Best Albums of 2024

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Explore the best albums of 2024, based on over 2 million album rankings across 59,000 charts.
Last updated: 4 hours ago.

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2024 year summaryThe best artists of 2024 were Magdalena Bay, Charli XCX, Vampire Weekend, The Cure, The Smile, Fontaines D.C., Kendrick Lamar, The Last Dinner Party, Geordie Greep and Billie Eilish.

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Imaginal Disk

Magdalena Bay

"This is one of the most amazing things to come out of synth pop in a while; the hooks and production are just sublime." Reply

Cargusbralem | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

302 charts

Rank Score:

3,190

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

544

Average Rating:

83 (265 votes)

Comments:

Brat

Charli XCX

"Even though not the most groundbreaking artist, she manages to spike my interest just enough to get excited with every album. She's back with her hyperpop and electroclash bangers, and on the rest she reinvents many electronic genres from the past decades and makes them sound shiny and new. The "..." [+] Reply

Boltzmann | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (3 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

345 charts

Rank Score:

2,849

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

591

Average Rating:

77 (320 votes)

Comments:

Only God Was Above Us

Vampire Weekend

"This album is beautifully crafted. Each track brings something fresh while staying true to a strong central theme. The mix of orchestral production and sharp, witty guitar riffs creates a captivating atmosphere. While some songs stand out more than others, the overall quality is impressive. It pe..." [+] Reply

- samueljlakin | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

325 charts

Rank Score:

2,295

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

752

Average Rating:

80 (305 votes)

Comments:

Songs Of A Lost World

The Cure

"Have recently been fully getting into 'Disintegration' (long overdue, I know) and then this came along... felt like serendipity! Really great to hear them still making music at such a high level thirty five years later :)" Reply

- jbentley3997 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (4 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

351 charts

Rank Score:

2,235

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

767

Average Rating:

81 (292 votes)

Comments:

Romance

Fontaines D.C.

"Swing and a bit of a miss in my opinion. I wasn't convinced by the vocals or lyrics. Sound was a bit flat." Reply

- jnmayles | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

272 charts

Rank Score:

1,636

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"I can't help but enjoy it when Jonny and Thom stretch their creative legs and release new music. Good record which shows the vast majority of acts performing today what you can do if you understand sound and are willing to do something that has more than three chords." Reply

- meltchett | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

291 charts

Rank Score:

1,411

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,232

Average Rating:

78 (318 votes)

Comments:

GNX

Kendrick Lamar

"My first impressions were not positive, they improved upon a second listen. This album feels inconsequential for Kendrick, which isn't necessarily bad - it proves he's human. I get the sense that this album is part of the continued victory lap in his win over Drake, but it feels a bit like a hang..." [+] Reply

- BurndenAce | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (4 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

236 charts

Rank Score:

1,325

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,300

Average Rating:

77 (230 votes)

Comments:

Prelude To Ecstasy

The Last Dinner Party

"As usual my old foagie ass only hears about albums that are apparently So Big Hype right now when there's usually some crass controversy surrounding it, and lo and behold that's where I first heard about this album and well curiosity of course still kills the elderly cat. Again I don't really car...""As usual my old foagie ass only hears about albums that are apparently So Big Hype right now when there's usually some crass controversy surrounding it, and lo and behold that's where I first heard about this album and well curiosity of course still kills the elderly cat. Again I don't really care about the terminally online arguments about them being Trust-Fund Nepo Babies, or Too Pretentious, or Too over hyped because they're g[don't at me]s who occasionally talk about sex and marketable feminist themes like it's a novel concept in 2024, again just put on the music and see how it vibes And it's good. I'm glad that this actually pulls from some new corners of 80s fetishism and has some notable ambition to boot, and I definitely wasn't expecting the occasional detours into Jethro Tull style light prog or euro folk even if it's a bit of a underdeveloped and conspicuously extraneous detour, though perhaps expected in an album that blithely favours excess. The not-really-controversial feminist lyrics are fine but also, um, very very Collegiate White Girl Feminism, which kind of hinder the attempt at crafting a more underdog persona they're occasionally going for with this album. I guess to pointlessly add fuel to the worst argument against this album or the band's existence, the work's rather trite theme of "Men Have it All, If I were a Man SO WOUlD I!" probably would have a bit more sting if it wasn't coming from a place that sees the kind of privileges 99 percent of men could only dream of. Not really a huge knock that a first time band is still circling shallow waters on bigger issues, but it's an album works better when it leads into More straight-up bawdy art-school camp or is even genuinely a bit mysterious. More so that criticism kind of leads to how repetitive the overall songwriting can get, where the grand instrumental swelling and operatic bellowing seem to come in at far-too-similar intervals. So it's good, still very beholden to it's influences like most debut albums and works better cut into large chunks, a promising first album that inevitably the hype has over praised and can kind of make the occasional wart seem more blatant up close. Still, I'll check back in round 2. " [+] Reply

cestuneblague | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

238 charts

Rank Score:

1,313

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"I've never been a big fan of this guy's voice, both his creative voice and his actual singing. And this time around the music is just way less interesting than any thing from black midi, whom I wasn't even really that thrilled with to begin with. I really like the drumming on the opening track, b..." [+] Reply

teague | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (5 helpful | 3 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

189 charts

Rank Score:

1,297

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,331

Average Rating:

80 (180 votes)

Comments:

10.

