Broken Dreams Club 20 Best Albums of 2024
This was another great year for music! Some old faces returned to the scene and a cadre of new artists unveiled thrilling debuts, but 2024 belonged to one act in particular. Read more about the Broken Dreams Club Top 20 albums of the year:
#20 Mount Eerie – Night Palace: Listening to Mount Eerie is like trekking through a dark, wintry snowstorm. Waves of dissonance and distortion knife through somnambulant tunes, creating gusts of staticky inference that barely part ways for Phil Elverum’s quiet, spoken-word soliloquies. “Night Palace,” the latest release from the Pacific Northwest’s favorite songwriter, finds Elverum once again confronting life, death and everything in between. It is haunting, sad and scary, but—like the winter sun that eventually emerges after a blizzard—ultimately hopeful.
#19 Nilufer Yanya – My Method Actor: Yanya manages to pull off a tricky tightrope act on “My Method Actor”—she has created a mature, adult album that is neither boring nor saccharine. Channeling acts like Rhye and Sault—and above all, the legendary songstress Sade—Yanya writes shimmering, smooth love and breakup songs, adding enough wrinkles and nuances to update classic R&B sounds.
#18 Porches – Shirt: After positioning himself as a maven of icy, dispassionate synth pop with Porches albums like “Pool” and “The House”, Aaron Maine has steadily gone about unraveling that pristine persona. Ever eager to explore aggressive, unchecked sounds, Maine has reached a zenith with “Shirt,” a grungy, unhinged collection of headbanging rockers. Maine does manage to squeeze in a quiet, wistful piece among the blown-out sounds: album closer “Music,” a soft and poignant ode to the artform.
#17 Los Campesinos – All Hell: I did not have a triumphant comeback from Welsh indie rock heroes Los Campesinos on my bingo card for 2024, but here we are. The giddy, dancefloor-ready tunes that populated their early releases give way to weary, mordant reflections on mortality, middle class drudgery and corrupt politics on “All Hell,” the group’s first album in seven years. It might sound macabre, but Gareth David and company capture all those travails with an endearing sense of empathy—a lived-in and honest take from a band still surviving, nearly 20 years into their existence.
#16 Vince Staples – Dark Times: A quick peek through the archives will quickly reveal that Broken Dreams Club is not your go-to repository for hip-hop coverage, but I’ve always been a fan of this Los Angeles rapper, dating back to his thrillingly murky debut, “Summertime 06.” “Dark Times” captures much of that same aesthetic, with Staples reminiscing about past memories while confronting his current conditions, all to hazy, noir-ish beats
#15 Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch: You drink in this record like a dirty martini in an empty nightclub. These are songs for the shadows—for people at the far edge of the bar, just beyond the dim overhead lights. Pratt channels 60s pop melodies and adds her own dusky, woozy inflections, singing whiskey-soaked lullabies for the closing time patrons.
#14 Ducks LTD—Harm’s Way: From the Broken Dreams Club archive: “McGreevy’s laconic, dry delivery and tales of urban ennui offer an intriguing contrast to the propulsive, upbeat backdrop of the band’s musical output—every song feels like an urgent race to nowhere in particular. That arresting tension is prevalent throughout “Harm’s Way,” which is replete with chugging, skittering songs littered with sardonic observations.”
#13 Being Dead – Eels: These cheeky rockers had one of the best debut albums in recent memory with last year’s brilliant, “When Horses Would Run,” and their follow-up record is equally as engaging. Combining the restless ebullience of The Unicorns with the garage-rock scrappiness of contemporaries Dehd, Being Dead create chugging, propulsive indie pop nuggets that are perfect for the open roads of desert highways or the beer-stained environs of your local DIY club. The gang vocals of Falcon Bitch and Shmoofy (formerly Gumball—yep these are their nom de plumes) add a strange sense of gravity to their goofy tales of everyday oddballs.
#12 Japandroids – Fate & Alcohol: Every six or seven years, Japandroids emerge from their hibernation in Canada (or others part of the world) to bless us with glorious songs extolling the delight and delirium of drinking with your pals until you’re braindead. Sadly, that streak ends in 2024. The Vancouver duo have announced that this will be their last album and to add insult to injury, the band will not be touring behind their final opus. While Brian King and David Prowse have clearly grown apart over the years (a distance likely amplified by King’s newfound sobriety), the band still has a manic energy that cannot be replicated. While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of 2012’s landmark album, “Celebration Rock,” “Fate & Alcohol” is filled with spitfire anthems about love, loss and, of course, getting blitzed with your best friends. Japandroids will be missed.
#11 Parannoul – Sky Hundred: In 2003, Anthony Gonzalez of M83 set the bar for gauzy shoegaze standards with the release of masterpiece, “Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts,” but Parannoul has been steadfastly chasing that sound for the past five years. The South Korean musician—who somehow still remains anonymous—blends feedback laden guitar with lo-fi MIDI sounds–and on Sky Hundred he once again effortlessly melds the outputs to addle the listener on what’s coming from where—the sign of a true shoegaze practitioner.
#10 Oso Oso—Life Till Bones: Is there any current artist more consistent than Jade Lilitri? Every Oso Oso album is guaranteed to contain a litany of lean, pop-adjacent punk tunes that are as catchy as they are thoughtful. Never afraid to wear his heart on sleeve, Lilitri adroitly recounts tales of suburban heartbreak, reimagining Ted Leo as a perpetually lovetorn romantic.
#9 Hovvdy – Hovvdy: Unassuming is probably not a band’s first choice for a descriptor but few words better summarize the gorgeous low-key nature of Austin duo Hovvdy. The vocals never rise much above a whisper on the band’s latest, self-titled, effort, recalling the quiet profundity of artists like Elliott Smith and recent Alex G. Whether acoustic ballads or piano numbers, the songs of Hovvdy envelope you like a warm summer breeze—a reminder of the importance of serenity and peace in turbulent times.
