Every personal year-end list should begin with a disclaimer. Here's mine: Nothing below captures the range of my listening habits over the last 12 months. There's no ratio of new to old music consumption. Nothing that reveals how much rabbit holing, nostalgia waxing or sonic time traveling I engaged in. None of the seasonal faves streamed on repeat or lullabies, nursery rhymes and Disney theme-songs I suffered through for my kids' sake.
When I strip all that noise away, what's left is the stuff that haunted and comforted me — which was weirdly one and the same more often than not. Like E L U C I D, who doesn't rap so much as offer guided tours through his own dissonant fever dreams on Revelator, or Dear Silas, whose Cadillac Leather in July EP feels like the soundtrack to a lost season of HBO's Insecure. (You can practically see Issa Rae's character rapping along to it while staring in the mirror.)
King Kendrick led off his GNX decree with "wacced out murals," my daily incantation since it dropped, mainly because I can't stop hearing it as a creeped-out, Jordan Peele-style remix of Whodini's "Friends." Schoolboy Q turned Coltrane's "Naima" — and an album full of other well-sourced samples — into a middle-aged, ruminating gangsta's paradise on BLUE LIPS.
From the sounds of CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler, The Creator knows how frightening parenthood could be. Desire can be haunting, too, when the thing you're grasping for feels perpetually out of reach. Like Brittany Howard daydreaming about what it would be like "To Be Still" as a flower in her lover's garden. Or Shabaka's "End of Innocence," which, even without words, seems to long for the simplicity of not knowing. Maybe the best thing about impending doom is knowing we all get to experience it together, like going to the movies to peep a good horror flick. Below is a list of albums, EPs and songs that fit the bill, in an order about as random as our fleeting existence in this universe.
My top 20 albums and songs of 2024
- Wahid, feast, by ravens
- Dear Silas, Cadillac Leather in July EP
- BigXthaPlug, TAKE CARE
- ScHoolboy Q, BLUE LIPS
- Kendrick Lamar, "wacced out murals"
- Ka, "Bread Wine Body Blood"
- Tyler, The Creator, CHROMAKOPIA
- Brittany Howard, "To Be Still"
- Shabaka, "End Of Innocence"
- LL Cool J, "Spirit of Cyrus" (feat. Snoop Dogg)
- Blvck Svm, michelinman
- E L U C I D, REVELATOR
- Dawuna, Southside Bottoms EP
- Doechii, Alligator Bites Never Heal
- SML, Small Medium Large
- SALIMATA, Wooden Floors
- Bilal, Live At Glasshaus
- Joi, 'Tine Wolf Rebellion
- Marysia Osu, harp, beats & dreams
- Mustard, "Ghetto" (feat. Young Thug and Lil Durk)
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