Top 25 Albums of 2024
I just had to throw in my two cents. Welcome to P2K's biggest list of the year.
In the intro to my 2023 Top 25 Albums list, I came to the conclusion that while plenty of great music had popped up throughout the year, it had ultimately felt like a relatively dull 365 days for music fans. 2024 on the other hand…?
A pop girlies takeover. The hip-hop equivalent of Avengers: Civil War. Surprise albums, BRAT-summers, demure daylists, and of course: Jojo Siwa. 2024 was a massively entertaining year for anyone with even a passing interest in music, and it’s unlikely we’ll be getting such a rip-roaring annum again anytime soon.
As an aspiring critic and accomplished music nerd, however, I was far more excited about just how much good music came out this year. In nearly every fandom and scene, we saw notable releases from well-established artists and newcomers alike. It made for a kaleidoscopic display of the music industry as it now stands; blooming with innovation and excitement from the Billboard Top 100 to the depths of the underground. Unfortunately, this also makes my particular job for this article quite the tall order.
But, who am I kidding? I’ve been looking forward to this list all year. I simply adore writing about music on this cute little blog, and a year-end, Top 25 list just feels so good to finally put out. I don’t care if this reaches only one person (Hi, Mom), it brings me an indescribable amount of personal satisfaction and fulfillment to share this with you.
In regards to my actual ranking process, my placements are obviously pretty arbitrary. More than previous years, I found myself drawn to albums which I considered to be “important” or of some sort of “quality,” rather than ranking how big of a role they played in my listening. I can’t quite say why this was the case, but I chose to follow this instinct, and the resulting list is therefore closer to something like a “Best” list rather than “Favorite.” However I went about it, I do know that as of publishing this piece, I feel quite confident with how these 25 are arranged.
Of course, not every amazing album I came across was able to make the cut. Here are just 5 of my Honorable Mentions, which are all quite worth your time:
Charm - Clairo
REVELATOR - E L U C I D
In Waves - Jamie xx
Weyes - Luisa Almaguer
The Great Bailout - Moor Mother
Now, without further ado…
25. Johann Sebastian Bachlava the Doctor - Action Bronson
A trained chef, aspiring strongman, and vintage sports aficionado, Action Bronson’s lust for life oozes throughout his music. On Johann Sebastian Bachlava the Doctor, the Queens rapper once again grants us a peek into his unique brand of extravagance: mud exfoliants, Jeep Cherokees, and TLC from Teanna Trump. Equipped with psychedelic beats from long-time collaborators like The Alchemist and Daringer — as well as several of Bronson’s own productions — these songs play like a trip down a lazy river, watching the credits roll from behind some vintage aviator shades. In short: hell yeah.
Favorite Track: Shadow Realm
24. The love it took to leave you - Colin Stetson
Fun fact: every single sound on The love it took to leave you comes from Colin Stetson himself. Polyphonic wails, percussive finger taps, grumbling throat sounds; all of it is captured live, in single takes, with no overdubbing or effects. Via his revolutionary recording practices, Stetson expands the sonic capabilities of the bass saxophone into a vast landscape of looming tree trunks, wheeling stars, and unquenchable embers. The love it took to leave you succeeds on multiple fronts; one, as a virtuosic showcase of a musician’s familiarity with his instrument, but two, as an engrossing and fully realized journey into another dimension of sound.
Favorite Track: Malediction
23. Silence is Loud - Nia Archives
Widely credited for spearheading the jungle revival that has taken the dance world by storm throughout the 2020’s, Nia Archives’ debut stands out for its embracement of so many non-electronic elements. Make no mistake — the drums are still enough to rock even the grimiest Bristol warehouse, but Silence is Loud is most aptly defined by the tinges of neo-soul, alt rock, and R&B that flavor the track-list. Combined with Nia’s shaky vocals and her candid lyrical depictions of interpersonal and private turmoil, this record is an explosive introduction to someone who will surely continue to impress as time wears on.
Favorite Track: Unfinished Business
22. “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD” - Godspeed You! Black Emperor
NO BLURB AS OF 12 DECEMBER 2024, 44,835 DEAD
FREE PALESTINE
21. the 8th cumming - cumgirl8
“Cyberfeminism” probably isn’t a term most people are familiar with, but even a complete uninitiate would likely agree that there’s not a designation more befitting cumgirl8’s debut. Described by the band as a “Greta Thunberg fever dream,” the 8th cumming is an unapologetic and highly politicized amalgamation of post-punk influences, filtered through some sort of dystopian chat-room. Recorded live and entirely analog, this album is a pithy and crackling demonstration of cumgirl8’s chemistry and fiery spirit, one which gleefully splashes in the slime-puddles of its own creative process.
Favorite Track: Karma Police
20. Dark Times - Vince Staples
It’s rare to find an artist as honest as Vince Staples. As an actor, rapper, and public figure, there’s an alluring aura of authenticity that emanates from the 31 year-old. The same can be said for Dark Times, Vince’s sixth album, which plays as a concise reflection of his life to this point. Atop pitch-perfect production, Vince unburdens feelings of alienation, mistrust, and heartache with his signature California cadence. Dark Times doesn’t seem overly occupied with demanding its flowers, instead it exists as a time capsule of one stage of a man’s life, willing and able to connect with a listener when the time comes.
Favorite Track: Étouffée
19. Alligator Bites Never Heal - Doechii
It’s been one hell of a year for Doechii. Already a viral TikTok hit-maker, the Tampa-born MC has fully stepped into the limelight via one of the most organic and well-deserved routes hype-trains we’ve seen this decade. Alligator Bites Never Heal runs the gambit on everything Doechii is capable of, smashing comparative stereotypes and categorical limitations with a captivating dynamism. Boasting practically no features, Doechii uses every second of this mixtape to her advantage, eagerly seizing your attention span and reinforcing why you wouldn’t want to be hearing anything else right now.
Favorite Track: BOOM BAP
18. Night Palace - Mount Eerie
For an artist as purposefully home-spun as Phil Elverum, his music sure manages to feel larger than life. On Night Palace, the indie legend returns to the lo-fi grandiosity of his 2000’s output (notably The Glow Pt. 2, as The Microphones), wrenching viscera from his soul and scattering it across a 26 song track-list. The moods on this LP are looming; vacuous wells of distortion which lumber through tinges of post-rock, no-wave, and folk. Like all of Elverum’s music, however, there’s a captivating meekness which keeps the darkness at bay, present in the singer’s gentle poetry and comforting melodies. At times, Night Palace feels like a camping in an unexplored forest, but leave it to Phil Elverum to make something so disquieting feel like home.
Favorite Track: Blurred World
17. Different Type Time - Cavalier
In the underground rap world, Cavalier is far from a new kid on the block, but Different Type Time still feels like a proper arrival for the Brooklyn-born MC. At 21 tracks, this is hearty serving of everything that makes Cav such a stand-out artist to watch: thought-provoking quotables, cascading flows, and an unflinching sense of identity. It’s a zestful offering that touches the clouds of eccentricity, but Cavalier is careful to never lose footing of the concrete firma he came from. Although painful at times, there’s a joyous celebration inherent to Different Type Time that makes it such a titillating spool to unravel.
Favorite Track: Custard Spoon
16. CHROMAKOPIA - Tyler, The Creator
To blatantly misquote the 2010 Dreamworks film Megamind: “Wanna know the difference between a star and a super one? PRESENTATION!” This certainly applies to Tyler, The Creator, who could easily lay claim to the title of music’s greatest showman. CHROMAKOPIA is no different — just peep the visuals — but the heart of Tyler’s eighth studio album is not nearly as flashy. No, this record is the most personal thing Tyler’s ever released, reflecting deep-seated anxieties of paranoia, aging, and parenthood. Combine that with T’s singular ear for bombastic production, and you’ve got a recipe for a smash-hit that still manages to deep-dive into hearts the world over.
Favorite Track: Darling, I (feat. Teezo Touchdown)
15. Manning Fireworks - MJ Lenderman
“Timeless” is not a word to be thrown around lightly, but there’s honestly nothing more suited to describe MJ Lenderman’s latest LP. Channeling country progenitors and contemporary upstarts alike, the 25 year-old’s songwriting is a dizzying hodge-podge of irreverence and cherishment. For as much as Manning Fireworks strives for heartfelt authenticity, these songs are also tinged with an existential bitterness which tugs at the corners of the listener’s soul. It’s this back-and-forth which gives the record its identity and makes it such a compelling and — you guessed it — timeless capsule of music.
Favorite Track: Rip Torn
14. BLUE LIPS - ScHoolboy Q
It had been six years since we last heard from ScHoolboy Q, but the 2010s-hitmaker’s comeback sounds like he never left. There’s a casual feeling to BLUE LIPS, a laid-back and improvisational approach which “accidentally” turns into an album experience. Q’s flows are aqueous and adaptable, and the beats oscillate from moody soul samples to West Coast-flavored bangers at the drop of a hat. It’s a bit like an expertly curated playlist, and it makes for a smorgasbord of moods and tempos for rap fans to replay ad nauseam… something I definitely did my share of this year.