#8 Been Stellar – Scream From New York, NY: From the Broken Dreams Club archive: “Like their NYC forebears, Been Stellar are masters at creating atmospheric, lived-in moods— although their references are forgotten museums, vacant parks, grimy train stations and empty streets, as opposed to dank dive bars and seedy clubs. With their origin story and bristly, post-punk sound, the band inevitably carry comparisons to NYC royalty such as Interpol, the Walkmen, and the Strokes, but Slocum’s loquacious, rangy delivery hews more closely to Elias Bender Rønnenfelt of Danish rockers Iceage, and the group’s maximalist approach evokes the great Austin act …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead.”
#7 Christopher Owens—I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair: From the Broken Dreams Club archive: Owens first solo album in nine years is the gorgeously emotive “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair.” A stunning achievement, the new collection of songs draw upon all the candor and self-reflection that made Girls so great, while also charting an intriguing new path forward for Owens.
#6 Wild Pink—Dulling the Horns: Few artists have been more consistently captivating than Wild Pink’s John Ross. Starting in earnest with 2018’s gorgeous “Yolk in the Fur,” Ross’ recent run of albums has never felt out of step, and in “Dulling the Horns,” the Wild Pink team once again puts forth a poignant and compelling compendium of heartland rock. Sharing M.J. Lenderman’s love for 90s sports arcana, Ross manages to find existential angst in very curious places. The most muscular Wild Pink album yet (“Cloud or Mountain” and “Disintegrate” both feel IMMENSE), the album is still anchored by Ross’ cooing vocals—gentle placation in a storm of big sounds.
#5 MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks: This is an album for everyone who has a houseboat at the Himbo Dome, rents a Ferrari and thinks they can do a better job than the Pope. Essentially, every sad sack and deadbeat dude who has just a little bit of redemption in them. Somehow, MJ Lenderman—at the precocious age of 25—is able to eloquently capture the pain and pathos of these lovable midlife losers. Coming off his 2022 masterpiece, “Boat Songs,” Lenderman somehow elevates his formula of laconic indie rock nuggets again on “Manning Fireworks.” It’s a perfect combination of Jason Molina, Drive By Truckers and Archers of Loaf— all amplified by Lenderman’s trademark heart and greasy grit.
#4 Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood: It wasn’t too long that Katie Crutchfield was rightly being feted as indie rock’s next best thing. Albums like “Cerulean Salt” showcased her peerless ability to match disarming words with crunchy guitar sounds. But she’s clearly found her footing embracing the Americana flavor of her Southern roots. A companion piece to her 2020 standout “Saint Cloud,” “Tiger’s Blood” builds upon the Southern Gothic mythos established by the record. Always a perennially gifted lyricist, Crutchfield outdoes herself on her latest album, deftly matching feelings of aimlessness with the rangy, vast settings of rural America on tracks like “Lone Star Lake” and the title track. And then there is her tour-de-force duet with MJ Lenderman, “Right Back To It,” a swampy, drawling testament to the twin natures of relationships—doubt and acceptance.
#3 This is Lorelei – Box for Buddy, Box For Star: Nate Amos is on one here. The brilliant multi-instrumentalist has shown his talents in the past as 1/2 of the delightfully offbeat art rock group Water From Your Eyes, but the latest effort from his solo moniker showcases new facets of his outrageous range. A dizzying range of genres are explored here, from beers-in-your-teary country waltzes (“Angel’s Eye”) to Elliott Smith-indebted ballads (“Two Legs”) to slacker rock anthems (“I’m All Fucked Up”) to glittery synth pop bangers (“Dancing in the Club.”) At the center is the towering breakup elegy, “Where’s Your Love Now,” a Beach Boys-meets-Magnetic Fields masterpiece that is the finest song of 2024.
#2 Friko – Where We’ve Been, Where We Go Far From Here: From the Broken Dreams Club archive: “On the Chicago indie rock band’s glorious debut album, this year’s “Where We've Been, Where We Go from Here,” it’s impossible to get comfortable. Austere piano ballads are followed by breakneck post-punk thrashers. Kitchen-sink indie rock anthems sit side-by-side with humble guitar numbers and multi-suite baroque chamber pop epics give way to crashing, blown-out shoegaze pieces. It's a truly dizzying display of the band’s talents—one that shows an endlessly inventive approach to sonic structures while tracing a lyrical narrative that grapples with regret, memory and the ephemeral nature of passing time. Each song feels singular, yet part of a bold, cohesive mission statement.”
#1 Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee: This is what it sounds like to capture the ghosts of 60s girl groups—a séance of the Crystals and the Supremes, refracted through the scratchy connection of a worn out FM radio tuner. These are songs to be heard from another room, a distant past—an entire lifetime ago. No record in the past decade has more unequivocally created a specific sense of atmosphere than this titanic triple album from the former lead singer of post-punk titans Women. Cindy Lee, the project of Patrick Flegel, incorporates elements of glam rock, power pop, doo-wop and indie, but all processed through an ethereal, phantasmic filter. There is an overwhelming sense of nostalgia on this album—but the cavernous, polar feel that accompanies each track makes that yearning feel all the more desperate and austere. Originally released solely through YouTube and a hilariously low tech GeoCities site, “Diamond Jubilee” plays out like a movie—a continuously cinematic and sweeping epic. Songs blend into another, bleeding from wounds pierced by Flegel’s masterful guitar playing and left weeping by their mournful wails. This is an album like no other—an alien, enlivening and thrilling testimony that proves music can still be an undefinable and glorious mystery.