My 20 Favorite Albums of 2024

 

A thing that's always been a source of pride for me is that I still haven't reached a point where my music taste has calcified, where I stop being curious and only stick with artists I already like.  Even though I ask myself more and more whether I'm becoming washed -- particularly when Pitchfork drops a new best-of list and it's filled with rap picks I find borderline unlistenable -- the thrill of discovery is still too powerful to ever want to retreat from it just because I sometimes stumble upon things I don't understand.  So even though I'm an aging indie kid who continues to check out new Decemberists albums (don't laugh, this latest one was pretty solid!), I remain intrigued by the idea that my new favorite band could be right around the corner.

2024 was a year where I felt more open than I've ever been.  I attribute that to new friendships with music lovers who have slightly different wheelhouses than I do and being inspired to meet them where they're at.  It might not be fully reflected in my list of favorites below, but I tried a wide range of music this year and it was very nourishing.  Below is a mix of old and new loves, but all of them made 2024 better.  Enjoy!

The rules: The window of eligibility for this list is anything released from January 1, 2024 to now.  This list can include albums, mixtapes, EPs, and anything in between.

My 50 Favorite Albums of the Decade: 2010-2019

Part of the joy of being one man with a blog and not an important publication is that I don't feel any pressure to make an albums list that contextualizes the decade.  Nobody's reading this, so I don't need to fit anything in because it's "important" or "groundbreaking."  No, this list is only concerned with what "slaps" and "goes hard."  The real criteria was slightly more complicated, but only slightly.  In choosing my favorite albums of the decade, I thought about the records that meant the most to me at the time they came out, but often an album can seem great in the year of its release and then you never return to it.  So I also made sure to give credit to the albums that I returned to most often and the ones that still held up when I did my relistening throughout this year in preparation for this list.

They say that the music somebody listens to in their adolescence is the era that resonates the most with them and for me that's true, because if I had to choose, I'd probably say I enjoyed the music of the 2000s more than I enjoyed what the 2010s had to offer.  But that's not to say I didn't think this was a good music decade.  You could stretch the list you're about to read out to 100 picks and it would still include albums I love.  The early part of the decade saw the bombast of the 2000s give way to sleeker, more electronic based sounds, which led many writers to declare that rock music was dead. But really, it was just that great rock music was coming from different places.  Particularly in the last half of the 2010s, there was a boom of women making excellent DIY, punk, and music indebted to 90s alt-rock.  Meanwhile, as rap became the dominant force in our culture, and pop continued to be embraced more as a genre worthy of serious consideration, both scenes gave us terrific examples of the form.  Music was thriving all around, and it's ultimately a good thing that the wealth is being spread and not coming from the traditional modes of yore.

So let's celebrate all the 2010s had to offer...

The rules: In order to maximize the amount of variety on this list and ensure that certain artists don't clog it up, I've limited myself to one album per act.  If a certain artist made albums under two different projects -- like Julian Casablancas with The Strokes and The Voidz, for example -- they would both be eligible.  For my yearly lists, I usually consider EPs, but for this decade list I didn't really include EPs into consideration.  There is one exception, but that EP feels so massive and made such a splash that it's basically an album.  And in this day and age, a mixtape is the same thing as an album so naturally those are included.  Other than that, the window of eligibility includes anything released between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019.

My 20 Favorite Albums of 2013

Earlier this year, I wrote about how 2013 was the year of the event album, in that we saw the return of many artists who had been inactive for a long time (My Bloody Valentine, Mazzy Star, Justin Timberlake, Boards of Canada, Daft Punk) and new releases from blockbuster artists (Kanye West, Vampire Weekend).  Elsewhere, music critics wondered whether we were seeing the end of guitar rock in an increasingly synth-based world.  Additionally, I saw many thinkpieces this year about the "Emo Revival," a resurgence of bands making quality emo music (I'll just have to take their word for it).  2013 wasn't a year where you could pin down one overarching narrative; instead, there were many narratives happening at once.  It was the year that indie went pop (Haim, Chvrches), pop went indie (Sky Ferreira, Charli XCX), rap continued to make its steps into a new golden age, etc.

I've often said that I don't consider any year to be a "bad" year for music, but 2013 seemed to be a particularly good one.  Expand my list to a top 30 instead of 20 and every album would still be something I consider great.  I don't know whether it's about a true uptick in quality or an expansion of my tastes, but this was the year where it finally felt like there was too music.  Almost every week had a release I wanted to listen to, and there were some albums that could've been top 20 contenders (Janelle Monae, Blood Orange, Sky Ferreira, Beyonce) but I didn't have the time to give them more than a few listens.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my list.  I had a tough time figuring out the order -- my #1 and 2 were pretty locked in for most of the year, but after that it's much more of a grab bag -- and these last few weeks have been time for me to relisten to albums and manically switch placements around.  One thing I would've liked is for a little more diversity.  There are more pop and rap releases than there were in previous years (perhaps indie rock IS dying!!!), but these are all albums that you'll see on basically any other Best of the Year list.  Looking for an interesting list?  Well look elsewhere, because this isn't it!  Okay, now on to the actual list (with links included for the highlight songs if there's a Youtube video for it)...

