The Best Albums of 2024

We’re at the end of another year of films, music, and television. With the year just about up, I want to take stock of some of my favourite pieces of art from the past year. As I noted in my “Best Albums” list from last year, I hardly ever write about music on my blog (my list last year was the first time here), but it remains a major interest of mine. And so, in this short article, I’m paying tribute to my favourite albums of the past year. As always, the year was chock-full of excellent music. The Cure returned after sixteen years away from studio albums; Jack White released a rock record that rivals the best of his work on the White Stripes; Beyoncé continued her genre project in excerpt fashion with Cowboy Carter; the 71-year-old Kim Gordon released one of the strangest industrial albums of the year; and Charlie XCX took over the summer with Brat. After much deliberation, I have managed to cut it down into a list of ten favourites (with a few honourable mentions down at the bottom), which, to me, encapsulates my 2024 in music.

Come back on the 31st for my Best Films of the Year list!

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Special Honourable Mention: Chappell Roan — The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

By my own negligence, I missed out on the release and immediate critical acclaim of Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess last September. In my pitiful defence, it wasn’t until early 2024 that Roan’s star truly started to rise in the mainstream consciousness, which is when I, and millions of others became infected by her charming, clever pop writing. Roan has been everywhere over the past year, from her multiple charting singles to her infectious “HOT TO GO” dance. Thankfully, the album in question has the strength to support her meteoric rise to fame. Bursting with energetic production and carried by Roan’s miraculous vocals, Midwest Princess has been the pop album of the year, despite being some sixteen months old at the time of publication. Since it’s not a proper 2024 release, Roan’s debut doesn’t get a full-fledged spot on this list but it was certainly one of my favourite listens (and repeat listens) from the past year. 

If you’re one of the three people who have yet to encounter the femininomenon, pause reading this list, turn on the album, and then come back here.

Must-hear track: “HOT TO GO!”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

10. Rachel Chinouriri — What a Devastating Turn of Events

Rachel Chinouriri’s What a Devastating Turn of Events contains multitudes. Filled to the brim with sizzling rock tracks like album opener “Garden of Eden,” mesmerizing ballads like “My Blood”, and devastating emotional heights, like the title track, the album finds life and joy in the darkest times. It’s an album about healing, with all the messiness and violent emotions that that entails. Exploding with raw passion and some of the catchiest songwriting of the year, this album is a gorgeous, complicated breakup record and so much more. It’s a shame Chinouriri hasn’t had much by way of Top 40 play. The choruses of songs like “The Hills” and “My Everything” demand to be screamed at the top of the lungs.

Must-hear track: “Garden of Eden”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

9. Cindy Lee — Diamond Jubilee

Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee was only ever released on YouTube and Bandcamp, and that, in a way, makes the album all the more effective. The album is a hazy, spacy pop record that feels like an album you stumble on rather by accident, perhaps a rummage sale or a stray transmission on a far-off radio station, only for it to sink its teeth into your skin. At just over two hours long, the latest from the Calgary-hailing band is a strange collection of worn-out songs from a past that never was. It’s this mixture of intriguing production and palpable nostalgia that makes this album so memorable and entrancing. It’s full of psychedelic-inspired, lushly-orchestrated songs that are as much familiar as they are totally new. As one YouTube comment beautifully puts it, “Sounds like nothing I've ever heard, and everything I've ever loved.”

Must-hear track: Just listen to the whole thing. It’s free on YouTube.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

8. Waxahatchee — Tigers Blood

A stunning blend of folk, Americana, and country, the sixth studio album from Waxahatchee, the stage name of Alabama singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, is a glorious piece of southern charm. Wrapped with simple yet effective guitars and gorgeous harmonies — including one especially wonderful duet with MJ Lenderman on “Right Back To It” — Tigers Blood sparkles with cozy instrumentation and Crutchfield’s signature twangy vocals. It’s a big, broad, and warm album, brimming with bittersweet tunes of an open, rugged land. The tracklist is littered with highlights, including the mournful “Burns Out at Midnight,” the energetic “Bored,” and the pensive “Crimes of the Heart.” With stripped back-instrumentation and thoughtful, reflective honesty on the lyrics, Waxahatchee’s alt-country style is perfectly distilled here, reminding listeners why she’s one of the strongest voices in the genre.

