The association between music and memory is strong for me. I can hear a song from years ago — from high school or when the kids were young — and it will immediately take me back. I can remember details — key moments in my life when this song by so-and-so was the soundtrack in the background. As a result, one of my favorite things to do each year is to look back on the music I found to be the most meaningful these past twelve months. (If you’d like to look at my complete list of favorite albums, you can find it here.)

2024 was a good year for music. Some of my favorite artists released new music and I really enjoyed a lot of it. Here are my five favorite albums of this year. When I look back on 2024, these are the songs I’ll remember.

Best Albums of 2024

1. Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us
2. Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson), Passage du Desir
3. Jackson Bybee, Ataraxia
4. The Secret Sisters, Mind, Man, Medicine
5. Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood

Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us

This record has been in my heavy rotation ever since it was released back in April. According to my Spotify “Wrapped,” Capricorn was my most played song of 2024 (which checks out; it’s a fantastic song). I’ve followed Vampire Weekend since their debut but I didn’t think they could ever put out anything that would top 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City. But I think Only God Was Above Us is their masterpiece.

For starters, the music is beautiful and melodic. I’ve spent most of the year with these choruses playing in my head — always an essential feature. The soundscape here is both diverse and self-referential at the same time, a fresh expression of some of their most iconic sounds. But I love that this is also a record about looking back, especially given that Vampire Weekend isn’t a fresh-faced indie band these days. These guys are about my age and this is when nostalgia begins to become more meaningful. Take the refrain on Mary Boone:

Oh, my love, was it all in vain?

We always wanted money, now the money’s not the same

In a quiet moment at the theater, I could hear the train

Deep inside the city, your memory remains

There’s also this haunting line from Gen-X Cops which speaks to the slow erosion of youthful idealism:

It wasn’t built for me

It’s your academy

But in my time, you taught me how to see

Each generation makes its own apology

I think this line from Capricorn is a profound expression of life in your forties:

Too old for dyin’ young, too young to live alone

Sifting through centuries, for moments of your own

My favorite song on this album is also my favorite song of the year: Hope, with the constant refrain: I hope you let it go. Cynicism is the great threat as we age into these middle years. But that’s precisely why Hope is such a great finale to this record. It is beautiful and stirring, a presciently optimistic counter to the album’s bleak opening. Moments like this are harder to find when you reach a certain age, but Vampire Weekend have stitched together several of them here. That’s why it’s my favorite album of 2024.

The Reinvention of Sturgill Simpson

Fans were understandably concerned that Sturgill Simpson would follow through on his promise that he would no longer record any music under the “Sturgill” moniker. But all that really meant was that he would reinvent himself under the banner of “Johnny Blue Skies,” which is really just code for “Sturgill’s new band.” I really love this music, almost as much as Only God Was Above Us, and for a couple of months, I thought this one might be my Album of the Year. If the Sun Never Rises Again sounds like something straight out of a 70s AM radio playlist. Mint Tea, One For the Road, and Jupiter’s Faerie rank right up there with the best songs Sturgill has ever recorded. The best news is that we have reason to believe that we’ll continue to hear more of his signature sound in years to come.

Jackson Bybee’s “Ambient Era”

It should come as no surprise that Jackson is the artist I listened to more than any other this year. He released two albums this year, Ataraxia in the spring and the 25-song Vagaries later in the summer. While I love all of his music, Ataraxia stands out for me. Beneath the Surface, Haven, Overflow of Emotion, and The Passage of Time are excellent tracks, great companion pieces for studying or resting. But Reverie is my favorite song Jackson produced this year. In fact, it ranks as my second-favorite song he’s ever done, trailing only Cash from 2022’s evergreen project.