My Top 10 albums of 2024

Monica Moser
7 min readDec 14, 2024

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2024 was another female-dominated year. It was also a solo-artist dominated year. From Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop to Sweater Weather Mellow CCM…

…Here are my favorite albums of the year!

10. Dua Lipa, Radical Optimism

Future Nostalgia still reigns #queen, but I thought Radical Optimism was quite underrated.

I loved the choice of collaborating with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. Quality bops and an earnest ballad in “Happy For You.” Fun to see her live for the first time at ACL this year too!

Best Tracks: Houdini, Illusion, Happy For You

9. Billie Eilish, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Billie’s third studio album hit me different.

*Famously,* I’ve been skeptical of Billie Eilish’s hype and persona. I in fact warned against her dark influence on this very platform (garnering 40k views, no big deal…), but this album has been the first from her that I’ve really enjoyed in its entirety.

The production is insane and she finally shows us what she can do with her voice (which is a lot more than creepy, whisper singing).

Best Tracks: LUNCH, SKINNY, BIRDS OF A FEATHER, THE GREATEST

8. Charli xcx, BRAT

brat summer, brat year

Part of me is surprised that this album made so many publications’ #1 slot for the year and part of me is not. brat was so huge this year, it affected a dang presidential campaign.

“Sympathy is a Knife” blew my mind the first time I heard it. Still my fav. “360” is a bop. The ugly lime green and intentionally low-res album title reminds me of the brilliant Fyre Festival marketing campaign (ya know, before it all went to hell). Been a Charli XCX fan for awhile now and glad the world has finally caught up!

Best Tracks: Sympathy is a Knife, Talk Talk, 360, B2b, Rewind

7. Chris Renzema, Manna

Is that..? Could it be?? A…human man on this list?

Congrats, Chris. You are the only male on my 2024 list. I love Chris’s unabashed honesty and how it cuts through the unrealistic expectations we put on ourselves as people of faith and just humans in general. Really love this collection of songs from him!

Best Tracks: Not Giving Up On You, Narrow Road, God & Prozac, Hereditary

6. Kacey Musgraves, Deeper Well

What an album to come out freshly entering your 30s.

Maybe my favorite line of the year is: “So I’m gettin’ rid of the habits that I feel are real good at wastin’ my time / No regrets, baby, I just think that maybe it’s natural when things lose their shine, so other things can glow.”

She references 27 as a turning point. I was 27 when I moved to Austin and life started to slowly return post-Covid. It doesn’t quite reach the perfection of Golden Hour (and I actually feel like the only person that LOVED star-crossed), but I love the maturity of this album. While it loses me a bit in the second half, the first half really hits.

Best Tracks: Deeper Well, Dinner With Friends, The Architect, Too Good To Be True

5. Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department

31 songs and I start to feel like the tortured poet.

This is probably the lowest I’ve ranked a Taylor album since evermore (which just didn’t make the cut that year because it was like stop, I’m still in folklore land, don’t bug me). BUT I can’t say it didn’t grow on me and the songs I love are some of the top ones of the year for me.

Regardless of how we feel about it, Taylor needed to make this record. I still wish she would’ve edited a bit? But she can do whatever she wants, idc. While the production gets tired in some of the songs, IMO, Taylor is always a wizard with her pen (be it of the quill, ball point, or glitter variety):

God save the most judgmental creeps
Who say they want what’s best for me
Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see

If long suffering propriety
Is what they want from me
They don’t know how you’ve haunted me
So stunningly

And what woman can’t relate to the line I cry a lot but I am so productive…it’s an art ???

Best Tracks: I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, But Daddy I Love Him, Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?, The Black Dog, I Look In People’s Windows, Guilty As Sin…?

4. Ariana Grande, eternal sunshine

Dear Galinda you are just too good.

“yes, and?” was my most streamed song of the year. Danced hard to it at my 30th birthday silent disco and the one time I went out this year. I just love the eff-it attitude mixed in with earnest songs like “i wish i hated you.” It’s a great entering-a-new-era album from top to bottom.

Best Tracks: we can’t be friends, bye, yes, and?, i wish i hated you, supernatural, don’t wanna break up again

3. Griff, Vertigo

Definitely the most underrated album on this list!

England-based singer/songwriter and artist Griff released her debut album this year. Gorgeous vocals, stellar production, beautiful lyrics. A friend sent me her EP a few years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. Don’t sleep on Griff!

Best Tracks: Hole In My Pocket, Into The Walls, Vertigo, Miss Me Too, Astronaut

2. Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’Sweet

#2 album on my list, probably #1 album on my streaming activity report card.

This was a tough call between the #1 I chose, because I technically have listened to this album more this year. It came down to cultural impact for me in this elusive metric system I set for myself each year.

Sabrina is not new to the scene, but her meteoric rise this year (propelled heavily by Miss Swift) felt like one of the biggest musical moments this year. I love that this album seamlessly transitions from pop/rock, to r&b, to country, to bedroom pop and back. The lyrics are honest and clutch-your-pearls hilarious.

Best Tracks: Taste, Slim Pickins, Espresso, Good Graces, Bed Chem, Juno

1. Beyoncé, COWBOY CARTER

This ain’t Texas…ain’t no hold ‘em…this ain’t a country album…this is a BEYONCÉ album.

It’s been a real blessing to me that artists I actually care about are venturing into the country genre.

Beyoncé somehow made COWBOY CARTER not feel like a “let’s try my hand at country cuz why not” album, however. It felt like a return to form, a return to her Texas roots, and even a return to how Paul McCartney originally envisioned his song “Blackbird” to be sung — through the voice of a Black woman.

This albums opens with the powerfully poignant “AMERICAN REQUIEM” (in an election year no less!), and takes you through a sequence of songs that feel both new and from a static-filled radio from the 60s. We haven’t heard anything quite like this before. Bring on Beyoncé III.

Best Tracks: II MOST WANTED, 16 CARRIAGES, BODYGUARD, TYRANT, TEXAS HOLD ’EM, YAYA

Top 100 songs of the year playlist

Close Calls:

Remi Wolf, Big Ideas
Gracie Abrams, The Secret of Us
Zedd, Telos
Trella, expiration date
Joy Oladokun, OBSERVATIONS FROM A CROWDED ROOM
Leon Bridges, Leon

Honorable Mentions

Bleachers, Bleachers
Conan Gray, Found Heaven
Lizzy McApline, Older
Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us
Tori Kelly, TORI.
The Avett Brothers, The Avett Brothers
Kings of Leon, Can We Please Have Fun
Jess Glynne, JESS
Sasha Alex Sloan, Me Again
Medium Build, Country
ODESZA, The Last Goodbye Tour Live
Jon Muq, Flying Away
Camilla Cabello, C,XOXO
Kehlani, CRASH
Jon Foreman, In Bloom
Novo Amor, Collapse List
Washed Out, Notes from a Quiet Life
Justice, Hyperdrama
Daisha McBride, People Like Me
Lake Street Dive, Good Together
Stephen Day, Gold Mine
Forrest Frank, CHILD OF GOD
Elevation Worship, When Wind Meets Fire
DOE, Heart of a Human
Tyla, TYLA
Fred again.., ten days
Katie Pruitt, Mantras
Houston Kendrick, Small Infinity Reloaded
Kendrick Lamar, GNX
Kelsea Ballerini, PATTERNS

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Monica Moser
Monica Moser

Written by Monica Moser

Monica Moser is an Austin-based singer/songwriter, podcaster, & freelance writer working in digital marketing in the music industry. TW/IG: @monicamoser

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