Janky Smooth Top 10 ALBUMS of 2024 Rated by Contributors

2024 came and went with some of the most dramatic and tense moments in the country’s political and cultural history. As any true music head knows, great shifts are predicted in a culture’s music first, so if there’s anything the music of 2024 can tell us about the state of art and the future, we should be very excited for all things to come.Just as entire status quos of thought went challenged and overturned in 2024, many bands changed the dynamics of entire genres will releases that blew our contributors away. Here are the top ten albums of 2024, ranging from every category, from the underground to the mainstream. You will see the Janky signature in these lists with our selections that show appreciation for a huge range of music so unique that you’ll need to listen to these albums yourself to truly understand why 2024 was so monumental for music.

Publisher, Danny Baraz

1. Nox Novacula – Feed the Fire
2. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
3. Amyl and the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness
4. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven
5. Hong Kong Fuck You – 1978-1981
6. Kendrick Lamar – GNX
7. Tyler The Creator – Chromakopia
8. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
9. Xeno & Oaklander – Via Negativa (in the doorway light)
10. Terror Reid – MANIFESTO

Editor, Rob Shepyer

1. Nails – Every Bridge Burning
2. Chat Pile – Cool World
3. The Hope Conspiracy – Tools of Oppression/Rule by Deception
4. Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk
5. Godspeed You Black Emperor – No Title as of 13 February 2024, 340 Dead
6. Darkthrone – It Beckons Us All
7. Shellac – To All Trains
8. Crypt Sermon – The Stygian Rose
9. Veilburner – The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom
10. Trstwch Y Fenywod – S/T

Photographer, Taylor Wong

1. Speed – Only One Mode
2. Fidlar – Surviving the Dream
3. Amyl and the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness
4. The Chisel – What a Fucking Nightmare
5. High Vis – Guided Tour
6. Drug Church – Prude
7. Candy – Flipping
8. Shellac – To All Trains
9. Various Artists – The Shape of Punk to Come Obliterated
10. Tyler, The creator – Chromakopia

Writer, Danny Ryan

1. Charli XCX – Brat
2. Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk
3. Mannequin Pussy –  I Got Heaven
4. High Vis – Guided Tour
5. Peeling Flesh – The G Code
6. The Chisel – What A Fucking Nightmare
7. Firewalker – Hell Bent
8. Femtanyl – Reactor
9. Sabrina Carpenter – Short n Sweet
10. Regional Justice Center – Freedom Sweet Freedom

Photographer, Albert Licano

1. BAT – Under the Crooked Claw
2. S.H.I.T. – For A Better
3. Carnage Asada – Head on a Platter
4. The Chisel – What A Fucking Nightmare
5. The Jesus Lizard – Rack
6. Drug Church – Pride
7. Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
8. Sect – Plagues Upon Plagues
9. Fontaines D.C. – Romance
10. Necrot – Lifeless Birth

Photographer, Jessica Moncrief

1. Dax Riggs – Even the Stars Fall & Deceiver
2. Lola young – This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway
3. Lost Dog Street Band – Survived
4. Meldamor – Ode to You
5. Starving Wolves – The Fire, The Wolf, The Fang
6. Guilty Strangers – Feast of Snakes
7. Super Spreader – Making Space
8. Chad Tepper – Juggling Chainsaws
9. M.Krebs – Please Cone Home Dracula
10. Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

Writer, Aria Silva-Espinosa

1. Charli XCX – brat
2. Tyler, The Creator – Chromakopia
3. Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal
4. Fred Again… – Ten Days
5. 070 Shake – Petrichor
6. Caribou – Honey
7. SZA – S.O.S. Deluxe: LANA
8. Amyl & The Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness
9. Flawed Mangoes – The Unwavering Hand
10. Bladee – Cold Visions