3 of the Best Albums of 2024 … So Far

There’s plenty of time left in 2024 for more outstanding albums, but it’s already been a good year for music.

Billie Eilish’s return, Taylor Swift’s tortured poetry, Nick Cave’s post-grief joy of Wild God, Sabrina Carpenter’s addicted-to-caffeine pop, a Radiohead side-project, Beth Gibbons’ solo debut, Vampire Weekend’s fifth, Adrianne Lenker’s Bright Future, Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood, Kim Gordon’s packing list on The Collective, St. Vincent’s brooding and excellent All Born Screaming, Jack White’s back to basics No Name, and so many more. Oh, and Post Malone dropped a country album.

So here’s a spotlight on three of the best albums of 2024 so far.

Snubbed-out smoke in a pack from the Nowhere Inn.

Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé

Beyoncé’s “country” album—which is really a “Beyoncé” album—was snubbed by the 58th CMA Awards. Though the Nashville establishment ignored Cowboy Carter, music fans did not. “Texas Hold ’Em” reached No. 1 on both Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Hot 100 charts. It remains to be seen how Beyoncé will fare at the upcoming Grammy Awards and if she’ll finally snag one of the few things that’s eluded her during an extraordinary career—Album of the Year. Meanwhile, with Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé succeeded in bringing wider recognition to Black artists in country music.

BRAT by Charli XCX

The summer of BRAT. That’s the consensus after the lime-green square and Arial font reached levels of peak ubiquity online. Charli XCX goes against the grain of pop star relatability and instead, chooses the club, the party, the It Girls. It’s the crazy girl sh-t, gonna go spring breakers under the strobing lights of 2000s British rave music kind of album. Thanks to bangers like “Von dutch” and “360,” Charli reached her highest Billboard debut at No. 3. But the raved-up hyperpop also displays stark vulnerability as Charli contemplates motherhood on “I think about it all the time.” Not typical for a pop star. But Charli XCX is anything but typical. Like the extremes of hyperpop, BRAT is a head-on collision of shallow self-obsession and blunt realness. It’s also one of the best pop albums of the year.

Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman

Asheville, North Carolina’s MJ Lenderman releases solo albums when he’s not playing guitar for Wednesday or moonlighting with Waxahatchee on the gorgeous “Right Back to It.” On Manning Fireworks, the 25-year-old singer and guitarist writes about characters on the verge of breaking down. Lenderman sings about the seedy types in a soft, aloof voice. His alt-country is a little woozy, a little Neil Young with Crazy Horse, and he’s become something like an indie rock guitar hero. Humor and pathos define Lenderman’s songwriting. On the title track he sings, One of these days you’ll kill a man / For asking a question you don’t understand. Then he closes the album by name-checking Ozzy Osbourne on a 10-minute noise-rock tune called “Bark at the Moon,” where Lenderman’s been up all night playing Ozzy’s werewolf classic on Guitar Hero.

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