Best Albums of 2024

Extremely incomplete

“We sat/under a half mast McDonald's flag/
Broken birds tumble fast/past my window
And you don't know the shape I'm in…”

—"The Shape I’m In,” MJ Lenderman

I haven’t listened to enough music to really have an opinion on what’s best in 2024, I say to myself as I look at a 39 hour playlist of music that I liked from this year. How long was the one from 2023, I wonder, and see that it was 66 hours long.

I’m tired of streaming, but I’m also probably tired of keeping up with music. If it wasn’t something loud with guitars, I found it difficult to return to it. If it was something loud with guitars, it might blend into everything else I liked that was loud with guitars.

I listened to more of my old albums this year, and I started making best of lists of other years. I’m building an encyclopedia of music from 1974 to the present. I don’t know why.

I’m doing good. I’ve got a four month old baby smiling at me and almost sleeping through the night, and a 3 year old toddler who’s telling me weird, beautiful stories. I’m reading lots of books, watching lots of movies.

But this obsession with new music, that’s probably ending.

Top Ten:

1. MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks

   Something in the water in Asheville means that Wednesday’s Rat Saw God was my favorite album last year and this album from Wednesday’s guitarist is my favorite album of this year. I still enjoy the bursts of noise and Hartzman’s frankly ugly voice more than I enjoy Lenderman’s mellowness, but being second to Rat Saw God is pretty good, since I consider that album to definitely be one of the best of this decade.

   Lenderman is an old soul. The stories of loser guys being losers and wishing girls liked them more set to music that sounds like an updated version of 70’s Neil Young hits all of my pleasure zones. I get being an old soul; I got into Pearl Jam last spring and I keep thinking of myself as a Millennial more sympathetic to Gen Xers than a Millennial sympathetic to Zoomers. I’m mystified by what’s popular among the high schoolers I teach. Playboy Carti is boring, just like Chief Keef was boring 15 years ago. Zach Bryan is boring, too. I look back to Neil Young’s On The Beach, released almost exactly 50 years ago, and I’d rather listen to it than 99% of music made since it came out. I bet Eddie Vedder and Lenderman feel the same way.

   I also like that Lenderman isn’t fusty and sad about who he is. These are songs about Guitar Hero, Apple Watches, and humiliating service industry jobs. It’s not that the modern world doesn’t exist in his songs, it’s that it mostly sucks. Can anyone disagree with that?

2. Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us

   I need to listen to this about ten more times to really live in its cavernous subterranean glory, but the first couple of listens have already yielded at least four songs (“Capricorn,” “The Surfer,” “Mary Boone,” “Pravda,” “Hope”) that are total earworms. And there’s no bum tracks on this entire album, and it all unfolds with a total control of all of the dynamics of songwriting (soft/loud, noisy/soft, fast/slow, narratives/vibes)…this one’s a total classic, just like Modern Vampires.

3. The Cure, Songs of a Lost World

   There’s no way this should be this high, but there are Blackstar or You Want It Darker or I/O vibes here. It’s perfect driving in the end of fall on my commute music, thinking about mortality. Bowie and Cohen and Gabriel were all a lot more familiar to me than The Cure, but this is so immersive and singular that it made me want to go back and listen to the whole discography. I’ve worked my way back to 1984 and found four other albums (Bloodflowers, Wish, Disentegration, Kiss Me…, and The Head on the Door) that are nearly all perfect in their own ways. I’m a Cure head now, and this got me into it, and so good on 70-something Robert Smith for still making good to great music!

4. Amen Dunes, Death Jokes

   The mix of seemingly live and definitely studio creations here is interesting; it feels like it lives in the same world as Frank Ocean’s Blonde, though Amen Dunes’ voice is much more limited and his sonic palette is a little wider. Both albums took a long time to grow on me, and I don’t know if Death Jokes is going to become as much of a staple for me as Blonde did, but it might! The sequencing here feels so much more deliberate than most albums; he’s really trying to create a world. It’s a world of daytime tv and 90’s electronica, mixed with millennial urban anxiety. Damon’s a weird, funny guy, and no one else can make this music.

