Top Ten Albums of 2024

Kendrick Lamar had a great year.

His venomous Drake roast "Not Like Us" is the "Hit 'Em Up" for the TikTok era, a catchy tune that two-stepped its way to becoming the song of 2024. For pop, it was a tipsy year, with jolts of espresso and red wine supernovas. Spotify wraps became a joke, bloated with talking heads and snake oil.

I've been getting back into CDs, searching for good finds to play on my Bose wave, a nostalgic stereo from the bygone era of Columbia House hauls. I still have a binder full of discs and some treasured jewel cases, but I didn't hang on to everything; long-gone is my CD of good kid, m.A.A.d city that I bumped in my Honda Accord, before car stereos went smart.

The joy of music includes the desire for something tangible, something to remember. So I guess it's fitting that the first brand new CD I bought this year, from Barnes & Noble, one of the last bastions of brick & mortar, was the latest album from The Cure. Like my Disintergration CD, I plan to hold on to it.

Here are my Top Ten albums of 2024.

10. Justice - Hyperdrama

 

I'm probably not alone in forgetting about Justice over the last decade. But the French electro-disco duo have returned to rock your body like it's 2007. While there isn't a zeitgeist smashing equivalent to "D.A.N.C.E."  present on Hyperdrama, Justice haven't lost their touch, crafting soaring tunes that bring light sabers to the dance floor. The hipster in heat bliss of "Afterimage," with a sweaty beat echoing the days of Virtual DJ dance parties, make a case for ironing those skinny jeans and cracking open a PBR.

 

 

 

 

9. Manu Chao - Viva Tu

For the globe trotting musician Manu Chao, the world was a different place the last time he released an album, 2007's La Radiolina. I still remember the first time I heard the La Radiolina single "Rainin in Paradize" and being hooked by Chao's turbo blend of world, punk and new-wave genres. In his 17 year radio silence, pop music has become a global melting pot with international sensations from Bad Bunny to BTS. 

The title of Chao's new album, Viva Tu, translates to "long may you live" and the vibes echo what he did during his hiatus - enjoying a no-frills life. A folksy campfire jam with Willie Nelson, "Heaven's Bad Day," with its healthy dose of harmonica, recall Chao's busking roots. The melodic "Sao Paulo Motoboy" celebrates the couriers of Brazil, as Chao sings and raps over a Latin tinged Postal Service sound. With his latest export, Chao, now a elder-statesman of worldbeat, proves he still has the goods.

 

 

8. Fatima Al Qadiri - Seeking Mavis Beacon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

 

Seeking Mavis Beacon is one of my favorite films of the year, a fascinating journey down the rabbit hole, reviving a cold case of sorts about searching for the missing Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing model from the Internet's early age. Fatima Al Qadiri's chilly suite of short, electronic numbers reminiscent of Jamie XX provided a moody atmosphere for the tech mystery and play just a well as an isolated score, perfect for relaxing or focusing. Standouts like "Cyber Doula" and "F3mb0t5" recall the lush marvel of Vangelis' Blade Runner score, an fitting apropos for the mystery of Mavis Beacon, one of the original A.I. assistants. 

 

 

 

7. Washed Out - Notes from a Quiet Life

Before seeing Washed Out in concert this summer, I was a casual fan of Ernest Greene's enchanted chill wave, from his classic slow jam "Feel It Around" (famous as the Portlandia theme song) to the more caffeinated, sophisti-pop leanings of  "Too Late." But watching Greene's dazzling live show, his music truly came alive, boosted by a Kraftwerk reminiscent stage show featuring gigantic video cubes and hypnotizing lights. The show at Atlanta's The Eastern was a homecoming of sorts for the Georgia native, who in the pandemic years relocated his family to an idyllic 20 acre ranch in Macon. 

Notes from a Quiet Life, Greene's first self-produced album, is a reflection of that unplugging from our modern tech dystopia, as most evident on the hammock swaying "Wonderous Life" with Greene cooing on the chorus "If you just slow down/And focus on what's here right now, you'll find/It's a wondrous life each moment you're around." The tranquility threads throughout NfaQL, from the bubbly "I've Got Your Back" to the sunny opener "Waking Up." During the concert, Greene performed 7 of the album's 10 tracks, nourishing the crowd with these farm to table to tunes. The reviews for NFaQL have been tepid, but I think these critics are missing the album's point, strengthened for me during the live show: Cut the noise.

