My favorite albums of 2024
Why do I do this?
I’ve asked myself that question a lot while putting together this year’s favorite albums list.
The clearest answer, I think, is appreciation. Artists and their respective producers, record labels, studio mangers, etc., spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours meticulously crafting musical narratives to share with the world. The least I can do to show my appreciation for the hours upon hours I spent listening to those pieces of art is spend an afternoon writing about them.
This year’s list of my favorite such albums is, per usual, in no particular order, besides the last album — which holds its No. 10 spot as my particular favorite of 2024. What a year for music it was.
1.) The Pilgrim, Their God and The King of My Decrepit Mountain - Tapir!
This year’s list starts with its latest inclusion.
In the weeks I spent vacillating over which 10 records to include, I found myself with 9 surefire favorites and 1 spot constantly up in the air. (Please refer to the ‘Other Favorites’ section at the bottom for a host of other contenders.)
As I spent time listening back to old playlists and reading through my favorite albums shortlist (I use the term loosely), I thought I had it figured out — right up until the second weekend of January, when The Pilgrim, Their God and The King of My Decrepit Mountain (Heavenly Recordings), an album released almost exactly 12 months prior, burst forward again.
The album radiates warmth, a Springtime energy captured in its Windows background-esque cover art. Its often simplistic, folky songs are structured into three acts: Act 1 (The Pilgrim), Act 2 (Their God), and Act 3 (The King of My Decrepit Mountain). The names of those acts, and the album itself, conjure medieval images. One can picture a lone traveler set out on a sort of pilgrimage, recounting the places, people, things, and parts of themselves they discover along the way.
This theme is heard clearly on the record’s third song, “Swallow,” where Ike Gray, vocalist for the group, sings in first person, toward the end of the track, of discovering a swallow “with broken wings and a face that’s narrow” while walking home.
The swallow calls the character and “takes [them] over,” crying their name, backwards, before flying away “without words.”
“Now I know my name, and it no longer hurts,” sings Gray, the last line of the song.
That imagery, of coming into contact with some sort of natural, almost God-like thing — sometimes an animal, sometimes nature, sometimes the nether itself — that then unlocks a new internal understanding, fills the whole record. Sometimes that “God” can be as simple as “cheap after shave” or a “2,000-pound laptop” — “It’s your imagination that you’ve found.” (Lyrics from “My God,” a song from the album’s third act.)
A poetic, breathing exploration of the self with and against nature, which pulls themes from the Bible, folkloric myths, and Walt Whitman poems, The Pilgrim, Their God, and The King of My Decrepit Mountain is an excellent soundtrack for Spring, or for anytime you find yourself wondering just why there’s so much majesty in the natural world.
Favorite tracks: On A Grassy Knoll (We’ll Bow Together), Eidolon, My God
2.) Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace - Shabaka
I’ve known the artist Shabaka, full name Shabaka Hutchings, best for his work with a trio of London-based contemporary jazz fusion groups — The Comet Is Coming, Shabaka and the Ancestors, and Sons Of Kemet, the latter of which released one of my favorite jazz albums of all time in 2018’s Your Queen Is A Reptile.
But we’re not here to talk about any of Hutchings’ work with those groups (although we will revisit Sons Of Kemet later on this list). Rather, we’re here to appreciate the singular artist Shabaka and his second full-length solo record, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse! Records).
Shabaka is a multi-instrumentalist of primarily wind instruments. His saxophone and clarinet playing stand out on records from Sons Of Kemet, Shabaka and the Ancestors, and The Comet Is Coming. But Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, is all about Shabaka’s flute playing — and boy is it beautiful.
Whereas Hutchings boldly explores themes centered around 21st-century Afro-futurism through his work with Sons Of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka and the Ancestors, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, is a restrained and introspective meditation, always guided by Shabaka’s flute.
The flute flutters over a host of fantastic features spread throughout the nearly 47-minute record. Those features are in no way repetitive, however. The London-based flutist pulls together a diverse array of artists to contribute to Perceive Its Beauty, starting with Moses Sumney on the third track “Insecurities,” to Floating Points (who we’ll return to below) and Laraaji on “I’ll Do Whatever You Want,” to E L U C I D on “Body To Inhabit,” my favorite feature of the bunch, plus several others.
Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace cemented its place amongst my favorite albums of 2024 as I listened through its 11 wonderfully composed, beautifully performed, and intricately expressed tracks while driving through the rolling hills of Western Kansas along a simple two-lane highway, just as the sun was setting, throwing golden hues over the forests and fields. It’s a musical experience I’ll never forget, one as simple but beautiful as the record that gave it life.
Favorite tracks: Insecurities (feat. Moses Sumney), Body To Inhabit (feat. E L U C I D), Living (feat. Eska)
3.) Charm - Clairo
There’s something very basic about Charm. Clairo’s voice doesn’t stun; in fact, it’s rather muted. Most of the instrumentals are relatively simplistic, jazzy, made up mostly of strings and keys, with drums pushed slightly forward in the mixes. The album doesn’t come with a whole lot of personality, in general.
Basic, in this case, is very, very good. Like a well-worn pair of suede pants or an heirloom brown velvet couch, when I put on Charm (Clairo Records LLC), I feel cozy, at home. Track by track, Charm invites the listener in and surrounds them with familiarity — easy, laid-back vocals, well-performed, sleek instrumentation, familiar lyrical themes.
Take Charm’s ninth song, “Echo,” for instance. A fusion of extended electric organ chords, vaguely distorted vocals that sound almost far away, a repetitive drum pattern driven by a ride cymbal, plucky guitar, subtle flute lines, and, toward the end, a brief, repeating bass solo pattern — its sound, I think, best expresses the warm, homey vibes of the record.
Its transition into “Glory of the Snow,” my favorite song on Charm, is fantastic, too, a high-pitched organ chord giving way to the plucky piano melody that makes up most of the song, Charm’s second-to-last track, inspired by the Alessi Brother’s 1976 hit “Seabird.”
“Terrapin,” a sultry blend of tinkling keys, subtle but persistent bass, and dynamic drums, is another standout, coming right before “Juna,” famous for its iconic synth melody that repeats several times throughout the song. While certainly simple, the more you listen, the more you discover intricate sounds tucked within Charm’s instrumentals, which layer like blankets over Clairo’s vocals.
Any album that feels like it would be best listened to on a turntable, possibly while lying gently on a felt rug, even more while sipping a glass of merlot, is excellent to me. Charm certainly exudes that vibe, and more.
Favorite tracks: Terrapin, Add Up My Love, Glory of the Snow
4.) Cascade - Floating Points
Sam Shepherd, the man behind Floating Points, is my favorite progressive electronica artist working right now. His 5-hour Boiler Room set, where Shepherd is constantly flicking through cases of records, blending together various genres into an effortless fusion as crowd members float in and out behind him, is one of my favorite performances of 2024. 2021’s Promises, performed with saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, is one of the albums of the decade, I think.
Cascade, Shepherd’s fifth studio album under Floating Points, is the London artist’s best standalone project to date.
It’s not hard to picture Shepherd performing Cascade (Pluto Records) as one extended set, much like his Boiler Room, most probably hosted in a low-ceilinged hall that seemingly goes on forever, the crowd a mass of bodies extending endlessly into the distance from the soundboard where Shepherd conducts.
Thankfully, Cascade is just as enjoyable a listen in a sweaty dance hall as it is sitting on the couch with a good pair of headphones, or working from a posh downtown café, or running — an activity I’ve particularly enjoyed doing while making my way through the album’s 9 tracks.
The standout, for me, is “Del Oro,” a roughly 6-minute pulsating blend of hypnotic bass, repetitive synths, driving hi-hats, and subtle vocal interjections. The track builds over a series of breaks, four distinct segments, each more expansive than the last, until all the sounds slowly drone away and you’re left asking, “Was that seriously only 6 minutes?”
Ocotillo, the longest track on Cascade at nearly 9 minutes, follows a different structure. Driven by the samplings of harpist Miriam Adefris, the tune plucks away slowly for roughly 4 minutes, building a retinue of sounds around the harp melody that guides the track’s introduction. A cacophony of somewhat disjointed electronics continue to build until around the 6-minute mark, where we get our first taste of real heaviness on the track, which transforms it into a drum-and-bass-like industrial fusion — a far cry from where the song started 8 minutes earlier.
Ocotillo, Cascade’s 6th track, exemplifies the electronic variety Shepherd displays on the record. While 57 minutes puts Cascade as one of the longest on this 10-album favorites list, the way Shepherd crafts each individual track and structures them into the broader album leaves no room for boredom or tediousness.
