Favorite Albums of 2024

I have been making this list for a little over a decade now, and this year was probably the hardest I’ve had settling on a number one – nothing stood out as a clear favorite for me this year – but also probably the hardest I’ve had condensing the list – typically I do around 50 but there’s a little over 70 here in total (+ some dang good EPs). Overall, 2024 was a good year of music for my ears. This year, I did most of my listening on walks with my dog around my neighborhood; I guess that if I were to attempt to make a larger metaphor of that routine, it would be that this decade long practice of seeking out new music is one of motion but also one of comfort—familiar paths, a reliable companion at my side, and the occasional detour to keep the practice interesting. This list is a way to share the sidewalks so to speak, or a wave to other listeners passing by… I don’t know, I’ve lost the thread of this metaphor already. As always, there’s a playlist (on spotify – which, fuck spotify) to go alongside. Listen along if you will. Tell me what I’ve missed. Squabble over where I’ve ranked the albums you love (at one point brat was number one – this is all somewhat arbitrary!). Here’s to a new year of the same old pursuit of new records!

LISTEN: Top 61 albums playlist – here.

The Top Ten

         (RIYL… recommend if you like)

1. Imaginal Disk – Magdalena Bay

  • RIYL… when Gen Z discovers a bizarre media from the 90s/early 20s, concept albums where the concept make no sense to you, discos and robots and spaceships

2. Diamond Jubliee – Cindy Lee (not on streaming)

  • RIYL… if you like me are a fan of the greater Women-verse, an album that is so beautifully out of sync with the zeitgeist, a big sprawling mess loaded with melodies that will undoubtedly stick with you for days on end

3. Alligator Bites Never Heal – Doechii

  • RIYL… boom fucking bap, the best rapping you’ll hear all year, some stanky swamp shit, seriously… if you aren’t already hip to Doechii I don’t know what to tell ya at this point

4. Night Palace – Mount Eerie

  • RIYL… an existential crisis while on a late night stroll by a body of water, music that alternates from the some of the prettiest chords in one song to some of the nastiest most-blown-out in the next, checking in on your buddy Phil after giving him some space when the worst thing ever happened to him all those years back, birds

5. Dreammachine – Habibi

  • RIYL… crisp melodies and when people describe sounds as having texture, a hazy road trip with your dearest friends, dancing alone in your room while your cat stares at you, grooves as moody as they are groovy (I love this band so dang much and this album is so damn fun)

6. Endlessness – Nala Sinephro

  • RIYL… being adrift in the chrome-covered future of that one episode of Spongebob, the idea of fungal networks, a blissful journey through a mellowed out version of the outer space where Sun Ra was born, just absolutely lush and gorgeous tunes

7. brat – Charli xcx

  • RIYL… knowing what it meant to be ‘brat’ before everyone else knew what it meant to be ‘brat’… I mean seriously what more can I say about this album, Charli has earned and has made the most of her pop superstar moment

8. Foxing – Foxing

  • RIYL… an emo band that has expertly evolved its sound over a decade, living with anxiety, DIY as an ethos, songs as catchy as they are propulsive and as restless

9. Manning Fireworks – MJ Lenderman

  • RIYL… docking your houseboat at the himbo dome and other silly, irreverent lines that will undoubtedly etch themselves onto your soul while this album makes you feel equal parts giddy and full of malaise

10. What Now – Brittany Howard

  • RIYL… Brittany fuckin’ Howard, lockstep grooves and bluesy riffs that sound like their drifting away from the earth in slow measure

The Rest

11. Rectangles and Circumstance – Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion

  • RIYL… melodies that continually build upon rhythms continually building, a testament to the beauty of craft (the craft of making music, yes, but also creating generally), an incredible composer and her reliable collaborators exploring the contours of her voice and compositions with classical study and pop sensibilities

12. GNX – Kendrick Lamar

  • RIYL…. MUUUUUUUUSSSSSTAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRDDDDDDD! (and really hate ketchup I guess)(and want to dance on the grave of ketchup after you buried it earlier in the year)(listen, I love high-concept Kenny but Kenny in mixtape mode is a Damn. good time)

13. Here in the Pitch – Jessica Pratt

  • RIYL… sipping your spirit of choice at a speakeasy on Mars, building a cottage inside the hollow insides of an acoustic guitar, hints of darkness in your optimism (or hints of light in your cynicism), Karen Dalton reincarnated as a lounge singer at a 60s-themed harvest festival in NoCal

14. Two Star & The Dream Police – Mk.Gee

  • RIYL… asking yourself “how the hell did he make that sound with a guitar?!”, songs that sound equal parts 80s throwback and ripped from time entirely, jamming around with your best buds in a cleared out living room while ice in a cooler full of domestic beers slowly melts from the heat y’all generating

15. Chromokopia – Tyler, the Creator

  • RIYL… when Tyler gets introspective, when Tyler gets into his storytelling bag, infectious and exhilarating features, being 30 and wondering if you supposed to start a family but also knowing you damn sure ain’t ready to start no family

16. Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace – Shabaka

  • RIYL… the idea of meditation but maybe not always the practice of, the André 3000 flute album but wanted a little more direction and concision and with some stunning features

17. Bright Future – Adrianne Lenker

  • RIYL… good goddamn songwriting which Adrianne Lenker seems to be able to just be able to do in her sleep I mean seriously how is she this prolific and all the songs this good kudos Adrianne kudos

18. Revelator – E L U C I D

  • RIYL… bare knuckle brawling with a mystic, one of hip hops most captivating cadences over some out there but still banging beats, driving bass lines and snare hits, a little more snarl and melody in your backpack rap

19. Tigers Blood – Waxahatchee

  • RIYL… the best damn song of the year (“Right Back to It”) accompanied by other beautiful songs written by a songwriter who has perfected the current iteration of her sound – I’m a Crutchhead for life… Katie Crutchfield for President of my heart!

20. Night Reign – Arooj Aftab

  • RIYL… atmosphere as a descriptor, staring at the moon with sexy come hither eyes, getting a little folk in your jazz, getting a little jazz in your folk, the romantic aspect of moodiness (with a little bit of the angst around the edges)

21. Jour 1596 – Hildegard

  • RIYL… short and sweet but striking, folksy bangers, experimental pop that still manages to get the toes tapping and the arms moving

22. Box for Buddy, Box for Star – This Is Lorelei

  • RIYL… Charlie Brown dancing in at an Indies Night at your local dive club, clever turns of phrase, monotone voices with a keen sense of melody, a perfect crisp winter night where you can see more stars than usual in your shitty little college town

23. Cool World – Chat Pile

  • RIYL… heavy heavy heavy ass riffs, imaging the collapse of america in the basement of an abandoned church in oklahoma, heavy heavy heavy ass riffs

24. The New Sound – Geordie Greep

  • RIYL… telling people that the band Steely Dan is named after a dildo

25. #RICHAXXHAITIAN – Mach-Hommy

  • RIYL… wandering a beach with nothing but a backpack and boombox and moleskin full up with bar after bar, one of hip hops best writers at the peak of his game with beats that showcase his singular voice

26. The Way Out of Easy – Jeff Parker

  • RIYL… the feeling you get when you are jamming with friends and everybody just syncs up beautifully on a groove (this was a late release and late addition to this list but damn, does it hit)

27. The Thief Next to Jesus – Ka (Rest in Power to the legend!)

  • Ka was one of the best storytellers in modern rap, and this album is another one that turned his pen further inward than some of his earlier, higher concept albums. It is hard to critically evaluate the last album in an artist’s oeuvre, especially when – like this one – it entered the world so soon before the artist passed. Ka is methodical and transfixing and transcendent, and I will sorely miss his voice but am grateful he’s recorded so much of it over beats that are soulful, cryptic.

28. Salt Sermon – Missouri Executive Order 44

  • RIYL… riding your bike around your neighborhood looking for souls to save and mosh pits to start

29. My Method Actor – Nilüfer Yanya

  • RIYL… feeling anxious and sexy at the same time, spending time teasing out all the layers of a song and the soaring vocals over top

30. Cascade – Floating Points

  • RIYL… the least weird of the rave kids from your high school all grown up and delivering the best dance music you’ll hear all year with moments that’ll make you pause your dancing for a moment and say, ‘oh damn!’

31. The Past Is Still Alive – Hurray for the Riff Raff

  • RIYL… sticking your head out an open car window while on a long drive through the american southwest

32. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU – JPEGMAFIA

  • RIYL… your problematic bae still, erratic and inventive production

33. “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28, 340 DEAD” – Godspeed You! Black Emperor

  • RIYL… soundtracking our current era of stacking apocalypses with music that haunts and awes in equal measure – Free Palestine

34. Dunya – Mustafa

  • RIYL… tenderness toward a world that has not returned that tenderness in kind, beautifully sung poetry over tracks that yearn and shift around melodies that shift around a gorgeous center

35. Romance – Fontaines D.C.

  • RIYL… the ‘San Junipero’ episode of Black Mirror, when your post-punk goes a little dream pop and a little grunge every now and then

36. Critterland – Willi Carlisle

  • RIYL… americana that embraces the weirdos of the american highways and woods, thanking god for all the beauty you’ve witnessed and the pain you’ve experienced

37. Odyssey – Nubya Garcia

  • RIYL… a sunset full of the darkest deepest oranges and reds you’ve ever seen, jazz compositions that make you’ll feel like your skin is dancing right off your bones

38. Charm – Clairo

  • RIYL… laying around in your bed all day staring at the walls thinking about your crush and that kinda awkward kinda flirty thing you said to em that one time at a small get together of friends in someone’s backyard

39. Hovvdy – Hovvdy

  • RIYL… floating down the Guadalupe with an acoustic guitar and a microphone hooked up to an effects pedal, sunshine, pop music that embraces country music without playing into tired stereotypes (this is Hovvdy praise by way of a Post Malone diss)

