Change The Record: The top 15 albums of the year!

As many issues as 2024 had, the one thing you cannot levy against it was the music. This year was truly legendary for music, both in the popular sectors and the underground. Amazing albums and songs were up the wazoo, with several artist-defining releases. Of course, as a technically professional music critic, I will now take it upon myself to list some of my favorite albums of the year in somewhat loose order–the top 15 albums of 2024. I was originally going to crib an idea from Yahtzee Croshaw and do a top 5 best, worst, and blandest of the year, but unfortunately, I didn’t listen to enough bad music this year to make that work. So, here we are.

Before moving onto the list proper though, I want to give some honorable mentions–albums that were great but just missed the cut for one reason or another. Here’s the list, in no particular order (Artist – Album):

• The Smile – “Wall Of Eyes”
• Yeat – “2093”
• Jessica Pratt – “Here In The Pitch”
• Knocked Loose – “You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To”
• Vince Staples – “Dark Time”
• Civerous – “Maze Envy”
• Nails – “Every Bridge Burning”
• Colin Stetson – “When We Were That What Wept For The Sea”
• Ugly (UK) – “Twice Around The Sun” (only missing the list because it is an EP, not an album)

With that out of the way, on with the list!

15. Iglooghost – “Tidal Memory Exo”

2024 was a fantastic year for electronic music–almost unparalleled, with dozens of unique, creative, catchy, and mind-blowing releases. High above most of them, Iglooshost especially set a high benchmark with his record Tidal Memory Exo. Moving away from his wonky, future bass roots, Iglooghost gives us a bombastic and hard-hitting mix of UK Club, instrumental hip-hop, electronic drill, and tons of other genres. It’s one of the year’s most banger-filled releases.

14. Porter Robinson – “Smile :D”

Porter Robinson was an artist I always watched from a distance, never diving as deep as I should have into his music, at least until this year. With two of the year’s best tracks as singles, the rest of the album could’ve been improv jazz with vuvuzelas and it’d still make the list. Thankfully, while the rest of the album doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights of the singles, the rest of the songs are still delightful synthy guitar pop. “Smile :D” is a deeply enchanting, and unbelievably intoxicating candy-coated bouncy house of an album.

13. Chelsea Wolfe – “She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She”

An early star of the year, this was the second album I reviewed in this review column, and I’m happy it had the honor. Rich, deeply textured goth-pop with some of the most haunting vocal performances of the year. Chelsea Wolfe’s signature style of mixing makes me feel like I’m dunking my head in an oil barrel. While it might feel a little samey by the album’s end, that just makes the Halloween ride it takes you on all the more immersive.

12. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead”

The sounds of war and the smell of death still waft through the air as we enter 2025, making albums like “No Title” all the more important. A brutal, dystopian post-rock album that gives a voice to the ghosts of genocide with some of Godspeed You’s best material since 2003. It’s an instrumental treat to the ears, and a truly haunting album, rich with the stench of brutality. It’s an album that distinctly belongs to 2024, yet feels timeless.

11. Jack White – “No Name”

One of the benefits of creating this list late in the year is getting more time to relisten to albums I hadn’t given a fair shake to yet, and this benefited “No Name.” One of the finest and most head-banging rock albums of the year loaded front to back with ragers that could make the most horrifying moshpit of any rock concert. Jack White has lost none of his signature power and skills in one of the most electrifying albums of the year.

10. Tyler The Creator – “Chromakopia”

As a white kid from Seattle that grew up queer, it should be no surprise that Tyler The Creator is one of my favorite artists of all time, so the news he’d be releasing an album in 2024 was nothing less than exhilarating. “Chromakopia” is filled with some of Tyler’s most creative production, bombastic, hilarious punchlines, and some of the most introspective and personal storytelling of his career. It is yet another impeccable notch in his belt for his career.

