The 21 Greatest Albums of 2024 (So Far)

2024 has been a bumper yr for music releases—and never least within the pop enviornment, the place new data from the likes of Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and Tyla have all conquered the charts. In truth, other than that Drake-Kendrick beef and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour juggernaut, this yr’s largest music story has been the stratospheric rise of a brand new guard of pop sensations, within the type of Sabrina Carpenter (whose eagerly-awaited album drops this weekend), Chappell Roan (whose sleeper hit debut was in our 2023 finest albums checklist), and Charli xcx (whose Brat summer time simply retains on rolling).

The very best information of all? There’s nonetheless a lot extra to come back: the ultimate 4 months look set to be simply as jam-packed with releases, from artists together with Fontaines D.C., Jamie xx, Mustafa, and Laura Marling. Right here, discover the Vogue workers’s picks of one of the best albums of 2024—to date.

To hearken to our picks of one of the best songs from every album, save the Spotify playlist under:

Adrianne Lenker, Vivid Future

It solely takes just a few seconds of moody piano chords in the beginning of Adrianne Lenker’s sixth solo album (the musician can be identified for her work because the lead singer and guitarist of Huge Thief) to really feel transported—and immediately reminded of Lenker’s masterful talents as a songwriter. Throughout 12 bracingly intimate vignettes, Lenker’s devastating method with phrases—that opening monitor, “Actual Home,” touches on her itinerant childhood and the demise of a beloved pet, however in some way lends these topics a common sweep—is matched by the facility of the stripped-back, folksy instrumentation and the gentle twang of her uncooked, unprocessed vocals. However there are exhilarating moments too, like her jangling, ferocious new model of Huge Thief’s unbelievable “Vampire Empire,” the place she sings a looping chorus of “I’m falling,” her voice anguished and beginning to break, so that you’re by no means fairly certain if meaning she’s falling head over heels in love or plunging into the abyss. —Liam Hess

A.G. Prepare dinner, Britpop

As a long-time collaborator of Charli xcx (and co-executive producer of her year-dominating album Brat this summer time) and having a hand in album standout “All Up In Your Thoughts” from Beyoncé’s Renaissance, A.G. Prepare dinner is arguably finest generally known as your favourite pop star’s secret weapon. And his experimental sensibility has, prior to now, produced album tasks that bend the foundations of the basic LP format, from 2020’s 49-track epic 7G to the futuristic Apple which dropped only a month later. But regardless of being unfold throughout three discs (every representing previous, current, and future), his third report Britpop looks like his most cohesive assertion but. That’s partly as a result of evenly tongue-in-cheek title and the intelligent advertising and marketing rollout that accompanied it, but in addition the music itself: the album’s three-part construction permits each side of Prepare dinner’s genre-agnostic abilities to shine, whereas the playful fusion of shiny synths and fuzzy guitars with lyrics that reference Arthurian magic and mysticism come collectively to type an exhilarating, escapist entire. That’s to not say there aren’t loads of pop bangers right here, too: the Charli and Addison Rae-featuring “Lucifer” on disc three is as addictive as any legendary warlock’s potion. —L.H.

Ariana Grande, Everlasting Sunshine

Previous to the discharge of Everlasting Sunshine, Ariana Grande said that she wouldn’t be releasing any new music till after her Depraved period was over. However then got here the SAG-AFTRA strike final yr, which gave strategy to what I consider to be certainly one of Grande’s finest—and positively most mature—our bodies of labor. Selecting up from the place the 2020 hit-charged Positions left off, Everlasting Sunshine sees Grande experiment additional sonically (alongside pop savant Max Martin) whereas delivering a poignant and introspective examination of the breakdown of her marriage. There may be the scrumptious enjoyable of “The Boy is Mine” and “True Story,” and the timelessness of “We Can’t Be Mates,” which will likely be remembered as certainly one of Grande’s fan-favorite hits. Oh, and make certain to not skip “Saturn Return Interlude,” which casually shines a lightweight on why Grande was feeling significantly self-reflective at that second in time. —José Criales-Unzueta

Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter

“This ain’t Texas”… nevertheless it’s one fireplace nation album! Half two of her (alleged) three-act musical mission, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is a stellar follow-up to 2022’s Renaissance. On the report, the singer takes on the nation style, after which utterly redefines it—fusing its signature twangy sounds with parts of home, rap, and dance music. Come for the options—Submit Malone, Miley Cyrus, nation icons Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton—however keep for the soulful Bey vocals (duh). Particularly on tracks like “Blackbiird,” a canopy of the Beatles basic that includes singers Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, and Brittney Spencer: a robust reclamation of a style that has traditionally drawn from—however excluded—Black artists. —Christian Allaire

