the 50 best albums of 2024 part three
numbers 30-21
hello again! I’m currently in Los Angeles, gearing up to go to Yosemite with Meira for the weekend—if the government remains open. I guess we’ll find out later tonight.
previous parts:
30. Christopher Owens — I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair
indie rock, singer-songwriter
it’s been a minute since we’ve heard from Christopher Owens. The former frontman for late ‘00s / early ‘10s indie pop band Girls hasn’t put out an album in nearly a decade, but not without good reason—Owens’ 2017 motorcycle accident left him bedridden and in financial ruin. This is already devastating enough, but to make matters worse, as Pitchfork, recounts, he also lost “his fiancée, his job, his apartment, his cat, [and] his favorite guitar.” At the tail end of the 2010s, Owens reached out to Girls’ former bassist, Chet “JR” White, to work on new music, but the sessions proved unproductive. Tragically, White passed away in 2020 at age 40.
unsurprisingly, the resulting music isn’t the most lighthearted stuff you’ll hear on this list. Against a sound that modernizes the classic, clean feel of early ‘70s psychedelia with alt-country instrumentation reminiscent of certain pockets of ‘90s alternative music, Owens chronicles his journey through profound hardship back to the core of his being. The record is a heartfelt and deeply rewarding listen—a poignant reminder that tragedy can strike at any moment, and while even the most seemingly insurmountable adversities can be overcome, exactly when we reach redemption is never assured.
SELECTS: Beautiful Horses, I Know, Do You Need a Friend
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
29. Beyoncé — Cowboy Carter
country pop, contemporary country
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is a sprawling, widescreen project that redefines the boundaries of country music while reclaiming Black people’s rightful place within its storied history. Structured as a fictional radio show broadcast on KNTRY Radio, the album blends mythmaking with genre-bending ambition. Through its lush, state-of-the-art production and indulgent experimentation, Beyoncé’s latest opus envisions the past, present, and future of country music, just as 2022’s Renaissance did for house and other genres of dance. While rooted in the traditions of the genre, Cowboy Carter transcends it, pulling in everything from trap to yacht rock to ambient house.
The album’s lively instrumentation reflects Beyoncé’s unmatched attention to detail, with each track feeling like its own cinematic vignette. Interspersed throughout the record are spoken word interludes from country legends like Willie Nelson, overlooked Black pioneers such as Linda Martell, and newcomers to the genre, including Post Malone, who would later fully crossover into country with the massively successful F-1 Trillion. Shaboozey, previously an unknown, saw his profile skyrocket after his two appearances on the record. His inescapable “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” released later that spring, went on to tie the record for the longest-running song on the Billboard Hot 100 of all time—proof of Beyoncé’s ability to spotlight emerging talent.
Beyoncé’s collaborations highlight the genre’s diversity while emphasizing its Black roots, boldly staking her claim in a space often defined by exclusion. In Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé isn’t just participating in country music; she’s rewriting its rules and reframing its narratives, all while affirming her place as one of the most compelling storytellers of our time.
SELECTS: 16 Carriages, Bodyguard, Ya Ya, Sweet ★ Honey ★ Buckiin' (with Shaboozey)
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
28. Mach-Hommy — #RICHAXXHAITIAN
abstract hip hop, East Coast hip hop
if you go look up Mach-Hommy’s lyrics on Genius, or any other platform, you’re not gonna find much of anything. The rapper, who hails from Newark but spent much of his childhood in his ancestral home of Port-au-Prince, has a strict policy of disallowing any websites from publishing his lyrics. Further contributing to his elusiveness, he’s never revealed his real name or shown his full face in public. So, what remains is solely his music—words and sound presented in tandem, free from transcription or preconceived notions of his public persona.
the music itself is lush yet lo-fi, rich yet grainy. Dreamlike and often disconcerting mixing choices see elements float around the mix like fragments in a thick stew. Corroded vocal samples cut in and out over gritty boom bap beats, which are smoothed out by a haze of jazzy loops, rhythmically intricate piano work, and darkly atmospheric orchestral arrangements.
the mixing also has a profound impact on our interpretation of the lyrics. With no transcriptions available and Mach-Hommy’s verses often seeming to emerge from a fog, #RICHAXXHAITIAN demands its listeners remain actively, intimately engaged. The inclusion of other inscrutable elements like untranslated Haitian Creole provide another wrinkle in the project’s examination of themes including Haitian diasporic identity, cultural pride, and Mach-Hommy’s own personal journey. These layers further deepen the album’s enigma, leaving the meaning and knowledge gleaned from these tracks in a state of perpetual evolution. This is another way of me saying that I have a lot more work to do before I even get a real grasp on this project!
