{"id":1400094,"date":"2024-12-03T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1400094"},"modified":"2024-12-03T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T11:00:00","slug":"the-50-best-albums-of-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1400094","title":{"rendered":"The 50 Best Albums of 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lists & Guides<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The 50 Best Albums of 2024<\/h1>\n
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Featuring Charli XCX, Bladee, MJ Lenderman, Tyla, xaviersobased, Jessica Pratt, and more<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Pitchfork<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Image by Chris Panicker<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One major theme that runs through Pitchfork\u2019s best albums of 2024 is disbelief. There are pop albums that defy all expectations, indie rock records that shouldn\u2019t work but do, rap tapes that are made of everything but the raps, surprise debuts, stunning comebacks, and shocking finales. It\u2019s the albums that leave us speechless that make us want to write about them. Here are those 50 incredible albums.<\/p>\n

Check out all of Pitchfork\u2019s 2024 wrap-up coverage here.<\/p>\n

(All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Wendy<\/span><\/div>\n
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American Dreams<\/p>\n

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50.<\/div>\n

Wendy Eisenberg: Viewfinder<\/em><\/h2>\n

Using a recent laser eye surgery as a launchpad, singer, guitarist, and bandleader Wendy Eisenberg ripples through questions of how vision relates to understanding and belonging within the world\u2014whether seeing something is really the same as grasping it, and what happens when the impulse to grasp reality at all relaxes. Viewfinder<\/em>\u2019s warm jazz melange alternately loosens into spacious, staggered rhythms and tightens up into tense, guitar-driven whorls. Eisenberg leads their band through a series of freeform improvisations, venturing into a mode of music that\u2019s as much about listening as it is about playing. Is there any such thing as seeing\u2014or listening\u2014clearly, any way to use our fractured senses to break through to what’s there? Maybe not, but with its broad, searching instrumental passages and the kinetic mutual response of its players, Viewfinder<\/em> posits that at least we can use what we\u2019ve got to tune into each other. \u2013Sasha Geffen<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Chief<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

43B<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

49.<\/div>\n

Chief Keef: Almighty So 2<\/em><\/h2>\n

The stopwatch started on rap\u2019s postmodern era with Chief Keef\u2019s Almighty So<\/em>, released in late 2013\u2014an obscure-sounding record misconstrued in its own time, whose intuitive style would inform just about every major rap trend in the decade to come. Long exiled from his hometown, where the once-vital drill movement has been commodified and curdled, the 29-year-old veteran returned 11 years later with a triumphant sequel, almost entirely self-produced. What could have been a perfunctory gesture is instead massive-sounding and soulful, a showcase of his oft-copied rhythms and idiosyncratic koans: \u201cI could lay in an ant bed, come out with no ants on me\/I could lay in a forest in a tent, come out with a brown bear\u2019s head.\u201d \u2013Meaghan Garvey<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Djrum<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Houndstooth<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

48.<\/div>\n

Djrum: Meaning\u2019s Edge<\/em> EP<\/h2>\n

Djrum\u2019s own music rarely reaches the batshit velocity of his DJing. When the Oxford artist is throwing records around his three-deck setup, he cuts wildly between beats and breakdowns, making tempo jumps that would make most DJs recoil in fear. But Meaning\u2019s Edge<\/em> almost captures that energy, following his muse down a hedge maze through genres\u2014drum & bass, techno, downtempo\u2014at breakneck speed. Always one for a little drama, Djrum embellishes these zig-zagging tracks with wind instruments from around the world, sounding jaunty at one moment (the 14-minute, two-part \u201cFreakm\u201d suite) and eerie and foreboding (\u201cCodex,\u201d which sounds like if Jon Hassell got into breakcore through TikTok). The best is the centerpiece “Crawl,” assembled from tiny percussive sounds that range from wooden to metallic. It\u2019s like a muscular microhouse at warp speed, cycling through styles until it ends up somewhere close to dub techno and then just ends, leaving you warm and fuzzy but also wondering what just happened. \u2013Andrew Ryce<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Helado<\/span><\/div>\n
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4AD<\/p>\n

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47.<\/div>\n

Helado Negro: Phasor<\/em><\/h2>\n

On Phasor<\/em>, Roberto Carlos Lange\u2019s eighth album as Helado Negro, the prolific electronic artist fine-tuned his craft toward the sublime. Here, Lange branched out toward groovy art pop, distorted psych rock, and trippy psychedelia with his typical pointillistic detail, whether creating an enchanting, impressionistic love song or an homage to experimental icon Pauline Oliveros and illustrious Fender assembly worker Lupe Lopez. Phasor<\/em> signaled a subtle but important shift in Lange\u2019s style\u2014informed in part by his move from New York City to Asheville\u2014that allows for new looseness and levity, blooming out of every burnished synth note and gently galloping drum beat. \u2013Eric Torres<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Chanel<\/span><\/div>\n
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Jagjaguwar<\/p>\n

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46.<\/div>\n

Chanel Beads: Your Day Will Come<\/em><\/h2>\n

After years of feeling adrift in the local Seattle DIY scene, Shane Lavers had an epiphany at a jam session that led him to take guitar music seriously and move to New York. Perhaps that\u2019s why his debut album as Chanel Beads is filled with self-help idioms and reflections on internal conflicts. But this haunted manor of alien pop isn\u2019t myopic\u2014it\u2019s intoxicating. The song structures melt into goo; the lyrics pelt flecks of raw feeling. Everything is well-calibrated yet alluringly askew: drums that sound like they\u2019re being played in the backrooms, gorgeously distorted violins, a British robo-voice going \u201cPolice Scanner.\u201d It transforms the uncanny placelessness of coming-of-age in 2024 into something motivating, even joyous. \u2013Kieran Press-Reynolds<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"454<\/span><\/div>\n
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4EVER<\/p>\n

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45.<\/div>\n

454: Casts of a Dreamer<\/em><\/h2>\n

The term \u201cflow state,\u201d which is really just psychology-speak for \u201clocked in,\u201d feels particularly engineered for hip-hop, a linguistic genre in which the way you say something matters just as much, sometimes even more, than the content of what you\u2019ve expressed. There comes a point, in a really good rap verse, when you pinch your forehead in consternation and wonder how the hell this guy is still going. It feels supernatural when a rapper floats through time-space, bending the limits of locked-in-ness to deliver a cascading outburst of liquid truth. Got it? Sure? Now forget everything I just said and throw on the hour-long fast-rap waterslide Casts of a Dreamer<\/em>. Though a good number of verbs exist for locked-in rap performances\u2014floating, gliding, spitting\u2014none of them feels entirely apposite for 454, whose latest mixtape hacks the system settings of consciousness and turns fatigue sliders all the way down. If you aren\u2019t busy scrunching up your face by the 30-minute mark, you might find the words to ask how the hell he\u2019s still going. \u2013Samuel Hyland<\/p>\n

Listen:<\/strong> Soundcloud<\/p>\n

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\"Image<\/span><\/div>\n
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Stroom<\/p>\n

