It’s quite possible that 2024 was the best year for new music in the eleven years in which It’s All Dead has existed. How do we know this? Because it was harder than ever to land on which albums we liked the most. So, in addition to our actual list, we’ve got a whole separate list of albums below that were also great but not great enough to make the actual list lol. Make sense?

Scroll on down to see it all – then leave us a reply and let us know your thoughts!

10. Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

With five years between LPs, the hype could only grow and grow for Knocked Loose – the latest great hope for hardcore punk. You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To makes no effort to be inviting to outsiders. From start to finish, these 10 tracks pack more of a punch than seems possible. The band upped the ante in every department, with absolutely punishing riffs and crashing drums all highlighted by Bryan Garris’ expanding arsenal of guttural yells, screams, and wails, elevating his status even further as one of the most powerful vocalists in heavy music. You Won’t Go is punishing in sound and delivery, treading into existential ground that only this kind of music can fully capture. When the band recently made their debut appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside Poppy to perform their banger “Suffocate”, it felt like a pulling back of the curtain for the rest of the world to experience (likely in horror) what the best hardcore band on the planet sounds like. – Kiel Hauck

9. From Indian Lakes – Head Void

I debated heavily on where to put this album, because even though I loved it when it came out, I didn’t end up spending as much time with it as I thought I was going to. It felt like betraying a friend when I had the thought to not add it, which to me means it belongs. Upon returning to Head Void, I like it more than I did at first. I’m all about the spacey, listening-from-the-other-room vibe this album gives off. It feels like a natural progression for the band, who started off in a heaver punk range, but softened over the years. Head Void feels like the pendulum swinging back up, and I think we’re going to hear a lot more energy in From Indian Lakes’ future releases. It feels like a return to form in a way, but in a fresher, shoegazier sense. – Nadia Alves

8. Kendrick Lamar – GNX

Kendrick Lamar honestly didn’t even need to release an album this year. After spending the spring and summer dominating one of the most legendary rap battles we’ve seen in years, he surprised us all with a cherry on the sundae of this epic victory lap. GNX is the kind of album rap fans have honestly wanted from Kendrick for a while now. That is to say, this isn’t an album you need to listen to while wearing headphones in solace to fully embrace. These are the kinds of songs that make you want to crank the volume and dance with your friends. In the spirit of Mustard-produced banger “Not Like Us”, GNX is packed with head-bobbing beats and vicious punch lines that showcase why Kendrick is the best rapper alive. Tracks like “Squabble Up” and “TV Off” are wonderful examples of a confident artist that is ready to have some fun. And honestly, post-Drake beef, it’s the perfect kind of palate cleanser for everyone. – Kiel Hauck

7. Wallows – Model

This year, Wallows takes my coveted “pop culture relevancy” spot. I feel like I always try to subvert expectations with my year-end lists, but it’s really just because I look back on the year and different things just end up standing out more or less to me. I literally think everything is groundbreaking on release day and I always need things to marinate a bit. At the beginning of the year, I felt like Model could’ve taken a top spot depending on what release-day-twins Twenty One Pilots had to offer. I think Model is great and was a real constant for me in the spring, but as the year progressed I ended up putting it to the side a bit. When I return to it I have a great idea, and I think it’s a no-skip album, for what it’s worth. I finally get to see them live in a couple of months, something that has been in the works since 2021 at this point. Model is bouncy, it’s fun and fresh – practically perfect indie pop from Wallows, as always. This one is more closely on par with 2019’s Nothing Happens in terms of vibe, and that’s the side of the band I tend to favor. – Nadia Alves

6. Charli XCX – Brat

Longtime fans of Charli XCX have been waiting for this moment – a moment when a much more grand audience could finally join the party of one of the past decade’s most unique and underrated artists. But Brat is so much more than just the best album from Charli to date, it was a moment in the most weird, wonderful, and true-to-Charli way possible. Brat Summer not only defined an entire sound, mood, and aesthetic for the 2024 season, it spilled across aisles into worlds rarely tapped by the indie pop world. Songs like “Talk Talk” and “Apple” become dance floor anthems as well as cultural rallying cries. Pantone 3507C became the year’s hottest color and a personality identifier. Good for Charli. Even better for those of us who knew this moment would come – and needed it in 2024 maybe more than ever. – Kiel Hauck

5. Queen of Jeans – All Again

Sometimes I feel like I get really into an artist or an album and then try other releases and it doesn’t hit the same, but Queen of Jeans get better with each release. I love when random openers truly make you a listener, because it’s been years since the first time I saw this band and I’m still obsessed. Release after release I still have the same excitement I did when I first got to experience a whole album cycle, and now I’m deep in my third! This band just has a way of pulling you into a narrative, and there’s a gentleness that they offer in this project that really cradles you as you listen. Every time I listen a new track stands out to me, and the thoughtful production here really shines. I love an intentional album, and All Again is about as intentional as it gets. – Nadia Alves

4. Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet

It felt like Sabrina Carpenter made her grand entrance in 2024, despite Short n’ Sweet being her sixth full-length release. But maybe that’s because this album felt like the most fully realized version of an artist entering a triumphantly confident era of songwriting prowess. Short n’ Sweet is at once brimming with the kind of summertime pop performances destined to make one a star, while being simultaneously self-effacing, hilarious, and horny as hell. It’s truly one of the most unique pop albums in years. Singles like “Please Please Please” and “Espresso” dominated the airwaves, but it’s hidden gems like “Juno”, “Slim Pickens”, and “Bed Chem” that bring Carpenter’s unique personality into a fuller and more substantial view. On the second verse of the latter she sings, “Come right on me / I mean camaraderie…/ Where art thou? Why not uponeth me?”. These are the kind of moments you can’t wait to share and sing along with your friends – just make sure to keep the volume low if you’re at work. – Kiel Hauck

3. Stay Inside – Ferried Away

Seeing some of Ferried Away live solidified this in my Top 2024 list. I wanted to write about it and it just never happened because of my own stubbornness and feeling like I couldn’t do it justice, so I sat in front of an empty page for a while and then gave up. The good thing about that is that all these thoughts are new which is fun!

