With the charts ruled by generic country, and the pop vanguard turning in work that fell far short of their best, 2024 was a time of turnover — when disappointing blockbusters cleared the path for ascendant superstars, and left-field experimenters took the throne.
Whether you were partying your way through Brat Summer or patiently sitting through YouTube ads to hear an album not available on the usual streaming services, it was a year of anything-goes musical excitement. Here are Exclaim!'s 50 best albums of 2024.
Read all of our year-end coverage, including the 20 best songs of 2024, here.
A decade since In Colour's marvellous, protracted sigh, Jamie xx flouts some of his saudade and engages the sunnier side of British dance history for a brighter band of movements. Adroit and optimistic, In Waves was conceived with the pandemic notion that, if you free your ass, your mind will follow. "Baddy on the Floor" is all tickled-pink ivories, while corporate karmic mantras become life-affirming in the narcotic "Breather." What's up? Sound as space, production as full-fledged art form, and dance as religion. What's new? The immediacy of it all.
Matthew Teklemariam
49. Nala Sinephro
Endlessness
(Warp Records)
Soothing, hypnotic ambient sound beds and blissful chordal movements find sublime synergy with tasteful experimental jazz probing on the otherworldly Endlessness. Modular synth arpeggios act as fuzzy framework for Nala Sinephro and her talented collaborators to explore the infinite nature of improvisation, mutating themes and overlaying gorgeous passages of strings, harp, saxophone, keyboards, piano, bass and drums that bubble into playful frenetic excursions before melting back into the ebb and flow of each piece's distinct continuum of sound, revelling in the most joyous aspects of both ambient music and instrumental jazz along the way.
Scott A. Gray
48. Remi Wolf
Big Ideas
(Island Records)
Remi Wolf's dreamy funk pop transfers seamlessly from her debut to her sophomore album, Big Ideas. The psychedelia of prior releases has been toned down, but this release fills a sweet spot where a soulful ballad like "Motorcycle" can nestle against the nearly perfect funk-infused "Toro" without a second thought. It's a carefully crafted album that finds a nice balance between its goofiness and vulnerability while having an absolute certainty of itself.
Ash Hampson
47. Dorothea Paas
Think of Mist
(Telephone Explosion Records)
"Backing vocals: Dorothea Paas" are words that have appeared in the credits of many Toronto records, as Paas has quietly become one of the city's foremost singing talents. Her liquid vocals are front-and-centre on Think of Mist's reverently aquatic chamber folk ballads, which swirl with philosophical musings on rippling surfaces, endless waterfalls and life's changing tides. Come dive in — the water's fine.
Alex Hudson
46. Floating Points
Cascade
(Ninja Tune)
True artists, the hard-to-peg-down ones like Floating Points, will only offer a slice of dance floor euphoria before swanning off to write some jazzy vignette. Considering the ever-expanding experimentation of Floating Points, we may never get a pure club album from him again. This makes Cascade special. It's still a composer's dance record — the percussion has patience and the synths crescendo — but it slaps, and fuck if it doesn't cascade all the way down to the basement.
Daryl Keating
45. Naima Bock
Below a Massive Dark Land
(Sub Pop Records)
With a title like Below a Massive Dark Land, Naima Bock was setting herself up for failure. How do you meet that kind of grand, world-swallowing enormity? With songs like these, it turns out it's pretty easy. Bock's sophomore record moves with all the moodiness of traditional English folk, building an entire universe from acoustic guitar and towers of voice, the sky painted with clouds of strings and swooping brass. The album's traditionalist textures never feel like pastiche though, as Bock pulls past and present together in one great heave — the sound of that collision is unforgettable.
Kaelen Bell
44. MIKE & Tony Seltzer
Pinball
(10k)
At the close of 2024, MIKE and Tony Seltzer's collaborative Pinball remains an undeniable win for listeners; a team-up between two wizards of New York's rap underground that's nothing short of electric. Like the best hip-hop made between friends, there's a love of the game felt in the palpable ease with which the former rolls over the latter's spritely production. Where the breadth and depth of an album like MIKE's Burning Desire may give pause, Pinball proves to be an instant replay.