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44.<\/div>\n

Milan W.: Leave Another Day<\/em><\/h2>\n

Most of Milan Warmoeskerken\u2019s albums do not sound like this woozy, gloomy, meticulously appointed dream-pop. The Antwerp-based producer moved the ARPs and FX envelopes to the other room and promoted his hangdog voice and jingle-jangle guitar for his first singer-songwriter album. It\u2019s a recalibration that gives Leave Another Day<\/em> its singular sound: Behind the rhythmic picks and strums, everything else is smeared in long streaks\u2014saxophones, synths, solos, a black melancholy that so cellularly real you\u2019ll wonder if our moods are indeed governed by the bodily humors. Such is this power of Milan W.\u2019s spell and this occultish record that taps into an olde magick<\/em> that looms as the fog rolls in. \u2013Jeremy D. Larson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Wood<\/span><\/div>\n
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Astral Spirits<\/p>\n

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43.<\/div>\n

\u0623\u062d\u0645\u062f [Ahmed]: Wood Blues<\/em><\/h2>\n

When \u0623\u062d\u0645\u062f [Ahmed] play a concert, there is only one song on their setlist. The European free jazz quartet doesn\u2019t practice and they don\u2019t record in the studio. They simply meet on the day of the show, agree on a song by the undersung bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and see where it takes them. On Wood Blues<\/em>, the band subjects Abdul-Malik\u2019s 1961 \u201cOud Blues\u201d to an hour-long demolition, violent and graceful. Pat Thomas bangs on the piano with his fists and Seymour Wright blares through his sax like a fire alarm. Drummer Antonin Gerbal and bassist Joel Grip keep the rhythm going through sheer will. Or, as I suspect, through the spirit of the late Abdul-Malik goading them on through the most exhilarating iteration of his music in this world or the next. \u2013Matthew Blackwell<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Loidis<\/span><\/div>\n
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Incienso<\/p>\n

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42.<\/div>\n

Loidis: One Day<\/em><\/h2>\n

When he wants to be, Brian Leeds is one of electronic music\u2019s great sentimentalists. He\u2019s described his swooning ambient work as Huerco S. as a \u201ccelebration of love\u201d; as Loidis, he makes what he has called \u201cminimal emo tech\u201d\u2014presumably jokingly, though the project\u2019s debut full-length One Day<\/em> lives up to the descriptor. On one hand, One Day<\/em> is truly minimal. Leeds draws on dub techno\u2019s grayscale palette, and it\u2019s rare that any of the record\u2019s eight tracks consists of more than a few repeated, interlocking loops. But he manages to conjure pathos and humanity from these simple components. \u201cLove\u2019s Lineaments,\u201d a 10-minute track at the record\u2019s center, slowly morphs into a delicate drumless interlude. It\u2019s as intimate and heartwarming as a conversation with a loved one in a corner far from the dancefloor amid a long night out. \u2013Colin Joyce<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Image<\/span><\/div>\n
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Milan<\/p>\n

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41.<\/div>\n

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus<\/em><\/h2>\n

Ryuichi Sakamoto knew time was short when he sat in front of his piano to record his final concert film. His cancer had progressed to terminal stages, sapping his physical strength\u2014though his creative spirit was unbroken. He poured everything into Opus<\/em>, playing new compositions alongside fresh arrangements of selections from his almost five-decade career. Sakamoto plays with emotional heft\u2014swaying his weary frame along the bench and pressing the keys with the full momentum of his body\u2014making a calculated decision with every movement. He spent what remained of his energy to play his heart out one last time. \u2013Shy Clara Thompson<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Erika<\/span><\/div>\n
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4AD<\/p>\n

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40.<\/div>\n

Erika de Casier: Still<\/em><\/h2>\n

On 2021\u2019s Sensational<\/em>, Erika de Casier told a lover not to expect too much: \u201cI\u2019m way too busy\u2026 I gotta work real hard\/To get to get where I wanna be.\u201d The work paid off. On Still<\/em>, de Casier outgrows the homage of her early records, quoting Sade without aping her, slipping easily between classic R&B and liquid D&B (shout-out longtime collaborator DJ Central), singing dear-diary lyrics that are sexy, humble, and, above all, relatable. Celeb beefs and paparazzi: No. Crushes and undone laundry: Yes. In a year dominated by quasi-deified \u201cpop girlies,\u201d de Casier served up something beautifully human. \u2013Will Lynch<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"This<\/span><\/div>\n
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Double Double Whammy<\/p>\n

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39.<\/div>\n

This Is Lorelei: Box for Buddy, Box for Star<\/em><\/h2>\n

The original cut of Box for Buddy, Box for Star<\/em> included more than 30 songs and a voice memo apologizing for its length. That the final version of Nate Amos\u2019 first official album as This Is Lorelei\u2014following over 60 Bandcamp releases\u2014fits neatly on a single LP only underscores how many ideas the Water From Your Eyes singer-songwriter can pack into just 10 tracks. There\u2019s the twang of \u201cAngel\u2019s Eye,\u201d the plucky toy piano on kiss-off \u201cWhere\u2019s Your Love Now,\u201d the jubilant piano runs on \u201cDancing in the Club.\u201d A giddy puppy, a nosebleed that \u201ctastes like god,\u201d a boy named \u201cLimbo\u201d: Amos spit-shines low-brow lyrics until they sparkle like the diamonds he gave away. \u2013Arielle Gordon<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Being<\/span><\/div>\n
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Bayonet<\/p>\n

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38.<\/div>\n

Being Dead: EELS<\/em><\/h2>\n

Like the giddy peak of an acid trip or the sensation of bombing downhill in a beater car, Being Dead\u2019s EELS<\/em> is an unhinged thrill, blending kitschy retro pop with the bared teeth of a garage-rock rager. The record\u2019s new-wave ditties are an amalgamation of strange but immediately identifiable components, chimeras of \u201960s pop \u00e0 la Lesley Gore and the frenzied shred of a skateboarding compilation. Over the fugue of distortion on tracks like \u201cFirefighters,\u201d the Austin trio stacks harmonies like the Mamas and the Papas, spouting Dadaist incantations about raging fires and angels joining wings in the heavens. Are we having fun yet? Yes, we say uncertainly, faces melting. \u2013Linnie Greene<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Image<\/span><\/div>\n
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Open Shift Distribution<\/p>\n

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37.<\/div>\n

Lisha G \/ Trini Viv: Groovy Steppin Sh*t<\/em><\/h2>\n

Sometimes I stare out the window and daydream about what Playboi Carti\u2019s first official mixtape would have sounded like if he never left behind Awful Records and the intergalactic Atlanta beats of Ethereal. Maybe it would have sounded something like Groovy Steppin Sh*t<\/em>. On the tape, the glazed flex-raps of South Carolina\u2019s Lisha G meet the cyberfunk of Philly keyboard whiz Trini Viv. Lisha, who has been a constant in the underground plugg scene for years now, takes her loud whisper-raps to another level, backed by instrumentals that are like if Zaytoven grew up in the arcade instead of the church. But after a few listens, Trini\u2019s waterfall of rainbow-hued synths and blaring digital horns start to transcend any comparisons that come to mind. \u2013Alphonse Pierre<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Kali<\/span><\/div>\n
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Geffen<\/p>\n

