GPB News releases its Best Music of 2024 list

Caption

Singer Sierra Ferrell's album "Trail of Flowers" is being lauded as one of the best of 2024.

Credit: Bobbi Rich

Music often takes on a deeper meaning over the holidays as we reflect on our lives before a new year begins.

Following in the footsteps of NPR’s annual best music lists, members of GPB’s News team have shared the songs, albums and concerts that mattered in 2024:

 

Best Albums

Asake / Lungu Boy — This album captures so many sounds from around the African diaspora that I love. “Fuji Vibe” is definitely my favorite song, though.  — Amanda Andrews

Beyonce / Cowboy Carter — One of my most played albums this year was Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé, but followed very closely by GloRilla’s Glorious. What I love about a lot of the picks this year were actually some of the nostalgic elements. Something about “Bodyguard” on Cowboy Carter makes me think of Sheryl Crow, and sunsets, and roller skating. So I love that a lot of these albums, although they came out in 2024, remind me of some good times in the past.  — Pamela Kirkland

Billie Eilish / Hit Me Hard and Soft — “Birds of a Feather” has been on repeat almost every day since the album was released. This is probably my favorite project from Billie. It has great storytelling, production, originality, and vocals.  — Ambria Burton

Charli XCX / Brat — This album perfectly hits a cross-section of visceral, forward-thinking club bangers and soul-wrenching self-exploration. In the future, this will be the album that comes to mind when I think of 2024. — Jake Cook

Chat Pile / Cool World — The best noise rock album this year hands down. Also the best music videos in 2024. — Mark Davenport

Clairo / Charm — Expertly-crafted melodies and an aura of effortless cool. Another great collection of mellow, sophisticated pop from Gen Z’s Joni Mitchell. — Jake Cook

Cynthia Erivo (with Ariana Grande) / Wicked: The Soundtrack — A masterpiece! Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and the rest of the Wicked cast should be proud of how amazing the new movie soundtrack is. I’ve enjoyed taking walks while listening to “Defying Gravity” for the past week and look forward to continuing to do so. — Ambria Burton

Day6 / Band Aid — A nostalgic and fun mix of songs full of catchy melodies and great instrumentation that really amplifies each member’s uniqueness. You’ll want to listen more than once. — Autumn Rose

The Devlins / All the Days — An Irish group formed by brothers Colin and Peter Devlin, these guys have made thoughtful and beautifully crafted records since the early 1990s. Full disclosure: I have done some work for their record label, but I want to share All the Days because it’s a portrait of life after losing parents and experiencing the joys of family and fatherhood. Producer Rob Kirwan (Hozier, PJ Harvey, Depeche Mode) brings out the inimitable grooves and intricate songwriting that are a powerful reintroduction to the band’s atmospheric sound and to Colin Devlin’s nuanced tenor voice and perceptive storytelling.  — Kristi York Wooten

 

Geordie Greep / The New Sound — A new sound from the frontman of Black Midi, it's about some of the most pathetic and pseudo-poetic guys you know looking to impress women. What sets this album apart is its unique set of sounds: Track 3 (“Holy, Holy”) is about four different songs wrapped into one long set of demands for a date gone wrong; in contrast, the last song is a cover of “If You Are But a Dream,” but without Sinatra. You'll hear easy listening, big band, bossa nova and synth all on one album. — Chase McGee

Glass Beach / Plastic Death — The sophomore album from Seattle's Glass Beach is pop-punk, emo, and prog — a little bit of everything. They've got jazz influences and notes of synth music, but for their second release, they cement their unique sound: It's their own, and you have to meet them on their terms. If you're a fan of the first Glass Beach album like I am, give this one some time to grow on you; it absolutely will. — Chase McGee

Issy Wood / Accidental American — Though Issy Wood’s 2020 hit “Ceilings” has been in my liked songs for months, I didn’t know about Accidental American until last week. If her Instagram post about its release holds true, she wouldn’t mind: “ACCIDENTAL AMERICAN, album No.2, out now (been out for ages I just forgot to post to the grid.)” This album is synthy, mellow and filled with spellbinding vocals. For this life raft in a year where we were inundated by flashy marketing campaigns, I’m thankful, Issy. — Sofi Gratas

JPEG Mafia / I Lay Down My Life for You — A frenetic, genre-bending rap album with controlled chaos at the center. Head-banging beats are plentiful, and moments of transcendent beauty are rendered with precision. A truly impressive and original work. — Jake Cook

Knocked Loose / You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To — This is as big as hardcore will ever get. Jimmy Kimmel Show big. With this album, they only made their sound arguably louder and more aggressive, never once catering to an audience besides themselves. — Mark Davenport

