"Chile has a long history of socio-politically charged music, and this year Mapuche singer and rapper Isleña Antumalen brought prescient stories of environmentalism and decolonization to the dance floor on the kaleidoscopic ÑAÑA. Meaning “sister” and “friend” in different Indigenous communities across the Americas, the album title captures the artist’s proud heritage and extends solidarity with water protectors (“KO”) and non-European beauty standards (“Ñaña descoloniza tu belleza”). Bouncing between dembow, reggaetón, cumbia, jazz, and hip-hop, the album’s patchwork of sound is as dazzling and brazen as the artist herself, and as colorful as the Indigenous peoples that continue to thrive on this continent." – Richard Villegas
Not what I would normally go for but it's very fun and Poleo in particular is pretty infectious. Would probably hit me a bit different if there weren't snow on the ground right now, would be great summer car music. Some of it reminds me of Cumbia rebajada, a small genre I dug into earlier this year that (to put it incredibly simply) is essentially the Mexican version of chopped & screwed music. Good vibe.
"It’s hard to believe that a couple of the tunes on this record came about at a first meeting between vocalist and band—they ooze the confidence and hooks of a Muscle Shoals classic. “Timeless” is a music descriptor that gets thrown around like a frisbee on a hot day at the beach, but when a deep golden voice—like the one belonging to Baby Rose—meets the backing of BADBADNOTGOOD, Toronto’s finest purveyors of jazz-leaning soulful journeys, the outcome rightfully owns the praise." – Andrew Jervis
HOW IS THIS THE VOICE OF A 30 YEAR OLD?! Looking at her history I'm realizing I've heard her before, guesting on various records I've listened to, and appearing on the soundtrack to Insecure (which is one of my favorite television soundtracks ever) but for some reason she just hadn't jumped out to me like this. I don't want to give too much credit to BADBADNOTGOOD, because it really is her voice I'm finding so magnetic, but the boys are laying down a very nice instrumental base for her to work with here and I love the pairing.
"Candy’s third album was conceived in the wake of a collective “Eureka” moment on the part of the Richmond wrecking crew: Given that heavy music is a vehicle for moshing, and moshing is essentially an extreme form of dancing, who’s to say rave music and hardcore punk aren’t two sides of the same coin—musically compatible, even? To be clear, the band’s not dealing in hypotheticals on It’s Inside You, just hard evidence in the form of sick riffs, industrial synths, and brutal drum loops. Standouts like “Dancing to the Infinite Beat” and “Faith 91” bridge the chaos and euphoria of the two undergrounds with such confidence and seamlessness you’d swear the pit and the dancefloor were one and the same. That’s precisely Candy’s point—and the secret to their power." – Zoe Camp
"Now more than ever, we need love. That’s more or less the message behind the music of Willi Carlisle, a folk singer and songwriter originally from the American Midwest, though he sounds like he’s from another time entirely. On his stunning third album Critterland, Carlisle empties his distinctive artistic arsenal—banjo, squeezebox, encyclopedic knowledge of old-time musical styles, even seven minutes of spoken word—and spins deeply moving tales of anguished hearts, broken families, discarded dreams, and, importantly, the beauty and deliverance of a life lived in the presence of love. Now more than ever, we need each other. Now more than ever, we need Willi Carlisle." – Ben Salmon
"When 2019’s Essentials appeared on the scene, Erika de Casier’s Y2K-indebted R&B felt novel—a futuristic nostalgia trip that hadn’t yet been cannibalized by the TikTok trend cycle. In 2024, de Casier simply improves on it. On Still, the Copenhagen pop star fills in the lines she drew on 2021’s Sensational with an even wider range of club influences to augment her signature digital R&B sound. Laid-back reggaetón beats, skittering drum & bass drum breaks, and Timbaland-esque earworms all lend themselves to de Casier’s sultry, girlish (dare I say coquette-ish) vocals. The embodiment of the Aaliyah lyric “Sometimes I’m goody-goody/ Right now I’m naughty-naughty,” Erika is in her Y2K princess bag and rewriting the blueprint, still." – Stephanie Barclay
"After a six-year hiatus, New Orleans-based, Brooklyn-raised emcee Cavalier returned with Different Type Time, his Backwoodz Studioz debut and arguable magnum opus. It’s a sprawling record, an hourlong treatise about learning one’s place in the universe. The album’s jazzy sonics smolder like a full ashtray, with thick basslines, warbling keys, and reverberant horns billowing into a pleasant, low-hanging cloud. Cav is a dazzling and curious writer, examining all possible pockets and shapes, twisting words around themselves like he’s solving a Rubik’s cube. Each song feels tactile, translating tiny scraps of memories—he peels a Satsuma orange or sips a Colt 45 on some near-forgotten Brooklyn summer afternoon—into winding, philosophical ruminations." – Dashiell Lewis
"If A.R. Kane pioneered dream pop by merging cold, dub-influenced spatial explorations with C86 jangle, Taiwanese artist Yu Ching brings a warmer, twee approach to her lo-fi, spring-reverb atmospheres on The Crystal Hum. Moving back to Taiwan after 11 years in Berlin, Yu Ching delves deeper into the kind of introspective soundscapes she crafts with Aemong; the result is one of this year’s best bedroom pop records. Her erratic melodies melt into air, guided by bending guitars and simple drum patterns, promising a gentle passage into that good night." – James Gui
"“Curator” might have become something of a dirty word, but it feels the neatest way to describe Stephen Buono, the impresario at the center of Church Chords. For elvis, he was Schlager, he blended raw performances from a cast of collaborators—Wilco’s Nels Cline, Tortoise’s Jeff Parker, Thundercat collaborator Genevieve Artadi among them—into ultra-sleek avant-pop. In less able hands, this heady mix of cyborg funk, cosmic jazz fusion, and chanteuse song might collapse into chaos. But Buono’s sensibility—intrepid, exploratory, with an eye on the big picture—maintains a bold and coherent vision throughout." – Louis Pattison
"A ghostly torch singer, a 1960s girl group diva marooned in time, a funk-disco impresario, a reverb-drenched indie oddity—Patrick Flegel’s seventh and possibly final album as Cindy Lee teems with artistic personas, taking on a dizzying array of forms over its two-hour-plus length. Diamond Jubilee is so large and so varied that it’s hard to keep the entire album in your head. Yet fragments bubble up to haunt and provoke: The airy croon of “Dallas,” the ebullient pop of “Kingdom Come,” the pop-locking syncopation of “GAYBLEVISION,” the squalling, thundering, falsetto-trilled desolation of “Golden Microphone.” Less an album than a universe, Diamond Jubilee rewards extended exploration." – Jennifer Kelly
One of the best records of the year, for sure. How is a triple LP not exhausting? How can an archive-clearing dump remain coherent? A true bummer that this is apparently the end of Cindy Lee, a project I've been enjoying for a number of years now. I barely leave the house these days and I was even going to make the drive down to Cincinnati to catch the "farewell" tour before the whole thing was cancelled. It's just a magical collection and whatever Patrick does next, whatever he calls it or himself, I'll be there.
