The Globe and Mail
Year after year, Spotify grants us a brief respite from the year’s headlines – which have been, let’s face it, not great! – to instead focus on what the year was like for you, personally, with its annual Spotify Wrapped release.
This year, on top of its usual rundown of users’ listening habits that included most-listened to songs, albums, and artists of the year, Spotify added the option to tune in to a personalized Spotify Wrapped AI Podcast, which, per Spotify’s website, featured users’ favourite music of the year “delivered using generative AI by two dynamic hosts.” So if the proliferation of artificial intelligence in 2024 has left you a bit leery about its continuing ascendance in 2025, well, good luck, babe.
Here’s a look at the music Globe staff listened to and loved in 2024 on Spotify and its rival Apple Music, from indie rock to kids music to, yes, Taylor Swift.
How did it end up like this?
Mark Medley, deputy Opinion editor
Top Artist: The Killers
Top Song: Mr Brightside, The Killers
It begins the moment he sees me grab the car keys, and the demands grow louder, more incessant, as I buckle him into his seat. “DADDY!” my four-year-old son yells. “KILLERS ESSENTIALS.” If I try to listen to a podcast, or a different record, his shrieks (“I WANT KILLERS ESSENTIALS”) do not abate until the first chords of Bright Lights, the single that kicks off the playlist, drifts through the speakers.
I could have told you the results of my Apple Music Replay on Jan. 1, and I can predict the results for 2025 right now. It was the same in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020. Both my kids are obsessed with The Killers. It’s my fault – I introduced the Las Vegas rock band to my eldest son around the time 2020’s Imploding the Mirage was released, and the first concert he attended, at the age of 6, was when they played at Scotiabank Arena a couple of years later. I’m trying to look on the bright side: I’m fortunate my kids share my taste in music. But I have my limits, and mine came the 74th time I heard Somebody Told Me this year.
According to Apple Music, I listened to The Killers more than twice as often as my second-place band, Vampire Weekend (Only God Was Above Us continues their uninterrupted run of stellar albums), Coeur de pirate (the Quebecois chanteuse’s 2021 instrumental album Perseides is my go-to writing music), The Cure (Songs Of A Lost World is the record of the year), and Waxahatchee, whose Tigers Blood rounds out my top 5.
But really, there’s only one band in my life these days. Kids, if you’re reading this: I’m ready, let’s roll onto something new. Please.
Right back to Waxahatchee...
Josh O’Kane, business of arts reporter
Top artist: Waxahatchee
Top song: Right Back to It, Waxahatchee feat. MJ Lenderman
Hearing a musician consistently challenge themselves to become stronger can be a remarkable thing. Under the alias Waxahatchee, Alabama’s Katie Crutchfield has spent the past dozen years sifting raw emotion from the silt of life in ways both impressive and surprising. The ex-punk went solo in 2012 with American Weekend, a hissing home-recording project filled with stories about friends, family and lovers compiled by 8-track. Its release coincided with me finishing grad school, and I can trace my journey into functional adulthood along the arc of her career: dwelling on breakups in airport bars to 2013’s DIY-sounding Cerulean Salt, making a home out of a poorly insulated apartment listening to 2015’s indie rock-flavoured Ivy Tripp, finding solace in 2020’s left-turn Americana record Saint Cloud during the earliest days of pandemic lockdowns.
She solidified her country-tinged sound this year with Tigers Blood, an album deftly laden with twang and that same, emotionally hefty voice, now honed with fantastic confidence. I cannot count how many times I’ve turned to Right Back to It, featuring backing vocals from 2024’s breakout star MJ Lenderman. It’s a gorgeous song about returning to a comfortable love. It’s my top song of the year; I’ll always find comfort in Waxahatchee.
...and right back again
Mason Wright, programming editor
Top artist: Waxahatchee
Top song: Right Back to It, Waxahatchee
Apparently it doesn’t take all that much to get the featured spot in my Spotify Wrapped: One standout album featuring a bewitching earworm of a song – neither of which I’ve listened to in months it seems. I guess that’s what happens when you tend to sample new releases regularly and participate in an album-a-day music exchange in your group chat. Variety, to my ears, is the most lasting trend.
