Once upon a time there was a boy named Chris. Having spent years backfilling on decades gone past, in 2021 he set out on a quest to catch up on newer music. He listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked his favorites. He did the same for 2020, picking his top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And he listened to new releases monthly in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun he decided to do it again in 2022 and 2023, listening each month and picking out the 22 best albums of 2022 and the 23 best albums of 2023.
There are links to the albums in the posts cited above, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve got that set up in YouTube Music:
- the 20 Best Albums of 2020
- the 21 Best Albums of 2021
- the 22 Best Albums of 2022
- the 23 Best Albums of 2023
Here are the previous editions of the 2024 monthly review if you missed them:
( January February March April May June/July August )
A quick word on the “yes” and “maybe” categories I’ve sorted things into, before we get going with the latest:
Yes– This isn’t a guarantee, but it represents the albums that, upon first listen, I think could definitely be in the running for best of the year.
Maybe– These albums have something to recommend them, but also something that gives me pause. I’m putting them in their own category, because I have found “maybes” sometimes linger and eventually become “yeses”.
And now, the top picks from 208 September and October 2024 new releases that I listened to!
1tbsp, Megacity1000– Bright, lively, and appropriately smart alecky hyper pop EDM. My sources say: 1tbsp is an indie-house project from Australian Grammy Award Nominated artist Maxwell Byrne (aka Golden Vessel). I say yay!
Alan Sparhawk, White Roses, My God– It’s glitchy! It’s autotuned up the wazoo! It’s very conscious about it! Maybe surprisingly, maybe not, it’s from the former co-lead of Low!
Amyl & the Sniffers, Cartoon Darkness– They were great on their last album, here they get lyrically sharper and musically more sophisticated without losing a bit of punch. Go Aussie punk!
Beth Hart, You Still Got Me– With the gloriously wasted affect and Slash on the backing on the opening track, I thought we were in for a particular kind of trip here. Not a bad one, just particular. But in fact, she takes us to all kinds of places- a sonically appropriate ode to wanting to be Johnny Cash, a smoky torch song, an almost vaudeville-feeling piece. : “I was totally knocked out by Beth. Here’s this lady who’s acting like I’m the cool one, and meanwhile I’m thinking, Man, she’s got it all. She’s the new Janis Joplin, Tina Turner – the real deal, you know?”[37] How have I been sleeping on this?
Bilal, Adjust Brightness– The initial preview of Bilal’s first studio album in nine years arrived only a couple of months after Live at Glasshaus. Abstract jazz, video game soundtrack, and EDM, shot through with some of the purest soul you could ask for. And that’s just on the first track!
Black Pus, Terrestrial Seethings– So, what with the group name, and the album name, I was expecting something guttural and death metally. And it was at that level of harshness but was a delightful collage of improvised music and overdubbed vocals and samples, that was treading a line between noise rock and experimental electronic. Black Pus is apparently a project of Rian Chippendale, an American musician and artist, known as the drummer and vocalist for the experimental noise rock band Lightning Bolt and for his graphic art. And I am here for it!
Bright Eyes, Five Dice, All Threes– The kids tell me I should like Bright Eyes. And, while it may be almost two decades old at this point that he’s the new Bob Dylan, I’m starting to buy it! Or at least a Gen Y/Millennial Springsteen. The intelligent ramble of the lyrics and the spare punch of the music have sold me.
Callahan & Witscher, Think Differently– I read: “The New York experimental duo gets meta on a concept album about experimental music that’s littered with meme effects and shitpost irreverence. It feels like a Discord thread set to music.” Damn if it isn’t true, and in a great way! Part hardcore, part hyperpop, part autotune glitch EDM, incredibly self-referential on making music, and with a snotty inventiveness that reminds me of a (modern, ironically detached) Beastie Boys. The two principals here have each been leaders in underground music this millennium, and the collaboration is divine.
Caribou, Honey– I’ve recently become a fan of the band, and this is as bright and fun and yet interesting a block of dance music as one could ask for!
Charli XCX, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat– I liked Brat. I did! But these remixes, and their so well deployed guests take it to a whole new level. They really breathe that something extra into the songs and take it from a “like” to a “love”.
Confidence Man, 3 AM (LA LA LA)– Man, that is some good high energy, and suitable attitude, dynamic EDM. An electropop due from Brisbane, Australia has been kicking around for eight years now, and they’ve just kicked their way into my field of attention.
cumgirl8, the 8th cumming– Well this was a welcome surprise. Based on the name I was (not in a judgmental way) expecting something very EDM and raunchy. What we have instead is a nervy post-punk version of electropop with wickedly arch gender politics and social commentary thrown in. Both super fun to listen to, and substantive! I guess that’s what happens when you have an “American post-punk band and multi-media collective based in Manhattan” who describe themselves as a “sex-positive alien amoeba entity,” whose music functions as an “outlet [for] repressed and pent-up emotions”.