Calum Slingerland
43. Myriam Gendron
Mayday
(Chivi Chivi)
Feeling out territory shared by seemingly distinct sensibilities, on Mayday, Myriam Gendron finds comfort and celebration in collapsed boundaries, charting new domains and mapping a way home that is less about arrival than the journey there. Switching between restless solo folk guitar compositions and more collaborative explorations inviting in modernist improvisational figures, Gendron alternates between English and French songs and instrumental expressions on an album that feels as untethered from as it does in harmony with time and space themselves.
Tom Beedham
42. A. G. Cook
Britpop
(New Alias)
R.I.P. PC Music, home to some of the most exciting pop of the last decade. All hail New Alias, the latest vehicle of former label head and hyperpop scientist A. G. Cook, the undisputed leader of the style's British wing. Cook hasn't missed an ultra-compressed beat on the cheekily-titled Britpop, strengthening further the unexpected link between hyperpop's rave and trance roots and more traditional songwriting sensibilities. New name, same vision — another highlight.
Luke Pearson
41. Knocked Loose
You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To
(Pure Noise Records)
On their third full-length album, Knocked Loose defy the conventional wisdom that dictates how increased popularity necessitates a softening of abrasive qualities. Instead, You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To finds the Kentucky bruisers doubling down on intensity, barrelling through 10 tracks in 27 blistering minutes. Ruminating on self-hatred and blind devotion ("Don't Reach for Me"), earth-shattering breakdowns and spit-fuelled invective clash with off-kilter rhythms ("Suffocate") and eerie, atmospheric interstitials ("Take Me Home"). "Knocked Loose, motherfucker," indeed.
Owen Morawitz
40. Future & Metro Boomin
WE DON'T TRUST YOU / WE STILL DON'T TRUST YOU
(Epic Records)
Not many fan bases were as spoiled in 2024 as Future's. Releasing three No. 1 albums in just under six months, he had yet another prolific year. The first two albums, WE DON'T TRUST YOU and WE STILL DON'T TRUST YOU, released in March and April respectively, were full-length collaborative efforts with long-time production partner Metro Boomin. The former is a more traditional Future record, notable for the Kendrick Lamar-assisted "Like That"; the latter is a more R&B-leaning effort with some heavy synthpop elements that weave throughout. The two projects complement extremely well and perfectly display how multifaceted the pair are, and how in tune they are with each other.
Wesley McLean
39. Fontaines D.C.
Romance
(XL Recordings)
Toning down their trademark Irishness for more distinctly universal sounds and themes on their fourth album, Fontaines D.C.'s Romance shows the five-piece charting new sonic territory while maintaining their trademark poise, airtight songwriting and Grian Chatten's unwavering earnestness. Alt-rock with a hip-hop underbelly ("Starburster"), full-on '90s garage rock ("Here's the Thing"), jangle pop that would make the Smiths proud ("Favourite," "Bug"), darkwave (the title track) and Lana Del Rey-esque balladry ("In the Modern World") make the heart swell.
Dave MacIntyre
38. Four Tet
Three
(Text Records)
Hailed as a key architect for new directions in electronic music in the aughts, Kieran Hebden took "folktronica" by storm with his blend of sampled and physical instruments, helping move things from bass bins to headphones. Three plants a new cornerstone for the steady flow of releases from his Text Records label, serving as a reminder of Hebden's facility for melding styles and genres and for infusing the digital landscape with warmth and emotional
depth.
Eric Hill
37. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
"NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD"
(Constellation Records)
Weighing lives lost while forcing an audience-wide "say genocide" challenge, the journalistic tone of Godspeed's latest album title cuts through a market of bullshit and rests the onus of engaging with the world's most pressing tragedies squarely on the shoulders of the listening public it belongs to. As their instruments bend, coalesce and dance around each other, they demand active, mutual accountability and a deep uncomfortable interrogation of imperial violence and the soft power that supports it.