 

6. Kendrick Lamar - GNX

Beef often sparks a creative renaissance. The post 9/11 feud between Jay-Z and Nas elevated their game in the quest for the crown, with each releasing albums in The Blueprint and Stillmatic considered some of the best work. LL Cool J, man of many comebacks, was reinvigorated on Mama Said Knock You Out, jabbing at Kool Moe Dee and later recovering from a late '90's second round K.O. by Canibus and declaring himself the GOAT with an "Ill Bomb."

But battles can also sour careers. Ja Rule was never the same after 50 Cent declared him a "Wanksta." As the dust settles from the dramatic showdown between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, with Kendrick's "Not Like Us" considered the fatal blow, as iconic as Ali towering over Liston. Drake will never be the same. Like the "phantom punch" in Ali-Liston II, Drake's leaning into conspiracy theory, filing a complaint against Universal and Spotify alleging they boosted streams of "Not Like Us."

Dis tracks are baked into the origins of rap. In the mid '80s, as the genre was still inking its history, 'The Bridge Wars' of MC Shan's "The Bridge" and Boogie Down Productions' "The Bridge is Over", were a feud over hip-hop's birthplace. The fatal beef between 2Pac and Biggie sparked a civil war between East and West coast rooted in ideology. A similar cultural divide exists now. For a decade, a cold war festered between Drake, J. Cole and Kendrick, where they traded subliminal and not so subliminal shots until the conflict turned red hot this April with J Cole escalating tensions on "7 Minute Drill." Cole quickly retracted and disavowed the song, but Drake and Kendrick went full steam ahead, trading dis tracks throughout the spring. 

The finale to the fireworks came during the July 4th holiday, when Lamar released the "Not Like Us" music video, his victory unanimous as he shuffled like Ali. The win was clear because everyone was dancing. At a wedding in September, I watched the floor erupt once the needle dropped. Like "Wanksta" and "Mama Said Knock You Out" Kendrick won because he created an anthem, a catchy crossover.

GNX rubs the spice of "Not Like Us" across an entire album. He's in pristine shadowboxing form on the Debbie Deb sampling freestyle jam "squabble up" and the Peleton ready "hey now." Thankfully,  Kendrick doesn't spend all his time sparring on GNX. Emerging from the battle with Drake, he's learned more about himself. On "man at the garden," a reinterpretation of Nas' "One Mic," he wrestles with his own reflections of life, rapping "I deserve it all" as an personal and professional epiphany. As Nas did on Stillmatic with tracks like "One Mic" and "You're Da Man," conflict causes heroes to turn inward. 

With a Beatles precision for keeping things short and sweet, there are plenty of delightfully pop moments on GNX. On "luther," Kendrick enlists SZA, Kamassi Washington and the spirits of Luther Vandross and Marvin Gaye for a velvet smooth lounge jam. The playful "dodger love" basks in sunny California dreaming as Kendrick taunts "Don't say you hate L.A. when you don't travel past the 10." 

The standout track is "reincarnated" where Kendrick flexes his storytelling skills, weaving a tale of a soul traversing past lives over a Makaveli deep cut. 2Pac, Biggie and Nas are all sampled on GNX, as Kendrick perhaps envisions himself one day alongside them on rap's Rushmore. From a ideological hip-hop perspective, Kendrick Lamar has always been the contemporary most spiritually aligned with those three greats. Now basking in victory after being battle tested, he's got nothing left to prove.

 

5. Mulatu Astatke - Tension 

 

Tension has such a classic sound that you could mistake it for a great dusty record bin find. The 80- year-old Multau Astatke, the father of 'Ethio-jazz', joins forces with a younger generation in Tel Aviv's Hoodna Orchestra for a refreshing throwback to the swinging, big band era. Produced by the Dap-Kings' Neil Sugarman, Tension's groove feels akin to Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse, while also having the cinematic cool of Sean Connery as James Bond. Astatke's hypnotic vibraphone rides the Hoodna's horns like a magic carpet, with the psychedelic shag of "Delilah" whisking you away to the days of Austin Powers.

 

 

 

4. LL Cool J - The FORCE

Back in 1985, a teenage LL Cool J debuted with Radio, the first album released on Def Jam Records. On Radio's signature song, "Rock The Bells," with its booming b-boy bass pumped by Rick Rubin, LL declared the credo he's followed ever since: "LL Cool J is hard as hell/battle anybody I don't care who you tell." Whether he's the playboy battling for hearts or the emcee playing for minds, LL does what it takes to win.