Billie Eilish, Hit Me Laborious and Gentle

Activate the radio this summer time, and also you had been sure to listen to a Billie Eilish hit or two. The singer’s third studio album is quick turning into certainly one of the albums of summer time 2024—with hits like “Lunch,” “Birds of a Feather,” and “Chihiro” main the way in which. As Vogue author Suzy Exposito wrote in her assessment, it’s the “uninhibited Billie we’ve been ready for”; her ear-wormy, chill-pop tracks are extra poetic, queer, unapologetic, and ethereal-sounding than ever. And in the event you haven’t cried-shouted to “Skinny” in your room but, you’re merely not dwelling. “Individuals say I look glad, simply because I bought skinny,” she sings, “however the outdated me remains to be me. And perhaps the actual me. And I believe she’s fairly.” —Christian Allaire

Charli xcx, Brat

Certain, there have been extra commercially profitable albums this yr, however none which have had the identical cultural influence as Charli xcx’s barnstorming Brat. (“Kamala IS brat,” anybody?) However it wasn’t simply that puke-green cowl and the frenzy of hypothesis that surrounded among the songs presupposed to be about different pop stars—and in some instances, had been later confirmed to be true, as when Lorde and Charli “labored it out on the remix”—however the reality it was Charli’s most completed and cohesive album thus far. At first, the wild pendulum swings of the album’s sequencing could really feel bracing—the thundering synths of “Sympathy Is a Knife” adopted by the twinkling confessional of “I Would possibly Say One thing Silly,” for instance—nevertheless it’s Charli’s masterful means to reconcile these contradictions which have made her an unintended spokesperson for millennial angst, as she sings about the whole lot from her sophisticated emotions round motherhood (“I Assume About It All of the Time”) to the double-edged sword of late-night debauchery in your 30s (“365”). Most of all, although, it’s only a actually nice time on the dancefloor, as her Partygirl DJ units all over the world have confirmed. It might really feel just like the album she was born to make, however probably the most thrilling a part of all of it? Realizing that Charli might be already one step forward, planning her subsequent large leap for pop-kind. —L.H.

Clairo, Appeal

It’s a novel pleasure to develop up alongside an artist, particularly one like Claire Cottrill. The singer, extra generally generally known as Clairo, delivered her most probing enterprise but along with her third album Appeal. Along with her ’70s-inspired sound, Clairo is in her factor, exploring sensuality in a method that feels advanced past the girlish likes of her early hit “Baggage.” On “Attractive to Somebody” she sings in regards to the thrill—the motivation, even—of realizing that someone needs you, whereas TikTok breakout “Juna” talks about wanting to purchase a brand new gown simply so you’ll be able to take it off. However it isn’t all rosy. Opener “Nomad” twists the knife with “I’m touch-starved and shameless / However I’d moderately be alone than a stranger.” Love and lust, she reminds us, is simply as thorny. —Hannah Jackson

Dua Lipa, Radical Optimism

With Radical Optimism, Dua Lipa delivered the right summer time album, stuffed with luminous melodies that sound as in the event that they had been made by the solar glistening on high of the bluest Mediterranean waters someplace. The songs are completely engineered to be the companion to your mind as you lay out someplace and try to achieve that blissful no ideas/head empty life-style. However don’t take that to imply the songs are devoid of feeling: “Completely happy for You” could make you weep. —Laia Garcia-Furtado

Erika de Casier, Nonetheless

With Nonetheless, the Danish-Portuguese musician Erika de Casier delivered one of many yr’s most arresting albums, mixing slinky, Aaliyah-esque R&B with clean, refined soul—then pushing it by means of a futuristic, bedroom-pop filter to deftly keep away from something that felt like pastiche. (In case you wanted additional proof of de Casier’s zeitgeist-y instincts, there’s her facet gig writing songs for the breakout Okay-pop act NewJeans.) But even when de Casier’s strategy is modish, it at all times rings as genuine: a real homage to—and contemporary twist on—the American R&B powerhouses she grew up admiring as a younger woman, watching late-’90s music movies on MTV at residence in Aarhus. That sense of enjoyable can be current within the sly humorousness that programs by means of the report, from the virtually comical directness of among the songs (“Is it getting scorching in right here / Or is it simply me?” she winks on album standout “Ooh”) to the title itself, a tongue-in-cheek nod to data by J.Lo and Dr. Dre, during which the phrase “nonetheless” was used to emphasise their totemic standing and longevity inside the music trade. “It’s meant to be form of humorous, as a result of I haven’t been round that lengthy,” de Casier advised Vogue again in Might—but when Nonetheless is something to go by, she’s solely simply getting began. —L.H.

