Women have so thoroughly dominated 2024 that I almost wanted to ban men entirely from this year-end list. But then sungazer and Johnny Blue Skies had to go and record some year-end worthy stuff, so it’s not a shut out.
Beyoncé, Act II: Cowboy Carter
Is Cowboy Carter a country album? No, it’s the sound of country music paying for its lack of vision.
Shiina Ringo, Hojoya
Collaborating with other women artists has really rejuvenated Shiina Ringo. The last few albums have felt like formalities. This album feels truly new.
Charli XCX, brat
I first criticized brat for drawing upon too little material for the entire length of an album. Over time, I would discover that criticism was actually its strength.
Tiffany Poon, Diaries: Schumann
Tifanny Poon is not like most YouTubers. Her vlogs often feel like miniature art films, with scenic shots underpinned by her performances. And you see her contend with the music on her recital programs, the piano given a voice (through subtitles) in how the performance turns out. The care with which she champions Schumann’s music comes through on her first album as an adult concert performer.
Perfume, Nebula Romance: Zenpen
Perfume albums are often just compilations of the last half dozen singles, and Nebula Romance: Zenpen isn’t too different in that regard. But as the trio approaches 25 years of performing, this album feels much more organic. Producer Nakata Yasutaka lightens his touch, letting the voices of Kashiyuka, A-chan and Nocchi to come through. It’s also part one of two albums, with the second expected in 2025.
Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope
After a successful return on 2015’s No Cities to Love, Sleater-Kinney wandered a bit on the subsequent albums. Little Rope course corrects just enough to remind listeners why they loved this band in the first place.
Kim Gordon, The Collective
Give Kim Gordon the damn Grammy.
Cocco, Beatrice
Similar to Onitsuka Chihiro, Cocco’s first albums cast a long shadow over everything that came after. She’s occasionally met the expectations set by that body work, and sometimes she hasn’t. Beatrice definitely does. Cocco’s most recent work is far sunnier than her early albums, but Beatrice shows some of storm and stress piping below the surface.
sungazer, Against the Fall of Night
The songs on this album are all in a 4/4 time signature, but how those four beats are divided up is the real question.
Johnny Blue Skies, PASSAGE DU DESIR
Sturgill Simpson the brand is dead. But I have no doubt Johnny Blue Skies will be no less chameleonic, starting with this album steeped in a 1970s Gram Parsons vibe.
More favorites:
Ray Chen, Player One
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Live from the Ryman, Vol. 2
Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess
She won me over on “Femininomenon,” when she asked: “Um, can you play a song with a fucking beat?”
Charli XCX, brat
I admit that I actually didn’t like brat on my first few listens. It didn’t have the same ebb and flow as The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess, which is probably not a fair comparison. It just felt limited.
Which is exactly the point. And it took a version of the album redone in Mario Paint Composer to confirm these limitations and also transcend them.
brat succeeds because it spins an epic out of the barest of material.
sungazer, Against the Darkness of Night
I could make a joke that sungazer is what happens when music theory becomes a real boy, but Adam Neely and Shawn Crowder are too good at what they do to make that snark stick. In a video preceding the album’s release, Neely pointed out that Perihelion, the band’s first full-length album, didn’t translate as well in a live setting. So for this second album, they set out to make music to get people moving. Of course, they couldn’t just leave a 4/4 time signature well enough alone. All the rhythmic sorcery of the first album returns, but mission accomplished, guys — this album moves.
SYML, LIVE AT HANGAR 30
I just like hearing Brian Fennell sing.
Johnny Blue Skies, Passage du Desir
Sturgill Simpson the person killed Sturgill Simpson the brand, so to continue making music, Johnny Blue Skies was born. In yet another shift, Simpson has entered his Gram Parsons era, lacking only Emmylou Harris to complement this set of 70s-influenced country rock.
Boredoms, Chocolate Synthesizer
Yamantaka Eye is so tightly coupled with Naked City in my mind that I almost thought this album would sound just like Naked City. Nope. There’s still a lot of noise-making, but it actually feels less chaotic than Naked City.
Material Issue, International Pop Overthrow
I remember seeing this album all over the place in my early college days, but I didn’t feel compelled to check it out. But somehow, it’s managed to exist in the periphery, showing up regularly in thrift shops and used CD bins as years wore on. Curiosity finally got the best of me, and yeah, younger me was a dolt for not following up way back in the early 1990s. But then I wouldn’t have avoided news of singer Jim Ellison’s death by the decade’s midpoint.
Death Waits, Burn Everything Xenakis Minor, XM1
Meta launched Threads in 2023 to fill a void left by the site formerly known as Twitter, and early adopters of the service quickly formed a tight-knit group of independent musicians. Followers of the Music Threads tag will probably encounter posts by Xenakis Minor (@xenakisminor) and Death Waits (@666death_waits666) at some point.
Death Waits is a raucous band that could easily fill the void departed by Torche. Burn Everything, in fact, reminds me a lot of Torche’s final album Restarter. Xenakis Minor, on the other hand, proposes a reality where piano, not guitar, is the main driver for prog rock. XM1 is billed as an EP, but with a running time of 41 minutes over the course of three tracks, that’s just trolling.
![[Beyoncé - Act II: Cowboy Carter]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BeyoncCowboyCarter20243280350EVH_f.jpg)
![[Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ChapellRoanTheRiseandFa335317_f.jpg)
![[Bad Brains - I Against I]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BadBrainsIAgainstI2024333765UWQD_f.jpg)
![[Johnny Blue Skies - PASSAGE DU DESIR]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SturgillSimpsonPASSAGEDU3334541QV8_f.jpg)