Camera Obscura's "Desire Lines" is Here, Everybody Else Go Home

Recently, Grantland's Steven Hyden wrote an article about lead singers, incorporating the site's incessant need to analyze pop culture through power rankings in order to rank various lead singers in active bands.  I don't have the time or desire to dissect the arbitrary criteria of that article, but if there's a conversation about the best lead singers in the business, then Camera Obscura's Tracyanne Campbell deserves to be in the discussion.  There's a reason why she's the focus of almost every one of the band's pictures, because it's easy to associate Camera Obscura's wistful aesthetic with its blue-eyed and glum lead singer.

Since John Henderson's departure from the band after their second album, Underachievers Please Try Harder, Campbell has taken on full vocal and lyrical duties and the band definitely feels like it has more of a singular vision.  She may have an outwardly meek presence, but her vocals are magnetic and the songs on Desire Lines, the band's fifth album, coil around each of her carefully phrased sentences.  Campbell has the uncanny ability of knowing when to elongate a word or add extra emotion to a certain syllable.  In lieu of a review, I could almost just sit you down and force you to listen to the album, interrupting every few lines to say "I mean are you kidding me?!" after every interesting line delivery.  From the aching "Oh I could bottle up this love" on the title track, the dip in the second verse of "I Missed Your Party," and the way she breathlessly crams extra words into the end of the chorus on "Every Weekday," each vocal flourish keeps the listener and the songs on their feet.  It's these choices that elevate her past the rest of the crop of indie pop vocalists.  While it may be clean, simple and sweet, Tracyanne Campbell's voice manages to display a complex emotional range.

Lyrically, Campbell has always been quite underrated as well.  Each song has a nostalgic internalized feel to them, simultaneously reminding you of your warmest comforts and greatest pains.  Camera Obscura albums have always been full of heartbreak, so perhaps that's why Campbell sings about love with a hardened guardedness ("I've been cool with you...", Campbell admits on "New Year's Resolution").  Underneath that shell, though, lies the beating heart of a romantic.  "This is Love (Feels Alright)," "Every Weekday," and "Desire Lines" are all about cracking the ice and wholeheartedly embracing the warmth of love.  Some songs also have the band's signature sarcastic wit, like "I Missed Your Party," which sounds like a begrudging apology.  Desire Lines features many shades of emotion, and they all bleed with the same intensity.  As introspective as her lyrics may be, Tracyanne Campbell has always shown keen perceptiveness towards others, and the swooning slab of melancholy on "William's Heart" makes it one of the stronger songs on the album.

Campbell may get the most attention, but the rest of the members of the band are no slouches either, and they're as strong as ever on Desire Lines.  Even back in their breezier Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi days, they were always a band that kept things pretty tight, but their bigger sound emphasizes their dynamics even more.  They don't get enough credit for the way their clean and inventive guitar textures, buoyant synths, and stable low-end seem to smear together and sound just right.  Desire Lines is not as much of a leap forward as the wall of sound introduced on Let's Get Out of This Country or the cinematic pop of My Maudlin Career, but the band still finds some ways stretch their limbs.  Many of the strongest songs come from them tossing something new into the equation, from the Caribbean bop of "Every Weekday" to the full-on cabaret horns on "I Missed Your Party."  "Do It Again" even introduces a bit of disco and pulls it off successfully.  The more familiar songs are just as good too.  "New Year's Resolution," with its bright guitar squeal and cooing chorus, sounds like vintage Camera Obscura, but even more expansive.  Slow songs are still a strong point for the band -- when given the chance to breathe, they sigh accordingly, like on the torch song "This is Love (Feels Alright)."  Not to mention the veritably named "Cri Du Couer," which is a literal cry of passion with its swirling chorus, moody atmospheric synths, and loping rhythm.

Whenever Camera Obscura releases an album, it usually gets good reviews, but they're never glowing.  You certainly won't see them on many end of the year lists when December rolls around either.  It seems as if they're forever going to be that band that's being overlooked and underrated.  That's quite a shame too, because they've been making music for over a decade now and haven't had a single misstep.  After that long of a time together, many bands spoil like milk, but Camera Obscura have only gotten finer with age, like wine. This may be the best effort from a band who's already produced some of my favorite albums of all time.  It's rare that I'll listen to an album more than once a day, but I found myself dropping other things just to listen to this again.  Although the year may only be halfway over, I doubt that any album will come along and be as wonderful and delightful as Desire Lines is.