We are well deep into 2025 already and here I am, late as ever, to inform you about my favourite albums of last year. I’ve decided to sort them by release date, simply because I struggle to actually rank them on a scale (but let’s not kid ourselves, Brat was probably my #1). I’ve already written about all of these albums throughout the year, so if you want to know more about my thoughts on them, you can find that in the archives.

Eliza McLamb – Going Through It

Salt Circle off of Eliza McLamb’s 2022 EP of the same name came up on my “For You” playlist some time ago so I was very excited to learn a full length project was on the way. I really enjoyed this album at the beginning of 2024, genuinely one of my favourite singer-songwriter projects of the year.

Very much coexists with its contemporaries – you might enjoy this if you like boygenius (or any of the members’ solo work; plus Going Through It was produced by Sarah Tudzin who also produced The Record!), Samia, Haley Blais, or the kind of bedroom-y indie folk that I know and love.

Mk.gee – Two Star & The Dream Police

I loved this album, it’s like a little world of its own (that’s the through-line for most albums I love). I first heard of Mk.gee when I listened to Dijon’s 2021 Absolutely (which is still excellent and also made it onto the year-end list that year) because he contributed a lot of guitar and writing and production to that. Really, that album is kind of like a Dijon-Mk.gee joint project.

But anyway, I was thrilled with the announcement of a full Mk.gee project and I was not disappointed in the slightest. He also released a series of live performances, some of which I think might even be better than the album versions! His guitar sound is out of this world, he builds incredible atmosphere with, honestly, very little. Great project.

Friko – Where we’ve been, Where we go from here

I saw Friko live last year (the only show I went to in 2024) and they are just so much fun. You can feel the dedication and the love and passion they have for the art they make. Where we’ve been, Where we go from here filled the Post-Isaac-Black Country, New Road hole in my heart in 2024, so if you like BC,NR, I think you’d like this as well. But either way, a wonderful indie rock album that carries on the torch of the 2000s.

I took the opportunity after the show to tell this to the band in person, but I’ll write it here as well; They did something very, very special on this album and I genuinely hope that everything good comes their way in the future because they do deserve it.

Slow Hollows – Bullhead

The title track is my alarm sound and I’m somehow still not sick of it yet, so in my book that’s a very strong song.

I absolutely loved their last album in 2019, so imagine my devastation when I learned that Slow Hollows was… breaking up? going on a hiatus? But then, also, imagine my absolute elation when I learned that there was going to be a new Slow Hollows album!

I really do love the sound they (or, I suppose it’s just Austin now?) have crafted, I like to say that it was somehow made in a lab to appeal directly and specifically to me. A wonderful collection of genre-blending indie-pop-rock songs and a great comeback.

Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future

I’ve said it before and maybe I’ll never stop saying it – Adrianne Lenker is one of the greatest of her generation. A songwriter of such immense skill and talent, she can basically not write a bad song. I believe she already is one of the greats, and she will definitely be remembered as one of the great folk musicians of the 2010-2020s.

Another incredible solo folk record from Adrianne!

Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me

I love pop music and I love Maggie Rogers. She’s on a generational run of only making good singer-songwriter pop-with-a-bit-of-that-folk-flavour records, meaning she’s now made three full-length albums and they’re basically all excellent.

There’s a certain urgency in this album, it feels raw, but not unfinished. It’s a summer/fall album. Put it on once the weather is still nice but you can sense the end of summer coming soon.

Charli xcx – BRAT

A generational achievement. Incredible marketing. Undeniable cultural moment. I’ve written about BRAT already and it’s probably my favourite album of 2024. Girl, so confusing featuring lorde should’ve been submitted for song of the year and it should’ve won song of the year at the Grammys. Genuinely still stops me in my tracks every time Lorde’s verse starts.

It was actually Charli’s world in 2024 and we were all just living in it.