Must-hear track: “Evil Spawn”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

7. Doechii — Alligator Bites Never Heal

Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal was the most fun I had listening to an album all year. This witty, often comical mixtape from one of hip-hop's most exciting up-and-coming voices is a collection of breathlessly short, instantly memorable songs. Told with big, brash old-school beats and direct, pointed lyrics, the album radiates a genuine sense of charisma that is totally infectious. Its themes skip from Doechii’s personal vices, her newfound place in the music industry, the insecurity of fame, her love for her home state of Florida, and moments of tenderness and vulnerability. It’s a self-assured album filled with clever writing, even if its lyrical subject matter often confronts feelings of insecurity and the plains of growth. 

Must-hear track: “DENIAL IS A RIVER”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

6. Vampire Weekend — Only God Was Above Us

Vampire Weekend has been a staple of indie rock since their debut album in 2008, with the group reaching new heights on Only God Was Above Us, their fifth album. With notes of psychedelic rock, baroque pop, prep-school punk, and their usual West African influences, the album feels like a compelling evolution of the band’s earliest work into more expansive territory. It’s a noisy, boisterous album full of decadent soundscapes, topped off with illustrious guitar work and string arrangements. The songwriting is decidedly wonderful, with lyricism about mortality and fate, memorable choruses, excellent musical riffs, and even an ode to a tax-evading art collector in the mix. It’s a sonically adventurous rock album that will keep you coming back for more.

Must-hear track: “Gen-X Cops”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

5. Kendrick Lamar — GNX

An enduring hitmaker since his 2012 album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar surprise-released his latest album with much critical acclaim and fanfare. GNX features some of Lamar’s finest work to date, with an album that pays homage to the great history of West Coast hip-hop, wrestles with the ever-increasing commercialism of the profoundly cultural art form of rap, his troubling familial and religious relationships, the great problem of violence in the African-American community, and a healthy dose of a braggadocious GOAT attitude. The production, featuring the likes of Jack Antonoff and Mustard (who I think might just be the producer of the year) is expansive and gorgeous, full of beautifully composed tracks that match Lamar’s excellent lyricism. There are some incredible guest spots here from the likes of Mexican mariachi singer Deyra Barrera and R&B staple SZA. Told with one foot in heaven and one foot on Earth, the album is a total knock-out from one of the greatest and singular artists of our generation that rivals the heights of his already staggering discography.

Must-hear track: “man at the garden”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

4. The Cure — Songs of a Lost World

The Cure released their first album all the way back in 1979. Forty-five years and fourteen albums later, the English gothic rock band shows that they are more than capable of not only keeping up with their younger selves but delivering some of the most transcendently beautiful rock songs in recent memory. Songs of a Lost World is a heavy, moody album with long-winded tracks that move between dark, atmospheric instrumentals to desperate, loud choruses. The album is fixated on mortality and endings, making this a strong contender for the group’s most haunting record yet and a natural expression of their gothic style. Songs like “And Nothing is Forever” and “Endsong” encapsulate the expansive ambitious aspirations of an album that moves in and out from the past and the present, reflecting on a life of heartbreak and joy. This is a beautiful late-career work from one of the most accomplished rock bands of the last half-century.