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36.<\/div>\n

Kali Uchis: ORQU\u00cdDEAS<\/em><\/h2>\n

Taking its name from the national flower of Colombia, Kali Uchis\u2019 fourth studio album moves between boleros, merengue, dembow, house, and the ethereal alt-pop on which she made her name. The flower\u2019s association with motherhood is also not a coincidence; Uchis announced that she was pregnant with her first child in the music video for \u201cTu Coraz\u00f3n Es M\u00edo\u2026\/Diosa.\u201d ORQU\u00cdDEAS<\/em> is full of angelic femme fatales, club demons, and divinity found within ourselves. Uchis positions herself as an abundant mother goddess, cup full of honey and rosewater, ready to nourish the world. \u2013E.R. Pulgar<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Sabrina<\/span><\/div>\n
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Island<\/p>\n

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35.<\/div>\n

Sabrina Carpenter: Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/em><\/h2>\n

As is often the case with Disney stars, Sabrina Carpenter found herself in a love triangle. The roles of the heartbroken chanteuse and cheating ex were taken, so she became the poster girl for the temptress who stole the chanteuse\u2019s soulmate. Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/em> is Carpenter fully leaning into the archetype forced upon her. \u201cToo bad your ex don\u2019t do it for ya,\u201d she sings while batting her eyelashes on \u201cEspresso,\u201d a track likening her aura to the effects of caffeine. \u201cWalked in and dream-came-trued it for ya.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything is done with a wink and a nod on Short n\u2019 Sweet.<\/em> There\u2019s clever wordplay (\u201cCome right on me, I mean camaraderie\u201d), bizarre innuendos (\u201cI like the way you fit\/God bless your dad\u2019s genetics\u201d), comical confessions (\u201cThis boy doesn\u2019t even know the difference between \u2018there,\u2019 \u2018their,\u2019 and \u2018they are\u2019\/Yet he\u2019s naked in my room\u201d), and snarky one-liners (\u201cWe never talk about how you found God at your ex\u2019s house\u201d). It\u2019s not all dick jokes. With its lush \u201970s pop homage and agile vocal runs, Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/em> lands like if Olivia Newton-John and Christina Aguilera made a country disco-pop album. It\u2019s a much-needed, low-cal respite from the Freudian confessionalism and sample mania plaguing the pop charts. \u2013Heven Haile<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Blood<\/span><\/div>\n
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Century Media<\/p>\n

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34.<\/div>\n

Blood Incantation: Absolute Elsewhere<\/em><\/h2>\n

When Blood Incantation released the spaced-out, nearly growl-less \u201cInner Paths (to Outer Space)\u201d as the first single from their second album in 2019, the Denver death metal band was planting a seed. Its germination was Absolute Elsewhere<\/em>, an LP that makes good on all that Pink Floyd promise with pure \u201970s excess: two side-long epics that ruminate on the nature of life, flowing from death metal to prog to Amon D\u00fc\u00fcl II, with an accompanying film and even a passage that sounds eerily like \u201cDogs\u201d (perhaps the coolest uncool musical reference all year). Epic but hardly pretentious, extreme but inviting, knowingly silly but deadly serious: Absolute Elsewhere<\/em> is the rare genre album that explodes the genre from which it came, finding a way forward in death metal by ripping a wormhole into the past and beyond. \u2013Andrew Ryce<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Hurray<\/span><\/div>\n
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Nonesuch<\/p>\n

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33.<\/div>\n

Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past Is Still Alive<\/em><\/h2>\n

As Hurray for the Riff Raff, Alynda Segarra makes music that celebrates those who\u2019ve done time on the B-side of life: tramps and vagabonds, grifters and bandits. So it follows that Segarra would know how to craft an album with one of the year\u2019s best B-sides. After an opening run that goes down sweet and smooth comes The Past Is Still Alive<\/em>\u2019s mangier, grittier, and richer back half. Stick with Segarra\u2019s rough-and-tumble crew and be treated to the rollicking \u201cVetiver,\u201d immense \u201cOgallala,\u201d and quietly captivating \u201cHourglass,\u201d which runs on one of those perfect looping metaphors: Time turns a boulder to sand, sand gets used to keep time. Of course, Segarra knows that time can\u2019t really be kept at all. But memories can be, and Segarra will be damned if they don\u2019t try. \u2013Walden Green<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Fievel<\/span><\/div>\n
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Fat Possum<\/p>\n

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32.<\/div>\n

Fievel Is Glauque: Rong Weicknes<\/em><\/h2>\n

Until Rong Weicknes<\/em> came along, brevity was one of the defining traits of Fievel Is Glauque\u2019s songwriting. On previous albums, Zach Phillips and Ma Cl\u00e9ment often capped off individual tracks before the two-minute mark, seemingly out of necessity. Ignoring traditional verse-chorus structures, they painstakingly constructed their jazz-pop tunes one melodically dense fragment at a time, chasing a runaway train of thought until it eluded them. On Rong Weicknes<\/em>, the band performs with an octet and allows the music to develop in turn, collaging disparate performances of each song into labyrinthine suites. With a little extra breathing room amid the band\u2019s virtuosic chaos, it\u2019s easier than ever to appreciate each gorgeous chord change and hairpin tempo shift. \u2013Jude Noel<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Laura<\/span><\/div>\n
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Chrysalis \/ Partisan<\/p>\n

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31.<\/div>\n

Laura Marling: Patterns in Repeat<\/em><\/h2>\n

If patience and understanding are guiding tenets of motherhood, then Patterns in Repeat<\/em> cradles you in its arms as its own. It\u2019s certainly set up for comfort: Laura Marling\u2019s eighth album is stripped down and devoid of percussion. Her voice is full of love for her newborn child, as are her hands as she finger-picks guitar on \u201cPatterns\u201d or \u201cCaroline.\u201d Yet Marling is transfixed not by the individualism of the nuclear family, but the patterns that transcend generations. Oh, the gravity of caring for another, blood relative or not. Marling\u2019s maternal experience may be newfound, but her wisdom is that of a great-grandmother whose descendants have long claimed space by her feet for storytime. \u2013Nina Corcoran<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Mdou<\/span><\/div>\n
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Matador<\/p>\n