This is Lorelei – Box for Buddy, Box for Star

An unexpected discovery this year but a pleasant one. Just a very nice and fun collection of, again, genre-blending songs from Nate Amos. The album flows really nicely and it never gets boring. I love an album that’s varied, but the sound is cohesive throughout, I like it when you can tell it’s a complete and rounded end result. When I first found this album, biggest critique was that the cover art did not match the music at all, but the more I listened to it, the more the visuals started to line up with the sounds. Very cool cover art though, I just didn’t expect the music I ended up hearing.

Cassandra Jenkins – My Light, My Destroyer

Cassandra Jenkins’ last album, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, is one of my favourite albums ever. Easily a top 5 album for me, however, I reserve it for certain occasions. It is my go-to calming-down/relaxing album. It has become a complete safety blankets in moments of distress for me. In my eyes, that album can never do any wrong, and nothing can sour it for me. I’ve listened to it through the worst of times, and it does not evoke memories of those times. Instead, it only brings stillness.

My Light, My Destroyer is a lot more fun, it’s more dynamic. It’s for me to enjoy when I am not in distress. A lot of the songs are much more upbeat, the instrumentation is more expansive, with a full band this time. My only critique of it is that I’m not a huge fan of the interludes. But Omakase is one of my favourite songs I heard last year, so it completely negates everything I don’t love about the album.

Porter Robinson – SMILE!:D

My 2nd most listened to 2024 release. As cliche as this might sound, I truly do believe that Porter Robinson found me when I needed him most (lol). I listened to SMILE!:D towards the end of the year and was instantly hooked because it was laced with sounds that, to me, were so deeply nostalgic, while still keeping a fresh and novel sound. Sort of a mix of Dirty Work era All Time Low and, like, One Direction, and the latest wave (post-100 gecs) hyperpop. I listened to Porter’s previous album, Nurture, shortly after. And not to get too real and personal on an end-of-year list, but that album caught me right before falling into a what I could sense would probably be a bit of an existential spiral last year. So, I am eternally grateful that it reached me when it did.

It means a lot to me that I listened to it when I did, and besides, the songs are basically all hits.

MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks

Where do I even begin with this? My second most played album of 2024. This is so funny and so good and so full of complete earworms and made for me specifically. Riding the wave of embellishing indie rock with country, MJ Lenderman came out swinging with this one and he captured my heart and my ears and my soul. Manning Fireworks is a very spring/summer/fall album to me, it has an outdoors-y, sitting on a porch vibe. It’s funny, and embarrassingly sincere, and full of pathetic characters.

Where else can you find a guy in his mid-twenties singing about how many great functions his smartwatch has, but above it all, it reminds him that he’s all alone? Or phrases like “I’ve got a houseboat docked at the himbo dome” or “Deleted scenes of Lightning McQueen / Blacked out at full speed” and “We sat under a half mast McDonald’s flag”? I love this album.

Laura Marling – Patterns in Repeat

My winter holiday soundtrack. An album so soothing and calming, written for and about her children, it truly feels like a mother’s embrace. It is wonderfully sparse and sincere and comforting and just beautiful. It’s an album that doesn’t try to (re)invent anything, but Laura Marling seems comfortably settled in her ability as a singer and songwriter, proving that this is the best way for her to create.

Cameron Winter – Heavy Metal

Very late contender for the AOTY list, and I’d say definitely overlooked (because it was released in December) but instantly recognised as something incredibly special. At the age of 22, Cameron Winter is doing something way beyond his years. I love his work with Geese, and I am in perpetual disbelief when it comes to the band’s talent and youth. This is an incredibly cohesive collection of songs, and Winter’s voice is the main star throughout, for a good reason, too.

Months after hearing it, I still don’t think I actually get it. But I feel it and I know it’s special, and I think that’s more than enough. I am so excited for Cameron and his career.

Honourable mentions – some extra albums I enjoyed throughout the year!

• Courting – New Last Name
• Katy Kirby – Blue Raspberry
• Tapir! – The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain
• Quadeca – SCRAPYARD
• Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch
• Los Campesinos! – All Hell
• Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk
• Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
• Foxing – Foxing
• Roy Blair – Chasing Moving Trains