So, guess what? This article marks my 15th year of writing these Top 50s. That not only accumulates into an incalculable amount of wasted hours but also lands at the midpoint of another half-decade, poof, gone. Are we in a position to start analysing what music was about in the 2020s? I'm gonna say... no. We need more data. Anything could happen. It kinda feels like nothing has happened except for Taylor Swift, all day, every day. We should be grateful. It is only a matter of time before the kids are bopping exclusively to AI-generated tunes crafted perfectly to milk their dopamine teets in ways human creativity can no longer achieve. We are witnessing the death of art, people.
Nevertheless, there are jabbers we can blabber about 2024 as a unit. I recall mid-year like it was yesterday because it feels as if this year was a week long. Around that period, I moaned to crowded Whatsapp groups about how unsatisfying music had been this round. I wasn't mad, just disappointed. I got the sense that there were no new artistic movements, no genre-defining evolutions, and no bonafide classics. It chugged along as a non-event, some ups, some downs, but no screams on the ride, merely straight faces on the souvenir photo at the end.
I no longer whine about such things.
I owe my change of heart to this very list, for only when compiling these 50 albums did I realise that 2024 was a rotation of consistency rather than landmarks. Yes, it may be true that I did not know my Top 10 months in advance (which is usually the case). But the magic came with my sleepless nights, grappling over which releases made the overall cut, with way more than 50 deserving the props. Alas, we have to commit at some point, so I trusted my traditional mantra. It's not about the records that are the most deserving or even the most talented. It's about the ones that impacted me, wedging themselves into my memory for better or worse. If you disagree, then congrats on the first step of recognising the subjectivity of art criticism. Post your own Top 50 in the comments. I will click. I am fascinated.
Speaking of memory, this is what I will remember as the defining characteristic of 2024: everyone did their best. As this list should accurately illustrate, there was a full scope of quality across genres without anyone falling behind or conquering the castle. For once, there wasn't a sense of obligation to wiggle in specific entries to represent a style. The cream rose to the top of the crop (joke5) on their own. That said, it was a particularly decent year for the rawer, heavier stuff (especially sludge), as well as super-long albums, much to my limited time's dismay.
Ok, so grab your popcorn (joke6) and lube your every orifice for 2024 in audio form. I listened to 370 albums this year, and you? It was less than desired but still sufficient. Here is a Spotify playlist of some of my favourite 2024 songs. And here are the official Top 50 Albums of 2024, according to me and anyone else with taste:
50. Allie X - Girl With No Face
Synthpop23 February 2024
Spotify
I distinctly remember trumpeting Allie X as an underrated goodie some years ago, but armed with Girl With No Face, my case has become bulletproof. She's genuinely found herself in a special area with this dark synth record, and while her sound is not pushing the line (it's an 80s retro aesthetic, if anything), the songs are well realised and peculiar, fitting in perfectly with The Now of our musical landscape, where sophisticated female-led pop is particularly strong. Off With Her Tits is also a fun title worth noting.
49. Duda Beat - Tara e tal
Alt-Dance-Pop11 April 2024
Spotify
Tara e tal is unlike anything on this list. It’s an unapologetic good-mood dance album but not the fake serotonin-made-of-cheese type. Rather, it has its serious face on, refusing to break eye contact across the party, letting you know it’s not here to play around. Now zoom out, and you were at your desk this whole time with pages of work done, this album functioning as the ideal soundtrack to keep your focus balanced and your fingers clacking that keyboard. Wow, so many uses! And so many strong songs! Slap it on and see what happens!
48. MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Alt-Country Slacker Rock6 September 2024
Spotify
By its very definition, slacker rock conjures images of lacklustre energy, which, when combined with the woe-filled storytelling of country music, reads like an aching bore on paper. If this is your perception, allow Manning Fireworks to single-handedly shift your views with well-composed songs punctuated by catchy choruses, knocking out line after line of emotional lyrics that are as bleak as they are humorous about their bleakness. Listen to Wristwatch for further clarification. If every year needs their country star, MJ Lenderman rips the spotlight down, not only here but also as the guitarist for Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood, released several months earlier.
47. Arooj Aftab - Night Reign
Chamber Folk Jazz31 May 2024
Spotify
Night Reign is aptly named as it’s best experienced nocturnally. The compositions are moods of utter darkness without being scary, instead lulling us into a hypnotic sleepy-by through celestial string work, light pitter-pattern percussion, and Arooj’s pacifying vocals that present her calming words in her native Pakistan language, Urdu. Part of my reason for including it on this list is that it pokes above 2024’s musical terrain as if an enchanted tree in the desert, an instant attention-catcher, unlike any other surrounding offerings. Another reason is that it’s like discovering a jar of pure spirituality, and I was hoping you could open it up and take a deep whiff of this stuff. Join me.
