20. TWO SHELL, TWO SHELL

For a project so embedded in the digital realm, there’s something undeniably organic about Two Shell’s self-titled debut album. In the centre of its whirlwind of UK dance influences, spanning jungle, dubstep, breakbeat and more, it’s the infectious percussive rhythms of tracks like “[rock✧solid]” and “dreamcast” that shine through. Two Shell might be infamous for their experimental stunts, and the garbled vocals throughout this project are definitely among them, but don’t let that distract you from the stellar production tying it together. (SPM)

19. TEMS, BORN IN THE WILD

Tems’ debut album has been a long time coming. Since bursting into the mainstream back in 2020 by jumping on Wizkid’s “Essence”, the Nigerian afrobeats star has written for Rihanna, Beyoncé, Tyla, and was even nominated for an Oscar. Her impressive list of accolades meant a heightened expectation for her debut LP, but she did not disappoint. The record dances between genres, from R&B to dancehall and hip-hop, punctuated by heavy-hitting ballads that showcase that voice. Growing up, Tems was bullied for her deep, raspy tone; in 2024, she made a mockery of the haters. (IVD)

18. CHIEF KEEF, ALMIGHTY SO 2

Seen by many as the godfather of drill after breaking through at age 16 with his viral 2012 hit “I Don’t Like”, Chicago native Chief Keef has seemingly rejected commerciality with a series of experimental releases over the years (many of them to a mixed response). Yet anticipation was at an all-time high for Almighty So 2 after a six-year wait for its release, and Sosa didn’t disappoint, showcasing his production chops, eye for curation with features from Tierra Whack and Sexyy Red, and trademark timing with his iconic ad-libs. Don’t skip “Jesus Skit” featuring Ghanaian-Liberian comedian Michael Blackson. (DB)

17. FONTAINES D.C., ROMANCE 

Emerging from Dublin, Fontaines D.C. are steadily becoming one of the world’s biggest bands: they recently performed two sell-out shows at London’s Alexandra Palace, and their third album Romance – released this year – was beaten to the top of the charts only by Sabrina Carpenter. What makes this so remarkable is how, with a handful of exceptions, their music feels so determinedly uncommercial: “Bug” and “Favourite” might be as melodic as any classic Oasis single (which is a compliment…), but much of it is the same scuzzy and slightly sinister post-punk with which the band made their name, just on a grander scale. Fontaines D.C. have evolved, rather than diluted, their sound, and the success of Romance shows that it’s still possible to sell out arenas without selling out. (JG)

16. JAWNINO, 40

As grime saw rejuvenation in the hands of DJ AG Online and Chip this year, south London rapper Jawnino’s debut album 40 marks a powerful foray into what lies beyond the landmark British genre. Recasting grime’s familiar sonics through a sobering (but not quite sober) lens, 40 proves the future of British rap is in safe hands. (SPM)

15. NILÜFER YANYA, MY METHOD ACTOR 

An extended collaboration with producer Wilma Archer (FKA Slime), indie singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya stands triumphant on her third album My Method Actor. Stretching from trip-hop to grunge (and even to 80s synth pop and post-dubstep on the Charli xcx-esque remix album), it’s a powerful culmination of her genre-bending career, delivered with the confidence of someone who’s found their sound. (SPM)

14. BEYONCÉ, COWBOY CARTER

In 2024, what is there left to say about Beyoncé? Something like “pop icon” seems trite considering the influence she’s had over such a consistent period – and Beyoncé seems to think so too. “I retired from the formula of the pop star a very long time ago,” she told American GQ earlier in the year. “I stopped focusing on what’s popular, and began focusing on the qualities that get better with time and experience.” For 2024, those qualities were apparently the ones you find in country music, as the musician plundered her Texan roots for Act II of her three-part trilogy. Featuring a who’s who of country legends (Parton? Check. Nelson? Check) and a roster of the genre’s upstarts like Shaboozey and Tanner Adell, Cowboy Carter works as both a paean to patriotism and an attempted reclamation of flag-waving gun-toting Americana. Though it might not have the replay value of Renaissance (which topped our best albums list back in 2022), Beyonce’s eighth studio album is yet more evidence for her unparalleled strengths as a curator, editor, executive producer, and – well – pop icon. (EH)

13. BILLIE EILISH, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Billie Eilish’s third album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is her most expansive and ambitious yet. While it has its fair share of radio-friendly hits (the euphoric, propulsive “LUNCH”, the wistful, elegiac “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”), it also saw Billie and her brother Finneas taking their sound in a more experimental direction. On a first listen, so many moments on the album are surprising: “LA’MOUR DE MA VIE”’s shift from jazzy, soft-rock ballad to frenetic hyper-pop banger; the startling use of down-tuned vocals halfway through “BLUE”. Contemporary pop music is rarely so interesting in its songwriting and production. (JG)

