What an absolute trash year. The world is literally and figuratively on fire. Fascism is on the rise. Americans once again elected a faux populist xenophobe who exacerbates the worst impulses of our country’s superego to be President. Governments and business leaders resist doing anything meaningful to address climate change. The rich are richer than ever, while the poor can’t catch a break. Hell, the middle class can’t catch one either, and artists regardless of medium or genre increasingly can’t make a living with their art. Do I really have the time or energy to talk about my top 24 albums of 2024?
Through it all, I must keep going – if only for my family and friends.
Hope is essential. Community is more important than ever. Finding the good in people, places, and things might be what separates some of us from full-blown mental health crises.
It’s in that spirit that I bring to you my top 24 albums of 2024.
I love talking about music. I love listening to music. One of these days, I might even try to make music again. But I also know that I can’t place my heavy psychological burdens onto musicians and artists. We shouldn’t rely on them to be therapists or first lines of cultural defense. We must give them the space and freedom to create what matters to them. That’s how we get meaningful art that’s helpful in trying times. And it also helps to buy physical media so these folks can actually make a living at their craft.
So, if you like any of this music, please buy something from these artists.
Whether it’s a digital album, a compact disc, some vinyl, a cassette, a t-shirt, a tote bag, or ANYTHING, your contribution can help them keep going. I’m not going to tell you to stop streaming, and I know that there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism. However, after a year full of totally shitty events, the least we can all do is support the artists we like with some sort of purchase.
And now it’s time for the list of my top 24 albums of 2024. As always, the artists are presented in alphabetical order – because numbered lists are for suckers.
Big|Brave – A Chaos of Flowers
Brooding, bold, and uncompromising. It is somehow less dour than the band’s previous two albums, which makes this one even more crushing.
Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
My favorite metal album of the year. Where else are you going to hear black metal, tech metal, jazz, noise, and skronk in one complete package?
The Bug – Machine
Dank and dreary industrial dub. Sure, it’s a pummeling dystopic experience, but it’s also totally thrilling and terrifically terrifying.
Charli XCX – BRAT
It’s the best pop album of the year. It’s also the purest distillation of every major trend in pop music over the past 15 years. She’s a savant who deserves the praise and accolades.
Chat Pile – Cool World
Vintage yet progressive noise rock. It also happens to be metal as fuck and brimming with a crackling personality. This Oklahoma band rules.
The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
The gloomy goth icons return to show all other aging rockers how it’s done. In fact, I hope this album convinces the band’s contemporaries to stop trying to make new music altogether.
Drug Church – Prude
Fantastic punk that continually pushes the genre forward. It’s fierce, ferocious, and funny music made by actual adults instead of snot-nosed kids (or alleged adults who refuse to grow up).
Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft
I need more youthful pop stars to create mature music like this. The songs overflow with passion and verve as she explores herself, her feelings, and her art.
ELUCID – Revelator
My favorite rap album of the year. The all-caps half of Armand Hammer reaches into the depths of his soul to spit frenetic bars about the collapsing state of the world.
Fontaines D. C. – Romance
Rock and roll still hasn’t died, Part 1. The band ups the ante from its breakthrough 2022 album by stepping out of post-punk purity and putting their hearts on their sleeves.
Kim Gordon – The Collective
Jaw-dropping innovation from an absolute GOAT. We should all aspire to be this cool, this creative, and this captivating when we’re 71.
IDLES – TANGK
Rock and roll still hasn’t died, Part 2. This band rips, thanks to a crafty fusion of Brit rock and art rock that refuses pretense.
Jamie xx – In Waves
Shut up and dance. It’s been nine years since his last solo album, and he’s only gotten more adept at making thoughtful electro that’s totally poppy and danceable.
Jlin – Akoma
Transcendent electronic genius. At this point, I’m not sure she has any ground left to break in her exploration of synthetic sounds, but far be it for me to place any limits on her vision. In fact, if I had to pick one record to sit atop my top 24 albums of 2024 list, this one might be it.
Klein – marked
Mind-bending experimental goodness. I’m still not sure how to describe this unique conglomeration of industrial, ambient, and jazz, but this album held me captive.
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
Shut up and strum. This heartwarming slice of classic Americana pulls from every possible strand of folky singer-songwriter goodness you can imagine while still standing on its own abilities.
Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice
Purposeful, hopeful, and groove-centric world music. Just sit back as the guitars, drums, and voices swirl around to put you in a meditative trance, and when you wake up, you’ll be full of fire to take action.
Moor Mother – The Great Bailout
Enigmatic and heart-rending spoken-word jazz. Part Alice Coltrane, part Toni Morrison, part Assata Shakur, it’s revolutionary music that kicks you in the gut and then picks you back up again.
Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn – Quiet in a World Full of Noise
Mournful yet intentional electro-R&B. Everything these two create pulses with intense emotions even as they explore the widest possible expanses of what synthesizers and voices can create.
Slift – Ilion
Rock and roll still hasn’t died, Part 3. This is definitely not your pot-smoking, van-driving crusty uncle’s brand of prog. The French trio hones down the excesses of prog, metal, and cinematic scoring to showcase tremendous songcraft.
Sumac – The Healer
Is it drone? Is it metal? Maybe it’s noise? Or is it prog? Who cares! It kicks ass! Clocking in at 76 minutes across only four songs, this album was never far from my regular listening rotation.
Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood
Finding your favorite person and growing together never sounded so good. Arriving at the pinnacle of her career, she continues her quest to be the best lyricist of her generation.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – Woodland
Partners in music, partners in life. Immaculate music from legendary artists that continually stun with their consistency, longevity, and artistry.
Nilufer Yanya – My Method Actor
Is it pop? Is it R&B? Maybe it’s soul? Or is it vocal jazz? Who cares! It kicks ass! It’s genre-bending, line-blurring music that still holds its center and refuses to bow the knee to capricious mood shifts.
The Best of the Rest
When you listen to as much music as I do, it can be difficult to limit yourself to just the top 24 albums of 2024. Hence, I wanted to share the amazing works of art that I loved a lot this year, even if they didn’t make the big list.
Angry Blackmen – The Legend of ABM
Arooj Aftab – Night Reign
Yaya Bey – Ten Fold
Burial – Dreamfear / Boy Sent From Above
Caribou – Honey
Conway – Slant Face Killah
Nicholas Craven / Boldy James – Penalty of Leadership
Sarah Davachi – The Head As Form’d in the Crier’s Choir
Mo Dotti – opaque
Dummy – Free Energy
Floating Points – Cascade
GEL – Persona
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
glass beach – Plastic Death
GUHTS – Regeneration
Mary Halvorson – Cloudward
Julia Holter – Something in the Room She Moves
Nailah Hunter – Lovegaze
Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive
Ibibio Sound Machine – Pull the Rope
Ka – The Thief Next to Jesus
Lia Kohl – Normal Sounds
Lord Spikeheart – The Adept
Midwife – No Depression in Heaven
The Montvales – Born Strangers
Helado Negro – Phasor
Fabiana Palladino – Fabiana Palladino
Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch
serpentwithfeet – Grip
ShrapKnel – Nobody Planning to Leave
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
Slowfoam – Worlding With Earth
Spirit of the Beehive – You’ll Have to Lose Something
Starflyer 59 – Lust for Gold
Fred Thomas – Windows in the Rhythm
Ulcerate – Cutting the Throat of God
Kamasi Washington – Fearless Movement