My 2024 Favorites: 20 to 11
An unranked list of the ten albums that fell just outside of my top ten for 2024
Season’s greetings and happy holidays fellow music lovers! December 26th means Boxing Day for some, St. Stephen’s Day for others, or just another day back in the office for a bunch of folks. For me, today represents a day to try and catch my breath after a busy holiday period. It’s also the perfect opportunity to publish the second of three posts on my favorite albums of 2024. It’s hard to believe that it’s been over two weeks since I published my Honorable Mentions, but I’m back with the next batch of fabulous sounds from 2024.
It’s All About The Albums
The advent of digital music significantly altered the music listening paradigm—suddenly people were able to purchase any individual track and weren’t limited to physically purchasing an entire album or the singles that the record company deemed worthy of individual release. Presumably, for many of those that came of age during the 21st century, the idea of the album as a single piece of art, designed to be consumed as a whole, is a vestige of a bygone era. Myself, I’ve always been an album guy and I imagine I will be for the rest of my days. There’s something special about appreciating a piece of art in the manner in which it was intended. That’s an assumption on my part—perhaps there are as many artists releasing collections of songs as there are thoughtfully sequencing albums to be consumed as a whole—but it’s an assumption that’s defined the way I listen to music for over forty years. And it’s not something that’s likely to change anytime soon.
When it comes to my annual AOTY list, the bar for inclusion is quite high indeed. My cardinal rule, particularly for any album making my top twenty, is that it can’t include any skippable songs. I need to comfortably be able to (and want to!) play the album from start to finish. It’s a rare album that can inspire a love for every single track—there are relatively few albums that I can categorize as such masterpieces—but I must at least like every song on an album if it’s gonna make my AOTY list.
As an aide, I also tend to exclude compilations or reissues—there are none on my list this year—although I have made exceptions in prior years for albums that really stole my heart or spoke to my soul. The compilations Once Again We Are the Children of the Sun (my #9 of 2023) and Sad About the Times (my #6 of 2019) and the brilliant reissue I Shall Wear a Crown from Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir (my #2 of 2021) are obvious exceptions and are highly recommended.
A quick comment about ranking, a topic I may cover a little more deeply when I share my top ten list. In prior years I used to agonize over the ordinal ranking of my top fifty albums. More recently though, I came to the conclusion that, for me, ranking outside the top 20 or 30 is a fool’s errand and a bit of a ridiculous and meaningless exercise. For my posts on this year’s favorites, outside of bucketing them into Honorable Mentions, 20 to 11, and the Top Ten, I’m not ranking the albums at all.
Without further ado, below are another ten albums I loved in 2024. As I did in my last post, I’m providing excerpts of reviews for each album along with a link to the entire review for those that want some further reading. The albums are listed in ascending alphabetical order by artist name.
Happy listening!
2024 Favorites: 20 to 11 Playlist
Bess Atwell - Light Sleeper
Review from Spectrum Culture:
Listening to Bess Atwell’s Light Sleeper, bravery probably won’t be the first thing you think of, but the British singer/songwriter has stared down ghosts and faced her fears, dealing with issues that would handcuff others. First there’s the subject matter of her songs, which address topics like longing, dependency and autism. Let’s be honest, there aren’t a lot of songs that deal with autism. The word alone scares people — singing about it requires a kind of courage few can muster.
Standout Track: The Weeping
CLICK HERE to listen on your preferred platform
Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Review from The Guardian:
The album’s autumnal gloom is affecting and enveloping, although occasionally dappled with warmth and light, as when Lost Changes’ lovely chorus arrives, or a solo violin spirals skywards on For Sale, or a children’s choir appears during Floating on a Moment, albeit singing “we’re all going to nowhere”. A dispatch from the darker moments of middle age, Lives Outgrown is occasionally challenging, frequently beautiful and invariably gripping.
Standout Track: Lost Changes
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The Bony King of Nowhere - Everybody Knows
From the Bandcamp release page:
The new record showcases the new league Vanparys is playing in. Themes like rusted patterns in society, the obedience of the everyday man, the structural false ignorance of big shots, the toxicity of online communication and other very recognisable but not always pleasant subjects. Inspired by the observations of many sociologists, Vanparys dissects our society, the loneliest ever. This album is not just disconcerting though, in its strength lies a sense of hope and vigour.
Standout Track: Erase
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Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
Review from Clash Music:
It’s an album of contrasts in many ways. It’s intimate yet expansive, it’s beautiful, but also reveals the ugly truth that death is inevitable for us all, but how you live your life is what counts. Mahashmashana is assured, emotive and luminous, Tillman (AKA Father John Misty’s) distinctive phasing is magnificent and his melodies are gorgeous and this soul-baring record is set to be a firm favourite for both new fans and the existing congregation that worship at the altar of Father John Misty.
Standout Track: Mahashmashana
CLICK HERE to listen on your preferred platform
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Review from NME
Romance is the band’s most considered and intricately crafted release yet, dotted with wide-ranging allusions to decay (a cascading ‘Sundowner’), apocalyptic visions and all the ghosts who have passed through their lives (‘Death Kink’). Romance offers moments of wonder and gravity while also feeling occasionally foreboding.
Standout Track: Starburster
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Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
Review from The Quietus
Nobody Loves You More, her long-awaited solo debut, dares you to try. Across its twelve tracks, Deal teases out entirely new sonic terrain while honouring the weight of her legacy. It’s not about rejecting the past but forging ahead with surprises, warmth and unwavering truth...Nobody Loves You More shapeshifts ad infinitum without ever alienating. Deal doesn’t ask you to forget what came before; she simply invites you to imagine what comes next. One suspects that might have been her plan all along.
Standout Track: Are You Mine?
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Marika Hackman - Big Sigh
Review from Joyzine:
Big Sigh is a glorious sublimation of the pop and the pastoral sides of her career to date, and the allusion of a ‘sigh’ as a pause reflects that this is a look back on her life to make sense of things that touch us all: lust, love, anxiety, stress and facing your own mortality. Those highs and lows are reflected in the musical arrangements – very much a signature of her music – where tracks like ‘The Ground’ move from calm waters to a tidal swelling of strings and electronic interference, and ‘Hanging’ where the soft lament of a constricted relationship explodes at the end with the force of someone fighting against being “pushed underwater when I’m coming up for air”.
Standout Track: Big Sigh
CLICK HERE to listen on your preferred platform
Michael Kiwanuka - Small Changes
Review from DIY
Once again returning to work with producing masters Danger Mouse and Inflo - completing, at least for now, a trilogy of collaborations - Small Changes is a beauty of a record, once again showcasing Michael’s innate ability to produce songs that feel both timelessly classic yet still grounded very much in the present....An intimate but confident record that reveals more of its magic with every listen.
Standout Track: Small Changes
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Molly Lewis - On The Lips
Review from Pitchfork
Once you get past the initial eccentricity, Lewis’ whistling eventually becomes so familiar and immersive that her vocalizations feel as mundane as the soft crooning of a jazz singer. Song after song, her abilities are astounding—how she quivers the final note of “Cocosette” or sustains such a clear and steady tone on “Slinky” is impressive, even after multiple listens...On the Lips succeeds as an introduction to her mystifying world: Its whimsicality leaves you spellbound, hoping to hear just one more faint whistle even after the final track fades out.
Standout Track: Crushed Velvet
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Still Corners - Dream Talk
Review from Under The Radar
Anglo-American duo Still Corners return with their sixth album, Dream Talk, a 10-track exploration of ethereal dream pop soundscapes. While staying true to their signature sound, the duo do inject subtle elements of experimentation into proceedings, which makes Dream Talk a slightly different experience than their previous work....Tessa Murray’s captivating vocals glide across a variety of beautifully crafted soundscapes inspired by her own nocturnal musings and fragmented dreams. The album is imbued with a serene, hypnotic, hypnagogic quality, as the lines between reality and dreaming blur.
Standout Track: Today is the Day
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I’d love to hear your thoughts on these picks! Please jump in to the comments and let me know what you liked or what you didn’t. Were there any new artists/albums for you here? Did you love them? Hate them? Indifferent?
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Quite a few new (to me) picks on here! I was late to Kim Deal's record, and still haven't had a chance to really sit down and listen to it.
I love your approach of splitting the records into broad sections but avoid ranking within each section. It’s probably the most honest you can be as I’m pretty sure if you were to rank them on one day you could well rank them differently the day after.
Also an album guy myself, I can fully relate to the “no skips” notion you used as your main guide.
If we don’t speak before, hope your 2024 ends very well and that your 2025 starts even better!