"Samba, pagodão baiano, punk, gabber—these are just a few of the tags peppering the liner notes of Crizin da Z.O.’s ACELERO. Opening with the pounding force of “O Fim Um”—featuring former Sepultura drummer Igor Cavalera—and culminating with the full-throttle rush of closer “Acelerado,” the third release from the collective (and first for Rio de Janeiro’s QTV Selo) is an industrial funk juggernaut, all Afro-Brazilian rhythms and thick swaths of pummeling noise sewage hurtling forward at thrilling breakneck speed." – Filipe Costa
"Of course Kim Deal made a great solo record—the legendary Deal has never made a bad one. Nevertheless, Nobody Loves You More is a highlight in a flawless discography, a humble collection of odds ‘n’ sods cobbled together with pals from across the indie rock spectrum over the past decade that doesn’t deviate from the vintage Deal sound of guitar-based rock with sweet and sour melodies and lo-fi dissonance—but oh, how sad everything is! As straightforward a record as the enigmatic Deal has ever made, Nobody Loves You More is also rather devastating, assessing with clear-eyed melancholy the existential angst of mortality, regret, and grief—aka: getting old. Sprinklings of trumpets and strings add to the tragically romantic character of these songs, a quality that has never been associated with Deal’s music but, in retrospect, perhaps should have been all along." – Mariana Timony
"Like all good Dadaists, there is a real-world anxiety lurking behind the absurd. In the case of English Teacher, the Leeds foursome combat a Northerner’s working class malaise with a surrealist’s cheek_._ Tories get the finger on the solemn “Broken Biscuits” (“You can’t stop the banks from bursting/ Blame the council not the rain”) and so do presumptuous racists on the snarling “R&B” (“Despite appearances I haven’t got the voice for R&B/ Even though I’ve seen more COLORS Shows than KEXPs”). Despite being the band’s first outing, This Could be Texas paces itself with preternatural confidence, building tension into enveloping dirges only to cut it loose at the next time signature change—oftentimes all within the same song. This, coupled with the band’s sweeping vistas of sound lends itself to a Texas-sized grandeur that the outfit clearly aspire to. It’s an ambitious first outing and one of the year’s best." – Stephanie Barclay
"The Tuareg band Etran de L’Aïr began nearly 30 years ago with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a calabash for percussion. They toured relentlessly through their native Niger until they pieced together enough equipment for a full band: Three brothers on electric guitar and bass, accompanied by a family friend on an actual drum set. 100% Sahara Guitar is their third album, but the first to be recorded in a proper studio. Don’t call this the desert blues: Etran de L’Aïr play sun-glazed, psyched-out, blissful music, full of galloping drums, overlapping guitar solos, and chanted vocals. It’s 100% Saharan, 100% celebration, 100% rock ’n’ roll." – Matthew Blackwell
"Sometime during the mid-20th century, jazz turned from a dance genre into “America’s classical music,” creating an unfounded hierarchy of value between music for the concert hall and music for the dancehall. Riding off their 2023 Mercury Prize win, Ezra Collective has created a jazz manifesto with Dance, No One’s Watching, exposing the false binary between art and dance music, staying true to their roots as a so-called “party band,” while drawing connections between dub, highlife, hip-hop, and abstract jazz that show their virtuosity in full bloom." – James Gui
"The decade-long surge of non-mainstream country artists has been decidedly dude-heavy—it’s Zachs and Jasons and Tylers just about all the way down. How refreshing, then, to experience the steady rise of Sierra Ferrell, a distinctive singer, skilled songwriter, and downright ancient soul originally from West Virginia. For years, she has made music that sounds like it should be crackling out of an antique radio: vintage jazz and ragtime, old-time fiddle tunes, rockabilly, blues, murder ballads, the occasional yodel, and so on. Trail Of Flowers offers more of the same, but the songcraft is sharper, the arrangements fuller and the production crisp and crystal clear. It’s a record that just sounds incredible, which only brings out all the colorful charms of Ferrell’s tunes—like precious family heirlooms polished up and properly displayed for all to see." – Ben Salmon
Happy to see Sierra finally getting some larger attention. She's been working hard for a while now and while my personal preference is for her less-polished solo/acoustic work, it's still nice to hear her here, too. (This is also preferable to the burlesque-soundtrack style she dabbled in which felt too anachronistic and theatrical for me.)