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30.<\/div>\n

Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice<\/em><\/h2>\n

Craving novelty and sated by familiarity, human brains magnetize to Mdou Moctar\u2019s fiery synthesis of psychedelic rock, Saharan desert blues, and Tuareg folk. But if the recipe were that simple, he wouldn\u2019t be cooking this hard: From its opening riff, Funeral for Justice<\/em> hits like lightning. Moctar and his band gallop through a tightly edited collection informed by years of live performance, leveraging their international stature to call for Tuareg cultural pride and African self-determination on the world stage. \u201cImouhar,\u201d an impassioned plea to preserve the Tamasheq language, streaks in over the horizon and ignites; the postcolonial lament \u201cModern Slaves\u201d closes the album with a reminder that grief, too, can be rocket fuel. \u2013Anna Gaca<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Xaviersobased<\/span><\/div>\n
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34Ent<\/p>\n

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29.<\/div>\n

xaviersobased: keep it goin xav<\/em><\/h2>\n

Xaviersobased was only 20 when he recorded keep it goin xav<\/em>\u2019s blissed-out designer rap. But his understanding of the ephemerality of youth lends emotional impact to what might otherwise have been just killer party music. \u201cI just haven’t been skating that much, I been tryna skate,\u201d xav confides on \u201cFanOut\u201d to the mixtape\u2019s host, DJ Rennessy, a casual remark rendered profound when the beat suddenly ruptures, splintering like sand that\u2019s been particle-accelerated down a celestial hourglass. There\u2019s so much to experience in this life, so many parties to hit up, but so little time. If you\u2019re trying to skate, do it now. \u2013Evan Rytlewski<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Cassandra<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Dead Oceans<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

28.<\/div>\n

Cassandra Jenkins: My Light, My Destroyer<\/em><\/h2>\n

Throughout Cassandra Jenkins\u2019 2021 breakthrough An Overview on Phenomenal Nature<\/em>, the New York singer-songwriter mined a deep well of grief through vulnerable spoken word and gossamer-light art pop, eventually finding both lightness and a way through. On follow-up My Light, My Destroyer,<\/em> Jenkins\u2019 elegant music reached another creative peak. Snippets of collaged found sound\u2014crickets chirping away, her mother imparting wisdom about the cosmos\u2014trace detailed intimacy into a map of \u201990s rock-inspired calls to nature (\u201cPetco\u201d), radiantly aqueous ballads (\u201cDelphinium Blue\u201d), and wending, jazz-inflected showstoppers (\u201cOmakase\u201d). Deeply complex and ruminative, Jenkins\u2019 compositions hit you square in the heart. \u2013Eric Torres<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Godspeed<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Constellation<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

27.<\/div>\n

Godspeed You! Black Emperor: \u201cNO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n

Hope is not a bumper sticker you slap over catastrophe. It\u2019s a reckoning with what is. Only when you\u2019ve beheld what\u2019s real in all its horror can you lurch into what\u2019s possible. With their latest album\u2014which cedes its title to a date and a death toll\u2014the long-running instrumental collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor bears witness to the apocalyptic violence rained down on Palestine over the past year, the obliteration of irreplaceable lives and generational entanglements with now-uninhabitable land. Corroded guitars and shivering violins wail like human voices on \u201cBABYS IN A THUNDERCLOUD\u201d while the pounding bass drum of \u201cRAINDROPS CAST IN LEAD\u201d cracks numbness and exhaustion to force feeling back in. This album is a call to wrap your deepest self around the enormity at hand. The scars on this earth are real. So is what will grow from them. \u2013Sasha Geffen<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Vampire<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Columbia<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

26.<\/div>\n

Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us<\/em><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s not just that Only God Was Above Us<\/em> makes a concerted attempt to splice together genre combinations that really shouldn\u2019t work; it also does so while layering on unusual and even contradictory textures, moods, and ideas. Want scratchy drum line and lush-ed-out orchestral swoon? \u201cIce Cream Piano\u201d has you covered. Ultra-bright jazz piano and congested synths? That\u2019s \u201cConnect.\u201d Baggy Soul II Soul drum groove and airtight classical choir? Welcome, \u201cMary Boone.\u201d<\/p>\n

On paper, this should be a mess. But the band\u2019s fifth album runs true to its own un-dissolvable internal logic. This is a testament to the distinctive compositions of Ezra Koenig, who writes with the intellectual depth of a broken-hearted crossword setter, and the album\u2019s cultured production, which ushers incongruous ideas into a surprisingly coherent whole. Every detail of this record has been labored over, polished, and scuffed up, yet the greasy light of mortal emotion shines through. Only God Was Above Us<\/em> feels like a thought experiment that came to glorious life; an elegant solution to an earthy conundrum; and an ingeniously clever album that resounds deep in the gut. \u2013Ben Cardew<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Jlin<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Planet Mu<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

25.<\/div>\n

Jlin: Akoma<\/em><\/h2>\n

In the seven years between Jlin\u2019s last proper album, Black Origami<\/em>, and this year\u2019s Akoma,<\/em> the Indiana post-footwork producer vastly expanded the reach of her craft, earning a Pulitzer nod for her 2022 EP Perspective<\/em> and winning famous fans like the Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass. Both of those luminaries appear on Akoma,<\/em> along with a wisp of Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s voice salvaged from an unrealized collaboration. Akoma<\/em>\u2019s fusion of Midwestern club sounds and modern classical music is striking, but ultimately reinforces how sharp Jlin has always been, a great American composer with or without the validation of the classical-music cognoscenti. \u2013Daniel Bromfield<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Ka<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Iron Works<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

24.<\/div>\n

Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus<\/em><\/h2>\n

Though it was released a couple months before Ka\u2019s death, The Thief Next to Jesus<\/em> was always a heavy listen. The Brownsville, Brooklyn emcee takes Christianity to task, examining its use as a tool of trauma and oppression, especially against Black Americans. He strips gospel songs of their joy and levity, posing questions about what a life of faith can provide: If there is a Heaven, who qualifies? Are we all just moving from scenario to scenario, trying our best and often failing? Why isn\u2019t that good enough? After Ka\u2019s death, the album took a different shape. Thief<\/em> plays like his Blackstar<\/em>, a brilliant final transmission from an artist scared he\u2019d been living on borrowed time. Ka was one of rap\u2019s greatest auteurs, a poet of the highest order, a keen observer who always knew the veil was thinner than it looked. \u2013Dash Lewis<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Adrianne<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

4AD<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

23.<\/div>\n

Adrianne Lenker: Bright Future<\/em><\/h2>\n

More than even Lenker\u2019s scraggiest recordings with Big Thief, the songs of Bright Future<\/em> flow forth as if emanating from an otherworldly musical body or conjured from a fugue state. Some lyrics are endearingly higgledy-piggledy, scattered into verse like childhood toys in an old leather trunk; others fit so snugly within the band\u2019s ornate folk doodles they might be century-old field recordings. In those moments when Lenker bolts upright\u2014with a hard-won revelation or cry of emotional ruin\u2014she strikes upon suffering melodies that hit as hard as a power balladeer\u2019s. She blows through our defenses by uttering the same reassurance again and again: People are fragile; life is beautiful; music and nature are alive, and sensitivity to them is medicine. \u2014Jazz Monroe<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Tyla<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Fax \/ Epic<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