46. English Teacher - This Could Be Texas
Indie Art Rock12 April 2024
Spotify
You can tell a lot about a band’s creativity by their song titles. With English Teacher, for example, such poetic prizes as “I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying”, “Not Everybody Gets to Go to Space”, and “Sideboob” let you know that you’re in funny company. Furthermore, there’s “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab”, another intriguing row of words which adorn one of the most fun rock songs of the year. Now, mix this quirky attitude with artsy arrangements, punky posts, and a dash of progginess, and you’ll find something quintessentially British that pushes a small indie envelope somewhere. Oh, and congrats on the Mercury Prize, btw! I was happy about that.
45. Amaro Freitas - Y'Y
Third Stream Post-Minimalism1 March 2024
Spotify
Amaro Freitas impresses me because he knows how to caress his keys with dainty precision and then to smash them into hard darkness, drastically shifting the vibe but never abruptly, just a smooth transition taking you for a ride. Minimalism for the sake of minimalism can become a vacant drag, but Y'Y fills the void with an organic spirituality that zips by as something wholly unique on this list.
44. Joanne Robertson & Dean Blunt - Backstage Raver
Dream Pop Slowcore16 May 2024
Spotify
Dream thick in a mess of lofi. So minimal, so soothing, so real. The lethargy is too weighty, the songs fall apart, even the singer from Iceage can't save it. For just under 18 minutes, I am paused. Backstage Raver, I love you from a slightly different plain than what I feel for anything else this year.
43. SENTRIES - Snow as a Metaphor for Death
Post-Hardcore Noise Rock19 January 2024
Spotify
With an album title like that, how could you possibly go wrong? SENTRIES’ sophomore is a total genre player, the guitar riffs jarring from one raw style to the next while the vocalist mumbles in monotone, then SCREAAAMS into the white hiss above. Songs such as Performance Art and Witches shatter their way to the top of my 2024 noise rock love letters, and I remain grateful that no matter the year, there is always a post-hardcore album armed and ready to represent.
42. Joey Valence & Brae - No Hands
Hardcore East Coast Hip Hop7 June 2024
Spotify
The first ten seconds of No Hands already got me shouting, "OH SHIIIIT, that's how you start an album, son!" and then I'm bopping, I'm bopping, I'm bopping, and 30 minutes later, I'm like, "That's how you make an East Coast hip hop album, soooonnny boiiiii!!!" Of course, this outfit owes their everything to the book The Beastie Boys wrote all those decades ago, but let's think about that for a moment... The Beastie Boys are gone. There is a monumental hole in the genre. And if Joey Valence & Brae want a shot at filling that gap, I say, let them eat cake. More people need to rip on the Beasties, to be honest, especially when they flaunt the knack of capturing the playful humour and boom-bappy beats as proficiently as this. Shout out to the Danny Brown feature, too. He slots effortlessly into this world.
41. Sadness - Your Perfect Hands and My Repeated Words
Emo Shoegaze23 August 2024
Spotify
So here’s the thing about this entry: it is more than an album. It is a representative of the artist’s complete 2024 output. Within a single week in August, not one but three Sadness records dropped onto our plates, and while I stand by Your Perfect Hands and My Repeated Words as the finest, we should collectively treat them as one fairly cohesive body of work where each deserves its place (the other two being I Want to Make Something As Beautiful As You and I Love You). By alternating between layers of almost childlike vocals and drawn-out instrumental sections, these musical landscapes are the ideal type of shoegaze/dream pop, accurately expressing the emotion of love: where the yearning for That Thing is achingly sad but also so euphorically uplifting. The song Lowsun Bridge alone warrants this choice, as it is up there with 2024’s most gorgeous treasures.
40. death's dynamic shroud.wmv & Galen Tipton - You Like Music
Deconstructed ClubMarch 15, 2024
Spotify
The most exciting and simultaneously most annoying aspect about Death's Dynamic Shroud is how productive they are, releasing an incalculable amount of albums and mixtapes since 2014, but by my count, above 60. Moreover, their style does not stagnate, evolving at such a dizzying pace that as soon as you love what they're doing, it's too late; they've already moved on. Still, as my path wonks off in one direction and theirs in another, we meet every now and again (occasionally even at #1), and on You Like Music, I am grateful for this brief moment of fist-bumping. As a collaborative effort with Galen Tipton, I'm unsure who is responsible for what, but the full-on surreal drugginess of immensely detailed IDM is my type of flavour to destroy a party. See you guys shortly!
39. Armand Hammer - BLK LBL
Experimental Abstract East Coast Hip Hop25 January 2024
Soundcloud
Never to pursue things in an ordinary fashion, Armand Hammer follow 2023's exceptional We Buy Diabetic Test Strips with an album which is not really an album, more a compilation of unreleased tracks, officially available exclusively on vinyl, purchasable from their shows. It's called BLK LBL, and while the elusiveness and b-side content may cause one to think of it as subpar, think again. The awkward beats suffocate the nighttime streets as Billy's fiercely original flows cut the entire game into the shape of his face, providing already unnecessary proof that he is the greatest rapper in the underground without argument. Simply, Armand Hammer's outtakes are better than any other hip hop team's a-sides. And it makes me nauseous.
