10 Best Pop-Punk Albums Of 2024, Ranked

2024 has been one of the best years for punk rock in a long time. From Knocked Loose's brutal set on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to Olivia Rodrigo's deluxe re-release of GUTS and pop-punk world tour with The Breeders, 2024 has also proven that punk is one of the most diverse genres out there. It even began to earn its way into the mainstream.

If the year had one lesson for us, it was that the pop-punk genre is back. 2024 brought releases from The Offspring, Pinhead Gunpowder, Real Friends, and others - not to mention Sum 41's final record. It is hard to pick just a handful of this year's best records from the world of pop-punk, but some were more influential and meaningful than others, which makes up the criteria for this list of the top 10 pop-punk albums of 2024, ranked.

11 Analysis Paralysis

Four Year Strong

Legends never die, and so it goes for Four Year Strong, the pop punk veterans from New England whose easycore punk rock mixes the heaviness of their home state with their own keyed-in pop-punk sensibilities. With 2024’s analysis paralysis from Pure Noise Records, the longtime pop punk players make a return to form. Looking back to their first albums for cues, Four Year Strong have pulled together a potent mix of sugary, sing-along choruses and their brutally fun breakdowns.

While the album may drag in the more generic areas of the record, analysis paralysis comes in at 35 minutes or so total playing time, so the listening experience is quite brisk. Four Year Strong’s easycore tendencies are on full display in analysis paralysis. If you were a fan of the band’s 2007 happy hardcore pop-punk sophomore release Rise or Die Trying, this album has to be on your list.

10 My World

Karen Dio

British punk rocker Karen Dió has burst onto the scene with her new 2024 EP My World. The Brazilian-born songwriter is about to take the world by storm opening for Limp Bizkit, but has been making waves in London with her straight-to-the-point pop-punk hooks and visionary songwriting. In an interview with Kerrang, Dió says, "My World sealed my comeback to the music industry, reassuring that here, making music, is where I belong."

Fresh from playing with her first band, alt-rockers Violet Soda, Dió certainly carved out her own space with the 6-track EP under Hopeless Records. With names like Dick Beetham and Mike Horner mastering and mixing the album, Dió is well on her way to becoming a household pop punk idol. If you are a fan of slick guitar pop and punk-forward earworms, My World was written for you. It is Dió’s world, we are just listening to it.

9 Burnout

VIAL

VIAL rocks and their newest effort, burnout, off of Get Better Records, is a moody, polished pop-punk classic fresh for our listening pleasure. Get Better Records has a track record of putting out simply some of the best underground punk and counter-culture hits. Over the years, they have claimed more and more mainstream appeal and with this new VIAL record, the label has proven once again they know how to pick their roster.

burnout is a driving indie-adjacent pop-punk record that chooses big, natural-sounding guitars and easily identifiable vocals to craft sugary pop-punk hits that even pop-punk naysayers will find catchy. As if catching lightning in a bottle was hard enough, VIAL will appeal to fans of Olivia Rodrigo. This, however, will turn them on to the punk world while still serving up the pop-friendly sound that turns this punk trio into pop punk icons.

8 Blue Hour

Real Friends

Real Friends are the kings of new school pop punk. Riding the wave of this new generation’s punk resurgence, Real Friends have done well, capturing the hearts of Warped Tour regulars and perpetually online listeners alike. With their newest album, Blue Hour, Real Friends have raised the stakes as their first independent follow-up to their wildly successful 2018 release Composure.

Blue Hour is a fervent, melancholic, anthemic pop-punk record that is catchy and serious simultaneously. Alongside the classic pop-punk songwriting, which includes big guitars, acoustic guitar flourishes, and the band’s newest lead singer, Cody Muraro’s, crowd-pleasing vocals, the album is uniquely modern - capturing the key points of pop-punk without losing the band’s new edge. Emotionally heavy and musically poignant tracks like “Cold Blooded” will stand out as true classics. Blue Hour is a must-listen for pop punk lovers who also enjoy the gravitas of post-hardcore.

7 Neck Deep

Neck Deep

After the disastrous criminal issues which followed the first iteration of Welsh pop-punk band Neck Deep, the group has been chasing their massively successful 2015 release Life’s Not Out to Get You. With their newest release, Neck Deep, on Hopeless Records, Neck Deep is returning to form and re-energizing the modern pop-punk revival with the classic sounds of a decade ago. It is 2024 and the band is bringing a more gritty, intense take on their classic sound.

