Our 100 Favorite Albums of 2024!

R&R's Favorite New Music of 2024

Happy New Year! On Saturday we posted Our Favorite Films & TV of 2024. And on Monday we posted Our Favorite Books of 2024. (Tomorrow, January 2nd, we’ll be busy celebrating our 25th anniversary! 25 Years! A quarter of a century! Cheers to us!)

Today, however, we are concluding our Year-in-Review with Our 100 Favorite Albums of 2024! What better way to kick off the new year than by enjoying some great new music from the last 12 months?

For each album, we’ve tried to link to multiple platforms to purchase or stream the music. We’ve done our best to follow the lead of the artists themselves, using the links they’ve provided through their official websites, record labels or social media. But regardless of how you to choose to listen, please PLEASE support your favorite musicians if you can afford it. Purchase their albums/merch directly via Bandcamp or their official sites, and pay to see them live in concert so they can afford to keep making the music we all love!

Enjoy the music! And don’t forget to tell us in the comments what you were listening to last year!

On to our personal list of favorites! (in alphabetical order by artist) . . .

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Our 100 Favorite Albums of 2024!

• Alison Moyet: Key

• Amythyst Kiah: Still + Bright

• Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown

• Brittany Howard: What Now

• Can: Live in Paris 1973

• Christone “Kingfish” Ingram: Live in London

• The Cure: Songs Of A Lost World

• Dua Lipa: Radical Optimism

• Einstürzende Neubauten: Rampen (apm: alien pop music)

• Elbow: Audio Vertigo

• Fantastic Negrito: Son of a Broken Man

• Florence + The Machine & Jules Buckley and his Orchestra: Symphony of Lungs (BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall)

• Gavin Friday: Ecce Homo

• Gossip: Real Power

• Helado Negro: Phasor

• James: Yummy

• Joan Armatrading: How Did This Happen And What Does It Now Mean

• John Cale: POPtical Illusion

• Judith Hill: Letters from a Black Widow

• Lady Blackbird: Slang Spirituals

• Lady Parts: We Are Lady Parts (Music From The Original Series - Seasons 1 & 2)

• Laura Jane Grace: Hole In My Head

• Lenny Kravitz: Blue Electric Light

• Leyla McCalla: Sun Without the Heat

• Lizz Wright: Shadow

• Michael Kiwanuka: Small Changes

• Morley: Follow the Sound

• Nadine Shah: Filthy Underneath

• Nailah Hunter: Lovegaze

• Paula Cole: Lo

• Peter Garrett: The True North

• Ruthie Foster: Mileage

• Shemekia Copeland: Blame It On Eve

• The The: Ensoulment

• Tori Amos: Diving Deep Live

• X: Smoke & Fiction

Our Favorite Jazz Albums of 2024!

• Abdullah Ibrahim: 3

• Alice Coltrane: The Carnegie Hall Concert (Live)

• Alina Bzhezhinska & Tony Kofi: Altera Vita

• Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

• Charles McPherson: Reverence

• Jihye Lee Orchestra: Infinite Connections

• Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit

• Linda Sikhakhane: iLadi

• Louis Hayes: Artform Revisited

• McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Henry Grimes & Jack DeJohnette: Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’

• Meshell Ndegeocello: No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin

• Nduduzo Makhathini: uNomkhubulwane

• Shabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace

• Sun Ra Arkestra: Lights on a Satellite

• Vanisha Gould & Chris McCarthy: Life’s A Gig

• Vanisha Gould: She’s Not Shiny, She’s Not Smooth

• Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers: Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens

• Zara McFarlane: Sweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan

Our Favorite Classical Albums of 2024!

• Antonio Oyarzábal: La Muse Oubliée II: Women Composers

• Boulanger Trio: Who's Afraid Of...?

• Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion: Rectangles and Circumstance

• Christina Pluhar & L’Arpeggiata: Wonder Women

• Experiential Orchestra with James Blachly & Curtis Stewart: American Counterpoints

• Gitane Demone & Paul Roessler: The New Young Kings Of Midnight

• Isata Kanneh-Mason: Mendelssohn

• Jakob Lindberg: Robert de Visée: Theorbo Solos

• Jon Batiste: Beethoven Blues

• Jordi Forniés: Hela Nokto

• Kronos Quartet: Outer Spaceways Incorporated: Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra

• Lara Downes: This Land

• Marie Awadis: Études Mélodiques

• Rachel Barton Pine: Corelli: 12 Violin Sonatas, Op.5

• Sara Davis Buechner, Symphony Nova Scotia & Holly Mathieson: Defiant Dances (Live)

• Yo-Yo Ma & Kathryn Stott: Merci

• Yuja Wang: The Vienna Recital

• Yunchan Lim: Chopin Études

Our Favorite Global Albums of 2024!

• Amaro Freitas: Y’Y

• Arooj Aftab: Night Reign

• Ayọ: Mami Wata

• Ayom: Sa.Li.Va

• Aziza Brahim: Mawja

• Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper: Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper

• Ballaké Sissoko & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch: Radicants

• Canberk Ulaş: Echoes of Becoming

• Ganavya: like the sky I’ve been too quiet

• Gao Hong & Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde: Alondra

• Joseph Tawadros: The Virtue of Signals

• Kadialy Kouyate: Afro Kora

• Kankou Kouyaté: N’Darila

• Katerina Papadopoulou & Aegean Arc: Aura

• Lass: Passeport

• Les Amazones d’Afrique: Musow Danse

• Lila Downs, Niña Pastori & Soledad: Raíz Nunca Me Fui

• Loreena McKennitt: The Road Back Home

• Nicole Mitchell and Ballaké Sissoko: Bamako*Chicago Sound System

• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Chain of Light

• Orquesta Akokán: Caracoles

• Playing For Change: Songs For Humanity

• Seckou Keita: Homeland - Chapter 1

• Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens: American Railroad

• Snow Raven: Home

• Tidiane Thiam: Africa Yontii

• Yannis & The Yaw feat. Tony Allen - Lagos Paris London

And Last But Certainly Not Least . . .

The Elephant by J. Chris Rock (featuring Ryan Wildstar!)

Purchase or Stream (multiple platforms)

Purchase via Bandcamp here!

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Happy New Year everyone!

What music were you listening to in 2024? Tell us your picks in the comments!