At the Half: Our Favorite Albums of 2024, So Far...

Charles and David list their favorite albums at the year's midpoint

The year’s half over, so we thought we’d take a quick minute to share our favorite 2024 albums so far. We’ve each pulled out a favorite among favorites to highlight but otherwise our respective Top Ten lists are alphabetical only, not ranked, followed by another ten Honorable Mentions. No commentary, but if we’ve written about the album before or Turned Up any of an album’s tracks, we’ve linked to that. Charles lists his favorites first, then David. And then, for your holiday-week pleasure, our longest list of reading recommendations yet!

Charles’ favorite album of 2024, so far:

Talibah Safiya, Black Magic (“Papa Please!” and “Jack and Jill”)

Charles’ other favorites so far:

Adeem the Artist, Anniversary (“Plot of Land”)

Bonny Light Horsemen, Keep Me on Your Mind/See Me Free (“Rock the Cradle”)

Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past Is Still Alive (“Snake Plant” and “Dynamo”)

Kyshona, Legacy (“Heaven is a Beautiful Place”)

Lizzie No, Halfsies (“Lagunitas”)

Shaboozey, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going (“Highway”)

Swamp Dogg, Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th Street (album review here)

Various Artists, Long Distance Love: The Songs of Lowell George (“Cold, Cold, Cold” and “Cheek to Cheek”)

Various Artists, My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall (“Many Mansions” and “Went For A Ride")

Charles’ honorable mentions:

Beyonce, Act II: Cowboy Carter (“16 Carriages”); Carsie Blanton, After the Revolution; Green Day, Saviors (album review here); Creekbed Carter Hogan, Creekbed Carter (“Lord Make Me A Scorpion”); Chris Housman, Blueneck; Brittany Howard, What Now?; The Paranoid Style, The Interrogator (album review here); Brittney Spencer, My Stupid Life (“I Got Time”); Various Artists, I Saw the TV Glow: Original Soundtrack (“If I Could”)

David’s favorite album of 2024, so far:

Carsie Blanton, After the Revolution (“My Good Friends” and “After the Revolution”)

David’s other favorites, so far:

Adeem the Artist, Anniversary "(“One Night Stand”)

Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future (“Sadness as a Gift”)

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (“Emergence”)

Carly Pearce, hummingbird (“My Place”)

Shaboozey, Where I’ve Been Isn’t Where I’m Going

Brittney Spencer, My Stupid Life (“Night In”)

Various Artists, My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall (“Small Towns (Are Smaller for Girls” and “I’ll Cry for Yours”)

Shawna Virago, Blood in Her Dreams (album review here)

The Wonder Women of Country, Willis, Carper, Leigh (“Another Broken Heart” and “Won’t Be Worried Long”)

David’s honorable mentions: 21 Savage’s American Dream (“redrum”); Beyonce’s Act II: Cowboy Carter (“Texas Hold ‘Em” and “Jolene”); Dehd’s Poetry (“Mood Ring”); Gumbo Stir the Pot (“Like I Showed You”); Hurray for the Riff Raff’s The Past Is Still Alive; Sarah Jarosz’s Polaroid Lovers; (“Runaway Train”); The Paranoid Style’s The Interrogator; Pernice Brothers’ Who Will You Believe (“What We Had”); Sasha Alex Sloan’s Me Again (“Highlights” and “Kids”); Swamp Dogg’s Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th Street; Waxahatchie’s Tiger’s Blood

Recommended readings:

-Clay Risen on the late “alt-country impresario” Jeremy Tepper, for The New York Times

-Clay Risen on the late Kinky Friedman, for The New York Times

-Michelangelo Matos asks if 1984 was the greatest pop year in Minnesota history, for Mpls.StPaul Magazine

-Grayson Haver Currin on Mavis Staples, for The New York Times

-Barry Mazor on Johnny Cash’s Songwriter, for The Wall Street Journal

-Stephen Thomas Erlewine on Johnny Cash’s Songwriter, for Pitchfork

-Bill Friskics-Warren on the late Buzz Cason, for The New York Times

-Angie Jaime on country music’s crumbling borders, for Teen Vogue

-Michael Alex on the disappearance of the MTV News online archive, for Variety

-Ron Wynn talks to Rissi Palmer and Cleve Francis about the revised edition of the From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music box set, for The Nashville Scene

-Justin Hiltner talks to Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and Brenna McMillan, for The Bluegrass Situation

-Harmony Holiday on Kurt Cobain’s journals, for 4Columns

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