Favorite Track: Blueslides
13. Samurai - Lupe Fiasco
It’s impossible to ignore the outlandish concept that fuels Lupe Fiasco’s Samurai LP: the story of a struggling soul singer turned magically-ordained battle rapper, intended as a fictional retelling of Amy Winehouse’s career. More pertinently, however, Samurai is a love letter to the art-form Fiasco has mastered, slicing through complex syllabic rhyme-schemes with the grace of a swordsman’s katana. It’s perhaps not his most ambitious body of work, but that’s exactly what sets it apart. At eight tracks, and just 31 minutes, this album is an exercise in artistic brevity and restraint, and it chocks up to a near-perfect execution of hip-hop at its absolute purest.
Favorite Track: Til Eternity
12. 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips - Xiu Xiu
Like the satisfaction of peeling a scab, Xiu Xiu’s music has always found beauty in the grotesque. The experimental outfit’s latest record, however, embraces something wholly radical for their discography: optimism. It’s subtle — things still stray pretty damn far from the path of typical rock music — but there’s an encroaching warmth which singes the corners of these tracks. Much like the eponymous switchblade model which front-person Jamie Stewart epitomized as a “pretty useless instrument of violence,” what first seem like jagged edges on 13” Frank Beltrame… actually turn out to be comforting talismans of self-acceptance and emotional purgation.
Favorite Track: Common Loon
11. plastic death - glass beach
When glass beach first arrived on the scene with their 2019 debut, music nerds of the time came to a pretty clear consensus: “really good, seems like they have something better in store.” Lo and behold, five years and a global pandemic later, and the LA rock outfit pulled off exactly what we all hoped. plastic death fulfills the promise of the band’s withstanding material, and then some. Ricocheting through math-rock, jazz-rock, heavy metal, and more (someone used the term “post-genre”), the band maintains a proggy grip on the chaos for the entire run-time. It’s enthralling, dynamic, and oftentimes moving; everything a 63-minute rock epic should be.
Favorite Track: rare animal
10. The Thief Next to Jesus - Ka
There was no one like Ka. With nearly three decades of recorded material under his belt, the Brownsville MC was unanimously revered amongst underground hip-hop communities for his bare-bones and intimately forthright approach to rapping and beat-making. On October 12th, it was announced that Ka (real name Kaseem Ryan) had passed, a mere three months after releasing his ninth studio album, The Thief Next to Jesus. The record is as powerful and harrowing of a send-off as one could ask for, flipping skeletal gospel samples and pulling the threads on the systemic and historical connections between Black Americans and Christianity. Like all of Ka’s music, The Thief Next to Jesus sounds utterly like a labor of love, and it’s a perfect, albeit tragically unexpected, ending for such a remarkable music career. RIP BROWNSVILLE KA
Favorite Track: Such Devotion
9. Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend
To paraphrase an old adage: “In order to break the rules, you first have to learn them.” Well, if Vampire Weekend’s first four albums were the band mastering their unique brand of preppy chamber pop, then Only God Was Above Us is them smashing that sound to bits. It’s not a complete re-invention by any means — things still sound as VW as it gets — but there’s a beguiling lack of polish which sets this record apart. These songs feel more raw than ever before, deliberately obscuring the painstaking production choices in order to emphasize their emotional wallop. As a longtime fan of the band, even I didn’t expect them to have a masterpiece of this magnitude under their belt, and it surely signals only further greatness on the horizon.
Favorite Track: Connect
8. Imaginal Disk - Magdalena Bay
A few years on from the emergence of hyperpop and its blatant embracement of the internet age’s chaos, Magdalena Bay have delivered what I would consider to be the next stop in chronically-online pop: a sound in which the influence of the cyber-realm comes pre-baked. Imaginal Disk does everything a pop album should: crafting catchy, melodramatic gems, beautified by extra-glossy production. It’s the ethos of the record, however, that really gives it its identity, capturing a generational anxiety akin to doom-scrolling on the app of your choice. There’s a reason people haven’t been able to shut up about this album all year, and it’s unlikely they’ll be giving it the cold shoulder anytime soon.
