Let’s count down the hits from coast to coast.
15) David Gilmour, Luck and Strange – Recalling the anthemic, cavernous, and contemplative soundscapes of (Pink Floyd’s) The Division Bell, Gilmour’s most recent solo outing proudly declares itself to be much more than a legacy album. Gilmour’s voice explores deeper registers with all of the miles it has racked up, but it is no less commanding because of it, and his guitar playing is as soaring as ever.
14) Huntertones, Motionation – Brooklyn-based jazz sextet Huntertones kick out the jams on their fifth full studio release, and their energy is delightfully infectious. Their sound arguably shares more in common with Jamiroquai than conventional jazz groups, and their soulful take on Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work” is indicative of their fusion of jazz and pop elements. Motionation includes deft ensemble horn solis, tight horn voicings, and an effective balance between written out and improvised material.
13) Jack White, No Name – White’s sixth solo album is his rootsiest and most lo-fi effort since his White Stripes days, and as a further homage to his former band, the role of the bass is largely diminished if not absent altogether. His more blues-intensive sound here fuses well with the more modern aesthetics of his previous solo albums.
12) Dua Lipa, Radical Optimism – DL built off her 2020 commercial breakthrough Future Nostalgia with another batch of disco-infused pop gems. Radical Optimism has plenty of great hooks on it, but it also includes some aughts-era pop ballads like “These Walls” and “Maria” to add a bit of stylistic diversity.
11) Laura Marling, Patterns in Repeat – Perhaps her most intimate album, Patterns features delicate and intricate orchestration and adept harmonic vocabulary, but as with any Marling record, her acoustic guitar and shapeshifting vocals serve as the foundation off which everything is built.
10) Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet – Combining the confessional and often explicit feminism of modern pop with an alt-country aesthetic of 90’s artists like Sheryl Crow, Carpenter propelled herself into the pop culture scene with her summer smash “Espresso.” Short n’ Sweet is teeming with quality earworms, though, and it proves that Carpenter has significant staying power.
9) Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us – Featuring their trademark blend of postpunk, folk, and Baroque pop, Vampire Weekend’s fifth studio album is as bonkers as ever, careening madly yet delightfully across the music spectrum. They continue to exercise supreme musical curiosity and do a particularly effective job exploring extreme registers and disparate musical gestures in cohesive ways. And with an opening line of “Fuck the world,” it feels very much of its time.
8) Clairo, Charm – Steeped in a warm glaze of 70’s west coast pop and What’s Going On-esque production vibes, Clairo puts a retro spin on her personable bedroom pop with balanced layers of Wurlitzer keyboards, synths, melodic bass lines, and R&B-infused grooves. Clairo’s writing is both knowledgeable of its sources of inspiration and distinct enough to offer some pleasantly unexpected detours, and her sustained vocal melodies complement her dense yet uncluttered instrumental textures well.
7) Remy La Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows, Heartland Radio – In one of the freshest big band fusions I have ever heard, Remy La Boeuf seamlessly melds modern jazz big band writing with pop music, creating a sound that is an homage to pop rather than a send-up of it. The writing on Heartland Radio, most notably in its title track, is deftly layered with hooks and seared with infectious grooves that build to earth-shattering climaxes, but the album also showcases softer sides with incorporations of elements of folk balladry and anthemic heartland rock.
6) The Smile, Cutouts / Wall Of Eyes – Funny how Radiohead has put out one album in the past 13 years, yet The Smile, which is a side project of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, has now released three in less than two years, including these two standouts both released in 2024. Whatever creative juices the creative leads of Radiohead are squeezing here, they’re clearly working. Cutouts and Wall Of Eyes are both more guitar-driven and indebted to rock than the most recent Radiohead albums (had they been released as Radiohead albums, they may well have been their analogous White Album), but they still reflect Greenwood’s evolved sense of harmony and song construction. Perhaps OK Computer operated its operating system after all these years?
5) Beyonce, Cowboy Carter – Although it was billed as Beyonce’s country album (hello, Grammy Country Album and Song of the Year nominations!), Cowboy Carter is far more than that, transcending the very concepts of genre and generation to create a richly American pastiche of music. Beyonce’s dexterous lead vocals and richly layered vocal textures guide the proceedings, but the reliance on guitar lends this album a unique quality within her canon that, yes, borrows elements of country music, but blends it with elements of R&B, jazz, rock, folk, and even a pinch of opera. Spread over 27 tracks and nearly 80 minutes of music, Bey’s ambitious scope is well worth the journey.
4) Julius Rodriguez, Evergreen – One of the most eclectic and engaging instrumental jazz albums in recent memory, Evergreen is a pure flex from composer/pianist/organist Julius Rodriguez. Through a unique fusion of styles ranging from jazz to gospel to folk to electropop to avant garde, Rodriguez’ heightened sense of melody and phrasing blends these disparate elements together into one cohesive package. And in these challenging times, we all need an anthem as uplifting as “Run To It (The CP Song).”
3) Brittany Howard, What Now – The former Alabama Shakes vocalist continues to move in wildly different directions in her solo career, reaching a new career best with the postmodern neosoul masterpiece What Now. From the spacy R&B of “I Don’t” to the propulsive electrofunk of the title track to the contemplative drum-and-bass house of “Prove It To You” to the intense Prince vibes of “Power To Undo,” Howard offers a delectable buffet of musical styles and eras. The album works very well on a meta level, as well – tracks are subtly linked with a series of ethereal digital bell tolls that provides the album with a Pictures At An Exhibition-like episodic quality.
2) Willow, empathogen – Pop stars who release kitschy singles as preteens and are the children of mega-movie stars do not, generally speaking, make albums like this. Although Willow (as in Willow Smith, daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith) is still just 24, her sound and musical curiosity demonstrate a maturity far beyond her years. The hooks are complex yet still catchy (check out the hemiola and cluster-based piano riff on “symptom of life”), and Willow’s vocal layerings combine gospel flourishes with jazz-infused dissonance. With elements of pop, R&B, jazz, and prog rock all distilled into its musical vocabulary, empathogen makes for an incredibly rewarding and nuanced listening experience.
1) Jacob Collier, Djesse Vol. 4 – As the culmination of the four-album Djesse series, Vol. 4 makes for one hell of a thesis statement. Incorporating elements of jazz (Vol. 1), folk (Vol. 2), and pop (Vol. 3), amongst many other styles, the final installment is perhaps the most richly synthesized and realized in the series. As with the first three volumes, the roster of collaborators is deep, and each offers a unique perspective within Collier’s ambitious soundscape. Furthermore, Collier morphs his skillset to match those of his collaborators, creating a malleability that creates a strong communal vibe to the album. And despite its substantial of number of spine-snapping whiplashes (the jump from Latin pop to Americana folk to techno-jazz in “Mi Corazon” alone will melt your brain), the album still feels unified and has an organic flow from cover to cover. Each track feels intricately crafted to stand alone as its own cohesive segment, yet the totality of the composite mosaic makes each song stronger in context. As always, Collier demonstrates his prolific talents as a vocalist, performer of multiple instruments, and writer (he remains the indisputable master of microtonal modulations), but arguably Vol. 4’s greatest attribute is the sense of community it cultivates in the way Collier melds his talents in with other artists’ strengths.