2024 Albums

I didn’t listen to much music in 2024. My therapist says this is something to mourn. She’s a smart one. But here are some albums I enjoyed that were released in 2024.

Most these albums were listened to on Klipsch RP 500M-IIs and a Klipsch sub–or in my car, which has an okay sound system. I listened to a couple through Focal Elexs, HD600s, or Austrian Audio Hi-X65s.

Honorable Mentions

These might be better than things on the actual list, so don’t assume I’m putting them here because they are worse.

  • The music of Kendrick Lamar. I think I listened to his diss tracks a lot more than GNX as an album, so I didn’t want to put GNX, though it’s of course good. I don’t know if Kendrick needed to cement his place in history more than he already has, but… this year certainly did it.

  • Laufey’s live tracks (especially A Night At The Symphony). She is good live.

  • Balancing Act by Subsonic Eye and Bedchamber. Only 13 minutes, and everything else on here is a proper album, so didn’t feel right to put it on the main list. But I like it a lot.

 

Brat

Charli XCX

I’m not sure if it was a Brat summer. I worked hard on a job I care about, and I don’t listen to music when I work. But I was still in something like the top 0.1% of Brat listeners. Maybe this gives me some right to gate-keep others’ Brat summers. Is that a Brat thing to do?

This album reminds me of driving on the 880 North, to Oakland. There, I practiced my leather working, went to the beach, and ate Korean food that was decidedly too spicy.

There is nothing left to say about this album which hasn’t been said.

Imaginal Disk

Magdalena Bay

A concept album? Who could have seen that coming in a Tom list. This album explores what it means to be human, in the face of technology. I spent this year surrounded by AI: trying to wrangle a frustrating and incredibly expensive new technology that sometimes seems smarter than God, and sometimes seems stupid as all hell.

Deepmind researcher Felix Hill died, and this album now reminds me of one of the pieces he left behind. It’s possible to get too absorbed in technology.

(Sidenote: Image is insanely good. How do you make that?)

Only God Was Above Us

Vampire Weekend

I think this is an album about a band and a city. I don’t know much about the band or the city. I wanted to go back there this year, but didn’t. All that to say: I don’t know what I’m talking about, but… I do scream piano. Vampire Weekend just has its own perfect indie rock sound, and honestly, if they just keep writing thoughtful songs with their sound, I will listen to every release and hope.

This album reminds me of the US election.

World

Elephant Gym

This is not a coherent concept album, like the crap I normally post about. Half of it is re-records of their first EP, Balance. It’s just a celebration of great music by a great Math rock band. To inaccurately quote me earlier in the year. “It shows how much joy you can have with some fancy drumming and an innovative bassline, even in supposedly standard time signatures. The wind/brass in their orchestral versions is the cherry on top.”

This album reminds of driving home from San Jose up the 87, and turning onto Evelyn Avenue.

Your Perfect Hands and My Repeated Words

Sadness

Shoegaze needed some representation on this list. This is slightly off from my usual shoegaze taste, especially in that it has male-presenting vocals. Like a fair amount of shoegaze, it’s very weirdly produced, and genuinely terribly mastered. I think this is deliberate. It wants you to get out the headphones and turn it up too loud. It’s not trying to be a studio recording. To understand that, here’s some background.

Sadness is a project by a black metal + shoegaze artist with a small but dedicated fanbase, who are constantly wondering whether the shows on the sadness Spotify are real or some spammer. (Answer: both.)

This is one of three less metal-y shoegaze EPs they released on bandcamp in rapid succession after a break-up. They then announced they were quitting music on their Patreon, then a few days later deleted the post, all while an unofficial discord with a few hundred teens speculated, overrated the new EPs on RYM, and tried to get people to stop talking about NSBM so Nazis didn’t invade their corner of the internet.

Then the speculation rightly began as to whether it’s okay to release three albums about your ex, with her on the album covers, and her name in the descriptions. Then other signs of obsession came out, which I won’t go into detail on, because I’m not /r/hobbydrama (but a few months on, it looks like things are going a bit better for the artist, or I would not include this background…)

I listened to this when it came out, and didn’t know any of this. I don’t know about metal or post-relationship love-bombing, but the album is very raw and emotional, and its story reflective of… something about music in the internet age.

