15 min read what's good

What's Good 2024 Year-In-Review

The interior of a record store where the clerk and patrons are all masked.
Photo by Sean Benesh / Unsplash

Another year in the bag, and this one somehow managed to be worst than the last. Much like last year though, we thankfully had a lot of good music to keep us (or at least me) from going completely off the edge.

If you missed it last year, my Year In Review basically functions the same way as the weekly blog does. I deliver a bunch of the stuff that I liked throughout the year, with teeny bit more commentary than I usually do for my version an "Album of the Year" list, with a few ground rules:

  • I'm gonna leave some of the heavy hitters and obvious joints out: You don't need to be pointed toward or know my opinion on a fair amount of major label or super popular stuff.
  • I'm gonna miss some stuff: I listened to a LOT of music and liked a LOT of it. So I won't be able to mention everything out of pure forgetfulness and real estate to talk about it. Between things I didn't feel like I gave enough time to, or if it came too late in the year for me to not consider recency bias a factor, just because it doesn't make one of the lists below doesn't mean I didn't fuck with it. If I included it in one of the weekly editions, it's gotten burn in my headphones, trust. Also, there's some folks who just have a better handle on certain scenes or pieces of work than I do. Tap in with CABBAGES and Passion of the Weiss' year-end lists and you'll find really great takes on stuff I didn't include here.
  • I don't have a category for just rap albums: Since What's Good is sort of a rap/Hip Hop focused blog, even though I cover other things, it feels a little silly to do a carve out for it. Instead, I'll be focusing in on some of my favorite moments within rap, and leave the broader categories for other genres.

And speaking of categories, they are as follows (p.s. The headers have Easter eggs):

As was the case last year, expect a fair amount of overlap. There's plenty of records that could hop between Rock, Pop, Soul, and Jazz this year. Genre might not be an outright lie, but it is a suggestion. I also killed the Best Label and MVP artist of the year this go 'round, because I don't feel like I listened to as much stuff as intently this year. They might come back the next time, and all things being fair, Milc and Cavalier had incredible runs this year. To account for getting rid of those two categories, I've added We give you much more as a clearing house for all the other albums and songs I enjoyed and want to put in front of your eyes.

As in last year, there's easter eggs in the category titles. Let's get into it.

It's the beat, he hear it in his sleep sometimes

The foundation of every good rap song, whether an elaborate production or a simple loop, is the beat. Here's some of my faves from this year:

Shrapknel & Controller 7, "Illusions of P" from Nobody Planning To Leave

Cavalier & Child Actor, "Knight Of The East" from CINE

Gangrene, "Muffler Lung" from Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

Blu feat. Domo Genesis & Navy Blue, "Lights At Night" (Evidence) from Los Angeles

Mutant Academy, "SODA" (ewonee) from Talk Soon

Previous Industries, "Dominck's" (Quelle Chris) from Service Merchandise

DJ Muggs & Raz Fresco, "The Eternal Now" from The Eternal Now

The Alchemist feat. Larry June, "Details" from The Genuine Articulate

Phiik & Lungs feat. Cise Greeny, "PSG Grip" (Olasegun) from Carrot Season

Danny Brown, "Cheaters" (Black Milk) from the deluxe edition of Quaranta

Midnight Sons, "Blame Yourself" from Money Has No Owners

sleepingdogs, "archipelago" from will we ever dance again?

We wild like rockstars who smash guitars

My favorite guitar-based records of the year, from heavy shit, on down to just a person and their guitar. Spoiler that the latter didn't really happen that much for me this year.

Kim Deal, Nobody Loves You More. Standouts: "Nobody Loves You More," "Wish I Was," "Summerland" Purchase: Bandcamp | 4AD, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Ripped To Shreds, Sanshi. Standouts: "燒冥紙 (Sacrificial Fire)," "殭屍復活 (Horrendous Corpse Resurrection)," " Perverting the Funeral Rites, Stripping for the Dead" Purchase: Bandcamp | Relaspe Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Nilüfer Yanya, My Method Actor. Standouts: "Method Actor," "Mutations," "Like I Say (Runaway)" Purchase: Bandcamp | Ninja Tune, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Couch Slut, You Could Do It Tonight. Standouts: "Ode To Jimbo," "Downhill Racer," "The Weaversville Home For Boys" Purchase: Bandcamp | Brutal Panda, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Black Ends, Psychotic Spew. Standouts: "Bent," "Pretend 2 Be (Protect Me)," "Black's Lullaby" Purchase: Bandcamp | Youth Riot, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Kim Gordon, The Collective. Standouts: "BYE BYE," "The Believers," "Psychedelic Orgasm" Purchase: Bandcamp (Deluxe Edition) | Matador Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