Adapt or die might be the maxim most fitting to hip-hop - a young man's game if there ever was one. Like the NBA, turning thirty makes you a senior citizen. But somehow, LL kept father time at bay. Buffer than LeBron James despite releasing his first single the year the basketball great was born, LL started calling himself the G.O.A.T while James was hitting the lay-up line at St. Vincent-St. Mary. 

But how LL matched his style to the times, from the glossy '90s, then movies and TV, to the Timbaland and Neptunes collaborations in the new millennium, mirrors the different iterations of Lebron, from Cleveland to South Beach and back and now the Lakers. The strongest argument for LeBron being the basketball GOAT is his roman athleticism and Swiss army knife versatility. When it comes to hip-hop, LL possesses those same characteristics in spades.

On The FORCE, LL finds a late career collaborator, with Q-Tip being his Rick Rubin to Johnny Cash. Q-Tip's inspired production, his best work since the 2016 Tribe swan song We Got It from Here sparks LL to channel his iconic microphone tattoo and deliver some of his best rhymes in over 20 years, holding his own among the Nas, Eminem, Rick Ross and Fat Joe guest spots. LL leans into the native tongue funk of "Black Code Suite" and "Basquiat Energy," where he spits history lessons. The neo-noir opener "Spirit of Cyrus," is a harrowing tale of a black vigilante, partly inspired by real life LAPD spree killer Christopher Dorner, with a chilly synth throwback to the cult classic The Warriors where LL echoes Bomb Squad era Ice Cube.

The most interesting moment on The FORCE is "Proclivities," where Q-Tips stretches the haunting synthesizer bridge from Gary Numan's "M.E." into a hypnotic, new-wave interpretation of "Doin' It." The frosty techno of "30 Decembers" could soundtrack a gritty train ride through Queens in 1984. LL reminiscences on his Hollis to Hollywood journey, "If I made it off the streets of Queens, you can too/ It's been thirty Decembers, still rememberin' you/ A lifelong hero's journey and I'm always en route/What has now become wine started off as mere fruit." By leaning into his vintage and pairing with a perfect vintner in Q-Tip, LL is aging just fine.

 

3. Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us

Iconic bands have a template. A signature sound inherent in their DNA, identifiable within snippets of a song. That's U2! Radiohead! The Smiths! With their fifth album, Only God Was Above Us, you can add Vampire Weekend to that list as they continue to apply their unique filter to different sounds while remaining true to their brand. 

They apply their Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa to Portishead trip-hop on "The Surfer" and Soul II Soul house jams on "Mary Boone." The refreshingly rip roaring rhapsody of "Gen-X Cops" sounds like they're declaring generational warfare on grey haired dads in Unknown Pleasures tees. 

But of course there are ditties like 'Pravda' for those who've been with VW since oxford commas. "Classical" is, pun intended, the classic Vampire Weekend track; over their Ginsu-sharp pantry of horns, strings and keys, Ezra Koenig philosophizes "Untrue, unkind and unnatural

/How the cruel, with time, becomes classical" an adage to history authored by the winners. With another brilliant album, Vampire Weekend has cemented their place.

 

2. Al Di Meola - Twentyfour 

If you're having a dinner party, to me, there is no better music to have purring in the background than Al Di Meola. Al's special cocktail of jazz fusion, masterful compositions that mesh global, classical and rock, all sewn tightly by the guitar strings he commands like a sorcerer, showcasing technical refinement when acoustic and axe slayer going electric. 

This past January, I saw Al at the City Winery in Atlanta, the popular dinner and a show venue. This was Al's first tour since suffering a cardiac arrest on stage in Romania last year. Amazingly, Al bounced back within a few months and proved he can still shred at 70. Between songs he told fascinating stories about his career, giving a preview of the experience one enjoys during his private dinner and a concert series he hosts in Italy. But instead of Al's home cooked pasta, the crowd settled for whatever was on City Winery's menu. One of the audio selections was demoing a new song, "Ava's Dance in the Moonlight," a tribute to Al's youngest daughter; a slow-burn movement that builds with Al's tender plucks and a marching drum-line.