"In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is literally the mother of all gods—the source from which all subsequent divinity sprang. Or, as Francine Thirteen puts it in “Black Maria” from the album that bears the goddess’s name: “Our holy Father/ Was not the first to walk on water.” Consider Psalm of Tiamat, then, an alternate spiritual history of humankind—a worship service for those entities sidelined by conventional religious practices. Thirteen is more than up to the task; across seven songs, she casts a riveting, hypnotic spell on tracks that move from haunting, goth-y grandeur to mystic spiritual jazz. Her vocal delivery is the album’s magic talisman; whether it’s the ruminative hum of “Taweret Sobek Re” or the primal thrum of “Tiamat,” Thirteen delivers every line with the poise and authority of a high priestess summoning messages from the beyond. You’d be well advised to heed every single word." – J. Edward Keyes
"On Gemelo, L.A.-based pop singer Angélica Garcia rises from the ashes of a breakup to deliver an alchemical, superb third album. Bouncing her versatile voice between loops, layers of electronic percussion, and spectral cumbia beats, Garcia creates a glossy, tough-as-nails sound. It is easy to return, again and again, to upbeat, breakout tracks “Paloma” and “Color de Dolor”; but Gemelo’s power—all fantastic feminine energy and soaring vocals—is just as potent in the slower, introspective cuts, like “Mírame” and “Intuición.” The album’s cinematic atmosphere shows just how far Garcia—who has been rightly described as a “fucking firework show”—can go. “My time has come, the time for my test” (Aqui ha llegado mi tiempo/ La hora de mi prueba) Garcia roars in “El Que”—if Gemelo was a test, she passes with flying colors." – Maria Barrios
"Despite stepping back into the studio a full 25 years after their last album, London collective Galliano didn’t miss a beat on their welcome return. Tapping into a wide range of inspirations, from hip-hop, to dub, jazz, soul, and beyond—with members of the original super-tight band—Valerie Etienne sounds as supremely soulful as ever, while partner Rob Gallagher’s musings on modern urban life and the ghosts of dance floors past never grow old. Proof that when you’re halfway somewhere, it’s good to remember where you came from—and aim for wherever sounds good next." – Andrew Jervis
"Atmospheric folk meets an arresting art pop sensibility on Skylar Gudasz’s COUNTRY. Like the gentle undulations of a cool mountain spring, Gudasz’s voice runs through her windswept landscapes with a refreshing clarity and a balmy ease that belies the record’s more existential themes. On “Fire Country,” sweeping images of wildfires and vast seascapes give way to eternal strawberry-summer dreamscapes in songs like “Mother’s Daughter” and “Truck.” Meanwhile, the cruising, strummy “Atoll” delivers a poetic critique of U.S. imperialism amidst the swaying palms and blue lagoons of the Pacific. Refreshingly inventive soundscapes and cinematic storytelling makes COUNTRY a place you’ll want to return to again and again." – Stephanie Barclay
"Amen is the sound of Texas-raised, NYC-based bassoonist Joy Guidry returning to her Southern roots_._ Created with an ensemble of musician friends and singers, including fellow southerner Niecy Blues, on Amen, Guidry creates a healing balm for herself and her community by mixing gospel with spiritual jazz and ambient music. The album opens with a “Psalm,’ setting Guidry’s plaintive bassoon on top of a resonant hum not unlike the organ swells of Alice Coltrane. From there, we move through the meditative ambiance of “It’s Okay to Let Me Go” to the soaring gospel of “Angels,” and finally to the album’s pinnacle: A spine-tingling transcendent version of Max Roach’s “Members Don’t Get Weary.” The end result is a beacon of resistance that’s raw, true, and all-powerful." – Andy Thomas
"In an episode of The Renaissance Show that dropped in October of 2023, New York rapper and producer Hooks Arthur is giving a rundown of his discography to date, describing the way each project sounds. When he gets to the then-forthcoming Hundred Hand Hooks, though, he pauses. “I don’t even know what to say it’s gonna be,” he finally says, “You’re just going to have to listen to it and find out for yourself.” That, as it turns out, was the perfect description. Hundred Hand Hooks exists in a kind of weird, animated dream world—a vast landscape of melting mountains, trees, and houses, through which strolls Hooks, dishing out rapid-fire stream-of-consciousness bars, every line densely packed with meaning. Hooks creates surrealist Saturday morning cartoon soundtracks, heavy on organ and marimba, all of it perfectly smeared—like you’re looking at a far-off castle through a foggy window. The whole experience is weirdly dreamlike, anchored in vivid, meticulously crafted wordplay that perfectly complements the music’s hypnotic feel." – J. Edward Keyes
"Sometimes starkly minimalist, sometimes overflowing with oddly angled ideas, West Coast sax scientist Josh Johnson’s second album under his own name is a solo project in every sense of the word. Unusual Object requires only multi-tracked saxes and subtly deployed electronics to make its message understood. Johnson, who’s been an MVP for everyone from Meshell Ndegeocello to Makaya McCraven, transcends the need for border-patrolling tags like “jazz” and “electronic music” on an album so individualistic, he could probably use it as proof of identity at the airport." – Jim Allen
"“Love crawls in, stumbling/ Pulling down the curtains on its way down,” sings the Melbourne-based, jazz-funk-R&B artist Allysha Joy on “Silk,” an obvious highlight from her stunning The Making of Silk. This is jazzy R&B music enshrouded in a glitzy funk haze, designed to soften the blows of the daily grind—or as Joy puts it on “Raise Up,” to fix all our broken inner children. Accordingly, while the soundscapes hearken back to her analog past—particularly funk and ’90s hip-hop, the latter of which comes through in the staggered, J. Dilla-esque drums—the lyrics chart a path to a brighter future: “I want to see you grow tall/ Just as far as the sun,” she proclaims on “Hold On.” These silky compositions are balms for the broken heart with serious crossover appeal, confirming Joy’s destiny as one of soul’s most capable torchbearers." – Thomas Hobbs
