10 Cool Records I Liked of 2024
As we near the end of the Gregorian calendar year, I figured I would share 10 records I enjoyed listening to throughout the year. True to my seemingly random and perhaps un/non-curated interests with respect to genres, these 10 records released this year don’t necessarily share a common thread per se, sans the obvious of me enjoying them. Irrespective to what is or isn’t happening in the world, 2024 seemed like a good year for pop music, at-least for my ears.
I think one of the most interesting, even beautiful things about finding a music artist is (how, for me anyways) this forever continuum of word-of-mouthing for which one learns of someone through someone else; or, to say it not as so much of a tautological-meandering way, I think that even in the year of 2024, word of mouth recommendations are, anecdotally, the way I still typically find new music. Whether it be a notification on an app, played on a playlist or radio, the way I find new music (or, how it finds me) is the subject of something I think is a different conversation altogether. Regardless in any case, here’s just some of the many delectable ear candies I’ve been delighted to listen to throughout this year, in no particular order:
#1. GNX - Kendrick Lamar
“Wow,” is pretty much what I’d use to summate this record into one word. There is a lot happening here, a lot of pretext, history, multi-faceted commentary, emotion, wordplay, stellar production, etc. I had the pleasure of listening to this on a short road trip the day it was released and I quite literally yelled when I heard reincarnated—a track I feel that is meta-textual with its subject matter of addiction, personally overcoming said experience, finding relationality by exploring past avatars who were trendsetters, as well as Kendrick saying in a sense that he himself is the next Tupac Shakur (no doubt sampling Pac’s Made Niggaz as a way of not-so-discretely codifying this). Then there’s man at the garden, a raw, explorative, vulnerable song that comes off more as a journal entry than something for us to hear. Honestly, I could go on and on about it, but this might be my favorite record of the year, an album that easily plays from beginning to end without any filler. Amazing.
#2. Underdressed at the Symphony - Faye Webster
Oh, man…this record feels like autumn to me. As a really big fan of Faye and her 2021 brilliant I Know I’m Funny haha, 2024’s Underdressed at the Symphony continues what I’d say is her brand of sound: a somewhat somber, post-surf rock infused, indie-folk-electric suffusion of mellow-shoe-gaze meets Mac Demarco-esque sublimation that both manages to transcend yet exorcise this universal/relatable earnest-vulnerability into the epitome of not-giving-a-fuck coolness (…if that makes any sense, whatsoever). I love her music and I find so much identification between the instrumentation, arrangements, lyrics and sound as in the short, bittersweet saying-a-lot-by-not-saying-too-much song, Feeling Good Today: “I got paid yesterday/I’ll probably buy something dumb/Because I’m pretty childish/But all my friends are the same/Just finding something to do/Find a new hobby just to ditch it”. Also, I’m going to go ahead and say that I’m loving the experimentation with Autotune.
#3. My Star - Junior Varsity
(For what it’s worth, I couldn’t find a jpeg of this 2024-released EP.) Junior Varsity has a really bright, infectious sound that kind of reminds me of this mix between The Subways, Tokyo Police Club, Paramore and Bikini Kill, but infused with new pop-punk-emo-esque sensibilities that give them a familiar, though fresh sound. My Star, although a thoroughly solid EP, only has 6 songs, but of those there’s more than enough energy, along a creative, brash exploration of what has so often been a formulaic genre. The track, New York really screams and is fun to blast. Do You Really Like Me? is this interesting TikTok confessional that comes across like the band invoked the spirit of Daniel Johnston doing spoken word. Really cool band, really fun record, and I’m already looking forward to when this Los Angeles-based trio (hopefully) releases their full-length album in the coming future.
#4. Submarine - The Marias
From another LA-based band, Submarine is a record that naturally commixes a host of different genres so fluently, organically and naturally that it’s hard to really put a pulse on what exactly this could be described as (other than, “indie-rock”). Their exceptional 2021 CINEMA initially attracted me to their sound, which for me felt like if Mazzy Star could speak Spanish and combine neo-R&B, hip-hop, electronica influences into their arsenal, along with a darkly-romantic noir ambiance, then maybe they could be reborn into The Marias. The track Hamptons feels every bit shoegazey with a subtle infusion of traditional mariachi syncopation and backbeat, as well an aural Bjork, Zola Jesus and/or FKA Twigs-sort of instrumentation that it feels rightly intuitive, experimental, dreamlike and ethereal without sacrificing their typified, primal catchiness.
#5. Charm - Clairo
To me, Clairo shares a few musical similarities to some of her contemporaries that I won’t name here, but it doesn’t stop me from coming back and back to Charm. The wandering piano throughout the record, late 1970’s woodgrain floral brightness of the album’s tone, her whiserpy-like vocals that sound more like soothing hymnal or next-door humming than singing come together to seal the deal on the explicit meadow/field of flowers Vibe™. Thank You easily just hooks you in and has this classic sort of catchiness that feels poppy without sounding like soulless industry plants (pun intended). Second Nature is what I recently describe to someone as probably the soundtrack to my internal monologue; Echo has an early aughts indie-like ambiance reminding me of Arcade Fire or Of Montreal; the beautiful terrapin carries with its willowy airiness a semblance, touch of hurt that seems to feel as though understatedly mature without necessarily needing to contextualize what or as to why she’s singing what she does, and I think it’s done so well: “We can go wherever we want/The plains, the sand, the salt, the dust/You can say whatever you want/I don't care, I'm already gone/We could drive a mile down the road/To get a drink or two, you know.”
