffers
Amyl and the Sniffer's Cartoon Darkness appears a few times on this list, because even if this is my Hot Girl Pop era I am still a punk at heart. Cartoon Darkness was a banger of an album, a great progression from Comfort to Me and just a perfect representative for Aussie punk. Me and the Girls is a great end to an awesome album and makes me want to get drunk at the airport with my gal pals.
7. Throw Some Ass - Sofi Tukker
Sofi Tukker has for some years now been an exception to my punk rock dominated playlists. Swing back in 2019 introduced me to them, and I soon found a lot I liked. All their music is fun, sultry, frisky without resorting to the gimmicks or explicitness of slutpop. Throw Some Ass was no exception and was just good fun vibes to turn the mood on. One on One was a close contender, but I only had room for one Sofi Tukker on this list.
6. Good Luck, Babe! - Chappell Roan
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was not eligible for this year's Hottest 100, which is unfortunate as I think it would likely have gotten quite a few places. Even the radio presenters for Triple J thought Hot To Go was gonna make it, clearly forgetting it actually came out mid-2023. But Chappell Roan did release a banger of a single in Good Luck, Babe! Undeniably fun and touching on issues of compulsory heterosexuality and bisexual love. It wasn't my most listened to Chappell Roan this year (apparently Feminomenon) nor my favourite (probably Naked in Manhattan) but it wins by default. I'd put money on Good Luck, Babe! making it to the top 5 of the countdown if I was a gambling man.
5. Jerkin' - Amyl and The Sniffers
I put Cartoon Darkness on my vinyl player, there's a pause as the needle moves into position. Suddenly, "You're a dumb cunt, you're an asshole." My infant, not yet two, starts pumping their arms, spinning, dancing and grinning. It's a great opener to a great album, and it fills me with joy that my child enjoys it too. A special shout-out also to the music video, which includes an uncensored explicit version with lots of wang. Full close up dong (and the occasional snatch) in full normalised, regular, unaltered, variously groomed natural state.
4. obsessed - Olivia Rodrigo
Guts did not squeeze into eligibility, but fortunately the extended version, Guts Spilled brought us a few additional tracks and I became somewhat obsessed with obsessed (I'm sure I'm the first person to review the song with that joke). I was somewhat disappointed with the music video though, as it seemed to lean into the jealousy angle instead of the homoeroticism that is... very present. Nevertheless, I always have my interpretation, aided by Cat is who is somewhat obsessed with my ex but that's a story for another day.
3. U Should Not Be Doing That - Amyl and The Sniffers
I absolutely love this song so much, and when it released as a single the hype for the upcoming album was unreal. It felt slightly more complex and deeper than Amyl's Comfort to Me while still maintaining their raw punkness. The video clip is also awesome, and I have danced many times to it with the infant. This song lifts my spirits, energises me and makes me want to take on the world.
2. LUNCH - Billie Eilish
Guh.
What can I say? An ideal song to get in the mood. I've never really paid that much attention to 'production quality' in music, and I'm pretty sure a lot of what I listen to was recorded on a phone in some teen kids bedroom (*cough* Pat the Bunny *cough*). The full album Hit Me Hard and Soft has given me fresh respect for the artistry that goes into this. There are a lot of songs I love on this album, and it is probably my album of the year maybe even inching out Cartoon Darkness. The transition in L’AMOUR DE MA VIE, the backing beat in CHIHIRO, the drop in LUNCH. To my philistine ears, these are the work of genius and I have enormous respect for Billie Eilish. LUNCH in particular, very close to my #1 of the year, is just perfectly frisky, fun and clever. I think its perfectly assembled.
1. Guess featuring billie eilish - Charli xcx & Billie Eilish
I was very late to catching the 'brat summer' wave, perhaps because in the southern hemisphere we had to wait until December. Most of the initial brat I bounced off, with most tracks being somewhat eh (So I) to downright annoying (Club classics). Then three more songs were added, and Spring Breakers and Guess were certified bangers.
But Charli wasn't done. Brat but it's completely different but also still brat is something I've not sure any other artist has done before (?) A whole reworking of the original album with some big collabs. Some of the eh songs became truly elevated (e.g. Girl, so confusing and talk, talk) and Guess... wow. As you can tell above, I was a recently converted Billie Eilish fan, so having her collab on the re-issue of the hottest album of the year was already somewhat exciting. But this collab transformed a fun but somewhat repetitive banger into one of the spiciest, sexiest, cheekiest songs of the album. Yes, I like my Hot Girl Pop hot and this was hot.
And so those are my top ten picks for 2024! I'm curious as to where 2025 will take me. There is a rumoured new Propagandhi album to come mid-year, but we will see...