Even so, I did fall head over heels for Tigers Blood, the sixth studio album from Alabama singer-songwriter Waxahatchee, and the sweet Americana harmonies on her duet with MJ Lenderman, Right Back to It. But given how little money most artists earn from streaming, it’s a good thing for Waxahatchee that I was infatuated enough in the first half of the year to buy a ticket for her Vancouver show. (Spotify wouldn’t know this, but it was also my live show of the year.)
Related: Canada’s most-watched YouTube videos this year and what they say about the vibes
Move over Bono, it’s Tay Tay Time
Marsha Lederman, columnist
Top Artist: Taylor Swift
Top Song: Fortnight, Taylor Swift feat. Post Malone
Hardly a shocker that Taylor Swift is anyone’s top artist this year, but for the first time in my personal Spotify Wrapped history, U2 – my perpetual favourite band – was knocked from that top spot. In fact, and this did shock me, U2 did not even make it into my top five songs, four of which were Swift’s: Fortnight, Down Bad, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart and Cruel Summer. Number five? The Wind (remastered) by Yusuf/Cat Stevens, one of the most gorgeous songs ever recorded.
My theory: it’s so short that I listened to it on repeat. I listened to 898 artists; two of my top five were Canadian: The Tragically Hip and East Coast singer-songwriter Jon McKiel. Weirdly, my two favourite Swift songs did not make my top five; maybe Shake It Off was just too positive a vibe for this rotten (geopolitically speaking) year. And All Too Well, clocking in at 10 minutes, was possibly just too long. Who has the time to be ruminating over a lost love when the world is falling apart and you’ve apparently abandoned your lifelong favourite rock band? All of this to say, fellow music fans: I hope you’re okay.
Don’t sleep on the sleeper hits
Rebecca Tucker, deputy arts & books editor
Top Artist: Vampire Weekend
Top song: Good Luck, Babe, Chappell Roan
Every year, it behooves me to mention that I am now and always will be an Apple Music user, despite the fact that their Apple Replay year-end recap is, frankly, aggressively user-unfriendly in comparison to Spotify Wrapped.
Now that that’s out of the way: Like my colleague Mark, I could have told you the results of my Apple Replay rankings months ago. Because, while most arts and pop culture headlines would have you believe 2024 was Taylor Swift’s year, let’s be serious: it was Chappell Roan’s. From her blistering breakout performance at Coachella – which took place just a week after she released Good Luck, Babe – to her enormous Lollapalooza set and having her 2023 sleeper hit debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess top the charts nearly a year after its release, you rarely see such a meteoric rise. Chappell’s got the chops to back it up, too – Good Luck, Babe, as a single, was my No. 1 album in addition to being my most-listened-to song; Midwest Princess, a front-to-back banger, made my top five.
However, this is a numbers game, and when it came to sheer listening minutes, Vampire Weekend – thanks in part to their 2024 album Only God Was Above Us, more of a sleeper hit than an instant classic, but also to their still-flawless five-album run – emerged victorious.
She’s Leaving You...
Samantha Edwards, online culture reporter
Top Artist: MJ Lenderman
Top Song: She’s Leaving You, MJ Lenderman
This year my top artist, MJ Lenderman, Gen Z’s answer to Neil Young, was behind three of my top five songs of the year – She’s Leaving You, Rip Torn and Wristwatch – which are all from Lenderman’s excellent fourth album, Manning Fireworks. This reveal wasn’t that surprising. I was obsessed with Lenderman’s witty character studies of sad sacks and anti-heroes, jangly tones and breezy harmonies.
