In a world where music serves as the soundtrack to our lives, staying abreast of the latest releases is super essential for any music enthusiast! Each week brings forth a treasure trove of new albums spanning various genres, styles, and moods, offering listeners a diverse array of sonic experiences to explore. From chart-topping pop anthems to experimental indie gems, here are the 9 Top Female Songs released this week that deserve a spot on your streaming playlist!
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!For those who crave the pulse-pounding energy of chart-topping hits, this week’s lineup does not disappoint. With infectious hooks, irresistible beats, and anthemic choruses, these albums are poised to dominate the airwaves and playlists alike. Whether you’re a fan of pop, rock, or R&B, there’s something here in this Female Songs List to satisfy you’re craving for radio-friendly jams that are sure to get stuck in your head!
Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter
At long last, Bey’s second installment in a trilogy of records has arrived. Cowboy Carter is aptly titled, as we receive a country album from one of the Best Songs of Female Singers of this century, the greatest pop performer whose versatility knows no bounds. Not every track lands like that of its predecessor, ReNAISSANCE, but Cowboy Carter showcases not just Beyoncé’s attempt at reclaiming a genre first turned powerful by black musicians, but her malleability in music, too.
From her reimagination of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” (titled “BLACKBIRD” this time around) to her cover of Dolly Parton’s “JOLENE” to sneaky originals like “16 CARRIAGES” and “II MOST WANTED,” Beyoncé is immune to failure, and even her most ambitious swings make some kind of contact.
Likely, Cowboy Carter won’t endure the same perennial immortality as a record like Lemonade has, but what’s never been truer is that Beyoncé can step into any clothes she pleases and make a country record that is as good, if not better, than 90% of what modern country radio stations are playing. Don’t go into Cowboy Carter expecting an outlaw album, though.
The 27 songs aren’t interested in going to that place. Rather, the album makes good on executing a lesson in the genre that doesn’t always abide by its wants. See the outlier “SPAGHETTI II” and you’ll know. Beyoncé can’t stay away from what’s long made her work glow, even if that means breaking away from form briefly. -Matt Mitchell
Dent May: What’s For Breakfast?
Los Angeles singer-songwriter Dent May’s first record in four years, What’s For Breakfast? Is it an early frontrunner for the most charming release of 2024 thus far? May is a pop auteur to her core, keen on harnessing a near-mythical approach to feel-good songs that pick at nostalgia, routine, and joy, making her one to watch for new songs by female artists in 2024.
Take the lead single “Coasting on Fumes,” for example, and you’ll see exactly why. The track features indie-pop singer Jordana, and it finds the two musicians contemplating burnout over the western twang of May’s guitar. “Heading nowhere fast, dangerously low on gas, am I going to make it last the drive,” May sings, the automotive metaphor standing in for a fear that the daily grind might swallow you whole.
May and Jordana’s voices seamlessly ebb and flow throughout the track, following the lazy daze of muddling your way through another tough day of trying to stay afloat. It’s an energy May captures elsewhere on songs like “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun,” “Keep Me in Mind,” and “One Call, That’s All.” What’s For Breakfast? is kaleidoscopic and boasts the charm of your favorite commercial jingle, and Dent May is our shepherd to the vibrant promised land. -Olivia Abercrombie
Chastity Belt: Live Laugh, and Love
Playfully titled Live Laugh Love (a phrase that can be found on many pastel-painted Hobby Lobby wall signs, as well as in stick-and-poke tattoo form on Julia Shapiro’s left ankle), Chastity Belt’s first album in half a decade is laden with existentialism, offering a unique perspective among the Top Female Songs of the Year 2024.
Across 11 tracks spanning just under 40 minutes in runtime, the four-piece channel the spirit of the project’s namesake—a determination to always look for the silver lining, even in the darkest of times.
Album opener “Hollow,” a sunny outing carried by Shapiro’s light vocals, is deceptively grounded in heavy lyricism about the all-too-human experience of feeling lost (“Waiting for some sign, wasting time”), adrift (“I wanna trust myself again”) and separate from the world around you (“Real life doesn’t feel real anymore”).
But despite the inner turmoil, when Shapiro signs off with “I wanna know myself again” at the track’s finale, you believe her. It’s a hopeful intro that sets the tone for the rest of the album, assuring listeners that, if life is a joke, it at least can’t hurt to laugh along.
Live Laugh Love is a refreshing outing from Chastity Belt, who are no doubt in top form, as the album arrives like the culmination of each member’s lifelong musical evolution, taking the collective whole to new heights. -Elizabeth Braaten
GGlum: The Garden Dream
After signing with Secretly Canadian in late 2023, London-born singer-songwriter Ella Smoke—aka gglum—has dropped her latest album, The Garden Dream. Songs like “SPLAT!” and “Easy Fun” pointed the record towards a heavier groove, while “Do You See Me Different?” relishes a softer approach.
The acoustic track features bedroom pop prodigy Kamal., and it’s a tender reflection of the chaos of a tumultuous relationship. “Did I make it out alive? / Because sometimes it feels like I didn’t,” GGlum confesses in a sigh of honesty, which anyone who has been in a difficult relationship can relate to.
Pair that kind of vulnerability with the lo-fi charm of “Late” or the frenetic dreaminess of deep-cut “Glue,” and it’s clear that not only is gglum one of the best up-and-coming musicians around, but The Garden Dream is the kind of record you absolutely can’t let float under the radar.
