Every few weeks I scan the hits charts to make sure something isn’t hiding in plain sight at the intersection of popular and great—“Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X, say, or “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift. Not much from the pop world ekes into my musical upper ranks at the moment. I like some of what I’ve heard off Short N’ Sweet, the sixth album from teen Disney star turned grownup pop singer Sabrina Carpenter. More to my liking, however, are the EDM strains of Charli XCX (whose Q2 album Brat made political headlines at Kamala Harris’ presidential nomination), the feather-weight operatic dance pop of Chappell Roan, and the breathy subterranean bedroom pop of Billie Eilish. Props to my daughter Sienna for putting many of these folks on my radar!
A few male pop singers are charting, too: Jimin (of the K-pop supergroup BTS) has a summery hit with “Who”; “I Had Some Help” from the rapper-turned-pop-singer-turned-country-singer Post Malone gives indirect props to pals (from Morgan Wallen to Dolly Parton) who lined up to season his latest album; while Spotify’s top song (globally and in the U.S.) is the insipid “Die with a Smile,” a ’70s-sounding throwback duet by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.
That’s quite all right. There’s vibrant life beyond the charts, as this list reflects.
The following loosely ranked albums all came out between July and September 2024. These are, for me, the best—most involving, most adventurous, most innovative—of the 200+ recordings to which I extended a fair critic’s shake. I have not attempted to integrate my Q1 or Q2 favorites. (Missing from my Q2 roundup was Julius Rodriguez’s magisterial Verve Records album Evergreen. Rodriguez didn’t cross my radar until August, however; more on him soon!) I’ll rank my full-year highlights in January. From what I’ve seen of Q4 so far—which is to say, the deluge in this first third of October—reconciling the incoming against the stellar music from previous quarters will be a late-December headspin.
I’ve posted a YouTube playlist featuring (where possible) representative songs from each of these releases. Albums not represented in the playlist, such as Unknown to Known’s Lightship, can still be auditioned on Bandcamp using the inline links below. (The paylist runs several places longer than my printed list.)
Take my descriptions of musical style for what they’re worth; I realize my phrases don’t fit everyone’s sense of genre.
Meshell Ndegeocello – No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin (Blue Note) | New jazz
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Opus (Orchid Classics) | New classical
Unknown to Known – Lightship (self-published) | New jazz
Arun Ramamurthy Trio – New Moon (Greenleaf Music) | World jazz
Jessica Ackerley – All of the Colours Are Singing (AKP Recordings) | Avant-garde jazz
Pat Thomas – The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir (OTOROKU) | Avant-garde jazz
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (Warp Records) | New jazz / kosmische
Marquis Hill – Composers Collective: Beyond the JukeBox (Black Unlimited Music Group) | New jazz / R&B
Floating Points – Cascade (Ninja Tune) | Downtempo / ambient / house
Gaslamp Killer & Jason Wool – Ananda (Cuss Records) | New jazz / hip-hop
Afrocop – self-titled (Wax Thématique) | New jazz
Laurie Anderson – Amelia (Nonesuch Records) | New classical
Chuck Johnson – Sun Glories (Western Vinyl) | Ambient / post rock
Liran Donin / Idris Rahman – Shoals (self-published) | Jazz
Terrace Martin – Nintindo Soul (MixUnit) | New jazz / R&B / hip-hop
Zoon Phonanta – self-titled (Bronze Rat Records) | Krautrock / space rock
Awesome list(s), thanks! Helps me to expand my listenings past the same ones everyone's humming.
"There’s vibrant life beyond the charts." If this wasn't the case, I would hardly have any music to choose from. I've been kind of hovering over Laurie Anderson's Amelia, but haven't taken the plunge yet. The release of Touche Amore's new album tomorrow may be the most exciting event of the year for me. I'm still playing their preview video "Hal Ashby" constantly.