SELECTS: Politckle (feat. Drea d’Nur), Padon (feat. Tha God Fahim), Copy Cold (feat. Quelle Chris & Black Thought)
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
27. Uboa — Impossible Light
death industrial, dark ambient
definitely not for the faint of heart, and probably the scariest album on this list, Impossible Light is a masterclass in cinematic soundscaping, weaving abrasive industrial textures and reflective ambient passages into a widescreen evolution of Uboa’s signature, more polished “hypernoise” style. The result is a harrowing and immersive sonic experience, made all the more gripping by the lyrics’ bold exploration of queer sexuality, trans embodiment, grief, and resilience against transphobic hate. In its most striking moments, Impossible Light becomes a beacon of defiance in and of itself—a guide to clearing the wreckage and carving a path toward self-reclamation.
SELECTS: Endocrine Disruptor, Sleep Hygiene, Impossible Light / Golden Flower (feat. otay:onii)
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
26. The Smile — Wall of Eyes
art rock, post-rock
the second of three albums released by the post-Radiohead trio, Wall of Eyes is by far their strongest. From the psychedelic bossa nova groove of the title track to the krautrock-influenced structures of songs like “Read the Room” and “Under Our Pillows,” the album never stays in one rhythmic mode for too long. Much of this dynamism can be credited to drummer Tom Skinner, formerly of the Afro-jazz quartet Sons of Kemet, whose endlessly adaptable playing gives the record an organic flow and vitality. This adventurous spirit is balanced by the more classicist tracks like the Beatles-esque “Friend of a Friend,” one of Thom Yorke’s most straightforwardly beautiful compositions in years, and by the ambient and electronic textures that infuse many of the other songs with a quiet, sombre power.
SELECTS: Wall of Eyes, Read the Room, Bending Hectic
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
25. Tyler, the Creator — Chromakopia
West Coast hip hop, neo-soul
following the mostly breezy travelogue and flex spree of Call Me If You Get Lost, which still nonetheless found Tyler wrestling with a few personal demons, Tyler extends his winning streak (musically, at least) on Chromakopia, an at-times uncomfortably personal neo-soul odyssey. Over characteristically colorful instrumentals, Tyler addresses his relationship with his parents—particularly his estranged father (“Like Him”), expresses paranoia associated with celebrity status (“Noid”), details an unplanned pregnancy scare (“Hey Jane”), and celebrates parts of Black identity that were previously overshadowed by the European wealth-inspired aesthetics of Call Me (“I Killed You”).
Chromakopia also features one of the most infectious bangers of the year in “Sticky”, which sees GloRilla, Tyler, Sexyy Red, and Lil Wayne trading four bar verses in a raucous cipher set to an unhinged beat that sounds like a marching band doing crunk. By the time the iconic horns from 2000s trap classic “Get Buck” pop up for Tyler’s last verse of the song, the party has kicked into an even higher gear, and Solange laying down a few backing vocals on the final refrain is just the cherry on top. WHAT A SONG!!!
SELECTS: Noid; Darling, I (feat. Teezo Touchdown); Sticky (feat. GloRilla, Sexyy Red, Lil Wayne)
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
24. Nicolás Jaar — Piedras 1
Latin electronic, microhouse
in spring 2024, Chilean-American electronic artist Nicolás Jaar released the full archives of his sprawling five-hour long radio drama, Radio Piedras, on Bandcamp. Though I don’t speak Spanish, from what I’ve read from the transcript, the play threads together Chile’s colonial history, Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorial regime in the ‘70s, and the now nearly century-long campaign by the state of Israel to erase Palestinian identity.
by drawing parallels between its central plot of a child’s disappearance in the desert and the forced disappearances of the Pinochet era, Piedras becomes a universalist tale of cultural resilience amidst displacement by colonial powers. The brutal, everlasting impact of colonization is at the heart of this story—take its references to the erasure of original identities through the renaming of places, such as Colombia’s Magdalena River and the obliterated Palestinian village of al-Majdal (now part of Ashkelon). These acts of renaming are smashed up against the physical trauma of genocide, revealing cycles of violence which are bound to neither time nor geography.
existing beyond the play’s narrative, Piedras 1 & 2 distill its musical highlights onto a pair of standard-length LPs. Piedras 1, the record featured here, is a hair-raising, glitchy yet pop-forward fusion of digital cumbia, spectral reggaetón, airy dancehall, and other Latin electronic influences. It’s decidedly more direct than its counterpart, which folds musique concrète, ambient, and other experimental soundscaping techniques into a less formally structured listen. And yet, despite its accessibility, Jaar’s meticulous attention to detail and unmistakable sound design is still on full display here.
This record sits at #24 purely based on its musical merit, but its message is endlessly more timely, urgent, and essential.
SELECTS: Aquí, Agua pa fantasmas, Rio de las tumbas
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
23. Allie X — Girl With No Face
synthpop
Allie X recorded her third studio album during the pandemic with minimal input from external forces such as her label, songwriters, or producers. She’s described the process as being isolating yet creatively liberating, allowing her to deepen her career-long exploration of identity—this time through the lens of self-redefinition. Freed from what she calls the “gerbil wheel” of the industry, Allie X embraced the cold, gothic sounds of British new wave music, channeling her reverence for bands like Depeche Mode and New Order. The resulting songs, overflowing with melodrama and theatricality, adhere to the precise architecture of ‘80s synthpop: skittering drum machines lock into syncopated rhythms with icy, arpeggiated synths, while Allie’s soaring vocals cut through the shimmering production, punctuated by the occasional angular guitar riff that nods to post-punk’s brooding edge.
SELECTS: Weird World, Off With Her Tits, Black Eye
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
22. The Cure — Songs of a Lost World
gothic rock, alternative rock
some baffling mixing choices aside, The Cure’s first album in 16 years is also their best record since 1989’s Disintegration. Songs of a Lost World is drenched in just as much melancholy as one would expect from The Cure, but it’s also punctuated by moments of undeniable beauty. The instrumentation is lush and sometimes even crowded, with cascading layers that draw on the otherworldly atmosphere of ‘80s ethereal wave. There are many moments, like on the elegiac closing track, that echo a dreamscape where time slows and Robert Smith’s emotions crystallize into amber. Songs of a Lost World is as much a reaffirmation of The Cure’s unparalleled craft as it is an invitation to reflect on the resilience of the love, despair, and longing that shape us all.
SELECTS: Alone, And Nothing is Forever, Endsong
LISTEN: Apple Music | Spotify
21. Weed420 — malandreo conceptual
Latin electronic, reggaetón, epic collage
malandreo conceptual, released in January 2024 by Venezuelan experimental electronic collective Weed420, feels like a garbled transmission of Venezuelan musical tradition being beamed in from another planet. The album’s collage of sounds fuses dembow, reggaetón, hip hop, glitch, HexD, drum and bass and Midwest emo with a treasure trove of samples—such the one on “GUILLAO” from Venezuelan folk legend Simón Díaz.
while I’m not Venezuelan and my understanding of its culture is limited, reviews from those more familiar with its nuances describe this album as a fascinating homage to it. By sampling iconic sounds from commercials, television series, and even internet parodies, Weed420 has crafted a project that feels simultaneously nostalgic and daringly fresh and futuristic. They’ve captured the cultural memory of a nation and fragmented it through a wildly distorted kaleidoscope of filters.
this decade, its felt like the most exciting electronic music has consistently emerged from Latin American underground scenes, and malandreo conceptual is yet another shining example. It’s a record that could only have been made in 2024—a hallucinatory vision of the future, rooted in the media of the past, and a testament to the limitless inventiveness of the Venezuelan underground.
SELECTS: miguel CABRERA highlights, divina -- pastora, ‘catira’
LISTEN:
thank you all for reading—these albums are all incredible works of art, and I feel so lucky to have been able to enjoy them this year. Hopefully you’ve found something new! Two more posts to go…