[pictured from their Brooklyn show in early 2024, Hurray for the Riff Raff/Alynda Segarra]
This is the 18th “End of the Year” since we started “Teacher On The Radio” back in September 2007.
More & more each year, I spend our entire calendar year obsessing over what will be on my “best of” list come December. Since 2020, I have convened a gang of peers to share our respective Top 10 Albums lists in an annual marathon podcast/video livestream.
You can watch/listen to that here:
Best of 2024 with the Music Nerds
Here is an epic long list of albums of the year, ranked, as we wrap up 2024.
For me, listening intentionally to the current music as it’s released is a spiritual discipline & mental health practice. It saves my crazy brain & tired ass, every single day. I encourage others to give this practice a try. To find out about new stuff as the year goes on, I frequently visit various music websites & belong to numerous music groups on Facebook.
How do I arrive at a final ranked list? These are some loose criteria:
- How much did I actually listen to a record?
- How much did I emotionally connect with an album?
- How likely is this lesser-known record or artist to get missed by other lists?
- Did this album contain a welcome & needed message, consistent with my values: resonating culturally, promoting peace, or amplifying a marginalized group?
- Hurray for the Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive
- Willi Carlisle - Critterland
- Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
- Garrett T. Capps - Everyone Is Everyone
- The Decemberists - As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
- Sierra Ferrell - Trail of Flowers
- Joy Oladokun - OBSERVATIONS FROM A CROWDED ROOM
- Jack White - No Name
- Adeem The Artist - Anniversary
- The Collection - Little Deaths
- Bonny Light Horseman - Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free
- Futurebirds - Easy Company
- Pony Bradshaw - Thus Spoke The Fool
- T Bone Burnett - The Other Side
- Willie Watson - s/t
- Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Woodland
- The Heavy Heavy - One Of A Kind
- Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
- Ben Sollee - Long Haul
- Dalchord - Timeless Rambler
- Evan Honer - Fighting For
- Ray LaMontagne - Long Way Home
- Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department
- Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well
- Johnny Blue Skies - Passage du Desir
- Shovels & Rope - Something Is Working Up Above My Head
- John Moreland - Visitor
- The Avett Brothers - s/t
- The Red Clay Strays - Made By These Moments
- John Craigie - Pagan Church
- Phosphorescent - Revelator
- Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats - South of Here
- Amos Lee - Transmissions
- MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
- The Dog’s Body - Salt Pile
- Green Day - Saviors
- Laura Jane Grace - Hole In My Head
- Flamy Grant - Church
- Casey Neill - time zero land
- Matthew Black - A Little Closer
- Average Joey - Impermanence
- David Rovics - Notes From A Holocaust*+
- Jesse Welles - Hells Welles
- Sarah Shook & the Disarmers - Revelations
- Dawes - Oh Brother
- Madi Diaz - Weird Faith
- Katie Pruitt - Mantras
- Nicolette & the Nobodies - The Long Way
- Will Hoge - Tenderhearted Boys
- The Menzingers - Some Of It Was True (Deluxe)*
- Cloud Cult - Alchemy Creek
- The Dead Tongues - I Am A Cloud
- Bright Eyes - Five Dice, All Threes
- Sam Burchfield - Me & My Religion
- Madeline Hawthorne - Tales From Late Nights & Long Drives
- Blitzen Trapper - 100s of 1000s, Millions of Billions
- Kula Shaker - Natural Magick
- William Elliott Whitmore - Silently, The Mind Breaks
- Hillbilly Thomists - Marigold
- Barnstar - Furious Kindness
- The Shovel Dance Collective - The Shovel Dance
- The Wilderness Yet - Westlin Winds
- Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
- Snow Patrol - The Forest Is The Path
- The Black Keys - Ohio Players
- The Smile - Cutouts
- Amythyst Kiah - Still + Bright
- Beyonce - Cowboy Carter
- Pixie & The Partygrass Boys - s/t
- Billy Strings - Highway Prayers
- American Aquarium - Fear of Standing Still
- The Felice Brothers - Valley of Abandoned Songs
- Hayes & The Heathens - s/t
- AJ Lee & Blue Summit - City of Glass
- Beta Radio - Waiting for the End to Come
- Rainy Eyes - Lonesome Highway
- Rosali - Bite Down
- Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future
- Mary Timony -Untame The Tiger
- Damh the Bard - Raise the Flag of Green
- Dawn Landes - The Liberated Woman’s Songbook
- Carsie Blanton - After The Revolution
- Pernice Brothers - Who Will You Believe
- Glass Beach - Plastic Death
- Jesse Welles - Patchwork
- Caleb Caudle - Sweet Critters
- Joe Pug - Sketch of a Promised Departure
- Snowgoose -Descendent
- The Coward Brothers - s/t
- The Bridge City Sinners - In The Ago of Doubt
- Cindy Morgan - Sounds of Jubilee
- Wild Pink - Dulling the Home
- Coldplay - Moon Music
- Sarah Jarosz - Polaroid Lovers
- Aaron Lee Tasjan - Stellar Evolution
- Iron & Wine - Light Verse
- The Dead Tongues - Body of Light
- Michael Kiwanuka - Small Changes
- Leon Bridges - Leon
- MGMT - Loss of Life
- Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
- Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came
- Nick Cave - Wild God
- The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
- The The - Ensoulment
- Deer Tick - Contractual Obligations
- Silverlites - s/t
- The Droptines - s/t
- Covey - Middle Ground
- English Teacher - This Could Be Texas
- True Foxes - Howl
- Aoife O’Donovan - All My Friends
- Devarrow - Heart Shaped Rock
- Rent Strike - Mobius Strip Mall
- Willi Carlisle - The Magnolia Sessions
- 49 Winchester - Leavin The Holler
- Thee Sacred Souls - Got A Story To Tell
- Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge - Wine On Venus
- Rosie Tucker - Utopia Now
- Jake Xerxes Fussell - When I’m Called
- Ka - The Thief Next To Jesus
- Fontaines DC - Romance
- Judah & the Lion - The Process
- The Smile - Wall of Eyes
- Stick in the Wheel - A Thousand Pokes
- Tucker Zimmerman - Dance of Love
- Rachel Baiman - A Sides/B Sides
- Mdou Moctar - Funeral For Justice
- King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
- Lost Ox - Tale of the Fool
- Wyatt Flores - Welcome to the Plains
- Zach Bryan - Great American Bar Scene
- Shane Smith & the Saints - Norther
- AJ Woods - Hawk is Listenin’
- Ani diFranco- Unprecedented Shit
- Current Joys - East My Love
- Kevin Gordon - The In Between
- Styrofoam Winos - Real Time
- Lone Justice - Viva Lone Justice+
- India Ramey - Baptized By The Blaze
- Josiah & the Bonnevilles - Endurance (Deluxe)*
- Aaron West & the Roaring Twenties - In Lieu Of Flowers
- The Hard Quartet - s/t
- Colby Acuff - American Son
- Tess Liautaud - Blue Mind
- Kelly Mickwee - Everything Beautiful
- Mallory Everett - Time To Learn
- John Muq - Flying Away
- Julian Dawson - s/t
- The Brother Brothers - The January Album
