#030: Charli xcx – Brat
Released June 7th, 2024 on Atlantic Records
Everything you could ever want in a club album at once – pure pop bliss, old-school rave sounds, the best beats of the late, lamented PC Music, and of course Charli herself, the brat at the heart of it all. At once cool, confident, and spiralling on anxiety, Brat is the most relatable pop record to come along in a long time.
#029: Mach-Hommy – #RICHAXXHAITIAN
Released May 17th, 2024
Hip hop has had a lot of spinoffs in the last decade – trap, that melodic shit that’s always at the top of the charts, alt hop, hick hop, cloud rap, etc. The group over at Griselda, though, don’t recognize any of that. For them, hip hop is and will be about grimey beats, knotted wordplay, and equal mixtures of message and murder. Mach-Hommy has previously proven himself to be the virtuoso of them, and on #RICHAXXHAITIAN he seemingly perfects it. You ever want to hear a Haitian dude rap about the IMF using the metaphor of addiction? Now’s your time.
#028: Parannoul – Sky Hundred
Released August 7th, 2024 on Longinius/POCLANOS/Top Shelf
The South Korean shoegaze revivalist recenters himself and creates a document of the state of the scene. It doesn’t push the genre forward by any means, but it’s as perfect a new wave shoegaze record as you’re likely to find these days. It’s more abrasive than the old world, but everything hits so much harder that even old heads will find it easy enough to slip into. Volume has always been an acceptable cost-cutter, and on Sky Hundred Parannoul uses it to brilliant effect.
#027: Rapsody – Please Don’t Cry
Released May 17th, 2024 on Roc Nation Records
Rapsody at one point claims that if she had a dick she would be in conversations for the greatest of all time and I can’t say that she’s entirely wrong. Her long-awaited followup to 2019’s Eve eschews that album’s tight, wound-up nature in favor of a sprawling, R&B influenced musing on deeply personal matters. It adds a certain lushness to her style that works to tease out the really emotionally harrowing parts.
#026: Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia?
Released March 1st, 2024 on Island Records
The critics were in sync about Yard Act’s sophomore record but it still ended up feeling underrated by the year’s end. Part of it was that it felt intentionally difficult; the post-post-punk’s first album had tight riffs and hard-coiled songwriting. Where’s My Utopia? explores its boundaries much more, blurring the lines and doing as it feels. There are spiralling noise moments and slick pop songs on the same record, but through it all are James Smith’s familiar half-rant, half-storytelling vocals, making each song into an experience unto itself.
#025: Laura Marling – Patterns In Repeat
Released October 25th, 2024 on Partisan Records
In the midst of the chaos and tension of the year, Patterns In Repeat functions as a peaceful moment, a Sunday afternoon at home with the family, watching sunlight pour in the front window with a nice mug of coffee held in two hands. Her previous album, Songs For Our Daughter, wrote to an imaginary family; Patterns In Repeat is a missive to a suddenly very real family, songs to an actual daughter, and from a daughter to her mother, connecting the dots serenely between the two.
#024: Geordie Greep – The New Sound
Released October 4th, 2024 on Rough Trade Records
You may have thought Greep’s former band, the incendiary black midi, were a bit over the top. Have no fear: Geordie Greep has gone solo in the service to taking an even higher dive off into the deep end. Mixing the chaotic noise-prog of his old band with an apparent love of cocktail jazz, cruise ship revue, and musical theatre, The New Sound is an extravaganza of the incredibly odd, with Greep achieving new heights in how uncomfortably enthralled he can make you.
#023: Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor
Released September 13th, 2024 on Ninja Tune Records
The British singer’s all-important third record finds her tightening up the songs, presenting an immaculate collection of hard-hitting alt pop tracks that find her balancing necessity and desire. She may be gripped by volatility and uncertainty, but her music has never felt more tangibly self-assured.
#022: Kim Gordon – The Collective
Released March 8th, 2024 on Matador Records
I am a 42 year old man. Kim Gordon is older than my father. Kim Gordon is making avant-garde alt music with distorted hip hop beats that have more in common with Death Grips than whatever it is ex-bandmate/ex-husband Thurston Moore is doing these days. She goes in hard with stream-of-consciousness lines and doubles down on the ultramodern nature of her first solo record, 2019’s No Home Record. Be more like Kim Gordon.
#021: Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching
Released September 27th, 2024 on Partisan Records
The Mercury Prize-winning jazz quintet explores the spirituality of dancing, and it helps their exploration that they’re capable of a serious groove thing. Jazz isn’t always a genre that demands hooks, but Ezra Collective deliver them in a way that makes it seem effortless, like they can’t help but bang out danceable melodies, one after the other. Throw your hands in the air – no one’s gonna care – it’s just you on the dancefloor and the set goes on forever.
