Staff Picks: Favorite Albums of January 2024
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The post Staff Picks: Favorite Albums of January 2024 appeared first on Consequence.
It’s a new year, and the Consequence staff is already up to our eyeballs in fantastic music. January can be a mixed bag of releases — often peppered with big pop singles like last year’s long-charting “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus — but we spent January of 2024 more immersed in albums. From fresh voices like glass beach to deeply personal reflections from Boldy James and the best work yet from The Smile, this month ushered in plenty of new favorites destined to stay on rotation as the year progresses.
Listed in alphabetical order, here are what our Consequence writers and editors think are the best albums of January 2024. And for more records we can’t wait to get our ears on, check out our Most Anticipated Albums of 2024.
Benny the Butcher — Everybody Can’t Go
With Everybody Can’t Go, the most consistent member of the Griselda family is making his major label debut on Def Jam. His new “villain mode” includes a line seemingly supporting Trump, but if moral perfection was a prerequisite for hip-hop, record store shelves would be a lot more bare. Besides, his reportorial rapping is as sharp as anyone today, and bars like, “Me teary-eyed and gullible/ I lived it with a mother who struggled through addiction, I know every side of drug abuse,” reveal a real pain that so many of his peers shy away from sharing. — Wren Graves
Listen via Apple Music
Future Islands — People Who Aren’t There Anymore
Half of People Who Aren’t There Anymore was released before the album arrived in full, with some tracks dating back over two years. So it’s rather remarkable how cohesive this collection is. Credit it to two things: Less atmospherics than 2020’s As Long As You Are, and miraculously even richer vocals from Samuel T. Herring. You can say “no one does X like Y” about a lot of singers, but it’s hardly hyperbole that no one does earnestness like Herring. From his melancholy introspection to his heart-on-his-sleeve optimism, his delivery is consistently, magically evocative. This LP is simply synth poetry. — Ben Kaye
Listen via Apple Music
glass beach — plastic death
Though glass beach were initially hailed as torchbearers of fifth-wave emo, their second proper LP, plastic death, makes a current all its own. Culling from inspirations like intricate experimental music, Jungian theory, and the deep sea, the record sees the indie rock maximalists push their limits to shockingly imaginative effect, existing somewhere between In Rainbows as rock opera and Pink Floyd in the internet age. If that all sounds too wild to believe, then you’ll just have to listen for yourself. –– Abby Jones
Listen via Apple Music
Junodream — Pools of Colour
Every year since 2018, English quartet Junodream put out a new song or two, and occasionally an EP, like 2019’s Isn’t It Lovely (To Be Alone) and 2021’s Travel Guide. But with each expansive track, they were building out an impressive sonic repertoire that makes the release of their debut album, Pools of Colour, all the more satisfying.
Junodream’s sound is indebted to their late ’90s influences: The Bends-era Radiohead, Parachutes-era Coldplay, the dream pop majesty of Air, the melody-forward rock of Ride. But there’s something about Junodream’s ability to be both rousing and comforting at the same time that makes the songs on Pools of Colour stick. They’ve put out a lot of great tracks over the years, but the ones on Pools of Colour are their most ambitious and electrifying yet. — Paolo Ragusa
Listen via Apple Music
Kali Uchis — Orquídeas
Kali Uchis’ second Spanish-language album embraces dance music and serves as an expansion to her varied catalog. The heartfelt songwriter pays tribute to her Colombian roots with the LP’s vibrant orchid motif and dreamy soundscape. She also incorporates reggaeton, merengue, and bolero while joining forces with the likes of Karol G, Peso Pluma, JT of City Girls, El Alfa, and Rauw Alejandro. The juxtaposition between ballads such as “Te Mata” and upbeat numbers like the disco-tinged “Igual Que Un Ángel” demonstrates her versatility. Orquídeas presents an endlessly replayable, lush body of work. — Sun Noor
Listen via Apple Music
Katy Kirby — Blue Raspberry