Rather, Cascade stands as an enthralling experience, whether it was the first time I put it on in my apartment or the dozenth time I listened to it out on a run.
5.) Alligator Bites Never Heal - Doechii
2024 was Doechii’s year — well, at least the second half of it.
In a year that saw brilliant releases from the likes of Vince Staples, Tyler, the Creator, ScHoolboy Q, and, of course, Kendrick Lamar, Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal (Top Dawg Entertainment), released in late August, stood out.
Alligator Bites Never Heal is a breakout 47-minute record of pure rap majesty. Blending South Florida boom-bap sounds (hear CATFISH and the remarkable single NISSAN ALTIMA) with sleek West Coast instrumentals (WAIT, BEVERLY HILLS, and SLIDE, the latter of which has one of the smoothest, most infectious beats I’ve ever heard), Doechii delivers impeccable performance after impeccable performance.
Sure, there are some tracks that are easier to gloss over than others (HIDE N SEEK and HUH!, for example). But Doechii’s charismatic delivery and personality pull the whole record together, tied around themes of womanhood, changing faces and places, and the pressures and pleasures of newfound fame.
I’ll be the first to admit I hadn’t heard anything of Doechii’s prior to checking out Alligator Bites Never Heal, even though I like to claim I was “early” in appreciating the L.A.-based artist. Now, after a phenomenal Tiny Desk Concert, appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and launch of a TV show, I’ll be eagerly anticipating what 2025 brings for one of the best artists I discovered in 2024.
Favorite tracks: CATFISH, DEATH ROLL, SLIDE
6.) Seed of a Seed - Haley Heynderickx
An album that came out pretty late in 2024, Oregon singer and songwriter Haley Heynderickx’s Seed of a Seed immediately captured my attention. It held it, too, for the two months between its release on November 1st and the turn of the year.
That’s largely because Seed of a Seed (Mama Bird Recording Co.) found me at the perfect time. I first listened to the record at nearly the same time as I began reading Braiding Sweetgrass. Written by ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer, the novel explores “Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants,” per the description on the book’s cover. At the core of Braiding Sweetgrass is gratitude — learning to love, cherish, and give back to the land and all of its life, which Indigenous peoples have stewarded for hundreds upon hundreds of years, but which rampant exploration and expansion and the demands of capitalism have ravaged over and over again in recent centuries.
Like Braiding Sweetgrass, Seed of a Seed also explores gratitude, and other themes like family, love, and simplicity, but in a more intimate way. A cello solo and small chorus of strings punctuate the album’s title track, where Heynderickx sings of her parents, and their parents, and the lessons of life shared between generations.
“If I get lucky, maybe a simple life / If I get lucky, maybe some free time / If we don’t know better / If we don’t know, better / Well did my parents’ parents know better? / No, but they tried,” Heynderickx intones on the last chorus.
“Mouth of a Flower,” the next song, explores gratitude, in the form of taking and giving, directly. Different things — from ghosts, to a mussel underwater, to a mouth of a flower itself — “take, and they take, and they take,” Heynderickx sings, pulling in again themes of family and referring to the story of King Solomon, in which he gives his wife “all that she desired.”
Plants come to the forefront, as well, on the song “Redwoods (Anxious God),” where Heynderickx sings, to open the song, “My God, my ancient God / Well I couldn’t believe what the water had told me / That man and plant used to talk / Man, I’d do anything to hear the redwoods talk.”
Ultimately, I found that Seed of a Seed and Braiding Sweetgrass served as perfect complements to one another — the novel broader, tying society, science, and stories together to urge better care and understanding; the album narrower, sharing personal reflections on one’s connection to trees, long road trips, and home life to offer connection. Just as I’ll return to Braiding Sweetgrass again and again, I’ll regularly revisit Seed of a Seed, to hear anew the simple beauty of slowing down.
Favorite tracks: Seed of a Seed, Mouth of a Flower, Ayan’s Song
7.) Unusual Object - Josh Johnson
There should probably be more jazz on this list. If, in future years, I decide to write about 15 albums, or go crazy and expand to 20, then there certainly will be. But of all the new jazz releases I listened to in 2024, saxophonist Josh Johnson’s Unusual Object stood apart.
