Categories
end-year lists

Bolachas’ Favorite Albums of 2024

It’s that time of the year again! After writing about 100 albums in 2022, the bar was way too high in 2023. So I didn’t, and ended up not publishing it at all. So let’s not do that anymore. Here’s my top five, plus 95 of my other favorites in no particular order.

1. MJ Lenderman Manning Fireworks

The singles were great, the hype was real. “Wristwatch”, released shortly before the album was out, was on such a heavy rotation around here that I thought I’d get sick of it. I did not. In Manning Fireworks, Lenderman might sound a little like Berman fronting a Crazy Horse-era Magnolia Electric Co (see Trials & Errors), but he’s really doing his own thing. Every track is a banger, every song has a genius verse that I can’t believe nobody came up with before. OK, nobody ever expected any songwriter to say out loud that they’ve got “a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome” – whatever that means – but did we really have to wait for 2024 for someone to write “I’ve lost my sense of humor / I’ve lost my driving range / I could really use your two cents babe / I could really use the change”? Everyone who ever muttered the words “all the great songs have already been written” is a [redacted]. And all my favorite songs from 2024 were written by some ridiculously talented 25 year old dude from North Carolina whose best is still to come.

Bonus: this one isn’t even on the record.

2. Jennifer Castle Camelot | There’s a strangely familiar voice halfway through an episode of The Bear’s third season. I crack a smile as soon as I hear it. It’s Jennifer Castle’s first new track in 4 years, “Blowing Kisses”, and it’s been a while since I’ve heard a song that elevates a scene as much as this one in an era where people are cramming 7 or 8 song snippets into a 30min episode. (Besides that Sturgill Simpson song on “Civil War” – that was gorgeous.). Camelot isn’t an one-trick pony, though. There are contemplative, expansive tracks that remind me of some of the best Steve Gunn work of the past decade, some groovy moments, and the bare bones “Earthsong”, one of my favorite folk songs of the year. Another criminally underrated album.

3. Laura Marling Patterns in Repeat | If you’re ever worried that maternity will turn your once lively and fun friends into those people, here’s a positive example. Sure, we might never get that 2020 European tour rescheduled, but we get more than we could ever ask for on Marling’s beautiful eight solo album. It’s short, it’s sweet, those string arrangements are wonderful, and it makes you feel warm inside.

4. Emahoy Tsegue Mariam Gebru Souvenirs | A rare glimpse of Gebru’s vocal work, released posthumously in the year the Ethiopian composer would turn 100. The eight tracks in this compilation were recorded between 1977 and 1985, mere years after settling in Jerusalem where she lived in exile.

5. Johnny Blue Skies Passage du Desir | Speaking of the devil. Sturgill Simpson said he would be retiring after five albums. So, of course, he ditched his own name and penned his sixth as Johnny Blue Skies. There’s no big departure from his typical mix between outlaw country and cosmic Americana here, and that’s enough to grant Passage du Desir a spot in this list.

Below, some of my other favorite records of the year, unordered – and then a list of honorable mentions, a Spotify playlist with the entire selection, and another with my top 50 songs of 2024.


The Felice Brothers Valley of Abandoned Songs

Brooks Nielsen A Ride I’m Waiting For

Cassandra Jenkins My Light, My Destroyer

Waxahatchee Tigers Blood

Adrianne Lenker Bright Future

Blood Incantation Absolute Elsewhere

Dua Lipa Radical Optimism

Charli XCX brat

Jessica Pratt Here in the Pitch

The Lostines Meet the Lostines

Willi Carlisle Critterland

Max Bien Kahn Flowers

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Wild God

Water Damage In E

Einstürzende Neubauten Rampen (apm: alien pop music)

Shovel Dance Music The Shovel Dance

Fat White Family Forgiveness Is Yours

Wand Vertigo

DIIV Frog in Boiling Water

Chat Pile Cool World

Styrofoam Winos Real Time

Ned Collette Our Other History

Myriam Gendron Mayday

Hurray for the Riff Raff The Past is Still Alive

Ana Lua Caiano Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado

Nathan Bowles Trio Are Possible

Rosali Bite Down

Mary Halvorson Cloudward

Bodega Our Brand Could Be Yr Life

Christopher Owens I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair

Tramhaus The First Exit

Friko Where we’ve been, Where we go from here


Andrew Bird, Sunday Morning Put-On
Andrew Combs, Dream Pictures
Being Dead, EELS
Bill Ryder-Jones, Iechyd Da
Charley Crockett, $10 Cowboy
Chris Acker, Famous Lunch
Dehd, Poetry
Dr. Dog, Dr. Dog
Ducks Ltd., Harm’s Way
Father John Misty, Mahashmashana
Fievel is Glauque, Rong Weicknes
Fontaines DC, Romance
Frances Chang, Psychedelic Anxiety
Geordie Greep, The New Sound
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Woodland
Gustaf, Package Pt. 2
Haley Heynderickx, Seed of a Seed
Horse Jumper of Love, Disaster Trick
HYPER GAL, After Image
Irnini Mons, Une habitante touchée par un météorite
Itasca, Imitation of War
Jade Hairpins, Get Me the Good Stuff
Jasmin Williams, Acadia
Julie Beth Napolin, Only the Void Stands Between Us
Kacey Musgraves, Deeper Well
Kate Bollinger, Songs From a Thousand Frames of Mind
King Hannah, Big Swimmer
Les Savy Fav, Oui, LSF
Mabe Fratti, Sentir Que No Sabes
MAQUINA., PRATA
Maya Beiser, Maya Beiser x Terry Riley: In C
Mdou Moctar, Funeral for Justice
Moin, You Never End
Mono, OATH
Mulatu Astatke & Hoodna Orchestra, Tension
Nailah Hunter, Lovegaze
Nala Sinephro, Endlessness
Nap Eyes, The Neon Gate
Nathan Bowles Trio, Are Possible
O., WeirdOs
Old Saw, Dissection Maps
Parsnip, Behold
Sababa 5 & Yurika Hanashima, Kokoro
Sahra Halgan, Hiddo dhawr
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Revelations
Sex Swing, Golden Triangle
Shellac, To All Trains
Show Me the Body, CORPUS II
Silver Scrolls, Mind Lines
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Kinnery of Lupercalia: Buell Legion
Soccer Mommy, Evergreen
Sofie Royer, Young-Girl Forever
Sour Widows, Revival of a Friend
The Decemberists, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
The Deslondes, Roll It Out
The Hard Quartet, The Hard Quartet
The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis, The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
Trummors, 5
Vera Sola, Peacemaker
Von Spar, Album I
Weak Signal, Fine
Wendy Eisenberg, Viewfinder
Xiu Xiu, 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips
Zachary Cale, Next Year’s Ghost