This rap is like ziti

Bars and such. Some of my favorite raps this year. The excerpts below are just snippets, if I included the song their whole verse hit for me.

Michael Christmas' verse on "Jon Taffer" by Phiik and Lungs. You have fun picking out which lines. (Carrot Season)

And I’m so damn inundated that it’s difficult to tell which opinions I’ve created/In my own head and which ones were osmosis/Also, there’s this collective psychosis/That makes pedestrians opine like a pundit on big picture things about which they know nothing/Fantasy GMs and political junkies/Will write War and Peace on smooth vs. chunky/Too much cable news/Expertise brutally murdered by YouTube/I feel surrounded by a vocal minority/Whose willingness to speak is their only authority/But squeaky wheels get grease/And comments, and likes, and of course retweets/It appears we’ve made sane people retreat/By handing the megaphone to these opinionated freaks

NAHreally, "That Many Of 'Em" (BLIP)

Thought I'd be finished in the gutter sauna, every other corner was crack spots/Auntie spent a pretty penny, got really skinny from them fat rocks/She clocked me at the bus, would never rush, was touched, a sad watch/Before you air the gun, don't forget where you from/Message to the black cops

Ka, "Broken Rose Window" (The Thief Next To Jesus)

Mix the soda, had the white girl doin' hot yoga/We need flexibility to meet our quota/Dotting my i's, crossing my t's/I love Naughty By Nature but I ain't down with O.P.P./Fuck the opps, because that's the name of the game/Making pennies off nickels, dimes and quarters, some shit will never change/Superman, moving that Lois Lane/A caveman how I cooked over a open flame/Rainman how I flooded the block, like a water main/Finessed the plug with terms of endearment/The snub nose ring, like it got a piercing

Bruiser Wolf, "Holla At Ya Mans" (My $tory Got $tories)

Speak to me like it's a court of law/Strike it from the record if it's not somethin' you did or saw (Wasn't there, dog)/My records spin like a band saw/My record speak for itself, don't try to add-on/I suggest you leave the police sketch half-drawn/Like you realized they describin' Allah/The choice was Kevin Samuels or Dr. Umar/Gentlemen, the choice is yours But I assure you Jimmy Baldwin not comin' through that door (Sorry)

billy woods (Armand Hammer), "The Flexible Unreality of Time & Memory" (We Buy Diabetic Test Strips)

I was going to pluck a bit out of this, but you oughta just listen to RIFT's verse completely for best results. I've cued it up for you.

STILL RIFT (Previous Industries), "fotomat" (Service Merchandise)

Knockin' down the 4th wall, rap's Deadpool/Bustin' scripts like my youngin' went to med school/Ruger kickback like Ernie Reyes Jr./Had I known I'd double up, put him in Oklahoma Sooner/Generation gap, my plug is a boomer/My favorite rapper DOOM, your favorite rapper a groomer

Milc (Nacho Picasso, Milc, & Televangel), "Weird Science" (Montage Music)

I conduct a focus group, they say no one knows of you/Cool, thanks, great, well at least I'm compostable/Cliche line here, so that I can rhyme vocal booth (beat drops out, unmixed/mastered echo-y vocals) when it's clear that I'm at home recording in an open room

OKnice, "Lamotrigine Dreams" (Talking To My Dogs)

Rhymin' with us, you need a montage when you train/Runnin' in the rain, starin' off aloof while ridin' the bus/I don't mean to spoil it, but y'life gonna end on the toilet/We won't so much as grease the wheels as...maybe oil it/Bruiser crew well-fed, but you dudes yet to provide a decent meal/Let's keep it real"

Premrock's verse on "Disentegrate" by J.U.S (Lord Of The Streams Part 2, "Curse In The Castle")

In this ol' godless world where everything is just a mockery/You want some pocket change or just some pockets/Well they got a fee/But PMA, I try to stray from F-T-W/They ask 'What troubles you?'/I ask them 'How much time you got?'/Are you doc? What do you charge? Is it a lot? You got a card?/I'll call your office, fit me in/And do you patients come again?/Are they happy, your couch comfy?/I can pay you, but bi-monthly, is that cool?/Or can we not talk 'til I pay?

andrew on "archipelago" by sleepingdogs (will we ever dance again?)

