Album of the Year '24
The best music of 2024
Everyone who knows me personally can attest to the fact that I am absolutely obsessed with music. Since 2020 and the height of the pandemic, I’ve spent time each year attempting to compile sweeping, yearly playlists of my favorite songs and records. Now, five years in, I wanted to look back on this process to share some reflections.
At their best, playlists provide an opportunity for creativity and self-expression. I have a litany of idiosyncratic “requirements” I subject every playlist to, which is worth enumerating here. For what it’s worth, I suspect everyone has a different rhyme or reason to the rhythm of their playlists (even if it is just chaos goblin mode.) As such, I’m reticent to call this a guide to making “good” playlists. “Good” is far too subjective and, besides, my taste in music isn’t good anyway.
It’s fucking immaculate.
Instead, I like to think of these steps as ways to make poignant playlists—potent collections of songs that sit with you long after you’ve finished. My approach to making poignant playlists has always been guided by the following principles:
1) A poignant playlist will have art. I’m not sure if someone ever burned you a CD when you were a kid, but whenever I’d do it for my friends back in my middle school and high school days, I’d go all-fucking-out. I’d get one of those jewel cases (I dunno why they called them “jewel cases,” they were just flimsy plastic) and actually make a physical album insert for the front with some hand-drawn art. I’d include the tracklist on the back, too. That way, they could keep the CD safe when it wasn’t in use and have a handy-dandy chart to see the songs included.
2) A poignant playlist will never repeat the same artist. This is a weird one, but it’s sort of a personal thing. If you’re gonna go to the trouble of making a playlist, it only makes sense to include individual, specific songs. To be thoughtful, intentional, purposeful.
3) A poignant playlist will feature juxtaposition. Juxtaposition is my favorite sonic quality. Pushing together the highs and lows, the ebbs and flows, speaks to some sacred part of my being. A poignant playlist should keep you on your toes, never knowing what to expect, especially on the first go-around. Each track should surprise, mystify, and spellbind. There will be natural rhythms. There will be valleys and peaks. A poignant playlist builds a soundscape for the listener to get lost in.
4) A poignant playlist has at least one theme. Obviously, this playlist is themed around the best music and records that were released in 2024. But you could select any theme, really: love songs, melancholic tracks, ballads filled with joy.
5) A poignant playlist has intention. Every single song must be hand-selected with specific attention to detail and a regard for its sonic and lyrical qualities simultaneously.
6) A poignant playlist must flow organically. Each of these songs has a specific place. They flow into one another, like creeks into rivers, like rivers into seas, like seas into oceans. The arrangement, the sequencing, is critical. Anarchy, Proudhon once wrote, is order.
7) A poignant playlist starts and ends with a bang. I mean, it just makes sense, right? Gotta open strong and go out swinging.
2024 was a buck-wild year for music. From start to finish, it seemed that wonderful new music emerged on a weekly basis. I cannot count the amount of times I’ve remarked over the past year just how incredible a year it has been for new releases. The breadth is staggering and has made for not only the largest AotY playlist I’ve ever made, but also the most challenging.
As a general rule, I define a “record” as an LP with at least eight tracks, but usually ten or more. In some rare instances, EPs can qualify but they have to be so stupendous that they outweigh full-length albums. (Spoiler: None quite made the cut this year, but the first honorable mention was real close to usurping the tenth spot on my list.)
Contenders
The following is a list of contenders for my 2024 Album of the Year listed in alphabetical order:
65daysofstatic, Utopian Frequencies
Allt, From the New World
Alpha Wolf, Half-Living Things
Anberlin, Vega
Atticus Ross, Shōgun (OST)
Balance and Composure, with you in spirit
Better Lovers, Highly Irresponsible
Boundaries, Death is Little More
Bring Me the Horizon, POSTHUMAN: NeX GEn
Cane Hill, a piece of me i never let you find.