Ginger Root, SHINBANGUMI– With cited influences spanning everything from boogie and Philly soul to Japanese city pop and Paul McCartney’s Ram, it also marks his Ghostly International debut. It’s fun, light-hearted, and sublime.
Goat, Goat– This is pretty amazing- part crunching distorted hard rock, part psychedelic freakout, a little EDM thrown in. This is everything you would expect and hope for from a Swedish band Goat, though currently based in Gothenburg, claims to hail from Korpilombolo in Sweden which, according to the band’s own publicity, has a history of voodoo worship after a witch doctor came and lived there. When Christian crusaders came and destroyed the village the surviving people fled and placed a curse on the town. This has been described as “a lovely story, if possibly not entirely rooted in reality.”
Halsey, The Great Impersonator– Man, she is sharp. Like a Lana Del Ray with a rougher edge.
JD McPherson, Nite Owls– One of the joys of any JD McPherson album is discovering how he manages to further transform his ever-churning blend of vintage-inspired influences. 2024’s Nite Owls is no expectation and finds the Oklahoma-bred singer and songwriter conjuring a cooly philosophical, tube-amp-textured sound that blends twangy surf rock and baritone guitar atmospherics with buzzy, ’70s glitter rock.
Joey Valence & Brae, NO HANDS– Oh come on! Such fun, high energy, booming hip hop, redolent of the height of turntabilism. This duo of college rappers from Pennsylvania who consciously hearken back to the Beastie Boys and the alternative rap of the nineties are making fun noise.
Lady Gaga, Harlequin– This serves as a pseudo-soundtrack for the Joker sequel, with songs whose content and attitude is related to her Harley Quinn persona from that film. And that certainly does add oomph, but it’s a serving of oomph on top of excellent, and musically varied, covers of standards by Gaga. Solid fun all around!
Laila!, Gap Year!– All right. Let’s address the obvious nepobaby factor that she’s Mos Def’s daughter. That being said, you know how a basement tape from a punk group that’s just starting out and is having fun sounds? This is the hip-hop/R&B equivalent of that. Drum machines, samplers, minimal production and her soaring voice and smart attitude light this up. Give props to this 18-year-old, she’s going places!
MC5, Heavy Lifting– For a gap of several decades, and being essentially a memorial album, this still kicks out the jams and reminds you of how foundational they were.
Molly Nillson, Un-American Activities– Swedish musician Nillson leads us on a tour through various eras of Unamerican activity and various musical styles. Including HSCUAC era propaganda turned into a dance party. This is quite interesting, challenging, and fun!
OneDa, Formula OneDa– “Manchester’s OneDa is a rapper, poet, and producer with a brashly confident personality and distinctively queer, feminist, and sex-positive outlook.” yes! And between all this, it keeps you engaged the whole time.
Pearl & the Oysters, Planet Pearl– Bright, poppy, synthy, with the sound of a bedroom pop production and weird imagistic wordscapes delivered through slightly fuzzy ethereal vocals. This French American duo has been making beautifully spacy music together for over a decade, and sis still going strong.
Public Service Broadcasting, The Last Flight– First of all- this is one of two experimental albums on Earhart’s last flight that I’ve reviewed this year. (The other being Laurie Anderson’s.) That’s weird! And, like Anderson’s album, it’s beautiful, haunting, sophisticated, and experimental. It also tours through a huge range of styles along the way, which gives it an extra layer of zip and interest.
Shigeto, Cherry Blossom Baby– Modern, but a feel for “classic” EDM, and a sure meld with hip hop.
Shovels & Rope, Something Is Working Up Above My Head– Kind of country, kind of growling garage rock. I loved the last album by this South Carolina duo, and I like this one too!
Silverbacks, Easy Being a Winner– If there’s one decade that defines the sound of Easy Being a Winner, it’s the 1970s. “We realized it was probably the closest thing we were going to make to a classic ‘70s rock album, with the big guitars and the big drum sounds,” This sounds a bit like that. It sounds a bit like post-punk. Like art rock. Like seventies americana sometimes. With lovely accents, and arch lyrics. There’s a lot here to love!
Skeggs, Pacific Highway Music– A surprise! (That apparently is all the notes I took during my initial listen. We’ll both have to listen again and see what the surprise is!)
St. Lenox, Ten Modern American Work Songs– The orchestral flourishes, the dense wordplay, the driving music and vocals, the genuine import delivered with sincerity, exuberance, and humor. It’s all there, and if it doesn’t quite have the punch for me that Ten Songs of Worship and Praise for our Tumultuous Times did when it made it on to my best of 2021 list, that’s just affinity for subject matter.
Tank and the Bangas, The Heart, The Mind, The Soul– The spirit of neo-soul is alive here!
The Dare, What’s Wrong With New York?– Somebody has made heavy-drop EDM that time-warped to early 00s New York and channels the spirit of both the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem. It comes with just the right touches of sleaze, grit, and glitter, and it’s glorious. The Dare is apparently a producer in his twenties from L.A., but he’s got his finger on that era and other Coast for sure.