No reflection about me in this one. This one is someone else’s story.

Night Palace

Mount Eerie

Recorded music is a statue of a waterfall.

Apparently Phil Everum’s last few albums were about impermanence. I think this album might also be about impermanence. Though it’s a bit long for an album about impermanence.

I’m not generally into sounds this experimental and cacophonous–I think part of the fun of music is hiding the sadness behind something a little more mainstream–but I really think he does a good job at imagery. No other album I listened to this year creates as vivid an image for me.

This album reminds me of echocardiograms, and all my friends getting married up in Seattle. Hearts are rather impermanent.

Hit Me Hard And Soft

Billie Eilish

T’will be a surprise if Billie does not get her 10th Grammy this year.

Update: well, I didn’t finish making this page until after the Grammys, and she didn’t get one.

I think this is a good Billie Eilish album. And Billie Eilish is a good musician. It is also a bit dream-poppy. So it belongs on this list.

It reminds me of a cappella.

Girl with No Face

Allie X

I… don’t remember this album very well. February seems like a long time ago. But it’s dark 80s synth pop and it rules. That is all.

Charm

Clairo

We all know this, but Jack Antonoff is a damn good producer: GNX, Short n’ Sweet, Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, Sour, Folklore, and… Clairo’s great second album, Sling.

So when an artist ditches Jack, you’re always a little bit nervous. Leaving things behind is hard, as I’ve learnt all too well the last few years.

But this is an even better album than Sling (and the garbage Jack is releasing with Taylor.) Charm is lo-fi, warm, and has a track with those Pink Floyd-y synths I love. It doesn’t try to do much, but also doesn’t do too little. This album reminds me of my vinyl player. I notably don’t have it on vinyl.

Submarine

The Marias

I have not been underwater much this year. I am known for my enjoyment of being underwater, so perhaps this is (also) something to mourn.

I have, however, listened to this album. It’s crisp, it’s dream-pop, it’s not afraid of bass guitars, it’s by a band named after the lead vocalist, but pluralised. I was convinced it would get them nominated for Best Engineered at the Grammys (again)–and surprised when it didn’t. I’m not sure what you could ask for. Well, the ridiculously good single Echo.

If Brat didn’t exist, this might be my album of the year. Brat is scary.

This record reminds me of being underwater.

Hotel La Rut

Joanna Wang

In 2017, I made a playlist called Eclectricity. It consisted of bands like The Olivia Tremor Control, of Montreal, Foxygen, among quite a few others. (That’s right: I’m pretentious.) I used to listen to it on the train to and from my gap year job in London.

This whole album could go on that playlist. It’s absolutely sick: coherently crazy, funny, and by far the best album art on this list. Kazuo Umezu would be proud, may he rest in peace.

This album reminds of me of 2017.

13”

Xiu Xiu

Writing the full name of this album is like naming your pet “Elkay EZS8L Wall Mount ADA Cooler Non-filtered Refrigerated Light Gray Granite.” I shan’t do it.

I have bought tickets to two Xiu Xiu shows. I have been to a total of zero Xiu Xiu shows. This album reminds of the dumb fact I have done this. One day I will probably go to a Xiu Xiu show.

TODO: Write more about this album. It’s sometimes hard to write about people who are smarter than you.

Family Business

Lawrence

(Please actually read the review on this one before you complain...)

Let’s be real. This album is no Hotel TV, by the same artist. I think it’s probably Lawrence’s worst album. Whatcha Want stands out as a song that genuinely missed the mark. I’ve been saying that song is garbage long before TikTok found it.

But I’m a Lawrence fan, the album is not terrible, and for once I want to give… constructive criticism? I’m not a music critic, and genuinely think public negativity about music is pretty much pointless unless you have skin in the game. What I do have skin in is the being sad game, so having said that…

I think Family Business was destined to be a sad album. The best songs are Something in the Water, Death of Me, 23, and Funeral. All songs by Gracie, and all at least melancholic. These fucking rule live. Death of Me is this crazy setpiece half way through the show that shows everything this album could be. The bandless version of Something in the Water is a banger.

