Your first question might be: You’re still on about this?!?!?! Well yes, I am. Mostly because I really want to do the 2000-2024 top albums project, and part of the path to getting there is to finish 2024. The good news is I’m further along than might immediately be apparent, because I’ve actually completed all the listening through October releases, and am pretty far along on November. I’ve even re-listened to my January-October picks, and made my definite contender shortlist from them. If nothing else, this month-long surgical convalescence is a good chance to get this going again!

So, to continue… Once upon a time there was a guy 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. He is me!

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)

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”.

Now let’s get on with my top picks from 187 June-July 2024 new releases that I listened to!

Ani DiFranco, Unprecedented Sh!t– While there are no bad Ani DiFranco artists, many artists have an earlier that is so strong it outshines later. But there’s something stripped down, quirky, and often electronically surprising and grating here. May I be doing as well on my 21st studio album!

Bilal/Common/G/Questlove, Live at Glasshaus– A multimodal, multi-artistic hip hop, soul, and jazz symphony of voices. Those four master musicians form Bilal’s backing on the December 2023 date documented here, recorded in front of a small Brooklyn crowd. It feels like a masterclass from everyone involved.

Blk Odyssey, 1-800 Fantasy– The Texan-based artist and producer adds that the concept record draws “inspiration from early 2000s pop/rock” and “new wave hip hop, funk, and soul”— I hear the early 00s hip hop based on eighties soul and electro vibe, and nineties neo-soul. A few too many modern flourishes sometimes, but I dig this. It even has an honest to goodness through story that explores issues of fantasy versus reality!

Bones Owens, Love Out of Lemons– All Music Guide says, “Nashville session and touring guitarist and songwriter-for-hire who makes eclectic alternative roots rock as a solo artist” and suggests similarities to Jack White and Nathaniel Rateliffe. That sounds about right! I actually had a little more of a Black keys vibe (don’t tell Jack), but yes, an indie garage rock take on heartland music. It’s rollicking good fun!

Boulevards, Carolina Funk: Barn Burner on Tobacco Road– I don’t seem to have written down any notes during my actual listening session! I’m thinking based on the band and the title that there’s something rootsy and yet funkily furious going on here? We will both just have to listen to it (me apparently again) and agree how much we like it.

Childish Gambino, Bando Stone and the New World– Indie pop and soul with tinges of AM radio gold? Left field hip hop? Edgy angry post rock? Hyperpop EDM? Yes, all this and more. And if the sprawl makes it a little incoherent, it’s also testament to the talent. He says this is his last Childish Gambino album. I hope it’s not his last album period, because what he can do is amazing.

Crack Cloud, Red Mile– It opens with a stirring off kilter post-rockish anthem dedicated to the crack of life. From there it reminds me a little of the Fall, and the snottier and weirder side of 80s college rock. This Canadian collective is bridging punk, indie rock, and synth pop in a musically and lyrically challenging way, and I’m here for it!

Dave Alvin/Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Texicali– Two generations of country/americana greats playing music that is musically, vocally, and lyrically flawless in how authentic it sounds.

Earth Tongue, Great Haunting– Imagine if the Melvins (or even the original Black Sabbath lineup) were a female-led group. If this idea makes you darkly smile, this album from New Zealand duo Earth Tongue is for you!

Eminem, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)– Eminem has played the game before of distinguishing between his Slim Shady and Marshall personalities and using the later to tongue in cheek disclaim the words and deeds of the former. This go around though is fueled by the two decades between his biggest albums and his current sober family patriarch life, the genuine tension between who he is and who he was. So, there’s a lot of traction from playing with how the two might relate to each other, livened by his still peerless flow and great production.

Jack White, No Name– This wouldn’t be one of the best White Stripes albums (for one thing, no nice session drummer is going to match Meg at her best), but it would be a solidly good one. And, much as I appreciate his creative wanderings, seeing Jack White fully back in this vein is very good indeed.

Johnny Blue Skies/Sturgill Simpson, Passage du Desir– It doesn’t necessarily sound the same album to album (this one is more Nashville sound of the seventies, for example), but darned if Sturgill Simpson aks Johnny Blue Skies isn’t making some of the best straight up country out there.

Kaytranada, Timeless– Well this is a fun jaunt through EDM informed by down-tempo R&B, house, and hip hop!

Lalah Hathaway, VANTABLACK– High level consciousness, classic soul sounds, jazz inflections, hip hop that feels old school as well. Eulaulah Donyll “Lalah” Hathaway is an American singer-songwriter. She is the first-born daughter of musician and soul singer Donny Hathaway. She rose to fame in the 1990s and all these deep roots show here.

Left Lane Cruiser, Bayport BBQ Blues– A raw hillbilly punk-blues band that roars like a tweaking modal chainsaw. Amen, and it’s beautiful! Indiana band

Lupe Fiasco, Samurai– A nice old school groove, reminds me of the g-funk flow of the nineties, and 00s beats a la J Dilla.

New York, Rapstar*– 26-year-old Estonian performance artist Gretchen Lawrence and 24-year-old Senegalese American visual artist and model Coumba Samba have made something glitchy, dis-jointed, and yet oddly catchy as it ratchets back and forth from abstract to disarmingly direct.

Oneida, Expensive Air– This is amazing! Is it metal? Sonic Youth style punk overload? Experimental electronic music? All of these and more, and whatever it is, the Brooklyn experimental rock band is making mighty fine noise!

Peggy Gou, I Hear You– I mean come on- such a fun high energy club mix, with a sly wit and genuine meaning behind it. And it has the influence of House, and there are 303s in the mix. How am I not going to love it? South Korean DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer based in Berlin, Germany

Perennial, Art History– Come on! Call and response 60s/garage punk with enough of a pop edge, intriguing electronic flourishes, and properly crunching guitar chords. When this sound is done right, it’s always fresh, and this Connecticut band brings it!