The album features a new drummer and a slightly new vibethat builds on their pop-punk roots and offers a more modern take on a classic genre. Neck Deep is a quick listen with short bursts of energy and driving emotional songs, which feature the riffs, choruses, and bravado that we look for when digging through bins for a new pop-punk favorite. It’s a new era for the genre and Neck Deep.

6 Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs

Alkaline Trio

2024 was a treasure trove of OG pop-punk bands throwing their best into the ring. Alkaline Trio’s Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs with Rise Records is one of a select few 2024 releases from elder punk bands proving they can still hang with pop-punk’s younger cohort. With Alkaline Trio’s newest album, the band is turning back time and bringing the pop-punk-fueled hooks of their earlier work to their more mature line-up.

This album is their final release with drummer Derek Grant and the band’s first release in six years. Perfect for old fans and new listeners alike, Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs is the epitome of this groundbreaking band’s decades-long journey. Long-time listeners will appreciate tracks like “Break." If you’re just finding out about the band now, listen to the album closer “Teenage Heart” and catch the Alkaline Trio feeling. Rise Records rules pop-punk, Alkaline Trio is another to prove it.

5 UNT

Pinhead Gunpowder

This won’t be the last Billie Joe Armstrong album on this list, but 2024’s UNT from Pinhead Gunpowder is one of the most exciting releases in the pop-punk world because we love new music from the group. The sugary pop-punk release skews closer to the middle as a fun, rock-and-roll romp through Armstrong's unique lens. Fans of the band may find the newest effort lacking the same punk intensity of the group’s earlier EPs, but fret not.

UNT packs enough riffs, sing-along choruses, and classic pop-punk flavors to fill in the gaps in Pinhead’s new, more polished sound. If this is your first time listening to Pinhead Gunpowder, you will appreciate how some of the tracks on the band’s new album sound like unheard Green Day songs. Dig a little deeper, and you will learn to love this version of Billie Joe Armstrong and his long-time side project.

4 Supercharged

The Offspring

The best pop-punk bands can seamlessly move throughout the world of punk without losing the thread, bringing the multitude of sounds from genres like hardcore and classic punk and fusing them with the replay-ability and sing-along anthems of pop music. The Offspring are one of those bands that can do it all. With 2024’s Supercharged, the band is diving back into their old ways with a more punk-forward approach to their pop-punk reach.

In the West Coast legends’ newest effort, they are returning to the more serious and heartfelt sounds of their earlier work, avoiding some of the comedic and irreverent takes that have appeared throughout the band’s 30+ year existence. This is some fine pop-punk from the genre’s earliest practitioners; high energy and full of hooks, Supercharged looks to hardcore tendencies when delivering some of The Offspring’s most honest work in the new millennium. They aren’t rehashing old hat, they’re bringing new life to a well-oiled machine.

3 I Want To Disappear

The Story So Far

As we reach the final 3 top pop-punk albums of 2024, we are also looking back on a year full of excellent releases from the mainstays of the genre. The newest release by The Story So Far, 2024’s I Want to Disappear, is the absolute proof that pop-punk is not just slick, radio-ready action; it has heart, energy, and a little bit of grit. Pop-punk in the aughts was as dark, punchy, and catchy as all get-out, and The Story So Far has carried that spirit far into the present.

With I Want to Disappear, The Story So Far brings that same underground, DIY pop-punk flavor into the main ring. The emo-leaning title track “I Want to Disappear” is an acoustic gem that sounds as if it were plucked straight from 2009. With tracks like the in-your-face “All This Time,” however, the band brings an arena punk mentality to iconic pop-punk vocals.

2 Heaven :x: Hell

Sum 41

Number two on the top 10 pop-punk albums of 2024 is Heaven :x: Hell by Sum 41. Another absolute classic pop-punk record coming from Rise Records, the new double LP from Sum 41 is also the band’s final record. One part heaven and another part hell, the two-part concept album covers the full range of Sum 41’s creative output, from sugary pop hits to darker, more punk-centered tracks.

This record exemplifies the variety of punk rock and shows that pop-punk never dies. Songs like “Landmines,” which features a nostalgia-dunked music video set in 1998, and “Johnny Libertine” give Sum 41 fans a full dose of pop-punk moxie. Heaven :x: Hell may be separated into two camps, pop-leaning and metal-leaning, but there are songs across the divide which could easily switch sides, selling the true-to-form pop-punk nature of Sum 41 and earning this record the #2 spot on our list.