Rolling Stone UK’s 24 best albums of 2024

With December well underway and thoughts on little else but mince pies and pigs in blankets, it can be hard to recall all the wonderful music that has come out this year. From Charli XCX’s pop phenomenon that even affected the US Election, to brilliant debut albums from Rachel Chinouriri, English Teacher, Nia Archives and Master Peace, and superb new work from returning heroes The Cure, Ghetts and more, it was a stellar year for British music.

Before you tuck in to your festive treats, join us here to remember a brilliant year in music. In alphabetical order, these are Rolling Stone UK’s 24 best albums of 2024.

Arab Strap – I’m Totally Fine With It 👍 Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore 👍

In line with its absurd and brilliant title, Aidan Moffatt and Malcolm Middleton’s second post-reunion album is a nihilistic blast of noise, taking aim at digital behavioural habits. “It definitely feels like a fresh start from where we used to be,” Moffatt said of the pair’s eighth album, and it takes them to dark new territories and proves that their reunion can exist well beyond a series of nostalgic live shows. (WR)

BERWYN – Who Am I

On his remarkable debut, BERWYN used his remarkable musicianship to burn through the state of the nation. Flitting between confessional piano moments and looser hip-hop cuts, here was a record that saw  BERWYN reckoning with his own identity amid the toughest of personal problems. On the stirring album track ‘I Am Black’, he lays it out simply: “I am Black and I’m not trying to run from myself… Imagine living life scared you could die on the streets / Any day, any week, brothers pray, and they weep”. (NR)

Blossoms – Gary

They say that inspiration strikes in the unlikeliest of places and for Blossoms, that mantra was manifested in the real-life theft of an 8ft fibreglass Gorilla called Gary from a Scottish garden centre. That almighty earworm of a title track has already become a solid favourite for fans of the Stockport five piece, while the 80s flecked ‘I Like Your Look’ – co-written Irish singer CMAT – hint at a funkier future altogether. On their first album as independent artists – and their fourth number one – Blossoms showed they’re still at the top of their game. (NR)

Charli XCX – Brat

What started out as an album that Charli XCX thought was “not going to appeal to a lot of people” has ended 2024 as a UK Number One, genuine cultural phenomenon, a part of the US Presidential election campaign and the Collins Dictionary word of the year. For an artist that has always existed on the fringes of true pop stardom, Charli broke through on Brat by doubling down on her uncompromising and singular vision, bringing her trusted team of producers together for an album fizzing with mischievous energy and worthy of defining any summer. (WR)

The Cure – Songs of a Lost World

To say that The Cure know a thing or two about gothic doom and gloom is a bit like saying Cadbury’s know their way around a chocolate bar. And yet, that darkness is taken to new heights here for the group’s best album in a generation. Familial loss and thoughts about one’s own mortality may have been on the table for Robert Smith here, but he’s taken those themes and delivered something beautiful. The bittersweet mournfulness of ‘And Nothing Is Forever’ is among the best things the group have ever done. (NR)

English Teacher – This Could Be Texas

On their Mercury Prize-winning debut, English Teacher offered one of the most endlessly creative and surprising guitar records of a generation. The darkly comic ‘R&B’ saw the group skewer musical assumptions made about the skin colour of singer Lily Fontaine, while ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ felt like an indie anthem for a new generation. On one track, too, they posit the idea that ‘Not Everybody Gets to Go to Space’. A fair point, but it feels like this band are on an unstoppable skyward trajectory. (NR)

Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching

Three albums in and Ezra Collective are still bringing their irresistible blend of party-starting jazz to the masses. This album, in particular, has been defined by collabs with the likes of Yasmin Lacey and Olivia Dean, and a restless creative spirit that has seen them headline Wembley Arena and win The Group Award at the Rolling Stone UK Awards. (NR)

Fontaines D.C. – Romance

Fourth album Romance arrived at a time of change for Fontaines D.C. A new label (signing to XL after three albums with Partisan), a striking and divisive new look, and their first with the weight of ‘band of a generation’ tags on their shoulders. The effortlessness and power with which they lived up to – and surpassed – this expectation remains astounding.

