It has been quite the year. As we fully close the book on 2024, we’ve assembled out 25 best albums of the year, listed below—crucially in no specific order. Rather than debate specific placements, we chose to instead give each record their own time in the spotlight as we look ahead to what next year will bring. Without further ado…
Schoolboy Q – Blue Lips
After his own prolonged hiatus, the current most recognizable member of TDE came back with a bang, delivering the knockout punch of Blue Lips just a few months into the year. The most impressive thing about this album is its balance. ScHoolboy Q finds a midpoint between the thunderous sound of “Yeern 101” and the refined touch of “Blueslides” that has made Blank Face his critical high-water mark. Don’t get it mistaken, though. Even if outlets labeled this a return to form, ScHoolboy Q is far advanced from the overall artist he was during that 2016 era.
That’s something that the rangy “THank god 4 me” capitalizes on, going from a dissatisfied reflection on his surroundings into an anthemic listing of his accomplishments. Cut then to “Pig Feet,” featuring a reversed melody where he taps into the gangsta rap bonafides he flexed on Oxymoron. Really, the uncanny quality present in that song is the tie that binds throughout Blue Lips, yet despite that aesthetic choice, it’s impossible not to walk away from it satisfied.
Kendrick Lamar – GNX
Kendrick Lamar was a lock for “biggest winner” of 2024 from the get-go, his spat with fellow superstar Drake evolving from the public feud that hip-hop hardcores had been whispering about for years into arguably the most high-profile rap beef of all time and the propelling force in music in the early half of the year. While the records that “Not Like Us” scored may be the most high-profile memory of Kendrick Lamar’s 2024, GNX took the “victory lap” concept of his pop-up/”Pop Out” show and took it the distance in typically stellar fashion.
With the aforementioned #1 single breaking new ground in Lamar’s register as a mainstream pop hitmaker, “squabble up” and “tv off” showcase, it was far from a one-off, minting an instant viral sensation within hours of the record’s release. “Gloria” and “luther” dipped into the more lowkey, furthering a rock-solid relationship with SZA that’s showing no signs of slowing down despite their newfound distance in label agreements.
However, Lamar’s most consequential choice on GNX is taking the spotlight off himself and placing it on the West Coast as an entity, ceding much of the runtime on one of the biggest albums of the year to artists who’d be unknown to mainstream artists otherwise; dody6, AZChike, and WallieTheSensei all excel in the crowded cast of LA natives that pace the tracklist. A Pulitzer prize, countless Grammy’s, and six studio albums in, Kendrick Lamar continues to prove that nothing is satisfactory for the pgLang founder, and placement on these sorts of lists, all but a certainty for most outlets, luckily won’t buck that trend. Fingers crossed that rumors of a deluxe bear fruit, but even if not, the Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl halftime show will keep fans fed in the early part of 2025.
Billie Eilish – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT
The layoff between Billie Eilish’s albums may not be as chasmic as some other artists on this list, but that doesn’t mean the record arrived any less highly anticipated. Doubling as one of the biggest albums of the year, it’s certainly not a case of something being accessible yet shallow as a result—plenty of other outlets have cited this as their top dog for 2024, and it got strong consideration for ours as well. Birthing her biggest singles this side of “Bad Guy,” from the operatic “CHIHIRO” to the playful, tongue-in-cheek “LUNCH” to the classical pop diva turn with “THE GREATEST.”
Interspersed between, deep reflections arrive in the form of “SKINNY” and “BLUE,” acknowledging a darker and more shameful side of Eilish’s past and present. Beneath the lyrical performances, Billie’s vocal range and talent are on full display once again, as is the shapeshifting quality of both her ear for production and command of it. Eilish’s list of accolades is as lengthy as it is lofty, almost guaranteed to grow in both come February, and a project like HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is as far as you need to look to find out why it’s all so well deserved.
