'Tis The Season (For Ranking Stuff)
Let's take a look at the first batch of Best Album Of 2024 lists, including Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Vulture and Stereogum.
I’m always baffled by this time of year - every major media outlet rushes to get out their Best of The Year lists in the first few days of the month of December, even though there is still a twelfth of the year left, and even though we have a very recent example - SZA’s magnificent SOS in 2022 - of an album that released in December and should have been on everyone’s lists, leading to a caveat a year later (“this is technically from last year but we missed it in our attempt to do the listicle version of a Reddit comment that only says ‘FIRST’”).
My own list of the Best of 2024 will be out on December 21, and will be my final post before I take a few weeks off from posting regularly. I’ll be back January 13.
All of that said, it is still fun to have a read and a react - some shocks, some shrugs, some shakes of the head - so here are six outlets I am always interested to hear from at this time of year. And a few thoughts from yours truly, of course, as I try to make sense of my own list.
Also, next week will be a catch-up week: albums that cracked these Top 10s which I hadn’t listened to in 2024. While you’re here, hit the comments below with your picks for album of the year - and what you make of these Top 10s.
Charli XCX - brat
Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Sabrina Carpenter - Short n’ Sweet
Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft
Tyla - Tyla
Future and Metro Boomin - We Don’t Trust You
Ariana Grande - Eternal Sunshine
Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal
Waxahatchee - Tiger’s Blood
Rolling Stone usually have the most mainstream list of the bunch and that continues here with the highest placing I’ve seen for Beyoncé, and a couple of albums - Future & Metro Boomin, Ariana Grande - that haven’t appeared in anyone else’s Top 10. And probably shouldn’t have.
Also, of the six I looked at, RS was (unsurprisingly, really) one of only two outlets with Billie Eilish’s third album in the Top 10. It appeared a lot. But I think people might be sleeping on Hit Me Hard And Soft.
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Charli XCX - brat
Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
Waxahatchee - Tiger’s Blood
Mount Eerie - Night Palace
Bladee - Cold Visions
Astrid Sonne - Great Doubt
Kim Gordon - The Collective
I’ll be honest: I stopped reading Pitchfork music reviews a while ago because it felt like they were being purposely iconoclastic when it came to some of the big name artists. Case in point: Kendrick Lamar’s universally acclaimed GNX was scored a 6.6/10 and didn’t even crack their Top 50.
In saying that, I don’t have a lot to quibble with here. I’m surprised MJ Lenderman dropped to 4. I’ve not heard Cindy Lee yet, but Charli XCX and Jessica Pratt both put out great records. And it was nice to see Kim Gordon get a shout-out; I don’t think it is one of the best of the year personally, but I do think it was one of the most surprisingly good albums of 2024.
The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
Mach-Hommy - #RichAxxHaitian
Ka - The Thief Next to Jesus
Bilal - Adjust Brightness
Mustafa - Dunya
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Rachel Chinouriri - What a Devastating Turn of Events
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Various Artists - TRAИƧA
mediopicky - Bexaco y rico
Vulture are always the black sheep of the family when it comes to these lists - in fact, beyond MJ Lenderman, there isn’t an album in their Top 10 that appears in anybody elses Top 10 list. Hell, I only heard of Mk.gee like a week ago.
And yet, I’m fairly confident that all of these albums will be bloody good listens. I’m endeared by the fact that Fontaines DC get some love; I’ve been tossing up how high to place it on my list. Same goes for The Cure, who land at #1 (its good but is it #1 good? I don’t think it is.). I loved that Rachel Chinouriri record too. The rest though? A mystery.
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Mk.gee - Two Star & the Dream Police
Sabrina Carpenter - Short n’ Sweet
Bon Iver - SABLE, EP
Waxahatchee - Tiger’s Blood
Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter
Charli XCX - brat
Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice
Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft
The New Yorker Top 10 made me yell at my screen three times: 1) there is no way that Sabrina Carpenter should be higher than Charli XCX; 2) Bon Iver’s SABLE, EP is literally three tracks long, and those three tracks aren’t collectively better than all but three albums; 3) Vampire Weekend. Ugh..
MJ Lenderman at #1 is a nice pick though. Good work.
Charli XCX - brat & brat and it's completely different but also still brat
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Kendrick Lamar - GNX
Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk
Jessica Pratt - Here In The Pitch
Mount Eerie - Night Palace
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal
Los Campesinos! - All Hell
I think I mostly feel annoyed because I thought I might have been able to get away with being the only person to put Brat and its remix album together on the list but alas, beaten to the punch by Stereogum.
I might be wrong, but I think this is the highest placing for GNX so far, and it feels a little too high to me. Same for Waxahatchee; I can see it somewhere in the 6-10 range if you really like it (I didn’t) but not #4. Probably the same for Magdalena Bay too, if we’re being totally honest. But also, so stoked to see Los Campesinos crack a Top 10 from one of the big outlets.
Honestly, I think this might be the most interesting Top 10 among those mentioned here: it hits the consensus records, but digresses just enough to make you go ‘hmm’ and look into the albums you haven’t heard yet.
Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
Waxahatchee - Tiger’s Blood
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Friko - Where we’ve been, Where we go from here
Johnny Blue Skies - Passage Du Desir
Charli XCX - brat
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Vince Staples - Dark Times
Wild Pink - Dulling the Horns
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
MJ Lenderman falls all the way down to #7 while Waxahatchee (again too high) and Jessica Pratt reach their highest points; that Jessica Pratt album is a technical and compositional work of art, but I don’t believe its accessible or entertaining enough for the top spot. Entertainment is a must for me.
A couple of interesting inclusions here: Johnny Blue Skies (aka Sturgill Simpson) hasn’t cracked any of the other Top 10s but I think its a worthy addition (though #5 might be too high). And Vince Staples’ Dark Times didn’t really hold public interest for long enough to warrant a #8 placing, even though it is a bloody good album.
Ngā mihi e te whanau - thanks for reading today.
I’ll be back tomorrow with My Week In Music.
Cheers, Chris
Cindy Lee sounds like Ariel Pink with lower fi equipment to me. I'm going to make the case that C,XOXO is more interesting and satisfying than the Carpenter and Eilish efforts taken as a whole, even if it's far less "perfect". Later in the month...