Top Ten Songs of 2024: Number 2

My Number 2 song of 2024 is…

Andrew – Ben Platt

As I went through writing about each year in my memoir those boys that held a special place in my heart when I was young really tugged at me. So, in the spring when Broadway star Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hanson) released the song Andrew I was immediately touched by it. There are very few songs that truly capture what it’s like to be gay as a teenager, to be attracted to another boy, and to have no one to talk about it with. Platt beautifully describes all of those feelings in Andrew. This is the opening of the song:

“His hair falls in cool careless waves without tryin'
Goes days without cryin'
But still treats me kind
And it's not his fault, all the sleep I've been losin'
The way that I'm ruined

One look in his eyes and I'm gone
Helplessly dumb
My senses go numb
My brain is on fire
They say wanting someone is supposed to be fun
That's because they never loved an Andrew

Honey, I know there's no one to blame
But honestly, damn you
It's just a cruel joke that chemicals play”

Those lines say it all. Plat expresses them with a deep remembrance of yearning that I find hard not to relate to.

Number 2 songs from other contributors:

Kevin Alexander - On Repeat Records:

“BODEGA—City Is Taken: Incredibly catchy post-punk/art rock from a band that couldn't be from anywhere but New York.”

Steve Goldberg - Earworms and Song Loops:

“Home Counties - Uptight”

Thea Wood - Herizon Music Newsletter:

“Queen Kwong’s new cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper.” Her version is more haunting musically and emotionally. Coming from the perspective of a woman driving alone at night, the song holds a terrifying anticipation of what that trooper could physically do to her without consequence. A case of art imitating life, based on many women’s true stories.”

Matt Madurski - Chart Chat:

“Dexter and the Moonrocks - Sad In Carolina: The beneficiary of recency bias, Dexter and the Moonrocks entered my orbit not too long ago when I did a quick glance of the Alternative Airplay charts and saw it hit #1 in early December. I listened out of curiosity and was immediately blown away. It's a wonderfully infectious track, with little bits of punk rock, pop stylings, and a vague but prominent '90s sound. I cannot get enough of it right now. “

Angela Yokoe: Victory Garden – The Lone Bellow (poignant remembrance)

Christopher Bradley - Daydreamin' 'Bout the Way Things Sometimes Are:

Scooter Blues by Johnny Blue Skies: “Here is another song I cannot just get enough of. I am really looking forward to sitting on the beach this summer in the early morning and just putting this song on while watching the sunrise.”

Matt Fish - Best Music of All Time:

"Endsong" by the Cure—so, funny story, I saw them live in 2023 and hear them play this track long before the album version was available on streaming. Even then, I thought it was an absolute monster. It's one of the finest, lushest, most emotionally affecting compositions the Cure have ever recorded.”

Mark Edward Randall - Musings of a Broken Record

#2 Sprinter Brain- Wild Pink "I was playing this quite a bit last fall."

What is your Number 2 song of 2024?!