The 14 Albums That Most Tickled My Fancy in 2024

What the world really needs is another top albums list. You're welcome.

According to my Spotify summary, I listened to 578 different bands this year. That should be more than enough to come up with a list of 10 (or 14 because I hate editing) of the best albums of the year. It was a little frustrating putting this together because some of my favorite new discoveries of the year came out towards the end of last year, so they don’t technically qualify. And since I am very much a believer in the sanctity of rules, I wasn’t willing to make any compromises.

Making a list of the best albums of the year for my ears is an exercise I have done for more than a decade now. But this is the first time I’ve shared it. Normally my own self-satisfaction has been enough.

It’s a bit of a different list than many years. There are only six Canadian bands among the 14 listed - a lower percentage than perhaps ever before. They are joined by two British offerings, and Australian representative, and five American bands. One exciting trend is that five of the 14 albums here are debut offerings from the bands in question. If these bands can come out of the gate this strong it’s scary to think of how good they could become. On the flip side, five bands are appearing on the list for not their first time, and another is a supergroup made up of two different members who have been on this list with different offerings in the past.

I’ll be clear that these are the bands and albums that have excited me this year. I’m not at all making a claim that they are the best, and won’t be interested in arguing with anyone over order or absences. The individual nature of music is what makes it so great. Besides, if your taste isn’t as good as mine then why should I waste my time?

So, without further ado. These appear in ascending order, though I could change the order around a hundred different ways, and the only one that wouldn’t move is number one:

14. LOLO - Falling For Robots & Wishing I Was One

    This is the last addition to this list, and it’s frankly unexpected. I was given a ticket to review Marianas Trench in a few days (I hope the anticipation doesn’t kill you), and this Canadian singer/songwriter is the opener. I had never heard of her, but I checked out the album to see what to expect. And I’ve listened to it on repeat since. It’s poppy and often light. But she has a real way with words, and some surprising range. There’s a lot to like here, but she could make the list for the song Hot Girls in Hell. The last two minutes are the most impressive, angry teardown of some loser who had the horrendous lack of foresight required to do her wrong that I have ever heard.

13. Thunder Queens - Strike One

    This isn’t a perfect album, but it’s a very good one. And it’s one that we should be celebrating and elevating. London, Ontario’s Thunder Queens are remarkable for a number of reasons - far the least of which is that they are only 15 years old. Three girls only a few months older than my son have made an album that truly rocks. And I saw them play this spring, and they are a lot better than most bands could even dream of being at this age. I have no idea where they will go in the end, but where they have come since forming as a duo when they were nine years old is pretty incredible. They’ve had some impressive opportunities already, too - a couple members of The Beaches couldn’t perform at the Polaris Prize gala last fall, so Thunder Queens stepped in as the replacement bands for one of Canada’s hottest act. This is a band worth watching - and an album worth hearing. I love the video here for Roadtrip. They are all sitting in the backseat of the car - because none of them are old enough to be driving.

12. English Teacher - This Could Be Texas

    The Mercury Prize is the British equivalent of Canada’s Polaris Prize - an award that sets out to accomplish the impossible goal of identifying the best album produced in Britain each year. This year’s winner was the debut album by English Teacher. I have no way of judging how deserving it was, and many of the past winners don’t ring a bell in my head. But this is one hell of an album. It’s smart, brilliantly written, and a pleasure to listen to. And it runs you through a range of emotions and moods throughout.

11. Corb Lund - El Viejo

    Corb is one of my favorite Canadian musicians. This is an album closer to the old school country that I most like from him than what he has released in several years. That’s a a win alone. And it has some very creative takes on songwriting on it - he’s not afraid to take a risk and try an approach that doesn’t look nearly as good on paper as it turns out to be. What I really love about this album, though, is the title track. Corb’s musical hero and mentor was Ian Tyson - a musician I truly loved. El Viejo means old man, and it refers to Tyson. The song is beautiful, and I’m a sucker for the subject matter. If I have to accept that I can never hear a new Ian Tyson album, at least I can hear new songs about him. And the video is truly amazing, too.

10. Laughing - Because It’s True

    Tricia and I saw these folks from Montreal at Sled Island this spring - before this album had even come out. It took about two lines into the first tune for me to know how good they were. I have no idea what ‘it’ is for a band, but they have it. This is a really great, tragically under-appreciated album. It’s very Canadian indie rock in the best senses of that word. Check it out.

9. Rick White and The Sadies - Rick White and The Sadies

   Rick White was a member of Eric’s Trip, the great ‘90s band from Moncton that also gave the world Julie Doiron. Since they broke up he’s been a very influential performer and producer, with his fingerprints on an impressive amount of really great music. Somewhere along the line he was roommates and dear friends with Dallas Good, one of the leaders of the Sadies along with his brother Travis. Dallas tragically and unexpectedly died at just 48 years old in 2022. This album is an attempt for White and the band to process that incredible loss. It’s sad, and melancholy. But it’s also beautiful, and a very fitting tribute. It’s a treat to hear White actively collaborate with a band he has produced frequently over the years. It’s just a shame that it had to be this version of The Sadies. But Dallas would have loved this album, I think. I do.