   5. Nilufer Yanya, My Method Actor

   I saw Yanya about 7 years ago when she was opening for Vagabon in Denver. She only had one album out at that point, but there was enough there that smart artists (like Vagabon) could sense something was on the horizon. Four albums in, she’s in total control. I remember a lot of weird tunings and off-kilter time signatures from that show, and she’s shed some of that, but she’s also just integrated them better with her fantastic voice. I like the last two Vagabon albums, but she’s tried a lot of stuff and it hasn’t all stuck. Yanya’s been slow and steady in the same vein, and now she’s got it.

   I don’t know if it’s the best album inspired by Radiohead’s In Rainbows, but it’s certainly more a more complete and coherent document than anything Radiohead has made since 2007. It’s catchy, dark, perfectly sequenced, and totally immersive.

   6. Waxhatchee, Tiger’s Blood

   I’m not sure I even like, let alone love, Saint Cloud. I eventually came around to “Fire,” but otherwise, I mostly just stewed in my resentment that the 2020 album didn’t sound like Out in the Storm or Ivy Tripp, which were two of my favorite albums of their respective years. It’s both laudable and understandable that artists change, and I never thought that Crutchfield was trying to change to get more popular…but she got way more popular when she made her Rick Rubin-esque “stripped-down” album, and I hate all “stripped-down” albums except for Nebraska. I like noise! I like punk rock! My favorite Waxhatchee song is probably “Silver” or “La Loose,” and they’re both noisy (the second much less so, but it still sounds like it was recorded in the forest on the cover of Ivy Tripp). Most of Saint Cloud just sounded boring: big, clean, obvious chord changes next to Crutchfield’s big, clean obvious voice, with big, obvious lyrics about overcoming some sort of struggle. I can blame her producer for this, I can blame the pandemic, and I can accept that Crutchfield was sick of her records sounding noisy and/or shitty, but I can also still miss the old Waxhatchee.

   I’ve “Never Been Wrong,” to quote my third favorite Waxhatchee song about dudes who are wrong a lot. It’s quite likely I’m wrong about Saint Cloud, and I know this because I love Tiger’s Blood. Buried within Saint Cloud is something like Jess Williamson’s Time Ain’t Accidental, one of the best albums of last year that I completely missed on the first go-round. Williamson and Crutchfield collaborated on a (totally fine) album two years ago which I didn’t want to revisit, so I didn’t both much about Williamson’s album until December, when I fell in love with its blend of smart lyrics, beautiful voice, and unique song structures.

   Tiger’s Blood feels like something in-between Time Ain’t Accidental and Saint Cloud. It brings out much of the live band sound, some twang and some inspired by Neil Young (“Bored”) sounds that MJ Lenderman brought along. If Saint Cloud is Rubinesque, Tiger’s Blood is like Nebraska mixed with On the Beach. That is: late 70’s, and also the artists in the 90’s (the oft-cited Lucinda Williams, but also Wilco and basically anyone else called “alt-country”) who loved Neil’s work. And also my favorite album of last year, Wednesday’s Rat Saw God. It’s got it all.

   7. Wishy, Triple Seven

   “Love on the Outside” is beyond an earworm for me, and so is the rest of the album. It’s obviously inspired by 90’s indie rock, but somehow it doesn’t feel like a total pastiche, and I have no idea why. It’s hard to make this good of a pastiche, if that what it is! And as I’ve said above, I’m basically just trying to be an Gen Xer at this point.

   8.DIIV, Frog in Boiling Water

   When I returned to this recently, I remembered why I had loved it so much last spring, but also why I hadn’t returned to it much since then. Like the Beyonce record, it’s produced a little too perfectly for my comfort. Every note is in its right place. I don’t begrudge filmmakers or writers this kind of perfectionism, but there’s something about recorded music that makes me want to hear the grain of the performance a little more.

   But then I took a peek at the lyrics while I was listening to this one more time, and it all came together a little more for me. The vocals are mixed basically like an extra guitar, so the lyrics are hard to make out without looking at them while you’re listening, but they mostly revolve around rage and depression. I like that a lot more than talking about how great you are (sorry Beyonce).

