Another list bites the dust

   

So, having got to the end of The Guardian's Top 50 albums of 2024, how have they done this year?  

Except for a few black spots, I think they actually did pretty well - although I'm not convinced there were too many albums this year that are truly great.  I was introduced to 31 new albums (down from 37 last year) with ten having already been written up - I was expecting to have met more because I've been checking out all the new entries for a while, but I was surprised The Guardian were quite so commercial this year.

Best 15

I've gone for a top 15 this year - I'd prefer to cut it down to ten, but I thought these were all comfortably better than everything else in the chart and couldn't decide how I would pick some to remove. I'd listened to half of them before with five of the others coming from artists I'd not met before, so that was a very pleasant introduction indeed. 

#48 - Los Campesinos!
#38 - Empress Of
#37 - Jack White
#35 - Vampire Weekend
#31 - Cassandra Jenkins
#28 - Tyla
#25 - Laura Marling
#20 - Nick Cave
#19 - Arooj Aftab
#18 - Waxahatchee
#17 - Fabiana Palladino
#11 - The Cure
#4 - Clairo
#3 - Billie Eilish
#1 - Charli XCX

The most surprising entries for me are Los Campesinos! (why did it take me 18 years to catch up with them?), Jack White (really not my sort of thing usually), Laura Marling (this is way more Joni Mitchell sounding than I usually go for) and Fabiana Palladino (a very polished album from someone I'd never heard of).  Albums which didn't make the top 15 but are worth a mention include Karl d'Silva (an impressive #50 recorded in his bedroom), Mdou Moctar (amazing guitar work), Xiu Xiu (most peculiar), Doechii (super fast wordplay) and Fontaines D.C. (always much better than I expect them to be). 

As usual, my list is mostly female vocalists but there's a much wider range of styles than usual this year and women are well represented on The Guardian's list with 29 of the albums featuring a woman in a prominent role (but down from 31 last year). The women also had the top ten sewn up, taking seven of them (and that's not including Cindy Ray!). It's interesting how few of the top ten I really enjoyed, although none of them were terrible (even if I still haven't solved the mystery of why people are still listening to Sabrina's album). I'm happy enough with Charli taking the top spot, but my favourites are The Cure, Waxahatchee, Nick Cave, Laura Marling and Vampire Weekend (and I really should listen to VW's offering a few more times, because I suspect I could grow to love it). 

Worst 3

Unlike last year, I'm very happy to call out some of these albums as appalling

#49 - Chat Pile
#42 - Knocked Loose
#14 - Still House Plants

I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend how anyone can possibly claim these albums to be enjoyable - and, whilst there were some other disappointments on the list, nothing came close to this triumvirate, so I'm not going to mention any further names.

Potential Omissions

Looking at various other end of year lists, I've come up with 

Still - Erika de Casier (only listened to this once, but I really liked it)
Lives Outgrown - Beth Gibbons (ditto)
The Great Impersonator - Halsey (ditto again)
This Could Be Texas - English Teacher (felt like the sort of things critics go far)
Prelude To Ecstasy - The Last Dinner Party (a serious omission imho)
Access All Areas - Flo (a very polished offering)
Absolute Elsewhere - Blood Incantation (death metal which I'd hate, but it's on quite a few lists)
GNX - Kendrick Lamar (maybe arrived a bit too late for the critics to fully swoon over)
The Tortured Poets Department - Taylor Swift (I didn't love it, but it was certainly there)
The Secret Of Us - Gracie Abrams (whereas I surprisingly enjoyed this)
The Mighty Several - Paul Heaton (this was never going to make it, but it was a most enjoyable album)

And with that, we come to the end - see you in another 11 months for the best of 2025!  I''m very behind on my 2023 films and TV lists so they'll get put on hold whilst I try and sample the best of 2024 lists and music-wise I will be picking my next year to attack soon. Thank you to everyone for reading and for your comments - I'm always interested in other people's opinions.  

Happy New Year - see you on the next list!

#1 - A fine album, but...