For a record named after a fabricated flavoring, Blue Raspberry is utterly authentic. It’s patient in a way few records are these days — even amidst the industry inundation of “similar” artists. Katy Kirby’s words are careful and clever, her wit measured precisely to production that’s as much in-the-room as it is orchestral (major credit to the duo of Logan Chung and Alberto Sewald). It all allows for the record to feel lovingly loose even as you analytically appreciate the tautness. Cool Dry Place gave us an artist to watch; Blue Raspberry presents an artist to admire. — B. Kaye
Listen via Apple Music
Lily Seabird — Alas,
Anyone who got Burlington, Vermont, as their “Sound City” on last year’s Spotify Wrapped owes it to themselves and the Green Mountain State itself to dive into Lily Seabird’s excellent sophomore effort, Alas,. A stunning collection of folk rock that sways between softly beautiful and chaotically noisy, Alas, captures a nuanced combination of emotions both in sound and theme. Happiness and sadness, love and solitude, hope and despair all exist side-by-side in its delicate world. Take a sonic trip to Vermont, and you might just find your next indie folk obsession. — Jonah Krueger
Listen via Apple Music
Lucifer — Lucifer V
Lucifer traverse a variety of moods on their fifth self-titled LP, from the stoner grooves of “At the Mortuary” to the ‘70s-style power balladry of “Slow Dance in a Crypt.” The Swedish classic-rock revivalists imbue each with an occult aura — the thread of cohesion that runs throughout their entire catalog. But if their past efforts captured a grainy, sepia-toned occult horror, Lucifer V presents the band’s riff-filled seance in 4K, with crystal clear production and an emphasis on the commanding vocal performances of singer Johanna Sadonis. — Jon Hadusek
Listen via Apple Music
Nicholas Craven and Boldy James — Penalty of Leadership
Craven gets first-billing and sure, his ear for samples is nearly unmatched, but Penalty of Leadership is the Boldy James show from the moment you press ‘play.’ Following a brutal car crash almost exactly a year ago, Penalty finds the Detroit MC at his most vulnerable, with a fresh awareness of how quickly everything can be snatched away. “Stood up out my wheelchair in brand new Chanel kicks,” he reflects on “Brand New Chanel Kicks,” and in his weary delivery you can hear both the “screws and rods all in my shit” and an ironic smile: What good are luxury shoes compared to the ability to stand again? — W. Graves
Listen via Apple Music
Office Dog — Spiel
Auckland-based Office Dog hail from Dunedin, New Zealand, a city that spawned its own eponymous movement of jangly indie rock in the 1980s. On their debut album, Spiel, the trio –- fronted by singer/songwriter Kane Strang, who has a notable solo career of his own -– blend the whimsical melodies of their Kiwi forebears like The Clean and The Bats with a beefier, fuzzed-out backdrop more akin to contemporary slacker rockers like Ovlov and Nothing. In short, Office Dog answer the hard-hitting question: What would happen if you just smashed together a bunch of really great indie rock bands? It might sound something like Spiel. — A. Jones
Listen via Apple Music
The Cast of Mean Girls — Mean Girls (Music from the Motion Picture)
Listen: The new album of songs from Mean Girls definitely doesn’t live up to the Broadway cast recording in every aspect, but I’d be lying if I were to tell you Avantika’s take on “Sexy” wasn’t in my Spotify On Repeat playlist at the moment. And who doesn’t love listening to Auli’i Cravalho (Moana herself!) belt out an incredible chorus? This rollicking version of “Revenge Party” with Jaquel Spivey is perfect, and her confident, joyful recording of “I’d Rather Be Me” is infectious.
Of course, no discussion of the 2024 Mean Girls soundtrack would be complete without mentioning Reneé Rapp herself, whose riffs in “Someone Gets Hurt” and scorched earth energy in “World Burn” tie it all together. But if you see me jumping back over to the Original Broadway Cast for “It Roars” and “Stupid With Love”… well, that’s my business. — Mary Siroky
Listen via Apple Music
The Smile — Wall of Eyes
Remember all of those Radiohead jokes about how weird and experimental their music is? Well, with Wall of Eyes, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood prove that The Smile are much closer to realizing that reality than Radiohead ever was — and I mean that in the best way possible. The second album from the two Radiohead members and drummer Tom Skinner swirls and warps through extended, multi-phased songs. Complete with odd time signatures, wild dynamics, and beautiful sonic landscapes, Wall of Eyes finds The Smile coming into their own as much more than just “that band with the Radiohead guys.” — J. Krueger
Listen via Apple Music
Staff Picks: Favorite Albums of January 2024
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