Nova Journal's Top Albums Of 2024

happy new year!

Your Day Will Come - Chanel Beads

I will rave about this album and this artist forever. Your Day Will Come was not only my top album of the year but also the highlight of my live music experiences. When I wrote about this album previously, I described it as “mystic and dreamy, could be compared to a fantasy. The album takes you to another place, like a forest or an empty beach.” This still rings true, but now, this album takes me to the times this year when I have felt my best: driving in my car, exploring a new city, listening with friends, and finally seeing it performed live. Each track builds on the next and at the end of the album you're left with “I Think I Saw,” a build that results in a quick, heavy landing and a soft exit. This album became the soundtrack to my 2024, weaving itself into my daily life. I listened and built my understanding of each track, lyrical phrase, or detail of each sound. Its melodies and phrases stayed with me, always stuck in my head. Now, as we softly exit this year, I carry the strength and care it gave me—a reminder of the power music has to shape our experiences.

Endlessness - Nala Sinephro

Endlessness exists in any mood or atmosphere. I listened mostly in the background; an accompaniment to a book, a walk, or food. I grew familiar with the patterns of the tracks and how they fell into one another. Towards the end of this year, I began to listen to it more intentionally. Lying down in front of my speakers listening to how it moved and breathed. Nala Sinephro wrote an album like I have never heard before, something so exciting and new. It would be wrong to single out the tracks of this album; each song floating into one another, all aptly titled “Continuum”.

Great Doubt - Astrid Sonne

(fav album cover of 2024)

Great Doubt came out in late January of this year, but I didn’t start listening until November; fall felt like a perfect time for this album to come into my life. I was drawn to Sonne’s empty space in this album and how her vocal lines instead shaped each track. It’s not often that such simple lyrics carry such weight, but her’s hit like truths you’ve always known but never quite articulated. In the last track “Say You Love Me” Sonne is aching and longing for affirmation. While the instrumentation has a harsh beat and lingering piano, her voice feels calm and present. Her vocal impact made me reflect on my own relationships in 2024. It was music that didn’t just play in the background but demanded presence, asking me to sit with it and with myself.

Charm - Clairo

It was summer; the air was heavy with heat, and I was traveling alone. Clairo’s voice felt like the friend I needed, and Charm became my anchor, my comfort album. The passion and love in every track revealed Clairo’s true, vulnerable self. As I listened to Charm, I found myself reflecting on her 2019 album, Immunity, which had accompanied me through my high school years. The nostalgia was bittersweet—sometimes unsettling—but it also reminded me of how much I’ve grown since then. Clairo had been quietly growing alongside me, her music evolving in ways that accompanied my journey. With its gentle, introspective tones, Charm left me with a sense of hope and excitement—not just for where Clairo’s artistry might go, but for the growth and possibilities that lie ahead.

Life on the Lawn - Country Western

In the past few years, I’ve grown a liking to the new take on the genre alt-rock that has emerged. Country Western to me, was one of the first bands to bring this new genre to my attention. They came out with a self-titled EP in 2020 that I fell in love with. In 2024 they released a full-length album, Life on the Lawn, combining country rock with a lyrical journey to find solutions. The vocals blend raw emotion with a subtle edge that mirrors the heavy guitars and steady rhythms. Life on the Lawn feels simultaneously nostalgic and innovative as if the dusty tones of country and rock collided with the haze of shoegaze.

and she’s still listening EP - Winter

In June, I uploaded an article on Winter’s EP. I was initially struck by her ability to combine the dream pop music of the '90s with the lo-fi indie music coming out in the last decade. I spent most of spring listening to this EP, feeling like wandering through a big forest or existing in a dream state. Winter has always had this effect on me, but this EP took it to the next level. Her soft whispers, loud guitars, and unique soundscapes created thirteen minutes of solitude and bliss. The second track, “shaniatwainlovestory” was one of my most listened-to songs of 2024. The second I hit play I knew this song was exactly what I had been craving: something I could dance to, something I could relate to, and something I was inspired by.

Rocky Top Ballads - Fine

In 2023, I started listening to The Crying Nudes, a music project that I couldn’t find any other information on besides the fact that they were from London. The music mixes dream pop and slowcore, the lead vocals shining throughout each song. This year, I found the album Rocky Top Ballads by Fine and I knew the vocals sounded familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I recently found out it's the same person, The Crying Nudes is Fine! My music detective find of the year. Fine is more indie rock than dream pop, and Rocky Top Ballads has a more personal and sweet quality than The Crying Nudes. It is clear Fine is trying a new sound with Rocky Top Ballads by writing more indie rock songs that tell stories through lyrics as well as instrumentation. I fell in love with the album's use of repetition in tone while also bringing in a different honest feeling with each new track.

Manning Fireworks - MJ Lenderman

This album has found its place on many 2024 top album lists, and rightfully so. MJ Lenderman writes each song as if from a different persona, perhaps a link to the dudes on the album cover. Manning Fireworks encapsulates something I’ve brought up within each of the albums I’ve liked this year: a combination of new and old, nostalgic but innovative, and neatly dusty. MJ Lenderman has found his polished country rock sound. I was first struck by the song “She’s Leaving You” and the frustrations of a relationship falling apart. The repetition of “we’ve all got work to do” matches the fast and hard tones of the instrumentation. The dumbed-down, simple lyrics create a specific folk twang that becomes unserious and yet still sincere. My favorite lyric comes from the sixth track “Rip Torn”, “There's milkshakes and there's smoothies."--so much and yet, so little. Well, maybe only so little. The essence of slacker rock is this way of presenting dull things as profound.