   9. Los Campesinos, All Hell

   Just like The Cure, this was my year for getting into Los Campesinos, who definitely listened to The Cure when they were teenagers. I’d always loved “You! Me! Dancing!” but there’s a whole world of anti-capitalist, pro-hanging out with your buddies and watching soccer pop songs that this band has made over the past couple of decades and I love about 80% of them. This is a big, ambitious record, and in an age of streaming that’s still a defiant thing.

   10. Bonny Light Horseman, Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free

   Is it overlong at 63 minutes? I love all but about 9 minutes of this record, and while there are certainly songs here that sound similar to one another, it’s kind of perfectly sequenced, especially in the back half. I hate nearly all stomp/clap/roots music, but I loved their first album in 2020, and I continue to love this. It’s extremely middle-aged music about waking up early and taking care of kids and maintaining a long-term relationship, and all that feels fine and honest to me since it obviously feels fine and honest to Mitchell/Kaufman/Johnson. I never loved Mitchell’s solo work the way I love Bonny Light Horseman, so there’s something in this collaboration that is tamping down her more…musical theatre-y inclinations, but I also find all of her songs in their collaboration to be the best because she bring a little more drama to music that can sometimes be a little too chill.

Honorable Mentions:

Gouge Away, Deep Sage

It definitely feels like a big step forward for them, a combination of what made the first two records compelling in a slightly more conventional package that doesn’t neuter Michelle’s rage at all. These guys aren’t going to be scoring Taco Bell commercials like Turnstile any time soon, but despite what was said about their first two records, this is the first time that they sound like the Pixies at all to me.

This is Lorelei, Box for Buddy, Box for Star

This is the kind of indie rock that they don’t make anymore. TiL shuffles through about four genres in the first six songs, and he’s good to great at all of them. Like Ducks, Ltd., I don’t have much more to say about it. It’s comfort food, but that’s not that easy to do.

Beyonce, Cowboy Carter

Unsurprisingly I like this a lot more than Renaissance, though it’s too long and has too many bum notes (the first two songs, the skits, “Jolene,” “Just for Fun”) for me to want to return to it enough to make my top ten. Shaboozey grew on me, and I liked the Post Malone/Miley Cyrus collaborations from the beginning. The question of whether her voice would fit into this genre always weird; most country artists in the last few decades at minimum have amazing voices, and the gawds themselves (Willie, Dolly) could sing a telephone book convincingly. My main complaint is the opulence of the production, but Beyonce can’t help but be a perfectionist, even in a genre where splinters and hoarseness are generally assets.

Doechii, Alligator Bites Never Heal

I still like the Doja Cat record from last year (top 10!) even though I don’t like most rap that seems tailor made for a social media platform that will remain nameless. Doechii names that platform in the first two lines on this album, and that’s o.k., because she’s just better at rapping than anyone else I’ve heard this year. “Nissan Altima” is the my new driving anthem. I hear a lot of Doja Cat in her, but her production is much, much more interesting, because it’s Top Dawg Entertainment, and since about 2017 Kendrick Lamar seems less interested in rapping on TDE’s best beats than in trying to execute his grand plan to destroy Drake. Boring!

She makes fun of my desire to hear her rap more on “Boom Bap,” and it’s funny (“I get it,” she says) but I only sort of enjoy one of the last five tracks on this album and they’re all R&B singing. That’s the thing I just can’t connect to much this year, R&B. I draw no conclusions from this.

Ducks, Ltd., Harms Way

Jangly Australian-ish indie rock from Toronto! It’s very good! I don’t know what else to say about it except I constantly feel compelled to return to it.

Glorilla, Glorious

This definitely feels like more of an album than Ehhthang Ehhthang, but I wonder if she lost something in the process. There’s more filler here, and she doesn’t quite pull off the sequencing so the songs would tell a story about her triumph over unreliable dudes. She’s close, but not quite there.

Brittney Howard, What Now

Instead of 80’s synths, how about 70’s basslines? This sounds like imperial era Stevie Wonder with modern production and Howard’s unbelievable voice. I don’t care one revivalist lick for the Alabama Shakes, but Howard’s solo work keeps sounding essential to me. She’s so much more willing to experiment here than she ever was when so was doing retro soul.

