I forgot this album came out this year. It was originally a completely new album only played live at their only ever live show, but it came out as a surprise one-track download in July (and now onto streaming on Christmas Day). It does feel a bit like they are just extending their hiatus with this project, but I still think it’s a great example of their sound! It’s a bit more subdued and straightforward than most of their albums, but Cleo’s incredible voice guides us through it! Hopefully they come back with a completely new album soon!
I know the deluxe just came out a few days ago, but I know I might regret it later if I don’t put it on here. This deluxe is practically a new album, with there being 15 new songs! It does feel kind of just like a deluxe, but there are plenty of immediately classic tracks on here!
Even though this mixtape seems like it took significantly less time than his album from this year, I prefer the more straightforward release! Angel Eyes feels like Kenny doing exactly what he wants without any compromise. His combination of rock and trap is still incredibly unique and pleasant to hear, even after all these years.
This folk-oriented album is from a new group that is chalk full of beautiful songs! It’s clear that they’re a full band and not just one person making a collection of tracks, which helps separate it from many other folk albums out there. The whole album is very conceptual, but is also easy listening if you want a folk album for that as well.
I might regret having this album here over Doechii’s mixtape, but this album really is gorgeous. The second half of the album especially consists of four of the most beautiful tracks of 2024! The album isn’t very upbeat, but Loss of Life is a really beautiful project in a unique way!
After the more R&B-focused album she put out last year, Orquídeas is a full out party! The fully Spanish album is her second album in this language, and I really appreciate how she goes back and forth with languages to appease both sides of her fanbase. This album’s something that sounded perfect this summer, and it’s just further proof that she can go anywhere with her next body of work.
I may not love every track on here, but this is a quality showcase of all that Virtual Riot has to offer! There are dubstep bangers, minimal DnB edits, and even some ambient moments. Even the tracks that aren’t great aren’t skips in my opinion, they’re just not in my particular taste of electronic music.
This album is the sonic equivalent of a night by the fire. It’s easily Clairo’s most mature album so far. Her voice sounds perfect over these luscious instrumentals that were headed by Leon Michels. It seems like this album has been getting her tons of acclaim, so hopefully she’ll continue down this gorgeous soft rock and pop avenue.
Sometimes, just being a great rapper is enough. There is nothing special about this project, but I still think it’s awesome! All that’s needed is some great southern hip-hop beats and someone who’s a great rapper to rap over them, and that’s Take Care by BigXthaPlug.
Sure, this album isn’t necessarily pushing many boundaries for Billie, but it shows her maturing as an artist! The excess from the last album is gone, and what we have now is a ten track, 44-minute album where every single moment and lyric feels intentional. I’m not sure this is the type of album that will convince someone who hasn’t liked anything Billie has done before, but it’s another quality release for people that are already fans.
Navy Blue - Memoirs in Armour
At the end of the day, Navy Blue is a fantastic rapper who makes great music! The way he writes is unlike anyone else, and the ten tracks on Memoirs in Armour is another helping of business as usual for Sage. I do hope something more substantial comes along because this is a bit scant, but everything on here is still great nonetheless!
I dare someone to argue that Ab-Soul isn’t a great rapper! Most of these songs aren’t very introspective, but they’re still full of copious amounts of double entendres and similes. It is nice though to finally have an Ab-Soul album that isn’t full of introspective tracks, convoluted theology, or a perplexing concept.
Freddie is a fantastic rapper, so unsurprisingly, he sounds great on here! This whole project is full of straightforward, great rap songs with a small overarching theme of him being haunted by the devil. There’s nothing really deep or personal when it comes to the album, it’s just a great rapper making great rap songs!
Even though Denzel doesn’t quite hit in the same way he did while he was starting out, he’s still able to make a fantastic hip-hop album! This is much more straightforward and feature-heavy than anything he’s released before. King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2 is a well-constructed love letter to southern hip-hop.
King Gizz’s 26th album came out this year, and it ended up being the only album from the band this year. It’s arguably one of the most accessible releases they’ve put out, especially when it comes to the songwriting! These songs are well-produced, structured normally, and have killer choruses. There’s not much to it, but the songs slap!
Yes, I know this album wasn’t any sort of evolution for 21, but it’s still great! It contains some of his most mature tracks, and still some truly unruly bangers! Hopefully we won’t have to wait over 3 years before another solo album from 21.
I really do think that this project is arguably the best thing Frost Children have done so far! All five songs exist in this space between blown-out electro-pop and hazy rock music that is effortless to replay! They only continue to get better, and I now found a new artist to check out with Haru Nemuri!
Cameron Winter is the lead singer of the NYC rock band Geese, and he’s already striking out solo on this album! This album is completely different from the Geese albums, especially when it comes to the simple instrumentals here compared to the band. Cameron’s voice, and writing, is still so unique, especially when it comes to new music. The band isn’t dead though, so we can look forward to the new rock anthems soon!