Fabiana Palladino, Fabiana Palladino

It got here as a shock that Fabiana Palladino’s self-titled report, launched in April, was truly her debut: the musician has been releasing music sporadically for over a decade, notably as the primary signee to the label owned by Jai Paul, the enigmatic London-based musician whose handful of releases have had an outsize affect on 2010s pop and R&B. Regardless of a visitor look from Paul on “I Care,” nevertheless, Palladino’s album could be very a lot its personal beast: a smokey, seductive homage to the best ’80s pop—suppose Sade meets The Blue Nile with shades of Janet Jackson—that additionally cleverly avoids veering into straight-up nostalgia, due to Palladino’s immaculate, shimmering manufacturing. The irresistible “Keep With Me By the Evening” is likely one of the yr’s finest pop tracks, with an addictive funk guitar line underpinning her slinky, craving calls to a departing lover. It might have taken some time to get there, however Palladino’s debut was firmly well worth the wait. —L.H.

glaive, a little bit of a mad one

Following the burgeoning glitch pop profession of the 19-year-old Ash Gutierrez, who data as glaive—and who began posting emo hyperpop tracks on SoundCloud and Discord throughout the pandemic when he was caught at residence, tired of distant education—has been one of many delights of the put up COVID period. a little bit of a mad one is his newest launch, an ep—simply seven tracks—however denser and darker and extra infectious begin to end than something he’s put out. His finest compositions are relentless, earnest, assaultive, offhand, and weirdly fairly on the similar time. On tour supporting The Child Laroi this spring, glaive (who’s 6’4”) leaped across the stage in a protracted skirt, his hair bleached and shorn, yelping over the cacophony of his personal compositions, nonetheless a teen however greater than coming into his personal. —Taylor Antrim

Gracie Abrams, The Secret of Us

It’s the yr of the indie pop woman, and nobody is main the cost like Gracie Abrams. At 24 years outdated, Abrams has already mastered the singer-songwriter artwork of creating her albums sound like a chapter within the ebook of her life—as a result of who hasn’t had the form of one-sided crush Abrams writes about in “Threat?” It jogs my memory of the Fearless and Converse Now-era Taylor Swift: when it was only a woman, her guitar, and her finest good friend Abigail (or, in Abrams’s case, Audrey). My private spotlight is “Near You,” a track Abrams been gatekeeping from her followers since 2017: it’s the right mixture of radio-friendly and passionate longing that she does so nicely. —Irene Kim

Hovvdy, Hovvdy

I wanted one thing like Hovvdy this yr, a sprawling, languid, soft-lit, glitchy, rootsy 19-track affair that has suited any variety of my lower-key moods. These are bed room pop songs that sound like they’ve been dragged throughout a Texas prairie. Hovvdy’s songwriting duo, Charlie Martin and Will Taylor, each initially from Austin, have been a dependable supply of charming, twinkly bent-pop melodies for the higher a part of a decade. However their fifth album feels grander than something they’ve performed, harking back to defining albums by Bon Iver and Huge Thief, however extra spare in its impact. Threaded by means of with loops and prickly synth beats, Hovvdy’s finest moments aren’t nostalgic, however moderately invites to sit back out within the ever-present now. —T.A.

Kacey Musgraves, Deeper Effectively

Saturn returns have definitely been a theme with music this yr—and as somebody presently going by means of theirs, Kacey Musgraves’s Deeper Effectively hit each single spot, twice. Right here, Musgraves delves into people territory as solely she might, with a tinge of psychedelia and her ever-sharp wit. “Deeper Effectively,” the album’s title monitor, reads virtually as an artist’s assertion, with Musgraves narrating her progress since her personal Saturn return, whereas “Cardinal” sees her delve into some late ’70s, Fleetwood Mac-esque territory, and “The Architect” shows a few of her most evocative and touching songwriting. “At some point, you’re on high of the mountain / So excessive that you just’ll by no means come down / Then the wind at your again carries ember and ash / Then it burns your entire home to the bottom,” she sings, with the form of hindsight solely time and correct soul-searching can supply. —J.C-U.