Thee Sacred Souls, Got a Story to Tell– Oh, these old-style grooves are warming my soul! Even the cover reminds me of an early seventies outing. retro and Latin Soul from San Diego. Some of these feel like they could legit could be outtakes from 70s Marvin Gaye sessions.
Tim Heidecker, Slipping Away– Subtler and more powerful than High School, my 2022 top pick from him, familiar, and challenging.
Tommy Richman, Coyote– What I read going in was, “Richman layers his dramatic falsetto over beats that nod to 1990s R&B, 1880s synth-pop, funk, and disco.’ And it is all true! Virginia-born L.A. based Richman started off as tik tok sensation, but this album shows that it’s for good reason. He knows his influences and works them in the best way to create a sound familiar, fun, and yet fresh.
Maybe
- Akai Solo, DreamDropDragon– The stuttering beats, the harsh edge to the mix, and the hypnotic thump of the flow and mix all hit right. And scholarly musings on Freud and Jung’s dream interpretation theories thrown in!
- Allegra Krieger, Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine– Oh my gosh, the smoothly languorous vocals, emotionally literate lyrics, and spot on melodies of this are on point! It’s a little one tone at times, but she’s got a good tone going.
- Being Dead, EELS– Note, this is the album EELS by the Austin band Being Dead, and not an album titled being Dead by the band The Eels. It’s all very confusing, but also reverby, snarky, indie rock of the garage rock influence variety. So, naturally, I love it. The song “Rock n’ Roll Hurts” with top notch garage rock interspersed with peals of industrial noise and the band laughing gives you an idea of the tone of the whole.
- Christian Lee Hutson, Paradise Pop. 10– It’s really beautiful, and well phrased. I am a little unsure of the mellowness of tone, but the lyrics and instrumentation are on point.
- Common/Pete Rock, The Auditorium, Vol. 1– Now this is a classic hip hop flashback! Late 90s/early 00s of a certain NY conscious-adjacent but mainstream hip hop.
- Dame Area, Toda la Verdad Sobre Dame Area– Hardcore? Industrial? Experimental Synthpop EDM? It’s not always the easiest listen, but consistently a fascination one from this group from the Barcelona dance underground scene.
- Harmony, Gossip– The former Girlpool singer’s solo debut wants to rot your brain. It is, in many respects, insufferable. And so much nonstop fun!
- Indi Star, eMotion Sick– I’m not really up on the world of actress/singer/Social Media Star/dancers, but apparently, she is one. What I am up on is sounds I like, and as contemporary pop-oriented with a smart independent point of view goes, this is a pretty good representation of it!
- Jamie xx, In Waves– EDM with a point!
- Jon Spencer, Sick of Being Sick!– Appropriately blistering proto-punk/garage rock sound from an established master at it. It’s not the newest take on things ever, but it feels fresh and alive.
- Kate Bollinger, Songs From a Thousand Frames of Mind– There’s definitely a mood here- ethereal and slightly heliumated vocals, bright guitars with sweet melodies, hazy radio clips, birds singing in the background. This Virgina singer-songwriter has evoked a later day Laurel Canyon sound, and it’s a pleasing and buoyant listen from start to finish.
- Kate Pierson, Radios and Rainbows– Even though she’s now more of a B-76 than a B-52 (see how clever I am?!?!?!) Kate Pierson hasn’t lost a step. You’ll hear the B-52s sound here, disco, political and social musing, and reflection on a life creatively lived. It’s really a pretty great outing and makes me realize that elder alt-80s is now a thing, just as elder-Classic Rock started to be in the eighties. Sometimes they still have something to say!
- LL Cool J, The Force– The mélange of eras of hip hop is a little confusing, some of it almost feels like an affectation of the NY East Coast hip hop persona of the nineties. But it’s delivered so strongly and with such verve, both musically and vocally, that I can’t dismiss!
- mediopicky, el precio de la yuca/Bexaco y rico– Es dificil. The crunching guitar and heavy dance music of the track tracks is great. The thirteen interspersed vocal skits in Spanish are more in Spanish than is easy for me to understand. And so it goes!
- Miranda Lambert, Postcards From Texas– Sometimes cracklingly boisterous, sometimes lushly perfect, sometimes actually heart aching. Miranda Lambert has been one of my favorites from pop country in the last few years, and this ability to tap into pop and traditional form, with lyrical and vocal smoothness that doesn’t bleed out all sincerity is why. Is it an album for the ages? Maybe not. Is it the best pop country album of the year? Maybe!
- Nick Lowe, Indoor Safari– Lowe and his sound have aged well. Which is not a surprise, as it was timeless to begin with- a hearkening back to fifties rock in a punk/new wave veneer. Not surprising or revelatory, but a darn solid listen.
- Popstar Benny, Oasis– This had zip and occasionally even some zaniness to it!
Two more months to go! We can do it!
Chris LaMay-West 