Charli XCX – Brat
Simply put, how could we not? While for years Charli XCX bubbled under as a pophead favorite and a lock for a top 10 hit every so often, it felt like the coming out moment was always just around the corner for the UK singer, and Brat delivered one that even her staunchest defenders couldn’t have predicted. There are the pronounced high notes of “Von Dutch,” “365,” and “Apple,” unmistakable party tracks that helped push the off-the-wall aesthetic of PC Music and A.G. Cook to music’s forefront.
But what truly sets the album over the top is its range. Charli contemplates motherhood on “i think about it all the time,” wondering aloud about her feud with Lorde on “girl, so confusing,” (famously “worked out on the remix”), and later casting doubt on whether “living in the dream” is worth it with “everything is romantic.” Brat summer may be in the rearview, but finally, Charli XCX is a household name, and the platform afforded with that title will undoubtedly be used to define dancefloors for many seasons to come.
Childish Gambino – Bando Stone and The New World
Multi-hyphenate is a label we throw around a lot, but not many live up to the moniker the way that Donald Glover does. As he’s racked up IMDB credits in the past few years, the musical endeavor that made him one of the entertainment industry’s hottest commodities almost fell to the wayside. Fittingly in accordance with that, yet sadly for long-time fans, the “Redbone” superstar confirmed that after putting the finishing touches on his Atavista a few years after its release, his Childish Gambino alter ego would come to a close with Bando Stone and The New World.
Part of what makes the record so compelling is a clear mission to experiment as much as possible before that end date, stepping into hard electronic with “Got To Be,” tender R&B with “Steps Beach,” and choir-backed songwriter fare with “Lithonia.” Intercut with excerpts from the still-unconfirmed film of the same name, Bando Stone and the New World perfectly tees up the director turn for Gambino and capitalizes on the cinematic taste he’s already acquired, packing climax after climax into a relatively short runtime. Again, seeing one of the more captivating careers of the 2010s come to a close is certainly a bittersweet thing, but Childish Gambino ends on a high note and leaves us hoping that there is a next chapter, even under a new name.
Sabrina Carpenter – Short & Sweet
As our own backlog would tell you, Sabrina Carpenter had been plugging away for years with the moniker “pop’s next big thing,” but it took until 2024 for the title to earnestly apply. Though earlier records like Emails I Can’t Send threatened to make Carpenter into a known commodity, it was an extra push by way of an Eras Tour assist that sent her on a whirlwind calendar year where she became inescapable, much of the material from that run contained on her latest effort, Short & Sweet.
Yes, titanic singles like “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” and “Taste” appear, but the B-side cuts are almost just as addictive, from the Southern-twinged “Slim Pickins” and “Sharpest Tool” or the retro glam of “Juno.” As frontline footage from the ensuing tour would confirm, double entendres and winking lyrics pace the glossy production throughout. Dedicated fans and those familiar with Carpenter’s past work are the ones who will genuinely appreciate Short & Sweet for what it is, finally squaring away the bubblegum pop formula she’d been working at for years. Though popular music skeptics may take radio music for granted, those like Carpenter, who can so pitch-perfectly execute it, should be appreciated for the true talents they are.
Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter
“Beyoncé’s making a country album?” Though the once-maligned genre was at an all-time high, getting Queen Bey to take on its form was a shock all the same. Much the same way that she paid homage to the forebears of house music with RENAISSANCE, Act II of the purported trilogy isn’t shy about telling the listener whose shoulders Beyonce stands on. Whether it’s revitalizing a country standard with her embittered take on “Jolene,” flexing with a nod to a Chuck Berry B-side on “Oh Louisiana,” or surprisingly bringing The Beatles into the mix with an uptake of “Blackbird,” Beyoncé strikes a typically expert balance between pushing the genre forward and keeping its traditions alive.