38. Hannah Frances - Keeper of the Shepherd
Progressive Folk1 March 2024
Spotify
Like a dance, Hannah's meandering vocal melodies sway one way while her odd time signatures step in another. Yet, they hang onto each other, implicitly in sync, swelling their souls upward as well as remaining deeply fixed into earthly sounds, just as the cover would suggest. Nevertheless, I do have a complaint. Vacant Intimacies would be the perfect closer to any album. And yet, it sits second-to-last. Sure, the final song is as brilliant as they come, but it'd be better suited in an earlier position in favour of my proposed reorder. Of course, I am sure she has her reasons, so I'll shut up and be appreciative of the near-immaculate collection she has offered us. Who do I think I am, anyway? Hannah Frances? I'm not.
37. Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
Psychedelic Avant-Garde Metal11 October 2024
Spotify
Gradually leaning into a more electronic design, Oranssi Pazuzu makes the case that hell might be a digital production after all. The ritualistic vocals conjure the necessary demonic energy, disturbing us with an experimental evil that is heavy yet also precise in its industrial procedures. Some of these sounds rival textures I haven’t heard in decades, layering the intensity until the atmosphere is unbreathable, building and building upwards as an authentic piece of art in the darkest sense.
36. Mk.gee - Two Star & the Dream Police
Alternative R&B Neo-Psychedelia9 February 2024
Spotify
My Mk.gee comparison points will almost seem like insults to certain music snobs. For example, his vocal style could be confused for Justin Bieber in a parallel (much better) universe. Some poppier songwriting choices may even be compared to Ed Sheeran, if Ed Sheeran was interesting. I’ve also read people label it the sequel to Frank Ocean’s Blonde, and I can hear that. But whatever you think about those names, don’t let them deter you from taking the plunge because Two Star & the Dream Police is a mood-fixer, healing the soul on an emotional day without asking for anything in return. Granted, it doesn’t stick in my memory as well as I’d hope, but when I put it on, I immediately greet it with a smile.
35. Foxing - Foxing
Art Indie Noise Rock13 September 2024
Spotify
Foxing is such an eclectic album that it’s tricky to genre-define without resorting to convoluted strands of hybrid DNA. My initial temptation is to say, “For indie fans of Arcade Fire!” but it’s way louder than that, sometimes stepping so hard on the metal pedal that you’d consider them a metal band. Regardless, while it does a lot and does it well, the clutter is coordinated and weaponised, constantly setting you up to knock you down with an offence of guitar fury and a versatile vocalist who can sing just about anything.
34. glass beach - Plastic Death
Progressive Indie Art Rock19 January 2024
Spotify
Setting the stage for hope, Plastic Death holds the unique honour of being the year’s first really good record. And whether you agree or not, I feel it achieved such high marks by smooshing every Radiohead album together into one place, spreading itself across the full spectrum of mournful euphorics, artsy smarts, and chaotic mathematics to toss our emotions around like a ball in a psychedelic washing machine. Each song contains an exciting left hook out of nowhere, but for my money, Motions will be immortalised on the list of 2024’s greatest.
33. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead"
Post-Rock4 October 2024
Spotify
The curse of Godspeed is that their previous records redefined the possibilities of what instrumental post-rock could do. As a result, their modern albums only brush the impossibly high bar they once set, which is a layout for disappointment irrespective of valiant attempts. Furthermore, their world-building expertise forever falls one of two ways: either optimistically utopian or devastatingly apocalyptic. I, like most, prefer the latter, but this 2024 release is a picturesque scene of uplifting triumph, sacrificing its conceptual perfection for more jammy weavings, and I struggle to find moments to latch onto. Yet, despite my complaints, I had to be honest with myself. This album is still superior to almost anything else on offer. To not include it would be unfair. It’s not about me or even them. It’s about everyone.
32. Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To
Metalcore10 May 2024
Spotify
No group knocked the metal scene loose this year quite as hard as Knocked Loose. By attacking absolutely everyone with an armoury of sharp technical tricks hidden within a cyclonic flailing of disarray, it’s the unrelenting fury of the project that drives over the listener, then backs up over the listener, and drives over the listener again. Yet, perhaps the guest slots sustain the longest talking points. Poppy’s 2024 album did not land for me, but her delivery on Suffocate could be argued as the most passionate performance of her career. Meanwhile, Slaughterhouse 2, featuring Chris Motionless, shoves its hook into my cheek and face-kicks me into the river as perhaps the year’s catchiest heavy-heavy song.
31. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Psychedelic Hypnagogic Indie Pop29 March 2024
YouTube
In our rapidly progressing world where every art form has to keep testing the limits, Diamond Jubilee rejiggles the script by taking the nostalgia of '60s sunshine pop and shoving an unreasonable amount of it into one place until two hours of music makes me feel sugar-sick. There's a reason why most records from that decade are so short! It is unnatural to be subjected to retro psychedelia for this length of time! It's daunting just to press play! However, as it goes on (and on and on), this sound becomes your life, mellowing you out like a slightly warped vinyl, sloppy and lofi just the way we dig it. That this album exists in our current age is weird enough but secondary to the head-spinning accolades, already dubbed the Album of the Year by Pitchfork, Crack Magazine, and Exclaim! Personally, I hear some filler material, which is to be expected across such an insane runtime, but there is an unquantifiable aura to the offering, partly due to its sheer size. It's almost impossible to properly comprehend.
30. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere
Progressive Death MetalOctober 4, 2024
Spotify
Take a survey around the metal scene, and you’ll hear this album frequently touted as 2024’s best. Me, I’m less convinced, but that does not detract from my joy, because, by any measurement, Absolute Elsewhere is unlike anything one would expect from a genre usually so strict on its VIP list. If there were one band I would (and many others have) compared it to, that would be Pink Floyd, with long stretches of psychedelic atmospherics that drift the listener far out, lost in space. This combination works surprisingly well, especially when the more traditional metal brings the heavy dynamic like gravity, and you crack your skull on re-entry. With so many distinct sounds found in one place, it’s never quite what I expect it to be, which in itself is to be expected from a group who has released three of the most lauded death metal records over eight years. Everyone is listening now, so what’s next?
29. Geordie Greep - The New Sound
Progressive Art Jazz-RockOctober 4, 2024
Spotify
Panic stations, everyone! The New Sound, as it turns out, is the same as the old sound. Black Midi’s sound, that is. So now we know that Geordie Greep, the frontman and guitarist of Black Midi, was Black Midi all along, as this could be a Black Midi album. Of course, that is a compliment because Black Midi/Geordie Greep are the emperors of unsettlingly frantic energy, provoking a brand of discomfort to the likes no other musical output has achieved, ever. Moreover, on this record, said anxiety is dialled to the maximum, with complex jazzy compositions perverted by the overtly creepy lyrics, which are modern poetic masterpieces (read Holy, Holy, for example, and then take a shower). However, we are talking over an hour of this maniacal content, and Geordie’s songs are simply not diverse enough to warrant the time it demands. For this reason, I hope Greep’s success does not give his ego the idea that his band is redundant because, even if they exist on the same tall shelf, I still prefer every Black Midi album above this.
28. Thou - Umbilical
Sludge Metal31 May 2024
Spotify
Sludge is having a year, but Thou sinks deep below the mud and conquers from that foundational space of impenetrable blackout. But while it’s all-the-way heavy, they’ve used actual hooks to paint their catchy hatred, to the point where one could reimagine tracks like The Promise as, dare I suggest it, a pop composition if you smudged the pallet to a different colour. Meanwhile, something like House of Ideas reaches levels of such dense onslaught that it is the first material to capture the essence of Jane Doe since Jane Doe. Why every metal record doesn’t sound this good is frustrating.
27. Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter
Contemporary Country Pop29 March 2024
Spotify
Like many, the announcement of a Beyoncé country album cringed me. But make no mistake, this piece transcends just some homage gimmick by expanding into an ALBUM album, something far more significant than the sum of its content, in the way that only the Queen knows how. Whether you appreciate Beyoncé for her ability to slide around genres without losing her signature stamp, or you oppose her for "NOT BEING AN AUTHENTIC COUNTRY ARTIST," there is one word that applies across the Cowboy Carter board, and that is "unignorable". The debate it sparked lit fires deep within the country field, celebrated by black artists, exposing racists, and making award ceremonies uncomfortable with their options. And that's why Carter is perhaps the most essential album of the year, even if... it's not perfect. For example, its incorporation of a Beatles and Parton cover was too obvious, suspiciously appearing like White People Pandering, ensuring she flaunted the approval of the biggest names in the game (Willie Nelson included). Furthermore, the spoken interludes ruin the tightness of the project, a flaw that is not something I've ever accused Beyoncé of before. Simply put, her albums since 2013 have been artistic masterpieces, and this one isn't quite there. Still, it's a grower, an experience, and proof that B tirelessly tests boundaries and explores genrescapes while taking her critics head-on.
26. Trhä - ∫um'ad∂ejja cavvaj
Atmospheric Black Metal1 August 2024
Spotify
On a list of things that don't make sense, Trhä has released 32 albums in four years. If this is a case of "throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks," then ∫um'ad∂ejja cavvaj is one of the bits that stuck hard. Don't get too comfortable, though, as it is a fully black metal project, pure for the elitists and lo-fi as it should be, yet it eclipses the blueprint to create something far superior. The blackprint, if you will. If this record is eventually touted as a genre classic, I would not be in the least surprised.