Favorite Track: Death & Romance
7. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU - JPEGMAFIA
It’s either paradoxical or poetic, but for one of the most surprising artists in modern music, JPEGMAFIA still manages to surprise us with every release. On I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU — the experimental rapper/producer’s third LP this decade —Peggy calls upon heavy metal guitar riffs, Mancini-esque string sections, and AI-generated samples to round out his arsenal. Somehow, he coheres this chaotic palette into something satisfying and mischievously undefinable. ILDMLFY is an exhilarating thrill-ride that comes as a result of an artist with an uncompromising and ever-evolving vision, and it’s sure to itch a musical niche you didn’t even realize you had.
Favorite Track: I’ll Be Right There
6. GNX - Kendrick Lamar
Sucker-punching our music libraries less than a month ago, Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album didn’t even need to be that good in order to cement his historic run of a year. Lucky for us, it turned out to be one of the finest LPs the Compton legend has ever produced. Concise, perfectly curated, and brimming with West Coast originality, GNX is a thrilling new leaf for one of the most biggest artists in the world to turn over. These songs are a potent distillation of what makes him such an iconic and trusted voice in hip-hop, but perhaps most excitingly… they shows he’s got more to give.
Favorite Track: reincarnated
5. Diamond Jubilee - Cindy Lee
When it first dropped, this album was something of a cryptid for music fans. A double album, with 32 tracks, released exclusively to YouTube and the artist’s website; discovering Diamond Jubilee was a bit like stumbling upon your new favorite radio station. The product of Cindy Lee (a musical drag persona for indie fixture Patrick Flegel), this album plays like a dreamlike stroll through a place that almost existed. Calling upon rockabilly, doo-wop, sunshine pop, and much more, Flegel creates an expansive world of lo-fi ambience, where semi-familiar melodies wisp and whirl through fuzzed-out speakers like gnats on a screen door. There’s few records guaranteed to transport you like this one does, and it just so happens to be delightfully catchy to boot.
Favorite Track: Always Dreaming
4. COWBOY CARTER - Beyoncé
Don’t be fooled: Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER may be steeped in the traditions and trappings of country music, but this is not just a country album. This record is a wholly unique experience, one which stirs the roots of Black American music into a cinematic gumbo of styles, sounds, and approaches. Throughout it all, Beyoncé’s show-stopping charisma remains paramount, guiding the listener through a whopping 27 tracks with the flair of a cattle-hand breaking a bronco. COWBOY CARTER is a definitive belt-notch in an already iconic career, and if nothing else, it should prove that super-super-stardom has done nothing to temper Beyoncé’s creative fire.
Favorite Track: BODYGUARD
3. #RICHAXXHAITIAN - Mach-Hommy
Opacity lies at the heart of Mach-Hommy, the masked New Jersey-by-way-of-Haiti MC who’s lit the underground hip-hop world on fire over the past decade. #RICHAXXHAITIAN is no different, deliberately distancing the listener via nebulous boom-bap production and muffled — oftentimes bilingual — lyricism. It’s a labyrinthine album to work through, but that’s exactly what makes it so compelling. Containing thought-provoking evocations of Haiti’s past, present, and future, Mach-Hommy merges centuries of history with the vibrant quotables of his pen-tip. For anyone with the time and taste to enjoy it, #RICHAXXHAITIAN is a singular triumph that will bewitch you on each and every listen.
Favorite Track: POLITickle (feat. Drea D’Nur)
2. The New Sound - Geordie Greep
Fresh off the dissolution of the beloved band Black Midi, former frontman Geordie Greep stepped into the realm of solo material with one hell of a debut. As idiosyncratic and dynamic as the man himself, The New Sound is a technical marvel, calling upon more than 30 different musicians from all across the world to create an extravagant vision of jazz-rock. More than anything, however, the music on this album is defined by its emotional center: a self-loathing, hemorrhaging heart desperately gripping to paradigms of toxic masculinity to sustain itself. Cathartic would be an understatement; The New Sound delights in breaking and rebuilding you every time you give it a spin.
Favorite Track: Holy, Holy
1. BRAT - Charli XCX
Amidst the viral success, star-studded remixes, and presidential campaign slogans, it’s easy to lose sight of what Charli XCX’s sixth studio album actually is: a perfect dance-pop record. Catchy, addictive, and ferociously inventive, BRAT captures the wonders and woes of womanhood in the 2020’s by embracing the spirit of self-servicing-partygirl that dwells within us all. Each song is a moment, defined by Charli’s purposefully tacky songwriting and unforgettable production choices. There’s no doubt in my mind that this album will go down as the soundtrack for life in 2024, and it also just so happens to be one of the most enjoyable records I’ve heard in a long time. BRAT summer, forever.
Favorite Track: Everything is romantic