Fifty years removed from debuting in the late Chick Corea's Return to Forever super group as a young Berklee student in the early '70s, Al has released a late career opus with his newest album, the sprawling Twentyfour, a record that brings together all of the different genres, from flamenco to jazztronica, he's explored over the decades. Although produced during the pandemic, Twentyfour is upbeat, with the opener "Fandango" a cosmopolitan splash of joy. The sweeping, cinematic "Tears of Hope" highlights the film score quality to many of Al's compositions.

The acoustic trilogy of "Immeasurable" showcase what Al has said is his true gift - percussion. Even though Al is a guitar hero, what is evident on the three parts of "Immeasurable" is the focus on the drums driving the song, establishing the cloud of melodies for the guitar to float on. When Al plugs in the electric for the later gems on this double album, "Paradox of Puppets" and "Genetik," he shows restraint in letting all the instruments breathe, with the tango of acoustic and electric guitars adding layers of rhythm. 

During the concert, Al reminisced about the time he met Paul McCartney, an artist he's covered often, his previous album being the Beatles tribute Across The Universe. As a young prodigy, idolizing the Fab Four (and Chick Corea) instilled a desire to master the craft of songwriting. True to its artwork, the songs on Twentyfour are a bouquet beautifully arranged by Al's seasoned green thumb. 

1. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

The Cure always held themselves to a higher standard. While many titans of the '80's alternative dial, like Depeche Mode and New Order or U2 and The Smiths have either persevered or perished through the years, their legacies are a bit tarnished by time. The likes of Depeche Mode and U2 a little too capitalist, a tad fashionable with fads; New Order and The Smiths elevating politics over music, drama over dance. With The Cure an extension of front-man Robert Smith's trademark melancholy, they've remained consistently bittersweet since the late '70s.

This isn't to say that The Cure haven't had flashes of mediocrity, which is perhaps why it took 16 years for a follow-up to 2008's ho-hum 4:13 Dream, released during a blip when new wave revival acts outfoxed the originals. In the intervening years, The Cure toured and teased new music, while Smith assumed the role of goth in emeritus, loyally frizzing his hair and wearing all black like it was 1986.

A sampling of tracks from Songs of a Lost World have been sprinkled into The Cure's recent tour, marking a path to a sought after treasure: a new album. When I saw the band during their 'Shows of a Lost World' tour in 2023, Smith emerged to the overture of the lush, Disintegration descendant "Alone" like a resurrected deity, basking in the audience's joy as he walked around the stage, arms widening to embrace the crowd. When he sang "This is the end/of every song that we sing" it felt not like an exit but the best return since Twin Peaks.

Exodus is one major theme of SoaLW, released this past November, in time for the dead leaves, shorter days and darker nights. The somber ballad "And Nothing is Forever" opens with a gorgeous symphony of tender keys and soaring synths, around mid-point Smith's vocals burst through like a beautiful swan dive, as he grips with aging, loss and the eternal vows that follow us into the afterlife. It's an instant classic; that one of the greatest Cure songs ever clocks-in as the second cut on SoaLW speaks volumes about this album's strength.

I would argue that Smith has less in common with his '80's new wave peers and more with the '90's grunge gods, in particular Kurt Cobain. Like Nirvana, The Cure were able to tightrope pop melodies and alt-rock ethos with a razor sharp precision. The middle of SoaLW contain the edgier "Warsong" and "Drone: Nodrone" that thrash with calculated chaos, as if flanneled Black Sabbath made a passage to Seattle. Tracing roots back to The Cure's early '80s singles such as "A Forest" and "The Hanging Garden", the Brit-pop tinged "A Fragile Thing" sounds radio ready for '95, with a sheen of Goo Goo Dolls polish. These three middle songs are the leanest, all around 4 minutes, sandwiched between the heavy bookends that scaffold this epic release.

At least one lost world Smith is traversing is that of the past, the salad days that only grow more distant for the 65-year-old baby boomer Smith - he's definitely one of the coolest ones. But it's a relatable theme for the graying Gen X and the elder millennials such as myself who likely compose most of the Cure's fan base. The last two tracks on SoaLW, "All I Ever Am" and "Endsong," grapple with the passing of time, regrets and loss. Both are among the strongest songs on the album, advancing the band's signature sound for the 2020s.  As the brooding atmosphere builds for 6 minutes on the aptly named "Endsong", until Smith mourns "It's all gone, it's all gone/Nothing left of all I loved," as the song becomes a eulogy not only for lost loved ones but for yesterday. If this is The Cure at twilight, it's a full moon shining bright.