The Best Albums of 2024

Party like it's 2008

“Ah, year-end list-making!” That’s how I started my Best Of posts last year, and the feeling has carried over. Contained in that “ah” is both the slight pre-exhaustion of this labor that no one but my neuroticism forces on me and the joy I still gain from compiling and justifying my faves each year.

For better or worse, almost half of the pleasure I glean from any piece of art is derived from sharing it (and in it) with friends and loved ones. So rather than reading these annual lists and thinking “here he goes again,” maybe you can think “aww, he loves me.” Maybe!

I had planned to start with books per usual, but I still have 200 pages of Demon Copperhead left and I just know that sucker’s gonna make the cut. So here I am starting with albums—or more aptly, albums and EPs, as 40% of my Top 10 is comprised of shorter releases that packed a big punch. Maybe not the best music year I’ve heard, but a pretty rich bounty nonetheless.

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10. Clockwork - Sophia James

You’ve heard of concept albums—now hear this concept EP. Across seven songs (six originals + an Amy Winehouse cover), Sophia James plays in and with time—writing, singing, and thinking about the ways we spend the minutes we get. It’s interesting, for sure, but none of that matters more than the fact that these songs sound as good as they do. From the slow build of “Clockwork” to the Carly Rae Jepsen pop of “Circadian Rhythm,” there’s more than enough here to earn your time.

9. 14 minutes - Dominic Fike

Dom’s a forever fave of mine, easily earning the #2 spot on last year’s list with “Sunburn”. Hot on the tails of that album, he unceremoniously dropped this palette-cleansing EP as a YouTube video of him running through a foggy Los Angeles this May. Don’t be fooled by its bare-bones appearance, though—these eight (very short) songs contain more pop experimentation than most full albums attempt. “hi grace” rides a jazzy piano loop to places you’d never expect, while “THICKRICK” twists a borderline-unintelligible hook and some stompy guitars and into an irresistible earworm. This was clearly intended as an intermission of sorts, but it’s a testament to Fike’s musical ambition that his intermission is sweeter than most people’s main event.

8. For Someone Somewhere Who Isn’t Us - Samm Henshaw

I’ve always been captivated by Samm—it’s hard not to be enraptured by a voice like his. His debut album delivered on much of the promise of his raw talent, but this six-song EP is his most cohesive work yet, leaning into the soulful influences that have always inflected his music and letting the gift of his instrument take center stage. There’s a surprising amount of variety within such a short tracklist, but his voice and the lock-tight production glue it all together; the bass is rockin’, the horns are blaring, the pianos are tinkling, and a prodigy is singing. “The Cafe” is the perfect capper: a Broadway-ready reverie that perfectly captures the lazy romance of an easy weekend.

7. All Your Life - Still Woozy

This is an interesting one, in that I have incredibly positive feelings toward both Still Woozy in general and this album in particular, and yet after playing it a ton when it was first released, I haven’t returned to it nearly as much as his debut album. That might be a slight knock on the sequencing, which does get a little downbeat in the back half. But then again, every time I do play it through, I find myself enjoying myself immensely. And even though I prefer his classic mode to some of the musical digressions he tries out here, there’s not a bad song on the joint and his musicianship continues to astound. Trust that I’ll get over whatever weird asterisks are hanging on my appreciation of this album, and enjoy its abundance of earworms for yourself.

6. GNX - Kendrick Lamar

I’m about as culturally removed from beefing mega-rappers as I am geographically removed from West Coast Hip Hop. But when I listen to Kendrick Lamar’s latest, any distance between me and the music is immediately dissolved in head-bopping, arm-out-the-window-ing bliss. These songs are so tight, so direct, so thrilling to listen to; you can tell Kendrick is not messing around, but you can also hear how much fun he’s having doing it. My literary analysis skills usually fall out of my head when listening to lyrically dense music, but it doesn’t matter—there are more than enough zingers and hooks on this thing to hold my interest even when I lose the plot. And maybe Kendrick has lost it a little, too. But if this is the result, I hope he never finds it.

5. Eating & Drinking & Being in Love - Theo Kandel

Theo was far and away the best musical discovery I made (or that Discover Weekly handed down to me) this year. A Millennial/Gen Z-cusper with an old-school ear for James Taylor fingerpicking and an eye for quotidian romance, his greatest songwriting attribute is the most self-evident: he writes beautiful songs. “Lunch” is the one that first hooked me with its so-simple-it’s-genius chorus, and “Nothing New” is probably my favorite song of the year for its drop-dead-gorgeous melody and lovely lyrics. But there is a song on this concise little album for everyone, from the endearingly cheesy “The Painters” to the wistful travelogue of “Romanticizing Poets”. Both in his songs and on his Instagram, Theo comes across as immensely likable and wise beyond his years, just as down to sing about painting-the-house-together love as he is to crush some Miller High Lifes with the boys. And the cherry on top: he writes his own Substack (!!), where he generously breaks down his songwriting process with WIP voice notes and guitar tutorials. What’s not to love?

