At the end of each year, the editors at AllMusic painstakingly comb through 12 months of releases to highlight the best of the best in our Year In Review, but great music comes out every week. As we pass the halfway mark, several of our writers wanted to share the records they’ve gravitated to the most over the past six months. Will any of these be unseated in the second half of the year? We’ll have to wait until December to find out, but in the meantime here are the editors’ favorite albums of 2024… so far.
Radical Optimism – Dua Lipa
Like I said in my review, this isn’t as radio-ready or immediate as Future Nostalgia, but months after its release, it’s all I’ve been listening to. This thing has legs like nobody’s business and the mid-album cuts get better with each repeat listen. Third single “Illusion,” which nears “Padam Padam” levels of dance fervor, should be way bigger than it is, while the funk strut of “Whatcha Doing” and the Y2K-fied pop-tronica bliss of “Happy For You” should really be official singles. It’s the perfect summer album. — Neil Z. Yeung
Brat – Charli xcx
Brat might seem like too obvious or overhyped of a choice as a definitive album for 2024, but apart from being a multi-leveled lime green mansion of pop perfection with no skips, it’s also some of the most intensely vulnerable and real music Charli has ever made. She gets to Pet Sounds levels of straightforward self-inspection and insight while simultaneously making club classics that are impossible not to dance to, and in a few cases really hard not to cry to. — Fred Thomas
Silence Is Loud – Nia Archives
Nia Archives perfected her jungle-meets-neo-soul formula with her early EPs, so it’s no surprise that her first album is an instant winner. Influenced by Britpop and 2000s indie rock as well as Goldie and Burial, her songs have melodic guitars and slamming breakbeats as well as deeply introspective lyrics about anxiety, isolation, and emotional obsession. Even when the subject matter is difficult, the songs go down easily due to the rich, detailed production and Nia’s charming personality. Earlier tracks “So Tell Me…” and “Forbidden Feelingz” are clear highlights, but so are “Silence Is Loud,” “Crowded Roomz,” and “Unfinished Business.” — Paul Simpson
I Got Heaven – Mannequin Pussy
Mannequin Pussy are a transcendent Philly punk band with a sound that is steeped in the sonic crunch of ’90s alt-icons like Hole, Bikini Kill and Lush. Yet, there is scant nostalgia on I Got Heaven and songs like “Loud Bark” feel guttingly personal and raging at the political now. Lead-singer Marisa Dabice is both righteous feminist bird of prey and yearningly romantic songbird, screaming like a phoenix in its death throes one minute and cooing like a dove who just wants to be kissed the next. She digs her sleek, angry talons into your soul and does not let go. — Matt Collar
Romanticism – Hana Vu
Admittedly an album that strikes a chord deep in my soul with both its truth-teller lyrics and (having been weaned on early MTV) arty synth rock sensibility, Hana Vu’s Romanticism captures a nihilistic Gen Z vibe via earworms and alienation anthems that this Gen X-er keeps returning to for deliverance. Written during her early twenties against a backdrop of *gestures in all directions*, its essence is captured on “Dreams,” an ironically breezy quasi-disco track that imagines a world where “every song’s your favorite one” and “love doesn’t fade away” and “it doesn’t hurt to be alive.” Broken-heart emoji, dance emoji. — Marcy Donelson
Orion – Dina Ögon
For the second year in a row the marvelous Swedish band Dina Ögon have made an album for the ages. Orion is a gorgeous record of exquisite musicianship with lilting grooves and hints of tropicália, soul, psychedelia, and pastoral indie pop. Anna Ahnlund is such a beguiling singer; you don’t need to understand the Swedish lyrics to recognize her greatness. I adore this album and wish more people were talking about it. — Timothy Monger
To All Trains – Shellac
As a serious fan of Shellac, the first listen to 2024’s To All Trains was hard, just because guitarist and frontman Steve Albini unexpectedly died ten days before it was released, making it their final statement, even if that was never the intent. The pleasant surprise was that it’s as close to a “fun” album as Shellac (and Albini) were capable of creating – short, energetic songs that hit hard, uniformly taut and passionate performances, and lyrics that honored their firmly held principles as well as their absurdist sense of humor (they even managed both in “Scabby the Rat”). Shellac didn’t leave us with their best album, but with one that revels in the joy of living in their own contrary way, which is a good way to go out if that’s what fate has chosen. — Mark Deming
WeirdOs – O.
Along with being one of my favorite albums of 2024 so far, WeirdOs has to be the most surprising album I’ve heard in the past six months. Tash Keary and Joe Henwood conjure all manner of outlandish sounds with just a drum kit, baritone sax, and some well-chosen effects pedals, evoking jungle breakbeats, Sabbath-y riffs, synth contrails, and a goose being strangled (in the good way, of course). This is a masterclass in musicianship and imagination that thrills me every time I hear it. — Heather Phares
Redd Kross – Redd Kross
Do me a favor and name a band that has been good, even great, for 5 years? 10? 20? Pickings are slim to none, right? How about 40 f’n years? Seems bloody unlikely, but Redd Kross are that band, and their 2024 album, simply and aptly titled Redd Kross, might just be the best thing they’ve ever done. It has all the wham-bam glam-meets-glitter punk thing they’ve always been aces at, then adds some well-earned nostalgia, some trenchant thoughts about modern life, plenty of rollicking humor, and blazing anger too. The brothers McDonald came out of the pandemic ready to tear things up, and the release of Redd Kross is a bracing reminder that they are probably, most likely, definitely the best rock & roll band still daring to call themselves that. — Tim Sendra
Bite Down – Rosali
Despite the rather harrowing album cover image, Rosali‘s Bite Down is a beautiful, sun dappled collection of indie folk musings with lush harmonies and unexpected production. One friend described it as “like Sandy Denny jamming with Crazy Horse” whereas I have been thinking of Aimee Mann backed by a Velvet Underground-era Lou Reed on guitar. While the voices are a real draw, I keep coming back to the urgent and skronky guitars, tearing out of nowhere with unexpected thick distortion laying out anthemic melodies. Turn on the epic “Rewind,” climb to your nearest mountain peak and sing it until your lungs are sore. — Zac Johnson
Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here – Friko
Every couple of years, a semi life-changing indie LP grabs me with both hands, pulls me from the Latin/Rap/K-Pop bubble I call home, and shouts “this is what you’re missing.” Seemingly transplanted from the early 2000s indie scene, Chicago’s mesmerizing Friko are this year’s culprits, hitting it out of the park (and well into the skies beyond) with a debut drenched in end-credits warmth and threaded with poetic grace. In a year of turbulence and joy, it’s often proved the beacon that brings ship to shore; if you give it the time, I’m hoping it’ll sing for you, too. — David Crone