Is it alright if I come down there and sing to you?

R&B and Soul records, or those adjacent to it landed here. You don't necessarily have to be sangin' your ass off for me to consider you for this section. It's just something you feel.

Norah Jones, Visions. Standouts: "Paradise," "Running," "Alone With My Thoughts" Purchase: Blue Note, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Yaya Bey, Ten Fold. Standouts: "me and all my niggas," "chasing the bus," "the evidence" Purchase: Big Dada | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Bilal, Adjust Brightness. Standouts: "Sunshine," "Tell Me," "Lay Around" Purchase: Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Hiatus Kaiyote, Love Heart Cheat Code. Standouts: "Everything's Beautiful," "Dimitri," "Long Heart Cheat Code" Purchase: Official Website | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Thee Marloes, Perak. Standouts: "Logika," "Beri Cinta Waktu," "Not Today" Purchase: Big Crown Records | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Khruangbin, A La Sala. Standouts: "Todavía Viva," "Hold Me Up (Thank You)," "A Love International" Purchase: Dead Oceans/Secretly Store | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Catpack, Catpack. Standouts: "Yep," "Walk Away," "Midnight" Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

We got the jazz

We do indeed have the jazz, plainly said.

Patricia Brennan Septet, Breaking Stretch. Standouts: "Palo De Oros," "Sueños de Coral Azul," "Earendel" Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, The Way Out of Easy. Standouts: "Late Autumn" Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes, The Doober. Standouts: "GBTC," "Ben Hur," "Sweet Fire" Purchase: Leaving Records | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

ØKSE, ØKSE. Standouts: "Amager," "Amar Økse," "Fragrance (some days doesn't have fragrance)" Purchase: Backwoodz Studioz | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

It might blow up, but it won't go pop

My rules from last year still stand. These could be big budget pop records as we think of them today, or pop in the way that The Beatles were.

Nicole Miglis, Myopia. Standouts: "All I See Is You," "Autograph," "Lure" Purchase: Merch and physical via Hello Merch | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Fabiana Palladino, Fabiana Palladino. Standouts: "I Can't Dream Anymore," "I Care," "Stay With Me Through The Night" Purchase: XL Recordings | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Pearl & The Oysters, Planet Pearl. Standouts: "Cruise Control," "A Planet Upside Down," "Ripples" Purchase: Stones Throw | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Luna Li, When A Thought Grows Wings. Standouts: "Minnie Says (Would You Be My)," "That's Life," "Bon Voyage" Purchase: Physicals and merch via Hello Merch | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Unless you're one of those techno, trance, and jungle ravers

Bleep, bloops, side-chaining. Things of that nature. Anything that would've been shelved as "electronica" at Sam Goody back in the day. I include instrumental Hip Hop albums here as well.

Jlin, Akoma. Standouts: "Borealis," "Iris," "Open Canvas" Purchase: Planet Mu | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Marcus Pinn, Night Music. Standouts: "Loop 6," "Putney Swope," "Night Music" Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Low End Activist Airdrop. Standouts: "Airdrop 03 (Mayhem on Barton Hill)," "Airdrop 04 (Squeeze Yer Lemon)," "Airdrop 08 (Hinskey Hardcore)" Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Hakushi Hasegawa, Mah​ō​gakkō. Standouts: "Mouth Flash (Kuchinohanabi)," "The Blossom and The Thunder," "Boy's Texture" Purchase: Brainfeeder/Ninja Tune | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

I let my tape rock 'til my tape popped

About a close to an AOTY list as I'll get. These aren't all of the albums I rated highly this year, just the ones I felt compelled to write a little bit about.

