1. Charli XCX: Brat
It is the best album of 2024 by acclamation: no other album leads more end-of-year lists among US and UK media. Bravo to the veteran British artist, reigning in a year where American female pop soloists have dominated the charts: Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Gracie Adams, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and of course, Beyoncé. What sets Charli XCX apart from them? It could be called boldness, or cheekiness, or malice, and of course, the innovation that ensures a British commercial production, always much more advanced and modern than American production, more willing to take risks with decisions. These lively and shameless songs, closer to electro than hyperpop, bring together all the attributes expected from a pop hit in 2024: unfiltered sincerity, lack of complexes, a desire for fun, a strongly personal point of view, authenticity, empathy, vulnerability, and not being afraid to make mistakes. Brat is not just an album, it's a phenomenon, a way of life.
2. Fontaines D.C.: Romance
The Irish quintet has confirmed with their fourth album as the great guitar rock group of our time. With the fabulous James Ford as producer, they have followed the path of Arctic Monkeys in transcending a dazzling youthful debut to achieve their own charismatic style; for this, they have abandoned the conventions of their original musical genre, post-punk, and have taken risks in mysterious songs, built on unexpected decisions and twists. The unsettling and sharp tension of these lyrically literary songs, inspired by beatnik writers, serves as a mirror of an unstable world dominated by uncertainty: like the soundtrack of current cities. A triumph.
3. Álvaro Díaz: Sayonara
The veteran Puerto Rican singer and producer has defined better than anyone else the present and immediate future of urban Latin music with this shining album: sharp in lyrics without holding back and daring more and better in the music, combining genres with a very modern mindset and an evident desire to surprise. In a blend of electronic, reggaeton, rap, and pop, a long cycle of songs bubbles up that can be enjoyed separately but gain much more resonance as a whole. The Latin album of the year.
4. Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter
It has memorable moments and a very well-developed and expressed concept, rewriting the cultural and musical history of the US by giving more value to the contributions of black artists; furthermore, some of its songs are among the best ever recorded (Ya ya, Daughter, Texas Hold'Em...). Only its very long duration (almost 80 minutes) and its excessive ambition can cause a certain feeling of dizziness due to the proportions of this gigantic album. The solution is simple: in case of saturation, the album can be listened to in several sessions. But, for the love of God, listen to it in its entirety. A lot.
5. Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us
Speaking of rewriting history: someday Vampire Weekend will receive all the credit they deserve as one of the great pop-rock bands of the last decade, creators of cathedral-like albums, so complex and rich. Ezra Koenig's fifth album has once again hit all the targets: compositions, performances, arrangements, production, and sound design are a wonderful Fabergé egg where it is impossible to find a flaw.
6. Laura Marling: Patterns in Repeat
It has been a great year for singer-songwriters, especially female ones, thanks to albums like those of Laura Marling, Clairo, Jessica Pratt, Waxahatchee, or the more experimental ones by Beth Gibbons and Astrid Sonne. Marling composed this eighth album of her career after becoming a mother for the first time, an experience implicitly or explicitly present in these songs to be listened to with headphones. Her lyrics are complex, deep, and exciting (Marling is a psychoanalyst), and her melodies flow sweetly among discreet orchestral arrangements. Wonderful.
7. Kendrick Lamar: GNX
The world's best rapper, a serious contender for the greatest rapper in history, has completely changed his style and returned to hard-hitting rap after the elaborate Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (2022). The very raw GNX and, no less important, his series of songs against Drake with Not Like Us at the forefront, have overwhelmingly captured the attention of the global hip-hop scene. Nothing seems to overshadow this lyrical genius who writes and performs with unmatched versatility and power. He has been the rap king for a decade and continues to prove it.
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Wild God
No one in the world writes rock lyrics today with the depth and nuances of Nick Cave. This should not surprise anyone. He has been a fabulous lyricist who reached his creative maturity 30 years ago, a demanding and hardworking man dedicated to the architecture of his compositions. But it is even more fabulous that in his fifth decade of creation, he is offering pieces as beautiful and moving as those contained in his eighteenth album with the Bad Seeds, a work revolving around the accidental death of his son (nine years ago) with an overarching concept: happiness.
9. Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso: Baño María
Just when the decline of Argentine rap and trap was being announced, the incomparable Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso came into our lives to challenge all conventions and preconceived ideas about both. Influenced by the softest funk and velvet house, their songs drip with lust and filth. They are hot, they are charming, they are addictive, they are mischievous, they are eccentric, and you just want to sing them over and over again.
10. Jack White: No Name
The latest album from White Stripes, Icky Thump, the least White Stripes-like of the six albums released by the duo, came out in 2007. So suddenly, when no one really expected it anymore, after almost 20 years, Jack White has returned to make (finally) an album that he could have easily released under the name of his first and great group. It's that angular and raw garage rock, grandiose yet homely, as powerful as it is sexy, as dizzying and pulsating, filled with memorable guitar figures in songs performed from the gut but structurally supported on all fours. Fantastic.