But I don’t think that Lawrence is necessarily an environment or band that is conducive to producing sad music. Having Jon Bellion as your label is probably not conducive to producing sad music. Or if it is, if has to have an upbeat backing so it’s subtle and yet has popular appeal.

I’m not sure what you do to fix this. Become a DSBM band and hire Sadness as a producer?

What a Devastating Turn of Events

Rachel Chinouriri

Cynthia has been listening to “All I Ever Asked” all year, but I only got to this album at the end of the year. (After Mr. Fantano’s review, though I was not aware of that review at the time...) But I knew halfway through the album this was gonna make it here.

I think it’s safe to say Rachel Chinouriri is kinda a TikTok artist: that’s where she’s grown her audience. And I don’t mean that in a bad way: a thing I like about TikTok is it’s got the teens back into niches. Indeed, one of those niches is my favorite niche: shoegaze. (I went to a Duster show in 2023, and was surprised to be the oldest person there.)

Rachel Chinouriri is this awesome mix of BRIT-school style brit pop, shoegaze-style distorted guitars, and Maisie Peters’ tremulous vocals, that I just don’t think you’d see before TikTok. It’s messy and honest and indie pop and filled with guitars, and while it has a bit too much Coldplay inspiration for my tastes, it’s just good. Maybe the kids are all right.

^ (This is a really clever and subtle joke because The Who influenced the aesthetic of britpop with the whole Union Jack thing, and the TikTok kids are picking that up again, and The Who had a song called… never mind.)

Lives Outgrown

Beth Gibbons

I guess we’re in the British section now: here’s another Mercury Prize nominee.

Beth Gibbons is a pretty influential figure if you listen to the sort of music I listen to. But it’s a bit weird because not that many Brits my age have heard of her band Portishead? It seems to me that in the 90s some of her albums were sort of quietly overwritten by the type of Britpop that Rachel Chinouriri probably listened to (which was still pretty big in my childhood.) By the time I was able to listen to music, no-one was really talking as much about Dummy and Portishead, even in the more indie scene. But people like Kendrick and Radiohead keep quietly featuring them, so they must be good…

And I’m pleased to report that Beth Gibbons is still good. This album has definitely got one too many torch songs for me, but I suppose that that fact is in the name of the album. I also found Rewind to be a little bit… unsubtle? But the other songs on the album are dark and emotional and human, have very cool orchestral production, and just… catch a certain vibe, like Portishead used to.

This album reminds me of Expert in a Dying Field.

The New Sound

Geordie Greep

I wasn’t lying when I said I had a British section.

This is not usually my favourite type of music to listen to. I kind of prefer Jazz to Jazz Rock, and the more prog tracks are just kinda not my thing. It’s too Broadway.

But this album does one thing notably well. Like any good musical, despite its maximalist instrumentation, it makes its lyrics really separated in the mix and easy to listen to, so it’s almost hard to ignore them. And those lyrics are good, and deeply unhinged: it’s Father John Misty, but different. Less subtle, more insane. This makes it really quite listenable, actually.

I wish to encourage more crazy albums with really strong narratives about really weird men being really weird, because there are lot of really weird men out there being really weird.

This album reminds me of really weird men being really weird.

Fearless Movement

Kamasi Washington

Kamasi Washington is good.

Listen to his album.

You will like it.

This album reminds me that Kamasi Washington’s Jazz is good.

She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

Chelsea Wolfe

She reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she reaches out to she.

This album reminds me that she reaches out to she.

disclaimers you shouldn’t read unless you’re thinking about complaining

  • i don’t really listen to hip-hop or rap.

  • i liked a large percentage of the albums i listened to. i’m not claiming i have meaningfully filtered down albums here.

  • i did not listen to some of these albums more than once (e.g. the new sound).

  • there is no order.

  • i have no criteria for what is good music.

  • my listening is fairly influenced by RYM and Twitter which is in turn influenced by mainstream reviewers like Anthony Fantano. (the reason it’s influenced by RYM is RYM likes shoegaze. i also like shoegaze.)