The Best Albums Of 2024 (So Far; So Good)

Welcome to The Revolver Club’s list of the best albums of 2024 (so far).

It’s based on what we’ve enjoyed the most and has nestled deep into our ears here at TRC Headquarters (remember, it’s our opinion but hey, some pretty awesome stuff on here, honest).

Curated by Rohan Mehta (@everchangingalwayshere)

Here are the albums, in no particular order:

These records are also available for purchase here.

1. Heems & Lapgan: LAFANDAR

Heems finally beats the sardonic-ironic oddball- Art Rap Joke rap outsider rapper allegations stuck onto him through his otherwise hyper-literate yet aloof internet-stoner act back in Das Racist and his solo work.

This is an album from a man who is finally opening up in a genuine way about the themes he’s been rapping about for 15 years now; anti-immigrant xenophobia, his diversity and heritage, whether he can actually rap (he can, come on) and through the slick beat placements and Bollywood samples of Lapgan, he sounds at his sharpest.

Funny and clever bars as usual, of course but now it feels so much more mature in delivery and at it’s heart, especially with his joints with YOD, you can see how much this is just about liking and celebrating rap.

2. Charli XCX: BRAT

Damn. Charli XCX has come such a long way since her Vroom-Vroom EP!

This record is a clubby hyper-pop party with banger after banger centered around celebration and vulnerability. I can’t put this album down! The jittery hyper-pop mixed with early 2000’s club that A.G Cook sonically covers the album with is a testament to their chemistry cause it's really given way to solid pop-experimentation yet again (that this time around sounds more ‘f*** it, I’m going to the club’ than before) with sprinklings of club-bangers and dead serious ponderings about themselves (and it doesn’t feel like whiplash going from ‘Sympathy is a Knife’ to ‘I Might Say Something Stupid’).

It's fun, often catchy, it sounds reckless and yet the depth it has to offer is never hurt by those elements. It's giving raw brat hot girl tracks with huge doses of discussion about self-awareness, honesty and vulnerability (something her pop contemporaries seem to just be aloof towards by now). There are literally no misses on this album, just ultra-banger pop anthems (so it’s time to get your party animal out).

Buy "Brat" on Vinyl

3. Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown

Beth Gibbons will always be, for me, this personified well of deep and true human sorrow and understanding. She writes bleak stuff and this being her triumphant return, is still massaged by fearfully looking towards the coils of time (and being brutally honest about it) mortality, relations becoming dull and all sorts of fun themes to bring up at your next party. Fatalistic, dreadful, melancholic and forever forlorn-this album is pretty bleak and it’s set out to make sure you explore the troubles of the body and mind within that light.

I love that it feels so much more stripped back and acoustic (sometimes even cinematic) than any of her earlier work in any capacity- it gives room to really hear what she has to say cause the sonics while beautiful, don’t feel like the point of the album at all.

The sonic parts of Portishead have taken a soft departure this time around (though they are there) and you’re left with this contemplative and sinister yet understanding sound that has always tended to make Gibbons sound ethereal, sometimes ominous even. The exploration of growing old through Gibbons' eyes clearly tends to be building acceptance within ourselves and meditate on these facts of life, all though its a bit tired for it due to the whole ordeal involved in the process.

Buy "Lives Outgrown" on Vinyl

4. Kim Gordon: The Collective

I’d say the real standout thing about this album isn’t the fact that Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth fame) is 71 and still putting out absolute BANGER/ HARD cutting edge shit, is mixing trap and alt-Hip Hop with her usual spoken word that she’s been doing since the 80’s or that I’m inclined to call this genre of music ‘Avant-Trap’. I think the standout part is that while being abrasive, noisy and filled with wordplay about themes like everyday life just drawling on, this album in so many ways encompasses Gordon’s eternal love for noise and no wave and we absolutely don’t have anything like this coming out these days.

Tracks like ‘I Don’t Miss My Mind’ just get you going at this constant pace- you could build or brutally break something to such music. Tracks like ‘Psychedelic Orgasm’ will make you riotous while ’Shelf Warmer’ makes you want to look at Tricky for sinister collaborations. There’s a little Death Grips here, there’s a little bit of Suicide in there, a little bit of Patti Smith’s style of chaotically composing a song around spoken word also shows up (think ‘Mummer Love’ but more chaotic sonically).

It’s an absolute left turn while still sticking true to Gordon’s always violent yet cohesive take on music while paring it with an observer’s eye on our collective routines. She’s so cool.

