See The FADER’s top 50 albums of 2024.
There is a great run of four songs in the middle of this list. It comprises a blissful track from Japanese experimentalist Hakushi Hasegawa, a burst of blown-out fury from OsamaSon, a breathtaking seven-minute Urdu-Hindi epic by Sheherazaad, and an inescapable pop smash from Sabrina Carpenter. It’s a neat encapsulation of this publication’s genre-blurring ethos, an idea established a quarter of a century ago and carried forward today by the sharpest group of music journalists out there. This list, like everything we’ve run this year, whiplashes between sounds and ideas and languages. It is chaotic, and we hope you love that as much as we do. — Alex Robert Ross
49. ANOHNI, “Breaking”
No one turns world crises into beautiful music like ANOHNI. On “Breaking,” she sings about the degradation of our natural world, acknowledging her complicity even as she documents her suffering. But it’s all rendered so sweetly, backed by soft guitar and clarinet, with ANOHNI’s voice as soothing as ever. On the chorus — “It’s really something to be breaking” — the pain that flows quietly through the rest of the song spills forth only to be swept away with the beginning of each new verse, like the gardens, the willow forests, and the white deer swiftly disappearing from the surface of the earth. — Raphael Helfand
48. Tems, “Love Me JeJe”
Originating from a freestyle session with friends, “Love Me Jeje” courses with tender desire. Interpolating Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 single of the same name, Tems builds on the familiarity of the old favorite to craft a romantic fantasia while playfully switching between a sung-rap flow and thrilling call-and-response schemes. The reference to Sodimu helped garner a multi-generational audience for the track, Tems’ careful reworking of the source material paying homage to the past while imagining a bold new future. It is a conscious embrace of light-heartedness and joy. — Wale Oloworekende
47. Tyla, “Jump”
Much of Tyla’s self-titled album is built around the supreme confidence that the singer has in herself, but the scope of that self-belief is rarely on display as clearly as it is on the sticky-sweet “Jump.” Here she’s in her element, abandoning the obfuscated allusions of 2023’s “Water” for a more pointed delivery. Over smoky drums, she sings about being appreciated across the world while Gunna contributes a verse about doing anything to please her. It’s a deft meld of styles and cultures that finds Tyla at her best and most confident. — WO
46. Oklou, “family and friends”
Who is the real Oklou? A doe-eyed cousin of Thumper the rabbit from Bambi, or the immense, all-knowing godhead who rules over Marylou Mayniel’s meticulous electro-pop compositions like little bubble universes? On “family and friends,” the oblique, often religious imagery of 2020’s sleeper-hit “Galore” remains, but more confessional details have started to creep in alongside her Eurodance synth melodies and almost pagan percussion. In presenting what seem to be cutting words from a scorned lover — “’Are you frozen? Are you even human? Are you even real?’” — Oklou gives up some infallibility, but brings us that much closer to her. — Walden Green
44. Molly Nilsson, “The Communist Party”
In an alternate universe, “The Communist Party” — Molly Nilsson’s communism-themed update of Madonna’s “Vogue” — came before Madge’s track, and the world became a better place. The writings of Marx and Engels became gospel for the young, gay fashion crowd, before trickling down into the mainstream and changing everyone’s lives for the better. Perhaps best of all, Nilsson became a star. That’s an alternate universe, though. All we have is this one — and here, we thank God we have her at all. — Shaad D’Souza
43. Young Jesus, “Brenda & Diane”
John Rossiter had decided to quit music after 2022’s Shepherd Head. He went off to study permaculture, as far away from the false glow of his computer as possible. Less than two years later, on the opening song from Young Jesus’ seventh album, The Fool, it’s clear that whatever fatigue Rossiter felt was overwhelmed by the fire in his stomach. “Brenda & Diane” is a glorious piece of heartland rock, empathetic and proud-chested. Rossiter augments his voice, finding an incandescent melodrama at the back of his throat. It’s the perfect vehicle for the short story he tells, and a testament to the healing power of the soil. — ARR
42. YT feat. Lancey Foux, “Black & Tan”
This year’s undisputed global anthem of the nu-jerk movement came from across the ocean with a searingly cool collaboration from London artists YT and Lancey Foux. It’s a feverish trading of Auto-Tuned bars with the pitch of two excited longtime friends at a much-anticipated reunion, as the beat rumbles like a Lear jet mid-turbulence. If flexing had a tag team world championship, YT and Lancey’s song would have earned the belt, its hilarious detail and seamless creative rhythms unrivaled in 2024 rap link-ups. — Jordan Darville
41. Porter Robinson, “Knock Yourself Out XD”