4. Persona - half•alive

As high-minded and pretentious as I know I can get about music (“just music?” my haters ask), sometimes I really just want to bop. In that arena, no one has been more reliable over the last few years than half•alive, who consistently pump out ecstatic, energetic pop songs in every register. Persona is a much shorter album than 2022’s Conditions of a Punk, but there’s nearly as much sonic experimentation happening here. Even if these songs mostly retain a standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure, every tightly composed tune harbors a dozen interesting melodic riffs or production textures that make them rewardingly replayable even beyond their incredible catchiness. There’s some Bad Suns in the mix, and some The 1975, and even a little Jon Bellion, but half•alive recompose any borrowed elements into a sound that’s uniquely their own.

3. All for Something - Tiny Habits

If my Top 10 list has fewer “sad girl pop” entries this year than ever before, I’m at least making some of it up by sneaking two of them in one with Tiny Habits. But Tiny Habits is a trio, and it’s the heavenly, Berklee-College-of-Musically way their three voices blend and ascend that makes their music, well… sing. This is an album that wears its songwriting influences (Lizzie McAlpine above all) on its sleeves, but it’s worth noting that this made my list and Lizzie’s latest did not. Maybe that’s just a testament to my love for a three-part harmony, but there is also a special kind of catchy, yearning magic in these tunes that sets them above similarly talented groups that rely on vocal acrobatics to camouflage unremarkable songs. Not so here: Tiny Habits seems to be the rare group of prodigious musicians whose raw talent is matched by their knack for crafting melodies that stick to the roof of your mind. Lizzie will be back on my lists, I’m sure—but Tiny Habits is more than enough to hold me over.

2. SABLE, - Bon Iver

I debated and debated over including a 3-song EP on my Best Albums list at all, much less as high as #2. But man—did any other release make me feel, or yearn, or pick up my guitar as much as these three songs did? Bon Iver is maybe, probably, definitely my favorite artist/band/collective (?) of all time, so I’m way in the bag for something that so purely distills their essence. But man—listen to these songs!! With little else but a guitar and a few strings and the angels on their side, hear what is possible! I mean, actually listen to the way these songs swell, and ache, and resonate with truths unspoken and pains unspooled. Lean into their tensions until they break, ride around in their loops until you do; there is so much here worth losing yourself in, and then that much more there to find you.

1. Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend

My favorite album this year was the only one that made me reminisce about my boat-shoe-wearing days as an Urban Outfitters Sales Associate. There’s a lot to unpack there, but you don’t need to know or care about any of it to enjoy this rich, rewarding album from the indie kings of the 2000s, effortlessly proving they’ve still got it. The baroque strings and pianos of their first couple of albums are back, but remixed and reimagined within the wider sonic landscape they’ve explored since then. The lyrics retain their trademark blend of would-be-pretentious-if-they-weren’t-so-clever references and evocative abstractions, and the relatively tight tracklist gives the whole endeavor an overarching cohesion despite its wild variety (at times, cacophony) of sounds. This is an intentionally chaotic record for our unintentionally chaotic times, and one that closes with an earnest attempt to reckon with the overwhelmingness of All That by poignantly imploring us to let it go.

Honorable Mentions - SINGLES EDITION

I’m continuing last year’s format of sharing some of my favorite songs of the year in lieu of more albums, but some of these are also backdoor album recs. Having my cake and listening to it to, etc.

Speaking of—Omar’s second album just missed my top 10 despite pushing his Frank Ocean-lite sound to new and exciting places. Example: the upbeat R&B (?) pop of “Spite,” whose chorus unleashes Omar’s croon-ready voice in a more hyped register than usual.

Not a 2024 release, but I don’t care. The kind of song that makes you want to plan a road trip just so you can listen to it on a highway somewhere, driving fast.

Despite knowing his name, I’d never listened to Fred again... before his gorgeous collab with Brian Eno played on Industry this season. I’ve listened to him a lot since, and especially to this spoken-word/piano/club banger.

Yet another not-Lizzy-McApline-but-sounds-like-Lizzy-McAlpine entry, though—crucially—this is Lizzy with some BANGIN’ synths. Really cool song on a really nice album.

Twenty One Pilots are a little like Lin-Manuel Miranda to me in that the hate over their “corniness” is understandable but misplaced: the songwriting goods are just there, I’m sorry. Sue me, but I’m dancing.

Novo Amor’s third album sits right in the middle of his previous two, musically, which is potentially why it’s less memorable—but this song captures his Bon Iver-inspired sound in its full glory.

Despite being predisposed to be annoyed by Medium Build (I first found him performatively scream-singing on Reels), I found a lot to love on his album when I gave it a full listen. This song in particular is so catchy and earnest that it makes me think the screaming might not have been performative in the first place.

Really fun and bright riff on Coldplay’s “Lovers in Japan” chord progression. Love the stacked vocals too—makes it sound and feel like you’re beltin’ it out with your boys.

I wish Remi Wolf’s whole album were as catchy as this song, whose first lick alone could have entire nations bobbing their heads in sync.

The best song on an album full of boots-on-the-floor bangers. Makes me feel like I live in the world “Old Town Road” imagined.

Sounds like something I would’ve been obsessed with in high school: golden horns, even more golden harmonies.

Lost my mind when my friend showed me this. If you listen to it and cut it off before the transcendent sax drop that occurs around 1:45, you owe me $5 for wasting your time and mine. Venmo: @JustinHairston94