Tom Beedham
36. BIG|BRAVE
A Chaos of Flowers
(Thrill Jockey)
BIG|BRAVE's latest offering is their most accessible, melodic and sorrowful affair to date. Well-honed guitar textures are woven between Stonehenge-forged, slow-as-molasses drums, as tender wails call from the deep. It's an affecting and powerful synthesis of the elemental sounds the band has excavated over the last decade. Robin Wattie and Mathieu Ball's ears for distorted guitar textures have never been stronger, but it's the songwriting that shines brightest on this laid bare, soulful collection of primordial tracks.
Anthony Boire
35. Kim Gordon
The Collective
(Matador Records)
Destruction is what Kim Gordon does best. The entirety of her over-40-year-long career has been in service of annihilating the status quo — socially, politically and sonically. And The Collective is maybe her most ambitiously shattering yet. The aggressively restless sound of The Collective is anxiously anarchic yet carefully crafted. Its chaos that feels like Gordon is slamming a sledgehammer into your temple with the precision of a brain surgeon. We shouldn't be surprised that the most astonishingly transgressive sounds of 2024 are coming from a 70-year-old. It's Kim Gordon, for Christ's sake.
Myles Tiessen
34. OMBIIGIZI
SHAME
(Arts & Crafts)
After making a splash with 2022 awards-season favourite Sewn Back Together, OMBIIGIZI return with an even more ambitious work, one again produced by Kevin Drew. Anishinaabe singer-songwriter-guitarists Adam Sturgeon (Status/Non-Status) and Daniel Monkman (Zoon) are two leading lights of the self-described "moccasin-gaze" scene, incorporating lush atmospheres and sonic aggression alongside topical lyrical themes, marking them as both important and exciting voices.
Kerry Doole
33. SUMAC
The Healer
(Thrill Jockey)
Like the rest of Sumac's work, The Healer is not for the faint of heart. It's a dense and contemplative record that demands your attention for its 76-minute runtime. The four tracks that make up this record blend together in a sea of transcendental heaviness that is both emotionally draining and surprisingly uplifting. In a year filled with fantastic heavy music, the meditative beauty of The Healer stands out as an example of how special this genre can be.
Jerem Sheehy
32. Nap Eyes
The Neon Gate
(Paper Bag Records)
Nap Eyes' fifth album unfurls like the daydreams of a stoned academic: philosophical phantasmagoria mesh with references to Wave Race 64 and the Goo Goo Dolls' best song. But what could be a chaotic jumble instead feels clear-eyed, nimble and witty — the Halifax quartet's relaxed confidence and dexterous instrumentation let The Neon Gate's songs transform and enhance their subject matter, however heady it may be. What other band would attempt to set a W.B. Yeats poem to an indie rock groove, let alone manage to make it work?
Paul Blinov
31. ScHoolboy Q
BLUE LIPS
(Top Dawg Entertainment / Interscope Records)
BLUE LIPS marked a triumphant return for ScHoolboy Q following a five-year hiatus. Showcasing exactly why the 38-year-old rapper belongs in hip-hop's upper echelon, the project captures everything that makes Q a compelling artist. There isn't a single moment wasted here, as he masterfully exhibits his versatility while flexing what may be his best writing, making for some of his most ambitious and fully realized music to date.
Wesley McLean
30. Clairo
Charm
(Republic Records)
On Clairo's third studio record, the singer-songwriter creates a body of work filled with '70s-inspired grooves that blend folk, jazz and soul. A distinct evolution from 2021's Sling, Clairo collaborated with producer Leon Michels to create a world of cozy production, soaring instrumentals and playful lyrics. From the flirty "Sexy to Someone" to the viral tune "Juna," Clairo finds her musical footing on Charm. It didn't go unnoticed: the album earned Clairo her first Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. The third time is indeed the charm.
Heather Taylor-Singh
29. Nemahsis
Verbathim
(Independent)
Palestinian-Canadian pop musician Nemah Hasan was forced to release her debut album independently this fall after she was dropped by her label in October of 2023 for expressing support for Palestine in the face of their genocide. Verbathim represents resilience, pride, and Hasan's unwavering devotion to the liberation of her people despite mass censorship. Verbathim is the ultimate comeback album — one that should be played loudly.
