This Week: The S.O.T.S. Race Gets Electric… ⚡⚡

The 2024 Song of the Summer bracket continues with the Electronic/Dance Division. Last week we crowned the ultimate underdog 🦸 the 8th seeded “Docket” by Blondshell and Bully, as the champion of the Rock Division, so we know anything can happen in these match-ups.

Before the summer is up, we will have picked winners in each of the four genre divisions—Rock, Electronic/Dance, Hip-Hop/R&B, and Pop—before deciding on the one true Song of the Summer for 2024! We scoured the playlists and listened to scores of tracks before narrowing it down to our top 32 songs. We placed a limit on one song per artist (per division) and determined seed placement by the total number of Spotify streams.

Now without further ado, let’s choose our champion for the 2024 Song of the Summer: Electronic/Dance Division! 🕺 

ELECTRONIC/DANCE DIVISION: ROUND ONE

(1) 360 vs. (8) Lift You Up

Charli XCX sent shockwaves through the system (that is, our sound system) with her excellent 2024 album, BRAT. And if you haven’t had a taste of her infectious, vocoder-infused hyper-pop just yet, look no further than the album’s opening track, “360”. It’s definite a club banger and yes, we’ve been “bumpin’ that” all summer.

Jessie Ware and Romy (of The xx fame) enter as our 8th seed with their collaboration, “Lift You Up”, a groovy dance pop track that hinges on its swelling choral harmonies and thumping bass drum. 🥁 It’s an easy song to vibe to, but it’s just not that easy to beat Charli in 2024, so “360” takes this match-up.

WINNER: (1) 360 by Charli XCX

(2) places to be vs. (7) Compress / Repress

Fred again.. is one of electronic music’s rising stars, and his latest effort is a fast-paced, minimalistic track featuring vocals from Anderson .Paak and CHIKA. While it’s certainly not as catchy as last year’s SOTS contender, “adore u” featuring Obongjayar, “places to be” is still one of the biggest electronic songs of this summer, so it enters the bracket here as the number 2 seed.

If you subscribe to the Listies (which you should if you’re reading this!), you know that we LOVE movies. 🎥 We love movies so much that we are including a track from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s Challengers score in this bracket. We know—crazy!! The song in question is “Compress / Repress”, the pulsating end credits banger that we’ve been been spinning non-stop. We wish nothing but the best for Fred and co., but this is an easy upset for Reznor and Ross in the 7th seed.

WINNER: (7) Compress / Repress by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

(3) L’AMOUR DE MA VIE [OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT] vs. (6) Do 2 Me

The 3rd seed for the Electronic/Dance division is an extended version of a song off the new Billie Eilish album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. This new version of the track, dubbed the “OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT”, teases out the second half of “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” into a boppy, auto-tuned club track featuring some of Finneas’s best production to date.

The second song to feature Anderson .Paak in this section of the bracket, “Do 2 Me” may feel more like a hip-hop track on first listen, but don’t let the vocals fool you—the song is helmed by veteran producer and beat-maker, KAYTRANADA. While we think Billie takes this particular battle quite easily, we recommend you don’t sleep 😴 on “Do 2 Me” or the rest of KAYTRANADA’s wonderful 2024 album, TIMELESS.

WINNER: (3) L’AMOUR DE MA VIE [OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT] by Billie Eilish

(4) Baddy on the Floor vs. (5) Starburned and Unkissed

The final battle in this first round is probably the most even match-up yet. The Jamie xx and Honey Dijon collaboration “Baddy on the Floor” is a sample and synth-driven club track that stands out amongst the slew of singles released ahead of Jamie’s long-awaited album 💿 , In Waves, coming this September. We even had the pleasure of seeing Jamie xx headline the Pitchfork Music Festival, where he opened his rousing set with this gem!

Caroline Polachek’s “Starburned and Unkissed” (another movie-related entry, having been commissioned for Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow soundtrack) starts out subdued, before exploding into the glitchy, belted chorus that defines the song for us. But much like the previous match-up, one of these tracks is just the more fitting winner given the genre of this division. So with that in mind, Jamie xx and Honey Dijon edge out Polachek to move on to the next round.

WINNER: (4) Baddy on the Floor by Jamie xx & Honey Dijon

ELECTRONIC/DANCE DIVISION: SEMI-FINALS

(1) 360 vs. (7) Compress / Repress

Ok, we know it’s “brat summer” and we really believe Charli has probably never been better musically than she is right now, but have y’all heard the Challengers score?? It absolutely SLAPS! Sorry to all of Charli’s Angels out there—we encourage you continue your Apple dances and coconut tree 🌴 memes on TikTok, but this is the Listies’ bracket, and we feel strongly that Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross are taking this one.

WINNER: (7) Compress / Repress by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

(3) L’AMOUR DE MA VIE [OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT] vs. (4) Baddy on the Floor

Now this one is truly so hard to decide. 🤔 Jamie xx is one of the world’s premiere electronic artists and Billie Eilish is undoubtedly more of a pop artist (and who knows, we may see her again when we get around to the Pop division of this bracket…), but we’re trying nominate an electronic contender for Song of the Summer here, not just pick the “most electronic” song. So with that in mind, Billie is moving on to the division finals!

WINNER: (3) L’AMOUR DE MA VIE [OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT] by Billie Eilish

ELECTRONIC/DANCE DIVISION: FINAL

(7) Compress / Repress vs. (3) L’AMOUR DE MA VIE [OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT]

We’re down to our final battle: Billie Eilish’s awesome electronic experiment takes on the blistering end credits song from one of the most memorable movies of the year. A worthy match-up for the division finals, but there can only be one! The winner of the Electronic/Dance Division and second of our four finalists for the overall 2024 Songs of the Summer competition is…

The 7th seed— “Compress / Repress” by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross! 🏅

What’s Next?

Right now— you can listen to all of the Electronic/Dance Division contenders, including the winner “Compress /Repress”, in the linked Spotify playlist below

Next week— we take on the Hip-Hop/R&B Division with eight new tracks

At the end of the summer— “Compresss / Repress” will compete against the winner of the Hip-Hop/R&B Division, so stay tuned!

🚨 BONUS LIST ALERT 🚨

…and that’s all folks!