Buy "The Collective" on Vinyl

5. The Smile: Wall Of Eyes

Radiohead Lovers and London-jazz scene enthusiasts reunite!(unlike the band, when is that happening? I’m dying here). Fresh of their tour for their debut effort, ‘A Light For Attracting Attention’, Wall Of Eyes trades in the politics of their debut for a much needed sit down with the listener about what The Smile can do to provide you a home within their music.

Usually a band within the Radiohead ethos ends up being compared and often quite is, like an offshoot of Radiohead. This time around however the boys make a focused attempt to make the tracks more spacious and open; dependent on this progression between patience and aiming for more emotional impact.

There could have been a lot of different experimentations and deviations that could have gone into this album that would’ve set it apart from earlier work, but it doesn’t make the album any less of a fun listen. It’s definitely an improvement to the debut in a much deeper, softer way which ends up making it more engaging and re-playable (the short duration also helps).

Buy "Wall of Eyes" on Vinyl

6. Vince Staples: Dark Times

Vince is an incredibly introspective rapper and this album takes him back into the lives and stories that make up long beach, California. More importantly his own history, why he was in the game in the first place and how he’s going to be seen later on within Hip-Hop.

Sonically it’s a handshake between his self-titled album and 2022’s ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’- which means we still have the same straight to the heart delivery flow Staples specializes in and this time it’s further progressing towards the little more personal and profound. The sonics while in many places feel boom-bappy, and sometimes even cinematic, ultimately help the moody and melancholy tinged vibe an album titled ‘Dark Times’ would be going for.

Since a while now, it’s about what’s being said (in my opinion, far much more than his ‘Big Fish Theory’ and ‘FM!’ eras). It’s not him at his subtlest (something as a fan I’ve come to expect) but him blossoming into these introspective dialogues to actually talk to his audience album after album is something I’ve been looking forward too since his self-titled work. It’s funny in places, it’s groovy in a LOT of places (the track ‘” Radio”’ comes to mind) and it’s sad in a lot of those too and that mix is just what the doctor ordered to be honest.

Buy "Dark Times" on Vinyl

7. MIKE & Tony Seltzer: Pinball

Mike? Rapping on top of TRAP BEATS? How fun is that! In fact the entire 21-minute run of this album from the surprise Earl Sweatshirt feature on ‘On God’ to literally a track titled ‘100 Gecs’, it’s easy to see that Mike is here for some air of fun to be brought back into the game. He’s still the same emotionally contemplative rapper though and the lyrics are testimony to the same. This contrast thus within this familiar trap sound and now having to stick it with Mike’s emotional lyricism some how goes down very easily, almost like this was meant to happen a long time ago.

8. Arab Strap: I’m Totally Fine With It👍 Don’t Give A Fuck Anymore👍

The sonics of this album sound like Destroyer meets early 2000's LCD Soundsystem, the vocals sound like angry Scottish Magnetic Fields, and the title says they're quite alright, so they must be. Not angry at all. Not one of the lyrically most angry albums I've heard this year. It’s electric (and punchy in ways Arab Strap has never been) and it’s cutting. It’s filled with self-loathing, regrets, and poignant discussion about our place and actions within this modern digital age. It’s violently honest about it’s feelings towards current technological dependency (accentuated further by tracks such as ‘Sociometer Blues’).

Aidan Moffat chiefly pools in all of his muscle to tackle the dirtiest crevices of the internet- throwing shots not only at it’s most inhospitable spaces but sympathizing with his own human tendency to abuse such a gift. In Moffat’s eyes, this was palpable from the get go of the pandemic-era screen-hugging that we had to do and now he and Malcom Middleton are here to dissect the rotting corpus of what’s left of the human experience post-COVID and the irreversible damage that Lockdown-culture has brought to our lives.

Buy "I’m Totally Fine With It👍 Don’t Give A Fuck Anymore👍" on Vinyl

9. Knocked Loose: You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed Too

Wow I haven't been this scared of an album since Daughter's 'You Won't Get What You Want'... I've also not wanted to dance and mosh this much to metal core since a long time. In the dense and ultimately saturated world of metal core, this is the band whose songs will make you want to break into a battle cry as you sprint your way into a Wall of Death. Skull-crushing breakdowns a plenty, this is a punishing sound refined.

With tracks like the opener 'Thirst', 'slaughterhouse' and 'Piece by piece', they are all RELENTLESSLY LOUD but the tracks never meld into one another. In fact the album feels like one big chunky piece of sectioned work front-to-back.

