2024 saw a changing of the guard at the top of the pop sphere. Mainstays like Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, and Billie Eilish released projects to mixed results, while stars simmering at the level below in Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter stunned the world with their releases. Gracie Abrams and Chappell Roan surged up the power rankings—the latter with her 2023 release The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and 2024 single “Good Luck, Babe!”.
It was also a year when country continued to rise in popular music. Post Malone and Shaboozey ventured into the country frontier—the former doing what he alluded to for a while, and the latter held a vice grip with an inescapable bar song (pun intended). How can we not talk about Beyoncé? It only made sense the pop legend dove into her Southern roots and brought country music to an entirely new audience.
Nestled in the forest of projects from country music big names were fresh faces across a variety of country styles. A new breed of singer-songwriter male country singers were introduced to the world like Evan Honer, Sam Barber, and Dylan Gossett. And, promising mainstream stars were born like Ella Langley, Megan Moroney, and Zach Top.
Mainstream hip hop continued to regress to the backseat with how fractured the genre has become, though Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator put out respectable projects. Oh, and Drake released 100GB of music for some reason.
As there is every year, there was a lot of music to sift through, but here are my 10 favourite albums of 2024.
Honourable Mentions
- Purple Gas – Noeline Hofmann
- Verbathim – Nemahsis
- Manning Fireworks – MJ Lenderman
- GNX – Kendrick Lamar
- Whirlwind – Lainey Wilson
- The Secret of Us – Gracie Abrams
10. hungover – Ella Langley
SAWGOD/Columbia
August 2
Country
Fiery, fierce, and ferocious. That’s what Ella Langley’s hungover is, just like the hangover she sings about in the title track. Ella’s debut is mostly a sad one, but she fights through blues, heartbreak, and betrayal with a “fuck you” fire that is captivating.
This album is a very classic country album. Ella is at the bar. She drank too much. She met a man that wasn’t good for her. She smoked too many cigarettes. It’s a story far from unfamiliar to country music, but it’s always refreshing to hear it from a woman in country. The recurring themes are done well enough that they are just shy of being boring when you hear it for the sixth time. It’s easy to see why “You Look Like You Love Me” was as popular as it was in 2024. It’s just a good ol’ country duet about two people at a bar wooing each other. Hot take though, it’s far from the best song on the record…
The upbeat country rock tracks are belters and filled with irresistible hooks, but the quieter moments on the album are where Ella Langley truly works for her pay. The ending track “broken in – acoustic” features Ella’s best vocal performance on the album. The combination of her sweet timbre, Alabama twang, and slight vocal fry make for a beautiful vocal performance over a simple acoustic guitar that allows her to thrive. The fun songs are great and undeniable, but the slower, down tempo space is where I want to see Ella explore more.
Favourite Track: nicotine
9. Leon – Leon Bridges
Columbia
October 4
Neo Soul
Leon Bridges’ most personal album is also his most inventive album. Leon has continuously evolved his sound over his career. Starting with Motown on Coming Home, to R&B on Good Thing, then to neo-soul on Gold-Diggers Sound. On Leon, the shapeshifter hailing from Fort Worth, Texas blends the sonic themes of his last two albums with an idiosyncratic flavour from the South Texas area he grew up in. There are elements of Regional Mexican, Texas country, and the ever present blues undertones on Leon.
Leon Bridges made a point to embed his upbringing into his fourth album, and not only is it present in the production, but it’s even more present in his songwriting. He sings of memories from his childhood and paints vistas of “Panther City”. The strongest songs on this album are the ones that are about Leon himself. The personality he brings to them makes them unique. The tracks about love and other common pop themes are good, but with a much lower ceiling. This is a trend in Leon’s discography. He’s always shone in his most personal songs, while riding the waves, or sometimes even floundering, in the more generic songs as he navigates various styles that his smooth vocals could adapt to. So, this is not a new idea for Leon Bridges, but there are simply the largest quantity of self-reflective songs on his self-titled album—and those quiet moments of contemplation are when he is at his best.
Favourite Track: Laredo
8. Dunya – Mustafa
Jagjaguwar
September 27
Folk
Mustafa continues to be a powerful and moving songwriter. Following his debut EP When Smoke Rises, the Toronto folk singer-songwriter has wowed again with his debut studio album Dunya.
It seems like Mustafa has been around for a long time—especially if you’re familiar with the local Toronto hip hop scene—but his first record “Stay Alive” only came out in 2020. Really, it’s a career that’s been methodically planned out and not rushed. Mustafa is a multi-hyphenate. Along with being a singer, he’s also a poet, a songwriter for other artists, a filmmaker, and humanitarian advocate. Recording and releasing music is only one part of his career.
This slow process has ultimately benefited Mustafa. Over the years, he’s generated a CV and garnered enough equity in the music industry to pull talent together for his debut studio album. To help him form his beautiful songwriting into a full work of art, he has employed talent like Aaron Dessner, Daniel Caesar, Clairo, and ROSALÍA to write and produce Dunya. The quality of craftsmanship on this record is tangible.
Mustafa has been very savvy with his career so far. It’s paid off with When Smoke Rises, it’s paid off with Dunya, and it’ll surely pay off with what’s next for him.