"Imagine a centuries-old transmission from a distant solar system delivering an apocalyptic account of a long-defunct world’s final days. It’s not tough to imagine that posthumous communiqué sounding something like Disconnect. Born of the mutual admiration between British electronic composer/producer Kevin Martin and Nairobi-born sound artist Joseph Kamaru, the album ostensibly operates like ambient music, but it’s far too commanding to simply slip into the background. Kamaru’s electronically massaged vocals—from wordless moans to spoken-word snippets—blend with subterranean drones in a eulogy for post-industrial ghosts." – Jim Allen
"“Gen Z deserves a lesbian Bowie,” Lava La RuetoldNME this year upon the release of Starface. To that end, this is Ziggy Stardust for the TikTok age—a concept album about an alien who crash-lands on Earth and begs us to hear their solution for our fucked-up world before it’s too late. (Spoiler: it’s love.) They filter this through a freakishly fun mix of R&B, funk, hip-hop, and new wave by way of audacious moments like a quasi-“Genius of Love” needle-drop and Courtney Love doing Glengarry Glen Ross. Yes, really." – Mia Hughes
"Inspired by the historic Dahomey Amazons and founded by three of the biggest powerhouses in African music, Mamani Keïta, Mariam Doumbia, and Oumou Sangare,Les Amazones d’Afrique have been using their voices to advocate for women’s rights since their 2017 debut. The group has never shied away from mashing up tradition and technology, but on Muskow Dance, with the endlessly inventive production of Jacknife Lee, they lean heavily into an almost entirely electronic sound, turning up the energy several notches with booming 808s, dramatic synth slides, and bursts of vintage disco. But none of these additions ever overshadow the true soul of the music, instead amplifying the already formidable voices of Les Amazones d’Afrique’s ever-evolving lineup." – Megan Iacobini Di Fazio
"Just over a minute into “4EVA23,” the show-stopping number that arrives about halfway through THE BALLAD OF LOESPERADO, Nyesui Loe’s voice cracks. Up to this point, the song has been a measured recollection of the day his brother died, Loe rifling through memories like someone going through old photos they stashed in a shoebox. But in that moment, when Loe seems to choke back a sob as he confesses, “It’s been tough on me,” the fourth wall collapses and the distance between artist and listener evaporates. That kind of heart-on-sleeve directness defines LOESPERADO, even in moments where Loe isn’t digging deep into his personal history. He kicks off album opener “The Big Payback” by admitting, “I used to think that I would die young/ Now I pray that they don’t open up the gates until my time comes,” and on the title track, he turns what could be standard-issue hip-hop braggadocio into something that feels earnest and deeply felt. By the time the album wraps, you feel like you actually know the person who made it. Loman’s production throughout is a perfect match: humid, sepia-toned, soundtrack-y musical backdrops that mirror Loe’s reflective bars. Other artists compete for attention with gimmicks. Loe does something far riskier, but much more rewarding: He leads with his heart." – J. Edward Keyes
"On Lover, Other, Rosie Lowe delivers bold dynamism alongside spacious minimalism. Co-produced by Harvey Grant and D’Monk, the album presents a wide-roaming range of R&B, spiked with choral elements and dance music flourishes, all topped with Lowe’s soulful vocals. Lowe’s aim for the album was that it “not sound like one thing,” and that wide reach comes across throughout. The vibe shifts constantly, from the sultry “Mood to Make Love” to the upbeat “In My Head” to gospel-tinged “There Goes The Light.” The album’s longest track, “Something,” seamlessly combines an ambient intro, with groovy breakbeats and a flourish of piano. Lover, Other thrives in its playfulness, and Lowe revels in every moment." – Sonia Chien
"On 2022’s RAW EXTRACTIONS, Memphis rapper Lukah asserted that he is “in tune with the beyond.” On Temple Needs Water. Village Needs Peace. he offers support for that claim. The album feels like a newly discovered sacred text—a divine guide to living on an elevated plane, one where truth, justice, and peace are not just aspirational but attainable. Lukah is the wise sage holding court around a campfire, offering parables and insight to his troubled flock. L.A. production team Real Bad Man is in top form, enlisting musicians like Shabaka Hutchings and Adrian Utley to create a swirling, organic soundscape that draws from dub, spiritual jazz, and Memphis soul." – Dash Lewis
"Both Valentina Magaletti and Nídia have spent their entire careers exploring the possibilities of rhythm, the former in both her solo work and her role in groups like Moin and Vanishing Twin, the latter in her string of increasingly adventurous, mind-warping records for the Lisbon label Príncipe. So it makes sense that the two of them would eventually join forces, and the result is as iconoclastic as you’d expect. Magaletti and Nídia have no interest in simply blowing through nine hard techno tracks and calling it a day; instead, they explore the idea of rhythm as melody in richly textured songs that wind their way patiently from start to finish. On the title track, a creepy-crawly marimba tiptoes across a shuffling rhythm; “Sicilia” is measured and moody, tiny droplets of electronics trickling across steady rolling percussion. “Ta A Bater Ya,” one of the few feints toward conventional song structure, loosens the screws on its batida rhythm so it wobbles unsteadily beneath a meandering synth line. Magaletti and Nídia seem to disappear into one another, and in the end, Estradas is the perfect product not of them individually, but of their combined, adventurous sensibilities. It’s a wonder." – J. Edward Keyes