22.<\/div>\n

Tyla: Tyla<\/em><\/h2>\n

Tyla\u2019s breakout summer hit, 2023\u2019s \u201cWater,\u201d landed at precisely the right moment in pop\u2019s house revival, when the dance world needed a good slowed-down groove. The 22-year-old Jo\u2019burg singer embodied the laidback energy of amapiano, a house-jazz fusion rooted in South Africa\u2019s liberating club scene. As the subgenre grew global tentacles, her debut album gave it a firm foothold, riding a renewed mainstream appreciation for house music\u2019s collective escapism. While artists like Drake have flirted with amapiano\u2019s breezy aesthetic, Tyla\u2019s homegrown approach is fully immersive. Instead of diluting the sound, she expands it, laying lithe vocals over its signature log-drum-driven rhythms and mellow keys to create her distinct \u201cpopiano\u201d style. On album cuts like \u201cSafer\u201d and \u201cTruth or Dare,\u201d she disengages from careless lovers, alternating between caution and longing with a cool, hypnotic command. Even as she\u2019s spilling her deepest anxieties about love, she sounds legitimately set free by the rhythm. \u2013Clover Hope<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Clairo<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Clairo<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

21.<\/div>\n

Clairo: Charm<\/em><\/h2>\n

On Charm,<\/em> Claire Cottrill makes her most playful collection to date, a record so lighthearted you can hear her audibly giggling in the background of \u201cSecond Nature.\u201d With neo-soul producer Leon Michels behind the boards, Clairo furthers her shift from bedroom-pop darling to Brill Building revivalist. Her concerns about touch starvation or being desired are coolly shrugged off with lush woodwinds and melodies equally fit for \u201970s AM radio and Sirius XMU. Listen to the mouth trumpet solo on TikTok favorite \u201cJuna\u201d and the loping pianos on \u201cThank You\u201d and try not to crack a smile. Forget Clairo shade; Charm<\/em> is a ray of sunshine. \u2013Hannah Jocelyn<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Mabe<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Unheard of Hope<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

20.<\/div>\n

Mabe Fratti: Sentir que no sabes<\/em><\/h2>\n

Mabe Fratti arrives at rock music with an experimentalist\u2019s toolkit. The tight song structures on Sentir que no sabes<\/em> reframe her previous work\u2014her knottier past albums might have been understood differently if she played, say, guitar and not cello. Still, her latest marks a departure that\u2019s both more maximalist and more aggressive in its poetic, jarring lyrics and bristling production flourishes, as well as in how she treats her instrument\u2014on opener \u201cKravitz,\u201d as though her cello is a distorted bass guitar.<\/p>\n

The instrumentation is fairly stripped down, yet the peaks on Sentir que no sabes<\/em> are intoxicating and triumphant: the key change on \u201cIntento fallido,\u201d the careening harmonies of \u201cAngel nuevo.\u201d While the songs assume more familiar shapes, their details spotlight a lush and teeming environment, one that\u2019s just prickly enough to keep listeners on their toes. \u2013Daniel Felsenthal<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Magdalena<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Mom+Pop<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

19.<\/div>\n

Magdalena Bay: Imaginal Disk<\/em><\/h2>\n

Magdalena Bay\u2019s alt-pop opus considers galaxy-brain concerns\u2014the limits of consciousness, the malleability of identity, the fleetingness of time\u2014that could scan as cheap mindfuck-bait, the sort of thing defeatist sixth-graders with Vsauce subscriptions might bring up to oooh<\/em>s and aaah<\/em>s at lunchtime. The crucial caveat that grants Imaginal Disk<\/em> its glistening gut-punch is the simple fact of growing up. There\u2019s a spiritually 20-something tilt to the LA duo\u2019s existentialism, this tongue-in-cheek impulse to make the best work possible in the time one has left. They craft this impulse into a maximalist, brute-force expansion of pop music\u2019s boundaries\u2014not quite \u201crecession pop,\u201d a hyper-online catch-all for dystopian dance music, but the creation of a liminal space where everything, from choruses to keyboards to convictions, feels and sounds convincingly 8D. The brutal comedown almost feels like part of the point. \u2013Samuel Hyland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Mk.gee<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

R&R<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

18.<\/div>\n

Mk.gee: Two Star & the Dream Police<\/em><\/h2>\n

Ah, the lost art of mystique. Michael Gordon tends to sing his opaque lyrics in a murmur, and when he performs live, it\u2019s often in front of a giant spotlight, his face obscured by the backlight. In an interview with Dazed<\/em>,<\/em> Gordon proclaimed that \u201cmaking sense is overrated\u201d and said he wanted to make music that is \u201cindescribable.\u201d The draw of his debut album, Two Star & the Dream Police,<\/em> is that it sounds intimate but is unknowable. It\u2019s a record that revels in contradictions, as smooth as it is jagged, as lite (like \u201980s adult contemporary radio, replete with pseudo-sax solos) as it is heavy (at this early juncture in his career, the 28-year-old is a guitar demigod).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Perfect little pop melodies spring out of a burbling bog of sonic murk and then plunge back down, only for the next to shine on through. He\u2019s jazzy, now he\u2019s shoegaze, now he\u2019s Prince, now he\u2019s Phil Collins, now he\u2019s yacht rock for the indie sleaze revival. Dream Police<\/em> is shadowy enough to feel like conscious myth-building; he\u2019s compared the album to \u201cfunny, mythical old stories\u2014Celtic fables and stuff.\u201d This is not a record to understand, it\u2019s more like a dream or fugue state to surrender to, a reality to accept in waiting. \u2013Rich Juzwiak<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Arooj<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Verve<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

17.<\/div>\n

Arooj Aftab: Night Reign<\/em><\/h2>\n

Over the past three years, Arooj Aftab has been showing her range. Vulture Prince<\/em> from 2021 offered the shock of the new\u2014it was her third record but the first that most people heard, and it introduced her as a master of atmosphere and utterly transportive singer with an ear for how disparate genres could be assembled into new shapes. Love in Exile<\/em>, her 2023 collaboration with pianist Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, found her bending her music toward improvising and experimenting with longer forms. Night Reign<\/em> is an intensification of what has come before, the place where all of these elements come together.<\/p>\n

The sheer beauty of the record is overwhelming\u2014a given arrangement might feature the delicate interplay of guitar and harp over hand percussion and upright bass, while Aftab\u2019s assured-yet-weary phrasing conjures Pakistani folk forms one moment and Sade the next. But aesthetic pleasure is always in tension with sadness and loss. The lyrics come from all over, from an 18th-century Urdu poet to Aftab\u2019s self-penned lament about a too-drunk lover that might be set in a Brooklyn apartment. But nearly all are rife with feelings of dislocation and existential dread. Jazz standard \u201cAutumn Leaves\u201d is slowed to a crawl, and sounds like an ancient religious rite, while Moor Mother\u2019s poetry on \u201cBolo Na\u201d seems beamed in from the future. Aftab collapses time and space and draws connections across eras and continents, fragments from dozens of influences are assembled into something all her own. \u2013Mark Richardson<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"DORIS<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Janine<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