Charli xcx, BRAT
Chelsea Wolfe, Unbound EP
Childish Gambino, Bando Stone and the New World
Counterparts, Heaven Let Them Die
Darko US, Starfire
Downswing, Let this Life Devour You
Fever 333, Darker White
Fit for an Autopsy, The Nothing That Is
Four Year Strong, Analysis Paralysis
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD
Gore., A Bud that Never Blooms
Greyhaven, Stereo Grief
Halsey, The Great Impersonator
House of Protection, GALORE
Karen Dió, My World
Knocked Loose, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
Kublai Khan, Exhibition of Prowess
Left to Suffer, Leap of Death
Like Moths to Flames, The Cycles of Trying to Cope
Locked Shut, The New Chaos
Make Them Suffer, Make Them Suffer
Marcin, Dragon in Harmony
Mirar, Mare
Nails, Every Bridge Burning
Pijn, From Low Beams of Hope
Poppy, Negative Spaces
Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet
SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Coup de Grâce
Soccer Mommy, Evergreen
Softcult, Heaven
Speed, ONLY ONE MODE
Synestia/Disembodied Tyrant, The Poetic Edda
The Plot In You, Vol. I-III
The Story So Far, I Want to Disappear
Thou, Umbilical
Thrown, Excessive Guilt
Touché Amoré, Spiral in a Straight Line
Tsukasa Saito & Yuka Kitamura, Shadow of the Erdtree
Tyler, The Creator, Chromakopia
Vana, TRIAL & TERROR
VANÈS, Can I Be Your Favorite?
Wage War, STIGMA
Honorable Mentions
What follows are a few of my honorable mentions:
Counterparts, Heaven Let Them Die
Front-to-back, this EP is just one assbeater after another. Counterparts has consistently been one of the best bands in metalcore, blending melody and technicality with blistering percussion and absolutely belligerent breakdowns. The lyrical ferocity on cuts like “No Lamb Was Lost” make me want to pummel the face of god until nothing is left but shattered skull and bits of brain matter.
Charli xcx, BRAT
For a while, I wrote BRAT off. But steadily over the summer, Charli xcx’s infectious and animatedly British europop won me over. While the subsequent releases of remixes and revamps didn’t always hit for me, Billie Eillish’s feature on “Guess” remains one of the finest tracks released all year.
SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Coup de Grâce
SYSC fill me with so much joy. Chaotic, searing, and queer as fuck, SYSC’s latest effort is a masterclass in songwriting. The broad swath of guest vocalists the band brings in for this playful, theatrical release make for such a dynamic experience that constantly keeps you on your toes as you listen.
Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Nick Chuba, Shōgun OST
Atticus Ross has firmly cemented himself as one of the premiere composers in modern television and cinema and this collaboration with Leopold Ross and Nick Chuba sets a new bar for searing, potent scores. From its opening note to its final crescendo, the Shōgun OST hits like a shotgun blast, running an impossible breadth of ire and fury, melancholy and heartache, and pensive and somber tones. The soundscapes woven together for this OST are mystifying, complex, and grounded all at once. While Shōgun itself did not live up to my (admittedly astronomical) expectations, I am pleased its soundtrack continues to resonate with me to this day.
Top 10
Alright, the grand finale. Without further ado, here are my Top 10 albums of 2024 in descending order:
Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet
Playful, sensual, sultry. These are a few of the words that spring to mind when I think of Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet. Easily one of the poppiest LPs on this list, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” and “Espresso” were some early summer adds to my daily rotation. Though the record is not perfect from front-to-back and struggles to maintain the same vivaciousness on tracks like “Coincidence” and “Slim Pickins,” Short n’ Sweet is a far cry from one-note. Songs like “Bed Chem” and “Juno,” for instance, maintain the silliness and audacity of Sabrina Carpenter’s standout singles that put the pop star on my radar in the first place. When it came to the “pop representation” on this AotY list, I struggled between this and Charli xcx’s Brat before ultimately coming to the conclusion that Short n’ Sweet was simply bopping in my speakers far more often throughout the year. And, in truth, I don’t suspect that’ll change anytime soon.
Top Tracks: “Espresso,” “Taste,” & “Juno,”
Bring Me the Horizon, POST HUMAN: NeX GEn
I’ve been with Bring Me the Horizon since Count Your Blessings and the deathcore days of yesteryear. In nearly 20 years of being a band, BMTH have consistently continued to experiment and redefine the mold of whatever genre they tackled. While their newer material certainly has more mainstream appeal, the band seems to have taken a more concentrated turn with the POST HUMAN series. While not quite returning to their roots fully, both 2020’s SURVIVAL HORROR and this year’s NeX GEn manage to blend the band’s entire discography across their tracks.
NeX GEn takes it a step further and creates an absolutely gobsmacking array of sonic arrangements. Although the LP might suffer a bit from bloat, a lot of that can be chalked up to the frustrating delays that pushed this record back over and over again. Fortunately, the wait was worth it. While one could cynically point to songs like “liMousIne (feat. AURORA)” and say, “This is just Deftones” or “n/A” and say, “This is just Weezer,” to do so would be to gravely oversimplify what BMTH have accomplished with this LP. Each track is an homage, a love letter to a different genre of alternative music. Yet, somehow, each song also manages to feel undeniably Bring Me.
Best Tracks: “a bulleT w/my namE On (feat. Underoath),” “Kool-Aid,” & “AmEN! (feat. Lil Uzi Vert and Daryl Palumbo)”
Tyler, The Creator, CHROMAKOPIA
Tyler Okonma has always been one of my favorite rap/hip-hop artists. When he surprise-dropped an announcement for CHROMAKOPIA , I lost my mind with glee. Adding fuel to the fire of hype was the recent realization that Sophie, my eldest kiddo, is also a big fan. Being able to enjoy CHROMAKOPIA with her skyrocketed this LP up my list. Of course, it also helps that this is arguably Tyler, The Creator’s best record since Scum Fuck Flower Boy.
Lyrically, this record feels like Tyler’s most vulnerable, transparent, and self-critical. Songs like “Darling, I (feat. Teezo Touchdown)” and “Like Him (feat. Lola Young)” offer a rare glimpse into Tyler Okonma’s personal experience, rather than the personas Tyler, The Creator often layers into his art. “Hey Jane” is a pro-choice anthem that wrestles with the complexities of bodily autonomy; “Judge Judy” is a bawdy sex-positive romp. What’s more, CHROMAKOPIA is sprinkled with delightfully aggressive songs like “Rah Tah Tah” and “Thought I Was Dead (feat. ScHoolboy Q & Santigold)” that harken back to Tyler’s earlier material like Wolf and Goblin. As Tyler, The Creator pointedly puts it, he’s “the biggest out the city after Kenny” and it’s hard to argue. As far as I’m concerned, Tyler is now firmly in the big three. CHROMAKOPIA is the living proof.
Top Tracks: “Thought I Was Dead (feat. ScHoolboy Q & Santigold),” “Rah Tah Tah,” & “Balloon (feat. Doechii)”
Halsey, The Great Impersonator
Name a better lyricist in modern pop music than Halsey.
I’ll wait.
The Great Impersonator, Halsey’s 2024 follow-up to 2022’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, cements Halsey as one of the most unabashedly vulnerable, sincere, and dynamic pop artists alive today. From the nerve of starting this record off with the slow and meandering “Only Living Girl in LA” to the shit-talking sassiness of “Hometown,” this record certainly has its peaks. And, while there may be valleys of missed opportunities or a rather significant runtime, on the whole the experimentation really works.
Take “Lonely is the Muse,” for instance: a gut-wrenchingly somber track that leads to a crescendo of lacerated screams. Or “Darwinism,” a droning, knife-sharp social critique. The Great Impersonator has its pop standouts, too. “Ego” and “Lucky” are certain to please audiences who still listen to the radio, while “Dog Years” and “The End” showcase Halsey’s continued commitment to story-telling. But the real gut-punch, at least for me, was “I Believe in Magic,” a heartfelt and earnest acoustic song about parenthood cut through with samples of Halsey’s son that literally turned me into an ugly mess of tears. A deep, affecting, if imperfect record, The Great Impersonator continues to show off Halsey’s dynamism, range, and commitment to her art.
Top Tracks: “I Believe in Magic,” “Lonely is the Muse,” & “Ego”
Balance & Composure, with you in spirit
Balance & Composure is not only back, they also put out a perfect record this year. with you in spirit, easily the band’s best since Separation, is nothing short of a masterpiece. Every single song is a masterclass in melancholy. Unlike a lot of records on this Top 10 list, with you in spirit doesn’t overstay its welcome. Instead, Balance & Composure offer ten tracks of droning, shoegazey emo that demands to be digested over and over again.
Standout singles like “cross to bear” and “sorrow machine” channeled Separation and provided a clear indicator that Balance & Composure were returning to their seminal work. But with you in spirit is more than just a return to form; it is also simultaneously an evolution, a maturation. You can feel the millenial anxiety of age creeping in on songs like “lead foot,” with its fretting over friends’ safety, and “closer to god,” a song that grapples with religious trauma. But the real standout, in my opinion, is the final song on the record—its title track, which laments the irreconcilable disconnect we can experience with our family-of-origin. Listening to with you in spirit feels like “Choking when it starts to get heavy, I can't bear the utter weight of it, it crushes all.” But that sorrow in 2024 often feels urgently necessary.
Top Tracks: “with you in spirit,” “closer to god,” & “sorrow machine”
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD
From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.