Favourite Track: SNL
7. Welcome To The Plains – Wyatt Flores
Island Records
October 18
Country
Oklahoma’s new country son, Wyatt Flores, is making a splash in the scene. The Stillwater native’s debut studio album is a driving country rock record stained in red dirt. The songwriting on Welcome To The Plains is precise and personal, and you’re convinced by every lyric Wyatt sings in his Okie twang.
Wyatt’s first full-length project is certainly a hard pivot away from the more folky singer-songwriter sound of his prior three EPs. I’m not fully convinced of this move, and there’s a sense it’s the direction the label wants, but it has been executed to a fairly high degree. None of these songs touch “Milwaukee”, “Astronaut”, or Wyatt’s cover of The Fray’s “How To Save a Life”. At the same time, they are touching new territory for Wyatt and it’ll be interesting to see how he navigates the balance going forward.
Favourite Track: Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight
6. Two Star & The Dream Police – Mk.gee
R&R
February 9
Bedroom pop
Gen Z, can I interest you in Phil Collins or The Police? I jest. Mk.gee is breathing a breath of fresh air into guitar-based music. I’ve loosely classified it as bedroom pop, and even for a very lo-fi, often self-made genre of music, Two Star & The Dream Police feels new.
The essence of what’s exciting about Mk.gee’s debut album is how he makes things that sound wrong or off into songs that come together really well. If you broke down the songs into their building blocks, you’d think sounds and pieces had too much reverb or not enough clarity. As a whole, however, the songs work. Mk.gee has a way with his guitar and production that makes wrong things right, and it’s incredible.
Favourite Track: I Want
5. Am I Okay? – Megan Moroney
Sony Music
July 12
Country
Megan Moroney’s sophomore album is blue as the artwork suggests, but it’s a vibrant and shining hue of blue. Am I Okay? is filled with sadness and heartbreak, but is balanced by many moments of fun and exuberance.
The sad songs are beautifully heart-wrenching. Megan’s vocal fry accentuates the pain in these songs—as if she’s so tired from love that she can’t push her voice on these songs. The upbeat songs are foot stomping and rocking. They’re full of metaphors and humour, and you can feel the fun Megan has on these anthemic country belters. The album starts with the title track that you can imagine screaming at the top of your lungs with your friends at a party or concert.
In an era of country music when many artists are leaning towards singer-songwriter music and “alt-country”, Megan Moroney is embracing the traditional Nashville machine. Neither route is intrinsically bad, but it’s exciting to see it executed so well in an evolving country industry. With the rising popularity of your Zach Bryan’s, Sam Barber’s, and Noeline Hofmann’s, it’s interesting to see Megan take the opposite route. She’s found what makes her successful and has formed an effective writing partnership with Mackenzie Carpenter, who wrote some of her biggest songs (and also Lily Rose’s “Villain” from The Idol), and Grammy winner Jesse Jo Dillon (“Am I Okay?”, “No Caller ID”, “Noah”, “Heaven by Noon”, “Girl in the Mirror”).
Am I Okay? isn’t as exciting as Megan’s debut Lucky, but it doesn’t need to establish Megan as an artist. Instead, it cements her as a pop country mainstay. It seems that Megan Moroney is here to stay and will be spearheading the next wave of big tent pop country music. With Am I Okay?, Megan Moroney is pop country’s newest it girl.
Favourite Track: I Know You
4. The Great American Bar Scene – Zach Bryan
Belting Bronco Records/Warner Records
July 4
Alt-Country
Zach Bryan continues his industrious run with The Great American Bar Scene—his third album in as many years. The Oklahoman alt-country singer-songwriter continues to be a sad boy, but man is he good at it.
The Great American Bar Scene feels like a companion piece to 2023’s self-titled album. If the self-titled album was Zach’s Nebraska, then this is his Born in the U.S.A. Zach continues to write beautiful songs about grief, sadness, and pain, but this time it’s over livelier tracks that contrast with the themes and lyrics—much like Born in the U.S.A. two years after Nebraska. Zach’s adoration of and inspiration from Bruce Springsteen is clear and even self-declared. It’s not any more evident than on “Sandpaper” which actually features Bruce… and sounds a lot like “I’m on Fire”.
The release times of the self-titled album and The Great American Bar Scene are both very apt. The slower, more mellow self-titled album was fit for a late Summer release. A precursor to the dawn of Summer and the break of the chilly, sad Fall. The Great American Bar Scene was released on the 4th of July and is very much a Summer album. It’s upbeat, bright, and something you’d want to put on with friends in the hot Summer sun or the cool Summer night.
The Great American Bar Scene isn’t as tight as the self-titled album. It feels a lot more bloated than the extra three tracks over the last album would suggest. But, there aren’t any “bad” songs, and a little overindulgence is fine for the Summer.
Zach Bryan doesn’t seem to be slowing down despite what he’s suggested on social media, but he doesn’t have a huge reason to if he stays as consistent as he’s been all these years.