25. Deathbrain - A Slice of Life
Atmospheric Drum and Bass6 May 2024
Spotify
Almost an hour and a half of melodic drum and bass is far too much to ask of anyone, but just take my hand, and we’ll get through it. The key is to allow it to do its thing over there while you do your thing over here, and every now and then, take a moment of mindfulness to appreciate the audio enhancement to your reality. The gorgeous production is like drizzle in spring, pitter-pattering serotonin into your brain until your lungs inflate, breathing in the euphoria, finding peace in the long journey where every step deserves the space. Actually, perhaps 84 minutes of endorphins is precisely what the world needs right now.
24. samlrc - A Lonely Sinner
Post-Rock8 March 2024
Spotify
I want you to teach me how to be a scary wolf! What’s fascinating about A Lonely Sinner is that it takes an eternity to warm up. Song after song (including a 12-minute piece) of well-produced soft atmospheres are lovely to listen to but pack zero punches. But then... BUT THEN... Storge ushers in the second half, the album shifts, and I tumble down into the dense abstractions of what makes this release so orgasmically unforgettable. Post-rock forever, man. When it’s done right, it hits the spot no other genre knows how to reach, and samlrc has nurtured a corner of that sound which is wholly their own. Furthermore, when the Hyperballad strings smooth over the ending of For M., you realise everyone has been paying attention.
23. ShrapKnel & Controller 7 - Nobody Planning to Leave
Abstract East Coast Hip Hop7 June 2024
Spotify
Hip-hop outfits tend to spiral into the commercial R&B world to assemble their hooks or, conversely, protest by digging their heels into the old school. But then there are albums like Nobody Planning to Leave, which show everyone that you can be fresh without following either trend. With an aggressively biting energy, this collaborative project builds an army from its guest slots, offering the same excitement that Odd Future once gave me for five seconds, except these horroresque beats tower much higher than anything you could compare them to (Uru Metal, anyone?). Every song is so good that you can’t imagine it’ll get any better, but track after track surprises me, and listen after listen, new details come to the forefront. It’s pretty untouchable in the genre for 2024.
22. Kim Gordon - The Collective
Experimental Industrial Noise Rock Hip Hop8 March 2024
Spotify
If there ever was a study on how to get older yet remain cooler than anyone else in the industry, Kim Gordon is the entire textbook. After the long-gone (but still heartbreaking) split of Sonic Youth, it's easy to see who contributed what to that band. Thurston keeps churning out decent noise rock records, but they're hardly groundbreaking. Meanwhile, it's Gordon who has spun way out on a cutting-edge industrial trip, indicating that she was the brain behind her previous band's celebrated innovation. Her last record knocked me to the floor in slow motion, but The Collective may even be the superior effort. I'm interested in how much of this sound we can owe to her or her producers, but the deadpan freeform lyrical character of Kim's records is all hers. It's so Kim Gordon. Laziness as an art form. That was always her thing. She does not give any fucks. Never has.
21. Porter Robinson - SMILE! :D
Indietronica Electropop Rock26 July 2024
Spotify
What Porter Robinson does better than anyone is make music that will slot into your current mental mood and gradually improve your situation. The analytical, self-deprecating themes engage with those low moments, gifting a sense of solidarity, while the bitpoppy electronics lift the room sky-high, having you joy-dancing at your desk within minutes. As the title SMILE! :D would suggest, it's a webpage straight from our contemporary internet world, in touch with the existential weight of being human yet breaking through with a cartoony aesthetic in the exact right places. Such a mix is best illustrated in the song Cheerleader, which may very well be my favourite track of the year. And for a more in-depth glimpse into Porter Robinson's life, read the lyrics of the equally satisfying Russain Roulette:
"Pitchfork reports, they're calling me, their words: 'The big new thing,' oh,
YouTube review: Funny monkey takes a piss into his own mouth, crazy."
20. Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
Contemporary Folk3 May 2024
Spotify
It's such a statement of confidence when an artist presents an album under 30 minutes, needing no more time to state their case. I guess that's how you know you've nailed it, and on Here in the Pitch, Jessica does just that by doing what she does best but better than she's ever done it. By maturing her subtle weirdo vibes, she has conspired her distant witchiness into an album that comes pre-grainy as if it is a long-lost classic of yesteryears. Be honest, if I played you Better Hate but told you it was a genre-defining song from the 70s folk scene, would you not believe me?
19. Mount Eerie - Night Palace
Post-Avant-Slacker Folk Rock1 November 2024
Spotify
One hour and 20 minutes?!? C’mon, Mount Eerie! Especially when considering the lethargy that comes with expanded slacker drone soundscapes additionally weighted by the lonely philosophies that Phil Elverum feels deeper than anyone else. I’m tired before I even begin! Yet one thing Night Palace can boast higher than Mount Eerie’s standard woe-is-me poetics is a series of manic ideas, whereby the excessive melancholic beauty is regularly offset by some screamy explosions or experimental noise that, somehow, holds my attention. For this reason, I can appreciate how pretty much every Album of the Year list is glorifying this as an essential 2024 experience, but to slam into a 12-minute track right at the end is a total insult, and I am always relieved when this listen is over.
