8 Great Albums Of 2024

No Particular Genre And In No Particular Order

I consider ranking art pointless, so I generally refrain from producing the year-end, musical roundup posts that proliferate the media monoculture in December.

That said, this is a year-end, musical roundup post. It’s hard not to write them.

I refuse to segregate by genre and, because musical recordings are not contestants in a footrace, the albums are listed in random order.

I do not presume to claim these recordings are the “best” of 2024, only that they display what I regard as the highest virtue that music (or any art) can aspire: they express something new, interesting, and wonderful.

I offer “8 Great Albums of 2024.”

Album Covers L-R Yasmin Williams “Acadia” - Khruangbin “A La Sala” - Arooj Aftab “Night Reign” - Mary Halvorson “Cloudward” - Juliana Koch “Ruth Gipps: Piper of Dreams” - Pat Metheny “MoonDial” - Remi wolf - “Big Ideas” - Gillian Welch and David Rawlings “Woodland”

Artistic Universalism

I believe in “artistic universalism,” a principle that regards genre categories with suspicion. For example, this means that Bach lovers are categorically no different than Led Zeppelin fans and that all types of music (books, film, art, etc.) should be respected, listened to, and discussed.

As explained in my essay “Don't Like Jazz? Give Me Six Min…