The best albums of 2024 to listen to over Christmas

Unlock Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Charli XCX brat

Label: Atlantic Records

Originally published: June 7th

The water cooler’s moment of death was exaggerated. Social media is actually doing the opposite, namely an unstoppable rise in the events that everyone is supposedly talking about – “the discourse,” in the cod-academic language of cultural commentary. The risk is overexposure, like the blanket coverage of Charli XCX brat. But the album cuts through the ambient noise. It encapsulates the singer’s avant-garde dance-pop while conveying a more well-rounded personality than previous records. It will outlast the discourse.

Statue of Erika de Casier

Label: 4AD

Originally published: February 21st

Copenhagen singer Erika de Casier specializes in a finely balanced form of R&B, knowing but not archaic, seductive without being too smooth. Despite it makes excellent use of this carefully formulated approach. De Casier murmurs about romantic highs and lows, a calm register for strong feelings. The beats are arranged in the style and spaciousness of a chic, modern apartment. Old flames smolder (“Ex-Girlfriend”), capricious friends are confronted (“Ice”), possessive partners are rejected (“My Day Off”). A seductive touch of humor runs through the story.

“This Could Be Texas” by English Teacher

Label: Island records

Originally published: April 12th

We shouldn’t coddle rock bands: that’s not the kind of rock and roll. But the urge to coddle grows as the bands’ lives become more difficult (high touring costs, closed venues, lack of income from recordings). The English Teacher won the Mercury Prize for her debut This could be Texas therefore deserves a cheer. But the album neither demands nor requires a charitable ear. The Leeds quartet make curvy but not over-the-top songs with intelligent lyrics and a searching spirit. Musical quality has its own rewards – although it deserves others too.

The Kim Gordon Collective

Label: Matador Records

Originally published: March 8th

“Cement the brand,” says Kim Gordon The collective. Her album’s anti-consumerism, screw-up-life message also fits the brand, as it’s exactly what we’d expect from the US experimental rock grandee, formerly Sonic Youth. But on her second solo album, nothing is routine. Gordon’s singing is sonically difficult to understand, mixing empty utterances with excited screams. Industrial beats pound like hip-hop piledrivers in a strangely catchy way. Distorted sounds assault our ears with bursts of white noise. The songs are intended to confuse, and they do so impressively.

The thief next to Jesus of Ka

Label: Ironworks

Originally published: Self-published on August 19th, streamable since September 19th

Ka’s The thief next to Jesus is rap music as the deepest blues. The New Yorker, also known as Kaseem Ryan, throws himself into a hypnotic, mostly drum-free groove. Poverty and violence, tragic legacies of African American enslavement, haunt the songs. Ghostly voices from old gospel and soul records accompany the experienced rapper’s drawn out but intense flow of words. A difficult trade-off is made between religious belief in the coming of a better world and the stubborn failings of this world. A cruel final word: Ka died in October at the age of 52. It’s no consolation, but he leaves behind one of the best albums of the year.

Fine art by Kneecap

Label: Heavenly shots

Originally published: June 14th

Belfast trio Kneecap’s breakthrough year began with the premiere of their self-titled feature film, a fictional band biography. It ended in another triumph for Irish nationalist rappers, a court victory over the British government, which had cut off an arts grant to them. In between was the release of her album Fine arts. The rapping is done in Irish and English, a bilingual combination that carries a lot of history but is delivered with full energy and cheeky wit. The music is punky, exuberant hip-hop. Politics has merged with hedonism. The bravado of “Go big or go home” is louder than the “Brits out” slogan.

Letter to Yu from Bolis Pupul

Label: Deewee

Originally published: March 8th

We last encountered Bolis Pupul in 2022 Current dancera playful excursion with her Belgian compatriot Charlotte Adigéry. The Ghent electronic musician’s first solo album is more serious. Letter to Yu is addressed to his Chinese mother, who lived in Hong Kong before moving to Belgium, where she died in 2008. The songs deal with Pupul’s feelings of familiarity and alienation as he visits Hong Kong, a city he had never been to before, after her death. The result, co-produced with Soulwax’s Stephen and David Dewaele, is electropop with rare intelligence and emotion, yet clever, catchy and meaningful.

Iechyd Da by Bill Ryder-Jones

Label: domino

Originally published: January 12th

Bill Ryder-Jones’ latest solo album resembles a Merseyside version of fado. From his remote base in Wirral, the peninsula between Liverpool and Wales, the former member of The Coral sings sleepy songs full of longing and resignation. The style is jangly, melodic, orchestral. The lyrics long for liberation from mental and emotional conflicts (Iechyd Da is named after the Welsh toast for good health. Meanwhile, the music and ourselves get lost in the vast skies and uplifting melodies of Liverpool’s distinctive psychedelia tradition.

Songs of a Lost World by The Cure

Label: Polydor/Fiction

Originally published: November 1st

Acclaimed horror laureates The Cure caused jangled nerves and bitten nails ahead of their first album in 16 years. Would it be good? There was a lot of room for disappointment: it’s better not to have a new album from such a great band than a mediocre one. But when Robert Smith’s unchanged voice was heard declaring “hopes and dreams are gone” on lead single “Alone,” it was clear that hopes and dreams wouldn’t really be dashed. He and his band have returned with an album that reflects on the passing of the years with majestic seriousness. Songs of a lost world is a worthy addition to their impressive discography.

Wall of Eyes by The Smile

Label: XL Recordings

Originally published: January 26th

Wall of eyes was the first of two albums released that year by Radiohead spin-off group The Smile. In one of his tracks, Thom Yorke sings about shying away from “massive egos so big they bend the light,” as if he were shying away from a reflection of rock stars and their bizarre side projects. But this one, featuring Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, proved to be a tour de force. Wall of eyes finds her in top form. It is smooth and open, the result of an ego-free musicality.