Of course, the most enduring moment from Cowboy Carter comes with some entirely original material. “Texas Hold’ Em,” a foot-stomping anthem that lays the country inspirations of the album bare, and cuts like “Sweet Honey Buckiin” carve a path forward where the seemingly opposing worlds of folk music and jersey club can live alongside one another. While where Act III will visit is unclear, Cowboy Carter illustrates that when Beyoncé pays a visit, she genuinely lives in the worlds she takes from, and her trip into country music was another illustrious holiday.
NxWorries – Why Lawd?
For years, Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge teased a follow-up for Yes Lawd!, the collab album that packaged the two artists as the duo NxWorries. In between, .Paak took detours alongside Dr. Dre, Bruno Mars, and Andre 3000, but eventually, the road led back home. Though the Malibu singer often regales with love stories, that winding path also took him through a divorce, a theme that crops up as a throughline on Why Lawd; “Here I Am” is the truest embrace of .Paak’s family shakeup, a half-joking, knowing ode to acting like you’re over your ex. It’s hard not to cop .Paak’s “best smile in the game” when he so rarely takes himself seriously despite the grave subject matter.
Interspersed between these moments, tracks where it feels like .Paak would’ve tackled the subject regardless of this project’s shape, sits characteristic NxWorries chemistry that lit the internet ablaze before Anderson became a superstar. “Daydreaming,” “86Sentra” and “KeepHer” each tackle retro funk inspiration from different angles but get close to the source material in terms of execution. Rarely does a collaboration reach the fan acclaim that Yes Lawd! did, and even rarer does a sequel live up to its billing, but accomplishing back-to-back home runs is why Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge are who they are.
Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk
In a year when (relatively) down-the-middle bubblegum voices dominated pop music, Magdalena Bay zigged when everybody else zagged. Their tongue-in-cheek, never-too-serious streak was well established before Imaginal Disk hit the shelves, but few would’ve foreseen that they’d dedicate so hard to the bit that they’d release a concept album. Packaged as a dance-pop version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Imaginal Disk is hard to parse granularly because of the band’s insistence on mystifying metaphor over straightforward questions, but that’s part of the charm.
The lyrical aloofness of tracks like “Image” and “Vampire In The Corner” leaves them almost as blank slates, their musical highlights and one-off moments (the latter’s countdown repetitions, “22 more minutes / Oh, so hot”) somehow more enjoyable. To employ a mixed metaphor, it’s essentially “nobody knows what it means, but it’s provocative: The Album.” The evolution of Magdalena Bay’s production chops, songwriting skills, and aesthetic kept us coming back to this one repeatedly.
Caribou – Honey
The alter ego is one of the most venerated traditions in electronic music, where countless recognizable faces file their off-kilter or off-character work under a pseudonym. For genre leader Caribou, Daphni is his chosen moniker. In this side project, multi-talent Dan Snaith toiled away at house music, a flip on the concept where the more accessible fare was given secondary billing. As he issued his first album under his more widely known name in five years, the lines between the two began to blur, giving way to Honey, a best-of-both-worlds combination of pulse-pounding rhythms and sentimental centers.
Look to “Broke My Heart” for proof, dotting an affecting vocal sample with throbbing 808s and synths underneath, or the fact that the saccharine “Do Without You” comes directly after a dancefloor flip of “Pump Up The Volume.” Snaith’s status means he has more tools in his bag, but it certainly doesn’t prevent him from embracing the current moment, leading to Honey being among the best electronic in 2024.
FINNEAS – For Cryin’ Out Loud
In so many ways, FINNEAS and Billie Eilish come as a duo: award acceptances, studio sessions, collaborations. It’s fitting that both siblings appear as highlights of 2024, but with For Cryin’ Out Loud, the elder O’Connell’s talents are undeniable on his own two feet. The slow paces and tender undercurrents of For Cryin’ Out Loud stake a much different trademark for FINNEAS, and the romantic themes are far more straightforward. “Sweet Cherries” may be its best, split between chipper indie and a piano-led, lover-scorned narrative a la the Arctic Monkeys.