Howwdy, Howwdy

There’s something so cornball about this album (a lot of lyrics about hanging out with your friends) but also something unique enough that it’s undeniable. It’s the 00’s-era twee/indie/emo album that I never knew I needed.

Charli XCX, brat

It’s ok? I’m one of those idiots who liked Crash. I saw her live when she was touring that album and thought she was hitting a career high!

Lafandar, Lafandar

Typically, this is weirdly marketed stuff from our guy Himanshu Suri, who last released a solo album in 2015 and instead of marking his triumphant return nine years later with, um, a solo album, he decides to bill it as a collaboration with a DJ no one has heard of and call it Lafandar.

It’s funny, strange, and features a lot of guests who I want to hear again. I’m visiting New York City soon, and it’s awesome to hear Heems’ particular Queens niche again after he didn’t make anything for nearly a decade besides Swet Shop Boys, which, well, the best thing you can say about that is Riz Ahmed didn’t let it affect his acting.

Jlin, Akoma

This is not the kind of music I usually listen to, but I totally love it. If ampiano adds the donk, footwork adds the skitter, and at this point Jlin is a master of the skitter. The two collaboration tracks in particular highlight her skill at balancing the warmth of a live recording with the icy distance of a typical footwork track.

Tierra Whack, WORLD WIDE WHACK

“MS BEHAVE” is the first hint that this isn’t Whack World—it’s too damn long, and never really goes anywhere. It’s a brag trap, but he neither the raps nor the beats are very interesting. But it’s sandwiched by two absolutely charming tracks—one much shorter, and one longer. The thing about this album is that it shows all the strengths of Whack’s earlier approach (“MOOD SWING” and “NUMB” are some of the best tracks here) while pointing to only a limited ability to write “traditional” pop songs. In particular, “IMAGINARY FRIENDS,” “SHOWER SONG,” “MOOVIES” are almost intolerable at their current lengths, and would have been just fine at one minute, while “ACCESSIBLE,” “DIFFICULT,” and “SNAKE EYES” are totally fine at 2 plus minutes. It’s just weird that way. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, front side or back side.

Glass Beach, plastic death

Again: I don’t usually like prog rock, but this has enough interesting touches and shorter songs to break up the epics that it doesn’t feel like a total pose.

Rosali, Bite Down

I love the band-ness of this album, but there’s not enough coherence to totally praise it as an album. I enjoy the best songs (the first three) more than anything on Tiger’s Blood. However, even the worst songs on Tiger’s Blood make more sense than “My Kind” or “Is It Too Late.”

GloRilla, Ehhthang Ehhthang

Maybe Glorilla is the Megan Thee Stallion we were promised? The best rap album of quarter one, and the only possible competitor is We Don't Trust You, but there's a bunch of filler on there that distracts from some of Future's best work in the last decade, and GloRilla's album has no filler, at all.

Adrienne Linker, Bright Future

These songs would be better if they were Big Thief songs, but they’re still pretty great.

Pissed Jeans, Half Divorced

I laughed a lot, I cried a little at “Helicopter Parent.”

Tosser, Sheer Humanity

I lifted some weights real good to this.

The Smile, Wall of Eyes

Extremely pleasant and thematically coherent…but sounds a lot like Radiohead that’s been through the washer a few too many times, to mix a metaphor. It’s the same product. but just sort of sad and weathered. It’s not new, really, except for “Bending Hectic,” which is one of the best torch songs that Thom’s ever sang. Maybe two of these songs, including “Bending Hectic,” would have made it onto a peak Radiohead record, by which I mean anything from The Bends to In Rainbows.

Jimmy Montague, Tomorrow’s Coffee

I can’t totally tell if this is schtick or serious, which isn’t the greatest way to start a review that’s mostly complementary! On a craft level, this is definitely high-quality: the keys and rhythm section have plenty of low end, the guitar lightly sings some Steely Dan-esque riffs, and some tasteful horns and backup vocals enter every so often.