Based out of Los Angeles, Johnson has played with many of my other favorite musicians working right now — Jeff Parker, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Makaya McCraven, to name a few. He’s also music directed for Leon Bridges and played on records by Harry Styles, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and others. Needless to say, Johnson’s collaborations are expansive, but his solo projects, comparatively, are narrow.
His first solo project, 2020’s Freedom Exercise, was brilliant. 2024’s Unusual Object is quite different, more compositionally innovative, but just as excellent.
Johnson explains Unusual Object (Northern Spy Records) on his website as “a development and documentation of a more personal world of sound. What’s it like for me to create the context for my sound, to frame it myself?” It’s a near-40-minute “sparse work” (again stealing from the description on Johnson’s website) that’s centered wholly around the saxophone.
When I wrote “compositionally innovative” above, I’m in part referring to the record’s sparseness and in part to how Johnson manipulates his saxophone’s sound. Take “Marvis,” Unusual Object’s second track, for instance, where Johnson builds layers of saxophone sound around rather basic, repeating melodies, with small, improvisational interjections interspersed between. Bridges built by more elongated harmonies tie those repetitive sections together, and a subtle but persistent bass pulls the track along.
While “Marvis” is one of the fuller tracks on Unusual Objects, other moments on the album echo ambiance, like the peaceful “Deep Dark” or the bubbly “Local City of Industry.” “Quince,” the record’s fourth song and only one where Johnson invites a contributor to play the drum synth, is the one of the longest and most complex tracks, opening with a roughly 1-minute saxophone solo and then releasing into a series of single, beautifully elongated notes that then shoot upward into a glossier overarching harmony. On “Reddish,” Johnson strips everything back to give way for a 1:46 solo — just he and the listener.
The first time I heard “Quince,” I was left awestruck by just the sound of it. They were sounds unlike anything I had really heard before, all created by the saxophone. In that sense, it feels a bit weird to describe Unusual Object as a pure “jazz” album. Freedom Exercise certainly was, in the more traditional sense.
Unusual Object, though? It is just as Johnson himself described it, “a more personal world of sound,” a world that I immersed myself within over and over throughout 2024.
8.) I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU - JPEGMAFIA
When I think of artists making music right now who have the clearest voices, the clearest perception of who they are, where they exist within the broader spectrum of whatever genres or pseudo-genres they make music within, JPEGMAFIA seems to stand alone in the world of hip-hop.
Blending eccentric samples with industrial, harsh production and witty, almost corny lyricism, JPEGMAFIA has carved out his own space within contemporary hip-hop. His live shows, constant references to pop culture and political trends, and odd-ball fashion pull the whole image together.
So too does PEGGY’s productivity. Since 2018’s breakout album Veteran, he’s released seven albums, included 2023’s Danny Brown collab SCARING THE HOES, alongside an abundance of singles, remixes, and features. The prolific producer simply puts out music.
I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU is far and away my favorite JPEGMAFIA project. I, unlike a lot of friends, didn’t love SCARING THE HOES. LP! and All My Heroes Are Cornballs are my other two preferred PEGGY projects; I embarrassingly haven’t spent enough time with VETERAN to have a firm opinion on it.
But ILDMLFY (PEGGY) sounds unique from LP!, All My Heroes Are Cornballs, SCARING THE HOES, and other recent PEGGY albums. Many of its songs are longer and more fleshed out than the collections on other projects. “Exmilitary,” the longest track, opens with an almost circus-like blend of piano chords before, about 1:20 in, falling into the beat that carries the majority of the rest of the track. Denzel Curry features on “JPEGULTRA!,” another longer track where Denzel takes over the first verse in his typical boisterous, aggressive style. “Don’t Put Anything On the Bible,” ILDMLFY’s second-to-last song, features Buzzy Lee and a plucky guitar, what’s a sparser, more introspective cut.
While JPEGMAFIA isn’t new to introspective lyrics, the end of ILDMLFY feels like PEGGY at his most introspective. The project starts with a bang, a series of high-energy cuts that weave heavy guitar riffs into bombastic arena bass like on “SIN MIEDO” or off-kilter industrial sounds like on “New Black History,” which includes a verse from Vince Staples. But while the beginning is heavy and hard, the end of ILDMLFY is lighter and softer.
The way PEGGY pulls those sensations together on the 41-minute project is brilliant; “either on or off the drugs,” the album’s 11th track and one of its best, acts as a perfect sort of segue to the introspective culmination.