Must-hear track: “Endsong”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

3. Magdalena Bay — Imaginal Disk

The second album from American duo Magdalena Bay, Imaginal Disk is a bizarre synth- and dance-pop mixed with some of the most rich and complex production of the year. A concept album about a fictional protagonist named Blue, the album is about self-actualization and the discovery of identity. It’s esoteric and singular in the best possible way. The album is loaded with larger-than-life and aggressive soundscapes, complicated arrangements, and beautifully textured synths. “Death & Romance” is the album’s biggest hit, and for good reason, but there’s also the distorted, soaring “Vampire in the Corner,” the marvellous bass lines of “Love is Everywhere,” and the piano-heavy, lonely “Cry for Me.” It’s a dynamic, exhilarating pop music that demonstrates just how much creativity is left in the pop scene.

Must-hear track: “Death & Romance”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

2. Ka — The Thief Next to Jesus

The final release from the New York rapper before his passing, Ka’s The Thief Next to Jesus is perhaps his most accomplished album to date. Taking on the fraught relationship between Christianity and the lived experiences of the African-American community, where religion is both a tool for empathy, while also perhaps being destructive in the great context of American politics. Taking its name from Luke 23, it’s an album ready to wrestle with God and man, trying to find the road to heaven through hell. With beautiful production and some of Ka’s most complex, delicate lyricism, The Thief Next to Jesus is a beautiful final work from one of the underground’s most thoughtful voices. It’s an album set in the great space between belief and unbelief that shows no road out of the desert.

Must-hear track: “Lord Have Mercy”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. Fontaines D.C. — Romance

The Irish post-punk outfit of Fontaines D.C. hit astronomical heights on Romance, their fourth studio album and their career biggest hit so far. Full of dramatic guitar riffs and explosive production, some of the year’s most earworm-y tracks can be found on this record. There’s the stormy “Starburster,” the expansive “In the Modern World,” the string-filled “Horseness is the Whatness,” and the spacey “Favourite,” the brightly-coloured album closer. The album channels influences from shoegaze, to Dylan Thomas, to Akira in a half-concept album about dystopias and the end of the world. This is rock music designed to blow out stadium speaks paired with the devastation and euphoria that the ambiguous title promises.

Must-hear track: “Favourite”

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Honourable Mentions

The greatest struggle with every year-end best-of list is the cuts I have to make to present a manageable, approachable version of this article. While the main list only features ten albums, I listened to dozens more that I greatly enjoyed. Here are ten more amazing albums that also came out in the last year and a well worth a listen.

• Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter — Beyoncé’s country experiment is a glorious, extravagant affair. Paying tribute to the legends of country music before her while paving a way forward, Cowboy Carter will blow you away.

• Charlie XCX, Brat — The album that dominated pop culture this summer. Club banger after club banger . . .

• Kim Gordon, The Collective — At 71 years of age, Kim Gordon managed to deliver the strangest industrial hip-hop album of the year. The first track is a packing list set over one of the year’s most aggressive beats.

• Georgie Greep, The New Sound — Greep, the frontman of Black Midi, delivers gorgeous jazz instrumentation paired with some of the creepiest lyrics of the year. Told from the perspective of many depraved and misogynistic men, this is the year’s most disturbing album.

• Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future — One of the year’s most stunning singer-songwriter albums, Lenker’s stripped-back, acoustic instrumentation and deeply personal writing make Bright Future a deeply commanding work.

• Bill Ryder-Jones, Iechyd Da — Iechyd Da, which means “good health” in Welsh, is a lush, richly textured baroque pop album. It’s expansive and moving, full of incredible choral movements and beautiful, full-bodied melodies.

• St. Vincent, All Born Screaming — Maybe St. Vincent’s best album yet, All Born Screaming is full of the brash rock sounds that have made her who she is.

• Tyler, The Creator, CHROMAKOPIA — Tyler manages to make this year’s most complex and ambitious hip-hop record (if you can really call this a hip-hop record) and features this year’s biggest banger: “Sticky.”

• Nilüfer Yanya, My Method Actor — An excellent follow-up to Painless (2022), Yanya’s latest album is full of her signature, personal indie rock and gorgeous melodies.

• Lola Young, This Wasn’t Made For You Anyway — My favourite two seconds of music this year is the breath Young takes in the middle of the first chorus of “Conceited.”