Top 50 of 2024 / #10-6: The Classics, Bobby and The Stallion

We are at the pointy end….the top 10. We have listened to a ton of music, but this is the coveted Cigar Jukebox top 10. We have some heavy hitters in this block that were just pushed out of the top 5. I’m sure there will be a lot debates about which songs deserved to be in the top 5, but it was a great year for music and something needs to be in the top 10. So, here we go:

10. Kendrick Lamar: Squabble Up

Kendrick knew he was coming up to the cutoff date for the Jukebox Top 50 of 2024, so he dropped this record the day before the cutoff. This is both good and bad. Good, so we can get it in the top 10 and talk about some great music. Bad, because I think if I had more time with it this track would probably be in the top 5. Squabble Up shows off the power of a Lamar / Antonoff team up. The lush pop infused hip hop track still has the edge and bars we expect from Kendrick, but it also has that perfect pop magic dust Antonoff wields with such skill. This is a new sound for Kendrick and one that fits well.

9. St. Vincent: Broken Man

Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, is an incredible guitarist who has always had a punk side to her. Much like the Talking Heads, she could be poppy or folky, but there was always this punk energy in the background. On Broken Man she goes full Talking Heads with part performance art and part guitar ripping art punk. The song build to this frantic climax of horns and burning guitar riffs as St. Vincent screams about being a broken man. This track touches on the fragility of patriarchy and male power, which are themes St. Vincent has explored in previous work. Putting the message and writing aside, this track can be enjoyed solely for its expert musicality and fire guitar work.

8. Megan Thee Stallion: Hiss

I love a hip hop track where people come at their haters. Megan spends the first 40 seconds calling out people for using her name and spreading lies before she launches into a track about how she is above people using her. She makes a number of references to people using her to make a name for themselves and how they will remain irrelevant as she continues to succeed. This is Stallion at her caustic and aggressive best. Every bar is a diss worthy of the hall of fame and the basic southern trap beat in the back fits well with her sharp flow. I think this is one of her best tracks in the last few years and it has a powerful energy behind it that pumps you up. Like Beyoncé said, the best revenge is your paper.

7. Jon Batiste: 5th Symphony in Congo Square

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony has been covered and reworked in a number of different genres for decades. It is probably the four most famous notes in the history of music. However, Jon Batiste’s bluesy jazz version is both spellbinding in its complexity and emotionally resonant. Much like John Coltrane and Miles Davis who created two of the most famous blues jazz records in history, Batiste shows that blues can extend to the classics as well. The key to the track is that it not only creates a new piece of art on its own, but it inspires you to see the original in a new light. This is the only instrumental on the top 50 and it is also one of the most emotionally touching tracks on the list. This is an incredible achievement that will marvel people for years to come.

6. The Cure: Alone

Just barely out of the top 5 by a whisker, The Cure have returned after over a decade out of recording with their best record since Wish in 1992. Alone is an expansive highly intricate song about dread, regret and suffering…sounds like a great listen…but it is. This is not the happy go lucky Friday I’m in Love band, but it is Robert Smith putting voice to his fears as he faces his own mortality. Having said that, the track goes deeper than that and looks at how do we process fear and mortality in a modern world that is becoming more disconnected. Deep right? There is a beautiful dread that hangs over this track. Especially in the over three minute instrumental lead in before we hear Robert’s beautifully theatrical vocal announce “this is the end.” If it is the end, I can’t think of a more beautiful way to face it than this track.