Sarah Jessica Rintjema
28. The Cure
Songs of a Lost World
(Lost Music Limited / Universal Music)
Grand, glacial, gloomy and shrouded in silver linings, the Cure's cathartic return came as an elegant soundtrack for uncertain times. Sixteen years since their last record, the goth rock titans' powerfully moving Songs of a Lost World finds Robert Smith sounding ageless yet struggling with "broken dreams, mournful hopes" — as he puts it on "Warsong" — and a potent sense of loss and regret. Haunted by the past, Smith navigates mortality and darkness while illuminating his "weary dance with age."
Chris Bryson
27. Jessica Pratt
Here in the Pitch
(Mexican Summer)
Here in the Pitch continues Jessica Pratt's output of terrific albums, this time produced with a deep golden California pop sound that recalls the Beach Boys' Friends album. Pratt has a great talent, live and on record, to draw you in, and here she warms the room up with that tape hiss, reverb, subtle piano, horns and percussion, all the while hooking you with her well-crafted folk songs that leave you humming and dizzy. Here in the Pitch leaves you unsure if you're in love, lonely, or both — but you're confident that it belongs next to John Cale's Vintage Violence as one of the best Sunday morning records.
Joe Smiglicki
26. Still House Plants
If I don't make it, I love u
(Bison Records)
Few records released this year are as beguiling as Still House Plants' If I don't make it, I love u. The trio's version of rock is delightfully forthcoming about its hip-hop, R&B and electronic influences, immediately contextualizing the band within a broader lineage of UK music. The source of the album's charming elusiveness is not in its sonic excursions, but in something much more fundamental: it's humanity. If I don't make it succeeds foremost as a testament to the band's ability to interact with listeners — and each other — in ways that sound radically tender and open.
Tom Piekarski
25. Sabrina Carpenter
Short n' Sweet
(Island Records)
Rejecting the self-aggrandizing seriousness of modern pop, Sabrina Carpenter delivers a lusty, brain-wormingly addictive late-summer album. Short N' Sweet's drama is outrageous, offering an oversized window into her life — and her bedroom. Leveraging girlhood's aesthetics, Carpenter dances through country, R&B and disco influences. Although true vulnerability evades her, by directly addressing a string of flings she refuses passivity in her lyrics and banishes the idea that assertiveness is unsexy.
Emma Schuster
24. Adrianne Lenker
Bright Future
(4AD)
Whether solo or with her band Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker has already written about 10 beloved albums in the past decade. We know not to expect anything less than songs full of eye-opening clarity using beautifully simple and perceptive language. Lenker lends an attentive eye towards every basic observation and follows them with an effortless thread of intuition. On Bright Future, the result is undeniably pure and authentic, with Lenker reaching the heights of playfulness, trauma, love and uncertainty, sometimes within the same breath.
Chris Gee
23. Doechii
Alligator Bites Never Heal
(Top Dawg Entertainment)
In bold contrarian reaction to the smashing mainstream success of her smooth R&B pop jam "What It Is," Doechii doubles down on the quirky artistry of her early work to deliver a slippery, fierce modern masterpiece of rap with Alligator Bites Never Heal. Spitting idiosyncratic introspection and landing razor-sharp punchlines with the best of them, Doechii occupies sonic and lyrical territory between towering alt-rap contemporaries like Doja Cat and Tyler, the Creator. Chameleon in her deep pockets of flow and fearless in her melding of melodicism with inventive, memorable production choices, Doechii's Alligator Bites will leave a permanent mark.
Scott A. Gray
22. Cassandra Jenkins
My Light, My Destroyer
(Dead Oceans)
After enjoying an unexpected breakthrough with 2021's An Overview on Phenomenal Nature — yielding Exclaim!'s song of the year — Cassandra Jenkins returned with an even more exploratory effort that finds her pushing out the walls in every direction. The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter stretches out with 13 songs laced with warm ambience, cosmic synths, grungy guitars and jazzy interludes. Put together with Jenkins's evocative storytelling as she searches for meaning in feelings of loneliness, regret and desperation, My Light, My Destroyer welcomes you into a world that feels intimately small yet filled with infinite possibilities.