It’s a more ground-level version of the pop music he makes his bones off of, and the personal reflections that follow give the record a ton of heart. Speaking of, in an almost ironic sense, the most affecting piece comes with the heavy help of his younger sister, a vignette on the duo’s interpersonal dynamics with “Family Feud,” where heavenly harmonies and a barebones guitar track underscore FINNEAS lamenting how he can’t stop his sibling from making the same choices he now regrets. Again, perhaps it’s fitting, but For Cryin’ Out Loud demonstrates the same precision we know from Billie Eilish studio sessions, yet it imparts an acoustic quality you can’t get elsewhere.
Machinedrum – 3FOR82
Ushering in psychedelic, experimental electronic music that classed him with forever underrated acts like Lone, Machinedrum ditched that formula for his most expansive record to date, 3FOR82. Yet even his “conventional” approach is eyebrow-raising, enlisting a score of underrated artists from around the industry: Mick Jenkins, Jesse Boykins II, Duckwrth, and Tinashe (the lattermost of which perhaps can’t claim that title after her 2024) all pitch in stellar guest appearances. For his part, Machinedrum bends and contorts his experimental flair through nearly every subgenre you can think of.
We get lo-fi on “HEAL” and “BLESSED,” club house on “ILIKEU,” and hyper pop drum breaks on “H0N3Y.” The producer would only go on to make the project a richer mosaic with a deluxe album down the line, but even in its original state, 3FOR82 is among the most surprising listens of the year, an album where Machinedrum bucks the conventional wisdom and shows an old(er) dog can master new tricks.
Jamie xx – In Waves
Not least of which was the pure passage of time. The 2015 effort saw his first step out of the totemic success of the xx, establishing himself as one of electronic music’s brightest stars with a dazzling, inspired debut. Some nine years later, he had become a weathered, veteran face, the British outfit splintering for personal solo efforts, of which his was the last to arrive. Though the long layoff could’ve meant expectations soared to unmeetable standards, In Waves delivers on everything its predecessor promised nearly a decade later.
While the sheer wonder and euphoria of its predecessor may be harder to come by on the 2024 counterpart, a certain wistfulness, and appreciation for those “night out” days of yore feels more pure by contrast. A smattering of odes to the dancefloor like “Life,” “Baddy on the Floor,” “Still Summer,” and “Daffodil” strike perfect nostalgic chords while still pushing Jamie’s sound forward enough to avoid having a ceiling due to their most referential moments. To that end, contributions by a who’s who of electronic voices like Robyn, Honey Dijon, The Avalanches, as well Romy and Oliver Lu of the xx, only further the “one big party” atmosphere that Jamie taps into. Ideally, we won’t need to wait a decade for the next Jamie xx record, but In Waves was miraculously worth the wait.
Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal
The newest TDE signee first came to the masses primarily through her SZA link-up “Persuasive,” but the R&B crooner we met on that breakout single is almost entirely absent on her debut mixtape (that’s a good thing.) In fact, Doechii is transparent throughout Alligator Bites Never Heal about putting distance between her current moment and the buzzy, radio tracks that brought her fame in the first place, referencing her befuddlement about “making TikTok songs.”
“DENIAL IS A RIVER,” a thorough exploration of the Louisiana native’s vices and vexes through a therapy lens, is about as far as you can get from that syrupy fare, a distinction that makes what she accomplishes almost more impressive. Though there are certainly comparison points for the bodacious, in-your-face attitude of tracks like “NISSAN ALTIMA” (our original coverage cited Azaelia Banks’ “212” as an obvious one), Doechii’s combination of storytelling, attitude, and wordplay is singular. While Alligator Bites Never Heal is endlessly playable on its own two feet, its most significant contribution is bringing Doechii to the forefront of hip-hop, setting her up as a major player for years to come.