It’s a soul-baring album unafraid of embracing its own idiosyncratic, mashed-together genre musings. For every stroke of fuzzed-out guitar, a reliquary of synthesizers rushes in. There’s never a moment immune to catchiness, and gglum stands triumphantly at the center of every triumph. -OA
Harmless: Chris Lyon
Harmless—the indie dream pop project of Mexican-born musician Nacho Cano—is back with his first full-length LP in eight years, Springs Eternal. Since releasing Harmless Fantasies in 2015, Cano has seen his 2012 track “Swing Lynn” explode online—racking up nearly half a billion streams and a Gold certification in the process, solidifying its place among the Top Female Songs of the era.
Now, Springs Eternal arrives as Cano’s best work to date. Co-produced by Yves Rothman (Blondshell, Amaarae) at Sunset Sound, Springs Eternal is 11 wall-to-wall hues of vibrant warmth. From the oddball treasure of “Aisle Five” to the stripped-down, mythical tenderness of “Maybe Next Week,” this is a record with some real muscular dreaminess and sincere replay value.
Cano has dedicated the album to connecting with his younger self “after feeling split due to a gruesome accident” with a drunk driver. Springs Eternal relishes its intimacy, and Cano’s command of his musicality has never sounded better. -MM [Read our full feature.]
h. pruz: No Glory
Hannah Pruzinsky—who performs as h. Pruz—quietly dropped one of the most striking records of 2024 today. No Glory is beautiful and urgent, as Pruzinsky revels in the fleeting feelings that sneak up on and pass them by. The New York singer-songwriter’s work is grounded in rousing, earthly instrumentals saturated by finely-plucked acoustic guitars and windswept harmonies, setting a captivating tone for new songs by female artists in 2024.
In “I Keep Changing,” Pruzinsky sings, “I keep doing things / That bruise the side of my legs / Running far in a field / Through the middle of the day / It’s so precious to be worn”; “I hold you when I wake up, count the creases and the crows,” they sing on “Dawn.” “There’s heaviness in the morning.
Not from you, you should know.” Written in a “frenzied summer state in a cabin attic,” there’s a blanket of sincerity running throughout No Glory, one that captures just how beautiful an arrangement sounds when Pruzinsky’s voice is guiding it through intervals of painstakingly vivid yet solemn emotion—culminating in a final couplet on “Dawn” that’ll swallow you whole: “We can do whatever we want to, and you make me want to do it all.” -Grace Ann Natanawan & Matt Mitchell.
Peel: Acid Star
Peel—the work of Sean Cimino and Isom Innis, who first linked up when they became members of Foster the People back in 2010—has released their debut album, Acid Star, via Innovative Leisure. It makes sense that Cimino and Innis have served as the rhythmic backbone of one of the most popular pop bands of the last 15 years, as their steadfast knack for bouncing, hypnotic electronica sprawls beautifully across their first 10 tracks as a unit.
From the climaxing melodies of the title track to “Climax,” which we deemed a “unique convergence of post-punk, electronica, and psychedelia” earlier this year, to the ever-so-massive and swirling anthem of “Y2J,” Acid Star is a euphoric first turn for Peel—two musicians who’ve stepped out of the background to boast their pop sensibilities.
Teens in Trouble: What’s Mine?
As is often the case on one’s first album, What’s Mine wears its influence on its sleeve—going as far as equating music taste with love in a way we are probably all guilty of at one time or another, adding depth to the realm of Top Female Songs. “If this is how to be close to you, I want to know what you are listening to,” Killian sings to a prospective lover on “Playlist.”
The fact that some of the very voices to which What’s Mine is frequently so obviously indebted are present with her is a testament to her raw talent. Both PUP’s Stefan Babcock and Jeff Rosenstock’s guitarist Mike Huguenor make appearances on the record, and they feel perfectly placed within its 2010 punk rock pastiche.
When Lizzie Killian does lock into something specific—as she does on “Autopilot”—you can see a clear way forward for Teens In Trouble. “This apathy is a parasite, it’s never going to get its hooks in me again,” she sings, among a coiled spark of guitars and an assaultive rhythm section. There is no question mark at the end of What’s Mine. The title is not a request, nor a nervous inquiry or harbinger of defeat, but a declaration; it is a burgeoning musician looking out at the world and deciding for herself what’s hers, without waiting for anyone else’s approval. -Sean Fennell.
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers: Revelations
With today’s release of Revelations, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers continue to be one of the most prolific country-rock bands in America. Ushered into the record by their ever-larger-than-life bandleader River Shook, the Disarmers grind rock ‘n’ roll down into ubiquitous truths about mental illness, capitalism, queerness, and the convergence of substance abuse and toxic relationships.
River’s attention to blowing up punk tropes with their resilient and massive hooks will never grow stale, and tracks like “Revelations,” “Motherfucker,” and “Backsliders” showcase their expertise in crafting narratives chalked full of sharp observation and potent emotion.
Sharp, twangy guitars and crisp harmonies run rampant throughout, seamlessly blending with disaffected lyrics at every turn. “I have been in the state that I’m in since the day of my birth,” River sings on the title track. “New beginnings, I’m done listenin’ when the old guard tells me what my word is worth.” Revelations is Sarah Shook and the Disarmers’ most intimate and piercing album yet.
