Let’s be honest – trying to sum up a year in music is like attempting to explain Matty Healy to your grandparents or giving a sensible answer when someone asks you, ‘What kind of music do you like?’. It’s messy, it’s subjective and someone is definitely going to disagree with you in the comments.
But here we are again, Dear Reader, doing what we do best: Ranking things and having opinions about them. 2024 has been the kind of year that makes music journalists reach for increasingly elaborate metaphors – a year where artificial intelligence tried to write pop songs (badly), where every other week brought another “unexpected” collaboration, and where pop girlies ruled all.
From bedroom pop breakthroughs to stadium-sized statements, from heartbreak to hyperpop, we’ve listened to it all. Multiple times. Probably while crying in the shower or doing our silly little tasks or commuting to our silly little jobs. These are the albums that made 2024 feel less like a simulation and more like somewhere we actually want to be – ranked meticulously, debated passionately, and served up with a signature side of mild sass. Strap in. Things are about to get opinionated.
50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1
20. THE DARE – What’s Wrong With New York?
Like a midnight taxi ride through rain-slicked streets, The Dare’s latest offering captures that precise moment when city exhaustion transforms into electric possibility. ‘What’s Wrong With New York?’ isn’t just another urban chronicle – it’s a love letter written in neon and grime, where jagged post-punk riffs collide with indie sleaze sensibilities. It’s the sound of someone falling in and out of love with concrete and steel, sometimes within the same song.
Top Track: ‘You’re Invited’
Fun Fact: Once upon a time, Harrison Patrick Smith was a substitute teacher at a New York City private school; now he hangs out with Charli xcx.
Read our full interview with The Dare from our September issue of Dork
19. SPRINTS – Letter To Self
Dublin’s noisiest new heroes have delivered a debut that hits harder than your first pint of the evening. Raw enough to scrape your knees on but polished enough to see your reflection in, it’s the sound of a band who’ve found their voice and decided to use it to wake up the whole neighbourhood. From the brass-knuckle charm of ‘Ticking’ to the cathedral-sized ambitions of, well, ‘Cathedral’, this is what happens when urgency meets excellence and decides to start a proper riot.
Top Track: ‘Adore Adore Adore’
Fun Fact: Sprints’ 2021 EP ‘Manifesto’ is also 10/10.
18. JORDANA – Lively Premonition
‘Lively Premonition’ is an album full of surprises by an artist fully embracing their rich and varied musicality. Jordana has always been a supremely gifted songwriter, but this album sees her taking that talent to the next level. This record sounds like a classic. An intensely musical work from the very first note through the ballsy violin solo that adorns ‘We Get By’ to the vibe shift to funky dance pop in the middle with the old-time rave-up of ‘Multitudes Of Mystery’ to the heart stopping ballads that conclude the album, every facet of Jordana’s artistry is working to peak effect.
Top Track: ‘We Get By’
Fun (Horrifying) Fact: Jordana is a self-described pool shark.
Pick up a copy of our November issue of Dork featuring Jordana on the cover
17. YARD ACT – Where’s MY Utopia
Turns out the answer to ‘The Overload’ was to load up even more – who knew? Leeds’ finest have swerved the second album slump by basically doing doughnuts around it, crafting a record that’s part philosophical disco, part northern social club rave-up. It’s cleverer, dancier, and somehow even more quotable than before – like if Mark E Smith had discovered funk and started throwing the best parties in town.
Top Track: ‘We Make Hits’
Fun Fact: For their second album, Yard Act enlisted the vocal talents of Ryan’s dog. “He growls all the time FYI,” Ryan notes. “I didn’t torture a dog.”
Read our full cover interview with Yard act from the February issue of Dork
16. MAGGIE ROGERS -Don’t Forget Me
Maggie Rogers’ rapid evolution has been nothing short of captivating, and her third album, ‘Don’t Forget Me’, continues to surprise and impress. Following a meticulously crafted second project born behind the closed doors of a pandemic, on which the intensity of the times manifested in huge emotional impact, this next offering takes the opposite approach; it exudes a charisma, spontaneity and lightheartedness that sets it apart.
Top Track: ‘The Kill’
Fun Fact: The album was written in chronological order over five days in December 2022 and January 2023.
15. MAGDALENA BAY – Imaginal Disk
If Y2K-era pop had a baby with a self-aware AI who was really into arcade games, you’d get something close to this maximalist masterpiece. Their second album is what happens when you take every great idea you’ve ever had and decide to use them all at once – and somehow make it work. Released in August 2024, it’s like stumbling into a time-travelling disco where the past and future are having the best dance-off ever.
Top Track: ‘IMAGE’
Fun Fact: One of the influences for the album was sci-fi classic Star Trek: The Next Generation
14. LAUREN MAYBERRY – Vicious Creature
Stepping out from CHVRCHES’ electronic embrace, Lauren Mayberry’s solo debut arrives like a lightning storm – beautiful, dangerous, and impossible to ignore. ‘Vicious Creature’ finds her crystalline vocals cutting through with surgical precision, while tracks like ‘Shatter Me’ prove that sometimes the most powerful statements come wrapped in ghostly melodies. This isn’t just a debut – it’s a declaration of artistic independence.
Top Track: ‘Changing Shapes’
Fun Fact: Lauren’s solo debut was plagued with obstacles and nearly didn’t happen; “I’m a bit of a cunt, though, and I don’t want other people to decide for me.”
Pick up a copy of our November issue of Dork featuring Lauren Mayberry on the cover
13. REMI WOLF – Big Ideas
Remi Wolf doesn’t give a fuck about your pop rulebook. On ‘Big Ideas’, she’s taken that rulebook, set it on fire, and used the ashes to draw a moustache on the Mona Lisa. Where debut ‘Juno’ was Wolf dipping her toes in the waters of pop stardom, ‘Big Ideas’ sees her diving in head-first, leaving a technicolour splash in her wake. Recorded in stolen moments between relentless touring (because who needs sleep when you’re reinventing pop?), the album crackles with an urgent, frenetic energy that’s impossible to ignore.
Top Track: ‘Cinderella’
Fun Fact: Remi’s first memory was making miniature fish tanks for Swedish fish in pre-school. “I was so hyped.”
Read our full cover chat with Remi Wolf from the July issue of Dork
12. MASTER PEACE – How To Make A Master Peace
Imagine if London itself decided to make an album – that’s the kind of genre-hopping chaos we’re dealing with here. One minute, you’re moshing to Arctic Monkeys-sized riffs, the next you’re riding beats that would make Skepta proud. It’s what happens when you grow up treating the aux cord like a game of musical chairs, switching styles faster than the Northern Line switches tracks.
Top Track: ‘I Might Be Fake’
Fun Fact: Master Peace has his cereal in orange juice.
11. CONFIDENCE MAN – 3AM (La La La)
Remember when going out was just about having fun instead of documenting every second for the ‘gram? Confidence Man do, and they’ve turned that pure, unfiltered joy into their most hedonistic record yet. Written in their new London digs when most sensible people were sleeping, it’s what happens when you take the glitter cannon approach to music-making – fire everything at once and watch it sparkle. The kind of album that makes you want to start a conga line in your kitchen at breakfast time. And why the hell not?
Top Track: ‘I CAN’T LOSE YOU’
Fun Fact: The duo are big fans of pigeons.
Pick up a copy of the September issue of Dork, featuring Confidence Man on the cover
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