As Above Perhaps So Below

The Top 10 Albums of 2024... So Far

Is it already mid-June? Man, this year has turned out to be quite adventurous so far. We’ve already done a trip back east, two trips to Vegas, New Orleans, and Idaho. We’ve got another trip back east hopefully coming this summer, and then a big trip to Germany later this year. Sure it might feel like every night ends either on the couch watching TV or playing video games, but it also feels like we’re constantly in motion doing something.

The world doesn’t stop spinning just because I’ve got mid-week dinner plans or a 1-year-old’s birthday party somewhere in the Inland Empire. All my favorite artists are still hustling, touring, and releasing wonderful new music. Armand Hammer was here in Los Angeles back in March. Amenra was here in May. Marissa Nadler will be here next week. Pallbearer next month. It’s a good time to like the music I like. Now I just need to find a way to force Bohren & Der Club Of Gore to perform in Munich or Berlin when we’re in town and my concert calendar will be complete.

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June is a good time to start looking back at the year so far because, well…it’s literally halfway between January and December. I wasn’t there in 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was instituted. I don’t make the rules. What I do know is, midpoints make excellent opportunities to engage in nostalgia, even if you’re only being sentimental about the previous 160-180 days.

Which means now is the perfect time to look at all the new music we’ve been blessed with so far in 2024, and assess which records I have enjoyed the most. Without further ado (to be honest at this point it feels like I’m writing a college essay, adding needless flourishes just to up my word count) here are the top ten albums of the year…so far.

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The Top Ten Albums Of 2024 So Far

Honorable Mention:

Vince Staples - Dark Times (Def Jam)
Mono - Oath (Temporary Residence Ltd)
Julie Christmas - Ridiculous And Full Of Blood (Red Creek)
Thou - Umbilical (Sacred Bones)

These are just too new. I think I ordered the Vince LP from his website the first week of May, and Mono and Julie Christmas were both released less than a week ago. I’m pretty sure I will continue to enjoy them over the second half of the year. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two end up in the Top 10 come December. They’re all — at least at first blush — really, really good.

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10. Charles Lloyd - The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note) This has likely been the biggest surprise of the year in terms of expected enjoyment versus reality. Not that I don’t trust my buddy Mike when he recommends new releases, but Charles Lloyd would be pretty far down the list of artists I would expect to shock me in 2024. I have pretty a well-documented fear of flying. I used to have to pop some Xanax just to go from EWR to BTV in college. Starting with our flight to Japan for our honeymoon last year I decided to stop drugging myself and start trying to enjoy flying. Now during takeoff instead of gripping my arm-rest and silently reciting The Sh’ma in case we explode or crash right back down to earth, I listen to Music For Airports, or Avec Laudenum, or Harmony In Ultraviolet and do a crossword puzzle. The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow was what I listened to flying to and from Boise recently, and it cemented this record as one of the most relaxing and comforting I’ve heard in a long time. [Listen on Apple Music]

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9. Six Organs Of Admittance - Time Is Glass (Drag City) This is the most excited I’ve been about a Ben Chasny record in a very long time. If — come December — I’m still loving Time Is Glass this much it will be his highest ranked album on one of my year-end lists since 2005’s School Of The Flower. Honestly, I think this is his best since that one. If you’ve drifted through Chasny’s discography through the years, from Luminous Night to Hexadic (1 and 2) to The Veiled Sea, consider this a bright red siren alerting to pay attention again. “Pilar” would not sound out of place on one of his early CDr-only titles, or maybe even Dark Noontide. “Summer’s Last Rays” is classically Chasny-ian (if you know you know). “Spinning In A River” is probably the emotional core of Time Is Glass, with ethereal voice and fingerpicking floating along until a sudden cathartic release of distorted, heavier strums and deeper, gruffer (but still delicate!) vocals. I had no real expectations at the outset on my first listen, but by the time “New Year’s Song” fades (then jarringly cuts out?) I was really, pleasantly surprised. It’s fantastic. [Listen On Apple Music]

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8. Grace Cummings - Ramona (ATO) This record seemingly came out of nowhere, a recommendation I scrolled past on Instagram twice before I noticed who was hyping it. That would be my buddy Andy, whose description was short but sweet: “An extraordinary singer — she makes me think of Judy Henske and Nina Simone and Peter Hammill and Kevin Coyne, all at once — and a new album capable of stripping the paint from your walls and the flesh from your bones.” It’s hard to come up with a better descriptor. Ironically, the last “new” (emerging?) artist Andy recommended to me was Aldous Harding back in 2017 or 2018, so clearly he has his finger on the pulse of Antipodean singer-songwriters. Come to think of it, “I’m Getting Married To The War” has some very subtle Harding-esque vocals at the outset, but Cummings has a vastly more soulful voice. The arrangements are powerful enough to match the magnitude of her stunning vocals, but my favorite songs veer towards the more restrained. The aforementioned “I’m Getting Married…,” “Common Man,” and the Townes-y “Without You” are — I think — the highlights. When the production is more restrained it allows her voice to truly shine. When it rises to meet her at the absolute peak of her power, it sum is weaker than its parts. Except, of course, for the awesome “A Precious Thing,” which needs to be heard (and marveled at!) to be believed. Yeah, of course, Andy. I get it now. [Listen On Apple Music]

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