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
Men, are you OK? You haven’t released an album I could consider a favorite all year. Perhaps by the end of the year, you will be shut out. One can only hope.
Shiina Ringo, Hojoya
Shiina sounds energized with other women to collaborate on Hojoya. My favorite, of course, is her collaboration with Nocchi because it’s really nice to hear Nocchi without a ton of effects.
Beyoncé, Act II: Cowboy Carter
The ambition on this album is on par with Shiina Ringo’s Shousou Strip. I’m just a tad frustrated it’s taken more than 20 years for an American artist to reach that level.
Tiffany Poon, Diaries: Schumann
I’m not usually moved by music from the Romantic Era, but Tiffany Poon’s enthusiasm for Robert Schumann spurred me to learn pieces from the Album for the Young. I can understand why she loves Schumann so much.
Kim Gordon, The Collective
I think I would be more interested in clipping if their albums sounded more like The Collective.
Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope
I would probably put this album on par with No Cities to Love.
Cocco, Beatrice
The storm clouds of Rapunzel seems to have returned.
Reissues
Utada Hikaru, SCIENCE FICTION
I’m not sure I’m on board with re-recording some of the early songs, but as someone trying to salvage some of my own 20-year-old project files from bitrot, I wouldn’t be surprised if some practical decisions went into some of these re-done tracks.
Onitsuka Chihiro, UN AMNESIAC GIRL First Code -2000-2003-
I don’t mind that Onitsuka Chihiro’s various labels have tried to mine this fertile period of her career.
Nakamori Akina, CRUISE (2024 Lacquer Master)
CRUISE came at a time of personal turmoil for Nakamori Akina, and the narrative surrounding this album seems to have doomed it as a lesser work among critics. It’s the first album of hers I owned, so perhaps I have a soft spot for it. But there’s a melancholy to this album that feels genuine.
Catalog
Aran Tomoko, Fuuyu Kuukan
It astonishes me this album was released in 1983. Even in 2024, Fuuyuu Kuukan has some unhinged moments that feel more at home on a Shiina Ringo album. Aran Tomoko has a versatile voice, rocking out on one track, then becoming demure on another. If it were released in 2024, Fuuyuu Kuukan easily competes with Cowboy Carter, brat and Hojoya.
John Zorn, Simulacrum
John Zorn’s Simulacrum ensemble could have easily filled out this portion of the half-year retrospective because only Zorn could bring out the heavy metal in organ improvisation. But this first outing pretty much sums up what you’ll hear on the group’s subsequent albums.
Tyler Childers, Rustlin’ in the Rain
Not gonna lie: this album show up on this list on the strength of “In Your Love” and the accompanying music video. But the rest of the album is also good, and at a running time barely 28 minutes, it’s no-nonsense about delivering those goods.
Olivia Rodrigo, SOUR
It’s clear Olivia Rodrigo is descended from the music DNA that gave us Avril Lavigne, and for some reason, I’d much rather listen to Rodrigo. Rodrigo has the cleverness and grit that I never got from Lavigne, who always struck me as a pastiche of a rocker grrl.
Haim, Women in Music, Pt. III
Oh, so that’s why everyone loses their shit over Haim.
Brian Fennell, Safety Songs
Youthful works from the guy who would eventually launch Barcelona and SYML.
Yellow Magic Orchestra, Naughty Boys
For years, I’ve been told that Yellow Magic Orchestra has been “influencial,” but I never encountered an explanation of why that’s so. Then I picked up Naughty Boys and could see the connective tissue between Kraftwerk and the many ’80s bands that dominated the airwaves in my youth.
Cocco’s first four albums loom pretty large over her discography, so it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing her subsequent works to that early corpus. That said, Beatrice harkens back to the storminess of Rapunzel and has some of the catchiest songs she’s written since Emerald.
John Zorn, Simulacrum
Leave it to John Zorn to devise a hardcore jazz ensemble consisting of organ, guitar and drums, with the organ part played by John Medeski or Medeski, Martin and Woods.
Tyler Childers, Rustlin’ in the Rain
I’ll admit the video for “In Your Love” drew my attention to Childers, but I also love the concept behind this album: pitching modern day songs to Elvis Presley.
Onitsuka Chihiro, UN AMNESIAC GIRL -First Code 2000-2003-
No era of Onitsuka Chihiro’s career has been as thoroughly mined as her first three albums. With each jump to a new label — from EMI to Universal to Victor — a new compilation comes out to remind listeners what Onitsuka produced in those early years. This latest boxed set compiles Insomnia, This Armor and Sugar High along with B-sides and non-album singles. I didn’t pick up This Armor when it was first released, so it’s nice to have a physical copy.
Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope
It seemed like the band wandered a bit after Janet Weiss’ departure before finding their footing again on Little Rope. It sucks that it came in the wake of tremendous loss for Carrie Brownstein.
Ms. Dynamite, A Little Deeper
I remember seeing this album all over the UK press back in 2002, and I understand now why that was so.
Tiffany Poon, Diaries: Schumann
Poon has such an enthusiasm for the works of Robert Schumann that it spurred me to take out the Album for the Young and learn a few of the pieces geared for adults. Beethoven’s shadow looms over Schumann, but his works have fleeting moments of spice that hint at the coming dissolution of harmony later in the 19th Century. But Poon is not concerned about that future past. She just wants listeners to love Schumann as much as she does.
Kim Gordon, The Collective
I love that Gordon wanted to make this album more “beat-oriented.” I wonder sometimes if this album is what clipping ought to sound like.
Descendants, Milo Goes to College
How much more punk can you get with a 15-track album that totals 22 minutes in length? None. None more punk.
I’m old enough now that I can no longer be mistaken for someone remotely connected to the zeitgeist. A phrase I would often employ was, “I know of them, but I’ve not heard from them.” These days, the first part of that phrase is a stretch.
That said, I’m surprised by the number of R&B titles that have crept into my playlist rotation. I’m still a rockist at heart, but rock is loosening its grip on my attention.
Sturgill Simpson, Sound & Fury: How was Sturgill Simpson ever going to top A Sailor’s Guide to Earth? He didn’t. He veered so drastically in a different direction that the albums can’t be compared. None of his albums can be compared to each other.
Torche, Admission: Torche can be found under the metal section of most music stores, but when I play their albums, I hear post-rock.
Weezer, Weezer (Teal Album): It’s a karaoke album, but a painstakingly created one.
Jeremy Denk, c.1300-c.2000: It’s a tall order to compile eight centuries of music into a single program.
John Luther Adams, Become Desert: It was also stirring to hear this piece live.
Cocco, Star Shank: We hear hints of clouds covering the sunniness of Cocco’s later work.
BBMAK, Powerstation: I will not lie — I’ve anticipating this album for most of the year, and I do not care who knows.
Shiina Ringo, Sandokushi: This album is a glorious mess.
Solange, When I Get Home: Similar to Sound and Fury, this album is confounding and fascinating at the same time. There’s nothing on here that matches the tunefulness of A Seat at the Table, and it would be too disruptive to the album’s flow if there were.
Jamila Woods, Legacy! Legacy!: “Basquiat” was playing on the in-store system at Sonic Boom, and it pretty much clinched my decision to get this album.
Like Patti Smith’s Horses, Sound & Fury confounded me. I put the album on repeat, and each listen only heightened my confusion and fascination. Was this My Bloody Valentine reborn as a southern rock band? Was it ZZ Top making the electroclash album it should never, ever record? In the end, it’s just Sturgill Simpson applying his work ethic to fucking with our minds.
Cocco, Star Shank
I don’t think I’ve heard Cocco scream with the kind of abandon she does on this album. It’s almost uncharacteristic now that she’s let a lot more sunshine into her music.
BBMAK, Powerstation
I didn’t realize how much I missed BBMAK till they announced their reunion, and this album does not disappoint.
The Replacements, Dead Man’s Pop
Don’t Tell a Soul was the first Replacements album I ever bought, so I find the over-produced, slick sound comforting. That said, I really dig this original mix by Matt Wallace. Thing is, it would have totally tanked in 1989. Maybe in 1993, it would have made more sense. But not in 1989.
Kim Gordon, No Home Record
Do we really need to pay attention to any other former member of Sonic Youth?
Ali Wong, Baby Cobra
I signed up for Netflix to watch the Sound & Fury anime. I might keep my subscription to watch Baby Cobra.
Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe Express
Kraftwerk strikes me as a band I ought to like, but so far, this album is the only one to connect.
Prince, Dirty Mind
I didn’t think I would like anything Prince recorded before 1999. I think I rather like this more than 1999.
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