9. Death’s Dynamic Shroud and Galen Tipton – “You Like Music”

As I said, it’s been an incredible year for electronic music, and “You Like Music” is easily my favorite in the genre for the year. It’s a magical blend of samples, loops, beats, drums, and so much more that they could throw in there to make an album that’s extremely addictive, playful, and shockingly gorgeous all at the same time.

8. Joey Valence & Brae – “No Hands”

Sometimes I just like having fun when listening to music, and no album this year is as fun and hilarious as “No Hands.” Packed with immaculately produced bangers, all crammed with some of the most hilarious and quotable verses of the year, and some stellar chemistry between the two main rappers here, “No Hands” is an undeniable delight.

7. Father John Misty – “Mahashmashana” 

Probably my most anticipated album of the year, Father John Misty finally abandons the weird lounge singer thing he was doing last album to give us a rich and luxurious record with some of the wittiest and most emotionally compelling tracks of his career. With better and even more layered production, and a sharper yet more human edge to his writing, it marks an exciting new high point in Father John Misty’s career.

6. Kendrick Lamar – GNX

Ironically, following that with an album released the same day as the one above, but with 20 times the media attention. Just to flex on how dominant he was this year, Kendrick couldn’t end the year without dropping an album, and what an album he dropped. With some of his bassiest and punchiest production yet, and hard-hitting ruminations on the state of both hip-hop and himself, “GNX” is both artistically gratifying and an absolute delight to listen to.

5. JPEGMAFIA – “I Lay Down My Life For You”

As both a stalker of Rate Your Music and an extremely white dork, JPEGMAFIA has always been one of my favorite rappers of the modern age, and this album shows that he just keeps getting better with every record. Not only is this some of the wildest and most unabashedly creative production of his career, but it’s also his most well-written and personal album yet, finally peeling back his goofy, overconfident smugness to show the deeply flawed man behind it all. It’s an album that’s as sobering as it is beautiful.

4. Charli XCX – “Brat”

You probably expected this, and I’m sure some of you are fully sick of all the praise this album has been getting, but at the same time, it’s hard for me to deny it kind of deserves all of its praise. Well-produced, well-performed, well-written, forward-thinking, boundary-pushing, fun, sad, hilarious, and everything else–it’s a masterpiece, and Charli’s finest moment as an artist so far. It’s “Brat” summer forever baby.

3. Geordie Greep – “The New Sound”

I was hesitant when first going into this album, as I didn’t think Geordie could achieve the same level of manic energy and bombast by himself as he could with his old band, Black Midi. Just one listen in and I was disproven immediately. It’s every bit as brutal and theatrical as I’d hoped with his vocal performances at their most exaggerated, his instrumentals at their most impeccable, and his ruminations on male insecurity at their most thoughtful. A triumph in every sense of the word.

2. Magdalena Bay – “Imaginal Disk”

This album is probably the most obvious choice for this list ever, but I just don’t care. This is pure pop perfection in every track, and it deserves the absolute mountain of acclaim it’s gotten this year. Matt and Mica have outdone themselves, with every track being its own magical odyssey through technology, heartbreak, insecurity, love, and the richest synths you’ll ever hear. Very few albums can compare to the sheer magnitude of this record’s beauty.

1. Joanna Wang – “Hotel La Rut”

Honestly, I didn’t expect myself to put this album here, but ultimately, I just couldn’t fight the urge. Hotel La Rut is a musical masterpiece. A musical sketch comedy that flies through all sorts of tones, sounds, ideas, and common sense, because it’s free to experiment and play. A bizarre mash of Jeff Rosenstock, MGMT, Richard Dawson, Fiona Apple, Björk, and whoever else you can think of, all combining into one ill-advised yet shockingly delicious end result. Albums like this make me love music, with every track its own story, and every beat amazingly produced. It’s fun, freewheeling, charming, gorgeous, hilarious, and deeply emotional, and Joanna is a musical mastermind. I can think of no other album this year that I love more than Hotel La Rut by Joanna Wang.