Adam Feibel
21. Nicolette & the Nobodies
The Long Way
(ArtHaus Music)
From classical piano to jazz to giving up performing, Guelph's reborn country devotee Nicolette Hoang sure took The Long Way to find her musical niche, and she carves a unique and compelling one. With songs for achin' ("Show Up") and shakin' ("Rodeo") and somewhere in between ("Better Days"), The Long Way takes a rockin' spin on classic country that feels as fun and communal as the karaoke night she credits as inspiring the project.
Isabel Glasgow
20. Vince Staples
Dark Times
(Def Jam Recordings)
With the release of Dark Times, the Long Beach rapper continues to make his case for the most consistently-improving rapper working. Getting better as a storyteller and cultural commentator with each project, his third LP of the decade so far includes some of Staples's most exciting production choices and best-thought-through song concepts. But for long-time fans, the rare access into Staples's psyche is the biggest appeal of the record.
Vernon Ayiku
19. Mk.gee
Two Star & the Dream Police
(R&R)
Two Star & the Dream Police managed a rare feat: uniting Gen Z and boomers. After years behind the scenes working with artists like Dijon and Charlotte Day Wilson, the album put the spotlight on the New Jersey singer-guitarist, even if he spent most of the year hiding under his hoodie. Whether they came for the guitar virtuosity or the existential dread, his idiosyncratic pop-soul sounded otherworldly yet strangely familiar — a shot of nostalgia promising something totally new.
Ian Gormely
18. Mdou Moctar
Funeral for Justice
(Matador Records)
The title suggests something forlorn, and yet mere seconds into the album's opening title track, Mdou Moctar is fuelled by an incandescent rage, which translates into snarling guitars, insistently cacophonous drums and sociopolitical lyrics. Moctar has shifted his local focus from Afrique Victime to the world at large, contemplating power structures that foster suffering and lashing out at them as the band rip through the most super-charged guitar riff workouts this side of Hendrix.
Vish Khanna
Five years following the release of their breakthrough third album, Junior, Corridor returned in 2024 with a renewed sense of self. After promoting live touring musician Samuel Gougoux to full-time band member and bringing most of the production work in-house, the Montreal band released the expansive Mimi. With a strong contender for album cover of the year, Mimi paints the portrait of musicians who managed to beef up their sound while sounding very much like a Corridor record: fuzzy, propulsive, and undeniably groovy.
Scott Simpson
16. Kendrick Lamar
GNX
(pgLang)
In a discography full of cerebral concept albums, GNX is Kendrick Lamar at his most streamlined — carrying the same immediacy that made "Not Like Us" a huge hit six months before, and providing the counterpoint to 2022's fraught Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. With "reincarnated" channelling 2Pac with both its sample and Kenny's ferocious flow, and the clubby banger "tv off" finding Mustard on the beat once again, GNX might not be Lamar's most ambitious masterpiece, but it's definitely the one that sounds best cruising around with the windows down.
Alex Hudson
15. Magdalena Bay
Imaginal Disk
(Mom + Pop Music)
Magdalena Bay's second album, Imaginal Disk, offers listeners a unique and satisfying musical friction as Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin gleefully pit their established twist on rock against a newfound hyperpop toolkit. This collision of past and future creates catchy, distinctive earworms that seamlessly fit into the 2024 landscape while still sounding fresh and innovative. Album opener "She Looked Like Me!" exemplifies this blend of past and future, while "Image" pushes the duo's genre-collage approach to exciting new heights.
Josh Korngut
14. Nilüfer Yanya
My Method Actor
(Ninja Tune)
Nilüfer Yanya emerged fully formed, with a singular voice and style, and a clear vision for how she'd wield them. Her discography has been stitched together seamlessly, even while the music that makes it up has been textured, scratchy and even somewhat abrasive. Sticking to these trademarks, the UK artist's third record, My Method Actor, features stiff rhythms — often clicking, metronomic drum tracks — and ragged guitar that either mirrors Yanya's lower register or juxtaposes her falsetto. While cut from a similar cloth, My Method Actor is also much lusher than its predecessors, with string arrangements that lift several songs to gorgeous peaks and prove that Yanya will only keep spreading her wings wider.
