Top Five Albums of 2024 for Thought Daughters

Amidst the chaos in a world that consistently and constantly pushes femininity down to the depths of hell, there are gleams of love and excitement for a collective experience. In other words: (quoting a song I ironically hate) “girls just wanna have fun.” For the femmes who analyze everything and have a good time doing it, this one’s for you.

Suki Waterhouse
Memoir of a Sparklemuffin
Sub Pop Records
Street: 09.13
Suki Waterhouse = (Caroline Polachek + Kimya Dawson) / SZA dressed as a bug

I have a specific soft spot for spiders, an affinity for scaly creatures and cretins—I find them cute. I guess the sweetheart of a singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse shares my views of God’s tiniest bastards. The glam-pop princess has delivered an 18-track album named after Australian rainbow arachnids the size of a grain of rice. The soundscape of Memoir of a Sparklemuffin is like falling down  the rabbit hole into Wonderland. There is an unmistakable haze associated with fables and fairytales hanging in the air of this album. The entire tracklist sounds like songs that your brain would synthesize to replicate indie-pop music in a dream. The stellar standouts for me are “Faded,” “My Fun,” “Model, Actress, Whatever” and “Big Love.” I honestly believe that if they made a live-action recreation of  Barbie of Swan Lake, Suki Waterhouse would be a perfect pick to both write the soundtrack and play Barbie. And Edward from Twilight can be Prince Daniel.

Luna Li
When a Thought Grows Wings
In Real Life Music
Street: 08.23
Luna Li = Alice Phoebe Lou x Boyish x Indigo De Souza

Luna Li’s sophomore album shares a release date with Magdalena Bay’s Imaginal Disk, and is unfortunately overshadowed by the avant-indie smash hit. This is the only explanation for  how a record as imaginative and technically-perfected as When A Thought Grows Wings could be received with lukewarm enthusiasm. Li’s career evolution has been reaching soaring heights as she’s opened tours for Japanese Breakfast, Wolf Alice and beabadoobee. Calling her own style “baroque pop,” Li creates ornate and opulent music fit for a Johannes Vermeer painting. Evidently, Li is well-versed in making music as she plays violin, mini-harp and flute — all of which appear on this project. With grand, sweeping guitar solos and image-evoking synthetic melodies, the instrumentals are complex but not cluttered. Like a puzzle with a thousand pieces, every chime and note fits together into one big sophisticated symphony. Elaborate and lavish, there is an unmistakable mark of maximalism embellished onto each song gracing the tracklist. Some that shine particularly bright are “Confusion Song,” “I Imagine,” “I Would Let You” and “Take Me There.”

Magdalena Bay
Imaginal Disk
Mom + Pop
Street: 08.23
Magdalena Bay = The Marías x STRFKR – FKA Twigs

No one is doing it quite like the alt-pop alleged power couple Magdalena Bay. The intoxicating thrill that is Imaginal Disk remains rattling around your cerebrum long after listening. Theatrical in nature, there is a movie-magic quality to how this duo produces. The way they write about love through their combined musical prowess leaves the listener with a picture-perfect image of romance. It’s an absolute shame the pair didn’t get a song on the soundtrack for I Saw The TV Glow. Listening to this project feels as if someone inserted a DVD of a film from my childhood into my brain that I couldn’t quite recall the plot of but the visuals have been ingrained in my memory. It feels like onboarding a carnival ride that could very well take me to another dimension and I’d be cool with it. Ferris wheel or Tunnel of Love, I’d take any loop-de-loop that sounds like these spacey songs. Personal favorites of a playthrough are “Fear, Sex,” “Vampire in the Corner,” “Love is Everywhere” and “Cry for Me.” I, like everyone else, have been obsessed with the 53 minutes of bliss since it entered the airwaves.

Doechii
Alligator Bites Never Heal
Top Dawg Entertainment/Capitol Records
Street: 08.30
Doechii = Santigold + tg.blk x Missy Elliott  

The Swamp Princess herself has blessed us hip-hop heathens with the no-skip mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. With nothing but face tape holding her back, 2024 has been the year for Doechii. Just this year she performed live at Camp Flog Gnaw and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, was nominated for three Grammys, named  Hip-Hop Disruptor of the year by Variety and given a shout-out from Kendrick Lamar. It was about damn time she got her flowers. In the current musical climate, it’s not enough to just be a bad bitch who can rap. To truly set oneself apart, it takes an instinctively distinct vision and the ability to execute immaculately. Doechii seems to have every credential. The project is a symbolic culmination of her career; it’s a chronicle of where she’s come from and a projection of how far she’ll go. Lyrically, the piece manages to be insightful, relatable, vulnerable and witty as hell. Sonically, it constantly keeps you guessing but never leaves you unsatisfied. Bursting at the seams with excellence and overflowing with motifs and experimental elements, this is easily my favorite album of the year. The tracks I’ve had on repeat are “BOILED PEANUTS,” “DENIAL IS A RIVER,” “BOOM BAP” and “GTFO.” The alligator may have taken a bite, but Doechii truly ate.

Charli xcx
Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat
Atlantic Records
Street: 10.11
Charli xcx = Charli xcx

Charli really worked it out on the remix… album. While BRAT has become its own historical pop-cultural moment with an icon status rivaling that of Barbenheimer and Britney Spears shaving her head, Charli xcx could not leave us wanting more. To satiate our hungry little lime green hearts, Charli made both a deluxe and remix version of the pop phenomenon. I haven’t been this excited for a remix album since 1000 gecs and the Tree of Clues. Starting off, Charli’s marketing team are goddamn geniuses. From the album design to the extra long title mimicking the styles of Lana Del Rey and Fiona Apple to the infamous music video for “360,” we were all hooked the moment we got a taste. I remember after the initial release there was so much hype seemingly everywhere you went. I even went to the themed rave they held at The Depot. Afterwards, every couple weeks or so, a new remix with a new feature would drop and all of the elation would come flooding back. Compiling some of the most accomplished and renowned musical artists into one album was bound to be monumental. The result was a masterful reiteration of an instant classic. The features that I gush over the most are Yung Lean, The Japanese House, Bon Iver and Kesha.

Read more Top Albums of 2024:
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