At what point does intense self-searching start to feel just like navelgazing? This seems to be one of the questions that Porter Robinson has been turning over in the wake of his 2021 album Nurture, which featured a number of sober meditations on life and the meaning of art, and whether it was even worth continuing to make music in a confusing world. (The answer he ultimately came to, of course, was a celebratory yes.) But how does one follow that? By poking fun at the very idea of such an enterprise. Lighthearted and prankish, Robinson’s third studio album Smile! 😀 is full of joyous abandon and first-thought-best-thought ethos that forced him not to take himself, or anything, so damn seriously. “Knock Yourself Out XD,” is perhaps the most direct about this changing disposition, delineating a number of grievances he has with the pressures of fame and the complicated pleasures of success, all while undercutting the idea that such things are worth writing a song about to begin with. Full of joyous confetti blasts of synth programming and an overall production aesthetic that feels like getting locked in a Zumiez overnight, it’s gleefully absurd and silly — almost as silly as the idea that touring around the world and playing songs as a job would be worth complaining about. He makes his stance clear on one of the record’s most memorably strange lines, “Bitch, I’m Taylor Swift!” simultaneously celebrating and mocking the unique position he’s in as a person making art that people care about. — Colin Joyce
39. Hakushi Hasegawa, “Boy’s Texture”
A master of contorting electronic music into disorienting and ravishing new forms, Hakushi Hasegawa creates music that’s a seven-fingered open-palm slap to some dimension of sensation you didn’t know existed. “Boy’s Texture” dials down the velocity ever so slightly, giving way to a new vulnerability within the frenzy. — JD
38. OsamaSon, “ik what you did last summer”
At his excessive best, OsamaSon distills the perpetual onslaught of modern life into hyperactive joy. “ik what you did last summer” is accordingly exuberant and accelerated, rifling through images just as quickly as the South Carolina rapper blows through fresh direct deposits. If the old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born, can we at least have some fun and look fly doing it? — VM
37. Sheherazaad, “Lehja”
Translated from Hindi and Urdu, Sheherazaad means “free city”; “Lehja,” the concluding track on her Arooj Aftab-produced Qasr EP, traces the heartbeat beneath this mythical place’s winding streets. For its seven minutes, “Lehja” is a subversion — of our linear notions of narrative, personifying a city as a singular repressed entity — and of the Hindustani classical music Sheherazaad studied. Listen closely and you’ll hear the steady rhythm of breathing, life itself moving with the song’s gentle currents. — JD
36. Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”
After years of living through a key change deficit, Sabrina Carpenter has single-handedly restored the candy-crazed pop economy. The first and second verses of “Please Please Please” are in two completely different keys, immediately shaking away any sense of complacency with a subtle disorientating trick that makes our ears twitch. She’s the popstar with the most élan today, never letting her songs fall into idleness and, with her knack for both genre reverence and expansion, never allowing her listener to take pop music for granted. — EM
34. Megan Thee Stallion, “Mamushi””
First, thank you, Megan Thee Stallion, for introducing the west to the Japanese heartthrob that is Yuki Chiba. His inclusion on “Mamushi” was a gamble, but that’s partly what makes the success of the song so refreshing. For Megan, who independently released not one but two blockbuster albums this year, 2024 was serious business: a reminder to the music world of her relentless pen, ability to carve disses like no one else, and desire to come out on top even when facing cabals of women-hating trolls. So “Mamushi” earning the internet’s gold star shows what she can achieve when she simply leans into her personality and sillier bar-writing, things that translate even when they’re in a different language. — SW
33. Pa Salieu, “Belly”
Fresh out of prison, Coventry’s Pa Salieu wasted no time reclaiming his place as U.K. Rap’s most inventive stylist with comeback single “Belly.” Over a lush Afrobeats riddim full of swung drums and digital flourishes, Salieu alternates between defiant raps and a silky sung hook where he waxes on how thankful he is for escaping the trap. That “Belly” is so plainly self-reflexive — a song about Salieu feeding his family after years of not being able to — only makes the track’s pop appeal more engaging, ensuring Belly stands head and shoulders above the average “first day out” effort. — Son Raw
32. Kiss Facility, “Plasma”
With 2023’s Esoteric EP, Mayah Alkhateri and Salvador Navarrete (a.k.a. Sega Bodega) gave dream pop new life; each of its five songs, built around vocal melodies pulled from Alkhateri’s Arabic heritage, sounded like something you’d hear on college radio in The Fifth Element. “Plasma,” their first single released this year, is lovesick club-pop. Its production approaches the dancefloor with a composer’s brain and a populist heart, while Alkhateri casts her voice across like silken veils falling from a great height. — JD
31. whait, “calm down”