L’Imperatrice – Pulsar
Though you may find other monikers assigned to them, L’Imperatrice is functionally a disco act, and with that stated goal comes a tricky proposition. How can you sound fresh, majoring in a genre so far beyond its heyday? You need to dip into their now decade-long backlog to get the full scope. Still, having honed in on a signature aesthetic over the course of those releases, the band separated into two teams to devise Pulsar, adding an ensemble flair on top of their typical shining home base.
The results speak for themselves; Flore Benguigui’s airy delivery is cast into even more stark relief alongside guest contributions alongside Fabiana Martone, and the band’s luxe, sultry trademarks are even more impactful underneath a guest appearance from Maggie Rogers. To be sure, when left to their own devices, they’re more than capable of landing a knockout punch; “Girl!” is the grooviest thing on the tracklist, and the mystique of the fully English-sung “Love From The Other Side” is captivating. Some unfortunate shakeups in the band’s roster mean that, sadly, the door may be closed on this current L’Imperatrice era, but as the barest silver lining, it was an exceptional send-off for a decade of A-plus work.
Future & Metro Boomin – WE DON’T TRUST YOU
The music industry always crawls to a start in the first few months, but Future and Metro Boomin’ woke up drowsy hip-hop newswires by announcing that they’d be dropping not one but two collab albums, coyly referencing the rapper’s line that’d become a calling card for the producer: “WE DON’T TRUST YOU.” Upon release, the record’s title instantly became more pointed with the inclusion of “Like That,” the song that unquestionably captured Q1 by kicking off the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud that’d soon become inescapable. To be sure, the record may not have jumped out to the radio-defining success in the absence of Kendrick Lamar, but everything around it is expertly crafted, from a typically aloof and charismatic Future performance to one of the best beats of the year from Metro, flipping an Eazy E standard into a stadium-rocking anthem.
At least in this writer’s view, the gift and the curse of Future fandom has always been the sheer quantity he brings to the table, often flooding release calendars with mixtapes and padding tracklists within. The choice to return to Metro Boomin’ solves that criticism, resulting in Pluto’s most cohesive record since Dirty Sprite 2, Barely giving the listener a second to catch their breath between massive singles like “Type S***,” “Everyday Hustle,” and “Cinderella” by filling out with stellar solo performances like “Magic Don Juan” and “Ain’t No Love.” It’s impossible to extricate the beef from this record, but pick apart what Metro Boomin’ and Future offered up, and you’ll find their most impressive collective achievement yet, even without the drama.
MGMT – Loss of Life
MGMT has had a penchant for the mysterious since their “Kids” breakout, perhaps none more transfixing than Little Dark Age, both the album and the suddenly TikTok famous single that it spawned. It made their prolonged absence following that record par for the course, but once emerging from that layoff, just how straightforward Loss of Life was made it all the more transfixing.
Often escapism is most welcome in trying times, but the long-time indie darlings face the dire moment head-on, ruminating on the frequently pedestrian nature of everyday life with “I Wish I Was Joking” or how hard it is to get out of these sorts of ruts on the dark humor “Nothing Ever Changes.” Even if the duo is barefaced about how difficult life may be at times, there’s still room for silver linings, and “Dancing In Babylon” pays off the unforgiving nature of the material that comes before it with cinematic flair, enlisting Christine and The Queens for perhaps their most affecting song to date.
Tyler, The Creator – Chromakopia
It was pastel suits and a blonde wig for IGOR, Ushanka hats and leopard print for Call Me When You Get Lost. Shifting aesthetics have been the name of the game for the ever-changing Tyler, The Creator, so while the shift into sepia tones and an MF Doom-style mask wouldn’t have been on most people’s bingo cards, it was simultaneously entirely expected.
For Chromakopia, the now 33-year-old multi-hyphenate copped militaristic chants and choir vocals for his most grown-up album yet, a project where, in between trademark flexes about how he’s one of the hardest working in his genre, he delivers thoughtful reflections on his relationship with monogamy, the oft-speculated-about absence of his father, and how kids could ever fit alongside his maniacal obsession with his craft. The fact that his vulnerability (“Darling, I,” “Like Him,” “St. Chroma”) landed him a #1 debut is almost as instructive about his voracious fanbase as it is his one-of-a-kind talent. Your mileage may vary on whether this is Tyler’s best record, but his enduring headedness and conceptual creativity set him far ahead of the pack once again.