Buy "You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed Too" on Vinyl

10. Arooj Aftab: Night Reign

You need Pakistani Jazz Fusion in your life- especially the smoky, moody heartache that Arooj brings to the table. Within the concept of Night Reign, the night is prevalent and yet the music is so meticulously stitched together that you'd only listen to it during the rains.

The meditative repetition of tracks like 'Raat Ki Rani' & 'Aey Nehin' are so easy to get lost into. This ethereal slow-burn both lyrically and sonically feels like it's never-endingly spacious and it gives the listener a lot of room to snuggle into before you start nodding along to Arooj's lyrics of longing in the most whiskey-soaked way possible.

This album has a lot of bruises and it’s pretty mournful but it handles this with such a sense of richness and infinity in it’s soundscapes that you ultimately just end up standing still as you further dive into what Arooj has to say (kind of like those once in a life time intimate and mystical performances one sees at a fortunate gig). Also, Moor Mother is on here. This is already a classic in my eyes.

Buy "Night Reign" on Vinyl

11. Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us

As a long-time Vampire Weekend fan, this was basically the best news this year. Then to actually hear how this album sonically brought them back into Ezra and Co’s previous influences is so refreshing cause they more or less had traded that off in their last album.

The same electricity flows throughout tracks like ‘Connect’ and ‘Classical’ and yet this time around it’s so nuanced and matured- this is Ezra at his most caring and intuitive since the days of ‘Contra’ (I personally haven’t come across a song like ‘Prep-School Gangsters’ that has hit me so close to my heart in two years).

The lyricism is so focused and in touch with itself, you can’t help but feel it’s the right fit with the quirkiness of Vampire Weekend’s usual sound. This is a return to form in a way that will make you snap your fingers and tap your feet in ways you didn’t know were possible. The multitude of influences from Hindustani classical to their classic Baroque piano licks and so many more just sizzle within their sound. The album often looks within itself and it’s setting from time to time; a look at New York- its past and present be it it’s discriminatory tactics, authoritarianism, capitalistic tyranny or many times across the album, police aggression.

All these songs are heavy narrative wise so listen to it as a chunk rather than single slices (though if you absolutely have no time, I’d say listen to ‘Capricorn’ and ‘Mary-Boone’). No skips on this by the way (none).

Buy "Only God Was Above Us" on Vinyl

12. Lip Critic: Hex Dealer

This album is the appropriate response to the question ‘What would you get if you mixed Protomartyr’s sentiments with The Garden’s vocalisations & AV Dummy’s sonic glitchiness and noise?’ (Weird question to ask but hey, here’s your answer mate). Also no, don’t bring up Death Grips, not every noisy band is Death Grips my dudes (the bass does sound like it but no).

Easily one of the most interesting album to come out this month, the New York based band brings new life to digital hardcore and Dance-punk beats with their own refreshing and pummeling authority. This is a 30-minute dose of adrenaline that will make your 100 Gecs ridden brain get all juiced up and cut circles into your living room rug.

The album is erratic and genre hops into spaces without a sweat. There is definitely a loose album concept here about snake oil tactics being used by the music industry but it just gets lost in all the chaos. Not that you’re really going to be thinking about that as your feet move aggressively to the accelerated beats of ‘Death Lurking’ & ‘Milky Max’.

Either-way, if you love nothing more than getting absolutely over-stimulated on abrasive noise and barrage flows of funny tongue in cheek lyricisms, then tracks like ‘Pork Belly’ and ‘In The Wawa’ are your saviors.

Buy "Hex Dealer" on Vinyl

13. Vegyn: The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

This a tricky one cause I love this album but I love it in a way where these tracks are their own separate adventures and are incredibly, increeeedibly loosely connected to one another conceptually. The thinnest of threads connect lush childlike-blissed tracks such as ‘Halo Flip’ with housey festival boppers like ‘Makeshift Tourniquet’. Yet it works so beautifully; the Boards of Canada influences to the James Blakey brushes of strings work like a pleasant walk in the park come evening time.

‘In The Front’ with it’s trap cymbals and orchestral violins is one of the most soul purifying tracks of 2024. It’s just perfect outdoor music. It’s an album that feels intimate but in ways devoid of a particular characteristic which would often spell trouble for any artist but somehow walks right into Joseph Thornalley’s seclusion from both audience and media.

In a way, like many before him within the electronic space, his character being so far away from the music lets us get ingrained within the individual universes brought on by these songs. This is Vegyn’s most easy-to-access piece of work cause its him at his least genre hoppy. I would’ve ultimately loved a very visible concept but it’s like an ambient train ride that you can only go from A to B from, and I can live with that.