This is the best Jean Dawson album so far! It has the multiple genres and styles that he had on Pixel Bath, but it’s also put together better and he does all of the styles done better than previous endeavors. I appreciate the introspection on songs like “You’re Bleeding Everywhere” and “200 Cigarettes”, but there are also plenty of straightforward jams like “Darlin’” and “Black Sugar”.
It was wonderful to hear Moore Kismet in such a straightforward project. All six songs are electronic bangers that progress nicely, and leave me more excited for wherever they go next! Hopefully a new album is around the corner!
Ever since her cover of Metallica’s “Sad But True”, I was hoping for a darker St. Vincent album, and here it is! It took me a little bit to get used to since it’s not all that dark, but overall, it’s another fantastic album from one of rock’s most interesting artists. Hopefully I get to see her live at some point, because I've heard her shows are insane!
Machine Girl is one of the craziest bands working, but I really appreciate how they’ve gotten more accessible on this album. There are actually accessible choruses and riffs that stay in your head instead of just the breakbeat/metal chaos. It’s such a great and cohesive project that I understand why most people wouldn’t like it, but for those that love chaotic music, MG Ultra is here!
There may not be any incredible moments on here, but the whole project comes together into this wonderful UK garage experience! The songs flow together so well it’s almost like a DJ set full of originals. There are songs of all different styles of electronic on here, and he excels at all of them. Hopefully he continues to create these great bodies of work!
Floating Points’s Cascade exists in a very particular set of electronic music. So if you don’t like his brand of minimalist, ever changing downtempo and techno combination, you won’t like this album. But if you can get down with the detail-oriented, dance floor ready sounds he uses on here, Cascade is fantastic!
This EP is so good! Durand’s vocals are astounding, and the soulful R&B jams work with it really well. I also appreciate how straightforward the concept of it soundtracking a road trip is. I’m excited to see what his next album sounds like!
There is no album that is dancier than Kaytranada’s Timeless! There may not be any career defining moments here for the producer, but the entire project is filled with fantastic, accessible dance music! Now that he is doing a bit of vocal work, I wonder if he’ll continue to do more singing and rapping on his songs.
The last half of Shadowbox might be the best stretch of tracks in Mavi’s career so far! Mavi’s thoughtful and introspective opuses continue to not only leave me impressed at his rapping ability, but also relating to the words themselves. I appreciate his vulnerability and hope he continues to share that part of him with us.
NxWorries is made up of Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge. If you know those two artists, I shouldn’t even have to sell you on the album, but in case you don’t know them, here’s the one sentence pitch. This is the most soulful album of 2024, and it shows Anderson processing his recent divorce.
Syzy has the possibility to genuinely push electronic music forward. I especially love their combination of beautiful electronic soundscapes and how they’re contrasted against these harsh riddim drops. As great as this project is, I’m even more excited to see where they go from here.
I really appreciate the straightforwardness of this album! It’s just two of the most exciting electronic artists coming together for eight songs of trap adrenaline. And sure, it’s not as good as either of their solo projects, but it’s still so much fun to listen to!
Brittany Howard continues to prove that she doesn’t need Alabama Shakes to make great music! What Now flows between soul, dance, rock, R&B, and more over the course of 12 tracks. And of course, no matter the genre, Brittany’s voice is ridiculous on all of it! She’s an incredible artist who is only branching out more, and seems like she’ll continue to considering she’s apparently starting a hardcore band.
ScHoolboy is officially back with Blue Lips! These songs are accessible, but still fairly weird and full of his chaotic flows. Lyrically, this also might be the best project of his career, especially when you include a song like “Blueslides”. It’s easily one of the best rap albums of 2024, and I can’t wait to see what he comes with in the future!
Vince Staples continues his trend into dark, LA-based hip-hop. While there are a couple upbeat bangers, most of this album is more subdued than almost anything he’s done before. This is his last release on Def Jam, so I wonder if he’ll change sound now that he’s independent. Either way though, Vince Staples can’t fail when it comes to making great music.
I didn’t return to this album as much as I hoped I would, but every single listen I did get left me in awe! If you like jazz and you haven’t heard this, you’re missing out! There are traditional jazz tracks, fusion based tracks, spiritual jazz tracks, and so much more over these twelve songs. This is an album that will leave the listener speechless.
I still stand by that this is Gary Clark’s best body of work! Sure, the highlights on here may not be as incredible as his best tracks, but as an overall album, JPEG RAW is his best. It’s soulful, meaningful, full of fantastic vocals, and still enough guitar solos to satisfy his older fans!
Yard Act decided to go in a different route for this new album, and even though it put me off at first, I really appreciate it now! There are so many little details in these songs that I’ve only picked up after dozens of listens. As with most Yard Act songs, all the songs have important meanings, and Where’s My Utopia? is no different! I hope that people check this out, because it’s a pretty unique, but inviting experience.
I haven’t heard an album full of so many niche online references, but also full of so much heart! It all sounds so plastic-y, but the lyrics are all about his relationship with his fans, both the good and the bad. This is a project I wish more people really took time with, because I feel like it gets better with every listen!
I’m glad JPEG ended up having a show in Madison because it forced me to go back to this album, and I think it’s my favorite solo album from him since Veteran! The production on here is nothing short of incredible, and I appreciate the more emotional tracks that end the album. I’m sure Peggy will be back with more insane craziness in a different way soon enough!
I think this is my favorite Vampire Weekend album! I love how the album seems to sonically be based around the piano, and I especially love when they bring in hits of noise to complement the keys, like on the singles “Capricorn” and “Classical”. These ten songs are all hitters, and I can’t wait to see what they do next!
I don’t understand how some people can listen to this album and not be incredibly impressed by his guitar playing! I know the style might not be exactly what most people are used to, but there’s no better way to start with this sound than with these four incredible players absolutely shredding for nine tracks!
Sure, the album is too long, but everything on it is great! There are gorgeous acoustic guitar ballads, hit ready anthems, multiphasic country-rap crossovers, Beatles and Dolly Parton covers, and so much more! All of it is strung together by Beyoncé’s incredible voice, and I can’t wait to see what she has in the tank for Act 3 of this trilogy!
MJ Lenderman’s songwriting is top tier! I love how unique he is when it comes to writing, and how he manages to flip these seemingly normal sayings into something meaningful. This project only gets better with every listen, to the point where I even now enjoy the six minutes of feedback that end the album. It feels like MJ Lenderman might be the future in this genre of music, but we’ll see.
The first of the two collaboration albums from Future and Metro Boomin created one of the biggest moments in hip-hop this year, but it did overshadow the album itself. There’s not many iconic Future tracks on here, but the whole project is put together so well! Metro’s production didn’t elevate Future, but his ability to sequence an album makes the project a more enjoyable experience! Future sounds great over all of these beats, but especially when it comes to making a catchy chorus. It feels like a victory lap of what we expected from Future.
The second of the two collaboration albums is slightly better, but it’s also because Disc 2 of this album is wild! Disc 1 is a full R&B album that goes on a couple songs too long, even if all the songs are great! Now this is the album where Metro’s production actually elevates Future’s performances. Now, to say thank you, they added seven songs on Disc 2 that calls back to Future’s mixtape days. The energy of Disc 2 is incredible! Everything flows together so well that it makes for a perfect little project to listen to on the drive home from a bad day. While I’m not sure how many more projects on this level Future has in him, I’ll make sure to appreciate everything we do get from him.
I knew Magdalena Bay was great, but I wasn’t expecting something this incredible from them! I just figured their next album would also have some impressive pop songs, but this takes it to a whole other level! These songs are full of these incredible pop grooves, but they’re also so much more than that! Some of the songs go into a progressive rock direction, while others lean more into the thematic concept the album is portraying. Everything on the album is sonic perfection! In a normal year, this would easily be the best pop album of the year, but 2024 was a great year for pop music, so there is one pop album above this.
Adrianne’s a special writer. Bright Future is just another example of her ability to write powerful, emotional tracks that I’m still unpacking close to a year later! Even now, I just picked up the parallel in “Real House” between her own story in the hospital and the bond she felt with her mother supporting her, and then the next verse about never seeing her mom cry until her dog was in the same situation that Adrianne was once in. It’s just one example of an incredibly moving line on an incredibly moving album.
I can now comfortably say that this is Jack White’s best solo album! No Name is a callback to Jack’s straightforward garage rock that he came to prominence making as half of The White Stripes. The riffs throughout the album are nothing short of killer, and Jack’s lyrics are right in his classic space that walks the line between nonsense and insightful. Even the guerilla release and marketing that he did for the album only elevated the experience. Jack White never makes bad music, but No Name is a return to what most people loved the most!
Tyler refuses to miss! Chromakopia is one of the first times where the album isn’t a drastic sonic shift from his previous work, but the introspection he shows on here is unlike anything he’s done before. On this album, Tyler is wrestling with parenthood, both for himself and how his parents affected him growing up. Songs like “Hey Jane” and “Like Him” are easily some of the most personal Tyler has ever written. I know I said this in my top songs list, but it’s worth noting again that “Take Your Mask Off” is the best verse that Tyler has ever written! The way he tears himself down is both incredible and incredibly hard to watch. The bangers on here are also great, even if they are a bit straightforward for Tyler! I appreciate how he knew he had to give us some lighthearted material after pouring his soul to us. Over the past couple of months, this album has only gotten better and better with each listen, and I can’t wait to see it performed live in February!