Porter Robinson – SMILE 😀
In a Twitter exchange surrounding the release of SMILE :D, Porter Robinson replied to someone wistfully claiming “boys aren’t making music like this anymore” in response to Metro Station’s “Shake It,” quote tweeting the original by saying, “I’m literally right here.” It was a funny moment, sure, but it’s a real “all good jokes contain a kernel of truth,” as the producer’s SMILE 😀 is essentially an exercise in reviving the pop rock of the aughts. Once justifiably cited as one of electronic music’s brightest faces, for his fourth studio album, Robinson leaned into the emotional and the angsty, emerging from a multi-year hiatus with a new maximalist signature sound with wailing synthesizers, guitars, and more notable than anything else, personally sung vocal lines.
Pieces like “CHEERLEADER” and “MONA LISA” contend with love and relationships in the increasingly digital age, more involved concepts than we got during the artist’s early 2010s heyday. However, the true driving force of SMILE 😀 is an incredibly personal and human one. Robinson’s journey to find self-acceptance takes us through self-destruction before catching the light at the end of the tunnel (“Russian Roulette”). You may need a familiarity with Porter Robinson to check out SMILE 😀 in the first place, and paradoxically, that’ll make it more challenging to accept what you find inside, but the multi-instrumentalist (and now singer!) is more complete than ever with his most recent.
Vince Staples – Dark Times
Vince Staples has always stood separate from the hip-hop mainstream, famously jeering the radio freestyle, a time-honored promo stop for any rapper in trademark sarcastic style: “We f***ing up songs now, I don’t got nothing else.” The California native’s pen isn’t particularly suited to the airwaves in the first place, so his skepticism is understandable, a solitary talent he again showcased with Dark Times. Dextrous wordplay and hooks fall away in favor of blunt reflections on the future and the past, aligning well with the dour title the record comes with.
Tracks like “Etoufee” and “Black & Blue” may warrant repeat listens for their surprising catchiness, but the bulk of the project leaves the listener with a gut-punch feeling, either for personal betrayals on cuts like “Justin” or more overarching societal shortcomings like on “Government Cheese.” Perhaps the reporter-like plainness Staples continues to rely on when presenting his own Dark Times, devoid of any feel-good silver linings, may keep him from becoming a face of the genre, but how uncommon it is makes each successive LP appointment listening.
Floating Points – Cascade
Floating Points is no stranger to critical acclaim, unquestionably one of the darlings of the electronic scene in this medium. However, though rave reviews are essentially par for the course for Samuel Shepard’s alter ego, how he arrives at that point is always harder to parse. In 2019, it was abstract, angry, and stripped-down takes on his typical fare. Three years later, he linked up with the late Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra for Promises, a genre-crossing collection of drawn-out jazz and classical.
In 2024, you need fewer heady sentences to understand the crux of Cascade, a genuine delivery of house music. However, like a meal billed as “farm to table,” the simpler approach pays major dividends, placing hard boundaries on where Sanders can take the Floating Points sound and minting some truly transformative dance tracks in the process. Cuts like “Birth4000” and “Key103” are unflinching, built around central grooves that allow for large portions to play out unchanged before quick pitch shifts and tempo changes throw either into psychedelic dimensions. Yet the back half, highlighted by “Affleck’s Palace” and “Ablaze,” allows a quieter sound to take over, a fittingly relaxed capper on a club record through and through. There’s no telling what the next Floating Points project will sound like, but at least for Cascade, we got Sanders at his most distilled, flexing his muscles in his home genre in fantastic fashion.