Hit Me Hard And Soft

Billie Eilish

"Billie Balearic Beat Yeah 've had varying responses to the Billie phenomenon, her first album was one of the first times listening to it I just felt old- what seemed to be heralded as this brilliant bit of noir pop I just saw a lot of teenage I-cracked-the-code posturing and the fact that the sou...""Billie Balearic Beat Yeah 've had varying responses to the Billie phenomenon, her first album was one of the first times listening to it I just felt old- what seemed to be heralded as this brilliant bit of noir pop I just saw a lot of teenage I-cracked-the-code posturing and the fact that the sound just felt far too much like nearly everybody who'd blasted out of the post Odd Future hype, though there were a couple of moments (especially "Bury a Friend" and "I Love You") that I could see some real talent and promise for the future. Then came the messy Pandemic release of "Happier than Ever", which I found far more interesting, not only in it's Kid-in-a-candy-store endless genre hopping but in that she was exploring some geniunely conflicted and difficult emotions that made the album feel more directly confessional, even if admittedely the throw-it-on-the-wall approach meant a good number of the songs didn't work (surprisingly the limpest ones were the more directly venomous kiss-offs) and didn't really cohere as an album despite the consistient overarching theme of the emotional torment of sudden fame. Now I can see why this album has gotten the positive acclaim it has, it's an incredibly lean release full of the kind of shimmering, attractive compositions that Billie and her longtime bro producer Finneas have mastered over the course of her career, and on the surface there is a feeling of more direct and less put-upon angsty singer-songwriter appeal to the overall songs & LP. But... uh... well I guess to go bit by bit: "Skinny" is a solid and incredibly succinct summination of her previous album, both the cost of fame and the invasive personal scrunity (particularly the crassest kind, especially on her own body or love life), if maybe a bit slight overall it still effectively lets the ink dry on the chapter to move forward. Now "Lunch" was oddly ballyhooed as something shocking and daring because of it's dip into direct Sapphic attraction, but uh, which current left-of-center girl singer DOESN't have a lesbian-crush song out there? It's as on-trend as it gets, which doesn't mean it isn't earnest and perhaps an FU to those Twitter weirdos who endlessly hounded her with Queerbaiting accusations, but I mean "Bad Guy" honestly was more risque than this. And mentioning that song of course highlights a major reason why I think a number will have a number of major "... that's it?" reactions to this song, since it has all the elements to be a major banger in theory, but it doesn't bang at all in practice. I think in many ways Billie's usual detached cool hampers this here as her voice should really morph into a more hormonal throttle, but I donno maybe it's some annoying & dated tricks (f*king hell those perfunctory hand-claps, giving late Aughties flashbacks). It's maybe disappointing that this is what's going to get the most attention when the following tracks are much stronger, a far better mix of the more spacious and fluid compositions anchored strongly in the nucleus by Billie's much more confident though still appealingly delicate husk of a voice. The only somewhat peculiar thing here is why the album went from talking about newfound infatuation to immediately pivoting towards breakup song after breakup song (or more so, Near-Breakup or Missed Ships in the Night songs), there seems to be a track or two that's lying somewhere on an editing room floor. Only by "The Greatest" am I starting to see some problem with the overall production, as the late additions of percussion and chopped-up distortion feel pounded flat into the composition when they should feel a lot more dynamic and intrusive. Then there's "L'amour de ma vie" which, no, the French title doesn't mean a damn thing, which ultimately is another Ironic not-in-love ballad with a decent but for Billie predictable punchline.... but then that's where the album gets really weird. And I Don't mean that in a good way. Cause just after the song seems to end it suddenly swerves instantly into this 2000s Ibiza-ready deafining Euro Club song though if it were thrown threw a Hyperpop cheese grater, which I admit for the first time I was actually taken aback and surprised when listening, but thematically and musically it has no connection to what came before or after and feels like the equivalent of mustard suddenly and needlessly squeezed onto a sundress. Though I'll take that over the next track, next to that one Micheal Scarn moment from When We All Fall Asleep as one of the only truly terrible tracks she's produced, a ridiciously cheesy electro beat with no humor or progression to make it feel Ironic or Campy or whatever the fuck. At first it was confounding, but when the next track rips-off her own Wish You Were Gay beat but without pithy lyrics or a discernible point at all, it came clearer but also... why? are you going back scrounging for Z-sides from your late 2010 days? After that bizzare extended interlude, the album does admirably close with a song that could've been a 120-minutes underground smash in the mid 90s, a dense, subtly swirling and smartly layered Electro-accented bit of 90s alt-rock that both lyrically and sonically actually closes the album pretty effectively, even if it's making me question why we needed that needless and jarring bit of leftovers thrown in as the penultimate track(s). So yeah that's kind of why I find this a mixed bag, less than being hit Hard and Soft on both sides it feels like an album that starts off on a steady Gallop but then kind of Waddles on the edges before gracefully crossing the finish Line. it's certaintly lovely to listen to despite some really questionable choices late in the run but it also has already felt less than meets-the-ear after giving it a couple of repeat listens, maybe her and Finneas's musical choices are starting to feel a bit too lameneted and "Safe Edgy", but also Billie seems to pick and choose when she wants to be more detailed and upfront with her lyrics to skewing a more dead-eyed Coyness and simply straining the emotional crux of the songs to feel more generalized and universal rather than directly personal. It's solid and I can see why some view it as her best, but I find it a slight step down from the previous release and it's following singles which just felt much more from-the-gut even if it led to messier results. Maybe this is just the start as many have already worked the theory this is just the beginning of several colour-coded releases, but for now I'll rate this as a (mostly) musically pleasing release that just feels a bit too tentative at key moments to take that next leap forward." [+] Reply

cestuneblague | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (5 helpful | 3 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

212 charts

Rank Score:

1,088

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,586

Average Rating: