60

Taylor Swift
The Tortured Poets Department
(Republic)

When the release was hot and in vogue, many critics and listeners couldn’t tell whether they liked the album. Half a year later, we can confidently say that this is Taylor Swift’s most poorly listeners-rated album of all time. Judge for yourself: its user score on AOTY is 48 out of 100. The second lowest-scored Swift album is her 2006 debut, with 59/100. Once the fog of favorable reviews by Rob Sheffield, Alexis Petridis, and other Swifties disguised as music critics—including some of our own authors—lifted, it became clear that many music journalists also didn’t get The Tortured Poets Department.

Meanwhile, we published two 8/10 reviews of this album on PopMatters and remain convinced of its importance—not just for pop music or the folk genre but for the music industry as a whole. Running two hours, the Anthology Edition stands as Swift’s magnum opus—a monumental work in the era of diaristic ballads, gathering millions of listeners. It will one day be regarded as her equivalent of Joni Mitchell’s Blue. Rising to fame with pop bangers, Swift sold truly sophisticated and lyrically rich folk anthems to her vast audience. The Tortured Poets Department is the pinnacle of her winding musical journey, elegantly mixing all her genre transformations. It’s a collection of tender, gorgeous ballads that gracefully shift from cozy acoustic sounds to high-energy clapback pop and back again.

You can love it or hate it, score it 40/100, or call it an instant classic. Still, one thing is certain: with The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift cemented her place in music history as a significant singer-songwriter—not just a pop star and the author of “Cruel Summer”. – Igor Bannikov

59

Sprints
Letter to Self
(City Slang)

Ireland’s Sprints have been on the rise since their formation in 2019, and finally, we have their full-length Letter to Self, a blast of anger and catharsis equally equipped to support a circle pit at a club or a night at home alone breaking down. It sounds nothing like the empowering hardcore sounds of American bands like GEL, but it does have a similar mission. It would be hard to come up with a more apt name for this record; while singer Karla Chubb addresses the listener as “you” frequently, it could easily be her having it out with herself and building herself back up.

Chubb’s voice recalls some of the best; you can hear Jehnny Beth and PJ Harvey in the righteous, soulful fury in her voice. It is easy to feel what she’s feeling, from a whisper to a shout, from joy to pain. Her lyrics are sharp and direct, and the band is there to match her, providing tension and release across all 11 songs. While far from poppy, the songs have a hooky rawness that is addictive.  – Brian Stout

58

Marika Hackman
Big Sigh
(Chrysalis)

Almost a year after its release on 12 January, Marika Hackman’s fourth studio venture can easily be considered a solid, locally iconic work. Having gained experience working with synthesizers on Any Human Friend, she leaned further into them with the help of alt-J’s producer Charlie Andrew on Big Sigh. A significant part of its sonic richness also lies in Hackman’s enchanting and emotive vocals, mixed with almost post-post-Wagnerian, impressionism-indebted piano motifs (“The Lonely House”). The result is the most atmospheric soundscape of her career and arguably one of this year’s most memorable and heartfelt releases. 

Considering Hackman’s turbulent and quite vivid last five years leading up to the release, along with our personal experiences of the same period—including the pandemic, several wars and disasters, and recent elections in the US—it’s highly tempting to let out a big sigh at the end of the year. Full of reflective sonics, as in the gorgeously hypnagogic “Vitamins”, and some horny-yet-motivational tunes, as in “Slime”, this album is probably your best companion for overcoming any struggles you may have faced in the last 12 months. – Igor Bannikov

57

Mannequin Pussy
I Got Heaven
(Epitaph)

Philadelphia punk rockers Mannequin Pussy return with one of the most striking albums of the year, I Got Heaven, which is another banger produced by John Congleton. It takes some chutzpah to wear their concert T-shirt around town, but don’t let their name belie their accessibility. Similar to an act like Wolf Alice, Mannequin Pussy trade off the loud and soft sounds with ease. While the band can, at times, be abrasive, it’s the tenderness here that sets the record apart. Beneath the fury, there is vulnerability on tracks “Loud Bark”, “I Don’t Know You”, and “Split Me Open”. Mannequin Pussy seem to be coming into their own at precisely the right time.  Sure, they were brazen to release the title track as their first single, but that’s what makes the release outstanding, as it serves as an authentic testament to their sound. – Patrick Gill

56

Laura Marling
Patterns in Repeat
(Chrysalis)

Putting your newborn or toddler on your album is always a dicey venture for an artist. Too often, it’s going to sound cloying or mawkishly sentimental. It’s an artistic tightrope. Thankfully, Laura Marling has been navigating all sorts of delicate balances throughout her career, and you can add “new parenthood” to the topics that Marling can handle with stunning clarity. 

Covering a sparse 36 minutes, Marling manages to weave multiple recurring themes and, yes, patterns into Patterns in Repeat. The (mostly) acoustic record has so many moments of silence where listeners can wander through unobstructed. Listening to Patterns in Repeat often felt like walking through a home cleared of all its possessions. 

Unsurprisingly, Family and parenthood play a central role in Patterns in Repeat. But Marling can still write a love song that’s capable of burrowing into your soul in the span of two minutes. That’s the case in “No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can”, where Marling’s capable of disintegrating a relationship with the simple line, “We grew tired of making plans.” 

