The 50 best albums of 2024
Our favourite records of the year
From the outside looking in, 2024 has been a year to remember in music.
Oasis are back, Taylor Swift is flying to every corner of the world and Glastonbury once again conjured a quarter of a million people to dance in a field.
But, beneath these Leviathan highs lies an industry on the brink of collapse.
Structurally, the music industry is largely an oligopoly: achingly massive companies such as Live Nation, who orchestrate many of the big stadium tours we’ve seen this year, raked in $22.7bn in 2023.
On the other side of the coin, 125 music venues closed in the UK last year, representing a loss of 30,000 performances and 4000 jobs. 184 nightclubs closed their doors, meaning that since 2005, 70% of Britain’s late-night venues have shut.
With a more global hat on, artists from all corners of the planet are struggling with the new face of music consumption. Artists typically earn $0.003-$0.005 per stream, meaning millions of streams are required to generate a solid income. The costs of touring have also dramatically risen, with artists footing most of the costs of the process.
The crux of it all is that the shimmering stadium successes at the top of this world rely on the independent venues, festivals, opportunities and remunerations of grassroots music.
Coldplay’s first booking was at the Laurel Tree pub in Camden. Oasis once charged just £3 on the door for a gig. Taylor Swift’s first show in England was in the students’ union bar at King’s College London.
The government’s latest call to the industry to implement a levy on stadium shows is a major step forward in rekindling the relationship between the heady heights and the grassroots of music.
Below are our favourite 50 albums & compilations of 2024, with links to their music (and charities to consider).
It’s never been a better time to buy the music you enjoy on Bandcamp for the price of a coffee.
YAI - Sky Time
Get your welly boots on and wade through this gloopy, viscous serving of ambient jazz. It’s smooth, soft, silky, smudgy gear that lends an insight into the ineffable transportive powers of the genre.
BbyMutha - sleep paralysis
The cheeky, brash, never-too-serious Atlanta rapper gets stuck into the garage and breakbeat pastures of the UK. Littered with bangers.
Filther - Filther
Schmoozy guitar reverberates around dissociated chimes, melancholic melodies & spongy vocals on Berlin-based Ludwig Wandinger’s debut as Filther.
Fears - affinity
The underground of the Irish music scene has been bubbling furiously for years, and Constance Keane’s sophomore record is part of the boil. Delicate, rich and textured experimental pop.
Barkley Bandon - Love Machine
Ideal gear for the night bus ride home, Love Machine is a space-age-8-bit-arcade hall-hyperpop-RnB cocktail. Dark ‘n’ sludgy like the inner organs of a Playstation 2.
Quintelium - Dreams and Reality
Ambient drone mastery that does what it says on the tin: shepherds you through the nooks and crannies of a dream-like state, never veering too far from reality.
Jlin - Akoma
Dubbed one of the most influential women in electronic music, Jlin’s exploration of rhythm and post-footwork come to a head on her third album, laced with features from Björk to Philip Glass to Kronos Quartet.
Death Is Not The End - Your Kisses Are Like Roses: Fado Recordings, 1914-1936
A spine-tingling bucket of Portugese Fado recordings plucked from the 1910-1930 period. A portal to another epoch; a supersonic tour of 20th century European culture.
Winged Wheel - Big Hotel
A heady rush of krautrock, dreampop and indie, the Detroit-hailing band’s latest LP is a smudgy feel-good allure.
Snakeskin - They Kept Our Photographs
Ethereal vocals overlayed with industrial dreampop & ambient drone haunt this spectral beauty from Beirut duo Julia Sabra & Fadi Tabbal, whose latest They Kept Our Photographs is a reflection on the Arab experience in the face of state discrimination.
Tim Reaper & Kloke - In Full Effect
Carrying the torch for the UK’s second-wind jungle march, the London duo bring bags of breakbeat hardcore, footwork, dubby slices and warped bassy bliss to the table.
Belong - Realistic IX
A shoegaze utopia with guitars that will wrap you up until the album ends. Gritty, gravelly & grainy.
Stacks - Want
Antwerpian synth-pop superstardom here: this is addictive stuff that summons the ghosts of Depeche Mode.
The Necks - Bleed
Australian minimal jazz savants The Necks follow up their 2023 masterpiece with another dark ‘n’ stormy slice of experimentation with a non-stop 42-minute swelling and contracting beast.
DJ NOTOYA - Funk Tide - Tokyo Jazz-Funk From Electric Bird 1978-87
A bountiful scoop through the yesteryear files of Japan’s Electric Bird Records, this compilation is an easy-on-the-ears slice of style.
Garth Erasmus -Threnody for KhoiSan
A pensive, sometimes lamenting, consistently beautiful ambient-folk-jazz ode to the indigenous people of South Africa. Brimming with custom-built instruments and poetry that open a devastating door to a culture being eroded by the modern world.
Kali Malone - All Life Long
I once snuck into a church at midnight in a village in Ireland, and it was eerily serene. If this wondrous amalgam of brass, organ and choir were ringing out, would I have been converted?