Hearing more eaze and Wendy Eisenberg’s debut song as a duo is like listening in on a hushed conversation between two of the most inventive voices in Brooklyn’s expansive experimental music scene. Here, their mutual adoration for ambient noise is lovingly relegated to a deeply textured backdrop in service of a perfect pop song. Above watery drums, interweaving acoustic and pedal steel guitars, and a barely present bass — all engineered to make you follow the track’s titular command — Eisenberg spins a web of bedtime fairytales, stories within stories within stories. — RH
29. Realyungphil feat. MIKE, “No Amends”
RealYungPhil isn’t exactly a “forgive and forget” type of guy. Trading verses over a crystalline WTFOMARI! beat, Phil perfectly embodies detached contempt before MIKE glides through a potentially scene-stealing 16, grinning all the while. Still, the highlight is RealYungPhil’s dense, derisive verse, so nice he spits it twice: “I can see through these n***as like a lens / Fool me once, you won’t do it again.” — VM
28. Quiet Light, “Used To Be Your Angel”
Stare closely enough into your tear-stained pillow and patterns emerge. The islands of damp form a map, not of a way out of your heartbreak, but of the despairing new context that’s come to define your life. Riya Mahesh’s Quiet Light project thrives on reconfiguration — in the case of “Used To Be Your Angel,” piercing poetry with the grace of Joni Mitchell is beamed through the prism of Arthur Russell’s avant-garde sound systems. The song traces the contours of young heartbreak with the tenderness and rumination of receiving a “just saying hey” text, right when you needed it the least. — JD
27. Fatboi Sharif & Roper Williams, “Something About Shirley”
“Something About Shirley” is difficult to define. Nominally part of the canon of art about damsels in distress, it’s neither Cassavettes’ A Woman Under the Influence nor Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, though there’s something of each in the mix. As Fatboi Sharif unwinds rhymes referencing Bob Dylan, Heaven’s Gate, and Sun Ra opening for Satan at Bowery Ballroom, Roper Williams weaves even denser beats, shifting between stark backing beats and pure noise when the flow stops. It’s never entirely clear what it is about its titular character that makes her worthy of such an ambitious tribute, but the mystery is enough. — RH
26. Chanel Beads, “Idea June”
For better or worse, 2024 was the year we started taking the Dimes Square thing seriously. We got Honor Levy’s My First Book, Charli XCX singing about Dasha Nekrasova, and Ivy Wolk in Anora — each with their own attendant (and exhausting) discourse mills. But it would be a shame to let Chanel Beads get lost in the noise, especially the heart-rendingly gorgeous “Idea June,” a string-and-guitar ballad that channels the impossibility of perfect communication — in music or in love — by sounding as though transmitted across a frosty pane of glass. Be sure to listen to the extended and more essential music video cut, as opposed to the version on streaming services. — Walden Green
24. Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe”
“Good Luck Babe,” arguably Chappell Roan’s breakout hit, trades bombastic maximalism for synthy baroque pop to tell the tale of a former lover who is imprisoned by her choice to participate in compulsory heterosexuality. Calling her no more than “his wife,” Roan chides her ex-flame of being in denial of her true feelings for not only Chappell, but her queerness: “You can say it’s just the way you are / Make a new excuse, another stupid reason,” she sings with biting scorn and elegant derision. “Good Luck, Babe,” is much bigger than a catchy phrase. It’s a cautionary tale of regret, loss, and disaffection. — CS
23. Clairo, “Sexy To Someone”
Power and success are desirable, sure, but Clairo nailed it this year when she acknowledged that most people would settle for knowing that somebody thinks they’re hot. “Sexy to someone is all I really want,” she sings over a dusty vintage organ, “I need a reason to get out of the house.” Think of it as a PSA to get out from under the bed sheets, put down the phone, and see who is waiting for you on the other side. — DR
22. Dehd, “Mood Ring”
Emily Kempf’s voice is an instrument all on its own, an extraordinary tool the Dehd lead singer uses fluidly and strikingly to add even more life and texture to her band’s music. Dehd thrive on the intricacies of contradicting instrumentals, harmonies, and counter-melodies. And “Mood Ring,” a sultry, seductive cut from the Chicago trio’s latest album Poetry, is all melodic vocal interplay between her and bandmate Jason Balla, pulsating bass, and sparse guitars; it’s an obscenely catchy declaration of love about the very act of love itself. — CS
21. Jade, “Angel Of My Dreams”
“Angel Of My Dreams” blends ‘60s Eurovision, ‘90s Clubland Classix, power ballad vocals, and Drag Race rapping to convey dismay at working in an industry that turns passion into a product. The first solo release from the Little Mix member, the track takes on the pop machine while establishing her own voice. It’s a stunning coming-out party filled with all of the joy and rage that comes with the freedom of no longer being told what to do. — DR