My 10 Favorite Albums of 2024
Ranking athletes is a go-to topic for any given sports talk show or podcast.
Slow news day in July? Let’s rank quarterbacks. Who’s the GOAT? Lebron vs MJ. Top dynasties. Who’s the best player in that draft happening in six months?
The debate is endless, and that’s why the likes of ESPN, Barstool, and Skip Bayless go to that bag all the time. People will engage, disagree, and argue.
The same formula is applied to music, but the debates become even murkier. With sports, at least you have stats. MJ has six rings, LeBron has the most points ever. But how do you stack a hip hop album vs a folk album? How do you compare an artist’s first vs a third? How do you compare one person’s piece of art to another?
I’ve ranked my top 10 albums of the year in the past, just like Rolling Stone, NPR, or Pitchfork, but this year I’m just going to deliver all 10 in no particular order. If I had to pull this list together a month ago, it would look very different, just as it would in one month. So let’s just enjoy these 10 (plus some honorable mentions) for what they are.
Here’s to another great year of music.
PRATTS & PAIN by Royel Otis
This is my favorite album of the year.
I know, I know. I just had this whole diatribe on ranking albums, but I am not saying it’s the best album of the year, just my favorite.
I can’t really explain it, but Royel Otis just makes me want to smoke darts and have deep conversations with strangers.
Whether it’s in their “Linger” or “Murder on the Dancefloor” covers or in this top to bottom ripper of an album, you can just feel the chemistry between Otis Pavlovic and Royel Maddell and how it creates new season of alt rock. And how dope are those two names? They probably had the easiest conversation about what to name their band, didn’t even take a whole dart.
Alligator Bites Don’t Heal by Doechii
We’re truly in an elite female rapper era. And if it were a game of King Queen of the Hill, Doechii’s huffing and puffing at the top. She’s nominated for three Grammy’s, including Best New Artist and Best Rap Album, and is the first woman nominated for Best Rap Album since Cardi won in 2019.
I mean, look at her performance on Colbert from a couple weeks ago. She could’ve taken a mic and stood in front of a band like every other late night performance, but instead turned it into a Broadway performance. And then the next day she goes on Tiny Desk and cooks it like “Roasted Peanuts” (“You want some boiled peanuts? /The fuck is a boiled peanut?”)
F-1 Trillion by Post Malone
What an all-time shot call by Post Malone! He threw this out to the world before he had a record deal, studio album, or even a mixtape. It was just three months after releasing “White Iverson,” a fucking jam, but very different than country music and the vibe that Post Malone was creating at the start of his career.
He was probably just having a lovely Tuesday evening back in 2015 and feeling himself, believing in himself, and threw up a shot. But it wasn’t from the logo. My guy was in the nose bleeds just happy to be there.
We’ve since learned that Postie can be whatever he wants to be. He has crushed any performance he’s taken on, and brings great energy to all of them. He’s the friend you always invite to whatever you’re up to, because you know he’ll make friends wherever he goes and bring a smile to the face of whoever is around.
COWBOY CARTER by Beyoncé
A key moment in Beyoncé’s country music villain story is when she performed with the Chicks at the 2016 CMAs. Her performance received some aggressive backlash, mostly because she wasn’t considered a country music artist at the time and also probably because she didn’t look like other country music artists at the time.
But I don’t think people realize: Beyoncé does whatever the fuck she wants, however she wants. You can’t really put Cowboy Carter in a particular box. Sure this is a “country album,” but she bends what that means to her will to create her own island within the genre. In the opening of “Spaghetti,” Linda Martell says, “Genres are a funny little concept, aren't they? / Yes, they are.”
HEAVY by SiR
This family, man. You’ve got SiR and his brother D Smoke (Grammy nominated, rose to fame by winning Season 1 of Rhythm + Flow). Their mom was a background singer for Michael Jackson and Anita Baker. Her brother was a bassist for Prince and niece is the singer-songwriter Tiffany Gouché. Gah damn.
But with any success and rise to fame, there are downsides. SiR told NPR, “I was depressed if we're really going to be just frank and beans, I was trying to navigate success in a way that I best knew how and putting myself in real dangerous situations and just having trouble dealing with who I wanted to be.”
He bears his heart on HEAVY and brings some very talented friends along the way, like Andy .Paak in “POETRY IN MOTION”: “They told me ‘Slowly is the fastest way to get where you wanna be’ / So I ease to a steady speed, let that bitch breathe.”
HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish
Billie and FINNEAS have raked in Grammy’s and sold platinum records perfecting their own brand of Prozac-pop (not to be confused with Noah Kahan’s Zoloft-folk). It’s what you listen to when you’re in your feels in a dark room after a tough day.
But it’s not all painting your nails black after crying in the shower. Billie sprinkles in some jams, like “LUNCH” and “BIRDS OF A FEATHER,” that give your daily dose of Vitamin D. Man, I don’t know if the kids are alright, but they’re making great records.
PERFECT FANTASY by EARTHGANG & Spillage Village
When everyone in corporate America embraced AI with open arms, their shareholder satisfaction silver bullet, EARTHGANG started pushing back. One of Dreamville’s finest, they compiled a few previous EPs to deliver PERFECT FANTASY in late October. Olu of the duo told Rolling Stone, “And it’s like, why is everybody being forced to make these same decisions? Who’s deciding this? Why not [drop on a Tuesday]? We can drop music whenever we want.” In this meta, taking-on-the-man expedition, they dropped some bangers between “U GOTTA,” “DEEP BLUE,” “BOBBY BOUCHER,” and more.
Got a Story to Tell by Thee Sacred Souls
You have the top down on a 1958 Buick Limited driving on one of those Southwest desert highways. You’re on a road trip, a movie set, or trapped in a GIF the way the landscape rolls by you without feeling like you’ve made any progress. You can’t even tell what year it is. Maybe you’re in a fever dream. It doesn’t matter because you have a pair of those sunglasses on that fit you perfectly and make you feel like a celebrity. Your hair blows in the wind. And Thee Sacred Souls is playing, and it feels like you’re hovering on the road below you towards the love of your life.
Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee
I’ve overlooked Waxahatchee for too long. I didn’t even give her a chance. Before I really even listened to her or know who she was, I used to think she was just like an outcast of Haim, creating over-hyped folk music and dropping flowers in your guns. It’s a good reminder to not judge a musician before you actually listen (same applies to Sabrina C. in the honorable mentions). It’s a good reminder to not judge a musician after even one listen. Waxahatchee doesn’t fuck around. Her song writing is elite.
GNX by Kendrick Lamar
The beauty of owning your own record label is that you can release your shit whenever you want. K Dot needs no promo plan. And he doesn’t need to maintain an identity around last summer’s beef with Drake. Kendrick probably could’ve easily gone from roasting Drake to a Super Bowl halftime show and possibly winning a Grammy along the way, but he’s moved on and wants you to know he’s still at the top, packing heat, and no one is safe (“N*ggas cacklin’ about - - - / when all of y’all is on trial”).
Honorable Mention
Model by Wallows
Why Lawd? by NxWorries
Acadia by Yasmin Williams
Short n’Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter
WELCOME HOME, KID! by Jordan Mackampa
Peace, love, and good vibes.