Loidis - One Day
Absolutely luscious dub techno. One Day is a measured dance in the romantically foggy underbelly of some-city-somewhere.
Lilacs & Champagne - Fantasy World
A whirlwind of menacingly cool post-rock and psychedelic hip-hop. It sounds like a record discovered in an attic at the bottom of the ocean. Very possible to get lost in - which is not an issue in the slightest.
Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru - Souvenirs
A mesmeric transportation to the rustic keyboard and scrapbook of a late 70s Ethiopian nun-cum-composer. The melodies are as delicate as anything, but I can guarantee they’ll rip into the real estate of your memory. Don’t miss this one.
Discovery Zone - Quantum Web
When I saw Discovery Zone at Peckham Audio earlier this year, she transported the crowd through a digital portal into a world of AI and robotics. Her latest experimental pop offering is a rich social commentary using these same tools. You can read our interview with Discovery Zone here.
Mabe Fratti - Sentir que no sabes
A full-bodied platter of avant garde cello pop. Equally comfortable with both her instrument and her own voice, the Mexican artist has delivered one of the most creative albums of the year.
Arooj Aftab - Night Reign
Arooj Aftab is no stranger to these lists. Her performance at The Park stage at Glastonbury in June had onlookers in a tight spell, and her wondrous new album is no different. One of the finest singers of our generation.
Moin - You Never End
A beefy slice of UK guitar music. Sludgy, dank, grainy and sticky like the post-autumn leaf piles that hug the city kerbs. Sometimes we need a jolly antidote for the bluesy months; other times, we need an album that embodies the mood.
Nizar Rohana - Safa
The oud is a Middle Eastern lute-esque pear-shaped string instrument, which you can hear in majestic abundance on Safa, the latest LP from Palestinian maestro Nizar Rohana. It is evidence of the undeterred will of art, that something of such delicate beauty can arrive at the zenith of genocide and political disarray.
Jawnino - 40
A shadowy and moreish take on grime, drill, jungle and rap. Studded with guests from myriad corners of the underground. Super unique.
Numa Gama - A Spectral Turn
A unique collision between a Brazilian artist and a Chinese label, this one’s a super fresh dose of left-field electronica. Drum programming is gorgeous.
Carme López - Quintela
A fascinating experimental deep-dive into the Galician bagpipes from Spanish composer & teacher Carme López. The beauty here lies in the willingness to be imperfect: this instrument hiccups and trickles at will, and López made sure to capture every single one of these blemishes to breadthen her resultant soundscape.
Amanda Whiting - The Liminality of Her
It’s been a great year for Welsh harpist Amanda Whiting, who appears at the peak of her powers. It’s hazy, ethereal, jazz-inflected gear that unabashedly makes the harp cool again.
Still House Plants - If I don’t make it, I love u
Emphatically fizzy art-rock from the breakout British band. Lead singer Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach has one of the most intriguing voices you’ll hear, and it trickles fearlessly above a shackles-off, at times math-rocky approach to instrumentation.
Shane Parish - Repertoire
Mesmerising acoustic guitar lullaby covers of Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra and more big hitters. Imagine a pot of Manuka honey giving you a nostalgic serenade.
Jaubi - A Sound Heart
Spiritual jazz meets South Asian classical. It’s an inter-continental mind meld between a Lahore-hailing quartet, a Polish keyboardist and a London saxophonist. Tranquil, pensive and ultimately dazzling gear.
Tristwch y Fenywod - Tristwch y Fenywod
Mind-blowing Celtic-occult-darkwave-horror-rock. Sung entirely in Welsh, this will summon that gothic part of you that you thought you’d buried in your teens. It’s mystic, paranormal, guttural, perplexing music that sounds like it’s been wrung from the soupy forests of untouched Wales.
Chuck Johnson - Sun Glories
I saw the re-run of Interstellar at Vue Angel earlier this year, and was left wondering what it would feel like to be floating in the eternal void of space like Matthew McConaughey was. There’s something incomprehensibly both massive and peaceful about that notion. This music takes you there.
Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn - Quiet In A World Full of Noise
Sometimes we just need to stare pensively out of a window, stuck in a half-emotional haze. Let this fascinating collaboration between a former chart-topping pop group singer and a left-field jazz/classical/ambient composer be your soundtrack.
Music From Memory - Virtual Dreams II: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999
My favourite label, Amsterdam’s Music From Memory, are back with another multi-artist historical deep dive into how house and techno influenced ambient music. This time, it’s a dazzling tale of two halves: the chill-out sounds of 90s Europe, followed by the futuristic club culture of 1993-1999 Japan. It’s the final release that late label founder Jamie Tiller worked on, and his immaculate ear for sequencing lives on in this.
Daniel Herskedal - Call For Winter II
Buckle up for this bewitching warm hug of brass supremacy. It feels like a Scandi battle cry. Lamenting tuba drones trickle through some of the most bittersweet melodies you’ll ever hear, transporting you into the saddle of a Norwegian winter sleigh ride.
Clinic Stars - Only Hinting
What’s that? You’re wondering if Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive have given birth to their supernaturally fresh-sounding dreampop baby yet? They’re here, and they’re called Clinic Stars.
pigbaby - i don’t care if anyone listens to this shit once you do
I saw pigbaby at EartH Hackney last year when he warmed up for Vegyn. He marauded up and down a stripped-back stage setup, donning a pig-themed gimp-mask. His debut album, arriving on Vegyn’s label, is a rich tapestry of spoken word, blues and ambient that’ll keep you guessing how on earth he got there.
Florian T M Zeisig - Planet Inc
Some things are certain in life: death, taxes and Stroom delivering a cracking album every year. The Belgian label’s latest is a gliding ambient dub techno world-build from Kelela producer Florian T M Zeisig, which would unquestionably be well-placed alongside a jacked-up projector enveloping a half-painted wall.
Astrid Sonne - Great Doubt
The Danish singer-songwriter took London’s ICA by storm earlier this year, as she looked at peace on stage with her string companions Vanessa Bedoret & Emma Barnaby. Responsible for arguably one of the most resonating arpeggiated melodies of the century in ‘Staying here’, Great Doubt is a triumph for the burgeoning experimental pop scene.
Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka - Magnificent Little Dudes vol. 1
Tokyo-based genre-spanning artist Chihei Hatakeyama has a curious work rate. He’s released more than 70 albums since 2006, and this one sees him join forces with one of Japan’s most revered jazz drummers. It’s an ambient, stormy, pulsing, progressive and peaceful match-made in heaven.
Efficient Space - Someone Like Me
Melbourne’s Efficient Space Records had a fruitful 2024, unearthing gems from myriad corners of the sonic globe, from aboriginal newcomers to long-lost 80s post-punk. The shining star in their year’s haul is Someone Like Me, a compilation of folky cuts spanning between ‘66 and ‘90. Twee, sunny and heartwarming as it may be, there’s a bittersweetness here that music as gorgeous as this can lay dormant for so long.
Chanel Beads - Your Day Will Come
New Yorker Shane Lavers’ debut full-length sits at the impossible equilibrium of sincerity and silliness. Scrumptiously live-sounding, Your Day Will Come is a liminal curiosity, teetering on the edge of YouTube-ripped-MP3-ness whilst retaining an inherent addictive musicality. It’s like an album from a film camera: risky, sometimes patchy, anything but HD, always gorgeous.
Hovvdy - Hovvdy
A 19-track warm hug of delectable indie-folk-pop, Hovvdy’s 2024 self-titled LP is so full-sounding you’ll feel greedy listening to it. The Texan duo croon the hell out of us for the best part of the record, but it’s a courtship so well-dressed in melody and musicality that it’s always welcomed. One of those releases that you instantly feel has existed forever. Uber-comfortable listening; give into it.
Iceboy Violet & Nueen - You Said You’d Hold My Hand Through The Fire
There’s not many UK rappers doing it like Iceboy Violet these days, and their latest output is a weighty, visceral and dogged hock of North-Easterly gristle courtesy of the lending hand of Barcelona-hailing producer Nueen. Rap from the future, happening now.
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
A transcendental typhoon of ambient jazz that feels both weighty and weightless. Dense, occasionally complicated, consistently poignant music that draws on influences from unexpectedly complementary nooks & crannies.
YATTA - Palm Wine
This scrapbook of experimental pop/RnB is a fascinating lid-lifting of the delicate storytelling history of Sierra Leonean music. Shrewd vocal production sits upon a collage of genres that will lure you back for second & third listens pretty quickly. You won’t hear anything like this from 2024.
Colin Stetson - The love it took to leave you
Saxophone deity and Hereditary soundtrack-writer Colin Stetson returned this year with a full throttle slam-dunk. The love it took to leave you is a filmic buffet of dream-like compositions that will put you at the pulsing heart of the instruments he wields. You’ll come away from this one with the belief that not only can the saxophone wail and lament, but it can breathe, whisper, run and jump just like you can.
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
A 2-hour joyride of 60s girl-group inspired psychedelic pop-rock that feels like you’ve got a cup to the wall of a parallel universe. Cindy Lee is the drag alter ego of ex-noughties pop-punk maestro Patrick Flegel, whose defiance against the structures of the industry saw them self-release Diamond Jubilee without an ounce of promotion. Devote 120 minutes to this and it’ll never leave you.
Charities that support independent venues and artists:
That’s a list of surprises for me. Like Mr Mojo above I struggle to find new and relatable stuff. Everything seems to go through the filter of the BBC or Pitchfork. I’m too old for Pitchfork and you can only listen to DJs for short period. Looking forward to submersing myself in this batch. Cheers.
Man I appreciate this so much, thank you. Really. I’ve been starved for good, new sounds. So much boring and unsipired music on the radio these days. I didn’t know where to look for stuff like this. And good on you for linking to their BC accounts.