Going into this year’s albums of the year list, I knew two things for certain: I wanted a list of at least 20, but I could only name five off the top of my head that were absolute locks to make it. The result is a list in which I feel much stronger about the top-ranked entries than the bottom 15 or so – but that uncertainty also made for a fun process of revisiting and evaluating some albums that I had heard and forgotten about over the course of year, so I could determine where they stacked up against the top 1% of releases that really grabbed my attention. The end result is a group of records that I think is a smidge more diverse than lists past – and one that I hope includes some favorites of yours as well as some new discoveries. 

But before we get to what actually made the coveted top 15 spots, here are a handful of albums (and, by virtue of their length, EPs,) that just missed out:

• Allora – Ben Seretan
• Baggy$$ (EP) – Fcukers
• BRAT – Charli XCX
• CHROMAKOPIA – Tyler, the Creator
• Circles (EP) – Tanukichan
• Cowboy Carter – Beyoncé
• Daniel – Real Estate
• Dark Times – Vince Staples
• David Nance & Mowed Sound – David Nance & Mowed Sound
• Ethereal Collapse – Parent Teacher
• Evergreen – Soccer Mommy
• Frog in Boiling Water – DIIV
• Harm’s Way – Ducks Ltd.
• Here in the Pitch – Jessica Pratt
• Hovvdy – Hovvdy
• Humdinger – Brother of Monday
• Iechyd Da – Bill Ryder-Jones
• Kassie Krut (EP) – Kassie Krut
• Keeper of the Shepherd – Hannah Franches
• Life on the Lawn – A Country Western
• Loss of Life – MGMT
• Melt the Honey – PACKS
• my anti-aircraft friend – julie
• My Life, My Destroyer – Cassandra Jenkins
• My Method Actor – Nilüfer Yanya
• My Star (EP) – Junior Varsity
• Nobody Loves You More – Kim Deal
• ORQUÍDEAS – Kali Uchis
• Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot – Liquid Mike
• Scheduled Explosions – 2nd Grade
• Still Praying – Westside Gunn
• …They’re Just Like Us – Celebrity Sighting
• Two Star & The Dream Police – Mk.gee
• VIVA HINDS – Hinds
• Wall of Eyes – The Smile
• What Now – Brittany Howard
• Where we’ve been, Where we go from here – Friko

If you weren’t able to divine what actually made my list by reversing engineering the one above, fear not: read on for part 1 of The Postrider’s Top 20 Albums of 2024.

20. The Collective – Kim Gordon

The obligation to constantly reinvent yourself as an artist can be daunting – doubly so if you were already considered innovative and groundbreaking early in your career. But somehow, someway, 71-year-old noise rock pioneer Kim Gordon manages to explore genuinely new territory on The Collective, her second solo record since the dissolution of Sonic Youth. Layering tidal waves of distortion over skittering drum machines and eerie synths, Gordon refashions her trademark monotone drone into a kind of disjointed flow, finally bridging the gap between hip-hop and underground rock in a way she had struggled to do as far back as the 80s. The dark crunch of the music is more twisted and corroded than anything Death Grips, in all their sick glory, ever concocted, and while Gordon sometimes sounds like she’s reading off of a shopping list, the way her hoarse vocals pair with the abrasive music gives the record a chilly, dystopian quality, as if it’s last human radio signal ever shot off into space.

Recommended tracks: “BYE BYE,” “I’m a Man,” “Tree House”

19. Bite Down – Rosali 

Tom Petty had the Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan had the Band, and Rosali has Mowed Sound. On Bite Down, the second collaboration between prolific North Carolina-by-way-of-Philly-by-way-of-Michigan singer/songwriter and the Nebraska four piece, the group expands the horizons of heartland rock, taking it outside of the small towns of John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen into the wide open prairie via songs that can feel as pleasant as sunlight and as menacing as a brushfire. Compared to most other singers in the indie space, Rosali carries her winding, wordy melodies with ease, a welcome injection of classic chops into a genre that can sometimes fall in love with its own amateurism.

Recommended tracks: “Rewind,” “Bite Down,” “Change Is in the Form”

18. On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System – The Bug Club

The Bug Club may mock the very idea of writing a catchy pop single on, uh, “Pop Single,” but despite their best efforts to come off as blasé, the Welsh duo are lethally proficient songwriters and satirists, writing catchy, twitchy tracks about how much they love war movies, how little they care about the Beatles, and how their stamp-collecting habits make them just like James Bond. It’d all be a little too ironic if it didn’t also feel like a sendup of self-important post-punk groups like Idles and Dry Cleaning, taking their preoccupations with radical politics and mundane injustices and mocking them to the point of impotence. At least, that’s the only way I can think to interpret a song whose opening lines are “Bl-bl-blah blah blah blah blah blah blah/Something about books.”

Recommended tracks: “Pop Single,” “A Bit Like James Bond,” “We Don’t Care About That,” “Cold. Hard. Love.”

17. Your Day Will Come – Chanel Beads

A traditional flesh and blood band, I get. A purely electronic project like DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ, I can also wrap my head around. But I still can’t quite figure out what Chanel Beads is. The tracks on their 2024 release Your Day Will Come don’t feel like songs so much as fragments, stray recordings of heavenly visions delivered to project mastermind Shane Lavers after wandering the streets from New York on psychedelics, or in the throes of a religious ecstasy that takes the form of dissonantly funky slap bass, disembodied vocals, and dark hip-hop beats. The debt Chanel Beads owes Alex G’s electro-folk innovations is clear, but they’ve managed to spin it off in a darker, more abstract direction that seeks to reinvent the very concept of songwriting itself.