Bruiser Wolf, My $tory Got $tories (Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - The breakout star of the Bruiser Brigade kicked off 2024 to opine the drudgery of the dope game ("Hurry Up & Buy"), capture the angst of having a child with someone you probably wouldn't ("Waiting In The Lobby"), or to just talk his shit ("Skywalkin'"), and he managed to do it in a style all his own. Pressing play on this album felt like sitting down for some game from one of your homies. Breezy, full of laughs, and at points surpisingly poignant.

Previous Industries, Service Merchandise (Bandcamp | Merge Records| Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - The best rap groups, in my opinion, have an undercurrent of either competition, or deep camraderie and the long-awaited (by me, anyway) tape by Open Mike Eagle, Video Dave, and STILL RIFT exudes the latter. With the deparment stores and boutiques of 80s babies' past as spiritual backdrops (or literal, in the catalog coveting dreams of "Roebuck"), they trade bars—the back and forth of "White Hen" being my personal favorite—with a degree of familiarity and comfort that make you feel like you're purusing those glossy pages right alongside them.

ShrapKnel & Controller 7, Nobody Planning To Leave (Bandcamp | Backwoodz Studioz| Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - To borrow a turn of phrase from Castro, ShrapKnel's blades keep getting sharper. With Controller 7's foreboding, noir-inflected production, the title of the album is at turns a flag-planted in defiance ("LIVE Element"), or a shrugged resignation ("Human Form"). PremRock and Castro are at the top their game on an LP that made me recall the more sinister corners of Prince Paul's discography.

Jesse The Tree, Not Fade Away (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - Produced entirely by last year's What's Good MVP andrew, Not Fade Away reckons with life's woes and uncertainties by resolving to live well regardless. "Old Brazen Sun" finds NAHreally and Jesse keeping their heads up and the feet moving forward despite the effort. "Butterfly Tattoo" paints a hazy portrait of lazy evenings with a loved one. In a year like this, reminders that light can reach even the darkest shadows were incredibly welcome.

KA, Thief Next To Jesus (Ka's Official Store | Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - I honestly still don't have it in me to offer words about this album on its own. I'll direct you my throughts on his passing from the week it happened.

Cavalier & Child Actor, CINE (Bandcamp | Backwoodz Studioz| Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - Cavalier chronicaling deeply personal tales in a way that verges on cinematic is nothing new—Different Type Time or even the earlier Private Stock were evidence of that—but this collaboration with Child Actor transposes the intimate to widescreen. Each track is a collection of memories that is molded into a space that the listener can observe, akin to an art installation, playlet, or montage sequence. From the tarot reading that unfurls into formative childhood travels of "Soujorn," onto the evolving tracking shot of a Brooklyn neighborhood in "Knight of the East," and the penultimate somber-yet-celebratory ode to a matriarch of "Judy Is Forever" CINE succeeds not only in being the "rhythmic biopic" that Cav described it as, but so much more, as it places the listener inside the frame.

Phiik & Lungs, Carrot Season (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - It's the mid-ninties. You're in Chattanooga, TN, and your mother has a subscription to Columbia House that you get to pick from. Once the shipment including OGC's Da Storm arrives, there's snow on the ground and in a rare occurence for the area, it's sticking. I've been trying to replicate the high of walking through honest-to-God snow while listening to "No Fear" ever since, and Phiik & Lungs, along with their Tase Grip cohort are the latest in an illustrious line that helps me chase that dragon. More than just simply being good at rapping, the New York that the duo inhabits is a world all their own, and on the Olasegun-produced Carrot Season, that world as vividly painted as ever. They smoke weed that causes de-evolution, and exhale it with the force of a geiser. The plug will use your corpse to decontaminate the Hudson, and his child is on a path to being the next Putin. And as evidenced by the Michael Christmas feature I highlighted earlier, every guest is more than eager to meet them on their wave. And while a lot of hay has been made on them being heirs to Def Jux's lineage (to the chagrin of other members of the crew), especially with Olasegun's production, references ("...me and Phiik was bumpin' 'Daily Operation', writin' raps..."), and who else showed up (Y.L., Homeboy Sandman), I think what they most have in common with their Funcrushing forebearers is that they're in conversation with the city's history, writ large. The language they're using is unique, the chaos they're documenting is compressed, but it's a conversation that is ongoing.

