Top Albums 2024
POP / ROCK
20-Jack White - No Name
(good ol’ fashion back to basics garage-rock)
19-Beyonce - Cowboy Carter
(country / R&B)
18-Fontaines D.C. - Romance
(alternative / post-punk)
17-Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
(indie-country / twangy singer-songwriter)
16-Blood Incantation - Absolute Everywhere
(death metal / Floydian-prog / sci-fi)
15-Zach Bryan - The Great American Bar Scene
(Springsteenesque county-pop / americana)
14-MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
(indie-country / slacker-rock)
13-Adrienne Lenker - Bright Futures
(singer/songwriter)
12-The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
(gothy dream-pop)
11-Shellac - To All Trains
(post-hardcore)
10-IDLES - Tank
(punk-rock)
9-Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Woodland Studios
(country / americana)
8-Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
(experimental-folk)
7-Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
(indie-rock)
6-Mount Eerie - Night Palace
(lo-fi / indie-rock)
5-The Smile - Wall of Eyes
(prog / art-rock)
4-Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
(retro-surrealist avant-pop)
3-Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Wild God
(art-rock)
2-Godspeed You! Black Emperor - No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead
Since the pandemic, post-rock giants Godspeed You! Black Emperor have reached a new creative peak. Their latest record takes its title from the reported number of Palestinian deaths caused by Israeli strikes between October 7, 2023, and February 13, 2024, during the Gaza genocide. In the album’s announcement, the band declared:
“No Title= What gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? What context? What broken melody? And then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.”
Rather than taking the listener on the cinematic journeys typical of most of their work, much of this record focuses on holding space - creating a groove / vibe more in the vein of post-rock veterans Do Make Say Think and drone-rock giants Earth. These simple, repetitive motifs are interwoven with haunting soundscapes and the band’s signature cathartic crescendos. Despite the grim programmatic subject matter, the music itself ranks among the most beautiful the band has ever produced.
1-Charlie XCX - BRAT
It took me the longest to get my head around just how good this record is - maybe in part because of the hype around it, but yes…It really is that good & deserves the buzz it’s getting. It is the best thing that has come out of hyper-pop so far & brings this sound into the mainstream without any compromise - creating the most vulnerable album of hers to date & pushing the boundaries of the current pop landscape.
HIP-HOP
10-Roc Marciano / The Alchemist - The Skeleton Key
9-Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal
8-ScHoolboy Q - BLUE LIPS
7-NxWorries - Why Lawd?
6-Mach-Hommy - RICHAXXHAITIAN
5-Vince Staples - Dark Times
4-Tyler, the Creator - Chromakopia
3-Kendrick Lamar - GNX
2-JPEGMAFIA - I Lay Down My Life for You
1-Ka - the Thief Next to Jesus
Ka is one of the most underrated MCs in hip-hop - his style is minimalist while being philosophically dense, understated but demanding complete attention, & deeply personal & reflective. Released just a couple of months before his passing at age 52, Ka’s final album is a true masterpiece. The album samples primarily from gospel and blues for its hypnotic, drumless beats which creates the perfect backdrop for his lyrics which delve into spirituality, the complexities of faith, and mortality.
CLASSICAL
6-Kelly Moran - Moves in the Field
5-John Luther Adams - An Atlas of Deep Time
4-Kali Malone - All Life Long
3-Phillip Glass - Solo Piano
2-Tristan Perch & Ensemble 0 - Open Symmetry
1-David Lang / Eighth Blackbird - Composition as Explanation
David Lang’s “Composition as Explanation”, is based on Gertrude Stein’s 1926 lecture of the same name. It is a multidisciplinary work incorporating elements of chamber music, theater, and performance art. Eighth Blackbird performs the music as well as speaking and singing Stein’s text.
