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Time to rev up our annual Poprock Record should-be hit singles list of songs we’ve featured at some point during 2024. Let’s be honest up front, we barely scratched the surface of all that was going on out there music-wise, even within the confines of our own narrowly defined genre (what I’ve been calling poppy rock). As I peek at the lists of other melodic rock taste-makers I see loads of great acts I somehow missed out on. Oh well. There’s only so much needle-dropping your scribe can do. From what we did manage to cover I just want to take this space to remind you of some stand-out tracks. So today we single out 50 should-be hit singles from 2024, songs that deserve another shot at chart glory. Click on the hyperlinks to hear each of the songs and read the original write ups.
Drumroll please, here are Poprock Record’s top 50 should-be hit singles from 2024:
1. Wons Phreely “The Faithful Heart”
2. Real Estate “Water Underground”
3. Used “Morning Sun”
4. Lo Fi Ho Hum “Never Been in Love”
5. Tamar Berk “Good Impression”
6. Frank Royster “Someday”
7. Wifey “Mary Ann Leaves the Band”
8. Peter Freebairn “I Got Lucky (I Got You)”
9. Mo Troper “A Piece of You Broken Through My Heart”
10. The Well Wishers “Good Side”
11. Blitzen Trapper “Hello Hallelujah”
12. Chime School “Wandering Song”
13. Strange Neighbors “Tell All Your Friends”
14. Steven Wright-Mark “Summer Sky”
15. Brent Seavers “Till It’s Over”
16. Ducks Ltd. “The Main Thing”
17. HOA “Push Man”
18. Dom Mariani “Jangleland”
19. Randy Klawon “She’s More Than I Want”
20. Kenny Michaels “Must Be This New Love of Mine”
21. Laughing “Bruised”
22. Cal Rifkin “Big Star”
23. Stephen Schijns “Carry On (The Way It Has To Be)”
24. 2nd Grade “Live From Missile Command”
25. Love Burns “What To Do About Us”
26. The Fatal Flaw “Stop Pushing Me Away”
27. Marc Jonson “November Paintbrush”
28. Sunken Planes “There’s a World”
29. Pale Lights “Twisting the Knife”
30. Paul Collins “In Another World”
31. The Rockyts “Without You”
32. Ward White “Our Town”
33. The Cynz “Crow Haired Boys”
34. Sad About Girls “She’s Not Here”
35. David Woodard “The Last of the Full Grown Men”
36. The Reflectors “Supernova”
37. Mark Alan Lofgren “Ne’er Do Wells”
38. The Dreambots “Tightrope”
39. Ethan Beck and the Charlie Browns “Does This Bus Stop at Douglas Street”
40. The Newds “God of Small Things”
41. Motorists “Phone Booth in the Desert of the Mind”
42. Neon Bone “Don’t Fall in Love With Her”
43. SidePlay “Hit the Road Mac”
44. Caddy “In a Heartbeat”
45. Glenn Erb “Dashboard Jesus”
46. Brother Dynamite “The Girl’s in Love”
47. Pony “Freezer”
48. Jupiter Motel “Playing with Ghosts”
49. Newski “Banking On Never Breaking Down Again”
50. Teenage Tom Petties “She Kissed Me in Seattle”
Music blogger extraordinaire Eclectic Music Lover put me on to Won Phreely’s captivating single and I was hooked. Both Real Estate and Used struck me as mining that elegant Shins brand of manicured poprock. Lo Fi Ho Hum grabbed my attention with his quirky, amusing video but his melody lingered long after. Tamar Berk just goes from strength to strength in her songwriting and you can hear it here. I could go on. This is a list bursting with jangle and heartbreak – and hooks, of course.
Next up, Poprock Record’s most inventive covers from 2023:
1. The Half-Cubes “Make You Cry”
2. Mattiel & Troy Stains “Somebody’s Knocking”
3. Super Ratones “Troubled Times”
The covers just keep on coming and I’m fine with that. Poprock veterans The Half Cubes gave us a double album of carefully curated pop hits from the past but it was their cover of The Sighs’ signature song that really floored me. Georgia’s Mattiel could sing the phone book and keep most people happy but her cover of Terri Gibbs’ 1981 hit is nothing short of transformative. Then there’s Super Ratones doing Fountains of Wayne. Lovely and timely.