Gabe 'Nadez & Thomas Maggart, False Profit (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - Good beats and hard rhymes is about as simple as a formula that one could ask for, and Gabe 'Nandez delivers consistently. The mundane stands shoulder to shoulder with divine cosmology as he surveys the city scene on "Commerce God," a poisonous love affair with opiods is (ironically) soberly documented over a syurpy Troop sample on "Poppy Seed," and "Crane Stance" glimpses a reality where he can astral travel to witness celestial phenomena before crashing back down to a crowded train headed to Pelham Bay. While the songs don't all strictly adhere to title's reference to the myriad examples of influencers, rappers, and figures clamoring for your attention, Gabe's presence and the album as a whole illuminate them by simple contrast.

NAHreally & The Expert, BLIP (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify) - I often complain about comedians, and how a good number of them have fashioned themselves as invaluable truth-tellers who're just observing things from the perspective of the common man. Instead of just telling fucking jokes, they consider themselves modern day philosopher kings, coming down from the mountain of open mic nights and improv classes to deliver the good word to us plebs. Rappers, particularly the ones who tread in the same "observational" spaces that comedians do, aren't immune to this, and the tie that binds them is a lack of empathy. NAHreally and The Expert's BLIP avoids this pitfall by approaching the everyday worries and happenings of life with plenty of empathy and warmth, in the latter case both with emotional warmth and the butteriness of The Expert's sample flips and chops. It could be easy to come at topics like aging/entropy being undefeated, performative media consumption, doomscrolling, and the hot take economy with hard-bitten cynicism, but NAHreally always manages to be thoughtful and considerate of the fact that he's down here with the rest of us. He's also funnier than most stand-ups that get paid for the privilege (see the dry self-deprecation of "Rapper Hands" for hilarious proof).

We give you much more

Part of the reason I omitted the MVP and label of the year categories this year is that as I was starting to put this thing together in earnest is that I realized I wouldn't really have the range and confidence to write about everything I spent time with and enjoyed this year, so instead I'm setting some space aside to just put some of those records and songs in front of you with no commentary. These joint are well worth your time, exploration, and coins with or without a spiel from me—but if you have more questions about any of them, don't hesitate to ask me, either here or on Bluesky.

Quelle Chris, Cavalier, & Demark Vessey, Death Tape 2: We Gon' Need Each Other (Bandcamp | Vinyl, Digital Downloads, and Streaming via Cavalier's Website)

Kit Sebastian, New Internationale (Bandcamp | Brainfeeder/Ninja Tune| Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Rich Jones & SINAI., Sour Dub (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

sleepingdogs, will we ever dance again? (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

2 Mello, Sunsound Collisions (Bandcamp | 2 Mello's Store | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

TV-MA, The Light At The End Of Decay (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Real Bad Man & Lukah, Temple Needs Water. Village Needs Peace. (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Nappy Nina & Swarvy, Nothing Is My Favorite Thing (Vinyl via Lucidhaus | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Giulia Tess, tempo00 (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

They Hate Change, Wish You Were Here... (Bandcamp | Jagjaguwar/Secretly | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Die Spitz, "I Hate When Girls Die" (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Doubt, Held In Contempt (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Midnight Sons, Money Has No Owners (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Bad Tofu (Milc & Chuck Strangers), Affordable Luxuries (Bandcamp | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Deep Sea Diver, "Billboard Heart" (Bandcamp | Sub Pop Mega Mart | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Louis Cole with Metropole Orkest & Jules Buckley, nothing (Bandcamp | Brainfeeder/Ninja Tune | Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

And that's all folks. Thank you for rocking with me for my first year doing this as part of own blog, untethered from another platform or social media outlet. People checking for it on Co-Host (R.I.P.) was the only thing that made me keep going, and I hope you'll join me in the new year. Maybe bring a friend or two. Also, shout out to others who're still keeping the music writing flames alive out here:

Take care of each other in this new year, everyone. As always, make good choices.

DJ Regular

DJ Regular

Game and Music Lover. Writer. Unfortunate optimist. "Spare me the Hallmark Karl Marx."
SF Bay Area