Kurt Elling / Wildflowers, Vol. 1 — Before I started working at GPB, I was the host of a nationally syndicated vocal jazz show called Afterglow for about a decade, so I always kept up to date on the latest in the vocal jazz world. One of my favorite jazz singers working today is Kurt Elling, who released a short EP this year with one of my favorite pianists, Sullivan Fortner. It’s a powerhouse pairing for anyone familiar with this genre. Elling’s voice is as rich and expressive as ever. Forter typically works with another one of my favorite jazz singers, Cécile McLorin Salvant (who also makes a guest appearance on this album), and he creates these clouds of sounds around a singer that’s unlike anything else in the jazz world. — Mark Chilla

Lo Moon / I Wish You Way More Than Luck — This is a top album of the year. Their melodic, hook-filled pop really seems to fill the void since bands like Coldplay have turned into a mega-stadium-anthem “happy” group. One critic called LoMoon’s stuff art pop, which is probably a good assessment. But to me, they remind me of bands like Leaves, Keane, and even MorMor.  They also reference one of my all-time favorite bands, Talk Talk/Mark Hollis, as an influence. — Tristan Smith

Magdalena Bay / Imaginal Disk — What if Windows XP gained sentience and wrote the album of the year? Say hello to Imaginal Disk — it's jam-packed with songs that weave from track to track sonically — take the transition from Track 5 into 6, for example. Something hit me just right about the sound of this album, releasing the same time that decades of science fiction came to reality with the commercialization of things like artificial intelligence. It's my album of the year! — Chase McGee

Michael Kiwanuka / Small Changes — Michael Kiwanuka is one of my favorite artists of the past decade or so. I love everything he does. He’s a British singer-songwriter whose voice recalls the best soul and R&B singers of the 1960s but with a modern texture. This whole album, especially the song “Floating Parade,” with its hypnotic beats and lyrics about emotional reactions to love and life, is deep and powerful. — Kristi York Wooten

MJ Lenderman / Manning Fireworks — Divorced Dad rock was made by a 25-year-old who listened to too much Pavement and country music. It rocks. — Mark Davenport

P1Harmony / Killin’ It — After making their debut in 2020, the six-member K-Pop group P1Harmony finally released their first full-length album showcasing their ability to play with multiple genres and create memorable tracks. This album has it all: pop, rap, rock and R&B — it makes sense why they're called P1Harmony. — Autumn Rose

Rema / Heis — The energy of this album is unshakeable. It kept me going through the summer.  — Amanda Andrews

Sabrina Carpenter / Short N’ Sweet — 2024 was the year of the “pop girl summer,” and I definitely got caught up in the fervor with everyone else. While my most-listened-to pop girl album by far was Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (a fantastic pop album from start to finish… no skips), it technically came out at the end of 2023, so I won’t include it here. Second on my list was Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet, which contained some of the tastiest pop hooks I’ve heard this year. “Please Please Please,” in my opinion, is such a marvelously crafted pop tune, even with its odd structure.  — Mark Chilla 

My album of the year was Short N’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter. We were blessed by a lot of the pop girlies releasing new albums this year, but Sabrina's album came out just in time for a busy campaign season. I was in the car all the time driving to events, and it was fun to just have this breath of fresh air that's fun and girly and poppy, and it really helped me, I think, keep my energy up and keep a positive attitude. — Sarah Kallis

Sierra Ferrell / Trail of Flowers — I’ve been following Sierra Ferrell’s career for a few years now, and it comes as no surprise that her latest album Trail of Flowers is brilliant. Her sound blends classic country from the 1940s and 1950s with modern Americana and even a tinge of jazz. But she also has an edge to her that makes her an incredibly compelling performer. In many ways, Ferrell is like country music’s version of an Amy Winehouse figure, bringing the music of the past out of the shadows and making it relevant to modern ears. If you’ve never heard her, it’s worth a listen. — Mark Chilla

Still Woozy / Love Seat — My album of the year is Love Seat. It's just a nice indie, bedroom-pop sort of album. I actually saw him in concert at the Battery earlier in Atlanta this year, the day after I got to talk to Spencer Strider of the Atlanta Braves. He was doing a vinyl giveaway and mentioned Still Woozy as one of his favorite artists. So all that was just great experiences, and it resonated with me this year. — Allexa Ceballos

Tyler the Creator / Chromokopia — It’s a turn from a lot of Tyler’s earlier work in that it is more personal and, therefore, a more emotional album. Sonically, he experiments with brass bands and even traditional west African samples but largely sticks to his original style of music, which still sets him apart from any other producer and rapper today. I, like many, also believe it is the antithesis of his 2019 Grammy award-winning album entitled Igor.  My honorable mentions include Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé, Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii, Blue Lips by Schoolboy Q, and finally GNX by Kendrick Lamar. — Victoria Evans-Cash