Kim Gordon, The Collective

Kim Gordon’s at all times been hardcore, and if anybody wanted proof, then The Collective, definitely delivered. Her talk-sing signature discovered a fuzzed-out wall of bass to smash up towards many times whereas speaking about packing lists, random trinkets that adorn your shelf, or what it’s prefer to be a person in 2024. Seeing her carry out this report dwell was nothing in need of a revelation and punk as fuck. —L.G-F.

Mk.gee, Two Star & the Dream Police

Mk.gee’s rise has been one thing of a sluggish burn, with the 26-year-old musician drip-releasing slices of wonky bed room pop that first caught the eye of Frank Ocean again in 2017 (and had been subsequently promoted on his Blonded Radio station). Producing alternatives—for artists like Omar Apollo and Dijon—then arose, and now we have now his hypnotic debut album, Two Star & the Dream Police. Mk.gee is greater than able to step into the highlight—and has honed a pleasant mish-mash of genres and sonic textures that really feel distinctly his personal within the course of. It’s evenly psychedelic, with touches of The Police and Peter Gabriel in these supple, groovy synths, and latter-day Bon Iver in its crunchier, extra distorted moments, with Mk.gee’s soulful vocals anchoring his extra free-wheeling instincts. In case you hearken to only one monitor, make it “Sweet”: a warped ode providing forgiveness to a wayward lover—and to himself—that appears like a misplaced R&B masterpiece from the ’80s put in a blender. It’s bizarre and totally great. —L.H.

Omar Apollo, God Stated No

After the tender-hearted Ivory, Omar Apollo is lastly hitting again along with his follow-up report God Stated No. With a swagger on “Spite,” he teases his wishy-washy lover with the repetitious “You prefer it / You prefer it / Like I do, like I do, like me.” However Apollo can’t assist however return to craving. In what looks like a sonic cousin of his largest hit “Evergreen,” the singer (with an help from Mustafa) delivers “Airplane Bushes,” the place he struggles to just accept a dying relationship. “Drifting,” with its subdued vocals over an up-tempo beat helps merge Apollo’s emotions of animosity along with his romantic predisposition. —H.J.

Remi Wolf, Huge Concepts

With Huge Concepts, Remi Wolf has performed numerous rising up. On 2021’s Juno, she dabbled with sobriety and mentioned avoiding her exes. Now, she is probably not sober, however she’s additionally not numbing herself to discomfort. Wolf paints vibrant photos of her life over funky bubblegum tunes, like on “Cherries & Cream” (“However you style like cherries and cream / Tangerine, avocado / Yeah, I’m allergic however I prefer it so much”) and “Alone in Miami” (“Take in the sound of crypto bros / Consuming cubanos on my own.”) A selected spotlight is the bonus monitor “Slay Bitch,” a soulful, funky dance monitor that might get anyone onto the ground. —H.J.

St. Vincent, All Born Screaming

All Born Screaming managed to seize our present temper in a method that solely St. Vincent can. Offended, aggressive, uncooked, pressing, and but additionally sensual, and all the way down to have an excellent time. Considered one of her finest but. —L.G-F.

Tyla, Tyla

There may be nothing extra scrumptious than the way in which Tyla sings the phrases “sweating out my concealer” in “Soar,” the ninth monitor in her self-titled debut album—and that’s precisely what the 14 songs on this report can have you doing. Tyla has had some of the fascinating debuts in current reminiscence with Tyla, which managed to lift the bar set by the good-vibes-only omnipresence of her hit lead single “Water.” Again in 2020, Beyoncé gave an interview during which she spoke in regards to the state of the music trade: “Individuals don’t make albums anymore,” she mentioned, “They simply attempt to promote a bunch of little fast singles.” Tyla is an album, one you’re compelled to hearken to from begin to end each single time. —J.C-U.

Vampire Weekend, Solely God Was Above Us

An album that felt like a shock however shouldn’t have been. Vampire Weekend have been nice for such a very long time, are by this level such well-established kingpins of the indie intelligentsia, that we’d perhaps began taking them without any consideration. (When was the final time you placed on “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”?) However their fifth album Solely God Was Above Us is extra important than 2019’s undercooked over-polished Father of the Bride and extra sparkly and joyful than absolutely anything I heard this yr. It is a New York indie pop album with a summertime humorousness, with arresting modifications of tempo and temper. You’ve bought the swinging irresistible lullaby of “Capricorn,” the louche sprawl of “The Surfer,” and (my favourite) the anthemic rush of “Gen-X Cops.” A decent ten tracks: Keepers all of them. —T.A.