Noah Ciubotaru
13. Jack White
No Name
(Third Man Records)
The Willy Wonka of the music world surprised fans by giving away unlabelled copies of his latest album at Third Man Records locations before even announcing it. No Name, Jack White's sixth solo album, harkens back to the eccentric rocker's White Stripes days with its electrifying bluesy punk rock sound. Crunchy, riffy and chock-full of distortion, White continues to keep traditional garage rock alive and well and thriving.
Matt Owczarz
12. Blood Incantation
Absolute Elsewhere
(Century Media)
From its spacey, Floydian passages and ambient wormholes to its intergalactic riffs and growls, the two 20-plus-minute epics on Absolute Elsewhere bring together all the best parts of Blood Incantation's earlier releases and synthesize them into a transcendent, brutal and progressive exploration in atmosphere and shredding. Astronomical and corporeal in equal measure, the album is a journey into and through a psychedelic cosmic void. And it features Tangerine Dream's Thorsten Quaeschning on a fucking death metal album! Now that's heavy.
Marko Djurdjic
11. MJ Lenderman
Manning Fireworks
(ANTI-)
And just like that, Brat Summer gave way to Manning Fireworks Fall. MJ Lenderman's fourth album seized music critics and guitar rock fans alike, with thinkpieces dedicated to lines like "Kahlua shooter, DUI scooter" and "houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome" popping up overnight. The Asheville singer-songwriter, likened to this generation's Warren Zevon or Jason Molina, proved his substance and tapped into something beautifully tragic, comedic and real all at once. Long live the new king of modern-day malaise.
Dylan Barnabe
10. Ducks Ltd.
Harm's Way
(Royal Mountain Records)
Sophomore slump who? Toronto's Ducks Ltd. take their winning formula and run with it on Harm's Way, dog-piling wry post-punk lyricism into soul-nourishing jangle pop. Prismatic arpeggios and hearty harmonies anchor the album's nine tracks in a sea of nostalgia, while their propulsive percussion never allows them to stray far from the forward path. Never sterile, the group's clean production makes room for texture and grit, and the Ducks' carefully selected roster of musician pals chime in with fresh vocals and strings from time to time, helping their sound ascend to new heights and distilling it closer and closer to 100 percent clarity.
Allie Gregory
9. Tyler, the Creator
CHROMAKOPIA
(Columbia Records)
Written, produced and arranged by Tyler, the Creator, his eighth full-length serves as an auditory bookmark for where he's at in his life right now. Reflecting on his current relationships with fame, lovers, his fans and his father, the album pulls some jazzy influences from his last couple records, IGOR and CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, on tracks like "Darling, I" and "Like Him." For the OGs who knew Tyler as a rapper first, he brings in grittier instrumentals and verses harkening back to his come-up records Goblin and Bastard on "Rah Tah Tah" and "St. Chroma." Tyler is a GOAT to many, and CHROMAKOPIA stands as another milestone in his career.
Vanessa Tam
8. Bibi Club
Feu de garde
(Secret City Records)
Feu de garde accomplishes so much with the simplest of means. Fuelled by a perfect balance between the soft and haunting voice of Adèle Trottier-Rivard and the expertly textured guitars of Nicolas Basque, Montreal duo Bibi Club have crafted their own hybrid of shoegaze and dream pop, one that evokes the likes of Stereolab or the Clientele without sacrificing any originality. The band's addictive hooks and innovative arrangements are always in service of songwriting, imbuing stories about an uneventful day in the park or a romantic trip on a remote island with a sense of grandeur. It's a stunning album that reveals a little bit more of itself with each new listen.
Bruno Coulombe
7. Chat Pile
Cool World
(The Flenser)
In 2022, Chat Pile's God's Country hit the heavy music underground like a lightning bolt. The band's follow-up, Cool World, proves that lightning can strike twice, matching the intense tone of their debut and surpassing it in so many ways. The riffs are heavier, the vocals just as tortured, and the lyrics are as depressingly poignant as ever — but the true power is just how surprisingly catchy and emotionally impactful this noisy horror show is. Cool World is an apt response to our world's current state.