16.<\/div>\n

DORIS: Ultimate Love Songs Collection<\/em><\/h2>\n

You know when an artist gives you a little instrumental at the end of a song, compelling you to start freestyling? That\u2019s the vibe of DORIS\u2019 Ultimate Love Songs Collection<\/em>, a 50-track compilation of SoundCloud fragments. The New Jersey rapper and visual artist makes music for a generation of rap listeners who remember random Thug ad-libs better than any actual hook or verse. If it\u2019s often such raw, profoundly human moments on rap records that we really cherish, DORIS asks, why not make a full album of them? Sometimes he sings spell-binding melodies. Sometimes he croaks sweet nothings over \u201cGirl From Ipanema.\u201d Whatever the case, it\u2019s not going to last more than a few seconds. On to the next wild idea. \u2013Mano Sundaresan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"If<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Bison<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

15.<\/div>\n

Still House Plants: If I don\u2019t make it, I love u<\/em><\/h2>\n

I have not personally asked Still House Plants what their main influences were on their third album, If I don\u2019t make it I love u<\/em>, but I feel confident taking a guess: the sound of a bank safe being cut open by a power saw, a big pond overrun with geese, the drumline of a marching band at a high school football game, Nina Simone, and mid-\u201990s emo. It\u2019s free jazz by way of hardcore, but only in spirit, as the music, while beguiling and feisty, isn\u2019t harsh or mean. Instead, like on the opening song, \u201cM M M,\u201d it\u2019s incantatory. On a song like \u201cProbably,\u201d they improbably bring a heartbroken tenor to math rock, the most emotionless of genres. The music is full of contradictions, paradoxical meetings of tone possible due to the devoted performance of the idiosyncratic trio. Most prominent across the album is frontwoman Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach, a bluesy Brit who sings in cursive. The guitar, played by Finlay Clark, is woozy and the drums, played by David Kennedy, are off kilter and confused. Despite the music\u2019s shagginess, they play with deep conviction. It\u2019s like the music had a concussion and they\u2019re doing their best to resuscitate it. \u2013Matthew Schnipper<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Rafael<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
14.<\/div>\n

Rafael Toral: Spectral Evolution<\/em><\/h2>\n

After years as a space-gazing electroacoustic journeyman, Portuguese soundscapist Rafael Toral tamed his arsenal of homemade noisemakers and reinvented the blissful, slow-motion drone music of his past. Toral was a key figure in that Jim-O’Rourkian mid-\u201990s nerve net of free improvisation, ambient, feedback, electronics, EBows, and distant beer bottles clinking in rock clubs. His shoegaze-inspired roots, electronic explorations, and deep appreciation of \u201930s and \u201940s jazz standards collide on Spectral Evolution<\/em>. Familiar jazz harmonies are played with the slo-mo deliberation of a Morton Feldman piece, modulated feedback spirals out like a Chet Baker trumpet solo, squiggling electronics chatter like an android aviary, and Toral\u2019s patient guitar makes graceful cameos. It\u2019s the year\u2019s most kinetic bliss-out. \u2013Christopher R. Weingarten<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Nilufer<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Ninja Tune<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

13.<\/div>\n

Nil\u00fcfer Yanya: My Method Actor<\/em><\/h2>\n

The softer sound of Nil\u00fcfer Yanya\u2019s third album, My Method Actor<\/em>, belies a crop of new anxieties for the effortlessly innovative British singer and guitarist. She wrestles with the strangeness of growing older without ticking off the boxes that define how a person should be as they approach 30\u2014married, entertaining motherhood, and otherwise settling down. \u201cShut up and raise a glass if you\u2019re not sure!\u201d she exclaims on \u201cKeep on Dancing,\u201d before launching into \u201cLike I Say (I Runaway),\u201d whose music video features Yanya literally absconding from the wedding altar at the very last second. But these worries go down easy, set to finger-picked acoustic guitar that melts into the reliable snap of a drum machine. She might \u201cfeel shame the modern way\u201d on \u201cFaith\u2019s Late\u201d or find herself \u201cdreaming of the end\u201d on \u201cMade Out of Memory\u201d but on My Method Actor<\/em>, Yanya wraps her vocals in layers of gossamer guitar, sounding fully in command even as she mines the depths of her own neuroses. \u2013Arielle Gordon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"skaiwater<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

GoodTalk \/ Capitol<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

12.<\/div>\n

skaiwater: #gigi<\/em><\/h2>\n

Has yearning ever sounded as intoxicating\u2014or as painfully pleasurable\u2014as it does on #gigi<\/em>? skaiwater\u2019s ambitious breakthrough album fuses the rambunctious energy of a Zoomer rave with lyrics so exaggerated and lovelorn, they\u2019d even make a Wong Kar-wai character feel desired. The British rapper and producer embarks on transatlantic treks\u2014journeying from Brazil for funk-infused rhythms to Jersey for headbanging 808s\u2014to breathe life into their Auto-Tuned melodies until they burst with aching emotion. #gigi<\/em> feels like both a party and a plea, desperate to leave with someone before it even begins. \u2013Serge Selenou<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Mannequin<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Epitaph<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

11.<\/div>\n

Mannequin Pussy: I Got Heaven<\/em><\/h2>\n

I Got Heaven<\/em> is about sex, except for the sex songs, which are about power. Mannequin Pussy\u2019s album seethes and howls with desire: desire for love, connection, control; desire to be human; desire to be a dog; desire for desire itself. With masterful control of the tension in her voice, Marisa Dabice sells profanity and poignancy with equal conviction as the band rockets between fuzzed-out punk riffs and mosh-inciting hardcore. Hear Dabice out of breath, panting as she threatens, \u201cI got a loud\u2026 bark\u2026 deep\u2026 bite,\u201d or obscenely delicate as she pleads, \u201cSplit me open\/Pour your love in me.\u201d Raw, furious, and tender, these vulnerable, elliptical songs are ready to get as loud as it takes to expose the soft underbelly hiding beneath. Ecstasy is temporary, horniness is clich\u00e9: Here\u2019s a desire that longs to consume everything in its path because what, then, is left to burn? \u2013Anna Gaca<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Kim<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Matador<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

10.<\/div>\n

Kim Gordon: The Collective<\/em><\/h2>\n

Like Kim Gordon\u2019s 2019 album, No Home Record<\/em>, The Collective<\/em> is colossal and abrasive like a debris storm. Justin Raisen made a bunch of trap beats for Playboi Carti, then realized that what he just made weren\u2019t \u201crage beats\u201d but abrasive, seething, actual rage. Kim Gordon added her \u201cabstract poetry shit,\u201d improvised in her decades-long style. The result is a maelstrom of loops crashing into one another, lyrics shattered and left as shards, and of clutter: sonic, mental, and physical. \u201cBye Bye\u201d is a song about packing stuff for a vacation that sounds like feeding a junkyard car crusher. That same deluge of stuff turns \u201cShelf Warmer\u201d\u2014a would-be intimate slow jam and relative reprieve from the noise\u2014into trinket after trinket but never a touch.<\/p>\n

