Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

The early months of 2024 featured memorable releases from Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande and Future. With those superstars’ work on many listeners’ playlists, it’s hard to imagine that any of the summer’s releases would top them. However, this busy summer has given us plenty more to listen to.

Here are the nine standout albums of the summer. This summer’s release list was dense, and not all great albums made the list. A few honorable mentions include Childish Gambino’s “Bando Stone and The New World,” beabadoobee’s “This Is How Tomorrow Moves” and Zach Bryan’s “The Great American Bar Scene.”

“brat” – Charli xcx (June 7, 2024)

Charli xcx’s release coined the term “brat summer,” which exploded in popularity and for good reason. Charli xcx’s hyper-pop album flooded the pop culture landscape, and the presidential election, with a sea of neon green memes. Yet, the cultural sensation of “brat” is more than just a trend. The album’s experimental sound is undoubtedly Charli xcx’s grandest work yet and will always be a key part of summer 2024’s vibe when people look back at it nostalgically.

Cole Ross | Digital Design Director

Charli xcx found pop success early in her career, but “brat” successfully crafted a sound that hooks listeners and became hers. Hits “Apple” and “365” set a bouncy backdrop to the summer and surged the artist to a third-place debut on the all-genre Billboard 200.

“HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” – Billie Eilish (May 17, 2024)

There was no question that whatever Billie Eilish put out would hit. Since her 2017 debut EP “dont smile at me,” Eilish and FINNEAS, her brother and producer, have become unconventional constants in modern pop. However, the heights of 2019’s “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?” were difficult to match with its successor “Happier Than Ever.”

“HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” needed to demonstrate a pivot away from the overdone sluggish sad girl sound and mark a maturity in Eilish’s sound — and it did. While this is still clearly a Billie Eilish album, it masterfully ventures deeper into new pop sounds, seen on songs like “BIRDS OF A FEATHER,” “CHIHIRO” and the stunningly produced “THE DINER.”

“Charm” – Clairo (July 12, 2024)

When I reviewed Clairo’s “Charm” in July, I suggested it could be in the album-of-the-year conversation. To put it mildly, I may have underestimated how much I love this album, particularly the songs “Second Nature” and “Juna.”

Although it may not have hit the commercial heights of some of the other albums on this list, the warm, skip-less tracklist of “Charm” has remained a constant in my summer music rotation. Its soft sound is easily Clario’s best, and I am confident the album will continue to age well as new listeners discover it.

“The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” – Chappell Roan (September 22, 2023)

This is sort of cheating, but Chappell Roan’s summer had to make it into this article. When she released “Good Luck, Babe!” on April 5, 2024, even she couldn’t have seen it reaching the heights that it did. Even though “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” came out last September, its mainstream explosion this year has made it one of the defining sounds of the summer.

Spearheaded by the TikTok successes in “HOT TO GO!” and “Casual,” Roan began to draw massive crowds to her shows, topped off with an August set in Chicago that made history as Lollapalooza’s largest-ever daytime crowd. Everyone’s heard this album, so it felt wrong to leave it off the list — despite being a year late.

“HARDSTONE PSYCHO” – Don Toliver (June 14, 2024)

Don Toliver, the man behind the pandemic hit “No Idea” and post-pandemic vibes of “Life of a DON,” made a bold choice to brand his summer album as a punk rock-infused record. It became clear he was embracing the biker gang aesthetic with the cover and the rock-ified Tame Impala sample on the album’s lead single “BANDIT.”

Toliver’s risky new sound pays off. While songs like “TORE UP” play up to the rockstar vibe of the album and may become listener favorites, I enjoyed the softer sounds of “NEW DROP” and “DEEP IN THE WATER.” The supporting cast stars, Kodak Black, slides on “BROTHER STONE” and Travis Scott does what he and Toliver do best when they join forces on “ICE AGE.”

“Model” – Wallows (May 24, 2024)

When I heard the first singles from “Model” a few months ago, I knew the Wallows had a hit on their hands. The infectious “Calling After Me” and the softly mesmerizing “Bad Dream” provided the perfect peek into the band’s summer record.

Led by Dylan Minnette’s vocals, the Wallows’ sound is similar to their previous work. However, each song feels fresh and builds on the band’s underrated, ever-expanding discography. While I wish the album’s weaker tracks displayed the same personality as its singles, “Model” remains a favorite summer 2024 album.

“God Said No” – Omar Apollo (June 28, 2024)

Omar Apollo’s sophomore album was among my most anticipated projects heading into the summer. Apollo’s 2023 EP “Live For Me” and single “3 Boys” demonstrated artistic growth since his 2o22 debut “Ivory,” which I looked forward to hearing fleshed out on the album.

Although “Ivory” may be a more complete record, audacious artistic choices throughout “God Said No” make it a compelling listen. The buoyant “Less of You,” the jazzy “Done With You” and the Pedro Pascal interlude brought a flavor to the summer that I can’t get enough of.

“Born in the Wild” – Tems (June 7, 2024)

Tems released her debut album, “Born in the Wild,” to a catalog of multiple excellent EPs and singles. Perhaps this album will help the Nigerian become a name known for more than her commercially successful feature run with A-listers like Drake, Future and Brent Faiyaz.

There’s so much to like about this album, but at the top of the list is its beat selection. Tems’ vocals glide across the beachy, afro-inspired sound of “Born in the Wild.” The Nigerian artist effectively blends her soulful sound with the established sound of R&B, shown in the songs “Gangsta” and “Get it Right” with Asake.

“A Great Chaos (Deluxe)” – Ken Carson (July 5, 2024)

The feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar reignited hip-hop in 2024. However, apart from the beef, few mainstream albums in the genre dropped this summer. With that said, Ken Carson’s deluxe follow-up to his 2023 album “A Great Chaos” jumped out at me.

Deluxe releases “ss” and “loading” stand out as some of Carson’s best songs, serving as interesting expansions to the ultra-trendy “Opium” sound pioneered by artists like Playboi Carti and Destroy Lonely.

Summer 2024 was one for the books. Mainstream rap’s resurrection, courtesy of Drake and Lamar’s diss track drops, had fans refreshing the artists’ YouTube pages every night for about a month.

If nothing else, pop music is back. It took an unexpected cast of lesser-known stars to do it, but Charli xcx, Clairo and Chappell Roan have undoubtedly put themselves in the Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish category of stardom. The race to the Album of the Year Grammy will surely be highly contested.

Published on August 25, 2024 at 11:39 pm

Contact Griffin: gbrown19@syr.edu