Flyctory.com – My Favorite Songs 2024

The first one of my Best of postings at the end of the year is always reserved for looking back to my favorite songs of the year. Last year, I already had to enlarge the non-country song section from the envisaged set of ten to a dozen. This year, I also could not cut out two country songs, so that you have a total of 25 songs in this song, which have been special to me this year.

 

My Favorite Non-Country Songs in 2024

I start with the non-country song section – as every year.

 

12. Wir stossen an by Ben Zucker

I haven’t made it covering a Ben Zucker show this year. However, the schlager-rock artist made it to the Songs of the Week thrice – one of them is this song. Wir stossen an is a lovely song about friendship.

 

11. Beginning To Find You by Al Lewis

Al Lewis released the amazing album Fifteen Years in January 2024. It is really hard to pick an individual song of he great release, but finally, Beginning To Find You is the song I loved the most. Lovely, very personal song-writing.

 

10. Butterfly by Joss Jaffe & Jim “Kimo” West

Another song, which has later been featured on an album is Butterfly by Joss Jaffe and Jim “Kimo” West. You can also find it on their album Santhi they released this year. The single release has been in June 2024. A beautiful instrumental with Indian music touch.

 

9. Ms. Perfect by Stia

The young German artist Stia from the Saarland region lead my Songs of the Week twice this year. In the week of 11th October 2024, she released Fight For me, but her song Ms. Perfect as of beginning of June even impressed me more. The pop-rock track is really energetic, love it.

 

8. What Fathers Do by Sophie Chassee

Sophie Chassee is a German artist, who I would love to cover in my concert reports one day. Her September 2024 album Attachment Theory was a great listen – but this single release was finally a really deep, personal song, which touched me a lot. Not too surprisingly, it has been released as a single beforehand.

 

7. Make It All Right by The Offspring

My favorite song picks often come with rather small artists – but there are some big names you just cannot avoid. Make It All Right has been one of the core tracks of The Offspring’s new album Supercharged. The punk rockers from Greater Los Angeles still do really good music.

 

6. Beautiful Reason by Michael Schulte

2018 Eurovision Song Contest participant Michael Schulte is doing amazing singer-songwriter music. In June 2024, he shared Beautiful Reason. The song had five million streams on Spotify so far and just does not get out of my head. Thus, it was an easy choice nominating it.

 

5. The Way I Want It by LOI

Since I covered a LOI show in Cologne in 2023, I am really fascinated by the German singer-songwriter LOI. Her second album is in the pipeline – and The Way I Want It is already a great appetizer. Well done again by the young lady.

 

4. Karma by The Kolors

The Italian synth-pop kings The Kolors have done an amazing year 2024. The grew massively in Europe and thereby also crossed the Italian language border. I also saw them live in Belgium in November 2024, which lead to a small amateur camera pictured story. To me, Karma is their outstanding track of the year, which also lead the 3rd May Songs of the Week post.

 

3. Story I Tell Myself by Lindsay Ell

Lindsay Ell is doing music, which she feels more confident about and moves from country to pop music. The result is an amazing EP, Love Myself. The song Story I Tell Myself has been one of the feature tracks – and it is simply outstanding.

 

2. Fire vs. Water by Evon Rose

On 29th November, the Austrian rock band Evon Rose released their album Thunder Rumbling. The intense feature track Fire vs. Water has been released in October already. The guys did an amazing job, the song definely stays in your mind. Love it!

 

My Favorite Non-Country Song 2024:

Á Sigursferð by Benjamin Rajani

The Faroe Islands and their handball team gave me a lot of great memories this year. Especially the national handball federation pushed this song, which has been released early in 2024. It is the song I likely heard the most this year. Hetta lítla landið, sterkt sum ættarbandið, er á sigursferð – “This little land, strong as the famoly bond – is on a winning journey”. Benjamin Rajani wrote the soundtrack of this winning journey – and my heart. Tusund takk!

 

My Favorite Song during 2024, which has been recorded in previous years

Roadhouse by Jessica Lynn

2024 was a great year with Jessica Lynn to me. I overall watched four shows of the New York City-origin artist – there is the report of the amazing Erftstadt show in here. My Facebook account also features pictures of her Christmas show in Pennsylvania. Her 2021 song Roadhouse is a lovely country honk-tonk party track, which is a highlight of her non-holiday shows. I really loved listening to it this year – and it felt to be my non-2024 song of the year.