Gordon, ambivalent about the idea of making music let alone \u201cpolitical music,\u201d resists obvious polemic throughout. The man of \u201cI\u2019m a Man\u201d is a Proud Boy astride a fuck-off monster truck of a beat, but also a pathetic schlub muttering petty fixations as that beat goes limp; a fake-earnest troll hitting all the \u201clost generation of men\u201d talking points, but also just a person<\/em> who wants to wear a dress. The record also resists simplistic takes: It\u2019s not her TikTok album or her trap album. It sounds like spending days inside a Big Data server room, pummeled by the light and noise pollution that powers the machines, and excavating what it\u2019s done to your mind. \u2013Katherine St. Asaph<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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\"Astrid<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Escho<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

9.<\/div>\n

Astrid Sonne: Great Doubt<\/em><\/h2>\n

Astrid Sonne\u2019s facial expression on the cover of her third album, Great Doubt<\/em>, reminds me of Ben Affleck\u2019s shit-eating grin as he stands next to a poster of his character\u2019s missing wife in Gone Girl<\/em>. Why make a face like that at a time like this? Sonne\u2019s lyrics across Great Doubt<\/em> make good on its title: They quiver with anxiety and uncertainty against her takes on dub, pop, R&B, and contemporary classical that feel like they\u2019ve been scraped hollow. Released in January, Great Doubt<\/em> felt more vital with each passing month, as 2024 became even more unsettled and liminal. At this point, that smile on the cover feels just right: a glazed-over grin for a year in which, as she sings over and over, \u201ceverything is unreal.\u201d \u2013Shaad D\u2019Souza<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Bladee<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Trash Island<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

8.<\/div>\n

Bladee: Cold Visions<\/em><\/h2>\n

\u201cI got so old I got embarrassed to be even here, you know?\u201d Bladee confesses in Cold Visions<\/em>\u2019 opening seconds. Now 30, the Drain Gang CEO surveys the empire of ultra-online hypebeasts he\u2019s built from scratch, and for once seems to genuinely wrestle with the possibility that being a nerdy white guy flexing your Balencis might not actually be the most flattering look. After years of gliding between cloud rap and hyperpop without being beholden to either, all the fairytale imagery and AutoTune cooing has led him directly to a cliff. \u201cI\u2019m in this beauty pageant\/And everybody\u2019s laughing,\u201d he imagines in a panic. What are you supposed to do with that?<\/p>\n

Might as well crash out. Alongside F1lthy, Yung Lean, and a smattering of the collaborators who\u2019ve helped him on his rise to e-boy stardom, Cold Visions<\/em> is a 30-track meltdown, as Bladee folds some of his most inventive flows yet into a slurry of overstimulating samples and producer tags (with claustrophobic mixing somewhere between Chuquimamani-Condori and early Chief Keef). Bladee makes his personal crisis as tender and sincere as it is totally absurd\u2014the album\u2019s angriest moment involves him shouting that he\u2019s \u201cbeen going back to cussing\u201d\u2014yet the way he tells it, you\u2019d think heaven and hell hung in the balance. \u2013Sam Goldner<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Mount<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

P.W. Elverum & Sun<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

7.<\/div>\n

Mount Eerie: Night Palace<\/em><\/h2>\n

Phil Elverum has spent the better part of the last three decades staring at the sky and looking for meaning. First as the Microphones, then as Mount Eerie, he\u2019s written songs that are both introspective and expansive, looking deep within himself and out at the natural world, trying to puzzle through where he sits in relation to everything around him. On Night Palace<\/em>\u2014a discursive, turbulent, meandering, ecstatically arranged epic\u2014he\u2019s thinking bigger. Each song\u2014of which there are 26\u2014is rich with imagery and dense with ideas: He considers, for example, the perspective of a fish and wonders how seeing the world through their eyes might change the way he views everything around him. He also, on a song called \u201cNon-Metaphorical Decolonization,\u201d considers the history of the land he lives on, pledging \u201callegiance to nothing at all\u201d and calling for the death of America. To hear him tell it, after making this album, he\u2019s no closer to finding any of the answers he\u2019s looking for. \u201cIf there\u2019s a message,\u201d he said in a recent interview. \u201cIt\u2019s pro ambiguity, pro pointlessness, pro meaninglessness.\u201d But he sounds content in this place: asking big questions and hearing them echo into the void again. \u2013Colin Joyce<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Anti\"<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Anti-<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

6.<\/div>\n

Waxahatchee: Tigers Blood<\/em><\/h2>\n

To make Tigers Blood<\/em>, Katie Crutchfield and her brilliant band refitted the interior of her 2020 album Saint Cloud<\/em> with a bigger, warmer Americana sound while keeping her razor-sharp, big-hearted perspective. Here, she surveys and questions her life\u2019s newfound stability; she scrutinizes stable bonds and frayed connections, long-term love and codependency. She\u2019s unafraid to cast blame\u2014as on the scorched and bitter \u201cBored\u201d\u2014but continually bends back to implicate herself: \u201cI let my mind run wild,\u201d she sighs on \u201cRight Back To It,\u201d a song about the push-and-pull of long-term commitment where she\u2019s joined in twangy harmony by MJ Lenderman, \u201cI don\u2019t know why I do it.\u201d Crutchfield sings with the self-recrimination of a perfectionist, a bearer of high standards who believes her potential is limitless\u2014with each subsequent entry in the Waxahatchee canon, it\u2019s hard not to believe her. \u2013Marissa Lorusso<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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\"Nala<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Warp<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

5.<\/div>\n

Nala Sinephro: Endlessness<\/em><\/h2>\n

Across Endlessness,<\/em> Nala Sinephro\u2019s second album, her arrangements build and dissipate to reveal the record\u2019s anchoring arpeggio, which itself morphs all of the time, handed off like a baton between synth, piano, and harp. This is a log of liminal moments, blurring the space between orchestral ensemble and bedroom ambient project. Sinephro does not limit herself to being a harpist, synth player, and bandleader\u2014she becomes a collage artist.<\/p>\n

Throughout its constant transformations, Endlessness<\/em> is always compositional. Its base unit is not the droning chord, but instead the articulated phrase\u2014however serene, this is a music of statements, not mere soundscapes. Her fractal melodies channel modern modular noodlers as much as classic jazz solos. Still, Sinephro carves out a habitat for each of her players, many of whom are based in the South London improvisational scene, which sets the LP\u2019s ceaseless ideas to a human pace. Both dreamy and deliberate, expansive and focused, this collection\u2019s ten tracks unfold as if to point toward the very meaning of the word endlessness<\/em>: We see the impossibility of this concept, but Sinephro makes us feel as though it\u2019s in reach. \u2013Daniel Felsenthal<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"MJ<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Anti-<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