40. Songs of a Lost World – The Cure

  • RIYL… wondering if that band still got it and realizing that they do in fact still got it, Cure songs where the intro is over a minute built around a short looping bass riff

41. Ten Fold – Yaya Bey

  • RIYL… V I B E S, R&B tunes that don’t overstay their welcome but leave you wanting more, songs about grief that you don’t realize are about grief until the second or sometimes third listen, embracing what broke you and then shaking it off on the dancefloor

42. Country – Medium Build

  • RIYL… introspection and nostalgia (all the love and the hurt that that encompasses) while flipping through a diary you found hiking through the Alaska wilderness, arm dancing in your car, carhartt and cheeta print

43. Dark Times – Vince Staples

  • RIYL… crip walking around your closet with the skeletons you been hiding up in there

44. Bite Down – Rosali

  • RIYL… the hope you sometimes feels when you step out your door on a particularly sunny day, when a rock song feels cozy enough you could crawl right up inside it like a hammock

45. My Light, My Destroyer – Cassandra Jenkins

  • RIYL… easy listening that challenges you, laying in the dirt and gazing up at the stars, when Wilco gets experimental – aka americana that occasionally detours into unexpected directions

46. Lives Outgrown – Beth Gibbons

  • RIYL… listen, we should all be grateful for everything Beth Gibbons has given us and what ever she gives however long it takes her to release… Hints of Portishead in an album entirely its own

47. King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2 – Denzel Curry

  • RIYL… a rapper who usually sounds like he’s rapping for his life slowing down for a bit, bloc parties, what the south has to say

48. EELS – Being Dead

  • RIYL… having a good fucking time (this band rules!), quote-unquote indie that is fun as hell and sounds like it was fun as hell to make

49. I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair – Christopher Owens

  • RIYL… finding yourself on a sun-lit walk around a new neighborhood, guitar solos and gospel choirs, meandering

50. Fabiana Palladino – Fabiana Palladino

  • RIYL… synths, the general mood of whispering sweet nothings on a dancefloor, leaving the club and chasing the rest of the night wherever it leads

51. Compassion – Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey

  • RIYL… dreaming in the language of jazz, a trio that is almost too talented to imagine pushing each other in so many captivating ways

52. Love Heart Cheat Code – Hiatus Kaiyote

  • RIYL… cartoons, cats, funk, and R&B

53. This Could be Texas – English Teacher

  • RIYL… the kind of band that would’ve met on a Black Country, New Road subreddit, songs that would be the kid who can’t sit still in the back of the class

54. Gemelo – Angélica Garcia

  • RIYL… rhythms and operatic vocals, a final stretch of songs that is truly banger after banger after banger

55. I Got Heaven – Mannequin Pussy

  • RIYL… hedonism, bliss and blisters, anthemic punk rock that flirts with shoegaze and dream pop, shitposting in one hand and swiping on tinder in the other

56. Three – Four Tet

  • RIYL… imagining the music that the giant holographic woman from Blade Runner 2049 would listen to, 808s & Dreamscapes

57. 12 – White Denim

  • RIYL… an unexpected turn from a band that routinely makes unexpected turns, pure rock n roll delight

58. FREEDOM SWEET FREEDOM – Regional Justice Center

  • RIYL… busting down prison walls and being absolutely crushed under the debris, riffs that make you clinch your fists, breakdowns that make you scrunch up your face

59. About You – SunDog

  • RIYL… fuzz pedals, daydreaming, driving riffs perfect for driving windows down tongue out and telling a stranger you love them as you roll on by

60. Silence Is Loud – Nia Archives

  • RIYL… the rush of your heart when… you fall in love, you’re anxious to message a crush / a loved one who’s been away awhile, you realize you don’t know nobody at the party, you fall in love all over again

61. Small Medium Large – SML

  • RIYL… if instead of reassembling into humanoid shape, the Iron Giant’s body parts collected into a studio and formed a jazz quintet and made out-of-this-world music that keeps evolving just when you thought you got the hang of it

62. Texas Technician – That Mexican OT

  • RIYL… H-TOWN, BABY

Too Tough to Cut Entirely – LISTEN: here

  • Poetry – Dehd
  • Submarine – The Marias
  • Please Don’t Cry – Rapsody
  • Right On – Humbird
  • What a Devastating Turn of Events – Rachel Chinouriri
    • “Garden of Eden” is one of my favorite album openers of the year – a great track that perfectly establishes the tone of the album
  • VEENA – Heems / LAFANDAR – Heems
  • Letter to Self – SPRINTS
  • Deep Sage – Gouge Away
  • UTOPIA NOW! – Rosie Tucker
  • Memoirs in Armour – Navy Blue
  • Harm’s Way – Ducks Ltd.

Favorite EPs of 2024 – LISTEN: here

  • Sophcore – Moses Sumney
    • in the main list I called “Right Back to It” the best damn song of the year, I’d like to add that “Vintage” is a very close second
  • Slow Burn – Baby Rose, BADBADNOTGOOD
  • Marietta – Medium Build
  • SABLE, – Bon Iver
  • Persona – Gel

Sean Enfield

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