Top Tracks: “GREY RUBBLE - GREEN SHOOTS,” “SUN IS A HOLE IS VAPORS,” & “BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL”
Boundaries, Death is Little More
As we enter the top three albums of the year, my taste in music becomes abundantly evident. I like ‘em heavy, and Death is Little More—Boundaries’ third studio-length album—is about as heavy as they come. From the shredded howls to the angelic cleans, from the 808s that detonate over breakdowns like nuclear bombs to the vulnerable, existential lyrics, Death is Little More cements Boundaries as one of the most searing acts in modern metalcore. The production on this record is magnificent. Each layer of the mix works to enhance the whole. Every riff hits like a lead pipe to the head.
As it ought to be the case with heavy music, though, Boundaries finest accomplishment is its lyrical content. “Darkness Shared” is a gut-wrenching song about violation and trauma. “Death is Little More” and “Blame’s Burden” grapple with the temptation of death. “Easily Erased” and “Cursed to Remember” agonize over imploding relationships. But there is also hope to be found on this record, even if only a shred at the bitter end:
“I was taught to hate myself before anything else…I was the worst to myself, the last person that I would help. It’s taken me until now to dig myself out. I feel like a fuck up. I feel like a failure. But, at least it’s not every day, and I am getting better.”
Me, too, buddy.
Me, too.
Top Tracks: “Inhale the Grief,” “Easily Erased,” & “Turning Hate into Rage”
thrown, EXCESSIVE GUILT
thrown is one of the grooviest, no-nonsense acts to explode onto the modern heavy scene. Mixing blistering hardcore with nu-nu-metal synths and samples, thrown has quickly proven that their acclaimed (and widely played) 2023 EP—the cleverly titled Extended Pain, a new project from Swedish producer Buster Odeholm—was far from a one-off event. Just the opposite, in fact. Excessive Guilt is what I would call a perfect, no-skip record. Every track, from front-to-back, demands to be experienced. Besides, clocking in at a mere 20 minutes and 49 seconds, it’s not as if thrown is asking all that much of your time.
Nonetheless, Excessive Guilt demands your attention.
Thematically, this LP trods the well-established ground of groovy hardcore and metalcore. These tracks are often despondent, dispirited, unflinching. Depression and anxiety plague “guilt” and “vent” while fairweather friends are vivisected on cuts like “bitter friend” and “bloodsucker.” The turmoil reaches its crescendo in “so done,” a devastating number that gazes soberly at the futility of modern life and opts out. Yet, for all its lyrical lamentations, thrown’s recipe of belligerence makes for a killer LP and I, for one, can’t wait to see where the band goes next.
Top Songs: “so done,” “ignored,” & “backfire”
Kendrick Lamar, GNX
So, full disclosure: I put this blog up originally on November 21, 2024. On November 22, 2024, Kendrick Lamar shadow-dropped GNX.
Obviously, I had to go back and redraft this post.
GNX is astounding.
Knocked Loose, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
Knocked Loose, motherfucker.
Who else could take the top spot, even in a year so stuffed with marvelous music? You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To is the culmination of everything the Louisville, KY hardcore kids have built up to this point: relentless percussion with shotgun snare shots; banshee wails interspersed with guttural growls; riffs that make you want to put your head through a cement wall (in a good way.) Yet, in every regard, Knocked Loose have not only delivered, they’ve pushed the genre of hardcore forward.
Refusing to step back from the edge, Knocked Loose have remained an unapologetically aggressive band. The run from “Moss Covers All” to “Take Me Home,” for instance, made me feel like I was having an anxiety attack the first time I listened. “Thirst” and “Piece by Piece” feature jarring and discordant sequences like something out of a horror film. Meanwhile, “Suffocate feat. Poppy” offers one of metalcore’s up-and-coming stars an opportunity to compliment Bryan Garris’s shrieks perfectly while “Slaughterhouse 2 feat. Chris Motionless” lets ’core kids relive the high of 2022’s Scoring the End of the World thanks to Chris’s dynamism and fury. But it’s the quiet moments that make You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To so special. Take, for instance, the droning repetition present in “Don’t Reach For Me” and “Blinding Faith” that reaches its dénouement in “Sit & Mourn,” arguably the most heartbreaking track to release all year.
Despite being one of the most hyped bands in modern heavy music, Knocked Loose have never once shied away from their roots in hardcore. I saw them half-a-dozen times this year alone, but seeing them play in a 200 cap room in downtown Louisville this summer was a veritable religious experience (which is perhaps ironic, considering the band’s blasphemy-laced cuts on this LP.) Knocked Loose are unstoppable. Knocked Loose are forever.
Top Songs: “Sit & Mourn,” “Slaughterhouse 2 (feat. Chris Motionless,)” & “Blinding Faith”
Playlists:
Here are the last five years of Album of the Year Playlists: