To paraphrase Colin, while TV and movies were dealt another brutal blow by the strikes last year, the music industry felt fully back in swing as we closed out the first half of this decade. Finally, it seemed like there was more going on than songs about isolation during the pandemic or leftover relics from the 2010s! Perhaps not coincidentally, this corresponded with era of girl pop hitting its zenith (or perhaps merely just new heights) with Spotify’s data showing that women dominated the lists of most-streamed artists, songs, and albums of 2024. On top of that, long-dormant artists like Camera Obscura and Jamie xx showed up with pretty good new albums and others, like The Smile and Charley Crockett, couldn’t help but put out multiple complete LPs. I’ll just say it, 2024 was an embarrassment of riches!
But here’s what’s freaking me out: at the end of every year, I scoop up a bunch of albums from other “best of” lists and cram them into my ears as fast as possible so I can make the actual, definitive, best top 10 list on the Internet (not really, usually I crap out and make a big apologetic post). The thing is, at some point in late 2023, I definitely did stream The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and yet not only did Chappell Roan *not* make last year’s list, I totally forgot about her until the Guts World Tour turned this sleeper hit into a smash.
Of course, the second time around I fell in love with Chappell Roan like everyone else, and her follow-up single “Good Luck, Babe!” was 100% my #1 summer jam, despite allegations of it being a BRAT summer. But there are precious months where I could have been way more on top of my shit instead of wasting my time on the mental gymnastics that could justify THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT as really good, actually. So what does that mean? What lesson have I learned from this humbling experience? Listen to new music more times, I guess. Don’t be a boring old guy? Oh no, more on that later!
By the way, and related to that, special shout out to three albums: Jessica Pratt’s Here in the Pitch, Father John Misty’s Mahashmashana, and Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee. I have listened each of these once and liked them but haven’t gotten around to really deep diving into them. Consensus suggests they’re probably better than some of the albums on my list though.
Honorable Mentions
Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
St. Vincent – All Born Screaming
Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood (this is the first time I noticed it’s plural and not the possessive, Tiger’s Blood)
It’s a year where we had huge releases from Taylor, Ariana, and a few other contemporary pop goddesses we’ll see later on this list, so you’re probably as surprised as I am that Sabrina Carpenter made my list. I’m fairly certain “Espresso,” one of the most inescapable TikTok samples of 2024, was the first time I ever heard of this one-time Disney star, so I was unprepared for, when Short n’ Sweet finally came out late last summer, discovering it was actually her sixth studio album. Even more surprising to me was that there were a lot of songs that I liked considerably more than “Espresso.” For my money, Sabrina’s at her best on songs like “Please Please Please,” “Sharpest Tool,” and “Juno” where, for my money, she raises to the level of even the likes of Kacey Musgraves or Carly Rae Jepsen, for my money. But that’s just me and my money. This is not investment advice. Also just a great Tiny Desk set, bravo!
Nala Sinephro’s debut LP, Space 1.8, while far out, has never been that far out of my rotation since I first fell in love with it in 2021. Her unique blend of ambient music and jazz is right up my alley, especially for all the late night writing/gaming/spreadsheet-ing I do. Sinephro’s sophomore effort, Endlessness, is perhaps a slightly more approachable window into her sonic world (meaning none of the songs are 20 minutes long this time) but also a welcome addition for those of us who already liked being here. This music is perfect for both zoning out and hyper-focusing in, you can have it on in the background and it won’t fight for your attention or just as easily you could choose to really lean into it and drift away into its cool serenity. It’s really great stuff and I’m excited for her next project, the soundtrack to that Benny Safdie/The Rock MMA biopic.
It’s wild we’ve been writing about Charli xcx on these lists for more than a decade because she still feels like such a rising star. But it’s hard to get much bigger than Brat summer. Remember Colbert doing the “Apple” dance every night? Oh, what times. I knew this album was going to be a big deal when they went and changed all the album artwork for her eight previous major releases on streaming to compliment BRAT‘s iconic sans serif text on a lime green background. But I couldn’t have predicted it would go on to be one of my most-listened to albums all year, since really none of Charli’s albums have stuck with me as much as her very first, True Romance. But here we go, she did it, she seized her moment and made it count and we’ll all probably spend the rest of our lives wishing we could go back in time to that crazy summer when Kamala was brat and we had hope in our hearts. Also the song she did with Lonely Island for SNL is an undeniable bop.
I am genuinely excited to see where Friko go from here, because this indie rock duo’s debut is one of those rare LPs that just screams “next big thing.” Released way back in February, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here has been a reliable friend for me to return to all year long. If you haven’t gotten around to this album yet, going off Wikipedia, you could describe it as a little bit Arcade Fire, a little bit Bright Eyes, and definitely a splash of Radiohead, since they went and covered “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.” So is this album this generation’s Pablo Honey or Funeral? Well, finding out is one of the few things we can actually look forward to anymore. Let’s give ’em some time to figure it out.
Another artist I didn’t know until his sixth album, Helado Negro’s This Is How You Smile was my second favorite album the year it came out. For whatever reason, his follow-up, Far In, didn’t make much of an impression; it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. But now he’s back again with the spacey PHASOR, perhaps his best bilingual vibes generator yet. It’s a little more trippy, a little more subtle… do I need say more than it’s got Sufjan Stevens and Andy Stack from Wye Oak? Give it a shot if you haven’t yet!
For even more of those lowkey vibes, Clairo! I found Charm to be exactly what’s on the tin, a really charming little album that snuck its way into my library this summer and wormed its way into my heart. Then I learned that Clairo is considered a nepo baby and about the “Clairo Shade” meme and I got really confused and I didn’t talk to anybody about this album because I was embarrassed. I’m still not sure if liking this means I’m betraying Chappell Roan? But now its been nominated for a Grammy so I’m good right? It’s cool now?
Some things Nilüfer Yanya has in common with Charli xcx: they’re both British, I still love both their first albums the most, and, to borrow a Colin-ism, I listened to the shit out of their 2024 albums and could keep going back for more. I think the one-two punch of “Keep on Dancing” and “Like I Say (I runaway)” is such an amazing way to open an album because they instantly sound so incredibly, unmistakably Nilüfer Yanya. Like, if you’ve listened to her before, you’ll know within one second of “Keep on Dancing” this is going to be an LP you enjoy. I sure as hell did.
Like a lot of artists I’m writing about tonight, Faye Webster’s previous album came out in 2021. Back then, I Know I’m Funny Haha was in consideration for my favorites of the year for a long time but ultimately didn’t even get an honorable mention because one of my arbitrary rules is that I can’t do more than five honorable mentions. Which is a bummer because I eventually (but inevitably) forgot about that album and Faye Webster entirely and then Underdressed at the Symphony came out and I loved it and didn’t even realized I had listened to her before. Anyway, there’s a lot to love here but the immaculate chill vibes of the opener “Thinking About You” are thoroughly undeniable. Also happy that Lil Yachty is still getting out there and experimenting after Let’s Start Here! Did you listen to his album with James Blake?
If we can go back to 2021 once again, remember how I was excited to see what variation on the name “Haley” Cassandra Jenkins would choose for her third album? My Light, My Destroyer did not disappoint (even if she didn’t make what I thought was the obvious choice). According to my Apple Music Replay (I’m not even cool enough to be on Spotify), this narrowly beat out my #1 choice as my most-listened to album in 2024. What more can I say? Jenkins has become undeniably one of my new favorite artists this decade and I’m still sad that circumstances prevented me from being able to see her tour this year. Like Halley’s Comet, I will for sure catch her next time she’s around.
I have been waiting for Billie Eilish to really strike a chord for me like she has with seemingly everyone else on the planet, and I’m pleased as punch to report her third album is the one that finally did it. I’m not sure I have anything interesting to add to the conversation about a 23-year-old who is already halfway to an EGOT and one of the most popular artists on the planet, but it’s pretty cool that her latest album after receiving all those accolades still feels this risky. You’d think at this point Billie Eilish would be collaborating on tracks with Lana Del Rey produced by Jack Antonoff, instead she’s still making strange, sad, personal music with her brother. It resonated with me more than anything she had done before but it wasn’t guaranteed this spot on my list until she did the coolest thing ever: close out the Olympics. Now I’ll love that until the day that I die.