18. Mabe Fratti - Sentir que no sabes
Avant-Art Folk Pop28 June 2024
Spotify
Mabe Fratti possesses the vocal prowess and cello proficiency to effortlessly front a commercially viable folk-jazz outfit, but she has chosen the stranger life. The electroacoustics push the world aside to create ample space down the middle, allowing her serene melodies to flutter through the sparseness without snagging their wings on the surrounding terrain that ranges from soft paddings to jagged turbulence. Don’t be one of those people who sleep on Sentir que no sabes as one of 2024’s best. It’s pretty much the audio equivalent of what I’m seeking in a girlfriend. If you get what I mean, hit me up!
17. Nilüfer Yanya - My Method Actor
Indie Art Rock13 September 2024
Spotify
My Method Actor is a wow album that’s oh-so-easy to fall in love with immediately, almost accidentally, thanks to the gentle indie that rocks with comfortable familiarity. But even within that place, something more obscure exists which feels wholly original, where a lo-fi psychedelia fuzziness sinks per every listen and becomes easier to fall deeper and deeper in love with still. We could list an unfair number of these songs as 2024’s best, but the title track, in particular, makes my whole world disappear.
16. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Wild God
Gospel Art Rock30 August 2024
Spotify
When you’ve been churning out classics for as many decades as Cave, the perfection from practice means it’s unlikely the Bad Seeds will ever release a bad album. Taken as its own project, Wild God holds tremendous merit, illustrating the next natural evolutionary step on Cave’s mourning, reaching heights of absolute hope within abundant spirituality, articulating his thoughts using poetics with which nobody can compete. Conversely, however, when compared with his entire catalogue, this albeit worthy addition perhaps doesn’t quite reach the peaks of some works due to a slight lack of energy that has no interest in packing the POWs we may have selfishly come to expect. No matter! His reputation remains as sturdy as ever by providing us with yet another new sound which unfurls with such an unforced joy that you get the sense he did not write these songs; they wrote themselves, and he was merely the prophetic vessel. I say this with every album, but Nick Cave is the best musical artist we have, and the history books shall remember him for centuries to come as a legend of the tallest order. There is no one alive today who even challenges this notion. I touched his hand once.
15. Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
Indie Chamber Pop RockApril 5 2024
Spotify
Every band lucky enough to have a long career will eventually come to the album that knocks them off course, never to recover, forever trying to regain what they once were. For my money, 2019's Father of the Bride was Vampire Weekend's beginning of the end as it displayed all the hallmarks of a perfect catalogue interrupted as something losing grip of itself up its own ass. However, I was wrong. With Only God Was Above Us, we can now view their previous wanky record as a blip and, to be fair, a glorious blip at that. And now here we are, back on track with one of the most consistently brilliant bands on the planet, still unmistakable Vampire Weekend, but even more than that. They've pushed themselves to play to their strengths, and I do mean playing. Playfulness is what they do. And it's resulted in an album that sounds like a best-of compilation, but not of songs. Of styles.
14. Melt-Banana - 3+5
Experimental Noise Rock23 August 2024
Spotify
For over three decades, Melt-Banana have audio-molested audiences, growing and then conquering as one of the most revered noise rock champions from Japan and even the world. So many of their records could be considered genre classics, but with 3+5, they’ve exceeded their maximum and outdone their only competition, which is themselves. The key to such prolonged success is that they do not let their delirious energy and explosive chaos lose the necessity of sprightly catchiness, where every song is armed with a dangerous amount of hooks and tricks, encouraging even the most hardcore of fans to punch through their computer and then dive headfirst into a wall.
13. SUMAC - The Healer
Atmospheric Avant-Garde Post-Sludge Metal21 June 2024
Spotify
Should I write an essay about the craftsmanship behind The Healer? Or a tragic love poem? The first thing to note is the 25-minute opener, which is demanding business, at times one chord lasting for minutes. But what you need to understand is that this is a test. They're weeding out certain listeners before getting to the prize, because after they've stretched you out for such an extended period... they rapidly start to pile the riffs upon you, getting heavier and heavier until you are borderline drowning beneath the all-consuming sludge. Oh, Jeez fucking Louise, I remember everything now. Nothing in musical history has ever sunk to this level! How is this not the most worshipped metal album in the world? I don't even like sludge, man!