8. Frank Turner - Undefeated

   Careful readers will know that I have become a very big fan of what Britain’s Turner can do live. Since seeing him the first time a couple years back, though, I had struggled to get as much out of his records as I had out of his show. But this latest effort is, for my ears, his best from top to bottom. It’s got a couple of true radio bangers in Letters and Girl from the Record Shop. And there are several other really strong tunes as well. The guy really knows how to write a song, and it is on full display here.

7. Pom Pom Squad - Mirror Starts Moving Without Me

   This is a solo project as a band of Brooklyn based Mia Berrin. She very vocal about aspects of her identity that very much shouldn’t overlap with a white suburban dad in Calgary, but I have been unable to get enough of this project since a friend introduced them to me a couple months back. Call it grunge pop if you want to put a label on it, I guess. But it’s theatrical, deceptively complex, smart, and catchy as hell. Just really, really good. Downhill is a tune on a short list of the best I’ve heard this year.

6. Bonny Light Horseman - Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free

   This is a supergroup formed by people who really excite me. Eric D. Johnson is the creative genius behind the truly brilliant Fruit Bats - the band I haven’t yet seen and want to see more than any other. Anais Mitchell is an accomplished folk singer who also wrote Hadestown, my favorite Broadway musical I’ve seen in the last few years. And Josh Kaufman is one of those guys who has collaborated with pretty much everyone - including none other than Taylor Swift on several of her albums. The talent this group has is just completely insane. And it all comes out on their latest album. Wow. Here’s what you need to do. Just listen to the opening track of this 20 song opus. If you don’t like it then move on. You are beyond help. And hope.

5. Friko - Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here

   My top album of 2023 was The Window by Chicago’s Ratboys. It’s an astoundingly great album. And there is clearly something in the water in that city, because here’s another really great album from a Chicago based band. The band formed as a trio right out of high school in 2019. By the time this debut album came out this year they had evolved into a duo. It’s an impressive first album. The first three songs in particular are as strong a start as I can remember any band having, and the list of songs better this year than their Crimson to Chrome is a very short one.

4. Ducks Ltd. - Harm’s Way

   This Toronto indie band released their first EP as Ducks Unlimited, got sued, and changed their name before releasing their first album, Harm’s Way, in 2021. It was a masterpiece - 18 Cigarettes is one of the better written songs I can think of. I was nervous in advance of the release of this follow up - they were buzzy, and they had a lot to live up to. The pressure didn’t phase them at all. This is every bit the match of the debut. I’m finally going to see this band for the first time in a couple of months - they’ve been one of those Canadian bands that would rather tour in the States rather than out in the outer colonies where I dwell. I can’t wait.

3. Middle Kids - Faith Crisis Pt 1

   I always seem to have an Australian band or two in heavy rotation, and for the last couple of years this has been on top of the list. Hannah Joy was a solo artist who asked fellow musician Tim Fitz to produce some of her songs. They were so happy with the results they formed a band, and here we are eight years later. Everything they have created since then has been great, so I was very excited for this album to come out this year. And it hasn’t disappointed one bit. Like so much of the music I love, this album could have come out any time in the last 30 years. Timeless classic in the making.

2. Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood

   Of any album on this list, this is the one that will appear on, and near the top of, the most best of lists out there. I’m okay with not being original when it comes to an album this ridiculously good. Top to bottom, this latest album from the solo project of Katie Crutchfield, currently from Kansas City, is breathtaking. Right Back To It is the most played and most appreciated song from the album. There’s a reason for that - it’s truly incredible. Another of the short list of best songs of the year. She brings so much emotion and pain to her songs, and her writing is outstanding. Plus - banjo. Everything’s better with a banjo.

1. Manchester Orchestra - Cope Live at The Earl

   I’ll say up front that Spotify has told me that Manchester Orchestra has been my most listened to band for three years running - and they would have been the same a couple years before that if Spotify had started counting sooner. So I am a little biased here. I really, really love this band.

   But beyond that, this is a truly spectacular album. There is a lot of backstory here. In 2013 Manchester Orchestra released an album called Cope. If I had to pick a least favorite album from the band that one would be it. It never really grabbed my attention like everything else they have done. It was fine, but not much more. A few months later they surprised their fans by releasing Hope, which was an acoustic rethinking of Cope. It was cool, but I also wasn’t that excited about it because I didn’t love the source material. In 2023, to mark the 10th Anniversary of Cope the band toured the complete album - which it seems like every band is doing these days. This album is the recording of their hometown show in Atlanta at The Earl during that tour. And it’s just perfect.

   The songs are the same as they were on the album, yet somehow so different. Lead singer Andy Hull’s voice is older and lower, and that changes the songs. The band plays the hell out of things. And it does a truly great job of capturing what is so great about live music - the energy, the passion, the power. It turned an album I didn’t love into one I truly can’t get enough of. There are very few bands on the level of this one, and this album is them at their very best - on stage and absolutely destroying.