The Best "Best of 2024" Lists
Our fifth annual list of lists recapping the year in music!
After five years of writing this newsletter, I’ve realized it’s basically impossible to catalog the full “year in music” across all genres as a side-project. Still, I’m addicted to following the zeitgeist and tracking all the expertly crafted year-end lists from my favorite critics and publications.
It’s become a Hear Hear tradition to comb through those lists and share a few standout songs & albums I missed, along with capturing the consensus and revisiting some personal faves. As always, I hope you find a new sound you love somewhere in this batch — and thanks for listening with me all year long!
Follow the Hear Hear playlist to listen as you read — I’ve added highlights from all the music referenced below.
Without further ado, here are the best of the best lists of 2024…
Hidden gems: Lists from discovery-focused blogs
Gorilla vs. Bear: Songs and Albums of 2024. Every year, I turn to GvB for genre-crossing artists, dream-pop, and fresh, eclectic sounds with just enough accessibility for me to enjoy. This year, their top 5 song picks stood out…
“If You Hear Me Crying,” Cindy Lee. Lee’s mysterious, whimsical Diamond Jubilee was also named GvB’s favorite album and got the coveted #1 slot on Pitchfork’s best albums list. (We’ll come back to that later.)
“Hell of a Ride,” Nourished by Time. The alias of Baltimore native Marcus Brown, Nourished by Time blends hazy synths with vibey chant-along vocals, capturing a distinctively 2024 sound. This anthem pairs nicely with “My Day Off,” Brown’s similarly addicting collaboration with Kacy Hill.
“Blanket of my Bone,” Being Dead. “With deceptively lo-fi hooks and a playfully oblique approach, the Austin rock duo crafts songs that are goofy, serious, innocent, and knowing all at once,” writes Pitchfork’s Daniel Felsenthal on their rollicking album EELS. (Opening track “Godzilla Rises” is another standout.)
“Alesis,” Mk.gee. (We’ll come back to Mk.gee later, too.)
“Cry for Me,” Magdalena Bay. This Miami-based duo describes their sound as “synth pop straight from the simulation” and their album Imaginal Disk delivers on that promise.
Stereogum: Best New Artists 2024. As usual, a must-listen for those who want to hear bands, singers, producers, and rappers about to blow up. Here’s what stood out when I shuffled through, with blurbs pulled from their top-notch team of Abby Jones, Tom Breihan, Chris DeVille, and Danielle Chelosky.
Ain’t: “London quintet Ain’t has already made a solid name for themselves as an underground live staple…with their haunting, enticing strain of indie rock.”
Alvilda: “Alvilda’s full-length debut is a joyously playful hook-attack. Imagine the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, but with French-girl insouciance instead of Brooklyn-dude reserve.”
Been Stellar: “NYC’s proudest transplants teamed up with Dan Carey, your favorite UK buzz band’s favorite producer, to put a dark post-punk spin on today’s ever-popular ’90s alt-rock touchstones.”
Combat: “Channeling 2010s party-punk greats like PUP and Prince Daddy, this year Baltimore’s Combat launched forth with the unhinged and inspired Stay Golden.”
Eliza McLamb: “Going Through It is a fitting title for a singer-songwriter’s debut album, and Eliza McLamb is truly going through it in the songs.”
Fabiana Palladino: “Has been steadily working for many years, backing up people like Jessie Ware and SBTRKT while releasing her own music on Jai Paul’s label. On her self-titled debut, Palladino builds sparse and deliberate soul-pop universes.”
Onsloow: “Every song on the emo- and indie pop-tinted Norwegian rockers’ debut album Full Speed Anywhere Else bursts with life and color.”
You’ll recognize 3 artists from past issues of Hear Hear: Mk.gee, Friko, and This Is Lorelei
Consensus picks: Lists that tell the story of 2024
The New Yorker’s Amanda Petrusich captured the year in music with brilliant writing and stellar picks. Her top 10 features many of my favorites — from Vampire Weekend, Charli xcx, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Waxahatchee, and Bon Iver — plus one album I need to revisit (Sabrina Carpenter) and one I still need to try (Mdou Moctar). It’s topped off by two young singer-songwriter-guitarists with very different sounds but a shared prodigal energy: Mk.gee’s Two Star & The Dream Police at #2 and MJ Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks at #1.
On Mk.gee, the alias of 28-year-old Michael Gordon: “Gordon’s music reminds me, in some vague way, of the work of Arthur Russell, Oneohtrix Point Never, Genesis, Phil Collins’s ‘In the Air Tonight,’ Bruce Hornsby, Toro y Moi, and especially Bon Iver, whose 22, A Million, from 2016, feels like the closest probable touchstone.”
On the 25-year-old MJ: “His lyrics are smart, funny, and written with astounding precision: ‘Clarinet / Singing its lonesome duck walk,’ he sings on ‘You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In,’ a song about trying to peacefully loosen one’s grip on a broken relationship. It’s the kind of line a listener can breeze right by, until you think about it for a moment, and realize, Oh, shit, that’s exactly what a clarinet sounds like.”
The New York Times’ Best Albums and Songs of 2024. The NYT’s 3 lead critics — Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica, and Lindsay Zoladz — always do a nice job capturing where music is headed and showcasing their distinct takes. They mashed their top songs into a 103-song playlist for The Amplifier newsletter, and there’s a fun interactive feature where you can explore their lists visually.
Their respective “best album” picks came from: Charli xcx, Mk.gee, and MJ Lenderman.
Pitchfork’s 50 Best Albums and 100 Best Songs of 2024: Always a reliable indicator of the critical consensus.
Their #1 album: Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee. Writes Meaghan Garvey on this “32-track magnum opus” from the alter-ego of Canadian musician Patrick Flegel: “Presented as a two-hour listening gauntlet with no breaks between tracks…Diamond Jubilee seemed to float in from another place and time. You might follow its wistful melodies all the way back to the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers, stopping along the way at Motown soul or Velvet Underground fuzz…or to the late aughts blog scene, when indie acts were distorting retro pop sounds as if the young, urban millennials had all rewatched Twin Peaks at once.”
Their #1 song: Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Writes Paul A. Thompson: “Even before ‘Not Like Us’ would become Kendrick’s biggest crossover single (it debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and became the longest-running No. 1 in the history of Billboard’s rap chart), it spoke the language of a hit: buoyant, swaggering, epigrammatic. Mustard’s beat, complete with those chopped-up strings that sound eerily like the ones from ‘Ether,’ synthesizes a decade-plus of L.A. rap production.”
NPR’s 50 Best Albums and 124 Best Songs: These lists are a treat to dive into, especially as a guided listen from the All Songs Considered team.
Doechii’s remarkable Tiny Desk Concert served as my introduction to her music, so it’s only fitting that she’s on both NPR lists. On that performance, Ashley Pointer writes: “Performing a medley of cuts from her Grammy-nominated mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, with an all-woman band, Doechii channels so many sounds — jazz, gospel, rock, musical theater — while maintaining a classic hip-hop throughline.”
Indie albums: Lists from trusted tastemakers
New Commute: Albums of the Year 2024 // No Expectations: The 60 Best Albums of 2024, According to Some Guy in Chicago
My discoveries often stem from these two sources: New Commute is a slightly mysterious curator of warm rock and folk; No Expectations is an essential newsletter from Chicago-based writer Josh Terry.
Let’s spotlight a few albums that made both lists, with writing pulled from Terry:
Plunge, Sam Evian: “A great guitarist [who] barely plays a lick on his new album. Instead, he picks up the bass and enlists a cast of collaborators…gleefully paying homage to classic ‘60s and ‘70s songwriting on this LP with ebullient power-pop and Beatles-esque riffage”
Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild, Merce Lemon: “Few records can capture the intense vulnerability of bedroom pop with forceful, country-tinged arrangements that jump from breathtakingly gorgeous to dirge-like and pummeling.”
Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine, Allegra Krieger: “The New York songwriter can weave unlikely notes and diaristic observations into something totally hypnotic.”
Great Doubt, Astrid Sonne: “Threads the needle between airy avant-pop and brooding, menacing electronic but it’s all bonded by the London-based composer and violist’s sturdy compositions.”
A few more albums made both lists, from: Loving, Jessica Pratt, SML, Hour, hemlock, Hataałii, and of course MJ Lenderman.
Bonus highlights from New Commute: Catchy folk from Kate Bollinger, Bloomsday, and Chris Acker // power-pop from Sharp Pins and Daryl Johns // albums from Wagging, Hovvdy, and Fust
Bonus highlights from No Expectations: The “dexterous lyricist” Smino // the “conversational lyrics” and “cloudy atmospherics” of Wild Pink // Chicago songwriter Tasha // “winsome, lo-fi songs” from Philadelphia band 22° Halo // lake j, the solo project of Cadien Lake James (from one of my favorite bands, Twin Peaks)
Personal faves: Lists from individual curators
Bob Boilen, former host of NPR’s All Songs Considered, now shares his fave songs of the year on his Tiny Morning Show for Takoma Radio. His list has great tracks from Cassandra Jenkins, Bad Moves, Wilco, Hermanos Gutiérrez, and Dawes collaborators Winnetka Bowling League.
Sean Michaels, founder of iconic music blog Said The Gramophone, revives the site every December for a year-end wrap-up. His playlist features plenty of Hear Hear faves — Jessica Pratt, Good Looks, and Clairo claim the top 3 spots — and introduced me to cool tracks from Amber Mark, King Hannah and Phoebe Go.
Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead, Baby Diver, and more, always introduces me to peppy punk and nostalgia-laden rock. This year his “TOP 50 SONGS” playlist is led by Sunflower Bean, The Lemon Twigs, and Fontaines D.C. (although I’ve been more into their song “Favourite” than his pick)
Don’t Rock The Inbox, the excellent newsletter from Natalie Weiner and Marissa Moss, listed their favorite “country and Americana-ish” songs & albums of the year. I particularly appreciated their odes to Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song” and The Deslondes’ Roll It Out.
Finally, meticulous curator Matthew Perpetua put together his kaleidoscopic 2024 Fluxblog Survey playlist, and you won’t find a better guide to the year in music. It’s a fully sequenced mix through the first 200 songs, with an opening four-track run flowing gracefully from Kendrick to Vampire Weekend to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard to Chappell Roan. Enjoy, and happy almost new year!
nice collection of best ofs. The New Commute list is fire.