This was the only album to actually challenge for number one, and it’s mainly because it’s Kendrick. Kendrick’s my favorite artist of all time, so it’s no surprise the album is this high up. GNX is the most easy-listening album ever by Kendrick! There are some intensely deep tracks, but the majority of the tracks are also straightforward bangers! There’s no secret meaning in the lyrics to be uncovered in songs like “hey now” and “peekaboo”, but that doesn’t mean they’re not incredible tracks! When it comes to rapping, Kendrick is just as amazing as ever! He’s still pushing himself with some weird voices and more flows than ever before. And when it comes to the album itself, the twelve songs and forty-four minute runtime is also the first Kendrick album to be in that perfect runtime! Kendrick can do whatever he wants in the future, and I’ll be there for whatever does come out!
It was never that close for something else to get number one. Kendrick’s GNX got slightly close, but there was no topping the all-encompassing Brat. It’s a boring answer to say that Brat’s the best album of the year, but it really, truly is! Everything Charli has done before has led up to this project! The soaring pop hooks from Crash and Charli are here, but the electronic experimentation of Pop 2 and How I’m Feeling Now are also just as prevalent. But before we get to the musicality of this album, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way, the marketing.
This project has been inescapable since its release. They were talking about Charli xcx on political news stations after tweeting “kamala IS brat” after her becoming the Democratic nominee. Just pause and think for a second how insane it is that everyone from Fox News to CNN were talking about this three word tweet from an artist who’s not even from the US. The specific green color that was on the cover art and the specific wording of her future releases became one of the biggest memes of the year! The phrase “Brat Summer” was everywhere this summer as well! The marketing for the album and impact of the album has been second to none this year, and usually when this happens, the music doesn’t stand up to the impact. In this case though, the music is even better than the marketing!
I think the phrasing and marketing of the album leads people to believe that the album is nothing besides party anthems. In actuality, that couldn’t be further from the truth! Yes, there are a good amount of songs on here that are nothing besides incredible club classics, but a lot of the songs are also confrontational and radically honest. Let’s look at one of the biggest songs from the album, “Apple”. There ended up being a TikTok dance for the song that went unbelievably viral the second half of the year. Even at her shows, she now shows fans from the crowd doing the dance when she performs the specific part of the song the dance is from. Heck, the song and dance itself is in a TikTok commercial now! But what everyone seems to forget is that the song itself is about family trauma and not wanting to keep the same traits as her parents. During the first half of the TikTok dance, they’re dancing to the lines, “I think the apple's rotten right to the core, from all the things passed down from all the apples coming before”. She sees these traits being passed down from generation to generation in her family and decides she needs to end the cycle. People are literally dancing to Charli talking about her familial problems, and most people don’t seem to be acknowledging it.
These introspective themes over the club-friendly instrumentals aren’t exclusive to this song either. “Sympathy is a Knife” is about Charli feeling hurt after people are trying to give her sympathy, either for her being less successful than them or lesser in any way. Many people theorize that this track is about her seeing Taylor Swift backstage at The 1975 shows. She’s not even blaming Taylor, or the nameless individual, for treating her like that, Charli’s just being honest about how it made her feel. This isn’t even the only song she has about a famous celebrity, another being “Girl, so confusing”. This track is about Lorde and how they felt genuine animosity towards each other for no good reason. The remix with Lorde responding is one of my favorite tracks of 2024, so check out the songs list for more information on how incredible that remix is!
Speaking of remixes, Charli put together a whole remix album for Brat! Every single song on the album had a remix with at least one feature! Songs of the songs, such as the aforementioned “Girl, so confusing” and “360” remixes are pretty much the same song with some extra verses, but there are also tracks on here that are completely different from the original! “Sympathy is a Knife” with Ariana Grande and “B2B” with Tinashe are both completely different songs that only have a couple things here or there that are similar to the original. Charli’s ethos on this remix project was to show where these songs could’ve gone, and sometimes, all that was originally meant for a song was the same phrase.
I understand that everyone won’t like this album, sonically. They’ll hear the mechanical synths of “Sympathy is a Knife”, or the pulsating club beat of “Everything is Romantic” and be immediately put off, but I want people to understand how special the album is. Yes, the album is a nonstop club party for the ages, but it’s also an honest view of someone who is deciding where they are in their lives and how they want to proceed in the future. These songs are party anthems, sure, but they’re party anthems written by someone who’s clearly trying to escape the harsh decisions she has to make in the next few years through the avenue of partying. So yeah, sometimes the party succeeds and she feels like the icon she is. But there are also other times where the party is just the soundtrack to all these thoughts in her head, like the human she is. Brat is a special album that encompasses everything Charli has to offer, and I hope it will go down in music history as the special album that it is.
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