12. A. G. COOK, BRITPOP 

2024 was a huge year for A.G. Cook, who co-produced most of the tracks on Charli xcx’s wildly successful Brat. But while it was never used in any presidential campaigns, his own record, Britpop, is every bit as deserving of attention. It’s split into three discs, signifying past, present and future: the first builds upon the sound which Cook pioneered at PC Music; the second is fuzzier, more psychedelic and guitar-orientated, and the third has a lusher and richer sonic palette (“Lucifer”, on which Charli provides vocals, is transcendent.) Cook is one of the greatest and most innovative producers of the 21st century, but he has never before been so versatile or – as in the case of “without”,  a stripped-back tribute to SOPHIE – so moving. (JG)

11. YUNG LEAN AND BLADEE, PSYKOS 

For two artists whose creative fates have intertwined for well over a decade, it’s difficult to imagine that 2024 brought us Yung Lean and Bladee’s first collaborative project. But having listened to the woozy, strung-out pop-punk of Psykos, it’s almost a relief that the pair waited that long, leaving time to mature into their careers and look back through a calmer lens. It’s that retrospective angle that dominates the record. “I killed my youth, I watched it fall,” Lean croons on “Sold Out” about becoming famous as a teenager; “Dirty drugs since 13, I think it’s just the fame,” he says more bluntly on elegiac opener “Coda”. Throughout the album, Bladee’s rhymes and adlibs acts as an emotional anchor for Lean’s often disturbing musings, ones rooted in his very real experiences with psychosis (hence the album name). Intense and emotive without veering into sentimentality, Psykos is both a departure from the cloud-rap hyperpop of Drain Gang and the record that Yung Lean and Bladee seemed destined to make. (EH)

10. CUMGIRL8, THE 8TH CUMMING 

“cumgirl8 is clickbait, like a DM from a cam-girl,” rising New York foursome cumgirl8 told V magazine earlier this year. But while their lewd name might have been created to cause scandal and draw you in for a closer look, their brash line of riot grrrl-indebted punk rock, industrial goth and electroclash has the capacity to easily get you hooked. After garnering attention for paying tribute to legendary Italian porno star-turned-politician Cicciolina on the track of the same name in 2023, the band landed back with an album in the form of the 8th cumming this autumn, drawing inspiration from artists like The Slits, Peaches and Miss Kittin to take listeners on a sleazy journey traversing the dreaded UTI (“UTI”), wanting to stay in, but having big-time FOMO (“ahhhh!hhhh! i don’t wanna go”), and a mad dash in search of stolen passports in a miserably hungover state (“Karma Police” – no, not that one). Add to that they’re also top-class Instagram shitposters, and you have a real recipe for success. (ED)

9. SNOW STRIPPERS, NIGHT KILLAS VOL. 2 

Snow Strippers – otherwise known as vocalist Tatiana Schwaninger and producer Graham Perez – first met on Tinder in 2018. Since then, the Detroit duo have gone on to create music that feels like the tail end of a trashy 2010s spring break. Injected with electropop, electroclash and eurodance, the duo push their sound to crashing new heights with their sequel EP Night Killas Vol. 2. (TM)

8. TYLER, THE CREATOR, CHROMAKOPIA 

Tyler, the Creator is such an exciting artist because you can never predict what he’ll do next. His eighth studio album, Chromakopia, was no exception, with the rapper announcing it less than two weeks before its release. The album is pure joy: faturing some of the year’s most exciting artists, including GloRilla, Sexyy Red and Doechii, it’s aggressive, chaotic, and incredibly fun. A standout track for me is “Noid”, which samples "Nizakupanga Ngozi" by the Zambian band Ngozi Family from their 1977 album 45,000 Volts. Tyler is a chameleon, constantly experimenting and bringing fresh energy to his work, and Chromakopia is yet another testament to his boundless creativity. (HJ)

7. IGLOOGHOST, TIDAL MEMORY EXO

After taking a trip to the mythical world of Mamu and exploring an extinct musical tradition founded in Dorset for his last two outings, Iglooghost landed back in our ears this year with Tidal Memory Exo. Dragging listeners to a grotty, gloomy town on the coast of the UK, the hyperactive producer clashes together two-step, garage, drill, coldwave, and more in a melange that makes it sound like you’re skipping from channel to channel on a waterlogged radio – or maybe succumbing to the waves as they wash over your head. From the woozy “Spawn01” to the trap-inflected swell of “Germ Chrism”, the record is emblematic of Iglooghost’s unmatched skill for worldbuilding. Someone get him on a sci-fi soundtrack ASAP. (ED)