12. Mustafa the Poet - Dunya
Contemporary Folk27 September 2024
Spotify
Only when you hear the love for Allah in music do you realise how underrepresented that influence is from the contemporary landscape. Mustafa the Poet musters a heartfelt spiritual potency within his philosophical reflections, which are produced to melancholic perfection, something so gorgeously intangible that you don’t know what it is, just that it’s here and it usually isn’t anywhere. Perhaps this isn’t the platform to say this, but I prefer artists who believe in God. Only they can access these metaphysical planes driven by an emotional faith that overrides the mental blustering with which we are so frequently bombarded. شكرًا لك
11. Xiu Xiu - 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips
Experimental Neo-Psychedelia Rock27 September 2024
Spotify
I have a theory about Xiu Xiu that goes like this: they are perfectly capable of constructing accessible music that will floor their critics and rise to the top of their discography whenever they like. But that's not what they like. Instead, they regularly and intentionally throw their artwork off the rails to ensure their experimental chops are fed. It's for this reason that their uncomfortable career is so lauded. Everyone can find joy somewhere, but the hardcore fans can sleep easy that their favourite band is largely safe, protected by a field of impenetrable records that will scare almost everyone away. Regardless, with 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips, it was time to do the realignment thing again, and they've produced another masterstroke of pop weirdo sadcore that underlines Jamie Stewart's sombre vocals with highly energised neo-psychedelia, already being hailed as one of their greatest albums. Actually, when I listen to it, it kinda sounds like their greatest.
10. Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Chamber Folk17 May 2024
Spotify
The last Portishead release, Third, came out 16 years ago (and the one before that 11 years further back). Hence, fans cannot hold their breath for new material, or they certainly will die. However, by some miracle, 2024 was almost our year, with singer Beth Gibbons offering us her first proper solo album, and I, like everyone, only had one fearful question: what if it sucks? Of course, that has never happened, and despite the ache of such a long wait, it was completely worth it. Her voice is as gorgeous as ever. Her creative perspective is as exciting as ever. And she achieves so much by doing so little, a hypnotically mellow project that nearly sounds like a Portishead record, except grown from soil rather than machines. Sooo, basically, what we’re saying is that Beth has only ever made songs on par with God? Cool cool. It checks out.
09. Still House Plants - If I Don't Make It, I Love U
Experimental Post-Math Rock12 April 2024
Spotify
You know what shouldn't work? Three band members playing independently, each going on their own tangents, jamming to a different tune with complete freedom, almost ignoring one another. And yet, what Still House Plants do... totally works! My hunch is they primarily owe their listenability to frontwoman Jess Hickie-Kallenbach, whose unabrasive vocal cords stir beauty into the chaos with such relief that she could easily fit in an R&B outfit if she so chose. Nonetheless, If I Don't Make It, I Love U is not easy listening and not everyone is going to get it. But for me, it's been a long while since an album has inspired me to want to start a band. Just. Like. This.
08. Ka - The Thief Next to Jesus
Drumless Abstract East Coast Hip Hop19 August 2024
Spotify
Isn’t it always the way? Death forcing you to face the emptiness in what you once had, only aware of its presence once it is gone. Two months after the release of this album, Ka passed away at age 52 for causes unknown, and the underground cried in a unified wail. As a long-time fan, I mourned right there next to them, but I find solace in that Ka had some short time to enjoy the response to The Thief Next to Jesus, which many were praising as his greatest work, and, in hindsight, perhaps the perfect send-off after all. His signature sedated deliveries smear darkness over dusty gospelesque beats. His compact lyrics quietly dismantle Christianity from the perspective of African Americans. And he keeps it old school with a fuck-the-frills approach, holding more integrity than anyone else in the game. Just listen to the closing song, True Holy Water, which is a tough piece to get through but functions as a potent full-stop to Ka’s career before he checked out forever. There's no denying such a considerable loss to the hip-hop world. But at least we have this.
07. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
Alternative Gothic Rock1 November 2024
Spotify
Not that long ago, I listened to every Cure album in chronological order. After that, I concluded that it was the most perfect discography in existence, whereby any dips were few and far between, and the lesser albums still held their own. Part of its flawlessness could partly be owed to the fact that The Cure appeared to be a shut book without new material for 16 years, allowing us to evaluate the timeline as a complete unit. But just because we couldn’t see behind the black fog did not mean that the band hadn’t been busy, and somehow, in 2024, we found ourselves within Songs of a Lost World. Now, considering such a mammoth legacy at stake, some nerves were understandable, but these were quickly squashed the second Robert Smith started singing, his vocals somehow sounding identical to how they were decades earlier. Furthermore, the music remains pure Cure, except more so with instrumental pieces dragged out, slowed down, beautified with strings yet desaturated, isolated, bleak, and epic. So epic. Their most epic album to date. Even further exciting is that they reportedly have another one coming next year, too. I’ll get that list ready for you, then.
06. Jamie xx - In Waves
Future Garage House20 September 2024
Spotify
All hail the UK king of garage house! Nine years have passed since the modern electronic masterpiece In Colour blessed our stereos, which is why it’s such a relief that Jamie has done it again without doing the same thing whatsoever. Where the previous was a nostalgic euphoria piece, In Waves lessens the ethereal naivety in favour of playing with funk grooves, Latino progressions, and vocal samples to boost us with a healing version of his signature melodies. Irrespective of your opinion, Jamie xx rewards attention, thriving in the tiny details that carefully curate a vibe he has explicitly selected for us, yanking on our surrendered strings with a knowing smirk, bodies bouncing at his command, never letting go, only dropping us when the album is over, ready to spin again.