Favourite Track: 28
3. Short n’ Sweet – Sabrina Carpenter
Island Records
August 23
Pop
Sabrina Carpenter is unabashedly in her pocket on Short n’ Sweet. It’s weird to think this is Sabrina’s SIXTH album considering her age and seemingly freshness to the pop sphere. On this record, she’s finally found her footing as a top pop girlie.
In a year when other big tent pop artists had contentious or lacklustre releases, Sabrina shone with Short n’ Sweet, while the others faded and receded slightly. This record doesn’t reinvent the wheel for a pop album. Frankly, a lot of it sounds on the surface like her contemporaries Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift, or Ariana Grade, but it’s Sabrina’s shamelessness that elevates the familiar pop production.
Sabrina calls it as it is. Whether it’s sex, toxicity, love, or embarrassment, she sings about things some would consider taboo in pop music with a confidence that other artists can’t fathom to. She sings about horniness the way other pop artists sing about a love letter.
There are sparks of earworm catchiness on the singles that entranced the world all year. “Espresso” makes little sense—the caffeine metaphor is slow to build, and quick to disappear—and yet it’s the biggest bop of the year. “Please Please Please” isn’t conventionally very good, but everyone can relate to not wanting to be embarrassed by a partner. “Taste” and “Bed Chem” are derivative of pop of years past, but their later single releases injected more Sabrina into our brains in the second half of the year.
Sabrina Carpenter found her place in the pop landscape and it’s paying dividends for her (and us), and it’s quite evident a lot of people are along for the ride.
Favourite Track: Juno
2. Tigers Blood – Waxahatchee
Anti-
March 22
Indie
2024 was the beginning of this trend of artists exploring the re-emerging popular country genre. For most artists, it was a hard pivot for their sound, but it’s much more seamless for indie rock mainstay Waxahatchee. While Tigers Blood isn’t a true blue country record, there are sonic notes of it, but more importantly the atmosphere it creates is very country. Beyond the banjos and country style guitars, Katie Crutchfield creates a feeling of a Southern field at dusk on her sixth album.
Already a strong songwriter, Tigers Blood features Katie’s best song writing of her career. The concluding trio of tracks (“365”, “The Wolves”, “Tigers Blood”) are incredibly earnest and beautiful. The simplicity of this record allows Katie’s words to flourish and stand out. She hits falsettos here and there, and MJ Lenderman’s guitar flows throughout the record, but ultimately Katie excels in the simplicity.
Tigers Blood is my favourite indie record of the year and her show at Massey Hall was one of my favourite concerts of the year. It was incredible to hear “Right Back to It” for the first time. It was incredible to hear it live. It’s still incredible when I hear it now.
How does Katie follow up such an acclaimed album like Saint Cloud? With the best songwriting she’s ever done on Tigers Blood.
Favourite Track: Right Back to It
1. BRAT – Charli XCX
Atlantic
June 7
Pop
Pop’s biggest album in 2024 was also my favourite album of the year. Welcome to the upper echelon, Charli! With BRAT, Charli XCX has shot herself to the top of the pop world.
It was hard to fathom how much of a phenomenon BRAT would become when Charli announced the album in February. Sure, upon the release of “Von dutch” the next day, I personally thought it’d be a banging album. If “Von dutch” was an indicator of the direction the album was going in, then we’d be getting a hair flipping, head flailing, ass shaking, Summer dance album. BRAT would be something for the Charli stans and could even slide into the dance music ecosystem.
BRAT lived up to those expectations and shot past them by lightyears. On a macro level, it became the biggest pop sensation of 2024. On a micro level, it was a fascinating examination of Charli and her team’s exploration of 2000s British dance music and their extrapolation of that sound into modern day.
In an era of extremely focused and shiny pop—like your Dua Lipas and Tate McRaes)—and singer-songwriter music ported onto pop production—like your Taylor Swifts and Gracie Abrams—Charli brought something new to the table. The success of BRAT was much due to its virality, especially on TikTok. The catchy hooks and pulsing beats were perfect for TikTok. We even got a viral dance that spread to mainstream media. Then, BRAT stayed in the pop consciousness when Charli released the deluxe version, and subsequently the remixes album. A page out of Taylor’s book—the irony!
A greater irony is the moment Charli is in now in her career. After releasing her most “pop” (with air quotes) project, Crash, in 2022, her direction was a bit blurry. Crash didn’t work for most people, and it didn’t seem like Charli enjoyed making the type of music that other huge pop artists were making. Crash was supposed to catapult Charli to the top because it was a safe formula that worked for other big pop stars, and yet it stagnated her. Furthermore, this didn’t seem like what Charli wanted at all and this was just label strategy.
What did shoot her to the top was this widely unfamiliar glitchy dance project that was crass and sexy, but also introspective. Charli is now grappling with this new level of fame that she isn’t sure how to feel about that came with a pop album that was never supposed to be for the masses.
BRAT has boundless energy like a club bender. It’s fun, it’s catchy, and it’s innovative. It’s everything pop should be, but in a different mold. This album is so exciting because it wasn’t supposed to work, and yet it did tenfold. BRAT was my favourite album of 2024. BRAT is brat.
Favourite Track: Von dutch
Happy listening in 2025!
Listen to my favourite tracks from these albums on Spotify!
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