"With their smart, sugary, synth-prog bops about aliens and human consciousness, Magdalena Bay pushed their surreal world-building into overdrive this year, conjuring a retrofuturist vision that somehow makes the present feel more palatable. For Imaginal Disk, the L.A. duo drew inspiration from a host of sources—Star Trek: The Next Generation, ABBA, the plays of Jean-Paul Sartre, and Lacanian psychoanalysis_—_and wound up with an SNL debut and an appearance from Grimes on a remix of “Image.” They’ve been the pop underground’s best-kept secret for years. 2024 was the year the rest of the world started to take notice." – April Clare Welsh
"Imagine: It’s 1981. You’re at an underground dance club, grooving to edgy, experimental funk and electro by the likes of Liquid Liquid, ESG, and Kraftwerk. In a rare quiet moment between songs, the guy next to you says, “You know, in 43 years, the cutting edge of this music is still going to be about refining the same ideas you’re hearing now.” Stunned, you simply watch until 2024, when Chorus proves he was right. But how fresh Mildlife makes it sound! Incorporating jazz fusion, ‘70s pop, and 21st-century synths, Chorus is simultaneously retro and original as hell." – Michael J. West
"Much ink has been spilled over the “shoegaze revival,” but hiding in plain sight is Mo Dotti’s sublime LP o__paque, an album that doesn’t so much evoke the past as give it a brand new verve that few revivalists can match. It’s not just the excellent, time-exacted production, but the band’s irresistible hooks that propel o__paque to the stratosphere. Tracks like “really wish” and “whirling sad” are undeniable earworms. Kevin Shields would be proud." – Eli Schoop
"This past April, I saw Kelly Moran headline arty Brooklyn space Pioneer Works. After showcasing programmed pieces from her latest full-length, Moves in the Field, a hush fell over the room as she encored with several renditions of Ryuichi Sakamoto compositions. Without context, it would have been difficult to distinguish between the work of the two composers—both coax glassy beauty out of right-brain ingenuity. Across Moves in the Field, baffling, inhuman melodies—generated using a cutting-edge Yamaha Disklavier player piano—marry technicality and inward-gazing mournfulness. Sparked amidst the disruption of pandemic lockdowns and partially inspired by psychedelic experiences, the album affirms that Moran is an academic pianist who thrives on subversive emotion." – Ted Davis
"Of all the musical surprises of 2024, this is one of the most devastating. On Daffodils,Samantha Morton narrates the story of her own troubled childhood growing up first in an abusive home and then suffering through the cold and labyrinthine mechanics of the social care system. The album is a collaboration with Richard Russell, the founder of XL Recordings who worked on similar albums from Gil Scott-Heron and Bobby Womack, and its list of collaborators includes everyone from avant-saxophonist and poet Alabaster DePlume to UB40 vocalist Ali Campbell. Every second of it is so subtle, so deep, and so heart-rendingly beautiful, it feels like stepping into someone else’s memory." – Joe Muggs
"Mount Kimbie’s career has been a constant process of both becoming and evading being a band. From their post-dubstep electronic duo beginnings, they collaborated with friends like James Blake, Mica Levi, and King Krule, all of whom also inhabited London’s shadowy spaces between DJ culture and live music. But they would then divert wildly, as on 2022’s diverse and abstract City Planning. But now, with a full-time keyboardist and drummer, they really are a band, and this album is one of their most focused yet. With King Krule back on a couple of tracks, and Andrea Balency-Béarn adding more vocals, its soft yet paradoxically steely krautrock chug doesn’t give a lot away at first; but the more you live with it, the bigger its personality is revealed to be." – Joe Muggs
"In a year shadowed by Australia’s rejection of the Voice referendum, Keanu Nelson’s Wilurarrakutu arrived as a piercing reminder of what the nation stands to gain by listening. The Papunya-based artist recalls the intimate spirituality of Francis Bebey and Beverly Glenn-Copeland, where dub-tinged drum loops, Casio keyboards, and reaching vocals create spaces for deep contemplation. Singing in both Papunya Luritja and English, Nelson paints contemporary pictures of community, country, and longing that resonate beyond their remote origins. It’s a record that feels both deeply personal and universal, offering a window into Aboriginal culture when it’s needed most." – Jared Proudfoot
"Mary Ocher’s Your Guide to Revolution is as cheerful a record about how to live, laugh, love in an inhumane world as one could hope for in a year when cheerfulness (and humanity) was in short supply. On side A, the Berlin-based artist constructs rattling weirdo pop out of spacey beats and blink-y synths with sprinklings of cumbia, post-punk, industrial, and kosmische; there’s even a song that disses Auto-Tune. Side B is more spiritually-minded, devoted to a reworking of The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby. Much music that aspires to be labeled avant-pop seems to privilege the “avant” side of the equation, resulting in music that can be as much of a chore to listen to as it must have been to make. There’s no time for that on Your Guide to Revolution, where the most subversive notion put forth by Ocher is that work can indeed be play." – Mariana Timony
"On Muuntautuja, Oranssi Pazuzu take their blackened, psychedelic shock-and-awe to the next level, or perhaps more accurately, an umbral pocket dimension teetering on the edge of the event horizon. This is less a figure of speech than a statement of fact. Seldom has a work of heavy music reconciled sublime splendor and mind-rending agony so seamlessly, at such a transcendental scale, as the Finnish metallurgists have done with songs like “Voitelu” and the title track; in supplementing the avant-garde riffs and hissed vocals with EMP-grade synth explosions, sleek neoclassical pianos, and mesmerizing ambient interludes, the band have effectively pulled off multiple industrial revolutions simultaneously, arriving at an infernal brand of futurism that’s cryptic as ever, not to mention insidiously catchy. Hold on tight, enjoy the fireworks, and try not to fall into the void." – Zoe Camp