And, in typical JPEGMAFIA fashion, the sounds don’t stop — a director’s cut of I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU is due out soon. Thank God. Thank PEGGY.
Favorite tracks: I’ll Be Right There, Exmilitary, either on or off the drugs
9.) Cutouts - The Smile
Let me start my thoughts on Cutouts with a caveat: Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood, two parts of Radiohead and now also The Smile, are weirdos. Yorke walked off stage in Australia in anger last year when faced with pro-Palestine chants from the audience. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame recently tore into Yorke over such a response. Radiohead, going back further, has come under scrutiny for continuing to play gigs in Israel after receiving backlash from fans. I’m well aware of all of this and loathe Yorke and Greenwood for it. Palestine should be free, and support for the Israeli state means support for genocide.
Notwithstanding Yorke and, largely by association, Greenwood’s abysmal contemporary geopolitical stances, the pair — alongside drummer Tom Skinner — have made some of excellent free-ranging, punchy, contemporary rock music in the past few years under The Smile. Of The Smile’s three full-length projects, Cutouts, released in early October, is my favorite.
That’s in large part thanks to Skinner’s playing. Skinner, a London-based drummer, was one of the founding members of Sons of Kemet (see the write up on Shabaka’s Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace above for more on Sons of Kemet) and has collaborated with numerous other artists, as well as producing his own solo work. His playing is deeply rhythmic, using space intentionally to create infectious patterns that carry entire tracks by themselves.
“Eyes & Mouth” may be the best example of that on Cutouts (Self Help Tapes LLP). The song opens with Skinner’s drums, a march-like snare pattern that never seems to fully settle in throughout the track’s roughly 4-minute run time. Yet, despite its refusal to fall into a typical repetitive pattern, Skinner’s blend of marching snare, riding cymbal, and specific hi-hat flourishes create an enveloping rhythmic soundscape that I could listen to over and over and over.
In contrast, Skinner relies on a steady, driving pattern on “No Words,” the album’s second-to-last track, which builds and kicks in in full about 1:15 into the song. The almost swing-y hi-hat pattern, syncopated bass, and constant snare punches have made the track one of my favorites to play on my little home electronic drum kit.
Stepping away from the drums for a moment, the instrumental stylings on Cutouts are at times dark and heavy, like on “No Words,” at times airy and sparse, like on “Tiptoe,” and at times bright and warm, like “Instant Psalm” — another great drum cut that highlights the way Skinner uses space to create beautiful rhythms.
In that sense, The Smile largely echoes Radiohead, a group that you can’t quite pin into one particular category of rock music and that offers a sweeping diversity of sounds and themes throughout projects that feel long but are in fact relatively short — Cutouts is just under 45 minutes and feels closer to what Radiohead sounds like on OK Computer or even 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool.
If you’re familiar with The Smile, you might ask, “Why is Cutouts on this list and not Wall of Eyes, which of course came out in the same year, albeit much earlier, Jacob?” In response, I’ll return to Skinner’s drumming.
While I do think many of the instrumental compositions on Wall of Eyes are better than those on Cutouts (notably “Teleharmonic” and “Bending Hectic”), Skinner’s playing on Cutouts, in combination with the depth and variety of Yorke and Greenwood’s own playing on the record, put it over the top.
Favorite tracks: Instant Psalm, No Words, Bodies Laughing
10.) #RICHAXXHAITIAN - Mach-Hommy
If this year’s albums list could have a theme, it’s sound. Think of the peaceful, reflective flute stylings of Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, the thumping electronics of Cascade, the layers of saxophone on Unusual Object, the industrial, glitchy, sample-heavy instrumentals of I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, or the rhythmic, standout drumming on Cutouts.
It feels a bit strange to lump a lyrics-forward hip-hop project among those instrumental-forward albums, some of which are devoid of any substantive lyricism altogether. Such is the case, however, with Mach-Hommy’s #RICHAXXHAITIAN.
Released in mid-May, #RICHAXXHAITIAN (Mach-Hommy) dominated my summer listening — and much of my fall and winter listening, as well. That’s because Mach-Hommy, an artist I had only heard of but hadn’t delved into before, built 47 minutes of incredibly dense lyrical artistry and complex instrumentals into #RICHAXXHAITIAN.
