My albums of the year, 2024
Here, for you, same as every year, my albums of the year. I thought it was a good year, lots to listen to and enjoy. Of course, time will tell if these releases live long in the memory. It’s funny when I look back at old lists and see which long players stayed in rotation.
Here’s a Spotify playlist with a song from each (with the exception of two that weren’t on Spotify, so I have put a song from #41 and #42 on to make up the numbers).
And here are the charts for years going back to 1987. Can I make it to 40 years of charts?
1 IMAGINAL DISK – Magdalena Bay
2 RONG WEICKNES – Fievel Is Glauque
3 NIGHT PALACE – Mount Eerie
4 CHARM – Clairo
5 WORLD OF WORK – Clarissa Connelly
6 BELOW A MASSIVE DARK LAND – Naima Bock
7 PAINT A ROOM – Chris Cohen
8 PAUL BUNYAN’S SLINGSHOT – Liquid Mike
9 THE PILGRIM, THEIR GOD, AND THE KING OF MY DECREPIT MOUNTAIN – Tapir
10 PEGASUS – Sex On Toast
11 DOGGIE PADDLIN’ THRU THE COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS – Psychic Temple
12 LOOPHOLE – Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band
13 MANNING FIREWORKS – MJ Lenderman
14 LIMITS OF LANGUAGE – Field Music
15 ONE MORE AGAIN – Dylan Moon
16 WEIRD ROOMS – The Black Watch
17 HERE IN THE PITCH – Jessica Pratt
18 LATE SLAP – Dana Gavanski
19 BOX FOR BUDDY, BOX FOR STAR – This Is Lorelai
20 WHO’S A GOOD BOY – Bory
21 MALAGROTTA – Augie March
22 A DREAM IS ALL WE KNOW – Lemon Twigs
23 SCHEDULED EXPLOSIONS – 2nd Grade
24 THE OPTIMISTIC WRENCH EP – UV-TV
25 GRAVITY STAIRS – Crowded House
26 SEED OF A SEED – Haley Heynderickx
27 SOUVENIR – Omni
28 HEX – Jon McKiel
29 IMAGINARY FRIENDS – The Junipers
30 FOR EVERY SET OF EYES – J. Mamana
31 LA FLEUR – Kelly Stoltz
32 DIAMOND JUBILEE – Cindy Lee
33 ETHEREAL ESSENCE – Cornelius
34 EELS – Being Dead
35 MY LIGHT, MY DESTROYER – Cassandra Jenkins
36 HOWL – Daisy Rickman
37 BIG FOR YOU – Zsela
38 TAPED OVER EP – Novelty Island
39 INFINITE SKY EP – Twen
40 CATCHING CHICKENS EP – Nourished By Time
You have no idea how grateful I am to see the link to old charts. When you announced this years I thought to myself, “2025 will be the year I spend an inordinate amount of time using the internet archive to verify vague memories that an Eels album was on one of those lists.”
Thank you, John. Bless you and yours for this Christmas miracle.
I did used to like Eels, back in the day! When it comes to my charts, just ask if you ever want to know.
Hooray! I love these lists. The world of music is so ungodly huge—I made a concerted effort this year to listen to a bunch of new music and am working on my own end of year list, but I think I’ve only heard two of the albums here. (Cassandra Jenkins and Tapir.) Thank you!
Thanks, John. I’ve found a ton of great music from your lists every year. I really appreciate you doing this annually.
I’m very pleased to learn that, if I go back to the 1990s lists, I not only know of most of the albums, but have listened to and enjoyed many of them! I admire your dedication to new music, and helping me find out that the song I heard one time in 2000 at the UFO McDonald’s in Alconbury was “Drew Barrymore” by The Action Spectacular. You didn’t know the song, but you helped point me to it and it was the #1 song in this year’s Spotify Wrapped.
This just serves to remind me that I lost interest in pop music around 2000 when Britpop was over, got back on the bandwagon a few years later, then stopped following it all around 2010. I’m now 15 years out of date with the cool kids, not recognizing one name on your current list. I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled, alas, alack.
Surely you remember Crowded House, then?
I’m similarly out of touch with modern music, and I’ve always harboured a suspicion that John just makes up the names on his end of year lists.
Nice of him to provide a Spotify playlist to prove me wrong this year.
The thing about John’s year-end music lists is that inevitably every year they include at least a few albums that I thought I had already bought, but have somehow forgotten to actually purchase yet.
This time around it’s The Black Watch’s Weird Rooms and Clairo’s Charm, both of which I thought I owned.
I wonder when the next Bandcamp Friday is.