6. MUSTAFA, DUNYA 

In September, Mustafa released his first full-length album Dunya, which translates from Arabic as “the world in all its flaws”. Honest and raw, the album details loss and love in the most touching way. Merging indie folk music with the Middle Eastern Oud and traditional Sudanese sounds, Mustafa successfully created a fusion genre that works as a perfect ode to his heritage and upbringing. Unsurprising from a poet, the lyricism is where Mustafa’s talent truly shines on this project. Whether it’s on the moving and extremely poignant “Gaza is Calling”, or “Hope is a Knife”, where his voice effortlessly melts with Clairo‘s, there is a tender authenticity on Dunya that cannot be faked. It’s one of those projects that offers a necessary alternative perspective on sorrow and, put simply, feels grounding – which after a year like this one is more of a need than a want. (HD)

5. KENDRICK LAMAR, GNX

It’s hard not to see Drake’s recent spate of lawsuits against Kendrick Lamar and Universal Music Group in relation to the world-shaking release of gnx that immediately preceded it. The album is a brazen victory lap from the artist who emerged triumphant in rap’s beef of the century earlier this year, and one that makes K Dot’s “fuck the big three, it’s just big me” claim more compelling than ever. (SPM)

4. CLAIRO, CHARM 

When I think of Clairo’s third studio album, Charm, a vivid memory comes to mind. It’s summertime, and I’m walking through Victoria Park at sunset with my best friends. We’re softly singing “Juna” to each other as we watch people glide by on roller skates and parents stroll hand in hand with their children. “You know me, you know me,” we sang together. That summer was hard, but Charm made it beautiful. With its psychedelic folk and soft rock undertones, songs like “Nomad” and “Echo” reminded us that, despite all the bad in the world, there was still so much good – and we could see it more clearly if we just slowed down. (HJ)

3. DOECHII, ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL 

It took Doechii a month to write her debut extended mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. But despite its quick turnaround, the record took her from IYKYK rapper, to the “hardest out”, as described by Kendrick Lamar in October. With its title, the self-proclaimed Swamp Princess pays tribute to the 1.3 million alligators that live in Florida (where she is from), and like an alligator, Doechii snuck up on us before we even realised she had attacked. The mixtape sees her pivot away from pop – with which she went viral twice, in 2020 and 2022 – and instead, lean into hip-hop, keeping honesty at its core. It’s an explosive, gritty, playful suckerpunch of an album. (IVD)

2. CHARLI XCX, BRAT / BRAT AND IT’S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BUT ALSO STILL BRAT

If you had told tweenaged me, who begged my mother to buy me platform creepers after stills from Charli xcx’s “What I Like” video appeared on Tumblr, that I would one day be sitting around a kitchen table listening to “360”, only for my friend’s 72-year-old dad to look up from his newspaper and say “IS THIS THAT BRAT STUFF?”, I would have simply passed out. Regardless, it was at that very moment that it dawned on me that not a single generation was left untouched by Brat discourse this year. Released in June, Charli’s sixth studio album was an amalgamation of all her best dance music sounds, embellished with her unabashedly Charli-esque lyrics and packaged with an ode to the club culture that raised her. 

From the slime-green everything and her coven of internet girls to the Brat wall in Greenpoint, the album rollout was a masterclass in marketing, and saw her land major campaigns with what felt like every brand on the planet. Whether you enjoyed it or not, it is undeniable that it has been a while since we’ve experienced a similar just-an-album-to-monoculture pipeline on such a grand scale. (HD)

1. MK.GEE, TWO STAR & THE DREAM POLICE

There’s a reason why Michael Gordon, a 27-year-old vocalist, guitarist, and producer from New Jersey who performs as Mk.gee, is being hailed as a new kind of guitar hero (or even a ‘guitar god’). After dropping his experimental debut album, Two Star & The Dream Police, in February, music lovers across the internet have been wondering how he gets his guitar to sound like that. Combining an analogue production style with newer sounds, the album simultaneously feels like it’s emerged from a time machine while being brand new. Two Star & The Dream Police was a refreshing breath of fresh air into our playlists this year, and it’s already changing how people use and view the guitar. Better yet, despite catching the attention of Eric Clapton, Justin Bieber, Frank Ocean, John Mayer, Justin Vernon and SZA, Mk.gee seems to be all about the music. “I just want to be known for making the best music. Not for anything else, really,” he said in his Dazed cover interview with Connor Garel for The Impossible Issue. “I’m not trying to sell you anything.” (LP)