05. Charli XCX - BRAT
Electropop Dance Music7 June 2024
Spotify
Whenever I chat about Charli XCX, I repeat the same stupid hipster thing: I knew her before you! I shout about it because I recall playing True Romance to my friends in 2013, and they laughed at who I had become. Fast forward, and now everyone is bumping her shit, and I feel compelled to remind them that I already pointed the way a decade ago. Nevertheless, I am not bitter. Quite the opposite. I have seen her live more times than any other artist, and I've loved to watch her sound grow, her audience size grow, and her unceasing streak of wins, album after album, now standing tall upon a discography of surprisingly solid pop records featuring hooks more delicious than you'll find anywhere else in the scene. And then there is BRAT, without a doubt her greatest success to date, and 2024's most popular album from the radio to the critics to the Collins Dictionary. People will argue it's her best work, I'll argue it's not (How I'm Feeling Now, cough), but I get it. It's all about those bangerz. Those bangerz are so banging. Charli XCX knows how to bang.
04. Laurie Anderson - Amelia
Modern Classical Spoken Word Chamber Music30 August 2024
Spotify
Only Laurie Anderson would (and could) produce a spoken word concept album about Amelia Earhart and, in doing so, paint such a vividly moving soundscape that you watch it in your mind like a film, soaring through the sky and then crashing down down down. It’s a unified exhibition of unparalleled artistic talent that Laurie has refined over her 77 years on earth, epitomising those Never Too Late motivational memes. Above this, it’s a demonstrable advantage of a long career that refused to sell out; Anderson unconcerned with making a comeback or appealing to the commercial masses because she never has. There’s a lesson in here, if you can find it beneath the historical education and in-depth introspection ruminating on the triumphs and failures of unflappable ambition. Yes, I’m talking about Amelia Earhart. Yes, I’m talking about Laurie Anderson.
03. Chat Pile - Cool World
Sludge Metal Noise Rock11 October 2024
Spotify
Woah woah woah, oh all my fucking gods, what have you done, Chat Pile? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??? I know people get upset when we make this tired comparison, but after mapping out the nihilistic industrial noise rock of the last six-odd years, no one can deny that Daughters' You Won't Get What You Want made a brand new hole, and everyone rushed through. But Chat Pile have sharpened their weapons into something fucking terrifying and, with this album, have officially conquered the genre. In another more abstract connection, it's what Korn should've become if they'd stuck to their original guns because those densely dissonant riffs and that overbearing vocal anguish are legitimately concerning.
02. Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
Baroque Chamber Pop22 November 2024
Spotify
What's so enjoyable about writing this entry is that I get to kill two birds with one review. Kendrick Lamar surprise dropped GNX on the same day as Mahashmashana, and I must point out many things. For starters, GNX is notably absent from my list as a subpar record from the greatest rapper alive. Secondly, Father John Misty seemingly responded to Kendrick with a diss track, God's Trash, which is just hilarious. But most importantly, publications noted that the two have released new albums in the same year for over a decade (2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2024). Any type of presumed competition is laughable due to the crater-sized gap between genres, but it is worth stating that some of those Kendrick releases turned the history of hip hop upside down forever, while Misty simply created sweet chamber folk poetics for us to smile to. However, for the first time, Father John Misty has obliterated Kendrick's offering with the absolute best record from his two-plus-decade career. It appears that, after so many years of toying with the line between narcissistic introspection and overly-epic orchestral productions, Father John Misty has finally fingered the orgasm spot, which has spurted gold across this entire record, song after song, goosebump after goosebump. Sorry, Kendrick. Better luck next round.
01. Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk
Neo-Psychedelia Synthpop23 August 2024
Spotify
Magdalena Bay’s 2021 album Mercurial World was already in hot conversation as one of the essentially essential records of the PAST decade, but when a sophomore is better, then what? Is this pop history in the making? What FUTURE are we looking at here? Even the PRESENT is difficult to comprehend. How does one create an album so magical that it shimmers? And, perhaps the most crucial question: what reality do you have to exist in to produce such confidently cheerful art despite the weight of our daily news headlines? It is not of this planet. It caresses the rarest calibre of musical output achievable. The one absolute perfection. And I want in.
Big Time Honourable Mentions
천사 인터뷰 (Angel Interview) - 김뜻돌 [Meaningful Stone]WILLOW - Empathogen
Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well
The Body - The Crying Out of Things
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Vylet Pony - Monarch of Monsters
Smaller Time Honourable Mentions
Glassing - From the Other Side of the MirrorSyzy - The weight of the world
Uboa - Impossible Light
1010benja - Ten Total
Fire-Toolz - Breeze
Lava La Rue - Starface
Roxy Radclyffe - The Median's Ark
Liana Flores - Flower of the Soul
Juliana Gattas - Maquillada en la cama
St. Vincent - All Born Screaming
Martha Skye Murphy - Um
Ulcerate - Cutting the Throat of God
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Tragedy As Catharsis
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy
Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department
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