But I was relieved to discover that according to Spotify, my music listening of the year wasn’t all just indie rock. (Maybe it’s the ex-music journalist in me, but I’m a staunch supporter of a diversified music portfolio. Otherwise, you’ll feel out of touch and eventually become like my dad, who believes all the best music was released by 1978.) My musical tastes evolved from a “Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop” phase in the spring, fuelled by Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo to a “Liminal Noise Slowcore” autumn, driven by the hazy and reverb-drenched bands Duster, Galaxie 500 and Hovvdy. This evolution seems clearly tied to the seasonal changes: saccharine pop music is the ideal soundtrack for spring blooms and bike rides, while emotional melancholic tunes fit the entrance of sweater-weather.
...times two
Adrian Cheung, senior producer, audio
Top Artist: MJ Lenderman
Top Song: She’s Leaving You, MJ Lenderman
While Spotify tells me that I’ve listened to over 35,000 minutes of music this year, it’s clear that most of my time was spent with MJ Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks. Three of the Asheville guitar hero-singer-songwriter’s tracks were in my top five. Most years, I’d be embarrassed to be that in the bag for just one artist, but I can’t deny that his album was the soundtrack to my 2024.
Lenderman captures a kind of thirtysomething ennui in a way I’ve never heard before – where everything is unserious if only as a cover for being painfully sincere. Where sad-sack losers are both the clowns and the punchline. He can write a great visual gag in just four words: “Kahlua shooter / DUI scooter.” His guitar solos are earworms that drift in first and then take up the whole track. It had me hitting repeat over and over again, as another line – “Please don’t laugh, only half of what I said was a joke” – hit just a little too close to home.
Mommy shark, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo
Sarah Bugden, content editor
Top Artist: Raffi
Top Song: Baby Shark, Pinkfong
As you can probably tell, I’m the parent of a toddler. My brain has been playing a constant loop of Baby Shark for as long as I can remember. This was prompted by a months-long phase my daughter went through, where she requested the insufferable earworm on repeat every night during the precious little time between bath time and bedtime. The Google Home in our living room has blasted just about every version of Baby Shark that exists (trust me, there are too many to count especially when you factor in the holiday ones). But none are more annoying – and of course, appealing to my 21-month-old – than the OG.
Thankfully, it hasn’t been all Baby Shark all the time this year. We’ve listened to a good amount of traditional children’s music, too. Raffi has been big in our house, particularly the Baby Beluga and Bananaphone albums. Luckily, these songs don’t drive me bananas.
In my self-love era
Dominique Gené, Report on Business reporter
Top Artist: Asake
Top Song: My Love Mine All Mine, Mitski
With determination and tenacity at the centre of my year, it’s fitting that the Afrobeats superstar Asake is my top artist. Her Dull is an anthem for those who keep their eyes on the prize, despite the challenges. The chorus, “I swear I no go dull” (I swear I will not slack) is my morning affirmation. In 2023, Asake became the first African artist to headline and sell out a concert at New York’s Barclays Center. It may be lonely at the top, but that won’t stop us from getting there.
While my top song was unexpected, it’s psychologically understandable. My Love Mine All Mine captures the beauty of the love we carry and nurture. In a world where everything is a commodity, the love is the one thing that belongs to us, the one thing that’s limitless. Mitski symbolizes my self-love era.
Camila summer, Creed fall
Ming Wong, art director
Top Artist: SZA
Top Song: MASC, Doja Cat
This was the first time Apple Replay listed out what my top songs were each month, and I like seeing my stats this way as a marker for what kind of person I was and what I was obsessed with throughout the year. Mine synced up with a few big cultural moments: April was when Doja Cat headlined Coachella. May was the peak of the Drake-Kendrick beef. I was travelling in the Faroe Islands during that period and each morning of my trip, the other hip-hop-inclined person in my tour group would tell me that there’s a new diss track. So naturally, Not Like Us was No. 1 that month.
And then there were personal moments: in March, the euphoric finale in the Poor Things soundtrack encapsulated my relief at finishing a feature that’s been on my mind for a long time. In June, I started taking a drop-in dance class and so I had the Victoria Monét track on repeat to practice my (limited) choreography.
In January, I had no idea I would be taking dance classes. Or that I would be so into Camila Cabello’s sad Miami girl vibes this past summer. And now I’m entering a Creed fall? How things change in a year.