I've always thought LL Cool J deserves to be revered even more than he is, and that he had more potential to come back and make some great music again. I didn't necessarily think it would happen since he's been making good CBS money for a long time now, but I thought it could, and I feel very vindicated by The Force. The fact that Q-Tip produced the album and brought this out of him is great, too, just a cool full circle moment for Queens rap, and Tip gave him such a funky and playful backdrop that's more interesting than just a full-on nostalgic boom bap record. Like, even the songs with Eminem and Saweetie are awesome, when I would've expected those to be weak links, and the opening track "Spirit of Cyrus" is this really bold, thought-provoking song about Christopher Dorner. There's longevity in rap, and then there's LL Cool J making an album this good 39 years after Radio, just unprecedented. Here's the 2024 albums Spotify playlist with all the new records I've listened to throughout the year. 

Chase Rice's I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell was one of my favorite albums of 2023, a total midcareer revelation from a guy that had a lot more going on musically and lyrically than I'd ever realized. And I'm glad he's stayed on that path with Go Down Singin', even if it's taken him further away from country radio playlists. "Oklahoma" and "Key West & Colorado" were standouts on the last album, and "Oh Tennessee" and "Arkansas" are two of my favorites on this one. So... keep naming songs after states, I guess, Chase Rice! 

When I interviewed Jackson Dean last year, we talked a bit about how he re-recorded "Fearless" for the single release because he'd improved so much as a vocalist in the years of touring since he recorded his major label debut. And you can really hear his growth as a singer with On The Back Of My Dreams, "Another Century" may be his best vocal performance to date. He's stretching out a little musically, too, there's nothing on his previous records that sounds like "Long Goodbye."

Zinc is Gallant's first album for Mom + Pop, after two Warner Bros. albums and a couple of indie projects, and I think that's a really good label for him. His sound is pretty unique and genre-blurring and I don't know if Warner Bros. ever really know what to do but to just market him as an R&B singer. "Monorail" is probably my favorite song on Zinc, it has some guitars and an almost drum'n'bass-style rhythm track, but his vocal is still really soulful. 

Missouri singer-songwriter Kassi Ashton has grazed the lower reaches of the country radio charts with singles like "Called Crazy" and "Dates in Pickup Trucks" where she kind of plays a flirtatious femme fatale. But the tracks on her debut album that I think make the best use of her voice are the sad slow songs like "The Straw" and "Angels Smoke Cigarettes," she's got more emotional range than I expected. 

The new solo album by The Caribbean's Michael Kentoff is produced by Chad Clark of Beauty Pill, and as always they work really well together. But since it's Kentoff solo and not his entire band, I think Clark's fingerprints are much more clearer here, in a good way -- it often sounds like Beauty Pill's trippier, more loop-heavy songs, but with a different vocalist and a slightly different but still very vivid and surreal lyrical sensibility. I particularly like "The Slight Brigade." 

I recently worked on Complex's updated ranking of Future's catalog, and I was basically given my choice of the 8 project Future has released in the last 5 years to write about. And I didn't write about Mixtape Pluto because it had just come out and I really didn't know where to rank it or what to say about it yet. And even now all I can say is that it's a solid middle-of-the-pack Future tape with some good production, but no features or really immediate songs jumping out as obvious hits. I've never been the biggest Wheezy fan but I think he's got the best tracks on here, I love the creepy atmospheric synth lines on "Ready To Cook Up" and "Ocean" and "MJ."

Last year the North Carolina band Wednesday's album Rat Saw God was one of those indie rock records that was so widely celebrated that I listened to just see what all the fuss was about, and I thought it was pretty good. This year, Wednesday guitarist's new solo album racked up even more acclaim, just months and months of advance buzz, and then Pitchfork formally canonizing it as one of the best albums of the past 5 years within a month of its release. MJ Lenderman's colorful lyrics are what really separate him from other similar-sounding acts -- it's like a Son Volt record if Jay Farrar liked to sing words like "himbo" or "cum" or reference video games or Pixar movies. I get the appeal, though, Americana records could generally use more personality and specificity. It does start to feel like a schtick at times, though, the opening lines of "Rip Torn" are awful. 

I've always thought of the Sweet Relief as a real force of good in the music world, raising money for musicians who need help covering healthcare costs and also putting these cool all-star tribute albums into the world that shine a light on cult artists like Victoria Williams and Vic Chesnutt. I didn't know much about Jesse Malin -- I didn't even realize he was the frontman of D Generation before his solo career -- but this album was recently released, with proceeds going to his Sweet Relief fund, after he suffered a rare spinal stroke last year. And Silver Patron Saints has an incredible lineup of 27 artists, including so many I love -- Dinosaur Jr., Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Butch Walker, just to name a few -- that I felt like I had to listen to Malin's originals as well as the covers, and I'm glad I did, he's got some great songs. 

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