Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Beyoncé... what a year for divas! Our critic's top 10 albums of 2024

3 weeks ago 13

As the year draws to a close, the Mail’s music critic gives 2024’s best releases another listen and picks the ones that delighted him most...

1. BILLIE EILISH: Hit Me Hard And Soft (Interscope)

Billie Eilish delivered her masterpiece in what was a brilliant year for female pop. 

Made with her producer brother Finneas, her third album was an ambitious song-suite that ditched electronics in favour of guitars, strings and jazzy changes of tempo. 

Birds Of A Feather and L’Amour De Ma Vie were the high points. 

Her singing, once a whisper, has now acquired real richness and depth.

Billie Eilish performs at the Lollapalooza Chile music festival, in Santiago, Chile, in March 2023

2. CHARLI XCX: brat (Atlantic)

Charli XCX described herself as ‘famous, but not quite’ when her sixth album, brat, arrived in June. 

Within weeks, she’d become a cultural phenomenon on the back of the party-loving ‘brat summer’. 

The album’s lime-green artwork was everywhere. By the time she released a longer remix LP in October, she could call on superstars Ariana Grande, Lorde and Billie Eilish to help out.

Charli XCX described herself as ‘famous, but not quite’ when her sixth album, brat, arrived in June

3. THE CURE: Songs Of A Lost World (Fiction)

Nobody does gothic doom and gloom quite like The Cure, and the sultans of sadness were in imperious form on their first album in 16 years. 

Tackling themes of loss and regret, bandleader Robert Smith’s songs were slow and melodramatic, dominated by towering guitars and strings. 

TikTok-friendly choruses were thin on the ground, but this was an epic — and electrifying — return.

Robert Smith of the British band The Cure performs the Pyramid Stage closing set during Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, Britain June 30, 2019 

4. THE LAST DINNER PARTY: Prelude To Ecstasy (Island)

So WIDELY tipped for great things that they could have found themselves crushed by the hype, 

The Last Dinner Party became the UK’s biggest breakthrough band of 2024. Their first album, released in February, showed just why. 

Its grandiose art-rock anthems and windswept, melodic ballads proved there was musical substance behind the lace tops, corsets and period dresses.

Abigail Morris of The Last Dinner Party performs on stage at Eventim Apollo on October 16, 2024 in London

5. VAMPIRE WEEKEND: Only God Was Above Us (Columbia)

Once the most studied of New York bands, Vampire Weekend have loosened up considerably, and their fifth album was free-spirited and diverse. 

Ezra Koenig’s lyrics — many of them inspired by his roots in The Big Apple — remain the most erudite in pop, while his music now encompasses punky guitars, an operatic choir, and dance beats sampled from Soul II Soul.

Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend performs live at Eventim Apollo on December 04, 2024 in London

6. BEYONCÉ: Cowboy Carter (Columbia)

In A big year for pop-country crossover, Beyoncé delivered an 80-minute romp through American musical history. 

Performed in the spirit of a Western spectacular, it took the Stetson-wearing Texan rodeo queen on a ride that featured rock, folk and R&B alongside the hoedowns. 

There was a lovely cover of The Beatles’ Blackbird. Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton guested.

Beyonce performs onstage during the "RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR" at PGE Narodowy on June 27, 2023 in Warsaw, Poland

7. MJ LENDERMAN: Manning Fireworks (Anti-)

A major breakthrough can’t be far off for Lenderman. 

A former ice-cream salesman from small-town North Carolina, he picked up plaudits aplenty for his fourth album. 

A smart lyricist who plays most of the instruments himself, his songs combine the discordant guitars of indie-rockers Pavement with the craft of Neil Young — with knowing nods to Ozzy Osbourne and The Band.

MJ Lenderman released Manning Fireworks in September 2023

8. ST. VINCENT: All Born Screaming (Virgin)

Annie Clark — aka St. Vincent — is one of pop’s masters of reinvention, and the Dallas-raised singer and musician changed lanes again on her seventh solo album. 

Having embraced soft harmonies on 2021’s Daddy’s Home, she toughened up on All Born Screaming, deploying glam-rock riffs that nodded to David Bowie and funkier rhythms with shades of Prince.

St. Vincent attends the 2024 Wrapped Universe Event hosted by Spotify at NYA EAST on December 05, 2024

9. BLOSSOMS: Gary (ODD SK)

The Stockport quintet brought in Irish singer- songwriter CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) as a co-writer on a refreshing album written while they were staying in an AirBnB in Anglesey. 

Tuneful pop and blue-eyed soul dominated, while the catchy title track told the true story of an eight-foot-tall fibreglass gorilla stolen from a Scottish garden centre.

Blossoms attends the Rolling Stone UK Awards 2024 at The Roundhouse on November 28, 2024 in London

10. LEON BRIDGES: Leon (Columbia)

Blending a range of Texan sounds into his own ‘gumbo’, Leon Bridges went back to his roots on an album inspired by the Lone Star State. 

His soul man credentials were evident in the classic R&B of When A Man Cries. 

But, with Kacey Musgraves’ producers Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian at the helm, there were also some unexpected detours into story-telling country music.

Leon Bridges went back to his roots on an album inspired by the Lone Star State

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