The Best of 2024

From Beyoncé to Billy Strings to the Black Crowes, everyone else is doing it, and so am I. It's my best of the year.

Here they are, the 30 best albums of the year. When I say “best” - it should go without saying, but still… - I mean the ones that ended up either on my stereo, in my car, in my earbuds, or on my mind more than any other. Nothing more complicated than that.

What I’ve noticed over the last few years, but what has especially come to the fore in 2024, is that the album as an art form is returning. Through the 2000s and into the 2010s, the focus turned to EPs and singles (just like the pre-Beatles era), but from 2020 on, more artists have learned to embrace the crafting of LPs again. Proof of this is the number of double albums on this list (no less than three). Maybe it was all that time spent in isolation during lockdown. Either way, it’s a good thing. (Of course, other examples out there prove that editors are still needed: Taylor Swift gave us her Sandinista! this year, and really, no one needs that much Zach Bryan in the marketplace at once.

I’ve also added a Mixtape below with the 30 best songs of the year. There’s some crossover with the best albums, but a few are from records that didn’t make the cut.

I was going to be strong and post this on the very last day of the year, but music publications want to get this stuff out the first week of December and I decided in this case to go ahead and join the herd. Forgive me.

You’ll only hear from me a couple more times this year - promise! I’ll still be stopping by in 2025, but it will be more on a monthly (or bi-monthly), rather than weekly, basis. So that will leave plenty of room in your inbox for spam from elsewhere.

Enough housekeeping - on to the list:

Best Albums

1. Beyoncé - COWBOY CARTER

Now and then, the hype is justified. In 2024, no other album came close to this sprawling reclamation of one’s roots - country, soul, hip-hop, and rock’n’roll - and all their adventurous side roads. If this isn’t Americana, then Americana isn’t a thing. Read more about it here.

2. Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood

Katie Crutchfield’s best effort so far, which is saying something. Not only that but bringing in MJ Lenderman to assist on “Right Back To It” puts the ode to long-haul love into the instant classic category.

3. Hooray for the Riff Raff - The Past is Still Alive

As The Past Is Still Alive progresses, it gets deeper. Alynda Segarra has crafted and sequenced an album so damn enthralling that by the time “Ogallala” fades, you never want the journey to end.

4. Kendrick Lamar - GNX

Just in time to throw a wrench into everyone’s plans who released a “best of the year” list in frickin’ late October, Lamar’s surprise November 22nd release is the unexpected hip-hop triumph of the year. The only reason it’s not even higher on this list is because I haven’t had as much time with it as I have the rest of what’s here.

5. Sarah Jarosz - Polaroid Lovers

Simply put, Jarosz gave us her best yet in 2024. What’s even more remarkable is the Deluxe Edition released later in the year proved that there was still plenty left in the well. Bonus cuts, “Wildflowers in the Sky” and especially the sublime “Just Like Paradise” deepened an already fantastic set of songs.

6. Billy Strings - Highway Prayers

Highway Prayers is the real deal. Billy Strings possesses the heart of a bluegrass lifer, but the head of a jam band freak. A double album that surprisingly has no fat to trim, it ebbs and flows like the classic albums we grew up with.

7. Johnny Blue Skies - Passage Du Desir

Here’s what I wrote about Sturgill Simpson’s full-length debut as Johnny Blue Skies earlier this year.

8. Shelby Lynne - Consequences of the Crown

Soul-searching and quiet storming through hip-hop beats and blues-bending vocals, Shelby Lynne delivers her best album this century. I talked to her about it for PopMatters earlier this year.

9. Maggie Rose - No One Gets Out Alive

By the end of the opening title track, you’re completely drained, and Maggie Rose is just getting started. That’s sometimes a sign that a great album is underway, and No One Gets Out Alive does not disappoint. It ranks up there with Tapestry, with Blood on the Tracks, with Exile on Main St, as a defining moment in an artist’s career. This one’s Rose’s…so far.

10. Lizzie No - Halfsies

Entrancing, hypnotic, deeply ethereal, and, in places, driving and tough - Lizzie No delivered a tour de force that was a damn delight from start to finish.

11. Warren Haynes - Million Voices Whisper

Haynes is in even better voice than usual, and his guitar can still curl your toes. You can read my No Depression interview with Haynes about this album here.

12. Rosali - Bite Down

One of the most captivating talents to emerge in the last twenty years, Rosali outdoes even herself on Bite Down. Guitars jangle while Rosali croons and wraps her vocals around these songs like a weighted blanket, sheltering you from this chaotic world at least for a while.

13. Jamey Johnson - Midnight Gasoline

The fact that this, Johnson’s first new album of original material in 14 years, isn’t the best country album of the year (that distinction goes to, of course, COWBOY CARTER) proves what a great year it’s been for country music. Still, Midnight Gasoline is one of the best straight-up country albums of the last decade.

14. Sabrina Carpenter - Short n’ Sweet

Proof (if any was still needed) that pop music can be brilliant as well as catchy. Carpenter delivered her magnum opus of pop perfection in 2024. Put this on and it’ll stay with you for a long time. You’ve been warned.

15. The Black Crowes - Happiness Bastards

Yes, only the Robinson Brothers remain, and I do miss Steve Gorman, but dammit, the spirit is still there. So, I begrudgingly place this badass rock’n’roll album in my top 20. Here’s my original review for PopMatters.

16. Kim Richey - Every New Beginning

Richey’s first new album in four years was a breath of fresh summer air. While she collaborated with Aaron Lee Tasjan, Brian Wright, and Doug Lancio (who produced), it’s all Richey’s show from beginning to end.

17. Mk.gee - Two Star & the Dream Police

One of the most original artists to appear in quite a while, Mk.gee slid onto my radar after his SNL performance earlier this year. It’s rare that an album can tap into the familiar but do so in an entirely new way. (The more I think about it, maybe I should’ve placed this one higher. Oh, well…)

18. David Gilmour - Luck and Strange

Soulful explorations and subtle, yet anthemic balladry and mid-tempo rockers that recall the glory days while passing the torch to the next generation (daughter Romany), Gilmour delivers once again.

19. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

The way the year turned out, the Cure releasing an album called Songs of a Lost World seemed downright prescient. Robert Smith and his merry band of goths return with a healthy dose of beautiful darkness. Let it envelop you.

20. Bonny Light Horseman - Keep Me On Your Mind/Set You Free

It’s the year when double albums - even triple albums - became the norm. While some could’ve employed an editor (looking at you, Tortured Poets Society), others used the extra real estate wisely. Bonny Light Horseman’s 2024 release is an hour-plus of breezy, engrossing escapism.

21. Charli XCX - brat and it’s completely different but also still brat

BRAT may be the one everyone’s about since it dominated pop culture this year. Still, I’m partial to this remix released a few months later, featuring appearances by everyone from Bon Iver to the 1975. Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, and Charli XCX, are all Exhibit A that the women of pop are in control.

22. MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

This is where Southern Rock has landed in 2024, and I’m more than OK with that. Moments like the lazy, loping “Wristwatch,” the matter-of-fact devastating brilliance of “She’s Leaving You,” and the irresistible “Joker Lips” finally turned me into a fan of this guy. I bear witness to the fact that Manning Fireworks possesses the power to convert previous non-believers.

23. Little Feat - Sam’s Place

New Little Feat? Yes, please. The Sam in the title is, of course, Sam Clayton, who steps front and center for this tear through a handful of blues rave-ups, some well-known, some not. But they’re all a breath of fresh, genuine air in the age where everyone’s going AI.

24. Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Moody, hypnotic, cautious, brilliant - Billie Eilish’s third album continued her ascension by experimenting just enough without going overboard, while not compromising her vision one iota.

25. Various Artists - Cardinals at the Window

An unprecedented compilation of artists ranging from R.E.M. and Jason Isbell to Shirlette Ammons and S.G. Goodman, Cardinals was constructed as a benefit for the people of Western North Carolina following the devastation of Hurricane Helene this past September. It’s well worth whatever you can give ($10 min) to get well over 100 tracks - all previously unreleased and all bangers - and help out an area of my home state that truly needs it.

26. Hermanos Gutiérrez - Sonido Cósmico

The follow-up to their acclaimed Easy Eye debut, El Bueno Y El Malo, Hermanos Gutiérrez doubles down on the atmosphere while illuminating the space between your ears with sprawling soundscapes.

27. Jack White - No Name

Originally a nameless album released exclusively through his Third Man label (even the songs were untitled), Jack White gifted us No Name a couple of weeks later and did us a solid by naming the songs. It’s an album that recalls the immediacy of the heavy blues that first inspired him, coupled with the fierce abandon of the White Stripes that caused us to believe that raw rock’n’roll could still be made.

28. Mark Knopfler - One Deep River

I wrote about this exquisite album earlier in the year. It could’ve easily been placed higher; proof of a strong year for music.

29. Gary Clark, Jr - JPEG RAW

Blues, rock, soul, hip-hop - this is how they seamlessly work together in 2024. (Assists from Stevie Wonder and George Clinton don’t hurt.)

I saw Clark with Mavis Staples at Red Rocks this past spring. Check out the show review here.

30. Jon Anderson & the Band Geeks - True

Jon Anderson discovered his new ensemble, the Band Geeks, the new-fashioned way - on YouTube. That’s not a slight. These geeks can play. In fact, True is arguably a more enjoyable listen than the last few Yes albums. It takes twists, turns, and chances that signal a welcome return to the halcyon days of prog while keeping an ear on the present. And, yes, that voice is just as pure as ever.

Best Songs

Here’s a Mixtape of the 30 best songs of the year. Some are taken from the albums listed above, some aren’t. But they’re the best that passed through these ears in 2024.

Apple Music users can click here.

Check out last year’s best below:

From the Archive: Best of 2023

Thanks for reading the Mixtape this year. I’m honored you came along for the ride and I appreciate you sticking around for 2025. Be sure to share the Mixtape with those who’ll dig it.