It’s so hard to narrow down all the music I loved in 2024 to just ten albums, but I tried my best just for you. ❤️
Top albums of 2024
(in no particular order)
- mynameisntjmack – mynameisnt
- Common & Pete Rock – The Auditorium Vol. 1
- Johnny Blue Skies (aka Sturgill Simpson) – Passage Du Desir
- Baby Rose & BADBADNOTGOOD – Slow Burn
- Fabiano Do Nascimento – Olhos D’água
- BADBADNOTGOOD – Mid Spiral
- Jack White – Untitled
- NxWorries – Why Lawd?
- J. Sands – Cash Flow, Buddha & Shelter
- Erik the Architect – I’ve Never Been Here Before
Ten more top albums (aka honorable mentions)
- EARTHGANG – PERFECT FANTASY
- The Yussef Dayes Experience (Live From Malibu)
- Joel Ross – nublues
- Nicolay – Terra Firma
- Tristan De Liège – Searching
- LL Cool J – The Force
- Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
- Fred Again… – ten days
- Jahari Massamba Unit – YHWH is Love
- Laurent Bardainne & Tigre d’Eau Douce – Eden Beach Club
More of my favorite (music) things from the past year
I recreated Leo Takami’s Next Door album cover using Affinity Designer and my Wacom tablet. 🕺🏼
I recreated Yussef Dayes’ album cover here…
Another re-interpretation of Jahari Massamba Unit’s album cover here…
“Our hope is that the listener will use our renditions to research the originals and how amazing the world of [Earth Wind and Fire] actually is. We are true believers in the fact that, if everyone started their day with at least one EWF song, the world would indeed be a better place,”
Listen: Nigel Hall and DJ Harrison Unleash Earth, Wind and Fire on New Tribute LP
LL is a reader — “It’s good for my mind. It’s like sharpening the ax” — with a big wood-paneled bookcase at home. “Everything from Iceberg Slim to the history of the Peloponnesian War,” he said. “Authors are my friends.”
LL Cool J Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. by Melena Ryzik (gift link)
“[Johnny Blue Skies album Passage Du Desir is], all at once, a stroke of outlaw country genius and a massive, psychedelic vacuum of singer-songwriter reckonings and pensive, concerto swells. I wouldn’t call Passage du Desir a comeback. No, this is a recalibration firing on all cylinders—its only imperfection being that it ends.”
Paste
Check out the KEXP DJs’ top albums for more of what I’ll be mining over the next few weeks, too. You can find all of my favorite albums from the year (90+) in my monthly favorite album posts.
My top 10 albums from past years are available for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Comments welcome!