Jeremy Sheehy
6. Mannequin Pussy
I Got Heaven
(Epitaph Records)
Mannequin Pussy returned after a five-year hiatus with their fourth album, a record that expertly weaves together an intricate and primal portrait of longing and desire. Snarling from behind bared teeth and panting like a dog, I Got Heaven's inviting yet abrasive nature reveals a deeper desire for human connection in trademark Mannequin Pussy-style provocative ferocity. The Philadelphia quartet shine with both confidence and vulnerability from the dynamic titular track to the guttural "Loud Bark" and the delicate tiptoe of "I Wouldn't Tell You." I Got Heaven is a record worth sinking your teeth into.
Karlie Rogers
5. Caribou
Honey
(Merge Records)
The universe decided this year would be one lived out on the dance floor, whether at the club or in your living room. Honey is especially good at bridging that gap, as Dan Snaith brings the euphoria from his Daphni alias to his flagship Caribou project. Its effervescence maintains a coolness, though it never gets lost to pretension. Short, effective mantras act as affirmations, rooted in accepting what has passed. It's an elongated come-up to closer "Got to Change," which harnesses the rest of Honey's sticky, raw sweetness. With this, Snaith reaffirms an open secret: embracing the inevitable is what the dance manifestation feeds on.
Sydney Brasil
4. Mustafa
Dunya
(Regent Park Songs / Arts & Crafts)
Mustafa's second studio album, Dunya, is a chronicle of processing grief, love, faith and pain from a poet whose community failed him — leading him to make his disdain for Toronto public after his older brother's murder last year. The album is a fusion of traditional Sudanese strings, Egyptian oud, Arabic melodies, R&B and Americana folk, recorded worldwide. No stranger to loss coming from Toronto's Regent Park, Canada's oldest public housing project, Mustafa immortalizes his friends and family through intimate songwriting, pointed storytelling and emotional vocals, all while painting a strikingly human picture of life surrounded by gang violence and poverty.
Vernon Ayiku
3. Waxahatchee
Tigers Blood
(ANTI‐)
Katie Crutchfield's songwriting has long been defined by her stripped-back honesty, a striking vulnerability that often leaves listeners feeling like they're navigating a barren tundra frozen over by dissociative heartbreak and personal strife. This compelling rawness has drawn in many over the years, but not without leaving others on the outskirts, too. Tigers Blood shifts that dynamic and pulls us all under the sun with bittersweet alt-country anthems that are equal parts powerful, refreshing and deeply tender. Like clockwork, her twangy coo conveys themes of self-discovery, addiction and enduring love, all while marrying this emotional rawness with newfound accessibility. This is where Tigers Blood truly stands apart: it's emotionally complex yet feels like a familiar, steadfast companion with aches of its own, managing to still comfort us during the uncertain spring and the anxiety-ridden summer, and now keeping weary hearts warm through this desolate winter.
Kyle Kohner
2. Charli XCX
BRAT
(Atlantic Records)
Despite the apparent confusion around what "brat" means, Charli XCX's vision for BRAT was always dizzyingly clear. With four letters and one syllable, the Collins Dictionary Word of the Year captures the masterful messiness of the artist born Charlotte Aitchison in her fullest form: unabashedly brash, coping with grief, feeling herself and self-doubt — and partying through it all with her most energized, thoughtful, catchy and cohesive mix yet. The ethos of "Everything is romantic" is woven into the cultural fabric of Brat Summer, where the aesthetic became finding moments of gritty, cigarette-singed beauty in what happened when we, too, were emboldened to fuck around and find out.
Megan LaPierre
1. Cindy Lee
Diamond Jubilee
(Realistik Studios)
Even if you've followed Patrick Flegel's career back to their days as vocalist-guitarist for Calgary post-punk outfit Women, Diamond Jubilee would still come across as a complete mystery. Absent from major streaming services, Cindy Lee's second full-length comes off distant, faceless and spatially removed, like a faded memory. These 32 crackling crystalline tracks, spread across two hours, pull from boomer surf rock, Gen X lo-fi and millennial bedroom pop without being beholden to any sort of nostalgia. There's no other album released in 2024 that you have to work this hard to listen to, not to mention wrap your head around — and there's none worth more effort.
Daniel Sylvester