Patterns in Repeat was recorded in Marling’s home studio. Along with her previous album, Songs For Our Daughter, which also dealt with the complexities of parenthood, Patterns in Repeat sounds like a distant companion piece to Björk’s album, Vespertine, which also made use of the “every day” sounds that inhabit a home. Like the themes the album examined nearly 25 years ago, Patterns in Repeat takes the concepts of domestication and tranquility and reveals a whole new series of layers to explore. – Sean McCarthy

55

Ibibio Sound Machine
Pull the Rope
(Merge)

There’s no weak entry in the Ibibio Sound Machine discography, and Pull the Rope is no exception. The London-based collective continue experimenting with different permutations of highlife, electropop, and funk on their fifth full-length release, making the most of every moment. This album, in particular, stands out as an exceptionally seamless blend of everything they do well, brass meeting beats and sending sparks flying. As is often the case in Ibibio Sound Machine’s work, there are plenty of retro moments, but the overall package comes across as chic and contemporary. In the last ten years, Ibibio Sound Machine have gone from being exciting transcontinental party upstarts to a soulful, sophisticated phenomenon. Pull the Rope is a refreshing new chapter for a perpetually vibrant group. – Adriane Pontecorvo

54

Father John Misty
Mahashmashana
(Sub Pop / Bella Union)

Father John Misty has infused his songs with multi-layered, sophisticated arrangements in this latest incarnation while making pointed, blunt, brilliant, and usually deadpan observations about modern life and love. With Mahashmashana, he hasn’t necessarily broken a lot of new ground, but he seems to come as close to perfecting his artistry as anyone can. Put simply, Mahashmashana is a masterpiece.

As always, Father John Misty’s musical ambitions often stretch beyond the tight-knit feel of a small band. “Summer’s Gone” recalls the Great American Songbook vibe that informed much of 2022’s Chloe and the Next 20th Century, a full orchestra backing up the singer, who seems to enjoy simultaneously channeling George Gershwin, Randy Newman, and Serge Gainsbourg. In Tillman’s hands, this type of stylistic excursion transcends nostalgia or a need to ease into people-pleasing crooner mode; instead, he is clearly immersed in the process and the art. – Chris Ingalls

53

Blood Incantation
Absolute Elsewhere
(Century Media)

Hidden History of the Human Race (2019) might have made Blood Incantation the most talked-about band in American underground metal, and 2022’s dark ambient excursion Timewave Zero was a surprisingly sharp left turn, but no one was prepared for what the Denver, Colorado band had in store in 2024. Inventive, audacious, and thoroughly mind-blowing, Absolute Elsewhere ranks alongside Voivod’s Dimension Hatross, Celtic Frost’s Into the Pandemonium, and Liturgy’s Aesthethica as one of the most daring and original musical statements in heavy metal history.

Essentially two side-long pieces divided into three separate movements (or “tablets”), the album moves gracefully between rampaging, highly melodic death metal, Pink Floyd-style jams, krautrock (members of Tangerine Dream even contribute), and wild, sci-fi psychedelia, beautifully produced by Arthur Rizk in a virtuoso performance of his own. If that wasn’t enough, Paul Riedl’s lyrics reach a level of profundity that we rarely see in death metal. The fact that Blood Incantation make such an ambitious idea sound so natural and engaging is a testament to their skill and twisted collective imagination. Whether it wanted it or not, death metal finally has its own Dark Side of the Moon. – Adrien Begrand

52

Billie Eilish
Hit Me Hard and Soft
(Interscope)

Billie Eilish‘s third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, belies her young age. At just 22, the singer-songwriter has a deep, mature soul that is special for someone so young. The two-time Oscar and nine-time Grammy-winning performer has established herself as an essential artist, distinguishing herself from other young pop singers with an indelible knack for songcraft. Hit Me Hard and Soft builds on the excellence of her previous efforts with some of her most interesting and engaging work. 

Justly embraced by critics upon its release, Hit Me Hard and Soft shows Eilish (and her longtime collaborator Finneas O’Connell) stretch her creativity and sound palette, finding moments of Joni Mitchell-eque introspection, while also making space for groovy pop and shiny synthpop. “Birds of a Feather”–arguably one of the singer’s strongest songs ever–is a gorgeous, moving paean to 1980s-influenced synthpop. “L’amour de ma vie” is an ingratiating jazz-pop pastiche, and the hypnotic “Lunch” sports a sinewy groove while exploring and celebrating Eilish’s sexual fluidity. All of the songs on Hit Me Hard and Soft feature Eilish’s distinct vocalizing, an airy, ethereal style of singing that allows her voice to flit and float over the music. – Peter Piatkowski

51

Carly Cosgrove
The Cleanest of Houses Are Empty
(Wax Bodega)

In a triumphant year for emo, one of the best of the bunch might sit just outside gatekeepers’ bounds for the genre. Indeed, there is a way of framing Carly Cosgrove’s second album as kin to other Pennsylvania rock acts with which it shares some stylistic, lyrical, or musical features: Ween, It’s a King Thing, and Modern Baseball all exist in the background of these songs, in one way or another. But The Cleanest of Houses Are Empty finds Carly Cosgrove mature into their signatures and strengths to a surprising degree, considering the group’s comparative youth.

Yes, the stop-start dynamics, iterative lyric-writing, and an overload of hooks are pleasures that fully deliver even on a first listen. But combining those aspects with an emotional arc about mental health (for all its intense and mundane strands) distinguishes The Cleanest of Houses Are Empty most. In the single “What Are You, A Cop?,” Lucas Naylor’s lyrics turn depression into a drama in the tradition of “Thoughts of a Dying Atheist” or Job’s friends as insufficient comforters. There are no pat answers on The Cleanest of Houses Are Empty, a new emo classic chronicling days of disorder and exploring ways to escape them. – Thomas Britt