"Over the course of four full-lengths, Kelly Lee Owens has charted a path from moody, ambient-adjacent electronic music through spiky experimentalism to arrive at the triumph of Dreamstate—a full-on blast of euphoria that goes from peak to peak to peak with nary a sign of flagging. Much of that is down to Owens’s masterful sense of control; if you want an idea of the album in miniature, look no further than the title track, where Owens builds from a Morse code synth pulse to a manic, blissed-out, all-bodies-jumping eruption of joy at its conclusion. (For fun, play the beginning of the track, then drag the slider to the five-minute mark and release, and see if you don’t get goosebumps. We’ve embedded it above to make it easier for you.) She demonstrates that finesse over and over, from the subtly gorgeous electropop of “Ballad (In The End),” with its devastating chorus, to the giddy pulse of the four-to-the-floor banger “Air.” On Dreamstate, Owens attains God-like status—full mastery of all that she surveys and controls. The world couldn’t possibly be in better hands." – J. Edward Keyes
"Bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake rank as one of the most propulsive, elastic, and agile rhythm sections in free jazz; but in Heart Trio, with Cooper-Moore, a virtuosic improviser, they channel a more meditative spirit. While that vibe marks all of their work, here it’s front-and-center: Parker toggles between a variety of traditional wind instruments and the West African doson ngoni, Cooper-More casts spells with ashimba and hoe-handled harp—instruments of his own design—and Drake summons sonic calm with a frame drum. A welcome balm amid an uncertain future." – Peter Margasak
"Jazz and hip-hop have been dancing with each other amiably for decades, rarely so stylishly as on this debut album from 26-year-old Zacchae’us Paul. The music feels much older than the man in the way it’s full of the history of ideas, peoples, and places. The songs and vocal arrangements show the roots in Black music going back to the 19th century, from soul to gospel to the funk flavors of Atlanta. Paul brings an instrumental quality to his voice, and he’s joined by vocalist Melanie Charles, the great young saxophonist Morgan Guerin, and stellar drummer Terri Lyne Carrington also produces. One of the hippest albums of the year." – George Grella
"Despite all its attempts at magical thinking, Abracadabra remains a charmed but troubling landscape. Montreal’s Klô Pelgag (real name Chloé Pelletier-Gagnon) conjures up a carnivalesque mélange of synth-driven art pop, baroque orchestration, and psychedelic chanson that spans the pretty and pensive (“Sans visage,” “Le goût des mangues”) to the nightmarish (“Décembre,” “Deux jours et deux nuits“). Even lead single “Libre,” a synth-pop dance track, is colored by mournful French-language lyrics and icy synths that flurry into a dark maelstrom. Notably, Pelletier-Gagnon took over production duties for the first time on this record, making Abracadabra a real creative triumph for this ever exploratory musician." —Stephanie Barclay
"Well, I didn’t have “Jessica Pratt collab with A$AP Rocky” on my 2024 bingo card. (That’s all I’ll say on “Highjack.”) That being said, all ends of the music spectrum have extended their praise for the folk-pop enigma’s latest album, Here in the Pitch, and deservedly so. Press play on opening track “Life Is” and be cast into a netherworld of spectral ‘60s pop, where a miasma of bossa nova, psychedelic folk, doo-wop, and jazz take on a surreal if not foreboding atmosphere. Where guileless la-la-la’s and melodies that sway like hula girl car ornaments foreground lyrics about the Manson family murders. In Pratt’s hands, the city of Los Angeles becomes the site of a Lynchian neo-noir as soundtracked by Brian Wilson. To put it another way, imagine that Phil Spector produced a cover of Astrud Gilberto’s “Girl From Ipanema” as sung by the Lady in the Radiator from Eraserhead. Here in the Pitch everything is fine." —Stephanie Barclay
"You can’t have a good dancehall DJ without a good producer, and Uganda-based DJ Ratigan Era boasts six of them on his debut album Era. Most of these producers have leftfield releases of their own, but on Era, they take turns ruffling up Ratigan Era’s peppy, multilingual verse with their own distinct styles. Thanks to Scotch Rolex’s trademark humor and love of chiptune, “Drop It Down” creeps like the soundtrack to Bowser’s Castle on Mario Kart for the N64. Chrisman’s stabs of sawtooth synths give “Gorilla Talk” a rave sheen, and Debmaster’s loping signal bloops on “Gan Dem” land the track somewhere between dubstep and trip-hop. Such an eclectic range of beats emboldens Ratigan Era’s outsider character. Away from the squabbles around dancehall becoming traphall over in Jamaica, Ratigan Era has found his own, more experimental lane." – Joseph Francis
"Don’t let the title fool you into thinking this album is a collection of outtakes from Curyman I. Far from it; it’s part of a trilogy, and on Volume II, the tasty trio of proud Carioca musician Rogê, legendary Brazilian maestro Arthur Verocai, and Dap-King supreme Tommy Brenneck have really gelled. With Rogê singing effortlessly over all manner of rhythms, it’s a suitably deft tribute to the wide variety of Brazilian greats he has counted as friends, collaborators, and influences throughout his career." – Andrew Jervis
"Britain’s premiere neo-soul vocalist returned this year with her first solo project in a decade and sounding more self-assured than ever. On I Am,Alice Russell wields her rich timbre with old-school gravitas over minimal but resonant arrangements from collaborator TM Juke. Written in the wake of her father’s death and her children’s births, I AM sees the singer confronting and grappling with generational trauma, grief, and self-healing with a newfound vulnerability. This is Russell at her most mature and bolder than ever." – Stephanie Barclay