It’s been a tough year. It’s been a year full of great songs. We’ll certainly need more of the latter in the days ahead and Poprock Record with be there to bring you more should-be hits. So click on the links above to remind yourself how good 2024 was and make sure to visit the artists and wave a little cash in their direction.
Photo courtesy of Sunsju Flikr collection.
I’m not really an album guy. Particularly now in our ‘download-any-song-you-want-era’. I grew up on compilation albums and AM radio. It was all singles, singles singles: a new sound every three minutes. A whole album is just a vinyl horizon for my needle dropping. But I have to say this year I got hooked on more than a few long players. What grabbed me? I could say it was the songwriting, a coherent sonic palette, the performative ingenuity, etc. But hey, who am I kidding? It was mostly the hooks. Fair warning: there is considerable overlap of artists here with my should-be hit singles list (duh) but not entirely. Bottom line: you won’t go wrong putting your cash down on these LPs in toto.
Edging out Daisy House’s fantastic Bon Voyage by a hair, my number one album for 2018 is Aaron Lee Tasjan’s Karma for Cheap. The more I listened to this record, the more I loved the songs and the performances. There is something extraordinary in just how Tasjan combines his elements. He’s got rumbly guitar, he’s got jangly guitar. His vocals run the gamut from Tom Petty-solid to Roy Orbison-aching tenderness. There’s not a weak cut here, but pay special attention to subtle hooky vocal interplay on “Heart Slows Down,” or the driving guitar hook behind “End of the Day,” or the touching “Dream Dreamer.” You won’t steer wrong with his back catalogue either, particularly 2016’s Silver Tears! There is so much I could say about all 20 albums but frankly the music speaks for itself. Click the links to go directly to the band’s bandcamp, Facebook or webpages.
One final word: I had to single out Super 8’s stupendous triple album accomplishment this year for special attention. After a two-decade career in rock and roll that can only be described as cinematic in its litany of seeming breakthroughs, bad luck, record company shenanigans and some bandmate’s bad faith, these albums are a vindication of his resolve to stick with music. Each record is finely crafted portrait of late 1960s summertime sunshine poprock. Your time machine back to 1968 is ready for boarding! Just hit play.
A new feature of sorts, a tribute to the almighty single! In this age of catastrophic change in music consumption the single is back as a way of teasing interest in an artist and their new releases. It is now fairly conventional for artists to release a single well ahead of the album. Take this first round of singles – all precede their designated albums by many months. And, frankly, I can’t wait around to feature these talents!
Time it was that I waited on every Elvis Costello release like the second coming of rock and roll’s savior. And then post-Spike, I got a bit more choosy. I mean, I totally support artists going beyond whatever they’ve done in the past and Elvis clearly had many more roads left to explore. They just weren’t always my thing. But like every George Jones record, there’s seldom lacking at least one truly great cut on any given EC album. It looks like Costello’s to-be-released new album will be no exception. “Unwanted Number” is a pre-release cut from Look Now and it’s a winner. Think Imperial Bedroom meets Painted From Memory. The piano and songwriting are reminiscent of the songs from that great Costello keyboard period stretching from Imperial Bedroom through Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World. Meanwhile the bridge captures the feel of the work he did with Burt Bacharach on songs like “Toledo.”
Next up is the criminally under-appreciated Paul Collins, veteran of so many great acts like the Nerves, the Breakaways, and, of course, the Paul Collins Beat. What is striking about Collins is the quality of his songwriting output over a four-decade period. His new single shows he’s still got it. “In and Out of My Head” is the pre-release single from his upcoming album, Out of My Head. The rumbly guitar is wonderfully retro yet freshly deployed on a tune that sounds like it belongs on a Roy Orbison album.
Described as “Califorian pop from sunny Utrech, the Netherlands” on their website, The Maureens have a keen ear for a melodic blend of country folk and poprock sounds. 2015’s Bang the Drum was a solid release, oozing hooks and harmonies. Now they’ve released “20 Years for the Company” from the to-be-released Something in the Air and it’s a blast of harmony-drenched goodness. Speaking to the economic insecurity of times, the song nonetheless gives off a positive vibe with it’s captivating mix of male and female vocals.
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