BEST MUSIC OF 2024
I was paying attention. Here is what I heard.
MY FAVORITE ALBUM OF THE YEAR - Father John Misty, Mahashmashana
Father John Misty is a puckish bard of both irony and sincerity. He has never shied away from a daring concept. In Mahashmashana, he dives headlong into an album steeped in mysticism, mortality, and a faint whiff of incense curling around the trademark lyrical wit. The title, a Sanskrit term referencing cremation grounds, signals the theatrical doom we’re in for and the album’s poetic ambition holds up under its self-conscious weight.
Musically, it’s as lush as ever. Misty’s collaborators weave orchestral swells and Eastern motifs into his usual chamber-pop palette, lending a spectral grandeur that recalls Scott Walker's later years, albeit without their terrifying austerity. Tracks like the title number and “Mental Health” show off his panache for soaring musical peaks.
“Screamland” is a particular favorite. It is a critique of the Hillsong/Bethel style of worship and spirituality while aping their style. The kicker being it is twenty times better than anything that has ever emerged from those churches or their imitators.
Lyrically, Misty ponders the mundane and the mesmerizing. His ruminations on death, karma, and cosmic reckoning are often times profound, but at others feel like a man tossing fortune cookies into the Ganges. That is not a criticism, he is representing the spiritual reality of many of his listeners.
Mahashmashana stands as a testament to Misty’s commitment to the theatrical. Even when it smaller and more intimate it still dares to something interesting. And in a world of timid mediocrity, there’s something to be said for an artist who risks everything—even coherence—for the sake of grandeur. I think this is my favorite Father John Misty album to date.
THE ALBUM I RETURNED TO MOST - Arooj Aftab, Night Reign
Arooj Aftab’s Night Reign is like a nocturnal garden—lush, hypnotic, and illuminated by a moonlight glow of quiet virtuosity. With a voice that seems to rise from the very marrow of human yearning, Aftab transports listeners to a realm where time slows and emotion reigns. Hers is a sound that haunts not by clamor but by clarity, weaving silence as deftly as melody.
The album breathes in the spaces between traditional South Asian music and modern minimalism, each track an act of alchemy. Opening with “Aey Nehin” Aftab's vocals glide over a tide of strings and subtle electronic undercurrents, as if summoning a spectral tide to lap gently at the edges of memory. By the time you reach “Na Gul" with its soft cascade of harp and a contralto rich with unshed tears, you realize Night Reign isn’t simply music—it’s a conversation between the ineffable and the intimate.
THE ALBUM OF AN ARTIST IN HIS ELEMENT - Kendrick Lamar, GNX
Kendrick Lamar’s GNX is a masterclass in the alchemy of language and thought, a relentless cascade of rhymes that both dazzle and pierce. With a pen sharper than a scalpel and a flow as fluid as molten gold, Lamar dismantles societal hypocrisies, threads personal confessions, and reassembles them with the precision of a jeweler. Every verse demands attention, and every line feels destined for annotation. Here, Kendrick cements his reputation not just as the best rapper alive but also as a prophet—fiercely lucid, deeply human, and unflinchingly honest.
But for all the brilliance of the words and delivery, the music that carries them occasionally feels a little safe. The production, while competent, sometimes lacks the spark to elevate Lamar’s words to the astral plane where they belong. Beats that should thunder sometimes merely rumble; melodies that should haunt sometimes merely hover. There is an admirable focus in the soundscapes but I do wonder about the influence of Jack Antonoff on most of the tracks. I am not a fan of his production as he is very conservative and avoids real risks like we've seen on other Kendrick records.