2024 has been an amazing year for music, with many albums this year that I have loved.
Throughout a huge year of pop culture moments, we have discovered new talents like KNEECAP, welcomed back celebrated artists like The Cure and Kendrick Lamar, who surprised the world with his brand new album GNX, and truly listened to creative new sounds that critics and music fans have put into the album of the year discussion. Whittling it down to just a few, here are some of my favourite albums of the year (in no particular order).
Charm – Clairo
After a three year hiatus, the now Grammy-nominated artist returned this summer with her third studio album Charm, a dazzling soft-rock album inspired by the sounds of 60/70s folk and rock. It’s a whispering breath of fresh air with a psychedelic new sound from her that separates her early lo-fi bedroom-pop work from this. Highlights like “Juna” and “Add Up My Love” muse the gut feeling of moving on from a past lover; the gut-wrenching finale “Pier 4” delves into themes of loneliness and self-discovery with the struggles of seeking meaningful relationships that she explores throughout the album. Aside from this album, her recent cover of “Love Songs” by Margo Guryan shows that Clairo has found her sound. Not to say Immunity and Sling aren’t perfect albums (they are), but this overall style of music was made for her voice, hence why it’s a massive contender for my number one album of the year.
Prelude to Ecstasy – The Last Dinner Party
The winners of both the BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2024 and the Brit Award for Rising Star; The Last Dinner Party undoubtedly proved how strong their presence is with a huge career to come very soon. I was lucky enough to see them perform their debut album Prelude to Ecstasy at The Octagon in Sheffield this September. In all honesty, it was a concert to brag about forever which left me with a huge appreciation for the London indie-rock band.
Their breakout single “Nothing Matters” was only the beginning of the insane rollout for this album. Tracks like “Sinner”, “The Feminine Urge”, and “Burn Alive” show no fear in any of the band members, which excites me for what they will bring to the dinner table in the future; will they experiment more with their sound or do a full 180 and create an album more original and creative than this masterpiece?
The Sunset Violent – Mount Kimbie
Mount Kimbie has been around for over a decade and a half now, and their sixth studio album was my first proper introduction to them aside from their song “Made To Stay”, which was featured on the GTA V radio station Worldwide FM. However, it never hooked me – “The Sunset Violent” gave me another chance.
It was a hot summer day on a train when I first listened to this album, and it was the perfect environment for it. I was sold immediately with the blend of guitar, electronic and harmonic vocal elements which they explored with the help of British indie sensation King Krule. The closing track “Empty and Silent” emphasises words from Archy Marshall’s (AKA King Krule) personal diary of isolation. It is an astounding ending to an incredible album to introduce me to the English group, with a brilliant overall blend of electronica, indie, and shoegaze for such a melancholy summer.
BRAT – Charli XCX
Next, the majority of people’s album of the year and for obvious reasons: Brat is so brat! I was very close to choosing the completely different remix, but you can’t out-do the doer. From pressing click on the opener “360”, Charli brought us into the world of her success and how she’s been managing it with other factors – like a family life with The 1975 drummer George Daniel, highlighted on “I think about it all the time”. Charli XCX’s sixth album transcends all emotional highs while including energetic and unique bangers on top of that – even the more relaxed tracks paint interesting pictures of multiple points in her life as a celebrity, which she delved further into on the remix album. If she decided to take a massive hiatus or make this her final album I wouldn’t be fussed because it’s an amazing way to go out. This is one of my favourite albums of the decade so far and I’m pretty sure that won’t change for quite some time.
Bright Future – Adrianne Lenker
I was first introduced to Big Thief when they released Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You in 2022 and I have adored lead singer Adrianne Lenker’s vocals ever since. Her past two solo records embed into your brain instantly, which Bright Future does so well, and it’s all I want to hear, over and over. From the wordplay, guitar-playing, and song structures to the various themes on each song, it is spectacular.
My favourite track from this album, “Ruined”, is a brilliant ending, yet has heartbreaking lyrics throughout with an instrumental that deteriorates and gets “ruined”, just like herself as she describes. Other highlights like “Sadness As A Gift” and “Fool” fit the overall aesthetic of the album. Each song of Lenker’s succeeds in finding beauty and memories of the tracks themselves. Just like her 2020 album, Songs and Instrumentals, Lenker has created a welcoming, free-flowing atmosphere for listeners to re-embark upon each listen.
Imaginal Disk – Magdalena Bay
After discovering them in 2021, I knew Magdalena Bay had something special. You find a new song to obsess over with each listen of this album and the sonic soundscape they’ve created is infectious. As I’m writing this review right now, my favourite would have to be the banger that is “Image”. It presents a perfectly balanced element of pop while tracks like “She Looks Like Me” offer a more unconventional, pop-rock route.
Magdalena Bay gives us a fusion of neo-psychedelia and synth-pop that feels so fresh and different to any other album release this year. With references to Lil Yachty’s 2023 album, Let’s Start Here, which the pop duo helped produce, Imaginal Disk feels like its older sibling, with more experience in this field making it such a magnificent album (not to say Let’s Start Here isn’t).
Their recent UK and EU tour saw them treat fans with a creative world which added greatly to their performances that made Imaginal Disk such an incredible and unforgettable album. As they continue to innovate their sound it leaves us excited to see how they’ll captivate fans and deliver another great album.
This Could Be Texas – English Teacher
This year’s Mercury Prize winner, English Teacher, rightly deserved to win against such notable contenders as The Last Dinner Party, Nia Archives, Barry Can’t Swim, and the legendary Portishead singer, Beth Gibbons. It’s an incredible debut with genre-bending experimentation and fascinating songwriting. With each listen I discover something new about it – it is so sonically dynamic! The post-punk band from Leeds throw sparkle after sparkle to make this a future classic, which they achieve so well. English Teacher seems set to follow the same trajectory as other UK artists who are all on a massive roll right now such as Black Country, New Road, Squid, and Black Midi, as well as underground and appreciated rappers like Lancey Foux, Knucks and Loyle Carner.
Fearless Movement – Kamasi Washington
My final pick is an ambient spiritual jazz record fused with mid-90s style R&B and rap that Washington calls his “dance album”. The sax player delivers new musical inspirations with help from the likes of Thundercat, André 3000, George Clinton and others. In an hour and a half, Washington arranges an undeniable record that is unafraid to take risks. A key moment on this album is the André 3000 flute-incorporated track, “Dream State”, where we see woodwind players unite to infinitely create an enjoyable song. It feels like a song that has given the artists a new opportunity to explore new possibilities, especially with the Outkast member going down the new route of flute-led ambient music last year on his debut solo album New Blue Sun.
The rest of the album is immaculate and shows how far Washington has come as a musician since the release of his debut album, The Epic, in 2015. From beginning to end it is the perfect album to sit back and relax to. Fearless Movement is a dizzying electric fusion of ideas that proves he’s still a king in the jazz scene.