Yakul / Gravity Pulls You Home — This album is so smooth and jazzy that it always feels like a good time to listen to it. Also, the band broke up right after releasing it, so I’m really holding on to this last album. — Amanda Andrews

 

Best Songs

Fana Hues / “Rental” — Classic neo-soul R&B.  — Khari Sampson

Frank McComb & DJ Spinna / “It’s Gonna Be Alright” — An inspirational single from McComb, a veteran neo-soul vocalist.  — Khari Sampson

GAWD / “High Class” — Saucy not-quite-safe-for-work-if-you-listen-too-closely R&B song.  — Khari Sampson

Hiatus Kaiyote / “Love Heart Cheat Code” — iTunes calls this band "future soul," and that's a fitting description of this title track. — Khari Sampson

Homeshake / “Nothing 2 See” — Dreamy alternative falsetto synth-pop.  — Khari Sampson

Joey Harkum / “The Art of Revenge” — One of the songs I liked most this year was by Joey Harkum. He's the frontman from Pasadena, and his song "The Art of Revenge" is a very guitar-driven solo work. The music and lyrics are just simple, blue-collar-worker-sing-along-type songs. And it's just a really fun escape. It's a great album for 2024. — Ellen Eldridge

Jon Regen / "Don't Stop Believin'" — This unearthed gem from his EP of previous tracks, Lost and Found, is the Journey cover you didn't know you needed. Regen, a fantastic singer-songwriter and jazz player, takes the anthemic song to a place where the piano chords and mood do all the work.  — Kristi York Wooten

Michael Kiwanuka / "Floating Parade" — There's something about the chord changes in this song that struck me deeply.  The pillowy lead vocal and lighter-than-air background vocals make the song float above the clouds.  But it's the African-influenced bass line that serves as its heartbeat. — Orlando Montoya

Paipon / "Iced Coffee”  — Chiptune (think ’80s Nintendo music) instrumental.  — Khari Sampson

Royel Otis / "Murder on the Dance Floor" — These guitar-jangly Australians gave the 2001 dance-pop original by Sophie Ellis-Bextor a dance-rock makeover that feels straight out of the '80s or vintage Franz Ferdinand.  It was the crowd favorite at their September show at The Eastern in Atlanta. — Orlando Montoya

Sade / "Young Lion" — This beautiful, contemplative ballad by Sade, the band’s first new material in six years, is an apology to the iconic singer’s trans son and is part of TRANSA, a compilation of music from the Red Hot Org about the struggles and joys of trans people and their families and friends. — Kristi York Wooten

Victoria Monet / “Power of Two (End Credit version)” — Usually, a Star Wars show or film ends with John Williams-esque scoring, so this moody R&B song definitely stood out.  — Khari Sampson 

 

Best Concerts

Cyndi Lauper / State Farm Arena / Atlanta — There are concerts that blow your socks off with sheer talent, technical ability, energy, and showpersonship, and others that reveal artistry to you in a new light. This one was the latter: I'd seen Cyndi Lauper many times over the decades, but her farewell tour stop at State Farm Arena in November made me so proud of her colorful career and the many avenues in which she has inspired music fans with her songwriting, Broadway accolades, advocacy work and —above all else — her pure, inimitable voice. Cyndi forever xo. — Kristi York Wooten

Emanuel and the Fear / Union Pool / Brooklyn, NY — A favorite of mine since 2010, this band crafts highly dramatic and lyrically dense orchestral rock but rarely performs.  So when a show came up, I booked it immediately.  It's the first time I've traveled to New York just for a show.  A few dozen people showed up and I got to talk with Emanuel himself, something I'll never forget. — Orlando Montoya

Knocked Loose / The Coca-Cola Roxy / Atlanta — I saw Knocked Loose at the Coca-Cola Roxy. It's probably the biggest that genre's ever going to get of, like, a hardcore punk. Just absolutely massive show probably around: I'm going to guess, 4,000 people there. Had openers who were basically already headliners. One of the best shows I've ever seen. — Mark Davenport

Teezo Touchdown / The Masquerade / Atlanta — This year, I got to see Teezo Touchdown at the Masquerade in Heaven. I was already listening to How Do You Sleep at Night?, his most recent album, a lot. And it was really so wonderful to hear it live. Concerts kind of have their own aesthetic because Teezo Touchdown is known for having nails in his hair. He puts them through his braids. He just looks fantastic. That concert was so high energy. Everybody was singing the words. It was really one of the best concerts I've been to. — Amanda Andrews