 

My Favorite Country Songs in 2024

With the Country Music Playlists and the re-introduced Country Music Picks as well as numerous album reviews and concerts, the genre is still the core of my music coverage. Here are my favorite country music tracks in 2024.

 

12. American Nights by Zach Bryan

The July album The Great American Bar Scene boosted Zach Bryan’s carer even more. None of the songs has been streamed less than 12 million times so far – on Spotify only. The traditional style American Nights has been my favorite – and makes it to my list of the best songs of 2024.

 

11. Lost Me For Country by pez

There is only one German artist in my list of favorite country tracks – and it is pez. I already featured Peter Geyer (his civil name) in my EP review of All Lowercase in 2021. This year, he released the song Lost Me For Country – a great listen.

 

10. I Miss Tom Petty by Tim Hicks

Tom Petty is one of my favorite artists of all times. But this is not the only reason, why Tim Hicks made it to the list of favorite songs this year. It is simply a lovely praise of the music legend – and was also a nice part of the Sound of Nashville Open Air in August 2024.

 

9. Honky Tonk Hall of Fame by George Strait feat. Chris Stapleton

I typically try to prevent that artists pop up in this posting multiple times – but Chris Stapleton does make it twice in here, both times as a guest musician. Honky Tonk Hall of Fame is a core track of George Strait’s 2024 album, Cowboys And Dreamers. Great song with a lot of potential for some fun.

 

8. FBI by Jenna Davis

Jenna Davis is already very popular on social media – and she is also more and more popular as a country-pop artist. In November 2024, she released Sike, her debut EP. The song FBI has been released beforehand – and I really like it.

 

7. I Went To College / I Went To Jail by ERNEST feat. Jelly Roll

This song was the opener of ERNEST’s April album release, Nashville, Tennessee. The collaboration of him and Jelly Roll is an awesome write, which deals with the very different biography of the two artists. Great one!

 

6. Girl In Your Songs by Twinnie

Twinnie’s album Something We Used To Say was definitely the highlight of her year. The British artist nowadays living in Nashville shared the 22 songs in November 2024. I did not have the time to have a deeper review in that week, but Girl In Your Songs released beforehand has definitely been a track which stayed in my mind. Some more European country music in here.

 

5. California Sober by Post Malone feat. Chris Stapleton

2024 has also been a year, in which artists, who you typically know from other genres, released country music albums. One of that was F-1 Trillion by Post Malone. Most of the 18 songs are collaborations with other artists, majorly from the country music scene. Te one with Chris Stapleton, California Sober, stayed in my mind the most. And made it to my sixth spot.

 

4. Daddy Raised by Jackson Dean

I really look forward to the 2025 shows by Jackson Dean in Europe (see my tour date overview). In September 2024, he released the album On The Back of My Dreams. While I struggled with some of the songs in there. Daddy Raised is definitely a gem. Hope to hear it live on stage next year.

 

3. Truck Still Works by Brad Paisley

Brad Paisley is one of the big names in the country music business. In September 2024, he released the single Truck Still Works. The song did not have the commercial success I feel it should have achieved. Maybe I am pushing it a little bit more with my nomination.

 

2. Mama Smoked Cigarettes by Roman Alexander

Roman Alexander released the song Mama Smoked Cigarettes in August 2024. A lovely, very personal write by the artist from Kansas City. The song pushed him on my 2024 country music podium.

 

My Favorite Country Song 2024:

Wild, Free and Easy by Kyle Daniel

I loved Kyle Daniel’s year 2024. Especially that he flew over from the United Kingdom just for one night to play at the Sound of Nashville Open Air was a great honor to the German country music scene. Wild, Free and Easy is one of the core track of his July 2024 album, Kentucky Gold. And it was my country music soundtrack of the year.

 

Title picture: Benjamin Rajani – A Sigursferd

 

Songs of the Year 2024 – My Playlist

I put the 25 songs mentioned in here in a Spotify playlist:

 

Country Music Picks

With different focus, I used to share country music in my Country Music Picks::

 

Year-end Reviews

Looking back to the twelve months you just survived. Here are all my year-end review posts: