My Favorite Albums of 2024
Plus some of Ben's favorite tracks
The best(Because what is “the best” anyway?) my favorite albums of 2024 come with an asterisk or two. Friends know I like to make lists and close friends know I like to make qualifiers and sub-lists for my lists, so, here are some stray facts and tidbits about my listening in 2024:
Ben became a more aware listener in the car, and …
… we moved this summer, adding about 15-25 minutes to his morning commute to daycare
I did a deep dive on U2’s discography as a guided listening project alongside Adam Scott & Scott Aukerman’s podcast R U Talkin’ U2 2 Me, which I absolutely loved, but which also meant for every new album from 2024 I listened to, I probably also listened to No Line On the Horizon (deeply underrated) three times
also did deep dives on The Ramones and Joy Division alongside the No Dogs in Space podcast
In general, it was a podcast heavy year spread along commuting, packing moving, and general housework while we settled into our new condo, discovering dog walks around Marysville, and ambient listening while playing Stardew Valley or Skyrim
top pods: Kill Tony, R U Talkin’ U2 2 Me, Bandsplain, The Rewatchables, You Are Good, and Indiecast
Jack White surprise dropped a new album in July, which, you know … became the easiest to reach for album for half the year
My teaching load at Ohio Dominican University was extra demanding both this past Spring and Fall semester, so I was seeking more ‘comfort food’ listening than using what little energy I had left to study new music
During the downtime in December after school ends but before the holidays really ramp up, we all had the flu, so my usual ‘catch up month’ was off
Several times this year albums I wax extremely excited about came out at the worst possible time to dig into them (Vampire Weekend’s Only God Was Above Us) or albums all came out on the same day and divided my attention (Touché Amoré and Chat Pile)
There are two albums in my “enough to mention” list that would probably have been promoted to the top ten if I’d discovered them sooner, so without further prefacing:
New Albums I listened to in 2024 enough to mention (alphabetical order):
Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
Foxing - Foxing
Jack White – No Name Tour: Live at the Newport, Columbus, Ohio I was there! Hey, bands: a soundboard quality recording of every concert you play is an essential keepsake for any fan. Tee shirts fade and shrink, CDs never die.
Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well
Kendrick Lamar - GNX Dodgers World Series Win and a triumphant album to wrap up rap’s international shake up? Good year for LA.
Panda Bear and Sonic Boom with Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Perez – Reset Mariachi EP This is the third year an iteration of Reset has been on my year-end list. With Panda Bear’s new solo album coming in February, I think the Reset era is finally over. Thanks for the tunes, the dub, the horns, and the memories Panda & Sonic!
Sinai Vessel – I SING
The Decemberists – As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again Runaway album cover of the year!
The Smile – Wall of Eyes and Cutouts listed in order of preference
Various Artists – Twisters: The Album
Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
Zach Bryan – The Great American Bar Scene
Mount Eerie – Night Palace (essential songs: “I Walk” and “I Saw Another Bird”) a really exciting follow-up to the obliterating agony of Phil Elverum’s sequence of albums very nakedly wrestling with the passing of his wife. Echoes of The Microphones, Night Palace is a little challenging, the nearly unlistenable opening track and movie-length runtime was a barrier to entry for me (plus, very busy November when the album dropped) but this could have easily been a top five album for me in another year.
Poppy – Negative Spaces I’m a few years into a low-simmer on nu-metal appreciation and, seeing Poppy on a few year-end lists made me curious what her music sounds like solely on the basis that my dog is also named Poppy.
Look at her face while listening to this song start up like an angry buzzsaw and try not to like it.
My “Top 10” Albums of 2024 with an intermission near the top of the list:
10. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks this was another album that suffered from its release date. There’s no way for Mr. Lenderman to have known this, but I was teaching six classes this fall, and did not have time to fully give myself over to the breezy, if not sometimes a tad-too slow, sequel to 2022’s Boat Songs.
9. Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter
8. Touché Amoré – Spiral in a Straight Line
7. Chat Pile – Cool World Not beating the nu-metal allegations, Chat Pile wears their love of Korn on their sleeve.
6. Christopher Owens – I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair
5. Joe Camerlengo – Can’t Wait Columbus, Ohio’s very own!! Following last year’s New Things, Camerlengo continues reflecting on parenting (which I can recently relate to) the way Camerlengo does best: with freaky, sometimes loud, sometimes soft, but always excellent music (which I have related to since seeing Camerlengo’s former band This Is My Suitcase in 2008)
4. Lawrence – Family Business Rachel’s pick for album of the year, this soulful and groovy brother/sister act echoes early 2010s alt-rock radio bombast with a you-can’t-believe-its-already-time-to-be-nostalgic-for-this-stuff vibes that sound like sweet, sweet memories from when we were in our early twenties and CD101 still was independent.
Old Albums I listened to a ton in 2024, ranked:
Like I said, lots of time listening to older music. Literally all of these picks are because of podcasts. Shout out to Holiday Kirk, The Nu-Metal Agenda, and The Roach Koach Podcast for the impossible month-long earworm at #5.
5. Missile Girl Scoot – Wanderland Japanese ska-nu-metal. What more can I say?
4. Weezer – Blue Album Say it ain’t so.
3. Ramones – Ramones
2. At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command Yet another reminder of what I could have been listening to when I was in high school if I had simply embraced emo/punk/prog instead of waiting until I was 34.
1. U2 – Achtung Baby! I always liked the idea of U2, and genuinely love All That You Can’t Leave Behind, it was the first CD I ever bought. I was not, however, ready for how moved I would be journeying through their discography. There’s something to like on every single U2 record (except the boring Songs of Surrender ‘remix’ record). ATYCLB is probably still my favorite, but even for the purposes of this mini-list it was hard to pick one definitive U2 album I hadn’t been familiar with so I had to consult the data on iTunes play counts to decide. Don’t tell the real U2 heads, No Line on the Horizon was my second most played U2 album, Joshua Tree at number three.
but back to the top ten from this year:
3. Animal Collective – Sung Tongs: Live at the theater at the Ace Hotel
I am a big Animal Collective fan, and while Sung Tongs isn’t my favorite of their albums, I couldn’t help but get swept up in the excitement of their breakthrough album’s twentieth birthday this year. This recording from their 2018 Sung Tongs tour is, to me, the definitive version of the album.
2. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
This is one of the heaviest music heavy year end lists for me, and Blood Incantation’s out of nowhere Absolute Elsewhere (being The Metal Album reviewed by Pitchfork and similar) sunk its teeth into me. Perfect for grading. Perfect for commuting. Perfect for fully focused listening with headphones. The album is spacey (like Pink Floyd) riffy (like Coheed & Cambria) heavy (like Chat Pile) and stonery (like Sleep). It is operatic. It is doomy. It has an unbelievable album cover.
Ben’s Favorite songs of 2024:
On a lighter note…
Queen – “We Will Rock You”
Blippi – “The Excavator Song”
Elmo – “Elmo’s Song”
Jack White – “That’s How I’m Feeling Right Now” (“The woo-oooh song”, per Ben) Fun fact: Ben and former president Barack Obama both have this on their year end list.
Chappell Roan – “HOT TO GO!” (“O T T O”, per Ben)
Hoizer – “Too Sweet”
Christmas Jams: “Frosty the Snowman” (from the movie) & “Feliz Navidad”
Album of the Year:
1. Jack White – No Name
No surprises here, except of course for the fact that the album was surprise released on a hot July day. By early August when the album was widely available, it was clear this was a monumental Jack White solo album. By the time the pop-up tour started rolling, it was clear that Jack White was making history: but not history for an industry he’s long been a luddite outcast adjacent to, rather, history of his own mythology. Unafraid of White Stripes-ishness, No Name, being the least fussy Jack White solo album, mostly trades the gizmos, gadgets, and keyboards, for 40 minutes of seemingly infinite riffs.
Predictions for 2025:
I will enjoy the new Panda Bear album
I will enjoy the new Coheed & Cambria album
I will still listen to a shitload of Jack White because the tour is still rolling and I have a hot date lined up with Rachel to see him in April
I will not only listen to music that correlates to podcasts I listen to (but I will mostly listen to music that correlates to podcasts I listen to)
[in this space i will eventually make an apple music playlist of my favorite songs from these albums and share it here]