Polo Perks/FearDorian/AyooLii, A Dog’s Chance– Eclectic and melody-heavy sampling, fun and varied lyrics, shuffling and atypical flow and beats in something that’s between hip hop and hyperpop. It’s a reminder of how much music can still surprise and delight when it gets beyond genre tropes. Atlanta producer-rapper FearDorian first asked to join the NYC hip-hop collective Surf Gang six years ago began sending beats to one of the collective’s OG members, Polo Perks union with Milwaukee low-end upstart AyooLii.

The Decembrists, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again– This feels and sounds like folk standards meets indie rock. The ending 19-minute track nearly lost me in the middle, but the haunting first part, and the stadium ending pulled it out. A little too slickly produced, but the muse they’re going for here is strongly channeled.

The Felice Brothers, Valley of Abandoned Songs– I liked the last Felice Brothers album, and this one has a lot of that same sparkle. Americana and 70s AM radio musical chops, and lyrics that much more than occasionally remind me of Dylan, particularly of the Basement Tapes era.

The Raveonettes, Sing– Man, they still sound as good today as they did when I first heard them in 2003. And for this album they’ve chosen classic covers that exquisitely well fit their distortion and reverb-heavy growling and sparkly wall of sound talents.

Zach Bryan, The Great American Bar Scene– Spoken-word rambling and slow but punchy cowboy chords painting emotional stories. It often reminds me of early Dylan and Springsteen (who also guests on a track), sometimes like more contemporary indie rock in an Americana vein. This fifth album from Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter Bryan is definitely worth another listen!

Maybe

• Billie Strings, Live, Vol. 1– All right, look, it gets very jammy (it is a live album, after all), and it lasts almost 80 minutes. I would think, on the face of it, that it would get to be too much for me at some point. Except, Billy Strings is amazing live, and his bridge of bluegrass and psyched-out rock lends itself so well to live jams. With each new track, after I would start to waver there was a moment when I realized, “okay, I’m 100% on board for this ride now, let’s see what the next one does.” So, I think that’s the very definition of “maybe”.
  
  
• Bloomsday, Heart of the Artichoke– Beautiful harmonies and fuzzy guitars.
  
  
• Goat Girl, Below the Waste– This has many of the charms of their last album, which I loved. The moody atmospherics, surging chords, darkly sweet melodies. Is it better than the last time? Maybe not? But does it need to be?
  
  
• John Cale, POPtical Illusion– A times at abstract, but always interesting, this album simultaneously recalls the best of his early seventies albums and modern electronic music. It feels weirdly contemporary in that way. Not bad for an 83-year-old legend! It’s on the longer side for how atmospheric it sometimes gets, but fascinating!
  
  
• Marcel Wave, Something Looming– Classic rockier side of British new wave vibes. I love the understated vocals, guitar-edged melodies, and wordy articulate lyrics. The post-punk revival can be kind of chilly and self-limiting, but I couldn’t deny the charm of this London band.
  
  
• Marina Allen, Eight Pointed Star– Nice spare arrangement, highly literate lyrics. Definitely in vein, but it ventures from mellow folky to more poppy energetic often enough, with lush production extras. Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter part of Laurel Canyon revival.
  
  
• Meghan Trainor, Timeless– Meghan Trainor doing neo-standards with bossa nova club beats? About self-love and celebrating having bass? It turns out I have almost infinite capacity to welcome another album of this!
  
  
• Odie Leigh, Carrier Pigeon– A literate wordy folky thing, with both nice turns of phrase and disarming frankness. And, though it is mostly more acoustic/folk feeling, there are surging rock and pop moments too. This is a very promising debut!
  
  
• Remi Wolf, Big ideas– I have really been looking forward to reviewing this! Her album Juno was one of my favorites from 2022, and I’ve been low-key fascinated with her ever since. I would say this album is not *quite* as coherent as that one, by virtue of experimental forays into directions like an Amy Winehouse style ballad, a pseudo-Nirvana song, and a downright confessional piece. But it’s never less than very well done, and at its best is knockout good.
  
  
• Rope Sect, Estrangement– 80s alt on the goth side vocals, driving drums and reverb-laden guitars. Also, for band whose Facebook page description is “Seclusion. Renunciation of society. A dance on ruins. A doomsday revel. Naked spite. Eleutheromania.”, surprisingly energetic and even uplifting. (Not a June album, but from Spin’s articreview’s list of best albums of the year so far. Gotta check it!)
  
  
• Rosie Tucker, Utopia Now!– I would have loved the honey pop, hooky rock, and sharp-witted lyricism of this to death in the nineties! Still pretty smitten by it, but the hour is growing late… Still, I would hear more from this Los Angeles singer-songwriter… (Not a June album, but from Paste’s list of best albums of the year so far. Gotta check it!)
  
  
• This is Lorelei, Box for Buddy, Box for Star– Wordy pop rock reminding me of the Gram Parsons school of crunching chords and lyrics.
  
  
• Tommy McLain, Moving to Heaven– Veteran swamp pop musician becomes Catholic lay minister and produces a gospel-tinged album loaded with a kind of lo fi swamp sound gleeful in its naivete and heavy with reverb. Yes please!
  
  
• Various Artists, Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty– I am a sucker for tribute albums, but they can go awry. The fastest route to that is overly faithful covers, and while the covers here are faithful, they do take a variety of musical approaches within the genre and feel true to the spirit of the songs. The second way these things can most often go awry is bland coverers, and these are big country names, but from several generations, and many of them left of field. Could it be a year’s best? I don’t know, but I want to hear it again!
  

And We are back! August/September to follow…