ELECTRONIC
5-Four Tet - Three
4-Skee Mask - Resort
3-Floating Points - Cascade
2-Jlin - Akoma
1-Donato Dozzy - Magda
Donato Dozzy is one half of the electronic duo Voices from the Lake - his use of phasing rhythmic patterns often mirrors those of nature. On his album Magda—an homage to both his family and the Adriatic Sea—he uses sequencers and drones to create a sonic world that is both emotionally profound and hypnotically immersive.
EXPERIMENTAL
5-Colin Stetson - The Love it Took to Leave You
4-Andreas Werliin, Johan Berthling, and Oren Ambarchi - Ghosted II
3-Kim Gordon - The Collective
2-Rafael Toral - Spectral Evolution
Toral’s “Spectral Evolution” uses self-built electronic instruments to create chord changes that are derived from classic jazz harmony, slowed downed to such an extent that each chord becomes a kind of it’s own harmonic environment. Using these electronic textures along with guitars & bass (all played by Toral), "Spectral Evolution" alternates between dense sonic mass and more ambient-oriented spaces, generating something that is truly unique and alien while still feeling very grounded in the natural world.
1-Ex-Easter Island Head - Norther
The six pieces on “Norther” employ an array of compositional methods, each programmatically tied to weather. Unorthodox guitar techniques—like sliding brass rods beneath the strings to generate otherworldly harmonics—blend seamlessly with a wide variety of instruments, including an aeolian harp powered by the wind, whirling motors, and voices played back through phones and then amplified via guitar pickups. The result mirrors the natural ebbs and flows of the environment and offers a listening experience that is truly transcendental.
INTERNATIONAL
6-Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice
5-Arooj Aftab - Night Reign
4-Helado Negro - PHASOR
3-Ibibio Sound Machine - Pull the Rope
2-Amaia Miranda - Mientras vivas brilla
1-Avalanche Kaito - Talitakum
Avalanche Kaito is a collaboration between Burkina Faso born Kaito Winse, Belgian guitarist Nico Gitto, & French drummer/producer Benjamin Chaval. Their album “Talitakum” sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It is futurist & simultaneously primal & ritualistic. It combines the precision & complexity of Battlesesque rhythms with the organic feel of west-africans grooves, and at times the abrasiveness of no-wave rock music.
JAZZ
12-Shabaka - Percieve it’s Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace
11-Wadada Leo Smithg & Amina Claudine Myers - Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens
10-Jeff Parker - The Way Out of Easy
9-Ben Monder - Panetarium
8-Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
7-Chris Potter (w/ Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade) - Eagle’s Point
6- Mary Halvorson - Cloudward
5-Lionel Loueke & Dave Holand - Unity
4-The Messthetics - The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
3-Charles Lloyd - The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
2-The Bad Plus - Complex Emotions
1-John Hollenbeck & NDR Bigband - Colouring Hockets
For over 25 years, percussionist, composer, and bandleader John Hollenbeck has been among the most innovative forces in modern jazz, combining it with contemporary classical music, post-rock, and internationally borrowed rhythms. On “Colouring Hockets”, he places a quartet of percussionists at the center of a larger orchestral setting. Within this instrumentation he adapts the medieval musical technique of a“hocket,” in which a melodic line is divided among multiple performers, into an intricate web of rhythmic exchanges creating some of the most cerebral and fun music of his to date.
OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES:
POP / ROCK:
Nilüfer Yanya - My Method Actor
Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
Nia Archives - Silence is Loud
Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk
Arab Strap - I’m Totally Fine It 👍don’t give a fuck anymore 👍
The Smile - Cutouts
Los Campesinos! - All Hell
Cloud Nothings - Final Summer
Astrid Sonne - Great Doubt
Foxing - Foxing
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
Still House Plants - If I Don’t Make It, I Love U
Johnny Blue Skies - Passage Du Desir
Christian Lee Hutson - Paradise Pop. 10
Charley Crockett - 10$ Cowboy
Chanel Beads - Your Day Will Come
Spirit of the Beehive - You’ll Have to Lose Something
Brittany Howard - What Now
Mk.gee - Two Star & the Dream Police
Mount Kimble - The Sunset Violent
Yaya Bey - Ten Fold
KAYTRANADA - TIMELESS
Touche Amore - Spiral in a Straight Line
Julia Holter - Something in the Room She Moves
Bon Iver - SABLE (EP)
Laetita Sadier - Rooting for Love
Michael Nau - Montrose Tape
Machine Girl - MG Ultra
Father John Misty - Mahashamashana
Dirty Three - Love Changes Everything
Samlrc - A Lonely Sinner
Alcest - Les Chants de l’Auore
Ride - Interplay
The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet
Sumac - The Healer
Seefell - Everything Suarded
Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
Chat Pile - Cool World
LustSickPuppy - Carousel From Hell
Yasmin Williams - Acadia
Allegra Krieger - Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine
EXPERIMENTAL:
Phil Geraldi - AM/FM USA
Xiu Xii - 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips
Geotic - The Anchorite
Melt Banana - 3+5
Cowboy Sadness - Selected Jambient Works, Vol. 1
Jon Hopkins - RITUAL
Lia Kohl - Normal Sounds
Adam Wiltzie - Eleven Fugues For Sodium Pentohal
Masayoshi Fujita - Migratory
Adeline Hotel - Hot Fruit
ELECTRONIC:
Monolake - Studio
Chuck Johnson - Sun Glories
Axel Boman - Space Drag
Flying Lotus - Spirit Box
Lifted - Trellis
Iglooghost - Tidal Memory Eco
Mouse on Mars - Herzog Sessions
Caribou - Honey
Skee Mask - ISS010
Tim Reaper & Kloke - In Full Effect
Burial - Dreamfear/Boy Sent From Above
HIP-HOP:
Freddie Gibbs - You Only Die 1nce
E L U CI D - REVELATOR
Rapsody - Please Don’t Cry
Roc Marciano - Marciology
Blu & Exile - Love (the) Ominous World
Denzel Curry - King of the Mischievous South
Kenny Segal & K-thei??? - Genuine Dexterity
Common and Pete Rock - The Auditorium Volume 1
Futre & Metrobooming - WE DON’T TRUST YOU
Jazz:
Julian Lage - Speak to Me
Eyolf Dale - The Space Between Two Notes
Brad Mehldau, Mark Turner, Peter Bernstein, Larry Grenadier, & Bill Stuart - Solid Jackson
Bill Frissell - Orchestras (Live)
Pat Metheny - MoonDial
John Zorn (featuring Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, & Gyan Riley
Jihye Lee Orchestra - Infinite Connections
Peter Evans - Extra
Ezra Collective - Dance, No One’s Watching
Vijay Iyer - Compassion
Patricia Brennan - Breaking Stretch
Wayne Shorter - Celebration, Volume 1 (Live)
CLASSICAL:
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson - American Counterpoints
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Opus
Daniil Trifonov & Sergei Babayan - Rachmaninoff for Two
Maya Beiser Maya Beiser x Terry Riley: In C
Keel Road - Danish String Orchestra
Wind Up - Julius Eastman, Vol. 4: The Holy Presence
Joe Hisaishi & Vienna Symphony - Joe Hisaishi in Vienna: Symphony No, 2 & Viola Saga
Max Richter: In A Landscape
Katia & Marielle Labeque - Glass: Cocteau Trilogy
Gabriela Ortiz - Revolucion Diamantina
Emily D’Angelo - Freezing
Donnacha Dennehy: Land of Winter
Nils Frahm - Day
Laurie Anderson - Amelia
BUDS :)
Raptors - Viewers Like You
Dan + Claudia Zanes - Pieces of Home
Nate Lewis - Line Swinger
Leaf and Machine - cyberfriends
Wyn & Tin - Pick Me
MUSIC I WAS A PART OF MAKING:
Michael Simonelli - Kid Songs!
Steve Simonelli - Obsession & Thank You All