Ferried Away is about loss and drifting apart from the people you thought you’d always be close to. That’s something I’ve reckoned with a lot this past year, and this album brought me a lot of comfort. The band opened for the 10-year anniversary of Keep You by Pianos Become the Teeth, and hearing the horns live was pretty much life changing. I always try to see Stay Inside when they come around, just because their live shows are so fun, but this album cycle really shows why I fell in love with this band. I feel like sometimes horns in rock / alt can drive things in a goofy, ska, kind of direction, but on Ferried Away they actually bring a darkness and depth that is necessary for the themes to really hit the way they should. I love this album and I let it loop and loop and loop and loop and… you get it. – Nadia Alves

2. Bring Me the Horizon – POST HUMAN: NeX GEn

In the years after Bring Me the Horizon kicked off their POST HUMAN era with 2020’s Survival Horror EP, the band exploded into a festival-headlining metal powerhouse. The long wait for the next installment felt like an eternity, especially with the surprise departure of Jordan Fish in 2023. Would Bring Me the Horizon ever deliver on the long-promised next chapter? In no uncertain terms, POST HUMAN: NeX GEn could very well be considered the band’s best work, combining every element in Bring Me’s ever-growing arsenal (metalcore, pop, EDM, alternative, etc., etc.) into a bubbling mixture of post-emo bliss. The heavy parts are has heavy as ever (“AmEN!”, “DIg It”), the melodic parts are even more singable (“Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd”, “YOUtopia”), and there’s still room for exciting experimentation (“liMOsIne”). With NeX GEn, Bring Me the Horizon have one again created a new metalcore summit to reach for any band brave enough to take the risk. – Kiel Hauck

1. Twenty One Pilots – Clancy

There’s not much to be said here that I haven’t already said, but this is obviously my top release of the year. If this isn’t obvious to you, go read my piece on it where I talk about how masterful Clancy is then come back and read this, which is bound to be more of me talking about how masterful this album is.

Now that you’re back – Clancy tops my list this year because I couldn’t get it out of my head, much like some of my favorite tracks this year. I think songs like “Next Semester” and “Routines In the Night” have incredible staying power, and that’s something that I feel the band has really come along way towards in these past few releases, all coming to a head here, with their catchiest, most listener-friendly album yet. While Scaled and Icy headed in that direction, the juxtaposition of the lore prevents it from being the band’s most honest. I think Clancy may just be the most raw side of Twenty One Pilots we’ve seen yet. It’s a celebration of growing up and getting to experience things we all thought we’d never be here for. It starts off in a tough place but ends it triumphantly, with something and someone to live for. I think we all needed a lot of hope this year and Clancy brought that for me. – Nadia Alves

More Great Albums from 2024

Balance and Composure – with you in spirit

It’s been eight long years without a new full length from Balance and Composure, and I think with you in spirit is a worthy return for the band and addition to their discography – moody, atmospheric, everything we’ve come to expect and love. Bal + Comp is one of those bands where quality is above quantity, and I think that’s why they’ve occupied a lot of the emo collective even when they weren’t regularly releasing. – Nadia Alves

Childish Gambino – Bando Stone and the New World

If this is truly the final Childish Gambino album, what a way to go out with a bang. Bando Stone once again finds Gambino mining a deepening well of influence while still crafting some of the best rap tracks of his career. – Kiel Hauck

Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well

I really fell into a country black hole after this album released, so much so it led me to another honorable mention on this list. I love Kacey Musgrave’s songwriting and almost playfully jaded way of looking at things, but this album really allows us to take a look at where she is now, apart from the armor she’s built up with her past releases. – Nadia Alves

Stand Atlantic – WAS HERE

Once again, the Aussie pop punkers Stand Atlantic shirk any preconceived notion to expectation with WAS HERE, an album that still inhabits the essence of the genre while boldly exploring new territory. The result is some of the most danceable earworms the band has put to tape. – Kiel Hauck

Sierra Ferrell – Trail of Flowers

Classic country twang never sounded so modern than what Sierra Ferrell offers with Trail of Flowers. It was a core member of my spring soundtrack. It made me a believer in bluegrass, which is one of those genres I never could really dive into. Whimsical and nostalgic are the best words I can use to describe it. – Nadia Alves

Linkin Park – From Zero

From Zero is a truly surprising and astonishing return for Linkin Park, and it may be their best offering since Meteora. New vocalist Emily Armstrong honors the late Chester Bennington’s memory with an infectious vocal performance alongside Mike Shinoda and the rest of a reinvigorated band. – Kiel Hauck

Posted by Kiel Hauck