NPR's Best Songs of 2024 List Highlights Berklee Alumni Arooj Aftab, Adrianne Lenker, Tiny Habits, and more made the cut on NPR's roundup of this year's top tracks.
By
Tara Bellucci
December 6, 2024
Adrianne Lenker performing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Image by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
Tis the season for year-end lists, and NPR just dropped one. The public radio institution picked 124 songs to include on their Best Songs of 2024 list, and several choices feature Berklee alumni.
NPR broke the songs into categories based on genres like pop, jazz, and beyond ; favorites from partner public radio stations; and what they are calling the best of the best, a curated top 25 songs of the year.
Here are some of the songs by or featuring Berklee alumni that made the list:
Arooj Aftab
Image courtesy of the artist
Arooj Aftab, Raat Ki Rani The song is a pure crowd-pleaser, as the Pakistani-American singer sets her atmospheric, decidedly Sade-esque yearning against sumptuous harps and a portentous piano line, says Stephen Thompson of Aftab BM '10.
Sabrina Carpenter, Espresso Amy Allen '15 has written some of the most iconic pop songs of the last decade, and Sabrina Carpenter's summer smash Espresso is one of them. NPR named it a Best of the Best, with Stephen Thompson saying, Espresso' was the shot [and] Please Please Please' was the chaser.
Deerlady, Masterpieces Lars Gotrich says that Magdalena Abrego's [BM '15] guitar solo at the climax of this beautiful and brooding indie rock song gurgles with molten life over crackling shoegaze riffs.
Madi Diaz, God Person Robin Hilton says that this was the rare song that absolutely wrecked me this year. The song by Diaz '07 is partly about finding joy and purpose in life's smallest moments-time with friends, gazing at the sky or the ocean. But it's also about realizing that maybe those moments are precisely where god' and the ultimate meaning of life exist.
Adrianne Lenker, Sadness as a Gift Ann Powers calls Lenker BM '12 to many, the most gifted of her own cohort of singer-songwriters, and says the song offers a breakup ballad ideal for a generation redefining the way ties bind: You could write me someday, and I think you will.'
Nourished by Time, Hell of a Ride Marcus Brown PD '16 made a soaring, blissful ode to dissolution, a better to have loved and lost' anthem stripped of all clich that also reads as a valedictory for late-stage capitalism, its consumerist focus and lack of third spaces, says Sheldon Pearce. Somewhere at the center of R&B and art-pop and post-punk lies Brown's rousing voice, which is so compelling it can make even parting feel like a balmy, loving embrace.
Tiny Habits (left to right: Judah Mayowa, Maya Rae, Cinya Khan)
Image courtesy of the artist
Tiny Habits, Wishes The intimacy of close harmony singing has rarely served a song the way this young trio's blend does in this heartfelt expression of the human tendency to feel unmoored within one's own skin, Ann Powers writes about Tiny Habits' Judah Mayowa '21, Cinya Khan BM '23, and Maya Rae BM '24. NPR named the song a Best of the Best pick, with Powers adding, Each member takes a verse, confessing sorrows with painful honesty; then, in the choruses, their voices gently connect, like fingers intertwining. This is what empathy sounds like.
Chappell Roan, Good Luck, Babe! Justin Tranter '01, the hitmaker behind numerous chart-toppers, cowrote this larger-than-life pop anthem, recognized as a Best of the Best track. Has anyone who's nonchalantly muttered, It's fine, it's cool,' ever actually felt fine or cool? asks NPR's Elle Mannion. Chappell Roan, this year's biggest breakout pop star, is anything but low key.
Did we miss anyone? Let us know.
Related Categories
News
Most Popular
Rihanna sings during the Concert for Valor in Washington, DC, November 11, 2014.
Image by EJ Hersom / CC-BY-2.0
This Rihanna Song Has Secret' '80s Easter Eggs The SOS songwriter revealed a nostalgic twist to the lyrics, and it's going viral on TikTok.
Latest
MAMO is one of seven Berklee acts performing at the Snowport holiday market.
Image courtesy of the artists
Berklee Artists Perform at Boston Snowport Holiday Market The performances are a result of a partnership between the Snowport, Mohegan Sun, and the Berklee Popular Music Institute.
Michael McDonald, one of yacht rocks icons.
Image by Soul Train/Getty/Courtesy HBO
Yacht Rock: Smooth Sailing on Rocky Waters Read about how the soft-rock genre has weathered the test of time, and listen to a playlist of some of the best yacht rock songs, from Christopher Cross and Toto to Steely Dan and Thundercat.
Applications Open for the Berklee Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant The deadline for the grant application is December 6, 2024.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
NPR's Best Songs of 2024 List Highlights Berklee Alumni Arooj Aftab, Adrianne Lenker, Tiny Habits, and more made the cut on NPR's roundup of this year's top tracks.