Buy "The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions" on Vinyl

14. Mannequin Pussy: I Got Heaven

This is raw attitude barking at the populace with swelling guitars and aggressive scowls echoing throughout the atmosphere. The indie rockers have surfaced with this unapologetically rebellious album that although not cohesive in any sense of the word is brimming with raw bone crunching emotions expressed on tracks such as ‘Loud Bark’ combined with eyebrow-raising lyricisms (that, like the band’s name, you can never really sing in public) on tracks like ‘I Got Heaven’ which make for roaring anthems that end up feeling really cathartic.

There are sonic blasts within the album that could make Japanese noise-rock artists blush to this permanently affixed rage that sears itself onto every song on this album.

You’ll find yourself getting pumped up for tracks that in their foundation aren’t exactly the most ground breaking themes within the genre, and yet the expression of them is always invited.

Give this a listen if you’ve been waiting to hear a indie/alt rock record away from the beaten path- the one that just stops short of punk territory. Trust me, this a much needed shot of life in an otherwise slowly dying space.

15. Pataka Boys: Thugs of Amritsar

Pav4n and Sonnyjim’s collaboration with upcoming producer Kartik delivers a fresh perspective on the Indian experience. Throughout the 14-track album, Sonnyjim’s unique brand of Yacht rap and Pav4n’s raw energy consistently shine over the pensive Kartik beats.

Features from Heems, Sikhander Kahlon, Seedhe Maut, M.O.N.G.O and Juss Nandhra elevate this to a modern hip-hop classic. Fans can expect to hear new vignettes of life in India for the global rap legends. Over lavish instrumentals, the UK legends deliver several bars that capture their relationship with their roots.

For those uninitiated into the more Yacht Rap parts of current underground rap like Griselda and Alchemist type beats, Kartik brings a much needed air of Indianisation of a beat culture the has often been sampled straight from the Indian vaults (think Madlib’s ‘Beat Konducta Vol.3 & 4: in India’ but now we get to do it). This is of a similar and nuanced echelon and I for one am so stoked for it because it just brings more promise of the same needed lens within Indian hip-hop.

16. Iglooghost: Tidal Memory Exo

DAMN I love this guy, he’s literally a beat-wizard! I was 17 when I was completely blown away by his densely idiosyncratic, break-neck bubbling beep-boops on ‘Sōlar Blade’ and the rest of ‘Neō Wax Bloom’. Now a lot more E.Ps and albums in from that, ghost still keeps going further on this glitchy cacophonic marathon run with TME and the train seems to stop for no one!

Tracks like ‘Germ Chrism’ and ‘Alloy Flea’ will leave you dizzy in the best of ways and its always so colourful, chaotic and hard-hitting! Conceptually it’s set “in a rust-ridden flooded squat in a weird UK seaside town” currently waterlogged and dressed in primordial rubbish- a setting like that can really be heard in all the fizzy UK Garage, drill and maximalist IDM flourishes and textures being pumped into our veins in the most adrenaline raising of ways.

It’s always so disorienting to keep up with this guy’s production but so rewarding to ride on with. It’s ten times the pace you’re expecting and this time a lot darker and grittier. It has obvious nods to industrial music and even drill music here and there (there is no way you’re not nodding along to ‘Newdrop Signal’) which makes this the more tonally murky and sinister of Iglooghost’s catalogue.

If you’ve been a fan of his sonically brighter beats and expect him to keep topping his already high BPM work, this is that slight evolution in his sound you were looking for and easily one of the best electronic works this year has to offer.

17. IDLES: TANGK

It is easily my favorite band to come out of the post-Brexit scene (that’s whipped up bands like Black Country, New Road and Shame) that has really returned to form. As a long-time fan I admittedly lost some faith when ‘Ultra Mono’ came out cause while Joe and Co. were headed in this beautifully optimistic and endearing lyrical point in their careers…I kind of really missed the grit and loud teeth-gnashing of ‘Brutalism’ &, still one of my favorite albums ever, ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’.

But when you listen to the feverishly dancy booms of the LCD Soundsystem featuring track ‘Dancer’ and the blissfully inspecting and truthful hope of ‘Grace’, how do you not just come swan-diving back into their arms? The pulse is back people and frequent collaborator Kenny Beats just made it sound groovier (and IDLES jutted the edges of it with punk and love).

Tracks like ‘Gift Horse’ is the closest long-time fans are getting to another ‘Colossus’ and I like that. This album feels like IDLES has finally found that sonic territory that’ll keep them balanced and will let us keep getting those really thoughtful and loving pounding vocals to chant along too.