4.<\/div>\n

MJ Lenderman: Manning Fireworks<\/em><\/h2>\n

Manning Fireworks<\/em> proceeds like a greatest hits collection. Every line is a short story. Its jokes are profound, its wisdom ridiculous, its irreverence wide-eyed and irresistible. It is a record so instantly elemental, you feel compelled to sing every guitar riff, to rip every melody, to quote lyrics like \u201cgoin\u2019 on vacation brings the worst out of everyone\u201d as mantras. On his fourth solo album, MJ Lenderman, the tragicomic Southern rocker of the moment, channels heroes like David Berman and the Band but fills his pithy songs with time-stamping specifics (Guitar Hero<\/em>, an all-seeing smartwatch, the \u201chouseboat docked at the Himbo Dome\u201d that deserves a dedication plaque in 2024\u2019s collective imaginary) that make his persona self-effacing and modern. The lost protagonists of Lenderman\u2019s windows-down country-fried bangers often sound like vexed middle-aged divorc\u00e9es who may or may not ever get their shit together and yet stir empathy; \u201cmanning fireworks\u201d ultimately feels like an allegory for boyish wonder that just might slow the unstoppable crawl from baby to jerk. That playful awe is aglow in the gorgeous dissonance of a fiddle, the lonesome grace of a clarinet, a Sonic Youth-worshiping noise-drone excursion on a song that says \u201cDon\u2019t move to New York City,\u201d no less! Beguiling, funny, exuberant and true\u2014sometimes the alchemy is just right for a modern classic. \u2013Jenn Pelly<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

\n
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\n
\"Jessica<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Mexican Summer<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

3.<\/div>\n

Jessica Pratt: Here in the Pitch<\/em><\/h2>\n

Jessica Pratt looks for meaning in places where time follows its own curlicued logic: the warped grooves of vintage vinyl, the unending spiral of the ancient cosmos. What else would you expect from a one-time Amoeba Music employee whose mother was an astrologer? On her fourth album, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter adds the faintest hints of drums and an expanded cast of collaborators to contribute to the music\u2019s snow-globe swirl. The lo-fi minimalism of her previous records has ceded to a gaseous soft-pop idyll in which strummed chords fan out like galaxies and endless reverb signals the unfathomable reach of the infinite. Singing with heartbreaking sweetness of both familiar desolation and fresh hope, Pratt\u2019s voice remains the music\u2019s animating spirit. Listen closely, and her control of pitch and timbre speaks to a dazzlingly exacting vision for her music, every pirouette mapped out with an engineer\u2019s precision. Yet her singing flows with effortless grace\u2014an emissary arriving from a time unknown, offering hints of a plane beyond this mortal coil. \u2013Philip Sherburne<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Charli<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Atlantic<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

2.<\/div>\n

Charli XCX: BRAT<\/em><\/h2>\n

Remember in the final season of Sex and the City<\/em>, when Lexi Featherston did some blow in the bathroom of a stuffy uptown party, tried to smoke out of the living room window, and then splattered onto the pavement after declaring, \u201cI\u2019m so bored I could die<\/em>\u201d? That was BRAT<\/em>. With her sixth album, Charli XCX spawned a self-mythology so colossal it was ingested by diehard Angels and new converts across the globe. We assessed behavior, fashion, and political campaigns through a blurred, lime-green lens, attempting to comprehend the sly power of Charli\u2019s new era\u2026and its ubiquitous rollout. \u201cI talk about music in terms of marketing and campaigns more than I do music,\u201d she admitted following BRAT<\/em>\u2019s world domination.<\/p>\n

But to say her zeitgeisty masterpiece was solely indebted to tweets and billboards would be an affront to the album itself. Indulging in the scuzz of her early club days, Charli tweaked mid-aughts electronica, indie house, and French Touch into a stacked pop manifesto smeared with illicit residue. It became the \u00dcberalbum; the soundtrack of every basement party, mean girl TikTok\u2014of an entire season. But like the best pop songwriters, Charli imbued BRAT<\/em> with the untidiness of human life, smushing It Girl flexes in between the banal insecurities that infect friendships, self-image, and romance. The reigning Brat had been through the glossy pop star PR machine on her last record, but she conquered 2024 by sweating it out on the dancefloor among mere mortals. A Brat of flesh and blood. \u2013Madison Bloom<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

\n
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\"Cindy<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Realistik Studios<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

1.<\/div>\n

Cindy Lee: Diamond Jubilee<\/em><\/h2>\n

The 32-track magnum opus from the glamorous alter-ego of Canadian musician Patrick Flegel hit the scene like some old movie where a mysterious drifter shows up with their guitar to breathe new life into a sleepy town. Presented as a two-hour listening gauntlet with no breaks between tracks\u2014or as a sketchy download link on a GeoCities website that channeled Heaven\u2019s Gate\u2014Diamond Jubilee<\/em> seemed to float in from another place and time. You might follow its wistful melodies all the way back to the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers, stopping along the way at Motown soul or Velvet Underground fuzz or the cool camp of a band in a Russ Meyer flick, or to the late aughts blog scene, when indie acts were distorting retro pop sounds as if the young, urban millennials had all rewatched Twin Peaks<\/em> at once. Like the girl groups at the center of their moodboard, Cindy Lee\u2019s songs are about love\u2014having lost it, most of all. She is lonesome, she is blue, she is riding the Greyhound to the Canadian border with nothing but her memories; she is wailing on her cherry-red guitar with the kind of casual mastery generally reserved for those who\u2019ve made deals with the devil.<\/p>\n

No one could have predicted that this sprawling, out-of-time record, self-released by an artist opting out of the streaming era\u2019s marketing and distribution paradigm almost entirely, would become the \u201cfeel-good indie rock story of the year,\u201d according to the headlines on music publications celebrating a rare victory against their own perceived irrelevance. It\u2019s hard to say whether the sentiment was shared at all by Flegel, who announced onstage at one of the subsequently sold-out shows, \u201cI feel like a caged fucking animal,\u201d before canceling the tour completely. In an era dominated by fan service, you could almost forget that it’s personal, or that the scalability obsession of the tech industry masquerading as the music industry needn’t be our own. If all of Cindy Lee that we are left with is the music, echoing like a memory from another life, maybe that\u2019s the way it ought to be. \u2013Meaghan Garvey<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Rough Trade | Bandcamp<\/p>\n

\n

Listen to the Best Albums of 2024 on our Spotify and Apple Music playlists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/features\/lists-and-guides\/best-albums-2024\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lists & Guides The 50 Best Albums of 2024 Featuring Charli XCX, Bladee, MJ Lenderman, Tyla, xaviersobased, Jessica Pratt, and more By Pitchfork December 3, 2024 Image by Chris Panicker One major theme that runs through Pitchfork\u2019s best albums of 2024 is disbelief. There are pop albums that defy all expectations, indie rock records that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-1400094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1400094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1400094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1400094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1400094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}