Denzel Curry – King of the Mischievous South
“Yeah, I used to smart talk, but now I had to dumb it down,” raps Denzel Curry on “Black Flag Freestyle,” a single and later standout for his King of the Mischievous South. While perhaps an indictment on what wide hip-hop audiences are willing to accept, it’s also a mission statement for the record, one of the few modern instances where Denzel Curry hones in on pure bangers rather than deep concepts, even if the latter led him to some of his biggest critical successes.
Unwavering bops come fast and furious on the rapper’s sixth studio album, almost more of a mixtape with its lack of overarching themes and stacked feature list: Rico Nasty, A$AP Ferg, Juicy J, Ty Dolla $ign, Project Pat, Maxo Kream, and 2 Chainz are just the tip of the iceberg for the incredible guest cast here. Again, though throwing back to the era of “Ultimate” comes with issues, any doubts about the strategy dissolve with just how undeniable the material here is. It’s a gym playlist of the gods, later bolstered with its later deluxe. Fans of the headier Denzel will almost assuredly be fed with Curry’s next, as his string of projects leading up to this one would indicate, but getting the rager Denzel back was one of the year’s true highlights.
Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism
The stretch between Future Nostalgia and DL3, though obviously not delivering a full-length, exemplified Dua Lipa’s Midas touch; a soundtrack one-off in “Dance The Night” and a loosie remix, albeit with living legend Elton John, ruled the charts in the “quiet” period between albums. That is to say, most of Dua Lipa’s catalog to this point comes with sheer infectiousness and peerlessness on a commercial level, two of the things that Radical Optimism doesn’t achieve, perhaps why the instant reactions were lukewarm. “Illusion,” “Houdini,” and “Training Season” are the closest things you get, and though imminently enjoyable, comparing them to the meteoric ubiquity of something like “Levitating” would leave you wanting.
However, the quieter approach that she took for the record makes repeat listens all the more rewarding. “These Walls,” “Maria,” and “Happy For You” find the singer in a more longing, forlorn position than we once knew, a stark left turn from the totally assured version that defined Future Nostalgia, at the very least. All told, there is something radical about the persona that Dua Lipa adopts for her most recent effort, celebratory without relying on the overwhelming overtones of her past work.
Peggy Gou – I Hear You
In the years preceding I Hear You, Peggy Gou managed some rare air in the electronic scene, somehow one of the defining faces of the genre (placement on Time’s 30 Under 30, a fashion label, the list of high-profile achievements goes on) without a debut album. Scattered singles and EPs instead made up her discography, making the breakout success of “It Goes Like (Nanana)” less of a surprise and more the linear progression a name of her caliber should expect.
By the time I Hear You rolled around, many of its singles were already public, including the anthemic “I Believe In Love Again” alongside Lenny Kravitz. Still, early unveilings didn’t take away from one of the best expressions of poppy dance music you could find this year, crafting idyllic big room fodder like “Lobster Telephone” and “Back To One” without sacrificing Gou’s Korean roots, expressed expertly through cuts like “Seoulsi Peggygou” and “Purple Horizon.”
Four Tet – Three
Even if he experienced a widening of his audience with the help of Skrillex and Fred again.., Four Tet has been uber-consistent for a decade, turning in quality upon quality on a biannual basis since around the turn of the decade. It’s no surprise, then, that Three manages to crack this list. For his (eye-popping) 12th studio record, his dependable love for meditative soundscapes that you can almost melt into is fully intact, and pieces like “Gliding Through Everything” or “So Blue” lull you into zen right before they change shape entirely, keeping the listener on their toes even through their often epic runtimes.
But there’s an additional dimension on Three that it’s hard not to attribute to his newfound proximity to the genre’s defining faces. “Skater” is one such example, a guitar-led dip into indie, as is “31 Bloom,” leaning into a house music punch with jingly, repetitive percussion setting its pace. Ideally, a project like Three turns some of the new verticals Four Tet has added to his fanbase into hardcore attendees, but even if it’s just for those who have been there through the whole journey, it’s another stellar contribution.