#6. Silent Hill 2 - Akira Yamaoka
The only soundtrack I’ll include on this list, it was none other than the legendary Team Silent Hill composer himself, Akira Yamaoka who came back to redress what has been an enshrined, beloved cult-classic of a soundtrack to 2001’s Silent Hill 2 on Playstation 2. As a huge fan of the series, I was initially skeptical of how The Medium and The Blair Witch developer Bloober would handle the remake, but after getting to play it this year, I can say it’s without a doubt, 100% a new, instant classic. Yamaoka shines here once again, delivering with delicacy this interesting, harmonious blend of haunting meets melodic overtures, somber into scary, atmospheric one moment and into terrifying, industrial-esque sonic attacks. What I like about Silent Hill 2 as a record is that it perfectly takes what was already distilled beauty of its predecessor and fundamentally rearranges and alters it into a depressive siren’s song—for instance, Laura Plays The Piano immediately reintroduces motifs of the original, but gradually absconds into this feeling of being lost, misremembering something, but in the best way possible. Unimaginably beautiful, this is.
#7. SOS Deluxe: LANA - SZA
Granted, while this is more of a reiteration than bonafide release that just came out very recently, but similar to her Grand National Tour cohort Kendrick, I just have to describe this as: omg. I mean, 30 For 30 just makes me want to pump the volume and get even yet more excited imagining how it’ll be hearing it live. Tracks Another Life and Scorsese Baby Daddy have this SZA presence bordering-on-rock meets a twinge of Rhianna; Kitchen feels as though equal parts a ballad and personification of her extraterrestrial aesthetic, combining dreamy reverb-drenched vocals with the body of her identity as a neo-R&B, soul and hip-hop artist. Kill Bill has a nice, mellow-vaporware and pop-infused ambiance which feels simultaneously vintage yet contemporary. Really, I don’t care if this’s cheating, because even 2 years after the fact, SOS is just as relevant and good as it was the first time.
#8. Older - Lizzy McAlpine
I fell in love with Lizzy’s 2020 Give Me A Minute and have been a fan since. Older feels a lot like her previous entry but with more robust of a sound, even anthemic for a couple of songs. All Falls Down, my favorite track, catechizes the hypnotic blend of McAlpine’s signature style, for which the upbeat personification of loneliness, heartbreak, failure and existential-sondering have never sounded so hummable. Themes of alcoholism, addition are rampant here, suggestive to me of a uniquely bitter heartbreak that singularly often accompanies watching a loved one medicate themselves to death, though it doesn’t feel exploitative nor cheap (at-least, to me anyways). Better Than This might be my favorite ode to that One Relationship™ a lot of us have had in which the walk away afterwards is as complex emotionally as it is psychologically. I Guess has this spaciness, fall, dreamy-like mood that gives a totally The Virgin Suicides vibe. You Forced Me To, has a haunting and vulnerable, Elliott Smith self-titled vibe in the best way possible. Then there’s Movie Star, which perhaps has my favorite lyrics of the album: “I want to change/I want to grow/But it’s physically impossible/Stand here and not say that I love you, even if I don’t/Who am I to/Who am I to myself/What are you changing about me?”
#9. Eternal Sunshine - Ariana Grande
Love or hate her, it’s undeniable that Ariana has exceptional talent and her career has been able to shift and evolve with her own identity. Described by Rolling Stone as her “divorce record,” I think what makes Eternal Sunshine notable is Ariana playing with genres here as as if a paint palette, brushing together fusions of dance, electronica, hip-hop and modern pop because of her heartbreak, with the album title/track no doubt an overt and thematic homage to the 2004 Michel Gondry film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. One of my favorite tracks Supernatural sounds on par for the Ariana sound, but with pronounced synthesizer and eletronica elements that sound fresh though familiar, similar to her cover of the boy is mine. I like the aquatic-like melody on I wish I hated you that reminds me of a sort of Jim O’Rourke-esque Yamaha Tenori-on instrumentation; yes, and? feels to me as if Ariana went trying to throw her hat in for a Madonna kind of vibe, and I totally dig it.
#10. Brat - Charlie xcx
Yeah…it’s that catchy of a record. This deserves a spot alongside Billie’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, but I chose this purely for how much more I spent with this album. When discussing the proverbial pop-sheroes and Grammy’s arm race, no shade to Chapelle Roan or Sabrina Carpenter, even Taylor Swift’s excellent Tortured Poet’s Department, but I found myself gravitating towards Brat a lot more when in the mood for doing something. Sure, there’s a lot out there to be said about this album, and you’ve probably heard it somehow by now, but I think brat might go down as one of the catchiest records of the decade. If you’re in the mood for something energetic, put this one on.