The album showed the full breadth of the band’s ambition, defined by its first two singles. First came ‘Starburster’, a neon-splattered hammerblow full of guttural yelps and clattering percussion, with Grian Chatten sounding the most possessed he ever has. Contrast that with follow-up and album closer ‘Favourite’, a breezy, windows down anthem set to become a staple at indie discos for the decade to come at least. In between these two extremes, Fontaines D.C. dipped into plaintive balladry (‘Desire’), shimmering shoegaze (‘Sundowner’), string-assisted majesty (‘Horseness Is the Whatness’) and crunchy, spiky rock (‘Death Kink’).

Though it’s their most sonically diverse album to date, Romance was tied together by the strength of its songwriting and the band’s commitment to blazing new trails. It marked their biggest step so far towards becoming that band of a generation so many touted them for. (WR)

Ghetts – On Purpose, with Purpose

Released in the year of his fortieth birthday, Ghetts’ fourth album saw the Grime icon going all out to rightfully prove that his voice is still worth hearing. A collab with Sampha on the searing ‘Double Standards’ offered a firm two fingers to societal hypocrisy, while subtle shades of R&B and Amapiano broadened his sonic horizons. An important voice like his is going nowhere soon. (NR)

Griff – vertigo

The UK’s answer to Lorde confirms she’s worthy of the comparisons on a debut album of openhearted emotions and leftfield gems, making her a future cult pop hero. Released in three volumes, vertigo shows the full breadth of this ambition and talent. The album is anchored by its lead single and title track, a song that epitomises the emotional intensity of its creation. “You’re scared of love, well, aren’t we all?” she says to an unsure lover in one of countless zingers that pepper the album, showing Griff as an unfailingly honest and clever songwriter. (WR)

High Vis – Guided Tour

High Vis’ mixture of hardcore, baggy indie shoegaze is refined and elevated on their third album, leading the new sound of UK rock. After becoming one of the buzziest new UK guitar bands around on second album Blending, Guided Tour takes the band to new sonic plains, with even more bracingly honest lyricism from the brilliant Graham Sayle. The album’s lead single and best song, ‘Mind’s a Lie’, sends them even further into an un-categorisable space between genres, with Sayle roaring over bubbling synths. They are a band that are determined to keep evolving. (WR)

IDLES – TANGK

On their fifth album, IDLES proved that their abrasive and unapologetic spirit of IDLES burns brighter than ever, but it’s tempered with a sense of emotion unlike anything that the Bristol group have ever done before. This is an album exclusively of raw, guitar-fuelled love songs — presented in ways that see IDLES reaching some of the greatest heights of their career. (NR)

Jamie xx – In Waves

Jamie Smith’s second solo album is a darker and sweatier follow-up to In Colour, inspired by – and perfect for – losing yourself in low-ceilinged clubs. Nine years after the release of his hugely influential debut album, Jamie xx returns to define another era of British dance music with his superb, eclectic second LP. In Waves – an album made while pining for a post-pandemic return to hedonism – is moodier and more energetic than its predecessor, with the producer recruiting Honey Dijon, Robyn, The Avalanches, his xx bandmates and more for a record that aims for – and reaches – pure euphoria. (WR)

Kelly Lee Owens – Dreamstate

Techno-pop anthems meet tender ballads on Kelly Lee Owens’ striking and beautiful third album, with help from Bicep, The Chemical Brothers and The 1975’s George Daniel. “Ballads and bangers was the ethos,” Owens told Rolling Stone UK of the album, and both exist here in abundance. The album starts with a steadily rising wave of techno oomph and chiming synths on ‘Dark Angel’, the title track and ‘Love You Got’, but the stirring and minimal ‘Ballad (In the End)’ and closing track ‘Trust and Desire’ are equally as impactful. (WR)

The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy

It was after only one single, the supreme ‘Nothing Matters’, that The Last Dinner Party were anointed the new queens of UK indie. It was a lot to live up to, but their early live shows hinted that they had more gold in their pocket, and it was proven on Prelude to Ecstasy. Singer Abigail Morris told Rolling Stone UK last year that the album would see the band “in our platonic form rather than a Ziggy Stardust-type of character” and operating “at our full capacity”. What followed was a debut album of supreme confidence and consistent drama, which marked the true arrival of a special and important new band. (WR)

