As vaguely hinted in yesterday’s Drew’s 2024 Mix liner notes, I put together a kind of runners up list of songs that I liked from 2024 (that is, of songs that were mostly new to me in 2024). I thought liner notes on these might be even more interesting than the main list, as there are some personal bugaboos that kept these tunes from making final cut. I still like these songs, but find myself focusing on the bits I didn’t love. Maybe sharing those here will exorcise them, or maybe I’ll just pass on my nits to you, so proceed with caution. Here’s the playlist:

1. dreambird (Little Green, 2021)

I absolutely love the dreamy opening of this tune. The guitar and layered vocals draw me right in, and the added flute at the end adds another dimension that gives the whole piece a sense of direction. But I find myself completely turned off by the song those pieces are bookending. The lyrics, the vocal performance, the guitar line all shift away from that floaty, dreamy sound into something much more pedestrian. I found myself skipping this tune pretty consistently, but not before listening to that intro I can’t get enough of.

2. Anti-glory (Horsegirl, 2022)

This is another one that starts strong. The opening guitar riff and throbbing bass take me back to my garage rock days, and the wall of melancholy sound that accompanies the vocals is an unexpected detail that I absolutely love. But geez is that “DANCE!” bridge out of place. This song isn’t about dancing! You could maybe get a gentle sway out of me at the rest of the tune, but this is not a dance-y song. At least, nothing about it sounds like dancing to me, including that goofy bridge.

3. Alaska (Maggie Rogers, 2019)

I happened upon a YouTube video about this song, explaining Maggie Rogers’ background, leading up to the moment where she played a cut of this song to Pharrell Williams at a master class at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. A video of that master class went viral back in 2016 for Williams’ reaction to the song, though I’d never seen it before. It’s easy to see why Williams was so enamored of the track — the idiosyncratic instruments, the breathy vocal performance, the catchy chorus — but those charms have diminished for me upon repeat listenings. And the form of the tune feels a bit perfunctory, particularly the outro calling back to the intro, which gives the song an arch form that feels antithetical to its emotional journey. I still enjoy it, but not quite as much as those that made the cut.

4. Got To Be Mine (Vulfmon/Evangeline, 2024)

This was the second song from this album, Dot, to make the rough cut. But where everything on “Letting Things Go” points to a kind of warm, cozy sound, this one has a brightness that I find I really need to be in the mood for. A lot of that brightness is down to this tune sitting higher in Evangeline’s range, but another piece is that repeated flute gesture. Sometimes, I find that repetition a clever use of a single motif, other times, it feels a little too same-y. I usually let this one play when it comes up, but I don’t always love it.

5. The Story (Brandi Carlile, 2007)

I mostly hate this song. The lyrics are awful, the arrangement is a paint-by-numbers write-off, and the guitar solo is similarly unimaginative, repeating the verse melody verbatim (but inexplicably stopping before the chorus, so that we just listen to the band backing a melody that isn’t there). But in spite of all of these shortcomings, this tune made the rough cut (and the runners up list) because of Brandi Carlile’s stunning vocal performance. It’s a showcase of her vocal prowess, and she makes every single note count, showing that she can bring the house down even with an absolute turd of a song.

6. Older (Lizzy McAlpine, 2024)

This song was my introduction to Lizzy McAlpine, and made it on the rough cut before “I Guess,” which ultimately made my final playlist. “Older” has a lot of the same charms as that one, showing off McAlpine’s range from the flat affect of the verses to soulful sweetness in the chorus, and featuring a ton of interesting instrumental detail, all building to a satisfying climax. But geez do I dislike that #IV chord in the piano. The B-natural clashes with the B-flat McAlpine is usually singing in that moment, and it lends this strange secondary dominant sound that I find incredibly distracting. The song otherwise has some really lovely harmonic moments, but I find myself wincing every time that G Major comes around.

7. What Do You Want From This? (Peach Fuzz, 2024)

I don’t know that I have a great explanation for this one beyond an inexplicable dislike of the title of this track. I like pretty much everything else, from the guitar tones to the light wash of reverb to the build of that chorus. But that title line serves as a refrain in the verses, which means it comes up several times throughout the song. The silver lining is this put Peach Fuzz on my radar, which means I can enjoy any of their songs that don’t feature that particular phrase.

8. Confidence (Ocean Alley, 2018)

I think I encountered this song on a TikTok video (or, more precisely, a YouTube compilation of TikTok videos — I am a grownup after all), but I couldn’t get it out of my head. I love the synth bass tone and the interplay with that wah-wah guitar. But something about the side-chaining of the bass makes this feel over-compressed and over-produced. That’s probably a particularly generational peeve (did I mention I’m a grownup?), but it’s a deeply rooted one.

9. ocean eyes (Billie Eilish, 2017)

As with most Billie Eilish songs, this one is impeccably produced. Those drum tones! Those bass tones! The vocal layering! And, of course, Eilish’s performance is gorgeous, particularly when it lightens up in the chorus. I’m actually coming up short on articulating what exactly held this one back from making the final cut, but I stand by it. I like this tune, but I don’t quite love it.

10. Motorcycle (Remi Wolf, 2024)

As I mentioned in the liner notes to the main list, I listened to Big Ideas a LOT this year. But unlike a lot of the other tracks from that album that made the rough cut, this one jettisons the funk grooves for a different vintage vibe, shifting Remi Wolf’s voice into a more sultry gear, and pairing it with a tremolo and reverb-washed guitar. I love the sounds of this song, but it ultimately moves a little too slow for my tastes.

11. Wave (Remi Wolf, 2024)

Look, I could have easily just called all of Big Ideas the list, so I think I’m showing some impressive restraint only featuring this many. And like “Motorcycle,” this one finds yet another gear for Wolf, finding center mass in modern rock. It’s not quite what I go to Big Ideas looking for, but I’ll be damned if Wolf doesn’t pull it off. And her band is right there with her. That weird groove at the beginning feels like their kind of offbeat take on rock, but when the drums lock into a straight ahead backbeat (after some killer fills) in the chorus (particularly at the 2:35 mark) I pretty much give myself over to the rock gods. I don’t love the flanger sounds towards the end of this one, but have to imagine this one absolutely kills in concert.

And that’s it! The other tracks on the rough cut either weren’t ultimately my thing, or were flawed in more profound ways that don’t warrant mention. But these probably give some sense of where the edges of my taste lie.