Hawk Tuah. A normal election. Euros. Conflict. Dune 2. Hurricanes. A CEO assassination. The Eras Tour. An American election. The Olympics. Gary Barlow’s son. Aurora borealis. Riots. Co-op Reside. A world IT outage. Births. Marriages. Deaths. A Scottish Oompa-Loompa…
If it looks as if 2024 has been a whirlwind of stuff you’ll be able to’t consider solely occurred up to now 12 months, it’s a sense solely doubled if you look again on the albums launched. Anybody else really feel like there have been hundreds greater than regular? We noticed already-heroic bands making the file of their careers, and newbies making grand begins on their very own. There have been surprising comebacks. There have been mad issues. There have been excessive flyers. There have been misfires the place there ought to have been gold, however there have been additionally surprising victories from means out of left area.
The sheer quantity at all times makes it onerous to collect 50 albums that give an image of a 12 months. However it appears in 2024, so many data did a lot for his or her creators it was even more durable. Some have seen bands ascend to new heights. Others will go on to seek out much less massive gross sales, however with a worth that may be weighed in sensible creative expression. Some simply made us wish to dance.
It’s been onerous work, and we may have run to a far larger quantity than this for albums that made being a rock fan so thrilling and sensible. Right here, then, are the 50 albums which, for a lot extra causes than that, formed this peculiar, packed 12 months…