"Being a Dua Saleh fan has, at times, felt like following a trail of breadcrumbs. Delicious breadcrumbs, sure; but breadcrumbs nonetheless. From 2019’s breakout single “Nür” to the bellicose “body cast” to the bumping groove of “chosen,” Saleh would sporadically drop very different-sounding tunes on their Bandcamp page. Anticipation rightly swelled for Saleh’s debut. When I SHOULD CALL THEM arrived in October, it felt like the first proper Saleh record, boasting the most recognizable roster of R&B stars that the Sudanese-American vocalist had ever worked with. It was immediately clear that Saleh—at once gossamer-light on “time again” and then steely sure-of-themself on “pussy suicide”—would stay true to the distinct duality that has come to define their voice. And even when their vocals aren’t the main attraction, rich instrumentation—like the noodling clarinets that close “television”—continue to brighten this vibrant debut full-length from one of the most exciting R&B talents working today." – Joseph Francis
"It’s not every day that a European metal band—or really, any metal band—signs to Sub Pop—so when the Seattle indie powerhouse announced they’d added Toulouse, France’s SLIFT to their roster, at the top of the year, you’ll forgive us for doing a double take. That said, their psychedelia-steeped, krautrock-indebted heavy prog has garnered a cult following largely on the basis of how un-metal it sounds; their epics are defined less by oscillating extremes than by maximalism and melodic complexity, dynamically intense but profoundly hypnotizing. Between the upgraded production to the horizonless arrangements to the apocalyptic themes, ILION is the sound of SLIFT at the peak of their power—and mind you, we’re still in the early phases. Trends and subgenres may come and go, but singular, all-consuming heavy music is eternal. In hindsight, that Sub Pop deal doesn’t seem so random after all; if anything, it was inevitable." – Zoe Camp
"Perhaps because of its overtly synthetic nature, hardcore dance-influenced Auto-Tune alt-pop can seem to exist a little outside of time. But it’s now over a decade since PC Music and the late SOPHIE burst into the world, and the sounds they initiated are now mature and global—as Glasgow talent TAAHLIAH amply demonstrates on her second album. The songs here may be hyper-digital in texture, but—easing off on the pounding kickdrums—they’re also personal, intimate, sometimes agonizingly raw, often gentle and tender: expanding in all directions, TAAHLIAH is a grown-up singer-songwriter for the virtual age." – Joe Muggs
"Every song on Ahadu, Etsegenet Mekonnen’s first album as Esy Tadesse, seems dappled with rays of morning sunlight. The Addis Ababa-born, L.A.-based composer has a knack for making the loveliest choice available, so whether she’s working through Ethiopian scales on her clean-toned electric guitar; weaving in and out of rich krar and flute melodies; or layering in silky vocal ad-libs, the effect is balm-like. There’s a strong conceptual foundation here: Ahadu is a pointed combination of Ethiopian traditional music, Western jazz, and the forthrightness of Mekonnen’s guitar work. But you don’t have to understand what’s happening on a technical level to feel refreshed by Ahadu’s self-evident gorgeousness." – Brad Sanders
"Mary Timony has pretty much always done whatever she damn well pleased, but never has this been truer than on Untame the Tiger, her first by-definition solo album in nearly 20 years. Here she forgoes the existential (and often climate-related) dread of her younger indie rock peers to examine private grief and the softness that comes after. She indulges in a little on-trend country twang on standout “The Guest,” but the record otherwise feels like a world unto itself. It’s measured but never boring, smart but never showy—no small feat coming from a guitarist of her caliber. The effect feels lit from within." – Elle Carroll
"This gorgeous collection of Latin indie pop from L.A. newcomer Reyna Tropical takes its title from a little-used word for “bittersweet.” Fittingly, Malegría is as much a celebration of the queer Latinx experience as it is a tribute to the passing of Reyna’s collaborator and “musical soulmate,” Nectali “Sumohair” Díaz. Brimming with tropical sensuality, infectious Afro-Indigenous polyrhythms, and fluid, dreamy guitar riffs, Malegría traverses easily between moments of humid calm to riotous laughter, with love positively radiating off of every track. A celebration of culture, identity, and partnership, Malegría is an expression of profound joy even in the face of profound sadness." – Stephanie Barclay
"Call it the aesthetic-chicken-and-the-egg dilemma: Does art reflect reality, or is reality just the actualization of art? A few moments into UTO’s second album, singer Neysa Mae Barnett offers her hot take: What many regard as a two-way mirror is actually just a never-ending, irreconcilable tug-of-war. “Strangely entwined/ When I’m deeply in one/ The other one shouts,” she sings on “Art&Life.” Her fragile, dulcet soprano melodies, juxtaposed with Emile Larroche’s frigid, stabbing synths, set the stage for a contrast-heavy indie pop record split between the warm, fuzzy realm of the heart—see “2Moons,” with its romantic strings, softly-plucked acoustic guitars, dreamy synths—and the uncanny valley of our present reality, which informs glitched-out oddities like “Zombie” and “Unshape.” Whoever said a house divided cannot stand clearly hasn’t heard these two." – Zoe Camp
"Since 1990, the Red Hot Organization has raised money and consciousness to battle AIDS while combining disparate musicians in creative harmony. This year’s colossal 46-track TRA__ИƧA fought the far-right’s war on gender mutability by uniting upcoming talent like claire rousay with queer, nonbinary, trans, or straight indie forerunners, including everyone from Jeff Tweedy to Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Although Sade justifiably won accolades by crooning her musically subtle but emotionally showstopping “Young Lion” in support of her own trans son, this four-hour song cycle fully coheres by depicting an entire community’s journey, from trouble to triumph." – Barry Walters
Full of unexpected collaborations, some of them very good, many of them forgettable but still pleasant. I don't think a four hour compilation is a great delivery format and much will likely be lost (especially when overshadowed by things like the Sade track) but I also understand the symbolism and power of having it drop all together like this.