Recommended tracks: “Police Scanner,” “Embarrassed Dog,” Urn”

16. Underdressed at the Symphony – Faye Webster

The genius of Underdressed at the Symphony, Faye Webster’s ostensible breakup album, is that it recognizes that the end of a relationship shouldn’t be spent thinking about the other person – it should be spent thinking about yourself, instead. Of course, like any of us, Webster is not immune to ruminations of loves lost and yet to be – the warm, smooth instrumentals of her backing band are a source of both comfort and withdrawal, a place to go feel safe and plot the future, fret about the present, and melancholily recollect about the past. Whether this inspires future progress or merely incubates fantasy is a question Webster will have to answer on future records, but in 2024, it felt like a relaxing mug of chamomile tea delivered when you needed it most.

Recommended tracks: “Thinking About You,” “But Not Kiss,” “Lifetime,” “Underdressed at the Symphony”

15. Romance – Fontaines D.C.

One of the many things that have separated Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. from their European post-punk counterparts is their understanding of dynamics. Rather than ripping through 11 dissonant three-chord rockers, the band explores a range of moods, tempos, and styles on Romance, streamlining their songwriting chops without sanding off any of their jagged edges. Come for the anxious rap-rock energy of “Starburster,” but stay for slow-burn balladry of “Motorcycle Boy,” the shoegaze pop of “Sundowner,” or the strummy indie rock of “Favourite.” Whereas some post-punk acts are self-insistent on their own profundity and radicalism Fontaines DC have much more fun, and create much more interesting music, by casting their scattered thoughts onto a broader emotional and sonic palette, opening greater creative and commercial horizons in the process.

Recommended tracks: “Starburster,” “Here’s the Thing,” “Motorcycle Boy,” “Death Kink”

14. Blue Lips – Schoolboy Q  

While its heavy reliance on jazz and soul samples gives some tracks on Blue Lips a classic feel, there’s nothing tired or cliché about Schoolboy Q’s epic sixth record, which ping-pongs between topics like fame, depression, loss across 18 inventive and often surprising tracks. Slick champagne raps like the Az Chike-assisted “Movie” break up darker, more introspective songs like “Cooties,” while the swaggering “Back n Love” and horror-trap of “Pig feet” provide plenty of aggression for fans looking for harder-edged hip-hop, deftly hopping from beat to beat and idea to idea once they’ve been chewed up and lost their flavor. It’s a stunning combination of ambition and economy, swerving into dozens of unexpected directions (the break beats on “Foux!”), and the rare hour-long album that never overstays its welcome.

Recommended tracks: “Pop” feat. Rico Nasty, “Movie” feat. Az Chike, “oHio” feat. Freddie Gibbs, “Foux” feat. Ab-Soul, “Back n Love” feat. Devin Malik, “Pig feet” feat. Childish Major

13. The Past Is Still Alive – Hurray for the Riff Raff

In the vein of legendary singer-songwriters like Woody Guthrie and Peter Seger, Alynda Segarra is someone who seems very skeptical of America the institution but in love with America the landscape and Americans the people. While in the past, they’ve demonstrated this by mixing folk and country with indie rock to create urgent, radical songs about modern injustices, on The Past Is Still Alive, they opt instead to lean into the beauty and romance of America, stretching from the bars of New York City bars to the buffalo strewn plains. The place that Segarra describes is still capable of great violence and ignorance, but its wide-open spaces and rich cultural history also provide them with ample opportunity for liberation and self-discovery, and oblige them to simultaneously preserve, protect, and improve on its proud, complicated past.

Recommended tracks: “Alibi,” “Buffalo,” “Hawkmoon,” “Vetiver” 

12. Fairweather Friend – The Umbrellas

Like The Beat Happening but think they’re a bit too cloying? Then let me introduce you to The Umbrellas, a San Francisco four-piece who take the K Records innovators’ knack for bittersweet melodies and bellowing, Calvin Johnson-style vocals and pair it with a propulsive rhythm section, breathing new life into what would be an otherwise staid formula. Despite the band’s scruffy “aw shucks” demeanor, Fairweather Friends is a deceptively soaring and ambitious record, simultaneously recalling the dramatic heights of the New Pornographers while striking a sugary, carefree tone, even as vocalists Matt Ferrara, Keith Frerichs, and Morgan Stanley sing about abandonment and heartbreak. Yet more proof that some of the sweetest, gentlest seeming people are hiding a scrappy punk rocker deep down within them.

Recommended tracks: “Three Cheers!,” “Goodbye,” “Games,” “Gone” 

11. Bright Future – Adrianne Lenker

As both a solo artist and part Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker’s music has always had a loose and free feel, likely because so much of it is in fact recorded live and straight to tape. While she kept that same approach for 2024’s Bright Future, the results feel richer and more fully realized then ever before, exploring serious introspection and goofy wordplay in equal measure (and sometimes on the same song), naturally but steadily flowing like a forest creek. The inclusion of an alternate take of Big Thief’s “Vampire Empire” seems like a nod to the project’s spontaneous and intuitive approach, but tracks like “Sadness as a Gift” represent a new level of cohesion and maturity, bolstering Lenker’s already impressive portfolio.

Recommended tracks: “Sadness as a Gift,” “Fool,” “Vampire Empire,” “Already Lost”