With the year half-over, it’s a great chance to pay respect to our favorite songs of 2024 (so far). Jennifer and I review all 50 songs chosen by the Live Wire group. We pick the ones worthy of the top 25 (there are more than 25 worthy!), discuss whether Taylor Swift is more a poet than a singer, ponder the last generation of outside kids, and consider the deeper meanings of each song. We also get into Kendrick Lamar dissing Drake, whether the blues ceases to be the blues when it sounds happy, dying to be born again, songs that sound like they were written about Jennifer, Robert Plant’s shaman genius, and Taylor Swift being easy listening music for young women. This is not one to be missed, even though the episode is twice as long. But when you’re working with twice as many songs as a typical #FreshCuts week, it needs more time. You can also hear Live Wire’s 50 best songs of 2024 (so far) on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4oO1ayJCnBguX9I2CBSV0d?si=va-oVYuiQTusasw_L_T-Mw&pi=u-SBKdEwUFT3y1), Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/2024-so-far/pl.u-EdAVbxbuNykz6, Amazon Music (https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/63f720e1e7514e7cb7c43ef00ab97a94sune?ref=dm_sh_7YEhvExsJrDwOMrmMxpCbGUUQ), and YouTube (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhGwwDGyNc-9XMpAtsohti1WiiKgH0Y72&si=ZR_DDxxRpVhnxAeE).