One thing Mach-Hommy didn’t do, however, is make the actual lyrics on #RICHAXXHAITIAN easy to understand. The artist eschews record labels and traditional music publicization in favor of hyper-targeted, small-scale physical releases and opaque wider digital releases — opaque in the sense that Mach-Hommy seem to intentionally make his lyrics difficult to comprehend.
In fact, they aren’t found anywhere online. A Genius search won’t pull up any results. Fans are left largely in the dark, meaningful lyrical engagement only accessible through repeated listens.
Repeated listens I did, and I’m still left far short of being able to decipher many, many words throughout #RICHAXXHAITIAN. Most infamous for this lyrical opaqueness is Mach’s second verse on the title track, the album’s 12th song, an endless stream of words that flow together in a way that’s nearly impossible to make out in any detail.
That gets to the point about sound, and why I group #RICHAXXHAITIAN among those other albums on this list — on #RICHAXXHAITIAN, Mach-Hommy uses words less as lyrics to share stories or introspective poetics, and more as another instrumental layer in and of themselves. I may not know exactly what I’m saying when I stumble my way through Mach’s second verse on the title track, but its flow — its sound — layers over the underlying beat like a worn but well-crafted blanket.
Using words more for their sound than for their content doesn’t mean #RICHAXXHAITIAN is completely indecipherable, or that it’s devoid of lyrical substance. Take SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON (Reparation #1), the album’s 7th track featuring Sam Gendel, a brilliant contemporary saxophonist, for instance. Its title translates to “On the bridge of Avignon” and is pulled from a 15th century French song about a dance performed on the titular bridge.
See, as the album’s title would suggest, much of Mach-Hommy’s lyrical content revolves around Haiti — its history as a French colony, its march toward freedom during the Haitian Revolution, and modern image as a country in constant turmoil.
Coming from a country surrounded but such history and strife directly influences Mach-Hommy’s artistic image, constantly masked, with a gravely, hard-to-understand voice, and lyrical content. On SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON, Mach raps to open the track:
“I’m a warrior, ma, I’m not a killer / My emporium consortium been sliding with accordions all around the village / Shorties talking about the pillars / Vic-torious, in the auditorium according to all the volunteering / Warden off the spot, surveillance / Colder water hide and then scare em / Tomblerone for all my toyas, taught em how to share it / Mobile phones for all my lawyers, want a lot of hearings / Brought up on amoxicillin / Started from the top of the ceiling.”
The italicized parts in the above lyrics are bits that I, even after dozens of repetitions, couldn’t exactly decipher. Those are my best guesses.
That’s part of the beauty, though. Someone else who listens to that same verse may interpret those lines completely differently. The verse continues, too, with Mach incorporating French and Arabic into his lines. It becomes even more difficult to decipher as it continues.
You could spend countless hours going song-by-song, close listening to pull out individual words and extract deeper meanings from Mach’s lyrics. Even after what’s probably my 100th listen through #RICHAXXHAITIAN in writing this review I’m still discovering little turns of phrase, words that hadn’t appeared to me before but suddenly stand out now.
#RICHAXXHAITIAN, like Mach-Hommy himself, is shrouded in layers of complexity, intentionally indecipherable, openly opaque. Like any great work of art, what’s left unsaid — or, in this case, unclear — is what’s most important, and what keeps anyone interacting with the art wanting to come back.
Mach blends lyrical complexity, words as expressions of sounds, with palatable beats produced by a host of excellent producers, from Conductor Williams to Chris Keys to, on the title track, KAYTRANADA, all with some absolutely incredible features — Black Thought’s verse on COPY COLD is absolutely brilliant, but you wouldn’t expect anything less from one of the best lyricists of all time.
The project is not just my favorite hip-hop record of 2024, but my favorite album, and favorite work of art, from last year, period.
Favorite tracks: SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON (Reparation #1), COPY COLD, LON LON
Other Favorites
Wall of Eyes - The Smile
Imaginal Disk - Magdalena Bay
empathogen - WILLOW
Method Actor - Nilüfer Yanya
The Room - Fabiano do Nascimento, Sam Gendel
Romance - Fontaines D.C.
Absolute Elsewhere - Blood Incantation
You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To - Knocked Loose
Great Doubt - Astrid Sonne
BRAT - Charli XCX
Endlessness - Nala Sinephro
13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips - Xiu Xiu
Dark Times - Vince Staples