"Collecting eight psychedelic gems that emerged from Japan’s pop underground during the 1970s, Time Capsule’s Nippon Acid Folk compilation is as soothing as it is strange, fusing electronic tinkering, rustic arrangements, and pastoral lyricism. Each side of the record opens with a composition by Hiroki Tamaki, whose violin-driven jazz fusion embraced Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies and surprisingly accessible soft-rock production. His aptly-titled “Beautiful Song” is a charming highlight. Don’t miss Happy End’s “Gather the Wind,” fronted by a young Haruomi Hosono, whose verses take listeners on a lazy city stroll past empty cafes and picturesque seascapes." – Jude Noel
Pretty fantastic collection of tracks, all from new-to-me artists. When this first dropped in February I quickly became obsessed with the Niningashi track "Hitoribotchi (On My Own)" and managed to track down a pretty low-end vinyl rip (192kbps mp3, static crackles, etc.) of the full LP "Heavy Way" which I started playing non-stop. It has quickly become one of my absolute favorite 60s/70s private press psych/folk records - a "list" I thought I had stopped adding to many years ago, under the (obviously false) impression that I'd "heard it all." (I'll defend this as a not totally arrogant idea by pointing to the fact that we're now 50 years out from the peak; "digger" labels have spent the last few decades reissuing any half-way decent record from this category; and I've spent more time than I would like to think about doing my own digging, trawling obscure music blogs, reading the books, etc.) Anyway, a few months later Time Capsule reissued the LP in full, and though I like the OG artwork more, it's great to have this available again and I'm happy to upgrade my dirty vinyl rip to lossless files. (Speaking of dirty vinyl, the OG cover image I linked to came from an original copy of the record which sold on a Japanese auction site at the end of 2022. It was given a (in my experience non-standard) grading of "B/B" for "some scratches and dirt" and sold for a hair of $700USD. Yeesh.)
"Violaine Morgan Le Fur, aka Violence Gratuite, seems to thrive in the space between abstract chaos and unbridled fun. Baleine à Boss makes no concessions, settling into grooves that land somewhere in the realms of gqom, kuduro, and classic M.I.A. Her voice is arresting, hypnotic, and parallel to the disorienting drum machines and synths littering each track. It’s oft-written that certain music could soundtrack club nights—Baleine à Boss soundtracks your club nightmares, where faces and structures blur and become unrecognizable to the point of panic. It is a thoroughly singular experience." – Eli Schoop
"The second full-length from Osaka collective Violent Magic Orchestra is everything you’d expect from an album titled DEATH RAVE: extreme, high-tech rage music that treats auditory violence as a universal love language. Abetted by a cast of heavyweights from across the globe, including members of Gabber Modus Operandi, Full of Hell, and Mayhem, the 10-person Osaka collective assimilates two of music’s most infamous, aggressive traditions—rave music and death metal—into a sound as euphoric as it is overwhelming. As band member Helvetch told Bandcamp Daily, “When you first listen to it, it can be hard to digest…but I want people to really feel it with their body.” Judging by these 15 songs, it’s safe to say mission accomplished." – Zoe Camp
"Cross your hands over your chest and tap your fingers on one hand and then the other, back and forth. Bilateral stimulation—activating each half of the brain in an alternating pattern—can reduce anxiety, which may be why Yasmin Williams’s Acadia feels so grounding. On her third album, the Alexandria, Virginia artist floats the reassuring rhythms of calabash drums, tap shoes, and rhythm bones from one stereo channel to the other, all while her fingertips pound steel strings the way a waterfall pounds river rocks smooth. Amid a web of collaborators from the worlds of Americana and jazz, Williams sounds impossibly centered—maybe it’s just a vicarious comfort to hear music played with such poise." – Taylor Ruckle
"Winged Wheel’s 2022 release No Island was pieced together via remote collaboration, but for their second outing, the members of this underground music juggernaut (now including Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Lonnie Slack of Water Damage along with core personnel Cory Plump, Whitney Johnson, Matthew J. Rolin, and Fred Thomas—just look them up) did it the old-fashioned way, convening in upstate New York to make a record over a long weekend. The result is Big Hotel, a collection of circuitous space rock songs that cocoon the listener in a psychedelic dream of pulsing grooves, airy vocals, metallic guitars, and muted melodies. It’s all very meditative and cool, but there’s a storminess to proceedings that keeps things unpredictable and futuristic—progressive rock that actually feels progressive, fresh, new." – Mariana Timony
Shoutout to the homie Matt Rolin, Columbus ain't the same without ya...
"“Young Swimmers,” the spoken word intro to this year’s phenomenal release by Wu-Lu, packs more lyricism into three-and-a-half minutes than most artists muster over entire albums. The song sets up an extended reflection on pressure and resilience, mediated by metaphors of water and the motions used to traverse it. It’s Wu-Lu’s first EP since his 2022 album LOGGERHEAD, which often layered the Brixton artist’s diaristic lyrics between thick curtains of noise. Learning To Swim On Empty de-emphasizes these punk stylings and leans into orchestral arrangements to embody its central tensions; cellos and violins align to trace the furrowed skin of every scar we’ve collected on the rocky path to adulthood." – Collin Smith
"One of the golden commandments of the internet is never to feed the trolls—unless you’re Manuel Gagneux, the Swiss-American polymath behind Zeal & Ardor, in which case it might be the most important career move you ever make. The spiritual-infused black metal project, conceived in 2013 in rebuttal to a bad-faith creative prompt (read: racist shitpost) on 4chan, has not only endured but evolved into a road-tested six-piece. The first Zeal & Ardor record not composed exclusively by Gagneux, GREIF is a soft reboot with arena-sized ambitions, fueled by synergy and groove as opposed to contrast or decibel count (though “Clawing Out” and “Hide in Shade” offer the latter two in spades). What we’re left with is a massive grab bag of sinister stoner rock (“Thrill,” “Sugarcoat”), sprawling gothic epics (“Kilonova”), and dusty ballads (“to my ilk”), among other delights. From the dregs of the internet to the top of the world—how’s that for a career arc?" – Zoe Camp