The emotional nuances of Joe’s lyrics have improved furthermore and it doesn’t feel as on the nose as it might have in the last two albums. If you’ve been waiting, like me, for that IDLES record that’ll get you back to this beautiful band, this is the one.

Buy "TANGK" on Vinyl

18. Ugly: Twice Around The Sun EP

Hey, I know, it’s an E.P, put the pitchfork down. It’s 36-minute run-time and hopeful ambition might as well make this one of the best albums of the year- here’s why.

Other than the obvious comparisons to the British wave of indie-prog rock post-Brexit flurry of bands such as BC, NR or Squid, this is some of the most exciting Indie to come out of the isles in a bit. A personal favorite point in the E.P is the guitarwork during the end of the track ‘Shepard’s Carol’ or the vocals that sounds fresh out of the early 2010’s American folk-rock camp. And yet, the bright folk instrumentation and acapella passages within these songs, not to mention the immediate skips between the layers of melodies in tracks like the closer ‘I’m Happy You’re Here’ and the Buddhist chants on ‘Sha’ feel incredibly spiritually aligned. One could say tracks like ‘The Wheel’ are almost festive in their nature.

This sounds like a band that’s really alive and ready to burst into its songs with detailed storytelling that can cycle through many different valleys of emotions. I really think this is a band to look out for.

19. Nia Archives: Silence is Loud

One of the most prominent names to come out of the current UK jungle and DnB scene, her last E.P ‘Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall’ practically rearranged dance floors all across the globe towards a collective look back at our DnB favourites over the years.

Avid dance Floor worshipers will remember bopping their heads to ‘Forbidden Feelingz’ way, way before this album came out and I’m here to tell you that the quality holds up on all the other tracks too. The songs feel raw and fun, housing some of Nia’s most impressive drum work.

A lot of the concepts of these tracks work around relationships be it romantic or familial which is pretty meat and potatoes to be honest- I feel that the catchy break beats and refrains on these tracks are the things to latch onto when you listen to this. It’s an effortless listen that feels like it’s been made for you to jump to, banger to banger, side to side with universally relatable lyrical content. That’s really all there is to say man. It’s a great DnB record.

Buy "Silence is Loud" on Vinyl

20. Avalanche Kaito: Talitakum

So when their debut E.P ‘Dabalomuni’ came out, I lost it man. The noisy and jarring electronic fringes attached to everything being blustered out by Kaito Winse was just perfect sound experimentation wise. But it was raw, but there was obviously so much to look forward too. Then their polished self-titled debut came out and tracks like ‘Douga’ shook life into me.

Now with their sophomore, Talitakum, their blend of West African and noise music makes for beautiful and sunny polyrhythmic cacophonies that will leave every synapse in your brain tingling.

‘Ghostdrum exp3’ reminded me of Hella circa ‘Hold Your Horse Is’ era and if you have an affinity to noisy ritualistic sounds like me, this literally has Kaito as it’s Griot. Also you’d absolutely love tracks like ‘Talitakum’ if you love rhythmically-charged music. Lyrically it is folksy and of a universal nature, often speaking of living a well experienced life (in all manners and methods) and the vibrant embodiment of that is felt with the way the music rattles and shakes.

These tracks feel driven to surge one’s energy into their feet and walk into newer things in life. It’s much more cohesive than their earlier efforts while just being raw enough for you to keep enjoying the chaos the band has to bring to the table.

Buy "Talitakum" on Vinyl

21. English Teacher: This Could Be Texas

This could Be Texas is a record of heavy emotions and heavy personality- there is a lot of promise in this British Indie Rock act’s debut- from their lead single ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ ripping into the post-Brexit sound space to tracks like ‘Not Everyone Gets To Go To Space’ hitting you with these grands stops and starts.

The way you experience each track on this album seems to be dependent on how vocalist Lily Fontaine feels at the time so you could end up getting some Slint, some BC,NR, and then something entirely themselves on singles like ‘R&B’ with its scathing sing-along chorus.

The band is still definitely to unite with a common sound for themselves, but the smart sonic exploration made on this album never feels empty for it and it feels right in tune with the current British Indie cannon.

I just wish they were reinventing the wheel in some way cause the singles leading up to the release of this album gave me a lot of hope- but that’s a seriously disadvantageous way of looking at things and though I don’t feel like they are really breaking as much new ground, they are definitely welcome within the lyrically dense and sonically Indie-rockish space that I have reserved for bands like BC, NR and Fontaines D.C.

Buy "This Could be Texas" on Vinyl