The Libertines – All Quiet On the Eastern Esplanade

Older, certainly wiser but still having fun was seemingly the MO for the fourth album from indie survivors The Libertines. The ramshackle charm of their early work is back once more, but it’s tempered with a sense of reflecting on their here and now. Lead single ‘Run, Run, Run’ is a classic Libs back-and-forth between Doherty and Barât, but it also homes in on the idea of being a “lifelong project of a life on the lash” — something these two forty-something musicians can more than relate to. (NR)

Los Campesinos! – All Hell

The Cardiff band have found a much-deserved second wind of popularity post-pandemic, and their powerful and self-referential seventh album is their strongest to date. Despite largely being a favourite of millennials who have followed them across the last near-two decades, All Hell is the first Los Campesinos! album many newer and younger fans will be welcoming. It’s suitable, then, that it serves as somewhat of a Greatest Hits for everything they’ve done across their career. The spiky and hugely melodic ‘Holy Smoke (2005)’ recalls their earliest days, while ‘Feast of Tongues’ is the best example of their softer and more contemplative latter day work. All Hell pushes LC! further in each direction – it’s louder, more personal, more political, wordier, and their best yet. (WR)

Master Peace – How To Make a Master Peace

Peace Okezie’s rowdy and stunningly catchy debut album as Master Peace should, by rights, become a canonical record for the next generation of indie fanatics. There’s an endearing youthful naivety with which Okezie mines his ’00s indie influences to form the backbone of How To Make a Master Peace, and the repurposing of these sounds is done perfectly and with wide-eyed excitement here. It’s caused raucous mosh pits up and down the country all year. (WR)

Nia Archives – Silence Is Loud

Though jungle scenes have continually bubbled under since the genre’s ‘90s heyday in the UK, the rise of Nia Archives does feel like somewhat of a one-woman renaissance. The producer and DJ has described her sound and ethos as “modern-day punk music in a dance space,” and there’s a relentless energy to both her personality and her productions. Debut album Silence Is Loud brought her jungle and drum’n’bass into conversation with Britpop as well as dance and punk, and with any justice she will be held up in the future as a vital gateway artist for countless teenagers finding their way into these sounds. (WR)

Nubya Garcia – Odyssey

The London saxophonist and bandleader Nubya Garcia follows her Mercury-nominated debut album on a second effort defined by its exploratory nature and sweeping string section. “The overall energy that I was trying to get across was a sense of expansiveness,” Garcia told Rolling Stone UK. “I wanted extreme beauty in the sound, and really pouring into each note. I wanted it to sound as one, a really thick one.” To do this, she learned how to conduct strings from scratch to beef up the sound of her and her band, while a series of influential Black voices give the album a stronger and clearer emotional narrative. (WR)

Rachel Chinouriri – What a Devastating Turn of Events 

Rachel Chinouriri’s remarkable debut was among the year’s greatest efforts – and one that allowed her to land in the place she was aiming for at long last. “What I want is to inspire the other 13-year-old Black girls who are confused about their identity but love rock music,” she told Rolling Stone UK earlier this year. On her debut – both epic and intimate in scope – Chinouriri achieved this and more. (NR)

SPRINTS –  Letter to Self

When Sprints released their debut album Letter to Self in January, it was clear that we had a rock record that would define the whole year. Spiky arena-primed riffs combined with the confidence of a band far beyond their tentative years. There was real depth too. On ‘Cathedral’, singer Karla Chubb vocalises her battles at being a queer woman growing up underneath the oft-oppressive background of the Catholic church. (NR)

Wunderhorse – Midas

While technically the second Wunderhorse album, Midas introduces Wunderhorse as a full four-piece band who bonded across an extensive tour behind their debut. Frontman Jacob Slater considers this, then, to be their debut album and it’s a stunning statement of intent. Raw, powerful and unrepentant all at once, this is the arrival of a band that could become generational. (NR)

Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia?

When Yard Act’s brilliant debut album The Overload arrived in 2022, it allowed the Leeds group to  scale the heights that any fledgling band would bite your hand off for. A collaboration with Elton John, sell-out tours and scoring a Mercury Prize nomination were just a few of these. But on this scathing second effort – even better than their first – Smith posits the question of what happens when success doesn’t necessarily translate to fulfilment. There’s searing honesty on the brooding ‘Petroleum’, while ‘Dream Job’ was – to put it simply – an absolute banger. To quote the band themselves, it’s ace, top, mint and indeed boss… (NR)